"Ye guards of liberty, I'm with you once again!—I call to you Calling.* [As in the case of the greatest distance between the speaker and the hearers. ] Command. The Herald's Message.-Shakspeare. Rejoice ye men of Angiers! Ring your bells! EXERCISES IN STRESS.' 'Stress' may be briefly defined as the term used in elocution to designate the mode and the place of forming the maximum of force in a single sound. Thus, in the appropriate utterance of some emotions, the force of the voice bursts out suddenly, with a percussive explosion; as in angry command, in which vocal sound is intended to vent the passion of the speaker, and to startle and terrify the hearer. An example occurs in the burst of fierceness and wrath with which Death replies to Satan: 'Back to thy punishment, false fugitive!' We may contrast with this form of stress the gentle swell of reverence and adoration, in the devotional language of Adam and Eve in their morning hymn, in paradise: 'Hail! universal Lord!' The utterance of the word 'Back,' in the former instance, exemplifies 'explosive' 'radical' (initial) weeks, are such as to impart great volume and power of utterance to persons who commence the exercise with weak organs and imperfect tone. * The effect of this exercise is to give compactness, and clearness, and purity of tone, to the utmost extent of voice. The call, although rising to a high note, with great loudness, should always be kept perfectly vocal or musical in its sound, resembling the easy, smooth effect of the loudest singing, in its gradual and skilful swell. It is nothing else than the maximum of 'pure' or 'head tone.' 'stress,' which bursts out, with percussive abruptness, on the initial or first part of the sound; that of the word‹ Hail,' in the latter, median,' (middle,) as gently swelling out to its maximum on the middle of the sound, whence it diminishes to the end or vanish.' Another mode of stress,-termed 'vanishing,'-witholds the abrupt explosion till the last particle (so to speak,) of the impassioned sound, and then throws it out with a wrenching and jerking violence on the very ‘vanish,' or last audible point of voice. This form of stress occurs in the tones of ungovernable impatience, deep, determined will, and excessive or inconsolable grief. Of the first of these emotions we have an example in the mad impatience of Queen Constance, when protesting against the peace between France and England, which was to sacrifice the rights of her 'War! war!-no peace! Peace is to me a war!' Of the second we have an instance in the reply of the Swiss deputy to Charles the Bold, when he is announcing to the Duke the final determination of the cantons to resist, to the last, the invasion of their rights. 'Sooner than submit we will starve in the icy wastes of the glaciers!' Of the third, in the Psalmist's exclamation, 'My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" son. A fourth mode of stress unites the 'radical and the vanishing' on the same syllable, by an abrupt jerk of force on the first and last portions of the impassioned sound. This is the natural expression of astonishment, and is displayed with peculiar vividness, when the speaker reiterates the words of another person. An example occurs in the exclamation of Queen Constance, when she hears, for the first time, of the conditions of the peace between France and England, and repeats the words of the messenger. • Gone to be married !— gone to swear a peace!' A fifth form of stress,-peculiar to intense emotions,throws out the voice, with the utmost force, on all the points of a sound which admit of being rendered conspicuous or prominent, the beginning the middle and the end. This mode of utterance in emphatic syllables, is, from its pervading 6 effect, termed thorough' stress. It is exemplified in the shout of defiance, with which Fitz-James addresses the band of Roderic Dhu, 'Come one, come all! This rock shall fly 6 Impassioned Radical Stress.' Bold, angry, and threatening Command. [Abrupt, explosive style of utterance.] Satan's Address to Death.-Milton. 'Whence, and what art thou? execrable shape! To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass, Courageous Sentiment and Eloquent Address. Supposed Speech of John Adams.-Webster. 'Read the declaration of our independence at the head of the army, every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered, to maintain it, or to perish on the bed of honour. Publish it from the pulpit,-religion will approve it; and the love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send it to the public halls,-proclaim it there,-let them hear it, who heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon,-let them see it, who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord;—and the very walls will cry out in its support!' *The explanations and examples given in the text, will, it is thought, serve to render the requisite distinctions plain. But fuller statements may be referred to in Dr. Rush's Philosophy of the Voice, or in the manual of Orthophony. † A vivid initial force, without abruptness or violence. 'Are the properties of matter all discovered?-its laws all found out?—the uses to which they may be applied, all detected? I cannot believe it.-The progress which has been made in art and science, is, indeed, vast. We are ready to think that a pause must follow, that the goal must be at hand. But there is no goal, and there can be no pause; for art and science are in themselves progressive. They are moving powers, animated principles: they are instinct with life; they are themselves the intellectual life of man. Nothing can arrest them, which does not plunge the entire order of society into barbarism. There is no end to truth, no bound to its discovery and application, and a man might as well think to build a tower, from the top of which he could grasp Sirius in his hand, as prescribe a limit to discovery and invention.' 'Median Stress." Solemnity and Reverence. Adoration offered by the Angels.—Milton. Thee, Father, first they sung, omnipotent, Immutable, immortal, infinite, Eternal King; thee, Author of all being, Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st, *This style, though utterly free from impassioned vehemence, preserves the abrupt explosive opening of sound, to the extent required by distinct articulation, for vivid intellectual impression. The effect to the ear is like that, comparatively, of the clear tinkle of the falling icicle, or of the drop of rain,-a moderate, but remarkably clear sound. Dark with excessive bright, thy skirts appear, Pathos. Extract from Psalm CIII. V. 13. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. 14. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. 15. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field so he flourisheth. 16. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.' Tranquillity. Psalm XXIII. V. 1. 'The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want. 2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me be- · side the still waters. 3. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name's sake. 4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.' "Vanishing Stress.' Job's Reply to his Friends.-Job XIX. V. 2. 'How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 3. These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. |