His house was known to all the vagrant train;
He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain.
The long-remembered beggar was his guest,
Whose beard, descending, swept his aged breast;
The ruined spendthrift, now no longer proud,
Claimed kindred there, and had his claims allowed;
The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay,

Sate by his fire, and talked the night away-
Wept o'er his wounds, or, tales of sorrow done,
Shouldered his crutch, and showed how fields were won.
Pleased with his guests, the good man learned to glow,
And quite forgot their vices in their wo;
Careless their merits or their faults to scan,

His pity gave, ere charity began.

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,

And e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side;
But in his duty, prompt at every call,

He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all;
And, as a bird each fond endearment tries
To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies,
He tried each art, reproved each dull delay,
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.

Beside the bed where parting life was laid,
And sorrow, guilt, and pain, by turns dism ved,
The reverend champion stood. At his control
Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul;
Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise,
And his last faltering accents whispered praise.
At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
His looks adorned the venerable place;
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,
And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.
The service past, around the pious man,

With ready zeal, each honest rustic ran;

E'en children followed, with endearing wile,

And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile.

His ready smile a parent's warmth exprest;
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distrest;
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given-
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven.
As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,

Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
Tho round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

And e'en the story ran that he could gauge.

In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill,
For, e'en tho vanquished, he could argue still;
While words of learned length and thundering sound
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around;
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,
That one small head could carry all he knew.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH. "The Village Preacher," in "The Deserted Village.”

VOLUME OF TONE

Adequate volume of voice is necessary in order that the public speaker, when occasion demands, should be able to fulfil all requirements. A voice suited to conversation may be wholly unsatisfactory when used in a large hall. How many men, addressing an audience probably for the first time, have been startled and embarrassed by the thinness and strangeness of their own voice.

Proper development of volume of tone, together with a little experience in public speaking, should enable an average person to readily adapt his voice to any ordinary auditorium. His aim should be to be easily heard in all parts of a hall, without undue elevation of pitch or noticeable physical effort.

Volume of voice does not necessarily mean loudness but

rather fulness of tone. Its character is that of depth, roundness, and adequateness. It suggests power in reserve. It therefore inspires confidence both in the speaker and the hearer. As the voice grows through use, volume is to be acquired by practising daily exercises such as are here suggested. In all such practise there should be physical earnestness if the best results are to be secured. Halfhearted, lackadaisical efforts in any pursuit accomplish little. The student should bring his will to bear upon his work. Enthusiasm in the practise of voice exercises will naturally communicate itself to the speaker's public efforts. It was the custom of Henry Ward Beecher to exercise his voice daily in the open air, exploding it upon all the vowel sounds. As a result of this practise, extending over a period of three years, he developed a voice remarkable for its power and flexibility.

The following combinations should be practised aloud, in clear-cut tone. with abrupt movement of the abdominal muscles:

KEY OF SOUNDS: e as in heal; a in hail; aw in haul; ah in hot;

o in hole; oo in boot.

EXAMPLES FOR PRACTISE IN VOLUME

1. There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar.
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe and feel

What I can ne'er express, yet can not all conceal.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean-roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain,
Man marks the earth with ruin-his control

Stops with the shore;-upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,

When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

The armaments which thunderstrike the walls
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake,
And monarchs tremble in their capitals;
The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make
Their clay creator the vain title take
Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war-

These are thy toys, and, as the snowy flake,
They melt into thy yeast of waves, which mar
Alike the Armada's pride, or spoils of Trafalgar.

Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee-
Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage,-what are they?
Thy waters wasted them while they were free,
And many a tyrant since; their shores obey
The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay
Has dried up realms to deserts:-not so thou,
Unchangeable, save to thy wild waves' play--
Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow-
Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now.

Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form
Glasses itself in tempests; in all time,

Calm or convulsed-in breeze or gale or storm,
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime

Dark heaving;-boundless, endless, and sublime

The image of Eternity-the throne

Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made; each zone

Obeys thee: thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone.