art can substitute for intelligence and spirit in oral expression. It is, however, yet necessary that the utterance be under such control that it may be made to harmonize with all the infinite lights and shades of thought. True expression should be carefully distinguished from mere fervor of spirit and emotional violence. It is infinitely more than this; it is spirit put under law. It is power under control. Herein consists the art of adaptation. The three great essentials, then, which every speaker should keep before him, are comprehension, sympathy, adaptation.

The changes of voice necessary to expression constitute the modulations of speech.

MODULATION.

Modulation consists in the adaptation of speech to the sentiment it is designed to convey. The various changes or modulations are quality, pitch, force, time, and slides, or inflections.

QUALITY.

NOTE.-Quality concerns the kind of voice and its relation to the kind or quality of sentiment. It has been fully treated as an element of vocal culture in its proper place under that head, though its practical application, as an element of expression, belongs to Modulation. For discussion and exercises, see page 59.

PITCH.

Pitch relates to the High and Low of the voice.

NOTE.-Although the different degrees of Pitch are determined by the musical scale, the changes are usually produced by slide, while in music they are usually produced by steps.

Pitch, like the other modulations, must be found in the sentiment. There is up and down in thought and feeling. Joy and victory are up. Melancholy and awe are down. To respond to these qualities of sentiment, the sense must be quick to perceive, and the voice must be capable of prompt and graceful change, either by slide or step.

The different degrees of Pitch are produced by the different degrees of tension of the vocal cords.

Natural or unemotional sentiment will leave the vocal cords in their most natural condition, and they will produce a natural or medium tone.

Exaltation of spirit will cause a tension of the vocal cords, and they will produce a correspondingly high tone.

Depression of spirit will cause the vocal cords to relax, and the tone will be low.

There are, therefore, in Elocution, three natural divisions of Pitch, Medium, High, and Low. From these, other divisions may be made.

NOTE 1.-Each of these divisions must necessarily cover a range or variety of sentiment. When the student is satisfied that the sentiment belongs to the medium range, or the high or low range, he is likely to adapt the changes within that range more gracefully and less mechanically than if he adapts his Pitch too strictly to the musical scale. By the latter method he is liable to speak by the musical tones rather than by the speaking tones.

NOTE 2.-The student should most carefully guard the quality of the tone in the practice of the High and Low extremes.

LANGUAGE OF MEDIUM PITCH.-Unemotional language, such as ordinary conversation, simple narration, and plain description, and all language of natural full force, should be expressed within the range of Medium Pitch.

LANGUAGE OF HIGH PITCH.-Passages of calling, command, gayety, joy, victory, and extreme grief, are expressed within the range of High Pitch.

LANGUAGE OF LOW PITCH.-Melancholy, reverence, awe, despair, and language of the supernatural, are expressed within the range of Low Pitch.

EXAMPLES FOR PRACTICE.

VARIETIES OF MEDIUM PITCH.

1. The city and republic of Carthage were destroyed by the termination of the third Punic war, about one hundred and fifty years before Christ.

2. We must educate! We must educate! or we must perish by our own prosperity. If we do not, short from the cradle to the grave will be our race.—Lyman Beecher.

3. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Biessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.-Bible.

4.

Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,
The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

-J. G. Whittier.

5. So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm—

A cry of defiance and not of fear,

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For, borne on the night wind of the Past,
Through all our history to the last,

In the hour of darkness, and peril, and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

-H. W. Longfellow.

For selections containing additional examples of Medium Pitch, see Elocutionist's Annual, No. 4, pages 19 and 137; No. 5, pages 135 and 138.

1.

VARIETIES OF HIGH PITCH.

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of death
Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!" he saií:
Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

-Tennyson.

2.

3.

I come! I come!-ye have called me long:
I come o'er the mountains with light and song!
Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth,
By the winds which tell of the violet's birth,
By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass,
By the green leaves opening as I pass.

-Mrs. Hemans.

Beware! beware! The rapids are below you! "See how fast you pass that point! Up with the helm! Now turn! Pull hard! Quick quick! quick! pull for your lives! pull till the blood starts from your nostrils, and the veins stand like whip-cords on your brow! -John B. Gough.

4.

Go ring the bells and fire the guns,

And fling the starry banners out;

Shout "Freedom!" till your lisping ones
Give back their cradle shout.

5. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.-Bible.

6. They strike! hurrah! the fort has surrendered!
Shout! shout! my warrior boy,

And wave your cap, and clap your hands for joy.
Cheer answer cheer, and bear the cheer about.
Hurrah! hurrah! for the fiery fort is ours.

66

Victory! victory! victory!"

Is the shout.

Shout for the fiery fort is ours, and the field
And the day are ours!

For selections containing additional examples of High

Pitch, see Elocutionist's Annual, No. 1, page 148; No. 2, page 123; No. 3, page 147.

VARIETIES OF LOW PITCH.

1. 'Tis midnight's holy hour,-and silence now Is brooding like a gentle spirit o'er

2.

The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds
The bell's deep tones are swelling-'tis the knell
Of the departed year.

-Geo. D. Prentice.

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan that moves

To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

-William Cullen Bryant.

Wail

3. Your sorrows, O people, are his peace! Your bells and bands, and muffled drums sound triumph in his ear. and weep here! Pass on!-Beecher.

4. My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;
I doubt some foul play: would the night were come !
Till then sit still, my soul: Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o'erwhelms them, to men's eyes.
-Shakspeare.

5. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: it stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes; there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?-Bible.

For selections containing additional examples of Low