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cate. But still a predominancy of one or other quality in the mixture is often visible. The power of delicacy is chiefly seen in discerning the true' merit of a work; the power of correctness, in rejecting false pretensions to merit. Delicacy leans more to feeling; correctness more to reason and judgment. The former is more the gift of nature'; the latter, more the product of culture and art. Among the ancient critics, Longinus possessed most delicacy'; Aristotle, most correctness. Among the moderns, Mr Addison is a high example of delicate' taste; Dean Swift, had he written on the subject of criticism, would perhaps have afforded the example of a correct one.

CONCESSIVE MEMBER.

RULE X.-At the end of a concession the rising inflection takes place.

EXAMPLES.

1. Reason, eloquence, and every art which ever has been studied among mankind, may be abused, and may prove dangerous in the hands of bad' men; but it were perfectly childish to contend, that, upon this account, they ought to be abolished. 2. One may be a speaker, both of much reputation and much influence, in the calm argumentative' manner. To attain the pathetic, and the sublime of oratory, requires those strong sensibilities of mind, and that high power of expression, which are given to few.

3. To Bourdaloue, the French critics attribute more solidity and close reasoning; to Massillon, a more pleasing and engaging manner. Bourdaloue is indeed a great reasoner, and inculcates his doctrines with much zeal, piety, and earnestness'; but his style is verbose, he is disagreeably full of quotations from the Fathers, and he wants imagination.

EXERCISES on the preceding RULES.

1. By deferring our repentance, we accumulate our sorrows.

2. As, while hope remains, there can be no full and positive misery; so, while fear is yet alive, happiness is incomplete.

3. Human affairs are in continual motion and fluctuation, altering their appearance every moment, and passing into some new forms.

4. As you value the approbation of Heaven, or the esteem of the world, cultivate the love of truth; in all your proceedings be direct and consistent.

5. By a multiplicity of words, the sentiments are not set off and acconimodated; but, like David equipped in Saul's armour, they are encumbered and oppressed.

6. Though it may be true, that every individual, in his own breast, naturally prefers himself to all mankind, yet he dares not look mankind in the face, and avow that he acts according to this principle.

7. If our language, by reason of the simple arrangement of its words, possesses less harmony, less beauty, and less force, than the Greek or La tin; it is, however, in its meaning, more obvious and plain.

8. Whether we consider poetry in particular, and discourse in general, as imitative or descriptive; it is evident, that their whole power in recalling the impressions of real objects, is derived from the significancy of words.

9. Were there no bad men in the world, to vex and distress the good, the good might appear in the light of harmless innocence; but they could have no opportunity of displaying fidelity, magnanimity, patience, and fortitude.

10. Though I would have you consider the present life as a state of probation, and the future as the certain rectifier and recorder of all the good and evil committed here; yet live innocently, live honestly, and, if possible, apart of that interesting consideration.

11. It is not by starts of application, or by a few years' preparation of study afterwards discontinued, that eminence can be attained. No; it can be attained only by means of regular industry, grown up into a habit, and ready to be exerted on every occasion that calls for industry.

12. We blame the excessive fondness and anxiety of a parent, as something which may, in the end, prove hurtful to the child, and which, in the mean time, is excessively inconvenient to the parent; but we easily pardon it, and never regard it with hatred and detestation.

13. The character of Demosthenes is vigour and austerity; that of Cicero is gentleness and insinuation. In the one, you find more manliness; in the other, more ornament. The one is more harsh, but more spirited and cogent; the other, more agreeable, but withal, looser and weaker.

14. Homer was the greater genius; Virgil the better artist: in the one, we most admire the man; in the other, the work. Homer hurries us with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion; Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a sudden overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a constant stream.-And when we look upon their machines, Homer seems, like his own Jupiter in his terrors, shaking Olympus, scattering the lightnings, and firing the heavens; Virgil, like the same power in his benevolence, counselling with the gods, laying plans for empires, and ordering his whole creation.

INTERROGATION.*

RULE I-Questions asked by pronouns or adverbs, end with the falling inflection.

EXAMPLES.

1. Who continually supports and governs this stupendous system? Who preserves ten thousand times ten thousand worlds in perpetual harmony'? Who enables them always to observe such time, and obey such laws, as are most exquisitely adapted for the perfection of the wondrous whole'? They cannot preserve and direct themselves; for they were created, and must, therefore, be dependent. How, then, can they be so actuated and directed, but by the unceasing energy of the Great Supreme'?

2. Ah! why will kings forget that they are men,
And men that they are brethren'? Why delight
In human' sacrifice? Why burst the ties

Of Nature, that should knit their souls together
In one soft bond of amity and love`?

Note 1.-Interrogative sentences, consisting of members in a series necessarily depending on each other for sense, must be pronounced according to the rule which relates to the series of which they are composed.

EXAMPLE.

What can be more important and interesting than an inquiry into the existence', attributes', providence', and moral government' of God?

RULE II-Questions asked by verbs require the rising inflection.+

EXAMPLES.

1. Can the soldier, when he girdeth on his armour, boast like him that putteth it off'? Can the merchant predict that the speculation, on which he has entered, will be infallibly crowned with success'? Can even the husbandman, who has the promise of God that seed-time and harvest shall not fail, look forward with assured confidence to the expected increase of his fields'? In these and in all similar cases, our resolution to act can be founded on probability alone.

*When the last words, in this species of interrogation, happen to be emphatical, they must be pronounced with a considerable degree of force and loudness.

+ When the question is very long, however, or concludes a paragraph, the falling instead of the rising inflection takes place.

2. Avarus has long been ardently endeavouring to fill his chest and lo! it is now full. Is he happy'? Does he use' it? Does he gratefully think of the Giver' of all good things? Does he distribute to the poor? Alas! these interests have no place in his breast.

3. Yet say, should tyrants learn at last to feel, And the loud din of battle cease to bray;

Would death be foiled'? Would health, and strength, and youth' Defy his power? Has he no arts in store,

No other shafts save those of war'? Alas!

Even in the smile of peace, that smile which sheds
A heavenly sunshine o'er the soul, there basks
That serpent Luxury.

RULE III-When interrogative sentences connected by the disjunctive or, expressed or understood, succeed each other, the first end with the rising and the rest with the falling inflection.*

EXAMPLES.

1. Does God, after having made his creatures, take no further' care of them? Has he left them to blind fate or undirected chance'? Has he forsaken the works of his own hands'? Or does he always graciously preserve, and keep, and guide' them?

2. Should these credulous infidels after all be in the right, and this pretended revelation be all a fable, from believing it what harm' could ensue? Would it render princes more tyrannical, or subjects more ungovernable'? the rich more insolent, or the poor more disorderly'? Would it make worse parents, or children'; husbands, or wives'; masters, or servants'; friends, or neighbours'? or would it not make men more virtuous, and, consequently, more happy' in every situation?

3. Is the goodness', or wisdom', of the Divine Being, more manifested in this his proceeding?

4. Shall we in your person crown' the author of the public calamities, or shall we destroy' him?

Note 2.-An interrogative sentence, consisting of a variety of members depending on each other for sense, may have the inflection common to other sentences, provided the last member has that inflection which distinguishes the species of interrogation to which it belongs.

EXAMPLE.

Can we believe a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progress of improvement', and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after

* When or is used conjunctively the inflections are not regulated by it.

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