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forms, such as personal satire, occasional grossness, and vulgarity, it has rendered itself so obnoxious to reprobation, that the very name is an abomination. It is commonly in prose.

Those compositions in which the language is so little in unison with the subject as to impress the mind with a feeling of the ridiculous, are called Burlesques.

The Burletta is a species of composition in which persons and actions of no value are made to assume an air of importance. Or, it is that by which things of real consequence are degraded, so as to seem objects of derision.

Parodies, Travesties, and Mock Heroics are ludicrous imitations of serious subjects. They belong to the burlesque.*

*As a happy illustration of burlesque writing in several different styles, the following are presented from Bentley's Miscellany, with the facetious introduction with which they are prefaced:

"But another class of persons claims our attention. We mean those who are, for some cause or other, constantly called upon to write verses. Now, many of these, when suddenly required to make a song to a given tune, to scribble a ciorus for the end of a farce, or to jot down an impromptu on tt blue leaf of an album, suddenly find themselves at a nonplus, not because they are not masters of rhyme and metre, but simply because they cannot get a subject. We propose to show, that, far from this want being a just cause for embarrassment, it is absolutely impossible not to find a subject The first thing that catches the eye, or comes into the head, will do, and may be treated in every manner. In this age, although a chosen few can fill the post of fiddler, opera-dancer, juggler, or clown to the ring, these occupations requiring innate genius, he who cannot become a poet is a very poor creature. But, to our task. We take the Dodo, that ugly bird, which every child knows from its picture in the books on natural history, as a subject that seems of all others the least promising, and we shall show our readers how artistically we can manage it in all sorts of styles.

I. THE DESCRIPTIVE. For this we must go to our encyclopedias, cram for the occasion, and attentively observe the picture. Our Rees' tells us that the Latin name for the bird is 'Didus,' that the Dutch are said to have found it in the Mauritius, and called it Dodaerts;' while the French termed it 'Cygne a Capuchon;' and the Portuguese, 'Dodo.' Its exist ence, it seems, has been doubted, and at all events it is now supposed to be extinct.

In the island of Mauritius once a sturdy Dutchman found
Such a curious bird as ne'er before was seen to tread the ground;
Straight he called it' Dodaerts;' when a Frenchman gazed upon
Its hood of down, and said it was a 'Cygne a Capuchon.'

French and Dutch might be content with making sorry names like thesa
But they would not satisfy the proud and high-souled Portuguese;
He proclaimed the bird a Dodo.' 'Dodo' now each infant cries.
Pedants, they may call it 'Didus;' but such pedants we despise.

'T was a mighty bird; those short, strong legs were never known to fail And he felt a glow of pride when thinking of that little tail;

And his beak was marked with vigor, curving like a wondrous hook,
Thick and ugly was his body,- such a form as made one look.

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Didactic poetry is that which is written professedly for the purpose of instruction. Descriptive poetry merely describes the person or the object.

Didactic poetry should be replete with ornament, especially, where it can be done, with figurative language. This rule should be preserved in order to keep up the interest in the subject, which is usually dry. Not even the epic demands such glowing and picturesque epithets, such daring and forcible metaphors, such pomp of numbers and dignity of expression, as the didactic; for, the lower or more familiar the object described is, the greater must be the power of language to preserve it from debasement. Didactic and descriptive poetry are so intimately allied, that the two kinds can rarely be found asunder, and we give a poem this or that denomination, according as the one or the other of these characteristics appears to predominate.

No one now can see the dodo, which the sturdy Dutchman found;
Long ago those wondrous stumps of legs have ceased to tread the ground.
If, perchance, his bones we find, oh, let us gently turn them o'er,
Saying, "T was a gallant world when dodos lived in days of yore.'

II. THE MELANCHOLY SENTIMENTAL.- - We need only recollect, that when the dodo lived, somebody else lived, who is not living now, and we

have our cue at once.

Oh, when the dodo's feet

His native island pressed,
How many a warm heart beat
Within a living breast,
Which now can beat no more,
But crumbles into dust,
And finds its turn is o'er,

As all things earthly must!

He's dead that nam'd the bird,
That gallant Portuguese;
Who weeps not, having heard
Of changes such as these?
The Dutchman, too, is gone:
The dodo 's gone beside;
They teach us every one
How vain is earthly pride

III IMPROMPTU for a lady's album.

The dodo vanished, as we must confess,
Being unfit to live from ugliness;
Surely, methinks, it will not be too bold
To hope the converse of the rule will hold.
If lovely things no power from earth can sever,
Ce ia, we all may swear, will live forever.

IV BACCHANALIAN, with full chorus.

The dodo once lived, and he does n't live now;
Yet, why should a cloud overshadow our brow?
The loss of that bird ne'er should trouble our brains.
For, though he is gone, still our claret remains.

Sing dodododo― jolly dodo!
Hurrah! in his name let our cups overflow!

As examples of didactic poetry, the student is referred to Pope's Moral Essays;" and, for instances of descriptive poetry, to his "Windsor Forest," to Milton's "L'Allegro," and "Il Penseroso," and to Thomson's "Seasons."

Among the examples of didactic poetry, Akenside's "Pleasures of the Imagination," and Young's "Night Thoughts," should not be forgotten.* In the opinion of Johnson, the versification of the former work is considered equal, if not superior, to that of any other specimen of blank verse in the language. Of Young's "Night Thoughts" it may be said, although it has been stigmatized as a long, lugubrious poem, opposed in its composition to every rule of sound criticism, full of extravagant metaphors, astounding hyperboles, and never-ending antitheses, that few poems in any language present such a concentration of thought, such a rich fund of poetical beauties, so numerous and brilliant corruscations of genius, and so frequent occurrence of passages of the pathetic and the sublime. †

The

* Another class of poems, uniting the didactic and the descriptive classes, may be mentioned, which are called the Sentimental. Pleasures of Memory," by Rogers, "The Pleasures of Hope," by Campbell, belong to this class. "The Deserted Village," and "The Traveller," by Goldsmith, are of the same class, and can scarcely be too highly estimated.

