But error, wounded, writhes with pàin,
And dies amid his worshippers.

In this stanza, again is, very properly, made to rhyme with pain; though the best speakers pronounce it so as to rhyme with pen; and so it should be pronounced here. In the second line, the metre requires that e in the should coalesce with the e in eternal; but it should be clearly pronounced. In the last line, the metrical foot requires the last syllable in worshippers to have an accent; but it should be read without any.

I observe farther, that when the poet has so formed his metre as to require the last vowel of a word to coalesce with the next, or a long word to drop one of its middle syllables, he does not apostrophise either of them as writers did formerly; nor should it be done in reading. Much may be done by the reader, however, to favor the metre without detriment to the pronunciation but sometimes the poet makes a distinct syllable of ed where it would not be in prose; and in that case it must be made by the reader.

One cannot read the following stanza with due regard to sense, unless he break up the metre almost entirely; and read the lines very nearly as marked into divisions by the bars and half bars, thus:

What blessings | thy free bounty gives,

Let me not cast awày:

For God is paid | when mán recèives ;

When a line ends without a point, and the last word is inseparably joined in sense with the following, the last

syllable of the line needs to be suspended a little, as denoted by the half bars and bar, without stopping the stream of sound; e. g.

And I have loved thee, Océan, and my joy
Of youthful sports-was on thy breast to be
Bórne, like thy bubbles, ònward from a boy!
I wantoned with thy breakers-they to me |
Were a delight; * * *

But, in reading the words "to be borne," in the second and third lines, unless the suspension can be made on be without any perceptible violence to the sense, it should not be attempted; and the rhyming word be suffered to merge entirely in the division of sense. Hence it may be seen how much is to be yielded to the demands of poetry for the sake of the metre and the rhyme. The same instruction, with the exception of the rhyme, applies to blank verse; unless it be of the dramatic kind; and then the reading and acting is better without any, or but very little regard, to the final pause.

To him who in the love of nature holds '
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours |
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is aware.-Bryant.

Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit '
Of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste |

Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire |

That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning | how the Heavens and Earth I
Rose out of chaos; *** what in me is dark |
Illumine, what is low | raise and support;

That to the height of this great argument |
I may assert eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.-Milton. Ordinary persons, particularly children, are fonder of reading poetry than prose. They commit it to memory more readily, retain it better, and it is easier for them to speak it. They are taken with the metre and rhyme; and they make these stand out in bold relief, in place of sense, sentiment and feeling. Of course, they never read nor speak it well; because they never use the varied modifications, which sense, sentiment, and feeling require.

This charm of numbers seems to be a natural taste. It showed itself in the earliest times, and among the rudest nations. It is said that some of the ancients had their laws written in verse, and required their children to commit them to memory, and to sing them. They had their hymns, peans and heroics. The negroes on the plantations of the Southern States show the same delight in the melody of sweet sounds.-It is often employed as the best means to lodge in the mind, important lessons of wisdom. These are generally mere scraps of rhyme; and as poetry, have no merit but in their adaptation: e. g.

Early to bed, and early to rise

Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

The infant prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep," was composed in compliance with this natural tendency. The divine Watts improved it to instil early lessons of piety. The ear is so pleased with the music of metre and rhyme, and the memory is so aided by them, that it is not uncommon often to see children, and persons uneducated, when they desire to remember several particulars, to resolve them into numbers.

I heard of a poor woman, not long since, sitting on the deck of a steamboat, with her scanty baggage about her, and repeating to herself "Great box, little box, band box and bundle"-words instinctively thrown into poetic measure

It is well enough to indulge this natural tendency in children, as a means of instruction and gratification; but not for early lessons in reading: certainly not, unless they have a parent or teacher at hand, who will not suffer them to read a line improperly. The true way is to first become good readers of prose; and speakers too. To read poetry of a high order, so as to do it full justice, one must possess a highly discriminating mind, delicate sensibility, and a graceful elocution: to read that of an inferior order, he must have still greater powers, that he may do justice to himself: for it is one of the severest trials of talent and taste to read verse which is prosaic, monotonous and tame, so as to give out the true meaning, and, at the same time, the smoothness, and all the variety of tone needed to gratify the ear.

Hence it is plain that children, in learning to speak,

should begin with simple prose, and be able to manage that of a high order, before they attempt poetry. But this is what they always select for themselves; and it is what is usually selected for them; and that too of the highest dramatic style: and this, together with the most impassioned parts of distinguished orations, forms the character of the books, in most general use, for teaching boys to speak. No wonder we have so many artificial speakers! so much mouthing, fustian and bombast! or in solemn places, so much sanctimonious singsong and formality.

The stream flows all bright and frèe :

'Tis not for mé-'tis not for theè ;

O the spring, the bountiful spring!

She shineth, and smíleth | on every thing.

Whence come the sheep?
I

From the rich man's moòr.