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2. Every thing was soon ready for the final scene. The main hatches were his bíer; a spare sail was his páll; and his surviving comrades stood around him. All were silent. The freshening breeze moaned through the córdage; the main top-sail was hove to the mást; the ship paused on her course, and stood still. And as the words, "We commit this body to the deep," were pronounced, the plunge of the coffin and the solemn toll of the ship's bell mournfully fell upon our ears.

NOTE 2. - Sentences implying condition, the case absolute, the infinitive mode used as a nominative, the direct address not attended with strong emphasis, and the close of a parenthesis, are some of the specific cases to which this rule also applies.

EXERCISE.

WASHINGTON AND HIS MOTHER.

-AMERICAN MISCELLANY.

[This exercise may be studied and read with special reference to the application of the rule to all examples of the pause of suspension when the sense is unfinished, and also to those expressing tender emotion.]

1. THE more intimately and minutely we become acquainted with the character of the father of his cóuntry, the more we are struck with admiration at its wonderful symmetry and completeness. In every sphere he ever óccupied, he is a no、 ble and worthy model.

2. As a géneral, as a státesman, and as a child, in his public and private relátions, in chíldhood, youth, and mature áge, he is an example of every appropriate excellence. Who can read the last interview between Washington and his mother, and suppress the rising tear that starts unbidden at the remem brance of such a scene?

3. Time may dim the recollection of many of the incidents of youth when we come in contact with the world; but there is magic in a mother's voice; her well-remembered tone of admirátion, her kindness and unceasing care, will rise up before him who loved her, and follow him as a guardian angel in all the varied scenes of life. Happy the man who was blessed with such a mother, and loved her; and happier is he, who,

having such, forgets not her love, her kindness, and instruc tions.

4. Immediately after the organization of the present góvernment, General Washington repaired to Fredericksburg* to pay his humble duty to his mother, preparatory to his departure for New York. An affecting scene ensued. The son feelingly marked the ravages a torturing disease had made on the aged frame of his mother, and thus addressed her:

5. "The people have been pléased, with the most flattering unanímity, to elect me to the chief magistracy of the United States; but, before I can assume the functions of that óffice, I have come to bid you an affectionate farewell. As soon as the public business which must necessarily be encountered in arranging a new government can be disposed of, I shall hasten to Virgínia, and

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6. Here the matron interrupted him: "You will see me no more. My great áge, and the disease which is fast approaching my vitals, warn me that I shall not be long in this world. I trust in God I am somewhat prepared for a better. But go, George, fulfil the high destinies which Heaven appears to assign you; go, my són, and may Heaven's and your mother's blessing be with you always."

7. The President was deeply affected; and his head rested on the shoulder of his parent. That brow on which fame had wreathed the purest laurel that virtue ever gave to created mán, relaxed from its lofty bearing. That look, which could have awed a Roman Senate in its Fábian day,† was bent in full tenderness upon the time-worn features of this venerable matron.

8. The great man wept. A thousand recollections crowded upon his mind, as memory, retracing scenes long past, carried him back to his paternal mansion and the days of his youth;

* Fred er-icks-burg, a town in Virginia, situated on the Rappahannock River, 65 miles north of Richmond.

+ Fa'bi-an day. Allusion is here made to the time of Quintus Fabius Maximus, one Mf the most distinguished generals of ancient Rome, who died 202 B. C.

and there, the center of attraction, was his mother, whose care, instruction, and discipline had prepared him to reach the topmost height of laudable ambition; yet how were his glories forgotten while he gazed upon her from whom, wasted by time and malady, he must soon part to meet no more!

9. The matron's predictions were true. The disease which had so long preyed upon her frame completed its triumph; and she expired at the age of eighty-five years, confiding in the promises of immortality to the humble believer.

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QUESTIONS. - How is this exercise to be studied and read? Point out some examples of the pause of suspension which are marked? How should they be read. Point out some which are not marked, &c., &c. Point out some examples expressing tender emotion which are marked. With what inflection should they be read? Point out some which are not marked, &c., &c. What trait of character here exem plified by Washington is worthy of our imitation? Where is Fredericksburg? What is here meant by "Fabian day"?

