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READING.-LESSON 2.

General George Washington.

1. The history of the old world, records the names of those, who, by their exploits of daring, cast an ephemeral glare upon the age in which they lived, and whose memoirs still survive the devouring tooth of time;-but to the new world, was reserved the distinguished glory of giving birth to one, the lustre of whose deeds and virtues, lighted the habitable globe with a noon-tide splendour, that can subside only with subsiding nature.

2. Upon the pages of the registry of nations, George Washington appears, in unclouded sublimity, an unmatched noddle of original, self created greatness. The land of his birth, was the scene of his fame. With the milk of his mother, he drank in the principles of a pure norality, a divine religion, and the freedom of man from the thraldom of tyrants.

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3. Nature, as if pledged to set before the world a perfect finish of her best production, bestowed on him a tall and manly frame, of symetry of form and iron cast; an arm ofgiant nerve;- -a face of awful majesty, relieved by lines of mild benignity, and an eagle's eye, from which, corruption, cowering, shrunk abashed. To crown the whole, and make her gift to man complete, she introduced him to his country's wishes, in the dark and trying hour of his country's need. 4. A foreign foe, the arbiter of nations, with coffers full. of gold,-an army, millions strong, and ships of war that whitened every sea, came hovering on our shores, with fire and sword, to make us slaves and bow our necks to wear the yoke of royalty.

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5. The eyes of all the world were turned upon us; and our eyes were turned on Washington. He, his country's shield, with chosen comrads, few, indeed, but brave, met the invader in the tented field, and mingled in the unequa fight.

6. The dubious strife, of near Octavian age, wore ever varying shades;-the blood of heroes fertilized the soil.whole cities wrapped in flames bore witness to the reakless tyr

ant's foul intent;-and the startling yell of savage hordes, commingling with the war trump's hoarser note, proclaimed his allies in the work of death.

7. But he, who drove the car of war, and poised his country's sword, in whose capacious mind the springs of resourse, never felt an ebb,-whose energy of soul, disaster never shook, and whose devotion to his country's cause, no vicissitude could change, rolled back the cloud that hung upon the scene, and led his little band to victory, and a nation to liberty. He burst the fetters forg'd by kings; He taught us to be free;

He raised the dignity of man;
He bade a nation BE.

ALLIGATION.-LESSON 3.

CASE 4. When the price of the several simples, the quantity to be compounded, and the mean price are given, to find the quantity of each simple, adopt the following

RULE. 1. Link the several prices and take the differences as in the foregoing cases.

2.

As the amount of the differences,

Is to the difference opposite each price,
So is the quantity to be compounded,

To the quantity required. Thus:

(1) A has three sorts of sugar, at 8 cts. 10 cts. 11 cts. a lb. and he wishes for a composition of 40 lb. worth 9 cts. a lb; how much of each sort must he take?

8 2+1=3

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As 5:3::40:24 lb. at 8 cts.

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$3.60 Proof.

(2)

40 lbs. at 9 cts.

B has wine worth $1.37, 1.60 and 1.80 a gallon, and The wants 32 gallons worth $1.45 a gallon; what quantity of each kind must he take?

Ans. 20 of $1.30, 6 of 1.60, and 6 of 1.80. (3) How much Sugar at 10, 12, and 15 cts. a lb. must C take to prepare a mixture of 20 lbs. worth 13 cts. a lb?

Ans. 5 at 10, 10 at 15, and 5 at 12.

READING. LESSON 4.

The qualities of style.

NOTE The pupil, in revising his exercise in composition, will require the aid of something more than the simple rules of syntax:-He will stand in need of some acquaintance with the general qualities which characterise style.

The principal qualities of style, may be classed under four heads: To wit.

1. Purity in the selection of single words and phrases. 2. Propriety in the use of words and phrases.

3. Precision in the use of terms that convey the just idea. 4. The arrangement of words into sentences.

1. Purity of expression as it relates to simple words, consists in the use of those only which belong confessedly to the idiom of the language, and which are employed by the most approved authors.

