trunks of prostrate trees, that lead from knoll to knoll, a causeway rude, or bridge the sunken brook, and their dark roots with all their earth upon them, twisting high, breathe fixed tranquillity.

14. "But now," whispered the dear girl, "it is evening; the sun, that rejoices, has finished his daily toil; man, that labors, has finished his; I, that suffer, have finished mine." Just then, her dull ear caught a sound. It was the sound, though muffled and deadened, like the ear that heard it, of horsemen advancing.

15. Here we have butter pure as virgin gold;

And milk from cows that can a tail unfold

With bovine pride; and new-laid eggs, whose praise
Is sung by pullets with their morning lays;

Trout from the brook; good water from the well;
And other blessings more than I can tell!

16. I love Music, when she appears in her virgin purity, almost to adoration. But vocal music-the dearest, sweetest thing on earth-unaccompanied with good elocution, is like butter without salt; a garlic-eater with a perfumed handkerchief; or, rather, like a bankrupt beau-his soft hands incased in delicate kidswith soiled linen, and patches upon his knees.

17. A Frenchman once-so runs a certain ditty—

Had crossed the Straits to famous London city,

To get a living by the arts of France,

And teach his neighbor, rough John Bull, to dance.

But lacking pupils, vain was all his skill;
His fortunes sank from low to lower still,

Until at last, pathetic to relate,

Poor Monsieur landed at starvation's gate.

18. No! DEAR as FREEDOM is, and in my heart's just estimation prized above all price, I would much rather be MYSELF the SLAVE, and WEAR the BONDS, than fasten them on HIM.

19. There is an ugly kind of forgiveness in this world-a kind of hedge-hog forgiveness, shot out like quills. Men take one who has offended, and set him down before the blow-pipe of their indignation, and scorch him, and burn his faults into him; and, when they have kneaded him sufficiently with their fiery fists, then they forgive him.

20. Ye glittering towns, with wealth and splendor crowned;
Ye fields, where summer spreads profusion round;
Ye lakes, whose vessels catch the busy gale;

Ye bending swains, that dress the flowery vale;
For me your tributary stores combine :

Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!

21. If there's a Power above us-and that there is, all Nature cries aloud through all her works-He must delight in virtue ; and that which He delights in must be happy.

22.

Who had not heard

Of Rose, the gardener's daughter? Where was he,
So blunt in memory, so old at heart,

At such a distance from his youth in grief,

That, having seen, forgot? The common mouth,
So gross to express delight, in praise of her
Grew oratory. Such a lord is Love,

And Beauty such a mistress of the world.

23. The devout heart, penetrated with large and affecting views of the immensity of the works of God, the harmony of his laws, and the extent of his beneficence, bursts into loud and vocal expressions of praise and adoration; and, from a full and overflowing sensibility, seeks to expand itself to the utmost limits of

creation.

24. I said, "Though I should die, I know

That all about the thorn will blow

In tufts of rosy-tinted snow;

And men, through novel spheres of thought
Still moving after truth long sought,

Will learn new things when I am not.”

25. O WINTER! RULER OF THE INVERTED YEAR! thy scattered hair with sleel-like ashes filled, thy breath congealed upon thy lips, thy cheeks fringed with a beard made white with other snows than those of age, thy forehead wrapped in clouds, a leafless branch thy scepter, and thy throne a sliding car, indebted to no WHEELS, but urged by STORMS along its slippery way, I LOVE THEE, all UNLOVELY as thou seem'st, and DREADED as thou art.

26. They shall hear my VENGEANCE, that would scorn to LISTEN to the story of my WRONGS. The MISERABLE HIGHLAND DROVER, bankrupt, barefooted, stripped of all, dishonored, and hunted down,

because the avarice of others grasped at more than that poor all could pay, shall BURST on them in an AWFUL CHANGE.

27.

Think

Of the bright lands within the western main,

Where we will build our home, what time the seas
Weary thy gaze;-there the broad palm-tree shades
The soft and delicate light of skies as fair
As those that slept on Eden ;-Nature, there,
Like a gay spendthrift in his flush of youth,
Flings her whole treasure in the lap of Time.-
On turfs, by fairies trod, the Eternal Flora
Spreads all her blooms; and from a lake-like sea
Wooes to her odorous haunts the western wind!
While, circling round and upward from the boughs,
Golden with fruits that lure the joyous birds,

Melody, like a happy soul released,

Hangs in the air, and from invisible plumes

Shakes sweetness down!

