9. Let us (since life can little more supply 10. His years are young, but his experience old; Henry VIII. 12. Forthwith (behold the excellence, the power, Light as the lightning's glimpse, they ran, they flew ; V.-Examples of INTERROGATION, or Questioning. 1. ONE day, when the Moon was under an eclipse, she complained thus to the Sun of the discontinuance of his favours. My dearest friend, said she, Why do you not shine upon me as you used to do? Do I not shine upon thee? said the Sun: I am very sure that I intend it. O no, replies the Moon; but I now perceive the reason. I see that dirty planet the Earth is got between us.-Dodsley's Fables. 2. Searching every kingdom for a man who has the least comfort in life, Where is he to be found? In the royal palace.-What, his Majesty? Yes; especially if he be a despot.-Art of Thinking. 3. You have obliged a man; very well! What would you have more? Is not the consciousness of doing good a sufficient reward?Art of Thinking. 4. A certain passenger at sea had the curiosity to ask the pilot of the vessel, what death his father died of. What death? said the pilot. Why he perished at sea, as my grandfather did before him. And are you not afraid of trusting yourself to an element that has proved thus fatial to your family? Afraid! By no means; Is not your father dead? Yes, but he died in his bed. And why then, returned the pilot, are you not afraid of trusting yourself in your bed?—Art of Thinking. 5. Is it credible, is it possible, that the mighty soul of a Newton should share exactly the same fate with the vilest insect that crawls upon the ground? that, after having laid open the mysteries of nature, and pushed its discoveries almost to the very boundaries of the universe, it should, on a sudden, have all its lights at once extinguished, and sink into everlasting darkness and insensibility?—Spectator. 6. Suppose a youth to have no prospect either of sitting in Parliament, of pleading at the bar, of appearing upon the stage, or in the pulpit: Does it follow that he need bestow no pains in learning to speak properly his native language? Will he never have occasion to read, in a company of his friends, a copy of verses, a passage of a book or newspaper? Must he never read a discourse of Tillotson, or a chapter of the Whole Duty of Man, for the instruction of his children and servants? Cicero justly observes, that address in speaking is highly ornamental, as well as useful, even in private life. The limbs are parts of the body much less noble than the tongue; yet no gentleman grudges a considerable expense of time and money, to have his son taught to use them properly; which is very commendable. And is there no attention to be paid to the use of the tongue, the glory of man?-Burgh. 7. Does greatness secure persons of rank from infirmities, either of body or mind? Will the headach, the gout, or fever, spare a prince any more than a subject? When old age comes to lie heavy upon him, will his engineers relieve him of the load? Can his guards and sentinels, by doubling and trebling their numbers, and their watchfulness, prevent the approach of death? Nay, if jealousy, or even ill-humour, disturb his happiness, will the cringes of his fawning attendants restore his tranquillity? What comfort has he in reflecting (if he can make the reflection) while the cholic, like Prometheus' vulture, tears his bowels, that he is under a canopy of crimson velvet, fringed with gold? When the pangs of the gout or stone extort from him screams of agony, do the titles of Highness or Majesty come sweetly into his ear? If he is agitated with rage, does the sound of Serene, or Most Christian, prevent his staring, reddening, and gnashing his teeth like a madman? Would not a twinge of the toothach, or an affront from an inferior, make the mighty Cæsar forget that he was emperor of the world?-Montaigne. 8. When will you, my countrymen, when will you rouse from your indolence, and bethink yourselves of what is to be done?-When you are forced to it by some fatal disaster? When irresistible necessity drives you? What think you of the disgraces which are already come upon you? Is not the past sufficient to stimulate your activity? Or, do you wait for somewhat more forcible and urgent? How long will you amuse yourselves with inquiring of one another after news, as you ramble idly about the streets? What news so strange ever came to Athens, as that a Macedonian should subdue this state and lord it over Greece?-Demosthenes. 9. What is the blooming tincture of the skin, No:-Those at first th' unwary heart may gain; With piles, with ramparts, and a trench profound? Repel the rage of Priam's single son?-Pope's Homer. VI.-Examples of CLIMAX, or a gradual increase of Sense or Passion. 1. CONSULT your whole nature. Consider yourselves not only as sensitive, but as rational beings; not only as rational, but social; not only as social, but immortal.