To adapt the above exercise to the Contralto and Bass voice, it must be transposed a third or fourth lower. This mark ff is designed to indicate the swelling tone; the double comma before each note, the place for breathing. EXTRACTS FOR PRACTICE. 66 EXERCISES IN PURE TONE." ("Subdued" force, or softened utterance.) 1.- [THE GRAVE OF A FAMILY.]—Gray. "I wandered on, scarce knowing where I went, Alas! I knew the little tenant well: That oft had clung around me like a wreath "I had been three weeks absent:—in that time And spared not one of all the infant group. On whose white locks I oft had seen her cheek, 2.- [HEROISM OF THE PILGRIMS.]-Choate. ["I acknowledge the splendor of the scene of Thermopylæ in all its aspects. I admit its morality, too, and its useful influence on every Grecian heart, in that greatest crisis of Greece.] "And yet, do you not think, that whoso could, by adequate description, bring before you that winter of the Pilgrims, its brief sunshine, the nights of storm slow waning; the damp and icy breath, felt to the pillow of the dying; its destitutions, its contrasts with all their former experience in life; its insulation and loneliness; its death-beds and burials; its memories; its apprehensions; its hopes; the consultations of the prudent; the prayers of the pious; the occa sional cheerful hymn, in which the strong heart threw off its burthen, and, asserting its unvanquished nature, went up like a bird of dawn, to the skies; - do ye not think that whoso could describe them calmly waiting in that defile, lonelier and darker than Thermopylæ, for a morning that might never dawn, or might show them, when it did, a mightier arm than the Persian, 'raised as in act to strike,' would sketch a scene of more difficult and rarer heroism?" II.-Solemnity. ("Subdued" force, - soft and deep tone.) 1.- [STANZA OF A RUSSIAN HYMN.]—Bowring. And time, when viewed through Thy eternity, 2.- [MIDNIGHT MUSINGS.]-Irving. "I am now alone in my chamber. The family have long since retired. I have heard their steps die away, and the doors clap to after them. The murmur of voices, and the peal of remote laughter, no longer reach the ear. The clock from the church in which so many of the former inhabitants of this house lie buried, has chimed the awful hour of midnight. "I have sat by the window, and mused upon the dusky landscape, watching the lights disappearing, one by one, from the distant village; and the moon rising in her silent majesty, and leading up all the silver pomp of heaven. As I have gazed upon these quiet groves and shadowing lawns, silvered over and imperfectly lighted by streaks of dewy moonshine, my mind has been crowded by thick-coming fancies' concerning those spiritual beings which 'Walk the earth, 6 Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.' 3. [FROM THE THANATOPSIS.] — Bryant. "Go forth under the open sky, and list To Nature's teachings, while from all around, Earth and her waters, and the depths of air, - Coines a still voice, Yet a few days, and thee In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee shall claim To mix forever with the elements, To be a brother to the insensible rock, And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain "Thou shalt lie down With patriarchs of the infant world,—with kings, the vales, That make the meadows green; and poured round all, Are but the solemn decorations all Of the great tomb of man.'" III.-Tranquillity. ("Subdued" force, - gentle and level utterance.) 1.[CONSTANTINOPLE, ON THE EVE OF THE LAST ASSAULT.] - Mrs Hemans. "The streets grow still and lonely; and the star, 2.[CONTEMPLATION.] — Moir. "The sea is waveless as a lake ingulfed With bosoming branches round, yon village hangs Towering in spiral wreaths to the soft sky, The smoke from many a cheerful hearth ascends, "As I gaze, behold The evening star illumines the blue south Dreaming sweet dreams, till earth-born turbulence 3.[PEACE.]-Anonymous. "Lovely art thou, O Peace! and lovely are thy children; and lovely are the prints of thy footsteps in the green valleys. "Blue wreaths of smoke ascend through the trees, and betray the half-hidden cottage: the eye contemplates well-thatched ricks and barns bursting with plenty: the peasant laughs at the approach of winter. “White houses peep through the trees; cattle stand cooling in the pool; the casement of the farm-house is covered with jessamine and honeysuckle; the stately green-house exhales the perfume of summer climates. "Children climb the green mound of the rampart; and ivy holds together the half-demolished buttress. |