Page:Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse.pdf/92

 variety. That it well expresses force and energy we see in the writings of Johnson, Young, and Milton; that it can move with ease, gracefulness, and beauty, Addison, Beattie, and Blair have taught us; while the innumerable works in the historic, poetical, and descriptive departments prove that it is endowed with native strength, and highly susceptible of ornament. Even in our own country, we have many writers, who understand and exemplify the peculiar refinements of their native language. The pages of Washington and Hamilton; of Ames, Franklin, and Ramsay, often exhibit those undefinable touches of simplicity and eloquence which are never attainable by ordinary writers.

We have often felt, my young friends, the fascination of sentiments clothed with elegance and sublimity; and though we do not ourselves aspire to those high departments of literature, still the art of writing our thoughts, with accuracy and facility, is an object worthy of our strict attention. To assist in this attempt rhetoricians have classified the various figures of speech, and given rules for metaphor, allegory, and personification, hyperbole, comparison, and apostrophy. But these technical terms, and amplifications, may be thus simplified for us females. To think with clearness and accuracy, and to express those thoughts concisely, and with that degree