(a.) On the one hand are the Divine approbation and immortal honour; on the other' (remember and beware!) are the stings of conscience and endless infamy.

Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die',

('Twas even to thee!) yet, the dread path once trod,
Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high,

And bids "the pure in heart behold their God."

(b.) For these reasons the senate and the people of Athens' (with due veneration to the gods and heroes, and guardians of the Athenian city and territory, whose aid they now implore; and with due attention to the virtues of their ancestors, to whom the general liberty of Greece was ever dearer than the particular interest of their own state') have resolved that a fleet of two hundred vessels shall be sent to sea, the admiral to cruise within the Straits of Thermopyla.

His spear' (to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some high admiral, were but a wand')
He walked with, to support uneasy steps,
Over the burning marl.

(c.) Augustus, the Roman emperor, he who succeeded Julius Cæsar, is variously described.

To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship.

The passion for praise, which is so very vehement in the fair sex produces excellent effects in women of sense.

He then proceeded to Dublin, the capital city of Ireland, and remained there for three weeks.

(d.) Thus then, said he, since you are so urgent, it is thus that I conceive it: the sovereign good is that, the possession of which renders us happy. And how, said I, do we possess it? is it sensual or intellectual? There you are entering, said he, upon the detail.

You perceive then, said I, that the cause is a hopeless one. How can that be? said he. It is obnoxious to the ministry, replied I. Justice, exclaimed he, will carry it.

CLIMAX.

A Climax is a kind of series which rises, as it were, by regular steps, from one circumstance to another, till it seems impossible to carry the thought to a greater elevation. As each circumstance added is of greater importance than the one that precedes it, the climax should be read with a gradually increasing swell of the voice on each succeeding member, accompanied with such a degree of animation and energy as the subject and the occasion require.*

*The increasing swell of voice required in reading a climax does not necessarily imply increasing height or loudness. Increased force may be imparted by adopting a low, strong tone.

EXAMPLES.

After we have practised good actions a while, they become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us, we do them frequently; and by frequency of acts, a thing grows into a habit; and a confirmed habit is a kind of second nature; and so far as any thing is natural, so far it is necessary, and we can hardly do otherwise; nay, we do it many times when we do not think it.

Since concord was lost, friendship was lost, fidelity was lost, liberty was lost, all was lost.

What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how transcendent in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a God!

I conjure you by that which you profess,
(Howe'er you came to know it) answer me;
Though you untie the winds, and let them fight
Against the churches; though the yeasty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up;

Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down;
Though castles topple on their warders' heads;

Though palaces and pyramids do slope

Their heads to their foundations; though the treasures
Of Nature's germins tumble altogether,
Even till destruction sicken, answer me
To what I ask you.

RHETORICAL PUNCTUATION.

Besides the usual GRAMMATICAL STOPS, to which the pupils should be accustomed to pay the same attention as to the words, there are what are called RHETORICAL pauses or stops, which should, by no means, be neglected. These pauses are not, like the ordinary stops in reading, depicted to the eye, nor is it necessary that they should; for in all cases where a pause of this kind is necessary, a judicious reader will instinctively make it that is, if he is attending to the great and fundamental rule for good reading, which we have so frequently mentioned.

The following passage from Mr. J. Sheridan Knowles' "Elocutionist" expresses our opinion on this subject:

The

"I am convinced that a nice attention to rhetorical punctuation has an extremely mischievous tendency, and is totally inconsistent with nature. Give the sense of what you read: MIND is the thing. Pauses are essential only where their omission would obscure the sense. orator who, in the act of delivering himself, is studiously solicitous about parcelling out his words, is sure to leave the best part of his work undone. He delivers words, not thoughts. Deliver thoughts, and words will take care enough of themselves. I repeat it-BE IN FARNEST."

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In most compilations of this kind there are several rules laid down with regard to rhetorical punctuation; the following are the principal:

1. Pause after the nominative to a verb when it consists of more words than one, or even after a nominative consisting of a single word, when it is important or emphatic; as, "The fashion of this world/ passeth away. "And Nathan said unto David, 'Thou/ art the man.' 2. Before and after all intermediate, explanatory, or parenthetical clauses; as, "Trials/ in this state of being/ are the lot of man.' 3. Before a relative pronoun;* as, "The man who feels himself ignorant, should at least be modest." "Hypocrisy is the tribute/ which vice pays to virtue." "It is the mind that makes the body rich." 4. Before that also when it is used as a conjunction; as, "It is in society only/ that we can relish those pure, delicious joys which embellish and gladden the life of man." 5. After words in apposition: as, "Hope/ the balm of life, soothes us under every misfortune." (But if the two words are single, no pause should be made: as, "Paul the apostle.") 6. After words in opposition, or contrasted; as, "Prosperity/ gains friends, adversity/ tries them." "Some/ place their bliss in action, some in ease." 7. Wherever an ellipsis takes place; as, "Life is precarious, and death/ certain." 8. Between all adjectives, except the last, applied to one substantive; and all adverbs, except the last, which qualify one verb; as, "Let but one brave great/ active! disinterested man arise, and he will be received, followed, and venerated." "Wisely/rationally/ and prudently to love, is, in the opinion of lovers, not to love at all." 9. Between all the nouns and pronouns which constitute the nominative to a verb; as, "Riches/ pleasure/ and health, become evils to those who do not know how to use them.' "He/ and they/ were present." 10. After, and generally before, emphatic words or phrases.

