tempered by an affability which flowed from the kind- 15 ness of her disposition. She was the last person to be approached with undue familiarity, yet the respect which she imposed was mingled with the strongest feelings of devotion and love. She showed great tact in accommodating herself to the peculiar situation and 20 character of those around her. She appeared in arms at the head of her troops, and shrank from none of the hardships of war. During the reforms introduced into the religious houses she visited the nunneries in person, taking her needlework with 25 her and passing the day in the society of the inmates. When traveling in Galicia she attired herself in the costume of the country, borrowing for that purpose the jewels and other ornaments of the ladies there, and returning them with liberal additions. By this con- 30 descending and captivating deportment, as well as by her higher qualities, she gained an ascendency over her turbulent subjects which no king of Spain could ever boast. She spoke the Castilian with much elegance and cor- 35 rectness. She had an easy fluency of discourse, which, though generally of a serious complexion, was occasionally seasoned with agreeable sallies, some of which have passed into proverbs. She was temperate even to abstemiousness in her diet, seldom or never tasting wine, 10 ANALYSIS.-15. Parse the word tempered. which flowed, etc. Is this restrictive or not? 17, 18. respect which she imposed. Improve this expression 19. Give the meaning of tact. 31. Parse as well as. 32. What is the meaning of higher as here used? 34. boast. Is this transitive or intransitive? 36. What is the antecedent of which? 37. Substitute a word for complexion. 39, 40. She.... diet. Write this clause in another form. and so frugal in her table that the daily expenses for herself and family did not exceed the moderate sum of forty ducats. She was equally simple and economical in her apparel. On all public occasions, indeed, she displayed a royal magnificence, but she had no relish for 45 it in private, and she freely gave away her clothes and jewels as presents to her friends. Naturally of a sedate though cheerful temper, she had little taste for the frivolous amusements which make up so much of a court-life; and if she encouraged the pres- 50 ence of minstrels and musicians in her palace, it was to wean her young nobility from the coarser and less intellectual pleasures to which they were addicted. Among her moral qualities the most conspicuous, perhaps, was her magnanimity. She betrayed nothing little or selfish 55 in thought or action. Her schemes were vast, and executed in the same noble spirit in which they were conceived. She never employed doubtful agents or sinister measures, but the most direct and open policy. She scorned 60 to avail herself of advantages offered by the perfidy of others. Where she had once given her confidence, she gave her hearty and steady support, and she was scrupulous to redeem any pledge she had made to those who ventured in her cause, however unpopular. She sus- 65 tained Ximenes in all his obnoxious but salutary reforms. She seconded Columbus in the prosecution of his arduous enterprise, and shielded him from the calumnies of his enemies. She did the same good ANALYSIS.-41. frugal in her table. What figure? 41, 42. for herself and family. Is the phrase correct? 53, 54. Is this sentence periodic or loose? 56, 57. Parse the word executed. 67. Substitute a word for seconded. service to her favorite, Gonsalvo de Cordova, and the 75 day of her death was felt-and, as it proved, truly felt -by both as the last of their good-fortune. Artifice and duplicity were so abhorrent to her character, and averse from her domestic policy, that when they appear in the foreign relations of Spain, it is certainly 75 not imputable to her. She was incapable of harboring any petty distrust or latent malice; and although stern in the execution and exaction of public justice, she made the most generous allowance, and even sometimes advances, to those who had personally injured her. 80 But the principle which gave a peculiar coloring to every feature of Isabella's mind was piety. It shone forth from the very depths of her soul with a heavenly radiance which illuminated her whole character. Fortunately, her earliest years had been passed in the rug-85 ged school of adversity, under the eye of a mother who implanted in her serious mind such strong principles of religion as nothing in after life had power to shake. At an early age, in the flower of youth and beauty, she was introduced to her brother's court, but its blandishments, 90 so dazzling to a young imagination, had no power over hers, for she was surrounded by a moral atmosphere of purity, driving far off each thing of sin and guilt. Such was the decorum of her manners that though encompassed by false friends and open enemies, not the slight- $5 est reproach was breathed on her fair name in this corrupt and calumnious court. ANALYSIS.-74. averse from. Substitute a word for averse. 81, a peculiar coloring. What figure? 82 83. shone forth. Dispose of forth. What figure in the line? 83. depths of her soul. What figure? 85, 86. rugged school of adversity. Point out the figure. 89. in the flouer of youth and beauty. What figure? 90. her brother's court. What figure? 10. JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, 1814-1877. JAN LOTHROP MOTLEY, one of America's most eminent historians, was born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, April 15, 1814. He graduated from Harvard College in 1831, when he was but seventeen years of age. After graduation he spent three years in Europe preparing for his great work as an author, and then returning to America, was admitted to the bar in 1836. His first published books were Morton's Hope and Merry Mount, issued about the year 1839, both works of some merit, but so greatly inferior to his histories that they are now comparatively forgotten. Motley's first great work was the Rise of the Dutch Republic. It was published in 1856, in three volumes, its author having devoted fifteen years of study and research in the preparation of the work. The success of this history was instantaneous in both England and America. It was translated and published also in Dutch, German, and French. The author was comparatively young and unknown, but it at once established his fame as an historical writer of the highest order. In 1865 he published his History of the Unitel Netherlands, from the Death of William the Silent to the Synod f Dort, and in 1874 he added The Life and Death of Burneveld, Advocate of Holland. Both of these, like his first published history, were written in that brilliant and vigorous style which places him in the foremost rank not only as an historian, but also as a master of pure, strong, eloquent English. Mr. Motley filled a number of governmental positions abroad, chief among them that of minister-plenipotentiary to Austria from 1861 to 1867, and to England from 1869 to 1870, when, through a change of administration, he was recalled. He was honored with the degree D. C. L. by Oxford, and with the degree LL.D. by the universities of both Cambridge and New York. After his withdrawal from political life, in 1870, he lived as a private citizen to the time of his death, May 29, 1877. CRITICISM. MOTLEY was one of the most industrious of authors. The mass of papers which he studied and examined critically at Brussels, Venice, and Paris for the purpose of preparing himself to write The History of the United Netherlands was enormous, and his great industry manifests itself in the excellence with which he did his work. No other writer has brought together such a variety of personages and such a mass of details into one collective whole, and yet presented all these substantial facts of history with the air of a romance. We follow the fates and fortunes of the various characters with an interest almost equal to that aroused by the best works of fiction. His style is vivid and sparkling, but sometimes his analysis of character is so exhaustive as to lead almost to repetition. In spite of this fault, however, his productions are among the greatest historical works ever written. WILLIAM OF ORANGE. THE history of the rise of the Netherland Republic has been at the same time the biography of William the Silent. This, while it gives unity to the narrative, renders an elaborate description of his character super ANALYSIS. 3, 4. What is the difference between narrative and description? Dispose of superfluous. |