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2. And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy

I wantoned with thy breakers :-they to me
Were a delight; and if the freshening sea
Made them a terror, 'twas a pleasing fear;
For I was, as it were, a child of thee,
And trusted to thy billows far and near,
And laid my hand upon thy mane-as I do here.

II. ADDRESS TO A COMET.

EDWARD EVERETT.

3. Return, thou mysterious traveler, to the depths of the heavens, never again to be seen by the eyes of men now living'! Thou hast run thy race with glory': millions of eyes have gazed upon thee with wonder-but they shall never look upon thee again. Since thy last appearance in these

lower skies', empires, languages, and races of men have passed away.

4. Haply when, wheeling up again from the celestial abysses, thou art once more seen by the dwellers on earth', the languages we speak shall also' be forgotten', and science shall have fled to the uttermost corners of the earth. But even then His hand, that now marks out thy wondrous circuit, shall still guide thy course; and then, as now, Hesper will smile at thy approach, and Arcturus, with his sons, rejoice at thy coming.

LESSON XCI.

FROM THE "PLEASURES OF HOPE."

CAMPBELL.

[THOMAS CAMPBELL, one of the greatest lyric poets of the age, born at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1777; died in 1844. At the age of twenty-two he wrote the "Pleasures of Hope;" and before he had reached his twenty-sixth year he wrote "Hohenlinden" and "Lochiel's Warning." He is one of the most correct and elegant of modern writers of verse.]

1. UNFADING Hope! when life's last embers burn,
When soul to soul, and dust to dust return,
Heaven, to thy charge, resigns the awful hour:
Oh! then thy kingdom comes, immortal power!
What though each spark of earth-born rapture fly
The quivering lip, pale cheek, and closing eye!
Bright to the soul thy seraph hands convey
The morning dream of life's eternal day-
Then, then, the triumph and the trance begin,
And all the phoenix spirit burns within!

2. Oh! deep enchanting prelude to repose,
The dawn of bliss, the twilight of our woes!
Yet half I hear the panting spirit sigh,
"It is a dread and awful thing to die!"
Mysterious worlds, untraveled by the sun,
Where time's far-wandering tide has never run,
From your unfathomed shades and viewless spheres
A warning comes, unheard by other ears.

'Tis heaven's commanding trumpet, long and loud,
Like Sinai's thunder, pealing from the cloud!

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CHARACTER OF DIALOGUE AND SOLILOQUY.

[The Regular Dialogue; Fancied Dialogue; and Descriptive Dialogue.] [Analysis.-1. What is Dialogue? Difficulties attending it.-2. What is Soliloquy? What it is called in the drama. Ancient example of soliloquy.-3. How most dialogues and soliloquies are treated.-4. Best examples of dialogue and soliloquy. Example from Shakspeare.-5. The scene from Othello (see Note).-6. Modification of the dialogue. An example from Walter Scott.-7, 8, 9. The scene at the meeting of Fitz James and Roderick Dhu.-10. The fancied dialogue. By whom often adopted. Its use.-11, 12. An example from Cicero's Oration for Muræna.-13, 14, 15, 16. An example from his Oration for Milo.-17. The assumed dialogue in public addresses. -18, 19. An example from Everett.-20. Falstaff's soliloquy upon Honor.-21. The Colloquial style of writing.-22, 23, 24, 25. Joseph's interview with his brethren.-26. Advantages of this form of the dialogue.]

1. DIALOGUE, in Rhetoric, is a written conversation between two or more persons. It is the most difficult kind of composition to execute well, whether written in prose or in verse, as it requires a writer of no ordinary genius to put himself in the place of the speakers, and imitate their characters and emotions in a natural and spirited manner.

2. The Soliloquy, which is closely allied to the dialogue, is a talking, or discourse, of a person by himself-sometimes to himself, and sometimes to, or concerning, other objects, fancied or real, present or absent, but never to persons present. In the drama it is called a monologue, a scene in which one person appears alone upon the stage, and soliloquizes. An ancient example of written soliloquy is the Song of Solomon,-an allegorical poem, in which Solomon is alone the hero and the author.

3. In most dialogues and soliloquies, the author, unable to represent passion and emotion as one who feels them, really describes them with all the coolness of an unimpassioned spectator; and although he puts the words into the mouths of the speakers, it is quite the same as though he

spoke in person throughout the whole. He gives us the form, without the spirit of conversation, and disgusts us by attempting something which he can not support.

4. It is owing to this imperfection that our best works on rhetoric confine their examples, both of successful dialogue and soliloquy, mostly to Shakspeare, notwithstanding his many deviations from propriety. As a faithful portrayer of nature, Shakspeare stands unrivaled. As one example, in place of a thousand that might be given, let us call up the scene in which, after Othello had killed Desdemona, Emilia, his wife's friend and confidant, fearing something wrong, from what she had learned of the villainy of Iago, knocks at Othello's door, and craves admittance. See how the mind of Othello, torn by contending passions, vibrates between the thought of admitting her and the overwhelming sense of his loss.

I. SCENE FROM OTHELLO.

5. Emilia. Oh! good, my lord, I would speak a word with you.

Othello. "Yes; 'tis Æmilia: By-and-bya.-"She's dead. "Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death: The noise was high.-"Ha! no more moving'? Still as the grave'. Shall she come in'? Were't good'? I think she stirs again':-No.-"What's the best? If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife:

"My wife'! my wife'! what' wife`?—I have no wife: Oh, insupportable! Oh heavy hour!"

6. There is a modification of the regular dialogue, in which the names of the speakers are omitted, and we are left to infer the changes of person from the context, and to express them in reading by corresponding changes of tone. Scott furnishes a good poetical example of this in his description of the meeting between Fitz James, the disguised Scottish king, and the Highland chieftain Roderick Dhu, who at the

• Revert

a He here answers Emilia. b Looking to the body of Desdemona. ing to Emilia. d Turning to the body. Reverting to Emilia again. ! Again turning to the body. " He asks what is best to be done. the overwhelming thought of his misery which the word "wife" forces upon him.

h He is struck with

time are unknown to each other. We give a brief extract from this, italicising the language of the king, the better to show the change of person.

II. THE MEETING OF FITZ JAMES AND RODERICK DHU.

7.

8.

9.

"Thy name and person! Saxon, stand!"
"A stranger."- "What dost thou require'?”
66
"Rest and a guide, and food, and fire.
My life's beset, my path is lost,

"No."

The gale has chilled my limbs with frost."
"Art thou a friend to Roderick ?"
"Thou darest not call thyself a foe`?"
"I dare! to him and all the band
He brings to aid his murderous hand."

"Bold words!-but, though the beast of game
The privilege of chase may claim,

Though space and law the stag we lend
Ere hound we slip, or bow we bend,
Who ever asked where, how, or when
The prowling fox was trapped and slain'?
Thus treacherous scouts-yet, sure, they lie
Who say thou camest a secret spy'!"

"They do, by heaven!-Come Roderick Dhu,
And of his clan the boldest too,

And let me but till morning rest,
I write the falsehood on their crest."
"If, by the blaze, I mark aright,

Thou bearest the belt and spur of knight'?"
"Then by these tokens mayest thou know
Each proud oppressor's mortal foe.”
"Enough, enough; sit down and share
A soldier's couch, a soldier's fare."

Lady of the Lake, Canto iv.

10. There is a kind of dialogue that may be called fancied dialogue, in which the author supposes certain questions asked and answered, with the assumed purpose of eliciting

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