Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run
Perpetual circle, multiform; and mix

And nourish all things; let your ceaseless change
Vary to our great Maker still new praise.

Ye mists and exhalations that now rise
From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray,
Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,
In honour to the world's great Author rise,
Whether to deck with clouds th' uncolour'd sky,
Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers,
Rising or falling still advance his praise.

His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,
With every plant, in sign of worship wave.
Fountains, and ye that warble, as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
Join voices all ye living souls: Ye birds,
That singing up to heaven-gate ascend,

Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise.
Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep
Witness if I be silent, morn or even,

To hill or valley, fountain, or fresh shade,
Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.
Hail universal Lord, be bounteous still
To give us only good; and if the night
Have gather'd aught of evil, or conceal'd,
Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.

XXII. APOSTROPHE.

MILTON.

Apostrophe is a figure so like personification, that very few shades of difference are discernible. This figure abounds with sublimity and feeling. All great and beautiful objects of nature may be apostrophized. The sun, a mountain, the ocean, a fountain, a grovewe may apostrophize those absent or one dead, as though they or he were present and listening to us. The rules already offered, bear upon this, and all oratorical ornaments, and only require the good sense or taste of the reader to apply them.

Examples.

O thou that, with surpassing glory crown'd,
Look'st from thy sole dominion like the God

Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down,
Warring in heav'n against heav'n's matchless King.

MILTON.

"Athos, thou proud and aspiring mountain, that liftest thy head unto the heavens, be not so audacious as to put obstacles in my way, if thou doest, I will cut thee level with the plain, and hurl thee headlong into the sea."

ABSURD BOAST OF XERXES.

"And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles onward: from a boy
I wantoned with thy breakers-they, to me,
Were a delight; and if the freshening sea
Made them a terror-'twas a pleasing fear.
For I was, as it were, a child of thee,
And trusted to thy billows far and near,
And laid my hand upon thy mane-as I do here.

LORD BYRON.

"Silence, ye troubled waves; and thou deep, peace,
Said then th' omnific word; your discord end."
MILTON'S PARADISE LOST.

With what spirit, and how much to the admiration of the physicians, did he bear throughout eight months his lingering in distress! With what tender attention did he study, even in the last extremity, to comfort me! And when no longer himself, how affecting was it to behold the disordered efforts of his wandering mind, wholly employed on subjects of literature! Ah! my frustrated and fallen hopes! Have I then beheld your closing eyes, and heard the last groan issue from your lips? After having em.. braced your cold and breathless body, how was it in my power to draw the vital air, or continue to drag a miserable life? When I had just beheld you raised by consular adoption to the prospect of all your father's honors, destined to be son-in-law to your uncle, the Prætor, pointed out by general expectation as the successful candidate for the prize of attic eloquence, in this moment of your opening honors must I lose you forever, and remain an unhappy parent, surviving only to suffer woe?

QUINTILIAN.

"With you, Agricola, we may now congratulate: you are blessed, not only because your life was a career of glory, but because you were released, when it was happiness to die. From those who attended your last moments, it is well known that you met your fate with calm serenity; willing, as far as it depended on the last act of your life, that the prince should appear to be innocent. To your daughter and myself you left a load of affliction. We have lost a parent, and, in our distress, it is now an addition to our heartfelt sorrows, that we had it not in our power to watch the bed of sickness, to sooth the langour of declining nature, to gaze upon you with earnest affection, to see the expiring glance, and receive your last embrace. Your dying words would have been ever dear to us; your commands we should have treasured up, and graved them on our hearts. This sad comfort we have lost, and the wound, for that reason, pierces deeper. Divided from you by a long absence, we had lost you four years before. Every tender office, we are well convinced, thou best of parents! was duly performed by a most affectionate wife; but fewer tears bedewed your cold remains; and, in the parting moment, your eyes looked up for other objects, but they looked in vain, and closed forever.

