Irony employs words in a sense contrary to their literal meaning. It is used with peculiar force in expressing censure or contempt; as, "You are an honest man!" Sometimes also the strongest manner of denying a thing is by confessing it with an indignant, ironical air; and there is often no better way of getting rid of an unreasonable arguer than by ironically agreeing with him.

Exclamation is the effect of some strong emotion, such as surprise, admiration, joy, grief, and the like.

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding

out!"

Vision is peculiar to animated description, and is employed, when, instead of relating something that is past, we use the present tense of the verb, and describe an action or event as actually passing before our eyes.

"Lord Marmion turned,

- well was his need,
And dashed the rowels in his steed,
Like arrow through the arch-way sprung,
The ponderous gate behind him rung:
To pass there was such scanty room,
The bars, descending, razed his plume;
The steed along the drawbridge flies,
Just as it trembled on the rise;
Not lighter does the swallow skim
Along the smooth lake's level brim:

And when Lord Marmion reached his band,
He halts, and turns with clenched hand,
And shout of loud defiance pours,

And shook his gauntlet at the towers."

LESSON II.

SELECT SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS.

Goodness.

To be good is to be happy. Angels

Are happier than men, because they're better.
Guilt is the source of sorrow; 'tis the fiend,
Th' avenging fiend, that follows us behind

With whips and stings: the blest know none of this,
But dwell in everlasting peace of mind,

And find the height of all their heaven is goodness.

A Good Name.

Good name in man and woman

Is the immediate jewel of their souls.

Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something nothing;

'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;

But he who filches from me my good name,

Robs me of that which not enriches him,

And makes me poor

indeed.

The Love of Praise.

The love of praise, howe'er concealed by art,
Reigns more or less, and glows in every heart.
The proud, to gain it, toils on toils endure;
The modest shun it, but to make it sure.

O'er globes and sceptres, now on thrones it swells;
Now, trims the midnight lamps in college cells;
'Tis Tory, Whig; it plots, prays, preaches, pleads,
Harangues in senates, squeaks in masquerades ;

It aids the dancer's heel, the writer's head,
And heaps the plain with mountains of the dead:
Nor ends with life, but nods in sable plumes,
Adorns our hearse, and flatters on our tombs.

Slander.

"Tis Slander,

Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
All corners of the world; kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
This viperous Slander enters.

Contentment.

O blest retirement! friend to life's decline!
Retreat from care - that never must be mine!
How blessed is he, who crowns, in shades like these,
A youth of labor with an age of ease;

Who quits a world where strong temptations try,
And, since 'tis hard to combat, learns to fly.
For him no wretches, born to work and weep,
Explore the mine, or tempt the dangerous deep;
No surly porter stands, in guilty state,
To spurn imploring famine from his gate :
But on he moves to meet his latter end,
Angels around befriending virtue's friend;
Sinks to the grave, with unperceived decay,
While resignation gently slopes the way;
And, all his prospects brightening to the last,
His heaven commences ere the world be past.

The Danger of the Deep.

'Tis pleasant by the cheerful hearth to hear
Of tempests and the dangers of the deep,
And pause at times, and feel that we are safe;
Then listen to the perilous tale again,
And, with an eager and suspended soul,
Woo terror to delight us. But to hear
The roaring of the raging elements;

To know all human skill, all human strength,
Avail not; to look round, and only see
The mountain-wave incumbent, with its weight
Of bursting waters o'er the reeling bark
O God! this is, indeed, a dreadful thing!
And he who hath endured the horror, once,
Of such an hour, doth never hear the storm
Howl round his home, but he remembers it,
And thinks upon the suffering mariner.

A Bird's Nest.

It wins my admiration

To view the structure of that little work

A bird's nest.

Mark it well within, without;

No tool had he that wrought; no knife to cut;

No nail to fix; no bodkin to insert;

No glue to join; his little beak was all;

And yet how nicely finished! What nice hand,
With every implement and means of art,

And twenty years' apprenticeship to boot,
Could make me such another?

True Happiness.

True happiness hath no localities,
No tones provincial, no peculiar garb.

Where duty goes, she goes; with justice goes;
And goes with meekness, charity, and love,
Where'er a tear is dried; a wounded heart
Bound up; a bruised spirit with the dew
Of sympathy anointed; or a pang
Of honest suffering soothed; or injury
Repeated oft, as oft by love forgiven;
Where'er an evil passion is subdued,
Or virtue's feeble embers found; where'er
A sin is heartily abjured and left-
There is a high and holy place, a spot
Of sacred light, a most religious fane,
Where happiness, descending, sits and smiles.

LESSON III.

Effects of Art in changing the Form and Features of the Human Body. CHAMBERS.

ALL nations, even in their infancy, have recourse to such customs and fashions as gratify their feelings of vanity. It is not alone in civilized society that fashion exercises her tyranny; she extends her influence over even the most uninformed of the human race. Savages, almost universally, delight in painting their bodies, in hanging rings through their noses and lips; and the natives of almost all countries, at an early period of their history, have undertaken to change particular parts of their bodies into a happier mould.

In infancy, especially just after birth, all the bones of our frame are soft and pliable, and admit of being compressed into shapes such as were never designed by our Maker. The head, the configuration of which, in early infancy, is changed with great facility, has been subjected to many alterations in