Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

NOTE 2. Sentences implying condition, the case absolute, the infinitive mode used as a nominative, the direct address not attended with strong emphasis, and the close of a parenthesis, are some of the specific cases to which Rule 6 also applies.

NOTE 3. The clause included in a parenthesis, should generally be read in a lower tone of voice, and somewhat quicker, than the rest of the sentence.

EXAMPLES.

First, Condition.

1. If thine enemy húnger, give him bread to eat; if he thirst, give him water to drink.

2. If a son ask bread, will he give him a stone? if he ask a físh, will he give him a serpent?

3. If all men were upright, if they were just, if they were hónest, if they were vírtuous, if they were kind, if they were benévolent, we should have a much happier world.

4. If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain; if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life; let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockles instead of barley.

5. If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gáte; then let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.

Second, Case Absolute.

1. The sun being rísen, darkness fled.

2. The general being sláin, the army was routed.

3. Shame being lóst, all virtue is lost.

4. The house falling, the family perished.

5. The discourse being énded, the assembly dispersed.

6. The storm having pást, the sun shone forth.
7. The judge being seated, the trial commenced.

Third, Infinitive Mode.

1. To avoid temptations to évil, is wise.

• QUESTION. What are the specific cases to which No e 2 applies? How should

a clause included in a parenthesis be read?

2. To overcome evil with good, is noble.

3. To use intoxicating drinks, is injurious to health.
4. To acquire knowledge, is the duty of all men.
5. To harbor ill-will, is ignoble. To forgive, is godlike.

6. To obey our parents, is an incumbent duty.

7. To obey the moral law, is a divine precept.

Fourth, Direct Address.

1. Fríends, our country must be free.

2. Friends, I come not here to talk.

3. Men of Gaul! what would you give for freedom?

4. Fáthers, sénators of Rome, árbiters of nations, to you I fly for refuge from the murderous fury of Jugurtha.*

5. Fáthers, pronounce your thoughts; are they still for war to hold it out, and fight it to the last?

6. Sóldiers, we must finish this campaign like a clap of thunder. 7. This is not the first time, O Rómans, that patrician † arrogance has denied to us the rights of common humanity.

Fifth, Parenthesis.

1. If there's a power above, (and that there is,
All nature cries aloud in all her works,)

He must delight in virtue.

2. Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

3. Would it have been possible, exclaimed Cicero, (addressing himself to Claudius, ‡) that you should speak with this air of unconcern, unless the charge was purely an invention of your own?

4. An honest man, (says Pópe, §) is the noblest work of God. 5. If envious people were to ask themselves, whether they would exchange their situations with the persons envied, (I mean their minds, pássions, nótions, as well as their persons, fórtunes,

Ju-gur'tha, an ambitious and cruel king of Numidia, a part of the present territory of Tunis and Algiers, in Africa.

↑ Pa-tri'cians, the name given to certain families in Rome, distinguished for their origin, wealth, and honors, and from which the senators were chosen.

+ Clau ́di-us, (Tiberius,) a Roman emperor, of weak intellect. He died by poison in the year 54, aged sixty-three.

Pope, (Alexander,) a celebrated English poet, born in 1688, and died in 1744.

and dígnities,) I believe the self-love common to human nature, would generally make them prefer their own condition.

EXCEPTION. The pause of suspension when attended with strong emphasis, sometimes requires the falling inflection, in order to express the true meaning of the sentence.

EXAMPLE.

One who frequently associates with the vile, if he does not actually become base, is sure to gain an ill name.

The rising inflection on base, would pervert the meaning of this sentence, and make it mean, if he become base, notwithstanding he continued to associate with the vile, he would not gain an ill

name.

EXERCISE I.

Illustration of the General Rule.

1. The animated cóuntenance, the strong emótion, the trembling voice, the bending fráme, the furrowed chéek, the heaving bosom, and the silent téar of an old soldier, impart an interest to his story that no pen can portráy, no eloquence imitate. His adventures, his toíls, his sufferings, his privátions, his hair-breadth escapes, and his struggles for victory and liberty, are all indelibly imprinted on his mind, and fresh in his rècollections.

2. Of the ten thousand battles which have been fought, of all the fields fertilized with cárnage, of the banners which have been bathed in blood, of the warriors who have hoped that they had risen from the field of conquest to a glory as bright and as durable as the stárs, few continue long to interest mankind.

3. When I consider the sources from whence Christianity sprúng, the humility of its origin, the poverty of its discíples, the miracles of its creátion, the might it has acquired, not only over the civilized world, but which your missions are

QUESTION. What is the exception to Rule 6? Give an example.

hourly extending over lawless, mindless, and imbruted régions, I own the awful presence of the Gòdhead. Nothing less than a Dèity could have done it.

4. The powers, the prejudices, the superstitions of the earth, were all in arms against it. It had no sword nor scepter; its founder was in rags; its apostles were lowly fishermen; its inspired prophets, uneducated; its cradle, a manger; its home, a dungeon; and its earthly diadem, a crown of thorns. And yet, forth it went, that lowly, humble, persecuted spirit; the idols of the heathen fell, and princes bowed before this unarmed conqueror.

5. But tell me if there be aught of his doings that fills us with so adoring a veneration, as when we behold the high and lofty One stooping from the high and holy place, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to counsel the ignorant, to be the father to the fatherless, the judge of the widow, to comfort the cast down, to speak to the penitent, and, drawing near to the lowly couch of the humblest of his children, to whisper in the ear of the departing spirit, "Fear not, I am with thee; be not dismayed, I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

EXERCISE II.

ADVANTAGES OF A WELL-CULTIVATED MIND.-BIGLAND.

1. A well-spent youth is the only sure foundation of a happy old age. No axiom of the mathematics is more true, or more easily demonstrated. Old age, like death, comes unexpectedly on the unthinking and unprepared, although its approach be visible, and its arrival certain. Those, who have, in the earlier part of life, neglected to furnish their minds with ideas, to fortify them by contemplation, and regulate them by reflection, seeing the season of youth and vigor

irrecoverably past, its pleasing scenes annihilated, and its brilliant prospects left far behind, without the possibility of return, and feeling, at the same time, the irresistible encroachments of age, with its disagreeable appendages, are surprised and disconcerted by a change scarcely expected, or for which, at least, they had made no preparations.

2. A person in this predicament, finding himself no longer capable of taking, as formerly, a part in the busy walks of life, of enjoying its active pleasures, and sharing its arduous enterprises, becomes peevish and uneasy, troublesome to others, and burdensome to himself. Destitute of the resources of philosophy, and a stranger to the amusing pursuits of literature, he is unacquainted with any agreeable method of filling up the vacuity left in his mind, by his necessary recess from the active scenes of life.

3. All this is the consequence of squandering away the days of youth and vigor, without acquiring the habit of thinking. The period of human life, short as it is, is of sufficient length for the acquisition of a considerable stock of useful and agreeable knowledge; and the circumstances of the world afford a superabundance of subjects for contemplation and inquiry. The various phenomena of the moral, as well as the physical world, the investigation of sciences, and the information communicated by literature, are calculated to attract attention, exercise thought, excite reflection, and replenish the mind with an infinite variety of ideas.

4. The man of letters, when compared with one that is illiterate, exhibits nearly the same contrast, as that which exists between a blind man and one that can see; and, if we consider how much literature enlarges the mind, and how much it multiplies, adjusts, rectifies, and arranges the ideas, it may be well to reckon it equivalent to an additional sense. It affords pleasures which wealth cannot procure, and which poverty cannot entirely take away. A well-cultivated mind places its possessor beyond the reach of those trifling vexa

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »