are becoming more pèrfect. Is lúxury, with sensual gratifications, the leading idéa? Then there is progress when a new dish is invented, or a new source of sensual gratification discovered.

3. Is wealth the leading idea? Then is there progress when the country is becoming rich. Is the power of man over external náture, or líberty, or equality, or the perfection of the fine arts, the leading idéa? Then would there be progress in an approximation to the attainment of these. But would there be a true progress in the advancement of society toward any, or all of these ends? Yès, on condition, and only on condition, that society should attain a true end, and not a means.

4. Is it a fact, that tríbes, that natíons, that cóntinents, in which no physical condition of progress was wánting, have always made such prúgress? History affords no such èvidence. Was it true of the tribes of this country, when discovered? Were they making prógress? By no means, but rather going on, even toward extinction. Was it not even so with the race, comparatively civilized, that preceded thém? Let the voice of ruined cities, and the remains of ancient art and civilization, scattered over this continent, ànswer.

5. Have those many generations, who have been raised on the shoulders of their predecessors, throughout all the islands of the Pacific ocean, made true, social progress? Navigators have truthfully answered. Has Egypt, once so mighty, but now so long the basest of kingdoms, made progress? Her present degradation evinces the contrary. Have the unnumbered millions in central Africa, and in southern regions, made progress? Certainly not.

6. Has there been any progress, for a thousand years, in India or China? It cannot be pretended. Has there, in Tartary or Persia? in Arabia or Turkey? No progress whatever, leading

toward human perfectability, is discoverable in their civil or social condition.

7. Do not the Chinese and the Hindoos, now use astronomical tables, of the principles of whose construction they know nothing? So far have the principal nations of Asia been from making progress, within the last thousand years, that it would be hazarding nothing to assert, that they have actually deteriorated. What then becomes of the law of progress, when such vast masses are not acted upon by such law?

RULE 2. Words, clauses, and direct questions, connected by the disjunctive or, generally require the rising slide before, and the falling after it.

EXAMPLES.

1. It was true or false, right or wròng, júst or unjùst.

2. It was black or white, green or rèd, roúgh or smooth 3. It was a young man or an òld man, a shórt man or a tàll

man.

4. Does Cæsara deserve fáme, or blame?

5. Do you seek wealth, or pòwer?

6. Shall we advánce, or retreat?

7. Is the chain of being upheld by Gód, or thèe?

8. Does Bonaparte b merit práise, or blàme, for not committing suicide, when banished to St Helena ?

■ Cæsar, (Julius,) a Roman general, statesman, and historian. Cæsar was a title of honor of the five Roman emperors, following Julius Cæsar, and ending with Nero. Bonaparte, (Napoleon,) a distinguished general and emperor of France, born on the island of Corsica, in 1769, and died, on the island of St. Helena, in 1821.

QUESTION. What is the rule for words, clauses, and direct questions, connected by the disjunctive or? Give examples.

9. Was it an act of moral courage, or of còwardice, for Cato® to fall on his sword?

NOTE. When nouns are connected in pairs, by the conjunction and, the former has the rising, and the latter, the falling inflection.

EXAMPLES.

1. While the earth remaineth, seéd-time and hàrvest, cóld and hèat, súmmer and wìnter, and day and nìght, shall not cease. 2. The wise and the foolish, the virtuous and the vìle, the learned and the ignorant, the témperate and the pròfligate, must often be blended together.

EXERCISE.

1. Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do góod, or to do èvil? to save life, or to destroy it?

2. Has God forsaken the works of his own hands? or does he always graciously presèrve, and keèp, and guide them? 3. The pain is all the same, whether we are hurt by a mád, or a blind man.

4. With regard to those who are undone, it avails little, whether it be by a man who decéives them, or by one who is himself deceived.

5. The law of God is a perfect rule of right, whether it be applied to the high or the lòw, the rích or the poor, the learned or the unlearned, the king or the beggar, rúler or ruled, sérvant or màster, bláck or white, bónd or frèe.

6. Such was Demosthenes. The mighty flood of speech rolls on in a channel, ever full, but never overflows. Whether it rushes in a torrent of allusions, or moves along in a majestic

Cato, an orator, general, and tribune of Rome, born 93, B. C., and, in consequence of a defeat, stabbed himself with his own sword in 44, B. C., and expired.

QUESTION. When nouns are connected in pairs, by the conjunction and, what inflections do they take?

exposition of enlarged principles; whether it descends, hoarse and headlong, in overwhelming invective, or glides melodiously in narrative and description; its course is ever onward, and ever entire; never scattered, never stagnant, never sluggish.

7. I love to look upon a young man; yet, I silently ask myself, what will that youth accomplish in after life? Will he take rank with the benefactors, or the scourgers of his race? Will he exhibit the patriotic virtue of Washington, or the selfish craftiness of Benedict Arnold? a

8. If he has genius, will he consecrate it, like Milton and Montgomery, to humanity and religion; or, like Moore and Byron,d to the polluted altars of passion? If he has mercantile skill, will he employ it, like Girard,e to gratify his lust of wealth; or, like some of our living merchants, to elevate and bless mankind?

9. The struggle lies between wealth and want; the dignity and degeneracy of reason; the force and frenzy of the soul; between well-grounded hope and widely-extended despair.

SECTION III.

RULE 3. When or is used conjunctively, it takes the rising slide after, as well as before it.

EXAMPLES.

1. Can wealth, or hónor, or pleasure, satisfy the sóul?

Arnold, (Benedict,) an American general, during the first part of the Revolutionary war, but, subsequently, became a traitor to his country. b Montgomery, (James,) an English poet, whose talents were consecrated to the cause of humanity and religion. Moore, (Thomas,) an Irish poet, of considerable reputation. Byron, (Lord,) an English peer and poet, of elevated genius, but dissolute habits. • Girard, (Stephen,) a very wealthy merchant, late of Philadelphia.

QUESTION. What is the rule when or is used conjunctively? Give an example,

2. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways pérfect"

3. Hast thou given the horse strength or hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?

4. Can that which is unsavory be eaten without sált? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

EXERCISE.

1. Did I say, bring unto mé? or give a reward, for me, of your substance? or deliver me from the enemies' hand? or redeem me from the hand of the mighty?

2. Doth God pervert júdgment? or doth the Almighty pervert jústice? Art thou the first man that was born or wast thou made before the hills?

3. Hast thou entered into the springs of the séa? or hast thou walked in search of the dépths? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?

4. Hast thou entered into the treasures of snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of hail? Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades,a or loose the bands of Orion? b Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus d with his sons?

5. Canst thou bind the unicorn, with his band, in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labor to him? Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?

с

Pleiades, an assemblage of seven stars, in the constellation Taurus. b Orion, a bright constellation of stars in the southern hemisphere. Mazzaroth, probably the constellation of stars around the north pole. dArcturus, a fixed star, of the first magnitude, in the constellation Bootes.