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over the sea, the prayers of the faithful British confessors, in all the quarters of their dispersion, went over with them, while their aching eyes were strained till the stars of hope should go up in the western skies? And who will ever forget that, in that eventful struggle which severed these youthful republics from the British crown, there was not heard, throughout our continent in arms, a voice which spoke louder for the rights of America, than that of Burke or of Chatham within the walls of the British Parliament, and at the foot of the British throne13?

LESSON XXXV.

GREAT BRITAIN'S RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA.

EDMUND BURKE. Nov. 27, 1781.

Exclamation and Interrogation, directed by Sarcasm.

1. BUT, Mr. Speaker', the gentleman says we have a right to tax America'10! Oh, inestimable right'1o! Oh! wonderful, transcendent right', the assertion of which has cost this country thirteen provinces', six islands', one hundred thousand lives', and seventy millions of money'! Oh, invaluable right! for the sake of which we have sacrificed our rank among nations', our importance abroad', and our happiness at home! Oh, right'! more dear to us than our existence', which has already cost us so much', and which seems likely to cost us our all'! Infatuated minister'10! miserable and undone country'10! not to know that the claim of right`, without the power of enforcing it', is nugatory and idle'.

2. We have a right to tax America, the noble lord tells us; therefore we ought to tax America. This is the profound logic which comprises the whole chain of his reasoning. Not inferior to this was the wisdom of him who resolved to shear the wolf. What'! shear a wolf"? Have you considered the resistance, the difficulty, the danger of the attempt'1? "No," says the madman; "I have considered nothing but the right. Man has a right of dominion over the beasts of the forest; and therefore I will shear the wolf." How wonderful that a nation could be thus deluded 10!

1, 3, 10, etc. The figures refer to the Elocutionary Rules of corresponding numbers.

LESSON XXXVI.

PAMPERING THE BODY AND STARVING THE SOUL.
EDWARD EVERETT.

1. WHAT'10! feed a child's body2, and let his soul hunger'1? pamper his limbs, and starve his faculties"? What'10? plant the earth', cover a thousand hills with your droves of cattle', pursue the fish to their hiding-places in the sea2, and spread out your wheat-fields across the plain, in order to supply the wants of that body, which will soon be as cold and as senseless as the poorest clod, and let the pure spiritual essence within you2, with all its glorious capacities for improvement, languish and pine'1 ?

2. What'1o! build factories', turn in rivers upon the waterwheels', unchain the imprisoned spirits of steam, to weave a garment for the body2, and let the soul remain unadorned and naked'1? What'1o! send out your vessels to the farthest ocean, and make battle with the monsters of the deep, in order to obtain the means of lighting up your dwellings and workshops, and prolonging the hours of labor for the meat that perisheth, and permit that vital spark, which God has kindled2, which he has intrusted to our care, to be fanned into a bright and heavenly flame-permit it, I say, to languish and go out'1?

3. What considerate man can enter a school, and not reflect, with awe, that it is a seminary where immortal minds are training for eternity? What parent but is, at times, weighed down with the thought, that there must be laid the foundations of a building which will stand, when not merely temple and palace, but the perpetual hills and adamantine rocks on which they rest, have melted away`?—that a light may there be kindled which will shine, not merely when every artificial beam is extinguished?, but when the affrighted sun has fled away from the heavens'?

1. Illustrations of Rule I.: questions that require the rising inflection.

2. Illustrations of Rule II.: a succession of particulars not emphatic, with the sense incomplete, requiring the rising inflection.

10. Illustrations of Rule X. The language of exclamation, when not designed as a question, requires the falling inflection.

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NATURE AND USES OF COMPARISONS.

[Analysis.-1. Comparison, or Sim'i le, frequently employed. Its object. Illustration.-2. Simile applied to courage: to eloquence: to a virtuous man: to a grateful man.-3. Extent and foundation of this figure. Resemblance of effects. Music and past joys.-4. The beauty of Ossian's simile.-5. Fundamental requisite of a comparison. Illustrations.-6. Why it is not the language of strong passion. Where it is appropriately used.-7. Moderation in the use of comparisons. From what they should not be drawn. Further rules.-8. Directions as to the reading of similes.9, 10. Similes from Milton.]

