Page images
PDF
EPUB

stared when they heard it; some were seen to wink at each other, and put their tongues in their cheeks; and the self-important man in the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was over, had returned to the field, screwed down the corners of his mouth, and shook his head; upon which there was a general shaking of the head throughout the assemblage. Washington Irving.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Point out, on the map of New York, Stony Point (fortified by the Americans, but taken from them by the British, and again retaken by the Americans led by Wayne); Anthony's Nose (north entrance of the Highlands, fifty-seven miles above New York). "Cocked hat" (the American patriots turned up the brims of their hats). "Tory" (an American who adhered to the cause of Great Britain during the revolutionary struggle).

II. Tomb'-stōne (toom'-), puz'-zled (-zid), pěd'-dler.

III. Find in the above piece the examples of the use of a hyphen at the end of a line when it became necessary to divide a word, and explain in each case the reason for the division of the word at the letter selected.

IV. Austere, culprit, penetrating, enormous, counterpart, apparently, confounded. Paraphrase, in your own words, "He doubted his own identity." "Wink significantly," bewilderment, precipitation, comely, akimbo, faltering.

V. What is the attitude assumed by the author in this story—that of simple narrator, that of critical or skeptical historian, or that of the humorist who enjoys his silent laugh at the expense of the characters he describes ? Characterize the author as well as you can from the specimens of his style given in these extracts. Compare him with Swift (Lessons L., LIII., LVII., in the Fourth Reader) and De Foe (Lessons XIX. and XXV. in the same).

XCVI.-BANNOCKBURN

1. At Bannockburn the English lay—
The Scots they were na' far away,

But waited for the break o' day

That glinted in the east.

2. But soon the sun broke through the heath,
And lighted up that field o' death,
When Bruce, wi' saul-inspiring breath,

His heralds thus addressed:

3. "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed,

Or to victorie!

4. "Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lower;

See approach proud Edward's power—
Chains and slaverie!

5. "Wha will be a traitor knave, Wha can fill a coward's grave,

Wha sae base as be a slave,

Let him turn and flee!

6. "Wha for Scotland's king and law Freedom's sword will strongly draw, Freeman stand, or freeman fa',

Let him follow me!

7. "By oppression's woes and pains, By your sons in servile chains, We will drain our dearest veins,

But they shall be free!

8. "Lay the proud usurper low!

Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty 's in every blow!

Let us do, or die!"

Robert Burns.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. "Bannockburn " (the site of Bruce's great victory over Edward II., 1314). Find this place on the map. Robert Burns composed this celebrated ode in 1793. Speaking of a tradition to the effect that the air to which he composed it was Robert Bruce's march at the battle of Bannockburn, he says: "This thought in my yesternight's evening walk warmed me to a pitch of enthusiasm on the theme of liberty and independence, which I threw into a kind of Scottish ode, that one might suppose to be the royal Scot's address to his heroic followers on that eventful morning."

II. Heath (notice, in stanza 2, that death and breath are made to rhyme with it; die, in 8, is pronounced dee), veins, u-şûrp'-er (8 for 2), tÿ'-rants, fōe, swōrd (sōrd). Hãe (hā); whạ (aw); fą.

III. Make a list of the Scotch words and contractions, and write opposite each its English equivalent (e. g., na = no; glinted = peeped; saul = soul; o' = of, etc.).

IV. Gory, servile, heralds, usurper.

V. Note the rhyme of the last words in the stanzas: east, addressed ; victorie, slaverie; flee, me; free, die. Note also the alliteration: do, die; lay, low; fall, foe; wha, wi'; wham, welcome, etc. Carlyle says of this poem : "As long as there is blood in the heart of Scotchman or man, it will move in fierce thrills under this war ode the best, we believe, that ever was written by any pen."

XCVII. THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

1. When the cheerfulness of the people is so sprightly up, as that it hath not only wherewithal to guard well its own freedom and safety, but to spare and to bestow upon the solidest and sublimest points of controversy and new invention, it betokens us, not degenerated nor drooping to a fatal decay, but casting off the old and wrinkled skin of corruption, to outlive these pangs, and wax young again; entering the glorious ways of truth and virtue, destined to become great and honorable in these latter ages.

2. Methinks I see, in my mind, a noble and puissant nation rousing herself, like a strong man after sleep, and

shaking her invincible locks: methinks I see her as an eagle renewing her mighty youth, and kindling her endazzled eyes at the full midday beam; purging and unsealing her long-abused sight, at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms.

3. Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to doubt her strength.

4. Let her and Falsehood grapple. Who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter? Her confuting is the best and surest suppressing. Who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty?

5. She needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings, to make her victorious: those are the shifts and defenses that Error uses against her power.

6. Give her but room, and do not bind her when she sleeps; for then she speaks not true, but then, rather, she turns herself into all shapes except her own, and perhaps tunes her voice according to the tune, as Micaiah did before Ahab, until she be adjured into her own likeness.

John Milton.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Milton's prose style is esteemed for its strength, grace, and intellectual solidity. "Micaiah before Ahab" (1 Kings xxii.).

II. In-jū'-ri-oŭs-ly, false'-hood, vie-tō'-ri-oŭs, ĕr'-ror, cheer'-fulness, whêre-with-al' (hwêr-), wriṇ'-kled (rin’kld), en-dăz'-zled (-zld), tim’or-ous, twi'-light (-lit).

[graphic]

NEW YORK, August 22, 1877. JOHN MURRAY, Agent of the Atlantic Insurance Company, and Twenty-five Dollars, in full of balance on settlement. THEODORE HARRIS.

on, "winds of doctrine," "licensing and prohibiting," en, stratagems, adjured, controversy, betokens, puissant, vincible locks," prognosticate, "sects and schisms."

asing and prohibiting, to doubt her strength," etc. (i. e., by discussion, or by requiring licenses for it, we act as if ability of Truth to stand free discussion, and thus we do rightly up" (spirited).

« PreviousContinue »