heart? What is the work before the artist? How is Ireland, as an island, in darkness shrouded? What rights has the true freeman? What mistake is often made about liberty and libertinism? How is the artist to represent "weeping eyes"? What marked contrasts must be shown in this picture? Name four persons who took a share in liberating Ireland from unjust, penal laws. How does the writer wish our divine Lord painted? In what double character? What special chain did Father Matthew seek to break? Copy the second stanza. Then form sentences in which "art" will become a verb, "true" and "well" adverbs and adjectives, respectively. Give the expression "In its very light must tell What a gloom before was spreading” in three or four different forms. Commit ten lines from Very Rev. D. O'Reilley's "Men as We Need Them," on intemperance. If convenient, write the sense of the same in three ways on the blackboard. "Pay close attention to the emotions or feelings the selection suggests." "Give due attention to the vocal tones called for by the selection." "Lay special stress on those points that are to attract the attention of an audience." Examine the selection carefully. What is its character? What the task given the painter? The reader is then to speak to the artist. A conversational tone is therefore needed. Before reading with rhetorical effect, give yourself a thorough appreciation of the piece. Answer the questions fully, and after this exercise endeavor to realize the author's idea. "SEIZE the pencil, child of ART, FAME and FORTUNE brighten o'er thee! "Tis not thine TO SPREAD THE FIELD, Where CRIME is CROWNED, where GULLT is GLORY." Strive to bring out the antithesis between "crime,”—“crowned,” In the second stanza, the last four lines call for special attention. "True," "well," "every ray," very light," "gloom," 66 call for a tone-coloring that will bring out the full meaning of those well chosen adjectives. The other stanzas should be treated in same way, the antithetic thoughts being made to give forth all their saliency. SOUND AND SENSE. THAT, in the formation of language, men have been much influenced by a regard to the nature of the things and actions meant to be represented, is a fact of which every known speech gives proof. In our own language, for instance, who does not perceive in the sound of the words thunder, boundless, terrible, a something appropriate to the sublime ideas intended to be conveyed? In the word crash we hear the very action implied. Imp, elf,-how descriptive of the miniature beings to which we apply them! Fairy,-how light and tripping, just like the fairy herself!-the word, no more than the thing, seems fit to bend the grass-blade, or shake the tear from the blue-eyed flower. Pea is another of those words expressive of light, diminutive objects; any man born without sight and touch, if such ever are, could tell what kind of thing a pea was from the sound of the word. Of picturesque words, sylvan and crystal are among our greatest favorites. Sylvan-what visions of beautiful old suulit forests, with huntsmen and bugle-horns, arise at the sound! Crystal!-does it not glitter like the very thing it stands for? Yet crystal is not so beautiful as its own adjective. Crystalline !—why, the whole mind is lightened up with its shine. And this superiority is as it should be; for crystal can only be one comparatively small object, while crystalline may refer to a mass-to a world of crystals. It will be found that natural objects have a larger proportion of expressive names among them than any other things. The eagle, - what appropriate daring and sublimity! the dove, what softness! the linnet, what fluttering gentleness! "That which men call a rose would not by any other name, or at least by many other names, smell as sweet. Lily,-what tall, cool, pale, lady-like beauty have we here! Violet, jessamine, hyacinth, anemone, geranium!-beauties, all of them, to the ear as well as the eye. The names of the precious stones have also a beauty and magnificence above most common things. Diamond, sapphire, amethyst, beryl, ruby, agate, pearl, jasper, topaz, garnet, emerald, — what a caskanet of sparkling sounds! Diadem and coronet glitter with gold and precious stones, like the objects they represent. It is almost unnecessary to bring forward instances of the fine things which are represented in English by fine words. Let us take any sublime passage of our poetry, and we shall hardly find a word which is inappropriate in sound. For example: The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, The "gorgeous palaces," "the solemn temples," - how admirably do these lofty sounds harmonize with the objects! The relation between the sound and sense of certain words is to be ascribed to more than one cause. Many are evidently imitative representations of the things, movements, and acts, which are meant to be expressed. Others, in which we only find a general relation, as between a beautiful thing, and a beautiful word, a ridiculous thing and a ridiculous word, or a sublime idea and a sublime word, must be attributed to those faculties, native to every mind, which enable us to perceive and enjoy the beautiful, the ridiculous, and the sublime. Doctor Wallis, who wrote upon English grammar in the reign of Charles II., represented it as a peculiar excellence of our language, that, beyond all others, it expressed the nature of the objects which it names, by employing sounds sharper, softer, weaker, stronger, more obscure, or more stridulous, according as the idea which is to be suggested requires. He gives various examples. Thus, words formed upon st always denote firmness and strength, and are analogous to the Latin sto, as, stand, stay, staff, stop, stout, steady, stake, stamp, etc. Words beginning with str intimate violent force and energy, as, strive, strength, stress, stripe, etc. Thr implies forcible motion, as, throw, throb, thrust, threaten, thraldom, thrill; gl, smoothness or silent motion, as glib, glide; wr, obliquity or distortion, as, wry, wrest, wrestle, wring, wrong, wrangle, wrath, etc.; sw, silent agitation, or lateral motion, as, sway, swing, swerve, sweep, swim; sl, a gentle fall or less observable motion, as, slide, slip, sly, slit, slow, slack, sling; sp, dissipation or expansion, as, spread, sprout, sprinkle, spill, split, spring. Terminations in ash indicate something acting nimbly and sharply, as, crash, dash, rash, flash, lash, slash; terminations in ush, something acting more obtusely and duly, as, crush, brush, hush, gush, blush. The learned author produces a great many more examples of a like kind, which seem to leave no doubt that the analogies of sound have had some influence on the formation of words. At the same time, in all speculations of this kind, there is so much room for fancy to operate, that they ought to be adopted with much caution in forming any general theory. COMPOSITION. Copy the sixth paragraph. Give four words beginning with st, showing strength, and give sentences in which these words will be employed. Give the subjoined sentences in three different ways: 'In all operations of this kind, there is so much room for fancy to operate, that they ought to be adopted, with much caution, in forming any general theory." ANCIENT AND MODERN WRITERS. THE classics possess a peculiar charm, from the circumstance that they have been the models, I might almost say the masters, of composition and thought in all ages. In the contemplation of these august teachers of mankind, we are filled with conflicting emotions. They are the early voice of the world, better remembered and more cherished still than all the intermediate words that have been uttered; as the lessons of childhood still haunt us when the expressions of later years have been effaced from the mind. But they show with most unwelcome frequency the tokens of the world's childhood, before passion had yielded to the sway of reason and the affections. They want the |