DIRECTIONS FOR USING CAPITAL LETTERS.

It is proper to begin with a capital,

1.  The first word of every sentence.

2.  Proper names, the appellations of the Deity, &c.; as, “James, Cincinnati, the Andes, Huron;” “God, Jehovah, the Almighty the Supreme Being, Providence, the Holy Spirit.”

3.  Adjectives derived from proper names, the titles of books, nouns which are used as the subject of discourse, the pronoun I and the interjection O, and every line in poetry; as, “American, Grecian, English, French; Irving’s Sketch Book, Percival’s Poems; I write; Hear, O earth!”

APPENDIX.

VERSIFICATION.

POETRY is the language of passion, or of enlivened imagination.

VERSIFICATION, in English, is the harmonious arrangement of a particular number and variety of accented and unaccented syllables, according to particular laws.

RHYME is the correspondence of the sound of the last syllable in one line, to the sound of the last syllable in another; as,

  “O’er the glad waters of the dark-blue sea,
  “Our thoughts as boundless and our souls as free.”

BLANK VERSE consists in poetical thoughts expressed in regular numbers, but without the correspondence of sound at the end of the lines which constitutes rhyme.

POETICAL FEET consist in a particular arrangement and connexion of a number of accented and unaccented syllables.

They are called feet, because it is by their aid that the voice, as it were, steps along through the verse in a measured pace.

All poetical feet consist either of two, or of three syllables; and are reducible to eight kinds; four of two syllables, and four of three, as follows: 

DISSYLLABLE.  TRISYLLABLE. 
A Trochee — u A Dactyle — u u
An Iambus u — An Amphibrach u — u
A Spondee — — An Anapaest u u —
A Pyrrhic u u A Tribrach u u u

A Trochee has the first syllable accented, and the last unaccented; as,
Hateful, pettish: 

Restless mortals toil for naught.

An Iambus has the first syllable unaccented, and the last accented; as,
Betray, consist: 

The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay.

A Dactyle has the first syllable accented, and the two latter unaccented; as, Laborer, possible: 

From the low pleasures of this fallen nature.

An Anapaest has the first two syllables unaccented, and the last accented; as, Contravene, acquiesce: 

at the close of the day when the hamlet is still.

A Spondee; as, The pale moon:  a Pyrrhic; as, on the tall tree:  an Amphibrach; as, Delightful:  a Tribrach; as, Numerable.

RHETORIC.