But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our power to add or to detract. The world will very little note nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here, to the unfinished work they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Lincoln. Problem LXI. Show intense passion or the deep spiritual element of a sublime passage by using pauses to indicate the centres of attention and struggle for control. 254 Now, men of death, work forth your will, for I can suffer, and be still; and come he slow, or come he fast, it is but Death who comes at last. Constance in "Marmion." Scott. 255 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall overwhelm me, and the light about me shall be night; even the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. Psalm CXXXIX. 256 NOT from a vain or shallow thought And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, PAUSE XXXII. MOVEMENT. as a method of emphasis is important because it is a modulation of time. Time is the sphere of all histrionic expression; so it is the medium in vocal expresssion, as space is the medium in painting. Painting emphasizes by making an object salient through a suggestion of space; but an art in time must emphasize by showing some means of valuing time. But pause is not the only means of measuring time. It belongs to individual words or phrases; it is confined more or less to specific ideas. There is another method which does not apply so much to specific ideas as to clauses, sentences, and even paragraphs. This is what is called movement. Man's means of measuring time is rhythm. Movement does not mean merely going slower or more rapidly; it is a suggestion of the rhythmic pulsation of force. Rhythm is proportion in time, as symmetry is proportion in space. Two serious defects of vocal expression are hurry on the one hand, and tediousness on the other. Movement is the revelation of the pulsation of force in such a way as to avoid either of these extremes. True movement is continually varying. Sameness or monotony of movement is the negation of movement and the worst of faults. Movement is the immediate effect of the propulsion of a living, present force. Movement or change in the rhythmic pulsation of the voice is an important means of expression. Man moves slowly when he carries a heavy load, and rapidly when he is free or light of heart. So man moves slowly in the delivery of his thought in proportion to his sense of its importance, its dignity, intensity, and weight, or to the element of control. He moves rapidly, on the contrary, over that which is trivial and relatively unimportant, and in proportion to the uncontrolled excitement that may dominate him. Thus movement can contrast one thought or sentence with another thought or sentence. It can show one to be weighty and the other to be light; one to be the point at issue, and the other to be illustrative or a side issue; one to be important, and the other trite and familiar. It can show one part in the realm of the commonplace, and the other in the realm of wonder. By movement, the subjective is contrasted with the objective, the spiritual with the physical, the known with the unknown, the insignificant with the significant. 257 AND there was mounting in hot haste: the steed, While thronged the citizens with terror dumb, Or whispering with white lips-"The foe! they come! they come!" Movement is directly expressive, as well as expressive by contrast. Take for example, the first line of the above illustration, "There was mounting in hot haste." This can be read so as to suggest an individual going on a hunt; going for a doctor; going to give warning; to save a life; to make an escape; as a part of a mock parade or play: but it can also be read so as to suggest that it is a part of the battle of Waterloo. These various conceptions are shown by the difference in the movement. It is chiefly the rhythmic pulsation which gives the sense of the breadth of the situation. Problem LXII. Show by change of rhythm change in situation, in the nature and importance of thought, in the kind of excitement, depth of feeling, or in degree of control over passion. 258 WHAT is time?-the shadow on the dial, the striking of the clock, the running of the sand, day and night, summer and winter, months, years, centuries? These are but arbitrary and outward signs, — the measure of time, not time itself. Time is the life of the soul. If not this, then tell me, what is time? 66 259 "By the God that made thee, Randolph, And the asker's voice is dumb. "Flodden Field." Aytoun. 260 A KING sat on the rocky brow which looks o'er sea-born Salamis; and ships by thousands lay below, and men in nations; - all were his! He counted them at break of day-and when the sun set, where were they? And where are they? And where art thou, my country? On thy voiceless shore the heroic lay is tuneless now the heroic bosom beats no more! And must thy lyre, so long divine, degenerate into hands like mine? 262 CURSED is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out his roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Jeremiah, XVII. 5-8. Problem LXIII. Contrast something familiar and in the ordinary line of thought with something unusual,-something that is a matter of faith or wonder. 263 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I have been known. First Corinthians, XIII. 12. Problem LXIV. Read some description involving a conception of some physical movement, and by sympathetic identification suggest the spirit of this movement by the voice. 264 Now the world slopes away to the afternoon sun-steady one! steady all! The down grade has begun. Let the engines take breath, they have nothing to do, for the law that swings worlds will whirl the train through. Streams of fire from the wheels, like flashes from the fountains; and the dizzy train reels as it swoops down the mountains: and fiercer and faster, as if demons drove tandem, engines "Death" and "Disaster.". . From dumb winter to spring in one wonderful hour; from Nevada's white wing to creation in flower! December at morning tossing wild in its might—a June without warning and blown roses at night! Taylor. "Overland Train." 265 LISTEN to the water-mill; through the livelong day, how the clicking of its wheel wears the hours away! Languidly the autumn wind stirs the forest leaves, from the fields the reapers sing, binding up their sheaves; and a proverb haunts my mind, as a spell is cast; "The mill cannot grind with the water that is past." Autumn winds revive no more leaves that once are shed, and the sickle cannot reap corn once gathered; flows the ruffled streamlet on, tranquil, deep and still; never gliding back again to the water-mill: truly speaks that proverb old, with a meaning vast, "The mill cannot grind with the water that is past." "Lesson of the Water-mill." Doudney. 266 AWAY, away! for the stars are forth, and on the pure snows of the valley, in a giddy trance, the moonbeams dance-come, let us our comrades rally! "Skater's Song." 267. CROSSING THE BAR. SUNSET and evening star, and one clear call for me! Peabody. And may there be no moaning of the bar when I put out to sea, |