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EX. XVIII.] CAMPBELL'S PLEASURES OF HOPE.

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drawbacks of alliteration and abruptness of sound, the combination 'remotest rapture' is energetically concise; the conciseness and originality pass off the noun, although a word so easily lending itself to sentimental inflation. The place of emphasis is not filled by an unimportant phrase.

"Thine is the charm of life's bewildered way,

That calls each slumbering passion into play.'

The first line is admirable in every respect. The participial adjective construction 'bewildered way,' is here set off by the choice of the strongest and aptest epithet. The second line by no means supports the first. The figure is departed from, and another introduced having only a loose connection. 'Slumbering passion' is not very original; 'calling into play' is not very poetical, nor in special harmony of figure; and the complement 'into play' is still less adapted to the closing place.

We give now the splendidly soaring climax :

"Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime

Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of Time,
Thy joyous youth began-but not to fade."

Notice first the grammar shaped to the period. The invocation contains nothing more than aptness to the subject, which can always redeem the triteness of the phraseology. A fine coherent figure is then worked up (the sphere-music being allowed for the occasion), from the vocabulary of the highest sublime.

"When all the sister planets have decayed;
When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow,
And heaven's last thunder shakes the world below;
Thou, undismayed, shalt o'er the ruins smile,
And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile!"

EXTRACT XIX.-We give a portion of Coleridge's Mont Blanc, to be studied for the various arts involved in the poetic rendering of Nature.

"Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star

In his steep course? So long he seems to pause
On thy bald awful head, O sovran Blanc !
The Arve and Arveiron at thy base
Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful form!
Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines,
How silently! Around thee and above,
Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black,

An ebon mass; methinks thou piercest it,
As with a wedge! But when I look again,
It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine,

Thy habitation from eternity!

O dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee,

Till thou, still present to the bodily sense,

Didst vanish from my thought; entranced in prayer,

I worshipped the invisible alone."

EXTRACT XX.-It is interesting now to compare with still-life Description, at its utmost sublimity, the greater impressiveness of action. The passage is Byron's Thunderstorm.

"The sky is changed!—and such a change! O night,
And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong,
Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light
Of a dark eye in woman! Far along,
From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,
Leaps the live thunder! not from one lone cloud,
But every mountain now hath found a tongue,
And Jura answers, through her misty shroud,
Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud!
"And this is in the night;-most glorious night!
Thou wert not sent for slumber! let me be
A sharer in thy fierce and far delight,-
A portion of the tempest and of thee!
How the lit lake shines, a phosphoric sea,
And the big rain comes dancing to the earth!
And now again 'tis black,—and now the glee

Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain mirth,
As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth."

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EXTRACT XXI.-Dyer's Grongar Hill" is reckoned one of the best Descriptive poems of the language. A very few lines will show how indispensable activity, real or fictitious, is to a good poetical description.

"Now I gain the mountain's brow,
What a landscape lies below!
No clouds, no vapors intervene,
But the gay, the open scene,
Does the face of Nature show,
In all the hues of heaven's bow;
And, swelling to embrace the light,
Spreads around beneath the sight.
Old castles on the cliffs arise,

EX. XXII.]

POETICAL DESCRIPTIONS.

Proudly towering in the skies!
Rushing from the woods, the spires
Seem from hence ascending fires!
Half his beams Apollo sheds
On the yellow mountain heads;
Gilds the fleeces of the flocks,

And glitters on the broken rocks!"

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EXTRACT XXII.—The following passage from the "Seasons" will serve to illustrate the Ideal in Poetry. It is the lasting ideal subject-the Golden Age.

"The first fresh dawn then wak'd the gladden'd race

Of uncorrupted man, nor blush'd to see

The sluggard sleep beneath its sacred beam;
For their light slumbers gently fum'd away;
And up they rose as vig'rous as the sun,

Or to the culture of the willing glebe,
Or to the cheerful tendance of the flock.

Meantime the song went round; and dance and sport,
Wisdom and friendly talk, successive, stole

Their hours away; while in the rosy vale

Love breath'd his infant sighs, from anguish free,

And full replete with bliss; save the sweet pain,

That, inly thrilling, but exalts it more.

Nor yet injurious act, nor surly deed,

Was known among those happy sons of Heav'n;
For reason and benevolence were law.
Harmonious Nature too look'd smiling on;
Clear shone the skies, cool'd with eternal gales,
And balmy spirit all. The youthful sun
Shot his best rays, and still the gracious clouds
Dropp'd fatness down; as o'er the swelling mead,
The herds and flocks, commixing, play'd secure.'

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE, COMPOSITION, AND

LITERATURE.

The Child's Book of Language. A Graded Series of Lessons and Blanks, in four numbers, with a Teacher's Edition. By J. H. STICKNEY.

No. 1. STORIES IN PICTURES.
No. 2. STUDIES IN ANIMALS.

No. 3. STUDIES IN PLANTS.
No. 4. STUDIES OF WORDS.

Letters and Lessons in Language. In Four Parts. By J. H. STICKNEY. A sequel to "The Child's Book of Language."

THE SAME. Book V.-GRAMMAR.

Studies in Language: A Teacher's Guide to "Letters and Lessons in Language. By J. H. STICKNEY.

De Graff's School-room Exercise Books. For Primary Grades. Designed for written spelling, and exercises in the correct use of language, composition, etc. 32 pages.

Quackenbos's First Lessons in Composition. In which the Principles of the Art are developed in Connection with the Principles of Grammar; embracing full directions on the Subject of Punctuation; with Copious Exercises. 12mo. 182 pages.

Quackenbos's Advanced Course of Composition and Rhetoric. A Series of Practical Lessons on the English Language, and the various Departments of Prose and Poetical Composition. Illustrated with Copious Exercises. Adapted to Self-Instruction, and the Use of Schools and Colleges. 12mo. 450 pages.

Bain's English Composition and Rhetoric. American edition, revised. 12mo. 343 pages.

Landmarks of English Literature. By HENRY J. NICOLL. 12mo.

460 pages.

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