Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed,
And the rent canvas fluttering strew the gale
Still must I on; for I am as a weed,

Flung from the rock, on ocean's foam, to sail
Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail.

21. OSSIAN'S APOSTROPHE TO THE SUN. ·

- Macpherson.

Slow or Moderate Time. Pure Orotund Quality. Middle Pitch.

O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! whence are thy beams, O sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty: the stars hide themselves in the sky; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave. But thou thyself movest alone: who can be a companion of thy course? The oaks of the mountains fall; the mountains themselves decay with years; the ocean shrinks and grows again; the moon herself is lost in the heavens: but thou art forever the same, rejoicing in the brightness of thy course. When the world is dark with tempests, when thunders roll and lightnings fly, thou lookest in thy beauty from the clouds, and laughest at the storm. But to Ossian thou lookest in vain; for he beholds thy beams no more; whether thy yellow hair floats on the eastern clouds, or thou tremblest at the gates of the west. But thou art, perhaps, like me, for a season: thy years will have an end. Thou wilt sleep in thy clouds, careless of the voice of the morning.

22. AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS.

Burke.

Time moderate. Movement stately.

Quality orotund. Pitch middle.

Do we want a tribunal? My Lords, no example of antiquity, nothing in the modern world, nothing in the range of human imagination, can supply us with a tribunal like this. We commit safely the interests of India and humanity into your hands. Therefore it is with confidence that, ordered by the Commons,

I impeach Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high crimes and misdemeanors.

I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain

E

in Parliament assembled, whose Parliamentary trust he has betrayed.

I impeach him in the name of all the Commons of Great Britain, whose national character he has dishonored.

I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose laws, rights, and liberties, he has subverted; whose properties he has destroyed; whose country he has laid waste and desolate.

I impeach him in the name and by virtue of those eternal laws of justice which he has violated.

I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed, in both sexes, in every age, rank, situation, and condition of life.

§ 65. Exercises in Time. (See § 37.)

1. THE ENCOUNTER. Scott.

―

Quick Time. - Expressive Movement. Middle Pitch.
Forth from the pass in tumult driven,
Like chaff before the wind of heaven,

The archery appear:

For life! for life! their flight they ply,-
And shriek, and shout, and battle-cry,
And plaids and bonnets waving high,
And broadswords flashing to the sky,
Are maddening in the rear.
Onward they drive in dreadful race,
Pursuers and pursued;

Before that tide of flight and chase,

How shall it keep its rooted place,

The spearmen's twilight wood?

"Down! down!" cried Mar, "your lances down!

Bear back both friend and foe!"

Like reeds before the tempest's frown,

That serried grove of lances brown
At once lay leveled low;

And closely shouldering side to side,
The bristling ranks the onset bide.

Orotund Quality.

Hear the sledges with the bells, —
Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,

In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

3. THE LAUNCHING OF THE SHIP.

Time moderate, changing to quick at the tenth line. 'itch middle.

Then the Master,

With a gesture of command,

Waved his hand;

And at the word,

Loud and sudden there was heard,

All around them and below,

The sound of hammers, blow on blow,

Knocking away the shores and spurs.
And see! she stirs !

She starts! she moves! she seems to feel
The thrill of life along her keel,

And spurning with her foot the ground,
With one exulting, joyous bound,
She leaps into the ocean's arms!

4. FROM ALEXANDER'S FEAST. Slow Time.

Quick Time..

He chose a mournful muse,
Soft pity to infuse;

He sung Da-ri'us great and good,
By too severe a fate,

Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,
And weltering in his blood!

Deserted at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed,
On the bare earth exposed he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes!
With downcast eyes the joyless victor sate,
Revolving in his altered soul

The various turns of fate below,
And now and then a sigh he stole,
And tears began to flow! —

· Dryden.

Orotund Quality. — Middle Pitch, changing to low.

Aspirate and Orotund Quality.
Revenge, revenge! Ti-mo'the-us cries,

See the furies arise!

See the snakes that they rear,
How they hiss in their hair,

And the sparkles that flash from their eyes!

Behold a grisly band,

Each a torch in his hand!

Transitional Modulation.

These are the Grecian ghosts that in battle were slain,

And unburied remain,
Inglorious on the plain!
Give the vengeance due,
To the valiant crew:

Behold how they toss their torches on high,

How they point to the Persian abodes
And glitt❜ring temples of their hostile gods!

The princes applaud with a furious joy,

And the king seized a flambeau, with zeal to destroy:
Tha'is led the way,

To light them to their prey,

And like another Helen fired another Troy !

5. FAULCONBRIDGE TO KING JOHN.

Shakespeare.

Moderate Time, changing to quick. — Orotund Quality. — Middle and High Pitch.

But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad?
Be great in act, as you have been in thought;
Let not the world see fear, and sad distrust,
Govern the motion of a kingly eye:
Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threat'ner, and outface the brow
Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviors from the great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntless spirit of resolution.
Away; and glister like the god of war,
When he intendeth to become the field:
Show boldness, and aspiring confidence.
What, shall they seek the lion in his den,
And fright him there? and make him tremble there?
O, let it not be said! Forage, and run
To meet displeasure farther from the doors;
And grapple with him, ere he come so nigh.

§ 66. Exercises in Pause. (See § 38.)

It is not pretended that every good reader, or even the same reader at different times, will use the same pauses; and those marked in these and other Exercises are not given to prescribe rules, but to form the pupil's ear and to show him the significance of the pause in giving point and effect to certain emotions. The dotted lines generally indicate a break in an otherwise continuative tone. The long dash indicates that division of the sentence at which the principal suspensive pause must be suggested to the hearer.

1. To employ the best years... of this fleeting existence ... in the pursuits of folly... and the indulgences of sense