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Will 't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 't was not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say, "Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much," or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart-how shall I say?-too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, 't was all one! My favor at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

She rode with round the terrace-all and each

Would draw from her alike the approving speech,

Or blush, at least. She thanked men,-good! but thanked Somehow I know not how-as if she ranked

My gift of a nine hundred-years-old-name

With anybody's gift. Who'd stood to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

In speech (which I have not) to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark"-and if she let

Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
-E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,

The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed

At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go

Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

-Browning:

LESSON LIV

in

We class as volition all passages and utterances which the speaker impresses his will upon the hearers, and tries to control or modify or influence their action.

The will acts in different ways, it is sometimes quick, sometimes slow, sometimes impulsive, sometimes firm, sometimes as violent as a volcano, sometimes as irresistible as a mighty river. When the speaker has a definite purpose he must control the expression of his volition or he will not accomplish his purpose. Since volition manifests itself in these various ways it will be helpful to study it in five sections: passages that are (1) Impulsive, (2) Insistent, (3) Uplifting, (4) Majestic and (5) Tumultuous.

We have seen that Presentation is expressed through time, in rate and grouping; Discrimination is shown by change of Pitch, in inflection; the different Emotions use different qualities of tone (such as pure tone, full tone, hard tone, breathy tone, etc.,) Volition is expressed by pressure of tone, or stress.

Note. The word "stress" is often carelessly used when a downward inflection is meant, like assertion or momentary completeness. This is, of course, a wrong use of the word.

We may class as Impulsive volition all passages that express the action of the will with promptness. This may be a sudden shock, an abrupt attack, or an impuisive command, or it may be merely quick decision without any loss of self-control. The tone of impulsive volition is aiways prompt, but not necessarily loud.

You may go at once.

Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home!

Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle?

My son, if sinners entice thee,
Consent thou not.

Down with these tyrants of England! we never have sworn them allegiance!

Death to these foreign soldiers, who seize on our homes and our harvests!

The Boston Herald says that when Matthew Arnold was in Boston he was greatly interested in something he saw in the reading room of the Public Library. He came in one day and found a little barefooted newsboy sitting in one of the best chairs enjoying himself as if he were at home. The essayist was astounded. "Do you allow barefooted boys in this reading room?" he asked. "You would never see such a sight as that in England. I do not believe there is a reading room in all Europe in which that boy, dressed as shabbily as he is, would be permitted to enter."

Then Mr. Arnold went over to the boy, spoke to him, and found that he was reading the "Life of Washington," and that he had decidedly anti-British opinions and was, for his age, remarkably well informed.

Mr. Arnold remained talking with the youngster for some time, and as he came back to our desk the Englishman said: "I do not think I have been so impressed with anything else that I have seen since arriving in this coun-try as I am now with meeting this barefooted boy in this reading room. What a tribute to democratic institutions it is to say that, instead of sending that boy out to wander alone in the streets, they permit him to come in here and excite his youthful imagination by reading such books as the Life of Washington'; The reading of that one book may change the whole course of that boy's life, and may be the means of making him a useful, honorable, worthy citizen of this great country. It is, I tell you, a sight that impresses a European not accustomed to your democratic ways."

Tell which kind of Impulsiveness is expressed in each of these examples.

Find examples of Impulsive volition in previous pages.

The second class of volition, which has been well called Insistence, shows more self control than the Impulsive. The insistent will is masterful, and controls not only self, but others; it speaks with firmness and determination, it insists with a steady and continuous pressure until it overcomes the opposition.

This determination is less abrupt and usually quieter than the Impulsive volition. It grows stronger towards

the end.

Has the gentleman done? Has he completely done? He was unparliamentary from the beginning to the end of his speech. There was scarce a word he uttered that was not a violation of the privileges of the house. But I did not call him to order,-why? because the limited talents of some men render it impossible for them to be severe with

out being unparliamentary. But before I sit down I shall show him how to be severe and parliamentary at the same time.-Grattan.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city, seeking to destroy it with war-seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

-From Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.

If influenced by local pride, or gangrened by state jealously, I get up here to abate a tithe of a hair from his just character and just fame-may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.

Ah, gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake.

It must be confessed, it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but in suicide, and suicide is confession.

What I have written, I have written.

Go back a hundred years to Glasgow and watch the glover's apprentice at night, too poor to buy a candle, standing reading in the street by the light in a shop window. Out goes the light. He moves to another window. Out goes the light. He moves to another window. He is driven from window to window until all the shopkeepers are in bed. Then he climbs a lamp-post, holding on with one hand while he grasps his book with the other. That boy becomes the greatest scholar in Scotlană.

Find passages of Insistent Volition in the selection from William MacLeod Raine, (page 163)

LESSON LV

In Exalted feeling the speaker expresses his own admiration or enthusiasm. He would express this emotion of his if he were alone, where nobody could hear him, as in

Oh, to be in England

Now that April's there!

This is emotion, the spontaneous and enthusiastic expression of his own glad heart. But the Volition that corresponds to this exalted feeling, and is indeed moved by exalted feeling, seeks to stir the hearers to the same noble emotion, and uplifts them to the point of doing worthy deeds.

Exalted emotion merely expresses one's own feeling, while Uplifting volition seeks in addition to influence somebody else. Uplifting volition could not exist without exalted emotion, but exalted emotion can exist without any volition.

When the speaker is stirred with noble feeling, and by buoyant, full, glad pressure urges the hearers to admire, or take courage, or do something great and good, that is uplifting Volition. By the pressure of his will kindled by his strong feeling he tries to uplift the hearers.

Uplifting Volition expresses itself in the deep, rich enlarged tone of exalted feeling with the addition of an expanding pressure which causes a swell in the most prominent word, phrase or clause.

The bearing will be animated, the head lifted, the gesticulation large and strong.

Caution: If you have not by sympathetic imagination aroused your own emotion, and animated your bearing, pressure will make the tone of your voice hard. By thorough paraphrase and vivid imagination you can induce genuine emotion. The chest will then expand and the voice, even with pressure, can remain resonant, full, and rich.

1. Point out the volition in each of these examples. 2. Paraphrase it so as to make anyone else recognize it. 3. Read each aloud.

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