1st. To prevent too frequent a recurrence of pauses; as, Her lover sinks-she sheds no ill-timed tear; Her chief is slain-she fills his fatal post; 2d. To produce a slighter disjunction than would be made by a pause; and thus at once to separate and unite; as, Would you kill your friend and benefactor? Would you practice hypocrisy and smile in his face, while your conspiracy is ripening? 3d. To break up the current of sound into small portions, which can be easily managed by the speaker, without the abruptness which would result from pausing wherever this relief was needed; and to give ease in speaking; as, That lame man, by the field tent, is untainted with the crime of blood, and free from any stain of treason. RULE. Whenever a preposition is followed by as many as three or four words which depend upon it, the word preceding the preposition will either have suspensive quantity, or else a pause; as, He is the pride of the whole country. Most of the rules given above, and especially those respecting the emphatic nominative and contrasted words, are illustrated by the following EXERCISE. 1. It matters very little - what immediate spot may have been the birth-place of such a man as Washington. No people can claim no country can appropriate him. The 3. In the production of Washington as if nature ◄ was endeavoring to improve that all the virtues of the ancient world and of it does really appear upon herself were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. Individual instances no doubt there were splendid exemplifications some single qualification. Cæsar was merciful Scipio was continent Hannibal was patient. But it was reserved for Washington to blend them all in one the lovely master-piece of the Grecian artist to exhibit one glow of associated beauty the pride of every model and the perfection of every master. and like in 4. As a general he marshaled the peasant into a veteran and supplied by discipline the absence of experience. As a statesman he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advantage. And such was the wisdom of his views and the philosophy or and the statesman his counsels almost added that to the soldier the character of the sage. 5. A conqueror he he was untainted with the crime of blood he was free from any stain of treason▾ a revolutionist for aggression commenced the contest and his country called him to the field. Liberty unsheathed his sword neces nesitation. Who like Washington after having emancipated a hemisphere resigned its crown and preferred the retirement of domestic life to the adoration of a land he might almost be said to have 7. How shall we rank thee created? upon glory's page, and just less than sage! reflects less praise on thee, Thou more than soldier All thou hast been Far less than all thou hast forborne to be. OBSERVATION TO TEACHERS. In order to form finished readers, it will be necessary, after pupils have thoroughly mastered Part First, for them frequently to review the more important elements of elocution. In Part Second, they should be required to study each reading lesson, and learn the definitions and pronunciation of the words given at the bottom of the pages, before attempting to read. The judgment and taste of the pupils should constantly be called into exercise, by requiring them to determine what principle, or principles, of elocution, each reading lesson is best adapted tc illustrate. KEY TO THE SOUNDS OF MARKED LETTERS. àge or age, åt or ǎt, årt, âll, båre, åsk; wè or wē, ẻnd or end, her; ice or ice, in or in; old or old, on or on, dỗ; mùte or mute, ůp or up, füll; this; azure; reäl; agèd. THE NATIONAL FOURTH READER. THE PART II. EXERCISES IN READING. 1. SPRING. HE old chroniclers' made the year begin in the season of frosts; and they have launched us upon the current of the months, from the snowy banks of January. I love better to count time from spring to spring; it seems to me far more cheerful, to reckon the year by blossoms, than by blight. 2. Bernardin de St. Pierre, in his sweet story of Virginia, makes the bloom of the cocoa-tree, or the growth of the banana,* a yearly and a loved monitor3 of the passage of her life. How cold and cheerless in the comparison, would be the icy chronology of the North ;- -So many years have I seen the lakes locked, and the foliage die! 3. The budding and blooming of spring, seem to belong prop erly to the opening of the months. It is the season of the quickest expansion,' of the warmest blood, of the readiest growth; it is the boy-age of the year. The birds sing in chōrus in the spring-just as children prattle; the brooks run full-like the overflow of young hearts; the showers drop easily as young 'Chron' i clers, historians.-Cůr' rent, a regular flow, or onward movement; progress.--James H. Bernardin de St. Pierre, the celebrated author of "Paul and Virginia," lived between 1737 and 1813.- Banå'na, a tall West India plant, and its fruit, which is valued for food.--Mon' i tor, an adviser.- Chro nol' o gy, the method of computing time, and ascertaining the dates of events.- -' Ex pån' sion, spreading cut, like the opening of the leaves of a flower. tears flow; and the whole sky is as capricious' as the mind o. a boy. 4. Between tears and smiles, the year, like the child, struggles into the warmth of life. The old year,-say what the chronologists will, lingers upon the very lap of spring; and is only fairly gone, when the blossoms of April have strewn2 their pall3 of glory upon his tomb, and the blue-birds have chanted his requiem.4 5. It always seems to me as if an access of life came with the melting of the winter's snows; and as if every rootlet of grass that lifted its first green blade from the matted debris of the old year's decay, bore my spirit upon it, nearer to the largess of Heaven. 6. I love to trace the break of spring, step by step: I love even those long rain-storms that sap the icy fortresses of the lingering winter, that melt the snows upon the hills, and swell the mountain-brooks;-that make the pools heave up their glassy cere'ments of ice, and hurry down the crashing fragments into the wastes of ocean. I love the gentle thaws that you can trace, day by day, by the stained snow-banks, shrinking from the grass; and by the gentle drip of the cottage-eaves. 7. I love to search out the sunny slopes by a southern wall, where the reflected sun does double duty to the earth, and where the frail anĕm'one, or the faint blush of the ar'bute,1o in the midst of the bleak March atmosphere, will touch your heart, like a hope of Heaven, in a field of graves! Later come those soft, smoky days, when the patches of winter grain show green under the shelter of leafless woods, and the last snow-drifts, reduced to shrunken skeletons" of ice, lie upon the slope of northern hills, leaking away their life. 8. Then, the grass at your door grows into the color of the Capricious (ka prish' us), apt to change one's mind often and suddenly; changeable.-Strewn (strån), scattered.- Påll, a covering.— 'Requiem (rè' kwe em), a song for the dead." Ac cess', increase.— Debris (då brẻ′), ruins; fragments; pieces worn off.—'Lår' gess, bounty; free gift. Cère' ments, cloths dipped in wax, in which dead bodies were buried; coverings.-- A nem' o ne, the wind-flower.-10 Ar' bùte, the strawberry-tree, not the common strawberry.-"Skål'e tons, frames, or parts of a thing that support the rest; bones without flesh. 8 |