V. Serpent-worship existed once throughout a large part of the Eastern Continent; it is therefore not strange to find it in America. (3) How do you think they know that the Mound-Builders had no horses or carts? (By the absence of the bones of the horse, as well as traces of wheels preserved in the mounds. Even so fragile a thing as a basket or a piece of cloth may be preserved for ages under a pile of rubbish, especially where there has been a fire. In Europe such things have been found; also fragments of horn with rude pictures carved on them by the "prehistoric" inhabitants, and indicating the appearance of their wild animals-the mammoth, for instance.) (9) Would copper be esteemed a good material in our time for axes, chisels, and other sharp instruments? (The MoundBuilder possessed the secret of hardening copper, not now known.) LXIX. THE DESERTED VILLAGE. 1. Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain, 2. How often have I paused on every charm- The never-failing brook, the busy mill, The decent church that topped the neighboring The hawthorn-bush, with seats beneath the shade, 3. How often have I blest the coming day, While many a pastime circled in the shade, 4. And still, as each repeated pleasure tired, The matron's glance that would those looks reprove. 5. These were thy charms, sweet village! sports like these, With sweet succession, taught even toil to please: Sweet, smiling village, loveliest of the lawn, 6. No more thy glassy brook reflects the day, The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest; And trembling, shrinking from the spoiler's hand, Far, far away thy children leave the land. 7. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. 8. But times are altered: trade's unfeeling train And every pang that folly pays to pride. 9. Sweet was the sound, when oft, at evening's close, Up yonder hill the village murmur rose. There, as I passed with careless steps and slow, The noisy geese that gabbled o'er the pool; No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale; The sad historian of the pensive plain. Oliver Goldsmith. FOR PREPARATION.-I. Where was "Auburn"? (The village of Lishoy, or Lissoy, in Westmeath County, Ireland, six miles north of Athlone.) Whose work was its destruction? (“General Napier turned all of his tenants out of their farms, that he might inclose them in his own private domain." See note to Chapter XXVIII. of Irving's "Goldsmith.") Who afterward restored it, and why? (Captain Hogan, its present possessor, fired with an antiquarian spirit, has restored everything so as to correspond exactly to Goldsmith's description.) Where is the hawthorn-bush found ? "The hollow-sounding bittern." II. Neigh'-bor-ing (na'bur-), sur-veyed' (-vid'), sleights (slits), bus'-y (biz'y), ty'-rant's, sedg'-eş (sěj'-), soft'-ened (sof'nd). III. Explain est in loveliest; why not lovelyest? (Y would have a consonant sound.) What other ways of spelling blest (3) and past (9)? IV. Swain, loitered, mistrustless, tillage, prey, peasantry, usurp, dispossess, hamlet, unwieldy, opulence, allied, "every pang that folly pays to pride," rural, fluctuate, pensive, "decent" (i. e., becoming) church. V. What are "lingering blooms"? What contrast does the poet paint between Auburn as it was and as it is? To what does he attribute the change? What occasioned the titter of "secret laughter" (4)? Transpose into prose (adding words of your own where needed) the 7th stanza, to "supplied." Note the rhyme (9) “wind” and “mind." Name other pieces in which the nightingale (9) is spoken of. (It is not found in Ireland.) LXX. THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION. 1. Now they began to go down the hill into the Valley of Humiliation. It was a steep hill, and the way was slippery; but they were very careful, so they got down pretty well. When they were down in the valley, Piety said to Christiana: "This is the place where Christian, your husband, met with that foul fiend Apollyon, and where they had that dreadful fight that they had. I know you cannot but have heard thereof. But be of good courage: as long as you have here Mr. Greatheart to be your guide and conductor, we hope you will fare the better." So, when these two had committed the pilgrims unto the conduct of their guide, he went forward, and they went after. 2. Then said Mr. Greatheart: "We need not be so afraid of this valley, for here is nothing to hurt us, unless we procure it ourselves. 'Tis true, Christian did here meet with Apollyon, with whom he also had a sore combat; but that fray was the fruit of those slips that he got in his going down the hill; for they that get slips there must look for combats here. And hence it is that this valley has got so hard a name; for the common people, when they hear that some frightful thing has befallen such a one in such a place, are of opinion that that place is haunted with some foul fiend or evil spirit; when, alas! |