the sky. The solstice - he knows - as little and - the whole bright-calendar- of the year - is - without a dial - in his mind. His note-books- impair - his memory; his libraries -` overload his wit.

Next to the blessing of redemption and the graces - consequent - upon it, - there is no gift - bestowed by God - equal in value to a good education; other advantages - are enjoyed -by the body, this belongs - entirely - to the spirit; whatever is - great, -or- good, - or - glorious in the works - of men, - is - the fruit of educated - minds. Religion herself - loses half her beauty and - influence - when not attended - or assisted by education; and - her power - and - majesty - are never so exalted as when-cultivated - genius - and - refined

taste become - her heralds - or - her handmaids.

Weeping thou sat'st, while all around thee smiled;
So live, that sinking on thy last long sleep,

Thou - then may'st smile - while - all - around thee - weep.

When these expire, - as many - yet in store

As grains of sand - that crowd - the ebbing - shore? -
When these - are gone, as many to ensue

As leaves of forests - shaken - by the wind?

run out, as many on the march -
As - brilliant lamps - that gild - yon azure
When these

When all - these dreadful - years - are spent - in pain,

To think upon the dreadful - words "for ever!"

The burning gulf where I blaspheming - lie,

vast - Eternity!

Nor - can

see

any reader - imagine - an art - could have been - in all free - governments - so laboriously - cultivated - by statesmen, - had they not found it - useful - in the state. Do we not in our own times the effects - produced - by it - in the British Parliament ? But - if - any one - should allege - that - there is nothing - in the power - of preachers - by means - of oratory, - does it not follow - that - then - the whole function - of preaching may - as well - be laid aside? For - if - good - speaking - will have no effect - upon mankind, - surely - bad - speaking - will have none.

VII. A most important addition to the groups may now be made in the Adjective, which may be included with its noun, or phrase equivalent, in the same oratorical word. Two adjectives cannot, of course, be so connected, for there is between them a necessary ellipsis of the noun.

Nouns in the Possessive case may also be added to the groups in this stage; as- -“The Pil'grim's Pro"gress.” “ Which'-in heav'en-will show'-the best',-a rich' man's honour,-or—a poor' man's hon"esty?" The student must now be most careful to regulate the accents in accordance with the sense. The noun in the possessive will have the primary accent only in case of antithesis; as— "This is a woman's cloak',-not' a man's"." The adjective will have the primary and the noun the secondary accent, when the subject of the sentence is rather the quality of the noun than the noun itself; or when the noun has been previously expressed or implied in the sentence; but otherwise the primary accent will be generally demanded by the noun.

It is a common but erroneous rule, that the chief accent should be always on the qualifying or limiting word. The primary accent cannot be always on either the one or the other, but it is more frequently on the qualified than on the qualifying word. In the best class of compositions, a large proportion of the adjectives and nouns will be found to be of equal value; and of those that are not so, the nouns have most frequently the preponderance of emphasis. Thus in Pope's short poem of the "Messiah," we note 103 adjective clauses; in 39 of which the adjectives and nouns are of equal value (equally emphatic or equally subordinate ;) in 46 of which the nouns are of superior value to the adjectives; and in only 18 of which the adjectives require to be primarily accented. In farther illustration, we collect the adjective-clauses from two pieces with which every reader must be familiar,-Lord Byron's stanzas to the Ocean, and the Rev. C. Wolfe's lines on the Burial of Sir John Moore.

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; There is a rapture on the lonely shore; There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar...... Roll on, thou deep, and dark, blue Ocean,-roll ! Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain!.......The armaments which thunderstrike the walls of rock-built cities........ The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make Their clay creator the vain title take of lord of thee....... Time writes no wrinkles on thine

azure brow......Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form glasses itself," &c.

"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note.......Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot.......By the struggling moon-beam's misty light.......No useless coffin enclosed his breast....... With his martial cloak around him.......Few and short were the prayers we said.......We thought as we hollowed his narrow bed, And smoothed down his lonely pillow.......But half of our heavy task was done........ And we heard the distant and random gun.... Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone, And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him," &c.

What reader of any judgement could subordinate the accent on the nouns to that of the adjectives in all these cases? Nay, out of these twenty-four adjéctive-phrases, who could, with justice to the sense, give to more than six or seven of the adjectives the primary accent?

The student will find the marking of the primary and secondary accents in the groups of this and the following stages, a most valuable exercise, both for the improvement of reading, and the cultivation of the judgement.

To be able to read well at sight is not the work of a day; nor is it a power ever to be gained by the indolent or the unthinking, or by those who neglect the study of Reading as a Science, and an Art. There is a Vocal Logic; a Rhetoric of Inflexion; a Poetry of Modulation; a Commentator's explanatoriness of Tone, and these are combined, in effective reading. The musician's consummate skill, and delicacy of execution, in keeping the simple air running with a wavy current in the midst of a river of variations, has its counterpart in the reader's vocal adaptation of sound to sense. The painter's artistic excellence in selecting objects to be struck out with varied effects, or covered down for contrast, is emulated by the skilful reader, in the due subordination and prominence of every thought and circumstance, according to its relative importance. A master of ceremonies is not more punctilious in his arrangements, than the voice of a tasteful and judicious reader.

