LESSON II.--PROSE.
"_To_ censure works, _not men, is_ the just _prerogative_ of criticism, and accordingly all personal censure is here avoided, unless _where necessary_ to ill.u.s.trate some general proposition."--_Kames, El. of Crit., Introduction_, p. 27.
"_There remains_ to show by examples the manner of treating subjects, so as to give them a ridiculous appearance."--_Ib._, Vol. i, p. 303.
"The making of poetry, _like_ any other _handicraft_, may be learned by industry."--_Macpherson"s Preface to Ossian_, p. xiv.
"Whatever is found more strange or beautiful than _was expected_, is judged to be more strange or beautiful than it is in reality."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i, p. 243.
"Thus the body of an animal, and of a plant, _are composed_ of certain great vessels; these[,] of _smaller_; and these again[,] of still _smaller_, without end, _as_ far as we can discover."--_Id., ib._, p. 270.
"This cause of beauty, is too extensive to be handled _as a branch_ of any other subject: for _to_ ascertain with accuracy even the proper meaning of words, _not to talk_ of their figurative power, _would require_ a large volume; _an_ useful _work_ indeed, but not to be attempted without a large stock of time, study, and reflection."--_Id._, Vol. ii, p. 16.
"O the hourly _dangers_ that we here walk _in_! Every sense, and member, _is_ a snare; every creature, and every duty, _is_ a snare to us."--_Baxter, Saints"s Rest_.
"_For_ a man _to give_ his opinion of what he sees _but_ in part, _is_ an unjustifiable _piece_ of rashness and folly."--_Addison_.
"_That_ the sentiments thus prevalent among the early Jews _respecting_ the divine authority of the Old Testament were correct, _appears_ from the testimony of Jesus Christ and his apostles."--_Gurney"s Essays_, p. 69.
"So in Society we are not our _own_, but Christ"s, and the church"s, to good works and services, yet all in love."--_Barclay"s Works_, Vol. i, p.
84.
"He [_Dr. Johnson_] sat up in his bed, _clapped_ his hands, _and cried, "O brave we_!"--a peculiar _exclamation_ of _his_ when he rejoices."-- _Boswell"s Life of Johnson_, Vol. iii, p. 56.
"Single, double, and treble emphasis _are_ nothing but examples of ant.i.thesis."--_Knowles"s Elocutionist_, p. xxviii.
"The curious _thing, and what_, I would almost say, _settles_ the point, _is_, that we do _Horace_ no service, even according to our view of the matter, by rejecting the scholiast"s explanation. No two eggs can be _more like each other_ than Horace"s _Malthinus_ and Seneca"s _Mecenas_."-- _Philological Museum_, Vol. i, p. 477. "_Acting, conduct, behaviour_, abstracted from all regard to what is, in fact and event, the consequence of _it, is itself_ the natural object of this moral discernment, as speculative truth _and_ [say _or_] falsehood is _of_ speculative reason."--_Butler"s a.n.a.logy_, p. 277.
"_To_ do what is _right_, with unperverted faculties, _is_ ten _times easier_ than to undo what is wrong."--_Porter"s a.n.a.lysis_, p. 37.
"Some _natures the_ more _pains_ a man takes to reclaim them, _the_ worse they are."--L"ESTRANGE: _Johnson"s Dict., w. Pains_.
"Says _John Milton_, in that impa.s.sioned speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, where every word leaps with intellectual life, "_Who_ kills a man, _kills_ a reasonable creature, G.o.d"s image; but _who_ destroys a good book, _kills_ reason itself, kills the image of G.o.d, as it were, in the eye. Many a man lives a burden upon the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose for a life beyond life!""--_Louisville Examiner_, June, 1850.
LESSON III.--PROSE.
"The philosopher, the saint, or the hero--_the_ wise, _the_ good, or the great man--very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeian, _which_ a proper education might have disinterred and _brought_ to light."--_Addison_.
"The _year before_, he had so used the matter, that _what_ by force, _what_ by policy, he had taken from the Christians _above_ thirty small castles."--_Knolles_.
"_It_ is an important truth, that religion, vital _religion_, the _religion_ of the heart, is the most powerful auxiliary of reason, in waging war with the pa.s.sions, and promoting that sweet composure which const.i.tutes the peace of G.o.d."--_Murray"s Key_, p. 181.
"_Pray, sir, be pleased_ to take the part of _us beauties_ and _fortunes_ into your consideration, and do not let us _be flattered_ out of our senses. _Tell_ people that _we_ fair _ones_ expect honest plain answers, as well as other folks."--_Spectator_, No. 534. "_Unhappy it_ would be _for_ us, _did_ not uniformity _prevail_ in morals: _that_ our actions should uniformly be directed to what is _good_ and against what is _ill_, is the greatest _blessing_ in society; and _in_ order to uniformity of action, uniformity of sentiment is indispensable."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. ii, p. 366.
