50 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOE. 



tar gents to the circle ABC, and they are drawn from the given 

 point D, without the circumference of the circle ABC, as 

 required. 



From this problem we learn that from any point without a 

 circle two straight lines can be drawn which are tangents to 

 that circle, and that the angle formed by any pair of tangents 

 drawn to a circle from a point without it is bisected by the 

 straight line which joins that point and the centre of the given 

 circle. 



We also learn from this problem how, with a given radius, to 

 draw a circle touching two given straight lines. In Fig. 56, let 

 L M, K N represent the two given straight lines, and x the 

 given radius of the circle that is required to be drawn, touching 

 the given straight lines L M, K N. If necessary, produce the 

 straight lines L M, K N in the direction of M and N, and let 

 them meet in r>. Bisect the angle L D K by the straight line 

 D o, and at any point, P, in the straight line D K draw p Q 

 perpendicular to D K, and. equal to the given radius x. Then 

 through the point Q draw the straight line B S of indefinite length, 

 parallel to D K, and intersecting the straight line D o in the 

 point E. From the point E as centre, with a radius equal to 

 the given radius x, describe the circle A H G. This circle touches 

 the given straight lines L M, K N, in the points H and Q. 



READING AND ELOCUTION. XV. 



ANALYSIS OF THE VOICE (continued;. 



[NOTE. Those examples, in this and a former lesson, in which 

 the accents are purposely omitted, are intended as exercises for 

 the student.] 



EXERCISES ON INFLECTIONS. 



Simple Concluding Series. 



It is a subject interesting alike to the old and to the young. 



Nature, by the very disposition of her elements, has commanded, 

 as it were, and imposed upon men, at moderate intervals, a general 

 intermission of their toils, their occupations, and their pursuits. 



The influence of true religion is mild, and soft, and noiseless, and 

 constant, as the descent of the evening dew on the tender herbage, 

 nourishing and refreshing all the amiable and social virtues ; but 

 enthusiasm is violent, sudden, rattling as a summer shower, rooting 

 up the fairest flowers, and washing away the richest mould, in the 

 pleasant garden of society. 



Compound Concluding Series. 



The winter of the good man's age is cheered with pleasing reflec- 

 tions of the past, and bright hopes of the future. 



It was a moment replete with joy, amazement, and anxiety. 



Nothing would tend more to remove apologies for inattention to 

 religion than a fair, impartial, and full account of the education, the 

 characters, the intellectual processes, and the dying moments of those 

 who offer them. 



Then it would be seen that they had gained by their scepticism no 

 new pleasures, no tranquillity of mind, no peace of conscience during 

 life, and no consolation in the hour of death. 



Well-doing is the cause of a just sense of elevation of character ; it 

 clears and strengthens the spirits ; it gives higher riches of thought ; 

 it widens our benevolence, and makes the current of our peculiar affec- 

 tions swift and deep. 



A distant sail, gliding along the edge of the ocean, was sometimes 

 a theme of speculation. How interesting this fragment of a world, 

 hastening to rejoin the great mass of existence! What a glorious 

 monument of human invention, that has thus triumphed over wind 

 and wave ; has brought the ends of the earth in communion ; has 

 established an interchange of blessings, pouring into the sterile regions 

 of the north all the luxuries of the south ;* diffused the light of know- 

 lodge, and the charities of cultivated life; and has thus bound together 

 those scattered portions of the human race, between which nature 

 seems to have thrown an insurmountable barrier! 



1. " Disconnected series." 



Youth, in the fulness of its spirits, defers religion to the sobriety 

 of manhood; manhood, encumbered with cares, defers it to the leisure 

 of old age ; old age, weak and hesitating, is unable to enter on an 

 untried mode of life. 



Let me prepare for the approach of eternity ; let me give up my 

 >oul to meditation; let solitude and silence acquaint me with the 



* Accidental " falling " inflection, for contrast. 



mysteries of devotion ; let me forget the world, and by the world be 

 forgotten, till the moment arrives in which the veil of eternity shall 

 fall, and I shall fce found at the bar of the Almighty. 



