And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
I would not change it.”

BRISK MOVEMENT

81. This rate of the voice is employed in giving utterance to gay, sprightly, humorous, and exhilarating emotions; as in the following examples :

82. “But, O! how altered was its sprightlier tone,

When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue,

Her bow across her shoulder flung,
Her buskins gemmed with morning dew,

Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung
The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known.'

83. “ Last came Joy's ecstatic trial.

He, with viny crown advancing,

First to the lively pipe his hand addressed;
But soon he saw the brisk, awakening viol,

Whose sweet, entrancing voice he loved the best."

84. “I come, I come ! - ye have called me long;

I come o'er the mountain with light and song.
Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth
By the winds which tell of the violet's birth,
By the primrose-stars in the shadowy grass,
By the green leaves opening as I pass."

RAPID MOVEMENT.

86. This movement of the voice is the symbol of violent anger, confusion, alarm, fear, hurry, and is generally employed in giving utterance to those incoherent expressions which are thrown out when the mind is in a state of pertur. bation; as may be exemplified in parts of the following ex tracts :

87.

“ Next Anger rushed. His eyes, on fire,

In lightnings owned his secret stings;
In one rude clash he struck the lyre,

And swept with hurried hand the strings."

Bozzaris cheer his band :-
• Strike - till the last armed foe expires !
Strike — for your altars and your fires !
Strike — for the green graves of your sires,

God, and your native land!'”

90.

« Back to thy punishment,
False fugitive ! and to thy speed add wings;
Lest, with a whip of scorpions, I pursue
Thy lingerings, or, with one stroke of this dart,
Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before !"

91. “ This day 's the birth of sorrows! This hour's work

Will breed proscriptions. — Look to your hearths, my lords
For there henceforth shall sit, for household gods,
Shapes hot from Tartarug! all shames and crimes.
Wan Treachery, with his thirsty dagger drawn;
Suspicion, poisoning his brother's cup;
Naked Rebellion, with the torch and axe,
Making his wild sport of your blazing thrones ,
Till Anarchy comes down on you like Night,
And Massacre seals Rome's eternal grave."

SEMITONE.

PLAINTIVENESS OF SPEECH, OR THE SEMI

TONIC MOVEMENT.

92. In ascending the musical scale, if the tone of the voice, in moving from the seventh space to the eighth, be compared with the utterance of a plaintive sentiment, their identity will be perceived. The interval from the seventh to the eighth is a semitone.

93. Every one knows a plaintive utterance, and the pupil may at any time discriminate a semitone, and hit its interval by affecting a plaintive expression.

94. Subjects of pathos and tenderness, uttered on any pitch, high or low, are capable of being sounded with this marked plaintiveness of character. Let the pupil devote much time to this subject. He must acquire the power of transferring its plaintiveness to any interval, in order to give a just coloring to expressions which call for its use.

95. This movement of the voice is a very frequent element in expression, and performs high offices in speech. It is used in expressions of grief, pity, and supplication. It is the natural and unstudied language of sorrow, contrition, condolence, commiseration, tenderness, compassion, mercy, fondness, vexation, chagrin, impatience, fatigue, pain, with all the shades of difference that may exist between them. It is appropriate in the treatment of all subjects which appeal to human sympathy.

96. When the semitone is united with quantity and tremor, the force of the expression is greatly increased. The tremulous semitonic movement may be used on a single word, the more emphatically to mark its plaintiveness of character; or it may be used in continuation through a whole sentence, when the speaker, in the ardor of distressful and tender supplication, would give utterance to the intensity of his feelings.

Examples in Plaintive Ulterance.

97. “My mother! when I heard that thou wast deau,

Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed ?
Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son,
Wretch even then, life's journey just begun?
I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day;
I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away ;
And, turning from my nursery window, drew
A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu.
But was it such? — It was. Where thou art gone,
Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown."

11

Scene from Shakspeare's Henry VIII.

Queen KATHARINE, Capucius, and PATIENCE.

Enter CAPUCIUS.

99 Queen Katharine. If my sight fail not,

You should be lord ambassador from the emperor,
My royal nephew, and your name Capucius.

Capucius. Madam, the same, your servant.

Kath. O my lord,
The times and titles now are altered strangely
With me since first you knew me. But I pray you
What is your pleasure with me?

Cap. Noble lady,
First, mine own service to your grace. The next,
The king's request that I would visit you,
Who grieves much for your weakness, and by me
Sends you his princely commendations,
And heartily entreats you take good comfort.

Kath. O my good lord, that comfort comes too late
'Tis like a pardon after execution.
That gentle physic, given in time, had cured me;
But now I am past all comforts here, but prayers
How does his highness?

Cap. Madam, in good health.

Kath. So may he ever do! and ever flourish,
When I shall dwell with worms, and my poor name
Banished the kingdom ! - Patience, is that letter,
I caused you write, yet sent away?

Patience. No, madam. [Giving it to KATHARINE

Kath. Sir, I most humbly pray you to deliver
This to my lord the king.

Cap. Most willing, madam.

Kath. In which I have commended to his goodness
The model of our chaste loves, his young daughter ;
Beseeching him to give her virtuous breeding;

and a little
To love her for her mother's' sake, that loved him,

Heaven knows how dearly. 100. What sensibility and tenderness breathe in the last lir.es of the above-cited example! What a rich economy of