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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16751-doc.doc b/16751-doc.doc Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..355f688 --- /dev/null +++ b/16751-doc.doc diff --git a/16751-doc.zip b/16751-doc.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8fd680f --- /dev/null +++ b/16751-doc.zip diff --git a/16751-pdf.pdf b/16751-pdf.pdf Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0700700 --- /dev/null +++ b/16751-pdf.pdf diff --git a/16751-pdf.zip b/16751-pdf.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8dfa111 --- /dev/null +++ b/16751-pdf.zip diff --git a/16751.txt b/16751.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..502df96 --- /dev/null +++ b/16751.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17574 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader +by William Holmes McGuffey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader + +Author: William Holmes McGuffey + +Release Date: September 26, 2005 [EBook #16751] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MCGUFFEY'S SIXTH ECLECTIC READER *** + + + + +Produced by Don Kostuch + + + + + +[Transcriber's Notes: +Welcome to the schoolroom of 1900. The moral tone is plain. +"She is kind to the old blind man." + +The exercises are still suitable, and perhaps more helpful than some +contemporary alternatives. Much is left to the teacher. Explanations given +in the text are enough to get started teaching a child to read and write. +Counting in Roman numerals is included as a bonus in the form of lesson +numbers. + +The form of contractions includes a space. The contemporary word "don't" +was rendered as "do n't". + +The author, not listed in the text, is William Holmes McGuffey. + +Passages using non-ASCI characters are approximately rendered in this text +version. See the PDF or DOC versions for the original images. + +The section numbers are decimal in the Table of Contents but are in +Roman Numerals in the body. + +Page headings are removed, but section titles are followed by the page on +which they appear. + +Many items include a preceding biography of the author. This is ended with +three pound symbols. ### + +Don Kostuch +end transcriber's notes] + + + +[Illustration: Picture of a young woman and a trunk.] + +She sits, inclining forward as to speak, +Her lips half-open, and her finger up, +As though she said, "Beware!" + +(Item XCV. Ginevra) + + +ECLECTIC EDUCATIONAL SERIES. + + + +McGUFFEY'S SIXTH ECLECTIC READER. + +REVISED EDITION. + +McGuffey Editions and Colophon are Trademarks of + + +JOHN WILEY & SONS. INC. + +NEW YORK-CHICHESTER-BRISBANE-SINGAPORE-TORONTO + + + +SUPPLEMENTARY READING FOR +GRAMMAR AND HIGH SCHOOL GRADES +ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS. + +Arnold's (Matthew) Sohrab and Rustum +Burke's Conciliation with the American Colonies +Carlyle's Essay on Burns +Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner +Defoe's History of the Plague in London +De Quincey's Revolt of the Tartars +Emerson's The American Scholar, Self-Reliance and Compensation +Franklin's Autobiography +"George Eliot's" Silas Marner +Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield +Irving's Sketch Book (Ten Selections) +Irving's Tales of a Traveler +Macaulay's Second Essay on Chatham +Macaulay's Essay on Milton +Macaulay's Essay on Addison +Macaulay's Life of Johnson +Milton's L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus Lycidas, +Milton's Paradise Lost, Books I and. II +Pope's Homer's Iliad, Books I, VI, XXII, XXIV, +Scott's Ivanhoe +Scott's Marmion +Scott's Lady of the Lake +Scott's The Abbot +Scott's Woodstock. +Shakespeare's Julius Caesar +Shakespeare's Twelfth Night +Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice +Shakespeare's Midsummer-Night's Dream +Shakespeare's As You Like It +Shakespeare's Macbeth +Shakespeare's Hamlet, +Sir Roger de Coverley Papers (The Spectator), +Southey's Life of Nelson +Tennyson's The Princess, +Webster's (Daniel) Bunker Hill Orations, +----- +Sent, postpaid on receipt of price. + + +COPYRIGHT, 1879, BY VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG & COMPANY COPYRIGHT, +1896, BY AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. +COPYRIGHT, 1907 AND 1921, BY HENRY H. VAIL. + +M'G REV. 6TH EC. +EP 118 + + + +Preface (3) + +In the SIXTH READER, the general plan of the revision of McGUFFEY'S SERIES +has been carefully carried out to completion. + +That plan has been to retain, throughout, those characteristic features of +McGUFFEY'S READERS, which have made the series so popular, and caused +their widespread use throughout the schools of the country. At the same +time, the books have been enlarged; old pieces have been exchanged for new +wherever the advantage was manifest; and several new features have been +incorporated, which it is thought will add largely to the value of the +series. + +In the revision of the SIXTH READER, the introductory matter has been +retained with but little change, and it will he found very valuable for +elocutionary drill. In the preparation of this portion of the work, free +use was made of the writings of standard authors upon Elocution, such as +Walker, McCulloch, Sheridan Knowles, Ewing, Pinnock, Scott, Bell, Graham, +Mylins, Wood, Rush, and many others. + +In making up the Selections for Reading, great care and deliberation have +been exercised. The best pieces of the old book are retained in the +REVISED SIXTH, and to the these been added a long list of selections from +the best English and American literature. Upwards of one hundred leading +authors are represented (see "Alphabetical List. of Authors," page ix), +and thus a wide range of specimens of the best style has been secured. +Close scrutiny revealed the fact that many popular selections common to +several series of Readers, had been largely adapted, but in McGUFFEY'S +REVISED READERS, wherever it was possible to do so, the selections have +been compared, and made to conform strictly with the originals as they +appear in the latest editions authorized by the several writers. + +The character of the selections, aside from their elocutionary value, has +also been duly considered. It will be found, upon examination, that they +present the same instructive merit and healthful moral tone which gave the +preceding edition its high reputation. + +Two new features of the REVISED SIXTH deserve especial attention--the +explanatory notes, and the biographical notices of authors. The first, in +the absence of a large number of books of reference, are absolutely +necessary, in some cases, for the intelligent reading of the piece; and it +is believed that in all cases they will add largely to the interest and +usefulness of the lessons. + +The biographical notices, if properly used, are hardly of less value than +the lessons themselves. They have been carefully prepared, and are +intended not only to add to the interest of the pieces, but to supply +information usually obtained only by the separate study of English and +American literature. + +The illustrations of the REVISED SIXTH READER are presented as specimens +of fine art. They are the work of the best artists and engravers that +could be secured for the purpose in this country. The names of these +gentlemen may be found on page ten. + +The publishers would here repeat their acknowledgments to the numerous +friends and critics who have kindly assisted in the work of revision, and +would mention particularly President EDWIN C. HEWETT, of the State Normal +University, Normal, Illinois, and the HON. THOMAS W. HARVEY, of +Painesville, Ohio, who have had the revision of the SIXTH READER under +their direct advice. + +Especial acknowledgment is due to Messrs. Houghton, Osgood & Co., for +their permission to make liberal selections from their copyright editions +of many of the foremost American authors whose works they publish. +January, 1880. + + + +CONTENTS (5) + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +SUBJECT. PAGE +I. ARTICULATION 11 +II. INFLECTION 18 +III. ACCENT AND EMPHASIS 33 +IV. INSTRUCTIONS FOR READING VERSE 39 +V. THE VOICE 40 +VI. GESTURE 55 + + + +SELECTIONS FOR READING. (5) + +TITLE. AUTHOR. PAGE. + 1. Anecdote of the Duke of Newcastle Blackwood's Magazine. 63 + 2. The Needle Samuel Woodworth. 67 + 3. Dawn Edward Everett. 68 + 4. Description of a Storm Benjamin Disraeli. 70 + 5. After the Thunderstorm James Thomson. 72 + 6. House Cleaning Francis Hopkinson. 73 + 7. Schemes of Life often Illusory Samuel Johnson. 78 + 8. The Brave Old Oak Henry Fothergill Chorley. 81 + 9. The Artist Surprised 82 + 10. Pictures of Memory Alice Cary. 88 + 11. The Morning Oratorio Wilson Flagg. 90 + 12. Short Selections in Poetry: + + I. The Cloud John Wilson. 94 + II. My Mind William Byrd. 94 + III. A Good Name William Shakespeare. 95 + V. Sunrise James Thomson. 95 + V. Old Age and Death Edmund Waller. 95 + VI. Milton John Dryden. 96 + + 13. Death of Little Nell Charles Dickens. 96 + 14. Vanity of Life Johann Gottfried von Herder. 100 + 15. A Political Pause Charles James Fox 102 + 16. My Experience in Elocution John Neal. 104 + 17. Elegy in a Country Churchyard Thomas Gray. 108 + 18. Tact and Talent 113 + 19. Speech before the Virginia Convention Patrick Henry. 115 + 20. The American Flag Joseph Rodman Drake. 119 + 21. Ironical Eulogy on Debt 121 + 22. The Three Warnings Hester Lynch Thrale. 124 + 23. The Memory of Our Fathers Lyman Beecher. 128 + 24. Short Selections in Prose: + I. Dryden and Pope Samuel Johnson. 130 + II. Las Casas Dissuading from Battle R.B. Sheridan. 130 + III. Action and Repose John Ruskin. 131 + IV. Time and Change Sir Humphry Davy. 131 + V. The Poet William Ellery Channing. 132 + VI. Mountains William Howitt. 132 + 25. The Jolly Old Pedagogue George Arnold. 133 + 26. The Teacher and Sick Scholar. Charles Dickens. 135 + 27. The Snow Shower William Cullen Bryant. 141 + 28. Character of Napoleon Bonaparte Charles Phillips. 143 + 29. Napoleon at Rest John Pierpont. 146 + 30. War Charles Sumner. 148 + 31. Speech of Walpole in Reproof of Mr. Pitt Sir R. Walpole. 151 + 32. Pitt's Reply to Sir Robert Walpole William Pitt. 152 + 33. Character of Mr. Pitt Henry Grattan. 154 + 34. The Soldier's Rest Sir Walter Scott. 156 + 35. Henry V. to his Troops William Shakespeare. 158 + 36. Speech of Paul on Mars' Hill Bible. 160 + 37. God is Everywhere Joseph Hutton. 161 + 38. Lafayette and Robert Raikes Thomas S. Grimke'. 163 + 39. Fall of Cardinal Wolsey William Shakespeare. 167 + 40. The Philosopher John P. Kennedy. 171 + 41. Marmion and Douglas Sir Walter Scott. 176 + 42. The Present Adelaide Anne Procter. 178 + 43. The Baptism John Wilson. 180 + 44. Sparrows Adeline D. Train Whitney. 185 + 45. Observance of the Sabbath Gardiner Spring. 186 + 46. God's Goodness to Such as Fear Him Bible. 189 + 47. Character of Columbus Washington Irving. 192 + 48. "He Giveth His Beloved Sleep." Elizabeth B. Browning. 195 + 49. Description of a Siege Sir Walter Scott 197 + 50. Marco Bozzaris Fitz-Greene Halleck. 202 + 51. Song of the Greek Bard Lord George Gordon Byron. 205 + 52. North American Indians Charles Sprague. 209 + 53. Lochiel's Warning Thomas Campbell. 211 + 54. On Happiness of Temper Oliver Goldsmith. 215 + 55. The Fortune Teller Henry Mackenzie. 218 + 56. Renzi's Address to the Romans Mary Russell Mitford. 221 + 57. The Puritan Fathers of New England F. W. P. Greenwood. 223 + 58. Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers Felicia Dorothea Hemans. 226 + 59. Necessity of Education Lyman Beecher. 228 + 60. Riding on a Snowplow Benjamin Franklin Taylor. 231 + 61. The Quarrel of Brutus and Cassius William Shakespeare. 284 + 62. The Quack John Tobin. 238 + 63. Rip Van Winkle Washington Irving. 242 + 64. Bill and Joe Oliver Wendell Holmes. 240 + 65. Sorrow for the Dead Washington Irving. 249 + 66. The Eagle James Gates Percival. 251 + 67. Political Toleration Thomas Jefferson. 253 + 68. What Constitutes a State? Sir William Jones. 255 + 69. The Brave at Home Thomas Buchanan Read. 256 + 70. South Carolina Robert Young Hayne. 257 + 71. Massachusetts and South Carolina Daniel Webster. 259 + 72. The Church Scene from Evangeline H. W. Longfellow. 262 + 73. Song of the Shirt Thomas Hood. 266 + 74. Diamond cut Diamond. E'douard Rene' Lefebvre-Laboulaye. 269 + 75. Thanatopsis William Cullen Bryant. 275 + 76. Indian Jugglers William Hazlitt. 278 + 77. Antony over Caesar's Dead Body William Shakespeare. 281 + 78. The English Character William Hickling Prescott. 286 + 79. The Song of the Potter. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.290 + 80. A Hot Day in New York William Dean Howells. 292 + 81. Discontent.--An Allegory Joseph Addison. 295 + 82. Jupiter and Ten. James T. Fields. 301 + 83. Scene from "The Poor Gentleman" George Colman. 303 + 84. My Mother's Picture William Cowper. 310 + 85. Death of Samson John Milton. 312 + 86. An Evening Adventure 315 + 87. The Barefoot Boy John Greenleaf Wittier. 317 + 88. The Glove and the Lions James Henry Leigh Hunt. 321 + 89. The Folly of Intoxication William Shakespeare. 322 + 90. Starved Rock Francis Parkman. 325 + 91. Prince Henry and Falstaff. William Shakespeare. 327 + 92. Studies. Sir Francis Bacon. 332 + 93. Surrender of Granada. Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. 334 + 94. Hamlet's Soliloquy. William Shakespeare. 339 + 95. Ginevra Samuel Rogers. 340 + 96. Inventions and Discoveries John Caldwell Calhoun. 344 + 97. Enoch Arden at the Window Alfred Tennyson. 347 + 98. Lochinvar Sir Walter Scott. 350 + 99. Speech on the Trial of a Murderer Daniel Webster. 352 +100. The Closing Year George Denison Prentice. 355 +101. A New City in Colorado Helen Hunt Jackson. 358 +102. Importance of the Union Daniel Webster. 362 +103. The Influences of the Sun John Tyndall. 364 +104. Colloquial Powers of Franklin William Wirt. 366 +105. The Dream of Clarence William Shakespeare. 368 +106. Homeward Bound Richard H. Dana, Jr. 371 +107. Impeachment of Warren Hastings T. B. Macaulay. 375 +108. Destruction of the Carnatic Edmund Burke. 379 +109. The Raven Edgar Allan Poe. 382 +110. A View of the Colosseum Orville Dewey. 389 +111. The Bridge Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.392 +112. Objects and Limits of Science Robert Charles Winthrop. 394 +113. The Downfall of Poland. Thomas Campbell. 396 +114. Labor Horace Greeley. 398 +115. The Last Days of Herculaneum Edwin Atherstone. 401 +116. How Men Reason Oliver Wendell Holmes. 405 +117. Thunderstorm on the Alps Lord Byron. 408 +118. Origin of Property Sir William Blackstone. 410 +119. Battle of Waterloo Lord Byron. 415 +120. "With Brains, Sir" John Brown. 417 +121. The New England Pastor Timothy Dwight. 410 +122. Death of Absalom Bible. 420 +123. Abraham Davenport John Greenleaf Whittier. 424 +124. The Falls of the Yosemite Thomas Starr King. 426 +125. A Psalm of Life Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.429 +126. Franklin's Entry into Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin. 431 +127. Lines to a Waterfowl William Cullen Bryant. 434 +128. Goldsmith and Addison William Makepeace Thackeray. 435 +129. Immortality of the Soul Joseph Addison. 438 +130. Character of Washington Jared Sparks. 440 +131. Eulogy on Washington Henry Lee. 444 +132. The Solitary Reaper William Wordsworth. 446 +133. Value of the Present Ralph Waldo Emerson. 447 +134. Happiness Alexander Pope. 451 +135. Marion William Gilmore Simms. 453 +136. A Common Thought Henry Timrod. 456 +137. A Definite Aim in Reading Noah Porter. 457 +138. Ode to Mt. Blanc Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 462 + + +ALPHABETICAL LIST OF AUTHORS. (9) + + + NAME PAGE NAME PAGE + 1. ADDISON, JOSEPH 295, 438 38. GOLDSMITH 215 + 2. ARNOLD. GEORGE 133 39. GRATTAN. HENRY 154 + 3. ATHERSTONE. EDWIN 401 40. GRAY, THOMAS 108 + 4. BACON, SIR FRANCIS 332 41. GREELEY, HORACE 398 + 5. BEECHER, LYMAN 128, 228 42. GREENWOOD, F. W. P. 223 + 6. BIBLE, THE 160, 189, 420 43. GRIMKE. THOMAS S. 163 + 7. BLACKSTONE, SIR WILLIAM 410 44. HALLECK. FITZ-GREEN 202 + 8. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE 63 45. HAYNE, ROBERT YOUNG 257 + 9. BROWN, JOHN 417 46. HAZLITT, WILLIAM 278 +10. BROWNING, ELIZABETH B. 195 47. HEMANS, FALICIA D. 226 +11. BRYANT 141, 275, 434 48. HENRY, PATRICK 115 +12. BULWER-LYTTON 334 19. HOLMES 246, 405 +13. BURKE, EDMUND 379 50. HOOD, THOMAS 266 +14. BYRD, WILLIAM 94 51. HOPKINSON, FRANCIS 73 +15. BYRON 205, 408, 415 52. HOWELLS. W. D. 292 +16. CALHOUN, JOHN C. 344 53. HOWITT, WILLIAM 132 +17. CAMPBELL, THOMAS 211, 396 54. HUNT, LEIGH 321 +18. CARY, ALICE 88 55. HUTTON, JOSEPH 161 +19. CHANNING, WILLLIAM ELLERY 132 56. IRVING 192, 212, 249 +20. CHORLEY, H. F. 81 57. JACKSON, HELEN HUNT 358 +21. COLRIDGE. 462 58. JEFFERSON, THOMAS 253 +22. COLMAN, GEORGE 303 59. JOHNSON, SAMUEL 78, 130 +23. COWPER 310 60. JONES, SIR WILLIAM 255 +24. DANA, RICHARD H. JR. 371 61. KENNEDY, JOHN P. 171 +25. DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY 131 62. KING, THOMAS STARR 426 +26. DEWEY, ORVILLE 389 63. LEE, HENRY 444 +27. DICKENS 96, 135 64. LEFEBVRE-LABOULAYE 269 +28. DISRAELI, BENJAMIN 70 65. LONGFELLOW 262,290,392,429 +29. DRAKE, JOSEPH RODMAN 119 66. MACAULAY 375 +30. DRYDEN 96 67. MACKENZIE. HENRY 218 +31. DWIGHT, TIMOTHY 419 68. MILTON 312 +32. EMERSON 447 69. MITFORD, MARY RUSSELL 221 +33. EVERETT 68 70. NEAL, JOHN 104 +34. FIELDS. JAMES T. 301 71. PARKMAN. FRANCIS 325 +35. FLAGG, WILSON 90 72. PERCIVAL, J. G 251 +36. FOX, CHARLES JAMES 102 73. PHILLIPS. CHARLES 143 +37. FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN 431 74. PIERPONT, JOHN 146 + + + NAME PAGE NAME PAGE +75. PITT 152 93. TAYLOR, B. F, 231 +76. POE, EDGAR ALLAN 382 94. TENNYSON 347 +77. POPE 451 95. THACKERAY 435 +78, PORTER, NOAH 457 96. THOMSON, JAMES 72, 95 +79. PRENTICE, GEO. D. 355 97. THRALE. HESTER LYNCH 124 +80. PRESCOTT 286 98. TIMROD, HENRY 456 +81. PROCTER, ADELAIDE ANNE l78 99. TOBIN, JOHN 238 +82. READ, T. B. 256 100. TYNDALL 364 +83. ROGERS, SAMUEL 340 101. VON HERDER. J. G. 100 +84. RUSKIN, JOHN 131 102. WALLER, EDMUND 95 +85. SCOTT 156,176,197,350 103. WALPOLE 151 +86. SHAKESPEARE. 95, 158, 167 104. WEBSTER 259, 352, 362 + 234, 281, 322, 327, 339, 368 105. WHITNEY, ADELINE D. T. 185 +87. SHERMAN, R. B. 130 106. WHITTIER 317, 424 +88. SIMMS, WILLIAM GILMORE 453 107. WILSON, JOHN 94, 180 +89. SPARKS, JARED 440 108. WINTHROP, R.C. 394 +90. SPRAGUE, CHARLES 209 109. WIRT, WILLIAM 366 +91. SPRING, GARDINER 186 110. WOODWORTH, SAMUEL 67 +92. SUMNER 148 111. WORDSWORTH 440 + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. (10) + Page Drawn by Engraved by + +GINEVRA Frontspiece H. F. Farney. Timothy Cole. + +DUKE OF NEWCASTLE 65 H. F. Farney. F.Juengling + +GRAY'S ELEGY 112 Thomas Moran. Henry Bogert. + +MARMION 177 C. S. Reinhart. J. G. Smithwick. + +THE QUACK 240 Howard Pyle. J. P. Davis. + +DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND 272 Alfred Kappes. Timothy Cole. + +THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS 321 H. F. Farney. Smithwick and French. + +HERCULANEUM 401 Charles D. Sauerwein. Francis S. King. + + +INTRODUCTION. (11) + + +The subject of Elocution, so far as it is deemed applicable to a work of +this kind, will be considered under the following heads, viz: + + +1. ARTICULATION. 4. READING VERSE. +2. INFLECTION. 5. THE VOICE. +3. ACCENT AND EMPHASIS. 6. GESTURE. + + + +I. ARTICULATION. (11) + +Articulation is the utterance of the elementary sounds of a language, and +of their combinations. + +As words consist of one or more elementary sounds, the first object of the +student should he to acquire the power of uttering those sounds with +distinctness, smoothness, and force. This result can be secured only by +careful practice, which must be persevered in until the learner has +acquired a perfect control of his organs of speech. + + + +ELEMENTARY SOUNDS. (12) + +An Elementary Sound is a simple, distinct sound made by the organs of +speech. + +The Elementary Sounds of the English language are divided into Vocals, +Subvocals, and Aspirates. + + + +VOCALS. (12) + +Vocals are sounds which consist of pure tone only. They are the most +prominent elements of all words, and it is proper that they should first +receive attention. A vocal may be represented by one letter, as in the +word hat, or by two or more letters, as in heat, beauty. A diphthong is a +union of two vocals, commencing with one and ending with the other. It is +usually represented by two letters, as in the words oil, boy, out, now. + +Each of these can he uttered with great force, so as to give a distinct +expression of its sound, although the voice be suddenly suspended, the +moment the sound is produced. This is done by putting the lips, teeth, +tongue, and palate in their proper position, and then expelling each sound +from the throat in the same manner that the syllable "ah!" is uttered in +endeavoring to deter a child from something it is about to do; thus, +a'--a'--a'--. + +Let the pupil he required to utter every one of the elements in the Table +with all possible suddenness and percussive force, until he is able to do +it with ease and accuracy. This must not he considered as accomplished +until he can give each sound with entire clearness, and with all the +suddenness of the crack of a rifle. Care must be taken that the vocal +alone be heard; there must be no consonantal sound, and no vocal sound +other than the one intended. + +At first, the elementary sounds may be repeated by the class in concert; +then separately. + + + +TABLE OF VOCALS. (13) + +Long Sounds. + +Sound as in + +a hate +e err +a hare +i pine +a pass +o no +a far +oo cool +a fall +u tube +e eve +u burn + + +Short Sounds. + +Sound as in + +a mat +o hot +e met +oo book +i it +u us + + +Diphthongs. +oi, oy, as in oil, boy. +ou, ow, as in out, now. + + +REMARK I.--In this table, the short sounds are nearly or quite the same, +in quantity, as the long sounds. The difference consists chiefly in +quality. Let the pupil determine this fact by experiment. + +REMARK II.--The vocals are often represented by other letters or +combinations of letters than those used in the table: for instance, a is +represented by ai as in hail, by ea as in steak, etc. + +REMARK III.--As a general rule, the long vocals and the diphthongs should +be articulated with full, clear utterance; but the short vocals have a +sharp, distinct, and almost explosive utterance. Weakness of speech +follows a failure to observe the first point, while drawling results from +carelessness with respect to the second. + + + +SUBVOCALS AND ASPIRATES (13) + +Subvocals are those sounds in which the vocalized breath is more or less +obstructed. + +Aspirates consist of breath only, modified by the vocal organs. + +Words ending with subvocal sounds may be selected for practice on the +subvocals; words beginning or ending with aspirate sounds may be used for +practice on aspirates. Pronounce these words forcibly and distinctly, +several times in succession; then drop the other sounds, and repeat the +subvocals and aspirates alone. Let the class repeat the words and +elements, at first, in concert; then separately. + + + +TABLE OF SUBVOCALS AND ASPIRATES. (14) + +Subvocals. as in + +b babe +d bad +g nag +j judge +v move +th with +z buzz +z azure (azh-) +w wine + +Aspirates. as in + +p rap +t at +k book +ch rich +f life +th smith +s hiss +sh rush +wh what + + +REMARK.--These eighteen sounds make nine pairs of cognates. In +articulating the aspirates, the vocal organs are put in the position +required in the articulation of the corresponding subvocals; but the +breath is expelled with some force, without the utterance of any vocal +sound. The pupil should first verify this by experiment, and then practice +on these cognates. + +The following subvocals and aspirate have no cognates: + +SUBVOCAL as in + +l mill +ng sing +m rim +r rule +n run +y yet + + + +ASPIRATE. + +h, as in hat. + + + +SUBSTITUTES. (14) + +Substitutes are characters used to represent sounds ordinarily represented +by other characters. + +TABLE OF SUBSTITUTES. +Sub for as in + +a o what +y i hymn +e a there +c s cite +e a freight +c k cap +i e police +ch sh machine +i e sir +ch k chord +o u son +g j cage +o oo to +n ng rink +o oo would +s z rose +o a corn +s sh sugar +o u worm +x gz examine +u oo pull +gh f laugh +u oo rude +ph f sylph +y i my +qu k pique +qu kw quick + + + +FAULTS TO BE REMEDIED. (15) + +The most common faults of articulation are dropping an unaccented vowel, +sounding incorrectly an unaccented vowel, suppressing final consonants, +omitting or mispronouncing syllables, and blending words. + + +1. Dropping an unaccented vocal. + +EXAMPLES. + +CORRECT INCORRECT + +gran'a-ry gran'ry +a-ban'don a-ban-d'n +im-mor'tal im-mor-t'l +reg'u-lar reg'lar +in-clem'ent in-clem'nt +par-tic'u-lar par-tic'lar +des'ti-ny des-t'ny +cal-cu-la'tian cal-cl'a-sh'n +un-cer'tain un-cer-t'n +oc-ca'sion oc-ca-sh'n +em'i-nent em'nent +ef'i-gy ef'gy +ag'o-ny ag'ny +man'i-fold man'fold +rev'er-ent rev'rent +cul'ti-vate cult'vate + + +2. Sounding incorrectly an unaccented vowel. + +EXAMPLES. + +CORRECT INCORRECT + +lam-en-ta'-tion lam-un-ta-tion +ter'ri-ble ter-rub-ble +e-ter'nal e-ter-nul +fel'on-y fel-er-ny +ob'sti-nate ob-stun-it +fel'low-ship fel-ler-ship +e-vent' uv-ent +cal'cu-late cal-ker-late +ef'fort uf-fort +reg'u-lar reg-gy-lur + + +EXERCISES. (16) + +The vocals most likely to be dropped or incorrectly sounded are +italicized. + + He attended divine service regularly. + This is my particular request. + She is universally esteemed. + George is sensible of his fault. + This calculation is incorrect. + What a terrible calamity. + His eye through vast immensity can pierce. + Observe these nice dependencies. + He is a formidable adversary. + He is generous to his friends. + A tempest desolated the land. + He preferred death to servitude. + God is the author of all things visible and invisible. + + +3. Suppressing the final subvocals or aspirates. + +EXAMPLE (16) + + John an' James are frien's o' my father. + Gi' me some bread. + The want o' men is occasioned by the want o' money. + We seldom fine' men o' principle to ac' thus. + Beas' an' creepin' things were foun' there. + + +EXERCISES. (17) + + He learned to write. + The masts of the ship were cast down. + He entered the lists at the head of his troops. + He is the merriest fellow in existence. + I regard not the world's opinion. + He has three assistants. + The depths of the sea. + She trusts too much to servants. + His attempts were fruitless. + He chanced to see a bee hovering over a flower. + + +4. Omitting or mispronouncing whole syllables. + +EXAMPLES. + +Correct is improperly pronounced + +Lit'er-ar-ry lit-rer-ry +co-tem'po-ra-ry co-tem-po-ry +het-er-o-ge'ne-ous het-ro-ge-nous +in-quis-i-to'ri-al in-quis-i-to-ral +mis'er-a-ble mis-rer-ble +ac-com'pa-ni-ment ac-comp-ner-ment + + +EXERCISE + + He devoted his attention chiefly to literary pursuits. + He is a miserable creature. + His faults were owing to the degeneracy of the times. + The manuscript was undecipherable. + His spirit was unconquerable. + Great industry was necessary for the performance of the task. + + +5. Blending the end of one word with the beginning of the next. + +EXAMPLES + + I court thy gif sno more. + The grove swere God sfir stemples. + My hear twas a mirror, that show' devery treasure. + It reflecte deach beautiful blosso mof pleasure. + Han d'me the slate. + This worl dis all a fleeting show, + For man' sillusion given. + + +EXERCISES. (18) + + The magistrates ought to arrest the rogues speedily. + The whirlwinds sweep the plain. + Linked to thy side, through every chance I go. + But had he seen an actor in our days enacting Shakespeare. + What awful sounds assail my ears? + We caught a glimpse of her. + Old age has on their temples shed her silver frost. + Our eagle shall rise mid the whirlwinds of war, + And dart through the dun cloud of battle his eye. + Then honor shall weave of the laurel a crown, + That beauty shall bind on the brow of the brave. + + + +II. INFLECTION. (18) + +Inflection is a bending or sliding of the voice either upward or downward. + +The upward or rising inflection is an upward slide of the voice, and is +marked by the acute accent, thus, ('); as, + + Did you call'? Is he sick'? + +The downward or falling inflection is a downward slide of the voice, and +is marked by the grave accent, thus, ('); as, + + Where is London'? Where have you been'? + +Sometimes both the rising and falling inflections are given to the same +sound. Such sounds are designated by the circumflex, thus, (v) or thus, +(^). The former is called the rising circumflex; the latter, the falling +circumflex; as, + + But nobody can bear the death of Clodius. + +When several successive syllables are uttered without either the upward or +downward slide, they are said to be uttered in a monotone, which is marked +thus, (--); as, + + Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll + +EXAMPLES. (19) + + Does he read correctly' or incorrectly'? + +In reading this sentence, the voice should slide somewhat as represented +in the following diagram: + + Does he read cor-rectly or incorrect-ly? + + + If you said vinegar, I said sugar, + +To be read thus: + + If you said vinegar, I said sugar, + + + If you said yes, I said no. + +To be read thus: + + If you said yes, I said no. + + + What! did he say no? + +To be read thus: + + What! did he say no? + + + He did'; he said no', + +To be read thus; + + He did; he said no. + + + Did he do it voluntarily', or involuntarily'? + +To be read thus: + + Did he do it voluntarily, or involuntarily? + + + He did it voluntarily', not involuntarily', + +To be read thus: + + He did it voluntarily, not involuntarily. + + + +EXERCISES. (20) + +Do they act prudently', or imprudently'? + +Are they at home', or abroad'? + +Did you say Europe', or Asia'? + +Is he rich', or poor'? + +He said pain', not pain'. + +Are you engaged', or at leisure'? + +Shall I say plain', or pain'? + +He went home' not abroad'. + +Does he say able', or table'? + +He said hazy' not lazy'? + +Must I say flat', or flat'? + +You should say flat' not flat'. + +My father', must I stay'? + +Oh! but he paused upon the brink. + +It shall go hard with me, but I shall use the weapon. + +Heard ye those loud contending waves, + That shook Cecropia's pillar'd state'? +Saw ye the mighty from their graves + Look up', and tremble at your fate'? + +First' Fear', his hand, its skill to try', + Amid the chords bewildered laid'; +And back recoiled', he knew not why' + E'en at the sound himself had made'. + + +Where be your gibes' now? your gambols'? your songs'? your flashes of +merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar'? + +Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is +Holy; "I dwell in the high and holy place." + + + +FALLING INFLECTION. (21) + +RULE I.--Sentences, and parts of sentences which make complete sense in +themselves, require the falling inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (21) + +1. By virtue we secure happiness'. + +2. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven': I will +exalt my throne above the stars of God': I will sit, also, upon the mount +of the congregation, in the sides of the north'. + +3. The wind and the rain are over'; calm is the noon of the day\: the +clouds are divided in heaven'; over the green hills flies the inconstant +sun'; red through the stormy vale comes down the stream'. + +4. This proposition was, however, rejected,' and not merely rejected, but +rejected with insult'. + +Exception.--Emphasis sometimes reverses this rule, and requires the rising +inflection, apparently for the purpose of calling attention to the idea of +an unusual manner of expressing it. + +EXAMPLES. (21) + +1. I should not like to ride in that car'. +2. Look out! A man was drowned there yesterday'. +3. Presumptuous man! the gods' take care of Cato', + + +RULE II.--The language of emphasis generally requires the falling +inflection. + +EXAMPLES. (22) + +1. Charge', Chester, charge'; on', Stanley, on'. + +2. Were I an American, as I am an Englishman, while a single' foreign +troop' remained' in my country, I would never' lay down my arms'--never', +never', never.' + +3. Does anyone suppose that the payment of twenty shillings, would have +ruined Mr. Hampden's fortune? No'. But the payment of half twenty +shillings, on the principle' it was demanded, would have made him a +slave'. + +4. I insist' upon this point': I urge' you to it; I press' it, demand' it. + +5. All that I have', all that I am', and all that I hope' in this life, I +am now ready', here, to stake' upon it. + + +RULE III.--Interrogative sentences and members of sentences, which +can not be answered by yes or no, generally require the falling inflection. + +EXAMPLE. (22) + +1. How many books did he purchase'? + +2. Why reason ye these things in your hearts'? + +3. What see' you, that you frown so heavily to-day'? + +4. Ah! what is that flame which now bursts on his eye'? + +5. Whence this pleasing hope', this fond desire', + This longing after immortality'? + + +Exception.--When questions usually requiring the falling inflection are +emphatic or repeated, they take the rising inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (22) + +1. Where did you say he had gone'? + +2. To whom did you say the blame was to be imputed'? + +3. What is' he? A knave. What' is he? A knave, I say. + + +RISING INFLECTION. (23) + +RULE IV.--The rising inflection is generally used where the sense is +dependent or incomplete. + +REMARK.--This inflection is generally very slight, requiring an acute and +educated ear to discern it, and it is difficult to teach pupils to +distinguish it, though they constantly use it. Care should be taken not to +exaggerate it. + +EXAMPLES. (23) + +1. Nature being exhausted', he quietly resigned himself to his fate. + +2. A chieftain to the Highlands bound', + Cries', "Boatman, do not tarry!" + +3. As he spoke without fear of consequences', so his actions were +marked with the most unbending resolution, + +4. Speaking in the open air', at the top of the voice', is an admirable +exercise. + +5. If then, his Providence' out of our evil, seek to bring forth good', our +labor must be to prevent that end. + +6. He', born for the universe', narrowed his mind, + And to party gave up what was meant for mankind. + + +REMARK.--The names of persons or things addressed, when not used +emphatically, are included in this rule. + +7. Brother', give me thy hand; and, gentle Warwick!, + Let me embrace thee in my weary arms. + +8. O Lancaster', I fear thy overthrow. + +9. Ye crags' and peaks', I'm with you once again. + +Exception 1.--Relative emphasis often reverses this and the first rule, +because emphasis is here expressed in part by changing the usual +inflections. + +EXAMPLES. (23) + +1. If you care not for your property', you surely value your life'. + +2. If you will not labor for your own' advancement, you should regard +that of your children'. + +3. It is your place to obey', not to command'. + +4. Though by that course he should not destroy his reputation', he will +lose all self-respect'. + +Exception 2.--The names of persons addressed in a formal speech, or +when used emphatically, have the falling inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (24) + +1. Romans, countrymen, and lovers', hear me for my cause, etc. + +2. Gentlemen of the jury', I solicit your attention, etc. + +3. O Hubert', Hubert', save me from these men. + + +RULE V.--Negative sentences and parts of sentences, usually require +the rising inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (24) + +1. It is not by starts of application that eminence can be attained'. + +2. It was not an eclipse that caused the darkness at the crucifixion of +our Lord'; for the sun and moon were not relatively in a position' to +produce an eclipse'. + +3. They are not fighting': do not disturb' them: this man is not expiring +with agony': that man is not dead': they are only pausing'. + +4. My Lord, we could not have had such designs'. + +5. You are not left alone to climb the steep ascent': God is with you, who +never suffers the spirit that rests on him to fail. + + +Exception 1.--Emphasis may reverse this rule. + + +EXAMPLE. (24) + +We repeat it, we do not' desire to produce discord; we do not' wish to +kindle the flames of a civil war. + + +Exception 2.--General propositions and commands usually have the +falling inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (25) + +God is not the author of sin'. Thou shalt not kill. + +RULE VI.--Interrogative sentences, and members of sentences which +can be answered by yes or no generally require the rising inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (25) + +1. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation'? + +2. Does the gentleman suppose it is in his power', to exhibit in Carolina +a name so bright' as to produce envy' in my bosom? + +3. If it be admitted, that strict integrity is not the shortest way to +success, is it not the surest', the happiest', the best'? + +4. Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens, To wash this crimson +hand as white as snow'? + +Exception.--Emphasis may reverse this rule. + + +EXAMPLES. (25) + +1, Can' you be so blind to your interest? Will' you rush headlong to +destruction? + +2. I ask again, is' there no hope of reconciliation? Must' we abandon all +our fond anticipations? + +3. Will you deny' it? Will you deny' it? + +4. Am I Dromio'? Am I your man'? Am I myself'? + + +RULE VII.--Interrogative exclamations, and words repeated as a kind +of echo to the thought, require the rising inflection. + +EXAMPLES. (25) + +1. Where grows', where grows it not'? + +2. What'! Might Rome have been taken'? Rome taken when I was consul'? + +3. Banished from Rome'! Tried and convicted traitor'! + +4. Prince Henry. What's the matter'? + + Falstaff. What's the matter'? Here be four of us + have taken a thousand pounds this morning. + + Prince H. Where is' it, Jack, where is' it? + + Fal. Where is' it? Taken from us, it is. + +5. Ha'! laughest thou, Lochiel, my vision to scorn? + +6. And this man is called a statesman. A statesman'? Why, he never +invented a decent humbug. + +7. I can not say, sir, which of these motives influence the advocates of +the bill before us; a bill', in which such cruelties are proposed as are +yet unknown among the most savage nations. + + +RISING AND FALLING INFLECTIONS. (26) + +RULE VIII.--Words and members of a sentence expressing antithesis +or contrast, require opposite inflections. + +EXAMPLES. (26) + +1. By honor' and dishonor'; by evil' report and good' report; as +deceivers' and yet true'. + +2. What they know by reading', I know by experience'. + +3. I could honor thy courage', but I detest thy crimes'. + +4. It is easier to forgive the weak', who have injured us', than the +powerful' whom we' have injured. + +5. Homer was the greater genius', Virgil the better artist'. + +6. The style of Dryden is capricious and varied'; that of Pope is cautious +and uniform'. Dryden obeys the emotions of his own mind'; Pope constrains +his mind to his own rules of composition.' Dryden is sometimes vehement +and rapid'; Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle'. Dryden's page is +a natural field, rising into inequalities, varied by exuberant +vegetation'; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe and leveled by +the roller'. + +7. If the flights of Dryden are higher', Pope continues longer on the +wing'. If the blaze of Dryden's fire is brighter', the heat of Pope's is +more regular and constant'. Dryden often surpasses' expectation, and Pope +never falls below' it. + +REMARK l.--Words and members connected by or used disjunctively, generally +express contrast or antithesis, and always receive opposite inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (27) + +1. Shall we advance', or retreat'? + +2. Do you seek wealth', or power'? + +3. Is the great chain upheld by God', or thee'? + +4. Shall we return to our allegiance while we may do so with safety and +honor', or shall we wait until the ax of the executioner is at our +throats'? + +5. Shall we crown' the author of these public calamities with garlands', +or shall we wrest' from him his ill-deserved authority' ? + +REMARK 2.--When the antithesis is between affirmation and negation, the +latter usually has the rising inflection, according to Rule V. + + +EXAMPLES. (27) + +1. You were paid to fight' against Philip, not to rail' at him. + +2. I said rationally', not irrationally'. + +3. I did not say rationally', but irrationally'. + +4. I said an elder' soldier, not a better'. + +5. Let us retract while we can', not when we must'. + +REMARK 3.--The more emphatic member generally receives the +falling inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (27) + +1. A countenance more in sorrow', than anger'. + +2. A countenance less in anger', than sorrow'. + +3. You should show your courage by deeds', rather than by words. + +4. If we can not remove' pain, we may alleviate' it. + + + +OF SERIES. (28) + +A series is a number of particulars immediately following one another +in the same grammatical construction. + +A commencing series is one which commences a sentence or clause. + + +EXAMPLE. (28) + +Faith, hope, love, joy, are the fruits of the spirit. + +A concluding series is one which concludes a sentence or a clause. + + +EXAMPLE. (28) + +The fruits of the spirit are faith, hope, love, and joy. + +RULE IX.--All the members of a commencing series, when not emphatic, +usually require the rising inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (28) + +1. War', famine', pestilence', storm', and fire' besiege mankind. + +2. The knowledge', the power', the wisdom', the goodness' of God, must all +be unbounded. + +3. To advise the ignorant', to relieve the needy', and to comfort the +afflicted' are the duties that fall in our way almost every day of our +lives. + +4. No state chicanery', no narrow system of vicious politics', no idle +contest for ministerial victories', sank him to the vulgar level of the +great. + +5. For solidity of reasoning', force of sagacity', and wisdom of +conclusion', no nation or body of men can compare with the Congress at +Philadelphia. + +6. The wise and the foolish', the virtuous and the evil', the learned and +the ignorant', the temperate and the profligate', must often be blended +together. + +7. Absalom's beauty', Jonathan's love', David's valor', Solomon's wisdom', +the patience of Job, the prudence of Augustus', and the eloquence of +Cicero' are found in perfection in the Creator. + + +REMARK.--Some elocutionists prefer to give the falling inflection to the +last member of a commencing series. + +Exception.--In a commencing series, forming a climax, the last term +usually requires the falling inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (29) + +1. Days', months', years', and ages', shall circle away, + And still the vast waters above thee shall roll. + +2. Property', character', reputation', everything', was sacrificed. + +3. Toils', sufferings', wounds', and death' was the price of our liberty. + + +RULE X.--All the members of a concluding series, when not at all emphatic, +usually require the falling inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (29) + +1. It is our duty to pity', to support', to defend', and to relieve' the +oppressed. + +2. At the sacred call of country, they sacrifice property', ease', +health', applause' and even life'. + +3. I protest against this measure as cruel', oppressive', tyrannous', and +vindictive'. + +4. God was manifest in the flesh', justified in the Spirit', seen of +angels', preached unto the Gentiles', believed on in the world', received +up into glory'. + +5. Charity vaunteth not itself', is not puffed up', doth not behave itself +unseemly', seeketh not her own', is not easily provoked', thinketh no +evil'; beareth' all things, believeth' all things, hopeth' all things, +endureth' all things. + +REMARK.--Some authors give the following rule for the reading of a +concluding series: "All the particulars of a concluding series, except the +last but one, require the falling inflection." Exception l.--When the +particulars enumerated in a concluding series are not at all emphatic, all +except the last require the rising inflection. + + +EXAMPLES (30) + +He was esteemed for his kindness', his intelligence', his self-denial', +and his active benevolence'. + +Exception 2.--When all the terms of a concluding series are strongly +emphatic, they all receive the falling inflection. + +EXAMPLES. (30) + +1. They saw not one man', not one woman', not one child', not one +four-footed beast'. + +2. His hopes', his happiness', his life', hung upon the words that fell +from those lips, + +3. They fought', they bled', they died', for freedom. + + + +PARENTHESIS. (30) + +RULE XI.--A parenthesis should be read more rapidly and in a lower key +than the rest of the sentence, and should terminate with the same +inflection that next precedes it. If, however, it is complicated, or +emphatic, or disconnected from the main subject, the inflections must be +governed by the same rules as in the other cases. + +REMARK.--A smooth and expressive reading of a parenthesis is difficult of +acquisition, and can be secured only by careful and persistent training. + + +EXAMPLES. (30) + +1. God is my witness' (whom I serve with my spirit, in the gospel of his +Son'), that, without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers; +making request' (if, by any means, now at length, I might have a +prosperous journey by the will of God'), to come unto you. + +2. When he had entered the room three paces, he stood still; and laying +his left hand upon his breast' (a slender, white staff with which he +journeyed being in his right'), he introduced himself with a little story +of his convent. + +3. If you, AEschines, in particular, were persuaded' (and it was no +particular affection for me, that prompted you to give up the hopes, the +appliances, the honors, which attended the course I then advised; but the +superior force of truth, and your utter inability to point any course more +eligible') if this was the case, I say, is it not highly cruel and unjust +to arraign these measures now, when you could not then propose a better? + +4. As the hour of conflict drew near' (and this was a conflict to be +dreaded even by him'), he began to waver, and to abate much of his +boasting. + + + +CIRCUMFLEX. (31) + +RULE XII.--The circumflex is used to express irony, sarcasm, hypothesis, +or contrast. + +NOTE.--For the reason that the circumflex always suggests a double or +doubtful meaning, it is appropriate for the purposes expressed in the +rule. It is, also, frequently used in sportive language; jokes and puns +are commonly given with this inflection. + + +EXAMPLES. (31) + +1. Man never is, but always to be, blest. + +2. They follow an adventurer whom they fear; we serve a monarch whom we +love. They boast, they come but to improve our state, enlarge our +thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error. Yes, they will give +enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves the slaves of +passion, avarice, and pride. They offer us their protection: yes, such +protection as vultures give to lambs, covering and devouring them. + + + +MONOTONE. (32) + +RULE XIII.--The use of the monotone is confined chiefly to grave and +solemn subjects. When carefully and properly employed, it gives great +dignity to delivery. + + +EXAMPLES. (32) + +1. The unbeliever! one who can gaze upon the sun, and moon, and stars, and +upon the unfading and imperishable sky, spread out so magnificently above +him, and say, "All this is the work of chance!" + +2. God walketh upon the ocean. Brilliantly + The glassy waters mirror back his smiles; + The surging billows, and the gamboling storms + Come crouching to his feet. + +3. I hail thee, as in gorgeous robes, + Blooming thou leav'st the chambers of the east, + Crowned with a gemmed tiara thick embossed + With studs of living light. + +4. High on a throne of royal state, which far + Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, + Or where the gorgeous east, with richest hand + Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, + Satan exalted sat. + +5. His broad expanded wings + Lay calm and motionless upon the air, + As if he floated there without their aid, + By the sole act of his unlorded will. + +6. In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds + On half the nations, and with fear of change + Perplexes monarchs. + + + +III. ACCENT AND EMPHASIS. (33) + +ACCENT. + +That syllable in a word which is uttered more forcibly than the others, is +said to be accented, and is marked thus, ('); as the italicized syllables +in the following words: + +morn'ing. pos'si-ble. +ty'rant. re-cum'bent. +pro-cure'. ex-or'bi-tant, +de-bate'. com-pre-hen'sive. + +Common usage alone determines upon what syllable the accent should be +placed, and to the lexicographer it belongs, to ascertain and record its +decision on this point. + +In some few cases, we can trace the reasons for common usage in this +respect. In words which are used as different parts of speech, or which +have different meanings, the distinction is sometimes denoted by changing +the accent. + + +EXAMPLES. (33) + + sub'ject sub-ject' + pres'ent pre-sent' + ab'sent ab-sent' + cem'ent ce-ment' + con'jure con-jure' + + +There is another case, in which we discover the reason for changing the +accent, and that is, when it is required by emphasis, as in the following: + + +EXAMPLES. (33) + +1. His abil'ity or in'ability to perform the act materially varies + the case. +2. This corrup'tion must put on in'corruption. + + + +SECONDARY ACCENT. (34) + +In words of more than two syllables, there is often a second accent given, +but more slight than the principal one, and this is called the secondary +accent; as, em"igra'tion, rep"artee', where the principal accent is marked +('), and the secondary, ("); so, also, this accent is obvious, in +nav"iga'tion, com"prehen'sion, plau"sibil'ity, etc. The whole subject, +however, properly belongs to dictionaries and spelling books. + + + +EMPHASIS. (34) + +Emphasis consists in uttering a word or phrase in such a manner as to give +it force and energy, and to draw the attention of the hearer particularly +to the idea expressed. + +This is most frequently accomplished by an increased stress of voice laid +upon the word or phrase. Sometimes, though more rarely, the same object is +effected by an unusual lowering of the voice, even to a whisper, and not +unfrequently by a pause before the emphatic word. + +The inflections are often made subsidiary to this object. To give emphasis +to a word, the inflection is changed or increased in force or extent. When +the rising inflection is ordinarily used, the word, when emphatic, +frequently takes the falling inflection; and sometimes, also, the falling +inflection is changed into the rising inflection, for the same purpose. + +Emphatic words are often denoted by being written in italics, in SMALL +CAPITALS, or in CAPITALS. + +Much care is necessary to train the pupil to give clear and expressive +emphasis, and at the same time to avoid an unpleasant "jerky" movement of +the voice. + + + +ABSOLUTE EMPHASIS. (35) + +Where the emphasis is independent of any contrast or comparison with +other words or ideas, it is called absolute emphasis. + + +EXAMPLES. (35) + +1. We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. + +2. Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll! + +3. Arm, warriors, arm! + +4. You know that you are Brutus, that speak this, + Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. + +5. Hamlet. Saw, who? + Horatio. The king, your father. + Hamlet. The king, my father? + +6. Strike--till the last armed foe expires; + Strike--for your altars and your fires; + Strike--for the green graves of your sites; + God, and your native land! + + + +RELATIVE EMPHASIS. (35) + +Where there is antithesis, either expressed or implied, the emphasis is +called relative. + + +EXAMPLES. (35) + +1. We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. + +2. But I am describing your condition, rather than my own. + +3. I fear not death, and shall I then fear thee? + +4. Hunting men, and not beasts, shall be his game. + +5. He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the +sins of the whole world. + +6. It may moderate and restrain, but it was not designed to banish +gladness from the heart of man. + +In the following examples, there are two sets of antitheses in the same +sentence. + +7. To err is human, to forgive, divine. + +8. John was punished; William, rewarded. + +9. Without were fightings, within were fears. + +10. Business sweetens pleasure, as labor sweetens rest. + +11. Justice appropriates rewards to merit, and punishments to crime. + +12. On the one side, all was alacrity and courage; on the other, all was +timidity and indecision. + +13. The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool, +when he gains the applause of others. + +14. His care was to polish the country by art, as he had protected it by +arms. + +In the following examples, the relative emphasis is applied to three sets +of antithetic words. + +15. The difference between a madman and a fool is, that the former +reasons justly from false data; and the latter, erroneously from just data. + +16. He raised a mortal to the skies, + She drew an angel down. + +Sometimes the antithesis is implied, as in the following instances. + +17. The spirit of the white man's heaven, + Forbids not thee to weep. + +18. I shall enter on no encomiums upon Massachusetts. + + + +EMPHASIS AND ACCENT. (37) + +When words, which are the same in part of their formation, are contrasted, +the emphasis is expressed by accenting the syllables in which they differ. +See Accent, page 33. + + + +EXAMPLES. (37) + +1. What is the difference between probability and possibility? + +2. Learn to unlearn what you have learned amiss. + +3. John attends regularly. William, irregularly. + +4. There is a great difference between giving and forgiving. + +5. The conduct of Antoninus was characterized by justice and humanity; +that of Nero, by injustice and inhumanity. + +6. The conduct of the former is deserving of approbation, while that of +the latter merits the severest reprobation. + + +EMPHASIS AND INFLECTION. (37) + +Emphasis sometimes changes the inflection from the rising to the falling, +or from the falling to the rising. For instances of the former change, see +Rule II, and Exception 1 to Rule IV. In the first three following +examples, the inflection is changed from the rising to the falling +inflection; in the last three, it is changed from the falling to the +rising, by the influence of emphasis. + + +EXAMPLES. (37) + + +1. If we have no regard for religion in youth', we ought to have respect +for it in age. + +2. If we have no regard for our own' character, we ought to regard the +character of others. + +3. If content can not remove' the disquietudes of life, it will, at least, +alleviate them. + +4. The sweetest melody and the most perfect harmony fall powerless upon +the ear of one who is deaf', + +5. It is useless to expatiate upon the beauties of nature to one who is +blind', + +6. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, +because they are brethren'; but rather let them do them service. + + + +EMPHATIC PHRASE. (38) + +When it is desired to give to a phrase great force of expression, each +word, and even the parts of a compound word, are independently emphasized. + + + +EXAMPLES. (38) + +1. Cassius. Must I endure all this? + Brutus. All this!--Ay,--more. Fret, till your proud--heart--break. + +2. What! weep you when you but behold + Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look ye here, + Here is himself, marred, as you see, by traitors. + +3. There was a time, my fellow-citizens, when the Lacedaemonians were +sovereign masters, both by sea and by land; while this state had not one +ship--no, NOT--ONE--WALL. + +4. Shall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul; and not only of the Alpine +nations, but of the Alps themselves; shall I compare myself with this +HALF--YEAR--CAPTAIN? + +5. You call me misbeliever--cutthroat--dog. + Hath a dog--money? Is it possible-- + A cur can lend three--thousand--ducats? + + + +EMPHATIC PAUSE. (39) + +A short pause is often made before or after, and sometimes both before and +after, an emphatic word or phrase,--thus very much increasing the emphatic +expression of the thought. + +EXAMPLES. (39) + +1. May one be pardoned, and retain--the offense? + In the corrupted currents of this world, + Offense's gilded hand may shove by--justice; + And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself + Buys out the law: but 't is not so--above: + There--is no shuffling: there--the action lies + In its true nature. + +2. He woke to hear his sentries shriek, + "To arms! they come! the Greek! the Greek! + He woke--to die--midst flame and smoke." + +3. This--is no flattery: These--are counselors + That feelingly persuade me what I am. + +4. And this--our life, exempt from public haunt, + Finds tongues--in tree, books--in the running brooks, + Sermons--in stones, and--good in everything. + +5. Heaven gave this Lyre, and thus decreed, + Be thou a bruised--but not a broken--reed. + + + +IV. INSTRUCTIONS FOR READING VERSE. (39) + +INFLECTIONS. + +In reading verse, the inflections should be nearly the same as in reading +prose; the chief difference is, that in poetry, the monotone and rising +inflection are more frequently used than in prose. The greatest difficulty +in reading this species of composition, consists in giving it that +measured flow which distinguishes it from prose, without falling into a +chanting pronunciation. + +If, at any time, the reader is in doubt as to the proper inflection, let +him reduce the passage to earnest conversation, and pronounce it in the +most familiar and prosaic manner, and thus he will generally use the +proper inflection. + + +EXERCISES IN INFLECTION. (40) + +1. Meanwhile the south wind rose, and with black wings + Wide hovering', all the clouds together drove + From under heaven': the hills to their supply', + Vapor and exhalation dusk and moist + Sent up amain': and now, the thickened sky + Like a dark ceiling stood': down rushed the rain + Impetuous', and continued till the earth + No more was seen': the floating vessel swam + Uplifted', and, secure with beake'd prow', + Rode tilting o'er the waves'. + + +2. My friend', adown life's valley', hand in hand', + With grateful change of grave and merry speech + Or song', our hearts unlocking each to each', + We'll journey onward to the silent land'; + And when stern death shall loose that loving band, + Taking in his cold hand, a hand of ours', + The one shall strew the other's grave with flowers', + Nor shall his heart a moment be unmanned'. + My friend and brother'! if thou goest first', + Wilt thou no more revisit me below'? + Yea, when my heart seems happy causelessly', + And swells', not dreaming why', my soul shall know + That thou', unseen', art bending over me'. + + +3. Here rests his head upon the lap of earth', + A youth, to fortune and to fame unknown'; + Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth', + And Melancholy marked him for her own'. + + +4. Large was his bounty', and his soul sincere', + Heaven did a recompense as largely send'; + He gave to misery (all he had) a tear', + He gained from heaven' ('t was all he wished') a friend'. + + +5. No further seek his merits to disclose', + Or draw his frailties from their dread abode'; + (There they alike' in trembling hope repose',) + The bosom of his Father, and his God'. + + + +ACCENT AND EMPHASIS. (41) + +In reading verse, every syllable must have the same accent, and every word +the same emphasis as in prose; and whenever the melody or music of the +verse would lead to an incorrect accent or emphasis, this must be +disregarded. + +If a poet has made his verse deficient in melody, this must not be +remedied by the reader, at the expense of sense or the established rules +of accent and quantity. Take the following: + +EXAMPLE. (41) + + O'er shields, and helms, and helme'd heads he rode, + Of thrones, and mighty Seraphim prostrate + +According to the metrical accent, the last word must be pronounced +"pros-trate'." But according to the authorized pronunciation it is +"pros'trate. Which shall yield, the poet or established usage? Certainly +not the latter. + +Some writers advise a compromise of the matter, and that the word should +he pronounced without accenting either syllable. Sometimes this may be +done, but where it is not practiced, the prosaic reading should be +preserved. + +In the following examples, the words and syllables which are improperly +accented or emphasized in the poetry, are marked in italics. According to +the principle stated above, the reader should avoid giving them that +pronunciation which the correct rending of the poetry would require, but +should read them as prose, except where he can throw off all accent and +thus compromise the conflict between the poetic reading and the correct +reading. That is, he must read the poetry wrong, in order to read the +language right. + + +EXAMPLES. (42) + +1. Ask of thy mother earth why oaks are made + Taller and stronger than the weeds they shade. + +2. Their praise is still, "the style is excellent," + The sense they humbly take upon content. + +3. False eloquence, like the prismatic glass, + Its fairy colors spreads on every place. + +4. To do aught good, never will be our task, + But ever to do ill is our sole delight. + +5. Of all the causes which combine to blind + Man's erring judgment, and mislead the mind, + What the weak head with strongest bias rules + Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. + +6. Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, + And catch the manners living as they rise. + +7. To whom then, first incensed, Adam replied, + "Is this thy love, is this the recompense + Of mine to thee, ungrateful Eve?" + +8. We may, with more successful hope, resolve + To wage, by force or guile, successful war, + Irreconcilable to our grand foe, + Who now triumphs, and in excess of joy + Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven. + +9. Which, when Beelzebub perceived (than whom, + Satan except, none higher sat), with grave + Aspect, he rose, and in his rising seemed + A pillar of state. + +10. Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath, + That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow, + Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget, + Those other two equaled with me in fate. + +NOTE.--Although it would be necessary, in these examples, to violate the +laws of accent or emphasis, to give perfect rhythm, yet a careful and +well-trained reader will be able to observe these laws and still give the +rhythm in such a manner that the defect will scarcely be noticed. + +POETIC PAUSES. (43) + +In order to make the measure of poetry perceptible to the ear, there +should generally be a slight pause at the end of each line, even where the +sense does not require it. + +There is, also, in almost every line of poetry, a pause at or near its +middle, which is called the caesura. + +This should, however, never be so placed as to injure the sense of the +passage. It is indeed reckoned a great beauty, where it naturally +coincides with the pause required by the sense. The caesura, though +generally placed near the middle, may be placed at other intervals. + +There are sometimes, also, two additional pauses in each line, called +demi-caesuras. + +The caesura is marked (||), and the demi-caesura thus, (|), in the +examples given. + +There should be a marked accent upon the long syllable next preceding +the caesura, and a slighter one upon that next before each of the +demi-caesuras. When made too prominent, these pauses lead to a singsong +style, which should be carefully avoided. + +In the following examples, the caesura is marked in each line; the +demi-caesura is not marked in every case. + + +EXAMPLES. (44) + +1. Nature | to all things || fixed | the limits fit, + And wisely | curbed || proud man's | pretending wit. + +2. Then from his closing eyes || thy form shall part, + And the last pang || shall tear thee from his heart. + +3. Warms in the sun, || refreshes in the breeze, + Glows in the stars, || and blossoms in the trees. + +4. There is a land || of every land the pride, + Beloved by Heaven || o'er all the world beside, + Where brighter suns || dispense serener light, + And milder moons || imparadise the night; + Oh, thou shalt find, || howe'er thy footsteps roam, + That land--thy country, || and that spot--thy home. + +5. In slumbers | of midnight || the sailor | boy lay; + His hammock | swung loose || at the sport | of the wind; + But, watch-worn | and weary, || his cares | flew away, + And visions | of happiness || danced | o'er his mind. + +6. She said, | and struck; || deep entered | in her side + The piercing steel, || with reeking purple dyed: + Clogged | in the wound || the cruel | weapon stands, + The spouting blood || came streaming o'er her hands. + Her sad attendants || saw the deadly stroke, + And with loud cries || the sounding palace shook. + + + +SIMILE. (44) + +Simile is the likening of anything to another object of a different class; +it is a poetical or imaginative comparison. + +A simile, in poetry, should usually he read in a lower key and more +rapidly than other parts of the passage--somewhat as a parenthesis is +read. + + +EXAMPLES. (45) + +1. Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal + With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form. + As when, to warn proud cities, war appears, + Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush + To battle in the clouds. + Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell, + Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air + In whirlwind. Hell scarce holds the wild uproar. + As when Alcides felt the envenomed robe, and tore, + Through pain, up by the roots, Thessialian pines, + And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw + Into the Euboic sea. + +2. Each at the head, + Leveled his deadly aim; their fatal hands + No second stroke intend; and such a frown + Each cast at th' other, as when two black clouds, + With heaven's artillery fraught, came rolling on + Over the Caspian, there stand front to front, + Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow + To join the dark encounter, in mid-air: + So frowned the mighty combatants. + +3. Then pleased and thankful from the porch they go + And, but the landlord, none had cause of woe: + His cup was vanished; for, in secret guise, + The younger guest purloined the glittering prize. + As one who spies a serpent in his way, + Glistening and basking in the summer ray, + Disordered, stops to shun the danger near, + Then walks with faintness on, and looks with fear,-- + So seemed the sire, when, far upon the road, + The shining spoil his wily partner showed. + + + +V. THE VOICE. (46) + +PITCH AND COMPASS. + +The natural pitch of the voice is its keynote, or governing note. It is +that on which the voice usually dwells, and to which it most frequently +returns when wearied. It is also the pitch used in conversation, and the +one which a reader or speaker naturally adopts--when he reads or speaks-- +most easily and agreeably. + +The compass of the voice is its range above and below this pitch. To avoid +monotony in reading or speaking, the voice should rise above or fall below +this keynote, but always with reference to the sense or character of that +which is read or spoken. The proper natural pitch is that above and below +which there is most room for variation. + +To strengthen the voice and increase its compass, select a short sentence, +repeat it several times in succession in as low a key as the voice can +sound naturally; then rise one note higher, and practice on that key, then +another, and so on, until the highest pitch of the voice has been reached. +Next, reverse the process, until the lowest pitch has been reached. + + +EXAMPLES IN PITCH (46) + +High Pitch. + +NOTE.--Be careful to distinguish pitch from power in the following +exercise. Speaking in the open air, at the very top of the voice, is an +exercise admirably adapted to strengthen the voice and give it compass, +and should be frequently practiced. + +1. Charge'! Chester" charge'! On'! Stanley, on'! + +2. A horse'! a horse'! my kingdom' for a horse'! + +3. Jump far out', boy' into the wave'! + Jump', or I fire'! + +4. Run'! run'! run for your lives! + +5. Fire'! fire'! fire'! Ring the bell'! + +6. Gentlemen may cry peace'! peace'! but there is no peace! + +7. Rouse' ye Romans! rouse' ye slaves'! + Have ye brave sons'? Look in the next fierce brawl + To see them die'. Have ye fair daughters'? Look + To see them live, torn from your arms', distained', + Dishonored', and if ye dare call for justice', + Be answered by the lash'! + +Medium Pitch. (47) + +NOTE.--This is the pitch in which we converse. To strengthen it, we should +read or speak in it as loud as possible, without rising to a higher key. +To do this requires long-continued practice. + +1. Under a spreading chestnut tree, + The village smithy stands'; + The smith, a mighty man is he, + With large and sinewy hands'; + And the muscles of his brawny arms + Are strong as iron bands. + +2. There is something in the thunder's voice that makes me tremble like a +child. I have tried to conquer' this unmanly weakness'. I have called +pride' to my aid'; I have sought for moral courage in the lessons of +philosophy', but it avails me nothing'. At the first moaning of the +distant cloud, my heart shrinks and dies within me. + +3. He taught the scholars the Rule of Three', + Reading, and writing, and history', too'; + He took the little ones on his knee', + For a kind old heart in his breast had he', + And the wants of the littlest child he knew'. + "Learn while you're young'," he often said', + "There is much to enjoy down here below'; + Life for the living', and rest for the dead'," + Said the jolly old pedagogue' long ago'. + + +Low Pitch. (48) + +1. O, proper stuff! + This is the very painting of your fear: + This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, + Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts, + Impostors to true fear, would well become + A woman's story at a winter's fire. + Authorized by her grandam. + +2. Thou slave! thou wretch! thou coward! + Thou little valiant, great in villainy! + Thou ever strong upon the stronger side! + Thou fortune's champion, thou dost never fight + But when her humorous ladyship is by + To teach thee safety! Thou art perjured too, + And sooth'st up greatness. What a fool art thou, + A ramping fool; to brag, and stamp, and sweat, + Upon my party! thou cold-blooded slave! + +3. God! thou art mighty! At thy footstool bound, + Lie, gazing to thee, Chance, and Life, and Death; + Nor in the angel circle flaming round, + Nor in the million worlds that blaze beneath, + Is one that can withstand thy wrath's hot breath. + Woe, in thy frown: in thy smile, victory: + Hear my last prayer! I ask no mortal wreath; + Let but these eyes my rescued country see, + Then take my spirit, all Omnipotent, to thee. + +4. O Thou eternal One! whose presence bright + All space doth occupy, all motion guide, + Unchanged through time's all-devastating blight! + Thou only God, there is no god beside! + Being above all things, mighty One, + Whom none can comprehend and none explore; + Who fill'st existence with thyself alone,-- + Embracing all, supporting, ruling o'er,-- + Being whom we call God, and know no more! + + + +QUANTITY AND QUALITY. (49) + +Quantity, in reading and speaking, means the length of time occupied in +uttering a syllable or a word. Sounds and syllables vary greatly in +quantity. Some are long, some short, and others intermediate between those +which are long or short. Some sounds, also, may be prolonged or shortened +in utterance to any desired extent. Quantity may be classified as Long, +Medium, or Short. + +DIRECTIONS FOR PRACTICE ON LONG QUANTITY.--Select some word of one +syllable ending with a long vocal or a subvocal sound; pronounce it many +times in succession, increasing the quantity at each repetition, until you +can dwell upon it any desired length of time, without drawling, and in a +natural tone. + +REMARK.--Practice in accordance with this direction will enable the pupil +to secure that fullness and roundness of voice which is exemplified in the +hailing of a ship, "ship aho--y;" in the reply of the sailor, when, in the +roar of the storm, he answers his captain, "ay--e. ay--e;" and in the +command of the officer to his troops, when, amid the thunder of artillery, +he gives the order, "ma--rch," or "ha--lt." + +This fullness or roundness of tone is secured, by dwelling on the vocal +sound, and indefinitely protracting it, The mouth should be opened wide, +the tongue kept down, and the aperture left as round and as free for the +voice as possible. + +It is this artificial rotundity which, in connection with a distinct +articulation, enables one who speaks in the open air, or in a very large +apartment, to send his voice to the most distant point. It is a certain +degree of this quality, which distinguishes declamatory or public speaking +or reading from private conversation, and no one can accomplish much, as a +public speaker, without cultivating it. It must be carefully distinguished +from the "high tone," which is an elevation of pitch, and from "loudness." +or "strength" of voice. + +It will be observed that clearness and distinctness of utterance are +secured by a proper use of the subvocals and aspirates--these sounds +giving to words their shape, as it were; but a clear, full, and +well-modulated utterance of the vocals gives to words their fullness. + + +LONG QUANTITY. (49) + +1. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! + +2. Woe, woe, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem! + +3. O righteous Heaven! ere Freedom found a grave, + Why slept the sword, omnipotent to save? + Where was thine arm, O Vengeance! where thy rod, + That smote the foes of Zion and of God? + +4. O sailor boy! sailor boy! never again + Shall home, love, or kindred thy wishes repay; + Unblessed and unhonored, down deep in the main, + Full many a fathom, thy frame shall decay. + +5. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast +set thy glory above the heavens! When I consider thy heavens, the work of +thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is +man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest +him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast +crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over +the work of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. O Lord, +our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! + + +MEDIUM QUANTITY. (50) + +1. Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose; + The spectacles set them, unhappily, wrong; + The point in dispute was, as all the world knows, + To which the said spectacles ought to belong. + +2. Bird of the broad and sweeping wing! + Thy home is high in heaven, + Where the wide storms their banners fling, + And the tempest clouds are driven. + +3. At midnight, in his guarded tent, + The Turk lay dreaming of the hour + When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, + Should tremble at his power. + +4. On New Year's night, an old man stood at his window, and looked, with a +glance of fearful despair, up the immovable, unfading heaven, and down +upon the still, pure, white earth, on which no one was now so joyless and +sleepless as he. + + + +SHORT QUANTITY. (51) + +1. Quick! or he faints! stand with the cordial near! + +2. Back to thy punishment, false fugitive! + +3. Fret till your proud heart breaks! Must I observe you? Must I crouch +beneath your testy humor? + +4. Up drawbridge, grooms! what, warder, ho! + Let the portcullis fall! + +5. Quick, man the lifeboat! see yon bark, + That drives before the blast! + There's a rock ahead, the fog is dark, + And the storm comes thick and fast. + +6. I am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language; and +though, perhaps, I may have some ambition to please this gentleman, I +shall not by myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his +diction, or his mien, however matured by age or modeled by experience. + + +MOVEMENT. (51) + +Movement is the rapidity with which the voice moves in reading and +speaking. It varies with the nature of the thought or sentiment to be +expressed, and should be increased or diminished as good taste may +determine. With pupils generally, the tendency is to read too fast. The +result is, reading or speaking in too high a key and an unnatural style of +delivery--both of which faults are difficult to be corrected when once +formed. The kinds of movement are Slow, Moderate, and Quick. + +DIRECTIONS.--Read a selection as slowly us possible, without drawling. +Read it again and again, increasing the rate of movement at each reading, +until it can be read no faster without the utterance becoming indistinct. +Reverse this process, reading more and more slowly at each repetition, +until the slowest movement is obtained. + + +SLOW MOVEMENT. (52) + +1. Oh that those lips had language! Life has passed + With me but roughly, since I heard them last. + +2. A tremulous sigh from the gentle night wind + Through the forest leaves slowly is creeping, + While stars up above, with their glittering eyes, + Keep guard; for the army is sleeping. + +3. O Lord'! have mercy upon us, miserable offenders'! + +4. So live, that when thy summons comes to join + The innumerable caravan that moves + To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take + His chamber in the silent halls of death, + Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, + Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed + By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave + Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch + About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. + + +MODERATE MOVEMENT. (52) + +1. The good', the brave', the beautiful', + How dreamless' is their sleep, + Where rolls the dirge-like music' + Of the over-tossing deep'! + Or where the surging night winds + Pale Winter's robes have spread + Above the narrow palaces, + In the cities of the dead'! + +2. Lives of great men all remind us + We can make our lives sublime, + And, departing, leave behind us + Footprints on the sands of time. + +3. Cast your eyes over this extensive country. Observe the salubrity of +your climate, the variety and fertility of your soil; and see that soil +intersected in every quarter by bold, navigable streams, flowing to the +east and to the west, as if the finger of heaven were marking out the +course of your settlements, inviting you to enterprise, and pointing the +way to wealth. + + +QUICK MOVEMENT. (53) + +1. Awake'! arise'! or be forever fallen. + +2. Merrily swinging on brier and weed, + Near to the nest of his little dame, + Over the mountain side or mead, + Robert of Lincoln is telling his name. + +3. Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace-- + Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place; + I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, + Then shortened each stirrup and set the pique right, + Rebuckled the check strap, chained slacker the bit, + Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit. + +4. Oh my dear uncle, you don't know the effect of a fine spring morning +upon a fellow just arrived from Russia. The day looked bright, trees +budding, birds singing, the park so gay, that I took a leap out of your +balcony, made your deer fly before me like the wind, and chased them all +around the park to get an appetite for breakfast, while you were snoring +in bed, uncle. + + +Quality.--We notice a difference between the soft, insinuating tones of +persuasion; the full, strong voice of command and decision; the harsh, +irregular, and sometimes grating explosion of the sounds of passion; the +plaintive notes of sorrow and pity; and the equable and unimpassioned flow +of words in argumentative style. This difference consists in a variation +in the quality of the voice by which it is adapted to the character of the +thought or sentiment read or spoken. In our attempts to imitate nature, +however, it is important that all affectation be avoided, for perfect +monotony is preferable to this fault. The tones of the voice should be +made to correspond with the nature of the subject, without apparent +effort. + + +EXAMPLES. (54) + +Passion and Grief + + "Come back! come back!" he cried, in grief, + "Across this stormy water; + And I'll forgive your Highland chief, + My daughter! O, my daughter!" + + +Plaintive + + I have lived long enough: my way of life + Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf: + And that which should accompany old age, + As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, + I must not look to have. + + +Calm + + A very great portion of this globe is covered + with water, which is called sea, and is very + distinct from rivers and lakes. + + +Fierce Anger + + Burned Marmion's swarthy cheek like fire, + And shook his very frame for ire; + And--"This to me!" he said,-- + "An 't were not for thy hoary beard, + Such hand as Marmion's had not spared + To cleave the Douglas' head! + + +Loud and Explosive + + "Even in thy pitch of pride, + Here, in thy hold, thy vassals near, + I tell thee, thou 'rt defied! + And if thou said'st I am not peer + To any lord in Scotland here, + Lowland or Highland, far or near, + Lord Angus, thou hast lied!" + + + +VI. GESTURE. (55) + +Gesture is that part of the speaker's manner which pertains to his +attitude, to the use and carriage of his person, and the movement of his +limbs in delivery. + +Every person, in beginning to speak, feels the natural embarrassment +resulting from his new position. The novelty of the situation destroys his +self-possession, and, with the loss of that, he becomes awkward, his arms +and hands hang clumsily, and now, for the first time, seem to him worse +than superfluous members. This embarrassment will be overcome gradually, +as the speaker becomes familiar with his position; and it is sometimes +overcome at once, by a powerful exercise of the attention upon the matter +of the speech. When that fills and possesses the mind, the orator is +likely to take the attitude which is becoming, and, at least, easy and +natural, if not graceful. + +1st. The first general direction that should be given to the speaker is, +that he should stand erect and firm, and in that posture which gives an +expanded chest and full play to the organs of respiration and utterance. + +2d. Let the attitude be such that it can be shifted easily and gracefully. +The student will find, by trial, that no attitude is so favorable to this +end as that in which the weight of the body is thrown upon one leg, +leaving the other free to be advanced or thrown back, as fatigue or the +proper action of delivery may require. + +The student who has any regard to grace or elegance, will of course avoid +all the gross faults which are so common among public speakers, such as +resting one foot upon a stool or bench, or throwing the body forward upon +the support of the rostrum. + +3d. Next to attitude, come the movements of the person and limbs. In +these, two objects are to be observed, and, if possible, combined, viz., +propriety and grace. There is expression in the extended arm, the clinched +hand, the open palm, and the smiting of the breast. But let no gesture be +made that is not in harmony with the thought or sentiment uttered; for it +is this harmony which constitutes propriety. As far as possible, let there +be a correspondence between the style of action and the train of thought. +Where the thought flows on calmly, let there be grace and ease in gesture +and action. Where the style is sharp and abrupt, there is propriety in +quick, short, and abrupt gesticulation. Especially avoid that ungraceful +sawing of the air with the arms, into which all ill-regulated fervor +betrays many young speakers. + +What is called graceful manner, can only be attained by those who have +some natural advantages of person. So far as it is in the reach of study +or practice, it seems to depend chiefly upon the general cultivation of +manners, implying freedom from all embarrassments, and entire +self-possession. The secret of acquiring a graceful style of gesture, +we apprehend, lies in the habitual practice, not only when speaking but +at all times, of free and graceful movements of the limbs. + +There is no limb nor feature which the accomplished speaker will not +employ with effect, in the course of a various and animated delivery. The +arms, however, are the chief reliance of the orator in gesture; and it +will not be amiss to give a hint or two in reference to their proper use. + +First--It is not an uncommon fault to use one arm exclusively, and to give +that a uniform movement. Such movement may, sometimes, have become +habitual from one's profession or employment; but in learners, also, there +is often a predisposition to this fault. + +Second--It is not unusual to see a speaker use only the lower half of his +arm. This always gives a stiff and constrained manner to delivery. Let the +whole arm move, and let the movement be free and flowing. + +Third--As a general rule, let the hand be open, with the fingers slightly +curved. It then seems liberal, communicative, and candid; and, in some +degree, gives that expression to the style of delivery. Of course there +are passages which require the clinched hand, the pointed finger, etc., +etc.; but these are used to give a particular expression. + +Fourth--In the movements of the arm, study variety and the grace of curved +lines. + +When a gesture is made with one arm only, the eye should be cast in the +direction of that arm; not at it, but over it. + +All speakers employ, more or less, the motions of the head. In reference +to that member, we make but one observation. Avoid the continuous shaking +and bobbing of the head, which is so conspicuous in the action of many +ambitious public speakers. + +The beauty and force of all gesture consist in its timely, judicious, and +natural employment, when it can serve to illustrate the meaning or give +emphasis to the force of an important passage. The usual fault of young +speakers is too much action. To emphasize all parts alike, is equivalent +to no emphasis; and by employing forcible gestures on unimportant +passages, we diminish our power to render other parts impressive. + + + +ELOCUTION AND READING. (57) + +The business of training youth in elocution, must be commenced in +childhood. The first school is the nursery. There, at least, may be formed +a distinct articulation, which is the first requisite for good speaking. +How rarely is it found in perfection among our orators. + +"Words," says one, referring to articulation, should "be delivered out +from the lips, as beautiful coins, newly issued from the mint; deeply and +accurately impressed, perfectly finished; neatly struck by the proper +organs, distinct, in due succession, and of due weight." How rarely do we +hear a speaker whose tongue, teeth, and lips, do their office so perfectly +as to answer to this beautiful description! And the common faults in +articulation, it should be remembered, take their rise from the very +nursery. + +Grace in eloquence, in the pulpit, at the bar, can not be separated from +grace in the ordinary manners, in private life, in the social circle, in +the family. It can not well be superinduced upon all the other +acquisitions of youth, any more than that nameless, but invaluable, +quality called good breeding. Begin, therefore, the work of forming the +orator with the child; not merely by teaching him to declaim, but what is +of more consequence, by observing and correcting his daily manners, +motions, and attitudes. You can say, when he comes into your apartment, or +presents you with something, a book or letter, in an awkward and +blundering manner, "Return, and enter this room again," or, "Present me +that book in a different manner," or, "Put yourself in a different +attitude." You can explain to him the difference between thrusting or +pushing out his hand and arm, in straight lines and at acute angles, and +moving them in flowing circular lines, and easy graceful action. He will +readily understand you. Nothing is more true than that the motions of +children are originally graceful; it is by suffering them to be perverted, +that we lay the foundation of invincible awkwardness in later life. + +In schools for children, it ought to be a leading object to teach the art +of reading. It ought to occupy threefold more time than it does. The +teachers of these schools should labor to improve themselves. They should +feel that to them, for a time, are committed the future orators of the +land. + +It is better that a girl should return from school a first-rate reader, +than a first-rate performer on the pianoforte. The accomplishment, in its +perfection, would give more pleasure. The voice of song is not sweeter +than the voice of eloquence; and there may be eloquent readers, as well as +eloquent speakers. We speak of perfection in this art: and it is +something, we must say in defense of our preference, which we have never +yet seen. Let the same pains be devoted to reading, as are required to +form an accomplished performer on an instrument; let us have, as the +ancients had, the formers of the voice, the music masters of the reading +voice; let us see years devoted to this accomplishment, and then we should +be prepared to stand the comparison. + +Reading is indeed, a most intellectual accomplishment. So is music, too, +in its perfection. We do by no means undervalue this noble and most +delightful art, to which Socrates applied himself even in his old age. But +one recommendation of the art of reading is, that it requires a constant +exercise of mind. It involves, in its perfection, the whole art of +criticism on language. A man may possess a fine genius without being a +perfect reader; but he can not be a perfect reader without genius. + +ON MODULATION. (59) + +FROM LLOYD. + + 'T is not enough the voice' be sound and clear', + 'T is modulation' that must charm the ear. + When desperate heroes grieve with tedious moan, + And whine their sorrows in a seesaw tone, + The same soft sounds of unimpassioned woes, + Can only make the yawning hearers doze. + + The voice all modes of passion can express + That marks the proper word with proper stress: + But none emphatic can that speaker call, + Who lays an equal emphasis on all. + + Some o'er the tongue the labored measure roll, + Slow and deliberate as the parting toll; + Point every stop, mark every pause so strong, + Their words like stage processions stalk along. + + All affectation but creates disgust; + And e'en in speaking, we may seem too just. + In vain for them' the pleasing measure flows, + Whose recitation runs it all to prose: + Repeating what the poet sets not down, + The verb disjointing from its favorite noun, + While pause, and break, and repetition join + To make it discord in each tuneful line'. + + Some' placid natures fill the allotted scene + With lifeless drawls, insipid and serene; + While others' thunder every couplet o'er, + And almost crack your ears with rant and roar; + More nature oft, and finer strokes are shown + In the low whisper than tempestuous tone; + And Hamlet's hollow voice and fixed amaze, + More powerful terror to the mind conveys + Than he, who, swollen with impetuous rage, + Bullies the bulky phantom of the stage. + + He who, in earnest studies o'er his part, + Will find true nature cling about his heart. + The modes of grief are not included all + In the white handkerchief and mournful drawl: + A single look' more marks the internal woe, + Than all the windings of the lengthened Oh'! + + + + +MCGUFFEY'S SIXTH READER. (61) + + + +MCGUFFEY'S SIXTH READER. (63) + + +SELECTIONS FOR READING. + + +I. ANECDOTE OF THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. + +A laughable story was circulated during the administration of the old Duke +of Newcastle, and retailed to the public in various forms. This nobleman, +with many good points, was remarkable for being profuse of his promises on +all occasions, and valued himself particularly on being able to anticipate +the words or the wants of the various persons who attended his levees, +before they uttered a word. This sometimes led him into ridiculous +embarrassment; and it was this proneness to lavish promises, which gave +occasion for the following anecdote: + +At the election of a certain borough in Cornwall, where the opposite +interests were almost equally poised, a single vote was of the highest +importance. This object the Duke, by well applied argument and personal +application, at length attained; and the gentleman he recommended, gained +the election. In the warmth of gratitude, his grace poured forth +acknowledgments and promises without ceasing, on the fortunate possessor +of the casting vote; called him his best and dearest friend; protested, +that he should consider himself as forever indebted to him; and that he +would serve him by night or by day. + +The Cornish voter, who was an honest fellow, and would not have thought +himself entitled to any reward, but for such a torrent of acknowledgments, +thanked the Duke for his kindness, and told him the supervisor of excise +was old and infirm, and, if he would have the goodness to recommend his +son-in-law to the commissioners, in case of the old man's death, he should +think himself and his family bound to render his grace every assistance in +their power, on any future occasion. + +"My dear friend, why do you ask for such a trifling employment?" exclaimed +his grace; "your relative shall have it the moment the place is vacant, if +you will but call my attention to it." + +"But how shall I get admitted to you, my lord? For in London, I +understand, it is a very difficult business to get a sight of you great +folks, though you are so kind and complaisant to us in the country." + +"The instant the man dies," replied the Duke, "set out posthaste for +London; drive directly to my house, and, be it by night or by day, thunder +at the door; I will leave word with my porter to show you upstairs +directly; and the employment shall be disposed of according to your +wishes." + +The parties separated; the Duke drove to a friend's house in the +neighborhood, without a wish or desire to see his new acquaintance till +that day seven years; but the memory of the Cornish elector, not being +burdened with such a variety of objects, was more retentive. The +supervisor died a few months after, and the Duke's humble friend, relying +on the word of a peer, was conveyed to London posthaste, and ascended with +alacrity the steps of that nobleman's palace. + +The reader should be informed, that just at this time, no less a person +than the King of Spain was expected hourly to depart this life, an event +in which the minister of Great Britain was particularly concerned; and the +Duke of Newcastle, on the very night that the proprietor of the decisive +vote arrived at his door, had sat up anxiously expecting dispatches from +Madrid. Wearied by official business and agitated spirits, he retired to +rest, having previously given particular instructions to his porter not to +go to bed, as he expected every minute a messenger with advices of the +greatest importance, and desired that he might be shown upstairs, the +moment of his arrival. + +His grace was sound asleep; and the porter, settled for the night in his +armchair, had already commenced a sonorous nap, when the vigorous arm of +the Cornish voter roused him from his slumbers. To his first question, "Is +the Duke at home?" the porter replied, "Yes, and in bed; but has left +particular orders that, come when you will, you are to go up to him +directly." + +"Bless him, for a worthy and honest gentleman," cried our applicant for +the vacant post, smiling and nodding with approbation at the prime +minister's kindness, "how punctual his grace is; I knew he would not +deceive me; let me hear no more of lords and dukes not keeping their +words; I verily believe they are as honest, and mean as well as any other +folks." Having ascended the stairs as he was speaking, he was ushered into +the Duke's bedchamber. + +"Is he dead?" exclaimed his grace, rubbing his eyes, and scarcely awakened +from dreaming of the King of Spain, "Is he dead?" + +"Yes, my lord," replied the eager expectant, delighted to find the +election promise, with all its circumstances, so fresh in the nobleman's +memory. + +"When did he die?" + +"The day before yesterday, exactly at half past one o'clock, after being +confined three weeks to his bed, and taking a power of doctor's stuff; and +I hope your grace will be as good as your word, and let my son-in-law +succeed him." + +The Duke, by this time perfectly awake, was staggered at the impossibility +of receiving intelligence from Madrid in so short a space of time; and +perplexed at the absurdity of a king's messenger applying for his +son-in-law to succeed the King of Spain: "Is the man drunk, or mad? Where +are your dispatches?" exclaimed his grace, hastily drawing back his +curtain; where, instead of a royal courier, he recognized at the bedside, +the fat, good-humored countenance of his friend from Cornwall, making low +bows, with hat in hand, and "hoping my lord would not forget the gracious +promise he was so good as to make, in favor of his son-in-law, at the last +election." + +Vexed at so untimely a disturbance, and disappointed of news from Spain, +the Duke frowned for a moment; but chagrin soon gave way to mirth, at so +singular and ridiculous a combination of circumstances, and, yielding to +the impulse, he sunk upon the bed in a violent fit of laughter, which was +communicated in a moment to the attendants. + +The relater of this little narrative, concludes, with observing, "Although +the Duke of Newcastle could not place the relative of his old acquaintance +on the throne of His Catholic Majesty, he advanced him to a post not less +honorable--he made him an exciseman." + --Blackwood's Magazine. + +[Illustration: Bedroom: The Duke is startled awake, sitting up in bed with +distressed look on his face. A servant is holding a candlestick. A third +man is slightly bowed and holding his hat in his hands. The duke's sword +rests against a chair at the foot of the bed.] + +Notes.--Duke of Newcastle.--Thomas Holles Pelham (b. 1693, d. 1768), one +of the chief ministers of state in the reign of George II. of England. + +Cornwall.--A county forming the extreme southwestern part of England. + +King of Spain.