ing and verdant plains and valleys of earth. This was an unfinished extremity of the globe; as in lignite we see coal in the process of formation.

17. At length I entered within the skirts of the cloud, which seemed for ever drifting over the summit and yet would never be gone, but was generated out of that pure air as fast as it flowed away; and when, a quarter of a mile further, I reached the summit of the ridge, which those who have seen in clearer weather say is about five miles long, and contains a thousand acres of table-land, I was deep within the hostile ranks of clouds, and all objects were obscured by them.

18. Now the wind would blow me out a yard of clear sunlight, wherein I stood; then a gray, dawning light was all it could accomplish, the cloud-line ever rising and falling with the wind's intensity. Sometimes it seemed as if the summit would be cleared in a few moments, and smile in sunshine; but what was gained on one side was lost on another.

19. It was like sitting in a chimney and waiting for the smoke to blow away. It was, in fact, a cloud-factory -these were the cloud-works, and the wind turned them off down from the cool, bare rocks. Occasionally, when the windy columns broke in to me, I caught sight of a dark, damp crag, to the right or left, the mist driving ceaselessly between it and me.

20. It reminded me of the creations of the old epic and dramatic poets, of Atlas, Vulcan, the Cyclops, and Prometheus. Such was Caucasus and the rock where Prometheus was bound. Eschylus had, no doubt, visited such scenery as this. It was vast, Titanic, and such as man never inhabits.

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 cannot pity nor fondle thee here, but forever 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, Ktaadn (usually spelled Ka-täh'-din). Have you read Thoreau's "Maine Woods"? In the first part of that work he treats of Ktaadn. "Such was Caucasus," etc. (he refers to the description in "The Prometheus," a drama of Æschylus). "Pomola" (Pomona, the goddess of fruit-trees and husbandry?)

II. Suit'-a-ble (sūt’a-bl), li'-ehenş (-kenş), trăv′-eled (-eld), roŭgh (růf), sŭb'-tile, caught (kawt), neigh'-borş (nā'burz).

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."

XLV. VIRTUE.

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

And all must die.

your closes,

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. What poems of Herbert have you read besides this? (See XXV.) Compare it with Collins's ode, "How sleep the Brave?" (XII.), in style and tone. Izaak Walton says, in the "Complete Angler," "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. Gâz'-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 metre of line five, where the accent is on gry of angry. What is the old English meaning of "closes "?

XLVI.-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 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.