Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole. *

Exercises.

The student may correct the following sentences:

Want of Unity.

The successor of Henry the Second was his son Francis the Second, the rst husband of Mary, afterwards Queen of Scots, who died after a reign of one year, and was succeeded by his brother Charles the Ninth, then a boy only ten years old, who had for his guardian Catharine de Medicis, an ambitious and unprincipled woman.

Want of Purity.

The gardens were void of simplicity and elegance, and exhibited much that was glaring and bizarre.

Want of Propriety.

He was very dexterous in smelling out the views and designs of others. The pretenders to polish and refine the English language have chiefly multiplied abuses and absurdities.

Want of Precision.

There can be no regularity or order in the life and conduct of that man who does not give and allot a due share of his time to retirement and reflection.

Wont of Clearness.

There is a cavern in the island of Hoonga which can only be entered by diving into the sea.

Want of Strength.

The combatants encountered each other with such rage, that, being cager only to assail, and thoughtless of making any defence, they both fell dead upon the field together.

Want of Harmony.

By the means of society, our wants come to be supplied, and our lives are rendered comfortable, as well as our capacities enlarged, and our vir tuous affections called forth into their proper exercise. †

*The teacher or student who wishes for exercises under the heads of Clearness, Unity, Strength, and Harmony, will find a good collection of them in Murray's Exercises, an appendage to his large Grammar; or an abridgement of them in Parker and Fox's Grammar, Part 3d in the ap pendix.

The student who wishes a larger collection of exercises under the heads abovementioned, will find them in Parker and Fox's Grammar. Part 3d.

XXXIII.

SOUND ADAPTED TO THE SENSE.

""Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,,,
The sound must seem an echo of the sense.'

ΟΝΟΜΑΤΟΡΙΑ.

Onomatopoeia, or Onomatopy, consists in the formation of words in such a manner that the sound shall imitate the sense. Thus the words buzz, crackle, crash, flow, rattle, roar, hiss, whistle, are evidently formed to imitate the sounds themselves. Sometimes the word expressing an object is formed to imitate the sound produced by that object; as, wave, cuckoo, whippoorwill, whisper, hum.

It is esteemed a great beauty in writing when the words selected for the expression of an idea, convey, by their sound, some resemblance to the subject which they express, as in the following lines:

The whitewashed wall, the nicely sanded floor,

The varnished clock that clicked behind the door. *

Of a similar character, and nearly of equal merit, are those sentences or expressions which in any respect imitate or represent the sense which they are employed to express. Thus Gray, in his Elegy, beautifully expresses the reluctant feeling to which he alludes in the last verse of the following stanza:

"For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind!"

And Pope, in his "Essays on Criticism," in a manner, though different, yet scarcely less expressive, gives a verbal representation of his idea, by the selection of his terms, in the following lines:

"These, equal syllables alone require,
Though oft the ear the open vowels tire,

These lines will not fail to recall to the memory of the classical stu dent those peculiarly graphic lines of Virgil, in one of which he describes the galloping of a horse:

"Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum."

and in another the appearance of a hideous monster:

"Monstrum horrendum in forma ingens cui lumen ademptum."

While expletives their feeble aid do join,
And ten low words oft creep in one dull line."

"A needless Alexandrine ends the song,

That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along."

"Soft is the strain, when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows,
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labors, and the words move slow.

Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main."

As an exercise in Onomatopoeia, the student may select such words as he can recall in which the sound bears a resemblance to the signification.

XXXIV.

DEFINITION, AND DISTINCTION OR DIFFERENCE.

The object of this exercise is to accustom the student to acquire clear ideas of things, and to perceive distinctions and differences wherever they exist. Clear ideas of a subject must be acquired before any thing can be correctly said or written upon it.

A definition, as described by logicians, consists of two parts, which they call the genus and the difference. The genus is the name of the class to which the object belongs. The difference is the property or properties by which the individual thing to be defined is distinguished from other individuals of the same class. Thus, if a definition is required of the word justice, we may commence by saying, "Justice is that virtue which induces us to give every one his due." Here, virtue is the class to which the object belongs; but this part of the definition may be applied to honesty, another quality of the same class, as well as to justice; for "Honesty is also a virtue which induces us to give every one his due." Something more, therefore, must be added to our definition, by which justice may be distinguished from honesty, and this something more, in whatever form it may be presented, will be the difference which excludes honesty from the same definition.

Example.

JUSTICE.

Justice is that virtue which induces us to give to every one his due. It requires us not only to render every article of property to its right owner, but also to esteem every one ac cording to his merit, giving credit for talents and virtues wherever they may be possessed, and withholding our approbation from every fault, how great soever the temptation that leads to it.

It will easily be seen from this definition in what the difference lies, which excludes honesty from the definition. Honesty, it is true, requires that we should render to every one his due. But honesty does not necessarily imply the esteeming of every one according to his merit, giving credit for talents and virtues, * &c.

A definition should generally be an analysisis of the thing defined, that is, it should comprise an enumeration of its principal qualities or attributes.

Example 2d.

A Swallow.

-

1. A swallow is an animal.· This definition is not correct, because it will apply also to a horse, or a cow, or a dog, or a cat, as well as to a swallow.

2. A swallow is a bird. So also is an eagle, or a goose, and therefore this definition is not sufficiently distinct.

3. A swallow is an animal which has two legs. And so is a man, and therefore this definition is not sufficiently exclusive.

4. A swallow is an animal that has two legs, and wings. And so is a bat; and therefore this definition is faulty.

5. A swallow is an animal, that has wings, feathers, and a hard, glossy bill, with short legs, a forked tail, and large mouth, and exceeding all other birds in the untiring rapidity of its flight and evolutions. Its upper parts are steel blue, and the lower parts of a light, chestnut color. It seeks the society of man, and attaches its nest to the rafters in

barns.

This definition contains the difference, as well as the class, and may therefore be considered as sufficiently correct for our present purpose.†

*See Synonymes, page 40.

† See Parker and Fox's Grammar, Part III., No. 387.

Example 3d.

Eternal.

The term eternal is properly applied to that only which always has exsted and always will exist. It implies without beginning and without end. This definition excludes the application of the term eternal from every hing that ever had a beginning, as well as from that which will ever have an end. The circumstance of having no beginning is the specific difference between the terms eternal and infinite. Infinite, endless, unceasing, &c., imply only without end.

After explaining the meaning, or giving the definition of the terms in this exercise, the student should be required to give an instance of the proper application of the word.

Exercises.

Give a definition to the following words, and point out the distinction or difference between them and other words, which in some respect resemble them.

The distinction or difference between two subjects may likewise be exhibited as in the following

Example.

Grammar, rhetoric, and logic are kindred branches of science, but each has its separate department and specific objects. Rhetoric teaches how to express an idea in proper words; grammar directs the arrangement and inflections of the words; logic relates to the truth or correctness of the idea to be expressed. Grammar addresses itself to the understanding; rhetoric, to the imagination; logic, to the judgment. Rhetoric selects the materials; grammar combines them into sentences; logic shows the agreement, or disagreement, of the sentences with one another. A sentence may