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hung up the worlds in empty space! It is He who preserves them in their circles, and impels them in their course!

2. How pure, how dignified should they be, whose origin is celestial! How pure, how dignified should they be, who are taught to look higher than earth; to expect to enjoy the divinest pleasures for evermore, and to shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father'!'

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3. Behold the reverential awe with which the words and the opinions of the upright and conscientious are heard and received! See the wise courting their friendship; the poor applying for their aid; the friendless and forlorn seeking their advice, and the widow and the fatherless craving their protection'!

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RULE V. When the exclamation, in form of a question, is the echo of another question of the same kind, or when it proceeds from wonder or admiration, it always requires the rising inflection.

EXAMPLES.

1. Will you for ever, Athenians, do nothing but walk up and down the city, asking one another, What news'? What news'! Is there any thing more new than to see a man of Macedonia become master of the Athenians, and give laws to all Greece'?

2. What'! might Rome then have been taken, if those men who were at your gates had not wanted courage' for the attempt?-Rome taken when I' was consul!-Of honours I had sufficient of life enough-more than enough.

3. Whither shall I turn'? Wretch that I am'! to what place shall I betake' myself? Shall I go to the capitol'? alas! it is overflowed with my brother's blood! or shall I retire to my house? yet there I behold my mother plunged in misery, weeping and despairing.

4. Plant of celestial seed, if dropped below,
Say in what mortal soil thou deignest to grow:
Fair opening to some court's propitious shine,
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine?
Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield,
Or reaped in iron harvests of the field?

Where grows'! where grows it not`? if vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.

PARENTHESIS.

RULE VI.-A parenthesis must be pronounced in a lower tone of voice than the rest of the sentence, and conclude with the same pause and inflection which terminate the member that immediately precedes it.*

EXAMPLES.

1. Though Fame, who is always the herald of the great, has seldom deigned to transmit the exploits of the lower ranks to posterity', (for it is commonly the fate of those whom fortune has placed in the vale of obscurity to have their noble actions buried in oblivion';) yet, in their verses, the minstrels have preserved many instances of domestic wo and felicity.

2. Uprightness is a habit, and, like all other habits, gains strength by time and exercise. If, then, we exercise' upright principles, (and we cannot have them unless we exercise' them,) they must be perpetually on the increase.

3. Sir Andrew Freeport's notions of trade are noble and generous', and (as every rich man has usually some sly way of jesting, which would make no great figure were he not' a great man,) he calls the sea the British Common.

Note 1.-The end of a parenthesis must have the falling inflection, when it terminates with an emphatical word.

EXAMPLE.

Had I, when speaking in the assembly, been absolute and independent master of affairs, then your other speakers might call me to account. But if ye were ever present, if ye were all in general invited to propose your sentiments, if ye were all agreed that the measures then suggested were really the best; if you, Eschines, in particular, were thus persuaded, (and it was no partial affection for me, that prompted you to give me up the hopes, the applause, the honours, which attended that course I then advised, but the superior force of truth, and your utter inability to point out any more eligible' course ;) if this was the case, I say, is it not highly cruel and unjust to arraign those measures now, when you could not ther propose any better?

Note 2.-When the parenthesis is long it may be pronounced with a degree of monotone or sameness of voice, in order to distinguish it from the

rest of the sentence.

A parenthesis must also be pronounced a degree quicker than the rest of the sentence; a pause too must be made both before and after it, proportioned in length to the more intimate or remote connexion which it has with the rest of the sentence.

EXAMPLE.

Since then every sort of good which is immediately of importance to happiness, must be perceived by some immediate power or sense, antecedent to any opinions or reasoning (for it is the business of reason to compare the several sorts of good perceived by the several senses, and to find out the proper means for obtaining them), we must therefore carefully inquire into the several sublimer perceptive powers or senses; since it is by them we best discover what state or course of life best answers the intention of God and nature, and wherein true happiness consists.

Note 3.-The small intervening members, said I, says he, continued they, &c. follow the inflection and tone of the member which precedes them, in a higher and feebler tone of voice.

EXAMPLE.

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.