Eeligion will grow up with you in youth, and grow old with you in 

 age ; it will attend you, with peculiar pleasure, to the hovels of the 

 poor, or the chamber of the sick; it will retire with you to your 

 closet, and watch by your bed, or walk with you, in gladsome union, 

 to the house of God ; it will follow you beyond the confines of the 

 world, and dwell with you for ever in heaven, as its native residence. 



2. " Emphatic series." 



Assemble in your parishes, villages, and hamlets. Besolve, peti- 

 tion, address. 



This monument will speak of patriotism and courage ; of civil and 

 religious liberty ; of free government ; of the moral improvement and 

 elevation of mankind; and of the immortal memory of those who, with 

 heroic devotion, have sacrificed their lives for their country. 



I have roamed through the world, to find hearts nowhere warmer 

 than those of New E'ngland, soldiers nowhere braver, patriots nowhere 

 purer, wives and mothers nowhere truer, maidens nowhere lovelier, 

 green valleys and bright rivers nowhere greener or brighter; and I will 

 not be silent, when I hear her patriotism or her truth questioned with 

 so much as a whisper of detraction. 



What is the most odious species of tyranny ? That a handful of 

 men, free themselves, should execute the most base and abominable 

 despotism over millions of their fellow-creatures ; that innocence 

 should be the victim of oppression; that industry should toil for 

 rapine; that the harmless labourer should sweat, not for his own 

 benefit, but for the luxury and rapacity of tyrannic depredation ; in a 

 word, that thirty millions of men, gifted by Providence with the 

 ordinary endowments of humanity, should groan under a system of 

 despotism, unmatched in all the histories of the world. 



3. "Poetic series." 



He looks in boundless majesty abroad, 



And sheds the shining day, that burnished plays 



On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams, 



High-gleaming from afar. 



Bound thy beaming car, 



High-seen, the Seasons lead, in sprightly dance 

 Harmonious knit, the rosy-fingered Hours, 

 The Zephyrs floating loose, the timely Bains, 

 Of bloom ethereal, the light-footed D&v/s, 

 And, softened into joy, the surly Storms. 



Hear him compare his happier lot, with Tiis 



Who bends his way across the wintry wolds, 



A poor night- traveller, while the dismal snow 



Beats in his face, and dubious of his paths, 



He stops and thinks, in every lengthening blast, 



He hears some village mastiff's distant howl, 



And sees, far streaming, some lone cottage light ; 



Then, undeceived, upturns his streaming eyes, 



And clasps his shivering hands, or, overpowered, 



Sinks on the frozen ground, weighed down with sleep, 



From which the hapless wretch shall never wake. 



There was neither tree, nor shrub, nor field, nor house, nor living 

 creatures, nor visible remnant of what human hands had reared. 



I am charged with pride and ambition. The charge is true, and I 

 glory in its truth. Who ever achieved anything great in letters, art, 

 or arms, who was not ambitious ? Caesar was not more ambitious 

 than Cicero. It was but in another way. All greatness is born of 

 ambition. Let the ambition be a noble one, and who shall blame it ? 

 I confess I did once aspire to be queen, not only of Palmyra, but of 

 the East. That I am. I now aspire to remain so. Is it not an 

 honourable ambition ? Does it not become a descendant of the 

 Ptolemies and of Cleopatra ? I am applauded by you all for what I 

 have already done. You would not it fahould have been less. 



But why pause here ? Is so much ambition praiseworthy, and 

 more criminal ? Is it fixed in nature that the limits of this empire 

 should be Egypt on the one hand, the Hellespont and the Euxine on 

 the other ? Were not Suez and Armenia more natural limits ? Or 

 hath empire no natural limit, but is broad as the genius that can 

 devise, and the power that can win ? Borne has the West. Let 

 Palmyra possess the East. Not that nature subscribes this and no 

 more. The gods prospering, and I swear not that the Mediterranean 

 shall hem me in upon the west, or Persia on the east. Longinus is 

 right : I would that the world were mine. I feel, within, the will and 

 the power to bless it, were it so. 



Are not my people happy ? I look upon the past and the present 

 upon my nearer and remoter subjects, and ask nor fear the answer. 

 Whom have I wronged ? what province have I oppressed ? what city 



