edge temperance; to temperance | patience; to patience | god. liness; and to godliness | brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8. Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ | like a | God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me | death. 9. He has gone to convey the intelligence. The greatest misery is to be self-condemned. 10. Death is the season | which tests men's hopes. This is the man | who deserves commendation. 11. The general | that commanded the army, was slain. No man that is wise, will refuse to comply. EXERCISE. REPUBLICAN EQUALITY.-STORY. in security | the If he is not per 1. Gentlemen have argued, as if personal rights only were the proper objects of government. But what, I would ask, is life worth, if a man cannot eat bread earned by his own industry? mitted to transmit to his children | the little inheritance, which his affection has destined for their use? What enables us to diffuse education among all classes of society, but property? Are not our public schools | the distinguishing blessing of our land | sustained by its patronage? I will say no more about the rich and the poor. There is no parallel to be run between them, founded on permanent, constitutional distinctions. The rich help the poor, and the poor in turn | administer to the rich. 2. In our country | the highest man | is not above the people; the humblest | is not below the people. If the rich may be said to have additional protection, they have not additional power. Nor does wealth here | form a permanent distinction of families. Those who are wealthy to-day, pass to the tomb, and their children divide their estates. N Property | is thus divided | quite as fast as it accumulates. No family can, without its own exertions, stand erect for a long time under our statute of descents and distributions, the only true and legitimate agrarian law. It silently and quietly dissolves the mass, heaped up by the toil and diligence of a long life of enterprise and industry. 3. Property is continually changing, like the waves of the sea. One wave rises and is soon swallowed up in the vast abyss, and seen no more. Another rises, and having reached its destined limit, falls gently away, and is succeeded by yet another, which, in its turn, breaks and dies away silently on the shore. The richest man among us may be brought down to the humblest level; and the child, with scarcely clothes to cover his nakedness, may rise to the highest office in our government. And the poor man, while he rocks his infant on his knees, may justly indulge the consolation, that if he possess talents and virtue, there is no office beyond the reach of his honorable ambition. CHAPTER VII. POETRY. POETRY is commonly defined to be "the language of passion, or of enlivened imagination." It is most generally formed into regular numbers, called poetic feet, and has two general divisions; rhyme and blank-verse. In rhyme, the terminating words or syllables in two or more lines correspond in sound. In blank-verse, the lines are measured as in rhyme, but the last words or syllables do not harmonize. QUESTIONS. What is poetry? How is it generally formed, and what are its general divisions? What is the distinction between rhyme and blauk-verse? The earliest accounts which history gives us concerning all na tions, bear testimony to the fact, that the first words ever recorded by writing, or transmitted by tradition, were of a poetic character. SECTION 1. CONSTRUCTION OF VERSE IN RHYME. 1. A POETIC Foor consists of a particular arrangement and connection of accented and unaccented syllables. It is called a foot with reference to a measured time in pronouncing it, and always embraces either two or three syllables. 2. QUANTITY, with reference to the reading of poetry, denotes the time of pronouncing each syllable. 3. A SYLLABLE in scanning is considered long or short. A long syllable usually requires, relatively, twice the length of time of a short one, in pronunciation. 4. ACCENTED syllables are always considered long, and unaccented ones, short. The long syllables are marked thus (-); and. the short ones, thus (v). 5. SCANNING is the resolving or dividing of verses into the respective feet of which they are composed. The following are the names of poetic feet, with the characters denoting the order, number, and relative quantity of their syllables: The lambus is in most common use, and the Trochee and Ana QUESTIONS. What testimony does history bear in regard to poetry? What is a poetic foot, and why is it so called? What is quantity, with reference to the reading of poetry? How are syllables considered in scanning? What is their relative time? How may accented syllables be distinguished? How marked? What is scanning? What kinds of poetic feet are here illustrated? Which is in most common use? Which next? pest are the next frequent. The Spondee is only thrown in for variety or harmony. A verse consisting purely of Dactyls rarely occurs; and Amphibrach and Tribrach are measures for which we have no use in English compositions, except as they are occasionally thrown in with other measures, for the sake of variety. 1. Iambic Verse. The Iambus is a poetic foot, consisting of a short syllable and a long one; as, bětrāy. There are seven forms of this verse, each of which is distinguished by the number of feet it contains. The first consists of one iambic foot, and the last, of seven. 1. The first and shortest form of iambic verse consists of one iambic foot, with an additional short syllable. The additional syllable in this, and in all the following forms of verse, is italicized. NOTE. Although this form is usually denominated iambic, still it might with great propriety be called amphibrach, which consists of three sylla bles marked thus (v - u). 2. The second form of iambic verse consists of two iambic feet. EXAMPLE. Tell all | ǎbōve, And all below, The debt of love NOTE. This form sometimes has an additional short syllable. EXAMPLE. With what commō | tiōn QUESTIONS. How is the spondee used? What is said of the dactyl, amphibrach, and tribrach? Of what does an iambus consist? Which syllable is accented! Which unaccented? How many forms has iambic verse? Of what does the first form consist? What might the first form with great propriety be called? Of what does the second form consist? 3. The third form of iambic verse consists of three iambic feet, to which there is sometimes added one long syllable. It admits a spondee or trochee for the first foot. EXAMPLE. No burning heat | by day, 4. The fourth form of iambic verse consists of four iambic feet. It admits a spondee or trochee for any foot except the last. EXAMPLE. With dying hand, | ǎbōve | his head, Hě shoōk | the frag | měnt ōf | his blāde. 5. The fifth form of iambic verse has five iambic feet. A trochee, and sometimes a pyrrhic, may be substituted for an iambus, in any place, but the last; and sometimes a short syllable is appended to the line. Heroic verse, or epic poetry* is written in this form. EXAMPLE. Thy forests, Wind | sor, † and | thỹ green | retreats, 6. The sixth form of iambic verse consists of six iambic feet, ald is usually called the Alexandrine. It is used singly, and at the end of a paragraph. QUESTIONS. Of what does the third form consist? What does the third form admit? Of what does the fourth form consist? What does it admit? Of what does the fifth form consist? What does this form admit as substitutes? What peculiar kind of verse is written in this form? Of what does the sixth form consist? What is it sometimes called? • Epic Po'e-try, a poem describing the exploits of some hero. ↑ Wind'sor, a town in England, celebrated for its castle. It has a beautiful forest of fifty-six miles in circuit. |