dangerous an experiment as setting houses on fire (especially in these days) could be assigned in favour of any culinary object, that pretext and excuse might be found in ROAST PIG.

EXERCISE. 41. COMPOSITION.

1. Give other words for the following phrases; An antediluvian makeshift, a premonitory moistening, a simultaneous verdict, a culinary object.

2. Summarize the account of the trial of Ho-ti and Bo-bo.

3. Give in your own words the substance of the last paragraph. 4. What figure of speech is illustrated by this lesson?

THE INQUIRY.

CHARLES MACKAY.

mor-tals [L. mortalis, from mors, death], those who are subject to death. an-swered [A.-S. and, in return; swerian, to swear], replied, spoke in return. re-spond-ed [L. re, again; spondeo, to promise], answered, replied.

TELL me, ye winged winds,

That round my pathway roar,
Do ye not know some spot
Where mortals weep no more?
Some lone and pleasant dell,
Some valley in the west,
Where, free from toil and pain,
The weary soul may rest?

The loud wind dwindled to a whisper low,
And sighed for pity, as it answered, “No!"

Tell me, thou mighty deep,

Where billows round me play,
Know'st thou some favoured spot,
Some island far away,

Where weary man may find

The bliss for which he sighs,
Where sorrow never lives,

And friendship never dies?

The loud waves, rolling in perpetual flow,

Stopped for a while, and sighed, to answer, "No!"

And thou, serenest moon,
That with such holy face
Dost look upon the earth

Asleep in night's embrace,
Tell me, in all thy round

Hast thou not seen some spot
Where miserable man

Might find a happier lot?

Behind a cloud the moon withdrew in woe,
And a voice sweet, but sad. responded, "No!"

Tell me, my secret soul,

Oh! tell me, hope and faith,

Is there no resting-place
From sorrow, sin, and death?
Is there no happy spot

Where mortals may be blessed,
Where grief may find a balm,

And weariness a rest?

Faith, Hope, and Love-best boon to mortals givenWaved their bright wings, and whispered, "Yes, in heaven !"

EXERCISE-42. PARSING, ETC.

1. Write out all the verbs in the imperative mood found in the poem.

2. Parse the first verse.

3. Select all the nouns of the second person in the poem.

4. Explain how you would analyse the last phrase" Yes, in heaven!" 5. Write out the last verse supplying all the words understood.

6. Parse while in the second verse.

SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY AT CHURCH.

JOSEPH ADDISON.

de-gen-er-ate [L. degenero, from de, from; genus, race or kind], to grow worse, to fall from a nobler to an inferior state. hab-its [L. habitus, dress, clothing, from habeo, to have], clothes, attire, customs, practices. dis-tin-guish-es [L. distinguo, from dis, apart, stinguo, to mark], marks, separates, makes himself eminent or conspicuous.

HAVING often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de Coverley, to pass away a month with him in the country, I last week accompanied him thither, and am

settled with him for some time at his country house. Sir Roger, who is very well acquainted with my humour, lets me rise and go to bed when I please, dine at his own table or in my chamber, as I think fit, sit still and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of the country come to see him, he shows me at a distance. As I have been walking in his fields I have observed them stealing a sight of me over a hedge, and have heard the knight desiring them not to let me see them, for that I hated to be stared at.

I am always very well pleased with a country Sunday, and think, if keeping holy the seventh day were only a human institution, it would be the best method that could have been thought of for the polishing and civilising of mankind. It is certain the country people would soon degenerate into a kind of savages and barbarians, were there not such frequent returns of a stated time, in which the whole village meet together with their best faces, and in their cleanliest habits, to converse with one another upon different subjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join together in adoration of the Supreme Being. Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds the notions of religion, but as it puts both the sexes upon appearing in their most agreeable forms, and exerting all such qualities as are apt to give them a figure in the eye of the village. A country fellow distinguishes himself as much in the churchyard, as a citizen does upon the 'Change, the whole parish politics being generally discussed in that place, either after sermon or before the bell rings.

My friend, Sir Roger, being a good churchman, has beautified the inside of his church with several texts of his own choosing. He has likewise given a handsome pulpitcloth, and railed in the communion-table at his own expense. He has often told me that, at his coming to his estate, he found his parishioners very irregular: and that in order to make them kneel and join in the responses, he gave everyone of them a hassock and Common Prayer Book; and at the same time employed an itinerant singing master, who goes about the country for that purpose, to

instruct them rightly in the tunes of the Psalms, upon which they now very much value themselves, and indeed outdo most of the country churches that I have ever heard.

As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in very good order, and will suffer nobody to sleep in it besides himself; for if by chance he has been surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon recovering out of it, he stands up and looks about him, and if he sees anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his servants to them. Several other of the old knight's particularities break out upon these occasions. Sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the singing Psalms, half a minute after the rest of the congregation have done with it; sometimes, when he is pleased with the matter of his devotion, he pronounces Amen three or four times in the same prayer; and sometimes stands up when everybody else is upon their knees to count the congregation, or see if any of his tenants are missing.

I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old friend, in the midst of the service, calling out to one John Matthews to mind what he was about, and not disturb the congregation. This John Matthews, it seems, is remarkable for being an idle fellow, and, at that time, was kicking his heels for his diversion. This authority of the knight, though exerted in that odd manner which accompanies him in all the circumstances of life, has a very good effect upon the parish, who are not polite enough to see anything ridiculous in his behaviour; besides that the general good sense and worthiness of his character make his friends observe these little singularities as foils that rather set off than blemish his good qualities.

As soon as the sermon is finished nobody presumes to stir till Sir Roger is gone out of the church. The knight walks down from his seat in the chancel between a double row of his tenants, that stand bowing to him on each side; and every now and then inquires how such a one's wife, or mother, or son, or father do, whom he does not see at church; which is understood as a secret reprimand to the person that is absent,

The chaplain has often told me that upon a catechising

day, when Sir Roger has been well pleased with a boy that answers well, he has ordered a Bible to be given to him next day for his encouragement, and sometimes accompanies it with a flitch of bacon to his mother, Sir Roger has likewise added five pounds a year to the clerk's place; and, that he may encourage the young fellows to make themselves perfect in the church service, has promised upon the death of the incumbent, who is very old, to bestow it according to merit.

The fair understanding between Sir Roger and his chaplain, and their mutual concurrence in doing good, is the more remarkable, because the very next village is famous for the differences and contentions that arise between the parson and the squire, who live in a perpetual state of war. The parson is always preaching at the squire, and the squire, to be revenged on the parson, never comes to church. The squire has made all his tenants atheists and tithe-stealers, while the parson instructs them every Sunday in the dignity of his order, and insinuates to them in almost every sermon, that he is a better man than his patron. In short, matters are come to such an extremity that the squire has not said his prayers either in public or private this halfyear; and the parson threatens him, if he does not mend his manners, to pray for him in the face of the whole congregation.

Feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the country, are very fatal to the ordinary people; who are so used to be dazzled with riches, that they pay as much deference to the understanding of a man of an estate as of a man of learning; and are very hardly brought to regard any truth, how important so ever it may be, that is preached to them, when they know there are several men of five hundred a year who do not believe it.

EXERCISE.-43. MEANINGS OF WORDS.

1. Give the meanings of the following:-institution, degenerate, adoration, parish, politics, hassock, itinerant, congregation, particularities, ridiculous, singularities, flitch, tenant, fen.

2. Distinguish between :-Knight, night; week, weak; eye, I, ay, aye; one, won; nap, knap; for, fore, four.

3. Illustrate the different meanings of :-foils, rest, row, fair.