EXERCISES ON THE PRECEDING RULES. 1. By deferring our repentance, we accumulate our sorrows. 2. As, while hope remains, there can be no full and positive misery; so, while fear is yet alive, happiness is incomplete. 3. Human affairs are in continual motion and fluctuation, altering their appearance every moment, and passing into some new forms. 4. As you value the approbation of heaven, or the esteem of the world, cultivate the love of truth; in all your proceedings be direct and consistent. 5. By a multiplicity of words, the sentiments are not set off and accommodated; but, like David equipped in Saul's armour, they are encumbered and oppressed. 6. Though it may be true, that every individual, in his own breast naturally prefers himself to all mankind, yet he dares not look mankind in the face, and avow that he acts according to this principle. 7. If our language, by reason of the simple arrangement of its words, possesses less harmony, less beauty, and less force, than the Greek or Latin; it is, however, in its meaning, more obvious and plain. 8. Whether we consider poetry in particular, and discourse in general, as imitative, or descriptive; it is evident, that their whole power in recalling the impressions of real objects, is derived from the significancy of words. 9. Were there no bad men in the world, to vex and distress the good, the good might appear in the light of harmless innocence; but they could have no opportunity of displaying fidelity, magnanimity, patience, and fortitude. 10. Though I would have you consider the present life as a state of probation, and the future as the certain rectifier and recorder of all the good and evil committed here; yet live innocently, live honestly, and, if possible, apart of that interesting consideration. 11. It is not by starts of application, or by a few years' preparation of study afterward discontinued, that eminence can be attained. No; it can be attained only by means of regular industry, grown up into a habit, and ready to be exerted on every occasion that calls for industry. 12. We blame the excessive fondness and anxiety of a parent, as something which may, in the end, prove hurtful to the child, and which, in the mean time, is excessively inconvenient to the parent; but we easily pardon it, and never regard it with hatred and detestation. 13. The character of Demosthenes is vigour and austerity; that of Cicero is gentleness and insinuation. In the one you find more man'iness; in the other, more ornament. The one is more harsh, but more spirited and cogent; the other more agreeable, but withal, looser and weaker. 14. Homer was the greater genius; Virgil the better artist: in the one, we most admire the man; in the other, the work. Homer hurries as 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. And when we look upon their machines, Homer seems, like his own Jupiter in his terror, shaking Olympus, scattering the lightnings, and firing the heavens; Virgil, like the same power in his benevolence, counselling with the gods, laying plans for empires, and ordering his whole creation. INTERROGATION.* RULE 1.-Questions asked by pronouns or adverbs, and with the falling inflection. EXAMPLES. 1. Who continually supports and governs this stupendous system? Who preserves ten thousand times ten thousand worlds in perpetual harmony? Who enables them always to observe such times, and obey such laws, as are most exquisitely adapted for the perfection of the wondrous whole? They cannot preserve and direct themselves; for they were created, and must, therefore, be dependent. How, then, can they be so actuated and directed but by the unceasing energy of the great Supreme'? 2. Ah! why will kings forget that they are men, Note 1.-Interrogative sentences, consisting of members in a series necessarily depending on each other for sense, must be pronounced according to the rule which relates to the series of which they are composed. EXAMPLE. What can be more important and interesting than an inquiry into he existence', attributes', providence', and moral government of God? * When the last words, in this species of interrogation, happen to be emphatical, they must be pronounced with a considerable degree of force and loudness. RULE II.-Questions asked by verbs require the ricing inflection.* EXAMPLES. 1. Can the soldier, when he girdeth on his armour, boast like him that putteth it off"? Can the merchant predict that the speculation, on which he has entered, will be infallibly crowned with success'? Can even the husbandman, who has the promise of God that seed-time and harvest shall not fail, look forward with assured confidence to the expected increase of his fields'? In these, and in all similar cases, our resolution to act can be founded on probability alone. 2. Avarus has long been ardently endeavouring to fill his chest and lo! it is now full. Is he happy'? Does he use' it? Does he gratefully think of the Giver' of all good things? Does he distribute to the poor'? Alas! these interests have no place in his breast. 