LESSON VII.—SCANNING.

Divide the following Verses into the feet which compose them; distinguish by marks the long and the short syllables, and specify the various figures which occur in the poem.

'Twas at the royal feast, for Persia won,

By Philip's warlike sou:
Aloft in awful state

The godlike hero sat

On his imperial throne:

His valiant peers were placed around;
Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound
(So should desert in arms be crown'd) :
The lovely Thais, by his side,

Sat like a blooming Eastern bride

In flower of youth and beauty's pride.
Happy, happy, happy pair!

None but the brave,

None but the brave,

None but the brave deserves the fair.

II.

Timotheus, placed on high

Amid the tuneful quire,

With flying fingers touch'd the lyre:
The trembling notes ascend the sky,
And heavenly joys inspire.

The song began from Jove,

Who left his blissful seats above
(Such is the power of mighty love).
A dragon's fiery form belied the god:
Sublime on radiant spires he rode,

When he to fair Olympia press'd;

And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the

world.

The listening crowd admire the lofty sound,

A present deity! they shout around:

V present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound:

With ravish'd ears
The monarch hears,

Assumes the god,
Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres.

III.

The praise of Bacchus then, the sweet musician sung ;
Of Bacchus ever fair and ever young:

The jolly god in triumph comes;
Sound the trumpets; beat the drums;
Flush'd with a purple grace

He shews his honest face.

Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes.
Bacchus, ever fair and young,

Drinking joys did first ordain;
Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,
Drinking is the soldier's pleasure;
Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure;
Sweet is pleasure after pain.

IV.

Sooth'd with the sound, the king grew vain;
Fought all his battles o'er again;

And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew

the slain.

The master saw the madness rise;

His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes;
And while he heaven and earth defied,
Changed his hand and check'd his pride.
He chose a mournful Muse

He

Soft pity to infuse:

sung Darius great and good,
By too severe a fate,
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,

And weltering in his blood;
Deserted, at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed.
On the bare earth exposed he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.

With downcast looks the joyless victor sat,

Revolving in his alter'd soul

The various turns of chance below;
And, now and then, a sigh he stole;
And tears began to flow.

V.

The mighty master smiled, to see
That love was in the next degree:
'Twas but a kindred sound to move,
For pity melts the mind to love.

Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he sooth'd his soul to pleasures.
War, he sung, is toil and trouble,
Honour but an empty bubble;
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying:
If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, O think, it worth enjoying:
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,

Take the good the gods provide thee.
The many rend the skies with loud applause:
So Love was crown'd, but Music won the cause.
The prince, unable to conceal his pain,
Gazed on the fair

Who caused his care,

And sigh'd and look'd, sigh'd and look'd, Sigh'd and look'd, and sigh'd again:

At length, with love and wine at once oppress'd, The vanquish'd victor sunk upon her breast.

VI.

Now strike the golden lyre again.

A louder yet, and yet a louder strain:
Break his bands of sleep asunder,

And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder.
Hark, hark, the horrid sound

Has raised up his head:

As awaked from the dead,
And amazed, he stares around.

Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries,

See the Furies arise:

See the snakes that they rear,

How they hiss in their hair,

And the sparkles that flash from their eyes!

Behold a ghastly band,
Each a torch in his hand!

Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain,
And unburied remain

Inglorious on the plain:

Give the vengeance due

To the valiant crew.

Behold how they toss their torches on high,
How they point to the Persian abodes,
And glittering temples of their hostile gods.
The princes applaud, with a furious joy;
And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy;
Thais led the way,

To light him to his prey,

And, like another Helen, fired another Troy.

VII.

Thus, long ago,

Ere heaving bellows learn'd to blow,
While organs yet were mute;
Timotheus, to his breathing flute,
And sounding lyre,

Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.
At last, divine Cecilia came,

Inventress of the vocal frame;
The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store,
Enlarged the former narrow bounds,

And added length to solemn sounds,

With nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before. Let old Timotheus yield the prize,

Or both divide the crown;

He raised a mortal to the skies;
She drew an angel down.

APPENDIX.

CHAP. I.—OF DERIVATION.

Derivation is a species of Etymology, which explains the various methods by which those derivative words that are not formed by mere grammatical inflections, are deduced from their primitives.

Most of those words which are regarded as primitives in English, may be traced to ulterior sources, and many of them are found to be compounds or derivatives in other languages. A knowledge of the Saxon, Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and Spanish languages, will throw much light on this subject. But as the learner is supposed to be unacquainted with those languages, we shall not go beyond the precincts of our own; except to shew him the origin and primitive import of some of our definitive and connecting particles, and to explain the prefixes and terminations which are frequently employed to form English derivatives. The pupil who may be desirous of following out this interesting investigation, will find an ample fund of knowledge upon the subject in Horne Tooke's "Diversions of Purley."

The subjoined alphabet is an explanation of the Saxon letters employed in the following derivations:

DERIVATION OF THE ARTICLES.

1. According to Horne Tooke, The is the Saxon de, from Sean, to take; and is nearly equivalent in meaning to that or those.

2. An is the Saxon en, ane, an, One; and by dropping n before a consonant becomes a.

DERIVATION OF NOUNS.

In English, Nouns are derived from nouns, from adjectives, from verbs, or from participles.

I. Nouns are derived from nouns :

1. By adding ship, dom, rick, wick, or, ate, hood, or head: as, fellow, fellowship; king, kingdom; bishop, bishoprick; bailiff, bailiwick; senate,