5.

Left upon

5

And the evening sun, descending,
Set the clouds on fire with redness,
Burned the broad sky, like a prairie,

the level water
One long track and trail of splendour,
Down whose stream, as down a river,
Westward, westward Hiawatha
Sailed into the fiery sunset,
Sailed into the purple vapours,

Sailed into the dusk of evening. 6. I saw their chief4 tall as a rock of ice; his spear the blasted fir; his shield the rising moon; he sat on the shore like a cloud of mist upon the hill. 7. There was such silence through the host, as when

An earthquake trampling on some populous town,
Has crushed ten thousand with one tread, and men

Expect the second. 8. It is on the death-bed, on the couch of sorrow and of pain, that the thought of one purely virtuous action is like the shadow o. a lofty rock in the desert-like the light footsteps of that little child who continued to dance before the throne of the unjust king, when his guards had fled, and his people had forsaken him—like the single thin stream of light which the unhappy captive has at last learned to love-like the soft sigh before the breeze that wafts the becalmed vessel and her famished crew to the haven where they would be. 9.

Sweet is the scene when virtue dies !

When sinks a righteous soul to rest,
How mildly beam the closing eyes,

How gently heaves th' expiring breast !
So fades a summer cloud away,

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er
So gently shuts the eye of day,
So dies a wave along the shore.

Watts. 10. A cloud lay cradled near the setting sun: A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow.

had I watched its glory moving on
O'er the still radiance of the lake below;
Tranquil its spirit seemed and floated slow,
Even in its very motion there was rest,
And
every

Long

COMPARATIVE STATEMENTS, OR SIMILES.

75

Emblem, methought, of the departed soul,
To whose white robe the gleam of bliss is given,
And by the breath of mercy made to roll
Right onward to the golden gates of heaven,
Where to the eye of faith it peaceful lies
And tells to man
his glorious destinies.

JOHN WILSON. 11. He spoke and Sohrab kindled at his taunts,

And he too drew his sword; at once they rushed
Together as two eagles on one prey
Come rushing down together from the clouds,
One from the east, one from the west; their shields
Dashed with a clang together, and a din
Rose, such as that the sinewy woodcutters
Make often in the forest's heart at morn,
Of hewing axes, crashing trees-such blows
Rustum and Sohrab on each other hailed.

MATTHEW ARNOLD. 12. As when some hunter in the spring hath found

A brooding eagle sitting on her nest
Upon the craggy isle of a hill lake,
And pierced her with an arrow as she rose
And followed her to find her where she fell
Far off ;-anon her mate comes winging back
From hunting, and

a great way off descries
His huddling young left sole ; at that he checks
His pinion, and with short uneasy sweeps
Circles above his eyry with loud screams
Chiding his mate back to her nest; but she
Lies dying,

with the arrow in her side,
In some far stony gorge, out of his ken,
A heap of fluttering feathers,
Shall the lake glass her flying over it;
Never the black and dripping precipices
Echo her stormy scream as she sails by-
As that poor bird flies home, nor knows his loss,
So Rustum knew not his own loss, but stood
Over his dying son, and knew him not.

MATTHEW ARNOLD.* 1. This verse is from Professor Longfellow's Wreck of the Hesperus. 2. That is, true power of expression. 3. The common, but deceptive belief. 4. This simile is from Ossian. (To pp. 73 and 74.)

never

more

* These two similes—from the poem of Sohrab and Rustum-are among the finest similes in all literature. The simple and adequate expression is as fine and satisfactory as the truth of the conception.

CHAPTER XV.

GRADUALLY HEIGHTENED STATEMENT, OR CLIMAX.

If the sentences given under this head are rightly understood and felt, the voice in reading them will gradually rise to a highest point, and then, before the end of the sentence, will round itself into a period, but without any sudden fall. But the end of the last sentence in No. 3 must be strong, vigorous, and decisive.

1. It is an outrage to bind a Roman citizen; to scourge him is an atrocious crime; to put him to death is almost a parricide; but TO CRUCIFY him- -What shall I call it ?

HOWARD. 2. He has visited all Europe,

to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries.

BURKE. WARREN HASTINGS. 3. I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled, whose parliamentary trust he has abused. I impeach him in the name of our holy religion, which he has disgraced. I impeach him in the name of the English constitution, which he has violated and broken. I impeach him in the name of the Indian millions, whom he has sacrificed to injustice. I impeach him

in the name and by the est rights of huma nature; which he has stabbed to the heart!

BURKE. 4. I tax not you, ye elements, with unkindness :

I never gave you kingdoms, called you daughters !*

* This is said by King Lear, when buffeted by the wind and rain.

GRADUALLY HEIGHTENED STATEMENT, OR CLIMAX.

77

5. The traitor lives! Lives ! did I say? He mixes with the senate; he 'shares in our counsels ; with a steady eye he surveys us; he anticipates his guilt; he enjoys his murderous thoughts, and coolly marks us out for bloodshed.

CICERO.

6.

While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand;
When falls the Coliseum, Rome

shall fall;
And when Rome falls the world!

BYRON.

7.

He loved his friends with such a warmth of heart,
So clear of interest so devoid of art;
Such generous friendship, such unshaken zeal,
No words can speak it, but our tears can tell.
O candid truth! O faith without a stain !
O manners, gently fair and nobly plain !
O sympathizing love of others' bliss !
Where will you find another breast like his?

LORD LYTTELTON.

8. Let the bugles sound the Truce of God to the whole world for ever. Let the selfish boast of the Spartan women become the grand chorus of mankind-that they have never seen the smoke of an enemy's camp: Let the iron belt of martial music, which now encompasses the earth, be exchanged for the golden cestus of Peace, clothing all with celestial beauty.

SUMNER.

[The teacher should listen to these with his book shut.]

The object of these Gymnastics is to perfect the pupil in a clear and distinct articulation. Every child has his own besetting fault in pronunciation or articulation; and one pupil will require more practice in one part of these exercises, and another in another. It would be advisable that, where considerable defects exist, the pupil should draw up a set of exercises himself on the points where he happens to be defective. Errors in the pronunciation of vowels are most easily corrected by imitating the teacher; but errors in consonants are best overcome by continued practice in such words as contain several consonants together. Words like facts should have all the three final consonants brought clearly out. The tendency is to lose altogether or to do injustice to the t.

I. EXERCISES ON FINAL CONSONANTS.

act