voice. Students of Elocution and public speakers frequently render themselves ridiculous, and the study of Elocution disgusting, by parading their powers of orotund on all occasions. Such exhibitions resemble

"Ocean into tempest tossed

To waft a feather or to drown a fly."

Except in the expression of grand, lofty, and sublime thought, the Pure Tone should form the basis of utterance.

SECTION IX.

AS PIR A TE.

The aspirate is that quality of voice in which the breath is sent forth from the organs without being converted into vocal sound. The whisper is the perfection of the aspirate quality.

Like the Pure Tone and Orotund, it has its effusive, expulsive and explosive forms.

To acquire control of this quality, practice in a whispered tone the elements and words and sentences in which the element h predominates.

ASPIRATE, EFFUSIVE FORM-FIRST EXERCISE.

1. ĕ, as heard in me, eve.

The aspirate, in the effusive form, is the quality appropriate for the expression of secret thought, sup pressed fear and profound repose.

Combined with the orotund, the aspirate intensifies the expression of sublimity, awe, reverence and amaze

ment.

It is in this combined form that the aspirate will be of the greatest practical advantage to the general student.

EXAMPLES: I. STILLNESS.

Aspirate, Effusive Form.

[From "Dying Request."-Mrs. Hemans.]

Leave me! Thy footstep with its lightest sound,
The very shadow of thy waving hair,

Wakes in my soul a feeling too profound,

Too strong, for aught that lives and dies to bear;
O bid the conflict cease!

II. PROFOUND REPOSE.
Aspirate, Effusive Form.

[From "Stillness of Night."-Byron.]

All heaven and earth are still, though not in sleep,
But breathless, as we grow when feeling most,
And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep;

All heaven and earth are still: from the high host
Of stars to the lulled lake and mountain coast,

All is concentrated in a life intense,

Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf, is lost,

But hath a part of being, and a sense

Of that which is of all Creator and Defense.

III. SUBLIMITY AND REVERENCE.
Aspirate, Orotund, Effusive Form.

[From a Russian Hymn.-Browning.]

Thou breathest, and the obedient storm is still;
Thou speakest; silent the submissive wave:
Man's shattered ship the rushing waters fill,

And the hushed billows roll across his gravo.

Sourceless and endless God! Compared to thee,
Life is a shadowy, momentary dream;

And time, when viewed through thy eternity,
Less than the mote of morning's golden beam.

IV. SUBLIMITY AND AWE.

Aspirate, Orotund, Effusive Form.

[From "The Closing Year."-Prentice.]

'Tis midnight's holy hour, and silence now

Is brooding, like a gentle spirit, o'er

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

No funeral train

Is sweeping past; yet on the stream and wood,
With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest
Like a pale, spotless shroud; the air is stirred
As by a mourner's sigh; and on yon cloud,
That floats so still and placidly through heaven,
The spirits of the seasons seem to stand-

Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form,
And Winter with his aged locks, and breathe,

In mournful cadences, that come abroad

Like the far wind-harp's wild and touching wail,

A melancholy dirge o'er the dead year,

Gone from the earth forever.

ASPIRATE, EXPULSIVE FORM-EXERCISE.

Repeat the elements and words on page 74 in the expulsive form, aspirate quality.

The aspirate, in the expulsive form, is the quality appropriate for the expression of sudden fear, alarm and terror. Combined with the orotund, it gives intensity to awe and horror.

EXAMPLES: I. ALARM AND FEAR.
Aspirate, Expulsive Form.

[From "The Battle of Waterloo."—Byron.]
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb,
Or whispered with white lips, "The foe!
They come they come!"

II. SUPPRESSED COMMAND, FEAR.

Aspirate, Expulsive Form.

[From "Military Command."-Anon.]

Soldiers, you are now within a few steps of the enemy's outposts! Our scouts report them as slumbering in parties around their watchfires, and utterly unprepared for our approach. A swift and noiseless advance around that projecting rock, and we are upon them-we capture them without the possibility of resistance. One disorderly noise

or motion may leave us at the mercy of their advanced guard. Let every man keep the strictest silence under the pain of instant death.

III. INTENSE FEAR, AWE, AND HORROR.
Aspirate, Orotund, Expulsive Form.

[From "Hamlet."-Shakspeare.]

Angels and ministers of grace defend us!

Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned,

Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,

Be thy intents wicked or charitable,

Thou com'st in such a questionable shape

That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee Hamlet,

King, father, royal Dane: O answer me:

Let me not burst in ignorance! but tell

Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements! why the sepulcher,
Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urned,

Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again! What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel,
Revisitest thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous: and we fools of nature,
So horribly to shake our disposition,
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?

ASPIRATE, EXPLOSIVE FORM-EXERCISE.

Repeat the elements and words on page 74 in the explosive form, with aspirate quality.

The aspirate, in the explosive form, is the quality of voice appropriate for the expression of intense fear, hor ror, awe and dread. Mingled with the orotund, it intensifies the expressions excited by sudden terror and alarm.

EXAMPLES: I. INTENSE HORROR
Aspirate, Explosive Form.

[From "Macbeth."-Shakspeare.]

Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep:
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.

II. EXCLAMATION CAUSED BY SUDDEN HORROR AND

ALARM.

Aspirate-Orotund, Explosive Form.

[From "Macbeth."-Shakspeare.]

Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes

Which thou dost glare with!

Without command of the aspirate quality it is impossible to give appropriate expression to the emotions of fear, awe, horror, dread, amazement, and similar pas

sions.

The utterance of deep solemnity and sublimity is greatly intensified by mingling the aspirate quality with the orotund.

Like all other elements of utterance, it must be prac