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As not behind in hate, if what was urg'd, Main reason to persuade immediate war, Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast Ominous conjecture on the whole success,5 When he, who most excels in fact of arms, In what he counsels, and in what excels, Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair, And utter dissolution, as the scope

Of all his aim, after some dire revenge.

10 First what revenge? The tow'rs of Heav'n are fill'd
With armed watch, that render all access
Impregnable; oft on the bord'ring deep
Encamp their legions, or, with obscure wing,
Scout far and wide into the realm of night,
15 Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way
By force, and at our heels all hell should rise,
With blackest insurrection, to confound
Heav'n's purest light, yet our great enemy,
All incorruptible, would on his throne
20 Sit unpolluted, and th' ethereal mould,
Incapable of stain, would soon expel
Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire,
Victorious. Thus repuls'd our final hope
Is flat despair: we must exasperate
25 Th almighty Victor to spend all his rage,
And that must end us, that must be our cure,
To be no more: sad cure; for who would lose,
Though full of pàin, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
30 To perish rather, swallow'd up and lost

In the wide womb of uncreated night,
Devoid of sense and motion? and who knows,
Let this be good, whether our angry foe
Can give it, or will ever? how he cau
35 Is doubtful; that he never will is sure.

EXERCISE 17.

-Aside the Devil turn'd

For envy, yet with jealous leer malign

Milton.

Ey'd them askance, and to himself thus plain'd.
"Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two

40 Imparadis'd in one another's arms,

The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill

Of bliss on bliss; while I to Hell am thrust,
Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
(Amongst our other torments not the least,)
Still unfulfilled, with pain of longing pines.
5 Yet let me not forget what I have gain'd
From their own mouths: all is not theirs it seems;
One fatal tree there stands of knowledge call'd,
Forbidden them to taste. Knowledge forbidden?
10 Suspicious, rèasonless! Why should their Lord
Envy them that? Can it be sín to know?
Can it be death? and do they only stand
By ignorance? is that their happy state,
The proof of their obedience and their faith?
15 O fair foundation laid whereon to build

Their ruin! Hence I will excite their minds
With more desire to know, and to reject
Envious commands, invented with design
To keep them low, whom knowledge might exàlt
20 Equal with Gòds: aspiring to be such,

They taste and die; what likelier can ensue?
But first with narrow search I must walk round
This garden, and no corner leave unspy'd;

A chance, but chance, may lead where I may meet 25 Some wand'ring spi'rit of Heav'n, by fountain side, Or in thick shade retir'd, from him to draw

What further would be learn'd. Live while ye may, Yet happy pair; enjoy, till I return,

Short pleasures for LONG WOES.. are to succeed." 30 (0) So saying, his proud step he scornful turn'd, But with sly circumspection, and began,

Through wood, through waste, o'er hill, o'er dale his

roam.

Milton.

EXERCISE 18.

Page 27. bottom. Difference between the common and the intensive inflection.

I place this here, rather than under Inflections, because, intensive slide so often stands connected with emphasis. The difficulty to be avoided may be seen sufficiently in an example or two. There is a general tendency to make the slide of the voice as great in degree, when there is little stress, as when there is much; whereas, in the former case, the slide should be gentle, and sometimes hardly percep tible.

Common slide.

To play with important trúths; to disturb the repose of established ténets; to subtilize objections; and elude proof, is too often the sport of youthful vánity, of which maturer experience commonly repènts.

Were the miser's repentance upon the neglect of a good bárgain; his sorrow for being over-réached; his hope of improving a súm; and his fear of falling into wánt; directed to their proper óbjects, they would make so many Christian graces and virtues.

Intensive slide.

Consider, I beseech you, what was the part of a faithful citizen? of a prudent, an active, and an honest minister? Was he not to secure Euboea, as our defence against all attacks by séa? Was he not to make Beotia our barrier on the mídland side? The cities bordering on Peloponnesus our bulwark on thát quarter? Was he not to attend with due precaution to the importation of corn, that this trade might be protected, through all its progress, up to our own hárbours? Was he not to cover those districts which we commanded, by seasonable detachments, as the Proconesus, the Chersonesus, and Ténedos? To exert himself in the assembly for this purpose, while with equal zeal he laboured to gain others to our interest and alliance, as Byzantium, Abydus, and Euboéa?-Was he not to cut off the best, and most important resources of our enemies, and to supply those in which our country was deféctive?-And all this you gained by my counsels, and my administration.

EXERCISES ON MODULATION.

The reader will be able from the following examples, to choose those which are appropriate to rotundity of voice, fulness, loudness, time, rhetorical pause, &c.

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To assist in cultivating the bottom of the voice, 1 have selected examples of sublime or solemn description, which admit of but little inflection; and some which contain the figure of simile. Where

the mark for low note is inserted, the reader will take pains to keep down his voice, and to preserve it in nearly the grave monotone.

1. (。) He bowed the heavens also and came down; and darkness was under his feet.-And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him, his thick clouds pàssed, hailstones and coals of fire.-The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voicè; hailstones and coals of fire.

2. () And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man, coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.-And he shall send his angels, with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

3. (。) And the heaven departed as a scroll, when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 2 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free-man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 3 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:-For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

4. And I saw a great white thrōne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 5 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 6 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

5. 'Tis listening Fear and dumb Amazement all:
When to the startled eye, the sudden glance
Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud:
And following slower, in explosion fast,

The Thunder raises his tremendous voice.
At first heard solemn o'er the verge of heaven,
The tempest growls; (6) but as it nearer comes,
And rolls its awful burthen on the wind;
5 The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more
The noise astounds: till over head a sheet
Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts
And opens wider; shuts and opens, still
Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze.
10 Follows the loosened aggravated roar,
Enlarging, deep'ning, mingling peal on peal
Crush'd horrible, convulsing heaven and earth.

6. 'Twas then great Marlb'rough's mighty soul was
prov'd,

15 That in the shock of charging hosts unmov'd,
Amidst confusion, horror, and despair,
Examin'd all the dreadful scenes of war;
In peaceful thought the field of death survey'd,
To fainting squadrons sent the timely aid;
20 Inspir'd repuls'd battalions to engage,
And taught the doubtful battle where to rage
(.) So when an angel, by divine command,
With rising tempests shakes a guilty land,
(Such as of late o'er pale Britannia past,)
25 Calm and serene he drives the furious blast;
And pleas'd th' Almighty's orders to perform,
Rides on the whirlwind, and directs the storm.

7. Rous'd from his trance, he mounts with eyes
aghast,

When o'er the ship, in undulation vast, 30 A giant surge down rushes from on high, And fore and aft dissever'd ruins lie;

() As when, Britannia's empire to maintain,
Great Hawke descends in thunder on the main,
Around, the brazen voice of battle roars,
35 And fatal lightnings blast the hostile shores;
Beneath the storm their shatter'd navies groan,
The trembling deep recoils from zone to zone;
Thus the torn vessel felt the enormous stroke,
The beams beneath the thund'ring deluge broke.

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