Thus in thy country's triumphs shalt rejoice,
And mock, with raptures high, the dungeon's night:
For lo! the morning struggles into day;

And slavery's spectres shriek, and vanish from the ray!

EXERCISE XLIII.-NATIONAL GREATNESS.-Channing. [Grave and earnest declamation,-as in the following impressive example,-preserves a low pitch, a firm and forcible tone, a deliberate slowness, with dignity of expression, in voice and action.]

I feel, as I doubt not many feel, that the great distinction of a nation, the only one worth possessing, and which brings after it all other blessings, is the prevalence of pure principle among the citizens. I wish to belong to a state, in the character and institutions of which, I may find a spring of improvement, which I can speak of with an honest pride; in whose records I may meet great and honoured names, and which is fast making the world its debtor by its discoveries of truth, and by an example of virtuous freedom.

Oh! save me from a country which worships wealth, and cares not for true glory; in which intrigue bears rule; in which patriotism borrows its zeal from the prospect of office; in which hungry sycophants throng with supplication all the departments of state; in which public men bear the brand of private vice, and the seat of government is a noisome sink of private licentiousness and public corruption.

Tell me not of the honour of belonging to a free country. I ask, does our liberty bear generous fruits? Does it exalt us in manly spirit, in public virtue, above countries trodden under foot by despotism?—Tell me not of the extent of our country. I care not hoy large it is, if it multiply degenerate Speak not of out prosperity. Better be one of a poor people, plain in manners, reverencing God, and respecting themselves, than belong to a rich country, which knows no higher good than riches.

men.

Earnestly do I desire for this country, that, instead of copying Europe, with an undiscerning servility, it may have a character of its own, corresponding to the freedom and equality of our institutions.

One Europe is enough. One Paris is enough. How much to be desired is it, that separated, as we are, from the eastern continent, by an ocean, we should be still more widely separated by simplicity of manners, by domestic purity, by inward piety, by reverence for human nature, by moral independence, by withstanding the subjection to fashion, and that

debilitating sensuality which characterize the most civilized portions of the old world. Of this country, I may say with peculiar emphasis, that its happiness is bound up in its virtue.

EXERCISE XLIV.—MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE, CONTRASTED

WITH CHIVALRY.-St. Leger.

[An example of narrative interspersed with sentiment. The change of tone, in passing from the former to the latter, is the chief object in view, in the following extract, as furnishing scope for well marked modulation. The narrative tone is higher, lighter, and livelier, the didactic, grave, firm, and deliberate.]

In the middle ages, the Levant and the Netherlands were indisputably the two great marts of natural and created riches; and whether the spices came from Bruges, or the cloths from Damascus, was a matter of sovereign indifference to the baron of those times, provided always that they passed within reachable distance for him either to seize or ransom. I have often wondered how commerce could continue to exist while so little security was afforded to the merchant. But it would seem that there was a general feeling, even in those rude times, that it would not do to annihilate traffic altogether; from which sprang, I doubt not, that system of ransom which the trader placed to his general account, if not of outlay, at least of risk, and advanced the price of his goods accordingly.

The Flemish towns of the middle ages gave rise and dignity, among the Transalpines, to the commercial spirit. The northern parts of Europe owe to them, even surrounded as they were by all the rapine and ignorance of the feudal barons, the existence of the useful arts, and the cultivation of a free spirit. Bruges, and Ghent, and Brussels, and other towns of the Low Countries, were the most advanced of any portion of Europe north of the Alps.

While England and France were spreading and enjoying the advantages of those monstrous mummeries of the middle ages,' chivalry, and the feudal system, the trading towns of the Low Countries and of Italy, were advancing in all the arts of cultivated life,-of intellectual superiority, of physical comfort. Had it not been for them, we might still have been wrapped in our own untanned skins, with rushes and filth struggling for predominance on our floors, and the diseases incident upon dirt and rude living paying us a visit almost every year. Let it never be forgotten that to the

burghers of these towns we owe the art of printing,—the revival of painting, the discovery of the mariner's compass, with all its attendant train of benefits,-a New World, and the passage, by sea, to the East. These we owe to the traders of Flanders, and of the Italian cities.

For what are we to thank the feudal barons of France and England? Ignorance, craft, cruelty, and superstition, were all the seed they sowed; and the crop was proportionably barren. They produced, however, a great number of very respectable 'robbers and pyllers,' fellows whose merit consisted in the bullying bravery of highwaymen, combined with something less than the honesty of a modern pickpocket. Ignorant and barbarous themselves, they seized 'routes of mules,' laden with the produce of other people's skill and industry; and these are the sort of men whom we are told to admire, duly despising the race who did no more for humanity than to confer on it all that we at this day consider as giving to it value, and refinement, and beauty. It is not too much to say that we owe all these to the merchants of Bruges and Venice, of Ghent and of Genoa, of Brussels and of Florence. As for the knights and barons, they could neither read nor write; they could only give and receive dry blows, and foul language.

