the poor more disorderly? Would it make worse parents-or children, - husbands- or wives, - masters - or servants; - friends-or neighbors? or- would it not make men more virtuous, - and consequently more happy - in every situation?

43. 12th Stage. COMPLEMENTAL CLAUSES, introduced by prepositions, pronouns, or other parts of speech, may be united with the principal words to which they relate, when they are necessary to the expression of sense :

as,

"Child of the sun-pursue thy rapturous flightMingling with her thou lov'st—in fields of light." It was not so much what you said—as your manner of saying it-that struck me."

EXERCISE.

It is a universal law of nature - that disuse - dimishes the capability of things, - while exercise - increases it. The seldomer our thoughts are communicated - the less communicable do they become; - the seldomer our sympathies are awakened - the less ready are they to wake; - and - if social affections be not stirred by social intercourse, like a neglected fire, - they smoulder away, - and consign our hearts to coldness.

IX. EMPHATICAL DISJUNCTIONS.

44. Words which in ordinary utterance are collocated into one group, will be separated in EMPHATIC pronunciation. Pausing is one of the chief means of expressing emphasis. The hearer's attention is excited, and curiosity awakened, for the word which the speaker stops to introduce; especially when the syntactical construction is such as to admit of no break in ordinary delivery. Thus, between the pronoun and the verb; the auxiliary and the principal verb; the verb and its object or complement; the article, prepositon, or adjective, and the noun, &c.; as in the following passages.

66

"O, sir, your - honesty - is - remarkable.”

"Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself

Are much condemned to have - an - itching palm!"
"Shall I bend low, and, in a bondman's key,
With bated breath and - whispering humbleness,
Say this--

'Fair sir! you - spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurned me, such a day; another time
You called me - - dog; and for these-courtesies,
I'll - lend you thus much monies.'"

"If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his - humility?-Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his - sufferance be, by Christian - example?-Why - revenge!"

• Hear him, my lord; he's - wondrous condescending;
Mark the - humility - of- shepherd Norval."

X. STACCATO INFLEXIONS.

45. In strong emotion, each accent may take an inflexion in the same direction; or every syllable may be separately and similarly inflected. This staccato pronunciation, is especially used in exclamatory SURPRISE OF INTERROGATION; as in the following passages :

·-

Gone to swear a peace?"

Dost thou stand by the tombs of the glorious dead?”

.. And fear not to say

that their son hath fled?”

Away! he is lying by lance and shield !”

Point me the path to his battle-field!"

XI. PASSAGES FOR EXERCISE IN GRAMMATICAL
GROUPING.

46. The Mechanism, and Expressiveness of the vocal movements or inflexions, and their application to verbal and clausular accents, have now been explained and illustrated. Let the student perfectly master these principles, and, by exercise, acquire the power to pronounce spontaneously any accentual combination of syllables, in each of the MODES, both of SIMPLE and COMPOUND inflexion, before proceeding further. He who is ambitious of excellence in Elocution must thus patiently cultivate his voice to execute, and his car to appreciate, separately, the fundamental requisites of correct delivery, before he attempts to apply them in Expressive Reading.

47. The practice of clausular reading, with proper accentuation and with varied well-defined inflexions accompanying every utterance, will be found speedily and perfectly effectual in imparting FLEXIBILITY to the voice,

and in removing habits of MONOTONY, or other inexpressive mannerism in Reading. The following selection of short passages in Prose and Poetry furnishes material for

exercise.

AN ANCIENT TEMPLE.-Blair.

See yonder hallowed fane! the pious work

Of names once famed, now dubious or forgot,
And buried midst the wreck of things that were:
There lie interred the more illustrious dead.
The wind is up: hark! how it howls! Methinks.

Till now, I never heard a sound so dreary.

Doors creak, and windows clap, and night's foul bird,
Rook'd in the spire, screams loud; the gloomy aisles,

Black plastered, and hung round with shreds of scutcheons.
And tattered coats of arms, send back the sound,
Laden with heavier airs, from the low vaults,-
The mansions of the dead.

ANIMAL ENJOYMENT.-Cowper.

The heart is hard in nature, and unfit
For human fellowship, as being void
Of sympathy, and therefore dead alike

To love and friendship both; that is not pleased
With sight of animals enjoying life,

Nor feels their happiness augment his own.

