Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,
And they complain no more.

6. Peace! peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer! Descend with broad-winged flight,

The welcome, the thrice prayed for, the most fair,
The best-belovéd Night!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. "Orestes-like I breathe this prayer." (In "Orestes," the drama of Euripides, the raving Orestes, pursued by the Furies of his mother, prays for "the precious balm of Sleep," which relieves his malady: "O divine oblivion of my sufferings, how wise thou art, and the goddess to be supplicated by all in distress!")

II. Rhymes (rimz), de-light' (-lit'), häunt'-ed, broad'-winged (brawd'-).

III. Make a list of twenty words in which the prefix ad, meaning to, is used; e. g., ad-apt (fit to), ad-duce (bring to), ad-here (stick to), ad-join (join to). The d of ad generally changes so as to agree in sound with the following letter when it is a consonant; e. g., af-fix, ar-range, at-tend, appendix, al-lot, ag-grieve, an-nounce, etc.

IV. Sable, celestial, majestic, "cisterns of the midnight air," perpetual, spell, "haunted chambers."

V. What personifications in this piece? Make a list of the metaphors ("cool cisterns of the midnight air," etc.).

LVII. SPEECH OF BRUTUS.

1. Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear: believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may believe: censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge.

2. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Cæsar's, to him I say that Brutus's love to Cæsar was no less than his. If, then, that friend demand why Brutus

rose against Cæsar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved Rome more.

3. Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves, than that Cæsar were dead, to live all freemen?

4. As Cæsar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears, for his love; joy, for his fortune; honor, for his valor; and death, for his ambition.

5. Who is here so base, that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude, that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile, that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.-[CITIZENS cry out, "None, Brutus-none!"]-None! Then none have I offended.

6. I have done no more to Cæsar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol; his glory not extenuated, wherein he was worthy; nor his offenses enforced, for which he suffered death. [Enter ANTONY and others with CESAR's body.]

7. Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony; who, though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying—a place in the commonwealth : as which of you shall not?

8. With this I depart: That, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death.

William Shakespeare.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. From the play of "Julius Cæsar" (Act III., Scene 2). It is the time when Rome passes from the commonwealth to another form of government-that of the empire. Brutus is animated

with the old spirit, and joins the conspirators who murder Cæsar, the representative of the new spirit, which is destined to rule Rome henceforth. But the killing of Cæsar does not kill what he represents, although patriot Brutus seems to think that it will. Antony . . . who shall receive a place in the commonwealth,” etc. (i. e., he shall be benefited by our deed, which saves the republic).

"C

II. Am-bi'-tious (-bish'us), văl'-iant, en-rōlled', eoun'-try-men (kun'-), Cæ'-şar, mōurned.

III. The prefixes generally may be arranged in pairs, having opposite meanings; e. g., ad means to, and ab, from: attract draw to; abstract = draw from. In this way, in is opposed to e or ex: include = shut in; exclude = shut out. (Ex changes to e, ef, or ec, before some roots; in also to il, im, etc.)

IV. Censure, “question [cause or reasons for] his death," extenuated (drawn out, diminished), "awake your senses," bondınan, enrolled.

V. Note in this speech, and in that of Mark Antony (LXIII.), the most consummate oratorical art. Brutus completely carries away the convictions of the people whom he addresses. Mark Antony, in a manner still more skillful, removes the impression that Brutus has made. With Brutus, his transparent honesty gives the strongest effect to his speech; while with Antony, the affected conflict in his mind between grief for his dead friend and the respect in which he holds the conspirators, finally drives the people to utter what he himself keeps back. In § 5, Brutus adroitly prevents any objections, by classifying the objectors in advance.

LVIII-WE WATCHED HER BREATHING.

1. We watched her breathing through the night,
Her breathing soft and low,

As in her breast the wave of life
Kept heaving to and fro.

2. So silently we seemed to speak,
So slowly moved about,

As we had lent her half our powers
To eke her living out.

3. Our very hopes belied our fears,
Our fears our hopes belied,—

We thought her dying when she slept,
And sleeping when she died.

4. For when the morn came dim and sad,
And chill with early showers,
Her quiet eyelids closed-she had
Another morn than ours.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. "Eke" is chiefly used now for add to or lengthen. It was a very common word for also in old English, and its kindred forms eac (Anglo-Saxon), auch (German), og (Danish), och (Swedish), ok (old Norse), etc., were or are still very much used for and or also.

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Thomas Hood.

II. Through (throo), si'-lent-ly, eÿe'-lidş (ï'-).

III. The prefixes ad and ab (to and from), in and ex (in and out), have been mentioned, and the various changes which they undergo to make them agree in sound with the first letter of the root (i. e., the word to which they are prefixed). Make two lists of ten words each, illustrating the prefixes con (with) and contra (against) (e. g., con-clude shut together; col-lect bring together; contra-dict: say against); also of de (down), super and hyper (over), sub and hypo (under), and per (through).

IV. "Wave of life heaving."

LIX. IN THE MAINE WOODS.

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V. "Seemed to speak" (i. e., it seemed as though we spoke so low and moved about so slowly, because we had given her the half of our power to eke out her life).

I. THE FORESTS.

1. What is most striking in the Maine wilderness is the continuousness of the forest, with fewer open intervals, or glades, than you had imagined. Except the few burnt lands, the narrow intervals on the rivers, the bare tops of the high mountains, and the lakes and streams, the forest is uninterrupted.

2. It is even more grim and wild than you had anticipated a damp and intricate wilderness, in the spring everywhere wet and miry. The aspect of the country, indeed, is universally stern and savage, excepting the distant views of the forest from hills, and the lake prospects, which are mild and civilizing in a degree.

3. The lakes are something which you are unprepared for; they lie up so high, exposed to the light, and the forest is diminished to a fine fringe on their edges, with here and there a blue mountain, like amethyst jewels set around some jewel of the first water-so anterior, so superior to all the changes that are to take place on their shores, even now civil and refined, and fair as they can ever be. These are not the artificial forests of an English king-a royal preserve merely. Here prevail no forest laws but those of Nature. The aborigines have never been dispossessed, nor Nature disforested.

4. It is a country full of evergreen trees, of mossy silver birches and watery maples-the ground dotted with insipid, small, red berries, and strewn with damp and moss-grown rocks; a country diversified with innumerable lakes and rapid streams, peopled with trout, with salmon, shad, and pickerel, and other fishes.

5. The forest resounds at rare intervals with the note of the chickadee, the blue jay, and the woodpecker, the scream of the fishhawk and the eagle, the laugh of the loon, and the whistle of ducks along the solitary streams; at night, with the hooting of owls and howling of wolves; in summer, swarming with myriads of black flies and mosquitoes, more formidable than wolves to the white man.

6. Such is the home of the moose, the bear, the caribou, the wolf, the beaver, and the Indian. Who shall