The following sentences will exemplify these rules generally, and will also serve to show the impossibility of carrying them into practice, without betraying a studied and artificial manner of reading.

At the same time/ that I think discretion/ the most useful talent/ a man can be master of, I look upon cunning, to be the accomplishment/ of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Discretion/ points out the noblest ends to us, and pursues the most proper/ and laudable method/ of atttaining them: cunning/ has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing/ which may make them succeed. Discretion/ has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon; cunning/ is a kind of short-sightedness, that discovers the minutest objects/ that are near at hand, but is not able to discern things/ at a distance.

*This rule extends to several words usually called ADVERBS; such as, when, why, wherefore, where, whether, whither, whence, while, how, till or until. These words include in their meaning the force of relative pronouns. Thus, WHEN is equivalent to the time at which; WHY or WHEREFORE is equivalent to the reason for which; and so of the rest.

DIRECTIONS FOR READING VERSE.

The following excellent observations on this subject are from Walker's "Elements of Elocution."

"Whatever difficulties we may find in reading prose, they are greatly increased when the composition is in verse; and more particularly if the verse be rhyme. The regularity of the feet, and the sameness of sound in rhyming verse, strongly solicits the voice to a sameness of tone; and tone, unless directed by a judicious ear, is apt to degenerate into a song, and a song, of all others, the most disgusting to a person of just taste. If, therefore, there are few who read prose with propriety, there are still fewer who succeed in verse: they either want that equable and harmonious flow of sound which distinguishes it from loose, unmeasured composition, or they have not a sufficient delicacy of ear to keep the harmonious smoothness of verse from sliding into a whining cant; nay, so agreeable is this cant to many readers, that a simple and natural delivery of verse seems tame and insipid, and much too familiar for the dignity of the language. So pernicious are bad habits in every exercise of the faculties, that they not only lead us to false objects of beauty and propriety, but at last deprive us of the very power of perceiving the mistake. For those, therefore, whose ears are not just, and who are totally deficient in a true taste for the music of poetry, the best method of avoiding this impropriety is to read verse exactly as if it were prose; for though this may be said to be an error, it is certainly an error on the safer side.

"To say, however, as some do, that the pronunciation of verse is entirely destitute of song, and that it is no more than a just pronunciation of prose, is as distant from truth, as the whining cant we have been speaking of, is from true poetic harmony. Poetry without song is a body without a soul. The tune of this song is, indeed, difficult to hit; but when once it is hit, it is sure to give the most exquisite pleasure. It excites in the hearer the most eager desire of imitation; and if this desire be not accompanied by a just taste or good instruction, it generally substitutes the tum ti, tum ti, as it is called, for simple, elegant, poetic harmony.

"It must however, be confessed that elegant readers of verse often verge so nearly on what is called sing song, without falling into it, that it is no wonder those who attempt to imitate them, slide into that blemish which borders so nearly on a beauty. And indeed, as an ingenious author observes, there is such an affinity between poetry and music, that they were in the earlier ages never separated; and though modern refinement has in a great measure destroyed this union, yet it is with some degree of difficulty, in rehearsing these divine compositions, that we forget the singing of the Muse.'

"The truth is, the pronunciation of verse is a species of elocution very distinct from the pronunciation of prose: both of them have nature for their basis; but one is common, familiar, and practical nature; the other beautiful, elevated, and ideal nature; the latter as different from

Philosophical Essay on the Delivery of Written Language.

the former as the elegant step of a minuet is from the common motions in walking. Accordingly, we find, there are many who can read prose well, who are entirely at a loss for the pronunciation of verse."

PRACTICAL RULES FOR READING VERSE.

RULE I. The first general rule in reading VERSE is, that we ought to give it that measured and harmonious flow of sound which distinguishes it from PROSE, without falling into that bombastic and chanting pronunciation which renders it ridiculous.

RULE II.—In verse every syllable should have the same accent, and every word the same emphasis, as in prose; for though the rhythmical arrangement of the accent and emphasis is the very definition of poetry, yet, if this arrangement tends to give an emphasis to words which would have none in prose, or an accent to such syllables as have properly no accent, the rhythm, or music of the verse, must in such cases be entirely neglected. Thus the words or syllables marked in italics in the following sentences should have no accent or stress, though placed in that part of the verse where the ear requires it.

EXAMPLES.

1. Of all the causes which conspire to blind

Man's erring judgment and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

2. Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made
Taller and stronger than the weeds they shade.
3. Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise.
4. False eloquence, like the prismatic glass,
Its gaudy colours spreads on every place.
5. Their praise is still, the style is excellent:
The sense they humbly take upon content.

In the first of the preceding sentences, for example, an injudicious reader of verse would be very apt to lay a stress upon the article the in the third line, because the ear, in conformity with the measure of the verse, expects an accented syllable in that position; but a good reader would be sure to disregard the metrical accent in this case, and give the word the pronunciation it would have in prose. The same may be observed with regard to the words and syllables marked in italics in the other examples.

In some cases, however, it seems judicious to make a kind of compromise between the metrical and prosaic accent, that is, so to pronounce the syllable that neither of them shall be predominant, thus