--Ferdinand VI. was then the king of Spain. He died in 1759. + + +His Catholic Majesty, a title applied to the kings of Spain; first given +to Alfonso I. by Pope Gregory III. in 739. + + + +II. THE NEEDLE. (67) + +The gay belles of fashion may boast of excelling + In waltz or cotillon, at whist or quadrille; +And seek admiration by vauntingly telling + Of drawing, and painting, and musical skill: +But give me the fair one, in country or city, + Whose home and its duties are dear to her heart, +Who cheerfully warbles some rustical ditty, + While plying the needle with exquisite art: +The bright little needle, the swift-flying needle, + The needle directed by beauty and art. + +If Love have a potent, a magical token, + A talisman, ever resistless and true, +A charm that is never evaded or broken, + A witchery certain the heart to subdue, +'T is this; and his armory never has furnished + So keen and unerring, or polished a dart; +Let beauty direct it, so polished and burnished, + And oh! it is certain of touching the heart: +The bright little needle, the swift-flying needle, + The needle directed by beauty and art. + +Be wise, then, ye maidens, nor seek admiration, + By dressing for conquest, and flirting with all; +You never, whate'er be your fortune or station, + Appear half so lovely at rout or at ball, +As gayly convened at the work-covered table, + Each cheerfully active, playing her part, +Beguiling the task with a song or a fable, + And plying the needle with exquisite art: +The bright little needle, the swift-flying needle, + The needle directed by beauty and art. + --Samuel Woodworth. + + + +III. DAWN. (68) + +Edward Everett, 1794-1865. He was born at Dorchester, Mass., now a part of +Boston, and graduated from Harvard College with the highest honors of his +class, at the age of seventeen. While yet in college, he had quite a +reputation as a brilliant writer. Before he was twenty years of age, he +was settled as pastor over the Brattle Street Church, in Boston, and at +once became famous as an eloquent preacher. In 1814, he was elected +Professor of Greek Literature in his Alma Mater; and, in order to prepare +himself for the duties of his office, he entered on an extended course of +travel in Europe. He edited the "North American Review," in addition to +the labors of his professorship, after he returned to America. + +In 1825, Mr. Everett was elected to Congress, and held his seat in the +House for ten years. He was Governor of his native state from 1835 to +1839. In 1841, he was appointed Minister to England. On his return, in +1846, he was chosen President of Harvard University, and held the office +for three years. In 1852, he was appointed Secretary of State. February +22, 1856, he delivered, in Boston, his celebrated lecture on Washington. +This lecture was afterwards delivered in most of the principal cities and +towns in the United States. The proceeds were devoted to the purchase of +Mt. Vernon. In 1860, he was a candidate for the Vice Presidency of the +United States, He is celebrated as an elegant and forcible writer, and a +chaste orator. + +This extract, a wonderful piece of word painting, is a portion of an +address on the "Uses of Astronomy," delivered at the inauguration of the +Dudley Observatory, at Albany, N, Y, Note the careful use of words, and +the strong figures in the third and fourth paragraphs. +### + + +I had occasion, a few weeks since, to take the early train from Providence +to Boston; and for this purpose rose at two o'clock in the morning. +Everything around was wrapped in darkness and hushed in silence, broken +only by what seemed at that hour the unearthly clank and rush of the +train. It was a mild, serene, midsummer's night,--the sky was without a +cloud, the winds were whist. The moon, then in the last quarter, had just +risen, and the stars shone with a spectral luster but little affected by +her presence. + +Jupiter, two hours high, was the herald of the day; the Pleiades, just +above the horizon, shed their sweet influence in the east; Lyra sparkled +near the zenith; Andromeda veiled her newly-discovered glories from the +naked eye in the south; the steady Pointers, far beneath the pole, looked +meekly up from the depths of the north to their sovereign. + +Such was the glorious spectacle as I entered the train. As we proceeded, +the timid approach of twilight became more perceptible; the intense blue +of the sky began to soften; the smaller stars, like little children, went +first to rest; the sister beams of the Pleiades soon melted together; but +the bright constellations of the west and north remained unchanged. +Steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on. Hands of angels, hidden +from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the heavens; the glories of night +dissolved into the glories of the dawn. + +The blue sky now turned more softly gray; the great watch stars shut up +their holy eyes; the east began to kindle. Faint streaks of purple soon +blushed along the sky; the whole celestial concave was filled with the +inflowing tides of the morning light, which came pouring down from above +in one great ocean of radiance; till at length, as we reached the Blue +Hills, a flash of purple fire blazed out from above the horizon, and +turned the dewy teardrops of flower and leaf into rubies and diamonds. In +a few seconds, the everlasting gates of the morning were thrown wide open, +and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too severe for the gaze of man, +began his state. + +I do not wonder at the superstition of the ancient Magians, who, in the +morning of the world, went up to the hilltops of Central Asia, and, +ignorant of the true God, adored the most glorious work of his hand. But I +am filled with amazement, when I am told, that, in this enlightened age +and in the heart of the Christian world, there are persons who can witness +this daily manifestation of the power and wisdom of the Creator, and yet +say in their hearts, "There is no God." + +Notes.--Jupiter, the largest planet of the solar system, and, next to +Venus, the brightest. Pleiades (pro. ple'ya-dez), a group of seven small +stars in the constellation of Taurus. + +Lyra, Androm'eda, two brilliant constellations in the northern part of the +heavens. Pointers, two stars of the group called the Dipper, in the Great +Bear. These stars and the Polar Star are nearly in the same straight line. + + +Blue Hills, hills about seven hundred feet high, southwest of Boston, +Massachusetts. + +Magians, Persian worshipers of fire and the sun, as representatives of the +Supreme Being. + + + +IV. DESCRIPTION OF A STORM. (70) + +Benjamin Disraeli. 1805-1881, was of Jewish descent. His ancestors were +driven out of Spain by the Inquisition, and went to Venice. In 1748, his +grandfather came to England. His father was Isaac Disraeli, well known as +a literary man. Benjamin was born in London, and received his early +education under his father. He afterwards studied for a lawyer, but soon +gave up his profession for literature. His first novel, "Vivian Grey," +appeared when the author was twenty-one years of age; it received much +attention. After several defeats he succeeded in an election to +Parliament, and took his seat in that body, in the first year of +Victoria's reign. On his first attempt to speak in Parliament, the House +refused to hear him. It is said that, as he sat down, he remarked that the +time would come when they would hear him. In 1849, he became the leader of +the Conservative party in the House. During the administration of W. E. +Gladstone, Mr. Disraeli was leader of the opposition. In 1868, he became +prime minister, holding the office for a short time. In 1874, he was again +appointed to the same office, where he remained until 1880. His wife was +made Viscountess of Beaconsfield in 1868. After her death, the title of +Earl of Beaconsfield was conferred on Disraeli. He ranked among the most +eminent, statesmen of the age, but always devoted a portion of his time to +literature. "Lothair," a novel, was published in 1870. +### + + +* * * They looked round on every side, and hope gave way before the scene +of desolation. Immense branches were shivered from the largest trees; +small ones were entirely stripped of their leaves; the long grass was +bowed to the earth; the waters were whirled in eddies out of the little +rivulets; birds, leaving their nests to seek shelter in the crevices of +the rocks, unable to stem the driving air, flapped their wings and fell +upon the earth; the frightened animals of the plain, almost suffocated by +the impetuosity of the wind, sought safety and found destruction; some of +the largest trees were torn up by the roots; the sluices of the mountains +were filled, and innumerable torrents rushed down the before empty +gullies. The heavens now open, and the lightning and thunder contend with +the horrors of the wind. + +In a moment, all was again hushed. Dead silence succeeded the bellow of +the thunder, the roar of the wind, the rush of the waters, the moaning of +the beasts, the screaming of the birds. Nothing was heard save the plash +of the agitated lake, as it beat up against the black rocks which girt it +in. + +Again, greater darkness enveloped the trembling earth. Anon, the heavens +were rent with lightning, which nothing could have quenched but the +descending deluge. Cataracts poured down from the lowering firmament. For +an instant, the horses dashed madly forward; beast and rider blinded and +stifled by the gushing rain, and gasping for breath. Shelter was nowhere. +The quivering beasts reared, and snorted, and sank upon their knees, +dismounting their riders. + +He had scarcely spoken, when there burst forth a terrific noise, they knew +not what; a rush, they could not understand; a vibration which shook them +on their horses. Every terror sank before the roar of the cataract. It +seemed that the mighty mountain, unable to support its weight of waters, +shook to the foundation. A lake had burst upon its summit, and the +cataract became a falling ocean. The source of the great deep appeared to +be discharging itself over the range of mountains; the great gray peak +tottered on its foundation!--It shook!--it fell! and buried in its ruins +the castle, the village, and the bridge! + + + +V. AFTER THE THUNDERSTORM. (72) + +James Thomson, 1700-1748, the son of a clergyman, was born in Scotland. He +studied at the University of Edinburgh, and intended to follow the +profession of his father, but never entered upon the duties of the sacred +office. In 1724 he went to London, where he spent most of his subsequent +life. He had shown some poetical talent when it boy; and, in 1826, he +published "Winter," a part of a longer poem, entitled "The Seasons," the +best known of all his works. He also wrote several plays for the stage; +none of them, however, achieved any great success. In the last year of his +life, he published his "Castle of Indolence," the most famous of his works +excepting "The Seasons." Thomson was heavy and dull in his personal +appearance, and was indolent in his habits. The moral tone of his writings +is always good. This extract is from "The Seasons." +### + + + As from the face of heaven the shattered clouds + Tumultuous rove, the interminable sky + Sublimer swells, and o'er the world expands + A purer azure. + + Through the lightened air + A higher luster and a clearer calm, + Diffusive, tremble; while, as if in sign + Of danger past, a glittering robe of joy, + Set off abundant by the yellow ray, + Invests the fields; and nature smiles revived. + + 'T is beauty all, and grateful song around, + Joined to the low of kine, and numerous bleat + Of flocks thick-nibbling through the clovered vale: + And shall the hymn be marred by thankless man, + Most favored; who, with voice articulate, + Should lead the chorus of this lower world? + + Shall man, so soon forgetful of the Hand + That hushed the thunder, and serenes the sky, + Extinguished fed that spark the tempest waked, + That sense of powers exceeding far his own, + Ere yet his feeble heart has lost its fears? + + + +VI. HOUSE CLEANING. (73) + +Francis Hopkinson, 1737-1791. He was the son of an Englishman; born in +Philadelphia, and was educated at the college of that city, now the +University of Pennsylvania. He represented New Jersey in the Congress of +1776, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He +was one of the most sensible and elegant writers of his time, and +distinguished himself both in prose and verse. His lighter writings abound +in humor and keen satire; his more solid writings are marked by clearness +and good sense. His pen did much to forward the cause of American +independence. His "Essay on Whitewashing," from which the following +extract is taken, was mistaken for the composition of Dr. Franklin, and +published among his writings, It was originally in the form of "A Letter +from a Gentleman in America to his Friend in Europe, on Whitewashing." +### + + +There is no season of the year in which the lady may not, if she pleases, +claim her privilege; but the latter end of May is generally fixed upon for +the purpose. The attentive husband may judge, by certain prognostics, when +the storm is at hand. If the lady grows uncommonly fretful, finds fault +with the servants, is discontented with the children, and complains much +of the nastiness of everything about her, these are symptoms which ought +not to be neglected, yet they sometimes go off without any further effect. + + +But if, when the husband rises in the morning, he should observe in the +yard a wheelbarrow with a quantity of lime in it, or should see certain +buckets filled with a solution of lime in water, there is no time for +hesitation. He immediately locks up the apartment or closet where his +papers and private property are kept, and, putting the key into his +pocket, betakes himself to flight. A husband, however beloved, becomes a +perfect nuisance during this season of female rage. His authority is +superseded, his commission suspended, and the very scullion who cleans the +brasses in the kitchen becomes of more importance than he. He has nothing +for it but to abdicate for a time, and run from an evil which he can +neither prevent nor mollify. + +The husband gone, the ceremony begins. The walls are stripped of their +furniture--paintings, prints, and looking-glasses lie huddled in heaps +about the floors; the curtains are torn from their testers, the beds +crammed into windows, chairs and tables, bedsteads and cradles, crowd the +yard, and the garden fence bends beneath the weight of carpets, blankets, +cloth cloaks, old coats, under petticoats, and ragged breeches. Here may +be seen the lumber of the kitchen, forming a dark and confused mass for +the foreground of the picture; gridirons and frying pans, rusty shovels +and broken tongs, joint stools, and the fractured remains of rush-bottomed +chairs. There a closet has disgorged its bowels--riveted plates and +dishes, halves of china bowls, cracked tumblers, broken wineglasses, +phials of forgotten physic, papers of unknown powders, seeds and dried +herbs, tops of teapots, and stoppers of departed decanters--from the rag +hole in the garret, to the rat hole in the cellar, no place escapes +unrummaged. It would seem as if the day of general doom had come, and the +utensils of the house were dragged forth to judgment. + +In this tempest, the words of King Lear unavoidably present themselves, +and might, with little alteration, be made strictly applicable. + + + "Let the great gods, + That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, + Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, + That hast within thee undivulged crimes + Unwhipp'd of justice. + Close pent-up guilts, + Rive your concealing continents, and cry + These dreadful summoners grace." + + +This ceremony completed, and the house thoroughly evacuated, the next +operation is to smear the walls and ceilings with brushes dipped into a +solution of lime, called whitewash; to pour buckets of water over every +floor; and scratch all the partitions and wainscots with hard brushes, +charged with soft soap and stonecutters' sand. + +The windows by no means escape the general deluge. A servant scrambles out +upon the penthouse, at the risk of her neck, and, with a mug in her hand +and a bucket within reach, dashes innumerable gallons of water against the +glass panes, to the great annoyance of passengers in the street. + +I have been told that an action at law was once brought against one of +these water nymphs, by a person who had a new suit of clothes spoiled by +this operation: but after long argument, it was determined that no damages +could be awarded; inasmuch as the defendant was in the exercise of a legal +right, and not answerable for the consequences. And so the poor gentleman +was doubly non-suited; for he lost both his suit of clothes and his suit +at law. + +These smearings and scratchings, these washings and dashings, being duly +performed, the next ceremonial is to cleanse and replace the distracted +furniture. You may have seen a house raising, or a ship launch-- +recollect, if you can, the hurry, bustle, confusion, and noise of such a +scene, and you will have some idea of this cleansing match. The misfortune +is, that the sole object is to make things clean. It matters not how many +useful, ornamental, or valuable articles suffer mutilation or death under +the operation. A mahogany chair and a carved frame undergo the same +discipline; they are to be made clean at all events; but their +preservation is not worthy of attention. + +For instance: a fine large engraving is laid flat upon the floor; a number +of smaller prints are piled upon it, until the superincumbent weight +cracks the lower glass--but this is of no importance. A valuable picture +is placed leaning against the sharp corner of a table; others are made to +lean against that, till the pressure of the whole forces the corner of the +table through the canvas of the first. The frame and glass of a fine print +are to be cleaned; the spirit and oil used on this occasion are suffered +to leak through and deface the engraving--no matter. If the glass is clean +and the frame shines, it is sufficient--the rest is not worthy of +consideration. An able arithmetician hath made a calculation, founded on +long experience, and proved that the losses and destruction incident to +two white washings are equal to one removal, and three removals equal to +one fire. + +This cleansing frolic over, matters begin to resume their pristine +appearance: the storm abates, and all would be well again; but it is +impossible that so great a convulsion in so small a community should pass +over without producing some consequences. For two or three weeks after the +operation, the family are usually afflicted with sore eyes, sore throats, +or severe colds, occasioned by exhalations from wet floors and damp walls. + + +I know a gentleman here who is fond of accounting for everything in a +philosophical way. He considers this, what I call a custom, as a real +periodical disease peculiar to the climate. His train of reasoning is +whimsical and ingenious, but I am not at leisure to give you the detail. +The result was, that he found the distemper to be incurable; but after +much study, he thought he had discovered a method to divert the evil he +could not subdue. For this purpose, he caused a small building, about +twelve feet square, to be erected in his garden, and furnished with some +ordinary chairs and tables, and a few prints of the cheapest sort. His +hope was, that when the whitewashing frenzy seized the females of his +family, they might repair to this apartment, and scrub, and scour, and +smear to their hearts' content; and so spend the violence of the disease +in this outpost, whilst he enjoyed himself in quiet at headquarters. But +the experiment did not answer his expectation. It was impossible it +should, since a principal part of the gratification consists in the lady's +having an uncontrolled right to torment her husband at least once in every +year; to turn him out of doors, and take the reins of government into her +own hands. + +There is a much better contrivance than this of the philosopher's; which +is, to cover the walls of the house with paper. This is generally done. +And though it does not abolish, it at least shortens the period of female +dominion. This paper is decorated with various fancies; and made so +ornamental that the women have admitted the fashion without perceiving the +design. + +There is also another alleviation to the husband's distress. He generally +has the sole use of a small room or closet for his books and papers, the +key of which he is allowed to keep. This is considered as a privileged +place, even in the whitewashing season, and stands like the land of Goshen +amidst the plagues of Egypt. But then he must be extremely cautious, and +ever upon his guard; for, should he inadvertently go abroad and leave the +key in his door, the housemaid, who is always on the watch for such an +opportunity, immediately enters in triumph with buckets, brooms, and +brushes--takes possession of the premises, and forthwith puts an his books +and papers "to rights," to his utter confusion, and sometimes serious +detriment. + +Notes.--Lear.--The reference is to Shakespeare's tragedy, Act III, Scene +2. + +Goshen.--The portion of Egypt settled by Jacob and his family. In the +Bible, Exodus viii, 22, Goshen was exempted from the plague of the flies. + +The teacher should ascertain that the pupils note the satire and humor of +this selection. + +This letter was written about a hundred years ago. What word in the first +paragraph that would probably not be used by an elegant writer of the +present day? Note the words that indicate changes in domestic customs; +such as testers, joint stools, wainscots, house raising. + + + +VII. SCHEMES OF LIFE OFTEN ILLUSORY. (78) + +Samuel Johnson, 1700-1784. This truly remarkable man was the son of a +bookseller and stationer; he was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, +England. He entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1728; but, at the end of +three years, his poverty compelled him to leave without taking his degree. +In 1736, he married Mrs. Porter, a widow of little culture, much older +than himself, but possessed of some property. The marriage seems to have +been a happy one, nevertheless; and, on the death of his wife, in 1752, +Johnson mourned for her, most sincerely. Soon after his marriage, he +opened a private school, but, obtained only three pupils, one of whom was +David Garrick, afterward the celebrated actor. In 1737, he removed to +London, where he lived for most of the remainder of his life. Here he +entered upon literary work, in which he continued, and from which he +derived his chief support, although at times it was but a meager one, His +"Vanity of Human Wishes" was sold for ten guineas. His great Dictionary, +the first one of the English language worthy of mention, brought him +1575 Pounds, and occupied his time for seven years. Most of the money he +received for the work went to pay his six amanuenses. The other most +famous of his numerous literary works are "The Rambler," "Rasselas," "The +Lives of the English Poets," and his edition of Shakespeare. In person, +Johnson was heavy and awkward; he was the victim of scrofula in his youth, +and of dropsy in his old age. In manner, he was boorish and overbearing; +but his great powers and his wisdom caused his company to be sought by +many eminent men of his time. +### + + +Omar, the son of Hassan, had passed seventy-five years in honor and +prosperity. The favor of three successive caliphs had filled his house +with gold and silver; and whenever he appeared, the benedictions of the +people proclaimed his passage. + +Terrestrial happiness is of short continuance, The brightness of the flame +is wasting its fuel; the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors. +The vigor of Omar began to fail; the curls of beauty fell from his head; +strength departed from his hands, and agility from his feet. He gave back +to the caliph the keys of trust, and the seals of secrecy; and sought no +other pleasure for the remainder of life than the converse of the wise and +the gratitude of the good. + +The powers of his mind were yet unimpaired. His chamber was filled by +visitants, eager to catch the dictates of experience, and officious to pay +the tribute of admiration. Caleb, the son of the viceroy of Egypt, entered +every day early, and retired late. He was beautiful and eloquent; Omar +admired his wit, and loved his docility. + +"Tell me," said Caleb, "thou to whose voice nations have listened, and +whose wisdom is known to the extremities of Asia, tell me, how I may +resemble Omar the prudent? The arts by which thou hast gained power and +preserved it, are to thee no longer necessary or useful; impart to me the +secret of thy conduct, and teach me the plan upon which thy wisdom has +built thy fortune." + +"Young man," said Omar, "it is of little use to form plans of life. When I +took my first survey of the world, in my twentieth year, having considered +the various conditions of mankind, in the hour of solitude I said thus to +myself, leaning against a cedar which spread its branches over my head: +'Seventy years are allowed to man; I have yet fifty remaining. + +" 'Ten years I will allot to the attainment of knowledge, and ten I will +pass in foreign countries; I shall be learned, and therefore I shall be +honored; every city will shout at my arrival, and every student will +solicit my friendship. Twenty years thus passed will store my mind with +images which I shall be busy through the rest of my life in combining and +comparing. I shall revel in inexhaustible accumulations of intellectual +riches; I shall find new pleasures for every moment, and shall never more +be weary of myself. + +" 'I will not, however, deviate too far from the beaten track of life; but +will try what can be found in female delicacy. I will marry a wife as +beautiful as the houries, and wise as Zobeide; and with her I will live +twenty years within the suburbs of Bagdad, in every pleasure that wealth +can purchase, and fancy can invent. + +" 'I will then retire to a rural dwelling, pass my days in obscurity and +contemplation; and lie silently down on the bed of death. Through my life +it shall be my settled resolution, that I will never depend on the smile +of princes; that I will never stand exposed to the artifices of courts; I +will never pant for public honors, nor disturb my quiet with the affairs +of state.' Such was my scheme of life, which I impressed indelibly upon my +memory. + +"The first part of my ensuing time was to be spent in search of knowledge, +and I know not how I was diverted from my design. I had no visible +impediments without, nor any ungovernable passion within. I regarded +knowledge as the highest honor, and the most engaging pleasure; yet day +stole upon day, and month glided after month, till I found that seven +years of the first ten had vanished, and left nothing behind them. + +"I now postponed my purpose of traveling; for why should I go abroad, +while so much remained to be learned at home? I immured myself for four +years, and studied the laws of the empire. The fame of my skill reached +the judges: I was found able to speak upon doubtful questions, and I was +commanded to stand at the footstool of the caliph. I was heard with +attention; I was consulted with confidence, and the love of praise +fastened on my heart. + +"I still wished to see distant countries; listened with rapture to the +relations of travelers, and resolved some time to ask my dismission, that +I might feast my soul with novelty; but my presence was always necessary, +and the stream of business hurried me along. Sometimes, I was afraid lest +I should be charged with ingratitude; but I still proposed to travel, and +therefore would not confine myself by marriage. + +"In my fiftieth year, I began to suspect that the time of my traveling was +past; and thought it best to lay hold on the felicity yet in my power, and +indulge myself in domestic pleasures. But, at fifty, no man easily finds a +woman beautiful as the houries, and wise as Zobeide. I inquired and +rejected, consulted and deliberated, till the sixty-second year made me +ashamed of wishing to marry. I had now nothing left but retirement; and +for retirement I never found a time, till disease forced me from public +employment. + +"Such was my scheme, and such has been its consequence. With an insatiable +thirst for knowledge, I trifled away the years of improvement; with a +restless desire of seeing different countries, I have always resided in +the same city; with the highest expectation of connubial felicity, I have +lived unmarried; and with an unalterable resolution of contemplative +retirement, I am going to die within the walls of Bagdad." + + +Notes.--Bag dad'--A large city of Asiatic Turkey, on the river Tigris. + +In the ninth century, it was the greatest center of Moslem power and +learning. + +Zobeide (Zo-bad').--A lady of Bagdad, whose story is given in the "Three +Calendars" of the "Arabian Nights." + +In this selection the form of an allegory is used to express a general +truth. + + + +VIII. THE BRAVE OLD OAK. (81) + +Henry Fothergill Chorley, 1808-1872. He is known chiefly as a musical +critic and author; for thirty-eight years he was connected with the +"London Athenaeum." His books are mostly novels. +### + + +A song to the oak, the brave old oak, + Who hath ruled in the greenwood long; +Here's health and renown to his broad green crown, + And his fifty arms so strong. +There's fear in his frown, when the sun goes down, + And the fire in the west fades out; +And he showeth his might on a wild midnight, + When the storms through his branches shout. + +In the days of old, when the spring with cold + Had brightened his branches gray, +Through the grass at his feet, crept maidens sweet, + To gather the dews of May. +And on that day, to the rebec gay + They frolicked with lovesome swains; +They are gone, they are dead, in the churchyard laid, + But the tree--it still remains. + +He saw rare times when the Christmas chimes + Were a merry sound to hear, +When the Squire's wide hall and the cottage small + Were filled with good English cheer. +Now gold hath the sway we all obey, + And a ruthless king is he; +But he never shall send our ancient friend + To be tossed on the stormy sea. + +Then here's to the oak, the brave old oak, + Who stands in his pride alone; +And still flourish he, a hale green tree, + When a hundred years are gone. + + +IX. THE ARTIST SURPRISED. (82) + +It may not be known to all the admirers of the genius of Albert Durer, +that that famous engraver was endowed with a "better half," so peevish in +temper, that she was the torment not only of his own life, but also of his +pupils and domestics. Some of the former were cunning enough to purchase +peace for themselves by conciliating the common tyrant, but woe to those +unwilling or unable to offer aught in propitiation. Even the wiser ones +were spared only by having their offenses visited upon a scapegoat. + +This unfortunate individual was Samuel Duhobret, a disciple whom Durer had +admitted into his school out of charity. He was employed in painting signs +and the coarser tapestry then used in Germany. He was about forty years of +age, little, ugly, and humpbacked; he was the butt of every ill joke among +his fellow disciples, and was picked out as an object of especial dislike +by Madame Durer. But he bore all with patience, and ate, without +complaint, the scanty crusts given him every day for dinner, while his +companions often fared sumptuously. + +Poor Samuel had not a spice of envy or malice in his heart. He would, at +any time, have toiled half the night to assist or serve those who were +wont oftenest to laugh at him, or abuse him loudest for his stupidity. +True, he had not the qualities of social humor or wit, but he was an +example of indefatigable industry. He came to his studies every morning at +daybreak, and remained at work until sunset. Then he retired into his +lonely chamber, and wrought for his own amusement. + +Duhobret labored three years in this way, giving himself no time for +exercise or recreation. He said nothing to a single human being of the +paintings he had produced in the solitude of his cell, by the light of his +lamp. But his bodily energies wasted and declined under incessant toil. +There was none sufficiently interested in the poor artist, to mark the +feverish hue of his wrinkled cheek, or the increasing attenuation of his +misshapen frame. + +None observed that the uninviting pittance set aside for his midday +repast, remained for several days untouched. Samuel made his appearance +regularly as ever, and bore with the same meekness the gibes of his +fellow-pupils, or the taunts of Madame Durer, and worked with the same +untiring assiduity, though his hands would sometimes tremble, and his eyes +become suffused, a weakness probably owing to the excessive use he had +made of them. + +One morning Duhobret was missing at the scene of his daily labors. His +absence created much remark, and many were the jokes passed upon the +occasion. One surmised this, and another that, as the cause of the +phenomenon; and it was finally agreed that the poor fellow must have +worked himself into an absolute skeleton, and taken his final stand in the +glass frame of some apothecary, or been blown away by a puff of wind, +while his door happened to stand open. No on thought of going to his +lodgings to look after him or his remains. + +Meanwhile, the object of their mirth was tossing on a bed of sickness. +Disease, which had been slowly sapping the foundations of his strength, +burned in every vein; his eyes rolled and flashed in delirium; his lips, +usually so silent, muttered wild and incoherent words. In his days of +health, poor Duhobret had his dreams, as all artists, rich or poor, will +sometimes have. He had thought that the fruit of many years' labor, +disposed of to advantage, might procure him enough to live, in an +economical way, for the rest of his life. He never anticipated fame or +fortune; the height of his ambition or hope was, to possess a tenement +large enough to shelter him from the inclemencies of the weather, with +means enough to purchase one comfortable meal per day. + +Now, alas! however, even that one hope had deserted him. He thought +himself dying, and thought it hard to die without one to look kindly upon +him, without the words of comfort that might soothe his passage to another +world. He fancied his bed surrounded by fiendish faces, grinning at his +sufferings, and taunting his inability to summon power to disperse them. +At length the apparition faded away, and the patient sunk into an +exhausted slumber. + +He awoke unrefreshed; it was the fifth day he had lain there neglected. +His mouth was parched; he turned over, and feebly stretched out his hand +toward the earthen pitcher, from which, since the first day of his illness +he had quenched his thirst. Alas! it was empty! Samuel lay for a few +moments thinking what he should do. He knew he must die of want if he +remained there alone; but to whom could he apply for aid? + +An idea seemed, at last, to strike him. He arose slowly, and with +difficulty, from the bed, went to the other side of the room, and took up +the picture he had painted last. He resolved to carry it to the shop of a +salesman, and hoped to obtain for it sufficient to furnish him with the +necessaries of life for a week longer. Despair lent him strength to walk, +and to carry his burden. On his way, he passed a house, about which there +was a crowd. He drew nigh, asked what was going on, and received for an +answer, that there was to be a sale of many specimens of art, collected by +an amateur in the course of thirty years. It has often happened that +collections made with infinite pains by the proprietor, have been sold +without mercy or discrimination after his death. + +Something whispered to the weary Duhobret, that here would be the market +for his picture. It was a long way yet to the house of the picture dealer, +and he made up his mind at once. He worked his way through the crowd, +dragged himself up the steps, and, after many inquiries, found the +auctioneer. That personage was a busy man, with a handful of papers; he +was inclined to notice somewhat roughly the interruption of the lean, +sallow hunchback, imploring as were his gesture and language. + +"What do you call your picture?" at length, said he, carefully looking at +it. + +"It is a view of the Abbey of Newburg, with its village and the +surrounding landscape," replied the eager and trembling artist. + +The auctioneer again scanned it contemptuously, and asked what it was +worth. "Oh, that is what you please; whatever it will bring," answered +Duhobret. + +"Hem! it is too odd to please, I should think; I can promise you no more +than three thalers." + +Poor Samuel sighed deeply. He had spent on that piece the nights of many +months. But he was starving now; and the pitiful sum offered would give +bread for a few days. He nodded his head to the auctioneer, and retiring +took his seat in a corner. + +The sale began. After some paintings and engravings had been disposed of, +Samuel's was exhibited. "Who bids at three thalers? Who bids?" was the +cry. Duhobret listened eagerly, but none answered. "Will it find a +purchaser?" said he despondingly, to himself. Still there was a dead +silence. He dared not look up; for it seemed to him that all the people +were laughing at the folly of the artist, who could be insane enough to +offer so worthless a piece at a public sale. + +"What will become of me?" was his mental inquiry. "That work is certainly +my best;" and he ventured to steal another glance. "Does it not seem that +the wind actually stirs those boughs and moves those leaves! How +transparent is the water! What life breathes in the animals that quench +their thirst at that spring! How that steeple shines! How beautiful are +those clustering trees!" This was the last expiring throb of an artist's +vanity. The ominous silence continued, and Samuel, sick at heart, buried +his face in his hands. + +"Twenty-one thalers!" murmured a faint voice, just as the auctioneer was +about to knock down the picture. The stupefied painter gave a start of +joy. He raised his head and looked to see from whose lips those blessed +words had come. It was the picture dealer, to whom he had first thought of +applying. + +"Fifty thalers," cried a sonorous voice. This time a tall man in black was +the speaker. There was a silence of hushed expectation. "One hundred +thalers," at length thundered the picture dealer. + +"Three hundred!" "Five hundred!" "One thousand!" Another profound silence, +and the crowd pressed around the two opponents, who stood opposite each +other with eager and angry looks. + +"Two thousand thalers!" cried the picture dealer, and glanced around him +triumphantly, when he saw his adversary hesitate. "Ten thousand!" +vociferated the tall man, his face crimson with rage, and his hands +clinched convulsively. The dealer grew paler; his frame shook with +agitation; he made two or three efforts, and at last cried out "Twenty +thousand!" + +His tall opponent was not to be vanquished. He bid forty thousand. The +dealer stopped; the other laughed a low laugh of insolent triumph, and a +murmur of admiration was heard in the crowd. It was too much for the +dealer; he felt his peace was at stake. "Fifty thousand!" exclaimed he in +desperation. It was the tall man's turn to hesitate. Again the whole crowd +were breathless. At length, tossing his arms in defiance, he shouted "One +hundred thousand!" The crestfallen picture dealer withdrew; the tall man +victoriously bore away the prize. + +How was it, meanwhile, with Duhobret, while this exciting scene was going +on? He was hardly master of his senses. He rubbed his eyes repeatedly, and +murmured to himself, "After such a dream, my misery will seem more cruel!" +When the contest ceased, he rose up bewildered, and went about asking +first one, then another, the price of the picture just sold. It seemed +that his apprehension could not at once be enlarged to so vast a +conception. + +The possessor was proceeding homeward, when a decrepit, lame, and +humpbacked invalid, tottering along by the aid of a stick, presented +himself before him. He threw him a piece of money, and waved his hand as +dispensing with his thanks. "May it please your honor," said the supposed +beggar, "I am the painter of that picture!" and again he rubbed his eyes. + +The tall mall was Count Dunkelsback, one of the richest noblemen in +Germany. He stopped, took out his pocketbook, took out a leaf, and wrote +on it a few lines. "Take it, friend," said he; "it is a check for your +money. Adieu." + +Duhobret finally persuaded himself that it was not a dream. He became the +master of a castle, sold it, and resolved to live luxuriously for the rest +of his life, and to cultivate painting as a pastime. But, alas, for the +vanity of human expectation! He had borne privation and toil; prosperity +was too much for him, as was proved soon after, when an indigestion +carried him off. His picture remained long in the cabinet of Count +Dunkelsback, and afterward passed into the possession of the King of +Bavaria. + +Notes.--Albert Durer (b. 1471, d. 1528) lived at Nuremburg, Germany. He +was eminent as a painter, and as an engraver on copper and wood. He was +one of the first artists who studied anatomy and perspective. His +influence on art is clearly felt even at the present day. + +Newburg, or Neuburg, is on the Danube, fifty miles south of Nuremburg. +Bergen Abbey was north of the village. + + + +X. PICTURES OF MEMORY. (88) + +Alice Cary, 1820-1871, was born near Cincinnati. One of her ancestors was +among the "Pilgrim Fathers," and the first instructor of Latin at +Plymouth, Mass. Miss Cary commenced her literary career at her western +home, and, in 1849, published a volume of poems, the joint work of her +younger sister, Phoebe, and herself. In 1850, she moved to New York. Two +of her sisters joined her there, and they supported themselves by their +literary labor. Their home became a noted resort for their literary and +artistic friends. Miss Cary was the author of eleven volumes, besides many +articles contributed to periodicals. Her poetry is marked with great +sweetness and pathos. Some of her prose works are much admired, especially +her "Clovernook Children." +### + + +Among the beautiful pictures + That hang on Memory's wall, +Is one of a dim old forest, + That seemeth best of all; +Not for its gnarled oaks olden, + Dark with the mistletoe; +Not for the violets golden, + That sprinkle the vale below; +Not for the milk-white lilies, + That lean from the fragrant hedge, +Coquetting all day with the sunbeams, + And stealing their golden edge; +Not for the vines on the upland, + Where the bright red berries rest, +Nor the pinks, nor the pale, sweet cowslip, + It seemeth to me the best. + +I once had a little brother, + With eyes that were dark and deep; +In the lap of that dim old forest, + He lieth in peace asleep: +Light as the down of the thistle, + Free as the winds that blow, +We roved there the beautiful summers, + The summers of long ago; +But his feet on the hills grew weary, + And, one of the autumn eves, +I made for my little brother, + A bed of the yellow leaves. + +Sweetly his pale arms folded + My neck in a meek embrace, +As the light of immortal beauty + Silently covered his face; +And when the arrows of sunset + Lodged in the tree tops bright, +He fell, in his saintlike beauty, + Asleep by the gates of light. +Therefore, of all the pictures + That hang on Memory's wall, +The one of the dim old forest + Seemeth the best of all. + + + +XI. THE MORNING ORATORIO. (90) + +Wilson Flagg, 1806-1884, was born in Beverly, Mass. He pursued his +academical course in Andover, at Phillips Academy, and entered Harvard +College, but did not graduate. His chief Works are: "Studies in the Field +and Forest," "The Woods and Byways of New England," and "The Birds and +Seasons of New England." +### + + +Nature, for the delight of waking eyes, has arrayed the morning heavens in +the loveliest hues of beauty. Fearing to dazzle by an excess of delight, +she first announces day by a faint and glimmering twilight, then sheds a +purple tint over the brows of the rising morn, and infuses a transparent +ruddiness throughout the atmosphere. As daylight widens, successive groups +of mottled and rosy-bosomed clouds assemble on the gilded sphere, and, +crowned with wreaths of fickle rainbows, spread a mirrored flush over +hill, grove, and lake, and every village spire is burnished with their +splendor. + +At length, through crimsoned vapors, we behold the sun's broad disk, +rising with a countenance so serene that every eye may view him ere he +arrays himself in his meridian brightness. Not many people who live in +towns are aware of the pleasure attending a ramble near the woods and +orchards at daybreak in the early part of summer. The drowsiness we feel +on rising from our beds is gradually dispelled by the clear and healthful +breezes of early day, and we soon experience an unusual amount of vigor +and elasticity. + +During the night, the stillness of all things is the circumstance that +most powerfully attracts our notice, rendering us peculiarly sensitive to +every accidental sound that meets the ear. In the morning, at this time of +year, on the contrary, we are overpowered by the vocal and multitudinous +chorus of the feathered tribe. If you would hear the commencement of this +grand anthem of nature, you must rise at the very first appearance of +dawn, before the twilight has formed a complete semicircle above the +eastern porch of heaven. + +The first note that proceeds from the little warbling host, is the shrill +chirp of the hairbird,--occasionally vocal at an hours on a warm summer +night. This strain, which is a continued trilling sound, is repeated with +diminishing intervals, until it becomes almost incessant. But ere the +hairbird has uttered many notes, a single robin begins to warble from a +neighboring orchard, soon followed by others, increasing in numbers until, +by the time the eastern sky is flushed with crimson, every male, robin in +the country round is singing with fervor. + +It would be difficult to note the exact order in which the different birds +successively begin their parts in this performance; but the bluebird, +whose song is only a short, mellow warble, is heard nearly at the same +time with the robin, and the song sparrow joins them soon after with his +brief but finely modulated strain. The different species follow rapidly, +one after another, in the chorus, until the whole welkin rings with their +matin hymn of gladness. + +I have often wondered that the almost simultaneous utterance of so many +different notes should produce no discords, and that they should result in +such complete harmony. In this multitudinous confusion of voices, no two +notes are confounded, and none has sufficient duration to grate harshly +with a dissimilar sound. Though each performer sings only a few strains +and then makes a pause, the whole multitude succeed one another with such +rapidity that we hear an uninterrupted flow of music until the broad light +of day invites them to other employments. + +When there is just light enough to distinguish the birds, we may observe, +here and there, a single swallow perched on the roof of a barn or shed, +repeating two twittering notes incessantly, with a quick turn and a hop at +every note he utters. It would seem to be the design of the bird to +attract the attention of his mate, and this motion seems to be made to +assist her in discovering his position. As soon as the light has tempted +him to fly abroad, this twittering strain is uttered more like a continued +song, as he flits rapidly through the air. + +But at this later moment the purple martins have commenced their more +melodious chattering, so loud as to attract for a while the most of our +attention. There is not a sound in nature so cheering and animating as the +song of the purple martin, and none so well calculated to drive away +melancholy. Though not one of the earliest voices to be heard, the chorus +is perceptibly more loud and effective when this bird has united with the +choir. + +When the flush of the morning has brightened into vermilion, and the place +from which the sun is soon to emerge has attained a dazzling brilliancy, +the robins are already less tuneful. They are now becoming busy in +collecting food for their morning repast, and one by one they leave the +trees, and may be seen hopping upon the tilled ground, in quest of the +worms and insects that, have crept out during the night from their +subterranean retreats. + +But as the robins grow silent, the bobolinks begin their vocal revelries; +and to a fanciful mind it might seem that the robins had gradually +resigned their part in the performance to the bobolinks, not one of which +is heard until some of the former have concluded their songs. The little +hairbird still continues his almost incessant chirping, the first to begin +and the last to quit the performance. Though the voice of this bird is not +very sweetly modulated, it blends harmoniously with the notes of other +birds, and greatly increases the charming effect of the combination. + +It would be tedious to name all the birds that take part in this chorus; +but we must not omit the pewee, with his melancholy ditty, occasionally +heard like a short minor strain in an oratorio; nor the oriole, who is +really one of the chief performers, and who, as his bright plumage flashes +upon the sight, warbles forth a few notes so clear and mellow as to be +beard above every other sound. Adding a pleasing variety to all this +harmony, the lisping notes of the meadowlark, uttered in a shrill tone, +and with a peculiar pensive modulation, are plainly audible, with short +rests between each repetition. + +There is a little brown sparrow, resembling the hairbird, save a general +tint of russet in his plumage, that may be heard distinctly among the +warbling host. He is rarely seen in cultivated grounds, but frequents the +wild pastures, and is the bird that warbles so sweetly at midsummer, when +the whortleberries are ripe, and the fields are beautifully spangled with +red lilies. + +There is no confusion in the notes of his song, which consists of one +syllable rapidly repeated, but increasing in rapidity and rising to a +higher key towards the conclusion. He sometimes prolongs his strain, when +his notes are observed to rise and fall in succession. These plaintive and +expressive notes are very loud and constantly uttered, during the hour +that precedes the rising of the sun. A dozen warblers of this species, +singing in concert, and distributed in different parts of the field, form, +perhaps, the most delightful part of the woodland oratorio to which we +have listened. + +At sunrise hardly a robin can be beard in the whole neighborhood, and the +character of the performance has completely changed during the last half +hour. The first part was more melodious and tranquilizing, the last is +more brilliant and animating. The grass finches, the vireos, the wrens, +and the linnets have joined their voices to the chorus, and the bobolinks +are loudest in their song. But the notes of the birds in general are not +so incessant as before sunrise. One by one they discontinue their lays, +until at high noon the bobolink and the warbling flycatcher are almost the +only vocalists to be heard in the fields. + + + +XII. SHORT SELECTIONS IN POETRY. (94) + +1. THE CLOUD. + +A cloud lay cradled near the setting sun, + A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow; +Long had I watched the glory moving on, + O'er the still radiance of the lake below: + Tranquil its spirit seemed, and floated slow, +E'en in its very motion there was rest, + While every breath of eve that chanced to blow, +Wafted the traveler to the beauteous west. +Emblem, methought, of the departed soul, + To whose white robe the gleam of bliss is given, +And by the breath of mercy made to roll + Right onward to the golden gate of heaven, +While to the eye of faith it peaceful lies, +And tells to man his glorious destinies. + --John Wilson + + +II. MY MIND. + +My mind to me a kingdom is; + Such perfect joy therein I find, +As far exceeds all earthly bliss + That God or nature hath assigned; +Though much I want that most would have, +Yet still my mind forbids to crave. + +NOTE.--This is the first stanza of a poem by William Byrd (b, 1543, d. +1623), an English composer of music. + + + +III. A GOOD NAME. (95) + +Good name, in man or woman, dear my lord, +Is the immediate jewel of their souls. +Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; +'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; +But he that filches from me my good name, +Robs me of that which not enriches him, +And makes me poor indeed. + Shakespeare.--Othello, Act III, Scene III. + + + +IV. SUNRISE. + +But yonder comes the powerful king of day, +Rejoicing in the east. The lessening cloud, +The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow +Illumed with liquid gold, his near approach +Betoken glad. Lo! now apparent all, +Aslant the dew-bright earth and colored air +He looks in boundless majesty abroad, +And sheds the shining day that, burnished, plays +On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams, +High gleaming from afar. + Thomson. + + + +V. OLD AGE AND DEATH. (95) + +Edmund Waller, 1605-1687, an English poet, was a cousin of John Hampden, +and related to Oliver Cromwell. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge. +Waller was for many years a member of Parliament. He took part in the +civil war, and was detected in a treasonable plot. Several years of his +life were spent in exile in France. After the Restoration he came into +favor at court. His poetry is celebrated for smoothness and sweetness, but +is disfigured by affected conceits. +### + + + The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er; + So calm are we when passions are no more. + For then we know how vain it was to boast + Of fleeting things, too certain to be lost. + Clouds of affection from our younger eyes + Conceal that emptiness which age descries. + The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, + Lets in new light through chinks that time has made: + Stronger by weakness, wiser men become, + As they draw near to their eternal home. + Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, + That stand upon the threshold of the new. + + + +VI. MILTON. (96) + +John Dryden, 1631-1703, was a noted English writer, who was made poet +laureate by James II. On the expulsion of James, and the accession of +William and Mary, Dryden lost his offices and pension, and was compelled +to earn his bread by literary work. It was during these last years of his +life that his best work was done. His "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day" is one +of his most, celebrated poems. His prose writings are specimens of good, +strong English. +### + + + Three poets, in three distant ages born, + Greece, Italy, and England did adorn; + The first in loftiness of thought surpassed, + The next in majesty, in both the last. + The force of nature could no further go; + To make a third she joined the other two. + +Note.--The two poets referred to, other than Milton, are Homer and Dante. + + + +XIII. DEATH OF LITTLE NELL. (96) + +Charles Dickens. 1812-1870, one of the greatest novelists of modern, +times, was born in Portsmouth, but spent nearly all his life in London. +His father was a conscientious man, but lacked capacity for getting a +livelihood. In consequence, the boy's youth was much darkened by poverty. +It has been supposed that he pictured his father in the character of +"Micawber." He began his active life as a lawyer's apprentice; but soon +left this employment to become a reporter. This occupation he followed +from 1831 to 1836. His first book was entitled "Sketches of London +Society, by Boz." This was followed, in 1837, by the "Pickwick Papers," a +work which suddenly brought much fame to the author. His other works +followed with great rapidity, and his last was unfinished at the time of +his death. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Mr. Dickens visited America +in 1842, and again in 1867. During his last visit, he read his works in +public, in the principal cities of the United States. + +The resources of Dickens's genius seemed exhaustless. He copied no author, +imitated none, but relied entirely on his own powers. He excelled +especially in humor and pathos. He gathered materials for his works by the +most careful and faithful observation. And he painted his characters with +a fidelity so true to their different individualities that, although they +sometimes have a quaint grotesqueness bordering on caricature, they stand +before the memory as living realities. He was particularly successful in +the delineation of the joys and griefs of childhood. "Little Nell" and +little "Paul Dombey" are known, and have been loved and wept over, in +almost every household where the English language is read. His writings +present very vividly the wants and sufferings of the poor, and have a +tendency to prompt to kindness and benevolence. His works have not escaped +criticism. It has been said that "his good characters act from impulse, +not from principle," and that he shows "a tricksy spirit of fantastic +exaggeration." It has also been said that his novels sometimes lack +skillful plot, and that he seems to speak approvingly of conviviality and +dissipation. "The Old Curiosity Shop," from which the following extract is +taken, was published in 1840. +### + + +She was dead. No sleep so beautiful and calm, so free from trace of pain, +so fair to look upon. She seemed a creature fresh from the hand of God, +and waiting for the breath of life; not one who had lived, and suffered +death. Her couch was dressed with here and there some winter berries and +green leaves, gathered in a spot she had been used to favor. "When I die, +put near me something that has loved the light, and had the sky above it +always." These were her words. + +She was dead. Dear, gentle, patient, noble Nell was dead. Her little bird, +a poor, slight thing the pressure of a finger would have crushed, was +stirring nimbly in its cage, and the strong heart of its child mistress +was mute and motionless forever! Where were the traces of her early cares, +her sufferings, and fatigues? All gone. Sorrow was dead, indeed, in her; +but peace and perfect happiness were born, imaged in her tranquil beauty +and profound repose. + +And still her former self lay there, unaltered in this change. Yes! the +old fireside had smiled upon that same sweet face; it had passed, like a +dream, through haunts of misery and care; at the door of the poor +schoolmaster on the summer evening, before the furnace fire upon the cold +wet night, at the still bedside of the dying boy, there had been the same +mild and lovely look. So shall we know the angels, in their majesty, after +death. + +The old man held one languid arm in his, and had the small hand tight +folded to his breast for warmth. It was the hand she had stretched out to +him with her last smile; the hand that had led him on through all their +wanderings. Ever and anon he pressed it to his lips; then hugged it to his +breast again, murmuring that it was warmer now, and, as he said it, he +looked in agony to those who stood around, as if imploring them to help +her. + +She was dead, and past all help, or need of help. The ancient rooms she +had seemed to fill with life, even while her own was waning fast, the +garden she had tended, the eyes she had gladdened, the noiseless haunts of +many a thoughtful hour, the paths she had trodden, as it were, but +yesterday, could know her no more. + +"It is not," said the schoolmaster, as he bent down to kiss her on the +cheek, and gave his tears free vent, "it is not in this world that +heaven's justice ends. Think what earth is, compared with the world to +which her young spirit has winged its early flight, and say, if one +deliberate wish, expressed in solemn tones above this bed, could call her +back to life, which of us would utter it?" + +She had been dead two days. They were all about her at the time, knowing +that the end was drawing on. She died soon after daybreak. They had read +and talked to her in the earlier portion of the night; but, as the hours +crept on, she sank to sleep. They could tell by what she faintly uttered +in her dreams, that they were of her journeyings with the old man; they +were of no painful scenes, but of people who had helped them, and used +them kindly; for she often said "God bless you!" with great fervor. + +Waking, she never wandered in her mind but once, and that was at beautiful +music, which, she said, was in the air. God knows. It may have been. +Opening her eyes, at last, from a very quiet sleep, she begged that they +would kiss her once again. That done, she turned to the old man, with a +lovely smile upon her face, such, they said, as they had never seen, and +could never forget, and clung, with both her arms, about his neck. She had +never murmured or complained; but, with a quiet mind, and manner quite +unaltered, save that she every day became more earnest and more grateful +to them, faded like the light upon the summer's evening. + +The child who had been her little friend, came there, almost as soon as it +was day, with an offering of dried flowers, which he begged them to lay +upon her breast. He told them of his dream again, and that it was of her +being restored to them, just as she used to be. He begged hard to see her: +saying, that he would be very quiet, and that they need not fear his being +alarmed, for he had sat alone by his young brother all day long, when he +was dead, and had felt glad to be so near him. They let him have his wish; +and, indeed, he kept his word, and was, in his childish way, a lesson to +them all. + +Up to that time, the old man had not spoken once, except to her, or +stirred from the bedside. But, when he saw her little favorite, he was +moved as they had not seen him yet, and made as though he would have him +come nearer. Then, pointing to the bed, he burst into tears for the first +time, and they who stood by, knowing that the sight of this child had done +him good, left them alone together. + +Soothing him with his artless talk of her, the child persuaded him to take +some rest, to walk abroad, to do almost as he desired him. And, when the +day came, on which they must remove her, in her earthly shape, from +earthly eyes forever, he led him away, that he might not know when she was +taken from him. They were to gather fresh leaves and berries for her bed. + +And now the bell, the bell she had so often heard by night and day, and +listened to with solemn pleasure, almost as a living voice, rung its +remorseless toll for her, so young, so beautiful, so good. Decrepit age, +and vigorous life, and blooming youth, and helpless infancy,--on crutches, +in the pride of health and strength, in the full blush of promise, in the +mere dawn of life, gathered round her. Old men were there, whose eyes were +dim and senses failing, grandmothers, who might have died ten years ago, +and still been old, the deaf, the blind, the lame, the palsied, the living +dead, in many shapes and forms, to see the closing of that early grave. + +Along the crowded path they bore her now, pure as the newly fallen snow +that covered it, whose day on earth had been as fleeting. Under that +porch, where she had sat when heaven, in its mercy, brought her to that +peaceful spot, she passed again, and the old church received her in its +quiet shade. + + + +XIV. VANITY OF LIFE. (100) + +Johann Gottfried von Herder, 1744-1803, an eminent German poet, preacher, +and philosopher, was born in Mohrungen, and died in Weimar. His published +works comprise sixty volumes. This selection is from his "Hebrew Poetry." +### + + +Man, born of woman, +Is of a few days, +And full of trouble; +He cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down; +He fleeth also as a shadow, +And continueth not. + +Upon such dost thou open thine eye, +And bring me unto judgment with thee? +Among the impure is there none pure? +Not one. + +Are his days so determined? +Hast thou numbered his months, +And set fast his bounds for him +Which he can never pass? +Turn then from him that he may rest, +And enjoy, as an hireling, his day. + +The tree hath hope, if it be cut down, +It becometh green again, +And new shoots are put forth. +If even the root is old in the earth, +And its stock die in the ground, +From vapor of water it will bud, +And bring forth boughs as a young plant. + +But man dieth, and his power is gone; +He is taken away, and where is he? + +Till the waters waste from the sea, +Till the river faileth and is dry land, +Man lieth low, and riseth not again. +Till the heavens are old, he shall not awake, +Nor be aroused from his sleep. + +Oh, that thou wouldest conceal me +In the realm of departed souls! +Hide me in secret, till thy wrath be past; +Appoint me then a new term, +And remember me again. +But alas! if a man die +Shall he live again? + +So long, then, as my toil endureth, +Will I wait till a change come to me. +Thou wilt call me, and I shall answer; +Thou wilt pity the work of thy hands. +Though now thou numberest my steps, +Thou shalt then not watch for my sin. +My transgression will be sealed in a bag, +Thou wilt bind up and remove my iniquity. + +Yet alas! the mountain falleth and is swallowed up, +The rock is removed out of its place, +The waters hollow out the stones, +The floods overflow the dust of the earth, +And thus, thou destroyest the hope of man. + +Thou contendest with him, till he faileth, +Thou changest his countenance, and sendeth him away. +Though his sons become great and happy, +Yet he knoweth it not; +If they come to shame and dishonor, +He perceiveth it not. + + +Note.--Compare with the translation of the same as given in the ordinary +version of the Bible. Job xiv. + + + +XV. A POLITICAL PAUSE. (102) + +Charles James Fox, 1749-1806, a famous English orator and statesman, was +the son of Hon. Henry Fox, afterward Lord Holland; he was also a lineal +descendant of Charles II. of England and of Henry IV, of France. He +received his education at Westminster, Eton, and Oxford, but left the +University without graduating. He was first elected to Parliament before +he was twenty years old. During the American Revolution, he favored the +colonies; later, he was a friend and fellow-partisan both with Burke and +Wilberforce. Burke said of him, "He is the most brilliant and successful +debater the world ever saw." In his later years, Mr. Fox was as remarkable +for carelessness in dress and personal appearance, as he had been for the +opposite in his youth. He possessed many pleasing traits of character, but +his morals were not commendable; he was a gambler and a spendthrift. Yet +he exercised a powerful influence on the politics of his times. This +extract is from a speech delivered during a truce in the long war between +England and France. +### + + +"But we must pause," says the honorable gentleman. What! must the bowels +of Great Britain be torn out, her best blood spilt, her treasures wasted, +that you may make an experiment? Put yourselves--Oh! that you would put +yourselves on the field of battle, and learn to judge of the sort of +horrors you excite. In former wars, a man might at least have some +feeling, some interest, that served to balance in his mind the impressions +which a scene of carnage and death must inflict. + +But if a man were present now at the field of slaughter, and were to +inquire for what they were fighting--"Fighting!", would be the answer; +"they are not fighting; they are pausing." "Why is that man expiring? Why +is that other writhing with agony? What means this implacable fury?" The +answer must be, "You are quite wrong, sir, you deceive yourself,--they are +not fighting,--do not disturb them,--they are merely pausing! This man is +not expiring with agony,--that man is not dead,--he is only pausing! Bless +you, sir, they are not angry with one another; they have now no cause of +quarrel; but their country thinks that there should be a pause. All that +you see is nothing like fighting,--there is no harm, nor cruelty, nor +bloodshed in it; it is nothing more than a political pause. It is merely +to try an experiment--to see whether Bonaparte will not behave himself +better than heretofore; and, in the meantime, we have agreed to a pause, +in pure friendship!" + +And is this the way that you are to show yourselves the advocates of +order? You take up a system calculated to uncivilize the world, to destroy +order, to trample on religion, to stifle in the heart not merely the +generosity of noble sentiment, but the affections of social nature; and in +the prosecution of this system, you spread terror and devastation all +around you. + + +Note.--In this lesson, the influence of a negative in determining the +rising inflection, is noticeable. See Rule V, p. 24. + + + +XVI. MY EXPERIENCE IN ELOCUTION. (104) + +John Neal. 1793-1876, a brilliant but eccentric American writer, was born +in Portland, Maine. He went into business, when quite young, in company +with John Pierpont, the well-known poet. They soon failed, and Mr. Neal +then turned his attention to the study of law. He practiced his profession +somewhat, but devoted most of his time to literature. For a time he +resided in England, where he wrote for "Blackwood's Magazine" and other +periodicals. His writings were produced with great rapidity, and with a +purposed disregard of what is known as "classical English." +### + + +In the academy I attended, elocution was taught in a way I shall never +forget--never! We had a yearly exhibition, and the favorites of the +preceptor were allowed to speak a piece; and a pretty time they had of it. +Somehow I was never a favorite with any of my teachers after the first two +or three days; and, as I went barefooted, I dare say it was thought +unseemly, or perhaps cruel, to expose me upon the platform. And then, as I +had no particular aptitude for public speaking, and no relish for what was +called oratory, it was never my luck to be called up. + +Among my schoolmates, however, was one--a very amiable, shy boy--to whom +was assigned, at the first exhibition I attended, that passage in Pope's +Homer beginning with, + + "Aurora, now, fair daughter of the dawn!" + +This the poor boy gave with so much emphasis and discretion, that, to me, +it sounded like "O roarer!" and I was wicked enough, out of sheer envy, I +dare say, to call him "O roarer!"--a nickname which clung to him for a +long while, though no human being ever deserved it less; for in speech and +action both, he was quiet, reserved, and sensitive. + +My next experience in elocution was still more disheartening, so that I +never had a chance of showing what I was capable of in that way till I set +up for myself. Master Moody, my next instructor, was thought to have +uncommon qualifications for teaching oratory. He was a large, handsome, +heavy man, over six feet high; and having understood that the first, +second, and third prerequisite in oratory was action, the boys he put in +training were encouraged to most vehement and obstreperous manifestations. +Let me give an example, and one that weighed heavily on my conscience for +many years after the poor man passed away. + +Among his pupils were two boys, brothers, who were thought highly gifted +in elocution. The master, who was evidently of that opinion, had a habit +of parading them on all occasions before visitors and strangers; though +one bad lost his upper front teeth and lisped badly, and the other had the +voice of a penny trumpet. Week after week these boys went through the +quarrel of Brutus and Cassius, for the benefit of myself and others, to +see if their example would not provoke us to a generous competition for +all the honors. + +How it operated on the other boys in after life I can not say; but the +effect on me was decidedly unwholesome--discouraging, indeed,--until I was +old enough to judge for myself, and to carry into operation a system of my +own. + +On coming to the passage,-- + + "Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts; + Dash him to pieces!"-- + +the elder of the boys gave it after the following fashion: "Be ready, +godths, with all your thunderbolths,--dath him in pietheth!"--bringing +his right fist down into his left palm with all his strength, and his +lifted foot upon the platform, which was built like a sounding-board, so +that the master himself, who had suggested the action and obliged the poor +boy to rehearse it over and over again, appeared to be utterly carried +away by the magnificent demonstration; while to me--so deficient was I in +rhetorical taste--it sounded like a crash of broken crockery, intermingled +with chicken peeps. + +I never got over it; and to this day can not endure stamping, nor even +tapping of the foot, nor clapping the hands together, nor thumping the +table for illustration; having an idea that such noises are not oratory, +and that untranslatable sounds are not language. + +My next essay was of a somewhat different kind. I took the field in +person, being in my nineteenth year, well proportioned, and already +beginning to have a sincere relish for poetry, if not for declamation. I +had always been a great reader; and in the course of my foraging +depredations I had met with "The Mariner's Dream" and "The Lake of the +Dismal Swamp," both of which I had committed to memory before I knew it. + +And one day, happening to be alone with my sister, and newly rigged out in +a student's gown, such as the lads at Brunswick sported when they came to +show off among their old companions, I proposed to astonish her by +rehearsing these two poems in appropriate costume. Being very proud of her +brother, and very obliging, she consented at once,--upon condition that +our dear mother, who had never seen anything of the sort, should be +invited to make one of the audience. + +On the whole, I rather think that I succeeded in astonishing both. I well +remember their looks of amazement--for they had never seen anything better +or worse in all their lives, and were no judges of acting--as I swept to +and fro in that magnificent robe, with outstretched arms and uplifted +eyes, when I came to passages like the following, where an apostrophe was +called for: + + "And near him the she wolf stirred the brake, + And the copper snake breathed in his ear, + Till he, starting, cried, from his dream awake, + 'Oh, when shall I see the dusky lake, + And the white canoe of my dear'!'" + +Or like this: + + "On beds of green sea flowers thy limbs shall be laid; + Around thy white bones the red coral shall grow, + Of thy fair yellow locks, threads of amber be made, + And every part suit to thy mansion below;"-- + +throwing up my arms, and throwing them out in every possible direction as +the spirit moved me, or the sentiment prompted; for I always encouraged my +limbs and features to think for themselves, and to act for themselves, and +never predetermined, never forethought, a gesture nor an intonation in my +life; and should as soon think of counterfeiting another's look or step or +voice, or of modulating my own by a pitch pipe (as the ancient orators +did, with whom oratory was acting elocution, a branch of the dramatic +art), as of adopting or imitating the gestures and tones of the most +celebrated rhetorician I ever saw. + +The result was rather encouraging. My mother and sister were both +satisfied. At any rate, they said nothing to the contrary. Being only in +my nineteenth year, what might I not be able to accomplish after a little +more experience! + +How little did I think, while rehearsing before my mother and sister, that +anything serious would ever come of it, or that I was laying the +foundations of character for life, or that I was beginning what I should +not be able to finish within the next forty or fifty years following. Yet +so it was. I had broken the ice without knowing it. These things were but +the foreshadowing of what happened long afterward. + + +Notes.--Brunswick, Maine, is the seat of Bowdoin College. + +"The Mariner's Dream" is a poem by 'William Dimond. + +"The Lake of the Dismal Swamp" is by Thomas Moore. + + + +XVII. ELEGY IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. (108) + +Thomas Gray, 1716-1771, is often spoken of as "the author of the +Elegy,"--this simple yet highly finished and beautiful poem being by far +the best known of an his writings. It was finished in 1749,--seven years +from the time it was commenced. Probably no short poem in the language +ever deserved or received more praise. Gray was born in London; his father +possessed property, but was indolent and selfish; his mother was a +successful woman of business, and supported her son in college from her +own earnings. The poet was educated at Eton and Cambridge; at the latter +place, he resided for several years after his return from a continental +tour, begun in 1739. He was small and delicate in person, refined and +precise in dress and manners, and shy and retiring in disposition. He was +an accomplished scholar in many fields of learning, but left comparatively +little finished work in any department. He declined the honor of poet +laureate; but, in 1769, was appointed Professor of History at Cambridge. +### + + +The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, + The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, +The plowman homeward plods his weary way, + And leaves the world to darkness and to me. + +Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, + And all the air a solemn stillness holds, +Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, + And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds: + +Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower, + The moping owl does to the moon complain +Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, + Molest her ancient solitary reign. + +Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade, + Where heaves the turf in many a moldering heap, +Each in his narrow cell forever laid, + The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. + +The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, + The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, +The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, + No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. + +For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, + Or busy housewife ply her evening care; +No children run to lisp their sire's return, + Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. + +Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, + Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke: +How jocund did they drive their team afield! + How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! + +Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, + Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; +Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile + The short and simple annals of the poor. + +The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, + And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, +Await alike, the inevitable hour: + The paths of glory lead but to the grave. + +Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, + If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise; +Where, through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, + The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. + +Can storied urn, or animated bust, + Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? +Can Honor's voice provoke the silent dust, + Or Flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of Death? + +Perhaps, in this neglected spot is laid + Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; +Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed, + Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre: + +But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, + Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll; +Chill Penury repressed their noble rage, + And froze the genial current of the soul. + +Full many a gem of purest ray serene, + The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear: +Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, + And waste its sweetness on the desert air. + +Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast, + The little tyrant of his fields withstood, +Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest, + Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood. + +The applause of listening senates to command, + The threats of pain and ruin to despise, +To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, + And read their history in a nation's eyes, + +Their lot forbade: nor, circumscribed alone + Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined; +Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne. + And shut the gates of mercy on mankind, + +The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, + To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, +Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride, + With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. + +Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, + Their sober wishes never learned to stray; +Along the cool, sequestered vale of life, + They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. + +Yet even these bones, from insult to protect, + Some frail memorial still, erected nigh, +With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, + Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. + +Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered Muse, + The place of fame and elegy supply; +And many a holy text around she strews, + That teach the rustic moralist to die. + +For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, + This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned, +Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, + Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind? + +On some fond breast the parting soul relies, + Some pious drops the closing eye requires; +E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, + E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires. + +For thee, who, mindful of the unhonored dead, + Dost in these lines their artless tale relate, +If chance, by lonely contemplation led, + Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,-- + +Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, + "Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn +Brushing, with hasty step, the dews away, + To meet the sun upon the upland lawn: + +"There, at the foot of yonder nodding beech, + That wreathes its old, fantastic roots so high, +His listless length at noontide would he stretch, + And pore upon the brook that babbles by. + +"Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, + Muttering his wayward fancies, he would rove; +Now, drooping, woeful-wan, like one forlorn, + Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love. + +"One morn, I missed him on the customed hill, + Along the heath, and near his favorite tree: +Another came; nor yet beside the rill, + Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he: + +"The next, with dirges due, in sad array + Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne:-- +Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay + 'Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn." + + THE EPITAPH. + +Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth, + A youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown: +Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth, + And Melancholy marked him for her own. + +Large was his bounty and his soul sincere, + Heaven did a recompense as largely send: +He gave to Misery (all he had) a tear; + He gained from Heaven ('t was all he wished) a friend. + +No farther seek his merits to disclose, + Or draw his frailties from their dread abode +(There they alike in trembling hope repose), + The bosom of his Father, and his God. + +[Illustration: Man on horseback riding past a church-yard (graveyard). +The sky is cloudy; the church steeple stands in the background.] + +Notes.--John Hampden (b. 1594, d. 1643) was noted for his resolute +resistance to the forced loans and unjust taxes imposed by Charles I. on +England. He took part in the contest between King and Parliament, and was +killed in a skirmish. + +John Milton. See biographical notice, page 312. + +Oliver Cromwell (b. 1599, d. 1658) was the leading character in the Great +Rebellion in England. He was Lord Protector the last five years of his +life, and in many respects the ablest ruler that England ever had. + + + +XVIII. TACT AND TALENT. (113) + +Talent is something, but tact is everything. Talent is serious, sober, +grave, and respectable: tact is all that, and more too. It is not a sixth +sense, but it is the life of all the five. It is the open eye, the quick +ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch; it is the +interpreter of all riddles, the surmounter of all difficulties, the +remover of all obstacles. It is useful in all places, and at all times; it +is useful in solitude, for it shows a man into the world; it is useful in +society, for it shows him his way through the world. + +Talent is power, tact is skill; talent is weight, tact is momentum; talent +knows what to do, tact knows how to do it; talent makes a man respectable, +tact will make him respected; talent is wealth, tact is ready money. For +all the practical purposes, tact carries it against talent ten to one. + +Take them to the theater, and put them against each other on the stage, +and talent shall produce you a tragedy that shall scarcely live long +enough to be condemned, while tact keeps the house in a roar, night after +night, with its successful farces. There is no want of dramatic talent, +there is no want of dramatic tact; but they are seldom together: so we +have successful pieces which are not respectable, and respectable pieces +which are not successful. + +Take them to the bar, and let them shake their learned curls at each other +in legal rivalry; talent sees its way clearly, but tact is first at its +journey's end. Talent has many a compliment from the bench, but tact +touches fees. Talent makes the world wonder that it gets on no faster, +tact arouses astonishment that it gets on so fast. And the secret is, that +it has no weight to carry; it makes no false steps; it hits the right nail +on the head; it loses no time; it takes all hints; and, by keeping its eye +on the weathercock, is ready to take advantage of every wind that blows. + +Take them into the church: talent has always something worth hearing, tact +is sure of abundance of hearers; talent may obtain a living, tact will +make one; talent gets a good name, tact a great one; talent convinces, +tact converts; talent is an honor to the profession, tact gains honor from +the profession. + +Take them to court: talent feels its weight, tact finds its way; talent +commands, tact is obeyed; talent is honored with approbation, and tact is +blessed by preferment. Place them in the senate: talent has the ear of the +house, but tact wins its heart, and has its votes; talent is fit for +employment, but tact is fitted for it. It has a knack of slipping into +place with a sweet silence and glibness of movement, as a billiard ball +insinuates itself into the pocket. + +It seems to know everything, without learning anything. It has served an +extemporary apprenticeship; it wants no drilling; it never ranks in the +awkward squad; it has no left hand, no deaf ear, no blind side. It puts on +no look of wondrous wisdom, it has no air of profundity, but plays with +the details of place as dexterously as a well-taught hand flourishes over +the keys of the pianoforte. It has all the air of commonplace, and all the +force and power of genius. + + + +XIX. SPEECH BEFORE THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION. (115) + +Patrick Henry, 1730-1799, was born in Hanover County, Virginia, He +received instruction in Latin and mathematics from his father, but seemed +to develop a greater fondness for hunting, fishing, and playing the fiddle +than for study. Twice he was set up in business, and twice failed before +he was twenty-four. He was then admitted to the bar after six weeks' study +of the law. He got no business at first in his profession, but lived with +his father-in-law. His wonderful powers of oratory first showed themselves +in a celebrated case which he argued in Hanover Courthouse, his own father +being the presiding magistrate. He began very awkwardly, but soon rose to +a surprising height of eloquence, won his case against great odds, and was +carried off in triumph by the delighted spectators. His fame was now +established; business flowed in, and he was soon elected to the Virginia +Legislature. He was a delegate to the Congress of 1774, and in 1775 made +the prophetic speech of which the following selection is a portion. It +was his own motion that the "colony be immediately put in a state of +defense." During the Revolution he was, for several years, Governor of +Virginia. In 1788 he earnestly opposed the adoption of the Federal +Constitution. When he died, he left a large family and an ample fortune. +In person, Mr. Henry was tall and rather awkward, with a face stern and +grave. When he spoke on great occasions, his awkwardness forsook him, his +face lighted up, and his eyes flashed with a wonderful fire. In his life, +he was good-humored, honest, and temperate. His patriotism was of the +noblest type; and few men in those stormy times did better service for +their country than he. +### + + +It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to +shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that +siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, +engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be +of the number of those, who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear +not the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my +part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the +whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. + +I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of +experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past; +and, judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the +conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those +hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the +house? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately +received? Trust it not: it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not +yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves, how this gracious +reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which +cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a +work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to +be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us +not deceive ourselves. These are the implements of war and subjugation,-- +the last arguments to which kings resort. + +I ask, gentlemen, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to +force us into submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive +for it? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call +for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, she has none. They are +meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind +and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so +long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? +We have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to +offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every +light in which it was capable; but it has been all in vain. + +Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we +find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, +deceive ourselves longer. We have done everything that could be done, to +avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have +remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves at the +foot of the throne, and implored its interposition to arrest the +tyrannical bands of the ministry and parliament. Our petitions have been +slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; +our supplications disregarded; and we have been spurned with contempt from +the foot of the throne. + +In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and +reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be +free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for +which we have been so long contending; if we mean not basely to abandon +the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we +have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our +contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, we must fight! An +appeal to arms and the God of Hosts, is all that is left us. + +They tell us that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an +adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the +next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British +guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by +irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual +resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive +phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? We +are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of +nature hath placed in our power. + +Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such +a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our +enemy can send against us. Besides, we shall not fight our battles alone. +There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who +will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle is not to +the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, +we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too +late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and +slavery! Our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains +of Boston! The war is inevitable; and; let it come! I repeat it, let it +come! + +It is in vain to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace; but +there is no peace. The war is actually begun. The next gale that sweeps +from the north, will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our +brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that +gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, +as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty +God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me +liberty, or give me death. + + +Notes.--Observe, in this lesson, the all-controlling power of emphasis in +determining the falling inflection. The words "see," "hear," and "my," in +the first paragraph, the word "that" in the second, and "spurned" and +"contempt" in the fourth paragraph, are examples of this. Let the reader +remember that a high degree of emphasis is sometimes expressed by a +whisper; also, that emphasis is often expressed by a pause. + +It will be well to read in this connection some good history of the +opening scenes of the Revolution. + + + +XX: THE AMERICAN FLAG. (119) + +Joseph Rodman Drake. 1795-1820, was born in New York City. His father died +when he was very young, and his early life was a struggle with poverty. He +studied medicine, and took his degree when he was about twenty years old. +From a child, he showed remarkable poetical powers, having made rhymes at +the early age of five. Most of his published writings were produced during +a period of less than two years. "The Culprit Fay" and the "American Flag" +are best known. In disposition, Mr. Drake was gentle and kindly; and, on +the occasion of his death, his intimate friend, Fitz-Greene Halleck, +expressed his character in the well-known couplet: + + "None knew thee but to love thee, + Nor named thee but to praise." +### + + +When Freedom, from her mountain height, + Unfurled her standard to the air, +She tore the azure robe of night, + And set the stars of glory there: +She mingled with its gorgeous dyes +The milky baldric of the skies, +And striped its pure, celestial white +With streakings of the morning light; +Then, from his mansion in the sun, +She called her eagle bearer down, +And gave into his mighty hand +The symbol of her chosen land. + +Majestic monarch of the cloud! + Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, +To hear the tempest trumpings loud, +And see the lightning lances driven, + When strive the warriors of the storm, +And rolls the thunder drum of heaven;-- +Child of the sun! to thee 't is given + To guard the banner of the free, +To hover in the sulphur smoke, +To ward away the battle stroke, +And bid its blendings shine afar, +Like rainbows on the cloud of war, + The harbingers of victory! + +Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly, +The sign of hope and triumph high! +When speaks the signal trumpet tone, +And the long line comes gleaming on, +Ere yet the lifeblood, warm and wet, +Has dimmed the glistening bayonet, +Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn +To where thy sky-born glories burn, +And, as his springing steps advance, +Catch war and vengeance from the glance. +And when the cannon mouthings loud +Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud, +And gory sabers rise and fall, +Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall, +Then shall thy meteor glances glow, +And cowering foes shall sink beneath +Each gallant arm, that strikes below +That lovely messenger of death. + +Flag of the seas! on ocean's wave +Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave; +When death careering on the gale, +Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail, +And frighted waves rush wildly back, +Before the broadside's reeling rack, +Each dying wanderer of the sea +Shall look at once to heaven and thee, +And smile to see thy splendors fly +In triumph o'er his closing eye. + +Flag of the free heart's hope and home, + By angel hands to valor given, +Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, + And all thy hues were born in heaven. +Forever float that standard sheet! + Where breathes the foe but falls before us, +With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, + And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us? + + + +XXI. IRONICAL EULOGY ON DEBT. (121) + + +Debt is of the very highest antiquity. The first debt in the history of +man is the debt of nature, and the first instinct is to put off the +payment of it to the last moment. Many persons, it will be observed, +following the natural procedure, would die before they would pay their +debts. + +Society is composed of two classes, debtors and creditors. The creditor +class has been erroneously supposed the more enviable. Never was there a +greater misconception; and the hold it yet maintains upon opinion is a +remarkable example of the obstinacy of error, notwithstanding the plainest +lessons of experience. The debtor has the sympathies of mankind. He is +seldom spoken of but with expressions of tenderness and compassion--"the +poor debtor!"--and "the unfortunate debtor!" On the other hand, "harsh" +and "hard-hearted" are the epithets allotted to the creditor. Who ever +heard the "poor creditor," the "unfortunate creditor" spoken of? No, the +creditor never becomes the object of pity, unless he passes into the +debtor class. A creditor may be ruined by the poor debtor, but it is not +until he becomes unable to pay his own debts, that he begins to be +compassionated. + +A debtor is a man of mark. Many eyes are fixed upon him; many have +interest in his well-being; his movements are of concern; he can not +disappear unheeded; his name is in many mouths; his name is upon many +books; he is a man of note--of promissory note; he fills the speculation +of many minds; men conjecture about him, wonder about him,--wonder and +conjecture whether he will pay. He is a man of consequence, for many are +running after him. His door is thronged with duns. He is inquired after +every hour of the day. Judges hear of him and know him. Every meal he +swallows, every coat he puts upon his back, every dollar he borrows, +appears before the country in some formal document. Compare his notoriety +with the obscure lot of the creditor,--of the man who has nothing but +claims on the world; a landlord, or fundholder, or some such disagreeable, +hard character. + +The man who pays his way is unknown in his neighborhood. You ask the +milkman at his door, and he can not tell his name. You ask the butcher +where Mr. Payall lives, and he tells you he knows no such name, for it is +not in his books. You shall ask the baker, and he will tell you there is +no such person in the neighborhood. People that have his money fast in +their pockets, have no thought of his person or appellation. His house +only is known. No. 31 is good pay. No. 31 is ready money. Not a scrap of +paper is ever made out for No. 31. It is an anonymous house; its owner +pays his way to obscurity. No one knows anything about him, or heeds his +movements. If a carriage be seen at his door, the neighborhood is not full +of concern lest he be going to run away. If a package be removed from his +house, a score of boys are not employed to watch whether it be carried to +the pawnbroker. Mr. Payall fills no place in the public mind; no one has +any hopes or fears about him. + +The creditor always figures in the fancy as a sour, single man, with +grizzled hair, a scowling countenance, and a peremptory air, who lives in +a dark apartment, with musty deeds about him, and an iron safe, as +impenetrable as his heart, grabbing together what he does not enjoy, and +what there is no one about him to enjoy. The debtor, on the other hand, is +always pictured with a wife and six fair-haired daughters, bound together +in affection and misery, full of sensibility, and suffering without a +fault. The creditor, it is never doubted, thrives without a merit. He has +no wife and children to pity. No one ever thinks it desirable that he +should have the means of living. He is a brute for insisting that he must +receive, in order to pay. It is not in the imagination of man to conceive +that his creditor has demands upon him which must be satisfied, and that +he must do to others as others must do to him. A creditor is a +personification of exaction. He is supposed to be always taking in, and +never giving out. + +People idly fancy that the possession of riches is desirable. What +blindness! Spend and regale. Save a shilling and you lay it by for a +thief. The prudent men are the men that live beyond their means. Happen +what may, they are safe. They have taken time by the forelock. They have +anticipated fortune. "The wealthy fool, with gold in store," has only +denied himself so much enjoyment, which another will seize at his expense. +Look at these people in a panic. See who are the fools then. You know them +by their long faces. You may say, as one of them goes by in an agony of +apprehension, "There is a stupid fellow who fancied himself rich, because +he had fifty thousand dollars in bank." The history of the last ten years +has taught the moral, "spend and regale." Whatever is laid up beyond the +present hour, is put in jeopardy. There is no certainty but in instant +enjoyment. Look at schoolboys sharing a plum cake. The knowing ones eat, +as for a race; but a stupid fellow saves his portion; just nibbles a bit, +and "keeps the rest for another time." Most provident blockhead! The +others, when they have gobbled up their shares, set upon him, plunder him, +and thrash him for crying out. + +Before the terms "depreciation," "suspension," and "going into +liquidation," were heard, there might have been some reason in the +practice of "laying up;" but now it denotes the darkest blindness. The +prudent men of the present time, are the men in debt. The tendency being +to sacrifice creditors to debtors, and the debtor party acquiring daily +new strength, everyone is in haste to get into the favored class. In any +case, the debtor is safe. He has put his enjoyments behind him; they are +safe; no turns of fortune can disturb them. The substance he has eaten up, +is irrecoverable. The future can not trouble his past. He has nothing to +apprehend. He has anticipated more than fortune would ever have granted +him. He has tricked fortune; and his creditors--bah! who feels for +creditors? What are creditors? Landlords; a pitiless and unpitiable tribe; +all griping extortioners! What would become of the world of debtors, if it +did not steal a march upon this rapacious class? + + + +XXII. THE THREE WARNINGS. (124) + +Hester Lynch Thrale. 