When thro' creation's vaft expanfe
The last dread thunders roll,
Untune the concord of the fpheres,
And shake the rifing foul,

Preferve the proper effect of the three last lines, by using a tone of confiderable dignity. Keep up your voice at the clofe of the laft line, the period not being finished.

Unmov'd, may'ft thou the final storm

Of jarring worlds furvey,

That ushers in the glad ferene

Of everlasting day.

It will be now feen by the scholar how much may be made of thefe verfes, and indeed of moft others, if read with propriety. Poetry is very frequently considered as dull and infipid by a hearer, when the fault lies more on the fide of the reader than in the production itself.

The following DESCRIPTION OF A SEA STORM, taken from ADRIANO, or THE FIRST OF JUNE, written by Dr. HURDIS, is particularly well adapted to reading, as it abounds with fituations and fentiments very different from each other, and thereby producing that variety which, when properly managed, is ever fure to afford confiderable pleasure to a hearer. You muft begin it with looks expreffive of the utmoft con

tent

tent and fatisfaction, with a fmooth tone and an eafy and unreftrained utterance. This prevents the hearer from having the fmalleft expectation of what is to follow.

LO! from the fhore they launch'd,

Bound to no port, but deftin'd on a cruise,

A morning's cruife for fifh. Pleas'd was the youth;
With utmoft joy he faw the wood recede,
Beheld his cottage dwindled to a speck,
Obferv'd the fuow-white cliffs to right and left
Unfolding their wide barrier to his view,
And felt the boat bound gaily o'er the waves,
Light as a cork. He took the helm, rejoic'd,
And right before the wind held on his course
Unheeding. 'Twas in vain his bufy friends
Advis'd a diff'rent course, to gain with ease
The shore he left. He carelessly went on,
And never dream'd of danger and delay
Never experienc'd.

Now make a confiderable paufe, and fhow by your looks that some alteration is going to take place. You must throw off all that appearance of content we advised at the beginning, and affume a manner portentous of fomething unpleasant.

Faft into the waves

Sinks the far-distant shore. The lofty cliff
Stoops to the water, and his hoary brow
At ev'ry wave feems buried in the flood.

While you pause here, let your brow be contracted, which prepares the hearer for what follows.

And now the gloomy clouds collect. A storm
"Comes mutt'ring o'er the deep, and hides the fun.
Hufh'd is the breeze, and the high-lifted wave,
Portending speedy danger, to the fore

In lurid filence rolls. In tenfold gloom

The ftormy fouth is wrapt, and his grim frown
Imparts unufual horror to the deep.

The preceding lines in a low, gloomy tone, to preferve the effect of the scene. The next line to be spoken with fome little of the pathos.

Now to the fhore too late young Gilbert turns.
The breeze is funk, and o'er the mounting waves
Labours the bark in vain. To the ftout oar
The fisher and his fon repair, and pull,
Alarm'd for fafety, till their flowing brows
Trickle with dew. And oft the anxious youth
Looks back amaz'd, and fees the lightning play,
And hears the thunder, and beholds a fea
Ready to burft upon him.

Strive, by every means in your power, to bring the very picture itself before the mind's eye of the hearer. In the endeavour, trifling things must be attended to. A look directed as if viewing behind you afar off the lightnings playing, in reading the line beginning "Looks back amaz'd," &c. will, in part, effect this." Hears the

thun

thunder," with a ftrong and fwelling tone. Your voice ought now to melt into the most affecting pathetic.

Here

Oft he thinks

Of Anna and Sophia, and of thee,
Much-lov'd Maria, and thy aged fire,
Never perhaps to walk again with you,
To hear you speak, to live upon your fmiles.
Ye hapless pair, what shall become of you,
No brother to defend you, and no father?

you ceafe with the pathetic, and re-affume the fame low and gloomy tone you made ufe of in reading the foregoing defcription of the beginning of the ftorm, but which, as it increases, must be given with greater energy of expreffion. Look up, in fpeaking the next fen

tence.

But fast the storm increafes. The strong flash
Inceffant gleams upon the curling wave.
Round his dark throne, in awful majesty,
The thunder marches; his imperious roar
Shakes the proud arch of heav'n.

The laft period with great dignity of voice and look.

And now the show'r

Begins to drop, and the unfteady guft

Sweeps to the shore, and ftoops the flying boat
Ev'n to the brink. Small diftance then, my friends,
'Twixt life and death; a mere hair's-breadth. And

yet,

Far,

Far, very far, appears the wifh'd-for port.
And lo! between yon rocks now feen, now loft,
Buried in foam, and high the milky furge
Rolls its proud cataract along the fshore,
Access denying. To the frowning cliff
Approach not.

Look as if at the cliff itself.

Mark the strong recoiling wave,

Ev'n to the base of the high precipice
It plunges headlong, and the ftedfaft hill
Wears with eternal battery. No bark
Of forty times your ftrength in fuch a fea

Could live a moment. 'Twere enough to wreck-
A British navy, and her ftouteft oak
Shiver to atoms.

FINIS.