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10. Climax, or Amplification.

A Climax, or Amplification, consists in a gradual heightening of all the circumstances of any object or action, which we desire to present in a strong light.

EXAMPLES.

1. It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in bonds; it is the height of guilt to scourge him; little less than PARRICIDE to put him to DEATH; what name then shall I give to CRUCIFYING

HIM?

2. The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn TEMPLES, the great GLOBE ITSELF

With all that it INHABITS, shall dissolve,

And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,

Leave not a wreck behind.

3. We have complained, we have petitioned, we have ENTREATED, we have SUPPLICATED; we have even PROSTRATED ourselves at the foot of the throne, without moving royal clemency.

QUESTION. What is climax, or amplification? Give an example.

PART II.

SELECT PIECES

FOR

READING AND DECLAMATION.

LESSON I.

COUNSEL AND ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN. WISE.

[Didactic. See Rule 2, page 163. This piece will also exemplify the pause of suspension,- Rule 6, page 97.]

1. EVERY young man is now a sower of seed on the field of life. These bright days of youth are the seed-time. Every thought of your intellect, every emotion of your heart, every word of your tongue, every principle you adopt, every act you perform, is a seed, whose good or evil fruit will be the bliss or bane of your after-life.

2. As is the seed, so will be the crop. Indulge your appetites, gratify your passions, neglect your intellect, foster wrong principles, cherish habits of idleness, vulgarity, dissipation, and, in the after years of manhood, you will reap a plentiful crop of corruption, degradation, and remorse. But if you control your appetites, subdue your passions, firmly adopt and rigidly practice right principles, form habits of purity, propriety, sobriety, and diligence, your harvest will be one of honor, health, and happiness.

3. That you have reached the period of youth, is, therefore, for you, a very serious fact. Great destinies lie

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shrouded in your swiftly passing hours; great responsibilities stand in the passages of every-day life; great dangers lie hidden in the by-paths of life's great highway; and sirens, whose song is as charming as the voice of Calypso,* are there to allure you to destruction.

4. Great uncertainty hangs on your future history. God has given you existence, with full power and opportunity to improve it, and be happy. He has given you equal power to despise the gift, and be wretched. Which you will do, is the grand problem to be solved by your choice and conduct. To you, so young, so inexperienced, so susceptible of evil, so capable of good, so full of strong feelings, so unsettled in opinion, is committed the awful trust of your future happiness. Your bliss or misery in two worlds, hangs poised in the balance. The manner in which you spend your youth, will turn the scale for weal or woe.

5. Verily, it has been well said, that the season of youth is a critical period. Critical indeed! And I would, if possible, engrave the thought in ineffaceable letters on your susceptible hearts, and make you feel how much the fashioning of your destiny, which, hitherto, has been more in the hands of others than your own, is now confided to your discretion.

6. As boys at home, you have sailed upon the calm waters of a quiet river, in a bark carefully furnished by a mother's love, and safely guided by a father's skill. Now, you are sailing through the winding channels, the rocky straits, the rapid, rushing currents, at the river's mouth, into the great sea of active life. And here, for the first time, you are in command of the vessel.

7. On your skill and caution, depends the safety of the passage. Neglect the rules laid down on the chart of

• Ca-lyp'so, a daughter of Atlas. She inhabited the woody island, Ogygia, situsted deep in the ocean, and lived remote from all intercourse with gods or men

experience by previous navigators, take passion for your pilot, place folly at the helm, and your bark will shortly lie a pitiable wreck on the rocks, or be so damaged as to peril your safety on the coming voyage. But study well the intricacies and dangers of your course, take counsel of experience, let caution be your pilot, and without doubt, you will escape rock, current, eddy, and whirlpool, and with streamered masts and big white sail, float gaily forth to dare and conquer the perils of the sea beyond.

LESSON II.

ON FEMALE EDUCATION. MRS. SIGOURNEY.

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[The student may point out the questions in this piece, tell to which kind they belong, and how they should be read. See Remarks, p. 81, and Rule 1, p. 79.]

1. "The mind of the present age, acting on the mind of the next," as it has been happily defined by a living writer, is an object of concern to every being endowed with intellect, or interested, either through love or hope, in another generation.

2. Nor has the importance of education in the abstract. been alone conceded. Practical researches for its improvement have signalized our age, and incorporated themselves with its vigorous and advancing spirit. Our most gifted minds have toiled to devise methods for the instruction of the humblest grades of community, and to make useful knowledge the guest of the common people.

3. In this elevation of the intellectual standard, the female sex have been permitted freely to participate. It is desirable that their education should be diffused over a wider space of time, and one less encumbered by extraneous objects; and, that the depth of its foundation should be more

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correctly proportioned to the imposing aspect and redundant ornament of its superstructure.

4. Is it not important that the sex, to whom nature has intrusted the molding of the whole mass of mind in its first formation, should be acquainted with the structure and developments of mind? that they, who are to nurture the future rulers of a prosperous people, should be able to demonstrate, from the broad annals of history, the value of just laws and the duty of subordination, the blessings which they inherit and the danger of their abuse?

5. Is it not requisite, that they, on whose bosom the infant heart must be cherished, should be vigilant to watch its earliest pulsations of good or evil? that they, who are commissioned to light the lamp of the soul, should know how to feed it with pure oil? that they, in whose hand is the welfare of beings never to die, should be fitted to perform the work, and earn the plaudit of Heaven?

6. That the vocation of females is to teach, has been laid down as a position which it is impossible to controvert. Is not the infant in its cradle her pupil? Does not her smile give the earliest lesson to its soul? Is not her prayer its first messenger in the court of heaven? Does she not enshrine her own image in the sanctuary of the young child's mind so firmly, that no revulsion can displace, no idolatry supplant it? Does not the influence of woman rest upon every member of her household, like the dew upon the tender herb, or the sunbeam silently educating the young flower? or as the shower and the sleepless stream cheer and invigorate the proudest tree of the forest?

7. Admitting, then, that whether she wills it or not, whether she even knows it or not, she is still a teacher, — will she not, of necessity, impart what she most prizes, and best understands? Has she not power to impress her own lineaments on the next generation? If wisdom and utility have been the objects of her choice, society will surely reap

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