using an appellation more intelligible to the inexperienced speaker, the ordinary pitch.

The tones of the speaking voice, ascending from the lowest to the highest, may be considered in the following series.

1. A whisper, audible only by the nearest person.

2. The low speaking tone or murmur, suited to close conversation.

3. The ordinary pitch or middle, suited to general conversation.

4. The elevated pitch, used only in earnest argument. 5. The extreme, used in violent passion.

The lungs are to be kept always, to a certain degree, inflated, so that the voice shall not, at any time, be run out of breath; and the air which is necessarily expended must be gradually and insensibly recovered, at the proper times and in the proper places.

Estimation of the Powers of the Voice.

1. The speaker discovers that his voice has filled the room by the return of its sound to his own ear.

2. He will judge of the ability of his voice by the degree of exertion necessary to enable him to fill a room of any particular size.

3. And he may form a judgment concerning the opinion of his audience by the degree of their attention.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE COUNTENANCE.

It may be considered as an established point, that a public speaker should attend to the expression of his countenance, as well as to that of his voice. Every public address should bespeak the favor and attention of the audience by due respect; and as the looks of the speaker precede his words, so it should be an established maxim, that an orator should temper, with becoming modesty, that persuasion and confidence, which his countenance should express of the justice and truth of what he recommends.

Every circumstance that can indicate respect for an audience should be studied. The speaker should rise up in his place. with modesty, and without bustle or affectation; he should not begin at once abruptly, but delay a short time before he utters a word, as if to collect himself in the presence of those he respects. He should not stare about, but cast down his eyes, and compose his countenance; nor should he at once discharge the whole volume of his voice, but begin at almost the lowest pitch, and issue the smallest quantity, if he desires to silence every murmur, and to arrest all attention. These are precepts long established, and held in respect by the greatest critics of ancient and modern times.

The art of feeling is the true art which leads to a just expression of the features.

"To this one standard make your just appeal,

Here lies the golden secret, learn to feel."

The true expression of the countenance is well described by the poet:

"A single look more marks th' internal woe,
Than all the windings of the lengthened oh!
Up to the face the quick sensation flies,
And darts its meaning from the speaking eyes;
Love, transport, madness, anger, scorn, despair,
And all the passions, all the soul is there."

To the expression of the countenance all the features contribute a share, but by far the greatest is derived from the eyes. The management of the eyes, therefore, is important. To them, among their other powerful expression, belongs the affecting effusion of tears; and though some have doubted whether an orator should at any time give way to this proof of his feelings, his so doing should not be considered as a mark of weakness, but rather of that sensibility which is the test of his sincerity in what he utters.

The mouth is, next to the eyes, the most important part of the countenance. "The mouth," says Cresallius, "is the vestibule of the soul, the door of eloquence, and the place in which the thoughts hold their high debates." It is the seat of grace and sweetness; smiles and good temper play around it; composure calms it; and discretion keeps the door of its lips. Every bad habit defaces the soft beauty of the mouth, and leaves indelible on it the traces of their injury.

The speaker should never thrust out the lips, stretch them and expose the teeth, draw them aside almost to the ears, fold them over each other with a sort of self-sufficiency, let them hang down, or make the voice issue from one side of the mouth. To bite or lick the lips is also disgusting; and even in articulation their motion should be moderate; for we should speak with the mouth more than with the lips.

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CHAPTER V.

ON GESTURE.

The third division of the external part of oratory, or of delivery, is gesture. Under gesture is comprehended the action and positions of all parts of the body; of the head, the shoulders, the body or trunk; of the arms, hands, and fingers; of the lower limbs, and of the feet. The gracefulness of rhetorical action depends partly on the person, and partly on the mind. Most forms of the human figure are capable, in a considerable degree, of graceful motions; but, if not trained and educated in the most perfect manner, are apt to imitate the awkward and the vulgar. The grace of oratorical action consists chiefly in the facility, the freedom, the variety, and the simplicity of those gestures which illustrate the discourse. To the gracefulness of action, facility and freedom are necessary; for if a man were obliged to address an audience from a narrow window, through which he could not extend his arms and his head, it would be in vain for him to attempt graceful gesture. Confinement, in every lesser degree, must be proportionably injurious.

In standing, the speaker should place the foot which, at any instant, sustains the principal weight, so that a perpendicular line let fall from the hole of the neck, shall pass through the heel of that foot. By so doing, he has a change of position always at command.

To present to the mind correct ideas of the manner in which important matter has been delivered, ordinary language is almost inadequate. We say of a speaker, "He used the gestures of a graceful orator, of a dignified hero;" yet these expresssions no more convey to the mind an idea what

particular gestures were used by him, than could the description of an oration, said to have been well and elegantly composed, be comprehended as to its arguments and ornaments.

The young man who would acquire the art of action, must note the manner of accomplished orators; being careful, as no one can be considered perfect in this art, to avoid the practice of what may, to him, seem faulty, while, to all that is excellent and proper, he gives his closest attention.

If the public speaker desires to give to the composition which he delivers more interest than it can derive from mere reading; or rather desires to give it the highest interest of which it is capable, he must commit it to memory, and adorn and enforce it with all the aids of the various modulations of the voice, expression of the countenance, and suitable gesture; so that, even though he should deliver the sentiments of another person, he must appear altogether to adopt, and feel, and recommend them as his own. When the composition thus delivered is poetical, this mode of public speaking is called recitation. When it is argumentative, and pronounced or composed on an imaginary occasion, for the purpose of exercising the speaker's rhetorical talents, it is called declamation. And when the speaker delivers, in this manner, a composition of his own on a real occasion, it is oratory; for the acquiring of the external art of which recitation and declamation are chiefly practiced. As a rhetorical exercise, recitation should. receive the attention of the young; as by no other, excepting the practice of declamation, can they so expeditiously fit themselves in those appointments, which, in the lists of oratory, may earn them the approbation and respect of their opponents. Let our American youth, conscious of their high destiny, lose no opportunity that may advance them on their way; let them, while carving out their way to fame and fortune, remember that however great they may become in the estimation of their fellows, the approbation of their own.