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[Illustration: HENRY WARD BEECHER]
EVOLUTION OF EXPRESSION
by
CHARLES WESLEY EMERSON
Founder of Emerson College of Oratory
A Compilation of Selections Illustrating
the Four Stages of Development
in Art As Applied to Oratory
In Four Volumes, with Key to each Chapter
TWENTY-EIGHTH EDITION
VOLUME II--REVISED
[Illustration: Expression Necessary to Evolution.]
Boston:
Emerson College of Oratory
Publishing Department
Chickering Hall, Huntington Avenue
1915
Copyrighted by C. W. Emerson
1905
The Barta Press
Boston
CONTENTS
PAGE.
SLIDE 7
VITAL SLIDE 8
SLIDE IN VOLUME 9
FORMING PICTURES 10
_Chapter I._
TACT AND TALENT _London Atlas_ 13
SHYLOCK TO ANTONIO _William Shakespeare_ 15
THE CYNIC _H. W. Beecher_ 16
GOOD BY, PROUD WORLD _R. W. Emerson_ 18
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB _Lord Byron_ 19
UNWRITTEN MUSIC _N. P. Willis_ 20
LAUS MORTIS _Frederic Lawrence Knowles_ 23
TAXATION OF THE COLONIES _Edmund Burke_ 24
MY HEART LEAPS UP _William Wordsworth_ 29
FOREST SCENE FROM AS YOU LIKE IT _William Shakespeare_ 30
_Chapter II._
THE RISING IN 1776 _T. B. Read_ 35
THE TENT-SCENE BETWEEN BRUTUS
AND CASSIUS _William Shakespeare_ 39
THE FORGING OF THE ANCHOR _S. Ferguson_ 43
SUPPOSED SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS _Daniel Webster_ 48
LIFE AND SONG _Sidney Lanier_ 53
GATHERING SONG OF DONALD THE BLACK _Sir Walter Scott_ 54
NUTTING _William Wordsworth_ 55
THE DODSON FAMILY _George Eliot_ 58
AFTER THE MARCH KAIN _William Wordsworth_ 66
_Chapter III._
FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION _Edward Everett_ 67
THE ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM _W. C. Byrant_ 70
NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY _Mirabeau_ 73
THE LANTERN BEARERS _Robert Louis Stevenson_ 74
TARPEIA _Louise Imogen Guiney_ 78
THE BELLS _E. A. Poe_ 82
THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION _Wendell Phillips_ 86
SHERIDAN'S RIDE _T. B. Read_ 89
TO A PUPIL _Walt Whitman_ 92
_Chapter IV._
THE PICKWICKIANS ON ICE _Charles Dickens_ 93
THE REALM OF FANCY _J. Keats_ 103
THE BATTLE OF NASEBY _Lord Macaulay_ 106
THE GLORIES OF MORNING _Edward Everett_ 109
THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS _O. W. Holmes_ 111
AUTUMN _H. W. Beecher_ 112
MIDSUMMER _J. T. Trowbridge_ 116
THE KITTEN AND FALLING LEAVES _William Wordsworth_ 118
SUMMER STORM _James Russell Lowell_ 121
JAQUES' SEVEN AGES OF MAN _William Shakespeare_ 125
THE PARTS.
THE ATTRACTIVE OR MELODRAMATIC PERIOD.
Love took up the harp of life and smote on all the chords
with might,
Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in music
out of sight.
TENNYSON.
The power to detach, and to magnify by detaching, is the essence
of rhetoric in the hands of the orator and the poet. This
rhetoric, or power to fix the momentary eminence of an object,
so remarkable in Burke, in Byron, in Carlyle--depends upon the
depth of the artist's insight of that object he contemplates.
EMERSON.
For use of selections in this volume especial thanks are tendered
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Frederic Lawrence Knowles, Horace Traubel,
Secretary Walt Whitman Fellowship, and J. T. Trowbridge.
CHAPTER I.
SLIDE.
Thus far in the student's development, his mind has dealt chiefly with
each subject as a _Whole_. Now he begins to find a new interest in
showing his hearers that the discourse is made up of a series of
definite _Parts_. He takes delight in fixing their attention upon each
part in succession.
As in crossing a brook on stones, a person poises for a moment, first on
one stone, then on another, so the speaker balances the minds of his
hearers, first on one thought, then another, poising for a moment on
each distinct point before leaving it for the next. The teacher should
now lead the pupil to attract attention to separate parts as _wholes_.
We are entering the melodramatic stage, where abandon to each part is as
necessary as it was in the beginning to the spirit of the whole. The
pupil must see the parts and give them to others at any cost.
In the history of art this step is marked by the grotesque; the pupil
should be encouraged to stand out the points of thought boldly,
regardless of artistic effect. This step is of vital importance in all
future development, and unless emphasized now, will require constant
effort hereafter.
Sharp contrasts are brought strongly to bear in presenting vividly and
distinctly separate points of thought. As the pupil earnestly strives to
impress each point of thought, in all its new interest, his voice
becomes more decidedly modulated, rising and falling in distinct
intervals. Thought of each part as a whole and by contrast, together
with the desire to impart it, is reported in varied inflections which
add a new charm to expression. Through slides the voice of the speaker
may be said to express the tune of the thought.
Analysis. Example: "Tact and Talent." (Page 13.)
_Unit, or Whole:_ A comparison of Tact and Talent.
_Parts_:
(_a_) The characteristics of Tact.
_Sub-parts_:
1. Tact is infinitely resourceful. Paragraph 1, etc.
2. Tact is the power which achieves results. Paragraph 2, etc.
(Other "sub-parts" may be enumerated.)
(_b_) The characteristics of Talent.
(A number of "sub-parts" are embodied.)
The teacher should view the work of the pupil with special reference to
the parts of this selection, leading him to impress these parts, or
successive points of thought, upon his audience. The continued
antithesis makes this selection a good one for the purpose; parts that
are set in contrast easily engage the attention.