Of the origin of speech or language. .......... Blair. 146 Of the invention of writing .................... Blair. 149 Advantages of speech and writing compared .... Blair. 151 Of the English language and grammar... ...... Lowth. 153 Of precision in writing ........................ Bluir. 158 of purity and propriety of language :... ....... Blair. 161 Instances to show the necessity of attending to the exact import of words if we would write with propriety and precision ................................ Blair. 163 On epistolary writing ........................ Blair. 168 On the decorations and ornaments of style ...... Felton, 173 On metaphors and similitudes ............... Felton. 175 What metaphors are best...................... Harris. 177 On punctuation .......... ............. Lowth. 181 Benefits resulting from the study of the liberal arts and of the Oriental, the Latin, and the Greek languages. How the Latin and Greek authors should be read. Felton. 205 Morals of the ancient classics ............. Blackwall. 207 Peculiar excellence of the speeches of the Greeks and Ro- mans ............................... Blackwall. 212 On the art of eloquence...................... Browne. 213 The art of eloquence rarely attained ........... Hume 216 How Demosthenes acquired the art of eloquence. Rollin. 219 How the art of eloquence was acquired by Cicero. Rollin. 223 Rise and progress of criticism ............... Harris. 231 Advice to a beginner in the art of criticism .... Harris. 232 Criticism: an allegory ...................... Johnson. 233 Of the origin of poetry ............ ............ Blair. 236 of the rise of poetry among the Romans .......Spence. 239 The business and qualifications of a poet...... Johnson. 242 Remarks on some of the best poets ancient and modern. Remarks on some of the best English dramatic poets. Ou sculpture and painting .......... ........ Usher. 257 On arebitecture ........................... Usher. 261 To a poetical friend advising him to study the mathema- tics .................................... Surage. 263 Our natural fondness for history and its true use. The study of history recommended to females... Hume. 269 Further advantages of studying history ........ Hume. 270 On sense, taste, and genius.................... Usher. 272 ELEGANT EXTRACTS, FROM THE MOST · EMINENT PROSE WRITERS: BOOK III. PRECEPTIVE: AS RELATING TO MO RALS AND EDUCATION. A FATHER'S ADVICE TO HIS SON. FIRST, my beloved child, worship and adore God think of him magnificently, speak of him reverently, magnify his providence, adore his power, frequent his service, and pray to him constantly. Next to this, love your neighbour, which is all mankind, with such tenderness and affection as., you love yourself; think how God loves all mankind, how merciful he is to them, how tender he is of them, how. carefully he preserves them; and, then strive to love your fellow-creatures as God loves them. Let truth and sincerity be the only ornament. YOL. 11. of your language; and study to think of all things as they deserve. Let your dress be sober, clean, and modest. In your meat and drink observe the rules of christian temperance and sobriety : consider your body as only the servant of your soul; and only Ronrish the one so as it may best perform a humble and obedient service to the other. Let every day be a day of humility; relieve the wants and rejoice in the prosperity of your fellow-creatures : compassionate their distress, overtook their unkindness, and forgive their malice. The time of practising these precepts, my child, will soon be over with you: the world will soon slip through your hands, or rather you will soon slip through it: it seems but the other day when I received these same instructions from my dear father, that I am now leaving with you. Law. THE MIND SHOULD HABITUATE ITSELF EARLY TO SERIOUS THOUGHT. As soon as you are capable of reflection, you must perceive that there is a right and wrong in human actions. You see that those who are born with the same advantages of fortune, are not all equally prosperous in the course of life. While some of them, by wise and steady conduct, attain distinction in the world, and pass their days with comfort and honour; others of the same rank, by mean and vicious behaviour, forfeit the advantages of their birth, involve themselves in much misery, and end in being a disgrace to their friends, and a burden on society. Early, then, you may learn that it is not on the external condition in which you find yourselves placed, but on the part which you are to act, that your welfare or unhappiness, your honour or infamy, depend, Now, when beginning to act that part, what can be of greater moment than to regulate your plan of conduct with the most serious attention, before you have yet committed any fatal or irretrievable errours ? If, instead of exerting reflection for this valuable purpose, you deliver yourselves up, at so critical a time, to sloth and pleasure; if you refuse to listen to any counsellor but humour, or to attend to any pursuit except that of amusement; if you allow yourselves to float loose and careless on the tide of life, ready to receive any direction which the current of fashion may chance to give you; what can you expect to follow from such beginnings ? While so many around you are undergoing the sad consequences of a like indiscretion, for what reason shall not these consequences extend to you? Shall you only attain success without that preparation, and escape dangers without that precaution, which is required of others? Shall happiness grow up to you of its own accord, and solicit your acceptance, when, to the rest of mankind, it is the fruit of long cultivatiou, and the acquisition of labour and care?-Deceive not yourselves with such arrogant hopes. Whatever be your rank, Providence will not, for your sake, reverse its established order. By listening to wise admonitions, and tempering the vivacity of youth, with a proper mixture of serious thought, |