3 nor the age of Augustus, nor the times of Leo X., nor of Louis XIV., can come at all into comparison. 2. For, in that short period, we shall find the names of almost all the very great men that this nation has ever produced the names of Shakspeare, and Bacon, and Spenser, and Sydney-and Hooker, and Taylor, and Barrow, and Pa leigh-and Napier, and Milton, and Cudworth, and Hobbes, and many others; men, all of them, not merely of great talents and accomplishments, but of vast compass and reach of understanding, and of minds truly creative and original; not perfecting art by the delicacy of their taste, or digesting knowledge by the justness of their reasonings, but making vast and substantial additions to the materials, upon which taste and reason must hereafter be employed, and enlarging, to an incredible and unparalleled extent, both the stores and the resources of the human faculties. 3. Whether the brisk concussion which was given to men's minds by the force of the Reformation, had much effect in producing this sudden development of British génius, we can not undertake to determine. For our own part, we should be rather inclined to hold, that the Reformation itself was but one symptom or effect of that great spirit of progression and improvement, which had been set in operation by deeper and more general causes, and which afterwards blossomed out into this splendid harvest of authorship. 4. But whatever may have been the causes that determined the appearance of those great works, the fact is certain, not only that they appeared together in great numbers, but that they possessed a common character, which, in spite of the great diversity of their subjects and designs, would have made them be classed together as the works of the same order or description of men, even if they had appeared at the most distant intervals of time. 5. They are the works of giants, in short--and of giants of one nation and family; and their characteristics are, great force, boldness, and originality, together with a certain raciness of English peculiarity, which distinguishes them from all those performances that have since been produced among ourselves, upon a more vague and general idea of European excellence. 6. Their sudden appearance, indeed, in all this splendor of native luxuriance, can only be compared to what happens on the breaking up of a virgin soil, where all the indigenous plants spring up at once with a rank and irrepressible fertility, and display whatever is peculiar or excellent in their nature, on a scale the most conspicuous and magnificent. 7. The crops are not, indeed, so clean as where a more ex hausted mold has been stimulated by systematic cultivation; nor so profitable as where their quality has been varied by a judicious admixture of exotics, and accommodated to the demands of the universe by the combinations of an unlimited trade. But of those whose chief object of admiration is the living power and energy of vegetation, and who take delight in contemplating the various forms of her unforced and natural perfection, no spectacle can be more rich, spléndid, or attractive. QUESTIONS.-1. Why the rising inflection on genius, 3d paragraph? See Rule V., page 29. 2. Why the rising inflection on splendid, last paragraph? See Rule VII., page 31. EXERCISE LIX. THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES. ROBERT HALL. 1. It is no reflection on this amiable princess to suppose, that in her early dawn, with the dew of her youth so fresh upon her, she anticipated a long series of years, and expected to be led through successive scenes of enchantment, rising above each other in fascination and beauty. 2. It is natural to suppose she identified herself with this great nation which she was born to govern; and that, while she contemplated its pre-eminent luster in arts and in arms, its commerce encircling the globe, its colonies diffused through both hemispheres, and the beneficial effects of its institutions extending to the whole earth, she considered them as so many component parts of her grandeur. 3. Her heart, we may well conceive, would often be ruffled with emotions of trembling ecstasy, when she reflected that it was her province to live entirely for others, to compose the felicity of a great people, to move in a sphere which would afford scope for the exercise of philanthropy the most enlarged, of wisdom the most enlightened; and that, while others are doomed to pass through the world in obscurity, she was to supply the materials of history, and to impart that impulse to society, which was to decide the destiny of future generations. 4. Fired with the ambition of equaling or surpassing the most distinguished of her predecessors, she probably did not despair of reviving the remembrance of the brightest parts of their story, and of once more attaching the epoch of British glory to the annals of a fernale reign. It is needless to add, that the nation went with her, and probably outstripped her in these delightful anticipations. 5. We fondly hoped that a life so inestimable would be protracted to a distant period, and that, after diffusing the blessings of a just and enlightened administration, and being surrounded by a numerous progeny, she would gradually, in a good old age, sink under the horizon, amid the embraces of her family, and the benedictions of her country. 6. But, alas! (pl.) these delightful visions are fled, and what do we behold in their room but the funeral pall and shroud, a palace in mourning, a nation in tears, and the shadow of death settled over both like a cloud! O the unspeakable vanity of human hopes! the incurable blindness of man to futurity! ever doomed to grasp at shadows, to seize with ayidity what turns to dust and ashes in his hands, to sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind. EXERCISE LX. This and the following piece should be read quite slow, and in a pathetic tone of voice. THE DEATH-BED THOMAS HOOD. 1. We watched her breathing through the night, (p.) Her breathing soft and low, As in her breast the wave of life 2. So silently we seem'd to speak,- As we had lent her half our powers 3. Our very hopes belied our fears, 4. For when the morn came, dim and sad, QUESTIONS.-1. What kind of pause at the dash, 4th stanza? See Remarks, page 43. 2. What kind of emphasis on the words itali cised, 3d stanza? See Note VII., page 22. EXERCISE LXI. A DIRGE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL. 1. Softly, peacefully, On her young breast; D. ELLEN GOODMAN. Gently, solemnly,. 2. Plant a young willow Twine a sweet rose-tree Over the tomb; Sprinkle fresh buds there, Beauty and bloom. 3. Let a bright fountain, Limpid and clear, Murmur its music, Smile through a tear; Scatter its diamonds Where the loved lies,— Brilliant and starry, Like angels' eyes. 4. Then shall the bright birds On golden wing, Lingering ever, Murmuring sing: Then shall the soft breeze Pensively sigh,— Bearing rich fragrance And melody by. 5. Lay the sod lightly Over her breast; Calm be her slumbers, |