Memoria Technica.
Reading edition
NAMES AND ORDER OF THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
The Great Jehovah speaks to us
In Genesis and Exodus;
Leviticus and Numbers see
Followed by Deuteronomy.
Joshua and Judges sway the land,
Ruth gleans a sheaf with trembling hand;
Samuel and numerous Kings appear
Whose Chronicles we wondering hear.
Ezra and Nehemiah, now,
Esther the beauteous mourner show.
Job speaks in sighs, David in Psalms,
The Proverbs teach to scatter alms;
Ecclesiastes then comes on,
And the sweet Song of Solomon.
Isaiah, Jeremiah then
With Lamentations takes his pen,
Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea’s lyres
Swell Joel, Amos, Obadiah’s.
Next Jonas, Micah, Nahum come,
And lofty Habakkuk finds room—
While Zephaniah, Haggai calls,
Wrapt Zachariah builds his walls;
And Malachi, with garments rent,
Concludes the ancient Testament.
NAMES AND ORDER OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, wrote the life of their Lord;
The Acts, what Apostles accomplished, record;
Rome, Corinth, Galatus, Ephesus, hear
What Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians revere:
328Timotheus, Titus, Philemon, precede
The Epistle which Hebrews most gratefully read;
James, Peter, and John, with the short letter Jude,
The rounds of Divine Revelation conclude.
NAMES OF SHAKSPEARE’S PLAYS.
Omitting the Historical English Dramas, “quos versu dicere non est.”
Cymbeline, Tempest, Much Ado, Verona,
Merry Wives, Twelfth Night, As you Like it, Errors,
Shrew Taming, Night’s Dream, Measure, Andronicus,
Timon of Athens.
Winter’s Tale, Merchant, Troilus, Lear, Hamlet,
Love’s Labor, All’s Well, Pericles, Othello,
Romeo, Macbeth, Cleopatra, Cæsar,
Coriolanus.
ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS.
First William the Norman,
Then William his son;
Henry, Stephen, and Henry,
Then Richard and John.
Next Henry the Third,
Edwards one, two, and three;
And again, after Richard,
Three Henrys we see.
Two Edwards, third Richard,
If rightly I guess;
Two Henrys, sixth Edward,
Queen Mary, Queen Bess.
Then Jamie, the Scotchman,
Then Charles whom they slew,
Yet received after Cromwell
Another Charles too.
Next James the Second
Ascended the throne;
Then good William and Mary
Together came on.
Till, Anne, Georges four,
And fourth William all past,
God sent Queen Victoria:
May she long be the last!
PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES.
First stands the lofty Washington,
That nobly great, immortal one;
The elder Adams next we see,
And Jefferson comes number three;
329The fourth is Madison, you know,
The fifth one on the list, Monroe;
The sixth an Adams comes again,
And Jackson seventh in the train;
Van Buren eighth upon the line,
And Harrison counts number nine;
The tenth is Tyler in his turn,
And Polk eleventh, as we learn;
The twelfth is Taylor that appears;
The thirteenth, Fillmore fills his years;
Then Pierce comes fourteenth into view;
Buchanan is the fifteenth due;
The sixteenth Lincoln, foully slain;
The seventeenth was Johnson’s reign;
Then Grant was by the people sent
To be their eighteenth President.
THE DECALOGUE.
1. Have thou no Gods but me; 2. Nor graven type adore;
3. Take not my name in vain; ’twere guilt most sore:
4. Hallow the seventh day; 5. Thy parents’ honor love:
6. No murder do; 7. Nor thou adulterer prove:
8. From theft be pure thy hands; 9. No witness false, thy word:
10. Covet of none his house, wife, maid, or herd.
Worship to God—but not God graven—pay;
Blaspheme not; sanctify the Sabbath day;
Be honored parents; brother’s blood unshed;
And unpolluted hold the marriage bed;
From theft thy hand—thy tongue from lying—keep,
Nor covet neighbor’s home, spouse, serf, ox, sheep.
Thou no God shalt have but me;
Before no idol bow the knee;
Take not the name of God in vain;
Nor dare the Sabbath day profane;
Give both thy parents honor due;
Take heed that thou no murder do;
Abstain from words and deeds unclean;
Nor steal, though thou art poor and mean;
Nor make a willful lie, nor love it;
What is thy neighbor’s, do not covet.
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METRICAL GRAMMAR.
Three little words we often see
Are Articles, a, an and the.
A Noun’s the name of any thing,
As school, or garden, hoop, or swing.
Adjectives tell the kind of Noun,
As great, small, pretty, white, or brown.
Instead of Nouns the Pronouns stand—
Her fan, his face, my arm, your hand.
Verbs tell of something being done—
To read, write, count, sing, jump, or run.
How things are done the Adverbs tell,
As slowly, quickly, ill, or well.
Conjunctions join the words together,
As men and children, wind or weather.
The Preposition stands before
A Noun—as, in or through a door.
The Interjection shows surprise,
As Oh! how pretty, Ah! how wise.
The whole are called nine parts of Speech,
Which Reading, Writing, Speaking, teach.
NUMBER OF DAYS IN EACH MONTH.
One of the most useful lessons taught us in early life by arithmetical treatises, is that of Grafton’s well-known lines in his Chronicles of England, 1590. Sir Walter Scott, in conversation with a friend, adverted jocularly to that ancient and respectable but unknown poet, who had given us this formula:—
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
And all the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
Which has but twenty-eight, in fine,
Till Leap-Year gives it twenty-nine.
The form used by the Quakers runs thus:—
The fourth, eleventh, ninth and sixth
Have thirty days to each affixed;
Every other, thirty-one,
Except the second month alone.
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