of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.' He observes, that there is such a connexion between the internal feeling of a passion and the external expression of it, that we cannot put ourselves in the posture or attitude of any passion, without communicating a certain degree of the passion itself to the mind. The same may be observed of the tone of voice which is peculiar to each passion: each passion produces an agitation of the body, which is accompanied by a correspondent agitation of the mind; certain sounds naturally produce certain bodily agitations, similar to those produced by the passions; and hence music has power over the mind, and can dispose it alternately to joy or sorrow, to pity or revenge. When the voice, therefore, assumes that tone which a musician would produce, in order to express certain passions or sentiments in a song, the speaker, like the performer on a musical instrument, is wrought upon by the sound he creates; and, though active at the beginning, at length becomes passive, by the sound of his own voice on himself. Hence it is, that though we frequently begin to read or speak, without feeling any of the passion we wish to express, we often end in full possession of it. This may serve to show the necessity of studying and imitating those tones, looks, and gestures that accompany the passions, that we may dispose ourselves to feel them mechanically, and improve our expression of them when we feel them spontaneously; for by the imitation of the passion, we meet it, as it were, half way.'

The following observations on the same subject are from Sheridan's" Art of Speaking:"

"NATURE has given to every emotion of the mind its proper outward expression in such manner, that what suits one cannot, by any means, be accommodated to another. Children at three years of age express their grief in a tone of voice, and with an action totally different from that which they use to express their anger; and they utter their joy in a manner different from both. Nor do they ever, by mistake, apply one in place of another. From hence, that is, from nature, is to be deduced the whole art of speaking properly. What we mean does not so much depend upon the words we speak, as on our manner of speaking them; and accordingly, in life, the greatest attention is paid to this, as expressive of what our words often give no indication of. Thus nature fixes the outward expression of every intention or sentiment of the mind. Art only adds gracefulness to what nature leads to. As nature has determined that man shall walk on his feet, not his hands, art teaches him to walk gracefully.

"Every part of the human frame contributes to express the passions and emotions of the mind, and to show, in general, its present state. The head is sometimes erected, sometimes hung down, sometimes drawn suddenly back with an air of disdain, sometimes shows by a nod, a particular person or object; gives assent or denial by different motions; threatens by one sort of movement, approves by another, and expresses suspicion by a third.

The arms are sometimes both thrown out, sometimes the right alone. Sometimes they are lifted up as high as the face, to express wonder ; sometimes held out before the breast, to show fear; spread forth with the hands open, to express desire or affection; the hands clapped in

surprise, and in sudden joy and grief; the right hand clenched, and the arms brandished, to threaten; the two arms set a-kimbo, to look big, and express contempt or courage. With the hands, as Quintilian says, we solicit, we refuse, we promise, we threaten, we dismiss, we invite, we entreat, we express aversion, fear, doubting, denial, asking, affirmation, negation, joy, grief, confession, penitence. With the hands we describe, and point out all circumstances of time, place, and manner of what we relate; we excite the passions of others, and soothe them, we approve and disapprove, permit, or prohibit, admire, or despise. The hands serve us instead of many sorts of words, and where the language of the tongue is unknown, that of the hands is understood, being universal, and common to all nations.

"The legs advance or retreat, to express desire, or aversion, love, or hatred, courage, or fear, and produce exultation, or leaping in sudden joy; and the stamping of the foot expresses earnestness, anger, and threatening.

"Especially the face, being furnished with a variety of muscles, does more in expressing the passions of the mind than the whole human frame besides. The change of colour (in white people) shows by turns anger by redness, and sometimes by paleness; fear likewise by paleness, and shame by blushing. Every feature contributes its part. The mouth open, shows one state of the mind, shut, another; the gnashing of the teeth, another. The forehead smooth, and eyebrows arched and easy, show tranquillity or joy. Mirth opens the mouth towards the ears, crisps the nose, half shuts the eyes, and sometimes fills them with tears. The forehead wrinkled into frowns, and the eyebrows overhanging the eyes, like clouds, fraught with tempest, show a mind agitated with fury. Above all, the eye shows the very spirit in a visible form. In every different state of mind it assumes a different appearance. Joy brightens and opens it; grief half closes, and drowns it in tears; hatred and anger flash from it like lightning; love darts from it in glances, like the orient beam; jealousy and squinting envy dart their contagious blasts from the eye; and devotion raises it to the skies, as if the soul of the holy man were going to take its flight to heaven.

"The force of attitude and looks alone appears in a wondrously striking manner in the works of the painter and statuary, who have the delicate art of making the flat canvass and rocky marble utter every passion of the human mind, and touch the soul of the spectator, as if the picture or statue spoke the pathetic language of Shakspeare. It is no wonder, then, that masterly action joined with powerful elocution should be irresistible. And the variety of expression by looks and gestures is so great that, as it is well known, a whole play can be represented without a word spoken.

