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Northend's Elocutionary Series.

NORTHEND'S LITTLE SPEAKER.-The Little Speaker and ad Juvenile Reader, being a collection of pieces in Prose, Poetry, and Dialogue, designed for exercises in speaking and occasional reading in Primary Schools. By CHARLES NORTHEND, A.M. 18mo.

This little work is a judicious selection of simple and instructive piecos for the use of beginners in the study of elocution. It has been the com piler's aim to adapt the work to the capacities of children, and at the same time to have the matter such as will make the proper moral impression.

NORTHEND'S

AMERICAN

SPEAKER.-The America Speaker; being a collection of pieces in Prose, Poetry, and Dialogue, designed for exercises in Declamation in Schools. By CHARLES NORTHEND. Improved edition. 12mo.

In this volume will be found such variety as will tend to meet the wants of teachers and pupils, to whom it is commended, with the hope that it may prove a valuable and pleasant aid, and tend to give importance and interest to the subject of declamation. NORTHEND'S SCHOOL

DIALOGUES.-School Dialogues; comprising one hundred and one selections, particularly adapted to the use of schools. By CHARLES NORTHEND. Twentieth edition, enlarged.

12mo.

The success of the "American Speaker" has induced the author to prepare this volume, which has been very favorably received. It contains selections eminently adapted to cultivate the elocutionary powers

of the student.

Zacho's Speaker.

THE NEW AMERICAN SPEAKER; a collection of Oratorical and Dramatic pieces, Soliloquies and Dialogues, with an original introductory essay on the Elements of Elocution, designed for the use of Schools, Academies, and Colleges. By J. C. ZACHO, A.M. 12mo.

"This is a work which, for the purpose, has no superior. The selections appear to us tasteful and elegant. They are certainly made from authors of the highest classical reputation. Copious in matter, tasteful in style, and clearly and handBomely printed, it is a book, we apprehend, that will supersede all others in the class and exhibition room, and become a general favorite both with teachers and students." --Literary Advertiser.

Copies of any of the above mailed post-paid on receipt of price.

COLLINS & BROTHER, Publishers,

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by

H. W. DERBY & Co.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for me District of Ohio.

PREFACE.

I HAVE proposed to myself, in this work, to put a better book in the hands of the student of oratory, than has yet been given to the public. There are already some excellent manuals on the subject but I say it without the least invidious design, and in accordance with most teachers of elocution with whom I have conversed, that they are found inadequate to the purpose of instruction and copious illustration.

Many of these are almost entirely taken up with the dissection of the subject by minute technical details and numerous rules ; or, in the absence of all system and theory, they are a jumbled collectior. of illustrations, in which leanness and barrenness are very conspicuous.

The chief fault to be found with such books of elocution as I have met, is, that whereas the English language abounds with such a vast amount of the most fervid eloquence; with so many specimens of language wrought out with a concentration of thought and rhetorical power, that must strike fire from the coldest heart; with such high-wrought descriptions, and dra matic, passionate and powerful exhibitions of feeling; these books of oratory seem to have stumbled on very little of all these; and show up, for the most part, but "a beggarly account" of tame and dry pieces, with here and there a gem of pure water.

I have designed, therefore, the present work, with two points. in view to have a system clear and complete, but briefly expressed, so as to give unity of method and symmetrical organism to the book, without repelling the student with too much technicality; and after this, to have a copious collection of illustrations, in which no point of rhetorical excellence should be nitted, and none of which should be unworthy of a high place n the estimation of the student of oratory and dramatic expression.

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Let it be borne in mind, that it is not the object of such a book to give merely specimens of fine writing, but of declamatory and dramatic speaking. Hence I have rejected everything that could not come under one of the following heads: earnest declamation, vehement invective, dramatic passion and description, wrapt meditation and soliloquy, fine wit, rich humor, and spirited dialogue.

