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LESSON XLVIII.-NIAGARA.-MRS. SIGOURNEY.

[The following piece is designed for practice in the 'slow' utterance which characterizes the tones of sublimity and awe. The 'rate' of voice is not altogether so slow as in the preceding lesson; yet it retains much of that effect which cannot be given without slowness of movement and full pauses. The note, in the style of this lesson, continues low, although not so remarkably deep as in the preceding. The principal object of practice, in this instance, is to secure that degree of slowness' which marks the tones of wonder and aston ishment.]

[] Flow on forever, in thy glorious robe

Of terror and of beauty! Yea, flow on

Unfathomed and resistless! God hath set
His rainbow on thy forehead: and the cloud
Mantled around thy feet, And he doth give
Thy voice of thunder, power to speak of Him
Eternally,-bidding the lip of man

Keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour
Incense of awe-struck praise.

Ah! who can dare
To lift the insect-trump of earthly hope,
Or love, or sorrow, 'mid the peal sublime
Of thy tremendous hymn? Even Ocean shrinks
Back from thy brotherhood; and all his waves
Retire abashed. For he doth sometimes seem
To sleep like a spent laborer, and recall
His wearied billows from their vexing play,
And lull them to a cradle calm; but thou
With everlasting, undecaying tide,

Dost rest not, night or day. The morning stars,
When first they sang o'er young creation's birth,
Heard thy deep anthem; and those wrecking fires,
That wait the archangel's signal to dissolve
This solid earth, shall find Jehovah's name
Graven, as with a thousand diamond spears,
On thine unending volume.

Every leaf,
That lifts itself within thy wide domain,
Doth gather greenness from thy living spray,
Yet tremble at the baptism. Lo!-yon birds
Do boldly venture near, and bathe their wing
Amid thy mist and foam. 'Tis meet for them,
To touch thy garment's hem, and lightly stir
The snowy leaflets of thy vapor wreath,
For they may sport unharmed amid the cloud,

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Or listen at the echoing gate of heaven,
Without reproof. But as for us, it seems
Scarce lawful, with our broken tones, to speak
Familiarly of thee. Methinks to tint

Thy glorious features with our pencil's point,
Or woo thee to the tablet of a song,
Were profanation.

Thou dost make the soul
A wondering witness of thy majesty ;
But as it presses with delirious joy

To pierce thy vestibule, dost chain its step,
And tame its rapture with the humbling view
Of its own nothingness; bidding it stand
In the dread presence of the Invisible,
As if to answer to its God through thee.

LESSON XLIX.-THE UNITED STATES.-BANCROFT.

[The extract which follows, exemplifies the deliberate, or 'moderately slow' utterance, which belongs to the style of serious reading or speaking, with reference to the purposes of public or general communication. Such passages exemplify, also, the 'moderate' force, and the 'middle' pitch. To avoid hurry, on the one hand. and drawling, on the other, is the object in view, in the practice of such exercises. A grave and dignified style forbids any approach to haste; but it does not imply a lagging slowness.]

[] The United States of America constitute an essential portion of the great political system, embracing all the civilized nations of the earth. At a period when the force of moral opinion is rapidly increasing, they have the prece5 dence, in the practice and the defence of the equal rights of man.

The sovereignty of the people, is here a conceded axiom; and the laws, established upon that basis, are cherished with faithful patriotism. While the nations of Europe 10 aspire after change, our constitution engages the fond admiration of the people, by whom it has been established. Prosperity follows the execution of even justice; invention is quickened by the freedom of competition; and labor rewarded with sure and unexampled returns.

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Domestic peace is maintained without the aid of a military establishment; public sentiment permits the existence of but few standing troops, and those only along the seaboard and on the frontiers. A gallant navy protects our commerce, which spreads its banners on every sea, and

extends its enterprise to every clime. Our diplomatic relations connect us, on terms of equality and honest friendship, with the chief powers of the world; while we avoid entangling participation in their intrigues, their passions, 5 and their wars.

Our national resources are developed by an earnest culture of the arts of peace. Every man may enjoy the fruits of his industry; every mind is free to publish its convictions. Our government, by its organization, is necessarily 10 identified with the interests of the people, and relies exclusively on their attachment, for its durability and support. Even the enemies of the state, if there be any among us, have liberty to express their opinions undisturbed; and are safely tolerated, where reason is left free to combat their 15 errors. Nor is the constitution a dead letter, unalterably fixed; it has the capacity for improvement; adopting whatever changes time and the public will may require, and safe from decay, so long as that will retains its energy.

New states are forming in the wilderness; canals, inter20 secting our plains and crossing our highlands, open numerous channels to internal commerce; manufactures prosper along our water-courses; the use of steam on our rivers and rail-roads, annihilates distance by the acceleration of speed. Our wealth and population, already giving us a 25 place in the first rank of nations, are so rapidly cumulative, that the former is increased fourfold; and the latter is doubled, in every period of twenty-two or twenty-three years. There is no national debt; the community is opulent; the government economical; and the public treasury 30 full. Religion, neither persecuted nor paid by the state, is sustained by the regard for public morals, and the convictions of an enlightened faith.

