6. In one place Bacon says, "The sovereignty of man lieth hid in knowledge; wherein many things are reserved which kings with their treasure cannot buy, nor with their force command; their spials and intelligencers can give no news of them, their seamen and discoverers cannot sail where they grow." Explain this passage.

7. What, according to Bacon, is the true "end" or object of the sciences? What other end or object has been proposed by some other writers? Shew that that other object did not escape Bacon's observation, and that he purposely kept it in the back ground.

8. Mention some of the leading principles of the first book of the Novum Organum.

FOURTH CLASS.

GRAY'S POEMS.

ODE TO ADVERSITY.

Morning Paper.

"Thy form benign, oh goddess! wear,
Thy milder influence impart,
Thy philosophic train be there
To soften, not to wound my heart.
The generous spark extinct revive,
Teach me to love and to forgive,

Exact my own defects to scan,

What others are to feel, and know myself a man."

ELEGY.

"Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid,

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or wak'd to ecstacy 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."

THE BARD.

"Girt with many a baron bold

Sublime their starry fronts they rear;

And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old
In bearded majesty, appear.

In the midst a form divine!

Her eye proclaims her of the Briton line;
Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face,
Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace.

What strings symphonious tremble in the air,
What strains of vocal transport round her play!
Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear;

They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.

Bright Rapture calls, and soaring as she sings,
Waves in the eye of heaven her many-coloured wings.

"The verse adorn again

Fierce war, and faithful love,

And truth severe, by fairy fiction drest.

In buskin'd measures move

Pale grief, and pleasing pain,

With horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast.

A voice, as of the cherub choir,

Gales from blooming Eden bear;

And distant warblings lessen on my ear,
That lost in long futurity expire."

1. "Thy milder influence impart.”

What two things are compared?

"Thy philosophic train be there."

[losophic train ?"

What are those fruits of adversity which the Poet calls "her phi

2. "Teach me to love and to forgive"

Give the full meaning of this line.

Explain clearly and concisely the two following lines.

"Exact my own defects to scan,

What others are to feel, and know myself a man.”

What are the spoils of time" which enrich the "ample page" of knowledge? Shew that the word "ample" is well chosen.

5. "For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,
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 ;
Even from the tomb the voice of nature cries,
Even in our ashes live their wonted fires."

Explain the two lines in italics. What is the meaning of "this
pleasing anxious being"?

6." In the midst a form divine!

Her eye proclaims her of the Briton line."

What celebrated Queen of England is alluded to? Was she of "the Briton line," and why does the Bard refer with satisfaction to this circumstance?

7. "What strings symphonious tremble in the air,

What strains of vocal transport round her play !"

To what circumstance in the reign of this Queen does the Poet allude? Point out any beauties of expression in these lines.

8. "The verse adorn again

Fierce war, and faithful love,

And truth severe in fairy fiction drest.

In buskin'd measures move

Pale grief, and pleasing pain,

With horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast."

What Poets are alluded to? Point out the words which most clearly mark what particular Poets are meant.

9. "A voice, as of the cherub choir,

Gales from blooming Eden bear."

Explain these two lines, and point out the application of "cherub choir" and "Gales from blooming Eden" to the particular Poet referred to.

COLLINS.

FOURTH CLASS.

ODE TO FEAR.

Afternoon Paper.

"In earliest Greece, to thee, with partial choice,
The grief-ful muse addrest her infant tongue;
The maids and matrons, on her awful voice,
Silent and pale, in wild amazement hung.

"Yet he, the bard who first invoked thy name,
Disdained in Marathon its power to feel;
For not alone he nursed the poet's flame,
But reached from virtue's hand the patriot's steel.
"O Fear! I know thee by my throbbing heart,
Thy withering power inspir'd each mournful line,
Though gentle pity claim her mingled part,
Yet all the thunders of the scene are thine."

ODE TO THE PASSIONS.

"But thou, O Hope! with eyes so fair,
What was thy delighted measure?

Still it whispered promised pleasure,

And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail!
Still would her touch the strain prolong,

And from the rocks, the woods, the vale,

She called on Echo still through all the song."

RASSELAS.

"Wherever I went, I found that poetry was considered as the highest learning, and regarded with a veneration somewhat approaching to that which man would pay to angelic nature. And yet it fills me with wonder, that, in almost all countries, the most ancient poets are considered as the best whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquisition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift conferred at once; or that the first poetry of every nation surprized them as a novelty, and retained the credit by consent which it received by accident at first; or whether, as the province of poetry is to describe nature and passion, which are always the

same, the first writers took possession of the most striking objects for description and the most probable occurrences for fiction, and left nothing to those that followed them but transcription of the same events, and new combinations of the same images. Whatever be the reason, it is commonly observed, that the early writers are in possession of nature, and their followers of art; that the first excel in strength and invention, and the latter in elegance and refinement."

1. "In earliest Greece, to thee, with partial choice,

The grief-ful muse addrest her infant tongue."

What is the meaning of " partial choice" and "addrest her infant tongue"? Why does the Poet say "earliest" Greece?

2. "For not alone he nursed the poet's flame,

But reach'd from virtue's hand the patriot's steel."
Explain these two lines.

3. "Though gentle pity claim her mingled part,

Yet all the thunders of the scene are thine."

In what does Pity "claim her mingled part"? What are
thunders of the scene"?

4. "But thou, O Hope! with eyes so fair,

What was thy delighted measure"?

State in your own words the Poet's reply to this question.

5. "O Music! sphere-descended maid,

Friend of pleasure, wisdom's aid."

"the

Explain in what sense Music is the "friend of pleasure," and in what sense it may be called " wisdom's aid."

6. "Wherever I went I found that poetry was considered as the highest learning," &c.

What reasons are given by Dr. Johnson in this paragraph to account for the fact that in almost all countries the most ancient poets are considered as the best? Are there any other reasons?

7. Give the meaning of the following clauses.

"Approaching to that which men would pay to angelic nature." "Knowledge is an acquisition gradually attained, and poetry is a

gift conferred at once."

"The province of poetry is to describe nature and passion." "The most probable occurrences for fiction."

C