Common slide. To play with important truths; to disturb the repose of established ténets; to subtilize objéctions; and elude proof, is too often the sport of youthful vánity, of which maturer experience commonly repènts.

Were the miser's repentance upon the neglect of a good bárgain; his sorrow for being over-réached; his hope of improving a súm; and his fear of falling into want; directed to their proper objects, they would make so many Christian graces and virtues.

Intensive slide. Consider, I beseech you, what was the part of a faithful citizen? of a prudent, an active, and an honest minister? Was he not to secure Eubea, as our defence against all attacks by séa? Was he not to make Beotia our barrier on the midland side? The cities bordering on Peloponnesus our bulwark on thát quarter? Was he not to attend with due precaution to the importation of corn, that this trade might be protected, through all its progress, up to our own hárbours? Was he not to cover those districts which we commanded, by seasonable detachments, as the Proconesus, the Chersonesus, and Ténedos? To exert himself in the assembly for this purpose, while with equal zeal he laboured to gain others to our interest and alliance, as Byzantium, Abydus, and Euboéa? Was he not to cut off the best, and most important resources of our enemies, and to supply those in which our country was deféctive?—And all this you gained by my counsels, and my administration.

EXERCISES ON MODULATION,

The reader will be able from the following examples, to choose those which are appropriate to rotundity of voice, fulness, loudness, time, rhetorical pause, &c.

COMPASS OF VOICE.

Page 56. EXERCISE 19 To assist in cultivating the bottom of the voice, I have selected examples of sublime or solemn description, which admit of but little inflection; and some which contain the figure of simile. Where

the mark for low note is inserted, the reader will take pains to keep down his voice, and to preserve it in nearly the grave monotone.

1. (.) He bowed the hēavens also and cāme down; and darkness was under his feet.--And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.At the brightness that was before him, his thick clouds pàssed, hailstones and coals of fire.—The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voicè; hailstònes and coals of fire.

2. (.) And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man, coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.—And he shall send his angels, with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

3. (.) And the hēaven depārted as a scroll, when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 2 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free-man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 3 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:-For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

4. And I saw a grēat white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 5 And I saw the dēad, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 6 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

5. 'Tis listening Fear and dumb Amazement all:
When to the startled eye, the sudden glance
Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud:
And following slower, in explosion fast,

The Thunder raises his tremendous voice.
At first heard solemn o'er the verge of heaven,
The tempest growls; (e) but as it nearer comes,

And rolls its āwful būrthen on the wind;
5 The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more

The noise astounds: till over head a sheet
Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts
And opens wider; shuts and opens, still

Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. 10 Follows the loosened aggravated roar,

Enlarging, deep'ning, mingling peal on peal
Crush'd horrible, convulsing heaven and earth.

prov'd,

6. 'Twas then great Marlb'rough's mighty soul was 15 That in the shock of charging hosts unmov’d,

Amidst confusion, horror, and despair,
Examin'd all the dreadful scenes of war;
In peaceful thought the field of death survey'd,

To fainting squadrons sent the timely aid; 20 Inspir'd repuls'd battalions to engage,

And taught the doubtful battle where to rage (0) Sõ when an angel, by divine commānd, With rising tempests shakes a guilty land,

(Such as of late o'er pale Britannia past,)
25 Calm and serene he drives the furious blast;

And pleas’d th’ Almighty's orders to perform,
Rides on the whirlwind, and directs the storm.

7. Rous'd from his trance, he mounts with'eyes

aghast,
When o'er the ship, in undulation vast,
30 A giant surge down rushes from on high,

And fore and aft dissever'd ruins lie;
(.) As when, Britānnia's ēmpire to maintäin,
Great Hawke descends in thunder on the main,

Around, the brazen voice of battle roars,
35 And fatal lightnings blast the hostile shores;

Beneath the storm their shatter'd navies groan,
The trembling deep recoils from zone to zone;
Thus the torn vessel felt the enormous stroke,
The beams beneath the thund'ring deluge broke.

8. To whom, in brief, thus Abdiel stern reply'd Reign thou in Hell, thy kingdom; let me serve In Heav'n God ever blest, and his divine

Behests obey, worthiest to be obey’d; 5 Yet chàins in Hell, not realms expect: meanwhile

From me, (return'd as erst thou saidst from flight,)
This greeting on thy impious crest receive.

(.) So saying, a noble stroke he lifted high, Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell 10 On the proud crest of Satan, that no sight,

Nor motion of swift thought, less could his shield,
Such ruin intercept; ten paces huge
He back recoil'd; the tenth on bended knee

His massy spear upstay’d; as if on earth
15 Winds under ground, or waters forcing way,

Sidelong had push'd a mountain from his seat,
Half sunk with all his pines.-

-Now storming fury rose,
And clamor such as heard in Heav'n till now
20 Was never; arms on armour clashing, bray'd

Horrible discord, and the maddening wheels
Of brazen chariots rag'd; dire was the noise
Of conflict; over head the dismal hiss

Of fiery darts in flaming vollies flew,
25 And flying, vaulted either host with fire.

So under fiery cope together rush'd
Both battles main, with ruinous assault
And inextinguishable rage; all Heaven

Resounded; and had Earth been then, all Earth 30 Had to her centre shook.

Long time in even scale-
The battle hung; till Satan, who that day
Prodigious pow'r had shown, and met in arms

No equal, ranging through the dirę attack 35 Of fighting Seraphim confus'd, at length

Saw where the sword of Michael smote, and fellid
Squadrons at once; with huge two-handed sway,

Brandish'd aloft, the horrid edge came down 40 Wide wasting; such destruction to withstand

He hasted, and oppos'd the rocky orb
Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield,
A vast circumference. At his approach
The great Archangel from his warlike toil

Surceas’d, and glad, as hoping here to end
Intestine war in Heav'n, th' arch-foe subdu’d.
Now wav'd their fiery swords, and in the air

Made horrid circles; two broad suns their shields 5 Blaz’d opposite, while expectation stood

In horror; from each hand with speed retired,
Where erst was thickest fight, the angelic throng,
And left large fields, unsafe within the wind

Of such commotion; such as, to set forth
10 Great things by small, if nature's concord broke,

Among the constellations war were sprung,
Two planets rushing from aspect malign
Of fiercest opposition, in mid-sky,
Should combat, and their jarring spheres confound.

Milton.

voice.

The following examples are selected as a specimen of those pas sages which are most favourable to the cultivation of a top to the

In pronouncing these, the reader should aim to get up his voice to the highest note on which he can articulate with freedom and distinctness.

See remarks page 57 bottom. If the student wishes for more examples of this kind, he is referred to EXERCISE 5, p. 84.

9. Has a wise and good God furnished us with desires which have no correspondent objects, and raised expecta tions in our breasts, with no other view but to disappoint them?-Are we to be forever in search of happiness, without arríving at it, either in this world or the next?-Are we formed with a passionate longing for immortality, and yet destined to perish, after this short period of existence?Are we prompted to the noblest actions, and supported through life, under the severest hardships and most delicate temptations, by the hopes of a reward which is visionary and chimérical, by the expectation of praises, of which it is utterly impossible for us ever to have the least knowledge or enjóyment?

10. () “Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance Thy miscreated front athwart my way

To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass, 5 That be assured, without leave ask'd of thee:

Retire, or taste thy folly; and learn by proof,
Hell-born, not to contend with spi'rits of Heav'n.”