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ada side, and, on the American, one hundred and sixty-four feet. The tumultuous roar of the rapids, previous to their descent, is drowned in the deep and solemn reverberation of their fearful plunge into the depths below, resembling, to one on the brink above, the hollow sound of subterranean thunder.

The mighty rush of the waters behind you, and the noise of the boiling abyss beneath, as you look down over the edge of the fearful precipice ;—the accumulated surplus waters of the long chain of lakes to the far West, supplied from hundreds of rivers and smaller streams, here converted into two broad, white, perpendicular columns of foam, the one spread out in the form of a crescent or horseshoe, six hundred yards fronting towards the east and north,—the other, a beautiful and regular convex curve, looking upwards and nearly confronting the former towards the north and west, three hundred yards in width;-between these a narrow and most beautiful sheet, separated from the main one by an islet on the American side of Goat Island, called the central fall ;— the foam of the boiling abyss below, rebounding far into the upper air, and falling in a continual shower of fine rain or mist;—when the sun shines, two or more rainbows, suspended over the awful gulf, like the Christian's hope, that gilds with rays, borrowed from the source of light, ‘the palpable obscure' of the grave;—the tranquil flow of the waters after they have passed the gulf, resembling the composed features of the shrouded sleeper, after having passed the agony of dissolution;-the perpendicular sides of the channel, nearly three hundred feet in height on either hand, composed of regular strata of lime-stone, forming a magnificent mausoleum for the sleeping waters, resting from their hurry and turmoil, previous to their burial here;—the little islet covered with evergreens, that cluster about the main central island, which stands like a fast anchored ship of the line, in the midst of a surrounding sea of foam and tumult, having her convoy of small craft about her ;—the deep shade and quiet in the midst of that island ;—the shrill cry of the white gulls, that hover above the deep abyss, to catch the fish that are killed by the dashing down of the torrent, when they are carried over, or venture too near the base of the cataract-that cry, mingling, like a sharp treble, with the awful swell of the full, deep organ, that peals its everlasting anthem to the praise of the Creator:-all these objects, filling to their utmost capacity the organs of vision and hearing, form together an assemblage of the sublime, the awful, the

grand, the terrific, and the beautiful, which cannot be found combined, with any approach to equality in any other spot upon the earth. As has been often remarked, the spectacle is unparalleled, indescribable, and unique.

The view which I have above essayed to give, combines the greatest number of the most striking features of this great spectacle; yet it was not the view that I first took of it, and which gave me the most vivid and profound impressions of its grandeur. I had heard, or read, that it depended much upon the point from which the first view and impres sion is taken, whether the visitor is disappointed or not; and to avoid all the lesser traits and impressions, I passed wide from the parts above, and went with my eyes averted down the ferry steps to a level with the water below, and then looked upward:-the sublime height, the vast volume of the foaming cataract, its plunge into the whirling depths below, the deafening roar of the waters, and the trembling of the ground on which I stood, impressed me with awe and wonder; and I experienced, in a degree I had never felt before, the emotion, described by rhetoricians, of the sublime bordering upon terror. I then crept up a cone-shaped mass of ice and snow, accumulated during the winter, to the height of thirty or forty feet, upon a rock that lies just at the edge of the boiling cauldron, into which the headlong torrent plunges, and looked down till I felt my brain begin to whirl at the view of the frightful abyss, where

'The tortured waters foam, and hiss, and boil,
In endless agony.'

I retreated from my perilous position, which had not been before attempted, I was told; and which, as I afterwards saw, was so undermined by the spray as to be in imminent danger of falling. Once more upon the level and firm ground, I stood in silent admiration and awe before the stupendous cataract. I looked westward to the broader sheet of foam; I heard it respond to the nearer thunder, where I stood, deep calling unto deep,' one answering to the other in everlasting response; and my thoughts were of the greatness and majesty of God.

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EXERCISE XXXV.-SOUTH CAROLINA.- -Haynes.

[Animated and impressive declamation, as in the following examples, requires close attention to vivid tone, effective emphasis, and earnest, impressive action.]

If there be one State in the Union, Mr. President,—and I say it not in a boastful spirit, that may challenge comparison with any other, for a uniform, zealous, ardent, uncalculating devotion to the Union, that State is South Carolina.

Sir, from the very commencement of the revolution, up to this hour, there is no sacrifice, however great, she has not cheerfully made; no service she has hesitated to perform. She has adhered to you, in your prosperity; but, in your adversity, she has clung to you, with more than filial affection.

No matter what was the condition of her domestic affairs, though deprived of her resources, divided by parties, or surrounded with difficulties, the call of the country has been to her as the voice of God. Domestic discord ceased at the sound;-every man became at once reconciled to his brethren; and the sons of Carolina were all seen crowding together to the temple, bringing their gift to the altar of their common country.