†The author has here, as in some other parts of the preceding remarks, departed from the expressions of Mr. Booth, to whose excellent work on the principles of English Composition he is largely indebted, here as else where, in this volume.

We know that he perished; yet why shed a tear!
This generous bowl all our bosoms can cheer.
The dodo is gone, and, no doubt, in his day,

He delighted, as we do, to moisten his clay.

Sing dodo dodo-jolly dodo!

Hurrah! in his name let our cups overflow!

V. The REMONSTRATIVE, addressed to those who do not believe there ever was a dodo.

What! disbelieve the dodo!
The like was never neard!
Deprive the face of nature
Of such a wondrous bird!
I always loved the dodo,
When quite a little boy,
I saw it in my "Goldsmith,"
My heart beat high with joy.

I think now how my uncle
One morning went to town

He brought me home a "Goldsmith,"
Which cost him half a crown.

No picture like the dodo

Such rapture could impart;
Then don't deny the dodo,

It wounds my inmost heart."

Satires are discourses or poems in which wickedness and folly are exposed with severity, or held up to ridicule. They differ from Lampoons and Pasquinades, in being general, rather than personal, and from sarcasm, in not expressing contempt or scorn.

Satires are usually included under the head of didactic poems, but very class of poems may include the satirical. In satires it is the class, the crime, or the folly, which is the proper object of attack, and not the individual.

A Lampoon, or Pasquinade, is a personal satire, written with the intention of reproaching, irritating, or vexing the individual, rather than to reform him. It is satisfied with low abuse and vituperation, rather than with proof or argument.

An Apophthegm, Apothegm, or Apothem, is a short, sententious, instructive remark, usually in prose, but rarely in verse, uttered on a particular occasion, or by a distinguished character; as that of Cato:

"Men, by doing nothing, soon learn to do mischief.”

LXXX.

STYLE.

"For different styles with different subjects sort,

As different garbs with country town and court."

In the Introduction to this volume, it was stated that the most obvious divisions of Composition, with respect to the nature of its subjects, are the Narrative, the Descriptive, the Didactic, the Persuasive, the Pathetic, and the Argumenta. tive. The Narrative division embraces the relation of facts and events, real or fictitious. The Descriptive division includes descriptions of all kinds. The Didactic division comprehends, as its name implies, all kinds of pieces which are designed to convey instruction. The Pathetic division embraces such writings as are calculated to affect the feelings, or excite the passions; and the Argumentative division includes those only which are addressed to the understanding, with the

intention of affecting the judgment. These different divisions of composition are not always preserved distinct, but are sometimes united or mixed. With regard to forms of expression, a writer may express his ideas in various ways, thus laying the foundation of a distinction called STYLE.

Style, is defined by Dr. Blair, to be "the peculiar manner in which a writer expresses his thoughts by words."

Various terms are applied to style to express its character, as a harsh style, a dry style, a tumid or bombastic style, a loose style a terse style, a laconic or a verbose style, a flowing style, a lofty style, an elegant style an epistolary style, a formal style, a familiar style, &c.

The divisions of style, as given by Dr. Blair, are as follows: The diffuse and the concise, the nervous and the feeble, the dry, the plain, the neat, the elegant and the florid, the simple, the affected, and the vehement. These terms are altogether arbitrary, and are not uniformly ad opted in every treatise on rhetoric. Some writers use the terms barren and luxuriant, forcible and vehement, elevated and dignified, idiomatic, easy and animated, &c., in connexion with the terms, or some of the terms, employed by Dr. Blair.

The character of style, and the term by which it is designated, depends partly on the clearness and fulness with which the idea is expressed, partly on the degree of ornament or of figurative language employed, and partly on the nature of the ideas themselves.

The terms concise, diffuse, nervous, and feeble, refer to the clearness, the fulness, and the force with which the idea is expressed. Dry, plain, neat, and florid, are terms used to express the degree of ornament employed; while the character of the thoughts or ideas themselves is expressed by the names of simple or natural, affected and vehement.

A concise writer compresses his ideas into the fewest words, and these the most expressive.

A diffuse writer unfolds his idea fully, by placing it in a variety of lights. A nervous writer gives us a strong idea of his meaning-his words are always expressive every phrase and every figure renders the picture which he would set before us more striking and complete.

A feeble writer has an indistinct view of his subject; unmeaning words and loose epithets escape him; his expressions are vague and general, his arrangements indistinct, and our conception of his meaning will be faint and confused.

* Under the head of Conciseness in style may be noticed what is called the Laconic Style, from the inhabitants of Laconia, who were remarkable for using few words. As an instance of that kind of style, may be mentioned the celebrated reply of Leonidas king of Sparta to Xerxes, who, with his army of over a million of men, was opposed by Leonidas, with only three hundred. When Xerxes sent to him with the haughty direction to lay down his arms, the Spartan king replied, with characteristic brevity, Come and take them."

Another instance of the same is afforded in the celebrated letter of Dr. Franklin to Mr. Strahan, which is in these words:

"Mr. Strahan,

"Philadelphia, July 5th, 1775.

"You are a member of that Parliament, and have formed part of that majority, which has condemned my native country to destruction.

"You have begun to burn our towns, and to destroy their inhabitants. "Look at your hands, -they are stained with the blood of your relations and your acquaintances.

You and I were long friends; you are at present my enemy, and I am yours.

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'Benjamin Franklin."'

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