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student who is willing to take the pains, to become expert in the discrimination and execution of every point of vocal expression. The application of the elementary distinctions exhibited in that treatise, will effectually remove every trait of factitious manner from vocal habit in elocution.

INDIVIDUALITY OF MANNER.

Mannerism in delivery not unfrequently passes for the real excellence of individuality in style,—a trait which, so far from possessing any artificial character, is the expression of spontaneous life and eloquence. But this feature of expressive power, is, like many others, depressed by the deadening influence of formality and routine in education. Boys at school are left to sink into one uniform mould, in their habits of utterance and action: their exercises possess so little life and interest to their minds, that to perform such tasks with natural spirit, and as a part of their own mental action and experience, is impossible. Juvenile declamation, accordingly, wears, in most instances, the second-hand air of a thing done as others do it, and because others do it. It is allowed to consist of a certain unmeaning loudness of voice, a singing and swelling utterance, and a given upraising of the hand,all bearing the stamp of prescription, and habit, and average style. The formality, indeed, of the usual staple of language in declamation, seems, of itself, to prescribe just such uniform manner in every speaker: there is nothing in it which speaks to the heart of the individual, and brings out the inner man, with his own peculiar tones, and looks, and actions.

Could teachers and parents be content to let boys utter their own sentiments in their own language, the result of exercises in speaking would be very different from what it is. Boys would, in that case, speak as boys, not as 'potent, grave, and reverend' seniors. Every juvenile speaker would give his heart to his work, and would bring out his own manner.

The teacher would then take his true place as a friendly guide, prompter, and aid, not as a cool critic and ex-post-facto executioner: he would assist the pupil in bringing out his native impulses of thought and feeling, in forms adapted to his own nature. Speaking would thus become a spontaneous and pleasurable function of the individual; habit would grow into natural and accordant forms, revealing the genuine mental life that lay under them.

The prevalence of neglect and perversion, in our customary modes of education, suffers every youth, as he enters a place of instruction, to be cast into the academic mould, and come out precisely like the rest. He carries with him, accordingly, into subsequent stages of life, the impress which he has thus received: the school tone, somewhat deepened and amplified, and the school gesture, somewhat strengthened, may clearly be traced in the man, even at the bar and in the pulpit.

The effects of neglect and of erroneous training, are conspicuous in the prevalence of uniformity of manner among clergymen. The act of delivering a discourse is apparently, in many cases, a process of repeating certain prescribed tones and gestures which every individual is expected to go through very much like all others. The natural diversity of temperament and character, is not,-to judge by appearances,― considered an appropriate element of effect.

A good speaker, it is true, will always merge himself in his subject, and never obtrude himself at its expense. But thought, even the most abstract, when it passes into expression, is, like the purest water, naturally subjected to the tinge of the channel through which it flows. The individuality of the man should never be lost in the formal function of the speaker. There is no law of necessity that every sermon should be a succession of low and hollow tones, false inflections, mechanical cadences, and stereotype gestures ;—the whole manner so proverbially unnatural, that, among juvenile classes at school, when one pupil would sum up, in one expressive word, his criticism on a fellow-pupil who has spoken

in a heavy, uniform syle, he says of him, ' He does not speak, he preaches.'

The study of elocution, if it were duly attended to, as a part of early education, would enable the young speaker to recognize and trace the natural differences of manner, which ought to exist in individuals, in their modes of applying the same general principles. The genuine characteristics of expression, are so numerous and varied, that they afford vast scope for the natural diversity of action, in different mental and physical constitutions. The elements of effect, blended in one expressive tone, amount sometimes to more than six or eight, even in the unstudied utterance of a person utterly illiterate. The temperament and tendency of an individual, therefore, may well be expected to cause him to lean to one more than others among these elements.

