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While yet I looked, what a change there came!
Her eye was quenched and her cheek was wan;
Stooping and staffed was her withered frame,
Yet just as busily swung she on:

The garland beneath her had fallen to dust;
The wheels above her were eaten with rust;
The hands, that over the dial swept,

Grew crook'd and tarnished, but on they kept;
And still there came that silver tone

From the shriveled lips of the toothless crone,
(Let me never forget, to my dying day,
The tone or the burden of that lay)—
"PASSING AWAY! PASSING AWAY!"

John Pierpont.

FROM THE LOTOS-EATERS.

How sweet it were, hearing the downward stream
With half-shut eyes ever to seem

Falling asleep in a half-dream!

To dream and dream, like yonder amber light, Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height; To hear each other's whispered speech;

Eating the Lotos day by day,

To watch the crisping ripples on the beach,
And tender curving lines of creamy spray;

To lend our hearts and spirits wholly

To the influence of mild-minded melancholy;
To muse and brood and live again in memory,
With those old faces of our infancy

Heaped over with a mound of grass,

Two handfuls of white dust, shut in an urn of brass!

Lord Tennyson.

FROM ROMEO AND JULIET.

Rom. It is my lady; O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!—

She speaks, yet she says nothing; what of that?
Her eye discourses, I will answer it.

I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,

Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those
stars,

As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright,
That birds would sing, and think it were not
night.

Jul. Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn,

No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east;
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.

William Shakespeare.

THE BROOKSIDE.

I wandered by the brookside,
I wandered by the mill;

I could not hear the brook flow,—
The noisy wheel was still;

There was no burr of grasshopper,
No chirp of any bird,

But the beating of my own heart
Was all the sound I heard.

I sat beneath the elm tree;

I watched the long, long shade,
And, as it grew still longer,

I did not feel afraid;
For I listened for a footfall,
I listened for a word,-

But the beating of my own heart
Was all the sound I heard.

He came not,—no, he came not,—
The night came on alone,-
The little stars sat one by one,

Each on his golden throne;

The evening wind passed by my cheek,
The leaves above were stirred,
But the beating of my own heart
Was all the sound I heard.

Fast, silent tears were flowing,
When something stood behind;
A hand was on my shoulder,—
I knew its touch was kind;
It drew me nearer,-nearer,-
We did not speak one word,
For the beating of our own hearts
Was all the sound we heard.

Lord Houghton.

EXERCISES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT

OF VOCAL ENERGY.

In the discussion of purity of tone, we confined ourselves to selections that required subdued or moderate volumes of voice, for two reasons: first, because we seldom use, in the ordinary affairs of life, anything more than moderate force; second, because it is easier to secure purity of tone with the moderate forces of voice than with the louder or more impassioned. Nevertheless, it is necessary to cultivate the louder forces of voice, and though the much greater portion of our literature is rendered with moderate volumes, yet the louder forces are needed for public address and for the expression of the more elevated forms of thought.

The First Step in securing vocal energy is the mastery of those physical exercises that relate to the development of strength in the action of the diaphragm and the muscular walls of the abdomen; the development of the muscles of the chest, and the expansion of the lungs; the development of elasticity in the muscles of the trunk, and flexibility in the muscles of the thorax and the throat.

PHYSICAL EXERCISES.

To develop upper chest muscles.-Raise arms sideways, shoulders high, elbows straight, hands clenched, knuckles toward floor. Make as many small circles with arms from shoulder as possible, while inhaling one full deep breath slowly.

Inhale full deep breath while raising arms slowly sideways to meet overhead. Keep hips back, head up, weight forward, and elbows perfectly straight. Exhale while arms come down slowly to position. This exercise fills the lungs completely, and gives the greatest strength and

freedom to the respiratory muscles. Repeat the same lying with the back flat on the floor.

Abdominal muscles.-Inhale and hold breath while bending at the waist line, first to the right, then to the left. Repeat, bending to the front and back at the waist. Lying flat on the back, keep the heels together on the floor, fold arms across chest, and rise to sitting position.

Use the abdominal muscles in the exercise of panting like a dog, closing the exercise by one quick expulsion of the remaining breath. Let the throat muscles be free. Whisper the following commands with free, open position of throat, and strong, quick action of abdominal muscles:

Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!

"My bannerman, advance!

I see," he cried, "their column shake;
Now, gallants! for your ladies' sake,
Upon them with the lance!"

Not a minute more to wait!
Let the captains all and each

Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on the beach!

In the exercises for purity of tone, the resonance was confined to the cavities of the mouth, nose, and pharynx, and hence it is called head tone. In the following exercises, the resonance will be felt in all the air-chambers of the body, especially in the large cavity of the chest, and this is known by the term chest tone.

The Second Step is to vocalize the vowels or numerals expulsively and explosively. An expulsive sound is a short shout, having a very appreciable vanish; an explosive sound is a pistol-like report, having little appreciable vanish.

EXERCISES FOR PRACTICE.

1. Repeat the word up five times expulsively. 2. Repeat the word up five times explosively.

3. Repeat each one of the vowels ā, ē, ī, ō, ũ, and the

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