lay your proud despoilers low: but not for YOU will freedom's altars flame. 518. A THOUSAND YEARS scarce serve to FORM a state; an HOUR may lay it in the dust. 519. He prayed but for LIFE - for LIFE he would give all he had in the world; it was but LIFE he asked - LIFE, if it were to be prolonged under tortures and privations; he asked only BREATH, though it should be drawn in the damps of the lowest caverns of their hills. 520. I could have BID you LIVE, had life been to you the same weary and wasting burden that it is to ME. 521. Be the combat our OWN! and we'll perish or conquer MORE PROUDLY ALONE; for we have sworn by our country's assaulters, that living we WILL be VICTORIOUS, or that dying our deaths shall be GLORIOUS. 522. Earth may hide- WAVES ingulf-FIRE consume us, but they SHALL not to SLAVERY doom us. 523. If they rule, it shall be o'er our ASHES and GRAVES: but we have smitten them ALREADY with fire on the WAVES, and new triumphs on LAND are before us. To the CHARGE!-HEAVEN'S banner is o'er us. 524. FALSE WIZARD, AVAUNT! I have marshalled my clan their SWORDS are a THOUSAND, their BOSOMS are ONE. 525. What means this SHOUTING? I do fear the people choose Cæsar for their KING. Ay, do you FEAR it? Then must I think you would not HAVE it so. 526. I speak not to DISPROVE what Brutus spoke; but here I am to speak what I do KNOW. 527. But YESTERDAY, the word of Cæsar might have stood against the WORLD. Now lies he there, and none so poor to do him reverence. 528. He was my FRIEND, faithful and just to me; but BRUTUS says he was AMBITIOUS;* and Brutus is an HôNORABLE man. He hath brought many captives home to *As this reading is new and original, it may, perhaps, require some defence. In the first assertion, the emphasis is thrown on the word ambitious because that is the objection made by Brutus against Cæsar. The cunning Antony then brings forward circumstances to prove that Cæsar was not ambitious; and then asserts that Brutus says he was ambitious, notwithstanding these arguments in Cæsar's defence. Antony then proceeds to produce further proof to the contrary; and having brought what he supposes an incontrovertible argument in proof of the injustice of the charge, he then states the charge as resting merely on the bare assertion of Brutus. Brutus says so still. ** Rome, whose ransoms did the GENERAL Coffers fill: Did THIS in Cæsar seem AMBITIOUS? When that the poor have CRIED, Cæsar hath WEPT. AMBITION should be made of STERNER stuff. Yet Brutus says he WAS ambitious; and Brutus is au honorable man. You all did see, that on the Lupercal I THRICE presented him a kingly CROWN; which he did thrice Was THIS AMBITION? Yet Brutus SAYS he was ambitious; and sure he is an honorable man. REFUSE. 529. O masters! if I were disposed to stir your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, who, you all know, are honorable men. I will not do THEM wrong, -I rather choose to wrong the dead myself and you, - than I will wrong such hônorable to wrong men. 530. But here's a parchment, with the seal of CÆSAR; 1 found it in his closet: 't is his WILL. Let but the commons HEAR this testament, (which, pardon me, I do not mean to read,) and they would go and kiss dead Cæsar's WOUNDS, and dip their napkins in his sacred BLOOD, – yea, beg a HAIR of him for memory, and, dying, mention it within their wills, bequeathing it as a rich LEGACY unto their issue. You 531. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. all do know this mantle: I remember the first time ever Cæsar put it on: ('t was on a summer's evening in his tent: that day he overcame the Nervii :) — LOOK! In this place ran CASSIUS' dagger through: see what a rent the envious CASCA made. Through THIS, the well-beloved BRUTUS stabbed; and, as he plucked his cursed steel away, mark how the blood of Cæsar followed it! THIS was the most unkindest cut of all! for, when the noble Cæsar saw HIM stab, INGRATITUDE, more strong than traitors' arms, quite vanquished him! Then burst his mighty heart: and, in his mantle muffling up his face, even at the base of Pompey's statue, which all the while ran blood, GREAT CESAR FELL. WHAT a fall was THERE, my countrymen! Then I, and you, and ALL of us, fell down; whilst bloody TREASON flourished over us. 532. O, now you weep; and I perceive you feel the dint of PITY:- these are gracious drops. Kind souls! What, weep you when you but behold our Cæsar's VESTURE wounded? Look ye here! Here is HIMSELF MARRED, as you see, by TRAITORS. LESSON XXV. DISTINCTNESS OF ARTICULATION. In order to exercise the voice, and acquire distinctness of articulation, the pupil is required, in this lesson, to pronounce (as well as he can) certain letters, which do not constitute a word, and then the words in which the same letters occur. It is not designed that he should call the letters by name, but endeavor to pronounce the sound which they represent when united.* Sound the following letters, and then the words which fol low, in which the same letters occur. Be particularly careful to give a clear and distinct sound to every letter. Bdst. Robb'dst, prob❜dst. Bl. Bld. Able, table, cable, abominable. Bldst. Troubl’dst, crumbl’dst, tumbl’dst. Br. er; Brand, strand, grand. *This lesson is deemed by the author one of the most important in the book, and indispensably necessary to be carefully practised and often repeated, in order to acquire distinctness of articulation. There are some letters and syllables, which are very frequently lost by a vicious pronunciation. A native Bostonian seldom pronounces the final in the syllable ing. The letters d, l, r, t, and the syllable ed, frequently share the fate of the ing, not only among Bostonians, but also among the generality of readers and speakers. The syllable er is almost universally mispronounced, as if it were ur. In the words merry, and perish, few, if any, mistake the proper sound of the letters but in the words mercy and mermaid, there are few who give the proper sound of these letters. The letters aw also are frequently mispronounced like or. In order that this lesson may be understood by those teachers, who are not familiar with the mode in which the sounds of the letters are taught in the Boston schools, the author deems it necessary to give the following explanation. Where two vowels, or a vowel and a consonant, occur together, no difficulty will occur in pronouncing the sounds of the letters; but when several consonants occur together without a vowel, as in the fourth line of this lesson, where Best occur together, it must be understood that each of these letters stands for a certain sound, although that sound oe not a clear, articulate one; and the sounds of each of these letters must be given together, as one syllable, before the words robb'st and prob'st, in which they occur, are read. By such an exercise the voice will be improved, and ease acquired in the pronunciation of words in which letters of difficult combination occur. 1 Cht. Fetch'd. DI. Did. .Candle, handle, bridle, saddle. Dlz. Candles, handles, bridles, saddles. Dr. Dz. Drove, draw, drink, drive. Deeds, reeds, feeds, seeds. Dth. Breadth, width. Fl. Flame, fling, flounce, fly, flew. Fld. Trifl'd, stifl'd, rifl'd. Flz. Trifles, rifles, stifles, ruffles. Fr. Fs. Fst. Ft. Waft, raft, graft. Fts. Wafts, grafts, rafts. Gdst. Bragg'dst, begg'dst, pegg'dst. Gl. Gld. Haggl'd, struggl'd, mangl'd, strangl'd. Gldst. Haggl'dst, struggl'dst, mangl'dst, strangl'dst. Glz. Mangles, strangles, struggles. Glst. Mangl'st, strangl'st, struggl'st. Gr. Grave, grand, grow, grind, ground. Gz. Gst. Jd. Kl. Pigs, figs, begs, pegs, cags, nags. Hedged, fledged, wedged, caged. Kld. Rankl'd, tinkl'd, knuckl'd, truckl'd. Kst. Ct. |