RULE 5.

SECTION V.

FALLING INFLECTION.

Indirect questions, or those which can not be answered by yes or no, generally require the falling inflection, and their answers the

same.

Examples.

1. What is the principal source of heat?

The sun.

2. Who invented the magnetic tèlegraph? Professor Mòrse.* 3. Who was the greatest king of England†?

Alfred the Great.‡

QUESTIONS. - What is the falling inflection? What is the rule for indirect questions and their answers? Give examples. What is said of Professor Morse? Of England? Of Alfred the Great?

* Professor Morse claims to have invented the electro-magnetic telegraph as early as 1832, but did not get it patented until 1837.

† England, a celebrated country of Europe, forming, with Wales, the southern,

larger, and most important division of the island of Great Britain.

Alfred the Great was born in the year 849. He ascended the throne of England in 872; and his history presents one of the most perfect examples on record of the able and patriotic monarch united with the virtuous man. He died A. D. 900.

4. What college did he found? Òxford.*

5. Where was the first settlement made in New England?† At Plymouth.+

6. Why should we love our enemies? Because the Bible requires it.

7. Why should we obey the Bible? Because it is the word of Gòd.

8. When should we do right? Always.

9. How should the rules of this book be studied?

EXCEPTION.-When the indirect question, its answer, or a remark, is not at first understood, and a repetition is required, the inquiry is made with the rising inflection.

Examples.

1. Who made the greatest improvements in the steam-engine? What did you say?

2. I shall go to New York § to-morrow.

Where will you gó ?

3. When was our National Independence declared? In seventeen hundred and seventy-six.

In what year did you say?

EXERCISE.

EVIDENCES OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.-J. MAXCY.

[The class may point out the indirect questions in this exercise, and tell with what inflection they should be read.]

We are enter

1. LET us for a moment behold our earth. tained with an agreeable variety, without being disgusted by

QUESTIONS. - What is the exception to this rule? Give examples. What is said of Oxford? What is meant by New England? What is said of New York?

* Ox'ford, a city in the county of Oxford, England, about 55 miles from London. Its University, now comprising nineteen colleges, is the oldest in England, having been founded in the year 872.

† New England, the six most northeastern of the United States.

Plymouth, a town situated on Plymouth Bay, in Massachusetts, about 37 miles south by east from Boston.

§ New York, [city of,] the metropolis of the State of New York, and the most pop ulous and most commercial city of the Western Continent. Population in 1860, about 815,000.

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a tedious uniformity. There the valleys are clothed in smil ing green; and the plains are bending with corn.

2. Here is the gentle hill to delight the eye; and beyond, slow rising from the earth, swells the mountain, and, with all its load of waters, rocks, and woods, heaves itself up into the skies. Why this pleasing, vast difformity of nàture?

3. Undoubtedly for the benefit of màn. From the mountains descend streams to fertilize the plains below, and cover them with wealth and beauty. The earth produces every thing necessary not only to support our bodies, but also to remedy our diseases, and gratify our senses.

4. But who covered the earth with so pleasing a variety of flowers? Who gave them their delightful fràgrance, and painted them with colors so èxquisite? Who causes the same water to whiten in the lily, that blushes in the ròse?

5.. Do not these things indicate a cause infinitely superior to any 'finite being? Do they not directly lead us to believe the existence of God, to admire his goodness, to revere his power, to adore his wisdom, in so happily accommodating our external circumstances to our situation and internal constitution?

6. How are we astonished to behold the vast ocean, rolling its immense burden of waters! Who gave it such a configuration of particles as to render it movable by the least prèssure, and, at the same time, so strong as to support the heaviest weights?

7. Who spread out this vast highway of all the nations under heaven? Who gave it its regular mòtion? Who confined it within its boùnds? Who restrains the proud wàves when the tempest sweeps over them? Who measured the great waters, and subjected them to invariable laws?

8. Nòne, surely, but that Great Being, who "placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree that it can not pass; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it."

9. Passing by the numerous productions and appendages

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