Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

VII. Newton was a Christian! Newton'! whose mind burst forth from the fetters cast by nature on our finite conceptions; - Newton'! whose science was truth, and the foundation of whose knowledge of it was philosophy; not those visionary and arrogant presumptions which too often usurp its name, but philosophy resting on the basis of mathematics, which, like figures, cannot lie ; - Newton', who carried the line and rule to the utmost barriers of creation, and explored the principles by which, no doubt, all created matter is held together and exists.

[ocr errors]

I must oppose the bill before us; a bill' in which such cruelties are proposed as are yet unknown among the most savage nations.

VIII. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to bake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,

Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

And cach particular hair to stand on end,

Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.

QUESTIONS.- -125. What are the inflections of the voice? 126. How are they marked by Walker? 127. Illustrate the upward and downward slide of the voice. 128. When is the rising inflection used? When the falling? 129. What is the effect of the rising progression in a sentence? 130. The falling? 131. The rising indicates? 132. The falling? 134. What is said of the value of rules for inflecting sentences? When the sense is complete, you use? When it is incomplete-? Questions commencing with an adverb or verb terminate with what? Questions commencing with a verb? What is Rule V.? What is the meaning of the word parenthesis? How ought a parenthesis to be read? What is understood by an echo in elocution? By a monotone ?

[blocks in formation]

135. In the following pieces, the first by Sir Walter Scott, and the second and third from Ossian, — exercises in modulation for two and three voices, or sets of voices, are given. By separating an entire class, and allotting to each group its part for simultaneous utterance, a good effect, with a little drilling, may be produced. Pupils will readily perceive that where the sense is incomplete, and the voice is suspended, the rising inflection is naturally used:

FOR TWO VOICES, OR SETS OF VOICES.

(1st) Pibroch of Donuil Dhu', (2d) pibroch of Donuil',
(1st) Wake thy wild voice anew', (2d) summon Clan-Conuil`.

* A pibroch (pronounced pi-brok) is, among the Highlanders, a martial air played with the bagpipe. The measure of the verse in this stanza requires that in the third line

(1st) Come away', come away', (2d) hark to the summons'! (1st) Come in your war array' (2d) gentles and commons'.

(1st) Come from deep glen', (2d) and from mountain so rocky',
(1st) The war-pipe and pennon' (2d) are at Inverlochy';

(1st) Come every hill-plaid', (2d) and true heart that wears one',
(1st) Come every steel-blade', (2d) and strong hand that bears one'

(1st) Leave untended the herd', (2d) the flock without shelter'; (1st) Leave the corpse uninterred', (2d) the bride at the altar'; (1st) Leave the deer', (2d) leave the steer', (1st) leave nets and barges', (All) Come with your fighting gear', broadswords and targes'.

(1st) Come as the winds come', (2d) when forests are rended';

(1st) Come as the waves come', (2d) when navies are stranded':

(1st) Faster come', faster come', (2d) faster and faster',

(1st) Chief, (2d) vassal', (1st) page' and groom', (2d) tenant' and master'.

(1st) Fast they come', fast they come; (2d) see how they gather! (1st) Wide waves the eagle plume', (2d) blended with heather'.

(1st) Cast your plaids', (2d) draw your blades', (All) forward each man set'! (All) Pibroch of Donuil Dhu', knell for the onset'!

FOR THREE VOICES, OR SETS OF VOICES.

(1st Voice) As Autumn's dark storm'

-(2d Voice) - pours from the echo

ing hills (3d Voice) - echoing hills',

(1st Voice) - so toward each other'-(2d Voice) toward each other approached'-(3d Voice) - approached the heroes'.

(1st Voice) As two dark streams' (2d Voice)· - dark streams from high rocks(3d Voice) — meet and mix, and roar on the plain', —

[ocr errors]

(1st Voice) - loud, rough, and dark' — (2d Voice) - dark in battle' - (3d

Voice)

--

in battle met Lochlin and In'nisfail'.

(1st Voice) Chief mixed his blows with chief — (2d Voice) with man':-(3d Voice) — steel clanging sounded on steel'.

and man

(1st Vice) Helmets are cleft'-(2d Voice) — cleft on high' - (3d Voice) -Helmets are cleft on high'; blood bursts and smokes around'.

