He walled it in, and hung with care He thought not of the deed he did, Had cooled ten thousand parching tongues, 3. A dreamer dropped a random thought, The thought was small; its issue great, It sheds its radiance far adown, 1. A nameless man amid a crowd A whisper on the tumult thrown,— It raised a brother from the dust, O gèrm! O fount! O wòrd of love! O THOUGHT at random cast! QUESTIONS.-1. What is said of one of the acorns, strewed on the lea? 2. What benefits were derived from it? 3. What did a passing stranger do with a little spring? 4. What benefits had resulted from this little deed? 5. What effect was produced by "a random thought"? 6. What, by "a word of Hope and Love"? 7. What important rule of life is suggested by this piece? Why the falling inflection on germ, fount, word, thought, last stanza? See Rule IX. p. 31. What kind of emphasis on little, mighty, last stanza? See Note VIII. p. 22 LESSON XCIII. WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING. INTEGRAL, pertaining, or essen- DES' UL TO RY, unconnected. EMINENT, remarkable. IM PER TI NENT, not pertaining to the matter in hand REC TI FI CA TION, Correction. LANGUAGE OF A MAN OF EDUCATION. COLERIDGE. 1. What is that which first strikes us, and strikes us, at once, in a man of education? and which, among educated men, so instantly distinguishes the man of superior mind, that (as was observed with eminent propriety of the late 'Edmund Burke) "we can not stand under the same archway, during a shower of rain, without finding him out”? 2. Not the weight or novelty of his remarks; not any unusual interest of facts communicated by him; for we may suppose both the one and the other precluded by the shortness of our intercourse, and the triviality of the subjects. The difference will be impressed and felt, though the conversation should be confined to the state of the weather or the pavement. 3. Still less will it arise from any peculiarity in his words and phrases. For, if he be, as we now assume, a welleducated man, as well as a man of superior powers, he will not fail to follow the golden rule of Julius Cæsar, To shun an unusual word, as a rock at sea. * Unless where new things necessitate new terms, we will avoid an unusual word as a rock. It must have been among the earliest lessons of his youth, that the breach of this precept, at all times hazardous, becomes ridiculous in the topics of ordinary con versation. * Insolens verbum, tanquam scopulum, evitare. 4. There remains but one other point of distinction possible; and this must be, and, in fact, is the true cause of the impression made on us. It is the unpremeditated and evidently habitual arrangement of his words, grounded on the habit of foreseeing, in each integral part, or, more plainly, in every sentence, the whole that he then intends to communicate. However irregular and desultory his talk, there is method in the fragments. 5. Listen, on the other hand, to an ignorant man, though, perhaps, shrewd and able in his particular calling; whether he be describing or relating. We immediately perceive that his memory alone is called into action, and that the objects and events recur, in the narration, in the same order, and with the same accompaniments, however accidental or impertinent, as they had first occurred to the narrator. 6. The necessity of taking breath, the efforts of recollection, and the abrupt rectification of its failures, produce all his pauses; and, with exception of the "and then," the "and there," and the still less significant "and so," they constitute likewise all his connections. QUESTIONS.-1. How is the question, with which this piece begins, answered? 2. What does the golden rule of Cæsar teach? 3. What point of difference between the educated and the uneducated man, is specified in the 4th paragraph? LESSON XCIV. WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING. SPEC U LA'TION, contemplation. } VEINS, blood-vessels that convey Ac' ME, top, or highest point. VEN ER ATION, respect. AD O RA TION, worship. the blood to the heart. AR TER IES, blood-vessels that convey the blood from the heart. PE RI OD IC AL, occurring at Viv' I FY, animate; enliven. certain periods of time. Spon ta' ne ous, produced without labor. FER TIL I TY, fruitfulness. AP PRE CI A TED, valued. FA CILI TA TING, making easy. 1. PLIN' Y, surnamed the Elder, and also the Natur alist, a distinguished Roman writer, born at Verona, or, as some say, at Como, A. D. 23. He died of suffocation, A. D. 79, in consequence of having approached too near to Mount Vesuvius, in order to observe the phenomena of its eruption. RIVERS. BRANDE 1. There are few subjects in physical geography, which present so wide a field for speculation as rivers, whether we regard them in a historical, political, economical, or scientific point of view. 2. They are associated with the earliest efforts of mankind to emerge from a state of barbarism; but they are no less serviceable to nations which have reached the acme of civilization. In the earliest ages, they were regarded with veneration, and became the objects of a grateful adoration, surpassed only by that paid to the sun and the host of heaven. 3. Nor is this surprising; for, in countries where the labors of the husbandman and shepherd depended, for a successful issue, on the falling of periodical rains, or the melting of the collected snows in a far distant country, such rivers as the Nile, the Ganges, and the Indus, were the visible agents of nature in bestowing, on the inhabitants of their banks, all the blessings of a rich and spontaneous fertility; and hence their waters were held sacred, and they received, and, to this day, retain the adoration of the countries through which they flow. 4. But it is by countries which have already made progress in civilization, to which, indeed, they largely contribute, that the advantages of rivers are best appreciated, in their adaptation to the purposes of navigation, and in their application to the useful arts. 5. Like the veins and arteries of the human body, which convey life and strength to its remotest extremities, rivers vivify, maintain, and excite the efforts of human industry, whether we regard them, near their source, as the humble instruments of turning a mill, in their progress, as facilitating the transport of agricultural or manufacturing produce from one district to another, or as enriching the countries, at their mouths, with the varied products of distant lands. 6. This has been admirably expressed by 'Pliny: "The beginnings of a river," he says, "are insignificant, and its infancy is frivolous: it plays among the flowers of a meadow; it waters a garden, or turns a little mill. Gathering strength in its youth, it becomes wild and impetuous. 7. "Impatient of the restraints which it still meets with in the hollows among the mountains, it is restless and fretful; quick in its turning, and unsteady in its course. Now it is a roaring cataract, tearing up and overturning whatever opposes its progress, and it shoots headlong down from a rock; then it becomes a sullen and gloomy pool, buried in the bottom of a glen. 8. "Recovering breadth by repose, it again dashes along, till, tired of uproar and mischief, it quits all that it has swept along, and leaves the opening of the valley strewed with the rejected waste. Now quitting its retirement, it comes abroad into the world, journeying with more prudence and discretion through cultivated fields, yielding to circumstances, and winding round what would trouble it to overwhelm or remove. 9. "It passes through the populous cities, and all the busy haunts of man, tendering its services on every side, and becomes the support and ornament of the country. Increased by numerous alliances, and advanced in its course, it becomes grave and stately in its motions, loves peace and quiet, and in majestic silence rolls on its mighty waters till it is laid to rest in the vast abyss." QUESTIONS.-1. What is said of rivers considered as subjects of study or speculation? 2. How were rivers regarded in the early ages? 3. What, especially, is said of the Nile, the Ganges, and the Indus? 4. In what countries are rivers best appreciated? 5. What effect do rivers have upon human industry? 6. What is said of the beginnings of a river? 7. What is said of its subsequent course? Where is the river Nile? 8. The Ganges? 9. The Indus? |