How far I have succeeded in this, I leave others to judge. I have not been so sedulous of novelty in all my selections, as of intrinsic excellence. Here will be found a number of those pure and noble specimens of eloquence, such as Chatham's, Patrick Henry's, Webster's, which no book of professed elocution can leave out; and it will be remembered that to the youthful student they are all new.

The preliminary essay has some original analyses in articulation, and other points of elocution, to which I would respectfully call the teacher's attention.

If the work should materially promote the noble art of speaking, too much neglected in our country, I shall feel myself amply ewarded for the no small labor which it has cost me.

J. C Z.

INTRODUCTION.

SCIENCE is taught by precept; Art must be taught by example. Elocution is an art, and therefore cannot be learned from books.

No book can supersede the living teacher. Here, as in all art, Nature must be appealed to at every step; there is no other or higher court to which to carry the decision.

The teacher by example can best stimulate the student to open his ear to the voice of Nature. A book such as this is only intended to stimulate and assist the consciousness of the student in the apprehension of Nature's dictates, and to serve the teacher with an efficient means of illustration.

It is a sign of narrowness and poverty of spirit, that the art of speaking is so poorly cultivated in most of our schools and colleges. It is but an imperfect preparation that they can give a man to enter society, without giving him the power of delivery of thought and feeling. The want of it makes the freeman afraid to exercise his rights, the thinker give way to the mere talker, the true statesman to the demagogue.

It makes poor, sniffling interlocutors, instead of bold and manly orators. It puts the province of governing in the hands of the shameless and the foolish, instead of those of the good and wise.

Let every youth be taught to speak; those who have talent and virtue will have so much the advantage over the stupid and the vicious.

But health of body as well as of mind depend upon this. There is scarcely a muscle or organ in the body, that is not brought into free and healthful exercise by an energetic exertion in speaking.

Let any one study his experience in giving a loud and continuous Bound, and he will find how complicated and great is the effort.

The knees are stiffened; the muscles of the back erect the person to the utmost; the abdominal muscles are brought strongly into play; the intercostal muscles expand the chest, and the lungs have the freest movement; the circulation is quickened, and the whole man is roused to the center of his living organism.

Can such an exercise be often resorted to without the greatest physical benefit?

Children would suffer infinitely less from the sedentary habits and confinement of school, if they were given exercises in a sort of vocal gymnastics several times a day, in the course of the other school exercises. Many would thus be saved from consumption, bronchitis, spinal affections, and the numerous diseases that are often traced to confinement at schools and academies.

There seems a general prejudice against subjecting girls at school Lo vocal exercises, which works much to their injury in this respect. Calisthenics and vocal gymnastics should be as much a part of their training as that of boys; but in a different spirit, and for a different purpose. It is certain they need it as much physically, and in another aspect they need it as much morally. For though they are not expected to become public orators, it is no reason that their souls should be shut up in a husky and sputtering speech, or in a trembling and weak voice. Modesty and delicacy have nothing to do with such things, and it is folly to suppose that the full and energetic development of the woman can lead to anything but to what is noble and beautiful.

NOTE. The following movements, breathings and exercises of the voice suitable for the school-room, by expanding the chest, quickening the circulation, and imparting energy and pliancy to the respiratory and vocal organs, have considerable use in developing the powers of elocution.

MOVEMENTS.

1st. Position erect, with arms a-kimbo. The head elevated, the shoulders back and down; place the hands upon the hips, then throw the elbows forcibly backward.

2d. Move the hands, after extending them downward by the sides, briskly up and down.

3d. Let the hands and arms be placed in a vertical position; then drawn down and projected upward with force.

4th. Extend the arms horizontally forward, and move them back and forth quickly and with force.

5th. Place the arms horizontally forward with the palms of the hands together; then throw them apart forcibly, bringing the back of the hands as nearly as possible behind the back.

6th. A variety of exercises in gestures descriptive or passionate, for the purpose of acquiring grace in movement. These the good taste and ingenuity of the teacher must suggest.

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