Imatges de pàgina
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LESSON LXXIV.

RULE II.

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When a phrase comes between the nominative case and the verb, or between the verb and the objective case, it must be separated from both of them by a short pause.

EXAMPLE.

....

Homer claims. .. on every account. . . . our first attention, as the father not only of epic poetry, but in some measure of poetry itself.

True Regard towards Animals.

EDWARD JARVIS.

THE earth and all its inhabitants were created in infinite wisdom. Nothing is made in vain or at random. Every being has its purpose to effect, and its destiny to fulfil, and is furnished with organs, and endued with capacities, which adapt it to its condition. These organs and capacities coöperate with an admirable harmony. The worm, that crawls beneath the sod, is as truly fitted to fulfil its earthly destiny, as is man to be the lord of creation on earth, and the companion of angels in heaven.

Before we question the beauty of any of these works of God, we should doubt our knowledge of the purposes for which they were created, and attribute to our ignorance all appearances of imperfection. "Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? He that reproveth God, let him answer it."

If we faithfully use all the means in our hands, we shall certainly learn what is true, and perceive what is beautiful; we shall recognize the wisdom and propriety of every part of the Creator's works, and the fitness of each to fulfil his intentions concerning it. This recognition of God's wisdom is a sure test of our advancement in true knowledge.

Man is indeed the lord of creation. He is God's vicegerent over all inferior animals, and has a right to make them subservient to his well-being. So far as this requires it, they are to yield their liberty and life for him, but no farther. It is plainly his well-being only that has any demand on the brute creation, not his caprice, nor his folly, nor his morbid sentiment. We may destroy the ox for our food, and harness him for our work. We may drive the wolf from our sheepfold, the fox from our hen-roosts, the squirrel from our cornfields, the vermin from our dwellings, and the spider from our chambers; and this we may do even at the cost of their lives, if we cannot otherwise sustain and protect ourselves. But we may not destroy them for our pleasure, nor for our illfounded fears.

We are not to quarrel with the lower animals on account of the form and the color, the habits and condition, which God originally gave them. The toad is as guiltless of sin in his shape, and the serpent in his manner of crawling, as we are in our erect form and biped gait. But when we do first dislike, then condemn, and lastly destroy them, because of their structure, we are not only guilty of cruelty, but also of rebellion against God's merciful law. It is no excuse for us, that they suit not our taste, for they have suited the Creator's taste, and we are not to be angry with what he saw was good. These are our notions of the beautiful, and of the rights which the Maker and Father of all has given to his creatures to enjoy the condition, and fulfil the destiny, appointed for each. We draw these conclusions from our observation of the harmony of the moral and physical economy of animals, and the wise adaptation of these to their several conditions, and from a careful study of God's tender providence, without whose notice not a sparrow falls to the ground; and if he, in the beginning, rejoiced in the excellence of his works, and watches them now with such merciful care, how much more should we be pleased with them! how carefully should we restrain our hearts from hating them, and our hands from executing evil against them!

LESSON LXXV.

RHETORICAL PAUSES.

RULE III. Pause before a verb in the infinitive mood, when a word comes between it and the verb by which it is governed.

EXAMPLES.

Teach me ...
to fix my ardent hopes on high,
And, having lived to thee, in thee. . . . to die.

Industry necessary to form the Orator.

HENRY WARE, JR.

THE history of the world is full of testimony to prove how much depends upon industry; not an eminent orator has lived, but is an example of it. Yet, in contradiction to all this, the almost universal feeling appears to be, that industry can effect nothing, that eminence is the result of accident, and that every one must be content to remain just what he may happen to be. Thus multitudes, who come forward as teachers and guides, suffer themselves to be satisfied with the most indifferent attainments, and a miserable mediocrity, without so much as inquiring how they might rise higher, much less making any attempt to rise.

For any other art they would have served an apprenticeship, and would be ashamed to practise it in public before they had learned it. If any one would sing, he attends a master, and is drilled in the very elementary principles, and only after the most laborious process, dares to exercise his voice in public. This he does, though he has scarce any thing to learn but the mechanical execution of what lies, in sensible forms, before his eye. But the extempore speaker, who is to invent as well as to utter, to carry on an operation of the mind as well as to produce sound, enters upon the work without preparatory discipline, and then wonders that he fails!

If he were learning to play on the flute for public exhibition, what hours and days would he spend in giving facility to his fingers, and attaining the power of the sweetest and most impressive execution! If he were devoting himself to the organ, what months and years would he labor, that he might know its compass, and be master of its keys, and be able to draw out, at will, all its various combinations of harmonious sound, and its full richness and delicacy of expression! And yet he will fancy that the grandest, the most various, the most expressive of all instruments, which the infinite Creator has fashioned, by the union of an intellectual soul with the powers of speech, may be played upon without study or practice; he comes to it a mere uninstructed tyro, and thinks to manage all its stops, and command the whole compass of its varied and comprehensive power. He finds himself a bungler in the attempt, is mortified at his failure, and settles in his mind forever that the attempt is vain.

Success in every art, whatever may be the natural talent, is always the reward of industry and pains. But the instances are many, of men of the finest natural genius, whose beginning has promised much, but who have degenerated wretchedly as they advanced, because they trusted to their gifts, and made no effort to improve. That there have never been other men of equal endowments with Cicero and Demosthenes, none would venture to suppose; but who have so devoted themselves to their art, or become equal in excellence? If those great men had been content, like others, to continue as they began, and had never made their persevering efforts for improvement, what could their countries have benefited from their genius, or the world have known of their fame? They would have been lost in the undistinguished crowd, that sank to oblivion around them.

Of how many more will the same remark prove true! What encouragement is thus given to the industrious! With such encouragement, how inexcusable is the negligence, which suffers the most interesting and important

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truths to seem heavy and dull, and fall ineffectual to the ground, through mere sluggishness in the delivery! How unworthy of one who performs the high function of a religious instructor-upon whom depend, in a great measure, the religious knowledge, and devotional sentiment, and final character, of many fellow-beings-to imagine that he can worthily discharge this great concern by occasionally talking for an hour, he knows not how, and in a manner he has taken no pains to render correct, impressive, or attractive! and which, simply through that want of command over himself which study would give, is immethodical, verbose, inaccurate, feeble, trifling! It has been said of the good preacher,

"That truths divine come mended from his tongue."

Alas! they come ruined and worthless from such a man as this! They lose that holy energy by which they are to convert the soul and purify man for heaven, and sink, in interest and efficacy, below the level of those principles which govern the ordinary affairs of this lower world.

LESSON LXXVI.

RHETORICAL PAUSES.

RULE IV. Pause before an adjective when it follows the

noun to which it relates.

EXAMPLES.

....

It was a calculation . . . . accurate to the last degree.
Labor . . . . hard and unremitting, was his lot in life.

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IF I had thought thou couldst have died,
I might not weep for thee;

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