as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dike, for fear it should flood a province.-Rev. SYDNEY SMITH.

11. Of Chalmers, Canning said, "The tartan beats us; we have no preaching like that in England."

12. Private credit is wealth; public honor is security. The feather that adorns the royal bird supports his flight: strip him of his plumage, and you fix him to the earth.-JUNIUS.

13.

14.

15.

The chariot! the chariot! its wheels roll on fire!

As the Lord cometh down in the pomp of his ire:

Self-moving it drives on its pathway of cloud,

And the heavens with the burden of Godhead are bowed!-MILMAN.
Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows,

While proudly rising o'er the azure realm,

In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes;

Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;

Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,

That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey.-GRAY.

He loved his friends with such a warmth of heart,

So clear of interest, so devoid of art;

Such generous friendship, such unshaken zeal,

No words can speak it, but our tears can tell.

O candid truth! of faith without a stain;

O manners! gently fair and nobly plain;

O sympathizing love of others' bliss!

Where will you find another breast like his?-Lord LYTTELTON.

16. "An ambition to have a place in the registers of Fame is the Eurystheus which imposes heroic labors on mankind."

17. "Conscience, good my lord, is but the pulse of reason."

18. "I move that the committee be full."

"I would modify the gentleman's motion by moving that the chair be added to the committee."

19.

Yon row of visionary pines,

By twilight glimpse discovered! Mark! how they flee

From the fierce sea-blast, all their tresses wild
Streaming before them!-WORDSWORTH.

20. "A blind man is necessarily a man of much feeling; his progress through life is touching in the extreme.'

21. "What an awful thing it must be for a man to lie at the point of death."

I see a voice; now will I to the chinks

To spy an I can hear my Thisbe's face.-SHAKSPEARE.
Between two dogs, which flies the higher pitch;
Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;
Between two blades, which bears the better temper;
Between two horses, which doth bear him best;
Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye;
I have, perhaps, some shallow spirit of judgment;
But in these nice, sharp quillets of the law,

Good faith! I am no wiser than a daw.-King Henry V1.
Farewell! farewell! until Pity's sweet fountain

Is lost in the hearts of the fair and the brave,

They'll weep for the chieftain who died on that mountain,

They'll weep for the maiden who sleeps in this wave.-Lallah Rookh.

While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand;

When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall;

And when Rome falls the world!-BYRON.

Hear me, my mother Earth! Behold it, Heaven!
Have I not had to wrestle with my lot?

Have I not suffered things to be forgiven?

Have I not had my brain seared, my heart riven,

27.

Hopes sapp'd, name blighted, life's life lied away?
And only not to desperation driven,

Because not altogether of such clay

As rots into the souls of those whom I survey.-BYRON. "Grant me one leaf of Daphne's deathless plant,

Nor let thy votary's hope be deemed an idle vaunt."

28. Do you not imagine that Themistocles also, and those who fell at Marathon and at Platea, and the very tombs of our ancestors, will raise a groan, if this man, who, avowedly siding with barbarians, opposed the Greeks, shall be crowned?-ESCHINES.

29. Í then I call you witness, ye earth and sun! and virtue, and intellect, and education, by which we distinguish what is honorable from what is base-have given my help and have spoken; and if I have conducted the accusation adequately, and in a manner worthy of the transgression of the laws, I have spoken as I wished; if imperfectly, then only as I have been able. But do you, both from what has been said and what has been omitted, of yourselves, decide as is just and convenient on behalf of the country.-ESCHINES.

30. But it can not be! No, my countrymen! it can not be you have acted wrong in encountering danger bravely for the liberty and safety of all Greece. No! by those generous souls of ancient times who were exposed at Marathon! By those who stood arrayed at Platea! By those who encountered the Persian fleet at Salamis! who fought at Artemisium! No! by all illustrious sons of Athens, whose remains lie deposited in the public monuments!-DEMOSTHENES.

31.

Slave of the dark and dirty mine!

What vanity has brought thee here?
How can I love to see thee shine

So bright, whom I have bought so dear?

The tent-ropes flapping lone I hear,

For twilight converse arm in arm;

The jackal's shriek bursts on my ear,

When mirth and music wont to cheer.-LEYDEN.

32. Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh from the Father of light, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning.-New Testament.

33.

34.

I burn! I burn! as when through ripened corn,
By driving winds the spreading flames are borne!

Phaon to Etna's scorching fields retires,

While I consume with more than Etna's fires.-OVID.

O Death all eloquent! you only prove.

What dust we dote on, when 'tis man we love.-POPE.

35. For what greater blow could those judges-if they are to be called judges, and not rather parricides of their country-have given to the state than when they banished that very man who, when prætor, delivered the republic from a neighboring, and who, when consul, saved it from a civil war.-CICERO.

36.

What beck'ning ghost along the moonlight shade
Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?
'Tis she; but why that bleeding bosom gored?
Why dimly gleams the visionary sword?

O ever beauteous, ever friendly, tell,
Is it in heaven a crime to love too well?

To bear too tender or too firm a heart,

To act a lover's or a Roman's part?
Is there no bright reversion in the sky

For those who greatly think or bravely die?-POPE.

37. But what could you have done in such a case and at such a juncture? when to have sat still or to have withdrawn would have been cowardice, when the wickedness and fury of Saturnius had sent for you into the Capitol, and the consul had called you to protect the safety and liberty of your country? Whose authority, whose voice, which party would you have followed? and whose orders would you have chosen to obey ?-CICERO.

38.

39.

40.

41.

Some have at first for wits, then poets pass'd,

Turn'd critics next, and proved plain fools at last.-POPE.

As the stream, late conceal'd by the fringe of its willows,
When it rushes reveal'd by the light of its billows;

As the bolt bursts on high from the black cloud that bound it,

Flash'd the soul of that eye through the long lashes round it.-BYRON.

