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Lochiel ! Lochiel ! beware of the day!
For dark and despairing my sight I may seal,
But man cannot cover what God would reveal:
'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore,
And coming events cast their shadows before.

V. TIME, This head has reference to the slow or rapid utterance with which passages must be pronounced. In the first three verses of “Waterloo" we have a sufficiently good illustration of slow, ordinary, and quick time.

EXERCISES.

Slow TIME.
Stop! for thy tread is on an Empire's dust!

An earthquake's spoil is sepulchred below!
Is the spot mark’d with no colossal bust,

Or column trophied for triumphal show?
None ; but the moral's truth tells simpler so.

As the ground was before, thus let it be ;-
How that red rain hath made the harvest grow!

And in this all the world has gain'd by thee,
Thou first and last of fields! King-making victory?

ORDINARY TIME.
There was a sound of revelry by night,

And Belgium's capital had gather'd then
Her beauty and her chivalry; and bright

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily, and when

Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again,

And all went merry as a marriage bell ;-
But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell !

QUICK TIME.
Did not hear it? No; 'twas but the wind,

Or the car rattling o'er the stony street.
On with the dance ! let joy be unconfined !

No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet-

ye

But, hark !-that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before !
Arm! arm ! it is-it is—the cannon's opening roar!

VI. PAUSE.

think proper.

The pause is one of the most effective elements in reading and recitation. Its importance cannot be sufficiently impressed upon the pupil. Besides the rest which the voice naturally takes at the marks of punctuation, there are places between these where the pupil should be accustomed to pause. We name some, leaving teachers to fix others as they

(1.) After introductory conjunctions. (2.) Between the subject and the predicate. (3.) After the subject or object, when followed by an adjective with words dependent on it. (4.) After two or more adjectives preceding a simple subject except the last. (5.) Before and after some prepositional phrases. (6.) Before the relatives. (7.) Before the conjunction that. (8.) Before the infinitive when separated from its governing verb. (9.) At an ellipsis.

POETICAL READINGS AND RECITATIONS.

BROWNING.

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN.

(1.) THE RATS. HAMELIN town's in Brunswick, By famous Hanover city;

The river Weser, deep and wide,
Washes its wall on the southern side ;

A pleasanter spot you never spied ;
But, when begins my ditty,

Almost five hundred years ago,
To see the townsfolk suffer so

From vermin was a pity.
Rats!

They fought the dogs, and kill'd the cats,

And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,

And lick’d the soup from the cook's own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoild the women's chats,

By drowning their speaking

With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

(2.) THE CONSULTATION.

At last the people in a body

To the Town Hall came flocking:
""Tis clear," cried they, "our Mayor's a noddy;
And as for our Corporation-shocking
To think we buy gowns lined with ermine
For dolts that can't or won't determine
What's best to rid us of our vermin!
You hope, because you 're old and obese,
To find in the furry civic robe ease!
Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking
To find the remedy we 're lacking,

Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing!"
At this the Mayor and Corporation
Quaked with a mighty consternation.

An hour they sate in council,

At length the Mayor broke silence : "For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell; I wish I were a mile hence!

It's easy to bid one rack one's brain—
I'm sure my poor head aches again,
I've scratch'd it so, and all in vain.
Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap!"
Just as he said this, what should hap

At the chamber door but a gentle tap?

"Bless us!" cried the Mayor, "what's that?

Only a scraping of shoes on the mat?
Anything like the sound of a rat
Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!"

(3.) THE PIPER

“Come in !" the Mayor cried, looking bigger ;
And in did come the strangest figure.
His queer long coat from heel to head
Was half of yellow and half of red;
And he himself was tall and thin,
With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,
And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin,
No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,
But lips where smiles went out and in-
There was no guessing his kith and kin;
And nobody could enough admire,
The tall man and his quaint attire :
Quoth one : “It's as my great grandsire,
Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone,
Had walk'd this way from his painted tombstone!"

He advanced to the council-table :
And “Please your honours," said he, “I'm able,

By means of a secret charm, to draw
All creatures living beneath the sun,
That creep, or swim, or fly, or run,
After me so as you never saw!
And I chiefly use my charm
On creatures that do people harm,
The mole, and toad, and newt, and viper;

And people call me the Pied Piper."
(And here they noticed round his neck
A scarf of red and yellow stripe,
To match with his coat of the self-same check;
And at the scarf's end hung a pipe ;

B

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