"There, ma'am! try it!

You need n't buy it

The last new patent-and nothing comes nigh it,
For affording the deaf, at little expense,

The sense of hearing, and hearing of sense!
A real bléssing-and no mistake,

Invented for poor humanity's sáke;

I would n't tell a lie, I would n't,

But mý trumpets have heard what Solomon's could n't; Only a gúinea-and can't take less." (“That's very dear," says Dame Eleanor "There was Mrs. F.,

So very deaf,

That she might have worn a percussion-cap,

And been knocked on the head without hearing it snap.
Wêll, I sold her a hórn, and the very next dày
She heard from her husband at Botany Bay!
Come-speak your mind-it's 'No or Yês.""
("I've half a mind," said Dame Eleanor S.)

The last new patent, and nothing comes nigh it." In short, the peddler so besét her

Lord Bacon could n't have gammoned her bétter

With flatteries plump and indirect,

And plied his tongue with such efféct

A tongue that could almost have buttered a crumpetThe deaf old woman bought the trumpet.

16. CONVERSATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

[Each supposes the other to be very deaf, the pitch at times running into screaming.]

Jones. (Speaking shrill and loud.) cept these flowers? I plucked them on the hill.

Miss, will you ac

from their slumber

Pru. (In an equally high voice.) Really sir, I—I—

Jones. (Aside.) She hesitates. It must be that she does not hear me. (Increasing his tone.) Miss, will you accept these flowers-FLOWERS? I plucked them sleeping on the hill-HILL.

Pru. (Also increasing her tone.) Certainly, Mr. Jones. They are beautiful-BEAU-U-tiful.

Jones. (Aside.) How she screams in my ear. (Aloud.) Yes, I plucked them from their slumber-SLUMBER, on, the hill-HILL.

Pru. (Aside.) Poor man, what an effort it seems for him to speak. (Aloud.) I perceive you are poetical. Are you fond of poetry? (Aside.) He hesitates. I must speak louder. (In a scream.) Poetry-POETRY

POETRY!

Jones. (Aside.) Bless me, the woman would wake the dead! (Aloud.) Yes, Miss, I ad-o-r-e it.

Snob. Glorious! glorious! I wonder how loud they can scream. Oh, vengeance, thou art sweet! Pru. Can you repeat some poetry-POETRY? Jones. I only know one poem. It is thisYou'd scarce expect one of my age-AGE, To speak in public on the stage-STAGE.

Pru. Bravo-bravo!

Jones. Thank you!
Pru. Mercy on us!
Jones. And do you

tone.)

THANK

Do you think I'm DEAF, sir? fancy me deaf, Miss? (Natural

Pru. Are you not, sir? You surprise me!

Jones.

No, Miss. I was led to believe that you were

deaf. Snobbleton told me so.

Pru. Snobbleton! Why, he told me that you were deaf.

Jones. Confound the fellow! he has been making game of us.

Beadle's Dime Speaker.

VI. EXAMPLES OF LOW PITCH.

Low pitch is the characteristic key of the voice when the mind is under the influence of serious, grave, and impressive thoughts; and very low pitch is the appropriate key for the expression of reverence, adoration, horror, and despair.

66

1. FROM THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER."

An orphan's curse would drag to hell
A spirit from on high;

But oh more horrible than that

Is the curse in a dead man's eye!
Seven days, seven nights I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;

But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word "Lenore!"

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word "Lenore!"

Merely this, and nothing more.

3. LAUS DEO.

Let us knèel;

God's own voice is in that pèal,
And this spot is hòly ground.
Lord, forgive us! What are wè,
That our eyes this giòry see,

That our ears have heard the sound!

WHITTIER.

He bowed the heavens, also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet; and he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; and he was seen upon the wings of the wind; and he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.

5. THE CHANDOS PICTURE.

The bell far off beats midnight; in the dark

The sounds have lost their way, and wander slowly Through the dead air; beside me things cry, "Hark!" And whisper words unholy.

6. THE IRON BELLS.

Hear the tolling of the bells-
Iron bells!

EDWARD POLLOCK.

What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright

At the melancholy menace of their tone!

For every sound that floats

From the rust within their throats

Is a groan.

And the people-ah, the people—
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone!

And who tolling, tolling, tolling,

In that muffled monotone,

Feel a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone;

They are neither man nor woman-
They are neither brute nor human-
They are ghouls;

And their king it is who tolls

And he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls,

And his merry bosom swells
With the pean of the bells!
And he dances and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the pean of the bells-
Of the bells!

Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells-
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,

As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells,
To the tolling of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells

To the moaning and the groaning of the bells!

VII. EXAMPLES OF VERY LOW PITCH.

Рои

1. Concerning the application of very low pitch in reading and speaking, Prof. Russell remarks: "This lowest form of pitch is one of the most impressive means of powerful natural effect, in the utterance of all deep and impressive emotions. The pervading and absorbing effect of awe, amazement, horror, or any similar feeling, can never be produced without low pitch and deep successive notes; and the depth and reality of such emotions are always in proportion to the depth of voice with which they are uttered. The grandest descriptions in the 'Paradise Lost,' and the profoundest meditations in the 'Night Thoughts,' become trivial in their effect on the