Then Abram came down softly from his home,
And, looking to the right and left, went on,
Took from his ample store a generous third,
And laid it on his brother Zimri's pile.
Then Zimri rose, and caught him in his arms,
And wept upon his neck, and kissed his cheek:
And Abram saw the whole, and could not speak;
Neither could Zimri. So they walked along
Back to their homes, and thanked their God in pray
That he had bound them in such loving bands.

I. Write the analysis of: dusky; starry; blissful; doubtful. What two words in stanza II. are derived from lone?

III. In stanza I., point out an example of personification. (See D nition 4.)

Observe in stanza III., that the appearance of the landscape, on night when Zimri "went out," is described by the poet as simila that on the night when Abram went out (stanza V.); and yet author makes variations in details. Thus,

"The moon shone out from dusky bars of clouds,"

49.-Going up in a Balloon.

ā-ē'ri-al, airy, lofty.

a'er-o-naut, air navigator.

fōre-shôrt ́ened, shortened as seen obliquely.

PREPARATORY NOTES.

(1) "for better, for worse:" a phrase from the Episcopal marriage service. — (3) Vauxhall Gardens: a park and pleasure resort in London. (8) Father of Rivers: not, as might be supposed, the Mississippi, but the Thames, which the older English poets were fond of personifying as "Father Thames."

1. Let us ascend into the sky. Taking balloons as they are, "for better, for worse," let us for once have an aërial flight.

2. The first thing you naturally expect is some extraordinary sensation, which takes away your breath for a time, in springing high up into the air. But no such matter occurs. The extraordinary thing is, that you experience no sensation at all, so far as motion is concerned.

3. A very amusing illustration of this is given in a letter published by a well-known author, shortly after his ascent. "I do not despise you," says he, "for talking about a balloon going up; for it is an error which you share in common with some millions of our fellowcreatures, and I, in the days of my ignorance, thought with the rest of you. I know better now. The fact is, we do not go up at all; but at about five minutes past

six, on that famous Friday evening, Vauxhall Garde with all the people in them, went down!"

4. Feeling nothing of the ascending motion, the f impression that takes possession of you, in "going u in a balloon, is the quietude, the silence, that gr more and more complete. The restless heaving to a fro of the huge inflated sphere above your head (to nothing of the noise of the crowd), the flapping ropes, the rustling of silk, and the creaking of basket work of the car, -all have ceased. There i total cessation of all atmospheric resistance. You in a silence which becomes more perfect every seco After the bustle of many moving objects, you st before you into blank air.

5. So much for what you first feel; and now, wha the thing you first do? In this case we all do same thing: we look over the side of the car. do this very cautiously, keeping a firm seat; and th holding on by the edge, we carefully protrude the p of our traveling cap, and then the tip of the nose, o the edge of the car, upon which we rest our mouth.

6. Everything below is seen in so new a form flat, compressed, and so simultaneously- so much much-at-a-time, that the first look is hardly so sa factory as could be desired. But soon we thrust chin fairly over the edge, and take a good stare do ward, and this repays us much better. Objects pear under very novel circumstances from this v cal position. They are stunted and foreshortened,

rapidly flattened to a maplike appearance: they get smaller and smaller, and clearer and clearer.

7. Away goes the earth, with its hills and valleys, its trees and buildings, its men, women, and children, its horses and cattle, its rivers and vessels; all sinking lower and lower, and becoming less and less, but getting more and more distinct and defined as they diminish in size. But, besides the retreat toward minuteness, the outspread objects flatten as they lessen: men and women are five inches high, then four, three, two, one inch, and now a speck.

8. As for the Father of Rivers, he becomes a duskygray, winding streamlet; and his largest ships are no more than flat, pale decks, all the masts and rigging being foreshortened to nothing. We soon come now to the shadowy, the indistinct; and then all is lost in air. Floating clouds fill up the space beneath.

9. How do we feel, all this time? "Calm, sir,—calm and resigned." Yes, and more than this. After a little while, when you find nothing happens, and see nothing likely to happen, a delightful serenity takes the place of all other sensations.

10. To this the extraordinary silence, as well as the pale beauty and floating hues that surround you, chiefly contribute. The silence is perfect, a wonder and a rapture. We hear the ticking of our watches,— tick! tick!- or is it the beat of our own hearts? We are sure of the watch; now we think we can hear both. 11. Two other sensations must by no means be for

gotten. You become very cold and desperately hu gry. To the increased coldness which you feel on pa ing from a bright cloud into a dark one the balloon quite as sensitive as you; and probably much mo so, for it produces an immediate change of altitude.

12. But here we are, still above the clouds! may assume that you would not like to be "let off" a parachute, even on the improved principle: we w therefore prepare for descending with the balloon.

13. The valve line is pulled: out rushes the gas fr the top of the balloon; you see the flag fly upwa Down through the clouds you sink, faster and fast lower and lower. Now you begin to see dark mas below there's the dear old earth again! The da masses now discover themselves to be little forests, lit towns, tree tops, housetops. Out goes a shower of sa from the ballast bags, and our descent becomes slowe another shower, and up we mount again in search a better spot to alight upon.

14. Our guardian aëronaut gives each of us a bag ballast, and directs us to throw out its contents wh he calls each of us by name, and in such quantit only as he specifies. Moreover, no one is suddenly leap out of the balloon when it touches the earth, par because it may cost him his own life or limbs, a partly because it would cause the balloon to shoot again with those who remained, and so make the lose the advantage of the good descent already gain if nothing worse happened.