8. The court was sat before Sir Roger came: but notwithstanding all the justices had taken their places upon the bench, they made room for the old knight at the head of them; who, for his reputation in the country, took occasion to whisper in the judge's ear, that he was glad his lordship had met with so much good weather in his circuit.

9. I was listening to the proceedings of the court with much attention, and infinitely pleased with that great appearance and solemnity which so properly accompanies such a public administration of our laws, when, after about an hour's sitting, I observed, to my great surprise, in the midst of a trial, that my friend Sir Roger was getting up to speak. I was in some pain for him, until I found he had acquitted himself of two or three sentences, with a look of much business and great intrepidity.

10. Upon his first rising, the court was hushed, and a general whisper ran among the country-people that Sir Roger was up. The speech he made was so little to the purpose, that I shall not trouble my readers with an account of it; and I believe was not so much designed by the knight himself to inform the court, as to give him a figure in my eye, and keep up his credit in the country.

11. I was highly delighted when the court rose, to see the gentlemen of the country gathering about my old friend, and striving who should compliment him most; at the same time that the ordinary people gazed upon him at a distance, not a little admiring his courage, that was not afraid to speak to the judge.

Addison.

EXERCISES.-1. Name the verbs from which the following nouns are formed: Satisfaction, approbation, applause, behaviour, conversation, destruction, judgment, acquittal, revival, explanation, proclamation. 2. Make verbs from the following verbs: Appear, pass, close, count, judge, value, solve, prove.

3. Name the verbs from which the following verbs are formed: Misapply, overcome, undertake, disapprove, return, remove, dissolve.

4. Make sentences of your own, and use in each sentence one or more of the following words: Defray, reputation, benevolence, intrepidity.

THE DISPUTED CASE (OR EYES AND NOSE).

[These amusing verses were written by William Cowper, one of the truest poets of the eighteenth century, famous as the author of the Task and many other poems.]

1. Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose ;
The spectacles set them unhappily wrong:
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

2. So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause With a great deal of wit, and a wig full of learning ; While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,

So famed for his talent in nicely discerning. 3. In behalf of the Nose it will quickly appear,

And your lordship,' he said, 'will undoubtedly find, That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear, Which amounts to possession time out of mind.' 4. Then holding the spectacles up to the court

'Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle, As wide as the ridge of the Nose is, in short,

Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle.

5. Again, would your lordship a moment suppose

('Tis a case that has happened, and may be again), That the visage or countenance had not a Nose,

Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then?
6. 'On the whole it appears, and my argument shows,
With a reasoning the court will never condemn,
That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose,
And the Nose was as plainly intended for them.'
7. Then shifting his side (as the lawyer knows how),
He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes;
But what were his arguments few people know,

For the court did not think they were equally wise.
8. So his lordship decreed, with a grave solemn tone,
Decisive and clear, without one 'if' or 'but,'
That, whenever the Nose put his spectacles on,
By daylight, or candle-light, Eyes should be shut.

un-doubt'-ed-ly
de-signed'

coun'-ten-ance

con-demn'

un-hap'-pi-ly

bal'-ance

chief bar'-on, a title of certain | vis'-age, face.

judges.

Cowper. ar'-gu-ments sol'-emn

de-creed', settled the case.

BAMBOO—I.

[Alfred Russel Wallace, a famous traveller and writer on natural history, spent eight years on the East Indian Islands, and wrote an account of what he saw there in a book called The Malay Archipelago, which describes the uses of the bamboo as follows. The Dyaks are natives of the island of Borneo.]

1. During my many journeys in Borneo, and especially during my various residences among the Dyaks, I first came to appreciate the admirable qualities of the bamboo. In those parts of South America which I had previously visited, these gigantic grasses were comparatively scarce; and, where found, but little used, their place being taken as to one class of uses by the great variety of palms, and as to another by calabashes and gourds. Almost all tropical countries produce bamboos, and, wherever they are found in abundance, the natives apply them to a variety of uses.

2 Their strength, lightness, smoothness, straightness, roundness, and hollowness, the facility and regularity with which they can be split, their many different sizes, the varying length of their joints, the ease with which they can be cut and with which holes can be made through them, their hardness outside, their freedom from any pronounced taste or smell, their great abundance, and the rapidity of their growth and increase, are all qualities which render them useful for a hundred different purposes, to serve which other materials would require much more labour and preparation. The bamboo is one of the most wonderful and most beautiful productions

of the tropics, and one of nature's most valuable gifts to uncivilised man.

3. The Dyak houses are all raised on posts, and are often two or three hundred feet long and forty or fifty wide. The floor is always formed of strips split