LESSON C. REMARK. Avoid the habit of commencing a sentence in a high key, and ending it in a feeble tone of a voice. PRONOUNCE Correctly.-Sa-cred-ness, not sac-rid-niss: im-portance, not im-port-unce: or-a-tor, not or-it-ur: il-lus-tri-ous, not il-lustr'ous: hos-tile, (pro. hos-til), not hos-tile: Eu-ro-pe'-an, not Euro'-pe-an. 1. Theme, n. a subject on which a per son writes or speaks. Con-fed'-er-a-cy, n. a union of states or persons. 2. Gib'-bet-ed, p. hanged and exposed 4. Par'-ri-cide, n. the destruction of on a gibbet. Sev'-er-ed, p. disunited, separated. 3. Mon'-arch-ist, n. one who is in favor one 's parent or country. 5. In-dis'-so-lu-ble, a. that can not be broken or separated. DUTY OF AN AMERICAN ORATOR. 1. ONE theme of duty still remains, and I have placed it alone, because of its peculiar dignity, sacredness, and importance. Need I tell you that I speak of the union of the states? Let the American orator discharge all other duties but this, if indeed it be not impossible, with the energy and eloquence of John Rutledge, and the disinterested fidelity of Robert Morris, yet shall he be counted a traitor, if he attempt to dissolve the union. 2. His name, illustrious as it may have been, shall then be gibbeted on every hilltop throughout the land, a monument of his crime and punishment, and of the shame and grief of his country. If indeed he believe, (and doubtless there may be such,) that wisdom demands the dissolution of the union, that the south should be severed from the north, the west be independent of the east, let him cherish the sentiment, for his own sake, in the solitude of his breast, or breathe it only in the confidence of friendship. 3. Let him rest assured, that as his country tolerates the monarchist and aristocrat of the old world, she tolerates him; but should he plot the dismemberment of the union, the same trial, judgment, and execution await him as would await them, should they attempt to establish the aristocracy of Venice, or the monarchy of Austria, on the ruins of our confederacy. To him as to them, she leaves freedom of speech, and the very licentiousness of the press; and permits them to write, even in the spirit of scorn, and hatred, and unfairness. 4. She trembles not at such efforts, reckless and hostile as they may be. She smiles at their impotence, while she mourns over their infatuation. But let them lift the hand of parricide, in the insolence of pride, or the madness of power, to strike their country, and her countenance, in all the severity and terrors of a parent's wrath, shall smite them with amazement and horror. Let them strike, and the voices of millions of freemen from the city and +hamlet, from the college and the farm-house, from the cabins amid the western wilds, and our ships scattered around the world, shall utter the stern irrevocable judgment, self-banishment for life, or ignominious death. 5. Be it then the noblest office of American eloquence, to cultivate, in the people of every state, a deep and fervent attachment to the union. The union is to us the marriage bond of states; indissoluble in life, to be dissolved, we trust, only on that day when nations shall die in a moment, never to rise again. Let the American orator discountenance, then, all the arts of intrigue and corruption, which not only pollute the people and dishonor republican institutions, but prepare the way for the ruin of both; how secretly, how surely, let history declare. Let him banish from his thoughts, and his lips, the hypocrisy of the demagogue, equally deceitful and degraded, With smooth dissimulation, skilled to grace A devil's purpose, with an angel's face." 6. Let that demagogue and those arts, his instruments of power, be regarded as pretended friends, but secret and dangerous enemies of the people. Let it never be forgotten that to him and them we owe all the licentiousness and violence, all the unprincipled and unfeeling persecution of party spirit. Let the American orator labor, then, with all the solemnity of a religious duty, with all the intensity of filial love, to convince his countrymen that the danger to liberty in this country is to be traced to those sources. Let the European tremble for his institutions, in the presence of military power and of the warrior's ambition. 7. Let the American dread, as the arch-enemy of republican institutions, the shock of exasperated parties, and the implacable revenge of demagogues. The discipline of standing armies, is the terror of freedom in Europe; but the tactics of parties, the standing armies of America, are still more formidable to liberty with us. 8. Let the American orator frown, then, on that ambition, which, pursuing its own aggrandizement and gratification, perils the harmony and integrity of the union, and counts the grief, + + anxiety, and expostulations of millions, as the small dust of the balance. Let him remember, that ambition, like the Amruta cup of Indian fable, gives to the virtuous an immortality of glory and happiness, but to the corrupt an immortality of ruin, shame, and misery. 