place; || his whole frame || is in action; || his words, || his looks, his motions, || his gestures, || exhort his men | to remember their former valor. || He draws them up, and causes the signal to be given,— all in a moment. He seizes a buckler | from one of the private men,-| puts himself || at the head of his broken troops,-|| darts into the thick || of the battle, rescues || his legions, || and overthrows ||| the enemy!" || 'Grave' examples for 'slow' standard time. 1. "But where, I thought I, | is the crew? | Their struggle has long been over; they have gone down | amidst the roar of the tempest;—|| their bones lie whitening | in the caverns of the deep. || Silence || oblivion like the waves, || have closed over them; || and no one can tell || the story of their end. ||| "What sighs || have been wafted after that ship! || What prayers || offered up at the deserted fireside of home! || How often has the mistress, || the wife, || and the mother || pored over the daily news, || to catch some casual intelligence | of this rover of the deep! || How has expectation || darkened | into anxiety, anxiety | into dread,—||| and dread || into despair! |||| Alas! || not one | memento | shall ever return | for love || to cherish. || All that shall ever be known, | is, | that she sailed from her port, || and was never || heard of || more." |||| | Grave' example for very slow time' and very long pauses.' 2. "It must be so. Plato, || thou reasonest well! || 'Tis the Divinity ||| that stirs | within us || 'Tis Heaven || itself ||| that points out an hereafter, || Eternity! thou pleasing,—|| dreadful thought!" |||| 'Pathetic' example for 'slow' standard time. 3. "Alas! || my noble boy! ||| that thou | shouldst die ! ||| Thou, who wert made | so beautifully fair! ||| That death || should settle | in thy glorious eye, ||| SLIDES. In perfectly natural speech, the voice rises or fails on each unemphatic syllable through the interval of one tone only, but on the accented syllable of an emphatic word it rises or falls MORE THAN ONE TONE. 6 This last is called the inflection or slide' of the voice. The slides' are thus a part of emphasis, and as they give. the right direction and limit to 'force' and 'time,' they are the crowning part of perfect emphasis. When contrasted ideas, of equal importance, are coupled, nothing but the contrasted slides can give the proper distinctive emphasis. The slides also furnish to elocution its most ample and varied lights and shades of emotional ex、 pression. 6 These slides are rising,' marked thus ('); or falling, marked thus ('); or both of these blended, in the 'rising' circumflex and the falling' circumflex, marked respectively thus () and thus (^). The rising' and 'falling' slides separate the great mass of ideas into two distinct classes; the first comprising all the subordinate, or incomplete, or as we prefer to name them, the negative ideas; the second comprising all the principal, or complete, or as we shall call them, the positive ideas. The most important parts of what is spoken or written are those which affirm something positively, such as the facts and truths asserted, the principles, sentiments, and actions enjoined, with the illustrations, and reasons, and appeals which enforce them. All these may properly be grouped into one class, because they all should have the same kind of slide in reading. This class we call POSITIVE ideas.' So all the other ideas which do not affirm or enjoin anything positively, which are circumstantial and incomplete, or in open contrast with the positive, all these ideas may be properly grouped into another single class, because they all should have the same kind of slide. This class we call 'NEGATIVE ideas.' Grant to the words 'positive' and 'negative' the comprehensive meaning here given to them, and let the distinction between the two classes be clearly made in the preparatory analysis, and it will be vastly easier to understand and teach this most complicated and difficult part of elocution, the right use of the rising and falling slides. For, then, the one simple principle which follows will take the place, and preclude the use of, all the usual perplexing rules, with their many suicidal exceptions. PRINCIPLE FOR RISING OR FALLING SLIDES. POSITIVE ideas should have the 'falling' slide; NEGATIVE ideas should have the rising' slide. Examples for the rising and falling slides. "The war must go òn. We must fight it through. And if the war must go ón, why put off lònger the declaration of independence? That measure will strengthen us. It will give us character abroad. "The cause will raise up àrmies; the cause will create nàvies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry ús, and will carry themselves, gloriously through this struggle. Sir, the declaration will inspire the people with increased coùrage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restorátion of privileges, for redréss of grievances, for chartered immúnities, held under a British king, set before them the glorious object of entire indepèndence, and it will breathe into them anèw the breath of life. "Through the thick glóom of the présent, I see the brightness of the future, as the sùn in heaven. We shall make this a glòrious, an immòrtal day. When we are in our gráves, out children will honor it. They will cèlebrate it with thanksgiving. with festivity, with bònfires, and illuminations. On its annual retúrn, they will shed tears, còpious, gùshing tears, not of subjection and slávery, not of ágony and distréss, but of exultation, of gràtitude, and of jòy.” QUESTIONS. Questions, like other ideas, are negative, or positive, or compound, having one negative and one positive idea. DIRECT QUESTIONS. The direct question for information affirms nothing. Hence it is read with the rising slide, not because it may be answered by yes or no, but because it is in its nature negative. The answer is positive, and, for that reason, is read with the falling slide. 66 "Do you see that beautiful stár?" Yès;" "Is n't it splèndid?" The speaker is positive, in the last question, that his friend will agree with him. This, and all such, must be read, there forc, with the falling slide. "I said an elder soldier, not a better. Did I say better?" "He hath brought many captives home to Rome, “You all did seè, that on the Lúpercal, Was this ambition ?" "Tell me, ye who tread the sods of yon sacred height, is Warren deád? Can you not still see him, not pále and prós trate, the blood of his gallant heárt pouring out of his ghastly woúnd, but moving resplèndent over the field of honor, with the rose of heaven upon his cheek, and the fire of liberty in his cyè? "But when shall we be strònger? Will it be the next week, or the next year?” This reading, with the falling slide on "year," changes the sense, as it makes one idea positive, and the answer must be "next week," or "next year." But both ideas are negative in Henry's speech; both must have the rising slide, then, according to the principle. "Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disármed, and when a British guárd shall be stationed in every house?" "Is this a time to be gloomy and sád, 66 6 When our mother Náture laúghs around; When even the deep blue heavens look glád, And gládness breathes from the blossoming ground?" 'Will you ríde, in the cárriage, or on horseback?' 'I prefer to walk.'" "Will you read to us, a piece of próse, or poetry?' Allow me to sing instead.'" "Will you study músic, or Frénch?” All the ideas are negative in the last questions. Change the sense, and make one idea positive in each question, and we have one falling slide in cach. "Will you ride in the cárriage, or on hòrseback?” Will you read to us a piece of próse, or poetry?” "Will you study músic, or French ?" |