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tender notes have touched the secret springs of rapture,-that moment let us dissect and look into his heart' ;-see how vain', how weak', how empty' a thing it is!

3. So when the faithful pencil has design'd
Some bright idea of the master's mind',
Where a new world leaps out at his command,
And ready nature waits upon his hand';
When the ripe colours soften and unite,
And sweetly melt into just shade and light';
When mellowing years their full perfection give,
And each bold figure just begins to live';
The treacherous colours the fair art betray,
And all the bright' creation' fades' away'.

EXERCISES on the SERIES.

1. Ambition creates hatred, shyness, discords, seditions, and wars. 2. To be moderate in our views, and to proceed temperately in the pursuit of them, is the best way to ensure success.

3. Joy, grief, love, admiration, devotion, are all of them passions which are naturally musical.

4. Substantives, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, must necessarily be found in all languages.

5. The several kinds of poetical composition which we find in Scripture, are chiefly the didactic, the elegiac, pastoral, and lyric.

6. Discomposed thoughts, agitated passions, and a ruffled temper, poison every pleasure of life.

7. The great business of life is to be employed in doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our Creator.

8. Tranquillity, order, and magnanimity, dwell with the pious and resigned man.

9. A wise man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and live upon contentedly.

10. The minor longs to be of age; then to be a man of business; then to make up an estate; then to arrive at honours; then to retire. 11. Though, at times, the ascent to the temple of virtue appears steep and craggy, be not discouraged. Persevere until thou gain the summit: there, all is order, beauty, and pleasure.

12. What is called profane history, exhibits our nature on its worst side: it is the history of perverse passions, of mean self-love, of revenge, hatred, extravagance, and folly.

13. An ostentatious, a feeble, a harsh, or an obscure style, are always faults; and perspicuity, strength, neatness and simplicity, are beauties to be always aimed at.

14. Valour, truth, justice, fidelity, friendship, piety, magnanimity, are the objects which, in the course of epic compositions, are presented to our mind, under the most splendid and honourable colours,

15. To be humble and modest in opinion, to be vigilant and atten. tive in conduct, to distrust fair appearances, and to restrain rash de

sires, are instructions which the darkness of our present state should strongly inculcate.

16. No blessing of life is any way comparable to the enjoyment of a discreet and virtuous friend. It eases and unloads the mind, clears and improves the understanding, engenders thoughts and knowledge, animates virtue and good resolutions, soothes and allays the passions, and finds employment for most of the vacant hours of life.

17. The time at which the Saviour was to appear-the circumstances with which his nativity was to be attended--the nature of the kingdom he was to establish-the power with which he was to be invested, and the success with which his labours were to be crownedhad been all prefigured and described, in a manner calculated to excite the liveliest expectation in the minds of the chosen people.

18 Were we united to beings of a more exalted order.-beings whose nature raised them superior to misfortune, placed them beyond the reach of disease and death, who were not the dupes of passion and prejudice, all of whose views were enlarged, whose goodness was perfected, and whose spirit breathed nothing but love and friendship,— then would the evils of which we now complain cease to be felt.

19. All the oriental lustre of the richest gems; all the enchanting beauties of exterior shape; the exquisite of all forms; the loveliness of colour; the harmony of sound; the heat and brightness of the enlivening sun; the heroic virtue of the bravest minds; with the purity and quickness of the highest intellect; are all emanations from the supreme Deity.

20. I conjure you by that which you profess

ear.

(Howe'er you come to know it) answer me;
Though you untie the winds and let them fight
Against the churches; though the yesty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up;

Though bladed corn be lodg'd and trees blown down;
Though castles topple on their warders' heads;
Though palaces and pyramids do slope

Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
Of nature's germins tumble altogether,

Ev'n till destruction sicken, answer me
To what I ask you.

Macbeth to the Witches.

HARMONIC INFLECTION.

Besides that variety which necessarily arises from annexing certain inflections to sentences of a particular import or structure, there is still another source of variety, in those parts of a sentence where the sense is not at all concerned, and where the variety is merely to please the There are many members of sentences which may be differently pronounced without affecting the sense, but which cannot be differently pronounced without greatly affecting their variety and harmony. It is chiefly towards the end of a sentence that the harmonic inflection is necessary in order to form an agreeable cadence.

RULE I.—When a series of similar sentences, or members of sentences, form a branch of a subject or paragraph, the last sentence or member must fall gradually into a lower tone, and adopt the harmonic inflection, on such words as form the most agreeable cadence.

EXAMPLES.

1. We may learn from this observation which we have made on the mind of man, to take particular care, when we have once settled in a regular course of life, how we too frequently indulge ourselves in any the most innocent diversions and entertainments; since the mind may insensibly fall off from the relish of virtuous actions, and by degrees' exchange' that' pleasure', which it takes in the performance of its duty, for delights of a much more inferior and unprofitable nature.

