3.

Now o'er the one-half world
Nature seems dead; and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's off'rings; and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch,--thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost.--Thou sure and firm-set earth!
Hear not my, steps, which way they walk; for fear
The very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror for the time
Which now suits with it.

_Shakespeare._




CHAPTER VII.

TIME.


The varieties of movement in utterance are expressed by Time, which is the
measure of the duration of the sounds heard in speech, and it is divided
into three general divisions; viz.--Moderate, Quick and Slow time, these
being sub-divided by the reader, according to the predominate feeling which
the subject seems to require.