Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put all things under his feet.

“O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!"

2.-Sublimity, Majesty, and Power.

[FROM DAVID'S PSALM OF PRAISE, ON HIS DELIVERANCE FROM HIS ENEMIES.]

("Expulsive orotund :" "Impassioned" force: "Radical and Median stress:" "Low pitch :" Prevalent " downward slide," occasional" monotone:" Long pauses.)

"Then the earth shook and trembled: the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils; and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens, also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet; and he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; and he was seen upon the wings of the wind; and he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice; and he sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them. And the channels of the sea appeared; the foundations of the world were discovered at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils."

3.- Splendor.

[THE PALACE OF PANDEMONIUM.]-Milton.

“Effusive and expulsive orotund :" "Moderate" force: “Median stress:" "Low pitch :" Prevalent "monotone :" Pauses of moderate length.)

"Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
Rose like an exhalation, with the sound
Of dulcet symphonies, and voices sweet,
Built like a temple, where pilasters round
Were set, and Doric pillars, overlaid
With golden architrave; nor did there want

Cornice, or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven;
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence
Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine_
Belus, or Serapis, their gods; or seat
Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile
Stood fixed her stately height: and straight the doors
Opening their brazen folds, discover wide

Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof,
Pendent by subtle magic, many a row
Of starry lamps, and blazing cressets, fed
With naptha and asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky."

[blocks in formation]

1.-Narrative Style.

[DESTRUCTION OF Carthage.]—Anonymous.

("Pure tone:" "Moderate" force: "Unimpassioned radical stress:" "Middle pitch :" Varied "slides:" Moderate pauses.)

"The city and republic of Carthage were destroyed by the termination of the third Punic war, about one hundred and fifty years before Christ. The city was in flames during seventeen days; and the news of its destruction caused the greatest joy at Rome. The Roman senate immediately appointed commissioners, not only to raze the walls of Carthage, but even to demolish and burn the very materials of which they were made; and, in a few days, that city, which had once been the seat of commerce, the model of magnificence, the common storehouse of the wealth of nations, and one of the most powerful states in the world, left behind no trace of its splendor, of its power, or even of its existence.The history of Carthage is one of the many proofs that we have of the transient nature of worldly glory; for, of all her grandeur, not a wreck remains. Her own walls, like the

calm ocean, that conceals forever the riches hid in its unsearchable abyss, now obscure all her magnificence."

2.-Descriptive Style.

[ASPECT OF EGYPT.]—Addison.

("Pure tone:""Moderate" force: "Unimpassioned radical" and gentle "median stress:" "Middle pitch:" Varied "slides:" Moderate pauses.)

"There cannot be a finer sight than Egypt, at two seasons of the year. For, if we ascend one of the pyramids, in the months of July and August, we behold, in the swollen waters of the Nile, a vast sea, in which numberless towns and villages appear, with several causeways leading from place to place; the whole interspersed with groves and fruit-trees, whose tops only are visible;—all which forms a delightful prospect. This view is bounded by mountains and woods, which terminate, at the utmost distance the eye can discover,—the most beautiful horizon that can be imagined. — In winter, on the contrary, that is to say, in the months of January and February, the whole country is like one continuous scene of beautiful meadows, whose verdure, enamelled with flowers, charms the eye. The spectator beholds, on every side, flocks and herds dispersed over all the plains, with infinite numbers of husbandmen and gardeners. The air is then perfumed by the great quantity of blossoms on the orange, lemon, and other trees, and is so pure that a wholesomer or more agreeable is not to be found in the world; so that nature being then dead, as it were, in all other climates, seems to be alive only for so delightful an abode."

("Pure tone:"

3.-Didactic Style.

[REASON AND INSTINCT.]—Addison.

"Moderate" force: "Unimpassioned radical stress:" "Middle pitch :" " Varied slides:" Moderate pauses.)

"One would wonder to hear skeptical men disputing for the reason of animals, and telling us it is only our pride and prejudices that will not allow them the use of that faculty.

"Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent but in what immediately regards his own preservation, or the continuance of his species. Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass. Take a brute out of his instinct, and you find him wholly deprived of understanding.—There is not, in my opinion, anything more mysterious in nature, than this instinct in animals, which thus rises above reason, and falls infinitely short of it. It cannot be accounted for by any properties in matter, and, at the same time, works after so odd a manner, that one cannot think it the faculty of an intellectual being. For my own part, I look upon it as upon the principle of gravitation in bodies, which is not to be explained by any known qualities inherent in the bodies themselves, nor from any laws of mechanism, but according to the best notions of the greatest philosophers, is an immediate impression from the First Mover, and the Divine energy acting in the creatures."

IV.—“Animated, or Lively Movement.”

1.-Narrative Style.

[SUCCESSIVE DECLINE OF POPULAR FALLACIES.]-Goldsmith.

("Pure tone:" "Moderate" force : 66

Unimpassioned radical stress:" "Middle pitch :" Varied "slides:" Short pauses.)

"I have lived to see generals who once had crowds hallooing after them wherever they went, who were bepraised by newspapers and magazines,—those echoes of the voice of the vulgar; and yet they have long sunk into merited obscurity, with scarce even an epitaph left to flatter.— A few years ago, the herring-fishery employed all Grub street: it was the topic in every coffee-house, and the burden of every ballad. We were to drag up oceans of gold from the bottom of the sea: we were to supply all Europe with herrings, upon our own terms. At present, we hear no more of all this. We have fished up very little gold that I can learn ;

nor do we furnish the world with herrings, as was expected. —Let us wait but a few years longer, and we shall find all our expectations a herring-fishery."

2.-Descriptive Style.

[RIDICULOUSNESS OF SELF-IMPORTANCE.]-Goldsmith.

("Pure tone:" "Moderate" force: "Expulsive median stress :" "Middle pitch :" Varied “slides:" Varied pauses.)

The

"There is scarce a village in Europe, and not one university, that is not furnished with its little great men. head of a petty corporation, who opposes the designs of a prince who would tyrannically force his subjects to save their best clothes for Sundays; the puny pedant, who finds one undiscovered quality in the polypus, or describes an unheeded process in the skeleton of a mole, and whose mind, like his microscope, perceives nature only in detail; the rhymer, who makes smooth verses, and paints to our imagination, when he should only speak to our hearts; all equally fancy themselves walking forward to immortality, and desire the crowd behind them to look on. The crowd takes them at their word! 'Patriot, philosopher, and poet!' are shouted in their train. 'Where was there ever so much merit seen? no times so important as our own! ages, yet unborn, shall gaze with wonder and applause!' To such music the important pigmy moves forward, bustling and swelling, and aptly compared to a puddle in a storm."

("Pure

[ocr errors]

3.-Didactic Style.

[ABSURDITY AND IMPUDENCE.]-Addison.

tone :" "Moderate" force: Unimpassioned radical stress:" "Middle pitch :" Varied "slides :" Short pauses.)

[ocr errors]

'If we would examine into the secret springs of action, in the impudent and the absurd, we shall find, though they bear a great resemblance in their behavior, that they move upon very different principles. The impudent are pressing, though they know they are disagreeable; the absurd are importunate, because they think they are acceptable: impudence

« ÎnapoiContinuă »