"Thus the pleasure of all the senses is _the same_ in _all, high_ and _low, learned_ and _unlearned_."--_Burke, on Taste_, p. 39.
"_Upwards_ of eight millions of acres _have_, I believe, been thus disposed of."--_Society in America_, Vol. i, p. 333.
"The Latin Grammar comes _something_ nearer, but yet does not hit the mark _neither_."--_Johnson"s Gram. Com._, p. 281.
"_Of_ the like nature is the following inaccuracy of _Dean Swift"s_."--_Blair"s Rhet._, p. 105. "Thus, Sir, I have given _you_ my own opinion, relating to this weighty affair, as well as _that_ of a great majority of both houses here."--_Ib._
"A foot is just _twelve_ times as long as an _inch_; and an hour is sixty _times_ the _length_ of a minute."--_Murray"s Gram._, p. 48.
"What can we expect, who come _a gleaning_, not after the first reapers, but after the _very_ beggars?"--_Cowley"s Pref. to Poems_, p. x.
"In our _Lord"s being betrayed_ into the hands of the chief-priests and scribes, by Judas Iscariot; in _his being_ by them _delivered_ to the Gentiles; in _his being mocked, scourged, spitted on_, [say _spit upon_,]
and _crucified_; and in his _rising_ from the dead after three days; there was much that was singular, complicated, and not to be easily calculated on before hand."--_Gurney"s Essays_, p. 40.
"To be _morose, implacable, inexorable_, and _revengeful_, is one of the greatest degeneracies of human nature."--_Dr. J. Owen_.
"Now, says _he_, if tragedy, which is in its nature _grand_ and _lofty_, will not admit of this, _who can forbear laughing_ to hear the historian Gorgias Leontinus styling Xerxes, that cowardly Persian king, _Jupiter_; and vultures, living _sepulchres_?"--_Holmes"s Rhetoric?_, Part II, p. 14.
"O let thy all-seeing eye, and not the eye of the world, be the star to steer my course _by_; and let thy blessed favour, more than the liking of any sinful men, be ever my study and delight."--_Jenks"s Prayers_, p. 156.
LESSON IV.--PROSE.
"O _the Hope_ of Israel, _the Saviour thereof_ in time of trouble, why _shouldest thou_ be as a _stranger_ in the land, and as a way-faring _man_, that turneth aside to tarry for a night?"--_Jeremiah_, xiv, 8.
"When once the long-suffering of G.o.d waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was _a preparing, wherein_ few, _that_ is, eight souls, were saved."--_1 Peter_, iii, 20.
"Mercy and truth _are_ met together; righteousness and peace have kissed _each other_."--_Psalms_, lx.x.xv, 10.
"But _in vain_ they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."--_Matt._, xv, 9.
"Knowest thou not this _of old_, since man was placed upon the earth, that the _triumphing_ of the _wicked_ is short, and the joy of the hypocrite _but_ for a moment?"--_Job_, xx, 4, 5.
"For now we _see_ through a gla.s.s darkly; but _then, face_ to _face_: now I _know_ in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."--_1 Cor._, xiii, 12.
"For then the _king of Babylon"s_ army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the _Prophet_ was shut up in the court of the prison which was in the _king of Judah"s_ house."--_Jer._, x.x.xii, 2.
"For Herod had laid hold on John, and _bound_ him, and _put_ him in prison, for _Herodias"_ sake, his _brother_ Philip"s _wife_."--_Matt._, xiv, 3.
"And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, _of Huram_ my _father"s_, the _son_ of a woman of the daughters of Dan."--_2 Chron._, ii, 13.
"Bring no _more_ vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the _calling_ of a.s.semblies, I _cannot away with: it_ is iniquity _even_ the solemn _meeting_."--_Isaiah_, i, 13.
"For I have heard the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, _saying_, Woe is _me_ now! for my soul is wearied _because_ of murderers."--_Jer._, iv, 31.
"She saw men portrayed upon the wall, the _images_ of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes _to_ look _to, after_ the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the _land_ of their nativity."--_Ezekiel_, xxiii, 15.
"And on them _was written_ according to all the words which the Lord spake with you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the a.s.sembly."--_Deut._, ix, 10.
"And he charged them that they _should tell no man_: but _the_ more he charged them, so much _the_ more a great _deal_ they published it."--_Mark_, vii, 36.
"The results which G.o.d has connected with actions, will inevitably occur, all the created _power_ in the universe to the contrary _notwithstanding_."--_Wayland"s Moral Science_, p. 5.