TONE OF GAYETY.

(See Tone Drill No. 106.)

[The tone of Gayety manifests sprightliness, abandon, fun. It is closely allied to Geniality and Joy.]

Amusement.

T. DE WITT TALMAGE.

I say nothing against amusement. Persons of your temperament and mine could hardly live without it. I have noticed that a child who has no vivacity of spirit, in after life produces no fruitfulness of moral character. A tree that has no blossoms in the spring will have no apples in the fall.

A good game at ball is great sport. The sky is clear. The ground is just right for fast running. The club put off their coats and put on their caps. The ball is round and hard and stuffed with illimitable bounce. Get ready the bats and take your positions. Now, give us the ball. Too low? Don't strike. Too high? Don't strike. There it comes like lightning. Strike! Away it soars, higher, higher. Run! Another base. Faster. Faster. Good! All around at one stroke. All hail to the man or the big boy who invented ball playing.

After tea, open the checker board. Now look out, or your boy Bob will beat you. With what masterly skill he moves up his men. Look out now or he will jump you. Sure enough, two of your men gone and a king for Bob. With what cruel pleasure he sweeps the board. What! Only two more men left? Be careful now. Only one more move possible. Cornered sure as fate! And Bob bends over, and looks you in the face with a most provoking banter, and says, "Pop, why don't you move?"

Call up the dogs, Tray, Blanchard, and Sweetheart. A

good day for hunting. Get down, Tray, with your dirty feet! Put on powder flask and shoulder the gun. Over the hill and through the wood. Boys, don't make such a racket; you'll scare the game. There's a rabbit! Squat. Take good aim. Bang! Missed him. Yonder he goes. Sic 'em, sic 'em! See the fur fly. Got him at last. Here, Tray! Here, Tray! John, get up the bays. All ready. See how the buckles glisten and the horses prance, and the spokes flash in the sun. Now, open the gate. Away we go. Let the gravel fly, and the tires rattle over the pavement, and the horses' hoofs clatter and ring. Good roads, and let them fly. Crack the whip! G'long! Nimble horses with smooth roads, in a pleasant day, and no toll-gate-clatter, clatter, clatter.

I never see a man go out with a fishing rod to sport but I silently say: "May you have a good time, and the right kind of bait, and a basketful of catfish and flounders." I never see a party taking a pleasant ride but I wish them a joyous round, and say: "May the horse not cast a shoe, nor the trace break, and may the horse's thirst not compel them to stop at too many taverns." In a world where God lets His lambs frisk, and His trees toss, and His brooks leap, and His stars twinkle, and His flowers make love to each other, I know He intended men at times to laugh and sing and sport.

Jaques on the Fool

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

A fool, a fool!I met a fool i' the forest,

A motley fool; (a miserable world!)

As I do live by food, I met a fool,

Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun,

And rail'd on lady Fortune in good terms,

In good set terms,—and yet a motley fool.
"Good-morrow, fool," quoth I; "No, sir," quoth he,

"Call me not fool, till heaven hath sent me fortune."
And then he drew a dial from his poke,

And looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says very wisely, "It is ten o'clock:

Thus may we see," quoth he, "how the world wags:
"Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,

And after one hour more 't will be eleven,
And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot;
And thereby hangs a tale." When I did hear
The motley fool thus moral on the time,
My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,
That fools should be so deep contemplative;
And I did laugh, sans intermission,
An hour by his dial.-O, noble fool!

A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.

-As You Like It, ii., 7.

TONE OF INTERROGATION.

(See Tone Drill No. 121.)

[The tone of Interrogation indicates that the speaker desires something answered. The interrogation sign does not always imply the tone of Interrogation. Frequently this sign demands the tone of Assertion. The distinction will be seen in the selections that follow. Interrogation is usually found with some other tone, notably with Amazement and Indignation.]

English Treatment of Ireland.

SYDNEY SMITH.

We preach to our congregations, sir, that a tree is known by its fruits. By the fruits it produces I will judge your system. What has it done for Ireland? Has your system of exclusion made Ireland rich? Has it made Ireland loyal? Has it made Ireland free? Has it made Ireland happy? How is

the wealth of Ireland proved? Is it by the naked, idle, suffering savages, who are slumbering on the mud floor of their cabins? In what does the loyalty of Ireland consist? Is it in the eagerness with which they would range themselves under the hostile banner of any invader, for your destruction and for your distress?

Is it liberty when men breathe and move among the bayonets of English soldiers? Is their happiness and their history anything but such a tissue of murders, burnings, hanging, famine, and disease, as never existed before in the annals of the world? This is a system which, I am sure, with very different intentions, and different views of its effects, you are met this day to uphold. These are the dreadful consequences which those laws your petition prays may be continued have produced upon Ireland.

Telemachus to the Allied Chiefs.

FENELON.

Fellow-soldiers and confederated chiefs. I grant you, if ever man deserved to have the weapon of stratagem and deceit turned against him, it is he who has used it himself so often the faithless Adrastus! But shall it be said that we, who have united to punish the perfidy of this man,-that we are ourselves perfidious? Shall fraud be counteracted by fraud? Is a promise never to be kept but when a plausible pretence to break it is wanting? Shall an oath be sacred only when nothing is to be gained by its violation? If you are insensible to the love of virtue, and the fear of the gods, have you no regard to your interest and reputation? If, to terminate a war, you violate your oath, how many wars will this impious conduct excite? Who will hereafter trust you? What security can you ever give for your good faith? A solemn treaty?—You have trampled one under foot! An

oath? You have committed perjury when perjury was profitable, and have defied the gods.

What have you to fear? Is not your courage equal to victory, without the aid of fraud? Your own power joined to that of the many under your command,—is it not sufficient? Let us fight, let us die, if we must-but let us not conquer unworthily. Adrastus, the impious Adrastus, is in our power, provided-provided we disdain to imitate the cowardice and treachery which have sealed his ruin.

Shylock's Justification.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge.-M. V., iii., 1.