I stretch lame hands of faith, and grópe, And faintly trust the larger hòpe. TENNYSON'S In Memoriam. 4. THE LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE. The low desire, the base design, The longing for ignoble things, The strife for triumph more than trúth; All thoughts of ill; all evil deeds That have their root in thoughts of ill; The action of the noble will,— All these must first be trampled dówn LONGFELLOW. Rule VII. Conditional phrases and clauses, when introductory, take the rising inflection, because the sense is carried forward to the principal statements on which they depend. Were half the power that fills the world with térror; Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from érror, There were no need of arsenals or forts. LONGFELLOW. As Cæsar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fórtunate, I rejoice at it; as he was váliant, I honor him; but, as he was ambitious, I slèw him. There is tears for his lóve; joy for his fórtune; honor for his válor; and death for his ambition. 3. WATER. Of all inorganic substances, acting in their own proper núture, and without assistance or combinútion, wúter is the most wonderful. If we think of it as the source of all the changefulness and beauty which we have seen in clouds; then as the instrument by which the earth we have contemplated was modeled into sýmmetry, and its crags chiseled into grúce; then, as in the form of snów, it robes the mountains it has múde with that transcendent light which we could not have conceived if we had not seen; then as it exists in the foam of the tórrent in the íris which spúns it, in the morning míst which rises from it, in the deep crystalline pools which mirror its hanging shore, in the broad lúke and glancing ríver; finally, in that which is to all human minds the best emblem of unwéaried, uncónquerable power, the wild, várious, fantástic, támeless unity of the séa; what shall we compare to this mighty, this univèrsal element, for glóry and for beauty? or how shall we follow its eternal changefulness of feeling? It is like trying to paint a soul. 4. FROM WEBSTER'S SPEECHES. I. RUSKIN. If disastrous wár sweep our cómmerce from the ocean, another generation may renew it; if it exhaust our trèasury, future industry may replenish it; if it desolate and lay waste our fields, still, under a new cultivation, they will grow gréen again, and ripen to future harvests. II. If discord and disunion shall wound it; if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and téar it; if folly and madness, if uneasiness under salutary restraint, shall succeed to separate it from that Union, by which alone its existence is made súre, it will stand, in the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was ròcked; it will stretch forth its arm with whatever of vigor it may still retáin, over the friends who gather roùnd it; and it will fall, if fall it múst, amid the proudest mònuments of its glóry and on the very spòt of its òrigin. Require cach pupil, at the next lesson, to read one additional illustration, selected from some extract in this book. Rule VIII. In poetic description, whether of prose or verse, the prevailing inflection is the slight rising inflection of the "third." EXAMPLES. 1. FROM WHITTIER'S "RANGER." Nowhere fairer, swéeter, rárer, Does the golden-locked fruit-bearer, Through his painted woodlands stray, And green isles of Casco Bày: With a tenderer look beséeches, "Let me with my charmed earth stày." 2. WATER. Gleaming in the déw-drop, singing in the summer ráin, shining in the ice-gem till the trees seem turned to living jewels, spreading a golden véil over the setting sún, or a white gauze around the midnight móon; sporting in the cataract, sleeping in the glácier, dancing in the háil-shower, folding bright snów-curtains softly above. the wintry world, and weaving the many-colored íris, that seraph's zone of the sky, whose warp is the rain of earth, whose woof is the sunbeam of heaven, all checkered over with celestial flowers by the mystic hand of rarefaction-still always it is beautiful, that blessed cold water! No poison bubbles on its brínk-its foam brings not madness and múrder-no blood stains its liquid gláss-pale widows and starving orphans weep not burning tears in its clear dépths-no drunkard's shrieking ghost from the gráve curses it in words of despair! Speak dut, my friends; would you exchange it for the demon's drink-alcohol? A shout like the roar of the tempest answered "Nò! No'!" 3. THE VOICE OF SPRING. The fisher is out on the sunny séa; And the reindeer bounds o'er the pasture frée; DENTON. And the moss looks bright, where my foot hath been. HEMANS. Rule IX. Pathos and tender feeling incline the voice to the slight rising inflection. EXAMPLES. 1. BABIE BELL. And what did dainty Babie Bèll? ALDRICH. 2. THE RANGER. When the shadows vail the méadows, Sink from twilight's walls of gray- Fades the fond, delusive seéming, And I kneel again to pray. WHITTIER. Rule X. In a series of words or phrases, if the particulars enumerated are unimportant, or if they are to be taken as constituting a whole, each particular, except the last in a closing series, takes the rising inflection. EXAMPLES. 1. The sun, the plánets, their satellites, the comets, and the méteors, compose the solar system. 2. The solar system consists of the sún, the plánets, their satellites, the cómets, and the meteors. 3. The minerals of California are góld, silver, cópper, íron, tín, and quicksilver. 4. Wheat, flour, pórk, béef, cótton, tobacco, and petróleum are exported from the United States. 5. The Góth, the Chrístian, Tíme, Wár, Flóod, and Fíre, Have dealt upon the seven-hilled city's pride. 6. CHRISTMAS MARKETS. Heaped upon the floor, to form a kind of throne, were túrkeys, géese, gáme, bráwn, great joints of meat, súcking-pígs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-píes, plumpúddings, barrels of óysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherrycheeked apples, juicy óranges, luscious péars, immense twelfth-cakes, and great bowls of pùnch. DICKENS. |