2. One of the most eminent mathematicians of the age has assured me, that the greatest pleasure he took in reading Virgil was in examining Æneas's voyage by the map; as I question not but many a modern compiler of history would be delighted with little' more' in that divine' author' than the bare matters of fact.

3. Since I have mentioned this unaccountable zeal which appears in atheists and infidels, I must farther observe, that they are likewise in a most particular manner possessed with the spirit of bigotry. They are wedded' to opinions' full of contradiction' and impossibility', and at the same time' look upon the smallest difficulty' in an article' of faith' as a sufficient reason for rejecting it.

RULE II.-When the last member of a sentence ends with four accented words, the falling inflection takes place on the first and last, and the rising on the second and third.

EXAMPLES.

1. The immortality of the soul is the basis of morality, and the source of all the pleasing' hopes' and secret' joys', that can arise' in the heart' of a reasonable' creature'.

2. A brave' man struggling`in the storms' of fate',
And greatly falling' with a falling' state'.-

3. Produces' fraud and cruelty' and strife',
And robs the guilty' world' of Cato's' life'.

RULE III-When there are three accented words at the end of the last member, the first has either the rising or falling, the second the rising and the last the falling inflection.

EXAMPLE.

Cicero concludes his celebrated books de Oratore, with some precepts for pronunciation and action, without which part he affirms, that the best orator in the world can never succeed, and an indifferent one, who is master of this, shall gain much` greater' applause'.

ECHO

Is here used to express that repetition of a word or thought, which immediately arises from a word or thought that preceded it.

RULE. The echoing word ought always to be pronounced with the rising inflection in a high tone of voice, and a long pause after it, when it implies any degree of passion.*

EXAMPLES.

1. Newton was a Christian! Newton'! whose mind burst forth from the fetters cast by nature on our finite conceptionsNewton'! whose science was truth, and the foundation of whose knowledge of it was philosophy; not those visionary and arrogant presumptions which too often usurp its name, but philosophy resting on the basis of mathematics, which, like figures, cannot lie-Newton'! who carried the line and rule to the utmost barriers of creation, and explored the principles by which, no doubt, all created matter is held together and exists.

2. With "mysterious reverence" I forbear to descant on those serious and interesting rites, for the more august and solemn celebration of which Fashion nightly convenes these splendid myriads to her more sumptuous temples. Rites'! which, when engaged in with due devotion, absorb the whole soul, and call every passion into exercise, except those indeed of love and peace, and kindness, and gentleness. Inspiring' rites! which stimulate fear, rouse hope, kindle zeal, quicken dulness, sharpen discernment, exercise memory, inflame curiosity! Rites'! in short, in the due performance of which, all the energies and attentions, all the powers and abilities, all the abstractions and exertion, all the diligence and devotedness, all the sacrifice of time, all the con

*The echoing word is printed in italics, and marked with the rising inflection.

tempt of ease, all the neglect of sleep, all the oblivion of care, all the risks of fortune (half of which, if directed to their true objects, would change the very face of the world), all these are concentrated to one point: a point'! in which the wise and the weak, the learned and the ignorant, the fair and the frightful, the sprightly and the dull, the rich and the poor, the patrician and plebeian, meet in one common uniform equality: an equality'! as religiously respected in these solemnities, in which all distinctions are levelled at a blow, and of which the very spirit is therefore democratical, as it is combated in all other instances. Hannah More on Female Education.

THE MONOTONE,

In certain solemn and sublime passages, has a wonderful force and dignity; and, by the uncommonness of its use, it even adds greatly to that variety with which the ear is so much delighted.*

EXAMPLES.

1. High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus or of Inde;
Or where the gorgeous East, with riches hand,
Show'rs, on her kings barbaric, pearl' and gold',
Satan exalted sat.

2. Hence! loath'd Melancholy,

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born,

In Stygian cave forlorn,

'Mongst horrid shapes and shrieks, and sights unholy, Find out some uncouth cell,

Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings,

And the night raven sings;

There, under ēbon shades and lōw-brow'd rōcks,

As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

CIRCUMFLEXES.

The rising circumflex begins with the falling inflection, and ends with the rising upon the same syllable, and seems as it were to twist the voice upwards. This turn of the voice is marked in this manner (").

* This monotone may be defined to be a continuation or sameness of sound upon certain syllables of a word, exactly like that produced by repeatedly striking a bell ;-such a stroke may be louder or softer, but continues exactly in the same pitch. To express this tone upon paper, a horizontal line may be adopted; such a one as is generally used to express a long syllable in verse; thus (−).

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