:

eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was at his head a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire ; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus : and when thou comest, thou shalt anoint Hazael to be king over Syria and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet will I leave me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelve: and Elijah passed over unto him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again; for what have I done to thee? And he returned from following him, and took the yoke of oxen, and slew

them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.

1 Kings 19.

Actors have more personation than participation; they primarily aim to represent everything objectively. In orators, however, dramatic participation transcends personation. It is only occasionally, and in more playful moods, or in the subordinate parts, that personation is found in the highest forms of oratory. The public reader should have thorough command of both modes. This is another matter which goes to show, that if public readers were thoroughly educated, and imbued with the spirit of art and the various forms of literature, and had right conceptions of the character and various forms of poetic expression, they could discharge a higher function in public entertainment than is possible on the stage.

The true actor, however, must have participation. If his art is merely representative, it tends to become merely imitative and mechanical, and is usually confined to the lower forms of dramatic representation. Even in him sympathetic participation must un. derlie, cause, and continually transcend all personation.

Assimilation thus acts in these two ways. They are both natural, and in the highest dramatic art complement each other. The true reader must show his own feeling and point of view, the sympathetic attitude of his mind, and manifest his own participation in the smallest event. As the stage requires many subordinate characters, each of whom must show his own interest in the moving scene in order to create illusion, so the speaker or reader must show sympathetic identification of himself with every subordinate clause and phrase. Nothing must be neutral, negative, or indifferent. Everything must be positive, and bear a sympathetic relationship with the great centre of interest, and must reflect as in a mirror the central spirit of the situation.

O My husband, brave and gentle ! O my Bernal, look once more
On the blessed cross before thee! Mercy! mercy! all is o'er."
Dry thy tears, my poor Ximena; lay thy dear one down to rest;
Let his hands be meekly folded, lay the cross upon his breast.

Close beside her, faintly moaning, fair and young, a soldier lay,
Torn with shot and pierced with lances, bleeding slow his life away;
But, as tenderly before him the lorn Ximena knelt,

She saw the Northern eagle shining on his pistol belt.

With a stifled cry of horror straight she turn'd away her head;

With a sad and bitter feeling look'd she back upon her dead;

But she heard the youth's low moaning, and his struggling breath of pain,
And she raised the cooling water to his parching lips again.

Whisper'd low the dying soldier, press'd her hand, and faintly smiled:
Was that pitying face his mother's? did she watch beside her child?
All his stranger words with meaning her woman's heart supplied;
With her kiss upon his forehead, "Mother!" murmur'd he, and died.

"A bitter curse upon them, poor boy, who led thee forth
From some gentle, sad-eyed mother, weeping, lonely, in the North!"
Spake the mournful Mexic woman, as she laid him with her dead,
And turn'd to soothe the living still, and bind the wounds which bled.
Angels of Buena Vista.
Whittier.

The poor man hung his head,

And to himself he said,

"This is indeed beyond my comprehension :
Then looking round,

One friendly face he found,

And said, "Pray tell me why is wealth preferred
To wisdom?"-"That's a silly question, friend!"
Replied the other "have you never heard,

A man may lend his store

Of gold or silver ore,

But wisdom none can borrow, none can lend?"

Khemnitzer

XXXVII. ASSIMILATION AND QUOTATION.

WHATEVER I do, and whatever I say,
Aunt Tabitha tells me that is n't the way;
When she was a girl (forty summers ago),

Aunt Tabitha tells me they never did so.

IN these lines, by Dr. Holmes, there are no quotation marks; but whenever a statement is made by a character similar to the one supposed to be speaking in the poem, an objective coloring will be given to such phrases as that is n't the way" and "they never did so." These two clauses are only indirect quotations, if they can be regarded as quotations at all. But one with a vigorous imagination and a strong dramatic instinct, especially in excitable moods, will involuntarily quote and personate the one whose sentiments he is supposed to represent. This is especially true of such emotions as sarcasm and antagonism; there is a greater tendency to caricature and exaggeration in these emotions, but the principle holds true. There is a universal desire for definite representation. The fables which have lived from age to age, the myths of the race, the historical legends, arose from this demand of the imagination. The dramatic instinct has many forms, and is universal. It is often very imaginative and suggestive.

Making the tomb and the rose directly speak in the following poem awakens deep feeling in our hearts, but the representation is very delicate and subjective.

THE Tomb said to the Rose, "Tell me, with all the tears Morn sheds o'er thee, what dost thou do, fair garden pride?"

"With all that drops, day after day, into thy yawning depths, oh, say! what dost thou do?"

The Rose replied, "Sad Tomb! into a subtle scent of ambergris and honey, blent, do I convert those dew-drops bright!"

"And I create, O Rosebud fair, from ev'ry soul which enters here, an angel-form, with wings of light !"

The Tomb and the Rose.

Victor Hugo.

In the vocal rendering of such passages, the dramatic representation must be delicately suggested. If made too literal, the spirit of the poetry is spoiled. The tomb and the rose are ideal conceptions, and there is dramatic participation rather than dramatic personation. This sympathetic assimilation is subjective, and has very little objective representation. The imaginative conception of the truth has become so vivid as to take dramatic form, but the feeling is fully as lyric as it is dramatic; or, perhaps, it should be said that the highest dramatic expression is as fully subjective as it is objective.

The distinction between lyric and dramatic often exists only in name. All great dramatic art implies the lyric, and all lyric art contains a dramatic element. Just as subjective and objective are two aspects of the same thing, so dramatic and lyric are different points of view, different modes by which the human soul realizes truth. In all great poetry and art, and in all rendering, there is the union and co-ordination of antithetic elements.

If we take up now a common dialogue in which ignoble emotions chiefly predominate, the difference will be more saliently shown in expression. Here the quotations are made literal, the objective element is far more pronounced, and even the types of character more definitely rendered.

MY SPOUSE NANCY.

HUSBAND, husband, cease your strife, nor longer idly rave, sir;
Though I am your wedded wife, yet I am not your slave, sir.

"One of two must still obey, Nancy, Nancy;

Is it man, or woman, say, my spouse Nancy?"

If 't is still the lordly word, service and obedience,

I'll desert my sovereign lord, and so good bye, allegiance!
"Sad will I be, so bereft, Nancy, Nancy,

Yet I'll try to make a shift, my spouse Nancy."