1739--1821, owes her celebrity almost wholly to her +long intimacy with Dr. Samuel Johnson. This continued for twenty years, +during which Johnson spent much time in her family. She was born in +Caernarvonshire, Wales; her first husband was a wealthy brewer, by whom +she had several children. In 1784, she married an Italian teacher of music +named Piozzi. Her writings are quite numerous; the best known of her books +is the "Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson;" but nothing she ever wrote is so well +known as the "Three Warnings." +### + + +The tree of deepest root is found +Least willing still to quit the ground; +'T was therefore said by ancient sages, + That love of life increased with years +So much, that in our latter stages, +When pains grow sharp, and sickness rages, + The greatest love of life appears. + +This great affection to believe, +Which all confess, but few perceive, +If old assertions can't prevail, +Be pleased to hear a modern tale. + +When sports went round, and all were gay, +On neighbor Dodson's wedding day, +Death called aside the jocund groom +With him into another room; +And looking grave, "You must," says he, +"Quit your sweet bride, and come with me." +"With you! and quit my Susan's side? +With you!" the hapless bridegroom cried: +"Young as I am, 't is monstrous hard! +Besides, in truth, I'm not prepared." + +What more he urged, I have not heard; + His reasons could not well be stronger: +So Death the poor delinquent spared, + And left to live a little longer. +Yet, calling up a serious look, +His hourglass trembled while he spoke: +"Neighbor," he said, "farewell! no more +Shall Death disturb your mirthful hour; +And further, to avoid all blame +Of cruelty upon my name, +To give you time for preparation, +And fit you for your future station, +Three several warnings you shall have +Before you're summoned to the grave; +Willing for once I'll quit my prey, + And grant a kind reprieve; +In hopes you'll have no more to say, +But, when I call again this way, + Well pleased the world will leave." +To these conditions both consented, +And parted perfectly contented. + +What next the hero of our tale befell, +How long he lived, how wisely, and how well, +It boots not that the Muse should tell; +He plowed, he sowed, he bought, he sold, +Nor once perceived his growing old, + Nor thought of Death as near; +His friends not false, his wife no shrew, +Many his gains, his children few, +He passed his hours in peace. +But, while he viewed his wealth increase, +While thus along life's dusty road, +The beaten track, content he trod, +Old Time, whose haste no mortal spares, +Uncalled, unheeded, unawares, + Brought on his eightieth year. + +And now, one night, in musing mood, + As all alone he sate, + The unwelcome messenger of Fate +Once more before him stood. +Half-killed with wonder and surprise, +"So soon returned!" old Dodson cries. +"So soon d' ye call it?" Death replies: +"Surely! my friend, you're but in jest; + Since I was here before, +'T is six and thirty years at least, + And you are now fourscore." +"So much the worse!" the clown rejoined; +"To spare the aged would be kind: +Besides, you promised me three warnings, +Which I have looked for nights and mornings!" + +"I know," cries Death, "that at the best, +I seldom am a welcome guest; +But do n't be captious, friend; at least, +I little thought that you'd be able +To stump about your farm and stable; +Your years have run to a great length, +Yet still you seem to have your strength." + +"Hold!" says the farmer, "not so fast! +I have been lame, these four years past." +"And no great wonder," Death replies, +"However, you still keep your eyes; +And surely, sir, to see one's friends, +For legs and arms would make amends." +"Perhaps," says Dodson, "so it might, +But latterly I've lost my sight." +"This is a shocking story, faith; +But there's some comfort still," says Death; +"Each strives your sadness to amuse; +I warrant you hear all the news." +"There's none," cries he, "and if there were, +I've grown so deaf, I could not hear." + +"Nay, then," the specter stern rejoined, + "These are unpardonable yearnings; +If you are lame, and deaf, and blind, + You've had your three sufficient warnings, +So, come along; no more we'll part." +He said, and touched him with his dart: +And now old Dodson, turning pale, +Yields to his fate--so ends my tale. + + + +XXIII. THE MEMORY OF OUR FATHERS. (128) + +Lyman Beecher, 1775-1863, a famous congregational minister of New England, +was born in New Haven, graduated from Yale College in 1797, and studied +theology with Dr. Timothy Dwight. His first settlement was at East +Hampton, L. I., at a salary of three hundred dollars per year. He was +pastor of the church in Litchfield, Ct., from 1810 till 1826, when he +removed to Boston, and took charge of the Hanover Street Church. In the +religious controversies of the time, Dr. Beecher was one of the most +prominent characters. From 1832 to 1842, he was President of Lane +Theological Seminary, in the suburbs of Cincinnati. He then returned to +Boston, where he spent most of the closing years of his long and active +life. His death occurred in Brooklyn, N. Y. As a theologian, preacher, and +advocate of education, temperance, and missions, Dr. Beecher occupied a +very prominent place for nearly half a century. He left a large family of +sons and two daughters, who are well known as among the most eminent +preachers and authors in America. +### + + +We are called upon to cherish with high veneration and grateful +recollections, the memory of our fathers. Both the ties of nature and the +dictates of policy demand this. And surely no nation had ever less +occasion to be ashamed of its ancestry, or more occasion for gratulation +in that respect; for while most nations trace their origin to barbarians, +the foundations of our nation were laid by civilized men, by Christians. +Many of them were men of distinguished families, of powerful talents, of +great learning and of preeminent wisdom, of decision of character, and of +most inflexible integrity. And yet not unfrequently they have been treated +as if they had no virtues; while their sins and follies have been +sedulously immortalized in satirical anecdote. + +The influence of such treatment of our fathers is too manifest. It creates +and lets loose upon their institutions, the vandal spirit of innovation +and overthrow; for after the memory of our father shall have been rendered +contemptible, who will appreciate and sustain their institutions? "The +memory of our fathers" should be the watchword of liberty throughout the +land; for, imperfect as they were, the world before had not seen their +like, nor will it soon, we fear, behold their like again. Such models of +moral excellence, such apostles of civil and religious liberty, such +shades of the illustrious dead looking down upon their descendants with +approbation or reproof, according as they follow or depart from the good +way, constitute a censorship inferior only to the eye of God; and to +ridicule them is national suicide. + +The doctrines of our fathers have been represented as gloomy, +superstitious, severe, irrational, and of a licentious tendency. But when +other systems shall have produced a piety as devoted, a morality as pure, +a patriotism as disinterested, and a state of society as happy, as have +prevailed where their doctrines have been most prevalent, it may be in +season to seek an answer to this objection. + +The persecutions instituted by our fathers have been the occasion of +ceaseless obloquy upon their fair fame. And truly, it was a fault of no +ordinary magnitude, that sometimes they did persecute. But let him whose +ancestors were not ten times more guilty, cast the first stone, and the +ashes of our fathers will no more be disturbed. Theirs was the fault of +the age, and it will be easy to show that no class of men had, at that +time, approximated so nearly to just apprehensions of religious liberty; +and that it is to them that the world is now indebted for the more just +and definite views which now prevail. + +The superstition and bigotry of our fathers are themes on which some of +their descendants, themselves far enough from superstition, if not from +bigotry, have delighted to dwell. But when we look abroad, and behold the +condition of the world, compared with the condition of New England, we may +justly exclaim, "Would to God that the ancestors of all the nations had +been not only almost, but altogether such bigots as our fathers were." + + + +XXIV. SHORT SELECTIONS IN PROSE. (130) + +I. DRYDEN AND POPE. + +Dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and Pope in his local +manners. The notions of Dryden were formed by comprehensive speculation, +those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge +of Dryden, more certainty in that of Pope. The style of Dryden is +capricious and varied, that of Pope cautious and uniform. Dryden obeys the +motions of his own mind; Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of +composition. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, +and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is +the velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and leveled by the roller. If the +flights of Dryden are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If, of +Dryden's fire, the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular +and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls +below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with +perpetual delight. + --Samuel Johnson. + +Note.--A fine example of antithesis. See p. 26. + + + +II. LAS CASAS DISSUADING FROM BATTLE. (130) + +Is then the dreadful measure of your cruelty not yet complete? Battle! +against whom? Against a king, in whose mild bosom your atrocious injuries, +even yet, have not excited hate; but who, insulted or victorious, still +sues for peace. Against a people, who never wronged the living being their +Creator formed; a people, who received you as cherished guests, with eager +hospitality and confiding kindness. Generously and freely did they share +with you their comforts, their treasures, and their homes; you repaid them +by fraud, oppression, and dishonor. + +Pizarro, hear me! Hear me, chieftains! And thou, All-powerful! whose +thunder can shiver into sand the adamantine rock, whose lightnings can +pierce the core of the riven and quaking earth, oh let thy power give +effect to thy servant's words, as thy Spirit gives courage to his will! Do +not, I implore you, chieftains,--do not, I implore, you, renew the foul +barbarities your insatiate avarice has inflicted on this wretched, +unoffending race. But hush, my sighs! fall not, ye drops of useless +sorrow! heart-breaking anguish, choke not my utterance. + --E. B. Sheridan. + +Note.--Examples of series. See p. 28. + + + +III. ACTION AND REPOSE. (131) + +John Ruskin, 1819 ---, is a distinguished English art critic and author. +From 1869 to 1884, he was Professor of the Fine Arts at Oxford University. +His writings are very numerous, and are noted for their eloquent and +brilliant style. +### + + +About the river of human life there is a wintry wind, though a heavenly +sunshine; the iris colors its agitation, the frost fixes upon its repose. +Let us beware that our rest become not the rest of stones, which, so long +as they are tempest-tossed and thunderstricken, maintain their majesty; +but when the stream is silent and the storm passed, suffer the grass to +cover them, and are plowed into the dust. + + + +IV. TIME AND CHANGE. (131) + +Sir Humphry Davy, 1778-1829, was an eminent chemist of England. He made +many important chemical discoveries, and was the inventor of the miner's +safety lamp. +### + + +Time is almost a human word, and Change entirely a human idea; in the +system of nature, we should rather say progress than change. The sun +appears to sink in the ocean in darkness, but it rises in another +hemisphere; the ruins of a city fall, but they are often used to form more +magnificent structures: even when they are destroyed so as to produce only +dust, Nature asserts her empire over them; and the vegetable world rises +in constant youth, in a period of annual successions, by the labors of +man--providing food, vitality, and beauty--upon the wrecks of monuments +which were raised for the purposes of glory, but which are now applied to +objects of utility. + + + +V. THE POET. (132) + +William Ellery Channing, 1780-1842, was a distinguished clergyman and +orator. He took a leading part in the public affairs of his day, and wrote +and lectured eloquently on several topics. +### + + +It is not true that the poet paints a life which does not exist. He only +extracts and concentrates, as it were, life's ethereal essence, arrests +and condenses its volatile fragrance, brings together its scattered +beauties, and prolongs its more refined but evanescent joys; and in this +he does well, for it is good to feel that life is not wholly usurped by +cares for subsistence and physical gratifications, but admits, in measures +which may be indefinitely enlarged, sentiments and delights worthy of a +higher being. + + + +VI. MOUNTAINS. (132) + +William Howitt, 1795-1879, was an English author. He published many books, +and was associated with his wife, Mary Howitt, in the publication of many +others. +### + + +There is a charm connected with mountains, so powerful that the merest +mention of them, the merest sketch of their magnificent features, kindles +the imagination, and carries the spirit at once into the bosom of their +enchanted regions. How the mind is filled with their vast solitude! How +the inward eye is fixed on their silent, their sublime, their everlasting +peaks! How our hearts bound to the music of their solitary cries, to the +tinkle of their gushing rills, to the sound of their cataracts! How +inspiriting are the odors that breathe from the upland turf, from the +rock-hung flower, from the hoary and solemn pine! How beautiful are those +lights and shadows thrown abroad, and that fine, transparent haze which is +diffused over the valleys and lower slopes, as over a vast, inimitable +picture! + + + +XXV. THE JOLLY OLD PEDAGOGUE. (133) + +George Arnold, 1834--1865, was born in New York City. He never attended +school, but was educated at home, by his parents. His literary career +occupied a period of about twelve years. In this time he wrote stories, +essays, criticisms in art and literature, poems, sketches, etc., for +several periodicals. Two volumes of his poems have been published since +his death. +### + + +'T was a jolly old pedagogue, long ago, + Tall, and slender, and sallow, and dry; +His form was bent, and his gait was slow, +And his long, thin hair was white as snow, + But a wonderful twinkle shone in his eye: +And he sang every night as he went to bed, + "Let us be happy down here below; +The living should live, though the dead be dead," + Said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. + +He taught the scholars the Rule of Three, + Reading, and writing, and history too; +He took the little ones on his knee, +For a kind old heart in his breast had he, + And the wants of the littlest child he knew. +"Learn while you're young," he often said, + "There is much to enjoy down here below; +Life for the living, and rest for the dead!" + Said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. + +With the stupidest boys, he was kind and cool, + Speaking only in gentlest tones; +The rod was scarcely known in his school-- +Whipping to him was a barbarous rule, + And too hard work for his poor old bones; +Besides it was painful, he sometimes said: + "We should make life pleasant down here below-- +The living need charity more than the dead," + Said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. + +He lived in the house by the hawthorn lane, + With roses and woodbine over the door; +His rooms were quiet, and neat, and plain, +But a spirit of comfort there held reign, + And made him forget he was old and poor. +"I need so little," he often said; + "And my friends and relatives here below +Won't litigate over me when I am dead," + Said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. + +But the pleasantest times he had of all, + Were the sociable hours he used to pass, +With his chair tipped back to a neighbor's wall, +Making an unceremonious call, + Over a pipe and a friendly glass: +This was the finest pleasure, he said, + Of the many he tasted here below: +"Who has no cronies had better be dead," + Said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. + +The jolly old pedagogue's wrinkled face + Melted all over in sunshiny smiles; +He stirred his glass with an old-school grace, +Chuckled, and sipped, and prattled apace, + Till the house grew merry from cellar to tiles. +"I'm a pretty old man," he gently said, + "I've lingered a long time here below; +But my heart is fresh, if my youth is fled!" + Said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. + +He smoked his pipe in the balmy air + Every night, when the sun went down; +And the soft wind played in his silvery hair, +Leaving its tenderest kisses there, + On the jolly old pedagogue's jolly old crown; +And feeling the kisses, he smiled, and said: + " 'T is it glorious world down here below; +Why wait for happiness till we are dead?" + Said this jolly old pedagogue, long ago. + +He sat at his door one midsummer night, + After the sun had sunk in the west, +And the lingering beams of golden light +Made his kindly old face look warm and bright, + While the odorous night winds whispered, "Rest!" +Gently, gently, he bowed his head; + There were angels waiting for him, I know; +He was sure of his happiness, living or dead, + This jolly old pedagogue, long ago! + + + +XXVI. THE TEACHER AND SICK SCHOLAR. (135) + +Shortly after the schoolmaster had arranged the forms and taken his seat +behind his desk, a small white-headed boy with a sunburnt face appeared at +the door, and, stopping there to make a rustic bow, came in and took his +seat upon one of the forms. He then put an open book, astonishingly +dog's-eared, upon his knees, and, thrusting his hands into his pockets, +began counting the marbles with which they were filled; displaying, in the +expression of his face, a remarkable capacity of totally abstracting his +mind from the spelling on which his eyes were fixed. + +Soon afterward, another white-headed little boy came straggling in, and +after him, a red-headed lad, and then one with a flaxen poll, until the +forms were occupied by a dozen boys, or thereabouts, with heads of every +color but gray, and ranging in their ages from four years old to fourteen +years or more; for the legs of the youngest were a long way from the +floor, when he sat upon the form; and the eldest was a heavy, +good-tempered fellow, about half a head taller than the schoolmaster. + +At the top of the first form--the post of honor in the school--was the +vacant place of the little sick scholar; and, at the head of the row of +pegs, on which those who wore hats or caps were wont to hang them, one was +empty. No boy attempted to violate the sanctity of seat or peg, but many a +one looked from the empty spaces to the schoolmaster, and whispered to his +idle neighbor, behind his hand. + +Then began the hum of conning over lessons and getting them by heart, the +whispered jest and stealthy game, and all the noise and drawl of school; +and in the midst of the din, sat the poor schoolmaster, vainly attempting +to fix his mind upon the duties of the day, and to forget his little sick +friend. But the tedium of his office reminded him more strongly of the +willing scholar, and his thoughts were rambling from his pupils--it was +plain. + +None knew this better than the idlest boys, who, growing bolder with +impunity, waxed louder and more daring; playing "odd or even" under the +master's eye; eating apples openly and without rebuke; pinching each other +in sport or malice, without the least reserve; and cutting their initials +in the very legs of his desk. The puzzled dunce, who stood beside it to +say his lesson "off the book," looked no longer at the ceiling for +forgotten words, but drew closer to the master's elbow, and boldly cast +his eye upon the page; the wag of the little troop squinted and made +grimaces (at the smallest boy, of course), holding no book before his +face, and his approving companions knew no constraint in their delight. If +the master did chance to rouse himself, and seem alive to what was going +on, the noise subsided for a moment, and no eye met his but wore a +studious and deeply humble look; but the instant he relapsed again, it +broke out afresh, and ten times louder than before. + +Oh! how some of those idle fellows longed to be outside, and how they +looked at the open door and window, as if they half meditated rushing +violently out, plunging into the woods, and being wild boys and savages +from that time forth. What rebellious thoughts of the cool river, and some +shady bathing place, beneath willow trees with branches dipping in the +water, kept tempting and urging that sturdy boy, who, with his shirt +collar unbuttoned, and flung back as far as it could go, sat fanning his +flushed face with a spelling book, wishing himself a whale, or a minnow, +or a fly, or anything but a boy at school, on that hot, broiling day. + +Heat! ask that other boy, whose seat being nearest to the door, gave him +opportunities of gliding out into the garden, and driving his companions +to madness, by dipping his face into the bucket of the well, and then +rolling on the grass,--ask him if there was ever such a day as that, when +even the bees were diving deep down into the cups of the flowers, and +stopping there, as if they had made up their minds to retire from +business, and be manufacturers of honey no more. The day was made for +laziness, and lying on one's back in green places, and staring at the sky, +till its brightness forced the gazer to shut his eyes and go to sleep. And +was this a time to be poring over musty books in a dark room, slighted by +the very sun itself? Monstrous! + +The lessons over, writing time began. This was a more quiet time; for the +master would come and look over the writer's shoulder, and mildly tell him +to observe how such a letter was turned up, in such a copy on the wall, +which had been written by their sick companion, and bid him take it as a +model. Then he would stop and tell them what the sick child had said last +night, and how he had longed to be among them once again; and such was the +poor schoolmaster's gentle and affectionate manner, that the boys seemed +quite remorseful that they had worried him so much, and were absolutely +quiet; eating no apples, cutting no names, and making no grimaces for full +two minutes afterward. + +"I think, boys," said the schoolmaster, when the clock struck twelve, +"that I shall give you an extra half holiday this afternoon." At this +intelligence, the boys, led on and headed by the tall boy, raised a great +shout, in the midst of which the master was seen to speak, but could not +be heard. As he held up his hand, however, in token of his wish that they +should be silent, they were considerate enough to leave off, as soon as the +longest-winded among them were quite out of breath. "You must promise +me, first," said the schoolmaster, "that you'll not be noisy, or at least, +if you are, that you'll go away first, out of the village, I mean. I'm +sure you would n't disturb your old playmate and companion." + +There was a general murmur (and perhaps a very sincere one, for they were +but boys) in the negative; and the tall boy, perhaps as sincerely as any +of them, called those about him to witness, that he had only shouted in a +whisper. "Then pray do n't forget, there's my dear scholars," said the +schoolmaster, "what I have asked you, and do it as a favor to me. Be as +happy as you can, and do n't be unmindful that you are blessed with +health. Good-by, all." + +"Thank 'ee, sir," and "Good-by, sir," were said a great many times in a +great variety of voices, and the boys went out very slowly and softly. But +there was the sun shining and there were birds singing, as the sun only +shines and the birds only sing on holidays and half holidays; there were +the trees waving to all free boys to climb, and nestle among their leafy +branches; the hay, entreating them to come and scatter it to the pure air; +the green corn, gently beckoning toward wood and stream; the smooth +ground, rendered smoother still by blending lights and shadows, inviting +to runs and leaps, and long walks, nobody knows whither. It was more than +boy could bear, and with a joyous whoop, the whole cluster took to their +heels, and spread themselves about, shouting and laughing as they went. +" 'T is natural, thank Heaven!" said the poor schoolmaster, looking after +them, "I am very glad they did n't mind me." + +Toward night, the schoolmaster walked over to the cottage where his little +friend lay sick. Knocking gently at the cottage door, it was opened +without loss of time. He entered a room where a group of women were +gathered about one who was wringing her hands and crying bitterly. "O +dame!" said the schoolmaster, drawing near her chair, "is it so bad as +this?" Without replying, she pointed to another room, which the +schoolmaster immediately entered; and there lay his little friend, +half-dressed, stretched upon a bed. + +He was a very young boy; quite a little child. His hair still hung in +curls about his face, and his eyes were very bright; but their light was +of heaven, not of earth. The schoolmaster took a seat beside him, and, +stooping over the pillow whispered his name. The boy sprung up, stroked +his face with his hand, and threw his wasted arms around his neck, crying, +that he was his dear, kind friend. "I hope I always was. I meant to be, +God knows," said the poor schoolmaster. "You remember my garden, Henry?" +whispered the old man, anxious to rouse him, for dullness seemed gathering +upon the child, "and how pleasant it used to be in the evening time? You +must make haste to visit it again, for I think the very flowers have +missed you, and are less gay than they used to be. You will come soon, +very soon now, won't you?" + +The boy smiled faintly--so very, very faintly--and put his hand upon his +friend's gray head. He moved his lips too, but no voice came from them,-- +no, not a sound. In the silence that ensued, the hum of distant voices, +borne upon the evening air, came floating through the open window. "What's +that?" said the sick child, opening his eyes. "The boys at play, upon the +green." He took a handkerchief from his pillow, and tried to wave it above +his head. But the feeble arm dropped powerless down. "Shall I do it?" said +the schoolmaster. "Please wave it at the window," was the faint reply. +"Tie it to the lattice. Some of them may see it there. Perhaps they'll +think of me, and look this way." + +He raised his head and glanced from the fluttering signal to his idle bat, +that lay, with slate, and book, and other boyish property, upon the table +in the room. And then he laid him softly down once more, and again clasped +his little arms around the old man's neck. The two old friends and +companions--for such they were, though they were man and child--held each +other in a long embrace, and then the little scholar turned his face to +the wall and fell asleep. + +* * * * * * * * * + +The poor schoolmaster sat in the same place, holding the small, cold hand +in his, and chafing it. It was but the hand of a dead child. He felt that; +and yet he chafed it still, and could not lay it down. + + From "The Old Curiosity Shop," by Dickens. + + + +XXVII. THE SNOW SHOWER. (141) + +William Cullen Bryant, 1794-1878, was the son of Peter Bryant, a physician +of Cummington, Massachusetts. Amid the beautiful scenery of this remote +country town, the poet was born; and here he passed his early youth. At +the age of sixteen, Bryant entered Williams College, but was honorably +dismissed at the end of two years. He then entered on the study of law, +and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. He practiced his +profession, with much success, for about nine years. In 1826, he removed +to New York, and became connected with the "Evening Post," a connection +which continued to the time of his death. For more than thirty of the last +years of his life, Mr. Bryant made his home near Roslyn, Long Island, +where he occupied an "old-time mansion," which he bought, fitted up, and +surrounded in accordance with his excellent rural taste. A poem of his, +written at the age of ten years, was published in the "County Gazette," +and two poems of considerable length were published in book form, when the +author was only fourteen. "Thanatopsis," perhaps the best known of all his +poems, was written when he was but nineteen. But, notwithstanding his +precocity, his powers continued to a remarkable age. His, excellent +translations of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," together with some of his +best poems, were accomplished after the poet, had passed the age of +seventy. Mr. Bryant visited Europe several times; and, in 1849, he +continued his travels into Egypt and Syria. Abroad, he was received with +many marks of distinction; and he added much to his extensive knowledge by +studying the literature of the countries he visited. + +All his poems exhibit a peculiar love, and a careful study, of nature; and +his language, both in prose and poetry, is always chaste, elegant, and +correct. His mind was well-balanced; and his personal character was one to +be admired, loved, and imitated. +### + + +Stand here by my side and turn, I pray, + On the lake below thy gentle eyes; +The clouds hang over it, heavy and gray, + And dark and silent the water lies; +And out of that frozen mist the snow +In wavering flakes begins to flow; + Flake after flake +They sink in the dark and silent lake. + +See how in a living swarm they come + From the chambers beyond that misty veil; +Some hover in air awhile, and some + Rush prone from the sky like summer hail. +All, dropping swiftly, or settling slow, +Meet, and are still in the depths below; + Flake after flake +Dissolved in the dark and silent lake. + +Here delicate snow stars, out of the cloud, + Come floating downward in airy play, +Like spangles dropped from the glistening crowd + That whiten by night the Milky Way; +There broader and burlier masses fall; +The sullen water buries them all,-- + Flake after flake,-- +All drowned in the dark and silent lake. + +And some, as on tender wings they glide + From their chilly birth cloud, dim and gray. +Are joined in their fall, and, side by side, + Come clinging along their unsteady way; +As friend with friend, or husband with wife, +Makes hand in hand the passage of life; + Each mated flake +Soon sinks in the dark and silent lake. + +Lo! while we are gazing, in swifter haste + Stream down the snows, till the air is white, +As, myriads by myriads madly chased, + They fling themselves from their shadowy height. +The fair, frail creatures of middle sky, +What speed they make, with their grave so nigh; + Flake after flake +To lie in the dark and silent lake. + +I see in thy gentle eyes a tear; + They turn to me in sorrowful thought; +Thou thinkest of friends, the good and dear, + Who were for a time, and now are not; +Like these fair children of cloud and frost, +That glisten a moment an then are lost, + Flake after flake,-- +All lost in the dark and silent lake. + +Yet look again, for the clouds divide; + A gleam of blue on the water lies; +And far away, on the mountain side, + A sunbeam falls from the opening skies. +But the hurrying host that flew between +The cloud and the water no more is seen; + Flake after flake +At rest in the dark and silent lake. + + + +XXVIII. CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. (143) + +Charles Phillips, 1787-1859, an eminent barrister and orator, was born in +Sligo, Ireland, and died in London. He gained much of his reputation as an +advocate in criminal cases. In his youth he published some verses; later +in life he became the author of several works, chiefly of biography. +### + + +He is fallen! We may now pause before that splendid prodigy, which towered +among us like some ancient ruin, whose power terrified the glance its +magnificence attracted. Grand, gloomy, and peculiar, he sat upon the +throne a sceptered hermit, wrapt in the solitude of his own originality. A +mind, bold, independent, and decisive; a will, despotic in its dictates; +an energy that distanced expedition; and a conscience, pliable to every +touch of interest, marked the outlines of this extraordinary +character--the most extraordinary, perhaps, that in the annals of this +world ever rose, or reigned, or fell. + +Flung into life in the midst of a revolution that quickened every energy +of a people who acknowledged no superior, he commenced his course, a +stranger by birth, and a scholar by charity. With no friend but his sword, +and no fortune but his talents, he rushed into the lists where rank, and +wealth, and genius had arrayed themselves, and competition fled from him, +as from the glance of destiny. + +He knew no motive but interest; acknowledged no criterion but success; he +worshiped no God but ambition; and, with an eastern devotion, he knelt at +the shrine of his idolatry. Subsidiary to this, there was no creed that he +did not profess, there was no opinion that he did not promulgate: in the +hope of a dynasty, he upheld the crescent; for the sake of a divorce, he +bowed before the cross; the orphan of St. Louis, he became the adopted +child of the Republic; and, with a parricidal ingratitude, on the ruins +both of the throne and the tribune, he reared the throne of his despotism. +A professed Catholic, he imprisoned the Pope; a pretended patriot, he +impoverished the country; and in the name of Brutus, he grasped without +remorse, and wore without shame, the diadem of the Caesars. + +The whole continent trembled at beholding the audacity of his designs, and +the miracle of their execution. Skepticism bowed to the prodigies of his +performance; romance assumed the air of history; nor was there aught too +incredible for belief, or too fanciful for expectation, when the world saw +a subaltern of Corsica waving his imperial flag over her most ancient +capitals. All the visions of antiquity became commonplace in his +contemplation: kings were his people; nations were his outposts; and he +disposed of courts, and crowns, and camps, and churches, and cabinets, as +if they were the titular dignitaries of the chessboard! Amid all these +changes, he stood immutable as adamant. It mattered little whether in the +field, or in the drawing-room; with the mob, or the levee; wearing the +Jacobin bonnet, or the iron crown; banishing a Braganza, or espousing a +Hapsburg; dictating peace on a raft to the Czar of Russia, or +contemplating defeat at the gallows of Leipsic he was still the same +military despot. + +In this wonderful combination, his affectations of literature must not be +omitted. The jailer of the press, he affected the patronage of letters; +the proscriber of books, he encouraged philosophy; the persecutor of +authors, and the murderer of printers, he yet pretended to the protection +of learning; the assassin of Palm, the silencer of De Stael, and the +denouncer of Kotzebue, he was the friend of David, the benefactor of De +Lille, and sent his academic prize to the philosopher of England. + +Such a medley of contradictions, and, at the same time, such an individual +consistency, were never united in the same character. A royalist, a +republican, and an emperor; a Mohammedan, a Catholic, and a patron of the +synagogue; a subaltern and a sovereign; a traitor and a tyrant; a +Christian and an infidel; he was, through all his vicissitudes, the same +stern, impatient, inflexible original; the same mysterious, +incomprehensible self; the man without a model, and without a shadow. + + +NOTES.--St. Louis (b. 1215, d. 1270), a wise and pious king of France, +known as Louis IX. Napoleon was appointed to the Military School at +Brienne, by Louis XVI. Brutus, Lucius Junius, abolished the royal office +at Rome (509 B. C.), and ruled as consul for two years. + +Jacobin Bonnet.--The Jacobins were a powerful political club during the +first French Revolution. A peculiar bonnet or hat was their badge. +Braganza, the name of the royal family of Portugal. Maria of Portugal, and +her father, Charles IV. of Spain, were both expelled by Napoleon. +Hapsburg, the name of the royal family of Austria. Napoleon's second wife +was Maria Louisa, the daughter of the Emperor. Czar.--The treaty of Tilsit +was agreed to between Bonaparte and the Czar Alexander on the river Memel. +Leipsic.--Napoleon was defeated by the allied forces, in October, 1813, at +this city. + +Palm, a German publisher, shot, in 1806, by order of Napoleon, for +publishing a pamphlet against him. De Stael (pro. De Stal), a celebrated +French authoress, banished from Paris, in 1802, by Napoleon. Kotzebue, an +eminent German dramatist. David, the leading historical painter of his +times in France. De Lille, an eminent French poet and professor. + + + +XXIX. NAPOLEON AT REST. (146) + +John Pierpont, 1785-1866, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, and +graduated from Yale College in 1804. The next four years he spent as a +private tutor in the family of Col. William Allston, of South Carolina. On +his return, he studied law in the law school of his native town. He +entered upon practice, but soon left the law for mercantile pursuits, in +which he was unsuccessful. Having studied theology at Cambridge, in 1819 +he was ordained pastor of the Hollis Street Unitarian Church, in Boston, +where he continued nearly twenty years. He afterwards preached four years +for a church in Troy, New York, and then removed to Medford, +Massachusetts. At the age of seventy-six, he became chaplain of a +Massachusetts regiment; but, on account of infirmity, war soon obliged to +give up the position. Mr. Pierpont published a series of school readers, +which enjoyed a well-deserved popularity for many years. + +His poetry is smooth, musical, and vigorous. Most of his pieces were +written for special occasions. +### + + +His falchion flashed along the Nile; + His hosts he led through Alpine snows; +O'er Moscow's towers, that blazed the while, + His eagle flag unrolled,--and froze. +Here sleeps he now, alone! Not one + Of all the kings, whose crowns he gave, +Bends o'er his dust;--nor wife nor son + Has ever seen or sought his grave. + +Behind this seagirt rock! the star, + That led him on from crown to crown, +Has sunk; and nations from afar + Gazed as it faded and went down. +High is his couch;--the ocean flood, + Far, far below, by storms is curled; +As round him heaved, while high he stood, + A stormy and unstable world. + +Alone he sleeps! The mountain cloud, + That night hangs round him, and the breath +Of morning scatters, is the shroud + That wraps the conqueror's clay in death. +Pause here! The far-off world, at last, + Breathes free; the hand that shook its thrones, +And to the earth its miters cast, + Lies powerless now beneath these stones. + +Hark! comes there from the pyramids, + And from Siberian wastes of snow, +And Europe's hills, a voice that bids + The world he awed to mourn him? No: +The only, the perpetual dirge + That's heard there is the sea bird's cry,-- +The mournful murmur of the surge,-- + The cloud's deep voice, the wind's low sigh. + + +NOTE.--Seagirt rock, the island of St. Helena, is in the Atlantic Ocean, +nearly midway between Africa and South America. Napoleon was confined on +this island six years; until 1821, when he died and was buried there. In +1841, his remains were removed to Paris. + + + +XXX. WAR. (148) + +Charles Sumner. 1811-1874, was born in Boston. He studied at the Latin +school in his native city, graduated from Harvard University at the age of +nineteen, studied law at the same institution, and was admitted to +practice in 1834. He at once took a prominent position in his profession, +lectured to the law classes at Cambridge for several successive years, +wrote and edited several standard law books, and might have had a +professorship in the law school, had he desired it. In his famous address +on "The True Grandeur of Nations," delivered July 4, 1815, before the +municipal authorities of Boston, he took strong grounds against war among +nations. In 1851 he was elected to the United States Senate and continued +in that position till his death. As a jurist, as a statesman, as an +orator, and as a profound and scholarly writer, Mr. Sumner stands high in +the estimation of his countrymen. In physical appearance, Mr. Sumner was +grand and imposing; men often turned to gaze after him, as he passed along +the streets of his native city. +### + + +I need not dwell now on the waste and cruelty of war. These stare us +wildly in the face, like lurid meteor lights, as we travel the page of +history. We see the desolation and death that pursue its demoniac +footsteps. We look upon sacked towns, upon ravaged territories, upon +violated homes; we behold all the sweet charities of life changed to +wormwood and gall. Our soul is penetrated by the sharp moan of mothers, +sisters, and daughters--of fathers, brothers, and sons, who, in the +bitterness of their bereavement, refuse to be comforted. Our eyes rest at +last upon one of these fair fields, where Nature, in her abundance, +spreads her cloth of gold, spacious and apt for the entertainment of +mighty multitudes--or perhaps, from the curious subtlety of its position, +like the carpet in the Arabian tale, seeming to contract so as to be +covered by a few only, or to dilate so as to receive an innumerable host. +Here, under a bright sun, such as shone at Austerlitz or Buena +Vista--amidst the peaceful harmonies of nature--on the Sabbath of +peace--we behold bands of brothers, children of a common Father, heirs to +a common happiness, struggling together in the deadly fight, with the +madness of fallen spirits, seeking with murderous weapons the lives of +brothers who have never injured them or their kindred. The havoc rages. +The ground is soaked with their commingling blood. The air is rent by +their commingling cries. Horse and rider are stretched together on the +earth. More revolting than the mangled victims, than the gashed limbs, +than the lifeless trunks, than the spattering brains, are the lawless +passions which sweep, tempest-like, through the fiendish tumult. + +Horror-struck, we ask, wherefore this hateful contest? The melancholy, but +truthful answer comes, that this is the established method of determining +justice between nations! + +The scene changes. Far away on the distant pathway of the ocean two ships +approach each other, with white canvas broadly spread to receive the +flying gales. They are proudly built. All of human art has been lavished +in their graceful proportions, and in their well compacted sides, while +they look in their dimensions like floating happy islands on the sea. A +numerous crew, with costly appliances of comfort, hives in their secure +shelter. Surely these two travelers shall meet in joy and friendship; the +flag at the masthead shall give the signal of friendship; the happy +sailors shall cluster in the rigging, and even on the yardarms, to look +each other in the face, while the exhilarating voices of both crews shall +mingle in accents of gladness uncontrollable. It is not so. Not as +brothers, not as friends, not as wayfarers of the common ocean, do they +come together; but as enemies. + +The gentle vessels now bristle fiercely with death-dealing instruments. On +their spacious decks, aloft on all their masts, flashes the deadly +musketry. From their sides spout cataracts of flame, amidst the pealing +thunders of a fatal artillery. They, who had escaped "the dreadful touch +of merchant-marring rocks"--who had sped on their long and solitary way +unharmed by wind or wave--whom the hurricane had spared--in whose favor +storms and seas had intermitted their immitigable war--now at last fall +by the hand of each other. The same spectacle of horror greets us from +both ships. On their decks, reddened with blood, the murderers of St. +Bartholomew and of the Sicilian Vespers, with the fires of Smithfield, +seem to break forth anew, and to concentrate their rage. Each has now +become a swimming Golgotha. At length, these vessels--such pageants of +the sea--once so stately--so proudly built--but now rudely shattered by +cannon balls--with shivered mast's and ragged sails--exist only as +unmanageable wrecks, weltering on the uncertain waves, whose temporary +lull of peace is now their only safety. In amazement at this strange, +unnatural contest--away from country and home--where there is no country +or home to defend--we ask again, wherefore this dismal duel? Again the +melancholy but truthful answer promptly comes, that this is the +established method of determining justice between nations. + + +NOTES.--Austerlitz, a small town in Austria, seventy miles north from +Vienna. It is noted as the site of a battle, in December, 1805, between +the allied Austrian and Russian armies, and the French under Napoleon. The +latter were victorious. Buena Vista, a small hamlet in eastern Mexico, +where, in 1847, five thousand Americans, under Gen. Taylor, defeated +twenty thousand Mexicans, under Gen. Santa Anna. + +Dreadful touch.--Quoted from Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene II. + +St. Bartholomew.--A terrible massacre took place in France, on St. +Bartholomew's day, August 24, 1572. It has been estimated that twenty +thousand persons perished. + +Sicilian Vespers, a revolt and uprising against the French in Sicily, +March 30, 1282, at the hour of vespers. + +Smithfield, a portion of London noted as a place for execution during the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. + + + +XXXI. SPEECH OF WALPOLE IN REPROOF OF MR. PITT. (151) + +Sir Robert Walpole, 1676-1745, was educated at Eton and Cambridge. He +entered Parliament in 1700, and soon became a good debater and skillful +tactician. He was prime minister of Great Britain from 1721 to 1742, in +the reigns of George I. and George II. He was an able statesman; but has +been accused of employing corruption or bribery on a large scale, to +control Parliament and accomplish his purposes. +### + + +I was unwilling to interrupt the course of this debate, while it was +carried on with calmness and decency, by men who do not suffer the ardor +of opposition to cloud their reason, or transport them to such expressions +as the dignity of this assembly does not admit. + +I have hitherto deferred answering the gentleman, who declaimed against +the bill with such fluency and rhetoric, and such vehemence of gesture; +who charged the advocates for the expedients now proposed, with having no +regard to any interests but their own, and with making laws only to +consume paper, and threatened them with the defection of their adherents, +and the loss of their influence, upon this new discovery of their folly +and ignorance. Nor, do I now answer him for any other purpose than to +remind him how little the clamor of rage and petulancy of invective +contribute to the end for which this assembly is called together; how +little the discovery of truth is promoted, and the security of the nation +established, by pompous diction and theatrical emotion. + +Formidable sounds and furious declamation, confident assertions and lofty +periods, may affect the young and inexperienced; and perhaps the gentleman +may have contracted his habits of oratory by conversing more with those of +his own age than with such as have more opportunities of acquiring +knowledge, and more successful methods of communicating their sentiments. +If the heat of temper would permit him to attend to those whose age and +long acquaintance with business give them an indisputable right to +deference and superiority, he would learn in time to reason, rather than +declaim; and to prefer justness of argument and an accurate knowledge of +facts, to sounding epithets and splendid superlatives, which may disturb +the imagination for a moment, but leave no lasting impression upon the +mind. He would learn, that to accuse and prove are very different; and +that reproaches, unsupported by evidence, affect only the character of him +that utters them. + +Excursions of fancy and flights of oratory are indeed pardonable in young +men, but in no other; and it would surely contribute more, even to the +purpose for which some gentlemen appear to speak (that of depreciating the +conduct of the administration), to prove the inconveniences and injustice +of this bill, than barely to assert them, with whatever magnificence of +language, or appearance of zeal, honesty, or compassion. + + + +XXXII. PITT'S REPLY TO SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. (152) + +William Pitt, 1708--1778, one of the ablest statesmen and orators of his +time, was born in Cornwall, and educated at Eton and Oxford. He entered +Parliament in 1735, and became a formidable opponent of the ministry of +Sir Robert Walpole. He gained great reputation by his wise and vigorous +management of military affairs in the last years of the reign of George +II. He opposed the "Stamp Act" with great earnestness, as well as the +course of the ministry in the early years of the American Revolution. In +1778, he rose from a sick bed to make his celebrated speech, in the House +of Lords, in opposition to a motion to acknowledge the independence of +America. At its close, he fell in an apoplectic fit, and was borne home to +die in a few weeks afterward. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Mr. Pitt +possessed a fine personal presence and a powerful voice; he was very +popular with the people, and is often called the "Great Commoner." He was +created "Earl of Chatham" in 1766. +### + + +The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honorable gentleman +has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither +attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with hoping that I may be +one of those whose follies cease with their youth, and not of that number +who are ignorant in spite of experience. Whether youth can be imputed to a +man as a reproach, I will not assume the province of determining; but +surely age may become justly contemptible, if the opportunities which it +brings have passed away without improvement, and vice appears to prevail +when the passions have subsided. The wretch, who, after having seen the +consequences of a thousand errors, continues still to blunder, and whose +age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object either of +abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his gray hairs should secure +him from insult. Much more is he to be abhorred, who, as he has advanced +in age, has receded from virtue, and become more wicked--with less +temptation; who prostitutes himself for money which he can not enjoy, and +spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country. + +But youth is not my only crime; I am accused of acting a theatrical part. +A theatrical part may either imply some peculiarity of gesture, or a +dissimulation of my real sentiments, and an adoption of the opinions and +language of another man. In the first sense, the charge is too trifling to +be confuted, and deserves only to be mentioned that it may be despised. I +am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language; and though, +perhaps, I may have some ambition to please this gentleman, I shall not +lay myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his diction or +his mien, however matured by age, or modeled by experience. + +But, if any man shall, by charging me with theatrical behavior, imply that +I utter any sentiments but my own, I shall treat him as a calumniator and +a villain; nor shall any protection shelter him from the treatment he +deserves. I shall, on such an occasion, without scruple, trample upon all +those forms with which wealth and dignity intrench themselves, nor shall +anything but age restrain my resentment; age,--which always brings one +privilege, that of being insolent and supercilious, without punishment! + +But, with regard to those whom I have offended, I am of opinion that, if I +had acted a borrowed part, I should have avoided their censure: the heat +that offended them was the ardor of conviction, and that zeal for the +service of my country which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to +suppress. I will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look +in silence upon public robbery. I will exert my endeavors, at whatever +hazard, to repel the aggressor, and drag the thief to justice, whoever may +protect him in his villainies, and whoever may partake of his plunder. + + +XXXIII. CHARACTER OF MR. PITT. (154) + +Henry Grattan, 1750-1820, an Irish orator and statesman, was born at +Dublin, and graduated from Trinity College, in his native city. By his +admiration of Mr. Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham, he was led to turn his +attention to oratory. In personal appearance, he was unprepossessing; but +his private character was without a blemish. +### + + +The secretary stood alone. Modern degeneracy had not reached him. Original +and unaccommodating, the features of his character had the hardihood of +antiquity. His august mind overawed majesty itself. No state chicanery, no +narrow system of vicious politics, no idle contest for ministerial +victories, sank him to the vulgar level of the great; but overbearing, +persuasive, and impracticable, his object was England, his ambition was +fame. + +Without dividing, he destroyed party; without corrupting, he made a venal +age unanimous. France sunk beneath him. With one hand he smote the house +of Bourbon, and wielded in the other the democracy of England. The sight +of his mind was infinite; and his schemes were to effect, not England, not +the present age only, but Europe and posterity. Wonderful were the means +by which those schemes were accomplished; always seasonable, always +adequate, the suggestion of an understanding animated by ardor and +enlightened by prophecy. + +The ordinary feelings which make life amiable and indolent, were unknown +to him. No domestic difficulties, no domestic weakness, reached him; but, +aloof from the sordid occurrences of life, and unsullied by its +intercourse, he came occasionally into our system, to counsel and decide. +A character so exalted, so strenuous, so various, so authoritative, +astonished a corrupt age, and the treasury trembled at the name of Pitt, +through all classes of venality. Corruption imagined, indeed, that she had +found defects in this statesman, and talked much of the inconsistency of +his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories; but the history of his +country, and the calamities of the enemy, answered and refuted her. + +Nor were his political his only talents. His eloquence was an era in the +senate; peculiar and spontaneous; familiarly expressing gigantic +sentiments and instructive wisdom; not like the torrent of Demosthenes, or +the splendid conflagration of Tully; it resembled sometimes the thunder, +and sometimes the music of the spheres. He did not conduct the +understanding through the painful subtilty of argumentation, nor was he +ever on the rack of exertion; but rather lightened upon the subject, and +reached the point by the flashings of the mind, which, like those of the +eye, were felt, but could not be followed. + +Upon the whole, there was in this man something that could create, +subvert, or reform; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence, to +summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder, and +to rule the wildness of free minds with unbounded authority; something +that could establish or overwhelm empires, and strike a blow in the world +that should resound through the universe. + +NOTES.--Demosthenes (b. 385, d. 322, B. C.) was the son of a cutler at +Athens, Greece. By diligent study and unremitting toil, he became the +greatest orator that ever lived. + +Tully, Marcus Tullius Cicero (b. 106, d. 43, B. C.), was the most +remarkable of Roman orators. He held the highest office of the Republic. + + + +XXXIV. THE SOLDIER'S REST. (156) + +Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832, the great Scotch poet and novelist, was born +in Edinburgh. Being a feeble child, he was sent to reside on his +grandfather's estate in the south of Scotland. Here he spent several +years, and gained much knowledge of the traditions of border warfare, as +well as of the tales and ballads pertaining to it. He was also a great +reader of romances in his youth. In 1779 be returned to Edinburgh, and +became a pupil in the high school. Four years later, he entered the +university; but in neither school nor college, was he distinguished for +scholarship. In 1797 he was admitted to the practice of law,--a profession +which he soon forsook for literature. His first poems appeared in 1802. +The "Lay of the Last Minstrel" was published in 1805, "Marmion" in 1808, +and "The Lady of the Lake" in 1810. Several poems of less power followed. +In 1814 "Waverley," his first novel, made its appearance, but the author +was unknown for some time. Numerous other novels followed with great +rapidity, the author reaping a rich harvest both in fame and money. In +1811 he purchased an estate near the Tweed, to which he gave the name of +Abbotsford. In enlarging his estate and building a costly house, he spent +vast sums of money. This, together with the failure of his publishers in +1826, involved him very heavily in debt. But he set to work with almost +superhuman effort to pay his debts by the labors of his pen. In about four +years, he had paid more than $300,000; but the effort was too much for his +strength, and hastened his death. + +In person, Scott was tall, and apparently robust, except a slight lameness +with which he was affected from childhood. He was kindly in disposition, +hospitable in manner, fond of outdoor pursuits and of animals, especially +dogs. He wrote with astonishing rapidity, and always in the early morning. +At his death, he left two sons and two daughters. A magnificent monument +to his memory has been erected in the city of his birth. The following +selection is from "The Lady of the Lake." +### + + +Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, + Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking; +Dream of battlefields no more, + Days of danger, nights of waking. +In our isle's enchanted hall, + Hands unseen thy couch are strewing, +Fairy strains of music fall, + Every sense in slumber dewing. +Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, +Dream of battlefields no more; +Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, +Morn of toil, nor night of waking. + +No rude sound shall reach thine ear, + Armor's clang, or war steed champing, +Trump nor pibroch summon here + Mustering clan, or squadron tramping. +Yet the lark's shrill fife may come, + At the daybreak from the fallow, +And the bittern sound his drum, + Booming from the sedgy shallow. +Ruder sounds shall none be near, +Guards nor warders challenge here, +Here's no war steed's neigh and champing, +Shouting clans or squadrons stamping. + +Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done; + While our slumb'rous spells assail ye, +Dream not, with the rising sun, + Bugles here shall sound reveille. +Sleep! the deer is in his den; + Sleep! thy hounds are by thee lying; +Sleep! nor dream in yonder glen, + How thy gallant steed lay dying. +Huntsman, rest; thy chase is done, +Think not of the rising sun, +For at dawning to assail ye, +Here no bugle sounds reveille. + +NOTES.--Pibroch (pro. pe'brok). This is a wild, irregular species of +music, peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland. It is performed on a +bagpipe, and adapted to excite or assuage passion, and particularly to +rouse a martial spirit among troops going to battle. + +Reveille (pro. re-val'ya) is an awakening call at daybreak. In the army it +is usually sounded on the drum. + + + +XXXV. HENRY V. TO HIS TROOPS. (158) + +William Shakespeare. 1564-1616, was born at Stratford-upon-Avon. By many +(perhaps most) critics, Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest poet the +world has ever produced; one calls him, "The most illustrious of the sons +of men." And yet it is a curious fact that less is really known of his +life and personal characteristics than is known of almost any other famous +name in history. Over one hundred years ago, a writer said, "All that is +known with any degree of certainty concerning Shakespeare is--that he was +born at Stratford-upon-Avon--married and had children there--went to +London, where he commenced acting, and wrote poems and plays--returned to +Stratford, made his will, died, and was buried." All the research of the +last one hundred years has added but very little to this meager record. He +was married, very young, to Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior; +was joint proprietor of Blackfriar's Theater in 1589, and seems to have +accumulated property, and retired three or four years before his death. He +was buried in Stratford Church, where a monument has been erected to his +memory; he also has a monument, in "Poet's Corner" of Westminster Abbey. +His family soon became extinct. From all we can learn, he seems to have +been highly respected and esteemed by his cotemporaries. + +His works consist chiefly of plays and sonnets. His writings show an +astonishing knowledge of human nature, expressed in language wonderful for +its point and beauty. His style is chaste and pure, judged by the standard +of his times, although expressions may sometimes be found that would not +be considered proper in a modern writer. It has been argued by some that +Shakespeare did not write the works imputed to him; but this theory seems +to have little to support it. This extract is from King Henry V., Act III, +Scene I. +### + + +Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; +Or close the wall up with our English dead. +In peace there 's nothing so becomes a man +As modest stillness and humility: +But when the blast of war blows in our ears, +Then imitate the action of the tiger; +Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, +Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage; +Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; +Let it pry through the portage of the head +Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it +As fearfully as doth a galled rock +O'er hang and jutty his confounded base, +Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean. + +Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide, +Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit +To its full height! On, on, you noblest English, +Whose blood is fet from fathers of war proof! +Fathers, that, like so many Alexanders, +Have, in these parts, from morn till even, fought, +And sheathed their swords for lack of argument; +Be copy now to men of grosser blood, +And teach them how to war. + + And you, good yeomen, +Whose limbs were made in England, show us here +The mettle of your pasture; let us swear +That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not; +For there is none of you so mean and base, +That hath not noble luster in your eyes. +I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, +Straining upon the start. The game's afoot; +Follow your spirit: and, upon this charge, +Cry--"God for Harry, England, and St. George!" + + +NOTES.--Henry V. (1388-1422) was king of England for nine years. During +this reign almost continuous war raged in France, to the throne of which +Henry laid claim. The battle of Agincourt took place in his reign. + +Fet is the old form of fetched. + +Alexanders.--Alexander the Great (356-323 B. G) was king of Macedonia, and +the celebrated conqueror of Persia, India, and the greater part of the +world as then known. + + +XXXVI. SPEECH OF PAUL ON MARS HILL. (160) + + +Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens! I +perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, +and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To THE +UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. +God that made the world and all things therein (seeing that he is Lord of +heaven and earth) dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is +worshiped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth +to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all +nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath +determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; +that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and +find him, though he be not far from everyone of us: for in him we live, +and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, +For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of +God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, +or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance +God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he +hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in +righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given +assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when +they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, +We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. +Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed; among the which was +Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. + + --Bible. + + +NOTES.--At the time this oration was delivered (50 A. D.), Athens still +held the place she had occupied for centuries, as the center of the +enlightened and refined world. + +Mars Hill, or the Areopagus, was an eminence in the city made famous as +the place where the court, also called Areopagus, held its sittings, + +Dionysius, surnamed Areopageita, from being a member of this court, was an +eminent Greek scholar, who, after his conversion to Christianity by St. +Paul, was installed, by the latter, as the first bishop of Athens, He +afterwards suffered martyrdom. + + + +XXXVII. GOD IS EVERYWHERE. (161) + + + Oh! show me where is He, + The high and holy One, + To whom thou bend'st the knee, + And prayest, "Thy will be done!" + I hear thy song of praise, + And lo! no form is near: + Thine eyes I see thee raise, + But where doth God appear? +Oh! teach me who is God, and where his glories shine, +That I may kneel and pray, and call thy Father mine. + + "Gaze on that arch above: + The glittering vault admire. + Who taught those orbs to move? + Who lit their ceaseless fire? + Who guides the moon to run + In silence through the skies? + Who bids that dawning sun + In strength and beauty rise? +There view immensity! behold! my God is there: +The sun, the moon, the stars, his majesty declare. + + "See where the mountains rise: + Where thundering torrents foam; + Where, veiled in towering skies, + The eagle makes his home: + Where savage nature dwells, + My God is present, too: + Through all her wildest dells + His footsteps I pursue: +He reared those giant cliffs, supplies that dashing stream, +Provides the daily food which stills the wild bird's scream. + + "Look on that world of waves, + Where finny nations glide; + Within whose deep, dark caves + The ocean monsters hide: + His power is sovereign there, + To raise, to quell the storm; + The depths his bounty share, + Where sport the scaly swarm: +Tempests and calms obey the same almighty voice, +Which rules the earth and skies, and bids far worlds rejoice." + --Joseph Hutton. + + + +XXXVIII. LAFAYETTE AND ROBERT RAIKES. (163) + +Thomas S. Grimke', 1786-1834, an eminent lawyer and scholar, was born in +Charleston, South Carolina, graduated at Yale in 1807, and died of cholera +near Columbus, Ohio. He descended from a Huguenot family that was exiled +from France by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He gained +considerable reputation as a politician, but is best known as an advocate +of peace, Sunday Schools, and the Bible. He was a man of deep feeling, +earnest purpose, and pure life. Some of his views were very radical and +very peculiar. He proposed sweeping reforms in English orthography[1], and +disapproved of the classics and of pure mathematics in any scheme of +general education. The following is an extract from an address delivered +at a Sunday-school celebration. +### + +[Transcriber's Footnote 1: Orthography: Spelling using established +usage.] + + +It is but a few years since we beheld the most singular and memorable +pageant in the annals of time. It was a pageant more sublime and affecting +than the progress of Elizabeth through England after the defeat of the +Armada; than the return of Francis I. from a Spanish prison to his own +beautiful France; than the daring and rapid march of the conqueror at +Austerlitz from Frejus to Paris. It was a pageant, indeed, rivaled only in +the elements of the grand and the pathetic, by the journey of our own +Washington through the different states. Need I say that I allude to the +visit of Lafayette to America? + +But Lafayette returned to the land of the dead, rather than of the living. +How many who had fought with him in the war of '76, had died in arms, and +lay buried in the grave of the soldier or the sailor! How many who had +survived the perils of battle, on the land and the ocean, had expired on +the deathbed of peace, in the arms of mother, sister, daughter, wife! +Those. who survived to celebrate with him the jubilee of 1825, were +stricken in years, and hoary-headed; many of them infirm in health; many +the victims of poverty, or misfortune, or affliction. And, how venerable +that patriotic company; how sublime their gathering through all the land; +how joyful their welcome, how affecting their farewell to that beloved +stranger! + +But the pageant has fled, and the very materials that gave it such depths +of interest are rapidly perishing: and a humble, perhaps a nameless grave, +shall hold the last soldier of the Revolution. And shall they ever meet +again? Shall the patriots and soldiers of '76, the "Immortal Band," as +history styles them, meet again in the amaranthine bowers of spotless +purity, of perfect bliss, of eternal glory? Shall theirs be the +Christian's heaven, the kingdom of the Redeemer? The heathen points to his +fabulous Elysium as the paradise of the soldier and the sage. But the +Christian bows down with tears and sighs, for he knows that not many of +the patriots, and statesmen, and warriors of Christian lands are the +disciples of Jesus. + +But we turn from Lafayette, the favorite of the old and the new world, to +the peaceful benevolence, the unambitious achievements of Robert Raikes. +Let us imagine him to have been still alive, and to have visited our land, +to celebrate this day with us. No national ships would have been offered +to bear him, a nation's guest, in the pride of the star-spangled banner, +from the bright shores of the rising, to the brighter shores of the +setting sun. No cannon would have hailed him in the stern language of the +battlefield, the fortunate champion of Freedom, in Europe and America. No +martial music would have welcomed him in notes of rapture, as they rolled +along the Atlantic, and echoed through the valley of the Mississippi. No +military procession would have heralded his way through crowded streets, +thickset with the banner and the plume, the glittering saber and the +polished bayonet. No cities would have called forth beauty and fashion, +wealth and rank, to honor him in the ballroom and theater. No states would +have escorted him from boundary to boundary, nor have sent their chief +magistrate to do him homage. No national liberality would have allotted to +him a nobleman's domain and princely treasure. No national gratitude would +have hailed him in the capitol itself, the nation's guest, because the +nation's benefactor; and have consecrated a battle ship, in memory of his +wounds and his gallantry. + +Not such would have been the reception of Robert Raikes, in the land of +the Pilgrims and of Penn, of the Catholic, the Cavalier, and the Huguenot. +And who does not rejoice that it would be impossible thus to welcome this +primitive Christian, the founder of Sunday schools? His heralds would be +the preachers of the Gospel, and the eminent in piety, benevolence, and +zeal. His procession would number in its ranks the messengers of the Cross +and the disciples of the Savior, Sunday-school teachers and white-robed +scholars. The temples of the Most High would be the scenes of his triumph. +Homage and gratitude to him, would be anthems of praise and thanksgiving +to God. + +Parents would honor him as more than a brother; children would reverence +him as more than a father. The faltering words of age, the firm and sober +voice of manhood, the silvery notes of youth, would bless him as a +Christian patron. The wise and the good would acknowledge him everywhere +as a national benefactor, as a patriot even to a land of strangers. He +would have come a messenger of peace to a land of peace. No images of +camps, and sieges, and battles; no agonies of the dying and the wounded; +no shouts of victory, or processions of triumph, would mingle with the +recollections of the multitude who welcomed him. They would mourn over no +common dangers, trials, and calamities; for the road of duty has been to +them the path of pleasantness, the way of peace. Their memory of the past +would be rich in gratitude to God, and love to man; their enjoyment of the +present would be a prelude to heavenly bliss; their prospects of the +future, bright and glorious as faith and hope. * * * + +Such was the reception of Lafayette, the warrior; such would be that of +Robert Raikes, the Howard of the Christian church. And which is the nobler +benefactor, patriot, and philanthropist? Mankind may admire and extol +Lafayette more than the founder of the Sunday schools; but religion, +philanthropy, and enlightened common sense must ever esteem Robert Raikes +the superior of Lafayette. His are the virtues, the services, the +sacrifices of a more enduring and exalted order of being. His counsels and +triumphs belong less to time than to eternity. + +The fame of Lafayette is of this world; the glory of Robert Raikes is of +the Redeemer's everlasting kingdom. Lafayette lived chiefly for his own +age, and chiefly for his and our country; but Robert Raikes has lived for +all ages and all countries. Perhaps the historian and biographer may never +interweave his name in the tapestry of national or individual renown. But +the records of every single church honor him as a patron; the records of +the universal Church, on earth as in heaven, bless him as a benefactor. + +The time may come when the name of Lafayette will be forgotten; or when +the star of his fame, no longer glittering in the zenith, shall be seen, +pale and glimmering, on the verge of the horizon. But the name of Robert +Raikes shall never be forgotten; and the lambent flame of his glory is +that eternal fire which rushed down from heaven to devour the sacrifice of +Elijah. Let mortals then admire and imitate Lafayette more than Robert +Raikes. But the just made perfect, and the ministering spirits around the +throne of God, have welcomed him as a fellow-servant of the same Lord; as +a fellow-laborer in the same glorious cause of man's redemption; as a +coheir of the same precious promises and eternal rewards. + + +NOTES.--Armada, the great fleet sent out in 1588, by Philip II. of Spain, +for the conquest of England, was defeated in the Channel by the English +and Dutch fleets. After the victory, Queen Elizabeth made a triumphal +journey through the kingdom. + +Francis I. (b. 1494, d. 1547), King of France, was taken prisoner at the +battle of Pavia, and confined at Madrid, Spain, nearly a year. +Austerlitz.--See Note on p. 150. + +Lafayette (b. 1757, d. 1834), a French marquis, who served as major +general in the Revolutionary War in America, which terminated in 1783. +Lafayette revisited this country in 1824, and was received throughout the +land with the greatest enthusiasm. + +Robert Raikes (b. 1735, d. 1811), an English printer and philanthropist, +noted as the founder of Sunday schools. + +Howard, John (b. 1726, d. 1790), a celebrated English philanthropist, who +spent much of his life in the endeavor to reform the condition of prisons +in Europe. + + +XXXIX. FALL OF CARDINAL WOLSEY. (167) + +Wolsey. Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness! + This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth + The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms, + And bears his blushing honors thick upon him; + The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, + And, when he thinks, good, easy man, full surely + His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root, + And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured, + Like little, wanton boys that swim on bladders, + This many summers in a sea of glory, + But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride + At length broke under me, and now has left me, + Weary and old with service, to the mercy + Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me. + Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye: + I feel my heart new open'd. Oh, how wretched + Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors! + There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, + That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, + More pangs and fears than wars or women have: + And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, + Never to hope again. + + Enter CROMWELL, and stands amazed. + + Why, how now, Cromwell! + +Crom. I have no power to speak, sir. +Wol. What, amazed + At my misfortunes? Can thy spirit wonder, + A great man should decline? Nay, an you weep, + I am fall'n indeed. +Crom. How does your grace? +Wol. Why, well; + Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell. + I know myself now; and I fed within me + A peace above all earthly dignities, + A still and quiet conscience. The king has cured me, + I humbly thank his grace; and from these shoulders, + These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken + A load would sink a navy!--too much honor: + Oh, 't is a burthen, Cromwell, 'tis a burthen, + Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven! +Crom. I am glad your grace has made that right use of it. +Wol. I hope I have: I am able now, methinks, + Out of a fortitude of soul I feel, + To endure more miseries, and greater far, + Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer. + What news abroad? +Crom. The heaviest, and the worst, + Is your displeasure with the king. +Wol. God bless him! +Crom. The next is, that Sir Thomas More is chosen + Lord chancellor in your place. +Wol. That's somewhat sudden: + But he's a learned man. May he continue + Long in his highness' favor, and do justice + For truth's sake and his conscience; that his bones, + When he has run his course, and sleeps in blessings, + May have a tomb of orphans' tears wept on 'em! + What more? +Crom. That Cranmer is return'd with welcome, + Install'd lord archbishop of Canterbury. +Wol. That's news indeed! +Crom. Last, that the Lady Anne, + Whom the king hath in secrecy long married, + This day was viewed in open as his queen, + Going to chapel; and the voice is now + Only about her coronation. +Wol. There was the weight that pull'd me down. O Cromwell, + The king has gone beyond me: all my glories + In that one woman I have lost forever: + No sun shall ever usher forth mine honors, + Or gild again the noble troops that waited + Upon my smiles. Go! get thee from me! Cromwell; + I am a poor, fall'n man, unworthy now + To be thy lord and master: seek the king; + That sun, I pray, may never set! I have told him + What and how true thou art: he will advance thee; + Some little memory of me will stir him-- + I know his noble nature--not to let + Thy hopeful service perish, too: good Cromwell, + Neglect him not; make use now, and provide + For thine own future safety. +Crom. O my lord, + Must I, then, leave you? Must I needs forego + So good, so noble, and so true a master? + Bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron, + With what a sorrow Cromwell leaves his lord. + The king shall have my service; but my prayers + Forever and forever shall be yours. +Wol. Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear + In all my miseries; but thou hast forced me, + Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman. + Let's dry our eyes: and thus far hear me, Cromwell; + And, when I am forgotten, as I shall be, + And sleep in dull, cold marble, where no mention + Of me more must be heard of, say, I taught thee; + Say, Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, + And sounded all the depths and shoals of honor, + Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in; + A sure and safe one, though thy master missed it. + Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me. + Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition: + By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then, + The image of his Maker, hope to win by it? + Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee; + Corruption wins not more than honesty. + Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, + To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not: + Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, + Thy God's, and truth's; then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, + Thou fall'st, a blessed martyr! Serve the king; + And,--prithee, lead me in: + There, take an inventory of all I have, + To the last penny; 't is the king's: my robe, + And my integrity to Heaven, is all + I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell! + Had I but served my God with half the zeal + I served my king, He would not in mine age + Have left me naked to mine enemies. +Crom. Good sir, have patience. +Wol. So I have. Farewell + The hopes of court! my hopes in Heaven do dwell. + + Shakespeare.--Henry VIII, Act iii, Scene ii. + + +NOTES.--Wolsey, Cardinal Thomas (b. 1471, d. 1530), was for several years +the favored minister or Henry VIII. of England. He acquired great wealth +and power. In 1522, he was one of the candidates for the Papal Throne. In +1529, he was disgraced at the English court and arrested. + +Cromwell, Thomas (b. 1490, d. 1540), was Wolsey's servant, After Wolsey's +death, he became secretary to Henry VIII., and towards the close of his +life was made Earl of Essex. + + + +XL. THE PHILOSOPHER. (171) + +John P. Kennedy, 1796-1870. This gentleman, eminent in American politics +and literature, was born in Baltimore, graduated at the College of +Baltimore, and died in the same city. He served several years in the +Legislature of his native state, and three terms in the United States +House of Representatives. He was Secretary of the Navy during a part of +President Fillmore's administration, and was active in sending out the +famous Japan expedition, and Dr. Kane's expedition in search of Sir John +Franklin. Mr. Kennedy wrote several novels, as well as political and other +papers. His writings are marked by ease and freshness, The following +extract is from "Swallow Barn," a series of sketches of early Virginia. +### + + +From the house at Swallow Barn there is to be seen, at no great distance, +a clump of trees, and in the midst of these a humble building is +discernible, that seems to court the shade in which it is modestly +embowered. It is an old structure built of logs. Its figure is a cube, +with a roof rising from all sides to a point, and surmounted by a wooden +weathercock, which somewhat resembles a fish and somewhat a fowl. + +This little edifice is a rustic shrine devoted to Cadmus, and is under the +dominion of parson Chub. He is a plump, rosy old gentleman, rather short +and thickset, with the blood vessels meandering over his face like +rivulets,--a pair of prominent blue eyes, and a head of silky hair not +unlike the covering of a white spaniel. He may be said to be a man of +jolly dimensions, with an evident taste for good living, sometimes sloven +in his attire, for his coat--which is not of the newest--is decorated with +sundry spots that are scattered over it in constellations. Besides this, +he wears an immense cravat, which, as it is wreathed around his short +neck, forms a bowl beneath his chin, and--as Ned says--gives the parson's +head the appearance of that of John the Baptist upon a charger, as it is +sometimes represented in the children's picture books. His beard is +grizzled with silver stubble, which the parson reaps about twice a +week--if the weather be fair. + +Mr. Chub is a philosopher after the order of Socrates. He was an emigrant +from the Emerald Isle, where he suffered much tribulation in the +disturbances, as they are mildly called, of his much-enduring country. But +the old gentleman has weathered the storm without losing a jot of that +broad, healthy benevolence with which Nature has enveloped his heart, and +whose ensign she has hoisted in his face. The early part of his life had +been easy and prosperous, until the rebellion of 1798 stimulated his +republicanism into a fever, and drove the full-blooded hero headlong into +a quarrel, and put him, in spite of his peaceful profession, to standing +by his pike in behalf of his principles. By this unhappy boiling over of +the caldron of his valor, he fell under the ban of the ministers, and +tested his share of government mercy. His house was burnt over his head, +his horses and hounds (for, by all accounts, he was a perfect Actaeon) +were "confiscate to the state," and he was forced to fly. This brought him +to America in no very compromising mood with royalty. + +Here his fortunes appear to have been various, and he was tossed to and +fro by the battledoor of fate, until he found a snug harbor at Swallow +Barn; where, some years ago, he sat down in that quiet repose which a +worried and badgered patriot is best fitted to enjoy. + +He is a good scholar, and, having confined his readings entirely to the +learning of the ancients, his republicanism is somewhat after the Grecian +mold. He has never read any politics of later date than the time of the +Emperor Constantine, not even a newspaper,--so that he may be said to have +been contemporary with AEschines rather than Lord Castlereagh--until that +eventful epoch of his life when his blazing rooftree awakened him from his +anachronistical dream. This notable interruption, however, gave him but a +feeble insight into the moderns, and he soon relapsed to Thucydides and +Livy, with some such glimmerings of the American Revolution upon his +remembrance as most readers have of the exploits of the first Brutus. + +The old gentleman had a learned passion for folios. He had been a long +time urging Meriwether to make some additions to his collections of +literature, and descanted upon the value of some of the ancient authors as +foundations, both moral and physical, to the library. Frank gave way to +the argument, partly to gratify the parson, and partly from the +proposition itself having a smack that touched his fancy. The matter was +therefore committed entirely to Mr. Chub, who forthwith set out on a +voyage of exploration to the north. I believe he got as far as Boston. He +certainly contrived to execute his commission with a curious felicity. +Some famous Elzevirs were picked up, and many other antiques that nobody +but Mr. Chub would ever think of opening. + +The cargo arrived at Swallow Burn in the dead of winter. During the +interval between the parson's return from his expedition and the coming of +the books, the reverend little schoolmaster was in a remarkably unquiet +state of body, which almost prevented him from sleeping: and it is said +that the sight of the long-expected treasures had the happiest effect +upon him. There was ample accommodation for this new acquisition of +ancient wisdom provided before its arrival, and Mr. Chub now spent a whole +week in arranging the volumes on their proper shelves, having, as report +affirms, altered the arrangement at least seven times during that period. +Everybody wondered what the old gentleman was at, all this time; but it +was discovered afterwards, that he was endeavoring to effect a +distribution of the works according to a minute division of human science, +which entirely failed, owing to the unlucky accident of several of his +departments being without any volumes. + +After this matter was settled, he regularly spent his evenings in the +library. Frank Meriwether was hardly behind the parson in this fancy, and +took, for a short time, to abstruse reading. They both consequently +deserted the little family circle every evening after tea, and might have +continued to do so all the winter but for a discovery made by Hazard. + +Ned had seldom joined the two votaries of science in their philosophical +retirement, and it was whispered in the family that the parson was giving +Frank a quiet course of lectures in the ancient philosophy, for Meriwether +was known to talk a great deal, about that time, of the old and new +Academicians. But it happened upon one dreary winter night, during a +tremendous snowstorm, which was banging the shutters and doors of the +house so as to keep up a continual uproar, that Ned, having waited in the +parlor for the philosophers until midnight, set out to invade their +retreat--not doubting that he should find them deep in study. When he +entered the library, both candles were burning in their sockets, with +long, untrimmed wicks; the fire was reduced to its last embers, and, in an +armchair on one side of the table, the parson was discovered in a sound +sleep over Jeremy Taylor's "Ductor Dubitantium," whilst Frank, in another +chair on the opposite side, was snoring over a folio edition of Montaigne. +And upon the table stood a small stone pitcher, containing a residuum of +whisky punch, now grown cold. Frank started up in great consternation upon +hearing Ned's footstep beside him, and, from that time, almost entirely +deserted the library. Mr. Chub, however, was not so easily drawn away from +the career of his humor, and still shows his hankering after his +leather-coated friends. + + +NOTES.--Cadmus is said to have taught the Greeks the use of the alphabet. + +Socrates (b. 469, d. 399 B. C.), a noted Athenian philosopher. +Rebellion.--In 1798, the Irish organized and rose against the English +rule. The rebellion was suppressed. + +Actaeon [Ak-te'on], a fabled Greek hunter, who was changed into a stag. + +Constantine, the Great (b. 272, d, 337), the first Christian emperor of +Rome. He was an able general and wise legislator, In 328, he removed his +capital to Byzantium, which he named Constantinople. AEschines [es'ke-nez] +(b. 389, d. 314 B. C.), an Athenian orator, the rival of Demosthenes. +Castlereagh, Lord (b. 1769, d. 1822), a British statesman. He was in +power, and prominent in the suppression of the Rebellion. Brutus, see p. +145. + +Elzevirs [el'ze-virs], the name of a family of Dutch printers noted for +the beauty of their workmanship. They lived from 1540 to 1680. + +Academicians.-The Old Academy was founded by Plato, at Athens, about 380 +B. C. The New, by Carneades, about two hundred years later. + +Jeremy Taylor (b. 1613, d. 1667), an English bishop and writer. His Ductor +Dubitantium, or "Rule of Conscience," was one of his chief works. + +Montaigne, Michel (b. 1533, d. 1592), was a celebrated French writer of +peculiar characteristics. He owes his reputation entirely to his "Essais." + + + +XLI. MARMION AND DOUGLAS. (176) + +Not far advanced was morning day, +When Marmion did his troop array + To Surrey's camp to ride; +He had safe conduct for his band, +Beneath the royal seal and hand, + And Douglas gave a guide. + +The train from out the castle drew, +But Marmion stopped to bid adieu: +"Though something I might plain," he said, + "Of cold respect to stranger guest, + Sent hither by your king's behest, +While in Tantallon's towers I staid, + Part we in friendship from your land, + And, noble Earl, receive my hand." +But Douglas round him drew his cloak, +Folded his arms, and thus he spoke: + "My manors, halls, and bowers shall still + Be open, at my sovereign's will, + To each one whom he lists, howe'er + Unmeet to be the owner's peer. + My castles are my king's alone, + From turret to foundation stone; + The hand of Douglas is his own; + And never shall, in friendly grasp, + The hand of such as Marmion clasp." + +Burned Marmion's swarthy cheek like fire, +And shook his very frame for ire; + And--"This to me!" he said,-- +"An 't were not for thy hoary beard, +Such hand as Marmion's had not spared + To cleave the Douglas' head! +And, first, I tell thee, haughty peer, +He who does England's message here, +Although the meanest in her state, +May well, proud Angus, be thy mate: +And, Douglas, more, I tell thee here, + Even in thy pitch of pride, +Here, in thy hold, thy vassals near, + I tell thee, thou'rt defied! +And if thou said'st I am not peer +To any lord in Scotland here, +Lowland or Highland, far or near, + Lord Angus, thou hast lied!" + +On the Earl's cheek the flush of rage +O'ercame the ashen hue of age. +Fierce he broke forth,--"And dar'st thou then +To beard the lion in his den, + The Douglas in his hall? +And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go? +No, by Saint Bride of Bothwell, no! +Up drawbridge, grooms,--what, warder, ho! + Let the portcullis fall." +Lord Marmion turned,--well was his need,-- +And dashed the rowels in his steed, +Like arrow through the archway sprung; +The ponderous gate behind him rung: +To pass there was such scanty room, +The bars, descending, razed his plume. + +The steed along the drawbridge flies, +Just as it trembled on the rise; +Nor lighter does the swallow skim +Along the smooth lake's level brim: +And when Lord Marmion reached his band +He halts, and turns with clenched hand, [1] +And shout of loud defiance pours, +And shook his gauntlet at the towers. + +[Transcriber's Note 1: clenched, pronounced "clench-ed".] + +"Horse! horse!" the Douglas cried, "and chase!" +But soon he reined his fury's pace: +"A royal messenger he came, +Though most unworthy of the name. +Saint Mary mend my fiery mood! +Old age ne'er cools the Douglas' blood; +I thought to slay him where he stood. +'Tis pity of him, too," he cried; +"Bold he can speak, and fairly ride; +I warrant him a warrior tried." +With this his mandate he recalls, +And slowly seeks his castle halls. + --Walter Scott. + + +[Illustration: A man in armor on a galloping horse; he is waving a +clenched fist at a group behind a closed iron gate to a castle.] + + +NOTES:--In the poem from which this extract is taken, Marmion is +represented as an embassador sent by Henry VIII., king of England, to +James IV., king of Scotland, with whom he was at war. Having finished his +mission to James, Marmion was intrusted to the protection and hospitality +of Douglas, one of the Scottish nobles. Douglas entertained him, treated +him with the respect due to his office and to the honor of his sovereign, +yet he despised his private character. Marmion perceived this, and took +umbrage at it, though he attempted to repress his resentment, and desired +to part in peace. Under these circumstances the scene, as described in +this sketch, takes place. + +Tantallon is the name of the Douglas castle at Bothwell, Scotland. + + + +XLII. THE PRESENT. (178) + +Adelaide Anne Procter, 1825-1864, was the daughter of Bryan Waller +Procter, known in literature as "Barry Cornwall." She is the author of +several volumes of poetry, and was a contributor to "Good Words," "All the +Year Round," and other London periodicals. Her works have been republished +in America. +### + + +Do not crouch to-day, and worship + The dead Past, whose life is fled +Hush your voice in tender reverence; + Crowned he lies, but cold and dead: +For the Present reigns, our monarch, + With an added weight of hours; +Honor her, for she is mighty! + Honor her, for she is ours! + +See the shadows of his heroes + Girt around her cloudy throne; +Every day the ranks are strengthened + By great hearts to him unknown; +Noble things the great Past promised, + Holy dreams, both strange and new; +But the Present shall fulfill them; + What he promised, she shall do. + +She inherits all his treasures, + She is heir to all his fame, +And the light that lightens round her + Is the luster of his name; +She is wise with all his wisdom, + Living on his grave she stands, +On her brow she bears his laurels, + And his harvest in her hands. + +Coward, can she reign and conquer + If we thus her glory dim? +Let us fight for her as nobly + As our fathers fought for him. +God, who crowns the dying ages, + Bids her rule, and us obey, +Bids us cast our lives before her, + Bids us serve the great To-day. + + + +XLIII. THE BAPTISM. (180) + +John Wilson, 1785-1854, a distinguished Scottish author, was born at +Paisley. When fifteen years of age, he entered the University of Glasgow; +but, three years later, he became a member of Magdalen College, Oxford. +Here he attained eminence both as a student, and as a proficient in +gymnastic games and exercises. Soon after graduating, he purchased an +estate near Lake Windermere, and became a companion of Wordsworth and +Southey; but he soon left his estate to reside in Edinburgh. In 1817, when +"Blackwood's Magazine" was established in opposition to the "Edinburgh +Review," he became chief contributor to that famous periodical. In its +pages, he won his chief fame as a writer. In 1820, he succeeded Dr. Thomas +Brown as Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh; +this position he held for thirty years. His "Lights and Shadows of +Scottish Life" was published in 1822. This is a collection of pathetic and +beautiful tales of domestic life in Scotland. His contributions to +Blackwood appeared over the pseudonym of "Christopher North," or more +familiarly, "Kit North." Professor Wilson was a man of great physical +power and of striking appearance. In character, he was vehement and +impulsive; but his writings show that he possessed feelings of deep +tenderness. +### + + +The rite of baptism had not been performed for several months in the kirk +of Lanark. It was now the hottest time of persecution; and the inhabitants +of that parish found other places in which to worship God, and celebrate +the ordinances of religion. It was now the Sabbath day, and a small +congregation of about a hundred souls had met for divine service, in a +place more magnificent than any temple that human hands had ever built to +Deity. The congregation had not assembled to the toll of the bell, but +each heart knew the hour and observed it; for there are a hundred sundials +among the hills, woods, moors, and fields; and the shepherd and the +peasant see the hours passing by them in sunshine and shadow. + +The church in which they were assembled, was hewn by God's hand out of the +eternal rock. A river rolled its way through a mighty chasm of cliffs, +several hundred feet high, of which the one side presented enormous +masses, and the other corresponding recesses, as if the great stone girdle +had been rent by a convulsion. The channel was overspread with prodigious +fragments of rocks or large loose stones, some of them smooth and bare, +others containing soil and verdure in their rents and fissures, and here +and there crowned with shrubs and trees. The eye could at once command a +long-stretching vista, seemingly closed and shut up at both extremities by +the coalescing cliffs. This majestic reach of river contained pools, +streams, and waterfalls innumerable; and when the water was low--which was +now the case, in the common drought--it was easy to walk up this scene +with the calm, blue sky overhead, an utter and sublime solitude. + +On looking up, the soul was bowed down by the feeling of that prodigious +height of unscalable, and often overhanging, cliff. Between the channel +and the summit of the far extended precipices, were perpetually flying +rooks and wood pigeons, and now and then a hawk, filling the profound +abyss with their wild cawing, deep murmur, or shrilly shriek. Sometimes a +heron would stand erect and still, on some little stone island, or rise up +like a white cloud along the black walls of the chasm, and disappear. +Winged creatures alone could inhabit this region. The fox and wild cat +chose more accessible haunts. Yet, here came the persecuted Christians and +worshiped God, whose hand hung over their head those magnificent pillars +and arches, scooped out those galleries from the solid rock, and laid at +their feet the calm water, in its transparent beauty, in which they could +see themselves sitting, in reflected groups, with their Bibles in their +hands. + +Here, upon a semicircular ledge of rocks, over a narrow chasm, of which +the tiny stream played in a murmuring waterfall, and divided the +congregation into two equal parts, sat about a hundred persons, all +devoutly listening to their minister, who stood before them on what might +he called a small, natural pulpit of living stone. Up to it there led a +short flight of steps, and over it waved the canopy of a tall, graceful +birch tree. The pulpit stood in the middle of the channel, directly facing +the congregation, and separated from them by the clear, deep, sparkling +pool, into which the scarce-heard water poured over the blackened rock. +The water, as it left the pool, separated into two streams, and flowed on +each side of that altar, thus placing it in an island, whose large, mossy +stones were richly embowered under the golden blossoms and green tresses +of the broom. + +At the close of divine service, a row of maidens, all clothed in purest +white, came gliding off from the congregation, and, crossing the murmuring +stream on stepping stones, arranged themselves at the foot of the pulpit +with those who were about to be baptized. Their devout fathers, just as +though they had been in their own kirk, had been sitting there during +worship, and now stood up before the minister. The baptismal water, taken +from that pellucid pool, was lying, consecrated, in an appropriate +receptacle, formed by the upright stones that composed one side of the +pulpit, and the holy rite proceeded. + +Some of the younger ones in that semicircle kept gazing down into the +pool, in which the whole scene was reflected; and now and then, in spite +of the grave looks and admonishing whispers of their elders, letting fall +a pebble into the water, that they might judge of its depth, from the +length of time that elapsed before the clear air bells lay sparkling on +the agitated surface. The rite was over, and the religious service of the +day closed by a psalm. The mighty rocks hemmed in the holy sound, and sent +it in a more compact volume, clear, sweet, and strong, up to heaven. When +the psalm ceased, an echo, like a spirit's voice, was heard dying away, +high up among the magnificent architecture of the cliffs; and once more +might be noticed in the silence, the reviving voice of the waterfall. + +Just then, a large stone fell from the top of the cliff into the pool, a +loud voice was heard, and a plaid was hung over on the point of a +shepherd's staff. Their wakeful sentinel had descried danger, and this was +his warning. Forthwith, the congregation rose. There were paths, dangerous +to unpracticed feet, along the ledges of the rocks, leading up to several +caves and places of concealment. The more active and young assisted the +elder, more especially the old pastor, and the women with the infants; and +many minutes had not elapsed, till not a living creature was visible in +the channel of the stream, but all of them were hidden, or nearly so, in +the clefts and caverns. + +The shepherd who had given the alarm, had lain down again instantly in his +plaid on the greensward, upon the summit of these precipices. A party of +soldiers was immediately upon him, and demanded what signals he had been +making, and to whom; when one of them, looking over the edge of the cliff, +exclaimed, "See, see! Humphrey, We have caught the whole tabernacle of the +Lord in a net at last. There they are, praising God among the stones of +the river Mouse. These are the Cartland Craigs. A noble cathedral!" "Fling +the lying sentinel over the cliffs. Here is a canting Covenanter for you, +deceiving honest soldiers on the very Sabbath day. Over with him, over +with him; out of the gallery into the pit." But the shepherd had vanished +like a shadow, and, mixing with the tall, green broom and bushes, was +making his unseen way toward a wood. "Satan has saved his servant; but +come, my lads, follow me. I know the way down into the bed of the stream, +and the steps up to Wallace's Cave. They are called, 'kittle nine stanes;' +The hunt's up. We'll all be in at the death. Halloo! my boys, halloo!" + +The soldiers dashed down a less precipitous part of the wooded banks, a +little below the "craigs," and hurried up the channel. But when they +reached the altar where the old, gray-haired minister had been seen +standing, and the rocks that had been covered with people, all was silent +and solitary; not a creature to be seen. "Here is a Bible, dropped by some +of them," cried a soldier, and, with his foot, he spun it away into the +pool. "A bonnet, a bonnet," cried another; "now for the pretty, sanctified +face, that rolled its demure eyes below it." But after a few jests and +oaths, the soldiers stood still, eying with a kind of mysterious dread the +black and silent walls of the rocks that hemmed them in, and hearing only +the small voice of the stream that sent a profounder stillness through the +heart of that majestic solitude. "What if these cowardly Covenanters +should tumble down upon our heads pieces of rock, from their hiding +places! Advance, or retreat?" + +There was no reply; for a slight fear was upon every man. Musket or +bayonet could be of little use to men obliged to clamber up rocks, along +slender paths, leading they know not where. And they were aware that armed +men nowadays worshiped God; men of iron hearts, who feared not the glitter +of the soldier's arms, neither barrel nor bayonet; men of long stride, +firm step, and broad breast, who, on the open field, would have overthrown +the marshaled line, and gone first and foremost, if a city had to be taken +by storm. + +As the soldiers were standing together irresolute, a noise came upon their +ears like distant thunder, but even more appalling; and a slight current +of air, as if propelled by it, passed whispering along the sweetbriers, +and the broom, and the tresses of the birch trees. It came deepening, and +rolling, and roaring on; and the very Cartland Craigs shook to their +foundation, as if in an earthquake. "The Lord have mercy upon us! What is +this?" And down fell many of the miserable wretches on their knees, and +some on their faces, upon the sharp-pointed rocks. Now, it was like the +sound of many myriads of chariots rolling on their iron axles down the +strong channel of the torrent. The old, gray-haired minister issued from +the mouth of Wallace's Cave, and said, in a loud voice, "The Lord God +terrible reigneth!" + +A waterspout had burst up among the moorlands, and the river, in its +power, was at hand. There it came, tumbling along into that long reach of +cliffs, and, in a moment, filled it with one mass of waves. Huge, agitated +clouds of foam rode on the surface of a blood-red torrent. An army must +have been swept off by that flood. The soldiers perished in a moment; but +high up in the cliffs, above the sweep of destruction, were the +Covenanters, men, women, and children, uttering prayers to God, unheard by +themselves, in the raging thunder. + + +NOTES.