CARBONIC ANHYDRIDE. 33 Sometimes carbonic anhydride is produced in wells, and, being so much heavier than air, it remains at the bottom. If a man goes down into such a well, he will have no difficulty at first, because the air is good; but when he is near the bottom, where the gas has accumulated, he will gasp for breath and fall; and if anyone, not understanding the cause of his trouble, goes down to assist him, he too will fall senseless, and both will quickly die. The way to ascertain whether carbonic anhydride has accumulated at the bottom of a well is to let a light down into it. If it goes out, or even burns very dimly, there is enough of the gas to make the descent perilous. A man going down a well should always take a candle with him, which he should hold a considerable distance below his mouth. If the light burns dimly, he should at once stop, before his mouth gets any lower and he takes some of the gas into his lungs. When this gas is in a well or pit, of course it must be expelled before a man can descend. There are several expedients for doing this. One is to let a bucket down frequently, turning it upside down, away from the mouth of the well, every time it is brought up, a plan which will remind you of the experiment represented in Fig. 24. But a better way is to let down a bundle of burning straw or shavings, so as to heat the gas. Now heated bodies expand, gases very much more than solids or liquids, and, in expanding, the weight of a certain volume, say of a gallon, becomes lessened. So that if we can heat the carbonic anhydride enough Fig. 25. to make a gallon of it weigh less than a gallon of air, it will rise out of the well just as hydrogen gas would do. Fig. 25 shows how you may perform this experiment upon a small scale. [EASY INTRODUCTION TO CHEMISTRY-See Page 13.] IT [Specimen Page, No. 10.] For Latin Prose-Historical. 17 DISASTROUS RETREAT OF THE ENGLISH FROM CABUL. T took two days of disorder, suffering, and death to carry the army, now an army no more, to the jaws of the fatal pass. Akbar Khan, who appeared like the Greeks' dread marshal from the spirit-land at intervals upon the route, here demanded four fresh hostages. The demand was acquiesced in. Madly along the narrow defile crowded the undistinguishable host, whose diminished numbers were still too numerous for speed: on every side rang the war-cry of the barbarians: on every side plundered and butchered the mountaineers: on every side, palsied with fatigue, terror, and cold, the soldiers dropped down to rise no more. The next day, in spite of all remonstrance, the general halted his army, expecting in vain provisions from Akbar Khan. That day the ladies, the children, and the married officers were given up. The march was resumed. By the following night not more than one-fourth of the original number survived. Even the haste which might once have saved now added nothing to the chances of life. In the middle of the pass a barrier was prepared. There twelve officers died sword in hand. A handful of the bravest or the strongest only reached the further side alive: as men hurry for life, they hurried on their way, but were surrounded and cut to pieces, all save a few that had yet escaped. Six officers better mounted or more fortunate than the rest, reached a spot within sixteen miles of the goal; but into the town itself rode painfully on a jaded steed, with the stump of a broken sword in his hand, but one. LIVY, xxi. c. 25, § 7-10. xxxv. c. 30. xxiii. c. 24. DEFEAT OF CHARLES THE BOLD AND MASSACRE OF HIS TROOPS AT MORAT. N such a predicament braver soldiers might well have ceased I a poor wretches, Italians and Savoyarde, thousand or more in number, threw away their arms and r II. ARIADNE'S LAMENT. Madam, 'twas Ariadne passioning For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight. Two GENTLEMen of VeronA, IV. 4, 172. ARGUMENT. ARIADNE tells the story of her first waking, to find herself abandoned by Theseus and left on an unknown island, exposed to a host of dangers.