Or, Conscience, duty, and religion. Concluding, of three particulars— Industry is the law of our being; it is the demand of nature, of reason, and of God. Or, It is the demand of nature, of reason, and of God. Commencing and concluding, of four particu lars 1 He who resigns the world has no temptation to envy, hatred, malice, or anger, but is in constant possession of a serene mind; he who follows the pleasures of it, which are in their very nature disappointing, is in constant search of care, solicitude, remorse, and confusion. COMPOUND SERIES. Commencing, of two members Moderate exercise and habitual temperance strength en the constitution. Concluding, of two members Nothing tends more powerfully to strengthen the constitution, than moderate exercise and habitual tem perance. To advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, and comfort the afflicted, are duties which fall in our way almost every day of our lives. Concluding, of three members It was necessary for the world, that arts should be invented and improved, books written and transmitted to posterity, nations conquered and civilized. She appears to have possessed a truly noble mind, a solid understanding, an amiable and a benevolent temper. Commencing, of four members Labour or exercise ferments the humours, casts them into the proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigour, nor the soul act with cheerfulness. Concluding, of four members Notwithstanding all the pains which Cicero took in the education of his son, history informs us, that young Marcus proved a mere blockhead; and that nature (who it seems was even with the son for her prodigality to the father) rendered him incapable of im proving by all the rules of eloquence, the precepts of philosophy, his own endeavours, and the most refined conversation of Athens. The table of inflections given above, comprises all the most common forms in which the series occurs. When it extends to more particulars, or more members than four, the following rules are to be observed: A simple series of more than four particulars, may be divided into portions of three from the last, or into portions, the particulars of which more immediately relate to each other; and these portions, considered together as entire related members, are to be inflected like the members of a compound series; considered singly, they are to be inflected as simple series, according to their number of particulars: thus, Commencing Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, are the fruits of the spirit, and against such there is no law. Concluding The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.-Galatians v. 22, 23. A compound series of more than four members, must have the falling inflection on all of them, except the last, if it be a commencing, or the last but one if it be a concluding series: thus, Commencing The character of Mr. Coke was no sooner known to him, than it won his warmest admiration. His sincerity and manly frankness, his ardent love of liberty, the consistent tenor of his long public life, his attachment to agricultural pursuits, his open hospitality, and his truly friendly heart, were qualities which could not fail to attract Mr. Roscoe's regard.-Life of Roscoe. Concluding The essential characters of good writing, respecting the thoughts, ideas, or sentiments, are, that they be consonant to nature, clearly conceived, agreeably diversified, regularly connected, and adapted to some good end. In the first part of this sentence there is a simple commencing series of three: thoughts, ideas, or sentiments. Let the compound series contained in these two passages be read with rising instead of falling inflections, and every one will perceive how much they lose in point of spirit and effect. The student will easily apply these rules to what may be called a mixed series, that is, one of which the parts are so classed together by conjunctions, that they naturally fall into distinct portions, each consisting of a series of particulars or of members. This form of sentence is generally called the series of series. Of this we have an apposite example in Romans viii. 38, 39: For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This sentence naturally falls into five distinct portions of similar or opposite words, which portions are here represented in so many separate lines. These portions, taken together, may be considered as forming a compound commencing series of five members, and accordingly have the falling inflection on all except the last; taken singly they are all, except the third, series of particulars: the first must be inflected like a concluding series of two, the second of three, the the third and fourth of two, and the fifth, though |