ELOCUTIONARY INTRODUCTION.

ARTICULATION.

ARTICULATION is the correct and distinct utterance of the elementary sounds in syllables and words.

A correct and elegant articulation is attained chiefly through the free and elastic movement of the jaw, tongue, and lips.

If the following exercises are practised slowly, syllable by syllable, it will be found excellent practice both for articulation and for correcting common faults in pronunciation:

The hours pass slowly by,-nine, ten, eleven, - how solemnly the last stroke of the clock floats out upon the still air. It dies gently away, swells out again in the distance, and seems to be caught up by spirit-voices of departed years, until the air is filled with melancholy strains. It is the requiem of the dying year.

BROOKS.

Small service is true service while it lasts;
Of friends, however humble, spurn not one;
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,

Protects the lingering dew-drop from the sun.

WORDSWORTH.

Self-denial and discipline are the foundation of all good character, the source of all true enjoyment, the means of all just distinction. This is the invariable law of our nature. Excellence of every sort is a prize, and a reward for virtuous, patient, and well-directed exertion, and abstinence from whatever may encumber, enfeeble, or delay us in our course.

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