My fields you may set on fire, and my children give to the sword; my self you may drive forth a houseless, childless beggar, or load with the fetters of slavery; but the hatred I feel to your oppression never can you conquer. EXERCISES. 1. All the Jews, who knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, know my manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, that I lived a Pharisee after the straitest sect of our religion. 2. I weep for Cæsar, as he loved me; I rejoice, as he was fortunate; 1 nonor him, as he was valiant; but I slew him, as he was ambitious. 3. The noon of day is calm. The inconstant sun flies over the green hill. The stream of the mountain comes down red, through the stony vale. O Morar! thou wert tall on the hill; fair among the sons of the plain. Thy wrath was as the storm; thy sword, in battle, as lightning in the field. Thy voice was like thunder on distant hills. But how peaceful was thy brow when thou didst return from war! Thy face was like the sun after rain; calm as the breast of the lake when the loud wind is hushed into repose. Thy dwelling is narrow now the place of thine abode is dark. O thou who wast so great before! I compass thy grave with three steps. SECTION III. VARIETY OF ARRANGEMENT (continued). Change passages of poetry into prose, making such alterations, both in arrangement and in structure, as the meaning and harmony of the sentences require· EXAMPLE. A solitary blessing few can find; Our joys with those we love are intertwined; And he whose wakeful tenderness removes Th' obstructing thorn which wounds the friend he loves, But scatters roses to adorn his own. Few can find a solitary blessing; our joys are intertwined with those whom we love; and he, whose wakeful tenderness removes the thors which wounds his friend, not only smooths the rugged path of another, but scatters roses to adorn his own.* SECTION IV. EXPRESSION OF IDEAS. Let the pupil express the ideas contained the following passages, in sentences of his own construction and arrangement: EXAMPLE. When a man says, in conversation, that it is fine weather, does he mean to inform you of the fact? Surely not; for every one knows it as well as he does. He means to communicate his agreeable feelings. Let EXERCISES be drawn from the poetry in the latter part of this volume, Almost every one whom you meet by the way begins the conversation by remarking, "It is a fine day." But when he does so, it is not because he supposes the fact known to him and not to you; he is merely giving expression to those agreeable feelings which the fineness of the weather excites. [EXERCISFS may be selected by the teacher from this work.] SECTION V. EXPRESSION OF IDEAS. Let the pupil write from the following hints, expressing the ideas in sentences of his own construc tion and arrangement: EXERCISES 1. The camel: where found; the varieties of this animal found in some countries; description of countries in which found: what got from it; what its special use; how adapted for traveling; its docility; anecdotes of the camel. 2. The cotton-plant: where cultivated; how raised; what it yields, how produce gathered; how prepared, cotton-manufactures; where carried to greatest perfection; by what means; improvers of cotton-manufactures; influence upon comfort, habits, and civilization of mankind. 3. Who are our neighbors: in a literal sense; in the Scriptural sense; who taught us this; in what parable; what gave rise to it; the circum stances of the parable; the practical lessons which it teaches. SECTION VI. EXPRESSION OF IDEAS (continued). Let the pupil write from memory the substance of the lessons read in the class, expressing the ideas in sentences of his own construction and SECTION VII. arrangement EXPRESSION OF IDEAS (continued). Let the pupil write from memory the substance of what has been told or read by the teacher, or of lectures or sermons which he may have heard, expressing the ideas in sentences of his own construction and arrangement.