able processes. That division which has the phenomena of light for its subject, gives eyes to the old and the myopic; aids through the microscope in detecting diseases and adulterations; and by improved lighthouses prevents shipwrecks.

11. Researches in electricity and magnetism have saved incalculable life and property by the compass; have subserved sundry arts by the electrotype; and now, in the telegraph, have supplied us with the agency by which, for the future, all mercantile transactions will be regulated, political intercourse carried on, and perhaps national quarrels often avoided. While in the details of indoor life, from the improved kitchen range up to the stereoscope on the drawing-room table, the applications of advanced physics underlie our comforts and gratifications.

HERBERT SPENCER.

SECTION II.

PROSE DECLAMATIONS.

1. CHARACTER OF TRUE ELOQUENCE.

[This speech is characterized by full declamatory force, long pauses, strong emphasis, prevailing downward inflection, orotund quality, and radical stress. Require pupils to give reasons for the marking of rhetorical pauses and inflections.]

1. When public bodies | are to be addressed | on momentous occasions, when great interests | are at stake, and strong pássions | excited, nothing is valuable | in speech, further than it is connected with high intelléctual and mòral endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness | are the qualities | which produce conviction. True éloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from făr. Labor and learning may

tóil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases | may be marshaled in èvery way, but they can not còmpass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion.

2. Affected pássion, intense expréssion, the pomp of declamation, àll | may aspire after it; they cannot rèach it. It cómes, if it come at áll, like the outbreaking of a fòuntain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fères, with spontaneous, orìginal, nátive fòrce.

3. The graces | taught in the schools, the costly órnaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country, hang on the decision of the hour. Then, words have lost their power, rhetoric is văin, and all elaborate óratory | contèmptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then, pàtriotism | is éloquent; then, self-devòtion | is éloquent.

4. The clear concèption, outrunning the deductions of lògic, the high purpose, the firm resòlve, the dáuntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, béaming from the eye, informing évery feature, and urging the whole mán | ònward, right ònward, to his òbject—–this, thìs | is éloquence; or, rather, it is something greater and higher than âll eloquence-it is àction, nòble, sublime, gòdlike action.

2. NATIONAL GREATNESS.

1. I believe there is no permanent greatness to a nation except it be based upon morality. I do not care! for military greatness or military renown. I care for the condition of the people among whom I live. There is no man in England who is less likely to speak irreverently of the crown and monarchy of England than I am; but crówns, córonets, míters, military display, the pomp of war, wide cólonies, and a huge empire are, in

my view, all trifles light as àir, and not worth considering, unless with them you can have a fair share of cómfort, conténtment, and happiness among the great body of the people.

2. Pálaces, baronial castles, great hálls, stately mánsions, do not make a nátion. The nation, in every country, dwells in the còttage; and unless the light of your constitution can shine thère, unless the beauty of your legislation and excellence of your statesmanship are impressed there in the feelings and condition of the people, rely upon it you have yet to learn the duties of government.

JOHN BRIGHT.

3. THE PASSING OF THE RUBICON. [An example of impassioned argumentative declamation.]

1. A gentleman, Mr. President, speaking of Cæsar's benevolent disposition, and of the reluctance with which he entered into the civil wár, obsérves, "How long did he pause upon the brink of the Rubicon?" How càme he to the brink of that river? How dared he cròss it? Shall private men respect the boundaries of private property, and shall a man pay no respect to the boundaries of his country's rights? How dared he cross that river? O, but he paused upon the brink! He should have perished upon the brink ere he had crossed it! 2. Why did he pause? Why does a man's heart pàlpitate when he is on the point of committing an unlawful deed? Why does the very murderer, his victim sleeping before him, and his glaring eye taking the measure of the blow, strike wide of the mortal part? Because of conscience! 'T was that made Cæsar pause upon the brink of the Rubicon.

3. Compassion! What compassion! The compassion of an assassin, that feels a mòmentary shudder as his

weapon begins to cut! Cæsar paused upon the brink of the Rubicon? What was the Rubicon? The boundary of Cæsar's pròvince. From what did it separate his province ? From his country. Was that country a désert? No: it was cultivated and fertile; rich and populous! Its sons were men of génius, spirit, and gènerosity! Its daughters were lovely, susceptible, and chaste! Friendship was its inhabitant! Lòve was its inhabitant! Domestic affection was its inhabitant! Liberty was its inhabitant! All bounded by the stream of the Rubicon!

4. What was Caesar, that stood upon the brink of that river? A traitor, bringing war and pestilence into the heart of that country! No wonder that he paused— no wonder if, his imagination wrought upon by his cónscience, he had beheld blood instead of water; and heard groans instead of murmurs! No wonder if some gorgon horror had turned him into stone upon the spot! But, nò!-he cried, "The die is cast!" He plunged !—he cròssed!-and Rome was free no mòre!

KNOWLES.

4. OUR DUTIES TO OUR COUNTRY.

[An example of oratorical declamation. Movement, slow; quality, orotund; prevailing inflections, falling.]

1. This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institútions, the dear purchase of our fáthers, are òurs; ours to enjoy, ours to presérve, ours to transmit. Generations púst, and generations to còme, hold us responsible for this sacred trùst. Our fathers, from behind, admonish us, with their anxious paternal vòices; posterity calls out to us, from the bosom of the future; the world turns hither its solicitous eyes-àll, all conjure us to act wisely, and faithfully, in the relations which we sustain.

2. We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upòn us; but by virtue, by morálity, by religion, by the culti

vation of every good prínciple and every good hábit, we may hope to enjoy the blessing through our day, and to leave it unimpaired to our children. Let us feel deeply how much of what we are, and what we posséss, we owe to this liberty, and these institutions of government.

3. Nature has, indeed, given us a soil which yields. bounteously to the hands of industry; the mighty and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies over our heads shed health and vigor. But what are lands, and sèas, and skies, to civilized mán, without society, without knowledge, without mòrals, without religious cùlture? and how can these be enjoyed, in all their extént, and all their éxcellence, but under the protection of wise institutions and a free government?

4. Fellow-citizens, there is not one of us here présent who does not, at this moment, and at every moment, experience in his own condition, and in the condition of those most near and déar to him, the influence and the benefits of this liberty, and these institutions. Let us then acknowledge the blessing; let us feel it deeply and powerfully; let us cherish a strong affèction for it, and resolve to maintain and perpètuate it. The blood of our fathers, let it not have been shed in vàin; the great hope of postérity, let it not be blasted.

WEBSTER.

5. THE AMERICAN WAR.

1. These abominable prínciples, and this mòre abominable avówal of them, demand the most decisive indignàtion! I call upon that Right Reverend Bench, those holy ministers of the Gospel, and pious pastors of our Church; I conjure them to join in the holy wórk, and to vindicate the religion of their God! I appeal to the wisdom and the law | of this learned Bench, to de