accelerando.

When to their sports they turn'd. Immediately
Was Samson as a public servant brought,
In their state livery clad: before him pipes
And timbrels, on each side went armed guards,
Both horse and foot; before him and behind,

Archers and slingers, cataphracts and spears.
At sight of him, the people with a shout

fz.

f.

Rifted the air, clamoring their God with praise,

Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall.
patient, but undaunted, where they led him,
Came to the place; and what was set before him,
Which without help of eye might be assay'd,

To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still perform'd,

leg.

All with incredible, stupendous force;

None daring to appear antagonist.

At length, for intermission's sake, they led him
Between the pillars; he his guide requested,
As over-tir'd, to let him lean awhile

With both his arms on those two massy pillars,

That to the arched roof gave main support.
He, unsuspicious, led him; which, when Samson

P.

Felt in his arms, with head awhile inclin❜d,

And eyes fast-fix'd, he stood, as one who pray'd,

retard.

Or some great matter in his mind revolv'd: |

presto.

At last, with head erect, thus cried aloud:

mod.

"Hitherto, lords, what your commands impos'

I have perform'd, as reason was, obeying,
Not without wonder or delight beheld:

Now, of my own accord, such other trial

I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater,
As with amaze shall strike all who behold."

mod.

This utter'd, straining all his nerves, he bow'd: BAs with the force of winds and waters pent,

When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars

He tugg'd, he shook, till down they came, and drew
The whole roof after them with burst of thunder,

Upon the heads of all who sat beneath;

Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, or priests,

Their choice nobility and flower,

Met from all parts, to solemnise this feast. |

maestoso.

Samson with these immix'd, inevitably

Pull'd down the same destruction on himself!

2. EXERCISE ON RHYTHMICAL READING.

The object of the following exercise is practically to school the ear of the pupil to a just rhythmical pulsation of voice in the reading of verse: for that purpose, the accents are marked as a guide to the pupil for pulsation and remission of voice; he must also fill up the rhythm with proper rests.

Such the bard's prophetic words,
Pregnant with celestial fire,
Bending as he swept the chords
Of his sweet, but awful lyre.

She with all a monarch's príde,
Félt them in her bosom glow;
Rush'd to battle, fought, and died,-
Dying, hurled them on the foe!

"Ruffians! pitiless as proud,

Heav'n awards the vengeance due.

Empire is on us bestowed,

Shame and ruin wait for you!"

TO THE EAGLE. PERCIVAL.

BIRD of the broad and sweeping wing,
Thy home is high in heav'n,

Where wide the storms their banners fling,
And the tempest clouds are driv❜n.

Thy throne is on the mountain top;
Thy fields, the boundless air;
And hoary peaks that proudly prop
The skies, thy dwellings are.

Thou síttest like a thing of light
Amid the noon-tide blaze:

The midway sun is clear and bright;

It cannot dim thy gaze.
Thy pínions to the rushing blást,
O'er the bursting billow spread,

Where the vessel plunges, hurry past,
Like an angel of the dead.

Thou art perch'd

perch'd aloft on the beetling crag,

And the waves are white belów,

And

with a haste that cannot lag,

They rush in an endless flow.

Again thou hast plumed thy wing for flight,