2. Contrast of the effects of disappointed love on the two sexes. (1.) Woman broods in secret over her unhappy lot.

(2.) The interest and relish of life is gone.

(3.) Her untimely end.

(4.) Comparison to a tree killed by a secret worm.

3. Out of the many instances known to the author, he selects one pre-eminent for pathetic interest; the daughter of Curran, betrothed to Emmet.

(1) Sketch of the character and fate of Emmet.

(2.) The love of Miss Curran.

(3.) Her grief for his death intensified by the manner of it.

(4.) The effect of the want of sympathy.

(5.) Her appearance at scenes of festivity.

(6). The suit of a young officer.

(7.) His success in gaining her hand, but his failure to make her forget her first love.

(8.) Her melancholy end.

As specimens of good pieces of composition to be thus analyzed, or condensed into an abstract, the following list is given.

Addison's Reflections on the Attributes of God as seen in Creation: No. 565 of the Spectator.

Addison on the use of the Fan: No. 102 of the Spectator.

Addison's Reflections in Westminster Abbey.

Blair's Lecture on the History of Eloquence.

Blair's Lecture on the Eloquence of Popular Assemblies.

Hume's Delineation of the Character of Queen Elizabeth.
Macaulay's Delineation of the Character of Louis XIV.
Macaulay's Essay on Milton.

Macaulay's Essay on the Philosophy of Bacon.

Johnson's Criticism of Shakespeare in his "Preface to Shakespeare."

Johnson's Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope.

Johnson's "Voyage of Life."

Prescott's Delineation of Queen Isabella.

Prescott's Description of Montezuma's Way of Life.

Everett's Remarks on the Landing of the Pilgrims.

Everett's Panegyric of England.

Lady Mary Wortley Montague's Letters on Female Education.

Blackstone's Chapter on the Rights of Persons.

Blackstone's Chapter on the Rights of Property

Channing's Lecture on Self Culture.

Channing's Lecture on the Elevation of the Laboring Classes.
Channing's Lecture on the Present Age.

Robertson's Introduction to the History of Charles V.

Any of the speeches of Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Seward, etc.

Of all forms of composition to be subjected to this process, sermons are the easiest; and if this book is used by any young ministers seeking to improve their style, copious exercises in the analyzing of good sermons are recommended in this place.

CHAPTER XXVI.

FORMING OF ORIGINAL PLAN.

The pupil will now be sufficiently advanced to enter upon the invention of schemes, analyses, or abstracts, for his own compositions. He will have learned something of the way in which trained minds put forth their thoughts; and without having any fixed rule or model to guide him, which could only apply to a few subjects, he must be required to furnish as good a scheme as he can on any assigned subject. The following are specimens.

GARDENING.

1. What it is-how distinguished from farming.

2. What separate processes are involved in it-each described. 3. Character of the whole employment-comparison with other employments.

4. Different kinds of gardening-the purposes for which they are pursued, and the different personages, localities, etc., appropriate to

each.

5. Its antiquity-the character of ancient gardening.

6. Its improvements in modern times.

7. The usefulness of even pleasure gardening.

8. The simple and elevating kinds of pleasure derived from a garden. 9. What eminent men have said on this subject."

1. What they are?

DREAMS.

2. Different points of contrast between dreams and waking thoughts 3. Various causes.

4. Instances of them as thus caused.

5. Superstitious views of them, with instances.

6. Remarkable fulfillments of dreams.

7. The question considered whether prophetic dreams are still granted to men.

After the manner of the foregoing let the pupil be required to draw up schemes on several of the following subjects, and, after criticism, to write essays from them.

PART SIXTH.

EXPRESSION-RESUMED.

CHAPTER XXVII.

STRENGTH.

§ 354. This is that property of style which imparts to it the power of arresting attention and forcibly influencing

the mind.

Of course the amount of influence which uttered thought will have will depend on several things. If spoken, the tones and gestures of the speaker will greatly determine its effectiveness. Whether spoken or written, its im pressiveness will be very largely dependent on the character of the thought itself. Still, much is due to the style. Many a train of thought possessed of intrinsic worth has failed to produce its due effect by being expressed in a weak style; and many a common-place idea has awakened attention and admiration because happily expressed.

Strength of style has reference to two things, General or Prevailing Vivacity, and the Production of Emphasis.

I. GENERAL VIVACITY.

§ 355. The requirements of this quality of style may be conveniently considered under the four following heads: 1. The quantity and kind of words used;

2. Their arrangement in sentences;

3. The arrangement of sentences in paragraphs;
4. The use of connectives.

§ 356. I. The quantity and kind of words used. This is strictly an element of Diction rather than of Structure,

and the rules that bear on it are very nearly the same as those of Precision. Indeed Precision is a very considerable source of Strength. In most cases the strength of a writer is in proportion to his conciseness. Verbosity enfeebles. Mere epithets, expletives, and the mentioning of unnecessary circumstances, are to be avoided.

Young writers are apt to encumber their style by the use of descriptive adjectives, expressive of some quality that has no particular bearing upon the leading thought of the sentence. This feature of style which is rather a beauty than a blemish in poetry, has in prose quite a contrary effect. From want of a disciplined taste, this is imitated by the young composer. The habit is contracted of qualifying nearly every noun with some adjective, and as these are necessarily repeated from time to time, they become trite and disgusting. Open the pages of any third or fourth rate novel or magazine, and such phrases as these crowd upon the vision: "beautiful flowers," "bright sun," "twinkling stars," "green earth," "wide world," "cold world," "bounding sea," "rolling sea,' "briny deep," "golden harvests," etc. Hence the rule, Never in prose use an adjective, unless its meaning tends to elucidate or enforce the main thought of the sentence.

§ 357. One of the forms of Tautology is a violation of Strength. This consists in reiterating an idea, with but a trifling variation, if any, in a following clause or member. The following are

EXAMPLFS.

"He was so old and palsied that his limbs shook continually, and his hands and knees trembled all the time."

They agreed to the terms proposed, and accepted the conditions.

§ 358. Here also can be traced a resemblance to what, in some languages at least, constitutes a poetic beauty. By consulting the style of the Psalms of David, one will