Page images
PDF
EPUB

"Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent but in what immediately regards his own preservation, or the continuance of his species. Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass. Take a brute out of his instinct, and you find him wholly deprived of understanding.There is not, in my opinion, anything more mysterious in nature, than this instinct in animals, which thus rises above reason, and falls infinitely short of it. It cannot be accounted for by any properties in matter, and, at the same time, works after so odd a manner, that one cannot think it the faculty of an intellectual being. For my own part, I look upon it as upon the principle of gravitation in bodies, which is not to be explained by any known qualities inherent in the bodies themselves, nor from any laws of mechanism, but according to the best notions of the greatest philosophers, is an immediate impression from the First Mover, and the Divine energy acting in the creatures."

IV.—“Animated, or Lively Movement."
1.—Narrative Style.

66

[SUCCESSIVE DECLINE OF POPULAR FALLACIES.]-Goldsmith. ("Pure tone :" "Moderate" force: Unimpassioned radical stress:" "Middle pitch :" Varied "slides:" Short pauses.)

"I have lived to see generals who once had crowds hallooing after them wherever they went, who were bepraised by newspapers and magazines,—those echoes of the voice of the vulgar; and yet they have long sunk into merited obscurity, with scarce even an epitaph left to flatter. - A few years ago, the herring-fishery employed all Grub street: it was the topic in every coffee-house, and the burden of every ballad. We were to drag up oceans of gold from the bottom of the sea: we were to supply all Europe with herrings, upon our own terms. At present, we hear no more of all this. We have fished up very little gold that I can learn;

nor do we furnish the world with herrings, as was expected. -Let us wait but a few years longer, and we shall find all our expectations a herring-fishery."

2.-Descriptive Style.

[RIDICULOUSNESS OF SELF-IMPORTANCE.]-Goldsmith.

("Pure tone:" "Moderate" force: " Expulsive median stress :" "Middle pitch :" Varied "slides:" Varied pauses.)

The

"There is scarce a village in Europe, and not one university, that is not furnished with its little great men. head of a petty corporation, who opposes the designs of a prince who would tyrannically force his subjects to save their best clothes for Sundays; the puny pedant, who finds one undiscovered quality in the polypus, or describes an unheeded process in the skeleton of a mole, and whose mind, like his microscope, perceives nature only in detail; the rhymer, who makes smooth verses, and paints to our imagination, when he should only speak to our hearts; all equally fancy themselves walking forward to immortality, and desire the crowd behind them to look on. The crowd takes them at their word! 'Patriot, philosopher, and poet!' are shouted in their train. 'Where was there ever so much merit seen? no times so important as our own! ages, yet unborn, shall gaze with wonder and applause!' To such music the important pigmy moves forward, bustling and swelling, and aptly compared to a puddle in a storm."

3.-Didactic Style.

[ABSURDITY AND IMPUDENCE.]-Addison.

("Pure tone :" "Moderate" force: "Unimpassioned radical stress:" "Middle pitch :" Varied "slides:" Short pauses.)

"If we would examine into the secret springs of action, in the impudent and the absurd, we shall find, though they bear a great resemblance in their behavior, that they move upon very different principles. The impudent are pressing, though they know they are disagreeable; the absurd are importunate, because they think they are acceptable: impudence

is a vice, and absurdity a folly. Sir Francis Bacon talks very agreeably upon the subject of impudence. He takes notice, that the Orator being asked, what was the first, second, and third requisite to make a fine speaker? still answered, Action. This, said he, is the very outward form of speaking; and yet it is what, with the generality, has more force than the most consummate abilities. Impudence is, to the rest of mankind, of the same use which action is to orators."

V.-"Brisk, Gay, or Quick Movement."

1.—Narrative Style.

[LOCHINVAR'S EXPLOIT OF CARRYING OFF ELLEN OF NETHERBY.]-Scott. (Haste, Joy, Hurry.—“ Expulsive and explosive orotund :” “ Impassioned" and shouting force: "Impassioned radical and median High pitch" Varied "slides:" Extremely short

stress:"

pauses.)

66

"One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear,When they reached the hall door, and the charger stood near; So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung,

[ocr errors]

So light to the saddle before her he sprung! 'She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur; They'll have fleet steeds that follow,' quoth young Lochinvar.

"There was mounting 'mong Græmes of the Netherby clan; Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran : — There was racing, and chasing, on Cannobie Lee;

But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.

So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,

Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?",

2.- Descriptive Style.

[REPULSE OF THE ARCHERS: - BATTLE OF BEAL AN DHUINE.]-Scott.

(Haste, Fear, Alarm.—“Explosive orotund:" "Impassioned" force: "Radical stress:" "High pitch:" Extremely short pauses.)

"Forth from the pass in tumult driven,
Like chaff before the winds of heaven,
The archery appear;

For life, for life their flight they ply;
While shriek and shout and battle cry,
And plaids and bonnets waving high,
And broadswords flashing to the sky,-
Are maddening in their rear."

3.- Bold Address.

[THE GHEBER TO HIS FOLLOWERS.]-Moore.

(Courage, Revenge." Explosive orotund, aspirated quality:"

66

Impassioned" force: "Radical stress :"" "slides:" Short pauses.)

High pitch :" Varied

"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 sabre from its toil may sleep?
No-God of Iran's burning skies!
Thou scorn'st the inglorious sacrifice.
No-though 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."

[ocr errors]

4.- Playful and Humorous Description.

[CARNIVAL SCENES IN VENICE.] - Byron.

(Mirth and Exhilaration. -" Pure tone:" "Moderate" force: "Radical stress:" 66 "High pitch:""Monotone:" Extremely

short pauses.)

"And gaiety on restless tiptoe hovers,

Giggling with all the gallants who beset her;

And there are songs and quavers, roaring, humming,
Guitars, and every other sort of strumming.

And there are dresses, splendid, but fantastical,

Masks of all times and nations, Turks and Jews,
And harlequins and clowns, with feats gymnastical,
Greeks, Romans, Yankee-doodles, and Hindoos."

5.-Anger, Fierce and Stubborn Resolve.

[CORIOLANUS, MADDENED AGAINST THE ROMAN POPULACE.]-Shakspeare.
("Aspirated quality:" Intensely "impassioned" force: "Explo-
sive radical and vanishing stress:" "High pitch :" Downward
"slide" of" fifth" and "octave." 99
Extremely short pauses.)

"Let them pull all about mine ears; present me
Death on the wheel, or at wild horses' heels;
Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
That the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of sight; yet will I still
Be thus to them."

VI.-"Rapid, or Quickest Movement."
Lyric Style.

[MAZEPPA, BOUND ON THE WILD HORSE.]—Byron.

("Aspirated quality:" "Impassioned" force: "Radical stress:" "High pitch :" Prevalent "monotone:" Extremely short pauses.) "Away!-away!—and on we dash!—

Torrents less rapid and less rash.
"Away, away, my steed and I,
Upon the pinions of the wind,

All human dwellings left behind:
We sped like meteors through the sky,
When with its crackling sound the night
Is chequered with the northern light :-
"From out the forest prance

A trampling troop,-I see them come!
A thousand horse-and none to ride!.
With flowing tail, and flying mane,
Wide nostrils, never stretched by pain,
Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein,

« PreviousContinue »