5 Wherefore, then, didst not thou give mine enemy into mine hands, when he was in thy power? Now art thou no true soldier, for thou servest not thy lord the king faithfully.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

66

How sayest thou? Is that sign the proper sign

Of Rustum's son, or of some other man's?"

66

'Hast thou seen that lordly castle,

That castle by the sea?

"The winds and the waves of ocean,

Had they a merry' chime?

Didst thou hear, from those lofty chambers,
The harp, and the minstrel's rhyme ?
"And sawest thou, on the turrets,
The king, and his royal bride?

And the wave of their golden mantles ?
And the golden crown of pride ?"

Why2
do those hills of shadowy tint appear
More sweet than all the landscape smiling near?
'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain with its azure hue.

On what wings dared he aspire ?

What the hand dared seize the fire ?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

CAMPBELL.

What dread hand forged thy dread feet P 6

11. Lone upon a mountain the pine trees wailing round him,
Lone upon a mountain the Grecian youth is laid;
Sleep, mystic sleep, for many a year has bound him,
Yet his beauty, like a statue's, pale and fair, is undecayed.
When will he awaken ?

Never mortal eye has looked upon his sleeping;

Parents, kindred, comrades, have mourned for him as dead;
By day the gathered clouds have had him in their keeping,
And at night the solemn shadows round his rest are shed.
When will he awaken?

INTERROGATIVE STATEMENTS, OR QUESTIONS..

55

QUESTIONS OF APPEAL, OR RHETORICAL QUESTIONS. These might have been classed under the head of Interrogative Statements; but it is evident that they do not look for any answer, but are merely an impassioned form of putting a strong negative statement. It will be found, on trying to read these questions, that they require a very strong rising inflection. But, as all negative statements take a falling inflection, it will be seen-in this instance -that extremes meet, and that the strong rising inflection produces the same effect as the self-involved and independent falling inflection.

INTERROGATIVE STATEMENTS NOT REQUIRING AN ANSWER.
(Rhetorical Questions.)

1. Birds, Birds! ye are beautiful things,

With your earth-treading feet and your cloud-cleaving wings!
Where shall man wander, and where shall he dwell,
Beautiful birds, that ye come not
as well ? 1
Ye have nests on the mountains all rugged and stark,
Ye have nests in the forests all tangled and dark;
Ye build and ye brood 'neath the cottager's eaves,
And ye sleep on the sod 'mid the bonnie green leaves.

2. On whom does time hang so heavily as on the slothful and the indolent ? To whom are the hours so lingering? Who are so often devoured with spleen, and obliged to fly to some expedient which can help them to get rid of themselves?

3. Is there a God to swear by, and none to believe in, none to pray to ? HOOKER. 4. Would any man in walking along, tread as3 willingly on the gouty toes of another man that he has no quarrel with, as on the hard flint and the senseless pavement?

5. Oh! dark

dark dark amid the blaze of noon,⭑

Irrecoverably dark-total eclipse

Without all hope of day!

O first created beam,7 and thou great word,

"Let there be light," and light was over all; Why am I thus bereft thy prime decree ? 8

6. Use every man according to his desert,' and who shall escape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less they 10 deserve, the more merit is in your 10 bounty.

SHAKSPEARE.

7. "Is this

8.

(Said then the lost Archangel) this

the seat

That we must change for Heaven? this mournful gloom
For that celestial light ?" 1

"God save us!

Call ye coward him who stood
Ankle-deep in Lutzen's blood,
With the brave Gustavus ? "

9. During nearly five months of republican government, can you, gentlemen, point out a single condemnation to death for a political offence? a single exile founded upon political offences ? a single exceptional tribunal instituted in Rome, to judge political offences? a single newspaper suspended by the order of the government? a single decree directed to restrain the liberty of the press, anterior 2 to the siege?

10. What spectacle is more august than that of a great king in exile? Who is more worthy of respect than a brave man in misfortune?

11. Avarus has long been ardently endeavouring to fill his chest: and lo! it is now full. Is he happy? Does he use it? Does he gratefully think of the giver of all good things? Does he distribute to the poor ? Alas! these interests have no place in his breast.

12.

