petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. 8. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. 9. If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir: We must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us! 10. They tell us, sir, that we are weak-unable to cope with so formidable an adversary; but when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? 11. Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can sena against us. 12. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone: there is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle is not to the strong alone: it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. 13. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission or slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! and let it come! I repeat it, sir: The war is inevitable, Let it come! 14. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry "Peace! peace!" but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? 15. What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but, as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! Patrick Henry. FOR PREPARATION.-I. From the speech delivered in March, 1775, in the second Virginia Convention, in support of the resolution "that the colony be immediately put in a state of defense." II. Sŏl'-açe, ae-eū-mu-lā'-tion, rĕe-on-çîl-i-à'-tion, in-vin'-çi-ble. III. Be used in predication has many forms to express its distinctions of time, number, and person: am, art, is, are, was, wast, were, wert, been, be, and being-eleven in all. Tell how each word is used, and what it predicates (e. g., am predicates of I, or the person speaking, in present time; art predicates of thou, in present time, etc.). IV. Illusions, siren, prostrated, supplicated, inviolate, effectual, supinely, extenuate, arduous. V. "Having eyes, see not," etc. (quotation from Scripture: Jeremiah v. 21 and Ezekiel xii. 2). "British ministry" (in England the ministers of the king are always held responsible for the measures of the king) corresponds to the American "Cabinet." "And who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us "-did this prophecy prove true? What friends helped? "Our brethren are already in the field ".(refers to a Committee of Safety appointed by the Massachusetts Assembly, February 9, 1775, to muster the "minutemen" and militia). CXXXVI. THE SKYLARK. 1. Hail to thee, blithe spirit-- In profuse strains of unpremeditated art! 2. Higher still, and higher, From the earth thou springest, Like a cloud of fire: The blue deep thou wingest, And, singing still, dost soar, and soaring, ever singest. 3. In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun, O'er which clouds are brightening, Thou dost float and run, Like an embodied joy whose race is just begun. 4. The pale purple even In the broad daylight, Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight. 5. All the earth and air With thy voice is loud, As, when night is bare, From one lonely cloud The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed. 6. What thou art, we know not; What is most like thee? From rainbow clouds there flow not As from thy presence showers a rain of melody. 7. Like a poet hidden In the light of thought, Singing hymns unbidden, To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not. 8. Chorus hymeneal, Or triumphal chant, Matched with thine, would be all But an empty vaunt A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want. 9. What objects are the fountains Of thy happy strain? What fields, or waves, or mountains? What shapes of sky or plain? What love of thine own kind? What ignorance of pain: 10. We look before and after, And pine for what is not; With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. 11. Yet if we could scorn Hate and pride and fear, If we were things born Not to shed a tear, I know not how thy joy we ever should come near. 12. Better than all measures Of delightful sound, Better than all treasures That in books are found, Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground! 13. Teach me half the gladness Such harmonious madness From my lips would flow, The world should listen then, as I am listening now. Percy Bysshe Shelley. FOR PREPARATION.-I. Stanzas 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, and 17 of the original poem are omitted in this piece. What nation's poets have the most to say of the skylark ?—of the nightingale? Has America any song bird that is a favorite with the poets? II. Blithe, un-pre-měd'-i-ta-ted, měl'-o-dy, wrought (rawt), fraught (frawt), tri-m'-phal. III. Purple even" (4)—even is a contraction for what? Mark the feet and accented syllables of each line in this piece, and note the marvelous descriptive effect of its rhythm in expressing the shades of thought and feeling (e. g., the change of accent in the last line, which is of double length, and adds a different poetic tone to the rest. The feet accented on the first |