and hallow them as the homes of freedom! Let us make them, too, the homes of a nobler freedom,-of freedom from vice, from evil passion,-from every corrupting bondage of the soul. EXERCISE XVI.-CONVERSATION.-Cowper. [The appropriate elocution of the following extract, implies a free and lively style, highly expressive, in its character,-but_not carried to the extent of mimicry, either in voice or gesture. The tone should be carefully kept from running into measured chant or jingle.] The emphatic speaker dearly loves to oppose, Perhaps might prosper with a swarm of bees; A graver coxcomb we may sometimes see, The solemn fop;-significant and budge, "Tis heavy, bulky, and bids fair to prove But, when unpacked, your disappointment groans, EXERCISE XVII. SAND STORM IN THE DESERT.-Frazer. [The tones of serious and earnest description, as in the following example, should always be firm, grave, and energetic, but spirited and cxpressive.] Day dawned at last; and morning found me still in a wide and trackless waste of sand,-which, as the sun arose, was only bounded by those flitting vapours which deceive the thirsty traveller, with the belief that water is near, and have thence obtained the name of the water of the desert.' In vain I looked for the marks by which my friend Selim had taught me to recognise a place of refreshment. There was too much cause to fear that I was now in one of those terrible tracts of dry and moving sand, in which no water is found; and which sometimes, when set in motion by the wind, swallow up whole caravans and their conductors. Alas! the morning light, so earnestly expected, only dawned to prove that I was surrounded by dangers I had never dreamed of. The wind, which had blown so piercingly all night, lulled, as it generally does, towards morning. But the hazy vapour, loaded with light particles of sand, through which the sun rose as red as blood, gave warning that the calm would not continue long; nor had I pursued my course another hour, before the roar of the desert wind was heard; columns of dust began to rise in the horizon; and the air became gradually filled with drifting sand. As the wind increased, the whole plain around me, which had been heaped by former tempests into ridges like the waves of a troubled sea, now got in motion; the sand blew from off their crests, like spray from the face of the waters, and covered myself and horse with its dense eddies; while, often unable to distinguish the true course, my horse toiled over the ridges, sinking up to the very girths, in their deep baffling substance. I continued, for some hours, to persevere, struggling against the fury of the gale, when my alarm became increased by observing that my horse, which hitherto had stood out with admirable perseverance, even when his progress was the most painfully impeded by the deep sand, now became terrified and restive. He snorted, reared, and appeared unable, as well as unwilling, to face the sharp drifting of the still increasing storm. In vain I soothed him, or urged him on with heels and hand: the animal, which hitherto had obeyed my voice, almost like an intelligent being, now paid no attention either to caresses or blows. In the severe squalls that drove past at intervals, he fairly turned his back to them, and would not move; and, even when the wind lulled for a little, he could hardly be forced to advance a step. I scorned to yield my life without a struggle, yet saw not the means of preserving it. To abandon my horse, would have been, in fact, to give up hope; for I could not have proceeded a single mile on foot; yet to remain stationary, as I was forced to do by the terror of the animal, involved manifest destruction. Every thing that offered resistance to the torrent of sand, which sometimes poured along the earth, like a rapid stream of water, was overwhelmed by it, in an incredibly short time: even while my horse stood still, for a few moments, the drift mounted higher than his knees; and, as if sensible of his danger, he made furious efforts to extricate himself. Quite certain that my only hope lay in constant motion, and the chance of gaining the leeside of some hillock or mass of rock, that might afford a shelter till the storm should blow over, I gave up my true course, turned my back to the wind, and made all possible efforts to press forward; and at last, just when both man and horse were exhausted, during a partial squall, I observed something like a rock or mound of earth, looming through a dusky atmosphere. On approaching it, I discovered that it was the bank of an inconsiderable hollow, which was now nearly filled with sand, and the opposite side of which, being exposed to the wind, had, by the same means, become merely an inclined plane. Beneath this bank I fortunately retired, resolved to trust to its protection, rather than run the risk of a farther progress, with the imminent peril of perishing in the drifting sand, where vision could not extend for the space of many yards. EXERCISE XVIII.-NIGHT IN VENICE.—Byron. [In the following passage, the tones are low, grave, and slow,— the pauses long,-the articulation soft, but clear.] Palace of the patrician Lioni. Lion, laying aside the cloak and mask which the Venetian nobles wore in public. Lioni. I will to rest, right weary of this revel, And through my spirit chilled my blood, until Whether the air will calm my spirits: 'tis And the broad moon has brightened.—What a stillness! Where the tall torches' glare, and silver lamps' More pallid gleam along the tap'stried walls, Which showed all things, but nothing as it was!" from out the waters, scarce less strangely Than those more massy and mysterious giants Which point in Egypt's plains to times that have Of sleepless lovers to a wakeful mistress, The act of opening the forbidden lattice, To let in love through music,-makes his heart Of the far lights of skimming gondolas, Of boatmen, answering back, with verse for verse ;— EXERCISE XIX.-INCAPABILITY OF THE BRITISH MINISTRY OF 1782.-Lord Holland. From a Speech on the Address after the news had been received, of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis's army in Virginia. [The style of the following extract, is, at first, the same with that of EXERCISE IV., but afterwards rises to great vehemence,in the most powerful style of parliamentary invective.] I expected, and I know it has been expected by many others, to hear on this occasion, his majesty declare from the throne, that he had been deceived and imposed upon, by misinformation and misrepresentation; that, in consequence of his delusion, the parliament had been deluded; but that |