ANGER.

Rea

I have remarked that the declamations of angry men make little impression on those who are not themselves angry. sonable men love reason.

CHEERFULNESS.

A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured; it will lighten sickness, poverty, and affliction; convert ignorance into an amiable simplicity, and render deformity itself agreeable.

CONSTANCY IN VIRTUE.

The bird let loose in Eastern skies,
When hastening fondly home,
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, or flies

Where idle wanderers roam;

But high she shoots, through air and light,
Above all low delay,

Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,

Or shadow dims her way.

So grant me. God, from every stain

Of sinful passion free,

Aloft through virtue's purer air,

To steer my course to Thee?

No sin to cloud, no lure to stay
My soul, as home she springs;
Thy sunshine on her joyful way,
Thy freedom on her wings.

CONTENTMENT.

When you are rich, praise God for his abundant bounty; when poor, thank Him for keeping you from the temptations of prosperity; when you are at ease. glorify Him for his merciful kindness; and when beset with affliction and pain, offer thanksgiving for his merciful remindings that you are approaching your end.

CRITICS.-Emerson.

The eye of a critic is often, like a microscope, made so very fine and nice that it discovers the atoms and minutest particles, but cannot comprehend the whole, so as to compare the parts, and perceive at once the general harmony.

DESIRE OF DISTINCTION.

The desire of distinction in the world is a commendable quality when it excites men to the performance of illustrious actions; but this ambition is so seldom directed to its proper end, and is so little scrupulous in the choice of the means which it employs for the accomplishment of its purpose, that it frequently ruins the morals of those who are actuated by it: and thus, for the pleasure of being lifted up for a moment above the common level of mankind, many a man has forfeited his character with the wise and good, and inflicted wounds on his conscience, which the balm of flattering dependants can never heal.

DESIRES UNLIMITED.

The desires of man increase with his acquisitions; every step that he advances brings something within his view that he did not see before, and which, as soon as he sees it, he begins to want. Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we supplied with every thing that nature can demand, than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites.

EMPLOYMENT. - Baillie.

The bliss, e'en of a moment, still is bliss,

What! would'st thou, of her dew-drops spill the thorn,
Because her glory cannot last till noon?

Or still the lightsome gambols of the colt,

Whose neck to-morrow's yoke will gall? Fie on't!
If this be wise, 'tis cruel.

FORGIVENESS. -Lady E. Carew.

The fairest action of our human life
Is scorning to revenge an injury;
For who forgives, without a further strife,
His adversary's heart to him doth tie.

HASTY ANGER.- C. Johnson.

Those hearts that start at once into a blaze,
And open all their rage, like summer storms
At once discharg'd, grow cool again as fast,
And calm.

HUMAN LIFE.- · Emerson.

The life of man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger circles, and that without end.

HUMILITY. Gill.

Generally speaking, those who have the most grace, and the greatest gifts, and are of the greatest usefulness, are the most humble, and think the most meanly of themselves. So those boughs and branches of trees which are most richly laden with fruit, bend downward, and hang lowest.

Though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to a man, but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.

INNOCENCE.

Whence learned she this? O she was innocent!
And to be innocent is Nature's wisdom!
The fledge-dove knows the prowlers of the air,
Feared soon as seen, and flutters back to shelter.
And the young steed recoils upon his haunches,
The never-yet-seen adder's hiss first heard.
O surer than suspicion's hundred eyes
Is that fine sense which, to the pure in heart,
By mere oppugnancy of their own goodness
Reveals the approach of evil.

LIBERALITY.— Christian Philosophy.

What should be the model of the Christian's liberality? Even the rich perpetual beneficence of God. Observe the many emblems of this spirit which Nature furnishes. How freely does

the ocean yield its waters to the empty clouds; and they, again, how richly do they pour their fertilizing drops, to cheer and bless the thirsty earth! The sun, the centre, and the glory of the solar system, the material spirit of its light and joy, how plenteously his golden beams are scattered through our world! The earth, though cursed by man's transgression, yet yieldeth to the sower oftentimes a hundred-fold. The air, the element of life, pervadeth every place, that men may breathe it. The orchard, with its laden boughs of cooling fruits, presents, with yearly constancy, its gifts to men. The avaricious wretch, and sordid selfling, may blush, indeed. to contemplate these emblems of beneficence.