EXAMPLES OF MEDIAN STRESS.-CONCERT DRILL.

In median stress, prolong the vowel sounds and make long pauses.

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of níght,

How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden nótes,
And all in túne,

What a liquid ditty floats

To the turtle-dove that listens, while she glóats

On the moon!

Oh, from out the sounding célls,
What a gush of eùphony voluminously wèlls!
How it swells,

How it dwells

On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bēlls, bēlls,

Of the bells, bells, bēlls, bēlls,

Bells, bells, bēlls—

To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

POE.

II. THE PAST.

Thou unrelenting Pàst!

Strong are the barriers | round thy dark domain,

And fetters, sure and fást,

Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign.

Childhood, with all its mirth,

Youth, Manhood, Age, that draws us to the ground, And lást, Man's Life on earth,

Glide to thy dim dominions, and are bound.

BRYANT,

III. FROM THE BOOK OF PSALMS.

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, thou art very great! thou art clothed with honor and majesty; who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain; who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters; who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind; who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

IV. OSSIAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN.

O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! whence are thy beams, O sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty; the stars hide themselves in the sky; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave. But thou thyself movest alone: who can be a companion of thy course?

EXAMPLES OF RADICAL STRESS.-CONCERT DRILL.

I. FROM WEBSTER'S SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS.

Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote!

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves the measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off, as I began, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment:-independence now, and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER!

II. FROM SCOTT.

But Douglas round him drew his cloak,
Folded his arms, and thus he spoke:

"My manors, halls, and bowers shall still
Be open at my sovereign's will,
To each one whom he lists, howe'er
Unmeet to be the owner's peer.
My castles are my king's alone,
From turret to foundation stone;-
The hand of Douglas is his own,
And never shall, in friendly grasp,
The hand of such as Marmion clasp!"
Burned Marmion's swarthy cheek like fire,
And shook his very frame for ire;

And "This to me!" he said,-
"An 't were not for thy hoary beard,
Such hand as Marmion's had not spared
To cleave the Douglas' head!
And, first, I tell thee, haughty peer,
He who does England's message here,
Although the meanest in her state,
May well, proud Angus, be thy mate!
And, Douglas, more I tell thee here,
E'en in thy pitch of pride:

Here in thy hold, thy vassals near
(Nay, never look upon your lord,
And lay your hands upon your sword),
I tell thee, thou'rt defied!

And if thou said'st I am not peer
To any lord in Scotland hére-
Lówland or Highland, fár or néar—

Lord Angus, thou hast lied!"

On the earl's cheek, the flush of rage

O'ercame the ashen hue of age;

Fierce he broke forth: "And dar'st thou, then,

To beard the lion in his dén,

The Douglas in his hall?

And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go?—

Nò, by Saint Bride of Bothwell, nô!”

This is the arsenal. From floor to ceiling,
Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms;
But from their silent pipes no anthem pealing
Startles the villages with strange alarms.

2.

Ah, what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary, When the death angel touches those swift keys! What loud lament and dismal miserere

Will mingle with their awful symphonies!

3.

I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus,
The cries of agony, the endless groan,
Which, through the ages that have gone before us,
In long reverberations reach our own.

4.

On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer, Through Cimbric Forest roars the Norseman's song, And loud, amid the universal clamor,

O'er distant deserts, sounds the Tartar gong.

5.

I hear the Florentine, who from his palace
Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din,
And Aztec priests, upon their teocallis,

Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent's skin;

6.

The tumult of each sacked and burning village;
The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns;

The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage,
The wail of famine in beleaguered towns;

7.

The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder,
The rattling musketry, the clashing blade;
And ever and anon, in tones of thunder,
The diapason of the cannonade.

8.

Is it, O man, with such discordant noises,
With such accursed instruments as these,
Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices,
And jarrest the celestial harmonies!

9.

Were half the power that fills the world with terror,
Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts,

Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals and forts:

10.

The warrior's name would be a name abhorréd!
And every nation, that should lift again
Its hand against its brother, on its forehead
Would wear for evermore the curse of Cain!

11.

Down the dark future, through long generations,
The echoing sounds grow fainter, and then cease;
And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,

I hear once more the voice of Christ say, "Peace!"

12.

Peace and no longer from its brazen portals

The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies! But beautiful as songs of the immortals,

The holy melodies of love arise.

LONGFELLOW.