Intelligence is diffused with unparalleled universality; a free press teems with the choicest productions of all na35 tions and ages. There are more daily journals in the United States, than in the world beside. A public document of general interest is, within a month, reproduced in at least a million of copies, and is brought within the reach of every freeman in the country.

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An immense concourse of emigrants, of the most various lineage, is perpetually crowding to our shores; and the principles of liberty, uniting all interests by the operation of equal laws, blend the discordant elements into harmonious union. Other governments are convulsed by the

innovations and reforms of neighboring states; our constitution, fixed in the affections of the people, from whose choice it has sprung, neutralizes the influence of foreign principles, and fearlessly opens an asylum to the virtuous, 5 the unfortunate, and the oppressed of every nation.

LESSON L.-WOUTER VAN TWILLER.-WASHINGTON IRVING.

[The following specimen of descriptive humor, requires the 'lively movement', in its rate of utterance. The voice is, in this instance, accelerated beyond the rate of serious communication, in any form although it does not possess the rapidity which belongs to the excited style of lyric or dramatic poetry, in the most vivid style of humorous expression. This lesson combines, also, an exemplification of 'moderate' force, and 'middle' pitch. The object in view in the practice of such exercises as this, is to gain animation and briskness, in utterance. A lagging or drawling tone is utterly incompatible with humorous delineation. Mere rapidity, however, will not succeed in imparting liveliness to style: the utterance must be slow enough to be distinct and spirited.]

[u] The renowned Wouter, (or Walter,) Van Twiller, [#] was descended from a long line of Dutch burgomasters, who had successively dozed away their lives, and grown fat upon the bench of magistracy in Rotter5 dam; and who had comported themselves with such singular wisdom and propriety, that they were never either heard or talked of,-which, next to being universally applauded, should be the object of ambition of all ages, magistrates, and rulers.

10 His surname, Twiller, is said to be a corruption of the original Twijfler,* which, in English, means Doubter; a name admirably descriptive of his deliberative habits. For, though he was a man shut up within himself, like an oyster, and of such a profoundly reflective turn, that he 15 scarcely ever spoke except in monosyllables, yet did he never make up his mind on any doubtful point. This was clearly accounted for by his adherents, who affirmed that he always conceived every object on so comprehensive a scale, that he had not room in his head to turn it over, and 20 examine both sides of it; so that he always remained in doubt, merely in consequence of the astonishing magnitude of his ideas!

There are two opposite ways by which some men get into notice,-one by talking a vast deal, and thinking a *Pronounced Tweefler.

little, and the other, by holding their tongues and not thinking at all. By the first, many a vaporing, superficial pretender acquires the reputation of a man of quick parts, -by the other, many a vacant dunderpate, like the owl, 5 the stupidest of birds, comes to be complimented, by a discerning world, with all the attributes of wisdom. This, by the way, is a mere casual remark, which I would not, for the universe, have it thought I apply to Governor Van Twiller. On the contrary, he was a very wise Dutchman; 10 for he never said a foolish thing,-and of such invincible gravity, that he was never known to laugh, or even to smile, through the course of a long and prosperous life. Certain, however, it is, there never was a matter proposed, however simple, and on which your common narrow15 minded mortals would rashly determine at the first glance, but what the renowned Wouter put on a mighty mysterious, vacant kind of look, shook his capacious head, and having smoked, for five minutes, with redoubled earnestness, sagely observed, that "he had his doubts about the 20 matter," which in process of time gained him the character of a man slow in belief, and not easily imposed on.

The person of this illustrious old gentleman, was as regularly formed, and nobly proportioned, as though it had been moulded by the hands of some cunning Dutch statu25 ary, as a model of majesty and lordly grandeur. He was exactly five feet six inches in height, and six feet five inches in circumference. His head was a perfect sphere, and of such stupendous dimensions, that dame Nature, with all her sex's ingenuity, would have been puzzled to 30 construct a neck capable of supporting it; wherefore she wisely declined the attempt, and settled it firmly on the top of his back bone, just between the shoulders. His body was of an oblong form, particularly capacious at bottom; which was wisely ordered by Providence, seeing 35 that he was a man of sedentary habits, and very averse to the idle labor of walking. His legs, though exceeding short, were sturdy in proportion to the weight they had to sustain; so that, when erect, he had not a little the appearance of a robustious beer-barrel, standing on skids. His 40 face, that infallible index of the mind, presented a vast expanse, perfectly unfurrowed or deformed by any of those lines and angles which disfigure the human countenance with what is termed expression. Two small gray eyes twinkled feebly in the midst, like two stars of lesser mag

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