General Notes.-What a glorious madman was Don Quixote, full ofcourage and courtesy! What a sensible fool was Sancho Panza! Read the whole book if you can. Briar?us was a hundred-handed giant of Greek mythology. The lady Dulcinea del Toboso was a fresh-coloured country wench whom Don Quixote chose as the queen of his knight-errantry. Heine, a German wit, said : " I am an inverted Don Quixote. He took windmills for giants, wine-skins for knights, and country wenches for fine ladies. Alas, I have found that many of our giants are but whirling windmills, our knights more wine-skins, and our fine ladies but country wenches. " Sometimes we say that So-and-so is tilting at windmills. What does this mean?
LESSON 46
THE STORm
It is the hush of night, and all between
Thy margin and the mountains, dusk, yet clear, Mellowed and mingling, yet distinctly seen, Save darkened Jura, whose capt heights appear Precipitously steep; and drawing near,There breathes a living fragrance from the shore, Of flowers yet fresh with childhood; on the ear Drops the light drip of the suspended oar,Or chirps the grasshopper one good-night carol more.
And this is in the night. Most glorious night, Thou wert not sent for slumber! Let me be A sharer in thy fierce and far delight,A portion of the tempest and of thee! How the lit lake shines, a phosphoric sea,And the big rain comes dancing to the earth! And now again "tis black-and now the gleeOf the loud hills shakes with its mountain-mirth, As if they did rejoice o"er a young earthquake"s birth.
Now, where the quick Rhone thus hath cleft his way, The mightiest of the storms hath ta"en his stand; For here not one but many make their play,And fling their thunderbolts from hand to band,Flashing and cast around; of all the hand,
The brightest through these parted hills hath forked His lightnings, as if he did understandThat in such gaps as desolation worked,
There the hot shaft should blast whatever therein lurked.
The morn is up again, the dewy morn,
With breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom, Laughing the clouds away with playful scorn,And living as if earth contained no tomb, And glowing into day: we may resume The march of our existence; and thus I,Still on thy shores, fair Leman! may find roomAnd food for meditation, nor pass by
Much that may give us pause, if pondered fittingly.
Lord Byron, in Childe Harold"s Pilgrimage.
Author.-George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) was born in London and educated at Harrow and Cambridge. His chief longer poems are Childe Harold, The Giaour (jour), The Corsair, Lara, The Siege of Corinth, Don Juan, and The Prisoner of Chillon. Probably Don Juan and TheVision of Judgment are read more to-day than the rest of his poetry. He died of fever in Greece, whither he had gone to help the Greeks to fight for their independence against the Turks.
General Note.-Find the Jura Mountains on the map. The lake isthe Lake of Geneva (Leman). Trace the course of the Rhone. Why is a storm in the mountains more impressive than a storm on the plains ? The thunderbolt, a quick discharge of lightning, was once thought to be a dart or bolt flung by the gods. Mark the transition from the hush of night to the fury of the storm and the peace of the following morning. Pick out the choice phrases. Write a description of a thunderstorm.
LESSON 47
THE BuglE SONg
The splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story;The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying;Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
Oh hark! oh hear! how thin and clear, And thinner, clearer, farther going!
Oh sweet and far, from cliff and scar,
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow; let us hear the purple glens replying; Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
O love, they die in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill or field or river;
Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow for ever and for ever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.
Tennyson.
Author.-Alfred Tennyson(1819-92), was born in England, andcompleted his education at Cambridge. He practised verse-making from his early years, and spent his life at it. He was appointed Poet-Laureate in 1850 and made a Lord in 1884. His poems to a considerable extent embody the philosophic and religious thought of his time. His principal poems are-The Princess, In Memoriam, Idylls of the King, and a number of well-known shorter lyrics.
General Notes.-Tennyson was being rowed over the Lakes ofKillarney in Ireland when, at a point in the route, the boatman gave some bugle-calls. The echoing notes and the delightful surroundings suggested the lyric, which he inserted in a long poem " The Princess. " Have you ever heard " the horns ot Elfland faintly blowing " ? Note how artistically the three stanzas describe (1) the scene, (2) the bugle call, (3) the dying echoes.
LESSON 48
THE FINDINg OF lIVINgSTONE
[David Livingstone, explorer and missionary, set out in 1866 to explore the sources of the Nile, and some years afterwards was believed to have been lost in Central Africa. He was found by Henry Morton Stanley, who describes below his meeting with Livingstone in the heart of Africa.]
