'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man.

Eternity!-thou pleasing, dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass'
The wide, th' unbounded prospect lies before me;
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.

2. Night, sable goddess, from her ebon throne,
In rayless majesty, now stretches forth
Her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world.
Silence, how deep! and darkness, how profound!
Nor eye, nor listening ear, an object finds;
Creation sleeps. 'Tis as the general pulse
Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause,
An awful pause, prophetic of her end.

3.

Now o'er the one half world
Nature seems dead; and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered Murder,
Alarmed by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch, thus, with his stealthy pace,
Toward his design

Moves like a ghost.-Thou sure and firm-set earth!
Hear not my steps, which they walk; for fear

The very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it.

4. Dark is the night! how dark! no light! no fire!
Cold on the hearth the last faint sparks expire!
Hark! how the sign-board creaks! the blast howls by!
Moan! moan! a dirge swells through the clouded sky.

5. They're gone! they're gone! the glimmering spark hath fled! The wife and child are numbered with the dead!

On the cold hearth outstretched, in solemn rest,
The child lies frozen on its mother's breast!
The gambler came at last, but all was o'er;

Dead silence reigned around. The clock struck four.

6. Of comfort no man speak:

Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;

Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes

Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
Let's choose executors and talk of wills;
And yet not so--for what can we bequeath,
Save our deposed bodies, to the ground?
Our lands, our lives, and all, are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own but death,
And that small model of our barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
7. Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost-a killing frost;
And when he thinks, good easy man! full surely
His greatness is a-ripening-nips the root,

And then he falls, as I do.

8. Yes, my friends, Death has been among us! He has not entered the humble cottage of some unknown, ignoble peasant; he has knocked audibly at the palace of a nation! His footstep has been heard in the halls of state! He has cloven down his victim in the midst of the councils of a people. He has borne in triumph from among you the gravest, wisest, most reverend head. Ah! he has taken him as a trophy who was once chief over many statesmen, adorned with virtue and learning and truth; he has borne at his chariot-wheels a renowned one of the earth.

9. To be or not to be-that is the question :—
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And, by opposing, end them? To die-to sleep—
No more and, by a sleep, to say we end

:

The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to-'t is a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.

MIDDLE PITCH.

EXAMPLES.

1. "A certain amount of opposition," says John Neal, “is a great help to a man.” Kites rise against and not with the wind. Even a head-wind is better than none. No man ever worked his passage

anywhere in a dead calm. Let no man wax pale, therefore, because of opposition. Opposition is what he wants, and must have, to be good for any thing. Hardship is the native soil of manhood and self-reliance.

2. Voyager upon life's sea,

To yourself be true;

And where'er your lot may be,

Paddle your own canoe.

Never, though the winds may rave,

Falter nor look back,

But upon the darkest wave

Leave a shining track.

3. It is absolutely necessary for the orator to keep one man in view amidst the multitude that surround him; and, while composing, to address himself to that one man, whose mistakes he laments and whose foibles he discovers. This man is to him as the genius of Socrates, standing continually at his side, and by turns interrogating him, or answering his questions. This is he whom the orator ought never to lose sight of in writing, till he obtain a conquest over his prepossessions. The arguments which will be sufficiently persuasive to overcome his opposition will equally control a large assembly.

FORCE.

The term force, as applied to the utterance of syllables and words, has a meaning distinct from the term loudness. Force is nearly synonymous with energy. Energy in delivery may not only be given to single syllables, as in accent, and to single words, as in emphasis, but, unlike accent and emphasis, it may be extended to whole sentences, and even to paragraphs. Of all the vocal qualifications important to the effective expression of earnestness, and to the impressive display of strong passion, force is most necessary.

The difference in the degrees of force may be named: subdued, moderate, energetic, and impassioned. Feelings which require a high key and intensive slides for their proper

expression also require greater degrees of force. Joy, anger, scorn, intense earnestness, and the like, usually, though not always, are expressed in loud sounds. Sometimes deep feeling chokes the voice, and sometimes the most intense feeling controlled by the will, manifests itself in low tones and with great deliberation. Sorrow, pity, love, grief, and the like, express themselves in subdued tones. Cheerfulness, animation, and moderate earnestness are expressed by a moderate degree of force.

Exercises in the most intense force, and in subdued force, will, more than any other, result in speedily increasing the command of force. When passages that obtain appropriate expression by impassioned force, and others by subdued force, can be easily and correctly rendered, the student will have no difficulty in giving such as require intermediate degrees of force. Nearly all the examples under high and very high pitch are suitable to exemplify great force, those under low and very low pitch appropriate examples of subdued force, and those under middle pitch suitable examples of moderate force.

EXERCISES IN FORCE.

First.-Give a number of the vowel sounds, or of words of one syllable with only conversational force; then repeat them, with increasing force, until you reach the highest degree that you can command. Also, practice upon a few short passages, increasing the energy of utterance with each repetition; as, "It is my living sentiment-and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment-Independence now, and Independence forever."

EXAMPLES OF INTENSE FORCE.

1. I laid me flat along, and cried in thralldom to the furious winds, "Blow on! this is the land of liberty!"

2. Rouse, ye Romans! Rouse, ye slaves!

3. Here I stand for impeachment or trial! I dare accusation! I defy the honorable gentleman! I defy the government! I defy the

whole phalanx!

4. Tried and convicted traitor? Who says this?

Who'll prove it, at his peril, on my head?

5. He dares not touch a hair of Cataline.

EXAMPLES OF SUBDUED FORCE.

Some are in the church-yard laid,
Some sleep beneath the sea;
But none are left of our old class,
Excepting you and me.

And when our time shall come, Tom,

And we are called to go,

I hope we'll meet with those we loved

Some forty years ago.

2. But I forbear. The sorrow of that scene is too awful for words. When the agony ceased upon the sea it was only to break forth afresh upon the land. Who shall measure it? Who shall trace its tear-stained path over this continent? Who shall count the broken hearts and ruined hopes of this dread ravage? None but God. None but He who let the tempest loose, that made the ship its prey; none but He who alone can bind up the bleeding hearts, and inspire with brighter hopes those whose hopes on earth this woe has blighted; none but He of whom not one of us all dares to ask the question, "What doest thou?" None but He to whom every stricken victim of the calamity we deplore may say with reverend lips, "Even so."

STRESS.

Stress relates to the way in which force of voice is applied to single sounds, words, and sentences.

Radical Stress is that in which the force of utterance is usually explosive.

Medium Stress is when the force is applied so as to gradually swell out the first part of the sound or syllable, and gradually decline to the close.