TREATMENT OF THEMES.

While objecting to a set model for themes indiscriminately, it were a greater error in any case to sanction a loose and disjointed treatment. We incline to a medium between the ancient simplicity and the more complex and modern systems; and as an example will best illustrate our meaning, taking "KNOWLEDGE" for our subject, we would consider it in the following order,—

Definition. Knowledge is power. It is intellectual light. It is to the mind what the sunlight is to the eye. It is spiritual wealth and food. We compare it to the sun as being the source of intelligence, and eulogize it as the march of intellect, the triumph and dominion of Mind over Matter.

Confirmation.-Knowledge, in its every form, is Power. It is so to every man in his profession. To the legislator and legal practitioner, jurisprudence is power; to the statesman, his policy; to the physician, his medical skill; to the divine, his sacred lore; to the soldier, his military tactics; in short, in every pursuit in life, knowledge in his peculiar calling to every man becomes Power. The Press is an intellectual power, and how wide its dominion. In the hand of Science, steam becomes a material power, and in its thousand appliances works miracles for the benefit of man.

Characteristics.-Manifold are the aspects and attributes of knowledge-all forms of science, all means of progress, and whatever is available for public or private good. The knowledge of men and things we term Experience, is, perhaps, the most useful, and Self-knowledge the most difficult; the most important being our duty to God, involving our obligations to our neighbour.

Conclusion.-Objections answered. Knowledge, then, we rightly infer, is an all-quickening Power; and how desirable is its attainment. But the Objector may say, our comparison is not just, because all human knowledge, being acquired, is but a reflection, and, like the moon, shines only by a borrowed

light. He tells us, the sun, while maturing the golden harvest, gives life and nourishment to noxious beasts and reptiles; multiplies the serpent tribes, and draws up pestilential exhalations from the stagnant marsh. The press, he will also say, is a mighty agent for mischief, and that knowledge has its darker aspect, being available for manifold ills and wrongs. To this we reply, if our comparison fails, much more does the objection, for the sun has an all-quickening power; the moon has none; but to man, knowledge is the quickening agency that crowns his efforts with success. That there are evils, we freely admit; we also know that there are remedies. There are evils sufficient to rouse man's energies to counteraction; but neither so many nor so great as to discourage him; and, in the aggregate, they bear no comparison with the good. Knowledge opens to man a thousand springs of joy and satisfaction, shields him from perils, and clears his path from obstacles, while leading him from strength to strength, towards the perfecting of his nature, and preparing him for a better existence.

We by no means propose the above as a model; it would be a contradiction to our theory, which is strengthened by the fact, that if we take for our subject what is most closely related to Knowledge, as Wisdom, Truth, Virtue, &c., we must change our mode of treatment, for these admit of no objections, and a main feature is wanting; much more will it be needful to vary the process, in the endless diversity of subjects that may be brought under consideration.

We offer the following subjects for practice :

Describe those virtues and good qualities that become vicious or hurtful in excess. Prove that they are so by their consequences.

Compare the periods of life with the seasons of the year; also with the progress of the day.

Why Christianity insists more on purity of heart than even

on the practice of any moral virtue? Prove that all the springs of conduct are centred in the heart and its affections.

Define prudence and temperance; also their contraries. Contrast the folly of the latter with the wisdom of the former. Prove that virtue is its own reward.

Depict the advantages, social and political, that flow from

commerce.

Advocate the duty and wisdom of self-culture.

Show the importance of truth and honesty in a trading community.

Explain the common maxim, "First impressions are lasting." Does it involve a fallacy? If so, expose it.

Describe the pleasure and advantage of cultivating a taste for literature.

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

THESE have other and higher requirements than the graces of diction, their worth being measured by the amount of truthful information they impart, they are justly held responsible for their delineations of character and events, and of the motives of men; and flowers of Rhetoric are here of little account.

History assumes to be a faithful record of facts well attested, preserving a due order in dates and details. No embellishment of style can atone for the absence of full and satisfactory information; while any distortion of facts, or want of impartiality, will prove fatal to its repute. Indefatigable industry, joined with strong and investigating powers of mind, are leading requisites in this high path of literature.

Biography presents more than ordinary difficulties, in order fully and fairly to carry out its design. In addition to all desirable information from impartial sources, a nice discrimination of character is needed, and a clear insight into the

motives and springs of action, with a candid estimate of men and things. Entering into private life, and dealing with domestic details, the utmost care and caution are needful, and it asks a lenient hand to depict, in a kindly spirit, the foibles and follies of men, not extenuating guilt while making allowance for error, and by no means overcolouring either merits or defects.

OF STYLE IN COMPOSITION.

THE desirable requisites are perspicuity, unity, conciseness, strength, vivacity, harmony, and ornament, with varieties of the ludicrous, withal, keeping in view the remark of Horace, that in order to write well, it is needful to think well.

PERSPICUITY demands the use of such words and phrases as may render our conceptions clearly intelligible.

UNITY implies that close connection between the thoughts which shall prevent the mind from wandering from the subject. It is chiefly in lengthened compositions that it is specially needed.

CONCISENESS, or brevity, which has been termed "the soul of wit," requires us to express a thought accurately, and in the fewest words.

To this rule there are many exceptions in poetic and other compositions designed to delight the imagination; also in the loftier and sublimer efforts of Rhetoric; for, as Quintilian says, "fine Thoughts cannot be too richly dressed;" and he likens the difference between a thought vulgarly expressed, and in noble language, to that of beholding a natural object by the light of the sun, and that of a taper.

STRENGTH.-As in the world of matter, so in that of mind, this

is the power that enables us to contend successfully. In the encounter of wits it arrests the attention, and main

tains Truth and Right by forceful argument. For this the thoughts must be selected and arranged with judgment, and coined into words of persuasive power.

VIVACITY combines sprightliness and good humour, with an easy and pleasing flow of thought and language; and it is well to bear in mind, that not only do we address the head, but the heart; not only the judgment, but also the feelings; else wisdom itself may prove distasteful. HARMONY.-This, of course, excludes whatever may offend the ear of a correct Taste ;-meanness or vulgarity in thought or expression, awkward combination, with all terms of extreme harshness and severity, and, as a rule, short words, are deemed inharmonious. Sound and sense should agree; abruptness and dulness be eschewed; and sentences should end with a pleasing cadence; and all that is penned should be in a cheerful spirit, as well as in appropriate language.

ORNAMENT. This consists in metaphorical and figurative description, partaking largely of the varied beauties of diction that constitute the charm of poetic imagery. What is termed the florid style abounds in figures, and becomes faulty (as is not unfrequently the case with beginners) when they indulge their poetic fancies in a profusion of ornament.

What may be termed "the ludicrous" in composition, it will be proper to notice here. It may be divided into the satirical, the mock-heroic, and the burlesque. Of the first, Pope's "Dunciad" is a standard; and of the others, Butler's "Hudibras." In the former, mean things become ludicrous, from dignity of language and versification; and are, in fact, parodies. In the latter, great things are described as little, and degraded by mean and colloquial phrases and allusions. But comedy may be humorous without vulgarity; and satire just and severe, even to sarcasm, without any distortion of language. These,