laurels of victory/ greeted by the applause of grateful senates/ and hailed by the shouts of an emancipated people. So felt Gideon/ when he sheathed the sword of the Lord in its scabbard/ and entered with trembling ecstacy the threshold of the temple/ now no longer polluted by the unhallowed footsteps of the heathen/ when he was saluted by the triumphant songs of the Hebrew maidens/ and cheered by the approving smile of his God. So felt Themistocles/ when thousands rose before him in reverential homage at the Olympic games/ when he had driven back the Persian tyrant/ with his countless hosts/ in shame and confusion to their seraglios and to their parasites/ plucked his country from the jaws of destruction and raised her to a proud and dazzling pre-eminence amongst the nations/ a vast and imperishable monument of the quenchless fires of the freeman's heart/ and the resistless might of the freeman's arm. So felt Washington/ when he moved on in his career/ in the silent majesty of a planet/ giving life and light to an infant republic. So felt Wellington/when/ amid the desolation of a continent/ and the universal crash of ruin/ he went forth/ the champion of Britain and of Europe/ shivered into atoms that fabric/ which had risen on the ashes of the shrine and the sanctuary/ burst the fetters of imprisoned nations/ and seized the arch-magician in the midst of his hellish incantations.— Phillips. (113.) A COUNTRY DANCE. Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away/ or couldn't have cleared away/ with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed off/ as if it were dismissed from public life for evermore; the floor was swept and watered/ the lamps were trimmed/ fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug/ and warm/ and dry/ and bright a ball-room/ as you would desire to see upon a winter's night. In came a fiddler with a music-book/ and went up to the lofty desk/ and made an orchestra of it/ and tuned like fifty stomachaches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig/ one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs/ beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In came the housemaid/ with her cousin the baker. In came the cook/ with her brother's particular friend/ the milkman. In came the boy from over the way/ who was suspected of not having board enough from his master; trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress. In they all came one after another; some shyly/ some boldly/ some gracefully/ some awkwardly/ some pushing/ some pulling; in they all came/ anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went/ twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again the other way; down the middle and up again; round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top couple starting off again/ as soon as they got there; all top couples at last/ and not a bottom one to help them! When this result was brought about/ old Fezziwig/ clapping his hands to stop the dance/ cried out/ "Well done!" and the fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of porter/ especially provided for that purpose. But scorning rest upon his reappearance/ he instantly began again/ though/ as if the other fiddler had been carried home/ exhausted/ on a shutter/ and he were a bran-new man resolved to beat him out of sight/ or perish.-Dickens. RULE XII. Change the tone to the description of the character, and make the narrative portion distinct from that of the dialogue. EXERCISES ON RULE XII. (114) BARNABY RUDGE. There was a brief pause in the state-room of the Maypole/ as Mr. Haredale tried the lock to satisfy himself that he had shut the door securely/and/ striding up the dark chamber to where the screen inclosed a little patch of light and warmth/ presented himself/ abruptly and in silence/ before the smiling guest. If the two had no greater sympathy in their inward thoughts than in their outward bearing and appearance/ the meeting did not seem likely to prove a very calm or pleasant one. With no great disparity between them in point of years/ they were/ in every other respect/ as unlike and far removed from each other as two men could well be. The one was soft-spoken/ delicately made/ precise/ and elegant; the other/ a burly squarebuilt man/ negligently dressed/ rough and abrupt in manner/ stern/ and/ in his present mood/ forbidding both in look and speech. The one preserved a calm and placid smile; the other/ a distrustful frown. The new-comer/ indeed/ appeared bent on showing by his every tone and gesture his determined opposition and hostility to the man he had come to meet. The guest who received him/ on the other hand/ seemed to feel that the contrast between them was all in his favour/ and to derive a quiet exultation from it which put him more at his ease than ever. 66 Haredale/" said this gentleman/ without the least