--Lanark is a small town in the valley of the Clyde, in Scotland. It +is thirty miles southwest from Edinburgh. + +Mouse River flows to the Clyde from the hills north of Larmrk. +Covenanter.--Under Charles I., the Scotch were so oppressed that they +organized in resistance. The covenant was a famous paper, largely signed, +in which they agreed to continue in the profession of their faith, and +resist all errors. + +Wallace's Cave.--William Wallace (b. 1270, d. 1305) was the foremost Scot +of his times. He was declared, in the absence of the king, guardian of the +kingdom. More than once was he outlawed and obliged to seek safety by +concealment in the woods and caves. + + +XLIV. SPARROWS. (185) + +Adeline D. Train Whitney, 1824--, was born in Boston, and was educated in +the school of Dr. George B. Emerson. Her father was Enoch Train, a +well-known merchant of that city. At the age of nineteen, she became the +wife of Mr. Seth D. Whitney. Her literary career began about 1856, since +which time she has written several novels and poems; a number of them +first appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly." Her writings are marked by grace +and sprightliness. +### + + +Little birds sit on the telegraph wires, + And chitter, and flitter, and fold their wings; +Maybe they think that, for them and their sires, + Stretched always, on purpose, those wonderful strings: +And, perhaps, the Thought that the world inspires, + Did plan for the birds, among other things. + +Little birds sit on the slender lines, + And the news of the world runs under their feet,-- +How value rises, and how declines, + How kings with their armies in battle meet,-- +And, all the while, 'mid the soundless signs, + They chirp their small gossipings, foolish sweet. + +Little things light on the lines of our lives,-- + Hopes, and joys, and acts of to-day,-- +And we think that for these the Lord contrives, + Nor catch what the hidden lightnings say. +Yet, from end to end, His meaning arrives, + And His word runs underneath, all the way. + +Is life only wires and lightning, then, + Apart from that which about it clings? +Are the thoughts, and the works, and the prayers of men + Only sparrows that light on God's telegraph strings, +Holding a moment, and gone again? + Nay; He planned for the birds, with the larger things. + + +XLV. OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. (186) + +Gardiner Spring, 1785-1873, was the son of Samuel Spring, D.D., who was +pastor of a Congregational church in Newburyport, Massachusetts, for more +than forty years. The son entered Yale College, and was valedictorian of +his class in 1805. He studied law for a time; then went to Bermuda, where +he taught nearly two years. On his return he completed his law studies, +and practiced his profession for more than a year. In 1810, having studied +theology at Andover, he was ordained as pastor of the "Brick Church" in +New York City. Here he remained till his death. He was elected president +of Dartmouth College, and also of Hamilton, but declined both positions. +His works, embracing about twenty octavo volumes, have passed through +several editions; some have been translated into foreign languages, and +reprinted in Europe. As a preacher, Dr. Spring was eloquent and energetic. +### + + +The Sabbath lies at the foundation of all true morality. Morality flows +from principle. Let the principles of moral obligation become relaxed, and +the practice of morality will not long survive the overthrow. No man can +preserve his own morals, no parent can preserve the morals of his +children, without the impressions of religious obligation. + +If you can induce a community to doubt the genuineness and authenticity of +the Scriptures; to question the reality and obligations of religion; to +hesitate, undeciding, whether there be any such thing as virtue or vice; +whether there be an eternal state of retribution beyond the grave; or +whether there exists any such being as God, you have broken down the +barriers of moral virtue, and hoisted the flood gates of immorality and +crime. I need not say that when a people have once done this, they can no +longer exist as a tranquil and happy people. Every bond that holds society +together would be ruptured; fraud and treachery would take the place of +confidence between man and man; the tribunals of justice would be scenes +of bribery and injustice; avarice, perjury, ambition, and revenge would +walk through the land, and render it more like the dwelling of savage +beasts than the tranquil abode of civilized and Christianized men. + +If there is an institution which opposes itself to this progress of human +degeneracy, and throws a shield before the interests of moral virtue in +our thoughtless and wayward world, it is the Sabbath. In the fearful +struggle between virtue and vice, notwithstanding the powerful auxiliaries +which wickedness finds in the bosoms of men, and in the seductions and +influence of popular example, wherever the Sabbath has been suffered to +live, the trembling interests of moral virtue have always been revered and +sustained. One of the principal occupations of this day is to illustrate +and enforce the great principles of sound morality. Where this sacred +trust is preserved inviolate, you behold a nation convened one day in +seven for the purpose of acquainting themselves with the best moral +principles and precepts; and it can not be otherwise than that the +authority of moral virtue, under such auspices, should be acknowledged and +felt. + +We may not, at once, perceive the effects which this weekly observance +produces. Like most moral causes, it operates slowly; but it operates +surely, and gradually weakens the power and breaks the yoke of profligacy +and sin. No villain regards the Sabbath. No vicious family regards the +Sabbath. No immoral community regards the Sabbath. The holy rest of this +ever-memorable day is a barrier which is always broken down before men +become giants in sin. Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of +England, remarks that "a corruption of morals usually follows a +profanation of the Sabbath." It is an observation of Lord Chief Justice +Hale, that "of all the persons who were convicted of capital crimes, while +he was on the bench, he found a few only who would not confess that they +began their career of wickedness by a neglect of the duties of the Sabbath +and vicious conduct on that day." + +The prisons in our own land could probably tell us that they have scarcely +a solitary tenant who had not broken over the restraints of the Sabbath +before he was abandoned to crime. You may enact laws for the suppression +of immorality, but the secret and silent power of the Sabbath constitutes +a stronger shield to the vital interest of the community than any code of +penal statutes that ever was enacted. The Sabbath is the keystone of the +arch which sustains the temple of virtue, which, however defaced, will +survive many a rude shock so long as the foundation remains firm. + +The observance of the Sabbath is also most influential in securing +national prosperity. The God of Heaven has said, "Them that honor me I +will honor," You will not often find a notorious Sabbath breaker a +permanently prosperous man; and a Sabbath-breaking community is never a +happy or prosperous community. There is a multitude of unobserved +influences which the Sabbath exerts upon the temporal welfare of men. It +promotes the spirit of good order and harmony; it elevates the poor from +want; it transforms squalid wretchedness; it imparts self-respect and +elevation of character; it promotes softness and civility of manners; it +brings together the rich and the poor upon one common level in the house +of prayer; it purifies and strengthens the social affections, and makes +the family circle the center of allurement and the source of instruction, +comfort, and happiness. Like its own divine religion, "it has the promise +of the life that now is and that which is to come," for men can not put +themselves beyond the reach of hope and heaven so long as they treasure up +this one command, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." + + +NOTES.--Sir William Blackstone (b. 1723, d. 1780) was the son of a London +silk mercer. He is celebrated as the author of the "Commentaries on the +Laws of England," now universally used by law students both in England and +America. He once retired from the law through failure to secure a +practice, but afterwards attained the highest honors in his profession. +See biographical notice on page 410. + +Sir Matthew Hale (b. 1609, d. 1676), was Lord Chief Justice of England +from 1671 to 1676. + + + +XLVI. GOD'S GOODNESS TO SUCH AS FEAR HIM. (189) + +Fret not thyself because of evil doers, +Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity; +For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, +And wither as the green herb. +Trust in the Lord, and do good; +So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. +Delight thyself also in the Lord, +And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. +Commit thy way unto the Lord; +Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. +And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, +And thy judgment as the noonday. +Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. + +Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, +Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. +Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: +Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil, +For evil doers shall be cut off: +But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. +For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; +Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. +But the meek shall inherit the earth, +And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. + +A little that a righteous man hath +Is better than the riches of many wicked; +For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, +But the Lord upholdeth the righteous. +The Lord knoweth the days of the upright, +And their inheritance shall be forever; +They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, +And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. + +But the wicked shall perish, +And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; +They shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away. +The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again; +But the righteous sheweth mercy and giveth. +For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth. + +The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, +And he delighteth in his way; +Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; +For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. + +I have been young, and now am old, +Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, +Nor his seed begging bread. +He is ever merciful, and lendeth, +And his seed is blessed. + +Depart from evil, and do good, +And dwell for evermore; +For the Lord loveth judgment, +And forsaketh not his saints; +They are preserved forever: +But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. +The righteous shall inherit the land, +And dwell therein forever. +The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, +And his tongue talketh of judgment; +The law of his God is in his heart; +None of his steps shall slide. +The wicked watcheth the righteous, +And seeketh to slay him. +The Lord will not leave him in his hand, +Nor condemn him when he is judged. + +Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, +And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land; +When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. +I have seen the wicked in great power, +And spreading himself like a green bay tree; +Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; +Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. + --From the Thirty-seventh Psalm. + + + +XLVII. CHARACTER OF COLUMBUS. (192) + +Washington Irving, 1783-1859. Among those whose works have enriched +American literature, and have given it a place in the estimation of +foreigners, no name stands higher than that of Washington Irving. He was +born in the city of New York; his father was a native of Scotland, and his +mother was English. He had an ordinary school education, and at the age of +sixteen began the study of law. Two of his older brothers were interested +in literary pursuits; and in his youth he studied the old English authors. +He was also passionately fond of books of travel. At the age of nineteen, +he began his literary career by writing for a paper published by his +brother. In 1804 be made a voyage to the south of Europe. On his return he +completed his studies in law, but never practiced his profession. +"Salmagundi," his first book (partly written by others), was published in +1807. This was followed, two years later, by "Knickerbocker's History of +New York." Soon after, he entered into mercantile pursuits in company with +two brothers. At the close at the war with England he sailed again for +Europe, and remained abroad seventeen years. During his absence he formed +the acquaintance of the most eminent literary men of his time, and wrote +several of his works; among them were: "The Sketch Book," "Bracebridge +Hall," "Tales of a Traveler," "Life and Voyages of Columbus," and the +"Conquest of Granada." On his return he made a journey west of the +Mississippi, and gathered materials for several other books. From 1842 to +1846 he was Minister to Spain. On his return to America he established his +residence at "Sunnyside," near Tarrytown, on the Hudson, where he passed +the last years of his life. A young lady to whom he was attached having +died in early life, Mr. Irving never married. + +His works are marked by humor, just sentiment, and elegance and +correctness of expression. They were popular both at home and abroad from +the first, and their sale brought him a handsome fortune. The "Life of +Washington," his last work, was completed in the same year in which he +died. +### + +[Transcriber's Note: See "The Life of Columbus" by Sir Arthur Helps,] + + +Columbus was a man of great and inventive genius. The operations of his +mind were energetic, but irregular; bursting forth, at times, with that +irresistible force which characterizes intellect of such an order. His +ambition was lofty and noble, inspiring him with high thoughts and an +anxiety to distinguish himself by great achievements. He aimed at dignity +and wealth in the same elevated spirit with which he sought renown; they +were to rise from the territories he should discover, and be commensurate +in importance. + +His conduct was characterized by the grandeur of his views and the +magnanimity of his spirit. Instead of ravaging the newly-found countries, +like many of his cotemporary discoverers, who were intent only on +immediate gain, he regarded them with the eyes of a legislator; he sought +to colonize and cultivate them, to civilize the natives, to build cities, +introduce the useful arts, subject everything to the control of law, +order, and religion, and thus to found regular and prosperous empires. +That he failed in this was the fault of the dissolute rabble which it was +his misfortune to command, with whom all law was tyranny and all order +oppression. + +He was naturally irascible and impetuous, and keenly sensible to injury +and injustice; yet the quickness of his temper was counteracted by the +generosity and benevolence of his heart. The magnanimity of his nature +shone forth through all the troubles of his stormy career. Though +continually outraged in his dignity, braved in his authority, foiled in +his plans, and endangered in his person by the seditions of turbulent and +worthless men, and that, too, at times when suffering under anguish of +body and anxiety of mind enough to exasperate the most patient, yet he +restrained his valiant and indignant spirit, and brought himself to +forbear, and reason, and even to supplicate. Nor can the reader of the +story of his eventful life fail to notice how free he was from all feeling +of revenge, how ready to forgive and forget on the least sign of +repentance and atonement. He has been exalted for his skill in controlling +others, but far greater praise is due to him for the firmness he displayed +in governing himself. + +His piety was genuine and fervent. Religion mingled with the whole course +of his thoughts and actions, and shone forth in his most private and +unstudied writings. Whenever he made any great discovery he devoutly +returned thanks to God. The voice of prayer and the melody of praise rose +from his ships on discovering the new world, and his first action on +landing was to prostrate himself upon the earth and offer up thanksgiving. +All his great enterprises were undertaken in the name of the Holy Trinity, +and he partook of the holy sacrament previous to embarkation. He observed +the festivals of the church in the wildest situations. The Sabbath was to +him a day of sacred rest, on which he would never sail from a port unless +in case of extreme necessity. The religion thus deeply seated in his soul +diffused a sober dignity and a benign composure over his whole deportment; +his very language was pure and guarded, and free from all gross or +irreverent expressions. + +A peculiar trait in his rich and varied character remains to be noticed; +namely, that ardent and enthusiastic imagination which threw a +magnificence over his whole course of thought. A poetical temperament is +discernible throughout all his writings and in all his actions. We see it +in all his descriptions of the beauties of the wild land he was +discovering, in the enthusiasm with which he extolled the blandness of the +temperature, the purity of the atmosphere, the fragrance of the air, "full +of dew and sweetness," the verdure of the forests, the grandeur of the +mountains, and the crystal purity of the running streams. It spread a +glorious and golden world around him, and tinged everything with its own +gorgeous colors. + +With all the visionary fervor of his imagination, its fondest dreams fell +short of the reality. He died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his +discovery. Until his last breath, he entertained the idea that he had +merely opened a new way to the old resorts of opulent commerce, and had +discovered some of the wild regions of the East. What visions of glory +would have broken upon his mind could he have known that he had indeed +discovered a new continent equal to the old world in magnitude, and +separated by two vast oceans from all the earth hitherto known by +civilized man! How would his magnanimous spirit have been consoled amid +the afflictions of age and the cares of penury, the neglect of a fickle +public and the injustice of an ungrateful king, could he have anticipated +the splendid empires which would arise in the beautiful world he had +discovered, and the nations, and tongues, and languages which were to fill +its land with his renown, and to revere and bless his name to the latest +posterity! + + +NOTE.--Christopher Columbus (b. 1436, d. 1506) was the son of a wool +comber of Genoa. At the age of fifteen he became a sailor, and in his +voyages visited England, Iceland, the Guinea coast, and the Greek Isles. +He was an earnest student of navigation, of cosmography, and of books of +travel; thus he thoroughly prepared himself for the great undertaking +which led to the discovery of America. He struggled against every +discouragement for almost ten years before he could persuade a sovereign +to authorize and equip his expedition. + + + +XLVIII. "HE GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP." (195) + +Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1809-1861, was born in London, married +the poet Robert Browning in 1846, and afterwards resided in Italy most of +the time till her death, which occurred at Florence. She was thoroughly +educated in severe and masculine studies, and began to write at a very +early age. Her "Essay on Mind," a metaphysical and reflective poem, was +written at the age of sixteen. She wrote very rapidly, and her friend, Miss +Mitford, tells us that "Lady Geraldine's Courtship," containing ninety- +three stanzas, was composed in twelve hours! She published several other +long poems, "Aurora Leigh" being one of the most highly finished. Mrs. +Browning is regarded as one of the most able female poets of modern +times; but her writings are often obscure, and some have doubted whether +she always clearly conceived what she meant to express. She had a warm +sympathy with all forms of suffering and distress. "He Giveth his Beloved +Sleep" is one of the most beautiful of her minor poems. The thought is an +amplification of verse 2d of Psalm cxxvii. +### + + +Of all the thoughts of God that are +Borne inward unto souls afar, + Along the Psalmist's music deep, +Now tell me if that any is, +For gift or grace, surpassing this,-- + "He giveth his beloved, sleep!" + +What would we give to our beloved? +The hero's heart to be unmoved, + The poet's star-tuned harp, to sweep, +The patriot's voice, to teach and rouse, +The monarch's crown, to light the brows?-- + "He giveth his beloved, sleep." + +What do we give to our beloved? +A little faith all undisproved, + A little dust to overweep, +And bitter memories to make +The whole earth blasted for our sake,-- + "He giveth his beloved, sleep." + +"Sleep soft, beloved!" we sometimes say, +But have no tune to charm away + Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep. +But never doleful dream again +Shall break his happy slumber when + "He giveth his beloved, sleep." + +O earth, so full of dreary noises! +O men, with wailing in your voices! + O delve'd gold, the wailers heap! +O strife, O curse, that o'er it fall! +God strikes a silence through you all, + And "giveth his beloved, sleep." + +His dews drop mutely on the hill; +His cloud above it saileth still, + Though on its slope men sow and reap. +More softly than the dew is shed, +Or cloud is floated overhead, + "He giveth his beloved, sleep." + +Ay, men may wonder while they scan +A living, thinking, feeing man, + Confirmed in such a rest to keep; +But angels say--and through the word +I think their happy smile is heard-- + "He giveth his beloved, sleep." + +For me my heart, that erst did go +Most like a tired child at a show, + That sees through tears the mummers leap, +Would now its wearied vision close, +Would childlike on his love repose + Who "giveth his beloved, sleep." + +And friends, dear friends,--when it shall be +That this low breath is gone from me, + And round my bier ye come to weep, +Let one most loving of you all +Say, "Not a tear must o'er her fall; + 'He giveth his beloved, sleep.' " + + + +XLIX. DESCRIPTION OF A SIEGE. (197) + +"The skirts of the wood seem lined with archers, although only a few are +advanced from its dark shadow." "Under what banner?" asked Ivanhoe. "Under +no ensign which I can observe," answered Rebecca. "A singular novelty," +muttered the knight, "to advance to storm such a castle without pennon or +banner displayed. Seest thou who they be that act as leaders?" "A knight +clad in sable armor is the most conspicuous," said the Jewess: "he alone +is armed from head to heel, and seems to assume the direction of all +around him." + +"Seem there no other leaders?" exclaimed the anxious inquirer. "None of +mark and distinction that I can behold from this station," said Rebecca, +"but doubtless the other side of the castle is also assailed. They seem, +even now, preparing to advance. God of Zion protect us! What a dreadful +sight! Those who advance first bear huge shields and defenses made of +plank: the others follow, bending their bows as they come on. They raise +their bows! God of Moses, forgive the creatures thou hast made!" + +Her description was here suddenly interrupted by the signal for assault, +which was given by the blast of a shrill bugle, and at once answered by a +flourish of the Norman trumpets from the battlements, which, mingled with +the deep and hollow clang of the kettledrums, retorted in notes of +defiance the challenge of the enemy. The shouts of both parties augmented +the fearful din, the assailants crying, "Saint George, for merry England!" +and the Normans answering them with loud cries of "Onward, De Bracy! Front +de Boeuf, to the rescue!" + +"And I must lie here like a bedridden monk," exclaimed Ivanhoe, "while the +game that gives me freedom or death is played out by the hand of others! +Look from the window once again, kind maiden, and tell me if they yet +advance to the storm." With patient courage, strengthened by the interval +which she had employed in mental devotion, Rebecca again took post at the +lattice, sheltering herself, however, so as not to be exposed to the +arrows of the archers. "What dost thou see, Rebecca?" again demanded the +wounded knight. "Nothing but the cloud of arrows flying so thick as to +dazzle mine eyes, and to hide the bowmen who shoot them." "That can not +endure," said Ivanhoe. "If they press not right on, to carry the castle by +force of arms, the archery may avail but little against stone walls and +bulwarks. Look for the knight in dark armor, fair Rebecca, and see how he +bears himself; for as the leader is, so will his followers be." + +"I see him not," said Rebecca. "Foul craven!" exclaimed Ivanhoe; "does he +blench from the helm when the wind blows highest?" "He blenches not! he +blenches not!" said Rebecca; "I see him now: he leads a body of men close +under the outer barrier of the barbacan. They pull down the piles and +palisades; they hew down the barriers with axes. His high black plume +floats abroad over the throng like a raven over the field of the slain. +They have made a breach in the barriers, they rush in, they are thrust +back! Front de Boeuf heads the defenders. I see his gigantic form above +the press. They throng again to the breach, and the pass is disputed, hand +to hand, and man to man. God of Jacob! it is the meeting of two fierce +tides, the conflict of two oceans moved by adverse winds;" and she turned +her head from the window as if unable longer to endure a sight so +terrible. + +Speedily recovering her self-control, Rebecca again looked forth, and +almost immediately exclaimed, "Holy prophets of the law! Front de Boeuf +and the Black Knight fight hand to hand on the breach, amid the roar of +their followers, who watch the progress of the strife. Heaven strike with +the cause of the oppressed and of the captive!" She then uttered a loud +shriek, and exclaimed, "He is down! he is down!" "Who is down!" cried +Ivanhoe; "for our dear Lady's sake, tell me which has fallen!" "The Black +Knight," answered Rebecca, faintly; then instantly again shouted with +joyful eagerness--"But no! but no! the name of the Lord of Hosts be +blessed! he is on foot again, and fights as if there were twenty men's +strength in his single arm--his sword is broken--he snatches an ax from a +yeoman--he presses Front de Boeuf, blow on blow--the giant stoops and +totters like an oak under the steel of the woodman--he falls-he falls!" +"Front de Boeuf?" exclaimed Ivanhoe. "Front de Boeuf," answered the +Jewess; "his men rush to the rescue, headed by the haughty Templar, +--their united force compels the champion to pause--they drag Front de +Boeuf within the walls." + +"The assailants have won the barriers, have they not?" said Ivanhoe. "They +have--they have--and they press the besieged hard upon the outer wall; +some plant ladders, some swarm like bees, and endeavor to ascend upon the +shoulders of each other; down go stones, beams, and trunks of trees upon +their heads, and as fast as they bear the wounded to the rear, fresh men +supply their places in the assault. Great God! hast thou given men thine +own image that it should be thus cruelly defaced by the hands of their +brethren!" "Think not of that," replied Ivanhoe; "this is no time for such +thoughts. Who yield? Who push their way?" + +"The ladders are thrown down," replied Rebecca, shuddering; "the soldiers +lie groveling under them like crushed reptiles; the besieged have the +better." "Saint George strike for us!" said the knight; "do the false +yeomen give way?" "No," exclaimed Rebecca, "they bear themselves right +yeomanly; the Black Knight approaches the postern with his huge ax; the +thundering blows which he deals, you may hear them above all the din and +shouts of the battle; stones and beams are hailed down on the brave +champion; he regards them no more than if they were thistle down and +feathers." + +"Saint John of Acre!" said Ivanhoe, raising himself joyfully on his couch, +"methought there was but one man in England that might do such a deed." +"The postern gate shakes," continued Rebecca; "it crashes--it is +splintered by his powerful blows--they rush in--the outwork is won! O God! +they hurry the defenders from the battlements--they throw them into the +moat! O men, if ye be indeed men, spare them that can resist no longer!" +"The bridge--the bridge which communicates with the castle--have they won +that pass?" exclaimed Ivanhoe. "No," replied Rebecca; "the Templar has +destroyed the plank on which they crossed--few of the defenders escaped +with him into the castle--the shrieks and cries which you hear, tell the +fate of the others. Alas! I see that it is still more difficult to look +upon victory than upon battle." + +"What do they now, maiden?" said Ivanhoe; "look forth yet again--this is +no time to faint at bloodshed." "It is over, for a time," said Rebecca; +"our friends strengthen themselves within the outwork which they have +mastered." "Our friends," said Ivanhoe, "will surely not abandon an +enterprise so gloriously begun, and so happily attained; Oh no! I will put +my faith in the good knight whose ax has rent heart of oak and bars of +iron. Singular," he again muttered to himself, "if there can be two who +are capable of such achievements. It is,--it must be Richard Coeur de +Lion." + +"Seest thou nothing else. Rebecca, by which the Black Knight may be +distinguished?" "Nothing," said the Jewess, "all about him is as black as +the wing of the night raven. Nothing can I spy that can mark him further; +but having once seen him put forth his strength in battle, methinks I +could know him again among a thousand warriors. He rushes to the fray as +if he were summoned to a banquet. There is more than mere strength; it +seems as if the whole soul and spirit of the champion were given to every +blow which he deals upon his enemies. God forgive him the sin of +bloodshed! it is fearful, yet magnificent, to behold how the arm and heart +of one man can triumph over hundreds." + -- Walter Scott. + + +NOTES.--Ivanhoe, a wounded knight, and Rebecca, a Jewess, had been +imprisoned in the castle of Reginald Front de Boeuf. The friends of the +prisoners undertake their rescue. At the request of Ivanhoe, who is unable +to leave his couch, Rebecca takes her stand near a window overlooking the +approach to the castle, and details to the knight the incidents of the +contest as they take place. Front de Boeuf and his garrison were Normans; +the besiegers, Saxons. + +The castles of this time (twelfth century) usually consisted of a keep, or +castle proper, surrounded at some distance by two walls, one within the +other. Each wall was encircled on its outer side by a moat, or ditch, +which was filled with water, and was crossed by means of a drawbridge. +Before the main entrance of the outer wall was an outwork called the +barbacan, which was a high wall surmounted by battlements and turrets, +built to defend the gate and drawbridge. Here, also, were placed barriers +of palisades, etc., to impede the advance of an attacking force. The +postern gate was small, and was usually some distance from the ground; it +was used for the egress of messengers during a siege; + + +L. MARCO BOZZARIS. (202) + +Fitz-Greene Halleck, 1790--1867, was born in Guilford, Connecticut. At the +age of eighteen he entered a banking house in New York, where he remained +a long time. For many years he was bookkeeper and assistant in business +for John Jacob Astor. Nearly all his poems were written before he was +forty years old, several of them in connection with his friend Joseph +Rodman Drake. His "Young America," however, was written but a few years +before his death. Mr. Halleck's poetry is carefully finished and musical; +much of it is sportive, and some satirical. No one of his poems is better +known than "Marco Bozzaris." +### + + +At midnight, in his guarded tent, + The Turk was dreaming of the hour +When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, + Should tremble at his power. +In dreams, through camp and court he bore +The trophies of a conqueror; + In dreams, his song of triumph heard; +Then wore his monarch's signet ring; +Then pressed that monarch's throne--a king: +As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, + As Eden's garden bird. + +At midnight, in the forest shades, + Bozzaris ranged his Suliote band, +True as the steel of their tried blades, + Heroes in heart and hand. +There had the Persian's thousands stood, +There had the glad earth drunk their blood, + On old Plataea's day: +And now there breathed that haunted air, +The sons of sires who conquered there, +With arms to strike, and soul to dare, + As quick, as far as they. + +An hour passed on--the Turk awoke; + That bright dream was his last: +He woke--to hear his sentries shriek, + "To arms! they come! the Greek! the Greek!" +He woke--to die mid flame and smoke, +And shout, and groan, and saber stroke, + And death shots falling thick and fast +As lightnings from the mountain cloud; +And heard, with voice as trumpet loud, + Bozzaris cheer his band: +"Strike--till the last armed foe expires; +Strike--for your altars and your fires; +Strike--for the green graves of your sires; + God--and your native land!" + +They fought--like brave men, long and well; + They piled that ground with Moslem slain; +They conquered--but Bozzaris fell, + Bleeding at every vein. +His few surviving comrades saw +His smile, when rang their proud hurrah, + And the red field was won: +Then saw in death his eyelids close +Calmly, as to a night's repose, + Like flowers at set of sun. + +Come to the bridal chamber, Death! + Come to the mother, when she feels +For the first time her firstborn's breath; + Come when the blessed seals +That close the pestilence are broke, +And crowded cities wail its stroke; +Come in consumption's ghastly form, +The earthquake's shock, the ocean storm; +Come when the heart beats high and warm + With banquet song, and dance, and wine: +And thou art terrible--the tear, +The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, +And all we know, or dream, or fear + Of agony, are thine. +But to the hero, when his sword + Has won the battle for the free, +Thy voice sounds like a prophet's word; +And in its hollow tones are heard + The thanks of millions yet to be. + +Bozzaris! with the storied brave + Greece nurtured in her glory's time, +Rest thee--there is no prouder grave + Even in her own proud clime. + We tell thy doom without a sigh, +For thou art Freedom's, now, and Fame's. +One of the few, the immortal names, + That were not born to die. + + +NOTES.--Marco Bozzaris (b. about 1790, d. 1823) was a famous Greek +patriot. His family were Suliotes, a people inhabiting the Suli Mountains, +and bitter enemies of the Turks. Bozzaris was engaged in war against the +latter nearly all his life, and finally fell in a night attack upon their +camp near Carpenisi. This poem, a fitting tribute to his memory, has been +translated into modern Greek. + +Plataea was the scene of a great victory of the Greeks over the Persians +in the year 479 B. C. + +Moslem--The followers of Mohammed are called Moslems. + + + +LI. SONG OF THE GREEK BARD. (205) + +George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron, 1788-1824. This gifted poet was the son +of a profligate father and of a fickle and passionate mother. He was +afflicted with lameness from his birth; and, although he succeeded to his +great-uncle's title at ten years of age, he inherited financial +embarrassment with it. These may be some of the reasons for the morbid and +wayward character of the youthful genius. It is certain that he was not +lacking in affection, nor in generosity. In his college days, at +Cambridge, he was willful and careless of his studies. "Hours of +Idleness," his first book, appeared in 1807. It was severely treated by +the "Edinburgh Review," which called forth his "English Bards and Scotch +Reviewers," in 1809. Soon after, he went abroad for two years; and, on his +return, published the first two cantos of "Childe Harold's Pligrimage," a +work that made him suddenly famous. He married in 1815, but separated from +his wife after one year. Soured and bitter, he now left England, purposing +never to return. He spent most of the next seven years in Italy, where +most of his poems were written. The last year of his life was spent in +Greece, aiding in her struggle for liberty against the Turks. He died at +Missolonghi. As a man, Byron was impetuous, morbid and passionate. He was +undoubtedly dissipated and immoral, but perhaps to a less degree than has +sometimes been asserted. As a poet, he possessed noble powers, and he has +written much that will last; in general, however, his poetry is not +wholesome, and his fame is less than it once was. +### + + +The isles of Greece! the isles of Greece! + Where burning Sappho loved and sung, +Where grew the arts of war and peace,-- + Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung! +Eternal summer gilds them yet, +But all, except their sun, is set. + +The Scian and the Teian muse, + The hero's harp, the lover's lute, +Have found the fame your shores refuse; + Their place of birth alone is mute +To sounds which echo further west +Than your sires' "Islands of the Blest." + +The mountains look on Marathon, + And Marathon looks on the sea; +And musing there an hour alone, + I dreamed that Greece might still be free; +For, standing on the Persian's grave, +I could not deem myself a slave. + +A king sat on the rocky brow + Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis; +And ships, by thousands, lay below, + And men in nations,--all were his! +He counted them at break of day,-- +And when the sun set, where were they? + +And where are they? And where art thou, + My country? On thy voiceless shore +The heroic lay is tuneless now,-- + The heroic bosom beats no more! +And must thy lyre, so long divine, +Degenerate into hands like mine? + +Must we but weep o'er days more blest? + Must we but blush? Our fathers bled. +Earth! render back from out thy breast + A remnant of our Spartan dead! +Of the three hundred, grant but three, +To make a new Thermopylae! + +What! silent still and silent all? + Ah! no;--the voices of the dead +Sound like a distant torrent's fall, + And answer, "Let one living head, +But one, arise,--we come, we come!" +'Tis but the living who are dumb! + +In vain--in vain!--strike other chords; + Fill high the cup with Samian wine! +Leave battles to the Turkish hordes, + And shed the blood of Scio's vine! +Hark! rising to the ignoble call, +How answers each bold Bacchanal! + +You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet; + Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone? +Of two such lessons, why forget + The nobler and the manlier one? +You have the letters Cadmus gave; +Think ye he meant them for a slave? + +Fill high the howl with Samian wine! + We will not think of themes like these! +It made Anacreon's song divine: + He served, but served Polycrates, +A tyrant; but our masters then +Were still, at least, Our countrymen. + +The tyrant of the Chersonese + Was freedom's best and bravest friend; +That tyrant was Miltiades! +Oh that the present hour would lend +Another despot of the kind! +Such chains as his were sure to bind. + +Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! + Our virgins dance beneath the shade; +I see their glorious, black eyes shine; + But gazing on each glowing maid, +My own the burning tear-drop laves, +To think such breasts must suckle slaves. + +Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, + Where nothing save the waves and I +May hear our mutual murmurs sweep; + There, swanlike, let me sing and die: +A land of slaves shall ne'er be mine,-- +Dash down yon cup of Samian wine! + + +NOTES.--Sappho was a Greek poetess living on the island of Lesbos, about +600 B. C. Delos is one of the Grecian Archipelago, and is of volcanic +origin. The ancient Greeks believed that it rose from the sea at a stroke +from Neptune's trident, and was moored fast to the bottom by Jupiter. It +was the supposed birthplace of Phoebus, or Apollo. The island of Chios, or +Scios, is one of the places which claim to be the birthplace of Homer. +Teios, or Teos, a city in Ionia, is the birthplace of the Greek poet +Anacreon. The Islands of the Blest, mentioned in ancient poetry, were +imaginary islands in the west, where, it was believed, the favorites of +the gods were conveyed without dying. + +At Marathon. (490 B. C.), on the east coast, of Greece, 11,000 Greeks, +under the generalship of Miltiades, routed 110,000 Persians. The island of +Salamis lies very near the Greek coast: in the narrow channel between, the +Greek fleet almost destroyed (480 B.C.) that of Xerxes, the Persian king, +who witnessed the contest from a throne on the mountain side. Thermopylae +is a narrow mountain pass in Greece, where Leonidas, with 300 Spartans and +about 1,100 other Greeks, held the entire Persian army in check until +every Spartan, except one, was slain. Samos is one of the Grecian +Archipelago, noted for its cultivation of the vine and olive. + +A Bacchanal was a disciple of Bacchus, the god of wine. Pyrrhus was a +Greek, and one of the greatest generals of the world. The phalanx was an +almost invincible arrangement of troops, massed in close array, with their +shields overlapping one another, and their spears projecting; this form of +military tactics was peculiar to the Greeks. + +Polycrates seized the island of Samos, and made himself tyrant: he was +entrapped and crucified in 522 B. C. Chersonese is the ancient name for a +peninsula. Sunium is the name of a promontory southeast of Athens. + + + +LII. NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. (209) + +Charles Sprague, 1791-1875, was born in Boston, and received his education +in the public schools of that city. For sixteen years he was engaged in +mercantile pursuits, as clerk and partner. In 1820 he became teller in a +bank; and, from 1825, he filled the office of cashier of the Globe Bank +for about forty years. In 1829 be gave his most famous poem, "Curiosity," +before the Phi Beta Kappa society, in Cambridge. An active man of business +all his days, he has written but little either in prose or poetry, but +that little is excellent in quality, graceful, and pleasing. + +The address from which this extract is taken, was delivered before the +citizens of Boston, July 4th, 1825. +### + + +Not many generations ago, where you now sit, encircled with all that +exalts and embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind +and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. Here lived and loved another race +of beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls over your head, the Indian +hunter pursued the panting deer; gazing on the same moon that smiles for +you, the Indian lover wooed his dusky mate. Here the wigwam blaze beamed +on the tender and helpless, and the council fire glared on the wise and +daring. Now they dipped their noble limbs in your sedgy lakes, and now +they paddled the light canoe along your rocky shores. Here they warred; +the echoing whoop, the bloody grapple, the defying death song, all were +here; and when the tiger strife was over, here curled the smoke of peace. + +Here, too, they worshiped; and from many a dark bosom went up a fervent +prayer to the Great Spirit. He had not written his laws for them on tables +of stone, but he had traced them on the tables of their hearts. The poor +child of nature knew not the God of Revelation, but the God of the +universe he acknowledged in everything around. He beheld him in the star +that sank in beauty behind his lonely dwelling; in the sacred orb that +flamed on him from his midday throne; in the flower that snapped in the +morning breeze; in the lofty pine that defied a thousand whirlwinds; in +the timid warbler that never left its native grove; in the fearless eagle, +whose untired pinion was wet in clouds; in the worm that crawled at his +feet; and in his own matchless form, glowing with a spark of that light, +to whose mysterious source he bent in humble though blind adoration. + +And all this has passed away. Across the ocean came a pilgrim bark, +bearing the seeds of life and death. The former were sown for you; the +latter sprang up in the path of the simple native. Two hundred years have +changed the character of a great continent, and blotted forever from its +face a whole, peculiar people. Art has usurped the bowers of nature, and +the anointed children of education have been too powerful for the tribes +of the ignorant. Here and there a stricken few remain; but how unlike +their bold, untamable progenitors. The Indian of falcon glance and lion +bearing, the theme of the touching ballad, the hero of the pathetic tale +is gone, and his degraded offspring crawls upon the soil where he walked +in majesty, to remind us how miserable is man when the foot of the +conqueror is on his neck. + +As a race they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken, their +springs are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. Their council fire has +long since gone out on the shore, and their war cry is fast fading to the +untrodden west. Slowly and sadly they climb the distant mountains, and +read their doom in the setting sun. They are shrinking before the mighty +tide which is pressing them away; they must soon hear the roar of the last +wave which will settle over them forever. Ages hence, the inquisitive +white man, as he stands by some growing city, will ponder on the structure +of their disturbed remains, and wonder to what manner of persons they +belonged. They will live only in the songs and chronicles of their +exterminators. Let these be faithful to their rude virtues as men, and pay +due tribute to their unhappy fate as a people. + + + +LIII. LOCHIEL'S WARNING. (211) + +Thomas Campbell, 1777-1844, was a descendant of the famous clan of +Campbells, in Kirnan, Scotland, and was born at Glasgow. At the age of +thirteen he entered the university in that city, from which he graduated +with distinction, especially as a Greek scholar; his translations of Greek +tragedy were considered without parallel in the history of the university. +During the first year after graduation, he wrote several poems of minor +importance. He then removed to Edinburgh and adopted literature as his +profession; here his "Pleasures of Hope" was published in 1799, and +achieved immediate success. He traveled extensively on the continent, and +during his absence wrote "Lochiel's Warning," "Hohenlinden," and other +minor poems. In 1809 he published "Gertrude of Wyoming;" from 1820 to 1830 +he edited the "New Monthly Magazine." In 1826 he was chosen lord rector of +the University of Glasgow, to which office he was twice reelected. He was +active in founding the University of London. During the last years of his +life he produced but little of note. He died at Boulogne, in France. +During most of his life he was in straitened pecuniary circumstances, and +ill-health and family afflictions cast a melancholy over his later years. +His poems were written with much care, and are uniformly smooth and +musical. +### + + +Seer. Lochiel! Lochiel! beware of the day + When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle array! + For a field of the dead rushes red on my sight, + And the clans of Culloden are scattered in fight. + They rally, they bleed, for their kingdom and crown; + Woe, woe to the riders that trample them down! + Proud Cumberland prances, insulting the slain, + And their hoof-beaten bosoms are trod to the plain. + But hark! through the fast-flashing lightning of war, + What steed to the desert flies frantic and far? + 'T is thine, O Glenullin! whose bride shall await + Like a love-lighted watch fire all night at the gate. + A steed comes at morning,--no rider is there, + But its bridle is red with the sign of despair. + Weep, Albin! to death and captivity led! + Oh, weep! but thy tears can not number the dead: + For a merciless sword on Culloden shall wave,-- + Culloden! that reeks with the blood of the brave. + +Loch. Go preach to the coward, thou death-telling seer! + Or, if gory Culloden so dreadful appear, + Draw, dotard, around thy old wavering sight, + This mantle, to cover the phantoms of fright. + +Seer. Ha! laugh'st thou, Lochiel, my vision to scorn? + Proud bird of the mountain thy plume shall be torn! + Say, rushed the bold eagle exultingly forth + From his home in the dark-rolling clouds of the north? + Lo! the death shot of foemen outspeeding, he rode + Companionless, bearing destruction abroad; + But down let him stoop from his havoc on high! + Ah! home let him speed, for the spoiler is nigh. + Why flames the far summit? Why shoot to the blast + Those embers, like stars from the firmament cast? + 'T is the fire shower of ruin, all dreadfully driven + From his eyrie that beacons the darkness of heaven, + O crested Lochiel! the peerless in might, + Whose banners arise on the battlements' height, + Heaven's fire is around thee, to blast and to burn; + Return to thy dwelling! all lonely return! + For the blackness of ashes shall mark where it stood, + And a wild mother scream o'er her famishing brood. + +Loch. False wizard, avaunt! I have marshaled my clan, + Their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one! + They are true to the last of their blood and their breath, + And like reapers descend to the harvest of death. + Then welcome be Cumberland's steed to the shock! + Let him dash his proud foam like a wave on the rock! + But woe to his kindred, and woe to his cause, + When Albin her claymore indignantly draws; + When her bonneted chieftains to victory crowd, + Clanronald the dauntless, and Moray the proud, + All plaided and plumed in their tartan array-- + +Seer. --Lochiel, Lochiel, beware of the day! + For, dark and despairing, my sight I may seal, + But man can not cover what God would reveal: + 'T is the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, + And coming events cast their shadows before. + I tell thee, Culloden's dread echoes shall ring + With the bloodhounds that bark for thy fugitive king. + Lo! anointed by heaven with the vials of wrath, + Behold where he flies on his desolate path! + Now, in darkness and billows, he sweeps from my sight: + Rise, rise! ye wild tempests, and cover his flight! + 'Tis finished. Their thunders are hushed on the moors; + Culloden is lost, and my country deplores. + But where is the ironbound prisoner? Where? + For the red eye of battle is shut in despair. + Say, mounts he the ocean wave, banished, forlorn, + Like a limb from his country, cast bleeding and torn? + Ah no! for a darker departure is near; + The war drum is muffled, and black is the bier; + His death bell is tolling; O mercy, dispel + Yon sight that it freezes my spirit to tell! + Life flutters convulsed in his quivering limbs, + And his blood-streaming nostril in agony swims. + Accursed be the fagots that blaze at his feet, + Where his heart shall be thrown ere it ceases to beat, + With the smoke of its ashes to poison the gale-- + +Loch. Down, soothless insulter! I trust not the tale: + For never shall Albin a destiny meet + So black with dishonor, so foul with retreat. + Though my perishing ranks should be strewed in their gore, + Like ocean weeds heaped on the surf-beaten shore, + Lochiel, untainted by flight or by chains, + While the kindling of life in his bosom remains, + Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low, + With his back to the field and his feet to the foe! + And leaving in battle no blot on his name, + Look proudly to heaven from the deathbed of fame. + + +NOTES.--Lochiel was a brave and influential Highland chieftain. He +espoused the cause of Charles Stuart, called the Pretender, who claimed +the British throne. In the preceding piece, he is supposed to be marching +with the warriors of his clan to join Charles's army. On his way he is met +by a Seer, who having, according to the popular superstition, the gift of +second-sight, or prophecy, forewarns him of the disastrous event of the +enterprise, and exhorts him to return home and avoid the destruction which +certainly awaits him, and which afterward fell upon him at the battle of +Culloden, in 1746. In this battle the Highlanders were commanded by +Charles in person, and the English by the Duke of Cumberland. The +Highlanders wore completely routed, and the Pretender's rebellion brought +to a close. He himself shortly afterward made a narrow escape by water +from the west of Scotland; hence the reference to the fugitive king. + +Albin is the poetic name of Scotland, more particularly the Highlands. The +ironbound prisoner refers to Lochiel. + + + +LIV. ON HAPPINESS OF TEMPER. (215) + +Oliver Goldsmith, 1728-1774. This eccentric son of genius was an Irishman; +his father was a poor curate. Goldsmith received his education at several +preparatory schools, at Trinity College, Dublin, at Edinburgh, and at +Leyden. He was indolent and unruly as a student, often in disgrace with +his teachers; but his generosity, recklessness, and love of athletic +sports made him a favorite with his fellow-students. He spent some time in +wandering over the continent, often in poverty and want. In 1756 he +returned to England, and soon took up his abode in London. Here he made +the acquaintance and friendship of several notable men, among whom were +Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. "The Traveler" was published in 1764, and +was soon followed by the "Vicar of Wakefield." He wrote in nearly all +departments of literature, and always with purity, grace, and fluency. His +fame as a poet is secured by the "Traveler" and the "Deserted Village;" as +a dramatist, by "She Stoops to Conquer;" as a satirist, by the "Citizen of +the World;" and as a novelist by the "Vicar of Wakefield." In his later +years his writings were the source of a large income, but his gambling, +careless generosity, and reckless extravagance always kept him in +financial difficulty, and he died heavily in debt. His monument is in +Westminster Abbey. +## + + +Writers of every age have endeavored to show that pleasure is in us, and +not in the objects offered for our amusement. If the soul be happily +disposed, everything becomes capable of affording entertainment, and +distress will almost want a name. Every occurrence passes in review, like +the figures of a procession; some may be awkward, others ill-dressed, but +none but a fool is on that account enraged with the master of ceremonies. + +I remember to have once seen a slave, in a fortification in Flanders, who +appeared no way touched with his situation. He was maimed, deformed, and +chained; obliged to toil from the appearance of day till nightfall, and +condemned to this for life; yet, with all these circumstances of apparent +wretchedness, he sang, would have danced, but that he wanted a leg, and +appeared the merriest, happiest man of all the garrison. What a practical +philosopher was here! A happy constitution supplied philosophy, and though +seemingly destitute of wisdom he was really wise. No reading or study had +contributed to disenchant the fairyland around him. Everything furnished +him with an opportunity of mirth; and though some thought him, from his +insensibility, a fool, he was such an idiot as philosophers should wish to +imitate. + +They who, like that slave, can place themselves all that side of the world +in which everything appears in a pleasant light, will find something in +every occurrence to excite their good humor. The most calamitous events, +either to themselves or others, can bring no new affliction; the world is +to them a theater, in which only comedies are acted. All the bustle of +heroism, or the aspirations of ambition, seem only to heighten the +absurdity of the scene, and make the humor more poignant. They feel, in +short, as little anguish at their own distress, or the complaints of +others, as the undertaker, though dressed in black, feels sorrow at a +funeral. Of all the men I ever read of, the famous Cardinal de Retz +possessed this happiness in the highest degree. When fortune wore her +angriest look, and he fell into the power of Cardinal Mazarin, his most +deadly enemy, (being confined a close prisoner in the castle of +Valenciennes,) he never attempted to support his distress by wisdom or +philosophy, for he pretended to neither. He only laughed at himself' and +his persecutor, and seemed infinitely pleased at his new situation. In +this mansion of distress, though denied all amusements, and even the +conveniences of life, and entirely cut off from all intercourse with his +friends, he still retained his good humor, laughed at the little spite of +his enemies, and carried the jest so far as to write the life of his +jailer. + +All that the wisdom of the proud can teach, is to be stubborn or sullen +under misfortunes. The Cardinal's example will teach us to be good- +humored in circumstances of the highest affliction. It matters not whether +our good humor be construed by others into insensibility or idiotism,--it +is happiness to ourselves; and none but a fool could measure his +satisfaction by what the world thinks of it. + +The happiest fellow I ever knew, was of the number of those good-natured +creatures that are said to do no harm to anybody but themselves. Whenever +he fell into any misery, he called it "seeing life," If his head was +broken by a chairman, or his pocket picked by a sharper, he comforted +himself by imitating the Hibernian dialect of the one, or the more +fashionable cant of the other. Nothing came amiss to him. His inattention +to money matters had concerned his father to such a degree that all +intercession of friends was fruitless. The old gentleman was on his +deathbed. The whole family (and Dick among the number) gathered around +him. + +"I leave my second son, Andrew," said the expiring miser, "my whole +estate, and desire him to be frugal." Andrew, in a sorrowful tone (as is +usual on such occasions), prayed heaven to prolong his life and health to +enjoy it himself. "I recommend Simon, my third son, to the care of his +elder brother, and leave him, besides, four thousand pounds." "Ah, +father!" cried Simon (in great affliction, to be sure), "may heaven give +you life and health to enjoy it yourself!" At last, turning to poor Dick: +"As for you, you have always been a sad dog; you'll never come to good; +you'll never be rich; I leave you a shilling to buy a halter." "Ah, +father!" cries Dick, without any emotion, "may heaven give you life and +health to enjoy it yourself!" + + +NOTES.--Cardinal de Retz, Jean Francois Paul de Gondi (b. 1614, d. 1679), +was leader of the revolt against Jules Mazarin (b. 1602, d. 1661), the +prime minister of France during the minority of Louis XIV. This led to a +war which lasted four or five years. After peace had been concluded, and +Louis XIV. established on the throne, Mazarin was reinstated in power, and +Cardinal de Retz was imprisoned. + +Flanders, formerly part of the Netherlands, is now included in Belgium, +Holland and France. + + + +LV. THE FORTUNE TELLER. (218) + +Henry Mackenzie, 1745-1831, was born in Edinburgh, educated at the +university there, and died in the same city. He was an attorney by +profession, and was the associate of many famous literary men residing at +that time in Edinburgh. His fame as a writer rests chiefly on two novels, +"The Man of Feeling" and "The Man of the World;" both were published +before the author was forty years old. +### + + +Harley sat down on a large stone by the wayside, to take a pebble from his +shoe, when he saw, at some distance, a beggar approaching him. He had on a +loose sort of coat, mended with different-colored rags, among which the +blue and russet were predominant. He had a short, knotty stick in his +hand, and on the top of it was stuck a ram's horn; he wore no shoes, and +his stockings had entirely lost that part of them which would have covered +his feet and ankles; in his face, however, was the plump appearance of +good humor; he walked a good, round pace, and a crook-legged dog trotted +at his heels. + +"Our delicacies," said Harley to himself, "are fantastic; they are not in +nature! That beggar walks over the sharpest of these stones barefooted, +whilst I have lost the most delightful dream in the world from the +smallest of them happening to get into my shoe." The beggar had by this +time come up, and, pulling off a piece of a hat, asked charity of Harley. +The dog began to beg, too. It was impossible to resist both; and, in +truth, the want of shoes and stockings had made both unnecessary, for +Harley had destined sixpence for him before. + +The beggar, on receiving it, poured forth blessings without number; and, +with a sort of smile on his countenance, said to Harley that if he wanted +to have his fortune told--Harley turned his eye briskly upon the beggar; +it was an unpromising look for the subject of a prediction, and silenced +the prophet immediately. "I would much rather learn" said Harley, "what it +is in your power to tell me. Your trade must be an entertaining one; sit +down on this stone, and let me know something of your profession; I have +often thought of turning fortune teller for a week or two, myself." + +"Master," replied the beggar, "I like your frankness much, for I had the +humor of plain dealing in me from a child; but there is no doing with it +in this world,--we must do as we can; and lying is, as you call it, my +profession. But I was in some sort forced to the trade, for I once dealt +in telling the truth. I was a laborer, sir, and gained as much as to make +me live. I never laid by, indeed, for I was reckoned a piece of a wag, and +your wags, I take it, are seldom rich, Mr. Harley." "So," said Harley, +"you seem to know me." "Ay, there are few folks in the country that I do +n't know something of. How should I tell fortunes else?" "True,--but go on +with your story; you were a laborer, you say, and a wag; your industry, I +suppose, you left with your old trade; but your humor you preserved to be +of use to you in your new." + +"What signifies sadness, sir? A man grows lean on 't. But I was brought to +my idleness by degrees; sickness first disabled me, and it went against my +stomach to work, ever after. But, in truth, I was for a long time so weak +that I spit blood whenever I attempted to work. I had no relation living, +and I never kept a friend above a week when I was able to joke. Thus I was +forced to beg my bread, and a sorry trade I have found it, Mr. Harley. I +told all my misfortunes truly, but they were seldom believed; and the few +who gave me a half-penny as they passed, did it with a shake of the head, +and an injunction not to trouble them with a long story. In short, I found +that people do n't care to give alms without some security for their +money,--such as a wooden leg, or a withered arm, for example. So I changed +my plan, and instead of telling my own misfortunes, began to prophesy +happiness to others. + +"This I found by much the better way. Folks will always listen when the +tale is their own, and of many who say they do not believe in fortune +telling, I have known few on whom it had not a very sensible effect. I +pick up the names of their acquaintance; amours and little squabbles are +easily gleaned from among servants and neighbors; and, indeed, people +themselves are the best intelligencers in the world for our purpose. They +dare not puzzle us for their own sakes, for everyone is anxious to hear +what he wishes to believe; and they who repeat it, to laugh at it when +they have done, are generally more serious than their hearers are apt to +imagine. With a tolerably good memory, and some share of cunning, I +succeed reasonably well as a fortune teller. With this, and showing the +tricks of that dog, I make shift to pick up a livelihood. + +"My trade is none of the most honest, yet people are not much cheated +after all, who give a few half-pence for a prospect of happiness, which I +have heard some persons say, is all a man can arrive at in this world. But +I must bid you good day, sir; for I have three miles to walk before noon, +to inform some boarding-school young ladies whether their husbands are to +be peers of the realm or captains in the army; a question which I promised +to answer them by that time." + +Harley had drawn a shilling from his pocket; but Virtue bade him to +consider on whom he was going to bestow it. Virtue held back his arm; but +a milder form, a younger sister of Virtue's, not so severe as Virtue, nor +so serious as Pity, smiled upon him; his fingers lost their compression; +nor did Virtue appear to catch the money as it fell. It had no sooner +reached the ground than the watchful cur (a trick he had been taught) +snapped it up; and, contrary to the most approved method of stewardship, +delivered it immediately into the hands of his master. + + + +LVI. RIENZI'S ADDRESS TO THE ROMANS. (221) + +Mary Russell Mitford, 1786-1855. She was the daughter of a physician, and +was born in Hampshire, England. At twenty years of age, she published +three volumes of poems; and soon after entered upon literature as a +lifelong occupation. She wrote tales, sketches, poems, and dramas. "Our +Village" is the best known of her prose works; the book describes the +daily life of a rural people, is simple but finished in style, and is +marked by mingled humor and pathos. Her most noted drama is "Rienzi." Miss +Mitford passed the last forty years of her life in a little cottage in +Berkshire, among a simple, country people, to whom she was greatly +endeared by her kindness and social virtues. +### + + +I come not here to talk. You know too well +The story of our thraldom. We are slaves! +The bright sun rises to his course, and lights +A race of slaves! He sets, and his last beams +Fall on a slave; not such as, swept along +By the full tide of power, the conqueror led +To crimson glory and undying fame; +But base, ignoble slaves; slaves to a horde +Of petty tyrants, feudal despots, lords, +Rich in some dozen paltry villages; +Strong in some hundred spearmen; only great +In that strange spell,--a name. + + Each hour, dark fraud, +Or open rapine, or protected murder, +Cries out against them. But this very day, +An honest man, my neighbor,--there he stands,-- +Was struck--struck like a dog, by one who wore +The badge of Ursini; because, forsooth, +He tossed not high his ready cap in air, +Nor lifted up his voice in servile shouts, +At sight of that great ruffian! Be we men, +And suffer such dishonor? men, and wash not +The stain away in blood? Such shames are common. +I have known deeper wrongs; I that speak to ye, +I had a brother once--a gracious boy, +Full of all gentleness, of calmest hope, +Of sweet and quiet joy,--there was the look +Of heaven upon his face, which limners give +To the beloved disciple. + + How I loved +That gracious boy! Younger by fifteen years, +Brother at once, and son! He left my side, +A summer bloom on his fair cheek; a smile +Parting his innocent lips. In one short hour, +That pretty, harmless boy was slain! I saw +The corse, the mangled corse, and then I cried +For vengeance! Rouse, ye Romans! rouse, ye slaves! +Have ye brave sons? Look in the next fierce brawl +To see them die. Have ye fair daughters? Look +To see them live, torn from your arms, distained, +Dishonored; and if ye dare call for justice, +Be answered by the lash. + + Yet this is Rome, +That sat on her seven hills, and from her throne +Of beauty ruled the world! and we are Romans. +Why, in that elder day, to be a Roman +Was greater than a king! + + And once again,-- +Hear me, ye walls that echoed to the tread +Of either Brutus! Once again, I swear, +The eternal city shall be free. + + +NOTES.--Rienzi (b. about 1312, d. 1354) was the last of the Roman +tribunes. In 1347 he led a successful revolt against the nobles, who by +their contentions kept Rome in constant turmoil. He then assumed the title +of tribune, but, after indulging in a life of reckless extravagance and +pomp for a few months, he was compelled to abdicate, and fly for his life. +In 1354 he was reinstated in power, but his tyranny caused his +assassination the same year. + +The Ursini wore one of the noble families of Rome. + +This lesson is especially adapted for drill on inflection, emphasis, and +modulation. + + + +LVll. CHARACTER OF THE PURITAN FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. (223) + +One of the most prominent features which distinguished our forefathers, +was their determined resistance to oppression. They seemed born and +brought up for the high and special purpose of showing to the world that +the civil and religious rights of man--the rights of self-government, of +conscience, and independent thought--are not merely things to be talked of +and woven into theories, but to be adopted with the whole strength and +ardor of the mind, and felt in the profoundest recesses of the heart, and +carried out into the general life, and made the foundation of practical +usefulness, and visible beauty, and true nobility. + +Liberty, with them, was an object of too serious desire and stern resolve +to be personified, allegorized, and enshrined. They made no goddess of it, +as the ancients did; they had no time nor inclination for such trifling; +they felt that liberty was the simple birthright of every human creature; +they called it so; they claimed it as such; they reverenced and held it +fast as the unalienable gift of the Creator, which was not to be +surrendered to power, nor sold for wages. + +It was theirs, as men; without it, they did not esteem themselves men; +more than any other privilege or possession, it was essential to their +happiness, for it was essential to their original nature; and therefore +they preferred it above wealth, and ease, and country; and, that they +might enjoy and exercise it fully, they forsook houses, and lands, and +kindred, their homes, their native soil, and their fathers' graves. + +They left all these; they left England, which, whatever it might have been +called, was not to them a land of freedom; they launched forth on the +pathless ocean, the wide, fathomless ocean, soiled not by the earth +beneath, and bounded, all round and above, only by heaven; and it seemed +to them like that better and sublimer freedom, which their country knew +not, but of which they had the conception and image in their hearts; and, +after a toilsome and painful voyage, they came to a hard and wintry coast, +unfruitful and desolate, but unguarded and boundless; its calm silence +interrupted not the ascent of their prayers; it had no eyes to watch, no +ears to hearken, no tongues to report of them; here, again, there was an +answer to their soul's desire, and they were satisfied, and gave thanks; +they saw that they were free, and the desert smiled. + +I am telling an old tale; but it is one which must be told when we speak +of those men. It is to be added, that they transmitted their principles to +their children, and that, peopled by such a race, our country was always +free. So long as its inhabitants were unmolested by the mother country in +the exercise of their important rights, they submitted to the form of +English government; but when those rights were invaded, they spurned even +the form away. + +This act was the Revolution, which came of course and spontaneously, and +had nothing in it of the wonderful or unforeseen. The wonder would have +been if it had not occurred. It was, indeed, a happy and glorious event, +but by no means unnatural; and I intend no slight to the revered actors in +the Revolution when I assert that their fathers before them were as free +as they--every whit as free. + +The principles of the Revolution were not the suddenly acquired property +of a few bosoms: they were abroad in the land in the ages before; they had +always been taught, like the truths of the Bible; they had descended from +father to son, down from those primitive days, when the Pilgrim, +established in his simple dwelling, and seated at his blazing fire, piled +high from the forest which shaded his door, repeated to his listening +children the story of his wrongs and his resistance, and bade them +rejoice, though the wild winds and the wild beasts were howling without, +that they had nothing to fear from great men's oppression. + +Here are the beginnings of the Revolution. Every settler's hearth was a +school of independence; the scholars were apt, and the lessons sunk +deeply; and thus it came that our country was always free; it could not be +other than free. + +As deeply seated as was the principle of liberty and resistance to +arbitrary power in the breasts of the Puritans, it was not more so than +their piety and sense of religious obligation. They were emphatically a +people whose God was the Lord. Their form of government was as strictly +theocratical, if direct communication be excepted, as was that of the +Jews; insomuch that it would be difficult to say where there was any civil +authority among them entirely distinct from ecclesiastical jurisdiction. + +Whenever a few of them settled a town, they immediately gathered +themselves into a church; and their elders were magistrates, and their +code of laws was the Pentateuch. These were forms, it is true, but forms +which faithfully indicated principles and feelings; for no people could +have adopted such forms, who were not thoroughly imbued with the spirit, +and bent on the practice, of religion. + +God was their King; and they regarded him as truly and literally so, as if +he had dwelt in a visible palace in the midst of their state. They were +his devoted, resolute, humble subjects; they undertook nothing which they +did not beg of him to prosper; they accomplished nothing without rendering +to him the praise; they suffered nothing without carrying their sorrows to +his throne; they ate nothing which they did not implore him to bless. + +Their piety was not merely external; it was sincere; it had the proof of a +good tree in bearing good fruit; it produced and sustained a strict +morality. Their tenacious purity of manners and speech obtained for them, +in the mother country, their name of Puritans, which, though given in +derision, was as honorable an appellation as was ever bestowed by man on +man. + +That there were hypocrites among them, is not to be doubted; but they were +rare. The men who voluntarily exiled themselves to an unknown coast, and +endured there every toil and hardship for conscience' sake, and that they +might serve God in their own manner, were not likely to set conscience at +defiance, and make the service of God a mockery; they were not likely to +be, neither were they, hypocrites. I do not know that it would be +arrogating too much for them to say, that, on the extended surface of the +globe, there was not a single community of men to be compared with them, +in the respects of deep religious impressions and an exact performance of +moral duty. + F. W. P. Greenwood. + +NOTE.--The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Old Testament. The +word is derived from two Greek words, (pente), five, and (tenchos), book. + + + +LVIII. LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. (226) + +Felicia Dorothea Hemans, 1794-1835, was born in Liverpool. Her father, +whose name was Browne, was an Irish merchant. She spent her childhood in +Wales, began to write poetry at a very early age, and was married when +about eighteen to Captain Hemans. By this marriage, she became the mother +of five sons; but, owing to differences of taste and disposition, her +husband left her at the end of six years; and by mutual agreement they +never again lived together. Mrs. Hemans now made literature a profession, +and wrote much and well. In 1826 Prof. Andrews Norton brought out an +edition of her poems in America, where they became popular, and have +remained so. + +Mrs. Hemans's poetry is smooth and graceful, frequently tinged with a +shade of melancholy, but never despairing, cynical, or misanthropic. It +never deals with the highest themes, nor rises to sublimity, but its +influence is calculated to make the reader truer, nobler, and purer. +### + + +The breaking waves dashed high + On a stern and rock-bound coast, +And the woods against a stormy sky + Their giant branches tossed; + +And the heavy night hung dark, + The hills and waters o'er, +When a band of exiles moored their bark + On the wild New England shore. + +Not as the conqueror comes, + They, the true-hearted, came; +Not with the roll of the stirring drums. + And the trumpet that sings of fame. + +Not as the flying come, + In silence, and in fear;-- +They shook the depths of the desert gloom + With their hymns of lofty cheer. + +Amidst the storm they sang, + And the stars heard, and the sea; +And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang + To the anthem of the free! + +The ocean eagle soared + From his nest by the white wave's foam; +And the rocking pines of the forest roared,-- + This was their welcome home. + +There were men with hoary hair + Amidst that pilgrim band: +Why had they come to wither there, + Away from their childhood's land? + +There was woman's fearless eye, + Lit by her deep love's truth; +There was manhood's brow, serenely high, + And the fiery heart of youth. + +What sought they thus afar? + Bright jewels of the mine? +The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? + They sought a faith's pure shrine! + +Ay, call it holy ground, + The soil where first they trod: +They have left unstained what there they found,-- + Freedom to worship God. + + +NOTE.--The Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, Mass, Dec. 11th (Old +Style), 1620. The rock on which they first stepped, is in Water Street of +the village, and is covered by a handsome granite canopy, surmounted by a +colossal statue of Faith. + + + +LIX. NECESSITY OF EDUCATION. (228) + +We must educate! We must educate! or we must perish by our own prosperity. +If we do not, short will be our race from the cradle to the grave. If, in +our haste to be rich and mighty, we outrun our literary and religious +institutions, they will never overtake us; or only come up after the +battle of liberty is fought and lost, as spoils to grace the victory, and +as resources of inexorable despotism for the perpetuity of our bondage. + +But what will become of the West if her prosperity rushes up to such a +majesty of power, while those great institutions linger which are +necessary to form the mind, and the conscience, and the heart of the vast +world? It must not be permitted. And yet what is done must be done +quickly; for population will not wait, and commerce will not cast anchor, +and manufactures will not shut off the steam, nor shut down the gate, and +agriculture, pushed by millions of freemen on their fertile soil, will not +withhold her corrupting abundance. + +And let no man at the East quiet himself, and dream of liberty, whatever +may become of the West. Our alliance of blood, and political institutions, +and common interests, is such, that we can not stand aloof in the hour of +her calamity, should it ever come. Her destiny is our destiny; and the day +that her gallant ship goes down, our little boat sinks in the vortex! + +The great experiment is now making, and from its extent and rapid filling +up, is making in the West, whether the perpetuity of our republican +institutions can be reconciled with universal suffrage. Without the +education of the head and heart of the nation, they can not be; and the +question to be decided is, can the nation, or the vast balance power of +it, be so imbued with intelligence and virtue as to bring out, in laws and +their administration, a perpetual self-preserving energy. We know that the +work is a vast one, and of great difficulty; and yet we believe it can be +done. + +I am aware that our ablest patriots are looking out on the deep, vexed +with storms, with great forebodings and failings of heart, for fear of the +things that are coming upon us; and I perceive a spirit of impatience +rising, and distrust in respect to the perpetuity of our republic; and I +am sure that these fears are well founded, and am glad that they exist. It +is the star of hope in our dark horizon. Fear is what we need, as the ship +needs wind on a rocking sea, after a storm, to prevent foundering. But +when our fear and our efforts shall correspond with our danger, the danger +is past. + +For it is not the impossibility of self-preservation which threatens us; +nor is it the unwillingness of the nation to pay the price of the +preservation, as she has paid the price of the purchase of our liberties. +It is inattention and inconsideration, protracted till the crisis is past, +and the things which belong to our peace are hid from our eyes. And +blessed be God, that the tokens of a national waking up, the harbinger of +God's mercy, are multiplying upon us! + +We did not, in the darkest hour, believe that God had brought our fathers +to this goodly land to lay the foundation of religious liberty, and +wrought such wonders in their preservation, and raised their descendants +to such heights of civil and religious liberty, only to reverse the +analogy of his providence, and abandon his work. + +And though there now be clouds, and the sea roaring, and men's hearts +failing, we believe there is light behind the cloud, and that the +imminence of our danger is intended, under the guidance of Heaven, to call +forth and apply a holy, fraternal fellowship between the East and the +West, which shall secure our preservation, and make the prosperity of our +nation durable as time, and as abundant as the waves of the sea. + +I would add, as a motive to immediate action, that if we do fail in our +great experiment of self-government, our destruction will be as signal as +the birthright abandoned, the mercies abused, and the provocation offered +to beneficent Heaven. The descent of desolation will correspond with the +past elevation. + +No punishments of Heaven are so severe as those for mercies abused; and no +instrumentality employed in their infliction is so dreadful as the wrath +of man. No spasms are like the spasms of expiring liberty, and no wailing +such as her convulsions extort. + +It took Rome three hundred years to die; and our death, if we perish, will +be as much more terrific as our intelligence and free institutions have +given us more bone, sinew, and vitality. May God hide from me the day when +the dying agonies of my country shall begin! O thou beloved land, bound +together by the ties of brotherhood, and common interest, and perils! live +forever--one and undivided! + --Lyman Beecher. + + + +LX. RIDING ON A SNOWPLOW. (231) + +Benjamin Franklin Taylor, 1822-1887, was born at Lowville, New York, and +graduated at Madison University, of which his father was president. Here +he remained as resident graduate for about five years. His "Attractions of +Language" was published in 1845. For many years Mr. Taylor was literary +editor of the "Chicago Journal." He wrote considerably for the magazines, +and was the author of many well-known fugitive pieces, both in prose and +verse. He also published several books, of which "January and June," +"Pictures in Camp and Field," "The World on Wheels," "Old-time Pictures +and Sheaves of Rhyme," "Between the Gates," and "Songs of Yesterday," are +the best known. In his later years, Mr. Taylor achieved some reputation as +a lecturer. His writings are marked by an exuberant fancy. +### + + +Did you ever ride on a snowplow? Not the pet and pony of a thing that is +attached to the front of an engine, sometimes, like a pilot; but a great +two-storied monster of strong timbers, that runs upon wheels of its own, +and that boys run after and stare at as they would after and at an +elephant. You are snow-bound at Buffalo. The Lake Shore Line is piled with +drifts like a surf. Two passenger trains have been half-buried for twelve +hours somewhere in snowy Chautauqua. The storm howls like a congregation +of Arctic bears. But the superintendent at Buffalo is determined to +release his castaways, and clear the road to Erie. He permits you to be a +passenger on the great snowplow; and there it is, all ready to drive. +Harnessed behind it, is a tandem team of three engines. It does not occur +to you that you are going to ride on a steam drill, and so you get aboard. + + +It is a spacious and timbered room, with one large bull's eye window,--an +overgrown lens. The thing is a sort of Cyclops. There are ropes, and +chains, and a windlass. There is a bell by which the engineer of the first +engine can signal the plowman, and a cord whereby the plowman can talk +back. There are two sweeps, or arms, worked by machinery, on the sides. +You ask their use, and the superintendent replies, "When, in a violent +shock, there is danger of the monster's upsetting, an arm is put out, on +one side or the other, to keep the thing from turning a complete +somersault." You get one idea, and an inkling of another. So you take out +your Accident Policy for three thousand dollars, and examine it. It never +mentions battles, nor duels, nor snowplows. It names "public conveyances." +Is a snowplow a public conveyance? You are inclined to think it is neither +that nor any other kind that you should trust yourself to, but it is too +late for consideration. + +You roll out of Buffalo in the teeth of the wind, and the world is turned +to snow. All goes merrily. The machine strikes little drifts, and they +scurry away in a cloud. The three engines breathe easily; but by and by +the earth seems broken into great billows of dazzling white. The sun comes +out of a cloud, and touches it up till it out-silvers Potosi. Houses lie +in the trough of the sea everywhere, and it requires little imagination to +think they are pitching and tossing before your eyes. A great breaker +rises right in the way. The monster, with you in it, works its way up and +feels of it. It is packed like a ledge of marble. Three whistles! The +machine backs away and keeps backing, as a gymnast runs astern to get sea +room and momentum for a big jump; as a giant swings aloft a heavy sledge, +that it may come down with a heavy blow. + +One whistle! You have come to a halt. Three pairs of whistles one after +the other! and then, putting on all steam, you make for the drift. The +superintendent locks the door, you do not quite understand why, and in a +second the battle begins. The machine rocks and creaks in all its joints. +There comes a tremendous shock. The cabin is as dark as midnight. The +clouds of flying snow put out the day. The labored breathing of the +locomotives behind you, the clouds of smoke and steam that wrap you up as +in a mantle, the noonday eclipse of the sun, the surging of the ship, the +rattling of chains, the creak of timbers as if the craft were aground and +the sea getting out of its bed to whelm you altogether, the doubt as to +what will come,--all combine to make a scene of strange excitement for a +landlubber. + +You have made some impression on the breaker, and again the machine backs +for a fair start, and then another plunge, and shock, and twilight. And +so, from deep cut to deep cut, as if the season had packed all his winter +clothes upon the track, until the stalled trains are reached and passed; +and then, with alternate storm and calm, and halt and shock, till the way +is cleared to Erie. + +It is Sunday afternoon, and Erie--"Mad Anthony Wayne's" old +headquarters--has donned its Sunday clothes, and turned out by hundreds to +see the great plow come in,--its first voyage over the line. The +locomotives set up a crazy scream, and you draw slowly into the depot. The +door opened at last, you clamber down, and gaze up at the uneasy house in +which you have been living. It looks as if an avalanche had tumbled down +upon it,--white as an Alpine shoulder. Your first thought is gratitude +that you have made a landing alive. Your second, a resolution that, if +again you ride a hammer, it will not be when three engines have hold of +the handle! + + +NOTES.--Chautauqua is the most western county in the state of New York; it +borders on Lake Erie. + +The Cyclops are described in Grecian mythology as giants having only one +eye, which was circular, and placed in the middle of the forehead. + +Cerro de Potosi is a mountain in Bolivia, South America, celebrated for +its mineral wealth. More than five thousand mines have been opened in it; +the product is chiefly silver. + +"Mad Anthony Wayne" (b. 1745, d. 1796), so called from his bravery and +apparent recklessness, was a famous American officer during the +Revolution. In 1794 be conducted a successful campaign against the Indians +of the Northwest, making his headquarters at Erie, Pa. + + + +LXI. THE QUARREL OF BRUTUS AND CASSIUS. (234) + +Cas. That you have wronged me doth appear in this: + You have condemned and noted Lucius Pella + For taking bribes here of the Sardians; + Wherein my letters, praying on his side, + Because I knew the man, were slighted off. + Bru. You wronged yourself to write in such a case. +Cas. In such a time as this, it is not meet + That every nice offense should bear his comment. +Bru. Yet let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself + Are much condemned to have an itching palm, + To sell and mart your offices for gold + To undeservers. +Cas. I an itching palm! + You know that you are Brutus that speak this, + Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. +Bru. The name of Cassius honors this corruption, + And chastisement doth therefore hide his head. +Cas. Chastisement! +Bru. Remember March, the ides of March remember! + Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? + What villain touched his body, that did stab, + And not for justice? What! shall one of us, + That struck the foremost man of all this world + But for supporting robbers; shall we now + Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, + And sell the mighty space of our large honors + For so much trash as may be graspe'd thus? + I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, + Than such a Roman. +Cas. Brutus, bay not me; + I'll not endure it: you forget yourself, + To hedge me in; I am a soldier, I, + Older in practice, abler than yourself + To make conditions. +Bru. Go to; you are not, Cassius. +Cas. I am. +Bru. I say you are not. +Cas. Urge me no more, I shall forget myself: + Have mind upon your health; tempt me no further. +Bru. Away, slight man! +Cas. Is't possible? +Bru. Hear me, for I will speak. + Must I give way and room to your rash choler? + Shall I be frighted when a madman stares? +Cas. O ye gods! ye gods! must I endure all this? +Bru. All this! Ay, more: fret till your proud heart break; + Go, show your slaves how choleric you are, + And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge? + Must I observe you? Must I stand and crouch + Under your testy humor? By the gods, + You shall digest the venom of your spleen, + Though it do split you; for, from this day forth, + I'll use you for my mirth, yea for my laughter, + When you are waspish. +Cas. Is it come to this? +Bru. You say you are a better soldier; + Let it appear so; make your vaunting true, + And it shall please me well: for mine own part, + I shall be glad to learn of noble men. +Cas. You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus; + I said, an elder soldier, not a better: + Did I say "better"? +Bru. If you did, I care not. +Cas. When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me. +Bru. Peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him. +Cas. I durst not? +Bru. No. +Cas. What! durst not tempt him? +Bru. For your life, you durst not. +Cas. Do not presume too much upon my love; + I may do that I shall be sorry for. +Bru. You have done that you should be sorry for. + There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats; + For I am armed so strong in honesty + That they pass by me as the idle wind, + Which I respect not. I did send to you + For certain sums of gold, which you denied me;-- + For I can raise no money by vile means: + By heaven! I had rather coin my heart, + And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring + From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash + By any indirection.