monument of human invention, that has thus triumphed
over wind and wave; has brought the ends of the earth in communion; has
established an interchange of blessings, pouring into the sterile
regions of the north all the luxuries of the south; diffused the light
of knowledge and the charities of cultivated life; and has thus bound
together those scattered portions of the human race, between which
Nature seemed to have thrown an insurmountable barrier!

LESSON LX.

_The Colon._

THE COLON consists of two periods placed one above the other, thus =:=

Sometimes the passage ending with a colon is to be read with the voice
suspended; but it should generally be read with the falling inflection
of the voice.

The general rule, when you come to a colon, is to stop just long enough
to count three; or three times as long as you are directed to pause at a
comma.

EXAMPLES.

Law and order are forgotten: violence and rapine are abroad: the golden
cords of society are loosed.

The temples are profaned: the soldier's curse resounds in the house of
God: the marble pavement is trampled by iron hoofs: horses neigh beside
the altar.

Blue wreaths of smoke ascend through the trees, and betray the
half-hidden cottage: the eye contemplates well-thatched ricks, and barns
bursting with plenty: the peasant laughs at the approach of winter.

[The following passages ending with a colon are to be
read with the voice suspended:]

Do not flatter yourselves with the hope of perfect happiness: there is
no such thing in the world.

A boy at school is by no means at liberty to read what books he pleases:
he must give attention to those which contain his lessons; so that, when
he is called upon to recite, he may be ready, fluent, and accurate, in
repeating the portion assigned him.

As we perceive the shadow to have moved along the dial, but did not
perceive its moving; and it appears that the grass has grown, though
nobody ever saw it grow: so the advances we make in knowledge, as they
consist of such minute steps, are perceivable only by the distance gone
over.

When the proud steed shall know why man restrains his fiery course, or
drives him o'er the plains; when the dull ox, why now he breaks the
clod, is now a victim, and now Egypt's god: then shall man's pride and
dullness comprehend his actions', passions', being's use and end.

Jehovah, God of hosts, hath sworn, saying: Surely, as I have devised, so
shall