What, Sir, was the conduct of the South, during the revolution? Sir, I honour New England for her conduct in that glorious struggle. But great as is the praise which belongs to her, I think, at least, equal honour is due to the South. They espoused the quarrel of their brethren, with a generous zeal, which did not suffer them to stop to calculate their interests in the dispute.

Favourites of the mother country, possessed of neither ships nor seamen, to create a commercial relationship, they might have found in their situation, a guarantee that their trade would be forever fostered and protected by Great Britain. But, trampling on all consideration, either of interest or of safety, they rushed into the conflict; and fighting for principle, perilled all in the sacred cause of freedom.

Never were there exhibited in the history of the world, higher examples of noble daring, dreadful suffering, and heroic endurance than by the whigs of Carolina during the revolution. The whole State, from the mountains to the sea, was overrun by an overwhelming force of the enemy. The fruits of industry perished on the spot where they were produced, or were consumed by the foe. The 'plains of

Carolina' drank up the most precious blood of her citizens. Black and smoking ruins marked the places which had been the habitations of her children!

Driven from their homes into the gloomy and almost impenetrable swamps,-even there the spirit of liberty survived; and South Carolina, sustained by the example of her Sumpters and her Marions, proved by her conduct that though her soil might be overrun, the spirit of her people was invincible!

EXERCISE XXXVI.-NEW ENGLAND.—Cushing.

[See remarks introductory to EXERCISE XXXV.]

The gentleman from South Carolina taunts us with counting the costs of that war in which the liberties and honour of the country, and the interests of the North, as he asserts, were forced to go elsewhere for their defence. Will he sit down with me and count the cost now? Will he reckon up how much of treasure the State of South Carolina expended in that war, and how much the State of Massachusetts ?how much of the blood of either State was poured out on sea or land? I challenge the gentleman to the test of patriotism, which the army roll, the navy lists, and the treasury books, afford.

Sir, they who revile us for our opposition to the last war, have looked only to the surface of things. They little know the extremities of suffering, which the people of Massachusetts bore at that period, out of attachment to the Union,their families beggared, their fathers and sons bleeding in camps, or pining in foreign prisons. They forget that not a field was marshalled on this side of the mountains, in which the men of Massachusetts did not play their part, as became their sires, and their blood fetched from mettle of war proof.' They battled and bled, wherever battle was fought or blood drawn.

Nor only by land. I ask the gentleman, Who fought your naval battles in the last war? Who led you on to victory after victory, on the ocean and the lakes? Whose was the triumphant prowess before which the Red Cross of England paled with unwonted shames? Were they not men of New England? Were these not foremost in those maritime encounters which humbled the pride and power of Great Britain ?

I appeal to my colleague before me from our common

county of brave old Essex,-I appeal to my respected colleagues from the shores of the Old Colony. Was there a village or a hamlet on Massachusetts Bay, which did not gather its hardy seamen to man the gun-decks of your ships of war? Did they not rally to the battle, as men flock to a feast?

In conclusion, I beseech the House to pardon me, if I may have kindled, on this subject, into something of unseemly ardour. I cannot sit tamely by, in humble acquiescent silence, when reflections, which I know to be unjust, are cast on the faith and honour of Massachusetts.

Had I suffered them to pass without admonition, I should have deemed that the disembodied spirits of her departed children, from their ashes mingled with the dust of every stricken field of the revolution,-from their bones mouldering to the consecrated earth of Bunker's Hill, of Saratoga, of Monmouth, would start up in visible shape before me, to cry shame on me, their recreant countryman.

Sir, I have roamed through the world, to find hearts nowhere warmer than hers, soldiers nowhere braver, patriots nowhere purer, wives and mothers nowhere truer, maidens nowhere lovelier, green valleys and bright rivers nowhere greener or brighter; and I will not be silent, when I hear her patriotism or her truth questioned with so much as a whisper of detraction. Living, I will defend her; dying, I would pause in my last expiring breath, to utter a prayer of fond remembrance for my native New England.

EXERCISE XXXVII.- -NOON.-Bryant.

[The beautiful and profound repose, described in the following lines, should be carefully preserved in a low, subdued, and slow utterance, with lengthened pauses. But while the stillness of the scene is maintained, in the gentleness of the tone, the voice should never flatten into insipidity, feebleness, or monotony.]

'Tis noon.-At noon the Hebrew bowed the knee,
And worshipped, while the husbandman withdrew
From the scorched field, and the wayfaring man
Grew faint, and turned aside by bubbling fount,
Or rested in the shadow of the palm.

I, too, amid the overflow of day
Behold the power which wields and cherishes
The frame of Nature. From this brow of rock,
That overlooks the Hudson's western marge,

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