--I did send + To you for gold to pay my legions, + Which you denied me: was that done like Cassius? + Should I have answered Caius Cassius so? + When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, + To lock such rascal counters from his friends, + Be ready, gods, with an your thunderbolts; + Dash him to pieces! +Cas. I denied you not. +Bru. You did. +Cas. I did not: he was but a fool that brought + My answer back. Brutus hath rived my heart: + A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, + But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. +Bru. I do not, till you practice them on me. +Cas. You love me not. +Bru. I do not like your faults. +Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults. +Bru. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear + As huge as high Olympus. +Cas. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, + Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius, + For Cassius is aweary of the world; + Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother; + Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed, + Set in a notebook, learned, and conned by rate, + To cast into my teeth. Oh, I could weep + My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger, + And here my naked breast; within, a heart + Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold: + If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth: + I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart: + Strike, as thou didst at Caesar; for, I know, + When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better + Than ever thou lovedst Cassius. +Bru. Sheathe your dagger: + Be angry when you will, it shall have scope; + Do what you will, dishonor shall be humor. + O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb + That carries anger as the flint bears fire; + Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, + And straight is cold again. +Cas. Hath Cassius lived + To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, + When grief, and blood ill-tempered, vexeth him? +Bru. When I spoke that, I was ill-tempered, too. +Cas. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand. + +238 ECLECTIC SERIES. + +Bru. And my heart, too. +Cas. O Brutus! +Bru. What's the matter? +Cas. Have you not love enough to bear with me, + When that rash humor which my mother gave me + Makes me forgetful? +Bru. Yes, Cassius; and, from henceforth, + When you are over earnest with your Brutus, + He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so. + + Shakespeare.--Julius Caesar, Act iv, Scene iii. + + +NOTES.--Ides (pro. idz) was a term used in the Roman calendar. It fell on +the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, and on the thirteenth +of other months. On the ides of March, 44 B. C., Julius Caesar was +murdered by Brutus, Cassius, and other conspirators. The populace were +aroused to indignation, and the conspirators were compelled to fly. + +Indirection; i. e., dishonest means. + +Antony and Octavius, who, with Lepidus, formed the triumvirate now +governing Rome, were at this time marching against the forces of Brutus +and Cassius. + +Plutus, in ancient mythology, the god of wealth. + + + +LXII. THE QUACK. (238) + +John Tobin, 1770-1804, a solicitor, was born at Salisbury, England, and +died on shipboard near Cork. He wrote several comedies, the most popular +being "The Honeymoon," from which this extract is taken; it was published +in 1805. +### + + +SCENE--The Inn. Enter HOSTESS followed by LAMPEDO, a Quack Doctor. + +Host. Nay, nay; another fortnight. + Lamp. It can't be. + The man's as well as I am: have some mercy! + He hath been here almost three weeks already. +Host. Well, then, a week. +Lamp. We may detain him a week. (Enter BALTHAZAR, the patient, + from behind, in his nightgown, with a drawn sword.) + You talk now like a reasonable hostess, + That sometimes has a reckoning with her conscience. +Host. He still believes he has an inward bruise. +Lamp. I would to heaven he had! or that he'd slipped + His shoulder blade, or broke a leg or two, + (Not that I bear his person any malice,) + Or luxed an arm, or even sprained his ankle! +Host. Ay, broken anything except his neck. +Lamp. However, for a week I'll manage him, + Though he had the constitution of a horse-- + A farrier should prescribe for him. +Balth. A farrier! (Aside. ) + Lamp. To-morrow, we phlebotomize again; + Next day, my new-invented patent draught; + Then, I have some pills prepared; + On Thursday, we throw in the bark; on Friday-- +Balth. (Coming forward.) Well, sir, on Friday--what, on Friday? Come, + Proceed. +Lamp. Discovered! + + They (Host.,Lamp.) fall on their knees. + +Host. Mercy, noble sir! +Lamp. We crave your mercy! +Balth. On your knees? 'tis well! + Pray! for your time is short. +Host. Nay, do not kill us. +Balth. You have been tried, condemned, and only wait + For execution. Which shall I begin with? +Lamp. The lady, by all means, sir. +Balth. Come, prepare. (To the hostess.) +Host. Have pity by the weakness of my sex! +Balth. Tell me, thou quaking mountain of gross flesh, + Tell me, and in a breath, how many poisons-- + If you attempt it--(To LAMPEDO, who is making off) + you have cooked up for me? +Host. None, as I hope for mercy! +Balth. Is not thy wine a poison? +Host. No indeed, sir; + 'T is not, I own, of the first quality; + But-- +Balth. What? +Host. I always give short measure, sir, + And ease my conscience that way. +Balth. Ease your conscience! + I'll ease your conscience for you. +Host. Mercy, sir! +Balth. Rise, if thou canst, and hear me. +Host. Your commands, sir? +Balth. If, in five minutes, all things are prepared + For my departure, you may yet survive. +Host. It shall be done in less. +Balth. Away, thou lumpfish. (Exit hostess.) +Lamp. So! now comes my turn! 't is all over with me! + There's dagger, rope, and ratsbane in his looks! +Baith. And now, thou sketch and outline of a man! + Thou thing that hast no shadow in the sun! + Thou eel in a consumption, eldest born + Of Death and Famine! thou anatomy + Of a starved pilchard! +Lamp. I do confess my leanness. I am spare, + And, therefore, spare me. +Balth. Why wouldst thou have made me + A thoroughfare, for thy whole shop to pass through? +Lamp. Man, you know, must live. +Balth. Yes: he must die, too. +Lamp. For my patients' sake! +Balth. I'll send you to the major part of them-- + The window, sir, is open;-come, prepare. + Lamp. Pray consider! + I may hurt some one in the street. + + +[Illustration: Lampedo and Hostess kneeling, with hands folded, pleading +with Balthazar, who is standing over them, holding a sword. Several small +glass bottles are on the table by the wall and scattered on the floor.] + + +Balth. Why, then, + I'll rattle thee to pieces in a dicebox, + Or grind thee in a coffee mill to powder, + For thou must sup with Pluto:--so, make ready! + Whilst I, with this good smallsword for a lancet, + Let thy starved spirit out (for blood thou hast none), + And nail thee to the wall, where thou shalt look + Like a dried beetle with a pin stuck through him. +Lamp. Consider my poor wife. +Balth. Thy wife! +Lamp. My wife, sir. +Balth. Hast thou dared think of matrimony, too? + Thou shadow of a man, and base as lean! +Lamp. O spare me for her sake! + I have a wife, and three angelic babes, + Who, by those looks, are well nigh fatherless. +Balth. Well, well! your wife and children shall plead for you. + Come, come; the pills! where are the pills? Produce them. +Lamp. Here is the box. +Balth. Were it Pandora's, and each single pill + Had ten diseases in it, you should take them. +Lamp. What, all? +Balth. Ay, all; and quickly, too. Come, sir, begin-- + (LAMPEDO takes one.) That's well!--Another. +Lamp. One's a dose. +Balth. Proceed, sir. +Lamp. What will become of me? + Let me go home, and set my shop to rights, + And, like immortal Caesar, die with decency. +Balth. Away! and thank thy lucky star I have not + Brayed thee in thine own mortar, or exposed thee + For a large specimen of the lizard genus. +Lamp. Would I were one!--for they can feed on air. +Balth. Home, sir! and be more honest. +Lump. If I am not, + I'll be more wise, at least. + + +NOTEs.--Pluto, in ancient mythology, the god of the lower world. + +Pandora is described in the Greek legends as the first created woman. She +was sent by Jupiter to Epimetheus as a punishment, because the latter's +brother, Prometheus, had stolen fire from heaven. When she arrived among +men, she opened a box in which were all the evils of mankind, and +everything escaped except Hope. + + + +LXIII. RIP VAN WINKLE. (242) + +The appearance of Rip, with his long, grizzled beard, his rusty fowling +piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at his heels, +soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians. They crowded +around him, eying him from head to foot with great curiosity. The orator +bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired on which side +he voted. Rip stared in vacant stupidity. Another short but busy little +fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear +"whether he was Federal or Democrat." + +Rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when a knowing, +self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way through +the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as he +passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, the +other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat, penetrating, as it +were, into his very soul, demanded, in an austere tone, what brought him +to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his heels, and +whether he meant to breed a riot in the village. + +"Alas! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I am a poor, quiet man, +a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the king, God bless him!" +Here a general shout burst from the bystanders.--"A tory! a tory! a spy! a +refugee! hustle him! away with him!" It was with great difficulty that the +self-important man in the cocked hat restored order; and, having a tenfold +austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown culprit, what he came +there for, and whom he was seeking. The poor man humbly assured him that +he meant no harm, but merely came there in search of some of his +neighbors, who used to keep about the tavern. "Well, who are they? name +them." + +Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, "Where's Nicholas Vedder?" +There was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a +thin, piping voice, "Nicholas Vedder! why he is dead and gone these +eighteen years! There was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that used +to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone too." "Where's Brom +Dutcher?" "Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war. Some +say he was killed at the storming of Stony Point; others say he was +drowned in a squall at the foot of Anthony's Nose. I don't know; he never +came back again." + +"Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?" "He went off to the wars, too; +was a great militia general, and is now in Congress." Rip's heart died +away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and friends, and finding +himself thus alone in the world. Every answer puzzled him, too, by +treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of matters which he could +not understand--war, Congress, Stony Point. He had no courage to ask after +any more friends, but cried out in despair, "Does nobody here know Rip Van +Winkle?" + +"Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three. "Oh, to be sure! That's Rip +Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the tree." Rip looked, and beheld a +precise counterpart of himself as he went up the mountain; apparently as +lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor fellow was now completely +confounded; he doubted his own identity, and whether he was himself or +another man. In the midst of his bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat +demanded who he was, and what was his name. + +"God knows!" exclaimed he, at his wit's end. "I'm not myself; I'm somebody +else; that's me yonder; no, that's somebody else got into my shoes. I was +myself last night; but I fell asleep on the mountain, and they've changed +my gun, and everything's changed, and I'm changed, and I can't tell what's +my name or who I am!" + +The bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink significantly, +and tap their fingers against their foreheads. There was a whisper, also, +about securing the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing mischief, at +the very suggestion of which the self-important man in the cocked hat +retired with some precipitation. At this critical moment, a fresh, comely +woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the gray-bearded man. +She had a chubby child in her arms, which, frightened at his looks, began +to cry. "Hush, Rip!" cried she, "hush, you little fool! the old man won't +hurt you." + +The name of the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, all +awakened a train of recollections in his mind. "What is your name, my good +woman?" asked he. "Judith Gardenier." "And your father's name?" "Ah, poor +man! Rip Van Winkle was his name; but it's twenty years since he went away +from home with his gun, and never has been heard of since; his dog came +home without him; but whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the +Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a little girl." + +Rip had but one question more to ask; but he put it with a faltering +voice: "Where's your mother?" "Oh, she, too, died but a short time since; +she broke a blood vessel in a fit of passion at a New England peddler." +There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. The honest +man could contain himself no longer. He caught his daughter and her child +in his arms. "I am your father!" cried he. "Young Rip Van Winkle once, old +Rip Van Winkle now! Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle?" + +All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the crowd, +put her hand to her brow, and, peering under it in his face for a moment, +exclaimed, "Sure enough! it is Rip Van Winkle! it is himself! Welcome home +again, old neighbor! Why, where have you been these twenty long years?" +Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him but +as one night. + +To make a long story short, the company broke up and returned to the more +important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him home to live +with her. She had a snug, well-furnished house, and a stout, cheery farmer +for a husband, whom Rip recollected for one of the urchins that used to +climb upon his back. Rip now resumed his old walks and habits. He soon +found many of his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear +and tear of time, and preferred making friends among the rising +generation, with whom he soon grew into great favor. + --Irving. + +NOTES.--Rip Van Winkle, according to Irving's story in "The Sketch Book," +was a great drunkard, and was driven from his home in the Catskill +Mountains, one night, by his wife. Wandering among the mountains, he fell +in with the ghosts of Hendrick Hudson and his crew, with whom he played a +game of ninepins. Upon drinking the liquor which they offered him, +however, he immediately fell into a deep sleep which lasted for twenty +years. The above lesson recounts the events that befell him when he +returned to his native village. In the meantime the Revolution of 1776 had +taken place. + +The Federals and the Democrats formed the two leading political parties of +that time. + +Stony Point is a promontory on the Hudson, at the entrance of the +Highlands, forty-two miles from New York. It was a fortified post during +the Revolution, captured by the British, and again retaken by the +Americans under Wayne. Anthony's Nose is also a promontory on the Hudson, +about fifteen miles above Stony Point. + + + +LXIV. BILL AND JOE. (246) + +Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894, was the son of Abiel Holmes, D.D. He was +born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated at Harvard in 1829, having +for classmates several men who have since become distinguished. After +graduating, he studied law for about one year, and then turned his +attention to medicine. He studied his profession in Paris, and elsewhere +in Europe, and took his degree at Cambridge in 1836. In 1838 he was +appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Dartmouth College. He +remained here but a short time, and then returned to Boston and entered on +the practice of medicine. In 1847 he was appointed professor at Harvard, +filling a similar position to the one held at Dartmouth. He discharged the +duties of his professorship for more than thirty years, with great +success. Literature was never his profession; yet few American authors +attained higher success, both as a poet and as a prose writer. His poems +are lively and sparkling, abound in wit and humor, but are not wanting in +genuine pathos. Many of them were composed for special occasions. His +prose writings include works on medicine, essays, and novels; several +appeared first as contributions to the "Atlantic Monthly." He gained +reputation, also, as it popular lecturer. In person, Dr. Holmes was small +and active, with a face expressive of thought and vivacity. +### + + +Come, dear old comrade, you and I +Will steal an hour from days gone by-- +The shining days when life was new, +And all was bright as morning dew, +The lusty days of long ago, +When you were Bill and I was Joe. + +Your name may flaunt a titled trail +Proud as a cockerel's rainbow tail, +And mine as brief appendix wear +As Tam O'Shanter's luckless mare; +To-day, old friend, remember still +That I am Joe and you are Bill. + +You've won the great world's envied prize, +And grand you look in people's eyes, +With HON. and LL. D., +In big, brave letters fair to see,-- +Your fist, old fellow! Off they go!-- +How are you, Bill? How are you, Joe? + +You've worn the judge's ermined robe; +You've taught your name to half the globe; +You've sung mankind a deathless strain; +You've made the dead past live again: +The world may call you what it will, +But you and I are Joe and Bill. + +The chaffing young folks stare and say, +"See those old buffers, bent and gray; +They talk like fellows in their teens; +Mad, poor old boys! That's what it means" +And shake their heads; they little know +The throbbing hearts of Bill and Joe-- + +How Bill forgets his hour of pride, +While Joe sits smiling at his side; +How Joe, in spite of time's disguise, +Finds the old schoolmate in his eyes,-- +Those calm, stern eyes, that melt and fill, +As Joe looks fondly up to Bill. + +Ah! pensive scholar, what is fame? +A fitful tongue of leaping flame; +A giddy whirlwind's fickle gust, +That lifts a pinch of mortal dust; +A few swift years, and who can show +Which dust was Bill, and which was Joe. + +The weary idol takes his stand, +Holds out his bruised and aching hand, +While gaping thousands come and go-- +How vain it seems, this empty show!-- +Till all at once his pulses thrill: +'T is poor old Joe's, "God bless you, Bill!" + +And shall we breathe in happier spheres +The names that pleased our mortal ears; +In some sweet lull of heart and song +For earth born spirits none too long, +Just whispering of the world below +When this was Bill, and that was Joe? + +No matter; while our home is here, +No sounding name is half so dear; +When fades at length our lingering day, +Who cares what pompous tombstones say? +Read on the hearts that love us still, +Hic jacet Joe. Hic jacet Bill. + + +NOTE.--Hic jacet (pro. hic ja'cet) is a Latin phrase, meaning here lies. +It is frequently used in epitaphs. + + + +LXV. SORROW FOR THE DEAD. (249) + +The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be +divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal; every other affliction, to +forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open. This affliction +we cherish, and brood over in solitude. Where is the mother who would +willingly forget the infant that has perished like a blossom from her +arms, though every recollection is a pang? Where is the child that would +willingly forget a tender parent, though to remember be but to lament? +Who, even in the hour of agony, would forget the friend over whom he +mourns? + +No, the love which survives the tomb is one of the noblest attributes of +the soul. If it has its woes, it has likewise its delights: and when the +overwhelming burst of grief is calmed into the gentle tear of +recollection; when the sudden anguish and the convulsive agony over the +present ruins of all that we most loved, is softened away into pensive +meditation on all that it was in the days of its loveliness, who would +root out such a sorrow from the heart? Though it may, sometimes, throw a +passing cloud over the bright hour of gayety, or spread a deeper sadness +over the hour of gloom; yet, who would exchange it even for the song of +pleasure, or the burst of revelry? No, there is a voice from the tomb +sweeter than song. There is a remembrance of the dead, to which we turn +even from the charms of the living. + +Oh, the grave! the grave! It buries every error, covers every defect, +extinguishes every resentment! From its peaceful bosom spring none but +fond regrets and tender recollections. Who can look down upon the grave +even of an enemy, and not feel a compunctious throb, that he should have +warred with the poor handful of earth that lies moldering before him? But +the grave of those we loved--what a place for meditation! There it is that +we call up, in long review, the whole history of virtue and gentleness, +and the thousand endearments lavished upon us, almost unheeded in the +daily intercourse of intimacy; there it is that we dwell upon the +tenderness, the solemn, awful tenderness of the parting scene; the bed of +death, with all its stifled griefs, its noiseless attendance, its mute, +watchful assiduities! the last testimonies of expiring love! the feeble, +fluttering, thrilling,--oh! how thrilling!--pressure of the hand! the last +fond look of the glazing eye turning upon us, even from the threshold of +existence! the faint, faltering accents, struggling in death to give one +more assurance of affection! + +Ay, go to the grave of buried love, and meditate! There settle the account +with thy conscience for every past benefit unrequited; every past +endearment unregarded, of that departed being, who can never--never-- +never return to be soothed by thy contrition! If thou art a child, and +hast ever added a sorrow to the soul, or a furrow to the silvered brow of +an affectionate parent; if thou art a husband, and hast ever caused the +fond bosom that ventured its whole happiness in thy arms to doubt one +moment of thy kindness or thy truth; if thou art a friend, and hast ever +wronged, in thought, or word, or deed, the spirit that generously confided +in thee; if thou hast given one unmerited pang to that true heart, which +now lies cold and still beneath thy feet; then be sure that every unkind +look, every ungracious word, every ungentle action, will come thronging +back upon thy memory, and knocking dolefully at thy soul; then be sure +that thou wilt lie down sorrowing and repentant on the grave, and utter +the unheard groan, and pour the unavailing tear; more deep, more bitter, +because unheard and unavailing. + +Then weave thy chaplet of flowers, and strew the beauties of nature about +the grave; console thy broken spirit, if thou canst, with these tender, +yet futile, tributes of regret: but take warning by the bitterness of +this, thy contrite affliction over the dead, and henceforth be more +faithful and affectionate in the discharge of thy duties to the living. + --Irving. + + + +LXVI. THE EAGLE. (251) + +James Gates Percival, 1795-1856, was born at Berlin, Connecticut, and +graduated at Yale College in 1815, at the head of his class. He was +admitted to the practice of medicine in 1820, and went to Charleston, +South Carolina. In 1824 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at West +Point, a position which he held but a few months. In 1854 he was appointed +State Geologist of Wisconsin, and died at Hazel Green, in that state. Dr. +Percival was eminent as a geographer, geologist, and linguist. He began to +write poetry at an early age, and his fame rests chiefly upon his writings +in this department. In his private life, Percival was always shy, modest, +and somewhat given to melancholy. Financially, his life was one of +struggle, and he was often greatly straitened for money. +### + +Bird of the broad and sweeping wing! + Thy home is high in heaven, +Where the wide storms their banners fling, + And the tempest clouds are driven. +Thy throne is on the mountain top; + Thy fields, the boundless air; +And hoary peaks, that proudly prop + The skies, thy dwellings are. + +Thou art perched aloft on the beetling crag, + And the waves are white below, +And on, with a haste that can not lag, + They rush in an endless flow. +Again thou hast plumed thy wing for flight + To lands beyond the sea, +And away, like a spirit wreathed in light, + Thou hurriest, wild and free. + +Lord of the boundless realm of air! + In thy imperial name, +The hearts of the bold and ardent dare + The dangerous path of fame, +Beneath the shade of thy golden wings, + The Roman legions bore, +From the river of Egypt's cloudy springs, + Their pride, to the polar shore. + +For thee they fought, for thee they fell, + And their oath on thee was laid; +To thee the clarions raised their swell, + And the dying warrior prayed. +Thou wert, through an age of death and fears, + The image of pride and power, +Till the gathered rage of a thousand years, + Burst forth in one awful hour. + +And then, a deluge of wrath, it came, + And the nations shook with dread; +And it swept the earth, till its fields were flame, + And piled with the mingled dead. +Kings were rolled in the wasteful flood, + With the low and crouching slave; +And together lay, in a shroud of blood, + The coward and the brave. + +NOTES.--Roman legions. The Roman standard was the image of an eagle. The +soldiers swore by it, and the loss of it was considered a disgrace. + +One awful hour. Alluding to the destruction of Rome by the northern +barbarians. + + + +LXVII. POLITICAL TOLERATION. (253) + +Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, the third President of the United States, and +the author of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Albemarle +County, Virginia. He received most of his early education under private +tutors, and at the age of seventeen entered William and Mary College, +where he remained two years. At college, where he studied industriously, +he formed the acquaintance of several distinguished men, among them was +George Wythe, with whom he entered on the study of law. At the age of +twenty-four he was admitted to the bar, and soon rose to high standing in +his profession. In 1775 he entered the Colonial Congress, having +previously served ably in the legislature of his native state. Although +one of the youngest men in Congress, he soon took a foremost place in that +body. He left Congress in the fall of 1776, and, as a member of the +legislature, and later as Governor of Virginia, he was chiefly +instrumental in effecting several important reforms in the laws of that +state,--the most notable were the abolition of the law of primogeniture, +and the passage of a law making all religious denominations equal. From +1785 to 1789 he was Minister to France. On his return to America he was +made Secretary of State, in the first Cabinet. While in this office, he +became the leader of the Republican or Anti-Federalist party, in +opposition to the Federalist party led by Alexander Hamilton. From 1801 to +1809 he was President. On leaving his high office, he retired to his +estate at "Monticello," where he passed the closing years of his life, and +died on the 4th of July, just fifty years after the passage of his famous +Declaration. His compatriot, and sometimes bitter political opponent, John +Adams, died on the same day. + +Mr. Jefferson, who was never a ready public speaker, was a remarkably +clear and forcible writer; his works fill several large volumes. In +personal character, he was pure and simple, cheerful, and disposed to look +on the bright side. His knowledge of life rendered his conversation highly +attractive. The chief enterprise of his later years was the founding of +the University of Virginia, at Charlottesville. +### + + +During the contest of opinion through which we have passed, the animation +of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might +impose on strangers, unused to think freely and to speak and to write what +they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, +announced according to the rules of the constitution, all will, of course, +arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts +for the common good. + +All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that, though the will +of the majority is, in all cases, to prevail, that will, to be rightful, +must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which +equal laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression. Let us +then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. + +Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection, without +which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things; and let us +reflect, that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance +under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have gained little if we +countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of +as bitter and bloody persecutions. + +During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world; during the +agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking, through blood and slaughter, +his long-lost liberty; it was not wonderful that the agitation of the +billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this +should be more felt and feared by some, and less by others, and should +divide opinions as to measures of safety. + +But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have +called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all +Republicans; we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would +wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them +stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion +may be tolerated when reason is left free to combat it. + +I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can +not be strong; that this government is not strong enough. But would the +honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a +government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and +visionary fear that this government, the world's best hope, may, by +possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I trust not; I believe this, +on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. + +I believe it to be the only one where every man, at the call of the law, +would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the +public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man +can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be +trusted with the government of others, or have we found angels, in the +form of kings, to govern him? Let history answer this question. Let us, +then, with courage and confidence, pursue our own federal and republican +principles; our attachment to union and representative government. + +NOTE.--At the time of Jefferson's election, party spirit ran very high. He +had been defeated by John Adams at the previous presidential election, but +the Federal party, to which Adams belonged, became weakened by their +management during difficulties with France; and now Jefferson had been +elected president over his formerly successful rival. The above selection +is from his inaugural address. + + + +LXVIII. WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE? (255) + +Sir William Jones, 1746-1794, was the son of an eminent mathematician; he +early distinguished himself by his ability as a student. He graduated at +Oxford, became well versed in Oriental literature, studied law, and wrote +many able books. In 1783 he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of +Judicature in Bengal. He was a man of astonishing learning, upright life, +and Christian principles. +### + + + What constitutes a state? +Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, + Thick wall or moated gate; +Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned; + Not bays and broad-armed ports, +Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; + Not starred and spangled courts, +Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. + + No:--men, high-minded men, +With powers as far above dull brutes endued + In forest, brake, or den, +As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude,-- + Men who their duties know, +But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain, + Prevent the long-aimed blow, +And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain: + These constitute a state; +And sovereign Law, that state's collected will, + O'er thrones and globes elate, +Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. + + +LXIX. THE BRAVE AT HOME. (256) + +Thomas Buchanan Read, 1822-1872, an American poet and painter, was born in +Chester County, Pennsylvania. At the age of seventeen he entered a +sculptor's studio in Cincinnati. Here he gained reputation as a painter of +portraits. From this city he went to New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, +and soon after to Florence, Italy. In the later years of his life, he +divided his time between Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Rome. His complete +poetical works fill three volumes. Several of his most stirring poems +relate to the Revolutionary War, and to the late Civil War in America. +Many of his poems are marked by vigor and a ringing power, while +smoothness and delicacy distinguish others, no less. +### + + +The maid who binds her warrior's sash, + And, smiling, all her pain dissembles, +The while beneath the drooping lash, + One starry tear-drop hangs and trembles; +Though Heaven alone records the tear, + And fame shall never know her story, +Her heart has shed a drop as dear + As ever dewed the field of glory! + +The wife who girds her husband's sword, + 'Mid little ones who weep and wonder, +And bravely speaks the cheering word, + What though her heart be rent asunder;-- +Doomed nightly in her dreams to hear + The bolts of war around him rattle,-- +Has shed as sacred blood as e'er + Was poured upon the field of battle! + +The mother who conceals her grief, + While to her breast her son she presses, +Then breathes a few brave words and brief, + Kissing the patriot brow she blesses; +With no one but her loving God, + To know the pain that weighs upon her, +Sheds holy blood as e'er the sod + Received on Freedom's field of honor! + + +NOTE.--The above selection is from the poem entitled "The Wagoner of the +Alleghanies." + + + +LXX. SOUTH CAROLINA. (257) + +Robert Young Hayne, 1791-1840, was born in Colleton District, South +Carolina, and studied and practiced law at Charleston. He was early +elected to the State Legislature, and became Speaker of the House and +Attorney-general of the state. He entered the Senate of the United States +at the age of thirty-one. He was Governor of South Carolina during the +"Nullification" troubles in 1832 and 1833. Mr. Hayne was a clear and able +debater, and a stanch advocate of the extreme doctrine of "State Rights." +In the Senate he opposed the Tariff Bill of 1828; and, out of this +struggle, grew his famous debate with Daniel Webster in 1830. The +following selection is an extract from Mr. Hayne's speech on that +memorable occasion. +### + + +If there be one state in the Union, Mr. President, that may challenge +comparison with any other, for a uniform, zealous, ardent, and +uncalculating devotion to the Union, that state is South Carolina. Sir, +from the very commencement of the Revolution, up to this hour, there is no +sacrifice, however great, she has not cheerfully made; no service she has +ever hesitated to perform. + +She has adhered to you in your prosperity; but in your adversity she has +clung to you with more than filial affection. No matter what was the +condition of her domestic affairs; though deprived of her resources, +divided by parties, or surrounded by difficulties, the call of the country +has been to her as the voice of God. Domestic discord ceased at the sound; +every man became at once reconciled to his brethren, and the sons of +Carolina were all seen, crowding to the temple, bringing their gifts to +the altar of their common country. + +What, sir, was the conduct of the South, during the Revolution? Sir, I +honor New England for her conduct in that glorious struggle. But great as +is the praise which belongs to her, I think at least equal honor is due to +the South. Never were there exhibited, in the history of the world, higher +examples of noble daring, dreadful suffering, and heroic endurance, than +by the whigs of Carolina, during the Revolution. The whole state, from the +mountains to the sea, was overrun by an overwhelming force of the enemy. +The fruits of industry perished on the spot where they were produced, or +were consumed by the foe. + +The plains of Carolina drank up the most precious blood of her citizens. +Black, smoking ruins marked the places which had been the habitation of +her children. Driven from their homes into the gloomy and almost +impenetrable swamps, even there the spirit of liberty survived, and South +Carolina, sustained by the example of her Sumters and her Marions, proved, +by her conduct, that though her soil might be overrun, the spirit of her +people was invincible. + + +NOTES.--Thomas Sumter (b. 1734, d. 1832) was by birth a Virginian, but +during the Revolution commanded South Carolina troops. He was one of the +most active and able of the Southern generals, and, after the war, was +prominent in politics. He was the last surviving general of the +Revolution. + +Francis Marion (b. 1732, d. 1795), known as the "Swamp Fox," was a native +South Carolinian, of French descent. Marion's brigade became noted during +the Revolution for its daring and surprising attacks. See Lesson CXXXV. + + + +LXXI. MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTH CAROLINA. (259) + +Daniel Webster, 1782-1852. This celebrated American statesman and orator +was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire. His father, Ebenezer Webster, was a +pioneer settler, a soldier in the Old French War and the Revolution, and a +man of ability and strict integrity, Daniel attended the common school in +his youth, and fitted for college under Rev. Samuel Wood, of Boseawen, +graduating at Dartmouth in 1801. He spent a few months of his boyhood at +"Phillips Academy," Exeter, where he attained distinction as a student, +but was so diffident that he could never give a declamation before his +class. During his college course, and later, he taught school several +terms in order to increase his slender finances. He was admitted to the +bar in Boston in 1805. For the next eleven years, he practiced his +profession in his native state. In 1812 he was elected to the United +States House of Representatives, and at once took his place as one of the +most prominent men of that body. In 1816 he removed to Boston; and in 1827 +he was elected to the United States Senate, where he continued for twelve +years. In 1841 he was made Secretary of State, and soon after negotiated +the famous "Ashburton Treaty" with England, settling the northern boundary +of the United States. In 1845 he returned to the Senate; and in 1850 he +was re-appointed Secretary of State, and continued in office till his +death. He died at his country residence in Marshfield, Massachusetts. + +Mr. Webster's fame rests chiefly on his state papers and his speeches in +Congress; but he took a prominent part in some of the most famous law +cases of the present century. Several of his public addresses on +occasional themes are well known, also. As a speaker, he was dignified and +stately, using clear, straightforward, pure English. He had none of the +tricks of oratory. He was large of person, with a massive head, a swarthy +complexion, and deep-set, keen, and lustrous eyes. His grand presence +added much to his power as a speaker. +### + + +The eulogium pronounced on the character of the State of South Carolina by +the honorable gentleman, for her Revolutionary and other merits, meets my +hearty concurrence. I shall not acknowledge that the honorable member goes +before me, in regard for whatever of distinguished talent or distinguished +character South Carolina has produced. I claim part of the honor; I +partake in the pride of her great names. I claim them for countrymen, one +and all--the Laurenses, the Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Sumters, the +Marions--Americans all--whose fame is no more to be hemmed in by state +lines than their talents and patriotism were capable of being +circumscribed within the same narrow limits. + +In their day and generation, they served and honored the country, and the +whole country, and their renown is of the treasures of the whole country. +Him whose honored name the gentleman himself bears,--does he suppose me +less capable of gratitude for his patriotism, or sympathy for his +suffering, than if his eyes had first opened upon the light in +Massachusetts, instead of South Carolina? Sir, does he suppose it in his +power to exhibit in Carolina a name so bright as to produce envy in my +bosom? No, sir,--increased gratification and delight rather. Sir, I thank +God that, if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is said to be +able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that +other spirit which would drag angels down. + +When I shall be found, sir, in my place here in the Senate, or elsewhere, +to sneer at public merit because it happened to spring up beyond the +little limits of my own state or neighborhood; when I refuse for any such +cause, or for any cause, the homage due to American talent, to elevated +patriotism, to sincere devotion to liberty and the country; or if I see an +uncommon endowment of Heaven; if I see extraordinary capacity or virtue in +any son of the South; and if, moved by local prejudice, or gangrened by +state jealousy, I get up here to abate a tithe of a hair from his just +character and just fame, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! + +Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts. She needs +none. There she is; behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her +history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There +is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; and there they +will remain forever. And, sir, where American Liberty raised its first +voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still +lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If +discord and disunion shall wound it; if party strife and blind ambition +shall hawk at and tear it; if folly and madness, if uneasiness under +salutary restraint, shall succeed to separate it from that Union, by which +alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by the side +of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked; it will stretch forth its +arm, with whatever of vigor it may still retain, over the friends who +gathered around it; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amid the +proudest monuments of its glory and on the very spot of its origin. + + +NOTES.--The Laurenses were of French descent. Henry Laurens was appointed +on the commission with Franklin and Jay to negotiate the treaty of peace +at Paris at the close of the Revolution. His son, John Laurens, was an aid +and secretary of Washington, who was greatly attached to him. + +The Rutledges were of Irish descent. John Rutledge was a celebrated +statesman and lawyer. He was appointed Chief Justice of the United States, +but the Senate, for political reasons, refused to confirm his appointment. + + +Edward Rutledge, brother of the preceding, was Governor of South Carolina +during the last two years of his life. + +The Pinckneys were an old English family who emigrated to Charleston in +1687. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and his brother Thomas were both active +participants in the Revolution. The former was an unsuccessful candidate +for the presidency of the United States, in 1800. + +Thomas was elected governor of South Carolina in 1789. In the war of 1812 +he served as major-general. + +Charles Pinckney, a second cousin of the two already mentioned, was four +times elected governor of his state. + + + +LXXII. THE CHURCH SCENE FROM EVANGELINE. (262) + +Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882, the son of Hon. Stephen Longfellow, +an eminent lawyer of Portland, Maine, was born in that city. He graduated, +at the age of eighteen, at Bowdoin College. He was soon appointed to the +chair of Modern Languages and Literature in that institution, and, to fit +himself further for his work, he went abroad and spent four years in +Europe. He remained at Bowdoin till 1835, when he was appointed to the +chair of Modern Languages and Belles-lettres in Harvard University. On +receiving this appointment, he again went to Europe and remained two +years. He resigned his professorship in 1854, and after that time resided +in Cambridge, pursuing his literary labors and giving to the public, from +time to time, the fruits of his pen. In 1868 he made a voyage to England, +where he was received with extraordinary marks of honor and esteem. In +addition to Mr. Longfellow's original works, both in poetry and in prose, +he distinguished himself by several translations; the most famous is that +of the works of Dante. + +Mr. Longfellow's poetry is always elegant and chaste, showing in every +line traces of his careful scholarship. Yet it is not above the popular +taste or comprehension, as is shown by the numerous and varied editions of +his poems. Many of his poems treat of historical themes; "Evangeline," +from which the following selection is taken, is esteemed by many as the +most beautiful of all his longer poems; it was first published in 1847. +### + + +So passed the morning away. And lo! with a summons sonorous +Sounded the bell from its tower, and over the meadows a drumbeat. +Thronged erelong was the church with men. Without, in the churchyard, +Awaited the women. They stood by the graves, and hung on the headstones +Garlands of autumn leaves and evergreens fresh from the forest. +Then came the guard from the ships, and marching proudly among them +Entered the sacred portal. With loud and dissonant clangor +Echoed the sound of their brazen drums from ceiling and casement,-- +Echoed a moment only, and slowly the ponderous portal +Closed, and in silence the crowd awaited the will of the soldiers. + +Then uprose their commander, and spake from the steps of the altar, +Holding aloft in his hands, with its seals, the royal commission. +"You have convened this day," he said, "by his Majesty's orders. +Clement and kind has he been; but how you have answered his kindness, +Let your own hearts reply! To my natural make and my temper +Painful the task is I do, which to you I know must be grievous. +Yet must I bow and obey, and deliver the will of our monarch; +Namely, that all your lands, and dwellings, and cattle of all kinds +Forfeited be to the crown; and that you yourselves from this province +Be transported to other lands. God grant you may dwell there +Ever as faithful subjects, a happy and peaceable people! +Prisoners now I declare you; for such is his Majesty's pleasure!" + +As, when the air is serene in the sultry solstice of summer, +Suddenly gathers a storm, and the deadly sling of the hailstones +Beats down the farmer's corn in the field and shatters his windows, +Hiding the sun, and strewing the ground with thatch from the house roofs, +Bellowing fly the herds, and seek to break their inclosure; +So on the hearts of the people descended the words of the speaker. +Silent a moment they stood in speechless wonder, and then rose +Louder and ever louder a wail of sorrow and anger, +And, by one impulse moved, they madly rushed to the doorway. + +Vain was the hope of escape; and cries and fierce imprecations +Rang through the house of prayer; and high o'er the heads of the others +Rose, with his arms uplifted, the figure of Basil the blacksmith, +As, on a stormy sea, a spar is tossed by the billows. +Flushed was his face and distorted with passion; and wildly he shouted,-- +"Down with the tyrants of England! we never have sworn them allegiance! +Death to these foreign soldiers, who seize on our homes and our harvests!" +More he fain would have said, but the merciless hand of a soldier +Smote him upon the mouth, and dragged him down to the pavement. + +In the midst of the strife and tumult of angry contention, +Lo! the door of the chancel opened, and Father Felician +Entered, with serious mien, and ascended the steps of the alter. +Raising his reverend hand, with a gesture he awed into silence +All that clamorous throng; and thus he spake to his people; +Deep were his tones and solemn; in accents measured and mournful +Spake he, as, after the tocsin's alarum, distinctly the clock strikes. + +"What is this that ye do, my children? what madness has seized you? +Forty years of my life have I labored among you, and taught you, +Not in word alone, but in deed, to love one another! +Is this the fruit of my toils, of my vigils and prayers and privations? +Have you so soon forgotten all the lessons of love and forgiveness? +This is the house of the Prince of Peace, and would you profane it +Thus with violent deeds and hearts overflowing with hatred? +Lo! where the crucified Christ from his cross is gazing upon you! +See! in those sorrowful eyes what meekness and holy compassion! +Hark! how those lips still repeat the prayer, 'O Father, forgive them!' +Let us repeat that prayer in the hour when the wicked assail us, +Let us repeat it now, and say, 'O Father, forgive them.' " + +Few were his words of rebuke, but deep in the hearts of his people +Sank they, and sobs of contrition succeeded the passionate outbreak, +While they repeated his prayer, and said, "O Father, forgive them!" + + +NOTE.--Nova Scotia was first settled by the French, but, in 1713, was +ceded to the English. The inhabitants refusing either to take the oath of +allegiance or to bear arms against their fellow-countrymen in the French +and Indian War, it was decided to remove the whole people, and distribute +them among the other British provinces. This was accordingly done in 1755. +The villages were burned to the ground, and the people hurried on board +the ships in such a way that but a few families remained undivided. + +Longfellow's poem of "Evangeline" is founded on this incident, and the +above selection describes the scene where the male inhabitants of +Grand-Pre' are assembled in the church, and the order for their banishment +is first made known to them. + + +LXXIII. SONG OF THE SHIRT. (266) + +Thomas Hood, 1798-1845, the son of a London bookseller, was born in that +city. He undertook, after leaving school, to learn the art of an engraver, +but soon gave up the business, and turned his attention to literature. His +lighter pieces, exhibiting his skill as a wit and punster, soon became +well known and popular. In 1821 he became subeditor of the "London +Magazine," and formed the acquaintance of the literary men of the +metropolis. The last years of his life were clouded by poverty and ill +health. Some of his most humorous pieces were written on a sick bed. Hood +is best known as a joker--a writer of "whims and oddities"--but he was no +mere joker. Some of his pieces are filled with the tenderest pathos; and a +gentle spirit, in love with justice and humanity, pervades even his +lighter compositions. His "Song of the Shirt" first appeared in the +"London Punch." +### + + +With fingers weary and worn, + With eyelids heavy and red, +A woman sat, in unwomanly rags, + Plying her needle and thread: +Stitch! stitch! stitch! + In poverty, hunger, and dirt, +And still with a voice of dolorous pitch, + She sang the "Song of the Shirt!" + + "Work! work! work! +While the cock is crowing aloof! + And work! work! work! +Till the stars shine through the roof! + It is oh to be a slave +Along with the barbarous Turk, + Where woman has never a soul to save, +If this is Christian work! + + "Work! work! work! +Till the brain begins to swim; + Work! work! work! +Till the eyes are heavy and dim! + Seam, and gusset, and band, +Band, and gusset, and seam, + Till over the buttons I fall asleep, +And sew them on in a dream! + + "O men, with sisters dear! + O men, with mothers and wives! +It is not linen you're wearing out, + But human creatures' lives! + Stitch! stitch! stitch! + In poverty, hunger, and dirt,-- +Sewing at once, with a double thread, + A shroud as well as a shirt. + + "But why do I talk of Death? + That Phantom of grisly bone, +I hardly fear his terrible shape, + It seems so like my own; + It seems so like my own, + Because of the fasts I keep; +O God! that bread should be so dear, + And flesh and blood so cheap! + + "Work! work! work! +My labor never flags; + And what are its wages? A bed of straw, +A crust of bread--and rags, + That shattered roof--and this naked floor-- +A table--a broken chair-- + And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank +For sometimes falling there. + + "Work! work! work! +From weary chime to chime! + Work! work! work! +As prisoners work for crime! + Band, and gusset, and seam, + Seam, and gusset, and band, +Till the heart is sick, and the brain benumbed, + As well as the weary hand. + + "Work! work! work! +In the dull December light, + And work! work! work! +When the weather is warm and bright; +While underneath the eaves + The brooding swallows cling, +As if to show me their sunny backs, + And twit me with the spring. + + "Oh but to breathe the breath + Of the cowslip and primrose sweet! +With the sky above my head, + And the grass beneath my feet! +For only one short hour + To feel as I used to feel, +Before I knew the woes of want, + And the walk that costs a meal! + + "Oh but for one short hour,-- + A respite, however brief! +No blessed leisure for love or hope, + But only time for grief! +A little weeping would ease my heart, + But in their briny bed +My tears must stop, for every drop + Hinders needle and thread." + +With fingers weary and worn, + With eyelids heavy and red, +A woman sat, in unwomanly rags, + Plying her needle and thread: + Stitch! stitch! stitch! + In poverty, hunger, and dirt, +And still with a voice of dolorous pitch-- +Would that its tone could reach the rich! + She sang this "Song of the Shirt." + + + +LXXIV. DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND. (269) + +Edouard Rene Lefebvre-Laboulaye, 1811-1883, was a French writer of note. +Most of his works involve questions of law and politics, and are +considered high authority on the questions discussed. A few works, such as +"Abdallah," from which the following extract is adapted, were written as a +mere recreation in the midst of law studies; they show great imaginative +power. Laboulaye took great interest in the United States, her people, and +her literature; and many of his works are devoted to American questions. +He translated the works of Dr. William E. Channing into French. +### + + +Mansour, the Egyptian merchant, one day repaired to the cadi on account of +a suit, the issue of which troubled him but little. A private conversation +with the judge had given him hopes of the justice of his cause. The old +man asked his son Omar to accompany him in order to accustom him early to +deal with the law. + +The cadi was seated in the courtyard of the mosque. He was a fat, +good-looking man, who never thought, and talked little, which, added to +his large turban and his air of perpetual astonishment, gave him a great +reputation for justice and gravity. + +The spectators were numerous; the principal merchants were seated on the +ground on carpets, forming a semicircle around the magistrate. Mansour +took his seat a little way from the sheik, and Omar placed himself between +the two, his curiosity strongly excited to see how the law was obeyed, and +how it was trifled with in case of need. + +The first case called was that of a young Banian, as yellow as an orange, +with loose flowing robes and an effeminate air, who had lately landed from +India, and who complained of having been cheated by one of Mansour's +rivals. + +"Having found a casket of diamonds among the effects left by my father," +said he, "I set out for Egypt, to live there on the proceeds of their +sale. I was obliged by bad weather to put into Jidda, where I soon found +myself in want of money. I went to the bazaar, and inquired for a dealer +in precious stones. The richest, I was told, was Mansour; the most honest, +Ali, the jeweler. I applied to Ali. + +"He welcomed me as a son, as soon as he learned that I had diamonds to +sell, and carried me home with him. He gained my confidence by every kind +of attention, and advanced me all the money I needed. One day, after +dinner, at which wine was not wanting, he examined the diamonds, one by +one, and said, 'My child, these diamonds are of little value; my coffers +are full of such stones. The rocks of the desert furnish them by +thousands.' + +"To prove the truth of what he said, he opened a box, and, taking +therefrom a diamond thrice as large as any of mine, gave it to the slave +that was with me. 'What will become of me?' I cried; 'I thought myself +rich, and here I am, poor, and a stranger.' + +"'My child,' replied Ali, 'Leave this casket with me, and I will give you +a price for it such as no one else would offer. Choose whatever you wish +in Jidda, and in two hours I will give you an equal weight of what you +have chosen in exchange for your Indian stones.' + +"On returning home, night brought reflection. I learned that Ali had been +deceiving me. What he had given to the slave was nothing but a bit of +crystal. I demanded my casket. Ali refused to restore it. Venerable +magistrate, my sole hope is in your justice." + +It was now Ali's turn to speak. "Illustrious cadi," said he, "It is true +that we made a bargain, which I am ready to keep, The rest of the young +man's story is false. What matters it what I gave the slave? Did I force +the stranger to leave the casket in my hands? Why does he accuse me of +treachery? Have I broken my word, and has he kept his?" + +"Young man," said the cadi to the Banian, "have you witnesses to prove +that Ali deceived you? If not, I shall put the accused on his oath, as the +law decrees." A Koran was brought. Ali placed his hand on it, and swore +three times that he had not deceived the stranger. "Wretch," said the +Banian, "thou art among those whose feet go down to destruction. Thou hast +thrown away thy soul." + +Omar smiled, and while Ali was enjoying the success of his ruse, he +approached the stranger, and asked, "Do you wish me to help you gain the +suit?" "Yes," was the reply; "but you are only a child--you can do +nothing." + +"Have confidence in me a few moments," said Omar; "accept Ali's bargain; +let me choose in your stead, and fear nothing." + +The stranger bowed his head, and murmured, "What can I fear after having +lost all?" Then, turning to the cadi, and bowing respectfully, "Let the +bargain be consummated," said he, "since the law decrees it, and let this +young man choose in my stead what I shall receive in payment." + +A profound silence ensued. Omar rose, and, bowing to the cadi, "Ali," said +he to the jeweler, "you have doubtless brought the casket, and can tell us +the weight thereof." + +"Here it is," said Ali; "it weighs twenty pounds. Choose what you will; if +the thing asked for is in Jidda, you shall have it within two hours, +otherwise the bargain is null and void." + +"What we desire," said Omar, raising his voice, "is ants' wings, half male +and half female. You have two hours in which to furnish the twenty pounds +you have promised us." "This is absurd," cried the jeweler; "it is +impossible. I should need half a score of persons and six months labor to +satisfy so foolish a demand." + +"Are there any winged ants in Jidda?" asked the cadi. "Of course," +answered the merchants, laughing; "they are one of the plagues of Egypt. +Our houses are full of them, and it would be doing us a great service to +rid us of them." + +"Then Ali must keep his promise or give back the casket," said the cadi. +"This young man was mad to sell his diamonds weight for weight; he is mad +to exact such payment. So much the better for Ali the first time: so much +the worse for him the second. Justice has not two weights and measures. +Every bargain holds good before the law. Either furnish twenty pounds of +ants' wings, or restore the casket to the Banian." "A righteous judgment," +shouted the spectators, wonder-struck at such equity. + + +[Illustration: In front of a middle-eastern building; a man seated with a +sword and water-pipe, facing a crowd. A small boy with his left arm +outstreached, is speaking to the man. A taller young man stands to the +right of the small boy; an older man stands further to the right.] + + +The stranger, beside himself with joy, took from the casket three diamonds +of the finest water; he forced them on Omar, who put them in his girdle, +and seated himself by his father, his gravity unmoved by the gaze of the +assembly. "Well done," said Mansour; "but it is my turn now; mark me well, +and profit by the lesson I shall give you. Stop, young man!" he cried to +the Banian, "we have an account to settle." + +"The day before yesterday," continued he, "this young man entered my shop, +and, bursting into tears, kissed my hand and entreated me to sell him a +necklace which I had already sold to the Pasha of Egypt, saying that his +life and that of a lady depended upon it. 'Ask of me what you will, my +father,' said he, 'but I must have these gems or die.' + +"I have a weakness for young men, and, though I knew the danger of +disappointing my master the pasha, I was unable to resist his +supplications. 'Take the necklace,' said I to him, 'but promise to give +whatever I may ask in exchange.' 'My head itself, if you will,' he +replied, 'for you have saved my life,' We were without witnesses, but," +added Mansour, turning to the Banian, "is not my story true?" + +"Yes," said the young man, "and I beg your pardon for not having satisfied +you sooner: you know the cause. Ask of me what you desire." + +"What I desire," said Mansour, "is the casket with all its contents. +Illustrious magistrate, you have declared that all bargains hold good +before the law; this young man has promised to give me what I please; now +I declare that nothing pleases me but these diamonds." + +The cadi raised his head and looked about the assembly, as if to +interrogate the faces, then stroked his beard, and relapsed into his +meditations. + +"Ali is defeated," said the sheik to Omar, with a smile, "The fox is not +yet born more cunning than the worthy Mansour." + +"I am lost!" cried the Banian. "O Omar, have you saved me only to cast me +down from the highest pinnacle of joy to the depths of despair? Persuade +your father to spare me, that I may owe my life to you a second time." + +"Well, my son," said Mansour, "doubtless you are shrewd, but this will +teach you that your father knows rather more than you do. The cadi is +about to decide: try whether you can dictate his decree." + +"It is mere child's play," answered Omar, shrugging his shoulders; "but +since you desire it, my father, you shall lose your suit." He rose, and +taking a piaster from his girdle, put it into the hand of the Banian, who +laid it before the judge. + +"Illustrious cadi," said Omar, "this young man is ready to fulfill his +engagement. This is what he offers Mansour--piaster. In itself this coin +is of little value; but examine it closely, and you will see that it is +stamped with the likeness of the sultan, our glorious master. May God +destroy and confound all who disobey his highness! + +"It is this precious likeness that we offer you," added he, turning to +Mansour; "if it pleases you, you are paid; to say that it displeases you +is an insult to the pasha, a crime punishable by death; and I am sure that +our worthy cadi will not become your accomplice--he who has always been +and always will be the faithful servant of an the sultans." + +When Omar had finished speaking, all eyes turned toward the cadi, who, +more impenetrable than ever, stroked his face and waited for the old man +to come to his aid. Mansour was agitated and embarrassed. The silence of +the cadi and the assembly terrified him, and he cast a supplicating glance +toward his son. + +"My father," said Omar, "permit this young man to thank you for the lesson +of prudence which you have given him by frightening him a little. He knows +well that it was you who sent me to his aid, and that all this is a farce. +No one is deceived by hearing the son oppose the Father, and who has ever +doubted Mansour's experience and generosity?" + +"No one," interrupted the cadi, starting up like a man suddenly awakened +from a dream, "and I least of all; and this is why I have permitted you to +speak, my young Solomon. I wished to honor in you the wisdom of your +father; but another time avoid meddling with his highness's name; it is +not safe to sport with the lion's paws. The matter is settled. The +necklace is worth a hundred thousand piasters, is it not, Mansour? This +madcap, shall give you, therefore, a hundred thousand piasters, and all +parties will be satisfied." + + +NOTES--A cadi in the Mohammedan countries corresponds to our magistrate. + +A sheik among the Arabs and Moors, may mean simply an old man, or, as in +this case, a man of eminence. + +A Banian is a Hindoo merchant, particularly one who visits foreign +countries on business. + +Jidda is a city in Arabia, on the Red Sea + +A pasha is the governor of a Turkish province. + +The Turkish piaster was formerly worth twenty-five cents: it is now worth +only about eight cents. + + + +LXXV. THANATOPSIS. (275) + +To him who in the love of Nature holds +Communion with her visible forms, she speaks +A various language: for his gayer hours +She has a voice of gladness, and a smile +And eloquence of beauty; and she glides +Into his darker musings, with a mild +And healing sympathy, that steals away +Their sharpness, ere he is aware. + When thoughts +Of the last hitter hour come like a blight +Over thy spirit, and sad images +Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, +And breathless darkness, and the narrow house, +Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;-- +Go forth, under the open sky, and list +To Nature's teachings, while from all around-- +Earth and her waters, and the depths of air-- +Comes a still voice,-- + + Yet a few days, and thee +The all-beholding sun shall see no more +In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, +Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears, +Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist +Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim +Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again; +And, lost each human trace, surrendering up +Thine individual being, shalt thou go +To mix forever with the elements; +To be a brother to the insensible rock +And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain +Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak +Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold. + + Yet not to thine eternal resting place +Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish +Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down +With patriarchs of the infant world,--with kings, +The powerful of the earth,--the wise, the good, +Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,-- +All in one mighty sepulcher. + + The hills, +Rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun; the vales +Stretching in pensive quietness between; +The venerable woods; rivers that move +In majesty, and the complaining brooks, +That make the meadows green; and, poured round all, +Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste,-- +Are but the solemn decorations all +Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun, +The planets, all the infinite host of heaven, +Are shining on the sad abodes of death, +Through the still lapse of ages. + + All that tread +The globe are but a handful to the tribes +That slumber in its bosom. Take the wings +Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness, +Or lose thyself in the continuous woods +Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound +Save his own dashings,--yet the dead are there: +And millions in those solitudes, since first +The flight of years began, have laid them down +In their last sleep,--the dead reign there alone. + +So shalt thou rest; and what if thou withdraw +In silence from the living, and no friend +Take note of thy departure? All that breathe +Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh +When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care +Plod on, and each one as before will chase +His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave +Their mirth and their employments, and shall come +And make their bed with thee. As the long train +Of ages glide away, the sons of men-- +The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes +In the full strength of years, matron and maid, +The speechless babe, and the gray-headed man +Shall one by one be gathered to thy side +By those who in their turn shall follow them. + + So live, that when thy summons comes to join +The innumerable caravan, which moves +To that mysterious realm, where each shall take +His chamber in the silent halls of death, +Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, +Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed +By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, +Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch +About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. +--Bryant. + +NOTES.--Thanatopsis is composed of two Greek words, thanatos, meaning +death, and opsis, a view. The word, therefore, signifies a view of death, +or reflections on death. + +Barca is in the northeastern part of Africa: the southern and eastern +portions of the country are a barren desert. + +The Oregon (or Columbia) River is the most important river of the United +States emptying into the Pacific. The Lewis and Clark Expedition +(1803-1806) had first explored the country through which it flows only +five years before the poem was written. + + + +LXXVI. INDIAN JUGGLERS. (278) + +William Hazlitt, 1778-1830, was born in Maidstone, England. His father was +a Unitarian clergyman, and he was sent to a college of that denomination +to be educated for the ministry; but having a greater taste for art than +theology, he resolved, on leaving school, to devote himself to painting. +He succeeded so well in his efforts as to meet the warmest commendation of +his friends, but did not succeed in satisfying his own fastidious taste. +On this account he threw away his pencil and took up his pen. His works, +though numerous, are, with the exception of a life of Napoleon, chiefly +criticisms on literature and art. + +Hazlitt is thought to have treated his contemporaries with an unjust +severity; but his genial appreciation of the English classics, and the +thorough and loving manner in which he discusses their merits, make his +essays the delight of every lover of those perpetual wellsprings of +intellectual pleasure. His "Table Talk," "Characters of Shakespeare's +Plays," "Lectures on the English Poets," and "Lectures on the Literature +of the Elizabethan Age," are the works that exhibit his style and general +merits in their most favorable light. +### + + +Coming forward and seating himself on the ground, in his white dress and +tightened turban, the chief of the Indian jugglers begins with tossing up +two brass balls, which is what any of us could do, and concludes by +keeping up four at the same time, which is what none of us could do to +save our lives, not if we were to take our whole lives to do it in. + +Is it then a trifling power we see at work, or is it not something next to +miraculous? It is the utmost stretch of human ingenuity, which nothing but +the bending the faculties of body and mind to it from the tenderest +infancy with incessant, ever-anxious application up to manhood, can +accomplish or make even a slight approach to. Man, thou art a wonderful +animal, and thy ways past finding out! Thou canst do strange things, but +thou turnest them to small account! + +To conceive of this extraordinary dexterity, distracts the imagination and +makes admiration breathless. Yet it costs nothing to the performer, any +more than if it were a mere mechanical deception with which he had nothing +to do, but to watch and laugh at the astonishment of the spectators. A +single error of a hair's breadth, of the smallest conceivable portion of +time, would be fatal; the precision of the movements must be like a +mathematical truth; their rapidity is like lightning. + +To catch four balls in succession, in less than a second of time, and +deliver them back so as to return with seeming consciousness to the hand +again; to make them revolve around him at certain intervals, like the +planets in their spheres; to make them chase each other like sparkles of +fire, or shoot up like flowers or meteors; to throw them behind his back, +and twine them round his neck like ribbons, or like serpents; to do what +appears an impossibility, and to do it with all the ease, the grace, the +carelessness imaginable; to laugh at, to play with the glittering +mockeries, to follow them with his eye as if he could fascinate them with +its lambent fire, or as if he had only to see that they kept time with the +music on the stage--there is something in all this which he who does not +admire may be quite sure he never really admired anything in the whole +course of his life. It is skill surmounting difficulty, and beauty +triumphing over skill. It seems as if the difficulty, once mastered, +naturally resolved itself into ease and grace, and as if, to be overcome +at all, it must be overcome without an effort. The smallest awkwardness or +want of pliancy or self-possession would stop the whole process. It is the +work of witchcraft, and yet sport for children. + +Some of the other feats are quite as curious and wonderful--such as the +balancing the artificial tree, and shooting a bird from each branch +through a quill--though none of them have the elegance or facility of the +keeping up of the brass balls. You are in pain for the result, and glad +when the experiment is over; they are not accompanied with the same +unmixed, unchecked delight as the former; and I would not give much to be +merely astonished without being pleased at the same time. As to the +swallowing of the sword, the police ought to interfere to prevent it. + +When I saw the Indian juggler do the same things before, his feet were +bare, and he had large rings on his toes, which he kept turning round all +the time of the performance, as if they moved of themselves. + +The hearing a speech in Parliament drawled or stammered out by the +honorable member or the noble lord, the ringing the changes on their +commonplaces, which anyone could repeat after them as well as they, stirs +me not a jot,--shakes not my good opinion of myself. I ask what there is +that I can do as well as this. Nothing. What have I been doing all my +life? Have I been idle, or have I nothing to show for all my labor and +pains? Or have I passed my time in pouring words like water into empty +sieves, rolling a stone up a hill and then down again, trying to prove an +argument in the teeth of facts, and looking for causes in the dark, and +not finding them? Is there no one thing in which I can challenge +competition, that I can bring as an instance of exact perfection, in which +others can not find a flaw? + +The utmost I can pretend to is to write a description of what this fellow +can do. I can write a book: so can many others who have not even learned +to spell. What abortions are these essays! What errors, what ill-pieced +transitions, what crooked reasons, what lame conclusions! How little is +made out, and that little how ill! Yet they are the best I can do. + +I endeavor to recollect all I have ever heard or thought upon a subject, +and to express it as neatly as I can. Instead of writing on four subjects +at a time, it is as much as I can manage, to keep the thread of one +discourse clear and unentangled. I have also time on my hands to correct +my opinions and polish my periods; but the one I can not, and the other I +will not, do. I am fond of arguing; yet, with a good deal of pains and +practice, it is often much as I can do to beat my man, though he may be a +very indifferent hand. A common fencer would disarm his adversary in the +twinkling of an eye, unless he were a professor like himself. A stroke of +wit will sometimes produce this effect, but there is no such power or +superiority in sense or reasoning. There is no complete mastery of +execution to be shown there; and you hardly know the professor from the +impudent pretender or the mere clown. + + + +LXXVII. ANTONY OVER CAESAR'S DEAD BODY. (281) + + Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: + I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. + The evil that men do lives after them; + The good is oft interred with their bones; + So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus + Hath told you Caesar was ambitious: + If it were so, it was a grievous fault, + And grievously hath Caesar answered it. + Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest-- + For Brutus is an honorable man; + So are they all, all honorable men-- + Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. + + He was my, friend, faithful and just to me: + But Brutus says he was ambitious; + And Brutus is an honorable man. + He hath brought many captives home to Rome, + Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: + Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? + When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: + Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: + Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; + And Brutus is an honorable man. + + You all did see, that on the Lupercal, + I thrice presented him a kingly crown, + Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? + Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; + And, sure, he is an honorable man. + I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, + But here I am to speak what I do know. + You all did love him once, not without cause; + What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him? + O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, + And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; + My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, + And I must pause till it come back to me. + + But yesterday the word of Caesar might + Have stood against the world; now lies he there, + And none so poor to do him reverence. + O masters! if I were disposed to stir + Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, + I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, + Who, you all know, are honorable men. + I will not do them wrong; I rather choose + To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, + Than I will wrong such honorable men. + + But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar; + I found it in his closet; 't is his will: + Let but the commons hear this testament-- + Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read-- + And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, + And dip their napkins in his sacred blood; + Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, + And, dying, mention it within their wills, + Bequeathing it as a rich legacy + Unto their issue. + +Citizen. We'll hear the will: read it, Mark Antony. +All. The will, the will; we will hear Caesar's will. +Ant. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; + It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. + You are not wood, you are not stones, but men; + And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar, + It will inflame you, it will make you mad; + 'T is good you know not that you are his heirs; + For, if you should, Oh what would come of it! +Cit. Read the will; we'll hear it, Antony; + You shall read the will, Caesar's will. +Ant. Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile? + I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it: + I fear I wrong the honorable men + Whose daggers have stabbed Caesar. I do fear it. +Cit. They were traitors: honorable men! +All. The will! the testament! +Ant. You will compel me, then, to read the will? + Then make a ring about the corpse of Caesar, + And let me show you him that made the will. + + (He comes down from the pulpit.) + + If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. + You all do know this mantle: I remember + The first time ever Caesar put it on; + 'T was on a summer's evening, in his tent, + That day he overcame the Nervii; + Look! in this place, ran Cassius' dagger through: + See what a rent the envious Casca made: + Through this, the well belove'd Brutus stabbed; + And, as he plucked his cursed steel away, + Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it, + As rushing out of doors, to be resolved + If Brutus so unkindly knocked, or no; + For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel: + Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him! + + This was the most unkindest cut of all; + For, when the noble Caesar saw him stab, + Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, + Quite vanquished him: then burst his mighty heart; + And, in his mantle muffling up his face, + Even at the base of Pompey's statua, + Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell. + + Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen! + Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, + Whilst bloody treason flourished over us. + Oh, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel + The dint of pity: these are gracious drops. + Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold + Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here, + Here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors. +1st Cit. O piteous spectacle! +2d Cit. O noble Caesar! +3d Cit. We will be revenged! +All. Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! + Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live. +Ant. Stay, countrymen. +1st Cit. Peace there! hear the noble Antony. +2d Cit. We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him. +Ant. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up + To such a sudden flood of mutiny. + They that have done this deed are honorable: + What private griefs they have, alas, I know not, + That made them do it; they are wise and honorable, + And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you. + + I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts: + I am no orator, as Brutus is; + But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man, + That love my friend; and that they know full well + That gave me public leave to speak of him: + For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, + Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, + To stir men's blood: I only speak right on: + I tell you that which you yourselves do know; + Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor, poor, dumb mouths, + And bid them speak for me: but were I Brutus, + And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony + Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue + In every wound of Caesar, that should move + The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny. + + Shakespeare.--Julius Caesar, Act iii, Scene ii. + + +NOTES.--Gaius Julius Caesar (b. 102, d. 44 B. C.) was the most remarkable +genius of the ancient world, Caesar ruled Rome as imperator five years and +a half, and, in the intervals of seven campaigns during that time, spent +only fifteen months in Rome. Under his rule Rome was probably at her best, +and his murder at once produced a state of anarchy. + +The conspirators against Caesar--among whom were Brutus, Cassius and +Casca--professed to be moved by honest zeal for the good of Rome; but +their own ambition was no doubt the true motive, except with Brutus. + +Mark Antony was a strong friend of Julius Caesar. Upon the latter's death, +Antony, by his funeral oration, incited the people and drove the +conspirators from Rome. + +The Lupercal was a festival of purification and expiation held in Rome on +the 15th of February. Antony was officiating as priest at this festival +when he offered the crown to Caesar. + +In his will Caesar left to every citizen of Rome a sum of money, and +bequeathed his private gardens to the public. + +The Nervii were one of the most warlike tribes of Celtic Gaul. Caesar +almost annihilated them in 57 B. C. + +Pompey, once associated with Caesar in the government of Rome, was +afterwards at war with him. He was murdered by those who thought to +propitiate Caesar, but the latter wept when Pompey's head was sent to him, +and had the murderers put to death. + +Statua is the Latin form of statue, in common use in Shakespeare's time; +this form is required here by the meter. + + + +LXXVIII. THE ENGLISH CHARACTER. (286) + +William Hickling Prescott, 1796-1859, the historian, was the son of +William Prescott, an eminent jurist, and the grandson of Col. William +Prescott, who commanded the Americans at the battle of Bunker Hill. He was +born in Salem, Massachusetts, graduated at Harvard University in 1814, and +died in Boston. Just as he was completing his college course, the careless +sport of a fellow-student injured one of his eyes so seriously that he +never recovered from it. He had intended to adopt law as his profession; +but, from his detective eyesight, he was obliged to choose work in which +he could regulate his hours of labor, and could employ the aid of a +secretary. He chose to be a historian; and followed his choice with +wonderful system, perseverance, and success till the close of his life. +His works are: "The Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella," "The Conquest of +Mexico," "The Conquest of Peru," "The Reign of Philip II," and a volume of +"Miscellanies." He had not completed the history of Philip at the time of +his death. As a writer of history, Mr. Prescott ranks with the first for +accuracy, precision, clearness, and beauty of style. As a man, he was +genial, kind-hearted and even-tempered. +### + + +On the whole, what I have seen raises my preconceived estimate of the +English character. It is full of generous, true, and manly qualities; and +I doubt if there ever was so high a standard of morality in an aristocracy +which has such means for self-indulgence at its command, and which +occupies a position that secures it so much deference. In general, they do +not seem to abuse their great advantages. The respect for religion--at +least for the forms of it--is universal, and there are few, I imagine, of +the great proprietors who are not more or less occupied with improving +their estates, and with providing for the comfort of their tenantry, while +many take a leading part in the great political movements of the time. +There never was an aristocracy which combined so much practical knowledge +and industry with the advantages of exalted rank. + +The Englishman is seen to most advantage in his country home. For he is +constitutionally both domestic and rural in his habits. His fireside and +his farm--these are the places in which one sees his simple and warm- +hearted nature more freely unfolded. There is a shyness in an Englishman, +--a natural reserve, which makes him cold to strangers, and difficult to +approach. But once corner him in his own house, a frank and full expansion +will be given to his feelings that we should look for in vain in the +colder Yankee, and a depth not to be found in the light and superficial +Frenchman,--speaking of nationalities, not of individualities. + +The Englishman is the most truly rural in his tastes and habits of any +people in the world. I am speaking of the higher classes. The aristocracy +of other countries affect the camp and the city. But the English love +their old castles and country seats with a patriotic love. They are fond +of country sports. Every man shoots or hunts. No man is too old to be in +the saddle some part of the day, and men of seventy years and more follow +the hounds, and, take a five-barred gate at a leap. The women are good +whips, are fond of horses and dogs, and other animals. Duchesses have +their cows, their poultry, their pigs,--all watched over and provided with +accommodations of Dutch-like neatness. All this is characteristic of the +people. It may be thought to detract something from the feminine graces +which in other lands make a woman so amiably dependent as to be nearly +imbecile. But it produces a healthy and blooming race of women to match +the hardy Englishman,--the finest development of the physical and moral +nature which the world has witnessed. For we are not to look on the +English gentleman as a mere Nimrod. With all his relish for field sports +and country usages, he has his house filled with collections of art and +with extensive libraries. The tables of the drawing-rooms are covered with +the latest works, sent down by the London publisher. Every guest is +provided with an apparatus for writing, and often a little library of +books for his own amusement. The English country gentleman of the present +day is anything but a Squire Western, though he does retain all his relish +for field sports. + +The character of an Englishman, under its most refined aspect, has some +disagreeable points which jar unpleasantly on the foreigner not accustomed +to them. The consciousness of national superiority, combined with natural +feelings of independence, gives him an air of arrogance, though it must be +owned that this is never betrayed in his own house,--I may almost say in +his own country. But abroad, when he seems to institute a comparison +between himself and the people he is thrown with, it becomes so obvious +that he is the most unpopular, not to say odious, person in the world. +Even the open hand with which he dispenses his bounty will not atone for +the violence he offers to national vanity. + +There are other defects, which are visible even in his most favored +circumstances. Such is his bigotry, surpassing everything in a quiet +passive form, that has been witnessed since the more active bigotry of the +times of the Spanish Philips. Such, too, is the exclusive, limited range +of his knowledge and conceptions of all political and social topics and +relations. The Englishman, the cultivated Englishman, has no standard of +excellence borrowed from mankind. His speculation never travels beyond his +own little--great little--island. That is the world to him. True, he +travels, shoots lions among the Hottentots, chases the grizzly bear over +the Rocky Mountains, kills elephants in India and salmon on the coast of +Labrador, comes home, and very likely makes a book. But the scope of his +ideas does not seem to be enlarged by all this. The body travels, not the +mind. And, however he may abuse his own land, he returns home as hearty a +John Bull, with all his prejudices and national tastes as rooted, as +before. The English--the men of fortune--all travel. Yet how little +sympathy they show for other people or institutions, and how slight is the +interest they take in them! They are islanders, cut off from the great +world. But their island is, indeed, a world of its own. With all their +faults, never has the sun shone--if one may use the expression in +reference to England--all a more noble race, or one that has done more for +the great interests of humanity. + +NOTES.--Nimrod is spoken of in Genesis (x. 9) as "a mighty hunter." Thus +the name came to be applied to any one devoted to hunting. + +Squire Western is a character in Fielding's "Tom Jones." He is represented +as an ignorant, prejudiced, irascible, but, withal, a jolly, good-humored +English country gentleman. + + + +LXXIX. THE SONG OF THE POTTER. (290) + +Turn, turn, my wheel! Turn round and round, +Without a pause, without a sound: + So spins the flying world away! +This clay, well mixed with marl and sand, +Follows the motion of my hand; +For some must follow, and some command, + Though all are made of clay! + +Turn, turn, my wheel! All things must change +To something new, to something strange; + Nothing that is can pause or stay; +The moon will wax, the moon will wane, +The mist and cloud will turn to rain, +The rain to mist and cloud again, + To-morrow be to-day. + +Turn, turn, my wheel! All life is brief; +What now is bud will soon be leaf, + What now is leaf will soon decay; +The wind blows east, the wind blows west; +The blue eggs in the robin's nest +Will soon have wings and beak and breast, + And flutter and fly away. + +Turn, turn, my wheel! This earthen jar +A touch can make, a touch can mar; + And shall it to the Potter say, +What makest thou? Thou hast no hand? +As men who think to understand +A world by their Creator planned, + Who wiser is than they. + +Turn, turn, my wheel! 'Tis nature's plan +The child should grow into the man, + The man grow wrinkled, old, and gray; +In youth the heart exults and sings, +The pulses leap, the feet have wings; +In age the cricket chirps, and brings + The harvest home of day. + +Turn, turn, my wheel! The human race, +Of every tongue, of every place, + Caucasian, Coptic, or Malay, +All that inhabit this great earth, +Whatever be their rank or worth, +Are kindred and allied by birth, + And made of the same clay. + +Turn, turn, my wheel! What is begun +At daybreak must at dark be done, + To-morrow will be another day; +To-morrow the hot furnace flame +Will search the heart and try the frame, +And stamp with honor or with shame + These vessels made of clay. + +Stop, stop, my wheel! Too soon, too soon +The noon will be the afternoon, + Too soon to-day be yesterday; +Behind us in our path we cast +The broken potsherds of the past, +And all are ground to dust at last, + And trodden into clay. + --Longfellow. + +NOTE.--Coptic was formerly the language of Egypt. and is preserved in the +inscriptions of the ancient monuments found there; it has now given place +entirely to Arabic. + + + +LXXX. A HOT DAY IN NEW YORK. (292) + +William Dean Howells, 1837--, was born in Belmont County. Ohio. In boyhood +he learned the printer's trade, at which he worked for several years. He +published a volume of poems in 1860, in connection with John J. Piatt. +From 1861 to 1865 he was United States Consul at Venice. On his return he +resided for a time in New York City, and was one of the editors of the +"Nation." In 1871 he was appointed editor in chief of the "Atlantic +Monthly." He held the position ten years, and then retired in order to +devote himself to his own writings. Since then, he has been connected with +other literary magazines. Mr. Howells has written several books: novels +and sketches: his writings are marked by an artistic finish, and a keen +but subtile humor. The following selection is an extract from "Their +Wedding Journey." +### + + +When they alighted, they took their way up through one of the streets of +the great wholesale businesses, to Broadway. On this street was a throng +of trucks and wagons, lading and unlading; bales and boxes rose and sank +by pulleys overhead; the footway was a labyrinth of packages of every +shape and size; there was no flagging of the pitiless energy that moved +all forward, no sign of how heavy a weight lay on it, save in the reeking +faces of its helpless instruments. + +It was four o'clock, the deadliest hour of the deadly summer day. The +spiritless air seemed to have a quality of blackness in it, as if filled +with the gloom of low-hovering wings. One half the street lay in shadow, +and one half in sun; but the sunshine itself was dim, as if a heat greater +than its own had smitten it with languor. Little gusts of sick, warm wind +blew across the great avenue at the corners of the intersecting streets. +In the upward distance, at which the journeyers looked, the loftier roofs +and steeples lifted themselves dim out of the livid atmosphere, and far up +and down the length of the street swept a stream of tormented life. + +All sorts of wheeled things thronged it, conspicuous among which rolled +and jarred the gaudily painted stages, with quivering horses driven each +by a man who sat in the shade of a branching, white umbrella, and suffered +with a moody truculence of aspect, and as if he harbored the bitterness of +death in his heart for the crowding passengers within, when one of them +pulled the strap about his legs, and summoned him to halt. + +Most of the foot passengers kept to the shady side, and to the +unaccustomed eyes of the strangers they were not less in number than at +any other time, though there were fewer women among them. Indomitably +resolute of soul, they held their course with the swift pace of custom, +and only here and there they showed the effect of the heat. + +One man, collarless, with waistcoat unbuttoned, and hat set far back from +his forehead, waved a fan before his death-white, flabby face, and set +down one foot after the other with the heaviness of a somnambulist. +Another, as they passed him, was saying huskily to the friend at his side, +"I can't stand this much longer. My hands tingle as if they had gone to +sleep; my heart--" But still the multitude hurried on, passing, repassing, +encountering, evading, vanishing into shop doors, and emerging from them, +dispersing down the side streets, and swarming out of them. + +It was a scene that possessed the beholder with singular fascination, and +in its effect of universal lunacy, it might well have seemed the last +phase of a world presently to be destroyed. They who were in it, but not +of it, as they fancied--though there was no reason for this--looked on it +amazed, and at last their own errands being accomplished, and themselves +so far cured of the madness of purpose, they cried with one voice that it +was a hideous sight, and strove to take refuge from it in the nearest +place where the soda fountain sparkled. + +It was a vain desire. At the front door of the apothecary's hung a +thermometer, and as they entered they heard the next comer cry out with a +maniacal pride in the affliction laid upon mankind, "Ninety-seven +degrees!" Behind them, at the door, there poured in a ceaseless stream of +people, each pausing at the shrine of heat, before he tossed off the +hissing draught that two pale, close-clipped boys served them from either +side of the fountain. Then, in the order of their coming, they issued +through another door upon the side street, each, as he disappeared, +turning his face half round, and casting a casual glance upon a little +group near another counter. + +The group was of a very patient, half-frightened, half-puzzled looking +gentleman who sat perfectly still on a stool, and of a lady who stood +beside him, rubbing all over his head a handkerchief full of pounded ice, +and easing one hand with the other when the first became tired. Basil +drank his soda, and paused to look upon this group, which he felt would +commend itself to realistic sculpture as eminently characteristic of the +local life, and, as "The Sunstroke," would sell enormously in the hot +season. + +"Better take a little more of that," the apothecary said, looking up from +his prescription, and, as the organized sympathy of the seemingly +indifferent crowd, smiling very kindly at his patient, who thereupon +tasted something in the glass he held. + +"Do you still feel like fainting?" asked the humane authority. "Slightly, +now and then," answered the other, "but I'm hanging on hard to the bottom +curve of that icicled S on your soda fountain, and I feel that I'm all +right as long as I can see that. The people get rather hazy occasionally, +and have no features to speak of. But I do n't know that I look very +impressive myself," he added in the jesting mood which seems the natural +condition of Americans in the face of an embarrassments. + +"Oh, you'll do!" the apothecary answered, with a laugh; but he said, in an +answer to an anxious question from the lady, "He mustn't be moved for an +hour yet," and gayly pestled away at a prescription, while she resumed her +office of grinding the pounded ice round and round upon her husband's +skull. Isabel offered her the commiseration of friendly words, and of +looks kinder yet, and then, seeing that they could do nothing, she and +Basil fell into the endless procession, and passed out of the side door. + +"What a shocking thing," she whispered. "Did you see how all the people +looked, one after another, so indifferently at that couple, and evidently +forgot them the next instant? It was dreadful. I should n't like to have +you sun-struck in New York." + +"That's very considerate of you; but place for place, if any accident must +happen to me among strangers, I think I should prefer to have it in New +York. The biggest place is always the kindest as well as the cruelest +place. Amongst the thousands of spectators the good Samaritan as well as +the Levite would be sure to be. As for a sunstroke, it requires peculiar +gifts. But if you compel me to a choice in the matter, then I say give me +the busiest part of Broadway for a sunstroke. There is such experience of +calamity there that you could hardly fall the first victim to any +misfortune." + + + +LXXXI. DISCONTENT.