Let firm, well-hammered soles protect thy feet

Through freezing snows and rains and soaking sleet.-Gay.

Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,

And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore

The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar:
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw

The line too labors, and the words move slow:

Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.-Pope.

They say that in his prime,

Ere the pruning-knife of time

Cut him down,

Not a better man was found

By the crier on his round

Through the town.-Holmes.

And darkness and doubt are now flying away;
No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn.

So breaks on the traveler faint and astray

The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.

See truth, love, and mercy in triumph descending,

And nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom!

On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending,
And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.-Beattie.

Stand here by my side and turn, I pray,
On the lake below thy gentle eyes;
The clouds hang over it heavy and gray,
And dark and silent the water lies;
And out of that frozen mist the snow
In wavering flakes begins to flow;
Flake after flake,

They sink in the dark and silent lake.-Bryant.

Speak and tell us, our Ximena, looking northward far away,

O'er the camp of the invader, o'er the Mexican array,

Who is losing? Who is winning? Are they far, or come they near?

Look abroad and tell us, sister, whither rolls the storm we hear?- Whittier.

Wearily flaggeth my soul in the desert,

Wearily, wearily.

Sand, ever sand, not a gleam from the fountain;
Sun, ever sun, not a shade from the mountain;
Wave after wave flows the sea of the desert,

Drearily, drearily.-Bulwer.

Somewhat back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country-seat:
Across its antique portico

Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw;
And from its station in the hall
An ancient time-piece says to all,
"For ever-never-

Never-for ever."

Merrily swinging on briar and weed,
Near to the nest of his little dame,
Over the mountain-side and mead,
Robert of Lincoln is telling his name:
Bob o' Link, Bob o' Link,

Spink, spank, spink;

Snug and safe is that nest of ours,
Hidden among the summer flowers;
Chee, chee, chee.-Bryant.

Hark! his hands the lyre explore;
Bright-eyed Fancy, hovering o'er,
Scatters from her golden urn

Thoughts that breathe and words that burn.-Gray.

The harp that once through Tara's halls

The soul of music shed

Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls

As if that soul were fled.

So sleeps the pride of former days;

So glory's thrill is o'er,

And hearts that once beat high for praise
Now feel that pulse no more.-Moore.

Morn on the waters! and purple and bright
Bursts on the billows the flushing of light!
O'er the glad waves, like a child of the sun,
See, the tall vessel goes gallantly on!

Full to the breeze she unbosoms her sail,

And her pennant streams onward, like hope in the gale!

The winds come around her in murmur and song,

And the surges rejoice as they bear her along!-Hervey.

The mothers of our forest-land!

On old Kentucky's soil

How shared they with each dauntless band
War's tempest and life's toil.-Gallagher.

Lo! in the middle of the wood

The folded leaf is wooed from out the bud
With winds upon the branch, and there
Grows green and broad, and takes no care,
Sun-steeped at noon, and in the moon
Nightly dew-fed; and turning yellow,
Falls, and floats adown the air.

Lo! sweetened with the summer light,

The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,
Drops in a silent autumn night.

All its allotted length of days

The flower ripens in its place,

Ripens and fades and falls, and hath no toil,

Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil.-Tennyson.

Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,

Given to redeem the human mind from error,

There were no need of arsenals or forts.-Longfellow.

Note.

Thou art gone to the grave; but we will not deplore thee;
Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb,

The Savior has passed through its portals before thee,

And the lamp of his love is thy guide through the gloom.-Heber.

The day is ending,

The night is descending,
The marsh is frozen,

The river dead.

Through clouds like ashes

The red sun flashes

On village windows

That glimmer red.-Longfellow.

To each his sufferings: all are men,

Condemned alike to groan;

The tender for another's pain,

The unfeeling for his own.

Yet, ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,

And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more-where ignorance is bliss
"T is folly to be wise.-Gray.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene

The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear;

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.-Gray.

Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle

Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime,
Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle
Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime?
Know ye the land of the cedar and vine,
Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine;
Where the light wings of zephyr, oppressed with perfume,
Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gul in her bloom;

Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit,

And the voice of the nightingale never is mute;

Where the tints of the earth and the hues of the sky,

In color though varied, in beauty may vie,

And the color of ocean is deepest in dye;

Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,

And all, save the spirit of man, is divine?-Byron.

If one verse is made to run into the next, this passage consists entirely of dactyls except in a few places; as, Know ye the | land where the | cypress and myrtle are | emblems of deeds that are done in their clime, where the rage of the vulture, the | love of the turtle now | melt into sorrow, now | madden to | etc.

APPENDIX.

NOTE A.-OFFICE OF GRAMMAR. (Page 11.)

