EXERCISES TO DEVELOP GOOD NORMAL QUALITY

I. Sound the long vowels a-e-i-o-u, using a middle pitch, and sustaining each vowel as long as a full, unwavering tone can be comfortably produced. Note carefully that no nasal, throaty, or other disagreeable element is allowed to appear.

II. Utter the same vowel sounds, slowly, beginning each one moderately low and raising the voice smoothly to a higher pitch.

III. Use the same sounds, substituting a downward movement on each one.

IV. Pronounce slowly, and in clear, resonant tones, the following words: beam - bold - clear - far - gay - hold keen law - loom - muse - nine- ocean - pealing - roar soothing time - vain - wander - way weep - wine - woo. V. Read the following sentences, slowly, and with the idea of giving each one a clear, agreeable expression: a. Blow, bugle, blow; set the wild echoes flying. (TENNYSON)

b. Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me! (TENNYSON)

c. Alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on a wide, wide sea. (COLERIDGE)

d. The quality of mercy is not strained;

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,

Upon the place beneath. (SHAKESPEARE)

e. It is, indeed, the empire of Death; his great shadowy palace, where he sits in state, mocking at the relics of human glory, and spreading dust and forgetfulness on the monuments of Princes.

(IRVING)

f. 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 poor power to add or detract. (LINCOLN)

g. They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in the windowless palace of rest. Earth may run red with other wars; they are at peace. (INGERSOLL) h. Will no one tell me what she sings? Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow For old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago.

(WORDSWORTH)

i. Over the sea our galleys went,

With cleaving prows in order brave

To a speeding wind and a bounding wave

A gallant armament.

(BROWNING)

j. While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, . . . a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig.

(THACKERAY)

SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICAL APPLICATION

THE BUFFOON AND THE COUNTRYMAN

A rich nobleman once opened the theaters without charge to the people, and gave public notice that he would handsomely reward any person who should invent a new amusement for the occasion. Various public performers contended for the prize. Among them came a buffoon well known among the populace for his jokes, and said that he had a kind of entertainment which had

never been brought out on any stage before. This report being spread about made a great stir in the place, and the theater was crowded in every part. The buffoon appeared alone upon the boards, without any apparatus or confederates, and the very sense of expectation caused an intense silence. The buffoon suddenly bent his head toward his bosom, and imitated the squeaking of a little pig so admirably with his voice, that the audience declared that he had a porker under his cloak, and demanded that it should be shaken out. When this was done, and yet nothing was found, they cheered the actor, and loaded him with the loudest applause. A countryman in the crowd, observing all that had passed, said, "So help me, Hercules, he shall not beat me at that trick!" and at once proclaimed that he would do the same thing on the next day, though in a much more natural way. On the morrow a still larger crowd assembled in the theater; but now partiality for their favorite actor generally prevailed, and the audience came rather to ridicule the countryman than to see the spectacle. Both of the performers appeared, however, on the stage. The buffoon grunted and squeaked very fast, and obtained, as on the preceding day, the applause and cheers of the spectators. Next the countryman commenced, and pretending that he concealed a little pig beneath his clothes (which in truth he did, but not suspected of the audience) contrived to lay hold of and pull his ear, when he began to squeak, and to express in his pain the actual cry of the pig. The crowd, however, cried out with one consent that the buffoon had given a far more exact imitation, and clamored for the countryman to be kicked out of the theater. On this the rustic produced the little pig from his cloak, and

showed by the most positive proof the greatness of their mistake. "Look here," he said, "this shows what sort of judges you are.” (ESOP: The Buffoon and the Countryman)

ENGLAND AND AMERICA

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, if it be true that I have been so fortunate as to contribute in any way to the friendly relations which exist at present between England and America, it is simply because I have taken a plain, downright course for effecting this object. The fact of it is, gentlemen, that, according to old customs, when any causes for difference, however slight, existed between our two governments, down sat Her Majesty's Representative at his desk, and down sat the United States Secretary of State at his desk, and each penned to the other very pithy and pertinent despatches, showing the great motives for grievance there were on both sides, and then those despatches were carefully circulated throughout both countries; but when there were only causes for mutual good-will and satisfaction, no one thought it worth while to take notice of so simple a fact, nor to state to the English and American public what strong reasons, both in sentiment and interest, there existed for their maintaining the closest and most friendly relations with each other. This was the old school of diplomacy, gentlemen; but I am of the new school and my theory and practice are just the reverse of what I have been describing. I am for keeping as quiet as possible all those small differences which must occasionally take place between any two great States, having vast and complicated interests; but which differences are always easy of adjustment when they are not

aggravated by unfriendly and untimely discussion. And I am for making as public as possible, on all occasions, those great points of union that must connect two nations, which not only . . . . . have one origin, and speak one language, but which also transact their greatest amount of business with each other. (BULWER: Speech on England and America)

FEMALE ORATORS

It has been said in the praise of some men, that they could talk whole hours upon anything; but it must be owned to the honor of the other sex, that there are many among them who can talk whole hours together upon nothing. I have known a woman to branch out into a long extempore dissertation upon the edging of a petticoat, and chide her servant for breaking a china cup in all the figures of rhetoric. . . .

...

The first kind . . . of female orators which I shall take notice of are those who are employed in stirring up the passions, a part of rhetoric in which Socrates' wife had perhaps made a greater proficiency than his 1 teacher. The second kind of female orators are those who deal in invectives, and who are commonly known by the name of the censorious. The imagination and elocution of this set of rhetoricians is wonderful. With what a fluency of invention and copiousness of expression will they enlarge upon every little slip in the behavior of another! With how many different circumstances, and with what variety of phrases, will they tell over the same story! I have known an old lady to make an unhappy marriage the subject of a month's conversation. She blamed the bride in one place; pitied her in another; 1 Socrates' teacher, Plato.