"If in another world there be a pious mansion for the blessed; if, as the wisest men have thought, the soul be not extinguished with the body; may you enjoy a state of eternal felicity! From that station behold your disconsolate family; exalt our minds from fond regret and unavailing grief, to the contemplation of your virtues. Those we must not lament; it were impiety to sully them with a tear. To cherish their memory, to embalm them with our praises, and, if our frail condition will permit, to emulate your bright example, will be the truest mark of our respect, the best tribute your family can offer. Your wife will thus preserve the memory of the best of husbands, and thus your daughter will prove her filial piety. By dwelling constantly on your words and actions, they will have an illustrious character before their eyes, and, not content with the bare image of your mortal frame, they will have what is more valuable, the form and features of your mind.. I do not mean by this to censure the custom of preserving in brass or marble the shape and stature of eminent men; but busts and statues, like their originals, are frail and perishable. The soul is formed of finer elements, and its inward form is not to be expressed by the hand of an artist with unconscious matter; our manners and our morals may in some degree trace the resemblance. All of Agricola, that gained our love, and raised our admiration, still subsists, and will ever subsist, preserved in the minds of men, the register of ages, and the records of fame. Others who figured on the stage of life, and were the worthies of a former day will sink for want of a faithful historian, into the common lot of oblivion, inglorious and unremembered; whereas Agricola delineated with truth, and fairly consigned to posterity, will survive himself, and triumph over the injuries of time.” TACITUS.

XXIII. VISION.

This figure represents objects which have passed, or by anticipation may pass,or as absolutely passing before our eyes. It should never be resorted to but when the author's vivid imagination inspires and carries him beyond himself; then his readers, by catching the corruscation from, and sympathizing with, will feel rapt and imbued with his illusion. Vision admits of as great a variety of delivery as the subjects which may be read or recited. The best method of giving such passages, is to thoroughly understand, feel, and enter into the spirit of them; so understanding and feeling, the reader cannot fail to produce the desired effect.

Examples.

The first speech of the Wizard in Lochiel's Warning; the Last Man; also, Time, by Seleck Osborne.

XXIV. ACTION.

Upon this subject, which at first sight may here ap pear irrelative, although in reality it is very material, the writer differs from those who have gone before him, and by whom systems have been laid down for the movement of every feature of the human face, and limb of the human form. Those systems are fallacious; for while the mind of the Tyro is busied in the consideration of how, or when, he shall point the toe, extend the arm, or knit the brow, the main spring, that very mind which should give all-life, motion and effect, is employed in a worse than secondary, while the primary cause is totally neglected. After a young man of edu cation has been well instructed in those exercises which form a part of the external accomplishments of a gentleman, fencing and dancing, for instance, but particularly the former, to acquire a just expression, action and deportment, it will be necessary that he should leave both face and figure untrammeled, and thorough. ly understand and feel his author; then the proper ex pression of face, and truth of deportment in action, will

necessarily, spring out of the subject. By this proce dure he is sure to be right, for nature is never wrong. Then the monotonous habit of sawing the air, and indeed all other bad habits in action, will be avoided. If we look into real life, we shall find gesture rather unfrequent than redundant.

A history of language from its barbarous origin to its present perfection, and the various laborious efforts by which it has advanced, is not the object of this Essay; but, now that the materials are abundantly supplied, the author trusts that he has shown how those materials may be used for the advantage of our youth, in the display of one of the most noble structures that the genius of man can produce, or the perception of man can enjoy. The component parts of Eloquence are, sound judgment, well arranged method, a vivid imagination, retention of memory, a progressively rising elocution, and an excellent and varied diction, uniting the perfection of language with the sublimity of thought.

The author will close this essay by observing, that the student may, with a perfect knowledge of, and a strict adherence to, the rules here laid down, acquire all the theory of elocution necessary for correct reading and speaking, all that is aimed at in this publication, but, although the theory be indispensably requisite to aid in the formation of an accomplished speaker, yet without practice, and that practice under a judicious master, whose taste is refined, and whose pronunciation is unvitiated by any provincial dialect, he can never attain this very desirable accomplishment.

END OF THE ESSAY.