28. Lo! the unlettered hind, who never knew to raise his mind excursive to the heights of abstract contemplation, as he sits on the green hillock by the hedge-row side, what time the insect swarms are murmuring, and marks, in silent thought, the broken clouds, that fringe with loveliest hues the evening sky, feels in his soul the hand of nature rouse the thrill of gratitude to Him who formed the goodly prospect; he beholds the god throned in the west; and his reposing ear hears sounds angelic in the fitful breeze, that floats through neighboring copse or fairy brake, or lingers, playful, on the haunted stream. 29. Beauty a living presence of the earth,

Surpassing the most fair ideal forms

Which craft of delicate spirits hath composed
From earth's materials-waits upon my steps;
Pitches her tents before me as I move,
An hourly neighbor. Paradise, and groves
Elysian, Fortunate Fields like those of old
Sought in the Atlantic main-why should they be
A history only of departed things,
Or a mere fiction of what never was?
For the discerning intellect of man,

When wedded to this goodly universe

In love and holy passion, should find these

A simple produce of the common day.

30. Dear Brothers, who sit at this bountiful board,

With excellent viands so lavishly stored,

That, in newspaper phrase, 't would undoubtedly groan,
If groaning were but a convivial tone,

Which it isn't-and therefore, by sympathy led,

The table, no doubt, is rejoicing instead ;

Dear Brothers, I rise, and it won't be surprising
If you find me, like bread, all the better for rising,-

I rise to express my exceeding delight

In our cordial reünion this glorious night!

III. INFLECTIONS.

I.

DEFINITIONS.

NFLECTIONS are the bends or slides of the voice, used in reading and speaking.

Inflection, or the slide, is one of the most important divisions of elocution, because all speech is made up of slides, and because the right or wrong formation of these gives a pervading character to the whole delivery. It is to the graceful formation of the slides that we are chiefly indebted for that easy and refined utterance which prevails in polished society; while the coarse and rustic tones of the vulgar are commonly owing to some early and erroneous habit in this respect. Most of the schoolboy faults in delivery, such as drawling, whining, and a monotonous singing sound, result from a wrong formation of the slide, and may be corrected by a proper course of practice on this element of speech.

A slide consists of two parts, viz.: the radical, or opening sound, and the vanish, or gradual diminution of force, until the sound is lost in silence. Three things are necessary to the perfect formation of a slide..! Drujb to Ino votam

1st. The opening sound must be struck with a full and lively impulse of voice. ment to Joofd yourres in odd roT

2d. The diminution of force must be regular and equablenot more rapid in one part than another, but naturally and gracefully declining to the last.

3d. The final vanish must be delicately formed, without being abrupt on the one hand, or too much prolonged on the other. Thus, a full opening, a gradual decrease, and a delicate termination, are requisite to the perfect formation of a slide.

2. There are three inflections or slides of the voice: the RISING INFLECTION, the FALLING INFLECTION, and the CIR

CUMFLEX.

3. THE RISING INFLECTION is the upward bend or slide of the voice; as,

Do you love your

home?

4. THE FALLING INFLECTION is the downward bend or slide of the voice; as,

The rising inflection carries the voice upward from the general pitch, and suspends it on the highest tone required; while the falling inflection commences above the general pitch, and falls down to it, as indicated in the last two examples.

5. THE CIRCUMFLEX is the union of the inflections on the same syllable or word, either commencing with the rising and ending with the falling, or commencing with the falling and ending with the rising, thus producing a slight wave of the voice.

6. The acute accent ['] is often used to mark the rising inflection; the grave accent [`] the falling inflection; as, Will you read or spell?

Let the students pronounce the following words with contrasted inflections, using great pains to form the slides in accordance with the preceding directions:

1. Cáll, càll; fár, fàr; fáme, fàme; sháme, shàme; áir, àir; scéne, scène; míle, mìle; píle, pìle.

2. Róam, ròam; tool, tòol; school, school; púre, pùre; múle, mùle; jóin, jòin; óur, òur.

7. When the circumflex commences with a rising and ends with a falling slide of the voice, it is marked thus; but