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. "Essay on Criticism."

ALEXANDER POPE.

TWENTIETH LESSON

PART 1. DRILL

1. Physical Culture, Deep Breathing, and Voice Exercise. Review the exercises of Lesson Twenty of the first

3. Pronunciation. Drill in words for the sounds of oi and ou, as in oil and out (see page 225).

PART 2. EXPRESSION

CHARACTER

The primary object of this course of lessons is to train the student in the art of expression. It has been the aim to give hints and suggestions rather than to lay down arbitrary rules, and if the student has faithfully applied them, his general style in reading and speaking must now be greatly improved. A further object of this instruction

has been to develop the personal character of the student, to stimulate his taste for the best in English literature, and to give him practical help in the development of sincerity, simplicity, frankness, and self-reliance. The diligent pupil will frequently review all the lessons of this course, as a means to further developing the best that is in him. The extracts hereunder should be read aloud, the student endeavoring to impress the strength and sentiment of each through the force of his own sincerity and character.

EXAMPLES FOR PRACTISE

1. Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.”

THOMAS GRAY.

2. Chance will not do the work-Chance sends the breeze; But if the pilot slumber at the helm,

The very wind that wafts us toward the port

May dash us on the shelves.

vigilance,

Blow it, or rough, or smooth.

The steersman's part is

"Fortunes of Nigel.”

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

3. If I could think how these my thoughts to leave,
Or, thinking still, my thoughts might have good end;
If rebel sense would reason's law receive;

Or reason foil'd would not in vain contend;
Then might I think what thoughts were best to think,
Then might I wisely swim, or gladly sink.
"Sonnet."

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

4.

But 'tis a common proof
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder
Whereto the climber upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the utmost round
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Look in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.

"Julius Cæsar."

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

5. Press on! surmount the rocky steeps,
Climb boldly o'er the torrent's arch;
He fails alone who feebly creeps;

"Press On."

He wins who dares the hero's march.
Be thou a hero! let thy might

Tramp on eternal snows its way,
And through the ebon walls of night
Hew down a passage unto day.

PARK BENJAMIN.

6. "What! while our arms can wield these blades,
Shall we die tamely-die alone-

Without one victim to our shades,
One Moslem heart, where, buried deep,
The saber from its toil may sleep?
No-God of Iran's burning skies!
Thou scorn'st the inglorious sacrifice.
No-tho of all earth's hope bereft,
Life, swords, and vengeance still are left.
We'll make yon valley's reeking caves
Live in the awe-struck minds of men,
Till tyrants shudder, when their slaves
Tell of the Ghebers' bloody glen.
Follow, brave hearts! this pile remains
Our refuge still from life and chains."

"The Gheber to His Followers."

THOMAS MOORE.

7. At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
His looks adorned the venerable place;
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,
And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray.
The service past, around the pious man,
With ready zeal, each honest rustic ran;
E'en children followed, with endearing wile,

And plucked his gown to share the good man's smile.

His ready smile a parent's warmth exprest;
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distrest;
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given,
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven;
As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm;
Tho round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

"The Deserted Village."

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

8. "Breathes there a man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land!

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd

From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High tho his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power and pelf,
The wretch, concentered all in self,
Living shall forfeit fair renown;
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from which he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.
O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!''

"Lay of the Last Minstrel."

SIR WALTER SCOTT.