Page:Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse.pdf/91

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sion by the thought of meeting, in the silence of your apartment, a condemning, or an applauding judge, an image of that tribunal before which we must all stand at the great day of scrutiny.







ON COMPOSITION.


ONE of the most important branches of a regular education, is the art of writing accurately the thoughts that arise in our minds. This exercise can scarcely be commenced loo early, or practised too much, for it continually excites new ideas, and aids the mind in the progress of knowledge. Its first requisite is to acquire a habit of reflection; its next, to array those reflections in a suitable garb. "Without the first, the most ornamented style is weak and deficient; without the last, the most just and noble sentiments often lose their effect. Our native tongue, though inferior to the ancient languages in sublimity, and to some of the modern ones in harmony, admits of many degrees of refinement, elegance, and