Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

recollection, to reproduce the whole in his own words. In this exercise, attention must be paid to the appropriate position of the events, the correct construction of the sentences, the due observance of the rules of punctuation, and the neatness of the penmanship.

DIRECTION 3.- Afterwards a comparison must be instituted between the pupil's production and the original, when all the deviations and omissions must be carefully noticed. This process will be highly advantageous to the pupil by showing to what extent he has failed, either in the arrangement of the facts, the expressiveness of the language, or the structure, sequence, and connection of the sentences.

81. MODEL. THE NOBLE-MINDED BOATMAN.

[ocr errors]

1. In November, 1801, there was a tremendous hurricane at Copenhagen. The flashes of lightning showed many a dismantled vessel; and the reports, at intervals, of solitary guns, proclaimed the mariners' distress. When day had rendered objects more distinct, a brig was observed stranded on the shoal. The wretched crew, consisting of seven men and a boy, were seen stretching forth their arms towards Heaven, from the shrouds, where they had taken refuge.

2. Alarmed at the storm, the captain, who had spent the preceding day ashore, hastened down to the beach, and there beheld the awful scene. He immediately offered a large reward to any person who would undertake to save his people; and a benevolent merchant promised an additional reward for the same purpose. After much delay, some boatmen bargained for so much a head, and having consented to make the attempt, pushed off. But as the wind blew directly into the mouth of the port, the boat was tossed to and fro, and the

boatmen compelled to seek safety in the first creek which they could reach.

3. A boatman of Elsinore having come to the beach just when the boatmen were setting off, remained a silent spectator. As soon as he saw the unskilful men give up their pursuit, he, without solicitation, jumped into his own boat with five brave companions; and, at the hazard of their lives, succeeded in reaching the wreck, and saving seven poor sailors from a watery grave. The boy had previously perished exhausted by fatigue.

4. The merchant presented the boatman with a bank note worth twenty-two pounds, saying, "Receive this, my honest friend, not as the reward of your virtues, which God alone can recompense, but as a mark of my particular esteem." The boatman, surprised at the offer, replied, "Sir, in what I have done, I was not influenced by any desire of gain; I have simply performed my duty as a man; but though I cannot accept your kindness, my gratitude to you is equally great.” EXERCISE.-Read, reproduce, — and compare, according to Directions 80.

LESSON 40.

82. MODEL. THE EXEMPLARY COTTAGER.

1. William Baker was born in the year 1710, in the parish of Boldre, near Lymington, Hampshire. His father dying when he was two years old, left him and a daughter to the care of his widow; who, by taking in washing, maintained her two children, without any relief from the parish.

2. At seven years of age, young Baker began that life of labour, which he continued, with uncommon perseverance, through the space of seventy years. He worked first for a penny a day in the vicarage garden; but soon thought himself equal to more profitable labour. He used to say, he always considered himself as a poor friendless lad, and resolved early in life, to be obliged, under God, only to his own endeavours. 3. When eighteen years of age, his mother having become

old and infirm, he exhibited a kindness and filial affection rarely equalled by young men of that age. To render her comfortable, he took a little cottage to which he carried her, and then entered the service of a farmer in the neighbourhood, as a day-labourer. His mother lived nine years after this; and was maintained all that time by her son with the greatest cheerfulness.

4. After the death of his mother, he married a prudent, industrious, and frugal young woman, who entered heartily into all her husband's intentions. Whatever her husband gained was put to the best use. When his family increased, his industry and frugality seemed to increase along with it. To extend his means of subsistence, and economise every moment of time, in addition to his employment as a day-labourer, he rented about nine or ten acres of rough ground. Frequently he was seen working in his ground before sun-rise; and if his day's labour had not been hard, he would work in an evening by moonlight. In a few years, he rendered it much more valuable than when he took it. This plot of ground was of great service in furnishing him with potatoes, corn, and a few loads of hay.

5. After some years, his wife's father and mother having become old and infirm, were principally supported by his exertions. At this time, he had five children. With all this charge he was kind to his neighbours, and ever ready to assist the really deserving and industrious; but shrewdly and justly refusing to lend either to the spendthrift or the idle. Thus, by a steady adherence to habits of virtue, industry, and frugality, this man lived deservedly respected, and died aged 81, leaving behind him property worth four hundred pounds. Reader, if thou art rich, encourage examples like this; but if poor, imitate them.

EXERCISE.

Read — reproduce·

to the Directions 80.

and compare according

LESSON 41.

83. MODEL.

ADVENTURE OF A SAILOR.

1. "The ocean was very smooth," writes the Captain of a Guinea-man, “and the heat very great, which made us so languid, that almost a general wish prevailed to bathe in the waters of the Congo. However, Johnson and I were deterred from it by an apprehension of sharks, many of which, and those very large, we had observed in the progress of our voyage. Campbell, alone, who had been drinking too much, was obstinately bent on going overboard, and although we used every means in our power to persuade him to the contrary, he dashed into the water, and had swum some distance from the vessel, when we on board discovered an alligator making towards him behind a rock that stood a short distance from the shore. His escape seemed impossible; yet, willing to do all in my power, I ordered the boat to be hoisted, and we fired two shots at the approaching alligator, but without effect, for the balls glided over his scaly covering like hailstones on a tiled pent-house, and the progress of the creature was by no means impeded.

2. "The report of the piece, and the noise of the blacks from the sloop, soon made Campbell acquainted with his danger; he saw the creature making towards him, and, with all the strength and skill of which he was master, he made for the shore. And now the moment arrived, in which a scene was exhibited beyond the power of my humble pen adequately to describe. On approaching within a very short distance of some canes and shrubs that covered the bank, while closely pursued by the alligator, a fierce and ferocious tiger sprung towards him, at the instant the jaws of his first enemy were extended to devour him. At this awful moment Campbell was preserved. The eager tiger, by overleaping, fell into the gripe of the alligator. A horrible conflict then ensued. The water was coloured with the blood of the tiger, whose efforts to tear the scaly covering of the alligator were unavailing,

1

while the latter had also the advantage of keeping his adversary under water, by which the victory was presently obtained; for the tiger's death was now effected. They both sank to the bottom, and we saw no more of the alligator.

3. "Campbell was recovered, and instantly conveyed on board; he did not speak while in the boat, though his danger had completely sobered him, But the moment he leaped on deck, he fell on his knees, and returned thanks to that Providence which had so signally protected him, and, what is most singular, from that moment to the time I am now writing has never been seen the least intoxicated, nor has been heard to utter a single oath."

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

1. Bernard Gilpin was born of an honourable family at Kentmire, in Westmoreland, in 1517. At the age of sixteen, he was sent to Queen's College, Oxford, where he so much distinguished himself for his proficiency in learning, particularly in Greek and Hebrew, that he was selected as one of the students on the magnificent foundation of Christ-Church. For some years, however, Gilpin continued an adherent to the faith of Rome. He even held a public disputation against Hooper, the reformer, and afterwards martyr for the reformed doctrines. Subsequently, he was one of the persons selected to oppose Peter Martyr, when that great champion of protestantism was sent by Cranmer, at the beginning of King Edward's reign, to occupy the chair of divinity at Oxford. But the very studies and researches which Gilpin instituted for the purpose of maintaining his cause, led him to doubt its strength; and, when he came to the contest, he acknowledged with a candour and sincerity of mind peculiar to himself, that he could not support his argument.

2. In 1552, when he was thirty-five years of age, he under

« ForrigeFortsett »