ELOCUTION.

PART I.

THEORETIC AND SCIENTIFIC

SALUTATORY DIALOGUE.

TEACHER AND PUPIL.

PUPIL. You have spoken of Putnam's Elocution as a text book for reading and speaking: will our teacher have the goodness to tell us something of Elocution, as a science and art?

Teacher. I am happy, my young friends, to answer this rea sonable and interesting question. Elocution is a noble and sublime science; and I trust my pupils of both sexes, will take a lively interest in it. The work I have recommended will guide you to nature's teachings, make you happy in its study, and greatly aid you in the most important portion of your education—the art of communicating thought and knowledge. To do this with elegance, force and effect, should be the ambi tion of every reader or speaker. The advantages you may derive from a persevering study and practice of the science and art, are many and important. They may be mostly included in a single paragraph :

A correct Articulation, a full musical Voice, graceful and appropriate Gestures, self-confidence, a reliable knowledge of

the subject, the power to please—to persuade—to convinceand improved Physical Health.

Pupil. I am very thankful for this instruction. I desire to study and practice an art by which I may arrive at usefulness and honor. But can books alone give me all the instruction I need in this science?

Teacher. They cannot. Elocution can only be written in part; and Eloquence can never be placed on paper. They exist mostly in spirit, voice and action. The spirit of the sci ence is the living teacher, and its body is the good elocutionary book.

Pupil. What qualifications are important that one may become a good reader and speaker?

Teacher. First, a good physical organism; second, good common sense; third, a desire to excel; and fourth, perseverance in the cultivation of the powers of the body and mind.

Pupil. Can Elocution make the orator? And what powers must he possess?

Teacher. The orator can never be made by Elocution; yet it may develop great powers. He must have great natural endowments, great knowledge, and cultivation, such as few men in an age possess or attain. But be encouraged, my young friends, you know not the powers you may possess. This science will reveal them. Some of these young ladies before me, may yet hold thousands in breathless silence and admiration, by a cultivated mind and voice, displayed in reading or speak ing. And, young gentlemen, yours may be the high honor,

"to stem corruption's course,

And shake a Senate with a Tully's force."