--AN ALLEGORY. (295) + +Joseph Addison, 1672-1719, the brilliant essayist and poet, has long +occupied an exalted place in English literature. He was the son of an +English clergyman, was born in Wiltshire, and educated at Oxford; he died +at "Holland House" (the property of his wile, to whom he had been married +but about two years), and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Several years +of his life were spent in the political affairs of his time, he held +several public offices, and was, for ten years, a member of Parliament. +His fame as an author rests chiefly upon his "Hymns," his tragedy of +"Cato," and his "Essays" contributed principally to the "Tatler" and the +"Spectator." The excellent style of his essays, their genial wit and +sprightly humor, made them conspicuous in an age when coarseness, +bitterness, and exaggeration deformed the writings of the most eminent: +and these characteristics have given them an unquestioned place among the +classics of our language. + +Mr. Addison was shy and diffident, but genial and lovable; his moral +character was above reproach, excepting that he is said to have been too +fond of wine. +### + + +It is a celebrated thought of Socrates, that if all the misfortunes of +mankind were cast into a public stock, in order to be equally distributed +among the whole species, those who now think themselves the most unhappy, +would prefer the share they are already possessed of before that which +would fall to them by such a division. Horace has carried this thought a +great deal farther, and supposes that the hardships or misfortunes we lie +under, are more easy to us than those of any other person would be, in +case we could change conditions with him. + +As I was ruminating on these two remarks, and seated in my elbowchair, I +insensibly fell asleep; when, on a sudden, methought there was a +proclamation made by Jupiter, that every mortal should bring in his griefs +and calamities, and throw them together in a heap. There was a large plain +appointed for this purpose. I took my stand in the center of it, and saw, +with a great deal of pleasure, the whole human species marching one after +another, and throwing down their several loads, which immediately grew up +into a prodigious mountain, that seemed to rise above the clouds. + +There was a certain lady of a thin, airy shape, who was very active in +this solemnity. She carried a magnifying glass in one of her hands, and +was clothed in a loose, flowing robe, embroidered with several figures of +fiends and specters, that discovered themselves in a thousand chimerical +shapes as her garment hovered in the wind. There was something wild and +distracted in her looks. Her name was Fancy. She led up every mortal to +the appointed place, after having officiously assisted him in making up +his pack, and laying it upon his shoulders. My heart melted within me to +see my fellow-creatures groaning under their respective burdens, and to +consider that prodigious bulk of human calamities which lay before me. + +There were, however, several persons who gave me great diversion upon this +occasion. I observed one bringing in a fardel, very carefully concealed +under an old embroidered cloak, which, upon his throwing it into the heap, +I discovered to be poverty. Another, after a great deal of puffing, threw +down his luggage, which, upon examining, I found to be his wife. + +There were multitudes of lovers saddled with very whimsical burdens, +composed of darts and flames; but, what was very odd, though they sighed +as if their hearts would break under these bundles of calamities, they +could not persuade themselves to cast them into the heap, when they came +up to it; but, after a few faint efforts, shook their heads, and marched +away as heavy loaden as they came. + +I saw multitudes of old women throw down their wrinkles, and several young +ones who stripped themselves of a tawny skin. There were very great heaps +of red noses, large lips, and rusty teeth. The truth of it is, I was +surprised to see the greatest part of the mountain made up of bodily +deformities. Observing one advancing toward the heap with a larger cargo +than ordinary upon his back, I found, upon his near approach, that it was +only a natural hump, which he disposed of with great joy of heart among +this collection of human miseries. + +There were, likewise, distempers of all sorts, though I could not but +observe that there were many more imaginary than real. One little packet I +could not but take notice of, which was a complication of all the diseases +incident to human nature, and was in the hand of a great many fine people. +This was called the spleen. But what most of all surprised me was, that +there was not a single vice or folly thrown into the whole heap: at which +I was very much astonished, having concluded within myself that everyone +would take this opportunity of getting rid of his passions, prejudices, +and frailties. + +I took notice in particular of a very profligate fellow, who, I did not +question, came loaden with his crimes, but upon searching into his bundle, +I found that instead of throwing his guilt from him, he had only laid down +his memory. He was followed by another worthless rogue, who flung away his +modesty instead of his ignorance. + +When the whole race of mankind had thus cast their burdens, the phantom +which had been so busy on this occasion, seeing me an idle spectator of +what passed, approached toward me. I grew uneasy at her presence, when, of +a sudden, she held her magnifying glass full before my eyes. I no sooner +saw my face in it, but was startled at the shortness of it, which now +appeared to me in its utmost aggravation. The immoderate breadth of the +features made me very much out of humor with my own countenance, upon +which I threw it from me like a mask. It happened very luckily that one +who stood by me had just before thrown down his visage, which, it seems, +was too long for him. It was, indeed, extended to a most shameful length; +I believe the very chin was, modestly speaking, as long as my whole face. +We had both of us an opportunity of mending ourselves; and all the +contributions being now brought in, every man was at liberty to exchange +his misfortunes for those of another person. + +As we stood round the heap, and surveyed the several materials of which it +was composed, there was scarcely a mortal in this vast multitude who did +not discover what he thought pleasures and blessings of life, and wondered +how the owners of them ever came to look upon them as burthens and +grievances. As we were regarding very attentively this confusion of +miseries, this chaos of calamity, Jupiter issued out a second +proclamation, that everyone was now at liberty to exchange his affliction, +and to return to his habitation with any such other bundle as should be +delivered to him. Upon this, Fancy began again to bestir herself, and, +parceling out the whole heap with incredible activity, recommended to +everyone his particular packet. The hurry and confusion at this time was +not to be expressed. Some observations, which I made upon the occasion, I +shall communicate to the public. + +A venerable, gray-headed man, who had laid down the colic, and who, I +found, wanted an heir to his estate, snatched up an undutiful son that had +been thrown into the heap by an angry father. The graceless youth, in less +than a quarter of an hour, pulled the old gentleman by the beard, and had +liked to have knocked his brains out; so that meeting the true father, who +came toward him with a fit of the gripes, he begged him to take his son +again, and give him back his colic; but they were incapable, either of +them, to recede from the choice they had made. A poor galley slave, who +had thrown down his chains, took up the gout in their stead, but made such +wry faces that one might easily perceive he was no great gainer by the +bargain. + +The female world were very busy among themselves in bartering for +features; one was trucking a lock of gray hairs for a carbuncle; and +another was making over a short waist for a pair of round shoulders; but +on all these occasions there was not one of them who did not think the new +blemish, as soon as she had got it into her possession, much more +disagreeable than the old one. + +I must not omit my own particular adventure. My friend with the long +visage had no sooner taken upon him my short face, but he made such a +grotesque figure in it, that as I looked upon him, I could not forbear +laughing at myself, insomuch that I put my own face out of countenance. +The poor gentleman was so sensible of the ridicule, that I found he was +ashamed of what he had done. On the other side, I found that I myself had +no great reason to triumph, for as I went to touch my forehead, I missed +the place, and clapped my finger upon my upper lip. Besides, as my nose +was exceedingly prominent, I gave it two or three unlucky knocks as I was +playing my hand about my face, and aiming at some other part of it. + +I saw two other gentlemen by me who were in the same ridiculous +circumstances. These had made a foolish swap between a couple of thick +bandy legs and two long trapsticks that had no calves to them. One of +these looked like a man walking upon stilts, and was so lifted up into the +air, above his ordinary height, that his head turned round with it, while +the other made such awkward circles, as he attempted to walk, that he +scarcely knew how to move forward upon his new supporters. Observing him +to be a pleasant kind of a fellow, I stuck my cane in the ground, and told +him I would lay him a bottle of wine that he did not march up to it on a +line that I drew for him, in a quarter of an hour. + +The heap was at last distributed among the two sexes, who made a most +piteous sight, as they wandered up and down under the pressure of their +several burthens. The whole plain was filled with murmurs and complaints, +groans and lamentations. Jupiter, at length taking compassion on the poor +mortals, ordered them a second time to lay down their loads, with a design +to give everyone his own again. They discharged themselves with a great +deal of pleasure; after which, the phantom who had led them into such +gross delusions, was commanded to disappear. There was sent in her stead a +goddess of a quite different figure: her motions were steady and composed, +and her aspect serious but cheerful. She every now and then cast her eyes +toward heaven, and fixed them upon Jupiter. Her name was Patience. She had +no sooner placed herself by the Mount of Sorrows, but, what I thought very +remarkable, the whole heap sunk to such a degree that it did not appear a +third part so big as it was before. She afterward returned every man his +own proper calamity, and, teaching him how to bear it in the most +commodious manner, he marched off with it contentedly, being very well +pleased that he had not been left to his own choice as to the kind of evil +which fell to his lot. + +Beside the several pieces of morality to be drawn out of this vision, I +learnt from it never to repine at my own misfortunes, or to envy the +happiness of another, since it is impossible for any man to form a right +judgment of his neighbor's sufferings; for which reason, also, I have +determined never to think too lightly of another's complaints, but to +regard the sorrows of my fellow-creatures with sentiments of humanity and +compassion. + +NOTES.--Horace (b. 65, d. 8 B. C.) was a celebrated Roman poet. + +Jupiter, according to mythology, was the greatest of the Greek and Roman +gods; he was thought to be the supreme ruler of both mortals and +immortals. + + + +LXXXII. JUPITER AND TEN. (301) + +James T. Fields, 1817-1881, was born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. For +many years he was partner in the well-known firm of Ticknor & Fields +(Later Fields, Osgood & Co.), the leading publishers of standard American +literature. For eight years, he was chief editor of the "Atlantic +Monthly;" and, after he left that position, he often enriched its pages by +the productions of his pen. During his latter years Mr. Fields gained some +reputation as a lecturer. His literary abilities were of no mean order: +but he did not do so much in producing literature himself, as in aiding +others in its production. +### + + +Mrs. Chub was rich and portly, + Mrs. Chub was very grand, +Mrs. Chub was always reckoned + A lady in the land. + +You shall see her marble mansion + In a very stately square,-- +Mr. C. knows what it cost him, + But that's neither here nor there. + +Mrs. Chub was so sagacious, + Such a patron of the arts, +And she gave such foreign orders + That she won all foreign hearts. + +Mrs. Chub was always talking, + When she went away from home, +Of a most prodigious painting + Which had just arrived from Rome. + +"Such a treasure," she insisted, + "One might never see again!" +"What's the subject?" we inquired. + "It is Jupiter and Ten!" + +"Ten what?" we blandly asked her + For the knowledge we did lack, +"Ah! that I can not tell you, + But the name is on the back. + +"There it stands in printed letters,-- + Come to-morrow, gentlemen,-- +Come and see our splendid painting, + Our fine Jupiter and Ten!" + +When Mrs. Chub departed, + Our brains began to rack,-- +She could not be mistaken + For the name was on the back. + +So we begged a great Professor + To lay aside his pen, +And give some information + Touching "Jupiter and Ten." + +And we pondered well the subject, + And our Lempriere we turned, +To find out who the Ten were; + But we could not, though we burned. + +But when we saw the picture,-- + O Mrs. Chub! Oh, fie! O! +We perused the printed label, + And 't was JUPITER AND IO! + +NOTES.--John Lempriere, an Englishman, was the author of a "Classical +Dictionary" which until the middle of the present century was the chief +book of reference on ancient mythology. + +Io is a mythical heroine of Greece, with whom Jupiter was enamored. + + + +LXXXIII. SCENE FROM "THE POOR GENTLEMAN." + +George Colman, 1762-1836, was the son of George Colman, a writer of +dramas, who in 1777 purchased the "Haymarket Theater," in London. Owing to +the illness of the father, Colman the younger assumed the management of +the theater in 1785, which post he held for a long time. He was highly +distinguished as a dramatic author and wit. "The Poor Gentleman," from +which the following selection is adapted, is perhaps the best known of his +works. +### + + +SIR ROBERT BRAMBLE and HUMPHREY DOBBINS. + +Sir R. I'll tell you what, Humphrey Dobbins, there is not a syllable of +sense in all you have been saying. But I suppose you will maintain there +is. + +Hum. Yes. + +Sir R. Yes! Is that the way you talk to me, you old boor? What's my name? + +Hum. Robert Bramble. + +Sir R. An't I a baronet? Sir Robert Bramble, of Blackberry Hall, in the +county of Kent? 'T is time you should know it, for you have been my +clumsy, two-fisted valet these thirty years: can you deny that? + +Hum. Hem! + +Sir R. Hem? What do you mean by hem? Open that rusty door of your mouth, +and make your ugly voice walk out of it. Why don't you answer my question? + + +Hum. Because, if I contradict you, I shall tell you a lie, and whenever I +agree with you, you are sure to fall out. + +Sir R. Humphrey Dobbins. I have been so long endeavoring to beat a few +brains into your pate that all your hair has tumbled off before my point +is carried. + +Hum. What then? Our parson says my head is an emblem of both our honors. + +Sir R. Ay; because honors, like your head, are apt to be empty. + +Hum. No; but if a servant has grown bald under his master's nose, it looks +as if there was honesty on one side, and regard for it on the other. + +Sir R. Why, to be sure, old Humphrey, you are as honest as a--pshaw! the +parson means to palaver us; but, to return to my position, I tell you I do +n't like your flat contradiction. + +Hum. Yes, you do. + +Sir R. I tell you I don't. I only love to hear men's arguments. I hate +their flummery. + +Hum. What do you call flummery? + +Sir R. Flattery, blockhead! a dish too often served up by paltry poor men +to paltry rich ones. + +Hum. I never serve it up to you. + +Sir R. No, you give me a dish of a different description. + +Hum. Hem! what is it? + +Sir R. Sauerkraut, you old crab + +Hum. I have held you a stout tug at argument this many a year. + +Sir R. And yet I could never teach you a syllogism. Now mind, when a poor +man assents to what a rich man says, I suspect he means to flatter him: +now I am rich, and hate flattery. Ergo--when a poor man subscribes to my +opinion, I hate him. + +Hum. That's wrong. + +Sir R. Very well; negatur; now prove it. + +Hum. Put the case then, I am a poor man. + +Sir R. You an't, you scoundrel. You know you shall never want while I have +a shilling. + +Hum. Bless you! + +Sir R. Pshaw! Proceed. + +Hum. Well, then, I am a poor--I must be a poor man now, or I never shall +get on. + +Sir R. Well, get on, be a poor man. + +Hum. I am a poor man, and I argue with you, and convince you, you are +wrong; then you call yourself a blockhead, and I am of your opinion: now, +that's no flattery. + +Sir R. Why, no; but when a man's of the same opinion with me, he puts an +end to the argument, and that puts an end to the conversation, and so I +hate him for that. But where's my nephew Frederic? + +Hum. Been out these two hours. + +Sir R. An undutiful cub! Only arrived from Russia last night, and though I +told him to stay at home till I rose, he's scampering over the fields like +a Calmuck Tartar. + +Hum. He's a fine fellow. + +Sir R. He has a touch of our family. Don't you think he is a little like +me, Humphrey? + +Hum. No, not a bit; you are as ugly an old man as ever I clapped my eyes +on. + +Sir R. Now that's plaguy impudent, but there's no flattery in it, and it +keeps up the independence of argument. His father, my brother Job, is of +as tame a spirit--Humphrey, you remember my brother Job? + +Hum. Yes, you drove him to Russia five and twenty years ago. + +Sir R. I did not drive him. + +Hum. Yes, you did. You would never let him be at peace in the way of +argument. + +Sir R. At peace! Zounds, he would never go to war. + +Hum. He had the merit to be calm. + +Sir R. So has a duck pond. He was a bit of still life; a chip; weak water +gruel; a tame rabbit, boiled to rags, without sauce or salt. He received +my arguments with his mouth open, like a poorbox gaping for half-pence, +and, good or bad, he swallowed them all without any resistance. We could +n't disagree, and so we parted. + +Hum. And the poor, meek gentleman went to Russia for a quiet life. + +Sir R. A quiet life! Why, he married the moment he got there, tacked +himself to the shrew relict of a Russian merchant, and continued a +speculation with her in furs, flax, potashes, tallow, linen, and leather; +what's the consequence? Thirteen months ago he broke. + +Hum. Poor soul, his wife should have followed the business for him. Sir R. +I fancy she did follow it, for she died just as he broke, and now this +madcap, Frederic, is sent over to me for protection. Poor Job, now he is +in distress, I must not neglect his son. + +Hum. Here comes his son; that's Mr. Frederic. + + Enter FREDERIC. + +Fred. Oh, my dear uncle, good morning! Your park is nothing but beauty. + +Sir R. Who bid you caper over my beauty? I told you to stay in doors till +I got up. + +Fred. So you did, but I entirely forgot it. + +Sir R. And pray, what made you forget it? + +Fred. The sun. + +Sir R. The sun! he's mad; you mean the moon, 1 believe. + +Fred. Oh, my dear uncle, you don't know the effect of a fine spring +morning upon a fellow just arrived from Russia. The day looked bright, +trees budding, birds singing, the park was so gay that I took a leap out +of your old balcony, made your deer fly before me like the wind, and +chased them all around the park to get an appetite for breakfast, while +you were snoring in bed, uncle. + +Sir R. Oh, oh! So the effect of English sunshine upon a Russian, is to +make him jump out of a balcony, and worry my deer. + +Fred. I confess it had that influence upon me. + +Sir R. You had better be influenced by a rich old uncle, unless you think +the sun likely to leave you a fat legacy. + +Fred. I hate legacies. + +Sir R. Sir, that's mighty singular. They are pretty solid tokens, at +least. + +Fred. Very melancholy tokens, uncle; they are the posthumous dispatches +Affection sends to Gratitude, to inform us we have lost a gracious friend. + +Sir R. How charmingly the dog argues! + +Fred. But I own my spirits ran away with me this morning. I will obey you +better in future; for they tell me you are a very worthy, good sort of old +gentleman. + +Sir R. Now who had the familiar impudence to tell you that? Fred. Old +rusty, there. + +Sir R. Why Humphrey, you didn't? + +Hum. Yes, but I did though. + +Fred, Yes, he did, and on that score I shall be anxious to show you +obedience, for 't is as meritorious to attempt sharing a good man's heart, +as it is paltry to have designs upon a rich man's money. A noble nature +aims its attentions full breast high, uncle; a mean mind levels its dirty +assiduities at the pocket. + +Sir R. (Shaking him by the hand.) Jump out of every window I have in my +house; hunt my deer into high fevers, my fine fellow! Ay, that's right. +This is spunk, and plain speaking. Give me a man who is always flinging +his dissent to my doctrines smack in my teeth. + +Fred. I disagree with you there, uncle. + +Hum. And so do I. + +Fred. You! you forward puppy! If you were not so old, I'd knock you down. + +Sir R. I'll knock you down, if you do. I won't have my servants thumped +into dumb flattery. + +Hum. Come, you are ruffled. Let us go to the business of the morning. + +Sir R. I hate the business of the morning. Don't you see we are engaged in +discussion. I tell you, I hate the business of the morning. + +Hum. No you don't. + +Sir R. Don't I? Why not? + +Hum. Because 't is charity. + +Sir R. Pshaw! Well, we must not neglect the business, if there be any +distress in the parish. Read the list, Humphrey. + +Hum. (Taking out a paper and reading.) "Jonathan Huggins, of Muck Mead, is +put in prison for debt." + +Sir R. Why, it was only last week that Gripe, the attorney, recovered two +cottages for him by law, worth sixty pounds. + +Hum. Yes, and charged a hundred for his trouble; so seized the cottages +for part of his bill, and threw Jonathan into jail for the remainder. + +Sir R. A harpy! I must relieve the poor fellow's distress. + +Fred. And I must kick his attorney. + +Hum. (Reading.) "The curate's horse is dead." + +Sir R. Pshaw! There's no distress in that. + +Hum. Yes, there is, to a man that must go twenty miles every Sunday to +preach three sermons, for thirty pounds a year. + +Sir R. Why won't the vicar give him another nag? + +Hum. Because 't is cheaper to get another curate ready mounted. + +Sir R. Well, send him the black pad which I purchased last Tuesday, and +tell him to work him as long as he lives. What else have we upon the list? + +Hum. Something out of the common; there's one Lieutenant Worthington, a +disabled officer and a widower, come to lodge at Farmer Harrowby's, in the +village; he is, it seems, very poor, and more proud than poor, and more +honest than proud. + +Sir R. And so he sends to me for assistance? Hum. He'd see you hanged +first! No, he'd sooner die than ask you or any man for a shilling! There's +his daughter, and his wife's aunt, and an old corporal that served in the +wars with him, he keeps them all upon his half pay. + +Sir R. Starves them all, I'm afraid, Humphrey. + +Fred. (Going.) Good morning, uncle. + +Sir R. You rogue, where are you running now? + +Fred. To talk with Lieutenant Worthington. + +Sir R. And what may you be going to say to him? + +Fred. I can't tell till I encounter him; and then, uncle, when I have an +old gentleman by the hand, who has been disabled in his country's service, +and is struggling to support his motherless child, a poor relation, and a +faithful servant, in honorable indigence, impulse will supply me with +words to express my sentiments. + +Sir R. Stop, you rogue; I must be before you in this business. + +Fred. That depends on who can run the fastest; so, start fair, uncle, and +here goes.--(Runs out.) + +Sir R. Stop, stop; why, Frederic--a jackanapes--to take my department out +of my hands! I'll disinherit the dog for his assurance. + +Hum. No, you won't. + +Sir R. Won't I? Hang me if I--but we'll argue that point as we go. So, +come along Humphrey. + +NOTES.-Ergo (pro. er'go) is a Latin word meaning therefore. Negatur (pro. +ne-ga'tur) is a Latin verb, and means it is denied. + +The Tartars are a branch of the Mongolian race, embracing among other +tribes the Calmucks. The latter are a fierce, nomadic people inhabiting +parts of the Russian and Chinese empires. + + + +LXXXIV. MY MOTHER'S PICTURE. (310) + +William Cowper, 1731-1800, was the son of an English clergyman; both his +parents were descended from noble families. He was always of a gentle, +timid disposition; and the roughness of his schoolfellows increased his +weakness in this respect. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but +never practiced his profession. When he was about thirty years of age, he +was appointed to a clerkship in the House of Lords, but could not summon +courage to enter upon the discharge of its duties. He was so disturbed by +this affair that he became insane, sought to destroy himself, and had to +be consigned to a private asylum. Soon after his recovery, he found a +congenial home in the family of the Rev. Mr. Unwin. On the death of this +gentleman, a few years later, he continued to reside with his widow till +her death, a short time before that of Cowper. Most of this time their +home was at Olney. His first writings were published in 1782. He wrote +several beautiful hymns, "The Task," and some minor poems. These, with his +translations of Homer and his correspondence, make up his published works. +His life was always pure and gentle; he took great pleasure in simple, +natural objects, and in playing with animals. His insanity returned from +time to time, and darkened his life at its close. When six years of age, +he lost his mother; and the following selection is part of a touching +tribute to her memory, written many years later. +### + + +Oh that those lips had language! Life has passed +With me but roughly since I heard them last. +My mother, when I learned that thou wast dead, +Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed? +Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, +Wretch even then, life's journey just begun? +Perhaps thou gavest me, though unfelt, a kiss, +Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss. +Ah, that maternal smile! it answers--Yes! + +I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day; +I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away; +And, turning from my nursery window, drew +A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu! +But was it such? It was. Where thou art gone, +Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown. +May I but meet thee on that peaceful shore, +The parting word shall pass my lips no more. + +Thy maidens, grieved themselves at my concern, +Oft gave me promise of thy quick return; +What ardently I wished, I long believed; +And, disappointed still, was still deceived; +By expectation, every day beguiled, +Dupe of to-morrow, even when a child. +Thus many a sad to-morrow came and went, +Till, all my stock of infant sorrows spent, +I learned at last submission to my lot; +But, though I less deplored thee, ne'er forgot. + +My boast is not that I deduce my birth +From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth; +But higher far my proud pretensions rise,-- +The son of parents passed into the skies. +And now, farewell! Time, unrevoked, has run +His wonted course, yet what I wished is done. + +By Contemplation's help, not sought in vain, +I seem to have lived my childhood o'er again; +To have renewed the joys that once were mine, +Without the sin of violating thine; +And, while the wings of Fancy still are free, +And I can view this mimic show of thee, +Time has but half succeeded in his theft,-- +Thyself removed, thy power to soothe me left. + + + +LXXXV. DEATH OF SAMSON. (312) + +John Milton, 1608-1674, was born in London--eight years before the +greatest English poet, Shakespeare, died. His father followed the +profession of a scrivener, in which he acquired a competence. As a boy, +Milton was exceedingly studious, continuing his studies till midnight. He +graduated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where his singular beauty, his +slight figure, and his fastidious morality caused his companions to +nickname him "the lady of Christ's." On leaving college he spent five +years more in study, and produced his lighter poems. He then traveled on +the continent, returning about the time the civil war broke out. For a time +he taught a private school, but soon threw himself with all the power of +his able and tried pen into the political struggle. He was the champion of +Parliament and of Cromwell for about twenty years. On the accession of +Charles II., he concealed himself for a time, but was soon allowed to live +quietly in London. His eyesight had totally failed in 1654; but now, in +blindness, age, family affliction, and comparative poverty, he produced +his great work "Paradise Lost." In 1667 he sold the poem for 5 Pounds in +cash, with a promise of 10 Pounds more on certain contingencies; the sum +total received by himself and family for the immortal poem, was 23 Pounds. +Later, he produced "Paradise Regained" and "Samson Agonistes," from the +latter of which the following extract is taken. Milton is a wonderful +example of a man, who, by the greatness of his own mind, triumphed over +trials, afflictions, hardships, and the evil influence of bitter political +controversy. +### + +Occasions drew me early to this city; +And, as the gates I entered with sunrise, +The morning trumpets festival proclaimed +Through each high street: little I had dispatched, +When all abroad was rumored that this day +Samson should be brought forth, to show the people +Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games. +I sorrowed at his captive state, +But minded not to be absent at that spectacle. + +The building was a spacious theater +Half-round, on two main pillars vaulted high, +With seats where all the lords, and each degree +Of sort, might sit in order to behold; +The other side was open, where the throng +On banks and scaffolds under sky might stand: +I among these aloof obscurely stood. +The feast and noon grew high, and sacrifice +Had filled their hearts with mirth, high cheer, and wine, +When to their sports they turned. Immediately +Was Samson as a public servant brought, +In their state livery clad: before him pipes +And timbrels; on each side went arme'd guards; +Both horse and foot before him and behind, +Archers and slingers, cataphracts, and spears. +At sight of him the people with a shout +Rifted the air, clamoring their god with praise, +Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall. + +He, patient, but undaunted, where they led him, +Came to the place; and what was set before him, +Which without help of eye might be essayed, +To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still performed +All with incredible, stupendous force, +None daring to appear antagonist. + +At length for intermission sake, they led him +Between the pillars; he his guide requested, +As overtired, to let him lean awhile +With both his arms on those two massy pillars, +That to the arche'd roof gave main support. + +He unsuspicious led him; which when Samson +Felt in his arms, with head awhile inclined, +And eyes fast fixed, he stood, as one who prayed, +Or some great matter in his mind revolved: +At last, with head erect, thus cried aloud:-- +"Hitherto, lords, what your commands imposed +I have performed, as reason was, obeying, +Not without wonder or delight beheld; +Now, of my own accord, such other trial +I mean to show you of my strength yet greater, +As with amaze shall strike all who behold." + +This uttered, straining all his nerves, he bowed; +As with the force of winds and waters pent +When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars +With horrible convulsion to and fro +He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew +The whole roof after them with burst of thunder +Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,-- +Lords, ladies, captains, counselors, or priests, +Their choice nobility and flower, not only +Of this, but each Philistian city round, +Met from all parts to solemnize this feast. +Samson, with these immixed, inevitably +Pulled down the same destruction on himself; +The vulgar only 'scaped who stood without. + +NOTE.--The person supposed to be speaking is a Hebrew who chanced to be +present at Gaza when the, incidents related took place. After the +catastrophe he rushes to Manoah, the father of Samson, to whom and his +assembled friends he relates what he saw. (Cf. Bible, Judges xvi, 23.) + + + +LXXXVI. AN EVENING ADVENTURE. (315) + +Not long since, a gentleman was traveling in one of the counties of +Virginia, and about the close of the day stopped at a public house to +obtain refreshment and spend the night. He had been there but a short +time, before an old man alighted from his gig, with the apparent intention +of becoming his fellow guest at the same house. + +As the old man drove up, he observed that both the shafts of his gig were +broken, and that they were held together by withes, formed from the bark +of a hickory sapling. Our traveler observed further that he was plainly +clad, that his knee buckles were loosened, and that something like +negligence pervaded his dress. Conceiving him to be one of the honest +yeomanry of our land, the courtesies of strangers passed between them, and +they entered the tavern. It was about the same time, that an addition of +three or four young gentlemen was made to their number; most, if not all +of them, of the legal profession. + +As soon as they became conveniently accommodated, the conversation was +turned, by one of the latter, upon the eloquent harangue which had that +day been displayed at the bar. It was replied by the other that he had +witnessed, the same day, a degree of eloquence no doubt equal, but it was +from the pulpit. Something like a sarcastic rejoinder was made as to the +eloquence of the pulpit, and a warm and able altercation ensued, in which +the merits of the Christian religion became the subject of discussion. +From six o'clock until eleven, the young champions wielded the sword of +argument, adducing with ingenuity and ability everything that could be +said pro and con. + +During this protracted period, the old gentleman listened with the +meekness and modesty of a child, as if he were adding new information to +the stores of his own mind; or perhaps he was observing, with a +philosophic eye, the faculties of the youthful mind, and how new energies +are evolved by repeated action; or perhaps, with patriotic emotion, he was +reflecting upon the future destinies of his country, and on the rising +generation, upon whom those future destinies must devolve; or, most +probably, with a sentiment of moral and religious feeling, he was +collecting an argument which no art would be "able to elude, and no force +to resist." Our traveler remained a spectator, and took no part in what +was said. + +At last one of the young men, remarking that it was impossible to combat +with long and established prejudices, wheeled around, and with some +familiarity exclaimed, "Well, my old gentleman, what think you of these +things?" "If," said the traveler, "a streak of vivid lightning had at that +moment crossed the room, their amazement could not have been greater than +it was from what followed." The most eloquent and unanswerable appeal that +he had ever heard or read, was made for nearly an hour by the old +gentleman. So perfect was his recollection, that every argument urged +against the Christian religion was met in the order in which it was +advanced. Hume's sophistry on the subject of miracles, was, if possible, +more perfectly answered than it had already been done by Campbell. And in +the whole lecture there was so much simplicity and energy, pathos and +sublimity, that not another word was uttered. + +"An attempt to describe it," said the traveler, "would be an attempt to +paint the sunbeams." It was now a matter of curiosity and inquiry who the +old gentleman was. The traveler concluded that it was the preacher from +whom the pulpit eloquence was heard; but no, it was John Marshall, the +Chief Justice of the United States. + +NOTES.--David Hume (b. 1711, d. 1776) was a celebrated Scotch historian +and essayist. His most important work is "The History of England." He was +a skeptic in matters of religion, and was a peculiarly subtle writer. + +George Campbell (b. 1719, d. 1796) was a distinguished Scotch minister. He +wrote "A Dissertation on Miracles," ably answering Hume's "Essay on +Miracles." + +John Marshall (b. 1755, d. 1835) was Chief Justice of the United States +from 1801 until his death. He was an eminent jurist, and wrote a "Life of +Washington," which made him famous as an author. + + + +LXXXVII. THE BAREFOOT BOY. (317) + +John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892, was born in Haverhill, Mass., and, +with short intervals of absence, he always resided in that vicinity. His +parents were Friends or "Quakers," and he always held to the same faith. +He spent his boyhood on a farm, occasionally writing verses for the papers +even then. Two years of study in the academy seem to have given him all +the special opportunity for education that he ever enjoyed. In 1829 he +edited a newspaper in Boston, and the next year assumed a similar position +in Hartford. For two years he was a member of the Massachusetts +legislature. In 1836 he edited an anti-slavery paper in Philadelphia, and +was secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Mr. Whittier wrote +extensively both in prose and verse. During the later years of his life he +published several volumes of poems, and contributed frequently to the +pages of the "Atlantic Monthly." An earnest opponent of slavery, some of +his poems bearing on that subject are fiery and even bitter; but, in +general, their sentiment is gentle, and often pathetic. As a poet, he took +rank among those most highly esteemed by his countrymen. "Snow-Bound," +published in 1805, is one of the longest and best of his poems. Several of +his shorter pieces are marked by much smoothness and sweetness. +### + + +Blessings on thee, little man, +Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan! +With thy turned-up pantaloons, +And thy merry whistled tunes; +With thy red lip, redder still +Kissed by strawberries on the hill; +With the sunshine on thy face, +Through thy torn brim's jaunty grace; +From my heart I give thee joy,-- +I was once a barefoot boy! +Prince thou art,--the grown-up man +Only is republican. +Let the million-dollared ride! +Barefoot, trudging, at his side, +Thou hast more than he can buy +In the reach of ear and eye,-- +Outward sunshine, inward joy: +Blessings on thee, barefoot boy! + +Oh for boyhood's painless play, +Sleep that wakes in laughing day, +Health that mocks the doctor's rules, +Knowledge never learned of schools, +Of the wild bee's morning chase, +Of the wild flower's time and place, +Flight of fowl and habitude +Of the tenants of the wood; +How the tortoise bears his shell, +How the woodchuck digs his cell, +And the ground mole sinks his well +How the robin feeds her young, +How the oriole's nest is hung; +Where the whitest lilies blow, +Where the freshest berries grow, +Where the groundnut trails its vine, +Where the wood grape's clusters shine; +Of the black wasp's cunning way, +Mason of his walls of clay, +And the architectural plans +Of gray hornet artisans!-- +For, eschewing books and tasks, +Nature answers all he asks; +Hand in hand with her he walks, +Face to face with her he talks, +Part and parcel of her joy,-- +Blessings on thee, barefoot boy! + +Oh for boyhood's time of June, +Crowding years in one brief moon, +When all things I heard or saw +Me, their master, waited for. +I was rich in flowers and trees, +Humming birds and honeybees; +For my sport the squirrel played, +Plied the snouted mole his spade; +For my taste the blackberry cone +Purpled over hedge and stone; +Laughed the brook for my delight +Through the day and through the night, +Whispering at the garden wall, +Talked with me from fall to fall; +Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond, +Mine the walnut slopes beyond, +Mine, on bending orchard trees, +Apples of Hesperides! +Still, as my horizon grew, +Larger grew my riches too; +All the world I saw or knew +Seemed a complex Chinese toy, +Fashioned for a barefoot boy! + +Oh for festal dainties spread, +Like my bowl of milk and bread,-- +Pewter spoon and bowl of wood, +On the doorstone, gray and rude! +O'er me, like a regal tent, +Cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent, +Purple-curtained, fringed with gold, +Looped in many a wind-swung fold; +While for music came the play +Of the pied frog's orchestra; +And to light the noisy choir, +Lit the fly his lamp of fire. +I was monarch: pomp and joy +Waited on the barefoot boy! + +Cheerily, then, my little man, +Live and laugh, as boyhood can! +Though the flinty slopes be hard, +Stubble-speared the new-mown sward, +Every morn shall lead thee through +Fresh baptisms of the dew; +Every evening from thy feet +Shall the cool wind kiss the heat: +All too soon these feet must hide +In the prison cells of pride, +Lose the freedom of the sod, +Like a colt's for work be shod, +Made to tread the mills of toil, +Up and down in ceaseless moil: +Happy if their track be found +Never on forbidden ground; +Happy if they sink not in +Quick and treacherous sands of sin. +Ah! that thou shouldst know thy joy +Ere it passes, barefoot boy! + + +NOTE.--The Hesperides, in Grecian mythology, were four sisters (some +traditions say three, and others, seven) who guarded the golden apples +given to Juno as a wedding present. The locality of the garden of the +Hesperides is a disputed point with mythologists. + + + +[Illustration: A well-dressed man is reaching for a glove while facing +three ferocious lions. Several people are observing him from the safety of +a raised platform.] + + +LXXXVIII. THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS. (321) + +James Henry Leigh Hunt, 1784-1859. Leigh Hunt, as he is commonly called, +was prominent before the public for fifty years as "a writer of essays, +poems, plays, novels, and criticisms." He was born at Southgate, +Middlesex, England. His mother was an American lady. He began to write for +the public at a very early age. In 1808, In connection with his brother, +he established "The Examiner," a newspaper advocating liberal opinions in +politics. For certain articles offensive to the government, the brothers +were fined 500 Pounds each and condemned to two years' imprisonment. Leigh +fitted up his prison like a boudoir, received his friends here, and wrote +several works during his confinement. Mr. Hunt was intimate with Byron, +Shelley, Moore, and Keats, and was associated with Byron and Shelley in +the publication of a political and literary journal. His last years were +peacefully devoted to literature, and in 1847 he received a pension from +the government. +### + +King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport, +And one day, as his lions fought, sat looking on the court; +The nobles filled the benches round, the ladies by their side, +And 'mongst them sat the Count de Lorge, with one for whom he sighed: +And truly 't was a gallant thing to see that crowning show, +Valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below. + +Ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws; +They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with their paws; +With wallowing might and stifled roar, they rolled on one another: +Till all the pit, with sand and mane, was in a thunderous smother; +The bloody foam above the bars came whizzing through the air: +Said Francis, then, "Faith, gentlemen, we're better here than there." + +De Lorge's love o'erheard the king,--a beauteous, lively dame, +With smiling lips, and sharp, bright eyes, which always seemed the same; +She thought, "The Count, my lover, is brave as brave call be, +He surely would do wondrous things to show his love for me; +King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine; +I'll drop my glove to prove his love; great glory will be mine." + +She dropped her glove to prove his love, then looked at him and smiled; +He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild; +The leap was quick, return was quick, he soon regained his place, +Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face. +"In faith," cried Francis, "rightly done!" and he rose from where he sat; +"No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that." + + +NOTE.--King Francis. This is supposed to have been Francis I. of France +(b. 1494, d. 1547). He was devoted to sports of this nature. + + + +LXXXIX. THE FOLLY OF INTOXICATION. (322) + + +Iago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant? +Cassio. Ay, past all surgery. +Iago. Marry, heaven forbid! +Cas. Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have + lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, + and what remains is bestial. My reputation! Iago, my reputation! + +Iago. As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some + bodily wound; there is more sense in that than in reputation. + Reputation is an idle and most false imposition: oft got without + merit, and lost without deserving: you have lost no reputation at + all, unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man! there + are ways to recover the general again. Sue to him again, and he's + yours. + +Cas. I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a + commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an + officer. Drunk? and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? swear? + and discourse fustian with one's own shadow? O thou invisible + spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call + thee devil! + +Iago. What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he + done to you? + +Cas. I know not. + +Iago. Is't possible? + +Cas. I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, + but nothing wherefore. Oh that men should put an enemy in their + mouths to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, + revel, pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts! + +Iago. Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus + recovered? + +Cas. It hath pleased the devil, Drunkenness, to give place to the + devil, Wrath; one unperfectness shows me another, to make me + frankly despise myself. + +Iago. Come, you are too severe a moraler. As the time, the place, and + the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish this + had not befallen; but since it is as it is, mend it for your own + good. + +Cas. I will ask him for my place again: he shall tell me I am a + drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would + stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and + presently a beast! Oh strange!--Every inordinate cup is + unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil! Iago. Come, come; good + wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no + more against it. And, good lieutenant, I think you think I love + you. + +Cas. I have well approved it, sir,--I, drunk! + +Iago. You or any man living may be drunk at a time, man. I'll tell you + what you shall do. Our general's wife is now the general. Confess + yourself freely to her; importune her help to put you in your + place again. She is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a + disposition, she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more + than she is requested. This broken joint between you and her + husband, entreat her to splinter; and, my fortunes against any + lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger + than it was before. + +Cas. You advise me well. + +Iago. I protest in the sincerity of love and honest kindness. + +Cas. I think it freely, and betimes in the morning, I will beseech + the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me; I am desperate of my + fortunes if they check me here. + +Iago. You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant, I must to the watch. + +Cas. Good night, honest Iago. + Shakespeare.--Othello, Act ii, Scene iii. + +NOTES.--Iago is represented as a crafty, unscrupulous villain. He applies +for the position of lieutenant under Othello, but the latter has already +appointed Cassio--who is honest, but of a weak character--to that +position; he, however, makes Iago his ensign. Then Iago, to revenge +himself for this and other fancied wrongs, enters upon a systematic course +of villainy, part of which is to bring about the intoxication of Cassio, +and his consequent discharge from the lieutenancy. + +The Hydra was a fabled monster of Grecian mythology, having nine heads, +one of which was immortal. + +Desdemona was the wife of Othello. + + + +XC. STARVED ROCK. (325) + +Francis Parkman, 1823-1893, the son of a clergyman of the same name, was +born in Boston, and graduated at Harvard University in 1844. He spent more +than twenty years in a careful study of the early French explorations and +settlements in America; and he published the fruits of his labor in twelve +large volumes. Although troubled with an affection of the eyes, which +sometimes wholly prevented reading or writing, his work was most carefully +and successfully done. His narratives are written in a clear and animated +style, and his volumes are a rich contribution to American history. +### + + +The cliff called "Starved Rock," now pointed out to travelers as the chief +natural curiosity of the region, rises, steep on three sides as a castle +wall, to the height of a hundred and twenty-five feet above the river. In +front, it overhangs the water that washes its base; its western brow looks +down on the tops of the forest trees below; and on the east lies a wide +gorge, or ravine, choked with the mingled foliage of oaks, walnuts, and +elms; while in its rocky depths a little brook creeps down to mingle with +the river. + +From the rugged trunk of the stunted cedar that leans forward from the +brink, you may drop a plummet into the river below, where the catfish and +the turtles may plainly be seen gliding over the wrinkled sands of the +clear and shallow current. The cliff is accessible only from the south, +where a man may climb up, not without difficulty, by a steep and narrow +passage. The top is about an acre in extent. + +Here, in the month of December, 1682, La Salle and Tonty began to entrench +themselves. They cut away the forest that crowned the rock, built +storehouses and dwellings of its remains, dragged timber up the rugged +pathway, and encircled the summit with a palisade. Thus the winter was +passed, and meanwhile the work of negotiation went prosperously on. The +minds of the Indians had been already prepared. In La Salle they saw their +champion against the Iroquois, the standing terror of all this region. +They gathered around his stronghold like the timorous peasantry of the +Middle Ages around the rock-built castle of their feudal lord. + +From the wooden ramparts of St. Louis,--for so he named his fort,--high +and inaccessible as an eagle's nest, a strange scene lay before his eye. +The broad, flat valley of the Illinois was spread beneath him like a map, +bounded in the distance by its low wall of wooded hills. The river wound +at his feet in devious channels among islands bordered with lofty trees; +then, far on the left, flowed calmly westward through the vast meadows, +till its glimmering blue ribbon was lost in hazy distance. + +There had been a time, and that not remote, when these fair meadows were a +waste of death and desolation, scathed with fire, and strewn with the +ghastly relics of an Iroquois victory. Now, all was changed. La Salle +looked down from his rock on a concourse of wild human life. Lodges of +bark and rushes, or cabins of logs, were clustered on the open plain, or +along the edges of the bordering forests. Squaws labored, warriors lounged +in the sun, naked children whooped and gamboled on the grass. + +Beyond the river, a mile and a half on the left, the banks were studded +once more with the lodges of the Illinois, who, to the number of six +thousand, had returned, since their defeat, to this their favorite +dwelling place. Scattered along the valley, among the adjacent hills, or +over the neighboring prairie, were the cantonments of a half score of +other tribes, and fragments of tribes, gathered under the protecting aegis +of the French. + + +NOTES.--The curious elevation called Starved Rock is on the south side of +Illinois River, between La Salle and Ottawa. There is a legend according +to which it is said that over one hundred years ago, a party of Illinois +Indians took refuge here from the Pottawatomies; their besiegers, however, +confined them so closely that the whole party perished of starvation, or, +as some say, of thirst. From this circumstance the rock takes its name. + +La Salle (b. 1643, d. 1687) was a celebrated French explorer and fur +trader. He established many forts throughout the Mississippi Valley,-- +among them, Fort St. Louis, in 1683. + +Tonty was an Italian, who formerly served in both the French army and +navy, and afterwards joined La Salle in his explorations. + + + +XCI. PRINCE HENRY AND FALSTAFF. (327) + +PRINCE HENRY and POINS, in a back room, in a tavern. +Enter FALSTAFF, GADSHILL, BARDOLPH, and PETO. + +Poins. Welcome, Jack. Where hast thou been? + +Falstaff. A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too! marry, and +amen! Give me a cup of sack, boy. Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew +nether stocks, and mend them, and foot them, too. A plague of all cowards! +Give me a cup of sack, rogue. Is there no virtue extant? (He drinks, and +then continues.) You rogue, here's lime in this sack, too; there is +nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man: yet a coward is worse +than a cup of sack with lime in it. A villainous coward! Go thy ways, old +Jack; die when thou wilt: if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the +face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring. There live not three good +men unhanged, in England; and one of them is fat and grows old; a bad +world, I say! I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms, or anything. A +plague of all cowards, I say still. + +Prince Henry. How now, woolsack? What mutter you? + +Fal. A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger +of lath, and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild geese, +I'll never wear hair on my face more. You, Prince of Wales! + +P. Henry. Why, you baseborn dog! What's the matter? + +Fal. Are you not a coward? Answer me to that; and Poins there? + +Poins. Ye fat braggart, an ye call me coward, I'll stab thee. + +Fal. I call thee coward? I'll see thee gibbeted ere I call thee coward: +but I would give a thousand pounds I could run as fast as thou canst. You +are straight enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your back: +call you that backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing! Give me +them that will face me. Give me a cup of sack. I am a rogue, if I have +drunk to-day. + +P. Henry. O villain! thy lips ate scarce wiped since thou drunkest last. + +Fal. All's one for that. A plague of all cowards, still say 1. (He +drinks.) + +P. Henry. What's the matter? + +Fal. What's the matter! There be four of us here have ta'en a thousand +pounds this morning. + +P. Henry. Where is it, Jack? where is it? + +Fal. Where is it? Taken from us it is; a hundred upon poor four of us. + +P. Henry. What! a hundred, man? + +Fal. I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two +hours together. I have 'scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through +the doublet; four, through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; +my sword hacked like a handsaw; look here! (shows his sword.) I never +dealt better since I was a man; all would not do. A plague of all cowards! +Let them speak (pointing to GADSHILL, BARDOLPH, and PETO); if they speak +more or less than truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness. + +P. Henry. Speak, sirs; how was it? + +Gadshill. We four set upon some dozen-- + +Fal. Sixteen, at least, my lord. + +Gad. And bound them. + +Peta. No, no, they were not bound. + +Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew, +else--an Ebrew Jew. + +Gad. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us-- + +Fal. And unbound the rest; and then come in the other. + +P. Henry. What! fought ye with them all? + +Fal. All? I know not what ye call all; but if I fought not with fifty of +them, I am a bunch of radish: if there were not two or three and fifty +upon poor old Jack, then I am no two-legged creature. + +P. Henry. Pray heaven, you have not murdered some of them. + +Fal. Nay, that's past praying for; for I have peppered two of them; two I +am sure I have paid; two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, +if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, and call me a horse. Thou knowest +my old ward; (he draws his sword and stands if about to fight) here I lay, +and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me-- + +P. Henry. What! four? Thou saidst but two even now. + +Fal. Four, Hal; I told thee four. + +Poins. Ay, ay, he said four. + +Fal. These four came all afront, and mainly thrust at me. I made no more +ado, but took all their seven points in my target, thus. + +P. Henry. Seven? Why, there were but four, even now. + +Fal. In buckram? + +Poins. Ay, four, in buckram suits. + +Fal. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. + +P. Henry. Prithee, let him alone; we shall have more anon. + +Fal. Dost thou hear me, Hal? + +P. Henry. Ay, and mark thee, too, Jack. + +Fal. Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in buckram, that +I told thee of-- + +P. Henry. So, two more already. + +Fal. Their points being broken, began to give me ground; but I followed me +close, came in foot and hand; and, with a thought, seven of the eleven I +paid. + +P. Henry. O, monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two! + +Fal. But three knaves, in Kendal green, came at my back, and let drive at +me; for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand. + +P. Henry. These lies are like the father of them; gross as a mountain, +open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained, nott-pated fool; thou greasy +tallow keech-- + +Fal. What! Art thou mad! Art thou mad? Is not the truth the truth? + +P. Henry. Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green, when it +was so dark thou couldst not see thy hand? Come, tell us your reason; what +sayest thou to this? + +Poins. Come, your reason, Jack, your reason. + +Fal. What, upon compulsion? No, were I at the strappado, or all the racks +in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason on +compulsion! If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no +man a reason on compulsion, I. + +P. Henry. I'll be no longer guilty of this sin: this sanguine coward, this +horseback breaker, this huge hill of flesh-- + +Fal. Away! you starveling, you eel skin, you dried neat's tongue, you +stockfish! Oh for breath to utter what is like thee!--you tailor's yard, +you sheath, you bow case, you-- + +P. Henry. Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again; and when thou hast +tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this. + +Poins. Mark, Jack. + +P. Henry. We two saw you four set on four; you bound them, and were +masters of their wealth. Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down. +Then did we two set on you four, and with a word outfaced you from your +prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here in the house.--And, +Falstaff, you carried yourself away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, +and roared for mercy, and still ran and roared, as ever I heard a calf. +What a slave art thou, to hack thy sword as thou hast done, and then say +it was in fight! What trick, what device, what starting hole, canst thou +now find out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame? + +Poins. Come, let's hear, Jack. What trick hast thou now? + +Fal. Why, I knew ye as well as he that made ye. Why, bear ye, my masters: +was it for me to kill the heir apparent? Should I turn upon the true +prince? Why, thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules; but beware +instinct; the lion will not touch the true prince; instinct is a great +matter; I was a coward on instinct. I shall think the better of myself and +thee during my life; I for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. +But, lads, I am glad you have the money. Hostess, clap to the doors. Watch +to-night, pray to-morrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold; all the +titles of good-fellowship come to you! What! shall we be merry? Shall we +have a play extempore? + +P. Henry. Content; and the argument shall be thy running away. + +Fal. Ah, no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me! + + Shakespeare.-Henry IV, Part I, Act ii, Scene iv. + + +NOTES.--The lime is a fruit allied to the lemon, but smaller, and more +intensely sour. + +The strappado was an instrument of torture by which the victim's limbs +were wrenched out of joint and broken. + +Hercules is a hero of fabulous history, remarkable for his great strength +and wonderful achievements. + + + +XCII. STUDIES. (332) + +Sir Francis Bacon, 1561-1626. This eminent man was the youngest son of Sir +Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper of the seal in the early part of Elizabeth's +reign, and Anne Bacon, one of the most learned women of the time, daughter +of Sir Anthony Cooke. He was born in London, and educated at Cambridge. He +was a laborious and successful student, but even in his boyhood conceived +a great distrust of the methods of study pursued at the seats of +learning,--methods which he exerted his great powers to correct in his +maturer years. Much of his life was spent in the practice of law, in the +discharge of the duties of high office, and as a member of Parliament; +but, to the end of life, he busied himself with philosophical pursuits, +and he will be known to posterity chiefly for his deep and clear writings +on these subjects. His constant direction in philosophy is to break away +from assumption and tradition, and to be led only by sound induction based +on a knowledge of observed phenomena. His "Novum Organum" and "Advancement +of Learning" embody his ideas on philosophy and the true methods of +seeking knowledge. + +Bacon rose to no very great distinction during the reign of Elizabeth; +but, under James I, he was promoted to positions of great honor and +influence. In 1618 he was made Baron of Verulam; and, three years later, +he was made Viscount of St. Albans. During much of his life, Bacon was in +pecuniary straits, which was doubtless one reason of his downfall; for, in +1621, he was accused of taking bribes, a charge to which he pleaded +guilty. His disgrace followed, and he passed the last years of his life in +retirement. Among the distinguished names in English literature, none +stands higher in his department than that of Francis Bacon. +### + + +Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use +for delight is in privateness, and retiring; for ornament, is in +discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of +business; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of the +particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and +marshaling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. + +To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for +ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the +humor of a scholar; they perfect nature and are perfected by experience-- +for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; +and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except +they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men +admire them, and wise men use them, for they teach not their own use; but +that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. + +Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, +nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are +to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and +digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be +read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with +diligence and attention. Some books also may he read by deputy, and +extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less +important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books +are like common distilled waters, flashy things. + +Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact +man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great +memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he +read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth +not. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; +natural philosophy, deep; moral philosophy, grave; logic and rhetoric, +able to contend. + + + +XCIII. SURRENDER OF GRANADA. (334) + +Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, 1806-1873, was born in Norfolk County, +England. His father died when he was young; his mother was a woman of +strong literary tastes, and did much to form her son's mind. In 1844, by +royal license, he took the surname of Lytton from his mother's family. +Bulwer graduated at Cambridge. He began to publish in 1826, and his novels +and plays followed rapidly. "Pelham," "The Caxtons," "My Novel," "What +will he do with it?" and "Kenelm Chillingly" are among the best known of +his numerous novels; and "The Lady of Lyons" and "Richelieu" are his most +successful plays. His novels are extensively read on the continent, and +have been translated into most of the languages spoken there. "Leila, or +the Siege of Granada," from which this selection is adapted, was published +in 1840. +### + + +Day dawned upon Granada, and the beams of the winter sun, smiling away the +clouds of the past night, played cheerily on the murmuring waves of the +Xenil and the Darro. Alone, upon a balcony commanding a view of the +beautiful landscape, stood Boabdil, the last of the Moorish kings. He had +sought to bring to his aid all the lessons of the philosophy he had +cultivated. + +"What are we," thought the musing prince, "that we should fill the world +with ourselves--we kings? Earth resounds with the crash of my falling +throne; on the ear of races unborn the echo will live prolonged. But what +have I lost? Nothing that was necessary to my happiness, my repose: +nothing save the source of all my wretchedness, the Marah of my life! +Shall I less enjoy heaven and earth, or thought or action, or man's more +material luxuries of food or sleep--the common and the cheap desires of +all? Arouse thee, then, O heart within me! Many and deep emotions of +sorrow or of joy are yet left to break the monotony of existence. . . . +But it is time to depart." So saying, he descended to the court, flung +himself on his barb, and, with a small and saddened train, passed through +the gate which we yet survey, by a blackened and crumbling tower, +overgrown with vines and ivy; thence, amidst gardens now appertaining to +the convent of the victor faith, he took his mournful and unwitnessed way. + +When he came to the middle of the hill that rises above those gardens, the +steel of the Spanish armor gleamed upon him, as the detachment sent to +occupy the palace marched over the summit in steady order and profound +silence. At the head of this vanguard, rode, upon a snow-white palfrey, +the Bishop of Avila, followed by a long train of barefooted monks. They +halted as Boabdil approached, and the grave bishop saluted him with the +air of one who addresses an infidel and inferior. With the quick sense of +dignity common to the great, and yet more to the fallen, Boabdil felt, but +resented not, the pride of the ecclesiastic. "Go, Christian," said he, +mildly, "the gates of the Alhambra are open, and Allah has bestowed the +palace and the city upon your king; may his virtues atone the faults of +Boabdil!" So saying, and waiting no answer, he rode on without looking to +the right or the left. The Spaniards also pursued their way. + +The sun had fairly risen above the mountains, when Boabdil and his train +beheld, from the eminence on which they were, the whole armament of Spain; +and at the same moment, louder than the tramp of horse or the clash of +arms, was heard distinctly the solemn chant of Te Deum, which preceded the +blaze of the unfurled and lofty standards. Boabdil, himself still silent, +heard the groans and exclamations of his train; he turned to cheer or +chide them, and then saw, from his own watchtower, with the sun shining +full upon its pure and dazzling surface, the silver cross of Spain. His +Alhambra was already in the hands of the foe; while beside that badge of +the holy war waved the gay and flaunting flag of St. Iago, the canonized +Mars of the chivalry of Spain. At that sight the King's voice died within +him; he gave the rein to his barb, impatient to close the fatal +ceremonial, and did not slacken his speed till almost within bowshot of +the first ranks of the army. + +Never had Christian war assumed a more splendid and imposing aspect. Far +as the eye could reach, extended the glittering and gorgeous lines of that +goodly power, bristling with sunlit spears and blazoned banners; while +beside, murmured, and glowed, and danced, the silver and laughing Xenil, +careless what lord should possess, for his little day, the banks that +bloomed by its everlasting course. By a small mosque halted the flower of +the army. Surrounded by the archpriests of that mighty hierarchy, the +peers and princes of a court that rivaled the Rolands of Charlemagne, was +seen the kingly form of Ferdinand himself, with Isabel at his right hand, +and the highborn dames of Spain, relieving, with their gay colors and +sparkling gems, the sterner splendor of the crested helmet and polished +mail. Within sight of the royal group, Boabdil halted, composed his aspect +so as best to conceal his soul, and, a little in advance of his scanty +train, but never in mien and majesty more a king, the son of Abdallah met +his haughty conqueror. + +At the sight of his princely countenance and golden hair, his comely and +commanding beauty, made more touching by youth, a thrill of compassionate +admiration ran through that assembly of the brave and fair. Ferdinand and +Isabel slowly advanced to meet their late rival,--their new subject; and, +as Boabdil would have dismounted, the Spanish king placed his hand upon +his shoulder. "Brother and prince," said he, "forget thy sorrows; and may +our friendship hereafter console thee for reverses, against which thou +hast contended as a hero and a king--resisting man, but resigned at length +to God." + +Boabdil did not affect to return this bitter but unintentional mockery of +compliment, He bowed his head, and remained a moment silent; then +motioning to his train, four of his officers approached, and, kneeling +beside Ferdinand, proffered to him, upon a silver buckler, the keys of the +city. "O king!" then said Boabdil, "accept the keys of the last hold which +has resisted the arms of Spain! The empire of the Moslem is no more. Thine +are the city and the people of Granada; yielding to thy prowess, they yet +confide in thy mercy." "They do well," said the king; "our promises shall +not be broken. But since we know the gallantry of Moorish cavaliers, not +to us, but to gentler hands, shall the keys of Granada be surrendered." + +Thus saying, Ferdinand gave the keys to Isabel, who would have addressed +some soothing flatteries to Boabdil, but the emotion and excitement were +too much for her compassionate heart, heroine and queen though she was; +and when she lifted her eyes upon the calm and pale features of the +fallen monarch, the tears gushed from them irresistibly, and her voice +died in murmurs. A faint flush overspread the features of Boabdil, and +there was a momentary pause of embarrassment, which the Moor was the first +to break. + +"Fair queen," said he, with mournful and pathetic dignity, "thou canst +read the heart that thy generous sympathy touches and subdues; this is thy +last, nor least glorious conquest. But I detain ye; let not my aspect +cloud your triumph. Suffer me to say farewell." "Farewell, my brother," +replied Ferdinand, "and may fair fortune go with you! Forget the past!" +Boabdil smiled bitterly, saluted the royal pair with profound and silent +reverence, and rode slowly on, leaving the army below as he ascended the +path that led to his new principality beyond the Alpuxarras. As the trees +snatched the Moorish cavalcade from the view of the king, Ferdinand +ordered the army to recommence its march; and trumpet and cymbal presently +sent their music to the ear of the Moslems. + +Boabdil spurred on at full speed, till his panting charger halted at the +little village where his mother, his slaves, and his faithful wife, +Amine--sent on before--awaited him. Joining these, he proceeded without +delay upon his melancholy path. They ascended that eminence which is the +pass into the Alpuxarras. From its height, the vale, the rivers, the +spires, and the towers of Granada broke gloriously upon the view of the +little band. They halted mechanically and abruptly; every eye was turned +to the beloved scene. The proud shame of baffled warriors, the tender +memories of home, of childhood, of fatherland, swelled every heart, and +gushed from every eye. + +Suddenly the distant boom of artillery broke from the citadel, and rolled +along the sunlit valley and crystal river. A universal wail burst from the +exiles; it smote,--it overpowered the heart of the ill-starred king, in +vain seeking to wrap himself in Eastern pride or stoical philosophy. The +tears gushed from his eyes, and he covered his face with his hands. The +band wound slowly on through the solitary defiles; and that place where +the king wept is still called The Last Sigh of the Moor. + + +NOTES.--Granada was the capital of an ancient Moorish kingdom of the same +name, in the southeastern part of Spain. The Darro River flows through it, +emptying into the Xenil (or Jenil) just outside the city walls. King +Ferdinand of Spain drove out the Moors, and captured the city in 1492. + +Marah. See Exodus xv. 23. + +Avila is an episcopal city in Spain, capital of a province of the same +name. + +The Te Deum is an ancient Christian hymn, composed by St. Ambrose; it is +so called from the first Latin words, "Te Deum laudamus," We praise thee, +O God. + +Mars, in mythology, the god of war. + +The Alhambra is the ancient palace of the Moorish kings, at Granada. + +Allah is the Mohammedan name for the Supreme Being. + +Roland was a nephew of Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, emperor of the +West and king of France. He was one of the most famous knights of the +chivalric romances. + +The Alpuxarras is a mountainous region in the old province of Granada, +where the Moors were allowed to remain some time after their subjugation +by Ferdinand. + + + +XCIV. HAMLET'S SOLILOQUY. (339) + +To be, or not to be; that is the question:-- +Whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer +The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, +Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, +And by opposing end them? To die,--to sleep,-- +No more: and by a sleep to say we end +The heartache and the thousand natural shocks +That flesh is heir to,--'t is a consummation +Devoutly to be wished. To die,--to sleep:-- +To sleep! perchance to dream:--ay, there's the rub; +For in that sleep of death what dreams may come +When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, +Must give us pause. There's the respect +That makes calamity of so long life; +For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, +The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, +The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, +The insolence of office, and the spurns +That patient merit of the unworthy takes, +When he himself might his quietus make +With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, +To grunt and sweat under a weary life, +But that the dread of something after death,-- +The undiscovered country from whose bourn +No traveler returns,--puzzles the will +And makes us rather bear those ills we have +Than fly to others that we know not of? +Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all; +And thus the native hue of resolution +Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, +And enterprises of great pith and moment +With this regard their currents turn awry, +And lose the name of action. + Shakespeare.--Hamlet, Act iii, Scene i. + + + +XCV. GINEVRA. (340) + +Samuel Rogers, 1763-1855, was the son of a London banker, and, in company +with his father, followed the banking business for some years. He began to +write at an early age, and published his "Pleasures of Memory," perhaps +his most famous work, in 1792. The next year his father died, leaving him +an ample fortune. He now retired from business and established himself in +an elegant house in St. James's Place. This house was a place of resort +for literary men during fifty years. In 1822 he published his longest +poem, "Italy," after which he wrote but little. He wrote with care, +spending, as he said, nine years on the "Pleasures of Memory," and sixteen +on "Italy." "His writings are remarkable for elegance of diction, purity +of taste, and beauty of sentiment." It is said that he was very agreeable +in conversation and manners, and benevolent in his disposition; but he was +addicted to ill-nature and satire in some of his criticisms. +### + + + If thou shouldst ever come by choice or chance +To Modena,--where still religiously +Among her ancient trophies, is preserved +Bologna's bucket (in its chain it hangs +Within that reverend tower, the Guirlandine),-- +Stop at a palace near the Reggio gate, +Dwelt in of old by one of the Orsini. +Its noble gardens, terrace above terrace, +And rich in fountains, statues, cypresses, +Will long detain thee; through their arche'd walks, +Dim at noonday, discovering many a glimpse +Of knights and dames such as in old romance, +And lovers such as in heroic song,-- +Perhaps the two, for groves were their delight, +That in the springtime, as alone they sate, +Venturing together on a tale of love. +Read only part that day.--A summer sun +Sets ere one half is seen; but, ere thou go, +Enter the house--prithee, forget it not-- +And look awhile upon a picture there. + + 'T is of a lady in her earliest youth, +The very last of that illustrious race, +Done by Zampieri--but by whom I care not. +He who observes it, ere he passes on, +Gazes his fill, and comes and comes again, +That he may call it up when far away. + + She sits, inclining forward as to speak, +Her lips half-open, and her finger up, +As though she said, "Beware!" her vest of gold, +Broidered with flowers, and clasped from head to foot, +An emerald stone in every golden clasp; +And on her brow, fairer than alabaster, +A coronet of pearls. But then her face, +So lovely, yet so arch, so full of mirth, +The overflowings of an innocent heart,-- +It haunts me still, though many a year has fled, +Like some wild melody! + + Alone it hangs +Over a moldering heirloom, its companion, +An oaken chest, half-eaten by the worm, +But richly carved by Antony of Trent +With scripture stories from the life of Christ; +A chest that came from Venice, and had held +The ducal robes of some old ancestors-- +That, by the way, it may be true or false-- +But don't forget the picture; and thou wilt not, +When thou hast heard the tale they told me there. + + She was an only child; from infancy +The joy, the pride, of an indulgent sire; +The young Ginevra was his all in life, +Still as she grew, forever in his sight; +And in her fifteenth year became a bride, +Marrying an only son, Francesco Doria, +Her playmate from her birth, and her first love. + + Just as she looks there in her bridal dress, +She was all gentleness, all gayety, +Her pranks the favorite theme of every tongue. +But now the day was come, the day, the hour; +Now, frowning, smiling, for the hundredth time, +The nurse, that ancient lady, preached decorum: +And, in the luster of her youth, she gave Her hand, +with her heart in it, to Francesco. + + Great was the joy; but at the bridal feast, +When all sate down, the bride was wanting there. +Nor was she to be found! Her father cried, +" 'Tis but to make a trial of our love!" +And filled his glass to all; but his hand shook, +And soon from guest to guest the panic spread. +'T was but that instant she had left Francesco, +Laughing and looking back and flying still, +Her ivory tooth imprinted on his finger. +But now, alas! she was not to be found; +Nor from that hour could anything be guessed, +But that she was not!--Weary of his life, +Francesco flew to Venice, and forthwith +Flung it away in battle with the Turk. +Orsini lived; and long was to be seen +An old man wandering as in quest of something, +Something he could not find--he knew not what. +When he was gone, the house remained a while +Silent and tenantless--then went to strangers. + + Full fifty years were past, and all forgot, +When on an idle day, a day of search +'Mid the old lumber in the gallery, +That moldering chest was noticed; and 't was said +By one as young, as thoughtless as Ginevra, +"Why not remove it from its lurking place?" +'T was done as soon as said; but on the way +It burst, it fell; and lo! a skeleton, +With here and there a pearl, an emerald stone, +A golden clasp, clasping a shred of gold. +All else had perished, save a nuptial ring, +And a small seal, her mother's legacy, +Engraven with a name, the name of both, +"Ginevra."---There then had she found a grave! +Within that chest had she concealed herself, +Fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy; +When a spring lock, that lay in ambush there, +Fastened her down forever! + +NOTES.--The above selection is part of the poem, "Italy." Of the story +Rogers says, "This story is, I believe, founded on fact; though the time +and place are uncertain. Many old houses in England lay claim to it." + +Modena is the capital of a province of the same name in northern Italy. + +Bologna's bucket. This is affirmed to be the very bucket which Tassoni, an +Italian poet, has celebrated in his mock heroics as the cause of a war +between Bologna and Modena. + +Reggio is a city about sixteen miles northwest of Modena. + +The Orsini. A famous Italian family in the Middle Ages. + +Zampieri, Domenichino (b. 1581, d. 1641), was one of the most celebrated +of the Italian painters. + + + +XCVI. INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES. (344) + +John Caldwell Calhoun, 1782-1850. This great statesman, and champion of +southern rights and opinions, was born in Abbeville District, South +Carolina. In the line of both parents, he was of Irish Presbyterian +descent. In youth he was very studious, and made the best use of such +opportunities for education as the frontier settlement afforded. He +graduated at Yale College in 1804, and studied law at Litchfield, +Connecticut. In 1808 he was elected to the Legislature of South Carolina; +and, three years later, he was chosen to the National House of +Representatives. During the six years that he remained in the House, he +took an active and prominent part in the stirring events of the time. In +1817 he was appointed Secretary of War, and held the office seven years. +From 1825 to 1832 he was Vice President of the United States. He then +resigned this office, and took his seat as senator from South Carolina. In +1844 President Tyler called him to his Cabinet as Secretary of State; and, +in 1845, he returned to the Senate, where he remained till his death. +During all his public life Mr. Calhoun was active and outspoken. His +earnestness and logical force commanded the respect of those who differed +most widely from him in opinion. He took the most advanced ground in favor +of "State Rights," and defended slavery as neither morally nor politically +wrong. His foes generally conceded his honesty, and respected his ability; +while his friends regarded him as little less than an oracle. + +In private life Mr. Calhoun was highly esteemed and respected. His home +was at "Fort Hill," in the northwestern district of South Carolina; and +here he spent all the time he could spare from his public duties, in the +enjoyments of domestic life and in cultivating his plantation. In his home +he was remarkable for kindness, cheerfulness, and sociability. +### + + +To comprehend more fully the force and bearing of public opinion, and to +form a just estimate of the changes to which, aided by the press, it will +probably lead, politically and socially, it will be necessary to consider +it in connection with the causes that have given it an influence so great +as to entitle it to be regarded as a new political element. They will, +upon investigation, be found in the many discoveries and inventions made +in the last few centuries. + +All these have led to important results. Through the invention of the +mariner's compass, the globe has been circumnavigated and explored; and +all who inhabit it, with but few exceptions, are brought within the sphere +of an all-pervading commerce, which is daily diffusing over its surface +the light and blessings of civilization. + +Through that of the art of printing, the fruits of observation and +reflection, of discoveries and inventions, with all the accumulated stores +of previously acquired knowledge, are preserved and widely diffused. The +application of gunpowder to the art of war has forever settled the long +conflict for ascendency between civilization and barbarism, in favor of +the former, and thereby guaranteed that, whatever knowledge is now +accumulated, or may hereafter be added, shall never again be lost. + +The numerous discoveries and inventions, chemical and mechanical, and the +application of steam to machinery, have increased many fold the productive +powers of labor and capital, and have thereby greatly increased the number +who may devote themselves to study and improvement, and the amount of +means necessary for commercial exchanges, especially between the more and +the less advanced and civilized portions of the globe, to the great +advantage of both, but particularly of the latter. + +The application of steam to the purposes of travel and transportation, by +land and water, has vastly increased the facility, cheapness, and rapidity +of both: diffusing, with them, information and intelligence almost as +quickly and as freely as if borne by the winds; while the electrical wires +outstrip them in velocity, rivaling in rapidity even thought itself. + +The joint effect of all this has been a great increase and diffusion of +knowledge; and, with this, an impulse to progress and civilization +heretofore unexampled in the history of the world, accompanied by a mental +energy and activity unprecedented. + +To all these causes, public opinion, and its organ, the press, owe their +origin and great influence. Already they have attained a force in the more +civilized portions of the globe sufficient to be felt by all governments, +even the most absolute and despotic. But, as great as they now are, they +have, as yet, attained nothing like their maximum force. It is probable +that not one of the causes which have contributed to their formation and +influence, has yet produced its full effect; while several of the most +powerful have just begun to operate; and many others, probably of equal or +even greater force, yet remain to be brought to light. + +When the causes now in operation have produced their full effect, and +inventions and discoveries shall have been exhausted--if that may ever +be--they will give a force to public opinion, and cause changes, political +and social, difficult to be anticipated. What will be their final bearing, +time only can decide with any certainty. + +That they will, however, greatly improve the condition of man ultimately, +it would be impious to doubt; it would be to suppose that the all-wise and +beneficent Being, the Creator of all, had so constituted man as that the +employment of the high intellectual faculties with which He has been +pleased to endow him, in order that he might develop the laws that control +the great agents of the material world, and make them subservient to his +use, would prove to him the cause of permanent evil, and not of permanent +good. + + +NOTE.--This selection is an extract from "A Disquisition on Government." +Mr. Calhoun expected to revise his manuscript before it was printed, but +death interrupted his plans. + + + +XCVII. ENOCH ARDEN AT THE WINDOW. (347) + +Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, was born in Somerby, Lincolnshire, England; +his father was a clergyman noted for his energy and physical stature. +Alfred, with his two older brothers, graduated at Trinity College, +Cambridge. His first volume of poems appeared in 1830; it made little +impression, and was severely treated by the critics. On the publication of +his third series, in 1842, his poetic genius began to receive general +recognition. On the death of Wordsworth he was made poet laureate, and he +was then regarded as the foremost living poet of England. "In Memoriam," +written in memory of his friend Arthur Hallam, appeared in 1850; the +"Idyls of the King," in 1858; and "Enoch Arden," a touching story in +verse, from which the following selection is taken, was published in 1864. +In 1883 he accepted a peerage as Baron Tennyson of Aldworth, Sussex, and +of Freshwater, Isle of Wight. +### + + + But Enoch yearned to see her face again; +"If I might look on her sweet face again +And know that she is happy." So the thought +Haunted and harassed him, and drove him forth, +At evening when the dull November day +Was growing duller twilight, to the hill. +There he sat down gazing on all below; +There did a thousand memories roll upon him, +Unspeakable for sadness. By and by +The ruddy square of comfortable light, +Far-blazing from the rear of Philip's house, +Allured him, as the beacon blaze allures +The bird of passage, till he mildly strikes +Against it, and beats out his weary life. + + For Philip's dwelling fronted on the street, +The latest house to landward; but behind, +With one small gate that opened on the waste, +Flourished a little garden, square and walled: +And in it throve an ancient evergreen, +A yew tree, and all round it ran a walk +Of shingle, and a walk divided it: +But Enoch shunned the middle walk, and stole +Up by the wall, behind the yew; and thence +That which he better might have shunned, if griefs +Like his have worse or better, Enoch saw. + + For cups and silver on the burnished board +Sparkled and shone; so genial was the hearth: +And on the right hand of the hearth he saw +Philip, the slighted suitor of old times, +Stout, rosy, with his babe across his knees; +And o'er her second father stooped a girl, +A later but a loftier Annie Lee, +Fair-haired and tall, and from her lifted hand +Dangled a length of ribbon and a ring +To tempt the babe, who reared his creasy arms, +Caught at and ever missed it, and they laughed: +And on the left hand of the hearth he saw +The mother glancing often toward her babe, +But turning now and then to speak with him, +Her son, who stood beside her tall and strong, +And saying that which pleased him, for he smiled. + + Now when the dead man come to life beheld +His wife, his wife no more, and saw the babe, +Hers, yet not his, upon the father's knee, +And all the warmth, the peace, the happiness. +And his own children tall and beautiful, +And him, that other, reigning in his place, +Lord of his rights and of his children's love, +Then he, tho' Miriam Lane had told him all, +Because things seen are mightier than things heard, +Staggered and shook, holding the branch, and feared +To send abroad a shrill and terrible cry, +Which in one moment, like the blast of doom, +Would shatter all the happiness of the hearth. + + He, therefore, turning softly like a thief, +Lest the harsh shingle should grate underfoot, +And feeling all along the garden wall, +Lest he should swoon and tumble and be found, +Crept to the gate, and opened it, and closed, +As lightly as a sick man's chamber door, +Behind him, and came out upon the waste. +And there he would have knelt but that his knees +Were feeble, so that falling prone he dug +His fingers into the wet earth, and prayed. + + "Too hard to bear! why did they take me thence? +O God Almighty, blessed Savior, Thou +That did'st uphold me on my lonely isle, +Uphold me, Father, in my loneliness +A little longer! aid me, give me strength +Not to tell her, never to let her know. +Help me not to break in upon her peace. +My children too! must I not speak to these? +They know me not. I should betray myself. +Never!--no father's kiss for me!--the girl +So like her mother, and the boy, my son!" + + There speech and thought and nature failed a little, +And he lay tranced; but when he rose and paced +Back toward his solitary home again, +All down the long and narrow street he went +Beating it in upon his weary brain, +As tho' it were the burden of a song, +"Not to tell her, never to let her know." + +NOTE.--Enoch Arden had been wrecked on an uninhabited island, and was +supposed to be dead. After many years he was rescued, and returned home, +where he found his wife happily married a second time. For her happiness, +he kept his existence a secret, but soon died of a broken heart. + + + +XCVIII. LOCHINVAR. (350) + +Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the west, +Through all the wide Border his steed was the best; +And save his good broadsword, he weapon had none, +He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone! +So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, +There never was knight like the young Lochinvar! + +He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone, +He swam the Eske River where ford there was none; +But ere he alighted at Netherby gate, +The bride had consented, the gallant came late: +For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war, +Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar! + +So boldly he entered the Netherby hall, +Among bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all: +Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword-- +For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word-- +"Oh, come ye in peace here, or come ye in war, +Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?" + +"I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;-- +Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide-- +And now am I come, with this lost love of mine, +To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine. +There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far, +That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar." + +The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up, +He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup. +She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh, +With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye. +He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar, +"Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar. + +So stately his form, and so lovely her face, +That never a hall such a galliard did grace; +While her mother did fret, and her father did fume, +And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume; +And the bridemaidens whispered, "'Twere better by far +To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar." + +One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear, +When they reached the hall door, and the charger stood near, +So light to the croup the fair lady he swung, +So light to the saddle before her he sprung! +"She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur: +They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar. + +There was mounting 'mong Graemes of the Netherby clan; +Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran; +There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee, +But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see. +So daring in love, and so dauntless in war, +Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar? + -- Walter Scott. + + +NOTES.--The above selection is a song taken from Scott's poem of +"Marmion." It is in a slight degree founded on a ballad called "Katharine +Janfarie," to be found in the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." + +The Solway Frith, on the southwest coast of Scotland, is remarkable for +its high spring tides. + +Bonnet is the ordinary name in Scotland for a man's cap. + + + +XCIX. SPEECH ON THE TRIAL OF A MURDERER. (352) + +Against the prisoner at the bar, as an individual, I can not have the +slightest prejudice. I would not do him the smallest injury or injustice. +But I do not affect to be indifferent to the discovery and the punishment +of this deep guilt. I cheerfully share in the opprobrium, how much soever +it may be, which is cast on those who feel and manifest an anxious concern +that all who had a part in planning, or a hand in executing this deed of +midnight assassination, may be brought to answer for their enormous crime +at the bar of public justice. + +This is a most extraordinary case. In some respects it has hardly a +precedent anywhere; certainly none in our New England history. This bloody +drama exhibited no suddenly excited, ungovernable rage. The actors in it +were not surprised by any lionlike temptation springing upon their virtue, +and overcoming it before resistance could begin. Nor did they do the deed +to glut savage vengeance, or satiate long-settled and deadly hate. It was +a cool, calculating, money-making murder. It was all "hire and salary, not +revenge." It was the weighing of money against life; the counting out of +so many pieces of silver against so many ounces of blood. + +An aged man, without an enemy in the world, in his own house, and in his +own bed, is made the victim of a butcherly murder for mere pay. Truly, +here is a new lesson for painters and poets. Whoever shall hereafter draw +the portrait of murder, if he will show it as it has been exhibited in an +example, where such example was last to have been looked for, in the very +bosom of our New England society, let him not give it the grim visage of +Moloch, the brow knitted by revenge, the face black with settled hate, and +the bloodshot eye emitting livid fires of malice. Let him draw, rather, a +decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon; a picture in repose, rather than +in action; not so much an example of human nature in its depravity, and in +its paroxysms of crime, as an infernal nature, a fiend in the ordinary +display and development of his character. + +The deed was executed with a degree of self-possession and steadiness +equal to the wickedness with which it was planned. The circumstances, now +clearly in evidence, spread out the whole scene before us. Deep sleep had +fallen on the destined victim, and on all beneath his roof. A healthful +old man, to whom sleep was sweet,--the first sound slumbers of the night +held him in their soft but strong embrace. The assassin enters through the +window, already prepared, into an unoccupied apartment. With noiseless +foot he paces the lonely hall, half-lighted by the moon; he winds up the +ascent of the stairs, and reaches the door of the chamber. Of this, he +moves the lock by soft and continued pressure till it turns on its hinges +without noise; and he enters, and beholds his victim before him. The room +was uncommonly open to the admission of light. The face of the innocent +sleeper was turned from the murderer, and the beams of the moon, resting +on the gray locks of his aged temple, showed him where to strike. The +fatal blow is given! and the victim passes, without a struggle or a +motion, from the repose of sleep to the repose of death! + +It is the assassin's purpose to make sure work; and he yet plies the +dagger, though it was obvious that life had been destroyed by the blow of +the bludgeon. He even raises the aged arm, that he may not fail in his aim +at the heart; and replaces it again over the wounds of the poniard! To +finish the picture, he explores the wrist for the pulse! He feels for it, +and ascertains that it beats no longer! It is accomplished. The deed is +done. He retreats, retraces his steps to the window, passes out through it +as he came in, and escapes. He has done the murder; no eye has seen him, +no ear has heard him. The secret is his own, and it is safe! + +Ah! gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. Such a secret can be safe +nowhere. The whole creation of God has neither nook nor corner where the +guilty can bestow it, and say it is safe. Not to speak of that eye which +glances through all disguises, and beholds everything as in the splendor +of noon; such secrets of guilt are never safe from detection, even by men. +True it is, generally speaking, that "murder will out." True it is that +Providence hath so ordained, and doth so govern things, that those who +break the great law of Heaven by shedding man's blood, seldom succeed in +avoiding discovery. Especially, in a case exciting so much attention as +this, discovery must come, and wilt come, sooner or later. A thousand eyes +turn at once to explore every man, everything, every circumstance +connected with the time and place; a thousand ears catch every whisper; a +thousand excited minds intensely dwell on the scene, shedding all their +light, and ready to kindle the slightest circumstance into a blaze of +discovery. + +Meantime, the guilty soul can not keep its own secret. It is false to +itself, or rather it feels an irresistible impulse of conscience to be +true to itself. It labors under its guilty possession, and knows not what +to do with it. The human heart was not made for the residence of such an +inhabitant. It finds itself preyed on by a torment, which it dares not +acknowledge to God nor man. A vulture is devouring it, and it can ask no +sympathy or assistance either from heaven or earth. The secret which the +murderer possesses soon comes to possess him; and, like the evil spirits +of which we read, it overcomes him, and leads him whithersoever it will. +He feels it beating at his heart, rising to his throat, and demanding +disclosure. He thinks the whole world sees it in his face, reads it in his +eyes, and almost hears its workings in the very silence of his thoughts. +It has become his master. It betrays his discretion, it breaks down his +courage, it conquers his prudence. When suspicions from without begin to +embarrass him, and the net of circumstance to entangle him, the fatal +secret struggles with still greater violence to burst forth. It must be +confessed, it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but +suicide, and suicide is confession. + --Daniel Webster. + + +NOTE.