(1st Voice)- As the troubled noise of the ocean' - (2d Voice) — the ocean when roll the waves on high'; as the last peal of the thunder of heaven' (3d Voice) the thunder of heaven'; such is the noise of battle'.

(1st Voice) The groan'-(2d Voice) - the groan of the people' — (3d Voice) the groan of the people spreads over the hills'.

(1st Voice) It was like'-(2 Voice) like the thunder'

[blocks in formation]

the exclamation "Come away" should be sounded as if it were a single vord, having the accent on the first syllable, thus come away. So in the words hill', laid and steelblate, in the 7th and 8th lines. The license of rhyme there requires that the ai in plaid should be pronounced long, as in maid. In the last line but one, the two words man set meaning, man set in battle array) should be sounded as a single word of two syllables Aaving the accent on the first.

like the thunder of night—(All) It was like the thunder of night when the cloud bursts on Cona', and a thousand ghosts' shriek at once' on the hollow wind'.

(1st Voice) The morning'-(2d Voice) — morning was gay-(3d Voice) - the morning was gay on Cromla',

(1st Voice)- when the sons'- (2d Voice) sons of the sea'

when the sons of the sea ascended'.

- (3d Voice) (1st Voice) Calmar stood forth'- ·(2d Voice) — stood forth to meet them', — (3d Voice) — Calmar stood forth to meet them in the pride of his kindling soul'.

(1st Voice) But pale'-(2d Voice) - pale was the face' (3d Voice)but pale was the face of the chief, as he leaned on his father's spear'.

(1st Voice) The lightning (2d Voice) — lightning flies'-(3d Voice) — the lightning flies on wings of fire'.

(1st Voice) But slowly-(2d Voice)- slowly now the hero falls', — (3d Voice) but slowly now the hero falls', like the tree of hundred roots before the driving storm'.

(1st Voice) Now from the gray mists of the ocean' the white-sailed ships of Fingal'* appear. (2d Voice) High'-(3d Voice) — high is the grove of their masts' as they nod, by turns, on the rolling waves'.

-

(1st Voice) As ebbs the resounding sea through the hundred isles of Inistore',- (2d Voice) — so loud' (3d Voice) — -so vast' (1st Voice) <-80 immense' (All) — returned the sons of Lochlin to meet the approaching foe'.

(1st Voice) But bending,―(2d Voice) — weeping', — (3d Voice) — sad, and slow' (All) — sank Calmar, the mighty chief, in Cromla's lonely wood'. (1st Voice) The battle'-(2d Voice) — battle is past', — (3d Voice) — “ The battle is past'," said the chief".

(1st Voice) Sad is the field' (2d Voice) — sad is the field of Lena'! (3d Voice) Mournful are the oaks of Cromla!

(All) The hunters have fallen in their strength! The sons of the brave

are no more'!

(1st Voice) As a hundred winds on Morven'; — (2d Voice) — as the stream of a hundred hills' ;-(3d Voice) — as clouds successive fly over the face of heaven' ;

(1st Voice)-so vast', -(2d Voice) - so terrible', -(3d Voice) —so roaring,

(All) the armies mixed on Lena's echoing plain'.

(1st Voice) The clouds of -(2d Voice) — night come rolling down';

-

(3d Voice) the stars of the north arise' over the rolling waves': they show their heads of fire through the flying mists of heaven'.

(1st Voice) "Spread the sail," said the king'. (2d Voice) "Seize the winds as they pour from Lena." (3d Voice) We rose on the waves with songs'.

(All) We rushed with joy through the foam of the deep'.

Here the acute accent is intended as a mark of accent, not of inflection

LESSON XIII.

PUNCTUATION, TYPOGRAPHICAL MARKS, ETC.

136. PUNCTUATION, from the Latin word punctum, a point, is the art of dividing words or sentences from one another by means of certain marks or points, designed to facilitate the apprehension or to regulate the enunciation of a written language. Points or stops are said to have been first used by Aristoph'anës, the Alexandrian grammarian; but the modern system of punctuation is due to Manutius, a learned printer, who lived at Venice in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

137. Authors differ in regard to the proper mode of punctuating; some contending, with Sheridan, that the stops should be disposed according to the emphasis and pauses which would be naturally made in reading aloud; and others, that they should be placed according to the grammatical structure of a sentence. The former is called the Rhetorical, and the latter the Grammatical mode. The tendency of modern usage is to the latter.

