Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, Note. When the verb to be is followed by a verb in the infinitive mood, which may serve as a nominative case to it, and the phrase: before and after the verb may be transposed, then the pause falls be tween the verbs. EXAMPLE. The greatest misery is to be condemned by our own hearts. RULE V.-- When several substantives become the nomi natives to the same verb, a pause must be made between the last substantive and the verb, as well as after each of the other substantives. EXAMPLE. Riches, pleasure, and health become evils to those who do not know how to use them. RULE VI.-If there are several adjectives belonging to one substantive, or several substantives belonging to one adjective, every adjective coming after its substantive, and every adjective coming before the substantive except the last, must be separated by a short pause. EXAMPLE. 1 It was a calculation accurate to the last degree. Note. This rule applies also to sentences in which several adverba belong to one verb, or several verbs to one adverb. AXAMPLES. 1. To love wisely, rationally, and prudently, is, in the opinion of lovers, not to love at all. 2. Wisely, rationally, and prudently to love, is, in the opinion of lovers, not to love at all. RULE VII.-Whatever words are in the ablative absolute, must be separated from the rest by a short pause both before and after them. EXAMPLE. If a man borrow aught of his neighbor, and it be hurt or die, the owner thereof not being with it, he shall surely make it good. RULE VIII.-Nouns in opposition, or words in the same case,where the latter are only explanatory of the former, have a short pause between them, either if both of these nouns consist of many terms, or the latter only. EXAMPLES. 1. Hope, the balm of life, soothes us under every misfortune. 2. Solomon, the son of David, and the builder of the temple of Jerusalem, was the richest monarch that reigned over the Jewish people. RULE IX. When two substantives come together, and the latter, which is in the genitive case, consists of several words closely united with each other, a pause is admissible between the two principal substantives. EXAMPLE. I do not know whether I am singular in my opinion, but, for my own part, I would rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy, and diffusion of boughs and branches, than when it is cut and trimmed into a mathe matical figure. Bula X.-Who, which, when in the nominative case, and the pronoun that, when used for who or which, requirs a short pause before them. EXAMPLES. 1. Death is the season which brings our affections to the test. 2. Nothing is in vain that rouses the soul: nothing in vain that keeps the ethereal fire alive and glowing. 3. A man can never be obliged to submit to any power, unless he can be satisfied who is the person who has a right to exercise it. RULE XI.-Pause before that, when it is used for a con junction. EXAMPLE. at is in society only that we can relish those pure delicious joys which embellish and gladden the life of man RULE XII.-When a pause is necessary at prepositions and conjunctions, it must be before, and not after them. EXAMPLES. 1. We must not conform to the world in their amusements and diversions. 2. There is an inseparable connection between piety and virtue. RULE XIII.-In an elliptical sentence, pause where the ellipsis takes place. EXAMPLE. To our faith we should add virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to tem« perance patience; and to patience godliness; and te godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. RULE XIV.-Words placed either in opposition to, or in apposition with each other, must be distinguished by a pause. EXAMPLE. The pleasures of the imagination, taken in their full extent, are not so gross as those of sense, nor so refined as those of the understanding. RULE XV.- When prepositions are placed in oppositium to each other, and all of them are intimately connected with another word, the pause after the second preposition must be shorter than that after the first, and the pause after the third shorter than that after the second. EXAMPLE. Rank, distinction, pre-eminence, no man despises, unless he is either raised very much above, or sunk very much below, the ordinary standard of human nature. RULES FOR READING VERSE. On the Slides or Inflections of Verse. 1. The first general rule for reading verse is, that we ought to give it that measured harmonious flow of sound which distinguishes it from prose, without falling into a bombastic, chanting pronunciation, which makes it ridi culous. 2. It will not be improper, before we read verse with its poetical graces, to pronounce it exactly as if it were prose: this will be depriving verse of its beauty, but will tend to preserve it from deformity: the tones of voice will be frequently different, but the inflections will be nearly the same. 3. But though an elegant and harmonious pronuncia tion of verse will sometimes oblige us to adopt different inflections from those we use in prose, it may still la laid down as a good general rule, that verse requir the same inflections as prose, though less strong y marked, and more approaching to monotones. 4. Wherever a sentence, or member of a sentence, would necessarily require the falling inflection in prose, it ought always to have the same inflection in poetry; for though, if we were to read verse prosaically, we should often place the falling inflection where the style of verse would require the rising, yet in those parts where a portion of perfect sense, or the conclusion of a sentence, necessarily requires the falling inflection, the same inflection must be adopted both in verse and prose. 5. In the same manner, though we frequently suspend the voice by the rising inflection in verse, where, if the composition were prose, we should adopt the falling, yet, wherever in prose the member or sentence would necessarily require the rising inflection, this inflection must necessarily be adopted in verse. 6. It may be observed, indeed, that it is in the frequent use of the rising inflection, where prose would adopt the falling, that the song of poetry consists; familiar, strong, argumentative subjects naturally enforce the language with the failing inflection, as this is |