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forwards, with the palms out, and the fingers pointing upwards. In fierceness, anger, rage, the brows are contracted, the foot stamps, the body inclines forward, and the hand is instinctively clinched. In hatred, the hand is violently pushed with the palm outwards toward the object, and the head, at the same time, averted. In fear, the hands raise themselves as a defence, and the body draws back to avoid the dreaded object.-These, it must be remembered, are the direct expressions of the several passions. But there is a reflex expression, when they are not actually felt, but only imagined or described :—the gesture, if any be used, must then be more moderate.

Opposite to vehemence of manner may be placed the plaintive, which takes place when the subjects of narration or meditation excite grief in a moderate degree, pity, regret, a soft and tender melancholy, or any kindred feeling. The tone of voice is smooth and melodious; the rate of utterance even and moderate; the head is frequently shaken slowly; the eyes are alternately raised and cast down, and the hands accompany them with a correspondent and somewhat languid motion, being lifted slowly, and then suffered to fall lifeless to their place.

The expression proper for gay and lively subjects is distinguished from the last by requiring a more varied tone of voice, a brisker rate of utterance, and more quickness in the looks and action. It is not always, however, that delight, joy, enthusiasm, rapture, as they are embodied in poetry, demand an expression altogether opposite to the plaintive: something of tenderness may still discover itself in the tones of the voice, and the manner may be said to be lively rather than gay. But in expressing mirth and raillery, the manner is quite opposite to the plaintive.

Directly opposed to the last mentioned expression, is the gloomy or solemn. It embraces such passions and affections as awe, deep melancholy, dread, sublime contemplation, and devotion to a being infinitely superior. The eyes are frequently cast upward, and then fixed on the ground with an inclination of the body; the tone of voice is low, and occasionally tremulous; the rate of utterance is slow and weighty; the hands are raised and then suffered to drop in correspondence with the looks; and the whole frame frequently appears to sink backward, as if overcome by the feelings which press upon it.

It is of consequence to remark, before the learner proceeds to the following exercises, that the mode and degree of any particular

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passion, depends almost entirely on the predominant expression of the piece in which it occurs. Thus when any of the passions which require vehemence occur in a piece whose predominant expression is plaintive, they must be so qualified as to harmonize with the general tone of the whole. On the other hand the softer passions acquire a degree of vehemence when they occur in a piece whose general expression is of that character: and so of all other cases.

7. Mutius Scævola to king Porsena.

VEHEMENT EXPRESSION:

'Threatening.

I am a Roman citizen-my name, Mutius. My purpose was to kill an enemy. Nor am I less prepared to undergo the punishment, than I was to perpetrate the deed. To do and to suffer bravely, is a Roman's part. Neither am I the only person thus affected towards you: there is a long list of competitors for the same honour. If therefore you choose to confront the danger of setting your life every hour at hazard, prepare yourself-you will have the foe in the very porch of your palace. This is the kind of war that the Roman youth declare against you. You have nothing to fear in the field: the combat is against you alone, and every individual is your antagonist.

LIVY.

3. Henry the Fifth to his Soldiers at Har

fleur.

VEHEMENT EXPRESSION:

Relaxes into 'Mildness, but changes again into Vehemence;

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Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once

more,

Or close the wall up with our English dead.
'In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;

2 But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm
it,

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base
Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean.

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Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit To its full height. Now on, ye noblest English Whose blood is fetched from fathers of war proof,

Fathers, that, like so many Alexanders,

Have, in these parts, from morn to even fought,

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument. Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war.

yeomen

And you, good

Whose limbs are made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's a-foot;
Follow your spirit, and, upon this charge,
Cry Heaven for Harry, England, and St. George.

SHAKSPEARE.

9. Address to Sensibility.

2

PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION:

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'Enthusiasm ; * Relaxes into a gentler expression; Delight, qualified by the predominant expression.

Dear Sensibility, source inexhausted of all that is precious in our joys or costly in our sorrows! thou chainest thy martyr down upon his bed of straw, and it is thou who liftest him up to heaven. From thee it comes that I feel some generous joys and generous cares beyond myself. Touched with thee, Eugenius draws my curtain when I languish, hears my tale of tale of symptoms, and blames the weather for the disorder of his nerves. Thou givest a portion sometimes to the roughest peasant who traverses the bleakest mountains. He finds the lacerated lamb of an

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other's flock. This moment I behold him leaning with his head against his crook, with piteous inclination looking down upon it. Oh! had I come one moment sooner! it bleeds to death,his gentle heart bleeds with it.- -Peace to thee, generous swain; I see thou walkest off with anguish; but thy joys shall balance it for happy is thy cottage, and happy is the sharer of it, and happy are the lambs which sport about you.

STERNE.

10. Address to the Moon: a Sonnet.

PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION:

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'Desire, Languor.

Queen of the silver bow, by thy pale beam,
Alone and pensive I delight to stray,

And watch thy shadow trembling in the stream,
Or mark the floating clouds that cross thy way.
And while I gaze, thy mild and placid light
Sheds a soft calm upon my troubled breast;
And oft I think, fair planet of the night,

That in thy orb the wretched may have rest : The sufferers of the earth perhaps may go Released by death, to thy benignant sphere, And the sad children of despair and woe Forget in thee their cup of sorrow here. 1Oh! that I soon may reach thy world serene, 2 Poor weary pilgrim in this toiling scene.

CHARLOTTE SMITH,

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