Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

"And if he appeared inclined to reconciliation, would you reproach him with the injustice he had done you?" "No;" answered Demetrius, "I would repeat no grievances."

8. "Go," said Socrates, "and pursue that conduct toward your brother, which you would practice toward a neighbor. His friendship is of inestimable worth; and nothing is more worthy in the sight of Heaven, than for brethren to dwell together in unity.'

QUESTIONS.-1. Who had quarreled with each other? 2. With which did Socrates converse? 3. Among whom did he tell him he could not find friends? 4. What complaint did Demetrius make of his brother? 5. What did Socrates admonish him to do? 6. What did he tell him were the means?

On

Give the Rule for each inflection, marked in the first two verses. what principle are they and others emphatic, third verse? (Les. VIII. Note VIII.) What Rule for the use of the circumflex. fourth verse? How many persons are represented as conversing together in this lesson? Should the parts of each be read in the same tone of voice? Is this piece narrative, descriptive, or argumentative ?

LESSON LXXXVI.

SPELL AND DEFINE-1. SORDID, meanly avaricious; vile. 2. BROIL, a noisy quarrel; a tumult. 3. FREIGHTED, loaded, as a vessel. 4. FRAUGIT, laden; filled. 5. RECEDE, to go back or remove from. 6. SUBMISSION, the act of yielding.

IMPERISHABLE WEALTH.

1. SHALL man to sordid views confined,

His powers unfold,

And waste his energy of mind,

In search of gold?

JANE TAYLOR

Rise, rise, my soul! and spurn such low desires,
Nor quench in groveling dust Heaven's noblest fires.

2. For what are all thy anxious cares,

Thy ceaseless toil?

For what, when roars the wind, thy fears,

Lest, in the broil,

When bursting clouds and furious waves contend,
Thy bark, rich freighted, all ingulfed descend?

3. Fraught with disease,-to-morrow comes
And bows thy head;

From treasured heaps and splendid domes,
Thy thoughts recede:

The dream is ò'er; then kiss the chastening rod,
That points the road to virtue and to God.
4. Seek then, my soul, a nòbler wealth,
And more secure,—

Content and peace, the mind's best health,
And thoughts all pure;

And deeds benevolent, and prayer, and praise,

And deep submission to Heaven's righteous ways.

QUESTIONS.-1. What are the low desires," mentioned in the first verse? 2. What is meant by "Heaven's noblest fires ?" 3. What is man represented to fear from the winds? 4. What is meant by "dream," third verse? 5. What is the "nobler wealth," which the writer exhorts us to seek?

What inflection at gold, first verse? Why the falling at rise, and at soul? What inflection at the end of the second verse? Which has the most intense degree of emphasis, the first or second rise, first verse? What Rules for the inflections, as marked in the last verse?

LESSON LXXXVII.

SPELL AND DEFINE-1. FAL'CHION, a short, crooked sword. 2. TOMB, a grave; a place for burial. 3. UNSTABLE, not fixed; unsteady. 4. MITERS, ornaments worn on the head of bishops. 5. PYRAMIDS, solid bodies, having three or more sides, and terminating in a point at the top. 6. AWED, struck with fear. 7. SURGE, a great wave.

NAPOLEON AT REST.

1. His falchion flashed along the Nile,

J. PIERPONT.

His host he led through Alpine snows;
O'er Moscow's towers, that blazed the while,
His eagle flag unrolled,-and froze!

2. 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.

3. Behind the sea-girt rock, the star,

That led him on from crown to crown,
Has sunk, and nations from afar

Gazed as it faded and went down.

4. High is his tòmb: the ocean flood,
Far, far below, by storms is curled,-
As round him heaved, while high he stood,
A stormy and unstable world.

5. 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. 6. Pause here! The far off world at last

Breathes frèe; the hand that shook its thrones,
And to the earth its miters cast,

Lies powerless now beneath these stones.
7. Hark! Comes there from the pyramids,
And from Siberian wastes of snow,
And Europe's hills a voice that bids

The world be awed to mourn hím ?—No!

8. The only, the perpetual dirge

That's heard here, is the sea-bird's cry,-
The mournful murmur of the surge,

The clouds' deep voice, the wind's low sigh.

QUESTIONS.-1. Where were some of Napoleon's military operations? 2. Where is the River Nile? 3. Where did he die? 4. How long since his death? (He died in 1821). 5. How is his tomb described? 6. Where are his remains now buried? 7. Where, formerly?