--The above extract is from Daniel Webster's argument in the trial of +John F. Knapp for the murder of Mr. White, a very wealthy and respectable +citizen of Salem, Mass, Four persons were arrested as being concerned in +the conspiracy; one confessed the plot and all the details of the crime, +implicating the others, but he afterwards refused to testify in court. The +man who, by this confession, was the actual murderer, committed suicide, +and Mr. Webster's assistance was obtained in prosecuting the others. John +F. Knapp was convicted as principal, and the other two as accessaries in +the murder. + + + +C. THE CLOSING YEAR. (355) + +George Denison Prentice, 1802-1870, widely known as a political writer, a +poet, and a wit, was born in Preston, Connecticut, and graduated at Brown +University in 1823. He studied law, but never practiced his profession. He +edited a paper in Hartford for two years; and, in 1831, he became editor +of the "Louisville Journal," which position he held for nearly forty +years. As an editor, Mr. Prentice was an able, and sometimes bitter, +political partisan, abounding in wit and satire; as a poet, he not only +wrote gracefully himself, but he did much by his kindness and sympathy to +develop the poetical talents of others. Some who have since taken high +rank, first became known to the world through the columns of the +"Louisville Journal." +### + + +'T is midnight's holy hour, and silence now +Is brooding like a gentle spirit o'er +The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds, +The bell's deep notes are swelling; 't is the knell +Of the departed year. + + No funeral train +Is sweeping past; yet, on the stream and wood, +With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest +Like a pale, spotless shroud; the air is stirred +As by a mourner's sigh; and, on yon cloud, +That floats so still and placidly through heaven, +The spirits of the Seasons seem to stand-- +Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form, +And Winter, with his aged locks--and breathe +In mournful cadences, that come abroad +Like the far wind harp's wild and touching wail, +A melancholy dirge o'er the dead year, +Gone from the earth forever. + + 'Tis a time +For memory and for tears. Within the deep, +Still chambers of the heart, a specter dim, +Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time, +Heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold +And solemn finger to the beautiful +And holy visions, that have passed away, +And left no shadow of their loveliness +On the dead waste of life. That specter lifts +The coffin lid of Hope, and Joy, and Love, +And, bending mournfully above the pale, +Sweet forms that slumber there, scatters dead flowers +O'er what has passed to nothingness. + + The year +Has gone, and, with it, many a glorious throng +Of happy dreams. Its mark is on each brow, +Its shadow in each heart. In its swift course +It waved its scepter o'er the beautiful, +And they are not. It laid its pallid hand +Upon the strong man; and the haughty form +Is fallen, and the flashing eye is dim. +It trod the hall of revelry, where thronged +The bright and joyous; and the tearful wail +Of stricken ones is heard, where erst the song +And reckless shout resounded. It passed o'er +The battle plain, where sword, and spear, and shield +Flashed in the light of midday; and the strength +Of serried hosts is shivered, and the grass, +Green from the soil of carnage, waves above +The crushed and moldering skeleton. It came, +And faded like a wreath of mist at eve; +Yet, ere it melted in the viewless air, +It heralded its millions to their home +In the dim land of dreams. + + Remorseless Time!-- +Fierce spirit of the glass and scythe!--what power +Can stay him in his silent course, or melt +His iron heart to pity! On, still on +He presses, and forever. The proud bird, +The condor of the Andes, that can soar +Through heaven's unfathomable depths, or brave +The fury of the northern hurricane, +And bathe his plumage in the thunder's home, +Furls his broad wings at nightfall, and sinks down +To rest upon his mountain crag; but Time +Knows not the weight of sleep or weariness; +And Night's deep darkness has no chain to bind +His rushing pinion. + + Revolutions sweep +O'er earth, like troubled visions o'er the breast +Of dreaming sorrow; cities rise and sink +Like bubbles on the water; fiery isles +Spring blazing from the ocean, and go back +To their mysterious caverns; mountains rear +To heaven their bald and blackened cliffs, and bow +Their tall heads to the plain; new empires rise, +Gathering the strength of hoary centuries, +And rush down, like the Alpine avalanche, +Startling the nations; and the very stars, +Yon bright and burning blazonry of God, +Glitter awhile in their eternal depths, +And, like the Pleiad, loveliest of their train, +Shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away, +To darkle in the trackless void; yet Time, +Time the tomb builder, holds his fierce career, +Dark, stern, all pitiless, and pauses not +Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path, +To sit and muse, like other conquerors, +Upon the fearful ruin he has wrought. + + + +CI. A NEW CITY IN COLORADO. (358) + +Helen Hunt Jackson, 1830-1885, was the daughter of the late Professor +Nathan W. Fiske, of Amherst College. She was born in Amherst, and educated +at Ipswich, Massachusetts, and at New York. Mrs. Jackson was twice +married. In the latter years of her life, she became deeply interested in +the Indians, and wrote two books, "Ramona," a novel, and "A Century of +Dishonor," setting forth vividly the wrongs to which the red race has been +subjected. She had previously published several books of prose and poetry, +less important but charming in their way. The following selection is +adapted from "Bits of Travel at Home." +### + + +Garland City is six miles from Fort Garland. The road to it from the fort +lies for the last three miles on the top of a sage-grown plateau. It is +straight as an arrow, looks in the distance like a brown furrow on the +pale gray plain, and seems to pierce the mountains beyond. Up to within an +eighth of a mile of Garland City, there is no trace of human habitation. +Knowing that the city must be near, you look in all directions for a +glimpse of it; the hills ahead of you rise sharply across your way. Where +is the city? At your very feet, but you do not suspect it. + +The sunset light was fading when we reached the edge of the ravine in +which the city lies. It was like looking unawares over the edge of a +precipice; the gulch opened beneath us as suddenly as if the earth had +that moment parted and made it. With brakes set firm, we drove cautiously +down the steep road; the ravine twinkled with lights, and almost seemed to +flutter with white tents and wagon tops. At the farther end it widened, +opening out on an inlet of the San Luis Park; and, in its center, near +this widening mouth, lay the twelve-days-old city. A strange din arose +from it. + +"What is going on?" we exclaimed. "The building of the city," was the +reply. "Twelve days ago there was not a house here. To-day there are one +hundred and five, and in a week more there will be two hundred; each man +is building his own home, and working day and night to get it done ahead +of his neighbor. There are four sawmills going constantly, but they can't +turn out lumber half fast enough. Everybody has to be content with a board +at a time. If it were not for that, there would have been twice as many +houses done as there are." + +We drove on down the ravine. A little creek on our right was half hid in +willow thickets. Hundreds of white tents gleamed among them: tents with +poles; tents made by spreading sailcloth over the tops of bushes; round +tents; square tents; big tents; little tents; and for every tent a camp +fire; hundreds of white-topped wagons, also, at rest for the night, their +great poles propped up by sticks, and their mules and drivers lying and +standing in picturesque groups around them. + +It was a scene not to be forgotten. Louder and louder sounded the chorus +of the hammers as we drew near the center of the "city;" more and more the +bustle thickened; great ox teams swaying unwieldily about, drawing logs +and planks, backing up steep places; all sorts of vehicles driving at +reckless speed up and down; men carrying doors; men walking along inside +of window sashes,--the easiest way to carry them; men shoveling; men +wheeling wheelbarrows; not a man standing still; not a man with empty +hands; every man picking up something, and running to put it down +somewhere else, as in a play; and, all the while, "Clink! clink! clink!" +ringing above the other sounds,--the strokes of hundreds of hammers, like +the "Anvil Chorus." + +"Where is Perry's Hotel?" we asked. One of the least busy of the throng +spared time to point to it with his thumb, as he passed us. In some +bewilderment we drew up in front of a large unfinished house, through the +many uncased apertures of which we could see only scaffoldings, rough +boards, carpenters' benches, and heaps of shavings. Streams of men were +passing in and out through these openings, which might be either doors or +windows; no steps led to any of them. + +"Oh, yes! oh, yes! can accommodate you all!" was the landlord's reply to +our hesitating inquiries. He stood in the doorway of his dining-room; the +streams of men we had seen going in and out were the fed and the unfed +guests of the house. It was supper time; we also were hungry. We peered +into the dining room: three tables full of men; a huge pile of beds on the +floor, covered with hats and coats; a singular wall, made entirely of +doors propped upright; a triangular space walled off by sailcloth,--this +is what we saw. We stood outside, waiting among the scaffolding and +benches. A black man was lighting the candles in a candelabrum made of two +narrow bars of wood nailed across each other at right angles, and +perforated with holes. The candles sputtered, and the hot fat fell on the +shavings below. + +"Dangerous way of lighting a room full of shavings," some one said. The +landlord looked up at the swinging candelabra and laughed. "Tried it +pretty often," he said. "Never burned a house down yet." + +I observed one peculiarity in the speech at Garland City. Personal +pronouns, as a rule, were omitted; there was no time for a superfluous +word. + +"Took down this house at Wagon Creek," he continued, "just one week ago; +took it down one morning while the people were eating breakfast; took it +down over their heads; putting it up again over their heads now." + +This was literally true. The last part of it we ourselves were seeing +while he spoke, and a friend at our elbow had seen the Wagon Creek crisis. + + +"Waiting for that round table for you," said the landlord; " 'll bring the +chairs out here's fast's they quit 'em. That's the only way to get the +table." + +So, watching his chances, as fast as a seat was vacated, he sprang into +the room, seized the chair and brought it out to us; and we sat there in +our "reserved seats," biding the time when there should be room enough +vacant at the table for us to take our places. + +What an indescribable scene it was! The strange-looking wall of propped +doors which we had seen, was the impromptu, wall separating the bedrooms +from the dining-room. Bedrooms? Yes, five of them; that is, five +bedsteads in a row, with just space enough between them to hang up a +sheet, and with just room enough between them and the propped doors for a +moderate-sized person to stand upright if he faced either the doors or the +bed. Chairs? Oh, no! What do you want of a chair in a bedroom which has a +bed in it? Washstands? One tin basin out in the unfinished room. Towels? +Uncertain. + +The little triangular space walled off by the sailcloth was a sixth +bedroom, quite private and exclusive; and the big pile of beds on the +dining-room floor was to be made up into seven bedrooms more between the +tables, after everybody had finished supper. + +Luckily for us we found a friend here,--a man who has been from the +beginning one of Colorado's chief pioneers; and who is never, even in the +wildest wilderness, without resources of comfort. + +"You can't sleep here," he said. "I can do better for you than this." + +"Better!" + +He offered us luxury. How movable a thing is one's standard of comfort! A +two-roomed pine shanty, board walls, board floors, board ceilings, board +partitions not reaching to the roof, looked to us that night like a +palace. To have been entertained at Windsor Castle would not have made us +half so grateful. + +It was late before the "city" grew quiet; and, long after most of the +lights were out, and most of the sounds had ceased, I heard one solitary +hammer in the distance, clink, clink, clink. I fell asleep listening to +it. + + + +CII. IMPORTANCE OF THE UNION. (362) + +Mr. President: I am conscious of having detained you and the Senate much +too long. I was drawn into the debate with no previous deliberation, such +as is suited to the discussion of so grave and important a subject. But it +is a subject of which my heart is full, and I have not been willing to +suppress the utterance of its spontaneous sentiments. I can not, even now, +persuade myself to relinquish it, without expressing once more my deep +conviction, that, since it respects nothing less than the union of the +states, it is of most vital and essential importance to the public +happiness. + +I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the +prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our +federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our +consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly +indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we +reached only by the discipline of our virtues, in the severe school of +adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, +prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, these +great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with +newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs +of its utility and its blessings; and, although our territory has +stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and +farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been +to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness. + +I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what +might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the +chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall +be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice +of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth +of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counselor in the +affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on +considering, not how the Union should be best preserved, but how tolerable +might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken up and +destroyed. + +While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread +out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that, I seek not to +penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may +not rise. God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies +behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun +in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored +fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, +belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in +fraternal blood. + +Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous +ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still +full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original +luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star +obscured--bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as, What +is all this worth? nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty +first, and Union afterwards--but everywhere, spread all over in characters +of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the +sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that +other sentiment, dear to every true American heart--Liberty and Union, now +and forever, one and inseparable! + --Daniel Webster. + +NOTE.--This selection is the peroration of Mr. Webster's speech in reply +to Mr. Hayne during the debate in the Senate on Mr. Foot's Resolution in +regard to the Public Lands. + + + +CIII. THE INFLUENCES OF THE SUN. (364) + +John Tyndall, 1820-1893, one of the most celebrated modern +scientists, was an Irishman by birth. He was a pupil of the distinguished +Faraday. In 1853 he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in the +Royal Institution of London. He is known chiefly for his brilliant +experiments and clear writing respecting heat, light, and sound. He also +wrote one or two interesting books concerning the Alps and their glaciers. +He visited America, and delighted the most intelligent audiences by his +scientific lectures and his brilliant experiments. The scientific world is +indebted to him for several remarkable discoveries. +### + + +As surely as the force which moves a clock's hands is derived from the arm +which winds up the clock, so surely is all terrestrial power drawn from +the sun. Leaving out of account the eruptions of volcanoes, and the ebb +and flow of the tides, every mechanical action on the earth's surface, +every manifestation of power, organic and inorganic, vital and physical, +is produced by the sun. His warmth keeps the sea liquid, and the +atmosphere a gas, and all the storms which agitate both are blown by the +mechanical force of the sun. He lifts the rivers and the glaciers up to +the mountains; and thus the cataract and the avalanche shoot with an +energy derived immediately from him. + +Thunder and lightning are also his transmitted strength. Every fire that +burns and every flame that glows, dispenses light and heat which +originally belonged to the sun. In these days, unhappily, the news of +battle is familiar to us, but every shock and every charge is an +application or misapplication of the mechanical force of the sun. He blows +the trumpet, he urges the projectile, he bursts the bomb. And, remember, +this is not poetry, but rigid mechanical truth. + +He rears, as I have said, the whole vegetable world, and through it the +animal; the lilies of the field are his workmanship, the verdure of the +meadows, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. He forms the muscles, he +urges the blood, he builds the brain. His fleetness is in the lion's foot; +he springs in the panther, he soars in the eagle, he slides in the snake. +He builds the forest and hews it down, the power which raised the tree, +and which wields the ax, being one and the same. The clover sprouts and +blossoms, and the scythe of the mower swings, by the operation of the same +force. + +The sun digs the ore from our mines, he rolls the iron; he rivets the +plates, he boils the water; he draws the train. He not only grows the +cotton, but he spins the fiber and weaves the web. There is not a hammer +raised, a wheel turned, or a shuttle thrown, that is not raised, and +turned, and thrown by the sun. + +His energy is poured freely into space, but our world is a halting place +where this energy is conditioned. Here the Proteus works his spells; the +selfsame essence takes a million shapes and hues, and finally dissolves +into its primitive and almost formless form. The sun comes to us as heat; +he quits us as heat; and between his entrance and departure the multiform +powers of our globe appear. They are all special forms of solar power--the +molds into which his strength is temporarily poured in passing from its +source through infinitude. + +NOTE.--Proteus (pro. Pro'te-us) was a mythological divinity. His +distinguishing characteristic was the power of assuming different shapes. + + + +CIV. COLLOQUIAL POWERS OF FRANKLIN. (366) + +William Wirt, 1772-1834, an American lawyer and author, was born at +Bladensburg, Maryland. Left an orphan at an early age, he was placed in +care of his uncle. He improved his opportunities for education so well +that he became a private tutor at fifteen. In 1792 he was admitted to the +bar, and began the practice of law in Virginia; he removed to Richmond in +1799. From 1817 to 1829 he was Attorney-general of the United States. His +last years were spent in Baltimore. Mr. Wirt was the author of several +books; his "Letters of a British Spy," published in 1803, and "Life of +Patrick Henry," published in 1817, are the best known of his writings. +### + + +Never have I known such a fireside companion. Great as he was both as a +statesman and philosopher, he never shone in a light more winning than +when he was seen in a domestic circle. It was once my good fortune to pass +two or three weeks with him, at the house of a private gentleman, in the +back part of Pennsylvania, and we were confined to the house during the +whole of that time by the unintermitting constancy and depth of the snows. +But confinement never could be felt where Franklin was an inmate; His +cheerfulness and his colloquial powers spread around him a perpetual +spring. + +When I speak, however, of his colloquial powers, I do not mean to awaken +any notion analogous to that which Boswell has given us of Johnson. The +conversation of the latter continually reminds one of the "pomp and +circumstance of glorious war." It was, indeed, a perpetual contest for +victory, or an arbitrary or despotic exaction of homage to his superior +talents. It was strong, acute, prompt, splendid, and vociferous; as loud, +stormy, and sublime as those winds which he represents as shaking the +Hebrides, and rocking the old castle which frowned on the dark-rolling sea +beneath. + +But one gets tired of storms, however sublime they may be, and longs for +the more orderly current of nature. Of Franklin, no one ever became tired. +There was no ambition of eloquence, no effort to shine in anything which +came from him. There was nothing which made any demand upon either your +allegiance or your admiration. His manner was as unaffected as infancy. It +was nature's self. He talked like an old patriarch; and his plainness and +simplicity put you at once at your ease, and gave you the full and free +possession and use of your faculties. His thoughts were of a character to +shine by their own light, without any adventitious aid. They only required +a medium of vision like his pure and simple style, to exhibit to the +highest advantage their native radiance and beauty. + +His cheerfulness was unremitting. It seemed to be as much the effect of a +systematic and salutary exercise of the mind, as of its superior +organization. His wit was of the first order. It did not show itself +merely in occasional coruscations[1]; but, without any effort or force on +his part, it shed a constant stream of the purest light over the whole of +his discourse. Whether in the company of commons or nobles, he was always +the same plain man; always most perfectly at his ease, with his faculties +in full play, and the full orbit of his genius forever clear and +unclouded. + +[Transcriber's Footnote 1: coruscations: flashes of light.] + +And then, the stores of his mind were inexhaustible. He had commenced life +with an attention so vigilant that nothing had escaped his observation; +and a judgment so solid that every incident was turned to advantage. His +youth had not been wasted in idleness, nor overcast by intemperance. He +had been, all his life, a close and deep reader, as well as thinker; and +by the force of his own powers, had wrought up the raw materials which he +had gathered from books, with such exquisite skill and felicity, that he +has added a hundred fold to their original value, and justly made them his +own. + +NOTES.--Benjamin Franklin (b. 1706, d. 1790) was one of the most prominent +men in the struggle of the American colonies for liberty. He was renowned +as a statesman, and, although not an author by profession, was a very +prolific writer. His "Autobiography," which was first printed in France, +is now a household volume in America. See page 431. + +Boswell, James, (b. 1740, d. 1795,) was a Scotch lawyer, and is chiefly +known as the biographer of Dr. Johnson, of whom he was the intimate friend +and companion. + +Johnson, Samuel. See biographical notice, page 78. + + + +CV. THE DREAM OF CLARENCE. (368) + +SCENE--Room in the Tower of London. Enter CLARENCE and BRAKENBURY. + +Brak. Why looks your grace so heavily to-day? +Clar. O, I have passed a miserable night, + So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams, + That, as I am a Christian, faithful man, + I would not spend another such a night, + Though 't were to buy a world of happy days, + So full of dismal terror was the time! +Brak. What was your dream? I long to hear you tell it. +Clar. Methoughts, that I had broken from the Tower, + And was embarked to cross to Burgundy; + And, in my company, my brother Gloster; + Who, from my cabin, tempted me to walk + Upon the hatches; thence we looked toward England, + And cited up a thousand fearful times, + During the wars of York and Lancaster, + That had befallen us. As we paced along + Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, + Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling, + Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard, + Into the tumbling billows of the main. + Oh, then, methought, what pain it was to drown! + What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears! + What ugly sights of death within mine eyes! + Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks; + Ten thousand men that fishes gnawed upon; + Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, + Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, + All scattered in the bottom of the sea. + Some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in those holes + Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept, + As 't were in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems, + Which wooed the slimy bottom of the deep, + And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by. +Brak. Had you such leisure in the time of death, + To gaze upon the secrets of the deep? +Clar. Methought I had; and often did I strive + To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood + Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth + To seek the empty, vast, and wandering air; + But smothered it within my panting bulk, + Which almost burst to belch it in the sea. +Brak. Awaked you not with this sore agony? +Clar. Oh, no; my dream was lengthened after life; + Oh, then began the tempest to my soul, + Who passed, methought, the melancholy flood, + With that grim ferryman which poets write of, + Unto the kingdom of perpetual night. + The first that there did greet my stranger soul, + Was my great father-in-law, renowne'd Warwick; + Who cried aloud, "What scourge for perjury + Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?" + And so he vanished. Then came wandering by + A shadow like an angel, with bright hair + Dabbled in blood; and he shrieked out aloud: + "Clarence is come! false, fleeting, perjured Clarence! + That stabbed me in the field by Tewksbury: + Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments!" + With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends + Environed me, and howled in mine ears + Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise, + I, trembling, waked, and, for a season after, + Could not believe but that I was in hell; + Such terrible impression made the dream. +Brak. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you; + I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it. +Clar. O Brakenbury, I have done those things, + Which now bear evidence against my soul, + For Edward's sake; and see how he requites me! + O God! if my deep prayers can not appease thee, + But thou wilt be avenged on my misdeeds, + Yet execute thy wrath in me alone: + Oh, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children! + --I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me; + My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep. +Brak. I will, my lord: God give your grace good rest! + + CLARENCE reposes himself on a chair. + + Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, + Makes the night morning, and the noontide night. + + Shakespeare.--Richard III, Act i, Scene iv. + + +NOTES.--The houses of York and Lancaster were at war for the possession of +the English throne. The Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Gloster were +brothers of King Edward IV., who was head of the house of York. Clarence +married the daughter of the Earl of Warwick, and joined the latter in +several insurrections against the king. They finally plotted with Queen +Margaret of the Lancaster party for the restoration of the latter house to +the English throne, but Clarence betrayed Warwick and the Queen, and +killed the latter's son at the battle of Tewksbury. Through the plots of +Gloster, Clarence was imprisoned in the Tower of London, and there +murdered. + +Brakenbury was lieutenant of the Tower. + +The ferryman referred to is Charon, of Greek mythology, who was supposed +to ferry the souls of the dead over the river Acheron to the infernal +regions. + + + +CVI. HOMEWARD BOUND. (371) + +Richard H. Dana, Jr., 1815-1882, was the son of Richard H. Dana, the poet. +He was born in Cambridge, Mass. In his boyhood be had a strong desire to +be a sailor, but by his father's advice chose a student's life, and +entered Harvard University. At the age of nineteen an affection of the +eyes compelled him to suspend his studies. He now made a voyage to +California as a common sailor, and was gone two years. On his return, he +resumed his studies and graduated in 1837. He afterwards studied law, and +entered upon an active and successful practice. Most of his life was spent +in law and politics, although he won distinction in literature. + +The following extract is from his "Two Years before the Mast," a book +published in 1840, giving an account of his voyage to California. This +book details, in a most clear and entertaining manner, the everyday life +of a common sailor on shipboard, and is the best known of all Mr. Dana's +works. +### + + +It is usual, in voyages round the Cape from the Pacific, to keep to the +eastward of the Falkland Islands; but, as there had now set in a strong, +steady, and clear southwester, with every prospect of its lasting, and we +had had enough of high latitudes, the captain determined to stand +immediately to the northward, running inside the Falkland Islands. +Accordingly, when the wheel was relieved at eight o'clock, the order was +given to keep her due north, and all hands were turned up to square away +the yards and make sail. + +In a moment the news ran through the ship that the captain was keeping her +off, with her nose straight for Boston, and Cape Horn over her taffrail. +It was a moment of enthusiasm. Everyone was on the alert, and even the two +sick men turned out to lend a hand at the halyards. The wind was now due +southwest, and blowing a gale to which a vessel close-hauled could have +shown no more than a single close-reefed sail; but as we were going before +it, we could carry on. Accordingly, hands were sent aloft and a reef +shaken out of the topsails, and the reefed foresail set. When we came to +masthead the topsail yards, with all hands at the halyards, we struck up, +"Cheerly, men," with a chorus which might have been heard halfway to +Staten Island. + +Under her increased sail, the ship drove on through the water. Yet she +could bear it well; and the captain sang out from the quarter-deck-- +"Another reef out of that fore topsail, and give it to her." Two hands +sprang aloft; the frozen reef points and earings were cast adrift, the +halyards manned, and the sail gave out her increased canvas to the gale. +All hands were kept on deck to watch the effect of the change. It was as +much as she could well carry, and with a heavy sea astern, it took two men +at the wheel to steer her. + +She flung the foam from her bows; the spray breaking aft as far as the +gangway. She was going at a prodigious rate. Still, everything held. +Preventer braces were reeved and hauled taut; tackles got upon the +backstays; and everything done to keep all snug and strong. The captain +walked the deck at a rapid stride, looked aloft at the sails, and then to +windward; the mate stood in the gangway, rubbing his hands, and talking +aloud to the ship--"Hurrah, old bucket! the Boston girls have got hold of +the towrope!" and the like; and we were on the forecastle looking to see +how the spars stood it, and guessing the rate at which she was +going,--when the captain called out--"Mr. Brown, get up the topmast +studding sail! What she can't carry she may drag!" + +The mate looked a moment; but he would let no one be before him in daring. +He sprang forward,--"Hurrah, men! rig out the topmast studding sail boom! +Lay aloft, and I'll send the rigging up to you!" We sprang aloft into the +top; lowered a girtline down, by which we hauled up the rigging; rove the +tacks and halyards; ran out the boom and lashed it fast, and sent down the +lower halyards as a preventer. It was a clear starlight night, cold and +blowing; but everybody worked with a will. Some, indeed, looked as though +they thought the "old man" was mad, but no one said a word. + +We had had a new topmast studding sail made with a reef in it,--a thing +hardly ever heard of, and which the sailors had ridiculed a good deal, +saying that when it was time to reef a studding sail it was time to take +it in. But we found a use for it now; for, there being a reef in the +topsail, the studding sail could not be set without one in it also. To be +sure, a studding sail with reefed topsails was rather a novelty; yet there +was some reason in it, for if we carried that away, we should lose only a +sail and a boom; but a whole topsail might have carried away the mast and +all. + +While we were aloft, the sail had been got out, bent to the yard, reefed, +and ready for hoisting. Waiting for a good opportunity, the halyards were +manned and the yard hoisted fairly up to the block; but when the mate came +to shake the cat's-paw out of the downhaul, and we began to boom end the +sail, it shook the ship to her center. The boom buckled up and bent like a +whipstick, and we looked every moment to see something go; but, being of +the short, tough upland spruce, it bent like whalebone, and nothing could +break it. The carpenter said it was the best stick he had ever seen. + +The strength of all hands soon brought the tack to the boom end, and the +sheet was trimmed down, and the preventer and the weather brace hauled +taut to take off the strain. Every rope-yarn seemed stretched to the +utmost, and every thread of canvas; and with this sail added to her, the +ship sprang through the water like a thing possessed. The sail being +nearly all forward, it lifted her out of the water, and she seemed +actually to jump from sea to sea. From the time her keel was laid, she had +never been so driven; and had it been life or death with everyone of us, +she could not have borne another stitch of canvas. + +Finding that she would bear the sail, the hands we're sent below, and our +watch remained on deck. Two men at the wheel had as much as they could do +to keep her within three points of her course, for she steered as wild as +a young colt. The mate walked the deck, looking at the sails, and then +over the side to see the foam fly by her,--slapping his hands upon his +thighs and talking to the ship--"Hurrah, you jade, you've got the scent! +you know where you're going!" And when she leaped over the seas, and +almost out of the water, and trembled to her very keel, the spars and +masts snapping and creaking, "There she goes!--There she +goes--handsomely!--As long as she cracks, she holds!"--while we stood +with the rigging laid down fair for letting go, and ready to take in sail +and clear away if anything went. + +At four bells we have the log, and she was going eleven knots fairly; and +had it not been for the sea from aft which sent the chip home, and threw +her continually off her course, the log would have shown her to have been +going somewhat faster. I went to the wheel with a young fellow from the +Kennebec, who was a good helmsman; and for two hours we had our hands +full. A few minutes showed us that our monkey jackets must come off; and, +cold as it was, we stood in our shirt sleeves in a perspiration, and were +glad enough to have it eight bells and the wheels relieved. We turned in +and slept as well as we could, though the sea made a constant roar under +her bows, and washed over the forecastle like a small cataract. + + +NOTES.--The Falkland Islands are a group in the Atlantic just east of Cape +Horn. + +Bells. On shipboard time is counted in bells, the bell being struck every +half hour. + + + +CVII. IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS. (375) + +Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1800-1859, was born in the village of Rothley, +Leicestershire. On his father's side, he descended from Scotch Highlanders +and ministers of the kirk. His education began at home, and was completed +at Trinity College, Cambridge. While a student, he gained much reputation +as a writer and a debater. In 1826 he was admitted to the bar. In 1825 +began his connection with the "Edinburgh Review," which continued twenty +years. Some of his most brilliant essays appeared first in its pages. He +was first chosen to Parliament in 1830, and was reelected several times. +In 1840 his essays and some other writings were collected and published +with the title of "Miscellanies." His "Lays of Ancient Rome" was +published in 1842. His "History of England" was published near the close +of his life. In 1857 he was given the title of Baron Macaulay. "His style +is vigorous, rapid in its movement, and brilliant; and yet, with all its +splendor, has a crystalline clearness. Indeed, the fault generally found +with his style is, that it is so constantly brilliant that the vision is +dazzled and wearied with its excessive brightness." He has sometimes been +charged with sacrificing facts to fine sentences. + +In his statesmanship, Macaulay was always an earnest defender of liberty. +His first speech in Parliament was in support of a bill to remove the +civil disabilities of the Jews, and his whole parliamentary career was +consistent with this wise and liberal beginning. +### + + +The place in which the impeachment of Warren Hastings was conducted, was +worthy of such a trial. It was the great hall of William Rufus; the hall +which had resounded with acclamations at the inauguration of thirty kings; +the hall which had witnessed the just sentence of Bacon, and the just +absolution of Somers; the hall where the eloquence of Strafford had for a +moment awed and melted a victorious party inflamed with just resentment; +the hall where Charles had confronted the High Court of Justice with the +placid courage which half redeemed his fame. + +Neither military nor civil pomp was wanting. The avenues were lined with +grenadiers. The streets were kept clear by cavalry. The peers, robed in +gold and ermine, were marshaled by heralds. The judges, in their vestments +of state, attended to give advice on points of law. The long galleries +were crowded by such an audience as has rarely excited the fears or the +emulation of an orator. There were gathered together, from all parts of a +great, free, enlightened, and prosperous realm, grace and female +loveliness, wit and learning, the representatives of every science and of +every art. + +There were seated around the queen, the fair-haired, young daughters of +the house of Brunswick. There the embassadors of great kings and +commonwealths gazed with admiration on a spectacle which no other country +in the world could present. There Siddons, in the prime of her majestic +beauty, looked with emotion on a scene surpassing all the imitations of +the stage. There Gibbon, the historian of the Roman Empire, thought of the +days when Cicero pleaded the cause of Sicily against Verres; and when, +before a senate which had still some show of freedom, Tacitus thundered +against the oppressor of Africa. There, too, were seen, side by side, the +greatest painter and the greatest scholar of the age; for the spectacle +had allured Reynolds from his easel and Parr from his study. + +The sergeants made proclamation. Hastings advanced to the bar, and bent +his knee. The culprit was indeed not unworthy of that great presence. He +had ruled an extensive and populous country; had made laws and treaties; +had sent forth armies; had set up and pulled down princes; and in his high +place he had so borne himself, that all had feared him, that most had +loved him, and that hatred itself could deny him no title to glory, except +virtue. A person, small and emaciated, yet deriving dignity from a +carriage which, while it indicated deference to the court, indicated, +also, habitual self-possession and self-respect; a high and intellectual +forehead; a brow, pensive, but not gloomy; a mouth of inflexible decision; +a face, pale and worn, but serene, on which a great and well-balanced mind +was legibly written: such was the aspect with which the great proconsul +presented himself to his judges. + +The charges, and the answers of Hastings, were first read. This ceremony +occupied two whole days. On the third, Burke rose. Four sittings of the +court were occupied by his opening speech, which was intended to be a +general introduction to all the charges. With an exuberance of thought and +a splendor of diction, which more than satisfied the highly raised +expectations of the audience, he described the character and institutions +of the natives of India; recounted the circumstances in which the Asiatic +Empire of Britain had originated; and set forth the constitution of the +Company and of the English Presidencies. + +Having thus attempted to communicate to his hearers an idea of eastern +society, as vivid as that which existed in his own mind, he proceeded to +arraign the administration of Hastings, as systematically conducted in +defiance of morality and public law. The energy and pathos of the great +orator extorted expressions of unwonted admiration from all; and, for a +moment, seemed to pierce even the resolute heart of the defendant. The +ladies in the galleries, unaccustomed to such displays of eloquence, +excited by the solemnity of the occasion, and perhaps not unwilling to +display their taste and sensibility, were in a state of uncontrollable +emotion. Handkerchiefs were pulled out; smelling bottles were handed +round; hysterical sobs and screams were heard, and some were even carried +out in fits. + +At length the orator concluded. Raising his voice, till the old arches of +Irish oak resounded--"Therefore," said he, "hath it with all confidence +been ordered by the Commons of Great Britain, that I impeach Warren +Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the +Commons House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in +the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has sullied. I +impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights he has +trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, +in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name +of every age, in the name of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and +oppressor of all." + + +NOTES.--Warren Hastings (b. 1732, d. 1818) was Governor-general of British +India. He was impeached for maladministration, but, after a trial which +extended from Feb. 13th, 1788, to April 23d, 1795, and occupied one +hundred and forty-eight days, he was acquitted by a large majority on each +separate count of the impeachment. + +William Rufus, or William II. (b. 1056, d. 1100), built Westminster Hall +in which the trial was held. Bacon; see biographical notice, pages 332 and +333. Somers, John (b. 1651. d. 1716) was impeached for maladministration +while holding the office of lord chamberlain. Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, +earl of, (b. 1593, d. 1641,) was impeached for his mismanagement while +governor of Ireland. He conducted his own defense with such eloquence that +the original impeachment was abandoned, although he was immediately +condemned for high treason and executed. Charles I. (b. 1600, d. 1649), +after a war with Parliament, in which the rights of the people were at +issue, was captured, tried, and condemned to death. + +The House of Brunswick is one of the oldest families of Germany. A branch +of this family occupies the British throne. Siddons, Sarah (b. 1755, d. +1831), was a famous English actress. Gibbon, Edward (b. 1737, d. 1794), +was a celebrated English historian. Cicero; see note on page 156. Tacitus +(b. about 55, d. after 117 A. D.) was a Roman orator and historian, who +conducted the prosecution of Marius, proconsul of Africa. Reynolds, Sir +Joshua (b. 1723, d. 1792), an English portrait painter of note. Parr, +Samuel (b. 1747, d. 1825), was an English author. Burke, Edmund; see +biographical sketch accompanying the following lesson. + + + +CVIII. DESTRUCTION OF THE CARNATIC. + +Edmund Burke, 1730-1797, one of the most able and brilliant of England's +essayists, orators, and statesmen, was born in Dublin, and was the son of +an able lawyer. He graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1748. As a +student, he was distinguished for ability and industry. From 1750 to 1766 +he was in London writing for periodicals, publishing books, or serving as +private secretary. His work on "The Sublime and Beautiful" appeared in +1756. From 1766 to 1794 he was a member of Parliament, representing at +different times different constituencies. On the first day of his +appearance in the House of Commons he made a successful speech. "In the +three principal questions which excited his interest, and called forth the +most splendid displays of his eloquence--the contest with the American +Colonies, the impeachment of Warren Hastings, and the French +Revolution--we see displayed a philanthropy the most pure, illustrated by +a genius the most resplendent." Mr. Burke's foresight, uprightness, +integrity, learning, magnanimity, and eloquence made him one of the most +conspicuous men of his time; and his writings stand among the noblest +contributions to English literature. +### + + +When at length Hyder Ali found that he had to do with men who either would +sign no convention, or whom no treaty and no signature could bind, and who +were the determined enemies of human intercourse itself, he decreed to +make the country possessed by these incorrigible and predestinated +criminals a memorable example to mankind. He resolved, in the gloomy +recesses of a mind capacious of such things, to leave the whole Carnatic +an everlasting monument of vengeance, and to put perpetual desolation as a +barrier between him and those against whom the faith which holds the moral +elements of the world together was no protection. + +He became at length so confident of his force, so collected in his might, +that he made no secret whatsoever of his dreadful resolution. Having +terminated his disputes with every enemy and every rival, who buried their +mutual animosities in their common detestation against the creditors of +the Nabob of Arcot, he drew from every quarter whatever a savage ferocity +could add to his new rudiments in the arts of destruction; and compounding +all the materials of fury, havoc, and desolation into one black cloud, he +hung for a while on the declivities of the mountains. + +Whilst the authors of all these evils were idly and stupidly gazing on +this menacing meteor which blackened all their horizon, it suddenly burst, +and poured down the whole of its contents upon the plains of the Carnatic. + +Then ensued a scene of woe, the like of which no eye had seen, no heart +conceived, and which no tongue can adequately tell. All the horrors of war +before known or heard of, were mercy to that new havoc. A storm of +universal fire blasted every field, consumed every house, destroyed every +temple. The miserable inhabitants, flying from their flaming villages, in +part were slaughtered; others, without regard to sex, to age, to the +respect of rank, or sacredness of function,--fathers torn from children, +husbands from wives, enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry, and, amidst the +goading spears of drivers, and the trampling of pursuing horses,--were +swept into captivity, in an unknown and hostile land. + +Those who were able to evade this tempest, fled to the walled cities; but +escaping from fire, sword, and exile, they fell into the jaws of famine. +The alms of the settlement of Madras, in this dreadful exigency, were +certainly liberal, and all was done by charity that private charity could +do; but it was a people in beggary; it was a nation which stretched out +its hands for food. + +For months together these creatures of sufferance, whose very excess and +luxury in their most plenteous days had fallen short of the allowance of +our austerest fasts, silent, patient, resigned, without sedition or +disturbance, almost without complaint, perished by a hundred a day in the +streets of Madras; every day seventy at least laid their bodies in the +streets, or on the glacis of Tanjore, and expired of famine in the granary +of India. + +I was going to wake your justice toward this unhappy part of our +fellow-citizens, by bringing before you some of the circumstances of this +plague of hunger. Of all the calamities which beset and waylay the life of +man, this comes the nearest to our heart, and is that wherein the proudest +of us all feels himself to be nothing more than he is. + +But I find myself unable to manage it with decorum. These details are of a +species of horror so nauseous and disgusting; they are so degrading to the +sufferers and to the hearers; they are so humiliating to human nature +itself, that, on better thoughts, I find it more advisable to throw a pall +over this hideous object, and to leave it to your general conceptions. + +For eighteen months, without intermission, this destruction raged from the +gates of Madras to the gates of Tanjore; and so completely did these +masters in their art, Hyder Ali, and his more ferocious son, absolve +themselves of their impious vow, that when the British armies traversed, +as they did, the Carnatic, for hundreds of miles in all directions, +through the whole line of their march they did not see one man--not one +woman--not one child--not one four-footed beast of any description +whatever! One dead, uniform silence reigned over the whole region. + +With the inconsiderable exceptions of the narrow vicinage of some few +forts, I wish to be understood as speaking literally;--I mean to produce +to you more than three witnesses, who will support this assertion in its +full extent. That hurricane of war passed through every part of the +central provinces of the Carnatic. Six or seven districts to the north and +to the south (and these not wholly untouched) escaped the general ravage. + + +NOTES.--This selection is an extract from Burke's celebrated speech in +Parliament, in 1785, on the Nabob of Arcot's debts; it bore upon the +maladministration of Hastings. + +Arcot, a district in India, had been ceded to the British on condition +that they should pay the former ruler's debts. These were found to be +enormous, and the creditors proved to be individuals in the East India +Company's employ. The creditors, for their private gain, induced the Nabob +to attempt the subjugation of other native princes, among whom was Hyder +Ali. The latter at first made successful resistance, and compelled the +Nabob and his allies to sign a treaty. The treaty was not kept, and the +destruction above recounted took place. + +The Carnatic is a province in British India, on the eastern side of the +peninsula; it contains about 50,000 square miles. Madras is a city, and +Tanjore a town, in this province. + + + +CIX. THE RAVEN. + +Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849, was born in Boston, and died in Baltimore. He +was left a destitute orphan at an early age, and was adopted by Mr. John +Allan, a wealthy citizen of Richmond. He entered the University of +Virginia, at Charlottesville, where he excelled in his studies, and was +always at the head of his class; but he was compelled to leave on account +of irregularities. He was afterwards appointed a cadet at West Point, but +failed to graduate there for the same reason. Poe now quarreled with his +benefactor and left his house never to return. During the rest of his +melancholy career, he obtained a precarious livelihood by different +literary enterprises. His ability as a writer gained him positions with +various periodicals in Richmond, New York, and Philadelphia, and during +this time he wrote some of his finest prose. The appearance of "The Raven" +in 1845, however, at once made Poe a literary lion. He was quite +successful for a time, but then fell back into his dissipated habits which +finally caused his death. In his personal appearance, Poe was neat and +gentlemanly; his face was expressive of intellect and sensibility; and his +mental powers in some directions were of a high order. His writings show +care, and a great degree of skill in their construction; but their effect +is generally morbid. +### + + + Once upon a midnight dreary, + While I pondered, weak and weary, +Over many a quaint and curious + Volume of forgotten lore-- + While I nodded, nearly napping, + Suddenly there came a tapping, + As of some one gently rapping, + Rapping at my chamber door. + "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, + "Tapping at my chamber door + Only this, and nothing more." + + Ah, distinctly I remember, + It was in the bleak December, +And each separate dying ember + Wrought its ghost upon the floor. + Eagerly I wished the morrow; + Vainly I had sought to borrow + From my books surcease of sorrow + Sorrow for the lost Lenore-- +For the rare and radiant maiden + Whom the angels name Lenore-- + Nameless here for evermore. + + And the silken, sad, uncertain + Rustling of each purple curtain +Thrilled me,--filled me with fantastic + Terrors, never felt before; + So that now, to still the beating + Of my heart, I stood repeating, + " 'Tis some visitor entreating + Entrance at my chamber door + Some late visitor entreating + Entrance at my chamber door; + This it is, and nothing more." + + Presently my soul grew stronger; + Hesitating then no longer, +"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly + Your forgiveness I implore; + But the fact is I was napping, + And so gently you came rapping, + And so faintly you came tapping, + Tapping at my chamber door, +That I scarce was sure I heard you."-- + Here I opened wide the door; + Darkness there, and nothing more. + + Deep into that darkness peering, + Long I stood there, wondering, fearing, +Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals + Ever dared to dream before; + But the silence was unbroken, + And the stillness gave no token, + And the only word there spoken + Was the whispered word, "Lenore!" +This I whispered, and an echo + Murmured back the word, "Lenore!" + Merely this, and nothing more. + + Back into the chamber turning, + All my soul within me burning, +Soon again I heard a tapping, + Something louder than before. + "Surely," said I, "surely, that is + Something at my window lattice; + Let me see then, what thereat is, + And this mystery explore-- +Let my heart be still a moment, + And this mystery explore;-- + 'Tis the wind, and nothing more." + + Open here I flung the shutter. + When, with many a flirt and flutter, +In there stepped a stately Raven + Of the saintly days of yore; + Not the least obeisance made he; + Not a minute stopped or stayed he, + But, with mien of lord or lady, + Perched above my chamber door-- +Perched upon a bust of Pallas + Just above my chamber door-- + Perched, and sat, and nothing more. + + Then this ebony bird beguiling + My sad fancy into smiling, +By the grave and stern decorum + Of the countenance it wore, + "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, + Thou," I said, "art sure no craven, + Ghastly, grim, and ancient Raven, + Wandering from the nightly shore, +Tell me what thy lordly name is + On the night's Plutonian shore!" + Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." + + Much I marveled this ungainly + Fowl to hear discourse so plainly, +Though its answer little meaning-- + Little relevancy bore; + For we can not help agreeing + That no living human being + Ever yet was blest with seeing + Bird above his chamber door-- +Bird or beast upon the sculptured + Bust above his chamber door, + With such name as "Nevermore." + + But the Raven, sitting lonely + On that placid bust, spoke only +That one word, as if his soul in + That one word he did outpour. + Nothing farther then he uttered, + Not a feather then he fluttered, + Till I scarcely more than muttered, + "Other friends have flown before-- +On the morrow he will leave me, + As my Hopes have flown before." + Then the bird said, "Nevermore." + + Startled at the stillness broken + By reply so aptly spoken, +"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters + Is its only stock and store, + Caught from some unhappy master + Whom unmerciful Disaster + Followed fast and followed faster + Till his songs one burden bore-- +Till the dirges of his Hope that + Melancholy burden bore + Of 'Never--nevermore.' " + + But the Raven still beguiling + All my sad soul into smiling, +Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in + Front of bird, and bust, and door; + Then, upon the velvet sinking, + I betook myself to linking + Fancy unto fancy, thinking + What this ominous bird of yore-- +What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, + Gaunt, and ominous bird of yore + Meant in croaking "Nevermore." + + This I sat engaged in guessing, + But no syllable expressing +To the fowl whose fiery eyes now + Burned into my bosom's core; + This and more I sat divining, + With my head at ease reclining + On the cushion's velvet lining + That the lamplight gloated o'er, +But whose velvet violet lining, + With the lamplight gloating o'er + She shall press, ah, nevermore! + + Then, methought, the air grew denser, + Perfumed from an unseen censer +Swung by Seraphim, whose footfalls + Tinkled on the tufted floor. + "Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee-- + By these angels he hath sent thee + Respite--respite and nepenthe [1] + From thy memories of Lenore! +Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, + And forget this lost Lenore!" + Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." + +[Transcriber's Note 1: nepenthe--A drug to relieve grief, by blocking +memory of sorrow or pain.] + + "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!-- + Prophet still, if bird or devil!-- +Whether Tempter sent, or whether + Tempest tossed thee here ashore, + Desolate, yet all undaunted, + On this desert land enchanted-- + On this home by Horror haunted-- + Tell me truly, I implore-- +Is there--is there balm in Gilead? + Tell me--tell me, I implore!" + Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." + + "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil,-- + Prophet still, if bird or devil!-- +By that heaven that bends above us, + By that God we both adore, + Tell this soul with sorrow laden, + If, within the distant Aidenn, + It shall clasp a sainted maiden + Whom the angels name Lenore-- +Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, + Whom the angels name Lenore." + Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." + + "Be that word our sign of parting, + Bird or fiend," I shrieked, upstarting; +"Get thee back into the tempest + And the night's Plutonian shore! + Leave no black plume as a token + Of that lie thy soul hath spoken! + Leave my loneliness unbroken!-- + Quit the bust above my door! +Take thy beak from out my heart, and + Take thy form from off my door!" + Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." + + And the Raven, never flitting, + Still is sitting, still is sitting +On the pallid bust of Pallas + Just above my chamber door; + And his eyes have all the seeming + Of a demon's that is dreaming, + And the lamplight o'er him streaming + Throws his shadow on the floor; +And my soul from out that shadow, + That lies floating on the floor, + Shall be lifted--nevermore! + +NOTES.--Pallas, or Minerva, in ancient mythology, was the goddess of +wisdom. + +Plutonian, see note on Pluto, page 242. + +Gilead is the name of a mountain group of Palestine, celebrated for its +balsam or balm made from herbs. It is here used figuratively. + +Aidenn is an Anglicized and disguised spelling of the Arabic form of the +word Eden: it is here used as a synonym for heaven. + + + +CX. A VIEW OF THE COLOSSEUM. (389) + +Orville Dewey, 1794-1882, a well known Unitarian clergyman and author, was +born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, graduated with distinction at Williams +College in 1814, and afterward studied theology at Andover. For a while he +was assistant to Dr. W. E. Channing in Boston, and later, was a pastor in +New Bedford, New York City, and Boston. He made two or three voyages to +Europe, and published accounts of his travels. + +"Discourses on Human Life," "Discourses on the Nature of Religion," +"Discourses on Commerce and Business," are among his published works. His +writings are both philosophical and practical; and, as a preacher, he was +esteemed original, earnest, and impressive. +### + + +On the eighth of November, from the high land, about fourteen miles +distant, I first saw Rome; and although there is something very +unfavorable to impression in the expectation that you are to be greatly +impressed, or that you ought to be, or that such is the fashion; yet Rome +is too mighty a name to be withstood by such or any other influences. Let +you come upon that hill in what mood you may, the scene will lay hold upon +you as with the hand of a giant. I scarcely know how to describe the +impression, but it seemed to me as if something strong and stately, like +the slow and majestic march of a mighty whirlwind, swept around those +eternal towers; the storms of time, that had prostrated the proudest +monuments of the world, seemed to have left their vibrations in the still +and solemn air; ages of history passed before me; the mighty procession of +nations, kings, consuls, emperors, empires, and generations had passed +over that sublime theater. The fire, the storm, the earthquake, had gone +by; but there was yet left the still, small voice like that at which the +prophet "wrapped his face in his mantle." + +I went to see the Colosseum by moonlight. It is the monarch, the majesty +of all ruins; there is nothing like it. All the associations of the place, +too, give it the most impressive character. When you enter within this +stupendous circle of ruinous walls and arches, and grand terraces of +masonry, rising one above another, you stand upon the arena of the old +gladiatorial combats and Christian martyrdom; and as you lift your eyes to +the vast amphitheater, you meet, in imagination, the eyes of a hundred +thousand Romans, assembled to witness these bloody spectacles. What a +multitude and mighty array of human beings; and how little do we know in +modern times of great assemblies! One, two, and three, and, at its last +enlargement by Constantine, more than three hundred thousand persons could +be seated in the Circus Maximus! + +But to return to the Colosseum; we went up under the conduct of a guide +upon the walls and terraces, or embankments, which supported the ranges of +seats. The seats have long since disappeared; and grass overgrows the +spots where the pride, and power, and wealth, and beauty of Rome sat down +to its barbarous entertainments. What thronging life was here then! What +voices, what greetings, what hurrying footsteps upon the staircases of the +eighty arches of entrance! And now, as we picked our way carefully through +the decayed passages, or cautiously ascended some moldering flight of +steps, or stood by the lonely walls--ourselves silent, and, for a wonder, +the guide silent, too--there was no sound here but of the bat, and none +came from without but the roll of a distant carriage, or the convent bell +from the summit of the neighboring Esquiline. + +It is scarcely possible to describe the effect of moonlight upon this +ruin. Through a hundred lonely arches and blackened passageways it +streamed in, pure, bright, soft, lambent, and yet distinct and clear, as +if it came there at once to reveal, and cheer, and pity the mighty +desolation. But if the Colosseum is a mournful and desolate spectacle as +seen from within--without, and especially on the side which is in best +preservation, it is glorious. We passed around it; and, as we looked +upward, the moon shining through its arches, from the opposite side, it +appeared as if it were the coronet of the heavens, so vast was it--or like +a glorious crown upon the brow of night. + +I feel that I do not and can not describe this mighty ruin. I can only say +that I came away paralyzed, and as passive as a child. A soldier stretched +out his hand for "un dona," as we passed the guard; and when my companion +said I did wrong to give, I told him that I should have given my cloak, if +the man had asked it. Would you break any spell that worldly feeling or +selfish sorrow may have spread over your mind, go and see the Colosseum by +moonlight. + + +NOTES.--The Colosseum (pro. Col-os-se'um) was commenced by the Roman +emperor Vespasian, and was completed by Titus, his son, 79 A.D. Its +construction occupied but three years, notwithstanding its size; a great +part of its walls are standing today. + +The Circus Maximus was an amphitheater built by Tarquin the Elder about +600 B. C. + +Constantine. See note on page 175. + +The Esquiline is one of the seven hills upon which Rome is built. Un +dona, an Italian phrase meaning a gift or alms. + + + +CXI. THE BRIDGE. (392) + +I stood on the bridge at midnight, + As the clocks were striking the hour, +And the moon rose o'er the city, + Behind the dark church tower. + +I saw her bright reflection + In the waters under me, +Like a golden goblet falling + And sinking into the sea. + +And far in the hazy distance + Of that lovely night in June, +The blaze of the flaming furnace + Gleamed redder than the moon. + +Among the long, black rafters + The wavering shadows lay, +And the current that came from the ocean + Seemed to lift and bear them away; + +As, sweeping and eddying through them, + Rose the belated tide, +And, streaming into the moonlight, + The seaweed floated wide. + +And like those waters rushing + Among the wooden piers, +A flood of thoughts came o'er me + That filled my eyes with tears + +How often, oh, how often, + In the days that had gone by, +I had stood on that bridge at midnight + And gazed on that wave and sky! + +How often, oh, how often, + I had wished that the ebbing tide +Would bear me away on its bosom + O'er the ocean wild and wide. + +For my heart was hot and restless, + And my life was full of care, +And the burden laid upon me + Seemed greater than I could bear. + +But now it has fallen from me, + It is buried in the sea; +And only the sorrow of others + Throws its shadow over me. + +Yet, whenever I cross the river + On its bridge with wooden piers, +Like the odor of brine from the ocean + Comes the thought of other years. + +And I think how many thousands + Of care-encumbered men, +Each bearing his burden of sorrow, + Have crossed the bridge since then. + +I see the long procession + Still passing to and fro, +The young heart hot and restless, + And the old, subdued and slow! + +And forever and forever, + As long as the river flows, +As long as the heart has passions, + As long as life has woes; + +The moon and its broken reflection + And its shadows shall appear +As the symbol of love in heaven, + And its wavering image here. + --Longfellow. + + + +CXII. OBJECTS AND LIMITS OF SCIENCE. (394) + +Robert Charles Winthrop, 1809-1894, was a descendant of John Winthrop, the +first Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. He was born in Boston, +studied at the public Latin School, graduated at Harvard in 1828, and +studied law with Daniel Webster. Possessing an ample fortune, he made +little effort to practice his profession. In 1834 he was elected to the +Legislature of his native state, and was reelected five times; three years +he was Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1840 he was chosen to +Congress, and sat as Representative for ten years. In 1847 he was chosen +Speaker of the House. He also served a short time in the Senate. His +published writings are chiefly in the form of addresses and speeches; they +are easy, finished, and scholarly. As a speaker, Mr. Winthrop was ready, +full-voiced, and self-possessed. +### + + +There are fields enough for the wildest and most extravagant theorizings, +within man's own appropriate domain, without overleaping the barriers +which separate things human and divine. Indeed, I have often thought that +modern science had afforded a most opportune and providential safety valve +for the intellectual curiosity and ambition of man, at a moment when the +progress of education, invention, and liberty had roused and stimulated +him to a pitch of such unprecedented eagerness and ardor. Astronomy, +Chemistry, and, more than all, Geology, with their incidental branches of +study, have opened an inexhaustible field for investigation and +speculation. Here, by the aid of modern instruments and modern modes of +analysis, the most ardent and earnest spirits may find ample room and +verge enough for their insatiate activity and audacious enterprise, and +may pursue their course not only without the slightest danger of doing +mischief to others, but with the certainty of promoting the great end of +scientific truth. + +Let them lift their vast reflectors or refractors to the skies, and detect +new planets in their hiding places. Let them waylay the fugitive comets in +their flight, and compel them to disclose the precise period of their +orbits, and to give bonds for their punctual return. Let them drag out +reluctant satellites from "their habitual concealments." Let them resolve +the unresolvable nebulae of Orion or Andromeda. They need not fear. The +sky will not fall, nor a single star be shaken from its sphere. + +Let them perfect and elaborate their marvelous processes of making the +light and the lightning their ministers, for putting "a pencil of rays" +into the hand of art, and providing tongues of fire for the communication +of intelligence. Let them foretell the path of the whirlwind, and +calculate the orbit of the storm. Let them hang out their gigantic +pendulums, and make the earth do the work of describing and measuring her +own motions. + +Let them annihilate human pain, and literally "charm ache with air, and +agony with ether." The blessing of God will attend all their toils, and +the gratitude of man will await all their triumphs. Let them dig down into +the bowels of the earth. Let them rive asunder the massive rocks, and +unfold the history of creation as it lies written on the pages of their +piled up strata. Let them gather up the fossil fragments of a lost Fauna, +reproducing the ancient forms which inhabited the land or the seas, +bringing them together, bone to his bone, till Leviathan and Behemoth +stand before us in bodily presence and in their full proportions, and we +almost tremble lest these dry bones should live again! Let them put nature +to the rack, and torture her, in all her forms, to the betrayal of her +inmost secrets and confidences. They need not forbear. The foundations of +the round world have been laid so strong that they can not be moved. + +But let them not think by searching to find out God. Let them not dream of +understanding the Almighty to perfection. Let them not dare to apply their +tests and solvents, their modes of analysis or their terms of definition, +to the secrets of the spiritual kingdom. Let them spare the foundations of +faith. Let them be satisfied with what is revealed of the mysteries of the +Divine Nature. Let them not break through the bounds to gaze after the +Invisible. + + +NOTES.--Orion and Andromeda are the names of two constellations. + +The Leviathan is described in Job, chap. xli, and the Behemoth in Job, +chap. xl. It is not known exactly what beasts are meant by these +descriptions. + + + +CXIII. THE DOWNFALL OF POLAND. (396) + +O Sacred Truth! thy triumph ceased a while, +And Hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile, +When leagued Oppression poured to northern wars +Her whiskered pandours and her fierce hussars, +Waved her dread standard to the breeze of morn, +Pealed her loud drum, and twanged her trumpet horn; +Tumultuous horror brooded o'er her van, +Presaging wrath to Poland--and to man! + +Warsaw's last champion, from her height surveyed, +Wide o'er the fields a waste of ruin laid; +"O Heaven!" he cried, "my bleeding country save! +Is there no hand on high to shield the brave? +Yet, though destruction sweep those lovely plains, +Rise, fellow-men! our country yet remains! +By that dread name, we wave the sword on high, +And swear for her to live--with her to die!" + +He said, and on the rampart heights arrayed +His trusty warriors, few, but undismayed; +Firm-paced and slow, a horrid front they form, +Still as the breeze, but dreadful as the storm; +Low murmuring sounds along their banners fly, +Revenge or death--the watchword and reply; +Then pealed the notes, omnipotent to charm, +And the loud tocsin tolled their last alarm. + +In vain, alas! in vain, ye gallant few! +From rank to rank, your volleyed thunder flew! +Oh, bloodiest picture in the book of time, +Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime; +Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe, +Strength in her arms, nor mercy in her woe! +Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear, +Closed her bright eye, and curbed her high career; +Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell, +And Freedom shrieked as Kosciusko fell! + --Thomas Campbell. + +NOTES.--Kosciusko (b. 1746, d. 1817), a celebrated Polish patriot, who had +served in the American Revolution, was besieged at Warsaw, in 1794, by a +large force of Russians, Prussians, and Austrians. After the siege was +raised, he marched against a force of Russians much larger than his own, +and was defeated. He was himself severely wounded and captured. + +Sarmatia is the ancient name for a region of Europe which embraced Poland, +but was of greater extent. + + + +CXIV. LABOR. (398) + +Horace Greeley,1811-1872, perhaps the most famous editor of America, was +born in Amherst, New Hampshire, of poor parents. His boyhood was passed in +farm labor, in attending the common school, and in reading every book on +which he could lay his hands. His reading was mostly done by the light of +pine knots. At fifteen he entered a printing office in Vermont, became the +best workman in the office, and continued to improve every opportunity for +study. At the age of twenty he appeared in New York City, poorly clothed, +and almost destitute of money. He worked at his trade for a year or two, +and then set up printing for himself. For several years he was not +successful, but struggled on, performing an immense amount of work as an +editor. In 1841 he established the "New York Tribune," which soon became +one of the most successful and influential papers in the country. In 1848 +he was elected to Congress, but remained but a short time. In 1872 he was +a candidate for the Presidency, was defeated, and died a few days +afterward. Mr. Greeley is a rare example of what may be accomplished by +honesty and unflinching industry. Besides the vast amount which he wrote +for the newspapers, he published several books; the best known of which is +"The American Conflict." +### + + +Every child should be trained to dexterity in some useful branch of +productive industry, not in order that he shall certainly follow that +pursuit, but that he may at all events be able to do so in case he shall +fail in the more intellectual or artificial calling which he may prefer to +it. Let him seek to be a doctor, lawyer, preacher, poet, if he will; but +let him not stake his all on success in that pursuit, but have a second +line to fall back upon if driven from his first. Let him be so reared and +trained that he may enter, if he will, upon some intellectual calling in +the sustaining consciousness that he need not debase himself, nor do +violence to his convictions, in order to achieve success therein, since he +can live and thrive in another (if you choose, humbler) vocation, if +driven from that of his choice. This buttress to integrity, this assurance +of self-respect, is to be found in a universal training to efficiency in +Productive Labor. + +The world is full of misdirection and waste; but all the calamities and +losses endured by mankind through frost, drought, blight, hail, fires, +earthquakes, inundations, are as nothing to those habitually suffered by +them through human idleness and inefficiency, mainly caused (or excused) +by lack of industrial training. It is quite within the truth to estimate +that one tenth of our people, in the average, are habitually idle because +(as they say) they can find no employment. They look for work where it can +not be had. They seem to be, or they are, unable to do such as abundantly +confronts and solicits them. Suppose these to average but one million +able-bodied persons, and that their work is worth but one dollar each per +day; our loss by involuntary idleness can not be less than $300,000,000 +per annum. I judge that it is actually $500,000,000. Many who stand +waiting to be hired could earn from two to five dollars per day had they +been properly trained to work. "There is plenty of room higher up," said +Daniel Webster, in response to an inquiry as to the prospects of a young +man just entering upon the practice of law; and there is never a dearth of +employment for men or women of signal capacity or skill. In this city, ten +thousand women are always doing needlework for less than fifty cents per +day, finding themselves; yet twice their number of capable, skillful +seamstresses could find steady employment and good living in wealthy +families at not less than one dollar per day over and above board and +lodging. He who is a good blacksmith, a fair millwright, a tolerable wagon +maker, and can chop timber, make fence, and manage a small farm if +required, is always sure of work and fair recompense; while he or she who +can keep books or teach music fairly, but knows how to do nothing else, is +in constant danger of falling into involuntary idleness and consequent +beggary. It is a broad, general truth, that no boy was ever yet inured to +daily, systematic, productive labor in field or shop throughout the latter +half of his minority, who did not prove a useful man, and was notable to +find work whenever he wished it. + +Yet to the ample and constant employment of a whole community one +prerequisite is indispensable,--that a variety of pursuits shall have been +created or naturalized therein. A people who have but a single source of +profit are uniformly poor, not because that vocation is necessarily +ill-chosen, but because no single calling can employ and reward the varied +capacities of male and female, old and young, robust and feeble. Thus a +lumbering or fishing region with us is apt to have a large proportion of +needy inhabitants; and the same is true of a region exclusively devoted to +cotton growing or gold mining. A diversity of pursuits is indispensable to +general activity and enduring prosperity. + +Sixty or seventy years ago, what was then the District, and is now the +State, of Maine, was a proverb in New England for the poverty of its +people, mainly because they were so largely engaged in timber cutting. The +great grain-growing, wheat-exporting districts of the Russian empire have +a poor and rude people for a like reason. Thus the industry of +Massachusetts is immensely more productive per head than that of North +Carolina, or even that of Indiana, as it will cease to be whenever +manufactures shall have been diffused over our whole country, as they must +and will be. In Massachusetts half the women and nearly half the children +add by their daily labor to the aggregate of realized wealth; in North +Carolina and in Indiana little wealth is produced save by the labor of +men, including boys of fifteen or upward. When this disparity shall have +ceased, its consequence will also disappear. + + + +[Illustration: A chained man in prison reclining against the wall. He is +gazing down at a sleeping young boy.] + + +CXV. THE LAST DAYS OF HERCULANEUM. (401) + +Edwin Atherstone, 1788-1872, was born at Nottingham, England, and became +known to the literary world chiefly through two poems, "The Last Days of +Herculaneum" and "The Fall of Nineveh." Both poems are written in blank +verse, and are remarkable for their splendor of diction and their great +descriptive power. Atherstone is compared to Thomson, whom he resembles +somewhat in style. +### + + + There was a man, +A Roman soldier, for some daring deed +That trespassed on the laws, in dungeon low +Chained down. His was a noble spirit, rough, +But generous, and brave, and kind. +He had a son; it was a rosy boy, +A little faithful copy of his sire, +In face and gesture. From infancy, the child +Had been his father's solace and his care. + + Every sport +The father shared and heightened. But at length, +The rigorous law had grasped him, and condemned +To fetters and to darkness. + + The captive's lot, +He felt in all its bitterness: the walls +Of his deep dungeon answered many a sigh +And heart-heaved groan. His tale was known, and touched +His jailer with compassion; and the boy, +Thenceforth a frequent visitor, beguiled +His father's lingering hours, and brought a balm +With his loved presence, that in every wound +Dropped healing. But, in this terrific hour, +He was a poisoned arrow in the breast +Where he had been a cure. + + With earliest morn +Of that first day of darkness and amaze, +He came. The iron door was closed--for them +Never to open more! The day, the night +Dragged slowly by; nor did they know the fate +Impending o'er the city. Well they heard +The pent-up thunders in the earth beneath, +And felt its giddy rocking; and the air +Grew hot at length, and thick; but in his straw +The boy was sleeping: and the father hoped +The earthquake might pass by: nor would he wake +From his sound rest the unfearing child, nor tell +The dangers of their state. + + On his low couch +The fettered soldier sank, and, with deep awe, +Listened the fearful sounds: with upturned eye, +To the great gods he breathed a prayer; then, strove +To calm himself, and lose in sleep awhile +His useless terrors. But he could not sleep: +His body burned with feverish heat; his chains +Clanked loud, although he moved not; deep in earth +Groaned unimaginable thunders; sounds, +Fearful and ominous, arose and died, +Like the sad mornings of November's wind, +In the blank midnight. Deepest horror chilled +His blood that burned before; cold, clammy sweats +Came o'er him; then anon, a fiery thrill +Shot through his veins. Now, on his couch he shrunk +And shivered as in fear; now, upright leaped, +As though he heard the battle trumpet sound, +And longed to cope with death. + + He slept, at last, +A troubled, dreamy sleep. Well had he slept +Never to waken more! His hours are few, +But terrible his agony. + + Soon the storm +Burst forth; the lightnings glanced; the air +Shook with the thunders. They awoke; they sprung +Amazed upon their feet. The dungeon glowed +A moment as in sunshine--and was dark: +Again, a flood of white flame fills the cell, +Dying away upon the dazzled eye +In darkening, quivering tints, as stunning sound +Dies throbbing, ringing in the ear. + + With intensest awe, +The soldier's frame was filled; and many a thought +Of strange foreboding hurried through his mind, +As underneath he felt the fevered earth +Jarring and lifting; and the massive walls, +Heard harshly grate and strain: yet knew he not, +While evils undefined and yet to come +Glanced through his thoughts, what deep and cureless wound +Fate had already given.--Where, man of woe! +Where, wretched father! is thy boy? Thou call'st +His name in vain:--he can not answer thee. + +Loudly the father called upon his child: +No voice replied. Trembling and anxiously +He searched their couch of straw; with headlong haste +Trod round his stinted limits, and, low bent, +Groped darkling on the earth:--no child was there. +Again he called: again, at farthest stretch +Of his accursed fetters, till the blood +Seemed bursting from his ears, and from his eyes +Fire flashed, he strained with arm extended far, +And fingers widely spread, greedy to touch +Though but his idol's garment. Useless toil! +Yet still renewed: still round and round he goes, +And strains, and snatches, and with dreadful cries +Calls on his boy. + + Mad frenzy fires him now. +He plants against the wall his feet; his chain +Grasps; tugs with giant strength to force away +The deep-driven staple; yells and shrieks with rage: +And, like a desert lion in the snare, +Raging to break his toils,--to and fro bounds. +But see! the ground is opening;--a blue light +Mounts, gently waving,--noiseless;--thin and cold +It seems, and like a rainbow tint, not flame; +But by its luster, on the earth outstretched, +Behold the lifeless child! his dress is singed, +And, o'er his face serene, a darkened line +Points out the lightning's track. + + The father saw, +And all his fury fled:--a dead calm fell +That instant on him:--speechless--fixed--he stood, +And with a look that never wandered, gazed +Intensely on the corse. Those laughing eyes +Were not yet closed,--and round those ruby lips +The wonted smile returned. + + Silent and pale +The father stands:--no tear is in his eye:-- +The thunders bellow;--but he hears them not:-- +The ground lifts like a sea;--he knows it not:-- +The strong walls grind and gape:--the vaulted roof +Takes shape like bubble tossing in the wind; +See! he looks up and smiles; for death to him +Is happiness. Yet could one last embrace +Be given, 't were still a sweeter thing to die. + +It will be given. Look! how the rolling ground, +At every swell, nearer and still more near +Moves toward the father's outstretched arm his boy. +Once he has touched his garment:--how his eye +Lightens with love, and hope, and anxious fears! +Ha, see! he has him now!--he clasps him round; +Kisses his face; puts back the curling locks, +That shaded his fine brow; looks in his eyes; +Grasps in his own those little dimpled hands; +Then folds him to his breast, as he was wont +To lie when sleeping; and resigned, awaits +Undreaded death. + + And death came soon and swift +And pangless. The huge pile sank down at once +Into the opening earth. Walls--arches--roof-- +And deep foundation stones--all--mingling--fell! + + +NOTES.--Herculaneum and Pompeii were cities of Italy, which were destroyed +by an eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79 A. D., being entirely buried +under ashes and lava. During the last century they have been dug out to a +considerable extent, and many of the streets, buildings, and utensils have +been found in a state of perfect preservation. + + + +CXVI. HOW MEN REASON. (405) + +My friend, the Professor, whom I have mentioned to you once or twice, told +me yesterday that somebody had been abusing him in some of the journals of +his calling. I told him that I did n't doubt he deserved it; that I hoped +he did deserve a little abuse occasionally, and would for a number of +years to come; that nobody could do anything to make his neighbors wiser +or better without being liable to abuse for it; especially that people +hated to have their little mistakes made fun of, and perhaps he had been +doing something of the kind. The Professor smiled. + +Now, said I, hear what I am going to say. It will not take many years to +bring you to the period of life when men, at least the majority of writing +and talking men, do nothing but praise. Men, like peaches and pears, grow +sweet a little while before they begin to decay. I don't know what it +is,--whether a spontaneous change, mental or bodily, or whether it is +through experience of the thanklessness of critical honesty,--but it is a +fact, that most writers, except sour and unsuccessful ones, get tired of +finding fault at about the time when they are beginning to grow old. + +As a general thing, I would not give a great deal for the fair words of a +critic, if he is himself an author, over fifty years of age. At thirty, we +are all trying to cut our names in big letters upon the walls of this +tenement of life; twenty years later, we have carved it, or shut up our +jackknives. Then we are ready to help others, and care less to hinder any, +because nobody's elbows are in our way. So I am glad you have a little +life left; you will be saccharine enough in a few years. + +Some of the softening effects of advancing age have struck me very much in +what I have heard or seen here and elsewhere. I just now spoke of the +sweetening process that authors undergo. Do you know that in the gradual +passage from maturity to helplessness the harshest characters sometimes +have a period in which they are gentle and placid as young children? I +have heard it said, but I can not be sponsor for its truth, that the +famous chieftain, Lochiel, was rocked in a cradle like a baby, in his old +age. An old man, whose studies had been of the severest scholastic kind, +used to love to hear little nursery stories read over and over to him. One +who saw the Duke of Wellington in his last years describes him as very +gentle in his aspect and demeanor. I remember a person of singularly +stern and lofty bearing who became remarkably gracious and easy in all his +ways in the later period of his life. + +And that leads me to say that men often remind me of pears in their way of +coming to maturity. Some are ripe at twenty, like human Jargonelles, and +must be made the most of, for their day is soon over. Some come into their +perfect condition late, like the autumn kinds, and they last better than +the summer fruit. And some, that, like the Winter Nelis, have been hard +and uninviting until all the rest have had their season, get their glow +and perfume long after the frost and snow have done their worst with the +orchards. Beware of rash criticisms; the rough and stringent fruit you +condemn may be an autumn or a winter pear, and that which you picked up +beneath the same bough in August may have been only its worm--eaten +windfalls. Milton was a Saint Germain with a graft of the roseate Early +Catherine. Rich, juicy, lively, fragrant, russet-skinned old Chaucer was +an Easter Beurre'; the buds of a new summer were swelling when he ripened. + + --Holmes. + + +NOTES.--The above selection is from the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." + +Lochiel. See note on page 214. + +The Duke of Wellington (b. 1769, d. 1852) was the most celebrated of +English generals. He won great renown in India and in the "Peninsular +War," and commanded the allied forces when Napoleon was defeated at +Waterloo. + +Easter Beurre', Saint Germain, Winter Nelis, Early Catherine and +Jargonelles are the names of certain varieties of pears. + +Milton. See biographical notice on page 312. + +Chaucer, Geoffrey (b. 1328, d. 1400). is often called "The Father of +English Poetry." He was the first poet buried in Westminster Abbey. He was +a prolific writer, but his "Canterbury Tales" is by far the best known of +his works. + + + +CXVII. THUNDERSTORM ON THE ALPS. (408) + + Clear, placid Leman! thy contrasted lake, + With the wild world I dwell in, is a thing + Which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake + Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring. + This quiet sail is as a noiseless wing + To waft me from distraction; once I loved + Torn ocean's roar, but thy soft murmuring + Sounds sweet, as if a sister's voice reproved, +That I with stern delights should e'er have been so moved. + + All heaven and earth are still--though not in sleep, + But breathless, as we grow when feeling most; + And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep-- + All heaven and earth are still: from the high host + Of stars, to the lulled lake and mountain coast, + All is concentered in a life intense, + Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, + But hath a part of being, and a sense +Of that which is of all Creator and defense. + + The sky is changed! and such a change! O night, + And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong, + Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light + Of a dark eye in woman! Far along, + From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, + Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, + But every mountain now hath found a tongue, + And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, + Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud! + + And this is in the night.--Most glorious night! + Thou wert not sent for slumber! let me be + A sharer in thy fierce and far delight,-- + A portion of the tempest and of thee! + How the lit lake shines,--a phosphoric sea! + And the big rain comes dancing to the earth! + And now again, 'tis black,--and now, the glee + Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain mirth, +As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth. + + Now, where the swift Rhone cleaves his way between + Heights which appear as lovers who have parted + In hate, whose mining depths so intervene, + That they can meet no more, though broken-hearted; + Though in their souls, which thus each other thwarted, + Love was the very root of the fond rage, + Which blighted their life's bloom, and then--departed. + Itself expired, but leaving them an age +Of years, all winters,--war within themselves to wage. + + Now, where the quick Rhone thus hath cleft his way, + The mightiest of the storms hath ta'en his stand! + For here, not one, but many make their play, + And fling their thunderbolts from hand to hand, + Flashing and cast around! Of all the band, + The brightest through these parted hills hath forked + His lightnings,--as if he did understand, + That in such gaps as desolation worked, +There, the hot shaft should blast whatever therein lurked. + --Byron. + +NOTE.