In some minds there seems to be great confusion with respect to the office of grammar. Dean Alford says, "The English language has become more idiomatic than most others; and the tendency is still going on among us, to set aside accurate grammatical construction, and to speak rather according to idiom than according to rule." This inaccurate language expresses inaccurate thought; it shows ignorance of what idiom is and what grammar is. To speak "according to idiom" is to speak "according to rule;" for the idioms of a language are principles of the language established by "the usage of the best writers and speakers," and these principles must be set forth in the grammar. If it were the established usage among " the best writers and speakers" to use the expression me is instead of I am, the grammarian would have to state that fact; that statement would be a "rule," and it would be "according to rule" to say me is.

Dean Alford's object was to justify some loose expressions which are not idiomatic.

NOTE B.-PRONOUNS. (Page 32.)

Parsing is much simplified by regarding pronouns as nouns merely and giving them gender, number, and person of their own. In the grammars is found the rule, "Pronouns agree with their antecedents in gender, number, and person." Let us take such a sentence as "I see you." This is a sentence complete in itself, the pronouns having no reference whatever to the names of the persons speaking and spoken to. The pronoun I might be used by one who never had a name, and would be as intelligible as if the speaker were favored with a Spanish accumulation of names. Neither I nor you has an antecedent, and how will the pupil apply the rule?*

"I is a pronoun; its antecedent is the name, understood, of the person speaking."-Harvey's English Grammar, page 54. One person may say to another, "I do not know your name, and you do not know mine." Are the names understood here? If they are understood, it must be by a highly-favored few. Another grammarian goes further still and makes, not the names, but the human beings themselves the antecedents: "We is a pronoun, personal, its antecedent the company of which the speaker is one, with which it agrees in the first [person], plural [number], common [gender]." "Yours is a pronoun, antecedent the person spoken to, with which it agrees," etc.-Holbrook's Complete English Grammar, page 167, and page 172. How human beings, if of respectable size, can get into an English sentence is a question requiring some thought.

its

I is singular, not because it stands for a singular noun, but because in itself it denotes but one object. He is not masculine because it stands for a masculine noun, but it is masculine in itself. When we refer to a male we use he because he expresses our meaning, while she does not; just as we would say "that man," and not "that woman," when pointing to a male. "John studies, and he will improve." Here he is masculine, not on account of any grammatical dependence upon John, but because from its own meaning it denotes a male, just as the noun John does. We avoid saying, "John studies, and she will improve," not because the expression is ungrammatical, but because it is nonsensical; just as it would be a violation of sense, not of grammar, to say, “John studies, and this girl John will improve." "We went to see the Ohio, and we greatly admired it;" "We went to see the Ohio, and we greatly admired the beautiful river." It has no closer grammatical connection with Ohio than river has.

NOTE C.-RELATIVE WHAT. (Page 36.)

The relative what is generally said to be "a compound relative pronoun, including both the antecedent and the relative, and equivalent to that which or the thing which." The word compound signifies" composed of two or more words," and is inapplicable to a simple word like what. Though this word should be admitted to be equivalent to two or more words, it is not composed of two or more words, as inkstand is. What is nothing more than a relative pronoun, and includes nothing else.

Compare these two sentences: "I saw whom I wanted to see;" "I saw what I wanted to see."

If what in the latter is equivalent to that which, or the thing which, whom in the former is equivalent to him whom, or the person whom; and who in this sentence, "Who steals my purse steals trash," is equivalent to he who, or the man who. And, on the same principle, when the relative is omitted the antecedent should be represented as equivalent to the relative and the antecedent. Thus, "I saw the man I wanted to see." Here man should be represented as equivalent to man whom.

The cause of the error in respect to what is that the antecedent is never expressed with it. When the antecedent to who is omitted no difficulty is felt, because we may supply the antecedent without changing the pronoun. But as the word what does not allow the antecedent to be expressed before it, we are apt to suppose that it has no antecedent implied. Those who take this view seem not to be aware that, if what has no antecedent expressed or implied, it does not come under their definition of a relative pronoun.

If what is not a simple relative used when the antecedent is omitted, it follows that the antecedent may be omitted when persons are spoken of, but never when things are referred to. "I saw the thing which I wished to see." Here we can not omit the antecedent thing and say, "I saw which I wished to see." Such a sentence as this would seem sufficient to show the nature of what. Whenever we omit the antecedent we at once put what in the place of which.

The relative that was formerly used in many cases where we use what, that is, with the antecedent omitted. A few examples of this will help us to ascertain the nature of what.

"We speak that we do know."-Eng. Bible. "I am that I am.”—Ib. "Eschewe that wicked is."-Gower. "Is it possible he should know what he is, and be that he is."-Shakespeare. "Gather the sequel by that went before."-Ib.

"Who had him seen imagine mote thereby

That whylome hath of Hercules been told."-Spenser.