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"A beast, sir," replied the boy.

"So it is," said Squeers. "Ain't it, Nickleby?"

"I believe there is no doubt of that, sir," answered Nicholas.

11. "Of course there isn't!" said Squeers. "A horse is a quadruped, and a quadruped's Latin for beast, as everybody that's gone through grammar knows, or else where's the use of having grammars at all?"

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Where, indeed?" said Nicholas, abstractedly.

12. "As you are perfect in that," resumed Squeers, turning to the boy, "go and look after mine; and rub him down well, or I'll rub you down. The rest of the class go and draw water up, till somebody tells you to leave off; for it's washing day to-morrow, and they want the coppers filled."

13. So saying, he dismissed the first class to their experiments in practical philosophy, and eyed Nicholas with a look, half cunning and half doubtful, as if he were not altogether certain what he might think of him by this time. "That's the way we teach school here, Nickleby," he said, after a pause.

Charles Dickens.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. "Do-the-boys Hall" (where they do them-vulgarism for "finishing their education"). What works of Dickens have you read? From which of them is this piece taken?

II. De-li'-cious (-lish'us), ūş'-ing, gi-găn'-tie, bowl (bōl), wait'-ing, tréal-ele (trē kl), in-die'-a-tive, ri-die'-u-loŭs, foul, as-sō'-ci-ate (-shi-), busi'-ness (biz'nes), shuf'-fled (-fid), bā'-sin (-sn), spē'-cies (-sheez), kět'tle (-t), board, por'-ridge, min'-ute (-it), sŏl'-emn (-em), tru'-ly, eommod'-i-ty, eon'-tents, trou'-ble (trub'l), ěl'-bows, prin'-çi-ple (-pl).

III. Pincushions-separate it into two words. who," or "the thing which"? Correct "The boy dog whom you saw.'

Do you say "the thing

which I saw owns the

IV. Presiding, administered, installment, originally, manufactured, obliged, corporal, penalties, anticipation, file, infliction, wry, satisfaction, attired, motley, ill-assorted, extraordinary, irresistibly, diluted, inserted, average, elapsed, profound, apprehension, obedient, summons, ranged, scare crows, becoming, temporary, practical, system, disconcerted, significantly, emphasis, usher, quadruped, abstractedly, perfect, experiments, cunning

V. Has this piece humor? (Learn to discriminate the different forms of wit and humor, as belonging either to the ambiguity of words or stylepuns, parody, burlesque-or to the discrepancy between intention and the real effect produced-irony, raillery, satire, caricature, sarcasm, comedy in general. The tragic as ell as the comic presents us with two sides in conflict, usually an ideal and a real. The tragic shows the destruction of the person, by the triumph of nature or the right over the wrong which was attempted. As man is closely tied by social relations to man, the crime of one often involves the injury of another who is innocent. The comic consists in showing the folly of the person who tries to realize projects, but sclects utterly inadequate means. He fails, or, quite likely, produces the opposite of what he had intended; but, as the person is not hurt, the result is simply ridiculous.) Make a list of the blunders of Mr. Squeers (comic, because he is a teacher, intending to teach, and yet displays ignorance instead of knowledge). What is the witty point in connecting spelling and philosophy? (7). How is so-called "practical education" ridiculed here? Make a list of the passages in which the economy or stinginess of Squeers is indicated. What two applications has "useful" (10)? (profitable to the pupils, and profitable to Squeers ?). "Diluted pincushions " (i. e., the bran which fills them, or something that looked like pincushions ?).

XIX-AN APRIL DAY.

1. All day the low-hung clouds have dropped
Their garnered fullness down;

All day that soft, gray mist hath wrapped
Hill, valley, grove, and town.

2. There has not been a sound to-day
To break the calm of nature;

Nor motion, I might almost say,
Of life, or living creature;

3. Of waving bough, or warbling bird, Or cattle faintly lowing:

I could have half believed I heard

The leaves and blossoms growing.

4. I stood to hear--I love it well-
The rain's continuous sound;
Small drops, but thick and fast they fell,
Down straight into the ground.

5. For leafy thickness is not yet,

Earth's naked breast to screen;
Though every dripping branch is set
With shoots of tender green.

6. Sure, since I looked at early morn,
Those honeysuckle buds

Have swelled to double growth; that thorn
Hath put forth larger studs.

7. That lilac's cleaving cones have burst, The milk-white flowers revealing; Even now, upon my senses first

Methinks their sweets are stealing.

8. The very earth, the steamy air,
Is all with fragrance rife;

And grace and beauty everywhere
Are flushing into life.

9. Down, down they come-those fruitful stores, Those earth-rejoicing drops!

A momentary deluge pours,
Then thins, decreases, stops.

10. And ere the dimples on the stream
Have circled out of sight,

Lo! from the west a parting gleam
Breaks forth, of amber light.

11. But yet behold-abrupt and loud,
Comes down the glittering rain;
The farewell of a passing cloud,

The fringes of her train.

Caroline Anne Bowles Southey.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. This poem was printed (in a book notice) in Blackwood's Magazine in 1822. In what countries could such scenes as are here described be seen on an April day?

II. €älm (kām), erēa'-ture, bough (bou), faint'-ly, be-lieved', ear-ly (ẽr-), hỏn-ey-săc-kle (hăny-sük-1).

III. Notice the alliteration (repetition of the same letter or sound) in the 3d stenza (waving, warbling, bough, bird). Make a list of the rhymes of this piece (dropped, wrapped, down, town, etc.).

IV. Warbling, lowing, screen, shoots, tender, green, fragrance, rife, flushing, deluge, decreases, dimples, amber light," abrupt, "put forth larger

studs," "lilac's cleaving cones."

V. What allusion in "garnered fullness"? (clouds, as storehouses for a harvest of water?) Note: hill, opposed to valley and grove; or forest, opposed to village? Why so few sounds and so little motion on this day (2)? Why can not we hear things grow? Does not very slow growth make pulsations in the air? Are lilac flowers generally milk-white? (Those of the "Persian" lilac are.) What personification in the last stanza?

XX. GOD'S DOMINION AND MAN'S DEPENDENCE.

I.

1. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

2. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?

4. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

5. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

6. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob.

7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall

come in.

8. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

9. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 10. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.

II.

11. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

12. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

13. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

14. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

15. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

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