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There is also found an illustration, which is of an analogical kind. It is where the writer refers to the sports of children, which familiarize them with the elements of arithmetic. This argument from analogy may be regarded as an appeal to the common sense of the readers. The remaining argument rests in like manner on appeals to experience, observation, common sense, and consciousness, and it is not necessary to analyze them. The student, in the analysis which has been made, has had an opportunity of seeing some of the grounds on which assertions and reasonings are founded.

LXXIII.

GENERALIZATION OF A SUBJECT.

Generalization is the act of extending from particulars to generals, or the act of making general.

In the treatment of all subjects there is a tendency in young writers to dwell too much on isolated particulars, without reference to their general application. The object of all investigations, whether literary, physical, or intellectual, and the purport of all inquiries, should be, the establishment of general principles; and every thought, which may tend to their elucidation, and every idea which may contribute to their discovery, must be reckoned among the most valuable of all literary labors. Hence, the efforts of the student should be directed towards the attainment of so valuable an end, and in the training of his mind, on the part of the teacher, there should always be a distinct reference to this consideration.

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In the study, therefore, which the writer should always employ in his preparation for his work, it should be his aim to discover some general principle, with which his subject is directly or remotely connected, and endeavor to follow out that principle in all its consequences, - to show how his subject affects, or is affected, by this general principle, and how that principle influences the interest of learning and science, or contributes to the well-being of society, and the moral, physical, and intellectual condition of the world. Let us suppose, for instance, that the teacher has assigned to a class in composition, Truth, as the subject of a theme. The

young writer, who is too much in haste to finish his task would, perhaps, commence his exercise with some hackneyed observations on its importance, and dwell with considerable prolixity on its influence on a particular individual.

Individual instances, it is true, may have their influence in establishing the importance, or illustrating the effects of a general principle; but to confine an exercise upon a general subject to individual instances, is to present but narrow views of its importance. So far as the example introduced into the exercise of the student may serve to show the importance of a general principle, that example may be valuable, but it should by no means form the body of his work. It may be introduced into the exercise, as an illustration, or as a subsidiary portion of his labor, but it should not be dwelt upon to the exclusion of the principle which it is designed to illustrate. Thus, in the subject to which reference has already been made, namely, "Truth," the well-known story of Petrarch may incidentally be mentioned, to show the dignity which attends the strictest observance of veracity; but, an exhibition of the effects on society in general of the presence or absence of the subject itself, would be a more useful and, of course, a more valuable mode of considering the subject, than any attempts to show its importance in individual cases. It should be the constant endeavor of the teacher to lead the student to the consideration of causes and effects, their operations and their tendencies, and, by the method of reasoning from particulars to generals, to show how general truths are inferred from particular instances, and general principles are established by the consideration of the effects of particular causes. The student who is thus led to perceive the general bearings of a subject, will not take partial views, - he will go out into the world, - on board ship,—into factories and other large establishments, and view the operations of general principles; will have the sphere of intellectual vision enlarged, and insensibly acquire a comprehensiveness of mental perception, which will release him from the shackles of a narrow education, and enable him to take in, as it were at a glance, the grand theatre of the moral world, with all the stupendous machinery by which the changes in its scenery are effected.

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As an exercise in generalization, the student may fill out some one or more of the following models from the outline presented.

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LXXIV.

POETRY AND VERSIFICATION.

Poetry may properly be defined the language of the im agination. Its usual form is in verse,* and it is sometimes, and indeed most generally, adorned with rhyme. But true poetry consists in the idea, not in the harmonious arrangement of words in sentences, nor in the division of a composition into lines containing a certain succession of long and short syllables.

Poetry † deals largely in figurative language, especially in tropes, metaphors, personifications, similes, and comparisons. It is also exceedingly partial to compound epithets, and new combinations employed for the purposes of illustration and description.

Versification is the art of making verses. A verse is a line consisting of a certain succession of long and short syllables. A hemistich is a half of a verse. A distich, or couplet, consists of two verses.

Metre is the measure by which verses are composed.

The word verse is frequently incorrectly used for stanza. A verse consists of a single line only. A stanza, sometimes called a stave, consists c a number of lines regularly adjusted to each other. The word verse is de rived from the Latin language, and signifies a turning. The propriety of the name will be seen in the fact, that when we have finished a line we turn to the other side of the page to commence another.

There are few words in the English language, the true signification of which is more frequently mistaken than the word Poetry. It is generally thought to consist in the harmonious arrangement of words in sentences, and the division of a composition into lines containing a certain succession of long or short syllables. This is a mistaking of the dress for the substance which the dress should cover. True poetry consists in the idea, that it may be presented even in the form of prose. It addresses itself to the imagination and to the feelings. Thus the scriptural adage, “Love your enemies," although in prose, becomes highly poetical, when presented with the beautiful illustration of Menon: " Like the sandal tree which sheds a perfume on the axe which fells it, we should love our enemies." This distinction between the idea and the dress which it assumes, must be carefully noticed by all who aspire to poetical fame.

Perhaps there is in no language a more beautiful exhibition of poetical beauties in the form of prose, than in the beautiful tale called "The Epi turean," by Thomas Moore, Esq.

It may perhaps be useful, although not properly connected with the ubject of English versification, to explain what is meant in psalmody by

This measure depends on the number of the syllables and the position of the accents.

The divisions made in a verse to regulate the proper succession of long and short syllables are called feet. They are called feet, because the voice, as it were, steps along through the verse in a measured pace. The divisions of a verse into feet depend entirely upon what is called the quantity of the syllables, that is, whether they are long or short, without reference to the words.

Sometimes a foot consists of a single word, but it also sometimes embraces two or three different words, and sometimes is composed of parts of different words.

There are eight kinds of feet, four of which are feet of two syllables, and four are feet of three syllables.

The feet consisting of two syllables are the Trochee, the Iambus, the Spondee, and the Pyrrhic.

The feet of three syllables are the Dactyle, the Amphibrach, the Anapæst, and the Tribrach.

The Trochee consists of one long and one short syllable; as, hateful.
The Iambus consists of a short syllable and a long one; as, betray.
The Spondee consists of two long syllables; as, Pāle mōrn.
The Pyrrhic consists of two short syllables; as, on the tall tree.

The Dactyle consists of one long syllable and two short ones; as, holi něss, thundering.

The Amphibrach consists of a short, a long, and a short syllable; as dělightful, rěmōvăl, coēvăl.

The Anapæst consists of two short syllables and one long one; as,

contravene.

The Tribrach consists of three short syllables; as, -ritual in the word spiritual.

Of these eight different kinds of feet, the Iambus, the Trochee, the Anapæst, and the Dactyle are most frequently used, and verses may be wholly or chiefly composed of them. The others may be termed seconary feet, because their use is to diversify the harmony of the verse.

English verses may be divided into three classes, from the feet of which they are principally composed; namely, the Iambic, the Trochaic, and the Anapastic. To these some authors add the Dactylic as a fourth division; but an attentive consideration of what is called the Dactylic verse will

Long, Common, Short, and Particular metre. When each line of a stanza has eight syllables, it is called Long Metre. When the first and third lines have eight syllables, and he second and fourth have six syllables, it is called Common Metre. When the third line has eight, and the rest have six syllables, it is called Short Metre. Stanzas in Particular Metre are of various kinds, and are not subject to definite rules.

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