9. Let not the American orator, in the great questions on which he is to speak or write, appeal to the mean and groveling qualities of human nature. Let him love the people, and respect himself too much to dishonor them, and degrade himself, by an appeal to selfishness and prejudice, to jealousy, fear, and contempt. The greater the interests, and the more sacred the rights which may be at stake, the more resolutely should he appeal to the generous feelings, the noble sentiments, the calm considerate wisdom, which become a free, educated, peaceful, Christian people. Even if he battle against criminal ambition and base intrigue, let his weapons be a logic, manly, intrepid, honorable, and an eloquence magnanimous, disinterested, and spotless. 10. Nor is this all. Let the American orator comprehend, and live up to the grand conception, that the union is the property of the world, no less than of ourselves; that it is a part of the divine scheme for the moral government of the earth, as the solar system is a part of the mechanism of the heavens; that it is destined, while traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific, like the ascending sun, to shed its glorious influence backward on the states of Europe, and forward on the empires of Asia. 11. Let him comprehend its sublime relations to time and eternity; to God and man; to the most precious hopes, the most solemn obligations, and the highest happiness of human kind. And what an eloquence must that be whose source of power and wisdom are God himself, the objects of whose influence are all the nations of the earth; whose sphere of duty is co-extensive with all that is sublime in religion, beautiful in morals, commanding in intellect, and touching in humanity. How comprehensive, and therefore how wise and benevolent, must then be the genius of American eloquence, compared to the narrow-minded, narrowhearted, and therefore selfish, eloquence of Greece and Rome. + 12. How striking is the contrast, between the universal, social spirit of the former, and the individual, exclusive character of the latter. The boundary of this is the horizon of a plain; the circle of that, the horizon of a mountain summit. Be it then the duty of American eloquence to speak, to write, to act, in the cause of Christianity, patriotism, and literature; in the cause of justice, humanity, virtue, and truth; in the cause of the people, of the union, of the whole human race, and of the unborn of every clime and age. Then shall American eloquence, the personification of truth, beauty, and love, -walk the earth, that she may hear her name GRIMKE. QUESTIONS.-How shall the orator be regarded who attempts to dissolve the Union? If he believes a separation desirable, what shall he do with his opinion? Why is freedom of speech and the press allowed to both bad and good? What feeling toward the Union must be cherished in every American bosom? How should the American regard party spirit, and demagogues? To what sentiments should he always appeal, and to what others never? How shall he regard the Union in respect to the world?-To time, and to eternity? LESSON CI. ARTICULATE the d and t clearly: thou-sands, not thou-sans : dust, not duss: friends, not frien's: con-flict, not con-flic; ground, not groun: found, not foun: must, not mus. Ser'-ri-ed, a. crowded together. 7. Ram'-part, n. that which defends 29. In-surg'-ent, a. rising in opposition [ing. 9. En-chant'-ed, a. possessed by witches 30. Fray, n. quarrel, battle. or imaginary spirits. 50. An-ni'-hi-late, v. to reduce to noth MAKE WAY FOR LIBERTY. At the battle of Lempach, A. D. 1315, between the Swiss and Austrians, the latter having obtained possession of a narrow pass in the mountains, formed a serried phalanx with presented spears. Until this was broken, the Swiss could not hope to make a successful attack. At last, Arnold Winkelried, leaving the Swiss ranks, rushed upon the Austrian spears, and receiving in his body as many points as possible, made a breach in the line, which resulted in the complete rout of the Austrian army. 1. "MAKE way for Liberty!" he cried; In arms the Austrian phalanx stood, 5. A wall, where every conscious stone Seemed to its kindred thousands grown; Till time to dust their frames should wear: + All horrent with projected spears, Whose polished points before them shine, 25. Peasants, whose new-found strength had broke 35. And now the work of life and death Yet, while the Austrians held their ground, 45. How could they rest within their graves, And leave their homes the homes of slaves? It must not be: this day, this hour, 50. Annihilates the oppressor's power; |