No definite rule can be given with reference to the length of the rhetorical, or grammatical pause. The correct taste of the reader or speaker must determine it. For the voice should sometimes be suspended much longer at the same pause in one situation than in another; as in the two following

EXAMPLES.

LONG PAUSE.

Pause a moment. I heard a footstep. Listen now. I heard it again; but it is going from us. It sounds fainter,-still fainter. It is gone.

SHORT PAUSE.

John, be quick.

There

Get some water. Throw the powder overboard. "It can not be reached." Jump into the boat, then. Shove off. goes the powder. Thank Heaven. We are safe.

REMARKS TO TEACHERS.

and

It is of the utmost importance, in order to secure an easy elegant style in reading, to refer the pupil often to the more important principles involved in a just elocution. To this end, it will be found very advantageous, occasionally to review the rules and directions given in the preceding pages, and thus early accustom him to apply them in the subsequent reading lessons. For a wider range of examples and illustrations, it is only necessary to refer to the numerous and various exercises which form the body of this book. They have been selected, in many cases, with a special view to this object.

1 VI' A DUCT, (VIA, a way; DUCT, lead;) a structure, usually of masonry, for carrying a railway across a valley or river; a bridge.

REV. NEWMAN HALL.

HE DIGNITY OF LABOR! Consider its achievements! Dismayed by no difficulty, shrinking from no exertion, exhausted by no struggle, ever eager for renewed efforts in its persevering promotion of human happiness, "clamorous Labor knocks with its hundred hands at the golden gate of the morning," obtaining each day, through succeeding centuries, fresh benefactions for the world!

La

2. Labor clears the forest, and drains the morăss, and makes the wilderness rejoice and blossom as the rose. bor drives the plow, scatters the seed, reaps the harvest, grinds the corn, and converts it into bread, the staff of life. Labor, tending the pastures, as well as cultivating the soil, provides with daily sustenance the one thousand millions of the family of man.

3. Labor gathers the gossamer web of the caterpillar, the cotton from the field, and the fleece from the flock, and weaves them into raiment, soft, and warm, and beautiful, the purple robe of the prince, and the gray gown

of the peasant, being alike its handiwork. Labor molds the brick, splits the slate, quarries the stone, shapes the column, and rears, not only the humble cottage, but the gorgeous palace, the tapering spire, and the stately dome.

4. Labor, diving deep into the solid earth, brings up its long-hidden stores of coal, to feed ten thousand furnaces, and, in millions of habitations, to defy the winter's cold. Labor explores the rich veins of deeply-buried rocks, extracting the gold, the silver, the copper, the tin, and the oil. Labor smelts the iron, and molds it into a thousand shapes for use and ornament,-from the massive pillar to the tiniest needle, from the ponderous anchor to the wire-gauze, — from the mighty fly-wheel of the steamengine to the polished purse-ring or the glittering bead.

5. Labor hews down the gnarled oak, shapes the timber, builds the ship, and guides it over the deep, plunging through the billows, and wrestling with the tempest, to bear to our shores the produce of every clime. Labor brings us India spices and American cotton; African ivory and Greenland oil; fruits from the sunny South, and furs from the frozen North; tea from the East, and sugar from the West; carrying, in exchange, to every land, the products of industry and skill. Labor, by the universallyspread ramifications of trade, distributes its own treasures from country to country, from city to city, from house to house, conveying to the doors of all, the necessaries and luxuries of life; and, by the pulsations of an untrammeled commerce, maintaining healthy life in the great social system.

6. Labor, fusing opaque particles of rock, produces transpârent glass, which it molds, and polishes, and combines so wondrously, that sight is restored to the blind; while worlds, before invisible from distance, are brought so

near as to be weighed and measured with an unerring exactness; and atoms, which had escaped all detection from minuteness, reveal a world of wonder and beauty in themselves. Labor, laughing at difficulties, spans majestic rivers, carries viaducts1 over marshy swamps, suspends aërial bridges above deep ravines, pierces the solid mountain with its dark, undeviating tunnel,- blasting rocks and filling hollows; and, while linking together with its iron but loving grasp all nations of the earth, verifying, in a literal sense, the ancient prophecy, "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low."*

7. Labor draws forth its delicate iron thread, and, stretching it from city to city, from province to province, through mountains, and beneath the sea, realizes more than fancy ever fabled, while it constructs a chariot on which speech may outstrip the wind, compete with the lightning, and fly as rapidly as thought itself. Labor seizes the thoughts of Genius, the discoveries of Science, the admonitions of Piety, and, with its magic types impressing the vacant page, renders it pregnant with life and power, perpetuating truth to distant ages, and diffusing it to all mankind. Labor sits enthroned in Palaces of Crystal, whose high-arched roofs proudly sparkle in the sunshine which delighteth to honor it, and whose ample courts are crowded with the trōphies of its victories in every country, and in every age.

8. Labor, a mighty Magician, walks forth into a region uninhabited and waste: he looks earnestly at the scene, so quiet in its desolation; then, waving his wonder-working wand, those dreary valleys smile with golden harvests; *Isa., 40th chap., 4th verse.

† In the phrase, “Waving his wonder-working wand," the reader will notice a beautiful example of alliteration. Alliteration is the repetition of the saine letter at the commencement of two or more words, immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals.

those barren mountain slopes are clothed with foliage; the furnace blazes; the anvil rings; the busy wheels whirl round; the town appears,-the mart of Commerce, the hall of Science, the temple of Religion, rear high their lofty fronts; a forest of masts, gay with varied pennons, rises from the harbor; the wharves are crowded with commercial spoils,—the peaceful spoils which enrich both him who receives and him who yields.

9. Representatives of far-off regions make it their resort; Science enlists the elements of earth and heaven in its service; Art, awaking, clothes its strength with beauty; Literature, newborn, redoubles and perpetuates its praise; Civilization smiles; Liberty is glad; Humanity rejoices; Piety exults, for the voice of Industry and Gladness is heard on every hand. And who, contemplating such achievements, will deny that there is DIGNITY IN LABOR?

LESSON II.

1 TEL' E SCOPE, (TELE, far off; SCOPE, view or sight,) an instrument to view things far off.

2 MICRO SCOPE, (MICRO, small; SCOPE, view or sight,) an instrument to view things minute or small.

* TEL' E GRAPH, (TELE, far off; GRAPH, writing or marking,) a machine to convey news far off. See SANDERS' UNION SPELLER, pages 146, 147.

IN

POWERS OF THE HAND.

DR. GEORGE WILSON.

N many respects, the organ of touch, as embodied in the hand, is the most wonderful of the senses. The organs of the other senses are passive: the organ of touch alone is active. The eye, the ear, and the nostril, stand simply