Her hair, I said, was auburn, but her eyes

Were black as death, their lashes the same hue,

Of downcast length, in whose silk shadow lies

Deepest attraction.-BYRON.

When Freedom, dress'd

In blood-stain'd vest,

To every knight her war-song sung;
Upon her head wild weeds were spread,
A gory anlace by her hung.

42. "Jeremy Taylor is the Shakspeare of divinity."

43.

Still o'er these scenes my memory wakes,

And broods them o'er with miser care;
Time but the impression stronger makes,

As streams their channel deeper wear.-BURNS.

44. I am a Royalist, I blushed for the degradation of the crown. I am a Whig, I blushed for the dishonor of Parliament. I am a true Englishman, I felt to the quick for the disgrace of England. I am a man, I felt for the melancholy reverse of human affairs in the fall of the first power in the world.-BURKE,

45. For a good opinion begets security; security begets negligence; temptation a fall; (and, if unrepented), a fall into that state where our wish will be that we never had been born.-YOUNG.

46.

47.

That he is mad 'tis true, 'tis pity;

And pity 'tis, 'tis true.-Hamlet.

May the grass wither from thy feet! the woods
Deny thee shelter! earth a home! the dust

A grave! the sun his light! and heaven a God!-BYRON'S Cain. 48. As for me, says Luther, I do not cease the cry of the Gospel! Gospel! Christ! Christ! And my opponents are ready with their answers: Custom! Custom! Ordinances! Ordinances ! Fathers! Fathers!-D'Aubigné.

49.

50.

Of heaven, if thou wouldst reach a gleam,

On humblest object fix thy eyes;

So travelers in a picturing stream,

Look down, indeed, but see the skies.-L. WITHINGTON.

"When young-eyed Spring profusely throws

From her green lap the pink and rose;

When the soft turtle of the dale

To Summer tells her tender tale;
When Autumn cooling caverns seeks,

And stains with wine his jolly cheeks;
When Winter, like a pilgrim old,
Shakes his silver beard with cold:
At every season, let my ear

Thy solemn whispers, Fancy, hear."

51. Let the bugles sound the Truce of God to the whole world forever. Let the selfish boast of the Spartan women become the grand chorus of mankind, that they have never seen the smoke of an enemy's camp. Let the iron belt of martial music, which now encompasses the earth, be exchanged for the golden cestus of Peace, clothing all with celestial beauty.-CHARLES SUMNER.

52. Other nations may boast of their magnificent gems and monster diamonds. Our Kohinoor is our common school system. This is our "mountain of light," not snatched, indeed, as a prize from a barbarous foe, nor destined to deck a royal brow, or to irradiate à Crystal Palace; but whose pure and penetrating ray illumines every brow, and enlightens every mind, and cheers every heart and every hearthstone in the land, and which supplies "ornaments of grace" unto the head, and chains upon the necks of every son and daughter of Massachusetts.— ROBERT C. WINTHROP.

53.

54.

"Hope and fear alternate sway'd his breast,
Like light and shade upon a waving field,
Coursing each other when the flying clouds
Now hide and now reveal the scene.'
11

"One from a thousand feather'd deaths he chose."

55. James (the royal poet) is evidently worthy of being enrolled in that little constellation of remote, but never-failing luminaries, who shine in the highest firmament of literature, and who, like the morning stars, sang together at the dawning of British poetry.-W. IRVING.

56. The mind of England's Elizabeth was like one of those ancient Druidical monuments called rocking-stones. The finger of Cupid, bov as he is painted, could put her feelings in motion, but the power of Hercules could not have destroyed their equilibrium.-SCOTT.

57. Our present repose is no more proof of inability to act, than the state of inertness and inactivity in which I have seen those mighty masses that float in the waters above your town is a proof that they are devoid of strength, and incapable of being fitted for action. You well know how soon one of these stupendous masses, now reposing on their shadows with perfect stillness; how soon, upon any call of patriotism or of necessity, it would assume the likeness of an animated thing, instinct with life and motion; how soon it would ruffle, as it were, its swelling plumage; how quickly it would put forth all its beauty and bravery, collect its scattered elements of strength, and awaken its dormant thunders. Such is one of those magnificent machines when springing from inaction into a display of its might; such is England herself; while apparently passive and motionless, she silently concentrates the power to be put forth on adequate occasion.-CANNING.

SYNTHESIS.

1. Compose a passage which shall contain an Allegory. 2. Compose a sentence which shall contain an Allusion. 3. Compose a sentence which shall contain an Anacœnosis. 4. Compose, in like manner, in succession, sentences which shall severally contain all the figures of speech described in this work.

PART VIII.

POETICAL FORMS.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS.

DEFINITIONS.

§ 477. POETICAL FORMS are those combinations of language which are characterized by certain specific differences between them and composition in general. These differences relate to the laws of Prosody. Poetry, besides holding much in common with Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, has certain laws of its own. Grammar aims at the correct use of language for the common understanding of those who speak and write it. Logic addresses the reasoning faculty. Rhetoric endeavors to persuade the will to action. The aim of Poetry is to please, by addressing the imagination, the taste, the sensibilities. In order to give pleasure, it uses the forms of Grammar, of Logic, of Rhetoric, and also those PECULIAR FORMS WHICH ARE INDICATED BY PROSODY. Thus a dactyl, a verse, and a stanza are Poetical forms.

PROSODY.

§ 478. PROSODY, from the Greek pros, for, ode, song, Latin accentus, originally signified accent. It is now used in a wider sense, and includes not only the doctrines of Accent and Quantity, but also the laws of metrical arrangement.

ACCENT.

§ 479. ACCENT or Stress bears the same relation to