Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

No;-life so sweetly ceased to be,

It lapsed in immortality.

"Could tears revive the dead,

Rivers should swell our eyes;
Could sighs recall the spirit fled,

We would not quench our sighs,
Till love relumed this altered mien,
And all the embodied soul were seen.

"Bury the dead; - and weep
In stillness o'er the loss;

Bury the dead; -*[in Christ they sleep,
Who bore on earth his cross;

And from the grave their dust shall rise,
In his own image to the skies."] .

Moderate Force.t

Serenity. [Exemplified in Verse.]
Scene after a Tempest.- Bryant.

"It was a scene of peace; — and like a spell
Did that serene and golden sunlight fall
Upon the motionless wood that clothed the fell,
And precipice upspringing like a wall,
And glassy river and white waterfall,

And happy living things that trod the bright

And beauteous scene; while far beyond them all,

On many a lovely valley, out of sight,

[light.

Was poured from the blue heavens the same soft golden

"I looked, and thought the quiet of the scene
An emblem of the peace that yet shall be,
When, o'er earth's continents and isles between,
The noise of war shall cease from sea to sea,

*The lines within brackets exemplify a change of expression from the subdued voice of pathos to the moderate and cheerful tones of serenity and hope.

† The usual degree of force in the unempassioned style of sentiment

And married nations dwell in harmony; When millions crouching in the dust to one,

No more shall beg their lives on bended knee, Nor the black stake be dressed, nor in the sun The o'erlabored captive toil, and wish his life were done.

"Too long, at clash of arms, amid her bowers,

And pools of blood, the earth has stood aghast, The fair earth that should only blush with flowers And ruddy fruits; but not for aye can last

-

The storm,
and sweet the sunshine when 't is past.
Lo! the clouds roll away; they break, they fly;
And, like the glorious light of summer, cast

[ocr errors]

O'er the wide landscape from the embracing sky,
On all the peaceful world the smile of heaven shall lie."

Serenity. [Exemplified in Prose.]*

Good Intention. —‘Addison.

"If we apply a good intention to all our actions, we make our very existence one continued act of obedience; we turn even our diversions and amusements to our eternal advantage, and are pleasing Him whom we are made to please, in all the circumstances and occurrences of life.

"It is this excellent frame of mind, this holy officiousness, (if I may be allowed to call it such,) which is recommended to us by the apostle, in that uncommon precept wherein he directs us to propose to ourselves the glory of our Creator, in all our most indifferent actions, 'whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do.'

*The usual style of essays, lectures, expository and practical discourses, and other forms of didactic address.

† The ordinary rule of elocution prescribes a diminishing of the force of the voice at the opening of a new paragraph. But when, as in the text, there is a vivid turn of thought introduced, the opposite rule prevails, and the force increases with the momentum of the additional mental impulse.

i

*"A person who is possessed with an habitual good intention, enters upon no single circumstance of life, without considering it as well pleasing to the great Author of his being, conformable to the dictates of reason, suitable to human nature in general, or to that particular station in which Providence has placed him. He lives in the perpetual sense of the Divine presence, regards himself as acting, in the whole course of his existence, under the observation and inspection of that Being who is privy to all his emotions and all his thoughts, who knows his 'downsitting and his uprising, who is about his path and about his bed, and spieth out all his ways.' In a word, he remembers that the eye of his Judge is always upon him; and, in every action, he reflects that he is doing what is commanded or allowed by Him who will here. after either reward or punish it. This was the character of those holy men of old, who, in the beautiful phrase of Scripture, are said to have 'walked with God.'"

Declamatory Force.t
Energetic Emotion.

The Slave Trade.-Webster.

"I deem it my duty, on this occasion, to suggest, that the land is not yet wholly free from the contamination of a traffic at which every feeling of humanity must revolt, I mean the African slave trade. Neither public senti

* The usual rule of slackening the tension of voice at the opening of a new paragraph, is exemplified here; as, in such cases, the train of thought is either resumed, or commenced anew. The force, therefore, is progressive in the sentence. All well composed sentences are naturally read with the growing force of climax. The same remark applies to paragraphs and larger portions of a discourse.

†The word "declamatory" is used, in elocution, as the designation of the full, bold style of oratory, in warm and forcible address. The sense thus attached to the word, it will be perceived, is special and technical, merely, and implies no imputation on the character of the senti ment or the language, as in the rhetorical and popular uses of the term.

ment nor the law has yet been able entirely to put an end to this odious and abominable traffic. At the moment when God, in his mercy, has blessed the world with a universal peace, there is reason to fear, that, to the disgrace of the Christian name and character, new efforts are making for the extension of this trade, by subjects and citizens of Christian States, in whose hearts no sentiment of justice inhabits, and over whom neither the fear of God nor the fear of man exercises a control. In the sight of our law, the African slave trader is a pirate and a felon; and in the sight of Heaven, an offender far beyond the ordinary depth of human guilt. There is no brighter part of our history, than that which records the measures which have been adopted by the government, at an early day, and at different times since, for the suppression of this traffic; and I would call upon all the true sons of New England, to coöperate with the laws of man and the justice of Heaven.

"If there be, within the extent of our knowledge or influence, any participation of this traffic, let us pledge ourselves here, upon the Rock of Plymouth, to extirpate and destroy it. It is not fit that the land of the pilgrims should bear the shame longer. - I hear the sound of the hammer - I see the smoke of the furnaces where manacles and fetters are still forged for human limbs. I see the visages of those who, by stealth, and at midnight, labor in this work of hell, foul and dark, as may become the artificers of such instruments of misery and torture. Let that spot be purified, or let it cease to be of New England. Let it be purified, or let it be set aside from the Christian world; let it be put out of the circle of human sympathies and human regards; and let civilized man henceforth have no communion with it.

"I would invoke those who fill the seats of justice, and all who minister at her altar, that they execute the wholesome and necessary severity of the law. I invoke the ministers of our religion, that they proclaim its denun

ciation of these crimes, and add its solemn sanctions, to the authority of human law. If the pulpit be silent, whenever or wherever there may be a sinner, bloody with this guilt, within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust."

Empassioned Force.*
Imprecation.

Faliero's Dying Curse on Venice.-Byron.

"Ye elements! in which to be resolved

I hasten, let my voice be as a spirit

Upon you!- Ye blue waves! which bore my banner,
Ye winds! which fluttered o'er as if ye loved it,
And filled my swelling sails, as they were wafted
To many a triumph! Thou, my native earth,
Which I have bled for! and thou foreign earth,
Which drank this willing blood from many a wound!
Ye stones, in which my gore will not sink, but
Reek up to heaven! Ye skies, which will receive it!
Thou sun! which shinest on these things, and Thou!
Who kindlest and who quenchest suns! — attest!
I am not innocent—but are these guiltless?
I perish, but not unavenged: far ages
Float up from the abyss of time to be,

And show these eyes, before they close, the doom
Of this proud city; and I leave my curse
On her and hers forever.

"Then, in the last gasp of thine agony,
Amidst thy many murders, think of mine!
Thou den of drunkards with the blood of princes!
Gehenna of the waters! thou sea Sodom!

The style in which utterance becomes intense, and greatly transcends even the usual energy or vehemence of declamation. This de-. gree of force is, generally speaking, restricted to poetry, or to prose of the highest character as to emotion.

« ZurückWeiter »