1. COMPARISON, or Sim'i le, is a figure more frequently employed than any other, both by poets and prose writers, for the purpose either of explanation or ornament, or both combined. When we wish to give a clearer conception of the subject of which we are treating, or to adorn it, we often find that we can accomplish our purpose the most readily by instituting a comparison between it and some other subject, or object, different in kind from the former, but resembling it in some striking particular. Thus, if we would describe the steady, unmoved position of a body of soldiers in line of battle, we do it the most effectually by the aid of some picture which comparison presents; as, "The soldiers stood like statues, unmoved by the cannon's roar.

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2. A lively idea is formed of a man's courage by likening it to that of a lion; and eloquence is exalted in our imagination by comparing it to a river overflowing its banks, and sweeping every thing in its course. When it is said, "A virtuous man, slandered by evil tongues, is like a diamond obscured by smoke," the mind is impressed, and fancy is pleased, by the picture. The following simile beautifully illustrates the principle of gratitude: "As a river rolls its waters to the sea, whence its springs were supplied, so the heart of a grateful man delights to return a benefit re

ceived." The simile is most frequently introduced by the words like, so, as, or thus.

3. All subjects admit of explanatory and embellishing comparisons; and unexpected resemblances between objects unlike in kind are the foundation of this figure. Even two objects which resemble one another only in their effects upon the mind, may often be very happily compared, whenever a reference to the one will strengthen the impression made by the other. For example, to describe the nature of soft and melancholy music, Ossian makes use of this happy and delicate comparison: "The music of Carryl was, like. the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul."

4. An ordinary poet would probably have compared the music of Carryl to the voice of the nightingale, or the murmur of the stream; and the likeness would, indeed, have been more strict; but Ossian, by founding his simile upon the effect which Carryl's music produced, and likening it to a similar tender feeling produced by the memory of “joys that are past," thereby gives us a much stronger impression of the nature of the music referred to, and, by the unexpectedness of the resemblance, awakens in us a pleasurable emotion.

5. The fundamental requisite of a comparison is, that it shall serve to illustrate the object for the sake of which it is introduced, and give us a more vivid impression of it. Hence, if the object be a great and noble one', every circumstance in the comparison must tend to aggrandize it'; if it be a beautiful one', to render it more beautiful`; if terrible', to fill us with more awe`.

6. From the very nature of comparison, it is evident that it is not the language of strong passion: for strong passion, being wholly occupied with some one emotion that has taken possession of the soul, has neither the leisure nor the inclination to look around for resembling objects. Comparison naturally comes in where the imagination is sprightly, where the mind is warmed, and where there is some elevation in the subject-in that middle region between the highly pathetic and the very humble style-but not in that in which

the mind is swayed by the torrent of agitation. Violent anguish never expresses itself in a studied comparison.

7. But, as comparisons are sparkling ornaments, they should be used with moderation for things that sparkle, dazzle and fatigue if they recur too often. They should not be drawn from things which have too near and obvious a resemblance to the object which we wish to illustrate; for then they will be trite and commonplace: nor should they be founded on likenesses too faint and remote; for these, in place of assisting, strain the fancy to comprehend them, and throw no light upon the subject. Nor should a comparison. be made from an object from which few people can form clear ideas, lest it wholly fail in its application.

8. A few words may be said about the proper reading of a formal simile, which has been described as the language, not of passion, but of contemplation. While it always, both in prose and poetry, admits a longer pause than ordinary before it, to give the mind a little time to study the picture it is about to present, it is naturally introduced, especially in poetry, by a lower and more plaintive tone of voice than is used in that part of the passage which immediately precedes it. At the beginning of a simile, the voice may drop into a monotone, which is the language of calm contemplation, and then gradually slide out of it, to a higher pitch, and varied inflections, as the mind warms with the subject. When the simile comes first, the reverse order is to be observed. These principles are happily illustrated in the correct reading of the following descriptive extract from Milton:

SPORTS OF THE FALLEN ANGELS.

9. Part, on the plain, or in the air sublime

Upon the wing, or in swift race, contend;-
(Simile.){ As at th' Olympian games, or Pythian' fields.
Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form ;-
As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush
To battle in the clouds,-before each van

Simile.

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