EXERCISES on the INTERROGATION, EXCLAMATION, and PARENTHESIS.

1. Would you do your homage the most agreeable way? Would you render the most acceptable of services? offer unto God thanksgiving.

2. What shadow can be more vain than the life of a great part of mankind? Of all that eager and bustling crowd we behold on earth, how few discover the path of true happiness? How few can we find, whose activity has not been misemployed, and whose course terminates not in confessions of disappointments ?

3. What are the scenes of nature that elevate the mind in the highest degree, and produce the sublime sensation? Not the gay landscape, the flowery field, or the flourishing city; but the hoary mountain, and the solitary lake; the aged forest, and the torrent falling over the rock.

4. Is there any one who will seriously maintain, that the taste of a Hottentot or a Laplander is as delicate and as correct as that of a Longinus or an Addison? or, that he can be charged with no defect or incapacity, who thinks a common news-writer as excellent an historian as Tacitus? 1

5. That strong hyperbolical manner which we have long been accustomed to call the Oriental manner of poetry (because some of the earliest poetical productions came to us from the East) is in truth no more Oriental than Occidental; it is characteristical of an age rather than of a country; and belongs, in some measure, to all nations at that period which first gives rise to music and to song.

6. The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find,)
Is not to act or think beyond mankind.

7. Where thy true treasure? Gold says, "not in me ;"
And, "not in me," the diamond. Gold is poor.

8. All this dread order break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm !-O madness! pride! impiety!

9. O the dark days of vanity! while here,

How tasteless! and how terrible, when gone!
Gone? they ne'er go: when past, they haunt us still.

10. Whatever is, is right. This world, 'tis true,
Was made for Cæsar,-but for Titus too.

And which more blest? who chained his country, say,
Or he whose virtue sighed to lose a day?

SERIES.

The word SERIES is here used to denote an enumeration of particulars.

A Commencing series is that which begins a sentence, but does not end it.

A Concluding series is that which ends a sentence, whether it begins it or not.

The series, whose members consist of single words, is called a simple series.

The series, whose members consist of two or more words, is called a compound series.

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12′ 3′4

1'2' 3' 4' 5'

1'2'3' 4' 5' 6'

-1'2' 3' 4′ 5′ 6' 7'

1'2' 3' 4' 5' 6' 7' 8'

9

1'2' 3' 4' 5' 6' 7' 8' 9'

[blocks in formation]

91'2'3' 4' 5' 6' 7' 8' 9'

10.1'2' 3' 4' 5' 6' 7' 8' 9' 10' | 101' 2' 3' 4' 5' 6' 7' 8' 9' 10'

SIMPLE COMMENCING SERIES

OF 2 MEMBERS.-RULE. 1', 2'.*-Dependence' and obedience' belong to youth.

3 MEMBERS.t-RULE. 1, 2, 3'.-The young', the healthy' and the prosperous', should not presume on their advantages.‡

4 MEMBERS.-RULE. 1', 2, 3, 4'.-Humanity', justice', generosity', and public spirit', are the qualities most useful to others.

5 MEMBERS. RULE. 1', 2, 3, 4, 5'.-The presence', knowledge', power', wisdom', and goodness' of God, must all be unbounded.

6 Members.—Rule. l', 2′, 3', 4', 5', 6'.—Desire', aversion', rage', love', hope', and fear', are drawn in miniature upon the stage.

7 MEMBERS.-RULE. 1', 2′, 3′, 4', 5', 6', 7'.-Sophocles', Euripides', Pindar', Thucydides', Demosthenes', Phidias', Apelles', were the contemporaries of Socrates or of Plato.

8 MEMBERS.-Rule. 1', 2′, 3′, 4′, 5', 6', 7', 8′.—Wine', beauty', music', pomp', study', diversion', business', wisdom', are but poor expedients to heave off the insupportable load of an hour from the heart of man; the load of an hour from the heir of an eternity.

* That is the falling inflection takes place on the first member, and the rising on the second."

In a simple commencing series of three members, the first must be pronounced in a somewhat lower tone than the second.

The noun, when attended by the article, or conjunction, is considered in the series as a single word.

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