The swain responsive as the milk-maid sung,
The sober herd that lowed to meet their young;
The noisy geese that gabbled o'er the pool,
The playful children just let loose from school;
The watch-dog's voice that bayed the whispering wind,
And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind;
These all in sweet confusion sought the shade,
And filled each pause the nightingale had made.
But now the sounds of population fail,
No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale,
No busy steps the grass-grown footway tread,
For all the blooming flush of life is fled.
All but yon widowed, solitary thing,
That feebly bends beside the plashy spring;
She, wretched matron--forced in age, for bread,
To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread,
To pick her wintry fagot from the thorn,
To seek her nightly shed and weep till morn--
She only left of all the harmless train,
The sad historian of the pensive plain!

_Goldsmith._


OROTUND QUALITY.

The Orotund is a highly improved state of the Natural voice, and is the
quality most used, being far more expressive, as it gives grandeur and
energy to thought and expression. This voice is highly agreeable, and is
more musical and flexible than the common voice.