Diligence, industry, and proper improvement of time, are material duties
of the young.
He is generous, just, charitable, and humane.
By wisdom, by art, by the united strength of a civil community, men have
been enabled to subdue the whole race of lions, bears, and serpents.
[Sometimes a comma must be read like a question.]
Do you pretend to sit as high in school as Anthony? Did you read as
correctly, articulate as distinctly, speak as loudly, or behave as
well, as he?
Did he recite his lesson correctly, read audibly, and appear to
understand what he read?
Was his copy written neatly, his letters made handsomely, and did no
blot appear on his book?
Was his wealth stored fraudfully, the spoil of orphans wronged, and
widows who had none to plead their rights?
Have not you, too, gone about the earth like an evil genius, blasting
the fair fruits of peace and industry?
Is that a map which you have before you, with the leaves blotted with
ink?
Will you say that your time is your own, and that you have a right to
employ it in the manner you please?
[Sometimes a comma is to be read like a period, with
the falling inflection of the voice.]
The teacher directed him to take his seat, to study his lesson, and to
pass no more time in idleness.
It is said by unbelievers that religion is dull, unsocial, uncharitable,
enthusiastic, a damper of human joy, a morose intruder upon human
pleasure.
Charles has brought his pen instead of his pencil, his paper instead of
his slate, his grammar instead of his arithmetic.
Perhaps you have mistaken sobriety for dullness, equanimity for
moroseness, disinclination to bad company for aversion to society,
abhorrence of vice for uncharitableness, and piety for enthusiasm.
Henry was careless, thoughtless, heedless, and inattentive.
[Sometimes the comma is to be read like an
exclamation.]
O, how can you destroy those beautiful things which your father procured
for you! that beautiful top, those polished marbles, that excellent
ball, and that beautiful painted kite,--oh, how can you destroy them,
and expect that he will buy you new ones!
O, how canst thou renounce the boundless store of charms that Nature to
her votary yields! the warbling woodland, the resounding shore, the pomp
of groves, the garniture of fields, all that the genial ray of morning
gilds, and all that echoes to the song of even, all that the mountain's
sheltering bosom shields, and all the dread magnificence of heaven, oh,
how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven!
[Sometimes the comma, and other marks, are to be read
without any pause or inflection of the voice.]
You see, boys, what a fine school-room we have, in which you can pursue
your studies.
You see, my son, this wide and large firmament over our heads, where the
sun and moon, and all the stars, appear in their turns.
Therefore, my child, fear, and worship, and love God.
He that can read as well as you can, James, need not be ashamed to read
aloud.
He that can make the multitude laugh and weep as you can, Mr.
Shakspeare, need not fear scholars.
[Sometimes the pause of a comma must be made where
there is no pause in your book. Spaces are left, in the
following sentences, where the pause is proper.]
James was very much delighted with
the picture which he saw.
The Europeans were hardly less amazed
at the scene now before them.
The inhabitants were entirely naked.
Their black hair, long and curled, floated
upon their shoulders, or was bound in tresses
around their head.
Persons of reflection and sensibility
contemplate with interest the scenes of
nature.
The succession and contrast of the seasons
give scope to that care and foresight,
diligence and industry, which are
essential to the dignity and enjoyment
of human beings.
[The pupil may read the following sentences; but before
reading them, he may tell after what word the pause
should be made. The pause is not printed in the
sentences, but it must be made when reading them. And
here it may be observed, that the comma is more
frequently used to point out the grammatical divisions
of a sentence than to indicate a rest or cessation of
the voice. Good reading depends much upon skill and
judgment in making those pauses which the sense of the
sentence dictates, but which are not noted in the book;
and the sooner the pupil is taught to make them, with
proper discrimination, the surer and the more rapid
will be his progress in the art of reading.]
While they were at their silent meal a horseman came galloping to the
door, and, with a loud voice, called out that he had been sent express
with a letter to Gilbert Ainslee.
The golden head that was wont to rise at that part of the table was now
wanting.
For even though absent from school I shall get the lesson.
For even though dead I will control the trophies of the capitol.
It is now two hundred years since attempts have been made to civilize
the North American savage.
Doing well has something more in it than the fulfilling of a duty.
You will expect me to say something of the lonely records of the former
races that inhabited this country.
There is no virtue without a characteristic beauty to make it
particularly loved by the good, and to make the bad ashamed of their
neglect of it.
A sacrifice was never yet offered to a principle, that was not made up
to us by self-approval, and the consideration of what our degradation
would have been had we done otherwise.
The following story has been handed down by family tradition for more
than a century.
The succession and contrast of the seasons give scope to that care and
foresight, diligence and industry, which are essential to the dignity
and enjoyment of human beings, whose happiness is connected with the
exertion of their faculties.
A lion of the largest size measures from eight to nine feet from the
muzzle to the origin of the tail, which last is of itself about four
feet long. The height of the larger specimens is four or five feet.
The following anecdote will show with what obstinate perseverance
pack-horses have been known to preserve the line of their order.
Good-morning to you, Charles! Whose book is that which you have under
your arm?
A benison upon thee, gentle huntsman! Whose towers are these that
overlook the wood?
The incidents of the last few days have been such as will probably never
again be witnessed by the people of America, and such as were never
before witnessed by any nation under heaven.
To the memory of Andre his country has erected the most magnificent
monuments, and bestowed on his family the highest honors and most
liberal rewards. To the memory of Hale not a stone has been erected, and
the traveler asks in vain for the place of his long sleep.