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EXAMPLES.

Antithetical Series-(single Antithesis)

Commencing and Concluding.

Commencing. Fire and water oil and vinegar heat and coldlight and darkness

are not more opposed to each other, than is Concluding. honesty to fraud or vice to virtue.

Double Antithetical Series-(double Antithesis.)
Commencing.

Prudent in debate but rash in action

moderate in peace vindictive in war"

patient in adversity overbearing in prosperity

his character was a compound of singular contradictions.

Concluding.

He presented the contradictory character of a man

prudent in debate but rash in action

moderate in peace vindictive in war

patient in adversity overbearing in prosperity.

Note. In this last species of Series, the middle pause has place after each member; that is, after each perfect antithesis.

PRONOMINAL SERIES.

[See ante, PRONOMINAL PHRASE.]

A series of verbs or other parts of speech having, in concordance, the same pronoun or pronominal phrase (or quasi

pronominal phrase,) in Series is read with the inflections proper to simple series (for the pronouns and pronominal phrases have no inflection.)

EXAMPLES.

I told [him], I warned [him] I advised [him] I implored [him] to act with [you] near [you] through [you] under [you].

He speaks clearly [he speaks] truly [he speaks] boldly.

Charity beareth all things, believeth [all things] hopeth [all things] endureth [all things].

When I was a child, I spake [as a child] I understood [as a child] I thought [as a child].

PRACTICE

ON

PART II. OF THE SECOND DIVISION.

EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH OF THE HON. HENRY THE EMANCIPATION OF SOUTH

CLAY, ON
AMERICA.

THUS, upon the ground of strict right, upon the footing of a mere legal question governed by forensic rules, the Colonies, being absolved by the acts of the parent country from the duty of subjection to it, had an indisputable right to set up for themselves.

But, sir, I take a broader and a bolder position. I maintain that an oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters. This was the great principle of the English revolution; it was the great principle of our own. We must pass sentence of condemnation upon the founders of our liberty-say that they were rebels, traitors-and that we are, this moment, legislating without competent powers, before we can condemn the cause of Spanish America. Our revolution was mainly directed against the mere theory of tyranny. Our intrepid and intelligent fathers saw, in the usurpation of the

power to levy an inconsiderable tax, the long train of oppressive acts that were to follow. They rose-they breasted the storm-they achieved our freedom! Spanish America, for centuries, has been doomed to the practical effects of an odious tyranny. If we were justified, she is more than justified.

I am no propagandist. I would not seek to force upon other nations our principles and our liberty, if they do not want them. I would not disturb the repose even of a detestable despotism. But if an abused and oppressed people will their freedom; if they seek to establish it; if, in truth, they have established it, we have a right, as a sovereign power, to notice the fact, and to act as circumstances and our interest require. I will say, in the language of the venerated father of my country, "Born in a land of liberty, my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom." Whenever I think of Spanish America, the image irresistibly forces itself upon my mind of an elder brother whose education has been neglected, whose person has been abused and maltreated, and who has been disinherited by the unkindness of an unnatural parent. And when I contemplate the glorious struggle which that country is now making, I think I behold that brother rising by the power and energy of his fine native genius to the manly rank which nature and nature's God intended for him.

THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL IN POETRY.

Or all the poets who have introduced into their works the agency of supernatural beings, Milton has succeeded best. Here Dante decidedly yields to him. And, as this is a point on which many rash and illconsidered judgments have been pronounced, we feel inclined to dwell on it a little longer. The most fatal error which a poet can possibly commit in the management of his machinery, is that of attempting to philosophize too much. Milton has been often censured for ascribing to spirits many functions of which spirits must be incapable. But these objections, though sanctioned by eminent names, originate (we venture to say) in profound ignorance of the art of poetry. What is spirit? What are our own minds-the portion of spirit with which we are best acquainted? We observe certain phenomena. We cannot explain them into material causes : we, therefore, infer that there exists something which is not material. But of this something we have no idea. We can define it only by negatives. We can reason about it only by symbols. We use the word, but we have no image of the thing: and the business of poetry is with images, and not with words. The poet uses words, indeed; but they are merely instruments of his art, not its objects. They are the materials which he is to dispose in such a manner as to present a picture to the mental eye. And if they are not so disposed, they are no more en

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