stand the structure of verse. For want of this knowledge, most people read all verse like the iambic measure. The following are pure Iambics. "Above how high progressive life may go! Around how wide, how deep extend below!" It is so easy to lay an accent on every second syllable, that any schoolboy can read this measure with tolerable propriety. But the misfortune is, that when a habit of reading this kind of metre is once formed, persons do not vary their manner to suit other measures. Thus in reciting the following line, "Load the tall bark, and launch into the main," many people would lay the accent on every second syllable; and thus read, our poetry becomes the most monotonous and ridiculous of all poetry in the world. Let the following line be repeated without its pauses, and it loses its principal beauty:. "Bold, as a hero, as a virgin mild." So in the following: 66 Reason, the card, but passion is the gale." "From storms, a shelter; and from heat, a shade." The harmony is, in all these instances, improved much by the semi-pauses, and at the same time the sense is more clearly understood. Considering the difficulty of reading verse, it is not surprising to find but few who are proficients in this art. A knowledge of the structure of verse, of the several kinds of feet, of the nature and use of the final, the cæsural, and the semicæsural pauses, is essential to a graceful manner of reading poetry; and even this, without good examples and a correct ear, will hardly effect the purpose. It is for this reason that children should not be permitted to read poetry of the more difficult kind, without the best examples for them to imitate. They frequently contract, in early life, either a monotony or a chant, which, when grown into a habit, is seldom eradicated. EXAMPLES FOR PARSING. CHAPTER IX.—PROSODICAL. In the Ninth Chapter, are exemplified the several Figures of Etymology, of Syntax, and of Rhetoric; and by it the pupil may also be exercised in relation to the principles of Punctuation, Utterance, and Versification. LESSON I.—FIGURES OF ETYMOLOGY. APHÆBESIS, PROSTHESIS, SYNCOPE, APOCOPE, PABAGOGE, "Bend 'gainst the steepy hill thy breast, "'Tis mine to teach th' inactive hand to reap "Alas! alas! how impotently true Th' aerial pencil forms the scene anew."—Cawthorne. "Here a deformed monster joy'd to won, "Withouten trump was proclamation made."—Thomson. "The gentle knight, who saw their rueful case, broken your years.' '"'—Id. "Vain tamp'ring has but foster'd his disease; 'Tis desp'rate, and he sleeps the sleep of death."—Cowper. "I have a pain upon my forehead here Why that's with watching; 'twill away again."—Shakspeare. "I'll to the woods, among the happier brutes; Come, let's away; hark! the shrill horn resounds."—Smith. "What prayer and supplication soever be made."—Bible. "By the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you ward."—Ib. LESSON II.—FIGURES OF SYNTAX. ELLIPSIS, PLEONASM, SYLLEPSIS, ENALLAGE, HYPERBATON. "To earn her aid, with fix'd and anxious eye, "Self-love and Reason to one end aspire, Pain [—] their aversion, pleasure [—l their desire ; This [—] taste the honey, and not wound the flower."—Pope "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God."—Jer. xxxi. 18. "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow."—Mat. vi. 28. "Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, a stone."—John i. 42. '' "Come, Philomelus; let us instant go, O'erturn his bow'rs, and lay his castle low."—Thomson. LESSON III.—FIGURES OF RHETORIC. SIMILE, METAPHOR, ALLEGORY, METONYMY, SYNEC DOCHE. "Human greatness is short and transitory, as the odour of incense in the fire."—Dr. Johnson. "Plants raised with tenderness are seldom strong; And, without discipline, the fav'rite child, Like a neglected forester, runs wild."—Cowper. "Carazan gradually lost the inclination to do good, as he acquired the power; and as the hand of time scattered snow upon his head, the freezing influence extended to his bosom."— Hawkesworth. "The tree of knowledge, blasted by disputes, Produces sapless leaves instead of fruits."—Denham. "But what think ye ?—A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.' He answered and said, 'I will not:' but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, 'I go, sir:' and went not. 'Whether of them twain did the will of his father?' They say unto him, 'The first.'"—Matt. xxi. 28. "Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke."—Gray. Of hearing from the life that fills the flood, To that which warbles through the vernal wood."—Pope. "'Twas then his threshold first received a guest."—Parnell. "Flush'd by the spirit of the genial year, Now from the virgin's cheek a fresher bloom Shoots, less and less, the live carnation round."—Thomson. LESSON IV.—FIGURES OF RHETORIC. HYPERBOLE, VISION. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red."—Shakspeare. "Endless tears flow down in streams."—Swift. "Ah Fear! ah, frantic Fear! I see, I see thee near."—Collins. "When lo! far onwards, waving on the wind, LESSON V.—FIGURES OF RHETORIC. APOSTROPHE, PERSONIFICATION, EROTESIS, ECPHONESIS. Still monarchs dream Of universal empire growing up P From universal ruin. Blast the design, Great God of Hosts! nor let thy creatures fall Hail, sacred Freedom, when by Law restrain'd! Seattle. "He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know ?"—Psal. xciv. 10. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil."—Jeremiah xiii. 23. "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men: that I might leave my people, and go from them."—Jeremiah ix. 1. LESSON VI.—FIGURES OF RHETORIC. ANTITHESIS, CLIMAX, IRONY. She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies, Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes; Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods."—Pope. Virtuous actions are necessarily approved by the awakened conscience; and when they are approved, they are commended to practice; and when they are practised, they become easy; and when they become easy, they afford pleasure; and when they afford pleasure, they are done frequently; and when they are done frequently, they are confirmed by habit; and confirmed habit is a kind of second nature. "Some lead a life unblamable and just, Their own dear virtue their unshaken trust; |