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'hammer of Vulcan; vigorous Graces whose dominion would be alarming were they indisposed to clemency. His weakness, in fact, his besetting sin, is too truly described by Moses :But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked;

Thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick,

Thou art covered with fatness.

Scornfully he is determined upon it; he will none of your scruples his women shall be fat as he pleases, and you shall like him nevertheless.

I should compare Rubens to Shakspeare for the wonderful variety and vital force of his artistic power. I know no other mind he so nearly resembles. Like Shakspeare, he forces you to accept and forgive a thousand excesses, and uses his own faults as musicians use discords, only to enhance the perfection of harmony. There certainly is some use even in defects. A faultless style sends you to sleep. Defects rouse and excite the sensibility to seek and appreciate excellences. Some of Shakspeare's finest passages explode all grammar and rhetoric like sky-rockets—the thought blows the language to shivers.— Mrs. Beecher Stowe.

161. JOAN OF ARc.

What is to be thought of her? What is to be thought of the poor shepherd-girl from the hills and forests of Lorraine, that— like the Hebrew shepherd-boy from the hills and forests of Judea rose suddenly out of the quiet, out of the safety, out of the religious inspiration, rooted in deep pastoral solitudes, to a station in the van of armies, and to the more perilous station at the right hand of kings? The Hebrew boy inaugurated his patriotic mission by an act, by a victorious act, such as no man could deny. But so did the girl of Lorraine, if we read her story as it was read by those who saw her nearest. Adverse armies bore witness to the boy as no pretender: but so they did to the gentle girl. Judged by the voices of all who saw them from a station of good-will, both were found true and loyal to any promises involved in their first acts. Enemies it was that made the difference between their subsequent fortunes. The boy rose-to a splendour and a noonday prosperity, both personal and public, that rang through the records of his people,

and became a by-word amongst his posterity for a thousand years, until the sceptre was departing from Judah. The poor, forsaken girl, on the contrary, drank not herself from the cup of rest which she had secured for France. She never sang the songs that rose in her native Domremy, as echoes to the departing steps of invaders. She mingled not in the festal dances at Vaucouleurs which celebrated in rapture the redemption of France. No! for her voice was then silent. No! for her feet were dust. Pure, innocent, noble-hearted girl! whom from earliest youth ever I believed in as full of truth and selfsacrifice, this was amongst the strongest pledges for thy side, that never once-no, not for a moment of weakness-didst thou revel in the vision of coronets and honour from man. Coronets for thee! Oh, no! Honours, if they come when all is over, are for those that share thy blood. Daughter of Domremy, when the gratitude of thy king shall awaken, thou wilt be sleeping the sleep of the dead. Call her, king of France, but she will not hear thee! Cite her by thy apparitors to come and receive a robe of honour, but she will be found en contumace. When the thunders of universal France, as even yet may happen, shall proclaim the grandeur of the poor shepherd-girl that gave up all for her country-thy ear, young shepherd-girl, will have been deaf for five centuries. To suffer and to do, that was thy portion in this life; to do-never for thyself, always for others; to suffer-never in the persons of generous champions, always in thy own that was thy destiny; and not for a moment was it hidden from thyself. 'Life,' thou saidst, ‘is short, and the sleep which is in the grave is long. Let me use that life, so transitory, for the glory of those heavenly dreams destined to comfort the sleep which is so long.' This pure creature-pure from every suspicion of even a visionary self-interest, even as she was pure in senses more obvious—never once did this holy child, as regarded herself, relax from her belief in the darkness that was travelling to meet her. She might not prefigure the very manner of her death; she saw not in vision, perhaps, the aërial altitude of the fiery scaffold, the spectators without end on every road pouring into Rouen as to a coronation, the surging smoke, the volleying flames, the hostile faces all around, the pitying eye that lurked but here and there until nature and imperishable truth broke loose from artificial restraints; these

might not be apparent through the mists of the hurrying future. But the voice that called her to death, that she heard for ever.

Great was the throne of France even in those days, and great was he that sat upon it; but well Joanna knew that not the throne, nor he that sat upon it, was for her; but, on the contrary, that she was for them; not she by them, but they by her, should rise from the dust. Gorgeous were the lilies of France, and for centuries had the privilege to spread their beauty over land and sea, until, in another century, the wrath of God and man combined to wither them; but well Joanna knew, early at Domremy she had read that bitter truth, that the lilies of France would decorate no garland for her. Flower nor bud, bell nor blossom would ever bloom for her.-Thomas de Quincey.

VOCABULARY.

N.B.-THE NUMBERS REFER TO THAT OF EACH PARTICULAR EXTRACT.

A

about. We are about to offer' [40], nous allons offrir. 'About whether' [106], sur le point (sur la 'Carries question) de savoir si. about with him' [23], porte avec (en) lui. ‘Swimming about' [9], nageant de côté et d'autre. There is no question about them any more' [107), ils ne sauraient plus être mis en question; il n'y a plus de doute quant à eux. A youth about town' [113], une jeune flâneur, un viveur.

above, 'Above half' [51], plus de moitié. 'Above all things' [51], surtout, avant tout. 'Not above being the better for good impressions from a dying friend' [64], qu'un ami mourant pouvait impressionner favorablement, qui pouvait devenir meilleur encore en recevant des impressions le la part d'un ami mourant. it' [98], au-dessus. 'From above' [40], d'en haut.

'Above

accord. 'Of her own accord' [20], de son propre mouvement, de gré. [47], de son propre mouvement, de lui-même.

achieve (to) [94], accomplir. acquainted [102], au fait. To make oneself acquainted ' [102], se mettre au fait.

act (to) [40, 116], jouer.

act a part' [64], jouer un rôle. 'To act on' [43], agir selon, se | conformer à.

actual

[99], actuel, réel, positif. [112, 131], réel. actually [67], en réalité. [96], bientôt, un jour, même.

address (to) [18, 24], parler à, adresser la parole à, porter la parole. advance (to) [131], faire progresser, faire avancer.

advancing. 'This is advancing matters' [107], nous anticipons sur les événements.

advertising columns [74], annonces, colonnes d'annonces.

afford (to) [14, 21, 37, 40, 99, 112, 114], donner, offrir, présenter, avoir les moyens. 'I cannot afford it'. [23], mes moyens ne me le permettent pas; je n'en ai pas les moyens. 'I could not afford' [96], mes moyens ne me permettaient pas; je n'avais pas les moyens.

again and again (repeated) [47], répété et répété, répété cent fois, sans cesse.

against [131]. See most. aggregate (in the) [105], au total, en somme.

aghast [23], effaré.

ahead. 'To be ahead' [7], avoir l'avance.

alike [15, 93], également. all, adj. ‘All day long' [47], To | toute la journée, tant que le jour dure.

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