And oh, you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!

FORCE.

FORCE is the volume or loudness of voice, used on the same key or pitch, when reading or speaking.

Though the degrees of Force are numerous, varying from a soft whisper to a shout, yet they may be considered as three: LOUD, MODERATE, and GENTLE.

I. LOUD FORCE is used in strong, but suppressed passions, and in emotions of sorrow, grief, respect, veneration, dignity, apathy, and contrition; as,

1. How like a fawning publican he looks!

I hate him, for that he is a Christian.

If I but catch him once upon the hip,

I will feed fat the anciens grudge I bear him.

2. Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

3.

From the field of his fame fresh and gōry;
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stōne,
But we left him alone in his glory!

O thou that, with surpassing glory crowned,
Look'st from thy sole dominion, like the God
Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O SUN, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down,
Warring in heaven against heaven's matchless King.

'Exercise on Force.-For a general exercise on Force, select a sentence, and deliver it on a given key, with voice just sufficient to be heard; then gradually increase the quantity,

until the whole power of the voice is

brought into play. Reverse the process, without change of key, ending with a whisper. This exercise is so valuable, that it can not be too frequently repeated.

II. MODERATE FORCE, or a medium degree of loudness, is used in ordinary assertion, narration, and description; as,

1. What is the blooming tincture of the skin,
To peace of mind and harmony within?
What the bright sparkling of the finest eye,
To the soft soothing of a calm reply?
Can comeliness of form, or shape, or air,
With comeliness of words or deeds compare?
No! those at first the unwary heart may gain,
But these, these only, can the heart retain.

A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell:
To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
Listened intensely ;-and his countenance soon
Brightened with joy; for murmurings from within
Were heard, sonorous cadences! whereby,
To his belief, the monitor expressed
Mysterious union with its native sea.
Even such a shell the universe itself

Is to the ear of Faith.

In the delivery of the following selection from TENNYSON, which is one of the purest and most exquisite of all poëms, the degree of force is between the loud and the moderate.

THE DAYS THAT ARE NO MORE.

Tears, idle tears! I know not what they mean,
Tears, from the depth of some divine despair,
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail
That brings our friends up from the under world;
Sad as the last which reddens over one

That sinks with all we love below the verge :

So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.

Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes

The casement slowly grows a glimmering square :
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.

Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regrets,

O Death in Life! the days that are no more.

III. GENTLE FORCE, or a slight degree of loudness, is used to express caution, fear, secrecy, and tender emotions; as,

1.

Heard ye the whisper of the breeze,

As softly it murmured by,

Amid the shadowy forest trees?

It tells, with meaning sigh,

Of the bowers of bliss on that viewless shōre,
Where the weary spirit shall sin no mōre.

2. They are sleeping! Who are sleeping?
Pause a moment-softly tread;
Anxious friends are fondly keeping
Vigils by the sleeper's bed!
Other hopes have all forsaken;

One remains that slumber deep:
Speak not, lest the slumberer waken

From that sweet, that saving sleep.

QUALITY.

QUALITY has reference to the kinds of tone used in reading and speaking. They are the PURE TONE, the OROTUND, the ASPIRATED, the GUTTURAL, and the TREMBLing.

I. THE PURE TONE is a clear, smooth, round, flowing sound, accompanied with moderate pitch; and is used to express peace, cheerfulness, joy, and love; as,

1. Methinks I love all common things

2.

The common air, the common flower;

The dear, kind, common thought, that springs
From hearts that have no other dower,

No other wealth, no other power,
Save love; and will not that repay
For all else fortune tears away?

It is the hour, when from the boughs
The nightingale's high note is heard;
It is the hour when lovers' vows

Seem sweet in every whispered word;
And gentle winds, and waters near,
Make music to the lonely ear.
Each flower the dews have lightly wet,

And in the sky the stars are met,

And on the wave is deeper blue,

And on the leaf a browner hue,

And in the heaven that clear obscure,

So softly dark, and darkly pure,

Which follows the decline of day,

As twilight melts beneath the moon away.

The Pure Tone approaches nearly to the Orotund in the delivery of TENNYSON'S celebrated

BUGLE SONG.

The splendor falls on castle walls,

And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying:
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes-dying, dying, dying!

O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, further going!

O sweet and far, from cliff and scar,

The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow! let us hear the purple glens replying:

Blow, bugle; answer, echoes-dying, dying, dying!

O love, they die in yon rich sky;
They faint on hill, or field, or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,

And grow for ever and for ever.

Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying,

And answer, echoes, answer-dying, dying, dying!

II. THE OROTUND is the Pure Tone deepened, enlarged, and intensified. It is used in all energetic and vehement forms of expression, and in giving utterance to grand and sublime emotions; as,

1.

2.

Strike-till the last armed foe expires;

STRIKE for your altars and your fires;
STRIKE-for the green graves of your sires;
GOD-and your native land!

The sky is changed! and such a change! O Night,
And Storm, and Darkness, ye are wondrous ströng,
Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light
Of a dark eye in woman! Far along,
From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,
Leaps the live thunder !—not from one lone cloud,
But every mountain now hath found a tongue;
And Jura answers, through her misty shroud,
Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud!

III. THE ASPIRATED TONE is an expulsion of the breath more or less strong, the words being spoken in a whisper. It is used to express amazement, fear, terror, horror, revenge, and remorse; as,

1.

The ancient Earl, with stately grace,
Would Clara on her palfrey place,

And whisper, in an under-tone,

"Let the hawk stoop, his prey is flown."

2.

How ill this taper burns!

Ha! who comes here?

Cold drops of sweat hang on my trembling flesh,

My blood grows chilly, and I freeze with horror!