Page images
PDF
EPUB

Stu. The king has refused to ransom Mortimer, who happens to be the brother of Hotspur's wife. The indignant Hotspur again breaks out as follows:

"He said he would not ransom Mortimer;
Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
But I will find him when he lies asleep,

And in his ear I'll hollo Mortimer!

Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him

To keep his anger still in motion.”

Pro. With one more exercise we will conclude our illustrations for the present. It is the contemptuous speech of Coriolanus, the haughty patrician of Rome, to the populace:

"What would you have... you curs,

That like not peace nor war? The one affrights you,
The other makes you proud. He that trusts you,
Where he should find you lions, finds you HARES;

...

Where foxes... GEESE: you are no surer, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,

Or hailstone in the sun. He that depends

Upon your favors, swims with fins of lead,

And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye....Trust ye?
With every minute you do change a mind,

And call him noble, that was now your hate,

Him vile, that was your garland!"

Stu. These exercises seem to me to require a good deal of practice to do them justice.

Pro. That is true: therefore let them have practice. Learn some of them by heart, and give them forth as you have opportunity; first being sure, from your teacher's authority, that you deliver them aright and in good taste. The physical benefit derived from such exercise of the lungs, prudently pursued, is as great as that got in many of the feats of the gymna sium. It is an exercise which any one can advanta geously take, in-doors or out.

200 CATILINE'S LAST SPEECH TO HIS TROOPS.

LXXX. - CATILINE'S LAST SPEECH TO HIS TROOPS.

TAUNT (the au like a in far), n., bit- | Co'HORT, n., a troop of soldiers, about ter or sarcastic reproach. four or five hundred.

GALL'ING (a as in fall), a., fretting.

BUR'DEN (bur'dn), v. t., to encumber.

The following exercise should be read with much spirit and energy. Commencing in the tone of sorrow and despair, the voice should be gradually raised till, at the climax, it should attain an explosive force, expressive of reckless resolve and defiance.

BRAVE comrades! all is ruined! I disdain

To hide the truth from you.

The die is thrown!

And now, let each that wishes for long life

Put up his sword, and kneel for peace to Rome.
Ye are all free to go. What! no man stirs !

Not one!- a soldier's spirit in you all?

Give me your hands!

-This moisture in my eyes

[blocks in formation]

Well have you chosen to die! For, in my mind,
The grave is better than o'erburdened life;
Better the quick release of glorious wounds,
Than the eternal taunts of galling tongues ;-
Better the spear-head quivering in the heart,
Than daily struggle against Fortune's curse;
Better, in manhood's muscle and high blood,
To leap the gulf, than totter to its edge
In poverty, dull pain, and base decay.

Once more, I say, Are ye resolved?

Then, each man to his tent, and take the arms
That he would love to die in,- for this hour
We storm the Consul's camp.-A last farewell!
When next we meet, we 'll have no time to look
How parting clouds a soldier's countenance:
Few as we are, we 'll rouse them with a peal
That shall shake Rome!

Now to your cohorts' heads! The word's Revenge!
Rev. George CROLY. (1788 - 1860.) ́

LXXXI.-SONG OF HIAWATHA.

LEGEND (le'jend), n., a wild story.
PA'THOS, n., feeling; passion.
PAL-I-SADE', n., a fence or fortifica-
tion of sharpened stakes.

|EY'RY (a're), n., a place where birds
of prey build and hatch.
TRA-DITION, n., oral account handed
down from age to age.

Pronounce Hiawatha, He-a-wa'tha (the second a as in fall); the au in haunt like a in far. Heed the long o in shad'ow, meadow.

1. YE who love the haunts of nature, love the sunshine of the meadow, love the shadow of the forest, love the wind among the branches, and the rain-shower and the snow-storm, and the rushing of great rivers through their palisades of pine-trees, and the thunder in the mountains, whose innumerable echoes flap like eagles in their eyries, - listen to these wild traditions. to this Song of Hiawatha!

2. Ye who love a nation's legends, love the ballads of a people, that, like voices from afar off, call to us to pause and listen, speak in tones so plain and childlike. scarcely can the ear distinguish whether they are sung or spoken, listen to this Indian legend, to this Song of Hiawatha!

[ocr errors]

3. Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple, who have faith in God and nature, who believe that in all ages every human heart is human; that, in even savage bosoms, there are longings, yearnings, strivings, for the good they comprehend not; that the feeble hands and helpless, groping blindly in the darkness, touch His right hand in the darkness, and are lifted up and strengthened, — listen to this simple story, to this Song of Hiawatha !

[ocr errors]

4. Ye who sometimes in your rambles through the green lanes of the country, where the tangled barberrybushes, hang their tufts of crimson berries over stone walls gray with mosses, - pause by some neglected graveyard, for a while to muse and wonder on a half

effaced inscription, writ with little skill of song-craft, homely phrases, but each letter full of hope and yet of heart-break, full of all the tender pathos of the Here and the Hereafter, — stay and read this rude inscription, read this Song of Hiawatha! LONGFELLOW.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

The habit which the two boys, introduced in this story, had of clipping the sound of ng in such words as spelling, chopping, &c., is one which, we hope, every youth will avoid in serious delivery.

1. LET no one suppose that in the following story I would underrate the importance of learning to spell correctly. In these days the young person who hopes to attain to positions of trust and profit must be a good speller. What I would impress upon your minds is, that you must not only learn the orthography of a word but acquaint yourself with its meaning; not only know the outside form of a word, its letters and syllables, but penetrate to its inner spirit and life.

2. The most extraordinary spelling, and, indeed, reading machine, in our school, was a boy whom I shall call 'Mem'orus Wordwell. He was mighty and wonderful in the acquisition and remembrance of words,of signs without the ideäs signified. The alphabet he acquired at home before he was two years old. What exultation of parents, what exclamation from admiring visitors! "There was never any thing like it." He had almost accomplished his a-b abs before he was

thought old enough for school. At an earlier age than usual, however, he was sent; and then he went from Ache to Abomination in half the summers and winters it took the rest of us to go over the same space. It was astonishing how quickly he mastered column after column, section after section, of obstinate orthographies.

3. Those martial terms I have just used, together with our hero's celerity, put me in mind of Cæsar; so I will quote him. Memorus might have said, in respect to the hosts of the spelling-book, "I came, I saw, I conquered." He generally stood at the head of a class every member of which was two years his elder. Poor creatures! they studied hard, some of them, but it did no good: Memorus Wordwell was born to be above them, as some men are said to have been "born to command."

4. Master Wordwell was a remarkable reader, too. When but five years old he could rattle off a word as extensive as the name of a Russian noble, as easily as the schoolmaster himself. “He can read in the hardest chapters of the Testament as fast ag'in as I can,” said his mother. "I never did see any thing beat it!" exclaimed his father; "he speaks up as loud as a minister." But I have said enough about this prodigy. I have said thus much because, although he was thought so surpassingly bright, he was the most decided ninny in the school. The fact is, he did not know what the sounds he uttered meant. It never entered his head, nor the heads of his parents and most of his teachers, that words and sentences were written, and should be read, only to be understood.

5. One little anecdote about Memorus Wordwell before we let him go. It happened one day that the "cut and split" wood for the fire fell short, and Jonas Patch was out wielding the ax in school-time. He had

« PreviousContinue »