-Blair. 2. Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate; and whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.-St. Paul. 3. What hope is there remaining of liberty, if whatever is their pleasure, it is lawful for them to do; if what is lawful for them to do, they are able to do; if what they are able to do, they dare do; if what they dare do, they really execute; and if what they execute is no way offensive to you.-Cicero. · 4. Nothing is more pleasant to the fancy, than to enlage itself by degrees in its contemplation of the various proportions which its several objects bear to each other; when it compares the body of a man to the bulk of the whole earth; the earth to the circle it describes round the sun; that circle to the sphere of the fixed stars; the sphere of the fixed stars to the circuit of the whole creation; the whole creation itself, to the infinite space that is every where diffused around it.-Spectator. 5. After we have practised good actions awhile, they become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us we do them frequently; and by frequency of acts, a thing grows into a habit; and a confirmed habit is a second kind of nature; and so far as any thing is natural, so far it is necessary; and we can hardly do otherwise; nay, we do it many times when we do not think of it.-Tillotson. 6. It is pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to excel many others; it is pleasant to grow better, because that is to excel ourselves; it is pleasant to mortify and subdue our lusts, because that is victory; it is pleasant to command our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due order, within the bounds of reason and religion, because that is empire.-Tillotson. 7. Tully has a very beautiful gradation of thoughts to show how amiable virtue is. We love a righteous man, says he, who lives in the remotest parts of the earth, though we are altogether out of the reach of his virtue, and can receive from it no manner of benefit; nay, one who died several ages ago, raises a secret fondness and benevolence for him in our minds, when we read his story; nay, what is still more, one who has been the enemy of our country, provided his wars were regulated by justice and humanity.-Spectator. 8. As trees and plants necessarily arise from seeds, so are you Antony, the seed of this most calamitous war.-You mourn, O Romans, that three of your armies have been slaughtered-they were slaughtered by Antony; you lament the loss of your most illustrious citizens-they were torn from you by Antony; the authority of this order is deeply wounded-it is wounded by Antony; in short, all the calamities we have ever since beheld (and what calamities have we not beheld?) have been entirely owing to Antony. As Helen was at Troy, so the bane, the misery, the destruction of this state is-Antony.-Cicero. 9. -Give me the cup, The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth, 10. At thirty, man suspects himself a fool; Resolves and re-resolves-then dies the same.- -Young. 1. WHAT a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god!-Hamlet. 2. Away! No woman could descend so low. 3. Let mirth go on; let pleasure know no pause, The rich man's insolence, and great man's scorn, Where all these various objects, that but now O misery! What words can sound my grief! 5. Thou speak'st a woman's; hear a warrior's wish. Then shall our foes repent their bold invasion, And roving armies shun the fatal shore.-Trag. of Douglas. 6. Ah! Mercy on my soul! What's that? My old friend's ghost! They say, none but wicked folks walk. I wish I were at the bottom of a coalpit! La! how pale, and how long his face is grown since his death! He never was handsome; and death has improved him very much the wrong way.-Pray, do not come near me! I wished you very well when you were alive.-But I could never abide a dead man cheek by jowl with me.-Ah! Ah! mercy on me! No nearer, pray! If it be only to take your leave of me, that you are come back, I could have excused you the ceremony with all my heart.—Or if you-mercy on us!-No nearer, pray-or if you have wrong'd any body, as you always loved money a little, I give you the word of a frighted Christian, I will pray, as long as you please, for the deliverance and repose of your departed soul. My good, worthy, noble friend, do, pray, disappear, as ever you would wish your old friend, Anselem, to come to his senses again.-Moliere's Blunderer. 7. Who can behold such beauty and be silent! O! I could talk to thee forever; Forever fix and gaze on those dear eyes; For every glance they send darts through my soul!-Orphan, 8. How like a fawning publican he looks! I hate him, for he is a Christian : But more for that in low simplicity He lends out money gratis, and brings down I will feed fat that ancient grudge I bear him. 9. As, in a theatre, the eyes of men, |