NINTH EXERCISE. The pupil should pronounce all the vowels, which admit of long quantity, alternately with the rising and falling inflection, through various intervals of pitch, as shown by the Diagram. field, house, temple. thunder, battle, heaven, A storm of universal fire, blasted every field, consumed every house', and destroyed every temple. Then shook the hills with thun der riv'n, Diag. 25. Diag. 26. tower, shine, glad, terrible. man, woman, child, beast. Ye are the things that tower, that shine, whose smile makes glad', whose frown is terrible. They did not see one man, not one woman, not one child, not one four-footed beast', of any description whatever. Diag. 27. Diag. 28. exulting, trembling, raging, fainting. disturbed, delighted, raised, refined. Exulting, trembling, ra'ging, fainting, seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless, death, clay. The populous and the powerful was a lump, Seasonless, herb less, tree less, man'less, lifelessA lump of death a chaos of hard clay,. - How poor, how rich', how abject, how august`, Diag. 31. time, wrong, contumely, love, delay, For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. There is nothing peculiar in the melody of interrogative sentences, when they are pronounced with the falling inflection; but, when they are pronounced with the rising inflection, they are characterized as follows: When a question is asked simply for information, and there is but one emphatic syllable in it, this syllable rises concretely from the pitch-note line, through the interval of a third, or fifth (or thereabouts), according to the degree of energy with which the sentence is pronounced. And the syllables which follow the interrogative note (if I may so call it), are pronounced in the pitch of the upper extreme of this note, thus: When a question is asked with surprise, the interrogative note begins a degree below the pitch-note, and rises, concretely, about a fifth, or an octave, thus: Should Susan's also be pronounced with emphatic force, but with less energy than you, the melody would be as follows: Diag. 34. With you! and quit my Susan's side! Should side, instead of Susan's, be made emphatic, the melody would be thus: Diag. 35. With you! and quit my Su san's side! And should you, Susan's, and side, be all pronounced with emphatic force, the melody wonld be as follows: Diag. 36. you! and quit my Su san's side! With The following sentence is apt to be read to the melody of diagram 33; it should, however, be read to that of Diagram 37. The phrase," the hapless husband cried," is not a part of the interrogation, but is parenthetical, and should be read one degree lower than the pitch-note. ELEVENTH EXERCISE. FORCE. The pupil should utter all the vowel sounds with the rising and falling inflection, in each of the nine degrees of force. He should then read, or recite, some passage in each of these degrees, beginning as soft as possible, thus: á àá àá àá à á à à àá à There are many persons who do not vary the pitch and force of their voices according to the varying demands of sentiment. They read every thing alike; and they do not appear capable of imitating a correct manner of speaking. In such cases, I have found it necessary, in order to break up established habits, and direct the voice, as it were, into a new channel, to institute exercises in which the pitch and force of the voice are varied in the wildest and most extravagant manner. For instance, I select some piece, and divide it into sections. The first of these sections I pronounce in the falsetto voice, and request the pupil, or, what is better, the whole class, to pronounce it in like manner; the second section I pronounce in the lowest note of the natural voice, and it is immediately repeated by the class; the third, in the highest note of the natural voice; the fourth in a whisper; the fifth, in the medium pitch of the natural voice; and so on. After exercising awhile in this manner, the |