EX. XVIII.] CAMPBELL'S PLEASURES OF HOPE. 341 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, 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; 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 An ebon mass; methinks thou piercest it, 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, Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain mirth, 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, EX. XXII.] POETICAL DESCRIPTIONS. Proudly towering in the skies! And glitters on the broken rocks!" 343 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; Or to the culture of the willing glebe, Meantime the song went round; and dance and sport, 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; 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. 3. STUDIES IN PLANTS. 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. [SEE NEXT PAGE.] |