bring, indeed, great affliction, while they last, but society soon recovers from their effects.

War is the voluntary work of our own hands, and whatever reproaches it may deserve, should be directed to 5 ourselves. When it breaks out, its duration is indefinite and unknown its vicissitudes are hidden from our view. In the sacrifice of human life, and in the waste of human treasure in its losses and in its burdens it affects both belligerent nations, and its sad effects of mangled bodies, 10 of death, and of desolation, endure long after its thunders are hushed in peace.

War unhinges society, disturbs its peaceful and regular industry, and scatters poisonous seeds of disease and immorality, which continue to germinate and diffuse their 15 baneful influence long after it has ceased. Dazzling by its glitter, pomp, and pageantry, it begets a spirit of wild adventure and romantic enterprise, and often disqualifies those who embark in it, after their return from the bloody fields of battle, for engaging in the industrious and peaceful 20 vocations of life.

History tells the mournful tale of conquering nations and conquerors. The three most celebrated conquerors, in the civilized world, were Alexander, Cæsar, and Napoleon. The first, after ruining a large portion of Asia, and sighing 25 and lamenting that there were no more worlds to subdue, met a premature and ignoble death. His lieutenants quarreled and warred with each other as to the spoils of his victories, and finally lost them all.

Cæsar, after conquering Gaul, returned with his trium30 phant legions to Rome, passed the Rubicon, won the battle of Pharsalia, trampled upon the liberties of his country, and expired by the patriot hand of Brutus. But Rome ceased to be free. War and conquest had enervated and corrupted the masses. The spirit of true liberty was ex35 tinguished, and a long line of emperors succeeded, some

of whom were the most execrable monsters that ever existed in human form.

And Napoleon, that most extraordinary man, perhaps, in all history, after subjugating all continental Europe, 5 occupying almost all its capitals, — seriously threatening proud Albion itself— and decking the brows of various members of his family with crowns torn from the heads of other monarchs, lived to behold his own dear France itself in possession of his enemies, was made himself a wretched 10 captive, and far removed from country, family, and friends, breathed his last on the distant and inhospitable rock of St. Helena.

you

The Alps and the Rhine had been claimed, as the natural boundaries of France, but even these could not be secured 15 in the treaties, to which she was reduced to submit. Do believe that the people of Macedon or Greece, of Rome, or of France, were benefited, individually or collectively, by the triumphs of their captains? Their sad lot was immense sacrifice of life, heavy and intolerable burdens, 20 and the ultimate loss of liberty itself.

HELPS FOR STUDY

Who was Henry Clay?

In this speech how does he compare war with pestilence and famine?

Explain "wise although inscrutable purposes."

Explain "vicissitudes."

Explain "belligerent nations."

Explain "germinate and diffuse their baneful influence."

Explain "pomp and pageantry."

Name some of the peaceful vocations of life.

What do you know of Alexander, Cæsar, and Napoleon?

Who was Brutus?

Explain "enervated."

Who are meant by the "masses"?

Explain "execrable."

Explain "subjugating."

Explain "inhospitable rock.”

Where is St. Helena?

Locate the Alps and the Rhine.
Explain "natural boundary."

NOTES

209: 29 Gaul. The country of the Gauls, the leading division of the ancient Celtic race. It was divided into Cisalpine Gaul and Transalpine Gaul. Cisalpine Gaul was that part of Gaul lying on the southern side (from Rome) of the Alps, and extending from the Alps southward and eastward. Transalpine Gaul was the part which lay beyond the Alps; that is, north and northwest of the Alps from Rome.

209: 30 Legions. In the Roman military system a legion was a body of infantry, not corresponding exactly to either the regiment or the army corps of modern times, composed of different numbers of men at different periods.

209:33 Rubicon. A small river in central Italy. As its passage by Cæsar was a virtual declaration of war, the phrase, "to cross the Rubicon," has come to mean the taking of a step from which there is no turning back.

209:31 Pharsalia. A city of Thessaly, Greece. In the battle fought here, Cæsar's army of twenty-three thousand totally defeated Pompey's army of fifty-two thousand, determining the fate of the Roman world.

210: 6 Albion. The ancient name of Britain.

210:16 Macedon. The same as Macedonia, an ancient country of southeastern Europe. It is now a part of Turkey.

5

THE STORY OF HAMLET

It was a strange, strange thing, so all the country said, that Gertrude, the beautiful Queen of Denmark, should, only two months after the good King Hamlet's death, marry his brother Claudius.

Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, had been deeply attached to his father, and he showed his grief in his dress and demeanor, in spite of his mother's remonstrances.

What troubled him most, however, was the uncertainty about his father's death. Claudius had given out that he 10 had been stung by a serpent; but Hamlet did not believe this to be true.

While he was in this state of terrible uncertainty, he was visited by his bosom friend, Horatio, and two other soldiers, Marcellus and Bernardo, who told him that the ghost of the 15 dead king had appeared for three nights in succession on the platform before the castle that it did not answer even when addressed by Horatio, and that it vanished the very moment the cock began to crow.

Convinced that this apparition betokened some foul play, 20 Hamlet took the next watch himself, along with Horatio and Marcellus. The ghost again appeared, and beckoned Hamlet apart. Horatio implored him not to go, for fear it was only an evil spirit tempting him on to his destruction; but Hamlet vowed that he did not set his life "at a 25 pin's fee," and that he would "make a ghost" of anyone who tried to stop him.

In the subsequent interview, the ghost told Hamlet all the story of the murder, adjuring him by his love towards him to revenge his foul and most unnatural murder, but

in doing so, not to harm his mother-"to leave her to heaven."

All this Hamlet swore that he would faithfully perform; and, after confiding in his two friends and pledging them 5 to the strictest secrecy, he hinted to them that he was This would allay any possible uncle, and thus enable him to

.

going to pretend to be mad. suspicions on the part of his mature his plans for vengeance. To this one purpose, henceforth, he swore to devote his life, sacrificing for it 10 even his love for Ophelia, the only daughter of a lord chamberlain, Polonius; and this course was made easier for him by the fact that she had been warned in the meantime both by her father and by her brother, Laertes, to avoid Hamlet, and to lay no store by all his letters and presents, 15 by the many tenders of his affection, or by the honorable fashion in which he had importuned her with love.

So well did Hamlet counterfeit madness that both the king and the queen were more or less deceived; but, having some suspicion of the cause of the madness, they sent for 20 two courtiers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whom they commissioned to at once cheer and spy on their "too much changed son." Polonius, however, assured the king that Hamlet's madness was caused by unrequited love - his love for Ophelia; and, in proof of his assertion, he produced 25 a wild letter which Hamlet had sent to her, and which she had passed on apparently, without any hesitation

to her father.

In the meantime there came to court a certain theatrical company in which Hamlet had formerly taken great interest; 30 and the idea occurred to him of having a performancebefore the king-of something very like the murder of his father. By this means he intended to "catch the conscience of the king” and to remove from his own mind a fear that the ghost was only an evil spirit masquerading as his 35 father for the express purpose of tempting him into crime.