the deviations are so slight as not to disturb the impression of a series on the ear, nor to weaken its expectation that the series will be continued and completed.

Now in prose, as in the above examples, the successive measures are so dissimilar, that the ear receives no idea of a series; indeed it never anticipates the recurrence of even two similar measures, and consequently no uniform series is expected.

To read either verse or prose well it is necessary to perceive the rhythmus at a glance, so that the voice may be guided by it, and may also convey it to the hearers. In order that frequent and long-continued public reading, such as that of the Church service, may not be prejudicial to health, it is necessary that the actions of the vocal organ should be so adjusted, as uniformly to take place at the proper parts of the measure. When this adjustment becomes habitual from practice, public reading ceases to be injurious to the health; and instead of a fatiguing effort, it becomes an agreeable and healthful exercise. But in order to read well and healthfully by means of rhythmus, the perceptive powers must be disciplined to perceive, and the vocal organ to produce, all kinds of rhythmus. The following outline of a system of training has proved a good means of obtaining practical rhythmic knowledge.

1. Versification in rhyme must be scored into its proper measures by bars, with the accuracy and regularity of music; similar to the subjoined examples.

COMMON TIME RHYTHMUS.

ROLL on, ye | stars! |ex|ult in | youthful | prime; | | Mark, with | bright | curves, the | printless | steps of | time. |

| Near, and more | near, your | beamy | cars approach, | And lessening | orbs on | lessening | orbs en croach,-| | Flowers of the sky! | ye, too, to | age must | yield;—|

| Frail as your silken | sisters

of the | field! |

| Star | after | star from | Heaven's high | arch shall | rush; |

| Suns | sink on | suns, and | systems | systems | crush ; |

| Headlong,

And Death

all! |

extinct to one dark | centre | fall, |

and | Night and Chaos | mingle

Till | o'er the wreck, emerging | from the storm |

Immortal | nature | lifts her | changeful | form ; |

| Mounts from her | funeral pyre, on | wings of

flame, |

And soars and shines, another and the 177/791

same! |

TRIPLE TIME RHYTHMUS.

AND there lay the | steed with his | nostril all | wide, |
But through it there | rolled not the breath of his | pride: |
And the foam of his | gasping lay | white on the | turf, |
And cold as the | spray of the | rock beating | surf. |77|77|
And there lay the | rider distorted and | pale, |

With the dew on his | brow, and the | rust on his | mail ; |
And the tents were all silent, the | banners alone, |
The lances un lifted, the | trumpet un blown. |77|77|

When examples of versification are correctly scored, they should be read simultaneously with the rhythmic master to the beating of time, and then read as a solo by the pupil, while the time of the measures is accurately marked as a guide to the voice. After the mind is imbued with the rhythmic movement of various kinds of verse with rhyme, and the vocal organs are trained to their performance, he may proceed.

2. To score blank verse with its imperfect feet, similar to this example from Milton.

| Seasons return;

| Thus, with the | year |

but not to | me returns |

| Day, or the | sweet approach of | even, or, | morn, |

Or sight of vernal | bloom, | or | summer's rose, |

Or flocks or | herds | or | human | face divine: |
But cloud instead, and ever- during | dark |
|

Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of | men |
and for the | book of knowledge | fair, |
with an | universal | blank

Cut off; Presented

Of nature's works, to me expunged and ❘ razed, | And wisdom at one | entrance | quite | shut | out. |77| | So much the | rather | thou, celestial | light! |

| Shine | inward; 177 and the mind, through all her powers |

Ir|radiate: | there | plant | eyes; | all | mist from | thence | | Purge and dis perse, |77| that I may | see and | tell | Of things in visible to mortal | sight. 7777771

When such examples are correctly scored, he will read them simultaneously with the master, while the time is accurately marked by the hand as a guide

to the voice; and then read them alone, until he is able to perceive and execute the rhythmus of versification. He will now introduce the cæsural and rhetorical pauses, either as constituents or as whole measures, as the case may be, in the examples he has previously scored, and read them with and without the guidance of his tutor's voice, but under his superintendance. He will now scan the relative quantities of the syllables of several examples, and also denote the duration of the rests, or pauses; which will give a correct knowledge of the proportionate duration of syllables; and he must prac. tically illustrate those quantities. The rhythmus of verse being well known he can now proceed

3. To score declamatory verse and poetic prose; such as Shakspeare's oratory, Ossian, The Psalms, &c. When the mind and voice are drilled to this, he may proceed

4 To score common prose, training his mind and voice to the perception and execution of its rhythmus. As an illustration of scored prose, the Burial Service is subjoined.