pered; hate is aspirated; love is denoted by a soft, smooth, tone; joy, by a quick, clear, and pleasant tone; sorrow, by a low and interrupted tone; deep anxiety, by a tremulous, hesitating tone; courage, by a full, bold, and rather low tone; extreme fear, boisterous mirth, and many other feelings obtain their appropriate expression in a very high key. Different tones and modulations of the voice, apart from inflection and emphasis, are required to express different sentiments, emotions, and passions. Words are but conventional signs of thought and feeling; but tones, when they are strongly marked, are natural signs that are universally recognized.

No rules can be given which can guide the student to the right expression of emotion and passion. He will derive more benefit from the careful study and application of general principles in any department of intellectual or emotional expression than he can derive from any or from all of the arbitrary rules that have been given on the subject.

To learn how to portray feeling truthfully, and personate character, the student must study himself, and compare his own experience under anger, fear, pain, pleasure, joy, sorrow, grief, hope, despondency, and other feelings and conditions, and endeavor to reproduce these feelings and conditions in his own mind. The skill of the actor lies chiefly in his ability to excite nature by the perfect imitation of nature. By the successful imitation of a feeling, you will be brought sufficiently under its influence to express it correctly and vividly.

To express feeling correctly, you must never attempt its imitation till the imagination has conceived so strong an idea of it as to move the same impressive springs within the mind as those by which that passion, when uncoerced, has been excited.

Before you attempt to give any passage of pathos or of passion, be sure that you understand every thing about it; then, as far as able, put on the appearance, and use the

tones and action by which the feeling you wish to express is characterized. In this way you will soon acquire the art of bringing yourself, to some extent at least, under the influence of any feeling that you understand and appreciate.

"To paint the passion's force, and mark it well,
The proper action nature's self will tell:

No pleasing powers distortions e'er express,
And nicer judgment always loathes excess.
The word and action should conjointly suit,
But acting words is labor too minute;
Grimace will ever lead the judgment wrong,
While sober humor makes the impression strong.
He who in earnest studies o'er his part,
Will find true nature cling about his heart:
Up to the face the quick emotion flies,

And darts its meaning from the speaker's eyes.
Love transports; madness, joy, despair,
And all the passions, all the soul is there."

1.-MERCY.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When merey seasons justice.

2.-UNRELENTING OBSTINACY.

I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:
I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,

To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
To Christian intercessors. Follow not;

I'll have no speaking! I will have my bond.

3. SUSPICION.

Would he were fatter; but I fear him not:
Yet, if my name were liable to fear,

I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as this spare Cassius. He reads much;
He is a great observer, and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men.

He loves no plays; he hears no music;
Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort,
As if he mocked himself, and scorned his spirit,
That could be moved to smile at any thing.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease
While they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.

4. REPROACH.

Shame! shame! that in such a proud moment of life,
Worth ages of history,-when, had you but hurl'd

One bolt at your bloody invader, that strife

Between freemen and tyrants had spread through the world,— That then,—O disgrace upon manhood!—e'en then

You should falter,--should cling to your pitiful breath,

Cower down into beasts, when you might have stood men,
And prefer a slave's life to a glorious death!

5.-AWE.

A fearful hope-was all-the world contained:
Forests were set on fire; but, hour by hour,
They fell, and faded, and the crackling trunks
Extinguished with a crash, and all was black.
The brows of men, by the despairing light,
Wore an unearthly aspect, as, by fits,
The flashes fell upon them. Some lay down,
And hid their eyes, and wept; and some did rest

Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil'd:
And others hurried to and fro, and fed

Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then, again,
With curses, cast them down upon the dust,
And gnashed their teeth, and howled.

6.-COMMAND.

Still "Onward!" was his stern exclaim;
"Charge on the battery's jaws of flame!
Rush on the level gun!

Each Hulan forward with his lance!
My steel-clad cuirassiers advance!

My guard, my chosen, charge for France!
France and Napoleon!"

7.-EXPECTATION.

I am giddy expectation whirls me round.
The imaginary relish is so sweet

That it enchants my sense: what will it be,
When that the watery palate tastes indeed
Love's thrice reputed nectar? Death, I fear me;
Swooning destruction; or some joy too fine,
Too subtle potent, tuned too sharp in sweetness,
For the capacity of my ruder powers;

I fear it much; and I do fear, besides,
That I shall lose distinction in my joys;

As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps
The enemy flying.

My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse;
And all my powers do their bestowing lose,
Like vassalage at unawares encountering
The eye of majesty.

Would that he yet might live! even now I heard The legate's followers whisper, as they passed, They had a warrant for his instant death;

All was prepared by unforbidden means,

Which we must pay so dearly, having done;

Even now they search the tower, and find the body,
Now they suspect the truth; now they consult
Before they come to tax us with the fact;
O, horrible! 't is all discovered!

9.-MORAL COURAGE.

Dare nobly, then; but, conscious of your trust,
As ever warm and bold, be ever just;

Nor court applause in these degenerate days-
The villain's censure is extorted praise.

But chief, be steady in a noble end,

And show mankind that truth has yet a friend.
'Tis mean for empty praise of wit to write,
As foplings grin to show their teeth are white;
To brand a doubtful folly with a smile,
Or madly blaze unknown defects, is vile:
'Tis doubly vile, when, but to prove your art,
You fix an arrow in a blameless heart.

10.-SUSPENSE.

When all is known, the darkest fate
The smitten heart may learn to bear,
And feel, when time can not abate,
The settled calmness of despair;
But who can well endure the grief-
Which knows no refuge or defense,
That age of pain, in moments brief-
The untold anguish of suspense!

When once the first rude shock is past,
The heart may still the storm outride,
As, from the wreck around it cast,
It finds support to breast the tide;
But thus to linger day by day,
A prey to that foreboding sense
Which gives a pang to each delay,
And agonizes with suspense!