appearance of embarrassment or reserve/ "I am very glad to see you." "Let us dispense with compliments. They are misplaced between us/” returned the other/ waving his hand/" and say plainly what we have to say. You have asked me to meet you. I am here. Why do we stand face to face again?" "Still the same frank and sturdy character/ I see!" "Good or bad/ sir/ I am/" returned the other/ leaning his arm upon the chimney-piece/ and turning a haughty look upon the occupant of the easy-chair, "the man I used to be. I have lost no old likings or dislikings; my memory has not failed me by a hair's-breadth. You ask me to give you a meeting. I say I am here." "Our meeting/ Haredale/" said Mr. Chester/ tapping his snuffbox/ and following with a smile the impatient gesture he had made —perhaps unconsciously towards his sword/ "is one of conference and peace/ I hope?" "I have come here/" returned the other/ "at your desire/ holding myself bound to meet you/ when and where you would. I have not come to bandy pleasant speeches/ or hollow professions. You are a smooth man of the world/ sir/ and at such play have me at a disadvantage. The very last man on this earth with whom I would enter the lists to combat with gentle compliments and masked faces/ is Mr. Chester/ I do assure you. I am not his match at such weapons/ and have reason to believe that few men are." "You do me a great deal of honour/ Haredale/" returned the other most composedly/ "and I thank you. I will be frank with you—” 'I beg your pardon--will be what?" "Frank-open-perfectly candid." "Hah!" cried Mr. Haredale/ drawing his breath. "But don't let me interrupt you." "So resolved am I to hold this course/" returned the other/ tasting his wine with great deliberation/ that I have determined not to quarrel with you/ and not to be betrayed into a warm expression or a hasty word." "There again/” said Mr. Haredale/" you have me at a great advantage. Your self-command-" “Is not to be disturbed/ when it will serve my purpose/ you would say”—rejoined the other/ interrupting him with the same complacency. "Granted. I allow it. And I have a purpose to serve now. So have you. I am sure our object is the same. attain it like sensible men/ who have ceased to be boys some time." -You will be seated?" Let us "I will stand/" returned Mr. Haredale impatiently/" on this dismantled beggared hearth/ and not pollute it/ fallen as it is/ with mockeries. Go on." "You are wrong/ Haredale/" said the other/ crossing his legs/ and smiling as he held his glass up in the bright glow of the fire. "You are really very wrong. The world is a lively place enough/ in which we must accommodate ourselves to circumstances/ sail with the stream as glibly as we can/ be content to take froth for substance the surface for the depth/ the counterfeit for the real coin. I wonder no philosopher has ever established that our globe itself is hollow. It should be/ if Nature is consistent in her works."-Dickens. (115.) COTTAR'S SATURDAY NIGHT. The cheerfu' supper done/ wi' serious face/ His lyart haffets wearin' thin and bare; And "Let us worship God!" he says/ with solemn air. They chant their artless notes in simple guise; The tickled ear no hearfelt raptures raise; Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise. From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs/ Princes and lords are but the breath of kings/ The cottage leaves the palace far behind. O Scotia! my dear my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent! Be blest with health/ and peace/ and sweet content! And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved isle. Burns. THE PAUSE. (116.) Pauses not alone aid the reader to make the meaning clear, but they enable him also to regain breath, and to foresee the force of a forerunning sentence. Therefore, read clearly one thought at a time, and pause, longer or otherwise, according to the importance of the idea, distinctly changing the tone at each clause:-making "sound an echo to the sense." (117.) Pauses must be regulated, in all cases, by the judgment of the speaker. As a general rule, the short, or comma pause, is used after several words occurring in one phrase, thus:-"He spoke clearly, calmly, sensibly, and extemporaneousl Also, after the objective phrase in an inverted sentence, as:—' "With the whiff and wind of his fell blow-the unnerved father falls." At the emphatic word of force :-"And Nathan said unto David-Thou-art the man." At each member of a compound series:-"You may as well go stand upon the beach and bid the main flood bate his usual course; you may as well use question with the wolf why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb; you may as well forbid the mountain pines to wag their high tops and to make no noise when they are fretted with the gusts of heaven," &c., &c. Pause also before and after a parenthetical clause. |