- 1

71

6. It is good for us"1 to* be2 hereo. ' for us to be here.

5

It'1ic is good

6

7. There is strong reason' to suspect that some" able" Whig politicians,' who thought it" dangerous to relax,' at that moment, the laws against political offenses, but who could not, without incurring the charge of inconsistency, declare themselves" adverse to relaxation, had conceived a hope that they might, by fomenting the dispute about the court of the lord high steward, defer for at least a year the passing of a bill" which they" disliked, and yet could' not decently oppose."

2

8. What light and air are to the silent vegetable world, that is language to the human race. In it, it breathes forth its pleasures and sorrows, and only in moments of the highest pleasure and deepest sorrow is expression wanting to human lips.

What color, or still coarser materials, are to the artist, that are winged words to the poet. Dippolt.

9. Language is the mode of expression of the reason, by which alone it assumes a tangible form, and can be communicated. Herder.

10. I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;

I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.

And out again I curve and flow,
To join the brimming river;

For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

EXAMPLES FOR EXERCISE AND ANALYSIS.

1. The true writing, of which writing by the letters of the alphabet is only a shadow-is, vivid, living speech. Plato.

2. We cannot express in words the thousandth part of that which we actually think, but only a few points of the rapid stream of thought, from the crest of its highest waves, for the operation of thinking is wonderfully rapid in movement, comparable to no material motion. As the earthly body in many respects cripples and fetters the spirit, in like manner, language is only a wearisome, difficult and imperfect means of setting forth its rapid movements.

But the natural difficulty of speaking is an excellent counterbalance to the rapid activity of mind, for the latter is thus obliged to consider each object more closely and longer, and thus obtains a fuller knowledge of it, and becomes itself more intelligent in its action.

Although, therefore, thought is possible without language, as we see in the case of deaf and dumb persons not otherwise deficient, and of young children, and although thought is not the result of words, but words of thought, still, language renders our ideas more various, clear, vivid and definite. Language is moreover the medium of the reciprocal communication and expansion of our ideas and our knowledge.

Thus arises the duty of using much effort to perfect ourselves in language; in part that we may be better able to hold intercourse with other minds, and in part for the sake of greater intelligibility to ourselves. He who can think clearly, will be able to express himself clearly, and vice versa, he who can make himself understood by others, shows that he, himself, thinks and comprehends clearly. Zschokke.

3. If any one should propose to us the question, how can our perceptions by our eyes, and by all our other senses, not only be embodied in sounds, but so communicated by them, that they shall express thoughts and call up thoughts? no doubt this problem would be taken to be the notion of an insane mind, substituting the most dissimilar things for each other; color for sounds, sounds for thoughts, and thoughts for a sound that cannot represent.

But God has in fact solved this problem. A breath of our mouth becomes a picture of the world, and the type in another soul of our thoughts and feelings. Upon the motion of a

breath of air depends all that man has ever thought, or willed, or done, or will do, for we should all yet be wandering in the woods, had not this divine breath breathed upon us, and passed over our lips like a magic sound.

The whole history of humanity, with all the treasures of its traditions and its culture, is nothing but a result of this divinely solved riddle. Where would be the use of all our instruments, our brain, our senses, our hands, our erect atti tude, unless the Creator had given us a moving spring to set them all in action-the divine gift of speech? Herder.

4. Knowledge is two-fold; of words and of things, but he who has no knowledge of things, will not be helped by having a knowledge of words.

There is an old proverb which says, "What one does not comprehend well, of that he cannot talk well." Our own times have furnished abundant instances of this, for very many learned and eloquent persons have put forth things utterly foolish and ridiculous, by reason of having undertaken to treat of what they do not understand. One who is really master of his subject will teach well, and will reach the heart, although he may be homely and unready of speech.

The understanding of words, or of the grammar, will be easy, if the knowledge of the things is thorough, but where the knowledge of these things is not present, a knowledge of words is useless. Luther.

5. The gift of speech to the human race derives its permanent value from letters, or, to use equivalent terms, spoken language derives its permanent value from written language.

Summon to your memory some tribe of men gifted like others with reason and speech, but without the aid of letters. However correct and bright their thoughts may be, however strong and graceful their emotions, however distinct and eloquent their expression, they must all die with the individual, or be but faintly transmitted to the future, and they become the seed corn in the minds of the next generation, to bear a glorious harvest of new thoughts and new emotions, or, at least, a profitable harvest in the application of knowledge to those arts of life, which minister to human improvement. Fowler.

6 Man's organs of speech are the rudder of his reason, and speech is a heavenly spark, which kindles into a flame our senses and our thoughts.

A people has no idea for which it has no word. The most vivid intuition must remain a dim feeling until the soul apprehends some characteristic of the object, and by means of a word preserves it in the memory, the recollection, the understanding, and tradition.

Only language has made man human, by inclosing as by a dam, the monstrous flood of his passions.

Language is the great companion of man. By it men combine, greet each other, and conclude a loving alliance. Whatever the human mind has ever conceived, what the wise men of the past have thought, comes to me by speech alone. By it, my thinking soul is connected with that of the first man, and perhaps with the last. Herder.

"As a sign of thought it must be admitted that language is imperfect, for hardly any abstract term has precisely the same meaning in any two minds; when mentioned, the same term calls up different associations in one mind from what it does in another. But while men differ in the meaning which they attach to certain classes of terms and of constructions, they also, when they have carefully studied a language, largely agree; so largely, that they can make their agreement the sure basis of reasoning and of acting on important subjects."

Concerning speech and words, the consideration of them hath produced the science of grammar, for man still striveth to reintegrate himself in those benedictions from which by his fault he hath been deprived; and as he hath striven against the first general curse by the invention of all other arts, so hath he sought to come forth of the second general curse, which was the confusion of tongues, by the art of grammar; whereof the use in a mother tongue is small, in a foreign tongue more; but most in such foreign tongues as have ceased to be vulgar tongues, and are turned only to learned tongues. The duty of it is of two natures; the one popular, which is for the speedy and perfect attaining languages, as well for intercourse of speech as for understanding of authors; the other, philosophical, examining the power and nature of words, as they are the footsteps and prints of reason; which kind of analogy between words and reason is handled sparsim, brokenly, though not entirely, and therefore, I cannot report it deficient, though I think it very worthy to be reduced into a science by itself. Bacon.

GRAMMAR.

ORTHOEPY.

Definitions.
Nomenclature

The Second Part of Grammar includes;

Exclamations

Organs of Voice, Organs of Speech, Phonic Elements of Words, Enunciation,
Articulation, Phonic Syllables, Oral Spelling

Vocals

First; according to the organs by which they are made and modified Sub-vocals
Second; according to quantity or rhythm; Short, Long

(First; Syllabication of Words, Rules