--Lake Leman (or Lake of Geneva) is in the south-western part of +Switzerland, separating it in part from Savoy. The Rhone flows through it, +entering by a deep narrow gap, with mountain groups on either hand, eight +or nine thousand feet above the water. The scenery about the lake is +magnificent, the Jura mountains bordering it on the northwest, and the +Alps lying on the south and east. + + + +CXVIII. ORIGIN OF PROPERTY. (410) + +Sir William Blackstone, 1723-1780, was the son of a silk merchant, and was +born in London. He studied with great success at Oxford, and was admitted +to the bar in 1745. At first he could not obtain business enough in his +profession to support himself, and for a time relinquished practice, and +lectured at Oxford. He afterwards returned to London, and resumed his +practice with great success, still continuing to lecture at Oxford. He was +elected to Parliament in 1761; and in 1770 was made a justice of the Court +of Common Pleas, which office he held till his death. Blackstone's fame +rests upon his "Commentaries on the Laws of England," published about +1769. He was a man of great ability, sound learning, unflagging industry, +and moral integrity. His great work is still a common text-book in the +study of law. +### + + +In the beginning of the world, we are informed by Holy Writ, the all- +bountiful Creator gave to man dominion over all the earth, and "over the +fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing +that moveth upon the earth." This is the only true and solid foundation of +man's dominion over external things, whatever airy, metaphysical notions +may have been started by fanciful writers upon this subject. The earth, +therefore, and all things therein, are the general property of all +mankind, exclusive of other beings, from the immediate gift of the +Creator. And while the earth continued bare of inhabitants, it is +reasonable to suppose that all was in common among them, and that everyone +took from the public stock, to his own use, such things as his immediate +necessities required. + +These general notions of property were then sufficient to answer all the +purposes of human life; and might, perhaps, still have answered them, had +it been possible for mankind to have remained in a state of primeval +simplicity, in which "all things were common to him." Not that this +communion of goods seems ever to have been applicable, even in the +earliest ages, to aught but the substance of the thing; nor could it be +extended to the use of it. For, by the law of nature and reason, he who +first began to use it, acquired therein a kind of transient property, that +lasted so long as he was using it, and no longer. Or, to speak with +greater precision, the right of possession continued for the same time, +only, that the act of possession lasted. + +Thus, the ground was in common, and no part of it was the permanent +property of any man in particular; yet, whoever was in the occupation of +any determined spot of it, for rest, for shade, or the like, acquired for +the time a sort of ownership, from which it would have been unjust and +contrary to the law of nature to have driven him by force; but, the +instant that he quitted the use or occupation of it, another might seize +it without injustice. Thus, also, a vine or other tree might be said to be +in common, as all men were equally entitled to its produce; and yet, any +private individual might gain the sole property of the fruit which he had +gathered for his own repast: a doctrine well illustrated by Cicero, who +compares the world to a great theater, which is common to the public, and +yet the place which any man has taken is, for the time, his own. + +But when mankind increased in number, craft, and ambition, it became +necessary to entertain conceptions of a more permanent dominion; and to +appropriate to individuals not the immediate use only, but the very +substance of the thing to be used. Otherwise, innumerable tumults must +have arisen, and the good order of the world been continually broken and +disturbed, while a variety of persons were striving who should get the +first occupation of the same thing, or disputing which of them had +actually gained it. As human life also grew more and more refined, +abundance of conveniences were devised to render it more easy, commodious, +and agreeable; as habitations for shelter and safety, and raiment for +warmth and decency. But no man would be at the trouble to provide either, +so long as he had only a usufructuary property in them, which was to cease +the instant that he quitted possession; if, as soon as he walked out of +his tent or pulled off his garment, the next stranger who came by would +have a right to inhabit the one and to wear the other. + +In the case of habitations, in particular, it was natural to observe that +even the brute creation, to whom everything else was in common, maintained +a kind of permanent property in their dwellings, especially for the +protection of their young; that the birds of the air had nests, and the +beasts of the fields had caverns, the invasion of which they esteemed a +very flagrant injustice, and would sacrifice their lives to preserve them. +Hence a property was soon established in every man's house and homestead; +which seem to have been originally mere temporary huts or movable cabins, +suited to the design of Providence for more speedily peopling the earth, +and suited to the wandering life of their owners, before any extensive +property in the soil or ground was established. + +There can be no doubt but that movables of every kind became sooner +appropriated than the permanent, substantial soil; partly because they +were more susceptible of a long occupancy, which might be continue for +months together without any sensible interruption, and at length, by +usage, ripen into an established right; but, principally, because few of +them could be fit for use till improved and meliorated by the bodily labor +of the occupant; which bodily labor, bestowed upon any subject which +before lay in common to all men, is universally allowed to give the +fairest and most reasonable title to an exclusive property therein. + +The article of food was a more immediate call, and therefore a more early +consideration. Such as were not contented with the spontaneous product of +the earth, sought for a more solid refreshment in the flesh of beasts, +which they obtained by hunting. But the frequent disappointments incident +to that method of provision, induced them to gather together such animals +as were of a more tame and sequacious nature and to establish themselves +in a less precarious manner, partly by the milk of the dams, and partly by +the flesh of the young. + +The support of these their cattle made the article of water also a very +important point. And, therefore, the book of Genesis, (the most venerable +monument of antiquity, considered merely with a view to history,) will +furnish us with frequent instances of violent contentions concerning +wells; the exclusive property of which appears to have been established in +the first digger or occupant, even in places where the ground and herbage +remained yet in common. Thus, we find Abraham, who was but a sojourner, +asserting his right to a well in the country of Abimelech, and exacting an +oath for his security "because he had digged that well." And Isaac, about +ninety years afterwards, reclaimed this his father's property; and, after +much contention with the Philistines, was suffered to enjoy it in peace. + +All this while, the soil and pasture of the earth remained still in common +as before, and open to every occupant; except, perhaps, in the +neighborhood of towns, where the necessity of a sale and exclusive +property in lands, (for the sake of agriculture,) was earlier felt, and +therefore more readily complied with. Otherwise, when the multitude of men +and cattle had consumed every convenience on one spot of ground, it was +deemed a natural right to seize upon and occupy such other lands as would +more easily supply their necessities. + +We have a striking example of this in the history of Abraham and his +nephew Lot. When their joint substance became so great that pasture and +other conveniences grew scarce, the natural consequence was that a strife +arose between their servants; so that it was no longer practicable to +dwell together. This contention, Abraham thus endeavored to compose: "Let +there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee. Is not the whole +land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt +take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the +right hand, then I will go to the left." This plainly implies an +acknowledged right in either to occupy whatever ground he pleased that was +not preoccupied by other tribes. "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld +all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, even as the +garden of the Lord. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and +journeyed east; and Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan." + +As the world by degrees grew more populous, it daily became more difficult +to find out new spots to inhabit, without encroaching upon former +occupants; and, by constantly occupying the same individual spot, the +fruits of the earth were consumed, and its spontaneous products destroyed +without any provision for future supply or succession. It, therefore, +became necessary to pursue some regular method of providing a constant +subsistence; and this necessity produced, or at least promoted and +encouraged the art of agriculture. And the art of agriculture, by a +regular connection and consequence, introduced and established the idea of +a more permanent property in the soil than had hitherto been received and +adopted. + +It was clear that the earth would not produce her fruits in sufficient +quantities without the assistance of tillage; but who would be at the +pains of tilling it, if another might watch an opportunity to seize upon +and enjoy the product of his industry, art and labor? Had not, therefore, +a separate property in lands, as well as movables, been vested in some +individuals, the world must have continued a forest, and men have been +mere animals of prey. Whereas, now, (so graciously has Providence +interwoven our duty and our happiness together,) the result of this very +necessity has been the ennobling of the human species, by giving it +opportunities of improving its rational, as well as of exerting its +natural faculties. + +Necessity begat property; and, in order to insure that property, recourse +was had to civil society, which brought along with it a long train of +inseparable concomitants: states, government, laws, punishments, and the +public exercise of religious duties. Thus connected together, it was found +that a part only of society was sufficient to provide, by their manual +labor, for the necessary subsistence of all; and leisure was given to +others to cultivate the human mind, to invent useful arts, and to lay the +foundations of science. + +NOTE.--Cicero. See note on page 156. + + + +CXIX. BATTLE OF WATERLOO. (415) + + There was a sound of revelry by night, + And Belgium's capital had gathered then + Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright + The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men. + A thousand hearts beat happily; and when + Music arose with its voluptuous swell, + Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again, + And all went merry as a marriage bell; +But hush! hark!--a deep sound strikes like a rising knell! + + Did ye not hear it?--No; 't was but the wind, + Or the car rattling o'er the stony street; + On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; + No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet + To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet-- + But, hark!--that heavy sound breaks in once mere, + As if the clouds its echo would repeat, + And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before! +Arm! arm! it is--it is the cannon's opening roar! + + Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, + And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, + And cheeks all pale, which, but an hour ago + Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness; + And there were sudden partings, such as press + The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs + Which ne'er might be repeated: who could guess + If ever more should meet those mutual eyes, +Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise. + + And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed, + The mustering squadron, and the clattering car + Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, + And swiftly forming in the ranks of war; + And the deep thunder, peal on peal afar; + And near, the beat of the alarming drum + Roused up the soldier ere the morning star; + While thronged the citizens with terror dumb, + Or whispering with white lips--"The foe! They come! +They come!" + + And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves, + Dewy with nature's tear-drops, as they pass, + Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, + Over the unreturning brave!--alas! + Ere evening to be trodden like the grass, + Which, now, beneath them, but above, shall grow, + In its next verdure, when this fiery mass + Of living valor, rolling on the foe, +And burning with high hope, shall molder, cold and low + + Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, + Last eve in beauty's circle proudly gay, + The midnight brought the signal sound of strife, + The morn, the marshaling in arms,--the day, + Battle's magnificently stern array! + The thunderclouds close o'er it, which when rent, + The earth is covered thick with other clay, + Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, +Rider and horse,--friend, foe,--in one red burial blent. + --Byron. + + +NOTES.--The Battle of Waterloo was fought on June 18th, 1815, between the +French army on one side, commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, and the English +army and allies on the other side, commanded by the Duke of Wellington. At +the commencement of the battle, some of the officers were at a ball at +Brussels, a short distance from Waterloo, and being notified of the +approaching contest by the cannonade, left the ballroom for the field of +battle. + +The wood of Soignies lay between the field of Waterloo and Brussels. It is +supposed to be a remnant of the forest of Ardennes. + + + +CXX. "WITH BRAINS, SIR." (417) + +John Brown, 1810-1882, was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and graduated at +the University of Edinburgh. His father was John Brown, an eminent +clergyman and the author of several books. Dr. Brown's literary reputation +rests largely upon a series of papers contributed to the "North British +Review." "Rab and his Friends," a collection of papers published in book +form, is the most widely known of all his writings. +### + + +"Pray, Mr. Opie, may I ask you what you mix your colors with?" said a +brisk dilettante student to the great painter. "With brains, sir," was the +gruff reply--and the right one. It did not give much of information; it +did not expound the principles and rules of the art; but, if the inquirer +had the commodity referred to, it would awaken him; it would set him +agoing, athinking, and a-painting to good purpose. If he had not the +wherewithal, as was likely enough, the less he had to do with colors and +their mixture the better. + +Many other artists, when asked such a question, would have either set +about detailing the mechanical composition of such and such colors, in +such and such proportions, rubbed up so and so; or perhaps they would (and +so much the better, but not the best) have shown him how they laid them +on; but even this would leave him at the critical point. Opie preferred +going to the quick and the heart of the matter: "With brains, sir." + +Sir Joshua Reynolds was taken by a friend to see a picture. He was +anxious to admire it, and he looked it over with a keen and careful but +favorable eye. "Capital composition; correct drawing; the color, tone, +chiaroscuro excellent; but--but--it wants--hang it, it wants--that!" +snapping his fingers; and, wanting "that," though it had everything else, +it was worth nothing. + +Again, Etty was appointed teacher of the students of the Royal Academy, +having been preceded by a clever, talkative, scientific expounder of +aesthetics, who delighted to tell the young men how everything was done, +how to copy this, and how to express that. A student came up to the new +master, "How should I do this, sir?" "Suppose you try." Another, "What +does this mean, Mr. Etty?" "Suppose you look." "But I have looked." +"Suppose you look again." + +And they did try, and they did look, and looked again; and they saw and +achieved what they never could have done had the how or the what +(supposing this possible, which it is not, in full and highest meaning) +been told them, or done for them; in the one case, sight and action were +immediate, exact, intense, and secure; in the other, mediate, feeble, and +lost as soon as gained. + +NOTES.--Opie, John (b. 1761, d. 1807), was born in Wales, and was known as +the "Cornish wonder." He became celebrated as a portrait painter, but +afterwards devoted himself to historical subjects. He was professor of +painting at the Royal Academy. + +Reynolds. See note on page 379. + +Etty, William (b. 1787, d. 1849), is considered one of the principal +artists of the modern English school. His pictures are mainly historical. + +The Royal Academy of Arts, in London, was founded in 1768. It is under the +direction of forty artists of the first rank in their several professions, +who have the title of "Royal Academicians." The admission to the Academy +is free to all properly qualified students. + + + +CXXI. THE NEW ENGLAND PASTOR. (419) + +Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817, was born at Northampton, Massachusetts. His +mother was a daughter of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards. It is said that +she taught her son the alphabet in one lesson, that he could read the +Bible at four years of age, and that he studied Latin by himself at six. +He graduated at Yale in 1769, returned as tutor in 1771, and continued six +years. He was chaplain in a brigade under General Putnam for a time. In +1778 his father died, and for five years he supported his mother and a +family of twelve children by farming, teaching and preaching. From 1783 to +1795 he was pastor at Greenfield, Connecticut. He was then chosen +President of Yale College, and remained in office till he died. Dr. Dwight +was a man of fine bodily presence, of extended learning, and untiring +industry. His presidency of the college was highly successful. His +patriotism was no less ardent and true than his piety. In his younger days +he wrote considerably in verse. His poetry is not all of a very high +order, but some pieces possess merit. +### + + + The place, with east and western sides, +A wide and verdant street divides: +And here the houses faced the day, +And there the lawns in beauty lay. +There, turret-crowned, and central, stood +A neat and solemn house of God. +Across the way, beneath the shade +Two elms with sober silence spread, +The preacher lived. O'er all the place +His mansion cast a Sunday grace; +Dumb stillness sate the fields around; +His garden seemed a hallowed ground; +Swains ceased to laugh aloud, when near, +And schoolboys never sported there. + + In the same mild and temperate zone, +Twice twenty years, his course had run, +His locks of flowing silver spread +A crown of glory o'er his head; +His face, the image of his mind, +With grave and furrowed wisdom shined; +Not cold; but glowing still, and bright; +Yet glowing with October light: +As evening blends, with beauteous ray, +Approaching night with shining day. + + His Cure his thoughts engrossed alone: +For them his painful course was run: +To bless, to save, his only care; +To chill the guilty soul with fear; +To point the pathway to the skies, +And teach, and urge, and aid, to rise; +Where strait, and difficult to keep, +It climbs, and climbs, o'er Virtue's steep. + + + +CXXII. DEATH OF ABSALOM. (420) + +David numbered the people that were with him, and set captains of +thousands and captains of hundreds over them. And David sent forth a third +part of the people under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand +of Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and a third part under the +hand of Ittai, the Gittite. + +And the king said unto the people, I will surely go forth with you myself +also. But the people answered, thou shalt not go forth; for if we flee +away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care +for us; but now thou art worth ten thousand of us; therefore now it is +better that thou succor us out of the city. And the king said unto them, +What seemeth you best, I will do. + +And the king stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by +hundreds and by thousands. And the king commanded Joab, and Abishai, and +Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with +Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains +charge concerning Absalom. + +So the people went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was +in the wood of Ephraim; where the people of Israel were slain before the +servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of +twenty thousand men. For the battle was there scattered over the face of +all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword +devoured. + +And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and +the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught +hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and +the mule that was under him went away. + +And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom +hanged in an oak. And Joab said unto the man that told him, And, behold, +thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and +I would have given thee ten shekels of silver and a girdle. And the man +said unto Joab, Though I should receive a thousand shekels of silver in my +hand, yet would I not put forth my hand against the king's son; for, in +our hearing, the king charged thee, and Abishai, and Ittai, saying, Beware +that none touch the young man Absalom. Otherwise, I should have wrought +falsehood against mine own life; for there is no matter hid from the king, +and thou thyself wouldst have set thyself against me. + +Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in +his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet +alive in the midst of the oak. And ten young men that bare Joab's armor, +compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him. And Joab blew the +trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab held +back the people. + +And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid +a very great heap of stones upon him; and all Israel fled, everyone to his +tent. Now Absalom, in his lifetime, had taken and reared up for himself a +pillar, which is in the king's dale; for he said, I have no son to keep my +name in remembrance; and he called the pillar after his own name; and it +is called unto this day, Absalom's Place. + +Then said Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear the king +tidings, how that the Lord hath avenged him of his enemies. And Joab said +unto him, Thou shalt not bear tidings this day, but thou shalt bear +tidings another day: but this day thou shalt bear no tidings, because the +king's son is dead. Then said Joab to Cushi, Go, tell the king what thou +hast seen. And Cushi bowed himself unto Joab, and ran. + +Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab, But howsoever, let +me, I pray thee, also run after Cushi. And Joab said, Wherefore wilt thou +run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready? But howsoever, said +he, let me run. And he said unto him, run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of +the plain, and overran Cushi. + +And David sat between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof +over the gate unto the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and +behold, a man running alone. And the watchman cried, and told the king. +And the king said, If he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth. And he +came apace, and drew near. + +And the watchman saw another man running, and the watchman called unto the +porter, and said, Behold, another man running alone. And the king said, He +also bringeth tidings. And the watchman said, Methinketh the running of +the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok. And the king +said, He is a good man, and cometh with good tidings. + +And Ahimaaz called, and said unto the king, All is well. And he fell down +to the earth upon his face before the king, and said, Blessed be the Lord +thy God, which hath delivered up the men that lifted up their hand against +my lord the king. And the king said, Is the young man Absalom safe? And +Ahimaaz answered, When Joab sent the king's servant, and me thy servant, I +saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was. And the king said unto +him, Turn aside and stand here. And he turned aside, and stood still. + +And behold, Cushi came; and Cushi said, Tidings my lord the king; for the +Lord hath avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee. And +the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi +answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee +to do thee hurt, be as that young man is. + +And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and +wept; and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom! my son, my son +Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! + --II Samuel, Chap. xviii. + + + +CXXIII. ABRAHAM DAVENPORT. (424) + +'T was on a May day of the far old year +Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell +Over the bloom and sweet life of the Spring, +Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, +A horror of great darkness, like the night +In day of which the Norland sagas tell, +The Twilight of the Gods. + + The low-hung sky +Was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim +Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs +The crater's sides from the red hell below. +Birds ceased to sing, and all the barnyard fowls +Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars +Lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings +Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died; +Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp +To hear the doom blast of the trumpet shatter +The black sky, that the dreadful face of Christ +Might look from the rent clouds, not as he looked +A loving guest at Bethany, but stern +As Justice and inexorable Law. + +Meanwhile in the old Statehouse, dim as ghosts, +Sat the lawgivers of Connecticut, +Trembling beneath their legislative robes. +"It is the Lord's Great Day! Let us adjourn," +Some said; and then, as if with one accord, +All eyes were turned to Abraham Davenport. + +He rose, slow-cleaving with his steady voice +The intolerable hush. "This well may be +The Day of Judgment which the world awaits; +But be it so or not, I only know +My present duty, and my Lord's command +To occupy till he come. So at the post +Where he hath set me in his providence, +I choose, for one, to meet him face to face, +No faithless servant frightened from my task, +But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls; +And therefore, with all reverence, I would say, +Let God do his work, we will see to ours. +Bring in the candles." And they brought them in. + +Then by the flaring lights the Speaker read, +Albeit with husky voice and shaking hands, +An act to amend an act to regulate +The shad and alewive fisheries. Whereupon, +Wisely and well spake Abraham Davenport, +Straight to the question, with no figures of speech +Save the ten Arab signs, yet not without +The shrewd, dry humor natural to the man: +His awe-struck colleagues listening all the while, +Between the pauses of his argument, +To hear the thunder of the wrath of God +Break from the hollow trumpet of the cloud. + +And there he stands in memory to this day, +Erect, self-poised, a rugged face, half seen +Against the background of unnatural dark, +A witness to the ages as they pass, +That simple duty hath no place for fear. + --Whittier. + + +NOTE.--The "Dark Day," as it is known, occurred May 19th, 1780, and +extended over all New England. The darkness came on about ten o'clock in +the morning, and lasted with varying degrees of intensity until midnight +of the next day. The cause of the phenomenon is unknown. + + + +CXXIV. THE FALLS OF THE YOSEMITE. (426) + +Thomas Starr King, 1824-1863, was born in New York City. His father was a +Universalist minister; and, in 1834, he settled in Charlestown, +Massachusetts. The son was preparing to enter Harvard University, when the +death of his father devolved upon him the support of his mother, and his +collegiate course had to be given up. He spent several years as clerk and +teacher, improving meanwhile all possible opportunities for study. In 1846 +he was settled over the church to which his father had preached in +Charlestown. Two years later, he was called to the Hollis Street Unitarian +Church in Boston. Here his eloquence and active public spirit soon made +him well known. He also gained much reputation as a public lecturer. In +1860 he left the East to take charge of the Unitarian church in San +Francisco. During the remaining years of his life, he exercised much +influence in the public affairs of California. He died suddenly, of +diphtheria, in the midst of his brilliant career. + +Mr. King was a great lover of nature. His "White Hills," describing the +mountain scenery of New Hampshire, is the most complete book ever written +concerning that interesting region. +### + +The Yosemite valley, in California, is a pass about ten miles long. At its +eastern extremity it leads into three narrower passes, each of which +extends several miles, winding by the wildest paths into the heart of the +Sierra Nevada chain of mountains. For seven miles of the main valley, +which varies in width from three quarters of a mile to a mile and a half, +the walls on either side are from two thousand to nearly five thousand +feet above the road, and are nearly perpendicular. From these walls, rocky +splinters a thousand feet in height start up, and every winter drop a few +hundred tons of granite, to adorn the base of the rampart with picturesque +ruin. + +The valley is of such irregular width, and bends so much and often so +abruptly, that there is a great variety and frequent surprise in the forms +and combinations of the overhanging rocks as one rides along the bank of +the stream. The patches of luxuriant meadow, with their dazzling green, +and the grouping of the superb firs, two hundred feet high, that skirt +them, and that shoot above the stout and graceful oaks and sycamores +through which the horse path winds, are delightful rests of sweetness and +beauty amid the threatening awfulness. + +The Merced, which flows through the same pass, is a noble stream, a +hundred feet wide and ten feet deep. It is formed chiefly of the streams +that leap and rush through the narrower passes, and it is swollen, also, +by the bounty of the marvelous waterfalls that pour down from the ramparts +of the wider valley. The sublime poetry of Habakkuk is needed to describe +the impression, and, perhaps, the geology, of these mighty fissures: "Thou +didst cleave the earth with rivers." + +At the foot of the breakneck declivity of nearly three thousand feet by +which we reach the banks of the Merced, we are six miles from the hotel, +and every rod of the ride awakens wonder, awe, and a solemn joy. As we +approach the hotel, and turn toward the opposite bank of the river, what +is that + + "Which ever sounds and shines, + A pillar of white light upon the wall + Of purple cliffs aloof descried"? + +That, reader, is the highest waterfall in the world--the Yosemite +cataract, nearly twenty-five hundred feet in its plunge, dashing from a +break or depression in a cliff thirty-two hundred feet sheer. + +A writer who visited this valley in September, calls the cataract a mere +tape line of water dropped from the sky. Perhaps it is so, toward the +close of the dry season; but as we saw it, the blended majesty and beauty +of it, apart from the general sublimities of Yosemite gorge, would repay a +journey of a thousand miles. There was no deficiency of water. It was a +powerful stream, thirty-five feet broad, fresh from the Nevada, that made +the plunge from the brow of the awful precipice. + +At the first leap it clears fourteen hundred and ninety-seven feet; then +it tumbles down a series of steep stairways four hundred and two feet, and +then makes a jump to the meadows five hundred and eighteen feet more. But +it is the upper and highest cataract that is most wonderful to the eye, as +well as most musical. The cliff is so sheer that there is no break in the +body of the water during the whole of its descent of more than a quarter +of a mile. It pours in a curve from the summit, fifteen hundred feet, to +the basin that hoards it but a moment for the cascades that follow. + +And what endless complexities and opulence of beauty in the forms and +motions of the cataract! It is comparatively narrow at the top of the +precipice, although, as we said, the tide that pours over is thirty-five +feet broad. But it widens as it descends, and curves a little on one side +as it widens, so that it shapes itself, before it reaches its first bowl +of granite, into the figure of a comet. More beautiful than the comet, +however, we can see the substance of this watery loveliness ever renew +itself and ever pour itself away. + + "It mounts in spray the skies, and thence again + Returns in an unceasing shower, which round + With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain, + Is an eternal April to the ground, + Making it all one emerald;--how profound + The gulf! and how the giant element + From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound, + Crushing the cliffs." + +The cataract seems to shoot out a thousand serpentine heads or knots of +water, which wriggle down deliberately through the air and expend +themselves in mist before half the descent is over. Then a new set burst +from the body and sides of the fall, with the same fortune on the +remaining distance; and thus the most charming fretwork of watery nodules, +each trailing its vapory train for a hundred feet or more, is woven all +over the cascade, which swings, now and then, thirty feet each way, on the +mountain side, as if it were a pendulum of watery lace. Once in a while, +too, the wind manages to get back of the fall, between it and the cliff, +and then it will whirl it round and round for two or three hundred feet, +as if to try the experiment of twisting it to wring it dry. + +Of course I visited the foot of the lowest fall of the Yosemite, and +looked up through the spray, five hundred feet, to its crown. And I tried +to climb to the base of the first or highest cataract, but lost my way +among the steep, sharp rocks, for there is only one line by which the +cliff can be scaled. But no nearer view that I found or heard described, +is comparable with the picture, from the hotel, of the comet curve of the +upper cataract, fifteen hundred feet high, and the two falls immediately +beneath it, in which the same water leaps to the level of the quiet +Merced. + + + +CXXV. A PSALM OF LIFE. (429) + +Tell me not, in mournful numbers, + Life is but an empty dream! +For the soul is dead that slumbers, + And things are not what they seem. + +Life is real! Life is earnest! + And the grave is not its goal; +Dust thou art, to dust returnest, + Was not spoken of the soul. + +Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, + Is our destined end or way; +But to act, that each to-morrow + Find us farther than to-day. + +Art is long, and Time is fleeting, + And our hearts, though stout and brave, +Still, like muffled drums, are beating + Funeral marches to the grave. + +In the world's broad field of battle, + In the bivouac of Life, +Be not like dumb, driven cattle! + Be a hero in the strife! + +Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! + Let the dead Past bury its dead! +Act--act in the living Present! + Heart within, and God o'erhead. + +Lives of great men all remind us + We can make our lives sublime, +And, departing, leave behind us + Footprints on the sands of time;-- + +Footprints, that perhaps another, + Sailing o'er life's solemn main, +A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, + Seeing, shall take heart again. + +Let us, then, be up and doing, + With a heart for any fate; + Still achieving, still pursuing, +Learn to labor and to wait. + --Longfellow. + + + +CXXVI. FRANKLIN'S ENTRY INTO PHILADELPHIA. (431) + +Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790, was born in Boston. He received little +schooling, but being apprenticed to his brother, a printer, he acquired a +taste for reading and study. In 1723, he went to Philadelphia, where he +followed his chosen calling, and in time became the publisher of the +"Pennsylvania Gazette" and the celebrated "Poor Richard's Almanac." + +As a philosopher Franklin was rendered famous by his discovery of the +identity of lightning with electricity. His career in public affairs may +be briefly summarized as follows: In 1736 he was made Clerk of the +Provincial Assembly; in 1737, deputy postmaster at Philadelphia; and in +1753, Postmaster general for British America. He was twice in England as +the agent of certain colonies. After signing the Declaration of +Independence, he was sent as Minister Plenipotentiary to France in 1776. +On his return, in 1785, he was made "President of the Commonwealth of +Pennsylvania," holding the office three years. He was also one of the +framers of the Constitution of the United States. + +As a writer Franklin commenced his career when only twelve years old by +composing two ballads, which, however, he condemned as "wretched stuff." +Franklin's letters and papers on electricity, afterwards enlarged by +essays on various philosophical subjects, have been translated into Latin, +French, Italian, and German. The most noted of his works, and the one from +which the following extract is taken, is his "Autobiography." This book is +"one of the half dozen most widely popular books ever printed," and has +been published in nearly every written language. Franklin founded the +American Philosophical Society, and established an institution which has +since grown into the University of Pennsylvania. His life is a noble +example of the results of industry and perseverance, and his death was the +occasion of public mourning. +### + + +Walking in the evening by the side of the river, a boat came by, which I +found was going towards Philadelphia, with several people in her. They +took me in, and, as there was no wind, we rowed all the way; and about +midnight, not having yet seen the city, some of the company were confident +we must have passed it, and would row no farther; the others knew not +where we were; so we put toward the shore, got into a creek, landed near +an old fence, with the rails of which we made a fire, the night being +cold, in October, and there we remained till daylight. + +Then one of the company knew the place to be Cooper's Creek, a little +above Philadelphia, which we saw as soon as we got out of the creek, and +arrived there about eight or nine o'clock on the Sunday morning, and +landed at the Market Street wharf. + +I have been the more particular in this description of my journey, and +shall be so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your mind +compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since made there. + +I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come round by sea. I +was dirty from my journey; my pockets were stuffed out with shirts and +stockings, and I knew no soul nor where to look for lodging. I was +fatigued with traveling, rowing, and want of rest; I was very hungry; and +my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar, and about a shilling +in copper. The latter I gave the people of the boat for my passage, who at +first refused it on account of my rowing; but I insisted on their taking +it,--a man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money +than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but +little. + +Then I walked up the street gazing about, till, near the market house, I +met a boy with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and, inquiring +where he got it, I went immediately to the baker's he directed me to, in +Second Street, and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had in Boston: +but they, it seems, were not made in Philadelphia. Then I asked for a +threepenny loaf, and was told they had none such. So not considering or +knowing the difference of money, and the greater cheapness nor the names +of his bread, I bade him give threepenny worth of any sort. He gave me, +accordingly, three great puffy rolls. I was surprised at the quantity, but +took it, and, having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under +each arm, and eating the other. + +Thus I went up Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing by the door +of Mr. Read, my future wife's father: when she, standing at the door, saw +me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous +appearance. Then I turned and went down Chestnut Street and part of Walnut +Street, eating my roll all the way, and, coming round, found myself again +at Market Street wharf, near the boat I came in, to which I went for a +draught of the river water; and, being filled with one of my rolls, gave +the other two to a woman and her child that came down the river in the +boat with us, and were waiting to go farther. + +Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by this time had many +clean-dressed people in it, who were all walking the same way. I joined +them, and thereby was led into the great meetinghouse of the Quakers, near +the market. I sat down among them, and, after looking round awhile and +hearing nothing said, being very drowsy through labor and want of rest the +preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and continued so till the meeting +broke up, when one was kind enough to rouse me. This was, therefore, the +first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia. + +Walking down again toward the river, and looking in the faces of people, I +met a young Quaker man, whose countenance I liked, and, accosting him, +requested he would tell me where a stranger could get lodging. We were +then near the sign of the Three Mariners. "Here," says he, "is one place +that entertains strangers, but it is not a reputable house; if thee wilt +walk with me, I'll show thee a better." He brought me to the Crooked +Billet, in Water Street. Here I got a dinner; and, while I was eating it, +several sly questions were asked me, as it seemed to be suspected from my +youth and appearance that I might be some runaway. After dinner my +sleepiness returned, and, being shown to a bed, I lay down without +undressing, and slept till six in the evening; was called to supper, went +to bed again very early, and slept soundly till next morning. + + +NOTE.--The river referred to is the Delaware. Franklin was on his way from +Boston to Philadelphia, and had just walked from Amboy to Burlington, New +Jersey, a distance of fifty miles. + + + +CXXVII. LINES TO A WATERFOWL. (434) + + Whither 'midst falling dew, +While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, +Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue + Thy solitary way? + + Vainly the fowler's eye +Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, +As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, + Thy figure floats along. + + Seek'st thou the plashy brink +Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, +Or where the rocky billows rise and sink + On the chafed ocean side? + + There is a Power whose care +Teaches thy way along that pathless coast. +The desert and illimitable air, + Lone wandering, but not lost. + + All day, thy wings have fanned, +At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, +Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land + Though the dark night is near. + + And soon that toil shall end, +Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, +And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend, + Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest. + + Thou'rt gone; the abyss of heaven +Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart, +Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given, + And shall not soon depart. + + He, who, from zone to zone, +Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, +In the long way that I must tread alone, + Will lead my steps aright. + --Bryant. + + + +CXXVIII. GOLDSMITH AND ADDISON. (435) + +William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811-1863, was born in Calcutta, and is one +of the most popular of English novelists, essayists, and humorists. While +a boy, he removed from India to England, where he was educated at the +Charterhouse in London, and at Cambridge. When twenty-one years of age, he +came into possession of about 20,000 pounds. He rapidly dissipated his +fortune, however, and was compelled to work for his living, first turning +his attention to law and then to art, but finally choosing literature as +his profession. He was for many years correspondent, under assumed names, +at the "London Times," "The New Monthly Magazine," "Punch," and "Fraser's +Magazine." His first novel under his own name, "Vanity Fair," appeared in +monthly numbers during 1846-8, and is generally considered his finest +production: although "Pendennis," "Henry Esmond," and "The Newcomes" are +also much admired. His lectures on "English Humorists of the Eighteenth +Century," from which the following selections are taken, were delivered in +England first in 1851, and afterwards in America, which he visited in 1852 +and again in 1855-6. During the latter visit, he first delivered his +course of lectures on "The Four Georges," which were later repeated in +England. At the close of 1859, Thackeray became editor of the "Cornhill +Magazine," and made it one of the most successful serials ever published. + +Thackeray has been charged with cynicism in his writings, but he was noted +for his happy temper and genial disposition towards all who came in +contact with him. +### + + +1. GOLDSMITH. + +To be the most beloved of English writers, what a title that is for a man! +A wild youth, wayward, but full of tenderness and affection, quits the +country village where his boyhood has been passed in happy musing, in idle +shelter, in fond longing to see the great world out of doors, and achieve +name and fortune--and after years of dire struggle, and neglect, and +poverty, his heart turning back as fondly to his native place as it had +longed eagerly for change when sheltered there, he writes a book and a +poem, full of the recollections and feelings of home; he paints the +friends and scenes of his youth, and peoples Auburn and Wakefield with the +remembrances of Lissoy. + +Wander he must, but he carries away a home relic with him, and dies with +it on his breast. His nature is truant; in repose it longs for change: as +on the journey it looks back for friends and quiet. He passes to-day in +building an air castle for to-morrow, or in writing yesterday's elegy; and +he would flyaway this hour, but that a cage, necessity, keeps him. What is +the charm of his verse, of his style, and humor? His sweet regrets, his +delicate compassion, his soft smile, his tremulous sympathy, the weakness +which he owns? + +Your love for him is half pity. You come hot and tired from the day's +battle, and this sweet minstrel sings to you. Who could harm the kind +vagrant harper? Whom did he ever hurt? He carries no weapon, save the harp +on which he plays to you, and with which he delights great and humble, +young and old, the captains in the tents, or the soldiers round the fire, +or the women and children in the villages, at whose porches he stops and +sings his simple songs of love and beauty. With that sweet story of "The +Vicar of Wakefield" he has found entry into every castle and every hamlet +in Europe. Not one of us, however busy or hard, but once or twice in our +lives has passed an evening with him, and undergone the charm of his +delightful music. + + +II. ADDISON. (436) + +We love him for his vanities as much as his virtues. What is ridiculous is +delightful in him; we are so fond of him because we laugh at him so. And +out of that laughter, and out of that sweet weakness, and out of those +harmless eccentricities and follies, and out of that touched brain, and +out of that honest manhood and simplicity--we get a result of happiness, +goodness, tenderness, pity, piety; such as doctors and divines but seldom +have the fortune to inspire. And why not? Is the glory of Heaven to be +sung only by gentlemen in black coats? + +When this man looks from the world, whose weaknesses he describes so +benevolently, up to the Heaven which shines over us all, I can hardly +fancy a human face lighted up with a more serene rapture; a human +intellect thrilling with a purer love and adoration than Joseph Addison's. +Listen to him: from your childhood you have known the verses; but who can +hear their sacred music without love and awe? + + "Soon as the evening shades prevail, + The moon takes up the wondrous tale, + And nightly to the listening earth + Repeats the story of her birth; + And all the stars that round her burn, + And all the planets in their turn, + Confirm the tidings as they roll, + And spread the truth from pole to pole. + + "What though, in solemn silence, all + Move round this dark terrestrial ball; + What though no real voice nor sound + Among their radiant orbs be found; + In reason's ear they all rejoice, + And utter forth a glorious voice, + Forever singing, as they shine, + The Hand that made us is divine." + +It seems to me those verses shine like the stars. They shine out of a +great, deep calm. When he turns to Heaven, a Sabbath comes over that man's +mind; and his face lights up from it with a glory of thanks and prayers. +His sense of religion stirs through his whole being. In the fields, in the +town; looking at the birds in the trees; at the children in the streets; +in the morning or in the moonlight; over his books in his own room; in a +happy party at a country merrymaking or a town assembly, good will and +peace to God's creatures, and love and awe of Him who made them, fill his +pure heart and shine from his kind face. If Swift's life was the most +wretched, I think Addison's was one of the most enviable. A life +prosperous and beautiful--a calm death--an immense fame and affection +afterwards for his happy and spotless name. + + +NOTES.--Goldsmith (see biographical notice, page 215) founded his +descriptions of Auburn in the poem of "The Deserted Village," and of +Wakefield, in "The Vicar of Wakefield," on recollections of his early home +at Lissoy. Ireland. + +Addison. See biographical notice, page 295. The quotation is from a +"Letter from Italy to Charles Lord Halifax." + +Swift, Jonathan (b. 1667, d. 1745), the celebrated Irish satirist and +poet, was a misanthrope. His disposition made his life miserable in the +extreme, and he finally became insane. + + + +CXXIX. IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. (438) + +SCENE--CATO, alone, sitting in a thoughtful posture;--in his hand, + Plato's book on the immortality of the soul; a drawn sword on the + table by him. + +Cato. It must be so. Plato, thou reasonest well! + Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, + This longing after immortality? + Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, + Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul + Back on herself, and startles at destruction? + 'T is the divinity that stirs within us; + 'T is heaven itself that points out an hereafter, + And intimates eternity to man. + Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought! + Through what variety of untried being, + Through what new scenes and changes must we pass? + The wide, unbounded prospect lies before me: + But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it. + Here will I hold. If there's a Power above us, + (And that there is, all Nature cries aloud + Through all her works) he must delight in virtue; + And that which he delights in must be happy. + But when?--or where?--This world was made for Caesar. + I'm weary of conjectures--this must end them. + (Seizes the sword.) + Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life, + My bane and antidote are both before me. + This in a moment brings me to an end; + But this informs me I shall never die. + The soul, secured in her existence, smiles + At the drawn dagger and defies its point. + The stars shall fade away, the sun himself + Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years; + But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, + Unhurt amidst the war of elements, + The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds. + --Addison. + +NOTES.--The above selection is Cato's soliloquy just before committing +suicide. It is from the tragedy of "Cato." + +Cato, Marcus Porcius, (b. 95, d. 46 B. C.) was a Roman general, statesman, +and philosopher. He was exceptionally honest and conscientious, and +strongly opposed Caesar and Pompey in their attempts to seize the state. +When Utica, the last African city to resist Caesar, finally yielded, Cato +committed suicide. + +Plato (b. 429, d. about 348 B. C.) was a celebrated Greek philosopher. His +writings are all in the form of dialogues, and have been preserved in a +wonderfully perfect state. + + + +CXXX. CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON. (440) + +Jared Sparks, 1789-1866, was born at Willington, Connecticut, and +graduated at Harvard in 1815. He was tutor in the University for two +years, and in 1819 was ordained pastor of the Unitarian Church in +Baltimore. In 1823 he returned to Boston, purchased the "North American +Review," and was its sole editor for seven years. From 1839 to 1849 he was +Professor in Harvard, and for the next three years was President of the +University. Mr. Sparks has written extensively on American history and +biography, including the lives of Washington and Franklin. He collected +the materials for his biographies with great care, and wrought them up +with much skill. +### + + +The person of Washington was commanding, graceful, and fitly proportioned; +his stature six feet, his chest broad and full, his limbs long and +somewhat slender, but well-shaped and muscular. His features were regular +and symmetrical, his eyes of a light blue color, and his whole +countenance, in its quiet state, was grave, placid, and benignant. When +alone, or not engaged in conversation, he appeared sedate and thoughtful; +but when his attention was excited, his eye kindled quickly, and his face +beamed with animation and intelligence. + +He was not fluent in speech, but what he said was apposite, and listened +to with the more interest as being known to come from the heart. He seldom +attempted sallies of wit or humor, but no man received more pleasure from +an exhibition of them by others; and, although contented in seclusion, he +sought his chief happiness in society, and participated with delight in +all its rational and innocent amusements. Without austerity on the one +hand, or an appearance of condescending familiarity on the other, he was +affable, courteous, and cheerful; but it has often been remarked that +there was a dignity in his person and manner not easy to be defined, which +impressed everyone that saw him for the first time with an instinctive +deference and awe. This may have arisen, in part, from a conviction of his +superiority, as well as from the effect produced by his external form and +deportment. + +The character of his mind was unfolded in the public and private acts of +his life; and the proofs of his greatness are seen almost as much in the +one as the other. The same qualities which raised him to the ascendency he +possessed over the will of a nation, as the commander of armies and chief +magistrate, caused him to be loved and respected as an individual. Wisdom, +judgment, prudence, and firmness were his predominant traits. No man ever +saw more clearly the relative importance of things and actions, or +divested himself more entirely of the bias of personal interest, +partiality, and prejudice, in discriminating between the true and the +false, the right and the wrong, in all questions and subjects that were +presented to him. He deliberated slowly, but decided surely; and when his +decision was once formed he seldom reversed it, and never relaxed from the +execution of a measure till it was completed. Courage, physical and moral, +was a part of his nature; and, whether in battle, or in the midst of +popular excitement, he was fearless of danger, and regardless of +consequences to himself. + +His ambition was of that noble kind which aims to excel in whatever it +undertakes, and to acquire a power over the hearts of men by promoting +their happiness and winning their affections. Sensitive to the approbation +of others, and solicitous to deserve it, he made no concessions to gain +their applause, either by flattering their vanity or yielding to their +caprices. Cautious without timidity, bold without rashness, cool in +counsel, deliberate but firm in action, clear in foresight, patient under +reverses, steady, persevering, and self-possessed, he met and conquered +every obstacle that obstructed his path to honor, renown and success. More +confident in the uprightness of his intention than in his resources, he +sought knowledge and advice from other men. He chose his counselors with +unerring sagacity; and his quick perception of the soundness of an +opinion, and of the strong points in an argument, enabled him to draw to +his aid the best fruits of their talents, and the light of their collected +wisdom. + +His moral qualities were in perfect harmony with those of his intellect. +Duty was the ruling principle of his conduct; and the rare endowments of +his understanding were not more constantly tasked to devise the best +methods of effecting an object, than they were to guard the sanctity of +conscience. No instance can be adduced in which he was actuated by a +sinister motive or endeavored to attain an end by unworthy means. Truth, +integrity, and justice were deeply rooted in his mind; and nothing could +rouse his indignation so soon, or so utterly destroy his confidence, as +the discovery of the want of these virtues in anyone whom he had trusted. +Weaknesses, follies, indiscretions be could forgive; but subterfuge and +dishonesty he never forgot, rarely pardoned. + +He was candid and sincere, true to his friends, and faithful to all; +neither practicing dissimulation, descending to artifice, nor holding out +expectations which he did not intend should be realized. His passions were +strong, and sometimes they broke out with vehemence: but he had the power +of checking them in an instant. Perhaps self-control was the most +remarkable trait of his character. It was, in part, the effect of +discipline; yet he seems by nature to have possessed this power in a +degree which has been denied to other men. + +A Christian in faith and practice, he was habitually devout. His reverence +for religion is seen in his example, his public communications, and his +private writings. He uniformly ascribed his successes to the beneficent +agency of the Supreme Being. Charitable and humane, he was liberal to the +poor, and kind to those in distress. As a husband, son, and brother, he +was tender and affectionate. Without vanity, ostentation, or pride, he +never spoke of himself or his actions unless required by circumstances +which concerned the public interests. + +As he was free from envy, so he had the good fortune to escape the envy of +others by standing on an elevation which none could hope to attain. If he +had one passion more strong than another it was love of his country. The +purity and ardor of his patriotism were commensurate with the greatness of +its object. Love of country in him was invested with the sacred obligation +of a duty; and from the faithful discharge of this duty he never swerved +for a moment, either in thought or deed, through the whole period of his +eventful career. + +Such are some of the traits in the character of Washington, which have +acquired for him the love and veneration of mankind. If they are not +marked with the brilliancy, extravagance, and eccentricity, which, in +other men, have excited the astonishment of the world, so neither are they +tarnished by the follies, nor disgraced by the crimes of those men. It is +the happy combination of rare talents and qualities, the harmonious union +of the intellectual and moral powers, rather than the dazzling splendor of +any one trait, which constitute the grandeur of his character. If the +title of great man ought to be reserved for him who can not be charged +with an indiscretion or a vice; who spent his life in establishing the +independence, the glory, and durable prosperity of his country; who +succeeded in all that he undertook; and whose successes were never won at +the expense of honor, justice, integrity, or by the sacrifice of a single +principle,--this title will not be denied to Washington. + + + + How sweetly on the ear such echoes sound! + While the mere victors may appall or stun + The servile and the vain, such names will be + A watchword till the future shall be free. + --Byron. + + + +CXXXI. EULOGY ON WASHINGTON. (444) + +General Henry Lee, 1756-1818, a member of the celebrated Lee family of +Virginia, was born in Westmoreland County in that state, and died on +Cumberland Island, Georgia. He graduated at Princeton in his eighteenth +year. In 1777 he marched with a regiment of cavalry to join the patriot +army, and served with fidelity and success till the close of the war. He +was noted for his bravery, skill, and celerity, and received the nickname +of "Light-horse Harry." He was a great favorite with both General Greene +and General Washington. In 1786 Virginia appointed him one of her +delegates to Congress; he also took an active part in favor of the +adoption of the constitution in the Virginia Convention of 1788. On the +breaking out of the "Whisky Rebellion" in Pennsylvania, in 1794, the +President sent General Lee with an army to suppress the disturbance. The +insurgents submitted without resistance. In 1799 he was again a member of +Congress; and, on the death of Washington, that body appointed him to +pronounce a eulogy upon the life and character of the great and good man. +The following extract contains the closing part of the oration. +### + + +Who is there that has forgotten the vales of Brandywine, the fields of +Germantown, or the plains of Monmouth? Everywhere present, wants of every +kind obstructing, numerous and valiant armies encountering, himself a +host, he assuaged our sufferings, limited our privations, and upheld our +tottering Republic. Shall I display to you the spread of the fire of his +soul by rehearsing the praises of the hero of Saratoga, and his much-loved +compeer of the Carolinas? No; our Washington wears not borrowed glory. To +Gates--to Greene, he gave without reserve the applause due to their +eminent merit; and long may the chiefs of Saratoga and of Eutaw receive +the grateful respect of a grateful people. + +Moving in his own orbit, he imparted heat and light to his most distant +satellites; and, combining the physical and moral force of all within his +sphere, with irresistible weight he took his course, commiserating folly, +disdaining vice, dismaying treason, and invigorating despondency; until +the auspicious hour arrived, when, united with the intrepid forces of a +potent and magnanimous ally, he brought to submission Cornwallis, since +the conqueror of India; thus finishing his long career of military glory +with a luster corresponding to his great name, and in this his last act of +war, affixing the seal of fate to our nation's birth. + +First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, +he was second to none in humble and endearing scenes of private life. +Pious, just, humane, temperate, sincere, uniform, dignified, and +commanding, his example was edifying to all around him, as were the +effects of that example lasting. + +To his equals, he was condescending; to his inferiors, kind; and to the +dear object of his affections, exemplarily tender. Correct throughout, +vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand; +the purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues. + +His last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life. Although in +extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan, escaped him; and with undisturbed +serenity he closed his well-spent life. Such was the man America has lost! +Such was the man for whom our nation mourns! + + +NOTES.--At Brandywine Creek, in Pennsylvania, 18,000 British, under Howe, +defeated 13,000 Americans under Washington. + +Germantown, near Philadelphia, was the scene of an American defeat by the +British, the same generals commanding as at Brandywine. + +The battle of Monmouth, in New Jersey, resulted in victory for the +Americans. + +The hero of Saratoga was General Gates, who there compelled the surrender +of General Burgoyne. + +At Eutaw Springs, General Greene defeated a superior force of British. + +Cornwallis, Charles, second earl and first marquis (b. 1738, d. 1805), +surrendered his forces to a combined American and French army and French +fleet at Yorktown, in 1781, virtually ending the war. + + + +CXXXII. THE SOLITARY REAPER. (446) + +William Wordsworth, 1770-1850, the founder of the "Lake School" of poets, +was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. From his boyhood he was a +great lover and student of nature, and it is to his beautiful descriptions +of landscape, largely, that he owes his fame. He was a graduate of +Cambridge University, and while there commenced the study of Chaucer, +Spenser, Milton, and Shakespeare, as models for his own writings. Two +legacies having been bequeathed him, Wordsworth determined to make poetry +the aim of his life, and in 1795 located at Racedown with his sister +Dorothy, where he commenced the tragedy of "The Borderers." A visit from +Coleridge at this period made the two poets friends for life. In 1802 +Wordsworth married Miss Mary Hutchinson, and in 1813 he settled at Rydal +Mount, on Lake Windermere, where he passed the remainder of his life. + +Wordsworth's poetry is remarkable for its extreme simplicity of language. +At first his efforts were almost universally ridiculed, and in 1819 his +entire income from literary work had not amounted to 140 Pounds. In 1830 +his merit began to be recognized; in 1839 Oxford University conferred upon +him the degree of D. C. L.; and in 1843 he was made poet laureate. + +"The Excursion" is by far the most beautiful and the most important of +Wordsworth's productions. "Salisbury Plain," "The White Doe of Rylstone," +"Yarrow Revisited," and many of his sonnets and minor poems are also much +admired. +### + + +Behold her, single in the field, +Yon solitary Highland lass! +Reaping and singing by herself; +Stop here, or gently pass! +Alone she cuts and binds the grain, +And sings a melancholy strain; +Oh listen! for the vale profound +Is overflowing with the sound. + +No nightingale did ever chant +More welcome notes to weary bands +Of travelers in some shady haunt, +Among Arabian sands: +A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard +In springtime from the cuckoo bird, +Breaking the silence of the seas +Among the farthest Hebrides. + +Will no one tell me what she sings? +Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow +For old, unhappy, far-off things, +And battles long ago: +Or is it some more humble lay, +Familiar matter of to-day? +Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, +That has been, and may be again? + +Whate'er the theme, the maiden sang +As if her song could have no ending; +I saw her singing at her work, +And o'er the sickle bending;-- +I listened motionless and still; +And, as I mounted up the hill, +The music in my heart I bore, +Long after it was heard no more. + + + +CXXXIII. VALUE OF THE PRESENT. (447) + +Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, the celebrated essayist and philosopher, +was born in Boston. His father was a Unitarian minister, and the son, +after graduating at Harvard University, entered the ministry also, and +took charge of a Unitarian congregation in Boston. His peculiar ideas on +religious topics soon caused him to retire from the ministry, and he then +devoted himself to literature. As a lecturer, Emerson attained a wide +reputation, both in this country and in England, and he is considered as +one of the most independent and original thinkers of the age. His style is +brief and pithy, dazzling by its wit, but sometimes paradoxical. He wrote +a few poems, but they are not generally admired, being didactic in style, +bare, and obscure. Among his best known publications are his volume +"Nature," and his lectures, "The Mind and Manners of the Nineteenth +Century," "The Superlative in Manners and Literature," "English Character +and Manners," and "The Conduct of Life." In 1850 appeared "Representative +Men," embracing sketches of Plato, Swedenborg, Montaigne, Shakespeare, +Napoleon, and Goethe. + + +Such are the days,--the earth is the cup, the sky is the cover, of the +immense bounty of nature which is offered us for our daily aliment; but +what a force of illusion begins life with us, and attends us to the end! +We are coaxed, flattered, and duped, from morn to eve, from birth to +death; and where is the old eye that ever saw through the deception? The +Hindoos represent Maia, the illusory energy of Vishnu, as one of his +principal attributes. As if, in this gale of warring elements, which life +is, it was necessary to bind souls to human life as mariners in a tempest +lash themselves to the mast and bulwarks of a ship, and Nature employed +certain illusions as her ties and straps,--a rattle, a doll, an apple, for +a child; skates, a river, a boat, a horse, a gun, for the growing +boy;--and I will not begin to name those of the youth and adult, for they +are numberless. Seldom and slowly the mask falls, and the pupil is +permitted to see that all is one stuff, cooked and painted under many +counterfeit appearances. Hume's doctrine was that the circumstances vary, +the amount of happiness does not; that the beggar cracking fleas in the +sunshine under a hedge, and the duke rolling by in his chariot, the girl +equipped for her first ball, and the orator returning triumphant from the +debate, had different means, but the same quantity of pleasant excitement. + +This element of illusion lends all its force to hide the values of present +time. Who is he that does not always find himself doing something less +than his best task? "What are you doing?" "Oh, nothing; I have been doing +thus, or I shall do so or so, but now I am only--" Ah! poor dupe, will you +never slip out of the web of the master juggler?--never learn that, as +soon as the irrecoverable years have woven their blue glory between to-day +and us, these passing hours shall glitter and draw us, as the wildest +romance and the homes of beauty and poetry? How difficult to deal erect +with them! The events they bring, their trade, entertainments, and gossip, +their urgent work, all throw dust in the eyes and distract attention. He +is a strong man who can look them in the eye, see through this juggle, +feel their identity, and keep his own; who can know surely that one will +be like another to the end of the world, nor permit love, or death, or +politics, or money, war, or pleasure, to draw him from his task. + +The world is always equal to itself, and every man in moments of deeper +thought is apprised that he is repeating the experiences of the people in +the streets of Thebes or Byzantium. An everlasting Now reigns in nature, +which hangs the same roses on our bushes which charmed the Roman and the +Chaldean in their hanging gardens. "To what end, then," he asks, "should I +study languages, and traverse countries, to learn so simple truths?" + +History of ancient art, excavated cities, recovery of books and +inscriptions,--yes, the works were beautiful, and the history worth +knowing; and academies convene to settle the claims of the old schools. +What journeys and measurements,--Niebuhr and Muller and Layard,--to +identify the plain of Troy and Nimroud town! And your homage to Dante +costs you so much sailing; and to ascertain the discoverers of America +needs as much voyaging as the discovery cost. Poor child! that flexible +clay of which these old brothers molded their admirable symbols was not +Persian, nor Memphian, nor Teutonic, nor local at all, but was common lime +and silex and water, and sunlight, the heat of the blood, and the heaving +of the lungs; it was that clay which thou heldest but now in thy foolish +hands, and threwest away to go and seek in vain in sepulchers, mummy pits, +and old bookshops of Asia Minor, Egypt, and England. It was the deep +to-day which all men scorn; the rich poverty, which men hate; the +populous, all-loving solitude, which men quit for the tattle of towns. He +lurks, he hides,--he who is success, reality, joy, and power. One of the +illusions is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. +Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man +has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday. +'T is the old secret of the gods that they come in low disguises. 'T is +the vulgar great who come dizened with gold and jewels. Real kings hide +away their crowns in their wardrobes, and affect a plain and poor +exterior. In the Norse legend of our ancestors, Odin dwells in a fisher's +hut, and patches a boat. In the Hindoo legends, Hari dwells a peasant +among peasants. In the Greek legend, Apollo lodges with the shepherds of +Admetus; and Jove liked to rusticate among the poor Ethiopians. So, in our +history, Jesus is born in a barn, and his twelve peers are fishermen. 'T +is the very principle of science that Nature shows herself best in leasts; +'t was the maxim of Aristotle and Lucretius; and, in modern times, of +Swedenborg and of Hahnemann. The order of changes in the egg determines +the age of fossil strata. So it was the rule of our poets, in the legends +of fairy lore, that the fairies largest in power were the least in size. + +In the Christian graces, humility stands highest of all, in the form of +the Madonna; and in life, this is the secret of the wise. We owe to genius +always the same debt, of lifting the curtain from the common, and showing +us that divinities are sitting disguised in the seeming gang of gypsies +and peddlers. In daily life, what distinguishes the master is the using +those materials he has, instead of looking about for what are more +renowned, or what others have used well. "A general," said Bonaparte, +"always has troops enough, if he only knows how to employ those he has, +and bivouacs with them." Do not refuse the employment which the hour +brings you, for one more ambitious. The highest heaven of wisdom is alike +near from every point, and thou must find it, if at all, by methods native +to thyself alone. + +NOTES.--The Brahmanic religion teaches a Trinity, of which Vishnu is the +savior of mankind. + +Thebes, the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, was at its most flourishing +period about 1500 B. C. Byzantium was an important Greek city during the +second and third centuries B. C. + +Niebuhr (b. 1776, d. 1831), Muller (b. 1797, d. 1840), and Layard (b. +1817, d. 1894), are celebrated archaeologists. The first two were Germans, +and the last an Englishman. + + + +CXXXIV. HAPPINESS. (451) + +Alexander Pope, 1688-1744, was the shining literary light of the so-called +Augustan reign of Queen Anne, the poetry of which was distinguished by the +highest degree of polish and elegance. Pope was the son of a retired linen +draper, who lived in a pleasant country house near the Windsor Forest. He +was so badly deformed that his life was "one long disease;" he was +remarkably precocious, and had a most intelligent face, with great, +flaming, tender eyes. In disposition Pope was the reverse of admirable. He +was extremely sensitive, petulant, and supercilious; fierce and even +coarse in his attacks on opponents; boastful of his self-acquired wealth +and of his intimacy with the nobility. The great redeeming feature of his +character was his tender devotion to his aged parents. + +As a poet, however, Pope challenges the highest admiration. At the age of +sixteen he commenced his "Pastorals," and when only twenty-one published +his "Essay on Criticism," pronounced "the finest piece of argumentative +and reasoning poetry in the English language." His reputation was now +firmly established, and his literary activity ceased only at his death; +although, during the latter portion of his life, he was so weak physically +that he was unable to dress himself or even to rise from bed without +assistance. Pope's great admiration was Dryden, whose style he studied and +copied. He lacks the latter's strength, but in elegance and polish he +remains unequaled. + +Pope's most remarkable work is "The Rape of the Lock;" his greatest, the +translation into English verse of Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey." His +"Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard," "The Dunciad," and the "Essay On Man" are +also famous productions. He published an edition of "Shakespeare," which +was awaited with great curiosity, and received with equal disappointment. +During the three years following its appearance, he united with Swift and +Arbuthnot in writing the "Miscellanies," an extensive satire on the abuses +of learning and the extravagances of philosophy. His "Epistles," addressed +to various distinguished men, and covering a period of four years, were +copied after those of Horace; they were marked by great clearness, +neatness of diction, and good sense, and by Pope's usual elegance and +grace. His "Imitations of Horace" was left unfinished at his death. + +The following selection is an extract from the "Essay on Man;" +### + + +Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise, +By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies? +Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys, +And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. +Know all the good that individuals find, +Or God and nature meant to mere mankind. +Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, +Lie in three words,--health, peace, and competence. + +But health consists with temperance alone; +And peace, O virtue! peace is all thy own. +The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain; +But these less taste them as they worse obtain. +Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, +Who risk the most, that take wrong means or right? +Of vice or virtue, whether blest or curst, +Which meets contempt, or which compassion first? + +Count all th' advantage prosperous vice attains, +'T is but what virtue flies from and disdains: +And grant the bad what happiness they would, +One they must want, which is, to pass for good. +Oh, blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below, +Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe! +Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, +Best knows the blessing, and will most be blest. + +But fools the good alone unhappy call, +For ills or accidents that chance to all. +Think we, like some weak prince, the Eternal Cause, +Prone for his favorites to reverse his laws? +Shall burning AEtna, if a sage requires, +Forget to thunder, and recall her fires? +When the loose mountain trembles from on high, +Shall gravitation cease, if you go by? + +"But sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed." +What, then? Is the reward of virtue bread? +That, vice may merit, 't is the price of toil; +The knave deserves it when he tills the soil, +The knave deserves it when he tempts the main, +Where folly fights for kings or dives for gain. +Honor and shame from no condition rise; +Act well your part, there all the honor lies. + +Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; +The rest is all but leather or prunella. +A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod, +An honest man's the noblest work of God. +One self-approving hour whole years outweighs +Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas. + +Know then this truth (enough for man to know), +"Virtue alone is happiness below." +The only point where human bliss stands still, +And tastes the good without the fall to ill; +Where only merit constant pay receives, +Is blest in what it takes and what it gives. + + + +CXXXV. MARION. (453) + +William Gilmore Simms, 1806-1870, one of the most versatile, prolific, and +popular of American authors, was born at Charleston, South Carolina. His +family was poor, and his means of education were limited, yet he managed +to prepare himself for the bar, to which he was admitted when twenty-one +years of age. The law proving uncongenial, he abandoned it, and in 1828 +became editor of the "Charleston City Gazette." From this time till his +death his literary activity was unceasing, and his writings were so +numerous that it is possible only to group them under their various heads. +They comprise Biography; History; Historical Romance, both Foreign and +Domestic, the latter being further divided into Colonial, Revolutionary, +and Border Romances; Pure Romance; The Drama; Poetry; and Criticism; +besides miscellaneous books and pamphlets. + +In the midst of this remarkable literary activity, Mr. Simms still found +time to devote to the affairs of state, being for several years a member +of the South Carolina Legislature. He was also a lecturer, and was +connected editorially with several magazines. Most of his time was spent +at his summer house in Charleston, and at his winter residence, +"Woodlands," on a plantation at Midway, S. C. + +The following selection is from "The Life and Times of Francis Marion." +### + + +Art had done little to increase the comforts or the securities of his +fortress. It was one, complete to his hands, from those of nature--such an +one as must have delighted the generous English outlaw of Sherwood Forest; +insulated by deep ravines and rivers, a dense forest of mighty trees, and +interminable undergrowth. The vine and brier guarded his passes. The +laurel and the shrub, the vine and sweet-scented jessamine roofed his +dwelling, and clambered up between his closed eyelids and the stars. +Obstructions scarcely penetrable by any foe, crowded the pathways to his +tent; and no footstep not practiced in the secret, and to "the manner +born," might pass unchallenged to his midnight rest. The swamp was his +moat; his bulwarks were the deep ravines, which, watched by sleepless +rifles, were quite as impregnable as the castles on the Rhine. Here, in +the possession of his fortress, the partisan slept secure. + +His movements were marked by equal promptitude and wariness. He suffered +no risks from a neglect of proper precaution. His habits of circumspection +and resolve ran together in happy unison. His plans, carefully considered +beforehand, were always timed with the happiest reference to the condition +and feelings of his men. To prepare that condition, and to train those +feelings, were the chief employment of his repose. He knew his game, and +how it should be played, before a step was taken or a weapon drawn. + +When he himself or any of his parties left the island upon an expedition, +they advanced along no beaten paths. They made them as they went. He had +the Indian faculty in perfection, of gathering his course from the sun, +from the stars, from the bark and the tops of trees, and such other +natural guides as the woodman acquires only through long and watchful +experience. + +Many of the trails thus opened by him, upon these expeditions, are now the +ordinary avenues of the country. On starting, he almost invariably struck +into the woods, and seeking the heads of the larger water courses, crossed +them at their first and small beginnings. He destroyed the bridges where +he could. He preferred fords. The former not only facilitated the progress +of less fearless enemies, but apprised them of his own approach. If speed +was essential, a more direct but not less cautious route was pursued. + +He intrusted his schemes to nobody, not even his most confidential +officers. He consulted with them respectfully, heard them patiently, +weighed their suggestions, and silently approached his conclusions. They +knew his determinations only from his actions. He left no track behind +him, if it were possible to avoid it. He was often vainly hunted after by +his own detachments. He was more apt at finding them than they him. His +scouts were taught a peculiar and shrill whistle, which, at night, could +be heard at a most astonishing distance. We are reminded of a signal of +Roderick Dhu:-- + + "He whistled shrill, + And he was answered from the hill; + Wild as the scream of the curlew, + From crag to crag the signal flew." + +His expeditions were frequently long, and his men, hurrying forth without +due preparation, not unfrequently suffered much privation from want of +food. To guard against this danger, it was their habit to watch his cook. +If they saw him unusually busied in preparing supplies of the rude, +portable food which it was Marion's custom to carry on such occasions, +they knew what was before them, and provided themselves accordingly. In no +other way could they arrive at their general's intentions. His favorite +time for moving was with the setting sun, and then it was known that the +march would continue all night. + +His men were badly clothed in homespun,--a light wear which afforded +little warmth. They slept in the open air, and frequently without a +blanket. Their ordinary food consisted of sweet potatoes, garnished, on +fortunate occasions, with lean beef. Their swords, unless taken from the +enemy, were made out of mill saws, roughly manufactured by a forest +blacksmith. + +His scouts were out in all directions, and at all hours. They did the +double duty of patrol and spies. They hovered about the posts of the +enemy, crouching in the thicket, or darting along the plain, picking up +prisoners, and information, and spoils together. They cut off stragglers, +encountered patrols of the foe, and arrested his supplies on the way to +the garrison. Sometimes the single scout, buried in the thick tops of the +tree, looked down upon the march of his legions, or hung, perched over the +hostile encampment, till it slept; then slipping down, stole through the +silent host, carrying off a drowsy sentinel, or a favorite charger, upon +which the daring spy flourished conspicuous among his less fortunate +companions. + +NOTES.--The outlaw of Sherwood Forest was Robin Hood. + +Roderick Dhu is a character in Sir Walter Scott's poem, "The Lady of the +Lake," from which the quotation is taken. + + + +CXXXVI. A COMMON THOUGHT. (456) + +Henry Timrod, 1829-1867, was born at Charleston, South Carolina. He +inherited his father's literary taste and ability, and had the advantages +of a liberal education. He entered the University of Georgia before he was +seventeen years of age, and while there commenced his career as a poet. +Poverty and ill health compelled him to leave the university without +taking a degree; he then commenced the study of law, and for ten years +taught in various private families. At the outbreak of the war, in 1860, +he warmly espoused the Southern cause, and wrote many stirring war lyrics. +In 1863 he joined the Army of the West, as correspondent of the Charleston +"Mercury," and in 1864 he became editor of the "South Carolinian," +published first at Columbia and later at Charleston. He also served for a +time as assistant secretary to Governor Orr. The advance of Sherman's army +reduced him to poverty, and he was compelled to the greatest drudgery in +order to earn a bare living. His health soon broke down, and he died of +hemorrhage of the lungs. The following little poem seems, almost, to have +been written under a presentiment, so accurately does it describe the +closing incidents of the poet's life. + +The first volume of Timrod's poems appeared in 1860. A later edition, with +a memoir of the author, was published in New York in 1873. +### + + +Somewhere on this earthly planet + In the dust of flowers that be, +In the dewdrop, in the sunshine, + Sleeps a solemn day for me. + +At this wakeful hour of midnight + I behold it dawn in mist, +And I hear a sound of sobbing + Through the darkness,--Hist! oh, hist! + +In a dim and musky chamber, + I am breathing life away; +Some one draws a curtain softly, + And I watch the broadening day. + +As it purples in the zenith, + As it brightens on the lawn, +There's a hush of death about me, + And a whisper, "He is gone!" + + + +CXXXVII. A DEFINITE AIM IN READING. (457) + +Noah Porter, 1811-1892, was born at Farmington, Conn., and graduated at +Yale in 1831. He remained in New Haven as a school-teacher, a tutor in +college, and a student in the theological department until 1836, when he +entered the ministry. In 1846 he was recalled to the college as Clark +Professor of Moral Philosophy and Metaphysics; and in 1858 he also assumed +the duties of the professorship of Systematic Theology, for a period of +seven years. Upon the retirement of President Woolsey in 1871, he was +elected to fill the office, which he held until 1886, being the eleventh +president of the college. + +President Porter's greatest literary work is entitled, "The Human +Intellect: With an Introduction upon Psychology and the Human Soul." It is +remarkable for the clear thought and sound judgment it displays, as well +as for its broad scholarship; and it has been pronounced "the most +complete and exhaustive exhibition of the cognitive faculties of the human +soul to be found in our language." His other important works are: "The +Sciences of Nature versus the Science of Man," which is a review of the +doctrines of Herbert Spencer; "American Colleges and the American Public;" +and the book from which the following selection is taken, namely, "Books +and Reading." Besides these he wrote numerous essays, contributions to +periodicals, etc. During his professorship he was called upon to act as +chief editor in the important work of revising "Webster's Dictionary." The +edition of 1864 was the result of his careful oversight, and the +subsequent revisions were also under his superintendence. +## + + +In reading, we do well to propose to ourselves definite ends and purposes. +The more distinctly we are aware of our own wants and desires in reading, +the more definite and permanent will be our acquisitions. Hence it is a +good rule to ask ourselves frequently, "Why am I reading this book, essay, +or poem? or why am I reading it at the present time rather than any +other?" It may often be a satisfying answer, that it is convenient; that +the book happens to be at hand: or that we read to pass away the time. +Such reasons are often very good, but they ought not always to satisfy us. +Yet the very habit of proposing these questions, however they may be +answered, will involve the calling of ourselves to account for our +reading, and the consideration of it in the light of wisdom and duty. + +The distinct consciousness of some object at present before us, imparts a +manifoldly greater interest to the contents of any volume. It imparts to +the reader an appropriate power, a force of affinity, by which he +insensibly and unconsciously attracts to himself all that has a near or +even a remote relation to the end for which he reads. Anyone is conscious +of this who reads a story with the purpose of repeating it to an absent +friend; or an essay or a report with the design of using its facts or +arguments in a debate; or a poem with the design of reviving its imagery, +and reciting its finest passages. Indeed, one never learns to read +effectively until he learns to read in such a spirit--not always, indeed, +for a definite end, yet always with a mind attent to appropriate and +retain and turn to the uses of culture, if not to a more direct +application. + +The private history of every self-educated man, from Franklin onwards, +attests that they all were uniformly not only earnest but select in their +reading, and that they selected their books with distinct reference to the +purposes for which they used them. Indeed, the reason why self-trained +men so often surpass men who are trained by others in the effectiveness +and success of their reading, is that they know for what they read and +study, and have definite aims and wishes in all their dealings with books. +The omnivorous and indiscriminate reader, who is at the same time a +listless and passive reader, however ardent is his curiosity, can never be +a reader of the most effective sort. + +Another good rule is suggested by the foregoing. Always have some solid +reading in hand; i. e., some work or author which we carry forward from +one day to another, or one hour of leisure to the next, with persistence, +till we have finished whatever we have undertaken. There are many great +and successful readers who do not observe this rule, but it is a good rule +notwithstanding. + +The writer once called upon one of the most extensive and persevering of +modern travelers, at an early hour of the day, to attend him upon a walk +to a distant village. It was after breakfast, and though he had but few +minutes at command, he was sitting with book in hand--a book of solid +history he was perusing day after day. He remarked: "This has been my +habit for years in all my wanderings. It is the one habit which gives +solidity to my intellectual activities and imparts tone to my life. It is +only in this way that I can overcome and counteract the tendency to the +dissipation of my powers and the distraction of my attention, as strange +persons and strange scenes present themselves from day to day." + +To the rule already given--read with a definite aim--we could add the +rule--make your aims to be definite by continuously holding them rigidly +to a single book at all times, except when relaxation requires you to +cease to work, and to live for amusement and play. Always have at least +one iron in the fire, and kindle the fire at least once every day. + +It is implied in the preceding that we should read upon definite subjects, +and with a certain method and proportion in the choice of our books. If we +have a single object to accomplish in our reading for the present, that +object will of necessity direct the choice of what we read, and we shall +arrange our reading with reference to this single end. This will be a +nucleus around which our reading will for the moment naturally gather and +arrange itself. + +If several subjects seem to us equally important and interesting, we +should dispose of them in order, and give to each for the time our chief +and perhaps our exclusive attention. That this is wise is so obvious as +not to require illustration. "One thing at a time," is an accepted +condition for all efficient activity, whether it is employed upon things +or thoughts, upon men or books. If five or ten separate topics have equal +claim upon our interest and attention, we shall do to each the amplest +justice, if we make each in its turn the central subject of our reading. +There is little danger of weariness or monotony from the workings of such +a rule. + +Most single topics admit or require a considerable variety of books, each +different from the other, and each supplementing the other. Hence it is +one of the best of practices in prosecuting a course of reading, to read +every author who can cast any light upon the subject which we have in +hand. For example, if we are reading the history of the Great Rebellion in +England, we should read, if we can, not a single author only, as +Clarendon, but a half dozen or a half score, each of whom writes from his +own point of view, supplies what another omits, or corrects what he under- +or overstates. + +But, besides the formal histories of the period, there are the various +novels, the scenes and characters of which are placed in those times, such +as Scott's Woodstock; there are also diaries, such as those by Evelyn, +Pepys, and Burton; and there are memoirs, such as those of Col. +Hutchinson; while the last two have been imitated in scores of fictions. +There are poems, such as those of Andrew Marvell, Milton, and Dryden. +There are also shoals of political tracts and pamphlets, of handbills and +caricatures. + +We name these various descriptions of works and classes of reading, not +because we suppose all of them are accessible to those readers who live at +a distance from large public libraries, or because we would advise +everyone who may have access to such libraries, to read all these books +and classes of books as a matter of course, but because we would +illustrate how great is the variety of books and reading matter that are +grouped around a single topic, and are embraced within a single period. + +Every person must judge for himself how long a time he can bestow upon any +single subject, or how many and various are the books in respect to it +which it is wise to read; but of this everyone may be assured, that it is +far easier, far more agreeable, and far more economical of time and +energy, to concentrate the attention upon a single subject at a time than +to extend it to half a score, and that six books read in succession or +together upon a single topic, are far more interesting and profitable than +twice as many which treat of topics remotely related. A lady well known to +the writer, of the least possible scholarly pretensions or literary +notoriety, spent fifteen months of leisure, snatched by fragments from +onerous family cares and brilliant social engagements, in reading the +history of Greece as written by a great variety of authors and as +illustrated by many accessories of literature and art. + +Nor should it be argued that such rules as these, or the habits which they +enjoin, are suitable for scholars only, or for people who have much +leisure for reading. It should rather be urged that those who can read the +fewest books and who have at command the scantiest time, should aim to +read with the greatest concentration and method; should occupy all of +their divided energy with single centers of interest, and husband the few +hours which they can command, in reading whatever converges to a definite, +because to a single, impression. + + + +CXXXVIII. ODE TO MT. BLANC. (462) + +Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834, was born in Devonshire, England, and +was educated at Christ's Hospital and Cambridge University. Through +poverty he was compelled to enlist in the army, but his literary +attainments soon brought him into notice, and he was enabled to withdraw +from the distasteful life. + +Coleridge's fame arises chiefly from his poems, of which the "Rime of the +Ancient Mariner," "Genevieve," and "Christabel" may be classed among the +best of English poetry. He also wrote a number of dramas, besides numerous +essays on religious and political topics. As a conversationalist Coleridge +had a remarkable reputation, and among his ardent admirers and friends may +be ranked Southey, Wordsworth, Lovell, Lamb, and De Quincey. He and his +friends Southey and Lovell married sisters, and talked at one time of +founding a community on the banks of the Susquehanna. Although possessing +such brilliant natural gifts, Coleridge fell far short of what he might +have attained, through a great lack of energy and application, increased +by an excessive use of opium. +### + + +Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star +In his steep course? So long he seems to pause +On thy bald, awful head, O sovran Blanc! +The Arve and Arveiron at thy base +Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful Form, +Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines, +How silently! Around thee and above, +Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black-- +An ebon mass: methinks thou piercest it, +As with a wedge! But when I look again, +It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, +Thy habitation from eternity! +O dread and silent Mount! I gazed upon thee +Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, +Didst vanish from my thoughts: entranced in prayer, +I worshiped the Invisible alone. + + Yet, like some sweet, beguiling melody, +So sweet we know not we are listening to it, +Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought-- +Yea, with my life and life's own secret joy +Till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused, +Into the mighty vision passing--there, +As in her natural form, swelled vast to Heaven! + + Awake, my soul! not only passive praise +Thou owest! not alone these swelling tears, +Mute thanks and secret ecstasy! Awake, +Voice of sweet song! Awake, my heart, awake! +Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn. + + Thou first and chief, sole sovran of the vale! +Oh, struggling with the darkness all the night, +And visited all night by troops of stars, +Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink-- +Companion of the morning star at dawn, +Thyself Earth's rosy star, and of the dawn +Coherald--wake, oh wake, and utter praise! +Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in earth? +Who filled thy countenance with rosy light? +Who made thee parent of perpetual streams? + + And you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad! +Who called you forth from night and utter death, +From dark and icy caverns called you forth, +Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks, +Forever shattered, and the same forever? +Who gave you your invulnerable life, +Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, +Unceasing thunder, and eternal foam? +And who commanded (and the silence came), +Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest? + + Ye icefalls! ye that from the mountain's brow +Adown enormous ravines slope amain-- +Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, +And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge! +Motionless torrents! silent cataracts! +Who made you glorious as the gates of Heaven +Beneath the keen full moon? Who bade the sun +Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers +Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet? +God!--let the torrents, like a shout of nations, +Answer! and let the ice plains echo, God! +God! sing ye meadow streams with gladsome voice! +Ye pine groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds! +And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow, +And in their perilous fall shall thunder, God! + + Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost! +Ye wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest! +Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain storm! +Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds! +Ye signs and wonders of the elements! +Utter forth, God, and fill the hills with praise! + + Thou, too, hoar Mount! with thy sky-pointing peaks, +Oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard, +Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene, +Into the depth of clouds that veil thy breast-- +Thou too again, stupendous Mountain! thou +That as I raise my head, awhile bowed low +In adoration, upward from thy base, +Slow traveling, with dim eyes suffused with tears, +Solemnly seemest, like a vapory cloud, +To rise before me.--Rise, oh ever rise! +Rise like a cloud of incense from the Earth! +Thou kingly spirit throned among the hills, +Thou dread embassador from Earth to Heaven, +Great Hierarch! tell thou the silent sky, +And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, +Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader +by William Holmes McGuffey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MCGUFFEY'S SIXTH ECLECTIC READER *** + +***** This file should be named 16751.txt or 16751.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/5/16751/ + +Produced by Don Kostuch + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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