The Academical Speaker: A Selection of Extracts in Prose and Verse, from Ancient and Modern Authors : Adapted for Exercises in Elocution

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Richardson, Lord, and Holbrook, 1831 - Elocution - 344 pages

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Page 278 - What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine? The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? — They sought a faith's pure shrine. Ay, call it holy ground, — The soil where first they trod! They have left unstained what there they found — Freedom to worship God ! Felicia Hemans.
Page 90 - Strike ! till the last armed foe expires ! Strike ! for your altars and your fires ! Strike ! for the green graves of your sires ; God, and your native land...
Page 321 - They tell us, sir, that we are weak— -unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house ? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction.
Page 322 - Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission .and slavery ! Our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! The war is inevitable — and let it come ! ! I repeat it, sir, let it come ! ! ! "It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace — but there is no peace.
Page 187 - ... paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel. His virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble; and he is then gathered to his fathers, — to be taxed no more.
Page 92 - How beautiful this night ! The balmiest sigh Which vernal Zephyrs breathe in Evening's ear Were discord to the speaking quietude That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven's ebon vault, Studded with stars unutterably bright, Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, Seems like a canopy which Love has spread To curtain her sleeping world.
Page 148 - Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's a divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp.
Page 79 - THE stately homes of England, How beautiful they stand, Amidst their tall ancestral trees, O'er all the pleasant land ! The deer across their greensward bound, Through shade and sunny gleam ; And the swan glides past them with the sound Of some rejoicing stream. The merry homes of England ! Around their hearths by night, What gladsome looks of household love Meet in the ruddy light ! There woman's voice flows forth in song, Or childhood's tale is told, Or lips move tunefully along Some glorious page...
Page 186 - ... restores him to health, — on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal, — on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice, — on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribbons of the bride, — at bed or board, couchant or levant, — we must pay.
Page 302 - Closed her bright eye, and curbed her high career : Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell, And Freedom shrieked as Kosciusko fell ! The sun went down, nor ceased the carnage there ! Tumultuous murder shook the midnight air ; On Prague's proud arch...

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