† The exercises under this and the following section are necessarily left to the teacher The teacher will find it of great use, in teaching his pupils fluency of expression, to make them do orally what they are required to do in writing in the two preceding sections. PART II. ON STYLE AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. CHAPTER I. OF LANGUAGE, AND ITS ORIGIN. Q. By what is man chiefly distinguished from the brute creation? A. By his powers of reflection and reason, and his great susceptibility of improvement. Q. On what do these mainly depend? A. On his being farther distinguished by the use of speech or language. Q. What do you understand by speech or language? A. Those sounds of the voice by which we express our thoughts or ideas. Q. What is supposed to have been the origin of language? A. It is supposed by some to be the fruit of human invention; but the more common opinion is, that i was a Divine gift, bestowed upon man at his creation. (See note.) Q. Under what different aspects may language be considered? A. As a medium of thought, it may be regarded either as spoken or written. Q. What is the difference between spoken and written language? A. Spoken language constitutes the immediate signs of our ideas; while written language forms merely the signs of spoken language. Q. In what does a knowledge of written language consist? A. In being able to convert it into spoken language, so as to know the ideas which it is intended to rep resent. Q. Is written language of as high antiquity as spoken language? A. That can hardly be supposed, as men would no doubt long enjoy the power of speech before they would attempt giving permanency to their thoughts by means of writing. [For able arguments to show that Adam at his creation was endowed with a knowledge of language, and prepared to use it in thought and speech, consult Dr. Magee on Atonement, and Dr. Spring on the "Obligations of the World to the Bible."] CHAPTER II. OF ALPHABETIC WRITING. Q. What is the simplest and most effectual means of preserv ing our thoughts? A. The adoption of certain signs to represent the various sounds of the human voice. Q. What name is given to this method of preserving and trans mitting thought? A. It is called alphabetic writing, and, next to reason and speech, is one of the greatest blessings that mankind possess. Q. Is any thing known with certainty respecting the origin of alphabetic writing? A. The remoteness of its origin has caused it to be buried in great obscurity, and many have even doubted its being a human invention.-(See Dr. Spring's Lectures.) Q. What alphabet is supposed to be the most ancient? A. The Hebrew, or Samaritan, which is sometimes called the Phoenician. Q. What chiefly gives rise to this supposition? A. The circumstance of its being the earliest alphabet of which we have any certain account, as well as the source whence almost all known alphabets have been derived. Q. How did this alphabet find its way to other countries? A. It was, about 1000 years before Christ, imported into Greece by one Cadmus, a Phœnician; from Greece it passed into Italy; and from Italy it has spread over the most of the civilized world. Q. Was there ever any other mode of transmitting thought be sides that of alphabetic writing? A. Yes; there prevailed, at one time, picture and symbolic writing, the latter called hieroglyphics. Q. In what did picture writing consist? A. In drawing a figure resembling the object respecting which some information was to be impart ed; as two men with drawn daggers, to denote a battle. Q. In what did symbolic writing, or hieroglyphics, consist? A. In making one thing serve to represent another; as, an eye to denote knowledge; and a circle to denote eternity. Q. By whom have these two methods of writing been chiefly practised? A. Picture writing has been practised by many rude nations, but particularly by the Mexicans, prior to the discovery of America; and hieroglyphics, principally by the ancient Egyptians. [Note.-For an interesting course of argument, to show that alphabetic characters were most probably invented by God himself, as an instrument \of his written revelation to man, and that he first presented them on Mount Sinai to Moses, on the tables of stone, "written by the finger of God," see the able work of Dr. Spring, referred to in a former note.] CHAPTER III. OF THE MATERIALS ANCIENTLY USED IN WRITING, ETC. Q. What was for some time the peculiar character of writing? A. It was for a long time a species of engraving and was executed chiefly on pillars and tablets of stone. Q. What substances came next to use? A. Thin plates of the softer metals, such as lead; and then, as writing became more common, lighter substances, as the leaves and bark of certain trees, or thin boards covered with wax. Q. What proof is there of the bark of trees having been thus used? A. The same word which, in many languages, denotes a book, denotes also a tree, or the bark of a tree; as, the word liber in Latin, which means either the bark of a tree or a book. Q. What was the next step in the progress of writing? A. The manufacture of a substance called papyrus, which was prepared from a reed of the same name, that grew in great abundance on the banks of the Nile Q. Were not the skins of animals often used for writing upon? |