21. Some part of the beholder, even some vital part, seems to escape through the loose grating of his ribs as he ascends. He is more lone than you can imagine. There is less of substantial thought and fair understanding in him than in the plains where men inhabit. His reason is dispersed and shadowy, more thin and subtile, like the air.

22. Vast, Titanic, inhuman Nature has got him at disadvantage, caught him alone, and pilfers him of some of his divine faculty. She does not smile on him as in the plains. She seems to say sternly, "Why came ye here before your time? This ground is not prepared for you. Is it not enough that I smile in the valleys? I have never made this soil for thy feet, this air for thy breathing, these rocks for thy neighbors. I can not pity nor fondle thee here, but for ever relentlessly drive thee hence to where I am kind.

23. "Why seek me where I have not called you, and then complain because you find me but a stepmother? Shouldst thou freeze, or starve, or shudder thy life away, here is no shrine, nor altar, nor any access to my ear.”

"Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy

With purpose to explore or to disturb

The secrets of your realm, but . . .

as my way

Lies through your spacious empire up to light."

24. The tops of mountains are among the unfinished parts of the globe, whither it is a slight insult to the gods to climb and pry into their secrets, and try their effect on our humanity. Only daring and insolent men, perchance, go there. Simple races, as savages, do not climb mountains; their tops are sacred and mysterious tracts never visited by them. Pomola is always angry with those who climb to the summit of Ktaadn. Henry D. Thoreau.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Find, on the map of Maine, Ka-täh'-din (here spelled Ktaadn). Have you read Thoreau's "Maine Woods"? In the first part of that work he treats of Katahdin. "Such was Cau'casus," etc. (he refers to the description in "The Prometheus," a drama of Eschylus). "Pomola" (Pomona, the goddess of fruit trees and husbandry ?).

II. Suit'-a-ble (sūt'a-bl), li'-ehenş (-kenz), trăv'-eled (-eld), rough (rüf), sub'-tile, caught (kawt), Pro-me'-theūs (-thūs), Æs'-ehy-lus (ès'ki-lus).

III. In the first three paragraphs make a list of the name-words that are subjects, and of the action-words that are predicates, and before each subject write any describing-words it may have.

IV. Impenetrable, perpendicular, tributary, diminishing, cavernous, exceed, consistence, poised, cavities, obscured, epic, Titanic, pilfers, relentlessly, shrine.

V. "The principle of vegetation was hard put to it" (the rocks and the cold winds made it hard for vegetation to live and thrive). "At the risk of treading on some of the plants" (he says this jestingly, carrying out the figure of speech). "This sort of garden" (as if he would take pains in a garden not to tread on the vegetables, and here he was walking on the tops of the "plants"). "Satan's arduous way through chaos" refers to Milton's description:

"O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies."

The quotation "Chaos and ancient Night," etc., is from the same book (2d) of the "Paradise Lost"; and also the passage, "Nigh foundered, on he fares."

1. Sweet Day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the Earth and Sky,
The Dew shall weep thy fall to-night,
For thou must die.

2. Sweet Rose, whose hue, angry and brave,
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye,

Thy root is ever in its grave,

And thou must die.

3. Sweet Spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
My music shows you have your closes,
And all must die.

4. Only a sweet and virtuous soul,

Like seasoned timber, never gives;

But, though the whole world turns to coal,
Then chiefly lives.

George Herbert.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Compare this with another poem of Herbert. (See XXIV.) Compare it with Collins's ode, "How sleep the Brave!" (XII.), in style and tone. Izaak Walton says, in the "Complete Angler," 66 'Come, tell me what the holy Herbert says of such days and showers as these, and then we will thank God that we enjoy them."

II. Gaz'-er, ĕv'-er, whêre (hwêr), sẽa'-şoned (sẽ'znd).

III. What style uses thy, thou, art, etc.? (solemn, or sacred). Why not thou and thy for "you" and "your" (3), when addressing the Spring?

IV. Hue, rash, compacted, timber.

V. Do you think the simile, "like seasoned timber," etc., poetic, and in harmony with the elevated tone of the 1st and 2d verses? The allusion to a "box of sweets" elevated, or common? Is the simile of the timber consistent throughout? (i. e., does not seasoned timber burn to coal as quickly as the other wood? or does he refer to live, glowing coals, by "chiefly lives"?) The old spelling "angrie" for angry justifies the meter of line five, where the accent is on gry of angry. What is the old English meaning of "closes "?

VIII-RULES OF BEHAVIOR.

I.

1. Every action in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those present.

2. In presence of others, sing not to yourself with a humming noise, nor drum with your fingers or feet.

3. Sleep not when others speak; sit not when others stand; speak not when you should hold should hold your peace; walk

not when others stop.

4. Turn not your back to others, especially in speaking; jog not the table or desk on which another reads or writes; lean not on any one.

5. Be no flatterer; neither play with any one that delights not to be played with.

6. Read no letters, books, or papers in company; but when there is a necessity for doing it, you must ask leave. Come not near the books or writings of any one so as to read them, unless desired, nor give your opinion of them unasked; also, look not nigh when another is writing a letter.

7. When another speaks, be attentive yourself, and disturb not the audience. If any hesitate in his words, help him not, nor prompt him, without being desired; interrupt him not, nor answer him, till his speech is ended.

8. Be not curious to know the affairs of others, neither approach to those that speak in private.

9. Make no show of taking great delight in your victuals; feed not with greediness; lean not on the table; neither find fault with what you eat.

10. Let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive.

11. In visiting the sick, do not presently play the physician, if you be not knowing therein.

12. Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself professes; it savors of arrogancy.

13. Be not immoderate in urging your friend to dis

cover a secret.

14. If two contend together, take not the part of either unconstrained, and be not obstinate in your own opinion; in things indifferent, be of the major side.

15. Speak not in an unknown tongue in company, but in your own language, and as those of quality do, and not as the vulgar; sublime matters treat seriously.

16. In dispute, be not so desirous to overcome as [you are] to give liberty to each one to deliver his opinion; and submit to the judgment of the major part, especially if they are judges of the dispute.

17. Be not angry at table, whatever happens; and if you have reason to be so, show it not. Put on a cheerful countenance, especially if there be strangers, for good humor makes one dish of meat a feast.

II.

18. When you meet with one of greater quality than yourself, stop and retire, especially if it be at a door or any strait place, to give way to him to pass.

19. They that are in dignity, or in office, have in all places precedency; but, while they are young, they ought to respect those who are their equals in birth, or other qualities, though they have no public charge.

20. It is good manners to prefer them to whom we are to speak before ourselves, especially if they be above us, with whom in no sort we ought to begin.

21. In writing or speaking, give to every person his due title, according to his degree and the custom of the place.