RULE 3. In reading poetry, care should be taken not to emphasize particles and words that rhyme, unless the sense requires it. QUESTIONS. What is rule third? What fault is presented in the incorrect reading of the example? Read the example correctly. EXERCISE IV. General Exercise on the rules for reading poetry. ODE TO THE CUCKOO. M. BRUCE. 1. HAIL, beauteous stranger of the grove! Now Heaven repairs thy rural seat, 2. What time the daisy decks the green, 3. Delightful visitant! with thee, I hail the time of flowers, And hear the sound of music sweet 4. The schoolboy, wandering through the wood, To pull the primrose gay, Starts the new voice of spring to hear, 5. What time the pea puts on the bloom, 6. Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green, Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, No winter in thy year! 7. O could I fly, I'd fly with thee! We'd make, with joyful wing, EXERCISE V. NOTE. In reading blank-verse, even where the sense does not require it the pupil should make a slight pause at the end of each line, sufficient to enable the hearer to distinguish one line from another. A SCENE AFTER A SHOWER. J. THOMSON 1. Now, in the western sky, the downward sun Of broken clouds, gay shifting to his beam. The illumined mountain; through the forest streams; 2. Moist, bright, and green, the landscape laughs around; 4. Here, awful Newton, the dissolving clouds 5. The various twine of light, by thee disclosed Not so the boy He wondering views the bright enchantment bend PART II. EXERCISES IN READING. 1. Villa, a country seat. LESSON I Spell and Define. 1. Eq'ui-page, a retinue, as persons, &c. 7. A-lac'ri-ty, a cheerful readiness. 8. Draw'ing, the art of delineating objects. 12. Outlines, exterior lines of objects. 16. Pro-fi'cient, one skilled in any pursuit 10. Land'scape, prospect of a country. 21. Perfect, to make perfect. ERRORS.*-1. Con-sid'er-ble for con-sid'er-a-ble; 4. a'mi-ble for a'mi-a-ble; 7. put for put; 8. tol'er-ble for tol'er-a-ble; 9. pint'ed for point'ed; 10. figler for figure; 18. pr-dic'a-munt for pre-dic'a-ment; 20. progress for progress, 21. com'fut for comfort. MISSPENT TIME. 1. MRS. THOMPSON, a widowed lady of very considerable fortune, resided in an elegant villa, about forty miles from London. She kept a number of servants, and had the most splendid equipage in the whole neighborhood. 2. You may form some idea of the grandeur of the building, when I tell you that the entrance to it was half a mile from the villa. It was built of stone, and had more the appearance of the entrance to the palace of a king, than that of a private person. * For the manner of correcting the errors in this and the following lessons, see Exercise IX., page 27. NOTE. - a Lon'don; the capital of the British Empire, situated on the river Thames, about sixty miles from the sea. It is the largest city in the world, being thirty miles in circumference, and containing nearly two millions of inhabitants. 3. This lady had an only daughter, to whom she was fondly indulgent, and on whom she determined to bestow the best education that could possibly be procured for her, let the expense be what it would. 4. Ann was a very amiable child, and if she had been so fortunate as to have been placed under the care of any one a little more disposed than her mother was, to combat her fancies and want of resolution, she would not have had to regret the immense sums squandered upon her to no kind of purpose, nor to wish she could recall the time she had trifled away in doing nothing. 5. It must appear very extraordinary that this should have been the unhappy fate of a young girl, who wished so much to profit by the instruction procured for her, and had the greatest desire to be an accomplished woman. 6. But Ann wished to be accomplished without having the trouble of making herself so, and she possessed neither the resolution nor perseverance, so absolutely necessary to the attainment of the perfection she aimed at. 7. She began everything with eagerness and alacrity, but the most trifling difficulty which came in her way, put a total stop to her progress, and she immediately persuaded herself that it was not possible she should be able to surmount it. 8. She had, from her infancy, been extremely fond of drawing; and, desiring to be instructed in that agreeable art, one of the first masters was procured for her. In a very short time she had succeeded in copying, with tolerable exactness, the first things he gave her to do, and the greatest hopes were entertained of her making a great proficiency in what she appeared to prefer to every other amusement. 9. The master now gave her some other drawings to copy, which required a little more attention and study, and she began to find difficulties in her way, which she had not foreseen. She tried them twice; they were pretty well executed, |