diamond that glitters on a lady's ring, is really a vast globe, like the sun in size and in glory; no less spacious, no less luminous, than the radiant source of the day : so that every star is not barely a world, but the centre of a magnificent system; has a retinue of worlds irradiated by its beams, and revolving round its attractive influence,-all which are lost to our sight in unmeasurable wilds of ether.

séa;

Exceptions in poetry. 1. The fisher is out on the sunny

And the reindeer bounds o'er the pasture frée;
And the pine has a fringe of softer gréen,
And the moss looks bright, where my foot hath

bèen. 2. From the streams and founts I have loos'd the

chain;
They are sweeping on to the silvery main,
They are flashing down from the mountain brows,
They are flinging spray o'er the forest boughs,
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves;
And the earth resounds with the joy of waves !

Concluding series : 1. The spirit of true religion breathes géntleness and affability.

2. Industry is the law of our being: it is the demand of nature, of reason, and of God.

3. You have a friend continually at hand, to pity, to support, to defénd, and to reliève you.

4. The characteristics of chivalry, were valour, humanity, courtesy, justice, and honour.

5. Mankind are besieged by war, famine, pestilence, volcano, storm, and fire.

6. A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends resolutely, and continues a friend unchangeably.

7. True gentleness teaches us to bear one another's burdens, to rejoice with those who rejoice, to weep with those who weep, to please every one his neighbour for his good, to be kind and tender-hearted, to be pitiful and courteous, to support the weak, and to be patient towards all men.

Exceptions, in poetry, to the prevalence of the fall

ing inflection : 1. In the hues of its grandeur sublimely it stood

O'er the rivér, the village, the field, and the wood. 2.

-About me round I saw,
Hill, dále, and shady woods, and sunny pláins,

And liquid lapse of murmuring streams. 3. Their glittering tents he pass'd, and now is come

Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh,
And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm;

A wilderness of sweets. 4.

Sudden mind arose
In Adam not to let the occasion pass
Given him by this great conference, to know
Of things above this world, and of their being
Who dwell in heaven, whose excellence he saw
Transcend his own so far; whose radiant forms,
Divine effulgence; whose high power so far
Exceeded human.

The answer to a question :
1. Hamlet. Hold you the watch to-night?

AU.* We do, my lord.
Ham. Arm'd, say you?
AU. Arm'd, my lord.
Ham. From top to toe?
All. My lord, from head to foot.
Ham. And fix'd his eyes upon you?
Hor. Most constantly.
Ham. Staid it long?
Hor. While one, with moderate haste, might

tell a hundred.

* Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus.

2. Hamlet. Good sir, whose powers are these?

Captain. They are of Norway, sir.
Ham. How purpos'd sir,

I pray you?
Cap. Against some part of Poland.
Ham. Who

Commands them, sir? Cap. The nephew of old Norway, Fortinbras. 3.

Show men dutiful?
Why so didst thou: Seem they grave and learned?
Why so didst thou: Come they of noble family!
Why so didst thou: Seem they religious ?
Why so didst thou.
Latter member of an antithesis of equal force ins

its constituent parts :
1. Says he this in jést or in eàmest.
2. Is it the thunder's solemn sound

That mutters deep and dréad,
Or echoes from the groaning ground,

The warrior's measur'd trèad ?
Is it the lightning's quivering glance,

That from the thicket streams,
Or do they flash on spear and lance,

The sun's retiring beams? 3. Cæsar was celebrated for his great bounty and generosity; Cato for his unsullied integrity: the former became renowned by his humanity and compassion; an austere severity heightened the dignity of the latter. Cæsar was admired for an easy, yielding temper; Cato for his immovable firmness.

4. The power of delicacy is chiefly seen in discerning the true merit of a work; the power of correctness, in rejecting false pretensions to merit. Delicacy leans more to feeling; correctness more to reason and judgment. The former is more the gift of nature; the latter, more the product of culture and art.

5. Homer was the greater genius; Virgil, the better artist: in the one we more admire the man; in the other,

the work. Homer hurries us with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion; Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a sudden overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a constant stream.

EXERCISES ON THE RISING INFLECTION.

RULE I.

Questions which may be answered by Yes or No. 1.

Is this then worst?
Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms ?
2. -while they sit contriving, shall the rest,

Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait
The signal to ascend, sit lingering here,
Heaven's fugitives; and for their dwelling-place
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame,
The prison of his tyranny who reigns

By our delay? 3. 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 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?

4. Can we believe that a thinking being, which is in a perpetual progress of improvements, and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of its Creator, and made a few discoveries of His infinite goodness, wisdom, and power, must perish at its first setting out, and in the very beginning of its inquiries ? *

*In long sentences of the interrogatory form, the tone becomes rapid and slight in the utterance of the subordinate parts of the question. The reading falls, in such passages, into the manner of parenthesis. This modulation of voice takes place in the above example, at the word 'after,' and continues to the pause at power.

Negative, or less forcible, part of an antithesis :

See Table of Contrasted Inflections.

Condition, supposition, concession : 1. If the parts of time were not variously coloured, we should never discern their departure or succession. If one hour were like another; if the passage of the sun did not show that the day is wasting; if the change of seasons did not impress upon us the flight of the year, quantities of duration, equal to days and years, would glide unobserved.

2. Banish géntleness from the earth; suppose the world to be filled with none but harsh and conténtious spirits; and what sort of society would remain ?the solitude of the desert were preferable to it.

3. This, though it may make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve.

Exceptions by emphasis : 1. If there were no other effects of such appearances of nature upon our minds, they would teach us humility,-and with it they would teach us charity.

2. If the sun himself which enlightens this part of creation were extinguished, and all the host of planetary worlds which move about him were annihilated; they would not be missed by an eye that could take in the whole compass of nature, any more than a grain of sand upon the sea-shore.

3. A young lady may excel in speaking French and Italian; may repeat a few passages from a volume of extracts; play like a professor, and sing like a siren; have her dressing-room decorated with her own drawing-table, stands, flower-pots, screens, and cabinets; nay, she may dance like Sempronia herself; and yet we shall insist that she may have been very badly educated.

Comparison : 1. As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.