3. Then out spake Spu'rius Lar'tius, -
A Ram'nian proud was he :—
"Lo, I will stand on thy right hand,
And keep the bridge with thee."
And out spake strong Hermin'ius, -
Of Tatian blood was he:

"I will abide on thy left side,

And keep the bridge with thee."

4. "Horatius," quoth the Consul,
"As thou say'st, so let it be."
And straight against that great array
Forth went the dauntless three.
For Romans, in Rome's quarrel,
Spared neither land nor gold,
Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life,
In the brave days of old.

Romulus divided the Romans into three tribes, called Rhamner

THE KEEPING OF THE BRIDGE.

7. Back darted Spu'rius Lartius;
Herminius darted back;

And, as they passed, beneath their feet
They felt the timbers crack.

But when they turned their faces,

And on the further shore
Saw brave Horatius stand alone,
They would have crossed once more.

8. But, with a crash like thunder,
Fell every loosened beam,

And, like a dam, the mighty wreck
Lay right athwart the stream;
And a long shout of triumph
Rose from the walls of Rome,
As to the highest turret-tops
Was splashed the yellow foam.

9. Alone stood brave Horatius,
But constant still in mind;
Thrice thirty thousand foes before,
And the broad flood behind.
"Down with him!" cried false Sextus,

With a smile on his pale face.
"Now yield thee!" cried Lars* Por'sena,
"Now yield thee to our grace.”

10. Round turned he, as not deigning
Those craven ranks to see;

Naught spake he to Lars Porsena,
To Sextus naught spake he;

But he saw on Pălati'nus

The white porch of his home;

And he spake to the noble river

That rolls by the towers of Rome:

11. "O Tiber! Father Tiber!

To whom the Romans pray!

89

A Roman's life, a Roman's arms,
Take thou in charge this day!"
So he spake, and, speaking, sheathed
The good sword by his side,
And, with his harness on his back,
Plunged headlong in the tide.

12. No sound of joy or sorrow

Was heard from either bank;
But friends and foes, in dumb surprise,
With parted lips and straining eyes,
Stood gazing where he sank;
And when above the surges

They saw his crest appear,

All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry,
And even the ranks of Tuscany
Could scarce forbear to cheer.

3. "Out on him!" quoth false Sextus;
"Will not the villain drown?
But for this stay, ere close of day

We should have sacked the town!"
"Heaven help him!" quoth Lars Por's
"And bring him safe to shore ;
For such a gallant feat of arms
Was never seen before."

14. And now the ground he touches,
Now on dry earth he stands;
Now round him throng the Fathers,
To press his gory hands;

And now, with shouts and clapping,
And noise of weeping loud,
He enters through the River-Gate,
Borne by the joyous crowd.

LORD MACAULAY. (1800

SPECIAL EXERCISES IN ELOCUTION.

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XXXII. -SPECIAL EXERCISES IN ELOCUTION.

PART I.

CLAUSE (klauz), n., a separate mem- DIS-PERSE', v. t., to scatter; to dis

Pronounce Mirabeau, Mir'a-bo. Do not say empasis for em'pha-sis (em'fa-sis); spiled for spoiled; doo for due; particlar for particu-lar. Re'al-ly is in three syllables. Do not call it reely. In cer'tain, cap'tair, noun'tain, &c., ai has the sound of short i.

1. ARTICULATION is the correct formation, by the organs of speech, of certain sounds. Every word of more than one syllable is distinguished by the more forcible utterance, called accent, of one particular syllable, and the lighter utterance of the other, or others. The following words afford examples of accent: A com'pound, to com-pound'; an ac'cent, to ac-cent'; blas'phe-mous, blas-phēm'ing; com-mand'er, com-mandant'.

2. Pronunciation is the utterance of words with those vowel and consonant sounds, and that accent, which the best usage has established. Thus, pronunciation teaches us to say, ve'he-ment instead of ve-he'ment; mis'chiev-ous instead of mis-chiev'ous; and to sound the ou in group and soup like o in move, instead of like ou in house. The correct pronunciation of words can be best learnt by reference to the dictionary.

3. Pronunciation properly includes articulation. “In just articulation," says Austin, "the words are not hurried over, nor precipitated syllable over syllable. They are delivered out from the lips, as beautiful coins, newly issued from the mint, deeply and accurately im

92

SPECIAL EXERCISES IN ELOCUTION.

pressed, perfectly finished, neatly struck by the proper organs; distinct, sharp, in due succession, and of due weight."

4. Inflections of the voice are those upward and downward slides in tone, by which we express either the suspension or the completion of the meaning of what we utter. Read the following sentence: "As trees and plants necessarily arise from seeds, so are you, An'tony, the seed of this most calamitous war." Here the voice 'slides up at the end of the first clause, at seeds, as the sense is not per-fected, and slides down at the completion of the sense, at the word war, where the sentence ends.

5. Emphasis is that peculiar stress which we lay upon particular words, to bring out their meaning or importance more directly. Thus, in the following couplet from Pope, there is an example of emphasis:

"'Tis hard to say if greater want of skill
Appear in writing or in judging ill."

Here the words writing and judging are opposed to each other, and are, therefore, the emphatical words.

6. Another example: "When a Persian soldier was reviling Alexander the Great, an officer reprimanded him, by saying, Sir, you were paid to fight against Alexander, and not to rail at him." Here, the reader who fully comprehends the force and meaning of the sentence, will not go astray in laying stress on the prominent words. We may apply the same remark to the following couplet, by Cowper:

"A modest, sensible, and well-bred man

Would not insult me, and no other can.

7. Arbitrary rules are of little value in teaching to read. If you fully understand and feel what you are reading, if you can pronounce all the words correctly, and if you have acquired facility of utterance