She most, and in her look sums all delight: IV-Examples of Parenthesis; or words interposed in Sentences. 1. THOUGH good sense is not in the number, nor alwavs, it must be owned, in the company of the sciences; vet it is (as the most sensible of the poets has justly observed) fairly worth -Melmoth. the seven. 2. An elevated genius, employed in little things, appears (to use the simile of Longtnus) like the sun in his evening declination he remits his splendor, but retains his magnitude; and pleases more, though he dazzles less. Johnson. 3. The horror with which we entertain the thoughts of death (or indeed of any future evil) and the uncertainty of its approach, fill a melancholy mind with innumerable apprehensions and suspicions. Spectator. 4. If envious people were to ask themselves, whether they would exchange their entire situations with the persons envied, (I mean their minds, passions, notions, as well as their persons, fortunes, dignities, &c.) I presume the self love, common to all human nature, would generally make them prefer their own condition.Shenstone. 5. Notwithstanding all the care of Cicero, history informs us that Marcus proved a mere blockhead; and that nature (who it seems, was even with the son for her prodigality to the father) rendered bim incapable of improving, by all the rules of eloquence, the precepts of philosophy, his own endeavors, and the most refined conversation in Athens.- -Spectator. 6. The opera (in which action is joined with music, in order to entertain the eye at the same time with the ear) I must beg leave (with all due submission to the taste of the great) to consider as a forced conjunction of two things, which nature does not allow to go together.- Burgh. 7. As to my own abilities in speaking (for I shall admit this charge, although experience has convinced me that what is cal led the power of eloquence depends, for the most part, upon the hearers, and that the characters of public speakers are determined by that degree of favor, which you vouchsafe to each) if long practice, I say hath given me any proficiency in speaking, you have ever found it devoted to my country.- jjemesthenes. 8. When Socrates' fetters were knocked off, (as was usual to be done on the day that the condemned person was to be executed) being seated in the midst of his disciples, and laying one of his legs over the other, in a very unconcerned posture, he began to rub it, where it had been galled by the iron; and (whether it was to show the indifference with which he entertained the thoughts of his approaching death, or (after his usual manner) to take every occasion of philosophising upon some useful subject) he observed the pleasure of that sensation, which now arose in those very parts of his leg, that just before had been so much pained by fetters. Upon this he reflected on the nature of pleasure and pain in general, and how constantly they succeeded one another. Spectator. 9. Let us (since life can little more supply A mighty maze! But not without a plan.—Pope. Shaiespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona. 11. That man i'the world, who shall report, he has Light as the lightning's glimpse, they ran, they flew -Paradise lost. V. Examples of Interrogation, or Questioning; 1. ONE day, when the Moon was under an eclipse, she com. plained thus to the Sun of the discontinuance of his favors. My dearest friend, said she, Why do you not shine upon me as you used to do? Do I not shine upon thee? said the Sun: I am very sure that I intend it. O no! replies the Moon; but I now perceive the reason. I see that dirty planet the Earth is got between -Dodsley's Fables. US. 2. Searching every kingdom for a man who has the least comfort in life, Where is he to be foupd? In the royal palace. What, his Majesty? Yes; especially if he be a despot. Art of Thinking. 3. You have obliged a man; very well! What would ;ou have more? Is not the consciousness of doing good a sufficient reward! -Art of Thinking. 4. A certain passenger at sea had the curiosity to ask the pilot of the vessel, what death his father died of. What death! said the pilot. Why he perished at sea, as my grandfather did before him. And are you not afraid of trusting yourself to an element that has proved thus fatal to your family? Afraid! By no means; Is not your father dead? Yes, but he died in his bed. And why then, returned the pilot, are you not afraid of trusting yourself in your bed Art of Thinking. 5. Is it credible, is it possible, that the mighty soul of a New. ton should share exactly the same fate with the vilest insect that crawls upon the ground? that, after having laid open the mysteries of nature, and pushed its discoveries almost to the very boundaries of the universe, it should, on a sudden, have all its lights at once extinguished, and sink into everlasting daikness and insensibility! -Spectator. 6. Suppose a youth to have no prospect either of sitting in Parliament, of pleading at the bar, of appearing upon the stage, or in tbe pulpit; Does it follow that he need bestow no pains in learning to speak properly his native language? Will he nev er have occasion to read, in a company of his friends, a copy of verses, a passage of a book or newspaper? Must he never read a discourse of Tillotson, or a chapter of the Whole Duty of Man for the Instruction of his children and servants? Cicero justly observes, that address in speaking is highly ornamental, as well as useful, even in private life. The limbs are parts of the body much less noble than the tongue; yet no gentleman grudges a considerable expense, of time and money, to have his son taught to use them properly; which is very commendable. And is there no attention to be paid to the use of the tongue, the glory of man ?