Can drawlers dream of these capabilities in connexion with reading? Can they imagine the possibility of such improvements on the hum-drum, sing-song tune of their voices; the flat, misty, effectless daubs of their vocal pictures; the anarchy and orderless confusion of their grouping and emphasis? Baneful habit has stopped their ears and closed their eyes, so that they are unconscious alike of the high possibilities of reading, and of their own low actualities. No man who felt his failings, and knew what might be done by the reader, would ever open his mouth in public to deteriorate the taste of an audience by such gross incompetency as is but too often manifested by public readers.

To become a good reader requires long practice and deep study. It requires more than Rules could teach, or Art principle; yet it demands nothing which the mind may not discover for itself, when it has become accustomed to fix its attention, and concentrate its powers in reading. The voice will soon learn expressive obedience when it habitually watches for, and can recognise the mental promptings. Yet, perhaps,—and this forms the value of reading-exercises in

educating the mind,—the student will find, that, even in his best efforts, his execution will fall considerably short of his conceptions.

These remarks may seem misplaced here,- -our business being with the 7th stage of grouping and accentuation; but in the worst reading, it is improper grouping and accentuation that make the reading so bad; and the error lies most frequently in the management of Adjectives and qualifying phrases. So that, with good reason, we take occasion here to caution the student to be very careful, in this and the following stages, to cultivate a habit of close-thinking as he reads, and of careful relative accentuation.

EXAMPLES OF THE SEVENTH STAGE.

We have occasion - to apply

it to the denoting of some particular. Let it be required to express - this particular - as - unknown, - we say - a" man' ; - known, we say - the" man'; - indefinite, - any man ; - definite, - a certain man; - present - and - near, - this man ; - present - and - distant, that man; - like - to some other, - such a man ; - an indefinite multitude, - many men ; - a definite multitude, - a thousand men ; - the ones - of a multitude - taken - throughout, - every man; - the same ones taken with distinction, each man ; - taken - in order, - first man, - second man, &c. ; - the whole multitude of particulars taken - collectively, - all men ; - the negation of this multitude,

no man.

I hold - our actual knowledge - very cheap. Hear the rats in the wall, see the lizard on the fence, the fungus - under foot, the lichen on the log. What do I know - sympatheti cally morally of either of these worlds of life? As longas - the Caucasian man, - perhaps longer, - these creatures - have

kept their council - beside him, and there is no record - of any word - or - sign that has passed - from one

Nay- what does history yet record of the metaphysical annals of man? What light - does it shed - on those mysteries which we hide- under the names Death- and - Immortality? Yet every history should be written in a wisdom - which divined - the range of our affinities, - and - looked - at facts - as symbols. I am ashamed

The convincing and - irrefragable proof that - real - and important effects - might be produced - by preachers - by a proper application of oratory to the purposes of instructing - and amending - mankind - is, - that - oratory - has been - in all times - known - actually - to produce - great alterations - in men's ways - of thinking and acting. And - there is no denying - facts.

Sonnet.-Lear.

A poor

old king with sorrow

Throned upon straw, - and - mantled - with the wind,

And-may-be- madness - like a friend - has thrown -
A folded fillet over my dark mind,

So that unkindly speech - may sound - for kind, -
Albeit I know not. I am - childish - grown -

And have not - gold - to purchase - wit - withal. -
I- that have once - maintained - most royal state,
A very bankrupt now, that may not call -

My child, my child-all beggar'd save in tears,
Wherewith I- daily - weep - an old man's fate,

Foolish, - and -blind, - and - overcome with years !—HOOD.

VIII. Nouns, adjectives, adverbs, or simple equivalent phrases forming the thing or quality predicated by the verb To Be, may be united to the verb, to form the next stage of rhythmically compacted utterance; as—“ Contentment is great gain."

The verb seldom takes the primary accent, unless what is affirmed is of less importance in the sentence than the act of affirmation. Thus, when opposed to a negation-expressed or implied-or when there is an antithesis of time, the verb will be primarily accented; but otherwise it will be unaccented, or will take only the secondary accent; as-" Is' it so" ?" (or is it otherwise? understood. “Is" it so'?” (or is it not so? understood.) "Is" it so' ?" (I know it was so, understood.)

EXAMPLES OF THE EIGHTH STAGE. It may - perhaps - be objected,

that - sacred truth - needs - no ornaments to set it off, no art to enforce it; that - the Apostles were artless - and

illiterate men; and yet they gained - the great end of their mission, - the conviction - of multitudes, - and - establishment of their religion; that - thereforethere is no necessity - for this attention to delivery, - in order - to qualify- the preacher - for his sacred office, -or-render - his labours - successful. To this the answer - is ready, - viz. - The apostles were not all artless - and - illiterate. Paul, the greatest - and - most general propagator of Christianity, is an eminent exception. He could be no mean orator - who confounded - the Jews at Damascus ; - made - a prince, - before whom he stood - to be judged, confess - that he had - almost-persuaded him - to become