-(HEROIDES, X.) The story is beautifully told by Catullus, in the “Epithalamium Pelei et Thetidos:" it also forms one of the episodes in Chaucer's "Legende of Goode Women." I woke before it was day to find myself alone, no trace of my companions to be seen. In vain I felt and called for Theseus; the echoes alone gave me answer. ΤΟ 20 QUAE legis, ex illo, Theseu, tibi litore mitto, Unde tuam sine me vela tulere ratem : In quo me somnusque meus male prodidit et tu, Tempus erat, vitrea quo primum terra pruina [TAYLOR'S OVID-See Page 16.] 107 112 97 123 111 150 121 106 3 174. Punica poma, pomegranates. 178. Taenarum, at the southern extremity of Peloponnesus, was one of the numerous descents to Tartarus. Cf. Virgil, Georg, IV. 467: Taenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis. 179. Factura fuit. This periphrasis for fecisset is to be noted; it is the one from which the oblique forms are all constructed, e.g., facturam fuisse, or factura fuisset. 183. Cessatis, one of a goodly number of intransitive verbs of the first conjugation which have a passive participle. Cf. erratas, above, 139, clamata, 35. So Horace, regnata Phalanto rura (Odes, II. 6, 12); triumphatae gentes (Virgil). II. IV. THIS and the two following extracts, though taken from different works, form a definite sequence. Ariadne, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, has helped Theseus to conquer the Minotaur, by giving him a clew to the maze in which the monster was hid, and, being in love with him, has fled in his company. They put in for the night to the island of Dia, and Theseus on the next morning treacherously sails away, leaving the poor girl alone. The first extract is part of an epistle which she is supposed to write on the day when she discovers his perfidy. The name Dia, which belonged properly to a small island off the north coast of Crete, was also a poetical name for Naxos, one of the largest of the Cyclades. It may have been this fact which led to the further legend which is recounted in the next extract, how Ariadne, lorn of Theseus, becomes the bride of Bacchus; for Naxos was the home of the Bacchic worship. As the completion of the legend she is raised to share in Bacchus' divine honours, and as the Cretan Crown becomes one of the signs of the heavens. II. ARIADNE'S LAMENT. 1. Illo, sc. Diae. 4. Per facinus, criminally. 5. Describing apparently the early dawn, or the hour that precedes it, when the night is at its coldest, and the birds, half-awake, begin to stir in their nests. Pruina hints that it is autumn. 7. A beautifully descriptive line-But half-awake, with all the languor of sleep still on me. A somno after, as the result of. S. Semisupina, on my side, lit., half on my back, describes the motion of a person thus groping about on waking. Cf. Chaucer : Ryght in the dawenynge awaketh shee, And gropeth in the bed, and fonde ryghte noghte. [TAYLOR'S OVID-See Page 16.] 55-87] AENEIDOS, LIB. XI. 55 haec mea magna fides? at non, Euandre, pudendis volneribus pulsum aspicies, nec sospite dirum optabis nato funus pater. ei mihi, quantum praesidium Ausonia, et quantum tu perdis, Iule! Haec ubi deflevit, tolli miserabile corpus 60 imperat, et toto lectos ex agmine mittit. mille viros, qui supremum comitentur honorem, intersintque patris lacrimis, solacia luctus exigua ingentis, misero set debita patri. haut segnes alii crates et molle feretrum 65 arbuteis texunt virgis et vimine querno, extructosque toros obtentu frondis inumbrant. hic iuvenem agresti sublimem stramine ponunt; qualem virgineo demessum pollice florem seu mollis violae, seu languentis hyacinthi, 70 cui neque fulgor adhuc, nec dum sua forma recessit; non iam mater alit tellus, viresque ministrat. tunc geminas vestes auroque ostroque rigentis extulit Aeneas, quas illi laeta laborum ipsa suis quondam manibus Sidonia Dido 75 fecerat, et tenui telas discreverat auro. harum unam iuveni supremum maestus honorem induit, arsurasque comas obnubit amictu; multaque praeterea Laurentis praemia pugnae aggerat, et longo praedam iubet ordine duci. 80 addit equos et tela, quibus spoliaverat hostem. pectora nunc foedans pugnis, nunc unguibus ora; ISTORR'S VIRGIL |