a careful study of them must be fundamentally important in reference to public efforts. Would it not have been more useful to devote to such topics, the space which so many have occupied in recommending what audiences consider as disagreeable affectations-such as artificial and awkward positions of the feet -pronouncing the adjective pronoun my, like the substantive pronoun me-giving the Irish pronunciation of the letter r-and other peculiarities which a sensible man would dislike to display in private society?

It has already been incidentally remarked, that a principal reason of the imperfect success which has hitherto attended the efforts of elocutionists to teach a truly useful delivery, is the habit of giving instruction in small rooms. It ought to be still further enjoined, that the careful practice of speaking in a small room, will in the great majority of cases, produce habits absolutely fatal to success in large ones. When a room at least as large as a church capable of seating six or eight hundred people cannot be occupied for this purpose, there is no resource except to resort to the open air. Mere boys may indeed be profitably taught in a room sufficiently large for an ordinary public school; but young men who are preparing to be clergymen, debaters, or lecturers, must be accustomed to speak in rooms certainly as large as those which they will occupy in future life. Omitting for the present all consideration of the necessity of strength of voice, of slowness combined with conversational inflexion, and of the expulsive accent required for large audiences, all elevated delivery, and also all familiar reading or speaking that is addressed to several hundreds-not to speak of thousands of persons, requires what is called in the language of art, Breadth of STYLE. Without the more enlarged outlines (so to speak) which give what artists describe by this term in painting and sculpture, delivery before large audiences must necessarily appear petty and meagre, and can have neither dignity nor inter

est. In vocal music, the same principle is thoroughly understood and exemplified by all great public performers; while it is the want of such knowledge that causes amateur singers generally to fail of success when they appear in public concerts. Perhaps it is the same reason, which has prevented several successful elocutionists from becoming acceptable actors. Without breadth of manner, no performance in any art will be approved of by the great mass of mankind. It seems to be superiority in this respect which causes men destitute of a liberal education, so often to succeed better as speakers, than those who have prepared themselves in the seclusion of a learned retreat. Their broader and heartier manner, more than compensates for their frequently inferior refinement and correctness in regard to minor details. Hitherto indeed, a considerable portion of most treatises on delivery, has been occupied with subjects of no more fundamental importance in reference to making a useful impression on an audience, than in a treatise on politeness, would be the question whether a man should take off his hat, in salutation, with his right or his left hand. In most cases indeed, the right hand will be more convenient, but the essential requisites of a polite salutation depend not at all on which is used.

ADAPTATION OF DELIVERY TO SIZE OF AUDIENCE.

It is an obvious dictate of common sense, that speakers should wish their audiences to hear them. They are apt, however, to forget that it is a duty incumbent on themselves, to take pains that all may do so. As the countenances of those only who are nearer to them, attract attention and assist by their sympathy, the more distant hearers are often neglected. In the case of very large audiences, a speaker cannot determine by sight, whether those most distant are able easily to follow him. His ear however, should be an infallible guide in determining this point, and nature provides him the means for deciding it.

By reflecting a little, we can recall to mind the fact, that when we address a person at a considerable distance, (suppose for instance in asking a question,) we not only speak louder, but raise the pitch of the voice. If the distance is extreme, we use the highest pitch of which the voice is capable. The sound is shrill, and the more shrill it is, the farther is it heard.

Hence the appropriate key for large audiences is governed, in the first place and principally, by the distance of the most remote portion.

But sound travels rather slowly through the air. It requires an appreciable period of time, for a syllable to reach the extremity of the largest audiences. Greater force must therefore be given to the impulse, or the sound-waves of the air will die away before reaching the required distance. Now the greater the force, the more fatiguing the exertion, and consequently the slower the repetition of the effort. Hence the more distant the auditor, the slower is the utterance.

In hallooing to a person at the distance of a quarter of a mile or more, the utterance becomes a slow and prolonged cry. It may seem surprising that we speak of making ourselves intelligible for more than a quarter of a mile, but the strongest voices may be distinctly understood for more than half a mile. Irving, in his Astoria, mentions that this fact has been observed among our western Indians.

In addressing the largest audiences, then, each syllable is prolonged, and their succession is slow.

A speech that requires an hour for delivery in the open air, may be deliberately read aloud to a parlor audience in fifteen minutes. Sermons that require half an hour for delivery from the pulpit, may be read to a family in half that time.

A natural delivery will therefore require, both a higher key and a slower utterance, in proportion to the size of the audience.