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RECITATIONS

FOR THE SOCIAL CIRCLE.

SELECTED AND ORIGINAL.

[Illustration]

BY

JAMES CLARENCE HARVEY.

PUBLISHED BY
THE CHRISTIAN HERALD.

LOUIS KLOPSCH, Proprietor,
BIBLE HOUSE, NEW YORK.


Copyright, 1896.
BY LOUIS KLOPSCH.




INTRODUCTORY NOTE.


In reading and recitation, the general tendency is to overdo. The quiet
reserve force, which can be made apparent in the voice, will reach the
heart and stir the soul when gesture and ranting fail. "Be bold! Be not too
bold" should be the watchwords of the reciter. Self-possession, with a
nervousness arising from an earnest desire to please, is the keynote to
success. Never gesticulate if you can help it. When a gesture asserts
itself to such an extent that you have made it before you realize it, be
sure it was effective and graceful.

It is a noble ambition to wish to sway the hearts and minds of others by
the subtle modulations of the voice, and only he who feels the force of
what he utters can hope to accomplish his end. The thought of the author
must be pursued and overtaken. The sentiments between the lines must be
enlisted before the voice will lend itself, in all its glorious power, to
the tones that thrill and the music that charms.

It is not always necessary to search for something your audience has never
heard. It is far better to reveal hidden thought and new life in selections
which are familiar. The hackneyed recitation, if rendered better than ever
before, will win more applause than a fresh bit carelessly studied.

Above all, use judgment in selection. The stout lady of fifty