within ever so inveterate, or their temptations without ever so importunate, cannot this mighty, mighty God subdue the former, and fortify them against the latter? HERVEY.

GOD PRAISED BY THE CREATION.

The sun, that walks his airy way
To light the world, and give the day;
The moon that shines with borrow'd light;
The stars that gild the gloomy night;
The seas that roll unnumbered waves;
The wood that spreads its shady leaves;
The field whose ears conceal the grain,
The yellow treasure of the plain,
All of these, and all I see

Should be sung, and sung by me;
They speak their Maker as they can,
But want and ask the tongue of man.
Go search among your idle dreams,
Your busy or your vain extremes;
And find a life of equal bliss,
Or own the next begun in this.

PARNELL.

REFLECTIONS on NATURE TEACH THE PATH

OF VIRTUE.

From Nature too I take my rule
To shun contempt and ridicule.
I never with important air,
In conversation overbear.

Can grave and formal pass for wise,
When men the solemn owl despise?
My tongue within my lips I rein;

For who talks much must talk in vain.

We from the wordy torrent fly:

Who listens to the chatt'ring pye?

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Nor would I, with felonious flight,
By stealth invade my neighbour's right:
Rapacious animals we hate;

Kites, hawks, and wolves, deserve their fate,
Do not we just abhorrence find

Against the toad and serpent kind?
But envy, calumny, and spite
Bear stronger venom in their bite.
Thus ev'ry object of creation
Can furnish hints to observation:
And from the most minute and mean,
A virtuous mind can morals glean.

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Thy fame is just," the sage replies;
"Thy virtue proves thee truly wise.
Pride often guides the author's pen,
Books as affected are as men;
But he who studies nature's laws,
From certain truths his maxims draws;
And those, without our schools, suffice
To make men moral, good, and wise."

GAY.

RELIGION.

In the midst of youth, health, and abundance, the world is apt to appear a very gay and pleasing scene: it engages our desires, and in a degree, satisfies them also. But it is wisdom. to consider, that a time will come, when youth, health, and fortune, will all fail us: and if disappointment and vexation do not sour our taste for pleasure, at least sickness and infirmities will destroy it. In these gloomy seasons, and above all, at the approach of death, what will become of us without religion? When this world fails, whither shall we fly, if we expect no re

fuge in another? Without holy hope in God, resignation to his will, and trust in him for deliverance, what is there that can secure us against the evils of life?

GILPIN.

PARENTHESIS

Is an explanation of a passage, or an observation, so introduced as not to interrupt the arrangement of narration, whether it be read or omitted. Parentheses are generally written between two lines () and they require to be read in a different tone of voice to the other parts of the passage,-Care must be taken to read the contexts which follow in the same tone of voice as those which precede them.

EXAMPLES.

Does the sun send a detachment of his rays to escort us during his personal absence; -or to cover (if I may use the military term) our retreat from the scene of action?

It is my steadfast opinion, that the world,at least this lower world, with its various appurtenances, was intended purely for man;— that it is appropriated to him;-and that he (in subordination to God's glory) is the end of its creation.

And ought I not, (let the vainest imagination determine) ought I not to try the sincerity of my faith, and to take heed to my ways?

If sensibility, therefore, be not incompatible with true wisdom, (and it surely is not,unless we suppose that philosophy deadens every finer feeling of our nature,) what just

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reason can be assigned,-why the sympathetic sufferings which may result from friendship should be a sufficient inducement for banishing that generous affection from the human breast? "I will restore thy daughter again to life," (said the eastern sage, to a prince who grieved immoderately for the loss of a beloved child,)———

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provided thou art able to engrave on her tomb, the names of three persons who have never mourned." The prince made the inquiry after such persons, but they were not to be found-he then patiently submitted to his loss.

If envious people were to ask themselves, whether they would exchange their entire situations with the persons envied, (I mean their minds,-passions,-notions, as well as their persons,-fortunes,-and dignities,-) I presume the self-love common to human nature, would generally make them prefer their own condition.

Being created equal,- and partaking of the beneficence of one Father, we can only shew ourselves superior to our fellow-creatures,-by imitating (as near as human abilities will admit) the perfections of the Omnipotent.

Say first,-(for heaven hides nothing from thy view,

Nor the deep tract of hell-) say first what cause
Mov'd our grand parents,-in that happy state
Favoured of Heaven so highly,-to fall off
From their Creator, and transgress his will,
For one restraint,-lords of the world besides?
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?

MILTON.

Soon had his crew

Open'd into the hill a spacious wound,

And digg'd out ribs of gold. (Let none admire
That riches grow in hell;-that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane.) And here let those
Who boast in mortal things,-and wond'ring tell
Of Babel-and the works of Memphian kings,-
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame,-
And strength,-and art,-are easily undone
By spirits reprobate,-and in an hour,-
.What in an age-they with incessant toil,-
And hands innumerable, scarce perform.
Peace be to those (such peace as earth can give)
Who live in pleasure,-dead even while they live;
Born capable indeed of heavenly truth,.
But down to latest age,-from earliest youth-
Their mind a wilderness through want of care,
The plough of wisdom, never entering there.
Peace (if insensibility may claim

A right to the meek honours of her name,)
To men of pedigree,- their noble race
Emulous always of the nearest place
To any throne-except the throne of grace.

COWPER.

EXCLAMATION.

Denotes much surprise, uncommon energy, passion of mind, &c.—and is denoted in reading or reciting by such a modulation of the voice as will give the best idea of the emotions of the speaker--it is generally marked by (!)

EXAMPLES.

Malignant must be the mind of that person;with a distorted eye he must have contemplated