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of Carolina were all seen crowding together to the temple, bringing their gifts to the altar of their common country.

II. EXERCISE.

Make a similar full analysis of periods in your reader or other book.

III.-EXERCISE.

Form a bimembral period with the first two compound sentences, or members of the following extract. Form a trimembral or quadrimembral period with the other sentences. (Apply Rule 7, No. 7, Article III, Chapter IV, Part I, of Synthesis of Sentences.)

NOTE. The small numbers mark the different sentences.

TALENTS ALWAYS ASCENDANT.

1 Talents, whenever they have had a suitable theater, have never failed to emerge from obscurity.

2 Talents, whenever they have had a suitable theater, have never failed to assume their proper rank in the estimation of the world.

3The jealous pride of power may attempt to repress and crush talents.

4The base and malignant rancor of impotent spleen and envy may strive to embarrass and retard the flight of talents.

"These efforts, so far from achieving their ignoble purpose, so far from producing obliquity in the ascent of

genius and vigorous talents, will serve only to increase their momentum, and mark their transit with an additional stream of glory.

IV. EXERCISE.

Make periods of your own composition, and analyze them likewise.

ARTICLE II.

PRAXIS OF COMPOSITION OF PERIODS.

1. For the composition of periods two things are necessary, viz: first, formation of compound sentences which constitute the members of a period; second, combination of the members by means of connecting words.

2. The first thing is achieved by following the rules given in the praxis of compound sentences; the second, by observing the rules concerning the formation of periods.

3. In order then to compose a period, the scholar must, in the first place, compose one, two, or more compound sentences; next, he must connect them properly by means of conjunctive words. In this manner he will have a period of Q. What things are necessary for the formation of periods? (1.) A. Two. Formation of compound sentences, and their combination by means of connecting words.

.

Q. How are these two things accomplished? (2.)

A. By following the rules for the formation of compound sen

tences and periods.

one, two, or more members, according to the number of complex sentences he has made.

4. The example from Blair which we have produced in Art. V, Chap. IV, Part I, as an illustration for the praxis of compound sentences, may serve, also, to illustrate the praxis of composition of periods.

OF

CHAPTER III.

SEVERAL

IMPORTANT QUALITIES OF
HARMONY, CLEARNESS,

PERIODS, VIZ :

UNITY AND STRENGTH, AND THEIR RESPECTIVE RULES.

We will treat of each of these points in four separate articles.

ARTICLE I.

OF THE HARMONY OF PERIODS, AND HOW IT CAN BE OBTAINED.

1. Harmony of the period is the just adaptation of the members and words, which causes a pleasing alternation and variety of well-measured sounds, which may well be termed a prosaic melody.

Q. What is harmony of the period? (1.)

A. It is a pleasing alternation and variety of sounds, caused by a proper collocation of members and words.

2. Periods are made harmonious, first, by a suitable arrangement of the short and long syllables of words. Thus, Cicero to Cæsar :

"Thou hast subdued nations, barbarous on account of their inhumanity, innumerable in their multitude, infinite in their territory, supplied with all sorts of provisions."

3. Second. By the proper mixing of words of one, two or more syllables; as Cicero against Catiline:

"Thou livest-yea, livest-not to lay aside, but to maintain, thy audacity."

4. Third.-By the use of magnificent and sounding words, at the end of the period; thus, Grattan on Universal Emancipation:

"No matter in what language the doom of a man may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion, incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burnt upon him; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery-the first moment he

Q. How are periods made harmonious? (2.)

A. Chiefly in five manners.

Q. Which is the first mode? (2.)

A. By a suitable arrangement of the short and long syllables. Q. Mention the second mode. (3.)

A. By the proper mixing of words of one, two, or more sylla

bles.

Q. Point out the third mode. (4.)

A. By the use of magnificent and sounding words at the end of

the period.

touches the sacred soil of Britain the altar and the God sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains that burst from around him, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled, by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation."

5. Fourth.-By altering, sometimes, the natural collocation of words; thus, Chatham to Mr. Walpole:

"Sir, the atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honorable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny."

6. Fifth.-By the use of the sublime style; as, Cicero pro Fontejus :

"Do not suffer, O Judges, that the altars of the immortal Gods and of the mother Vesta being pierced by the daily lamentations of the virgins, be moved to anger on account of your judgment."

7. The art of making harmonious periods is principally acquired by frequently reading and imitating classic authors.

I.-EXERCISE.

Point out the most harmonious periods in the

Q. What is the fourth mode? (5.)

A. By altering the natural collocation of words.

Q. State the fifth mode of making harmonious periods. (6.)

[blocks in formation]

Q. How is the art of making harmonious periods chiefly ac

quired? (7.)

A. By frequently reading and imitating classic authors.

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