4. We have err'd and strayed from thy ways, like lost sheep. We have done those things which we ought not to have done, and we nave left undone those things which we ought to have done, and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord! have mercy upon us miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the Glory of Thy holy name. 5. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils; and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens, also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet; and he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; and he was seen upon the wings of the wind; and he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice; and he sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them. And the channels of the sea appeared; the foundations of the world were discovered at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. We urge the student to spend much time on exercises like the above, as more fail in this element of expression than in any other. 6. SLOW TIME-LONG PAUSES AND QUANTITY -BREATHING FULL AND TRANQUIL. 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. 7. MODERATE TIME. The farmer's calling is full of moral grandeur. He supports the world, is the partner of Nature, and peculiarly a "co-worker with God." The sun, the atmosphere, the dews, the rains, day and night, the seasons-all the natural agents-are his ministers in the spacious temple of the firmament. Health is the attendant of his toils. The philosophy of Nature exercises and exalts the intellect of the intelligent farmer. His moral powers are ennobled by the manifestations of supreme love and wisdom in every thing around him—in the genial air, the opening bud, the delicate flower, the growing and ripening fruit, the stately trees—in vegetable life and beauty, springing out of death and decay, and in the wonderful succession and harmony of the seasons. 8. QUICK TIME-BRISK MOVEMENT, SHORT QUANTITY. I come! I come!-ye have called me long: I come o'er the mountains with light and song! From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain: They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves; 9. QUICK TIME-INCREASE-HIGH PITCH-PURE. Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering South, The heart of the steed and the heart of the master Under his spurning feet, the road Like an ocean, flying before the wind; And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire, But, lo! he is nearing his heart's desire! He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, IO. Read this example in slow time, then quick, then very quick. How does the water come down at Lodore? Receding and speeding, And shocking and rocking, And darting and parting, And clattering and battering and shattering, Sounds and motions forever and ever are blending. PAUSES Are of two kinds: Grammatical and Rhetorical. The former pertain to the study of Grammar. They are: The comma (,) semicolon (;) colon (:) and period (.); as well as the notes of interrogation (?) and exclamation (); as also the dash (-) parentheses (()) and quotation marks (" ") are pauses which divide composition or discourse into sentences, and these again into smaller sections, some of which, at times, consist even of a single word. The very great importance of these points renders it imperative on us to study them carefully, and consider them with close attention; for a disregard of them in reading, and a misapplication of them in punctuating, will, even in a comma, very frequently destroy the sense completely, or change it into something very different from what it should be. In primary reading, they should be explained; but the child should not be required to count one at a comma, two at a semicolon, etc., but should be told that the sense will govern the length of the pauses. If the sense requires rapid utterance, the pauses will be very short; if slow utterances, the pauses will be long. Pauses in speech are to sentences what inspiration is to respiration: the time for taking breath. Words in speech are to sentences what expiration is to respiration: the expulsion of breath. Hence, sentences must be cut up into sections, by pauses or rests, to allow time for inspiration, or taking breath. Words can be pronounced only during expiration, and pauses made during inspiration. Therefore, Pauses in speech and reading are used for inspiration, and words for expiration. The proper management of inspiration and expiration (or of breathing), in the process of intonation, is of the very utmost importance to a reader or public speaker. All that passes in the mind may be reduced to two classes, which may be called Ideas and Emotions. By Ideas, we mean all thoughts that rise and pass in succession through the mind; by Emotions, all the EFFECTS produced on the mind by those ideas. from the more violent agitation of the passions, to the calmer feelings produced by the operation of the intellect and fancy. In short thoughts are the objects of the one, internal feelings of the other. That which serves to express the former, we call language of ideas; that which serves to express the latter, the language of emotions. Words are the signs of our ideas, tones and emphasis are the signs of our emotions. Without these two sorts of language, it would be impossible to communicate to the ear all that passes in the mind. We have, therefore, another kind of Pauses, called Rhetorical, or Emotional Pauses. The following general rule should be observed: A Rhetorical Pause should be placed immediately before or after some word of peculiar importance, or on which we wish to fix the hearer's attention; while at the same time, also, it gives a little more time to fix the thought more intently upon the subject. The pause before awakens curiosity and excites expectation; and after, it rolls back the mind to what was last said. It should not be repeated too frequently; for, as it excites strong emotions, and, of course, raises expectation, if the importance of the matter be not fully answerable to such expectation, it occasions disappointment and disgust. EXAMPLES OF RHETORICAL PAUSES. I. Creation sleeps: - -'tis as the general pulse of life - stood still ;- Prophetic of her end. 2. The stars shall fade away,- the sun - himself- Unhurt amidst the war of elements, The wreck of matter,- and the crush of worlds. 3. A lowly knee to earth he bent,-his father's hand he took ; What was there in its touch, that all his fiery spirit shook? That hand was cold!--a frozen thing!--it dropped from his like leadHe looked up to the face above-- - the face was of the dead!- A plume waved o'er the noble brow; - that brow was fixed and white; He met, at last, his father's eyes,--but in them was no sight! Up from the ground he sprang, and gazed---but who could paint that gaze? They hushed their very hearts,- that saw its horror and amaze ! 4. Who's here so base that would be a bondman?- If any, speak; - for him have I offended.-- Who's here so rude, that would not be a Roman ? - If any, speak ;– for him have I offended.-- Who's here so vile, that will not love his country? If any, speak ;- for him have I offended.-- I pause for a reply. 5. O thou Eternal One! - whose presence bright Being above all beings!- Mighty One, Whom none can comprehend,- and none explore! Who fill'st existence - with thyself alone: Embracing all - supporting - ruling o'er ! Being - whom we call God-and know no more! Discourse on written composition is generally broken up into different por, tions, consisting of one or a greater number of periods, and generally marked by a break in the composition, with an indentation of the left marginal line of the page, and called Paragraphic portions, or Paragraphs. The pause that indicates the transition from one of these portions to another, may, with propriety, be called the Paragraphic Pause. EXAMPLE. Have we no great names to go flaming down the ages? When will Henry's clarion voice be hushed, or Warren cease to tell men how to die for liberty? When will Adams, and Franklin, and Jefferson, fade from history? Is it constitutional wisdom, excellence of laws, or incentives to individual exertion? No other land can compare with ours in these respects. Is it grandeur of scenery? God has made but one Niagara, one Mississippi, one Hudson. Is it territorial extent? Our domain stretches from ocean to ocean, and from lake to gulf. By all these incentives, let our school-boys be fired with an enthusiastic love for the dear land of their birth, the precious heritage of their fathers; let them leave the school-room for the arena of active life, feeling that, next to God and their parents, their country claims and shall receive their best affections and most uncompromising devotion; let them realize that their conduct will bring honor or dishonor upon their country, as surely as upon their parents and friends; let them learn to identify themselves, as citizens, with the interests of the commonwealth-blushing at whatever disgraces her, exulting in all that contributes to her glory and renown; let them feel that this great country is their country-that they have a personal proprietorship in the lustre of her history, the honor of her name, the magnificence of her commerce, the valor of her fleets and armies, the inviolability of her constitution and laws, and the magnitude and beneficence of her civil, social, and religious institutions. All the Elements of Expression, in their single and combined action in the production of the various kinds of Emphasis, Qualities of Voice, Waves, |