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was well known; and both old birds were visible on the rockledge. But who shall scale that dizzy cliff, which Mark Stuart the sailor, who had been at the storming of many a fort, attempted in vain?

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5. All kept gazing, weeping, WRINGING their hands in vain, – rooted to the ground, or running to and fro, like so many ants in discomfiture. "What's the use, what's the use of any poor human means? We have no power but in prayer!” and many knelt down, fathers and mothers thinking of their own children, as if they would force the deaf heavens to hear!

6. Hannah Lamond had all this while been sitting on a rock, with a face perfectly white, and eyes like those of a mad person, fixed on the acrie. Nobody had noticed her; for, strong as all sympathies with her had been at the swoop of the eagle, they were now lost in the agony of eyesight.

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7. "O my sweet little one!" and on uttering these words, she flew off through the brakes and over the huge stones,up, up, UP, faster than ever huntsman ran, fearless as a goat playing among precipices. No stop, no stay! She

knew not that she drew her breath. Beneath her feet, Providence fastened every loose stone, and to her hands strengthened every root.

8. But how was she ever to descend? This thought but once crossed her heart, as up, up, UP she went, to the little image made of her own flesh and blood. "The God who holds me from perishing,—will not the same God save me when my child is on my bosom?". Down, down came the fierce rushing of the eagles' wings,—each savage bird dashing so close to her head, that she saw the yellow of its wrathful eyes.

9. All at once they quailed, and were cowed. Yelling, they flew off to the stump of an ash jutting out of a cliff, a thousand feet above the cataract; and the Christian mother, falling across the aerie in the midst of bones and blood, clasped her child, dead, dead, DEAD! no doubt! But no! unmangled and untorn, it lay swaddled up just as it was when she

laid it down asleep among the fresh hay in a nook of the har vest-field!

10. O, what a pang of perfect blessedness transfixed her heart as she heard a faint, feeble cry! "It lives! it lives! IT LIVES!" and baring her bosom, with loud laughter and eyes dry as stones, she felt the lips of the unconscious innocent once more murmuring at the fount of life and love!

11. Her child was bound within her bosom, she remembered not how or when; but it was safe! And scarcely daring to open her eyes, she slid down the shelving rocks, and found herself on a small piece of firm, root-bound soil, with the tops of bushes appearing below.

12. With fingers suddenly strengthened into the power of iron, she swung herself down by brier, and broom-plant, and heather, and dwarf-birch. Her feet bounded against the huge stones which stopped them; but she felt no pain. Her body was callous as the cliff.

13. The precipice was matted with ivy, centuries old, and long since dead and without a single green leaf; but it had thousands of arm-thick stems petrified into the rock, and covering it as with a trellis.

14. She bound her babe to her neck, and, with hands and feet, clung to that fearful ladder! Turning round her head, and looking down, lo! the whole parish, so great was the multitude, were on their knees! And hush! the voice of psalms, -a hymn, breathing the spirit of one united prayer!

15. Sad and solemn was the strain, but nothing dirge-like, breathing not of death, but deliverance. Often had she sung that tune, perhaps the very words, in her own cot, she and her mother, or in the kirk along with the congregation.

16. An unseen hand seemed fastening her fingers to the ribs of ivy, and in sudden inspiration, believing that her life was to be saved, she became almost as fearless as if she had been changed into a winged creature. Again her feet touched stones and earth; -the psalm was hushed; not a word was spoken; eyes said enough.

17. There had been trouble and agitation, much sobbing and many tears, among the multitude while the mother was scaling the cliffs; sublime was the shout that echoed afar, the moment she reached the aerie; and now that her salvation was sure, the great crowd rustled like a wind-swept wood.

18. And for whose sake was all this alternation of agony?

A poor, humble person, unknown to many even by name, contented to work all day—here, there, or ANYWHERE that she might be able to support her aged mother and her little child, and who on the Sabbath took her seat in an obscure pew, set apart for paupers in the kirk!