Though it may be alleged, that a great deal of gesture or action at the bar or in the pulpit, especially the latter, is not wanted, nor is quite in character, it is yet certain, that there is no part of the man that has not its proper attitude. The eyes are not to be rolled along the ceiling, as if the speaker thought himself in duty bound to take care how the flies behave themselves. Nor are they to be constantly cast down upon the ground, as if he were before his judge receiving sentence of death. Nor

to be fixed upon one point, as if he saw a ghost. The arms of the preacher are not to be needlessly thrown out, as if he were drowning in the pulpit, or brandished after the manner of the ancient pugilists or boxers, exercising themselves by fighting with their own shadow, to prepare them for the Olympic contests. Nor, on the contrary, are his hands to be pocketed up, nor his arms to hang by his sides as lank as if they were both withered. The head is not to stand fixed, as if the speaker had a perpetual crick in his neck. Nor is it to nod at every third word, as if he were acting Jupiter, or his would-be son Alexander.* "A judicious speaker is master of such a variety of decent and natural motion, and has such a command of attitude, that he will not be long enough in one posture to offend the eye of the spectator. The matter he has to pronounce will suggest the propriety of changing from time to time his look, his posture, his motion, and tone of voice, which if they were to continue too long the same, would become tedious and irksome to the beholders. Yet he is not to be every moment changing posture, like a harlequin, nor throwing his hands about as if he were showing legerdemain tricks.

"Modesty ought ever to be conspicuous in the behaviour of all who are obliged to exhibit themselves before the eye of the public. Whatever of gesture or exertion of voice such persons use, they ought to appear plainly to be drawn into them by the importance, spirit, or humour of the matter. If the speaker uses any arts of delivery which appear plainly to be studied, the effect will be, that his awkward attempts to work upon the passions of his hearers by means of which he is not master will render him odious and contemptible to them. With what stiff and pedantic solemnity do some public speakers utter thoughts so trifling as to be hardly worth uttering at all! And what unnatural and unsuitable tones of voice and gesticulations do others apply in delivering what by their manner of delivering one would be apt to question, not only whether it is their own composition, but whether they really understand it."

The writer then proceeds to describe the principal PASSIONS and AFFECTIONS of the mind, and to give rules for the proper expression of them, with regard to looks, tones, and gestures. As the object of this Compilation is to teach READING, and not the histrionic art, we shall omit those descriptions and rules. We shall, however, in the First Part of our book avail ourselves of the PRACTICAL LESSONS which he has added in illustration of them, because we are convinced that they are admirably well calculated to make GOOD READERS. These lessons are contained in a book called "The Art of Speaking," which has been out of print for upwards of sixty years; at least, we have never been able to procure more than one copy of it, and the date of its publication is 1784. It is also described as the Sixth Edition, and was printed, as is stated, for the Dublin

* As represented in Dryden's Ode.

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booksellers.* In this compilation all the emphatic words are printed in italics, and the several passions and humours are noted in the margin as they occur. From what has been said of the nature of EMPHASIS (page 32), it is obviously wrong to give one and the same mark to all the emphatic words in a sentence or passage. This would lead the learner to pronounce them all with the same degree of force, though the relative importance of each in the same sentence must be different. But though this would be a great fault in reading, yet it would be perfection itself, compared with the monotonous and drawling manner of reading which so many young persons are suffered to fall into at school. Far better to pronounce the emphatic words with a little more or less force than they are entitled to, than to make no distinction whatever between the pronunciation of emphatic and non-emphatic words. The GREAT RULE for GOOD READING, which we have so often repeated, will, if carefully attended to, enable the reader to guard against both these errors; and it will also, it is obvious, render it unnecessary to distinguish the emphatic words by italics, or by any other system of notation.

But though we consider it unnecessary and objectionable to mark the emphatic words in every lesson, as has been done in "The Art of Speaking,' yet we are convinced that a proper use of a few such lessons would do more to break up the frigid monotony of school-reading than any precepts or instructions that could be given. With this view we have inserted a considerable number of these lessons in the First Part of our Compilation, to which the reader can refer.

* We have assumed that the compilation called "The Art of Speaking" was by Sheridan, though his name does not appear in the title-page. The "Essay" prefixed to it, and to which constant reference is made throughout the "Lessons," appears among Sheridan's works. Walker was not aware that this compilation was by Sheridan, as appears from the following observations, which we have quoted from his Elements of Elocution:"-" In the following explanation and description of the passions I have been greatly indebted to a very ingenious performance called The Art of Speaking;' this work, though not without its imperfections, is on a plan the most useful that has hitherto been adopted. The passions are first described, then passages are produced which contain the several passions, and these passions are marked in the margin as they promiscuously occur in the passage.' In other parts of the same work he names Sheridan when speaking of his writings.

LITERARY CLASS BOOK.

PART FIRST1

I. HISTORICAL NARRATION.o

THE Trojans (3 if we may believe tradition) were Narration. the first founders of the Roman commonwealth; who under the conduct of Æneas, having made their escape from their own ruined country, arrived in Italy, and there for some time led a rambling and unsettled life, without any fixed place of abode, among the natives, and uncultivated people, who had neither laws nor regular government, but were wholly free from all rule or restraint. This mixed multitude, however, crowding together into one city, though originally different in extraction, language, and customs, united into one body, in a surprisingly short space of time. And as their little state came to be improved by additional numbers, by policy, and by

[This part of our Compilation consists of lessons selected from Sheridan's "Art of Speaking." The emphatic or more important words in each sentence are printed in italics, and the several passions and humours are marked in the margin as they occur. The NOTES at foot are also by Sheridan, with the exception of those included between brackets, which have been added by us.-See page 82.]

2 Narration requires very little of what is properly called expression in pronouncing it; I have, however, ordered the emphatical words in this, and all the lessons, to be printed in italics, for the reader's help.

Of the manner of pronouncing matter contained in a parenthesis, see the Essay, p. 19.

A small elevation of the voice will be proper here, to express moderate wonder.

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