The enunciation, for example, of the phrase of devotional address, “O Lord!" may receive its reverential effect, in the utterance of one speaker, from its deep and solemn pitch, chiefly; in that of another, from its majestic fullness and swell; in that of a third, from its prolongation and slowness of sound; whilst all these properties may still be traced united in the style of each; with this distinction, only, that while one quality preponderates in one speaker, another may in another. A similar remark applies to gesture. Constitution and temperament may incline one speaker to one shade of difference in the line or the force of an action, and another to another; and yet both may coincide in the general style and effect.

Our prevalent modes of education permit all individual tendencies to be swallowed up in one engulfing routine of neglect or prescription. The preacher, therefore, under the influence of such early training, comes before us divested of that native originality of manner, which is so distinctly felt as the eloquence of private communication. To recover his individuality, he must reform and renovate his whole style of speaking, so as to let his own nature shine through it. In address, heart only is the loan for' heart. But how seldom

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can its throb be felt through the enveloping folds of false and formal habit!

The preacher who would successfully discharge the duty of his office, must acquire the power of throwing his personal character into his manner. Mere elocution is a poor substitute for the living sympathy of soul in the man who addresses us. The former, even when it is perfect, gains only admiration the latter wins the whole heart, and convinces the mind, at once, of the speaker's sincerity, and of the truth of what he utters.

We hear, sometimes, a just complaint of the influence and tendency of ceremony in religion. But no robing or costume so effectually enwraps the soul, as a ceremonious tone, which offers to the ear the language of the office and not of the man.

DIGNITY, FAMILIARITY.

Man's upright form and noble stature are naturally attended by dignity in movement and action. An erect attitude, a lofty carriage, a commanding air, are characteristic even of the savage who spends his days in little else than asserting his dominion over the brutes, or communicating with his fellows whose habits are but a little more elevated than those of the animals which they hunt. Civilized life, by its enervating influence, brings down the erect and heroic mien, and the fearless demeanour, which are natural to man, while consciously sufficient to himself, and independent of factitious support. The courtesy and the condescensions of refinement, bring along with them tameness and feebleness in manner and in character: a bland and flexible exterior takes, in the forms of conventional habit, the place of the manly and majestic port of nature.

The transition from childhood to manhood, is attended with similar effects on the aspect and deportment of the human being. The unconscious, unabashed child exhibits, often, the noblest forms of attitude and action. The school

boy loses his self-possession, and shrinks and cowers, in the consciousness of being observed: he lacks the decision, the firmness, and the dignity of manner, which he possessed in earlier life, when mingling with his equals and companions. The bearing of the youth gives still stronger evidence of being vitiated by self-consciousness, and overweening regard for the estimation of others. The speaker, who, in the maturity of manhood, addresses his fellow-beings, manifests, not unfrequently, in his crest-fallen air, in his hesitating utterance and embarrassed actions, his want of conscious elevation and power, and betrays the fact that he does not approach the task with a manly reliance on himself and his subject. Selfrespect seems to desert him, when subjected to observation : his nature appears to shrink, rather than to expand, with the circumstances in which he is placed.

Eloquence, the result of expressive power, is a thing unattainable in such a situation; for eloquence implies freedom, manly firmness, and force, a genuine moral courage, a conscious elevation of soul, a positive inspiration of mind. It presupposes that the speaker stands, for the moment, above those whom he addresses, for the very purpose of lifting them up to the level of his own views, and inspiring them with his own feelings. The persuasive condescension of the orator is never incompatible with the native majesty of man.

The preacher, more than any other speaker, should evince a just consciousness of the noble nature of his commission. Haughtiness, undoubtedly, or arrogance of manner, is utterly incompatible with the meek spirit of the Christian minister. But a due sense of the dignity of his office, should breathe an air of genuine nobleness into all his expression. It should equally forbid a disturbing and degrading consciousness of the presence of his fellow-men, and an unbecoming remissness or familiarity of manner, on his own part, by which he might seem to let down his just self-respect, or his regard for the sacred function which he is called to perform.

One mode of address by which the pulpit is lowered in the estimation of the world, is that undignified familiarity of tone,

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