Oh! who would keep a little bird confined
When cowslip-bells are nodding in the wind,
When every hedge as with "good morrow" rings,
And, heard from wood to wood, the blackbird sings ?
Oh! who would keep a little bird confined

In his cold wiry prison? Let him fly,

And hear him sing, "How sweet is liberty!"

13. Does God, after having made His creatures, take no further care of them? Has He left them to blind fate or undirected chance? Has He forsaken the works of His own hands? Or does He always graciously preserve, and keep, and guide them?

14. Who continually supports and governs this stupendous system? Who preserves ten thousand times ten thousand worlds in perpetual harmony? Who enables them always to observe such time, and obey such laws, as are most exquisitely adapted for the perfection of the wondrous whole ? They cannot preserve and direct themselves; for they were created, and must, therefore be dependent. How then can they be so actuated and directed, but by the unceasing energy of the Great Supreme ?

15.

INTERROGATIVE STATEMENTS, OR QUESTIONS.

Sleep! Gentle sleep!1

Nature's soft nurse! how have I frighted thee,2
That thou nō more wilt weigh mine eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness ?

Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,3

And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the pérfumed chambers of the great,*
Under the canopies of costly state,1

And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody ? 4
O thou dúll god!" why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch?
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge?
Canst thou, O pártial Sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest? night
Deny it to a kíng? Then happy low, lie down :
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

6

SHAKSPEARE'S Henry IV.

16. And is she happy? Does she see unmoved
The days in which she might have lived and loved
Slip without bringing bliss slowly away,
One after one, to-morrow like to-day ?

Joy has not found her yet, nor ever will

Is it this thought that makes her mien so still,
Her features so fatigued, her eyes, though sweet,
So sunk, so rarely lifted save to meet

Her children's ?

M. ARNOLD.

57

1. This is the conversation which takes place in Hamlet, between Marcellus, the captain of the castle-guard, and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, about the appearance of his father's ghost. It will be seen that the inflections regularly alternate with each other. (To p. 53.)

1. The emphatic word is merry, but the emphasis here should not obtrude itself. 2. Emphasis on. Why, and pause after it. Avoid accent on do. 3. It is distance that lends enchantment. 4. Thy fearful symmetry. Thy wonderful and beautiful proportions. 5. The ardour, the hot light. 6. This line should be read with great slowness. The verse-accent on hand would make terrible nonsense of the line, which should be read thus:

What dread hand forged thy-dread-feet?

7. These verses are on the story of Endymion. 8. Mystic, caused by some mysterious power. (To p. 54.)

1. Emphasis-but not a heavy one-on ye. 2. These questions make a strong appeal to the feelings and judgment of the listener, and have therefore a strong upward inflection. 3. An emphasis on as. 4. These lines are from the Samson Agonistes, a drama by Milton; and they are part of the lament of Samson on

his lost sight. 5. Emphasis on the ir in irrecoverably. (This word may want practice to utter. It should be taken to pieces and pronounced often thus: Cover-recover-recoverable-irrecoverable recoverably-irrecoverably.)

6.

All is here equal to any. 7. Beam-of light. 8. Why am I thus deprived of the benefits which thy earliest decree conferred upon man ? 9. This is Hamlet's remonstrance with Polonius, who had told the head servant of the palace to treat the players "according to their deserts." 10. Emphasis on they and your. (To p. 55.)

1. Observe the antitheses-and the consequent emphases-on seat and Heaven, gloom and light. 2. Anterior to the siege, before the siege began. (To p. 56.)

1. This is the soliloquy of Henry IV. (Shakspeare) on his sleeplessness. He has been much troubled with state cares and family anxieties; and his nervous system is in complete disorder. 2. This is said in a tone of remonstrance. 3. This line to be read very slowly. 4. In these three lines the voice rises gradually-along with the sense. 5. These four words to be said in a slow and upbraiding tone. 6. If this line is read in agreement with the verse-accent, it will be dreadfully abused-Canst thou | O párti | al sleép give thy' repóse |. It should be read thus: Cánst-thou, Ó-pártial-sleep! give-thy-repose. 7. Shakspeare frequently uses these double superlatives. The slow enunciation of most stillest increases the effect. 8. Happy low, happy thou who art in a low condition. (To p. 57.)