What pause is denoted by the dash, last line, first verse? What is denoted by it, first line, second verse? What Rules for the different inflections as marked in the seventh verse? Are the apostrophes in That's and wind's, used for the same purpose' What example of monotone in this lesson?

?

LESSON LXXXVIII.

SPELL AND DEFINE-1. AMBITION, desire of honor, or power. 2. SAPPHIRE, (saf'fire.) a species of gems. 3. CONSTELLATED, adorned with stars. 4. ESTRANGED, kept at a distance; alienated. 5. EM'FER Y, (another form for empire,) supreme power. 6. BLAZONRY, pompous display; show. 7. ALLAY, to abate; to pacify. 8. WILDERED, lost in mazes; puzzled.

WHAT IS AMBITION?

N. P. WILLIS.

1. WHAT is Ambition? 'Tis a glorious cheat!
Angels of light walk not so dazzlingly

The sapphire walls of Heaven. The unsearched mine
Hath not such gems. Earth's constellated thrones

Have not such pomp of purple and of gold.

It hath no features. In its face is set

A mirror, and the gazer sees his own.

It looks a god, but it is like himself!
It hath a mien of empery, and smiles
Majestically sweet,-but how like him!

2. It follows not with fortune. It is seen
Rarely, or never, in the rich man's hall.
It seeks the chamber of the gifted boy,
And lifts his humble window, and comes in.
The narrow walls expand and spread away
Into a kingly palace, and the roof
Lifts to the sky, and unseen fingers work
The ceiling with rich blazonry, and write
His name in burning letters over all.

3. And ever as he shuts his wildered eyes,
The phantom comes, and lays upon his lids
A spell that murders sleep, and in his ear
Whispers a deathless word, and on his brain
Breathes a fierce thirst no water will allay.
He is henceforth its slave! His days are spent
In chaining down his heart, and watching where
To rise by human weakness; and his nights
Bring him no rest in all their blessed hours.

4. His kindred are forgotten or estranged.
Unhealthful fires burn constant in his eye.
His lip grows restless, and its smile is curled
Half into scorn,-till the bright, fiery boy,
That was a daily blessing but to see,
His spirit was so bird-like and so pure,
Is frozen in the very flush of youth,
Into a cold, care-fretted, heartless man!

5. And what is its reward? At best, a name!

[ocr errors]

Praise-when the ear has grown too dull to hear!
Gold-when the senses it should please, are dead!
Wreaths—when the hair they cover has grown gray!
Fàme-when the heart it should have thrilled is numb!
All things but love,-when love is all we want!
And close behind comes Death, and ere we know
That e'en these unavailing gifts are ours,

He sends us, stripped and naked, to the grave!

QUESTIONS.-1. Will you answer the question proposed in the first line? 2. What is it "looks a god?" 3. Where is ambition seldom

found? 4. Whom does it seek. and what does it do? 5. What effect does it have on him? 6. What is the reward of ambition?

To what does himself refer, first verse? To what its, third verse? Why have name, praise, &c., last verse, the falling inflection?

LESSON LXXXIX.

SPELL AND DEFINE-1. DEGENERACY, state of growing worse; a decline. 2. CHICANERY, (shi cane'ry), a mean, underhanded trick. 3. VULGAR, Common; pertaining to the common people. 4. VENAL, that may be bought; mercenary. 5. UNANIMOUS, being of one mind. 6. DEMOCRACY, government by the people; those favoring such a government. 7. UNSULLIED, not tarnished, or disgraced. 8. REFUTED, proved false. 9. SPONTANEOUS, acting of its own accord; voluntary. 10. AD EQUATE, equal; fully sufficient. 11. EMPIRE, imperial power. 12. STRENUOUS, eagerly pressing, or urgent; zealous. 13. ALOOF', at a distance. 14. SUBVERT', to overthrow; to destroy.

CHARACTER OF PITT.

ROBERTSON.

1. Tife 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, and one of his sovereigns thought royalty so impaired in his presence, that he conspired to remove him, in order to be relieved from his superiority. 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.

2. 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 these schemes were accomplished; always reasonable, always adequate, the suggestions of an understanding animated by ardor, and enlightened by prophecy.

2. 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 to decide. A character, so exalted, so strenuous, so various, so authoritative, astonished a corrupt age, and the treasury trembled at

« AnteriorContinuar »