19. "Fall back and give her fresh air," said the old minister of the parish; and the circle of close faces widened around her, lying as if in death.

20. "Give me the dear child into my arms," cried first one mother, and then another; and it was tenderly handed round the circle of kisses, many of the young maidens bathing its

face in tears.

21. "There's not a single scratch about the poor innocent! for the eagle, you see, must have stuck its talons into the long clothes and the shawl. Blind, blind must they be who see not the finger of God in this thing!"

22. Hannah started up from her swoon, and, looking wildly round, cried, "O the bird, the bird! the eagle, the eagle, the eagle has carried off my dear Walter! Is there none to pursue?"

23. A neighbor put her child into her bosom; and, shutting her eyes and smiting her forehead, the sorely bewildered creature said in a low voice, "Am I awake? O, tell me if I'm awake, or if all this is the work of a fever and the delirium of a dream."

QUESTIONS. Where did the events narrated in this piece occur? How should this exercise be studied? Which is the first example that exemplifies the rule? Which part of the rule does it exemplify? How, then, should it be read? See explanatory note. Which is the second example? What does it exemplify? How, then, should it be read? Which is the third example? What does it exemplify? &c, &c. Point cut some examples which are not marked, and tell how they should be read. trait of character in woman does this exercise illustrate?

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SECTION III.

ANTITHETIC EMPHASIS.

ANTITHETIC EMPHASIS is the stress of voice placed upon words and sentences when in contrast.

When words are contrasted with each other, they necessarily assume a prominence which makes them emphatic, whether the idea attached to them is very important in itself or not; and, in many cases, the emphasis appears to depend more upon the principle of contrast, than upon any inherent importance which the words themselves possess.

RULE 3. Two or more words, opposed to each other in meaning, are emphatic by contrast.

EXAMPLES.

1. Wisdom is better than riches.

2. Judges ought to be more learned than witty.

3. We should accustom ourselves to bear small injuries patiently; for we shall then be better able to support great ones.

4. Without frugality, none can be rich; and with it, very few would be poor.

5. Choose that course of life which is the most excellent; and habit will render it the most delightful.

6. A friend can not be known in prosperity; and an enemy can not be hid in adversity.

7. A good character is better than great riches.

8. It is harder to avoid censure than to gain applause.

9. The failings of good men are commonly more published in the world than their good deeds.

10. We must not only avoid what God has forbidden, but do what he commands.

QUESTIONS. -What is antithetic emphasis? What is said in the remark? What is the rule for antithetic emphasis? Read the first example. Which words are con trasted? How should they be read? Read the other examples. Point out the em phatic words in each. Why are such words emphatic? How should they be read?

EXERCISE.

LATENT ENERGY.-W. H. WELLS.

[The reader may point out the emphatic words in this exercise, tell why they are emphatic, and how they should be read.]

1. FEW of us have any just conception of the latent energies of our own minds. Two brothers were pursuing their studies at the same school. One was about two years older than the other; but the younger at ten was found to be fully equal in scholarship to his brother at twelve. In intellectual and practical arithmetic, especially, the younger was already in advance of his senior brother.

2. As time passed on, the progress of the younger brother became more and more rapid; and the elder brother did little more than establish the reputation of being a very dull scholar. At fourteen years of age, the younger was sent to college; but his brother was retained at home, in a sphere, as supposed, better suited to his abilities and attainments.

3. He had no desire to obtain a public education; and though he experienced a degree of mortification when he reflected that his brother had been sent to college on account of his superior mental endowments, the impression soon passed from his mind; and he gave himself no further concern in regard to it.

4. In the course of a few months, he overheard a conver、 sation between two of his former schoolmates. "Why," said one of them, was not George sent to college as well as his brother?"

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5. “O," said the other, "he was always a dull scholar. Don't you remember how he used to copy his.sums off from our slates?

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6. The pride of the elder brother, dull as he was, was stung to the quick. He did not sleep well that night. The next day, he went to his accustomed labor in the field; but he was still haunted with those words: "Don't you remember how

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