5.

Whose tears spontaneous crystallize the eye,
When rigid fate denies the power to bless.
Teach me to soothe the helpless orphan's grief,
With timely aid the widow's woes assuage,
To misery's moving cries to yield relief,
And be the sure resource of drooping age.
O gentle sleep!

Nature's soft nurse!

How have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness ?
6. Ere the foundations of the world were laid,
Ere kindling light the almighty word obeyed,
Thou wert; and when the subterraneous flame
Shall burst its prison, and devour this frame,
From angry Heaven when the keen lightning flies,
When fervent heat dissolves the melting skies,
Thou still shalt be, still as thou wert before,
And know no change, when time shall be no more.

5. APOSTROPHE.

Exercise 79.

Rudiments, p. 126.

1. I cannot but imagine the virtuous heroes, legislators, and patriots of every age and country, are bending from their elevated seats to witness this contest, as if they were incapable, till it be brought to a favourable issue, of enjoying their eternal repose. Enjoy that repose, illustrious immortals! Your mantle fell when you ascended; and thousands, inflamed with your spirit, and impatient to tread in your steps, are ready to swear by Him that sitteth upon the throne and liveth for ever and ever, that they will protect Freedom in her last asylum, and never desert that cause which you sustained by your labours and cemented with your blood.

2. Strike the harp in praise of Bragela, whom I left in

the isle of mist, the spouse of my love. Dost thou raise thy fair face from the rock to find the sails of Cuthullin? The sea is rolling far distant, and its white foam will deceive thee for my sails. Retire, my love, for it is night, and the dark wind sighs in thy hair. Retire to the hall of my feasts, and think of the times that are past; for I will not return till the storm of war is gone.

3. Thus passes the world away. Throughout all ranks and conditions, "one generation passeth, and another generation cometh; " and this great inn is by turns evacuated and replenished by troops of succeeding pilgrims. O vain and inconstant world! O fleeting and transient life!

When

will the sons of men learn to think of thee as they ought? When will they learn humanity from the afflictions of their brethren; or moderation and wisdom from the sense of their own fugitive state?

1. "Grave," for death.

2. "The sword," for war. 3. "The press," for literature. 4. "The rod," for fishing. 5. "The purple," for imperial power. 6. "Wordsworth," for

his poems. 7. "The pen," for a literary life; "the sword," for a military life. 8. "The weed," for tobacco-smoking. 9. "A baton," for the office of field-marshal. 10. "Summers," for years. 11. "Sail," for ships. 12. "The red flag," for republicanism. 13. "The bar," for the legal profession. 14. "The sun," for sunshine. 15. "Silver and gold," for riches. 16. "Pride and poverty," for rich and

poor people. 17. "Houses," for firms or commercial companies. 18. "Head," for cattle.

7. HYPERBOLE.

Exercise 82.

Rudiments, p. 129.

1. The radiance of the lamps rivalled the brightness of

noon.

2. The garment blazed with jewels.

3.

His legions lay entranced,

Thick as autumnal leaves.

4. The rain descends in torrents.

5. An ocean of liquor would scarcely quench his thirst. 6. The kingdom extends from the rising to the setting of the sun.

7. The nation dissolved in tears at his death.

8. ANTITHESIS.

Exercise 83.

Rudiments, p. 130.

1. Pride and humility.

No two feelings of the human mind are more opposite than pride and humility. Pride is founded on a high opinion of ourselves; humility, on the consciousness of the want of

merit. Pride is the offspring of ignorance; humility is the child of wisdom. Pride hardens the heart; humility softens the temper and disposition. Pride is deaf to the clamours of conscience; humility listens with reverence to the monitor within. Finally, pride rejects the counsels of reason, the voice of experience, and the dictates of religion; while humility, with a docile spirit, thankfully receives instruction from all who address her in the garb of truth.*

2. Temperance and exercise.

Where opportunities of exercise are wanting, temperance may, in a great measure, supply its place. If exercise throws off all superfluities, temperance prevents them; if exercise clears the vessels, temperance neither satiates nor Overstrains them; if exercise raises proper ferments in the humours, and promotes the circulation of the blood, temperance gives nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigour; if exercise dissipates a growing distemper, temperance starves it.

3. Cheerfulness and mirth.

I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth, who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy; on the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depth of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, which breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

* These passages, extracted from eminent prose writers, may be read to the Pupils, and the points of antithesis explained to them, that they may imitate them in sentences of their own composition.

4. Discretion and cunning.

At the same time that I think discretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Discretion points out the noblest ends to us, and pursues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them; cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon; cunning is a kind of shortsightedness, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance.

5. True and false modesty.

Nothing is more amiable than true modesty, and nothing more contemptible than false. The one guards virtue; the other betrays it. True modesty is ashamed to do anything that is repugnant to the rules of right reason; false modesty is ashamed to do anything that is opposite to the humour of the company. True modesty avoids what is criminal; false modesty, everything that is unfashionable. The latter is only a general undetermined instinct; the former is that instinct limited and circumscribed by the rules of prudence and religion.

6. True honour and religion.

True honour, though it is a different principle from religion, produces the same effects. The lines of action, though drawn from different parts, terminate in the same point. Religion embraces virtue, as it is enjoined by the laws of God; honour, as it is graceful and ornamental to human nature. The religious man fears, the man of honour scorns, to do an ill action. The latter considers vice as something that is beneath him; the former, as something that is offensive to the Divine Being: the one as what is unbecoming; the other as what is forbidden.