needs carefully to be observed; as nothing more fatally chills and enervates inventive and expressive power than the indul gence of an undue critical spirit at the time of composing or speaking. By the use of these general means the mind is to be trained and developed to the power of expressing all its thoughts in taste or elegance. Such an indirect culture is to be preferred to any immediate endeavor, at the time of composing, to communicate to style this property. In the words of Dr. Whately, "the safest rule is, never, during the act of composition, to study elegance, or think about it at all. Let an author study the best models,-mark their beauties of style and dwell upon them, that he may insensibly catch the habit of expressing himself with elegance; and when he has completed any composition, he may revise it, and cautiously alter any passage that is awkward and harsh, as well as those that are feeble and obscure; but let him never, while writing, think of any beauties of style; but content himself with such as may come spontaneously." APPENDIX. THEMES FOR EXERCISES IN INVENTION THEMES IN NARRATIVE DISCOURSE. The crusades. 1. Simple Narration. The discovery of America. The conquest of England by the Normans. Magna Charta. The early population of the earth by successive migration The dismemberment of Poland. The expulsion of Kings from Rome. X The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. The origin of the Grecian game. The Persian invasions of Greece. The rise of tragedy. The plebeian triumph in Rome. The origin and spread of British conquests in India. The American Revolution. The battle of Waterloo. The conquests of Alexander the Great. The history of Republics in South America. The Peloponnesian War. The history of modern commerce. Gothic conquests in Italy. The subjection of Greece by the Romans. The history of Jerusalem. The French revolution in 1830. The first Triumvirate in Rome. The rise of Monachism. The division of the Roman empire. The Saxon descendents in England. The expulsion of the Moors from Spain. The introduction of Christianity into England; the Ger man tribes; China; the South Sea Islands. The Danish invasions of England. The rise of the Feudal System. The Sicilian Vespers. The Hanseatic League. The Lutheran Reformation. The war of the Roses in England. The Spanish Inquisition. The Slave Trade. The imprisonment and execution of Mary Stuart, The settlement of New England. The English Commonwealth. The ministry of the elder Pitt. The independence of Modern Greece. The battle of the Nile. The Union of Great Britain and Ireland. The rise of Chivalry. The lives of Pericles, Solon, Demosthenes, Alexander the Great, Xenophon, Themistocles, Cato, Cæsar, Hannibal, Scipio, Cicero, Mahomet; Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, Belisarius, Tycho Brahe, the Earl of Chatham, Hampden, Michael Angelo, Columbus, Washington, La Fayette, Louis XIV., Cowper, Edmund Burke, Howard, Joan of Arc, Benjamin Franklin, John Milton, Martin Luther, Sir Humphrey Davy, Lord Byron, Galileo, Charles V., Frederick the Great, Burns, Addison, Fox, Alexander Hamilton, Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, John Jay. 2. Abstract Narration. The progress of civilization in the world. The rise of popery. The diffusion of knowledge. The spread of Christianity. The rise of free cities. The development of taste. The growth of genius. The progress of free principles. The decline of the poetical spirit. The lapse of virtuous principle when deprived of its usual support. The transition of superstition to infidelity. 3. Narration with exhibition of causal relation. The influence of the Reformation on the intellect of Europe. The probable influence of the United States on the destinies of the world. The influence of the spirit of the present age on the destiny of the world. The influence of the press. The influence of the American Revolution. The influence of the national spirit on security. The public games of Greece. The influence of the Reformation on civil liberty. The causes of the melancholy of genius. The influence of periods of great excitement on literature. The influence of the Feudal system. The influence of the Crusades. The influence of chivalry. The influence of commerce. The influence of climate on national character. The study of History as a means of intellectual growth. The influence of seclusion in cultivating the mind and heart The influence of christian missions on the literature of the ge. The indulgence of a spirit of censure. Singleness of purpose in its bearing on success. Imitation as leading to servility. THEMES IN DESCRIPTION. 1. Description proper. The Geographical Features of Switzerland, Italy, Tartary, Great Britain, Greece, The United States, Denmark, Egypt, Iceland. Ancient and modern Athens, Rome, Thebes, Babylon, Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Edinburgh, Washington. |