SUSPENSION Is the stopping at a certain point, without suffering the tone of voice to be diminished. -denotes Suspension. Tell me EXAMPLES. said Caled,-thou to whose voice nations have listened-and whose wisdom is known to the extremities of Asia-how I may resemble Omar the prudent. First of all, a man should always consider how much he has more than he wants. Time once past-never returns-the moment which is lost-is lost for ever. Suit the action to the word,—the word to the action, with this special observance,- that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. I have a more permanent and steady rule for my conduct, the dictates of my own breast. If Trim had not trusted more to his hat-than his head he had made nothing at all of it. Complaisance renders a superior amiablean equal agreeable—and an inferior acceptable. An angry man, who suppresses his passions -thinks worse than he speaks;- and an angry man, that will chide-speaks worse than he thinks. I shall consider honour with respect to three sorts of men:-first of all-with respect to those who have a right notion of it.-Secondly-with regard to those who have a mistaken notion of it. And, thirdly-with regard to those who treat it as chimerical-and turn it into ridicule. 1f, therefore, to quicken the slow to rouse the inattentive-and restrain the fierce,-it is sometimes expedient that they believe you are moved,-you may put on the outward appearance of resentment. Remember-that nothing else deserves one anxious thought, or wish.-Remember,-that this alone is honour,-glory,-wealth,-and happi ness. To be wise in our own eyes,-To be wise in the opinion of the world-and to be wise in the sight of our Creator,-are three things so very different-as rarely to coincide. Man, always prosperous-would be giddy and insolent;-always afflicted-would be sullen and despondent. It shows, first-that true devotion is rational, and well founded;-next-that it is of the highest importance to every other part of religion, and virtue;—and, lastly—that it is most conducive to our happiness. The philosopher-the saint-or the hero,the wise-the good-or the great man,-very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeanwhich a proper education might have disinterred, and brought to light. Let others, -if they please-pay their obsequious court to your wealthy sons,—and ignobly fawn-or anxiously sue for preferments;my thoughts shall often resort,-in pensive contemplation-to the sepulchres of their sires;and learn, from their sleeping dust To moderate my expectations from mortalsto stand disengaged from every undue attachment to the little interests of time,-to get above the delusive amusements of honour,—the gaudy B 2 tinsels of wealth-and all the empty shadows of a perishing world. In the tomb-the man of business forgets all his favourite schemes,-and discontinues the pursuits of gain.-Here-is a total stand to the circulation of merchandise, and the hurry of trade. The winding-sheet and the coffin are the utmost bound of all earthly devices;-Hitherto may they go, but no farther.-Here,-the sons of pleasure take a final farewell of their dear delights. No more is the sensualist anointed with oil, or crowned with rose-buds. So perish all,-whose breast ne'er learned to glow For others' good,—or melt at others' woe. EMPHASIS Is a force, stress or energy in the expression of sentences, or parts of sentences. Words printed in Italics are emphatic. EXAMPLES. There is a heroic innocence-as well as a heroic courage. Prosperity gains friends,—and adversity tries them. I have been young-and now I am old; yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. Behold the child,-by nature's kindly law, For me kind Nature wakes her genial power, It is ill-judged and unreasonable to ascribe this beneficent conduct to the sun. -Not unto him,-not unto him-but unto his Almighty Maker, we are obliged for this pleasing attendance,-this valuable legacy. A woman impudent–and manish grown Is not more loath'd-than an effeminate man In time of action. SERIES, OR DISTRIBUTION, Is an enumeration of particular parts, all relating or belonging to one subject-It must be read throughout in the same tone of voice, making a slight suspension after each part. EXAMPLES. The days which most people wish to call back, are the days of celibacy and youth,-the days of novelty and improvement,-of ardour and hope,-of health and vigour of body,-of gaiety and lightness of heart. He that desires to enter behind the scene, which every art has been employed to decorate, -and every passion labours to illuminate,—and wishes to see life stripped of those ornaments which make it glitter on the stage, and ex posed in its natural meanness,-impotence,— and nakedness,-may find all the delusion laid open in the chamber of disease;- he will there find vanity divested of her robes,-power deprived of her sceptre,—and hypocricy without her mask. My mother always told me that the days which she had seen were such as will never come again, that all diversion was now degenerated, -that the conversation of the present age is insipid, that their fashions are unbecoming,their manners are absurd,—and their morals corrupt;-that there is no ray left of the genius which enlightened the time she remembers;that no one who has seen, or heard the ancient performers, would be able to bear the bunglers of the present age;—and that there is now neither politeness,-nor pleasure,-nor virtue in the world. She therefore assures me that she consults my happiness by keeping me at home,— for I should now find nothing but vexation and disgust, and she should be ashamed to see me pleased with such fopperies and trifles as take up the thoughts of the present set of young people. We entangle ourselves in business,-immerge ourselves in luxury,—and rove through the labyrinths of inconstancy,-till the darkness of old age begins to invade us,-and disease and anxiety obstruct our way. We then look back upon our lives with horror-with sorrow,- -with repentance-and wish,—but too often vainly wish, -that we had not forsaken the ways of virtue. These are regulations of that most adorable,that most beneficent Being,-who bowed the heavens,-came down to dwell on earth,-and |