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But our flower was in flushing
When blighting was nearest.

5. Fleet foot on the correi,

Sage counsel in cumber,
Red hand in the foray,

How sound is thy slumber!
Like the dew on the mountain,
Like the foam on the river,

Like the bubble on the fountain,

Thou art gone-and forever!

Sir Walter Scott.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. From "The Lady of the Lake," Canto III., The Gathering. Roderick Dhu summons his clansmen. He sends the fiery cross through the glens and moors as the signal for assembling upon Lanric Mead, where they waylay the huntsman who lost his gallant gray steed in the chase (Lessons XX. and XXII. of the Fourth Reader), on his return from the visit to the Lady of the Lake. The bearer of the fiery cross meets a sad assemblage singing the coronach, or funeral song, over the bier of one of the warriors of his clan.

II. Wōe'-ful, fü'-ner-al, văl'-iant (-yant), war'-rior (war'-yēr), mōurn'ful, cor'-rei.

III. "Torches' ray "-one torch, or more? comparison between two or more objects?

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Searest,"

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IV. Accents, wail, gallant, bier, searest, blighting, foray, stripling, font, hoary, "in flushing," "red hand."

V. “Fleet foot on the correi" (i. e., on the hollow side of the hill where the game lies). What similes are used to describe the loss the clan has met with? "Sage counsel in cumber " (i. e., in trouble). What rank had the deceased in his clan (line 6)? In what respect is a summer-dried fountain more to be dreaded than any other? Do the words "need was the sorest" seem to imply that the people were aware of the approaching war?

XXXVIII.-HOW TO RENDER SAD IDEAS.

Ideas represented by such words as pathetic, pensive, sorrowful, grievous, pitiful, painful, distressful, lamentable, etc., are included under this head.

The "semitone" is the most characteristic element in the expression of pathos in reading, as it is in music.

The "moderate slide," which expresses matter-of-fact ideas, when shortened by a "semitone," expresses pathet ic ideas (see first and second examples below); and the "long slide," which expresses earnest ideas, when shortened by a semitone, expresses earnest pathos, or manly and womanly sorrow (see third and fourth examples below).

As there is something painful in this sad spirit, the "stress" is more or less "abrupt," and on the last part of the emphatic syllable (often called "vanishing stress"). The "force" is "softer" than that of matter-of-fact or earnest ideas, and the "time is slower."

EXAMPLES.

I.

"If you're waking, call me early-call me early, mother dear,

For I would see the sun rise upon the glad New Year; It is the last New Year that I shall ever see

Then you may lay me low i' the mold, and think no more of me.

"To-night I saw the sun set; he set, and left behind The good old year-the dear old time—and all my peace of mind;

And the New Year's coming up, mother, but I shall

never see

The may upon the blackthorn, the leaf upon the tree.

"I have been wild and wayward, but ye'll forgive me

now;

You'll kiss me, my own mother, upon my cheek and

brow?

Nay, nay, you must not weep, nor let your grief be wild; You shall not fret for me, mother; you have another

child.

"If I can, I'll come again, mother, from out my resting

place;

Though you'll not see me, mother, I shall look upon your face;

Though I can not speak a word, I shall hearken what

you say,

And be often and often with you, when you think I'm

far away."

(From "New-Year's Eve," by Tennyson.)

II.

"Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her;
And she, kissing back, could not know
That my kiss was given to her sister,
Folded close under deepening snow."

(From "The First Snow-Fall," by James R. Lowell.)

III.

"Dead!-one of them shot by the sea in the East,
And one of them shot in the West by the sea;
Dead!-both my boys! When you sit at the feast,
And are wanting a great song for Italy free,
Let none look at me!"

(From "Mother and Poet," by Mrs. Browning.)

The following example requires the "longer minor slides," with "larger volume" and "louder force," and

more marked "vanishing stress" (abruptness on the last part of the emphatic syllables):

IV.

Cassius.-Come, Antony, and young Octavius-come! Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius,

For Cassius is aweary of the world:

Hated by one he loves; brav'd by his brother;
Check'd like a bondman; all his faults observ'd,
Set in a notebook, learn'd and conn'd by rote,
To cast into my teeth. Oh, I could weep
My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger,
And here my naked breast; within, a heart
Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold:
If that thou beest a Roman, take it forth.
I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart:
Strike, as thou didst at Cæsar; for I know,

When thou didst hate him worst, thou lov'dst him better
Than ever thou lov'dst Cassius.

(From the quarrel scene in “Julius Cæsar," by Shakespeare.)

XXXIX. THE PAUPER'S DEATHBED.

1. Tread softly-bow the head

In reverent silence bow!

No passing bell doth toll,

Yet an immortal soul

Is passing now.

2. Stranger, however great,

With lowly reverence bow;

There's one in that poor shed

One by that paltry bed

Greater than thou.

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eneath that beggar's roof,

Lo! Death doth keep his state. nter-no crowds attend;

nter-no guards defend This palace gate.

hat pavement, damp and cold, No smiling courtiers tread;

One silent woman stands,
ifting with meager hands
A dying head.

To mingling voices sound-
An infant wail alone;

Asob suppressed-again

That short, deep gasp, and then
The parting groan.

O change! O wondrous change!
Burst are the prison bars!

This moment there so low,
So agonized, and now
Beyond the stars!

O change-stupendous change!
There lies the soulless clod;

The sun eternal breaks,

The new immortal wakes

Wakes with his God!

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