10. But suppose this country broken up into contiguous nations, all speaking the same language, all enjoying unrestrained freedom of the press, and all giving utterance to their antipathies and recriminations in newspapers which would fly through all on the wings of the winds. Who can set bounds to the madness which such agents of mischief would engender? 11. Another source of discord, in case of our separation is almost too obvious to be mentioned. Once divided, we should form stronger bonds of union with foreign nations than with one another. Belligerents in the Old World would strive to enlist us in their quarrels. From disunion we should reap, in plentiful harvests, destructive enmities at home and degrading subserviency to the powers of Europe. 12. We pass to another topic, particularly worthy of notice. In case of separation, party spirit, the worst foe of free states, would rage more furiously in each of the new and narrower communities than it does now in our extensive Union; and this spirit would not only spread deadly hatred through each republic, but would perpetually embroil it with its neighbors. 13. We complain of party rage even now; but it is mild and innocent compared with what we should experience were our Union dissolved. Each republic would then be broken into factions, one in possession, and the other in pursuit of power, and both prepared to link themselves with the factions of their neighbors. Party spirit, when spread over a large country, is far less envenomed and ruinous than when shut up in small states. The histories of Greece and Rome are striking illustrations of this truth. 14. There is no need of exaggeration. We do dread separation as the greatest of political evils, with the single exception of slavery. Under the wise distribution of power in this country, we enjoy the watchful and minute protection of a local government with the immense advantage of a wide-spread community. Greater means of prosperity a people cannot enjoy. Let us not be defrauded of them by selfish or malignant passions. 15. Let us prize and uphold our National Government. Let us prize it as our bond of union; as that which constitutes us one people; as preserving the dif ferent States from mutual jealousies and wars, and from separate alliances with foreign nations; as mitigating party spirit; in one word, as perpetuating our peace. The sonnet is a little song or poem appropriately of fourteen ten-syllable lines, usually arranged and rhymed thus:-abba, abba, cdc, dcd; or abab, bcbc, dbd, bcc; or abab, bcbc, cbc, bdd; or abba, acca, dede, ff. This form of composition having been sometimes ridiculed, Words worth vindicates it in the following admirable specimen of the sonnet itself, where the rhymes are arranged according to the last-named formula. See in Index, FAIRY, WOUND, CAMÖENS, MILTON, PETRARCH, SHAKESPEARE, SPENSER, TASSO, WORDSWORTH. SCORN not the sonnet; critic, you have frowned, It cheered mild Spenser, called from fairy-land To struggle through dark ways; and, when a damp Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand The thing became a trumpet, whence he blew XIV. THE FORCE OF BREVITY. See in Index, INFANTILE, ÆSCHINES, CATILINE, CICERO, DEMOSTHENES. 1. BE brief. Come to the point. Begin very near where you intend to leave off. Brevity is the soul of wisdom as well as of wit. Without it you can seldom obtain hearers, much less be remembered. Ponderous things do not easily obtain currency. Only the gems of literature are treasured up and quoted and gems are not reckoned by gross weight. 2. How compact all that comes down to us from the olden times! In how few words we have the Commandments and the history of the creation, hardly embracing so many words as are now employed to welcome an alderman, or to make a complimentary present of a spoon ! 3. The efficacy and value of compression can scarcely be overrated. The common air, we beat aside with our breath, compressed, has the force of gunpowder, and will rend the solid rock; and so it is with language. Eloquence will never flourish in a country where the public taste is infantile enough to measure the value of a speech by the hours it occupies. 4. A gentle stream of persuasiveness may flow through the mind, and leave no sediment: let it come at a blow, as a cataract, and it sweeps all before it. It is by this magnificent compression that Cicero confounds Catiline, and Demosthenes overwhelms Eschines; by this that Mark Antony, as Shakespeare makes him speak, carries the heart away with a bad cause. 5. A clergyman once, being asked why he made his sermon so long, replied that he had n't had time to make it shorter. Do you say it costs labor to be brief? Of course it does. Mere words are cheap and plenty enough; but ideas that rouse, and set multitudes think ing, come as gold comes from the quarry. The language of strong passion is always terse and compressed. Genuine conviction uses few words. There is something of artifice in a long speech. XV. - LIONI AND BERTRAM. BYRON. The following extract is from the fifth act of Byron's tragedy of Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice. Lioni, a patrician Senator, is visited by Bertram whom he has befriended, and who comes to warn him against a conspiracy which is to involve the ruin of the principal men of the state. Pronounce MARINO FALIERO, ma-re'no fä-le-a'ro, LIONI, le-dne. See in Index, ERE, HUMBLE, PATRON, SAVIOUR or SAVIOR, SEPULCHRE or SEPULCHER, WONT, BYRON. Delivery. Much of the conversation of Bertram should be in the low aspirate and eager tone of a man who is imparting a secret on which life depends. Lioni's speeches should be mostly in the middle pitch, the force gentle, the quality pure, the tones subdued, as if modified by anxiety for the safety of Bertram. See §§ 53, 54. Lioni. Now, what would you at such an hour? Bert. A boon, my noble patron; you have granted Many to your poor client, Bertram; add This one, and make him happy. Lioni. I would promise Ere thy request was heard, but that the hour, Of suing, gives me to suspect this visit Hath some mysterious import; but say on- Mere things of every day! So thou hast not Bert. I come To save patrician blood, and not to shed it! Each minute lost may lose a life, since Time Has changed his slow scythe for the two-edged sword, The dust from sepulchres to fill his hour-glass! Lioni. Wherefore not? What means this menace? Bert. Do not seek its meaning, But do as I implore thee; stir not forth, Whate'er be stirring; though the roar of crowds The groans of men Ithe clash of arms the sound Of rolling drum, shrill trump, and hollow bell, Peal in one wide alǎrum! Go not forth Until the tocsin 's silent, nor even then Lioni. Again, what does this mean? by all Lioni. I am, indeed, already lost in wonder; Surely thou ravest! What have I to dread? Who are my foes? Or if there be such, why Art thou leagued with them! thou! or if so leagued, Why comest thou to tell me at this hour, And not before? Bert. I cannot answer this. Wilt thou go forth despite of this true warning? Lioni. I was not born to shrink from idle threats, The cause of which I know not: at the hour Be found among the absent. |