3. Yet say, should tyrants learn at last to feel, And the loud din of battle cease to bray; Would death be foiled'? Would health, and strength, and youth' Defy his power? Has he no arts in store, No other shafts save those of war'? Alas! Even in the smile of peace, that smile which sheds RULE III.-When interrogative sentences connected by the disjunctive or, expressed or understood, succeed each other, the first end with the rising and the rest with the falling inflection.† EXAMPLES. 1 1 Does God, after having made his creatures, take no further' care of them? Has he left them to blind fate or When the question is very long, however, or concludes a paragraph, the falling instead of the rising inflection takes place. When or is used conjunctively the inflections are not regulated by it. undirected chance'? Has he forsaken the works of his own hands'? Or does he always graciously preserve, and keep, and guide them? 2. Should these credulous infidels after all be in the right, and this pretended revelation be all a fable, from believing it what harm' could ensue? Would it render princes more tyrannical, or subjects more ungovernable'? the rich more insolent, or the poor more disorderly'? Would it make worse parents, or children'; husbands, or wives'; masters, or servants'; friends, or neighbours'? or would it not make men more virtuous, and, consequently, more happy in every situation? 3. Is the goodness', or wisdom', of the Divine Being, more manifested in this his proceeding? 4. Shall we in your person crown' the author of the public calamities, or shall we destroy him? Note 2.-An interrogative sentence, consisting of a variety of members depending on each other for sense, may have the inflection common to other sentences, provided the last member has that inflection which distinguishes the species of interrogation to which it belongs. EXAMPLE. Can we believe a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progress of improvement', 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 her first setting out', and in the very beginning of her inquiries? Note 3.-Interrogative sentences, consisting of members in a series, which form perfect sense as they proceed, must have every member terminate with that inflection which distinguishes the species of interrogation of which they consist. EXAMPLES. 1. Hath death torn from your embrace the friend whom you tenderly loved-him to whom you were wont to unbosom the secrets of your soul'--him who was your counsellor in perplexity, the sweetener of all your joys, and the assuager of all your sorrows'? You think you do well to mourn; and the tears with which you water his grave, seem to be a tribute due to his virtues. But waste not your affection in fruitless lamentation. 2. Who are the persons that are most apt to fall into peevishness and dejection that are continually complaining of the world, and see nothing but wretchedness' around them? Are they those whom want compels to toil for their daily bread-who have no treasure but the labour of their hands—who rise with the rising sun to expose themselves to all the rigours of the seasons, unsheltered from the winter's cold, and unshaded from the summer's heat'? No. The labours of such are the very blessings of their condition. Note 4.-When questions, asked by verbs, are followed by answers, the rising inflection, in a high tone of voice, takes place at the end of the question, and, after a long pause, the answer must be pronounced in a lower tone. EXAMPLES. 1. Are you desirous that your talents and abilities may procure you respect'? Display them not ostentatiously to public view. Would you escape the envy which your riches might excite? Let them not minister to pride, but adorn them with humility. 2. There is not an evil incident to human nature for which the gospel doth not provide a remedy. Are you ignorant of many things which it highly concerns you to know'? The gospel offers you instruction. Have you deviated from the path of duty'? The gospel offers you forgiveness. Do temptations' surround you? The gospel offers you the aid of Heaven. Are you exposed to misery'? It consoles you Are you subject to death'? It offers you immortality. EXCLAMATION. RULE IV.-The inflections at the note of exclamation are the same as at any other point, in sentences similarly constructed. EXAMPLES. 1. The Almighty sustains and conducts the universe. It was he who separated the jarring elements! It was he who hung up the worlds in empty space! It was he who preserves them in their circles, and impels them in their course! 2. How pure, how dignified should they be, whose origin is celestial! How pure, how dignified should they be, who are taught to look higher than earth; to expect to enjoy the divinest pleasures for evermore, and to shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father'!' 6 3. Behold the reverential awe with which the words and the opinions of the upright and conscientious are heard and received! See the wise courting their friendship; the poor applying for their aid; the friendless and forlorn seeking their advice, and the widow and the fatherless craving their protection'! |