O to abide in the desert with the blithe some (th as in this), sprightly. | gloam'ing, twil THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, an English autho born on October 25, 1800, and died on December 28, degree at Trinity College, Cambridge. Macaulay's chief work is his "History of England, tending through five volumes, covers a period of only history is as interesting as a novel. Its style is wond fascinating. The same may be said of his "Miscellaneo subjects, chiefly of an historical and biographical chara Ancient Rome" will always be a favorite with young re 1. IF we consider merely the subtlety the force of imagination, the perfect e gance of expression, which characterize t of Athenian genius, we must pronounce cally most valuable; but what shall w reflect that from hence have sprung, d rectly, all the noblest creations of the h that from hence were the vast accomplish brilliant fancy of Cicero, the withering the plastic imagination of Dante, the hu tes, the comprehension of Bacon, the wit supreme and universal excellence of Shak he triumphs of truth and genius over prejuower, in every country and in every age, have riumphs of Athens. Wherever a few great e made a stand against violence and fraud, in of liberty and reason, there has been her spirit Ist of them, inspiring, encouraging, consoling, onely lamp of Erasmus, by the restless bed of the tribune of Mirabeau, in the cell of Galileo, fold of Sidney. who shall estimate her influence on private ? Who shall say how many thousands have › wiser, happier, and better by those pursuits she has taught mankind to engage, to how studies which took their rise from her have th in poverty, liberty in bondage, health in society in solitude? power is indeed manifested at the bar, in e, in the field of battle, in the schools of phiBut these are not her glory. Wherever litonsoles sorrow or assuages pain, wherever it adness to eyes which fail with wakefulness and ache for the dark house and the long here is exhibited, in its noblest form, the imfluence of Athens. dervish, in the Arabian tale, did not hesitate on to his comrade the camels with their load and gold, while he retained the casket of that is juice which enabled him to behold at one the hidden riches of the universe. Surely it ggeration to say, that no external advantage is pared with that purification of the intellectual h gives us to contemplate the infinite wealth ental world, all the hoarded treasures of the 6. Her freedom and her power have twenty centuries been annihilated; he degenerated into timid slaves, her langu barous jargon; her temples have been g successive depredations of Romans, Turl men; but her intellectual empire is imp 7. And when those who have rivaled shall have shared her fate; when civilizat edge shall have fixed their abode in dist when the scepter shall have passed away when, perhaps, travelers from distant r vain labor to decipher on some molderi name of our proudest chief, shall hear chanted to some misshapen idol over th of our proudest temple, and shall see man wash his nets in the river of the masts, — her influence and her glory wi fresh in eternal youth, exempt from decay, immortal as the intellectual princi they derived their origin, and over which their control. dis-qui-si/tion (-zish'un), a syste- | dy'nas-ty (di'na matic discussion of any subject. pri-me/val, belonging to the first ages; primitive. succession of family. an-ni/hi-lat-ed, Ju'venal, a Roman poet who flourished about A. D. greatest of Italian poets (b. 1265, d. 1321). He wrote media" (de-ve'nȧ kom-mă'de-à). - Cervantes (ser-văn't (b. 1547, d. 1616) who wrote " Don Quixote." - Bacon, S English philosopher (b. 1561, d. 1626). Butler, Sam who wrote "Hudibras" (b. 1612, d. 1680). — Eras'mus classical scholar and theologian (b. 1467, d. 1536) French philosopher and mathematician (b. 1623, d. 1 - Sidney, Algernon, an English statesnian who was be3 on a false charge of treason. - river of the ten thousand at is, the Thames. (What figure? See page 432, III.) - ANCIENT AND MODERN GREECE. BYRON. exquisite lines from "The Giaour," we have Byron at his best The striking simile by which Modern Greece is depicted with uty unchanged, "but living Greece no more," the selection of a ve as a type of the degenerate Greeks, and the noble sentiments e appeal is made, all combined, stir the soul as only the truest who hath bent him o'er the dead last of danger and distress, e swept the lines where beauty lingers,) marked the mild, angelic air, rapture of repose that's there, fixed yet tender traits that streak languor of the placid cheek, I but for that sad, shrouded eye, hat fires not, wins not, weeps not, now, nd but for that chill, changeless brow, ere cold obstruction's apathy alls the gazing mourner's heart, if to him it could impart doom he dreads, yet dwells upon, - , but for these, and these alone, 16 So fair, so calm, so softly sealed, Such is the aspect of this shore: A gilded halo hovering round decay, The farewell beam of feeling passed a Spark of that flame, perchance of heaver Which gleams, but warms no more its ch Clime of the unforgotten brave! |