and if he sees anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his servants to them. Several other of the old knight's particularities break out upon these occasions: sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the singing-psalms, half a minute after the rest of the congregation have done with it; sometimes, when he is pleased with the matter of his devotion, he pronounces Amen three or four times to the same prayer; and sometimes stands up when everybody else is upon their knees, to count the congregation, or see if any of his tenants are missing. . .

....

1. Explain the force of the word "only" in "only a human institution."

2. What part of speech is "kind" in "a kind of savages and barbarians "?

3. Explain the use of the plural in " the whole village meet together."

4. Explain "habits," in "their cleanliest habits." What meanings has the word, and how does its use here differ from ours?

5. What is meant here by "indifferent subjects"? 6. Put this line differently, "Not only as it refreshes in their minds the notion of religion but as it," &c.

7. What is the meaning of "put upon," in "puts both sexes upon"? Have we any other meaning for it?

8. What force has the word "common" in "commonprayer book"? Give some other words in which common has the same meaning. What other meaning do we give it ?

9. What is the meaning and derivation of the word "itinerant"?

10. Re-write in your own words the paragraph beginning, "My friend, Sir Roger," and ending, "I have

ever heard."

11. What is the meaning of the word "suffer” in "will suffer nobody to sleep"?

12. In the words "recovering out of it," what word would now be substituted for "out of "?

13. Explain "particularities" in "the old knight's particularities," and substitute a more modern word. 14. Re-write the line " sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in one of the singing-psalms."

15. What is meant by "the matter of his devotion"? 16. Can you state any of the characteristics of this piece of prose?

17. Who was the "Sir Roger" spoken of, and by whom?

18. Give the dates of the principal events in the life of Addison.

LESSON XVIII.

ON IMMORTALITY.

BY JOSEPH ADDISON.

("Spectator," No. 111.)

There is not in my opinion, a more pleasing and triumphant consideration in religion than this, of the perpetual progress which the soul makes towards the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at a period in it. To look upon the soul as going on from strength to strength, to consider that she is to shine for ever, with new accessions of glory, and brighten to all eternity that she will be still adding virtue to virtue and knowledge to knowledge; carries in it something wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man. Nay, it must be a prospect pleasing to God himself, to see His creation ever beautifying in

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His eyes, and drawing nearer to Him by greater degrees of resemblance.

Methinks this single consideration of the progress of a finite spirit to perfection, will be sufficient to extinguish all envy in inferior natures, and all contempt in superior.

That cherubin, which now appears as a god to a human soul, knows very well that the period will come about in Eternity, when the human soul shall be as perfect as he himself now is: nay, when she shall look down upon that degree of perfection as much as she now falls short of it. It is true, the higher nature still advances, and by that means preserves his distance and superiority in the scale of being; but he knows that, how high soever the station is of which he stands possessed at present, the inferior nature will at length mount up to it, and shine forth in the same degree of glory.

With what astonishment and veneration may we look into our own souls, where there are such hidden stores of virtue and knowledge, such inexhausted forces of perfection! We know not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart of man to conceive the glory that will be always in reserve for him. The soul, considered with its Creator, is like one of those mathematical lines that may draw nearer to another without the possibility of touching it; and can there be a thought so transporting, as to consider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to Him Who is not only the standard of perfection but of happiness?

1. Explain "period" in " without ever arriving at a period in it."

2. What part of the verb is "look," in "To look upon the soul," &c.?

3. What quotation is made in the passage "from strength to strength"?

4. What kind of verb is "brighten," in "brighten to all eternity"?

5. What tenses of verbs are used in," will be still adding virtue to virtue," and how would we be more likely to express the sense now?

6. To what part of the sentence does "carries in it something" refer?

7. What is the argument of this paragraph?

8. What is the meaning of "methinks," and what do you know of this form of expression?

9. What is meant by "cherubin"? Is the form as here used a singular or a plural one?

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10. Explain period" and come about" in " that period will come about in eternity."

11. What is here spoken of, in " she shall look down," &c. ?

12. What degree is meant by "that degree of perfection"?

13. Re-write in your own words the sentence beginning, "It is true, the higher nature," and ending "same degree of glory."

14. Give another form of the word for "inexhausted," in "inexhausted forces of perfection."

15. In the same sentence, what is the exact meaning of "forces"?

16. What quotation is made in the sentence, "We know not yet," &c.?

17. What is meant by the simile of the "lines"? Explain it in your own words.

18. Explain the word "transporting."

19. What is the exact meaning of the word " consider" in ". as to consider ourselves"?

20. What is, briefly expressed, the thought intended to be conveyed by this passage?

21. Can you see any differences between this prose and that of Lord Bacon, given earlier in the book? What are some of them?

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22. Into what literary era was Addison born?

23. Describe the characteristics of his work in prose and verse.

LESSON XIX.

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK.

BY ALEXANDER POPE.

CANTO II.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

1. This great writer is universally recognized as the poet of what is called the Augustan age, and was born in 1688. His era was the era (see Addison) of hoops, powder, and patches, beaux and belles, card-playing, tea-drinking (tea being something of a novelty then), polished discourse, artificial manners, and very conventional tastes. All these are faithfully represented in the poetry of the period, and Pope set the fashion of a peculiar kind of verse, which, in his turn, he had more or less imitated from Dryden.

2. Pope's father was a Roman Catholic linendraper of good family, who, retiring from business and going to live near Windsor, was able to give the boy, who was not only delicate but deformed, a good education. His poetical talents were precocious, he wrote well at sixteen, and the " Essay on Criticism," published when he was about twenty-three, at once fixed his reputation.

1 This lesson will, if the teacher follows the course indicated in the Preface, be taken before that on Lord Bacon; but the question in the text will with advantage be asked, should the lessons be gone through again with a view to a comparison of styles, from earlier periods to later.