The intention of the exercises under the head of 'time', is, to enable the student to acquire a perfect command of his rate of utterance, with a view to the distinct communication of thought, and the appropriate expression of feeling. To effect this purpose, the various classes of exercise, from the slowest to the quickest in rate, should be frequently and carefully practised, in inverted order, as well as that in which they are arranged in the book. EXERCISES ON FORCE OF UTTERANCE. Whispering. All silent they went, for the time was approaching, Subdued Force. "There is no breeze upon the fern, Upon her eyrie nods the erne, The deer hath sought the brake; "There breathed no wind their crests to shake, That shadowed o'er their road: Save heavy tread and armour's clang, Moderate and Conversational Force. "The Supreme Author of our being has made every thing that is beautiful in all other objects pleasant, or rather, has made so many objects appear beautiful, that he might render the whole creation more gay and delightful. He has given almost every thing about us the power of raising an agreeable idea in the imagination; so that it is impossible for us to behold his works with coldness or indifference, and to survey so many beauties without a secret satisfaction and complacency. We are everywhere entertained with pleasing shows and apparitions; we discover imaginary glories in the heavens, and in the earth, and see some of this visionary beauty poured out upon the whole creation; but what a rough unsightly sketch of nature should we be entertained with, did all her colouring disappear, and' the several distinctions of light and shade vanish! In short, our souls are at present delightfully lost and bewildered in a pleasing delusion; and we walk about like the enchanted hero in a romance, who sees beautiful castles, woods, and meadows; and at the same time hears the warbling of birds, and the purling of streams: but, upon the finishing of some secret spell, the fantastic scene breaks up; and the disconsolate knight finds himself on a barren heath, or in a solitary desert." Declamatory Force. 1. "These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend and this most learned bench, to vindicate the religion of their God, to defend and support the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn, upon the judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from this pollution. I call upon the honour of your lordships, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country, to vindicate the national character." 2. "What's hallowed ground? 'tis that gives birth 3. And your high priesthood shall make earth "One great clime, Whose vigorous offspring by dividing ocean Full of the magic of exploded science,- 1. Force of Emotion. "On, ye brave, Who rush to glory or the grave! 2. "Strike till the last armed foe expires, Shouting and Calling. 1st Example. "Liberty! freedom! Tyranny is dead: Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets!" 2. "Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells! King John, your king and England's, doth approach: Open your gates, and give the victors way!" EXERCISES ON PITCH. Low Notes. "Not a drum was heard, nor a funeral note, Middle Notes. "My thoughts, I must confess, are turned on peace; 'Tis time to sheath the sword and spare mankind." "We took up arms, not to revenge ourselves, But free the Commonwealth. When this end fails, Arms have no further use. Our country's cause, That drew our swords, now wrests them from our hands, And bids us not delight in Roman blood Is done already. If Rome must fall, Heaven and earth will witness, that we are innocent." High Notes. "But thou, O Hope! with eyes so fair,- And from the rocks, the woods, the vale, A soft responsive voice was heard at every close; And Hope enchanted smil'd, and wav'd her golden hair." EXERCISES ON TIME. Slowest Rate. "Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, Slow. "Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." "For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Moderate. "If the relation of sleep to night, and, in some instances, its converse, be real, we cannot reflect without amazement, upon the extent to which it carries us. Day and night are things close to us: the change applies immediately to our sensations; of all the phenomena of nature, it is the most obvious, and the most familiar to our experience: but, in its cause, it belongs to the great motions which are passing in the heavens. Whilst the earth glides around her axle, she ministers to the alternate necessities of the animals dwelling upon her surface, at the same time that she obeys the influence of those attractions which regulate the order of many thousand worlds. The relation, therefore, of sleep to night, is the relation of the inhabitants of the earth to the rotation of their globe: probably it is more; it is a relation to the system of which that globe is a part; and still farther, to the congregation of systems, of which theirs is only one. If this account be |