138. In grammatical punctuation, such stops only are given as may assist the reader in promptly comprehending the sense. It may, therefore, often be proper to make a pause where no stop appears to the eye. Indeed, it is often allowable, for the sake of pointing out the sense more strongly, or of shifting and relieving the voice, to make a very considerable pause where there is no punctuation mark, and where the grammatical construction requires none.

139. The grammatical points are the Comma (,), which marks the smallest grammatical division of a sentence, and usually represents the shortest pause; the Semi-colon (;) and the Colon (:), which separate those portions which are less connected than those divided by Commas; and the Period (.), which is what its name denotes, a full stop, which commonly terminates a sentence.

140. Besides these points, there are others, partly grammatical and partly rhetorical, which may be thus enumerated: the Note of Interroga tion (?), which shows that a question is denoted by the word to which it is annexed; the Note of Exclamation (!), expressing admiration, horror, or any considerable emotion; the marks of Parenthesis (), used when a clause, word or sign, which interrupts the progress of the sentence, is inserted; the Dash (-), used where a sentence breaks off abruptly, or where suppressed emotion is to be expressed; or as a substitute for the marks of Parenthesis, and sometimes as a modification of the other stops, or independently when no other stop may be appropriate.

141. There are other points, related rather to letters, words and sylla bles, than to the grammatical elucidation of sentences. The Apostrophe ('), a mark distinguished only from the Comma in being placed above the line, is used to denote the abbreviation of a word as o'er for over:

also to mark the possessive case of nouns; as, John's hat. In the written language the difference between the nominative (or objective) case plural and the possessive case plural is expressed by the addition of an apostrophe after the letter s; as, the trees' leaves. Where a proper name ends in s, the s of the possessive case ought to be retained after the apostrophe; as, Mr. Ames's house, Collins's odes. Sometimes, for the sake of euphony, and in poetry to suit the measure of a verse, the s after the apostrophe is omitted in the pronunciation, and it ought then to be also dropped in the written or printed word; as, in Moses' days, for Jesus' sake. But where the s after the apostrophe is retained in the pronunciation, it ought to be exhibited to the eye.

142. The Hyphen (-) is employed to connect compounded words; as in alms-house, to-morrow. It is also used at the end of a line when a word is divided and a portion of the word has to be carried on to the beginning of the next line. A mark identical with the Hyphen, and called a Makron, is sometimes used over a vowel to denote that the quantity is long; as in remote, serine. The mark called the Breve (~) is placed over a vowel to indicate that it has a short sound; as in Hělěna.

143. Marks of Quotation (" ") are used to denote that the words of another person, real or supposed, are quoted. When one quotation is introduced within another, the included one should be preceded by a single inverted comma, and closed by a single apostrophe, thus (' ').

144. Brackets [ ] enclose a word or sentence distinct from the text, or not originally inserted in it: as, "He [Milton] had read much, and knew what books could teach." Marks of Parenthesis enclose what the author himself interposes between parts of a sentence. Brackets generally enclose some explanation, omission, or comment supplied by another. 145. The Diarěsis (...), from a Greek word signifying a division or separation, consists of two points, which are placed over a vowel to denote that it is to be separated in the pronunciation from the preceding vowel or syllable, in order that the vowel so marked may form, or help to form, a distinct syllable; as in aërial, orthoëpy, zoöphyte, blessed.

146. Two Commas (") are occasionally used (as in the Table under Paragraph 20) to indicate that something is understood which was expressed in the line and word immediately above.

147. Marks of Ellipsis (a Greek word signifying an omission) are formed by means of a long dash, or of a succession of points or stars *), of various lengths, and which are used to indicate the omission of letters in a word, of words in a sentence, or of sentences in a paragraph.

148. The word Paragraph is from the Greek, and originally signified a writing near or subjoined. Thus it came to mean a subdivision in written or printed composition. It was formerly indicated by the following mark (T); but is now generally represented simply by beginning a sentence with a new line having a slight blank space at its commencement

« FöregåendeFortsätt »