- -Burgh. 7- Does greatness secure persons of rank from infirmities, either of body or mind! Will the headSch, the gout or fever spare a prince any more than a subject! When old age comcj to lie heavy upon him, will his engineers relieve him of the load! Can his guards and centinels, by doubling and trebling their numbers, and their watchfulness, prevent the approach of death? Nay, if jealousy, or even ill humor, disturb his happiness, will the cringes of his fawning attendants restore his tranquility! What comfort has he in reflecting (if he can make the reflection) while the cholic, like Prometheus' vulture, tears his bowels, that he is under a canopy of crimson velvet, fringed with gold? When the pangs of the gout or stone, extort from him screams of agony, do the titles of Highness or Majesty come sweetly into his ear? If he is agitated with rage, does the sound of Serene, or Most Christian, prevent his staring, reddening and gnashing his teeth like a madman? Would not a twinge of the toothach, or an affront from an inferior, make the mighty Cesar forget that he was emperor of the world?. -Montaigne. 8. When will you, my countrymen, when will you rouse from your indolence, and bethink yourselves of what is to be done ?— When you are forced to it by some fatal disaster? When irresistible necessity drives you? What think you of the disgraces which are already come upon you? Is not the past sufficient to stimulate your activity? Or, do you wait for somewhat more forcible and urgent? How long will you amuse yourselves with inquiring of one another after news, as you ramble idly about the streets? What news so strange ever came to Athens, as that a Macedonian should subdue this state, and lord it over Greece? -Demosthenes. 9. What is the blooming tincture of the skin, 10. Wrong'd in my love, all proffers I disdain : -Pope's Homer. VI-Examples of Cximax, or a gradual increase of Sense or Pas&isn. 1. CONSULT your whole nature. Consider yourselves, not only as sensitive, but as rational beings; not only as rational, but social; not only as social, but immortal Blair. 2. Whom he did foreknow, he als did predestinate; and whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified them he also glorified.St. Paul. 3. What hope is there remaining of liberty, if whatever is their pleasure, it is lawful for them to do; if what is lawful for them to do, they are able to do; if what they are able to do, they dare do; if what they dare do, they really execute; and if what they execute is no way offensive to you. -Cicero. 4. Nothing is more pleasant to the fancy, than to enlarge itself by degrees in its contemplation of the various proportions which its several objects bear to each other; when it compares the body of a man to the bulk of the whole earth; the earth to the circle it describes round the sun; that circle to the sphere of the fixed stars; the sphere of the fixed stars to the circuit of the whole creation; the whole creation itself, to the infinite space that is every where diffused around it. -Spectator. 5. After we have practised good actions awhile, they.become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us we do them frequently; and by frequency of acts, a thing grows into a habit; and a confirmed habit is a second kind of nature; and so far as any thing is natural, so far it is necessary; and we can hardly do otherwise; nay, we do it many times when we do not think of it. Tillatson. 6. It is pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to excel many others; it is pleasant to grow better, because that is to excel ourselves; it is pleasant to mortify and subdue our lusts, because that is victory; it is pleasant to command our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due order, within the bounds of reason and religion, because that is empire. Titlotson. 7. Tully has a very beautiful gradation of thoughts to show how amiable virtue is. We love a righteous man, says he, who lives in the remotest parts of the earth, though we are altogether out of the reach of his virtue, and can receive from it no manner of benefit; nay, one who died several ages ago, raises a secret fondness and benevolence for him in our minds, when we read his story; nay, what is still more, one who has been the enemy of our country, provided bis wars were regulated by justice and humanity. -Spectator. 8. As trees and plants necessarily arise from seeds, so are you Antony, the seed of this most calamitous war.—You mourn, O Romans, that three of your armies have been slaughtered—they were slaughtered by Antony; you lament the loss of your most illustrious citizens—they were torn from you by Antony; the authority of this order is deeply wounded—it is wounded by Antony; in short, all the calamities we have ever since beheld (and what calamities have we not beheld ?) have been entirely owing to Antony. As Helen was of Troy, so the bane, the misery, the destruction of this state is- Antony Cicero. |