EXERCISES IN "ASPIRATED QUALITY."

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I.—" EFFUSIVE 99

UTTERANCE.

1. — Awe, in its gentlest form, with moderate " Aspiration.”

("Pectoral Quality.")

Note. The effect intended here is but the slightest approach to a whisper, a barely perceptible breathing sound accompanying the utterance,- not unlike, in its effect, to a slight hoarseness.

[JACOB'S EXCLAMATION AFTER HIS DREAM.]

"How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven!"

2.-The same emotion deepened.

[FROM THE BOOK OF PSALMS.]

"Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same; and Thy years shall have no end.

"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.

"Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, 'Return, ye children of men.' For a thousand years, in Thy sight, are but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

"Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning, they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up: in the evening, it is cut down, withereth."

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and

3.Awe, still deeper in "expression," and stronger in “ aspiration.”

[NATURE, SHRINKING FROM DEATH.] — Campbell.

"Yet half I hear the parting spirit sigh,

'It is a dread and awful thing to die!'

Mysterious worlds, untravelled by the sun,
Where Time's far-wandering tide has never run,
From your unfathomed shades, and viewless spheres,
A warning comes, unheard by other ears.

'Tis Heaven's commanding trumpet, long and loud,

Like Sinai's thunder pealing from the cloud!
While Nature hears, with terror-mingled trust,
The shock that hurls her fabric to the dust;
And, like the trembling Hebrew, when he trod
The roaring waves, and called upon his God,
With mortal terrors clouds immortal bliss,
And shrieks, and hovers, o'er the dark abyss!'
0

4.- Awe, extending to Fear: with still stronger "aspiration." [FROM A RUSSIAN HYMN.] - Bowring.

"It thunders!

Sons of dust, in reverence bow!
Ancient of days! thou speakest from above:
Thy right hand wields the bolt of terror now;
That hand which scatters peace and joy and love.
Almighty! trembling like a timid child,

I hear Thy awful voice, - alarmed, afraid,
I see the flashes of Thy lightning wild,

And in the very grave would hide my head!"

5-Horror and Fear: the effect transcending that of Awe; the "aspiration" nearly a whisper.

MACBETH, [MEDITATING THE MURDER OF DUNCAN.]— Shakspeare. "Now o'er the one half world

Nature seems dead; and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,

Towards his design

Moves like a ghost.

Thou sure and firm-set earth!

Hear not my steps, which way they walk; for fear

The very stones prate of my whereabout,

And take the present horror from the time,

Which now suits with it."

1.-Horror and Amazement: "aspiration" increased by "expulsion."

("Pectoral Quality.")

HAMLET, [TO THE GHOST OF HIS FATHER.]-Shakspeare.
"What may this mean,

That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel,

Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous; and we fools of nature,
So horridly to shake our disposition

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?"

2.- Horror and Terror: effect still farther increased.
CLARENCE, [RELATING HIS DREAM.]-Shakspeare.

"Oh! I have passed a miserable night,
So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,
That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
I would not spend another such a night,
Though 't were to buy a world of happy days;
So full of dismal terror was the time!

"My dream was lengthened after life :—
Oh! then began the tempest to my soul!
"With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends
Environed me, and howled in mine ears
Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise,
I trembling waked, and, for a season after,
Could not believe but that I was in hell;
Such terrible impression made my dream!"

3.- Fear.

(Whispering Voice: "Guttural Quality.")

CALIBAN, [CONDUCTING STEPHANO AND TRINCULO TO THE CELL OF PROS

This is the mouth o' the cell: no noise! and enter."

4.- Fear and Alarm.

(Forcible Half-Whisper: "Pectoral Quality.")

ALONZO, [WHO, WITH GONZALO, IS SUDDENLY AWAKENED BY THE INTERVENTION OF ARIEL, AND FINDS THE CONSPIRATORS, SEBASTIAN AND ANTONIO, WITH THEIR SWORDS DRAWN.]-Shakspeare.

"Why, how now, ho!-awake?

Why are you drawn?

Sebastian. Whiles we stood here, securing your repose,

Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing

Like bulls or rather lions: did it not wake you?

It struck mine ear most terribly.

Antonio. Oh! 't was a din to fright a monster's ear:

To make an earthquake!

Of a whole herd of lions!"

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sure, it was the roar

99
EXPLOSIVE UTTERANCE.

("Guttural and Pectoral Quality.")
1.- Hatred.

SHYLOCK, [REGARDING ANTONIO.]

"How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian;
But more, for that, in low simplicity,

He lends out money gratis, and brings down
The rate of usuance with us here in Venice.
If I can catch him once upon the hip,

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him!
He hates our sacred nation; and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe,
If I forgive him! "

2.- Scorn and Abhorrence.

("Guttural and Pectoral Quality.")

MASANIELLO, [IN REPLY TO THE BASE SUGGESTIONS OF GENUINO.]

"I would that now

I could forget the monk who stands before me;

For he is like the accursed and crafty snake!

Hence! from my sight! - Thou Satan, get behind me

Go from my sight!-- I hate and I despise thee!

These were thy pious hopes; and I, forsooth,

Was in thy hands a pipe to play upon;

And at thy music my poor soul to death
Should dance before thee!

Thou standst at length before me undisguised,
Of all earth's grovelling crew the most accursed.
Thou worm! thou viper! to thy native earth
Return!

- Away! — Thou art too base for man To tread upon. —Thou scum! thou reptile!

3.-Revenge.

("Guttural and Pectoral Quality.")

SHYLOCK, [REFERRING TO THE POUND OF FLESH, THE PENALTY ATTACHED TO ANTONIO'S BOND.]-Shakspeare.

"If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies. And what's his reason? I

am a Jew! Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Is he not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter, as a Christian is? If you stab us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction."

4.- Hatred, Rage, Horror.

("Guttural and Pectoral Quality:" fierce "aspiration.")

SATAN, [IN SOLILOQUY.] Milton.

"Be then his love accursed! since love or hate,

To me alike, it deals eternal woe.

Nay, cursed be thou! since against his thy will

Chose freely what it now so justly rues.

Me miserable! which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?

Which way I fly is Hell, myself am Hell;
And in the lowest deep, a lower deep,
Still threatening to devour me, opens wide,

To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven!"