EXERCISE XLV.-ANIMAL HAPPINESS.-Cowper.

[Description, interspersed with reflection, requires-as in the following example,-attention to change of tone, as the reader passes from the one to the other; the former marked by the moderate force, middle pitch, and lively rate,—the latter, by softer, but graver, and slower utterance.]

Here,* unmolested,-through whatever sign
The sun proceeds, I wander. Neither mist,
Nor freezing sky, nor sultry, checking me;
Nor stranger intermeddling with my joy.
Even in the spring and playtime of the year,
That calls the unwonted villager abroad,
With all her little ones,-a sportive train,-
To gather kingcups, in the yellow mead,
And prink their hair with daisies, or to pick
A cheap but wholesome salad from the brook,-
These shades are all my own. The timorous hare,-
Grown so familiar with her frequent guest,-

* Referring to a shady walk, a favourite resort of the poet.

Scarce shuns me; and the stockdove, unalarm'd,
Sits cooing in the pine tree, nor suspends
His long love-ditty, for my near approach.
Drawn from his refuge in some lonely elm,
That age or injury has hollow'd deep,
Where, on his bed of wool and matted leaves,
He has outslept the winter, ventures forth
To frisk awhile, and bask in the warm sun,
The squirrel,-flippant, pert and full of play:
He sees me, and, at once, swift as a bird,

Ascends the neighbouring beech; there whisks his brush,
And perks his ears, and stamps, and cries aloud,

With all the prettiness of feigned alarm,

And anger insignificantly fierce.

The heart is hard in nature, and unfit
For human fellowship, as being void
Of sympathy, and therefore dead alike
To love and friendship both, that is not pleased
With sight of animals enjoying life,

Nor feels their happiness augment his own.
The bounding fawn, that darts across the glade,

When none pursues,-through mere delight of heart,
And spirits buoyant with excess of glee;

The horse, as wanton and almost as fleet,

That skims the spacious meadow, at full speed,

Then stops and snorts, and throwing high his heels,
Starts to the voluntary race again;

The very kine, that gambol at high noon,
The total herd, receiving, first, from one
That leads the dance, a summons to be gay,
Though wild their strange vagaries, and uncouth
Their efforts, yet resolved, with one consent,
To give such act and utterance as they may
To ecstacy too big to be suppress'd :-
These and a thousand images of bliss,
With which kind Nature graces every scene,
Where cruel man defeats not her design,
Impart to the benevolent,-who wish
All that are capable of pleasure pleased,-
A far superior happiness to theirs,-
The comfort of a reasonable joy.

EXERCISE XLVI.-DIALOGUE FROM THE TRIUMPH OF LUCCA.'— Miss Landon.

Scene, the Senate-house: Speakers,-Gonsalvi, Castruccio,* Nobles, Attendants; the Senators in session: to them enters Gonsalvi.

[See remarks introductory to EXERCISE XXX.]

Gon. Henceforward Florence claims your fealty ;t
She will secure you in all ancient rights,
Immunity, and privilege: her sword
Will stand between ye and your enemies.
For this, a yearly tribute must be paid
Of twenty thousand florins.

Noble. Our treasury's low, my lord.

Gon.

And so is ours,

Exhausted by the late vexatious war,

Noble. Urged by the Count Castruccio, not ourselves.
Gon. It must be paid.—

The goldsmiths round our market-place are rich:
The citizens, too, better being poor,

As more obedient,-right that they should pay
The penalty of their rebellious spirit.

Gon. [Rising.]

I leave you till to-morrow, when I bring
The treaty ready for your signatures,

And will receive your homage and your oaths. [Exit.]
Noble. Homage and tribute !-these are bitter words,—
Less bitter than the Castrucani'st sway!

To day must fix his fate.

Several Nobles.

Death!

What is his doom?

Noble. The noise approaches! look ye to your swords,
Delay is fatal:-let Castruccio die!

[While yet speaking, Castruccio enters armed and attended,having been rescued by the people.]

*Pronounced Castroocho :-ch as in church.

The Senate of Lucca, actuated by envy of the patriot chief Castruccio, had imprisoned him, and proposed submission to the sway of the Florentines, their enemies.

Pronounced Castroocânee's.