RULE 1. Avoid words borrowed from foreign languages, which have not been correctly anglesized. As, penult for peultimate, &c.

2. Avoid obsolete or worn out words: As, quoth he, wist not, trow not, &c.

3. Avoid new coined words that have not been duly sanctioned: As, hauteur, connexity, mishapment, encumbement, in lieu of haughtiness, connexion, mishap, incumbrance.

OBS. Purity of expression requires the choice of such words as are of classical authority; and this authority is based upon the usages of speakers distinguished for their elocution, and writers eminent for their correct taste, solid matter, and refined

manner.

EXAMPLE. Send this Declaration of Independence to Fanuiel Hall.-Let those hear it who first heard the roar of British cannon.-Let those see it who saw their sons fall in the streets of Lexington, and upon the heights of BunkerHill.

John Adams.

NOTE. No part of this sentence can be exchanged to advantage. The language is pure, plain and intelligible to every reader; and the colocation is perfectly natural and forcible.

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1 To Gen. Bonaparte, nature had no obstacles that he did not surmount;-space, no limit that he did not' spurn:--and whether amid Alpine rocks, Arabian sands, or polar snows, he appeared proof against perjl, and seemingly endowed with ubiquity. The whole continent of Europe trembled at the audacity of his designs and the miracle of their execution.

2 Skepticism bowed to the prodigies of his performance, and romance assumed the air and tone of history; nor was ought too incredible for belief, or too fanciful for explanation, when the world beheld a subaltern of Corsica waving his imperial flag upon the walls of her most ancient capitals.

3 All the visions of antiquity, became common place in his contemplation;-kings were his people, nations his out posts: and he disposed of courts and crowns, camps, cabinets and churches, as though they were the titular dignitaries of a chess board.

4 Amid these surrounding changes, he stood as unmoveable Las adainant. It mattered little, whether in the field or the drawing-room,--with the mob or the levee, wearing the jacobin bonnet, or iron crown,-banishing Braganza, or espousing a Hapsburg, dictating a peace on a raft to the Czar of Russia, or contemplating defeat at the gallows of Leipsic, he was still the same military despot.

5 Cradled in the lap of war, he was the darling of the army; and whether in the camp or the cabinet, he never forsook a friend or forgot a favour. Of all his soldiers, not one abandoned him until affection was useless; and their first stipulation was the safety of their favourite. They well knew that if he was lavish of them, he was prodigal of himself,-and that if he exposed them to peril, he repaid them with plunder.

6 For the soldier he subsidized every body; to the people, he made even pride pay a tribute;--the victorious veteran glittered with his gains, and the capital, georgeous with the spoils of art, became the miniature metropolis of the universe.

In this wonderful combination, his attention to literature shone pre-eminent.-The jailer of the press, he affected the patronage of letters;-the assassin of Palm, the enemy of De Stael, and the denouncer of Kotzebu, he was the friend of David, the bene actor of De Lille, and the patron of Sir Davy.

8 Such a medley of contradictions, and yet such an individual consistency, were never before united in the same character;-a Royalist, a Republican, an Emperor; a Mahometan, a Catholic, a Jew, a Christian and an Infidel; a subaltern and a sovereign, a traitor and a tyrant; and through all his changes, the same stern, impatient, inflexible original; the same mysterious and incomprehensible self;-a man without a model and without a shadow.

9 His rise and his fall, nay the whole history of his life, is, to the world, like a mere dream; and no man can tell how or why he was awakened from the reverie. This is a faint and feeble picture of Napoleon Bonaparte; who has taught kings that their greatest safety and noblest aim, is the happiness of the people; and the people, that there is no despotism so stupendous but that against it they have a remedy.

Practical Exercises in Alligation.-LESSON 7.

(1) D would mix 20 lbs. of sugar at 15d a lb. with that which cost 16d, 18d, and 22d a lb. and sell the mixture at 17d a lb.; how much of each must he take?

Ans. 4 at 16d, 4 at 18d, and 8 at 22d.

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