"To arms! they come! the Greek! the Greek!" And shout, and groan, and sabre stroke, Strike- till the last armed foe expires; 4. I really believe some people save their bright thoughts as being too precious for conversation. What do you think an admiring friend said the other day to one that was talking good thingsgood enough to print? "Why," said he, "you are wasting merchantable literature, a cash article, at the rate, as nearly as I can tell, of fifty dollars an hour." The talker took him to the window, and asked him to look out and tell him what he saw. "Nothing but a very dusty street," he said, "and a man driving a sprinkling machine through it.” "Why don't you tell the man he is wasting that water? What would be the state of the highways of life, if we did not drive our thought-sprinklers through them with the valves open, sometimes?" 5. Oh, when the blast of war blows in our ears, Stiffen the sinew 6. There's a new foot on the floor, my friend, 7. As the dying man murmurs, the thunders swell. IV. TIME. 1. MOVEMENT OR MEASURE OF SPEECH. 1. Moderate. The rate of unimpassioned language, used with pure quality: 1. It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky. It is the part of creation in which Nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man, more for the sole and evident purpose of talking to him and teaching him, than in any other of her works and it is just the part in which we least attend to her. 2. It was the time when lilies blow, And clouds are highest up in air, Ruskin. 2. Quick. The movement of joy, humor, etc.: And see! she stirs ! She starts, she moves, - she seems to feel The thrill of life along her keel, And, spurning with her foot the ground, She leaps into the ocean's arms! 3. Rapid. Used in expressing haste, fear, etc.: Longfellow Hurrah! the foes are moving. Hark to the mingled din, Macaulay. 4. Slow. Used in the language of grandeur, sublimity adoration, etc.: And thou, O, silent mountain, sole and bare, O, blacker than the darkness, all the night, And visited all night by troops of stars, — Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink, – Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven, Clothe you with rainbows? Who with lovely flowers Coleridge. 5. Very slow. The deepest emotion of horror, awe, gloom, etc.: I had a dream which was not all a dream, The bright sun was extinguished; and the stars Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air; Morn came, and went, and came, and brought no day. Byron. Examples for determining Quality, Force, Stress, Time and names of authors: 1. I'll tell ye what! I'll fly a few times around the lot, To see how 't seems, then soon's I've got An' all creation, By flyin' over the celebration! Over their heads I'll sail like an eagle; I'll balance myself on my wings like a sea-gull; I'll dance on the chimbleys; I'll stand on the steeple; I'll light on the liberty-pole, an' crow; An' I'll say to the gawpin' fools below, That I've come near?' Fur I'll make 'em b'lieve I'm a chap f'm the moon; 2. Alas, what need you be so boisterous-rough? For Heaven's sake, Hubert, let me not be bound; I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word, Thrust but these men away, and I'll forgive you 3. Then my heart it grew ashen and sober On this very night of last year, That I journeyed — I journeyed down here— 4. Ye're there, but yet I see you not!-forth draw each trusty sword, And let me hear your faithful steel clash once around my board! I hear it faintly! louder yet! What clogs my heavy breath? Up, all! — and shout for Rudiger, “Defiance unto death!” 5. Arm! arm! it is—it is the cannon's opening roar! Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness. 6. And all I remember is friends flocking round, As I sate with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground; And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine, Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent. |