III-A NATION IN ITS STRENGTH. 1. Lords and Commons of England! consider what a nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors—a nation not slow and dull, but of quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit; 50 acute to invent, subtile* and sinewy to discourse,* not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can soar to. Therefore the studies of learning in her deepest sciences have been so ancient and so eminent among us that writers of good antiquity and able judgment have been persuaded that 55 even the school of Pythagoras and the Persian wisdom took beginning from the old philosophy of this island. And that wise and civil* Roman, Julius Agricola, who governed once here for Cæsar, preferred the natural wits of Britain before the labored studies of the French. 2. Behold now this vast city-a city of refuge, the mansionhouse of Liberty-encompassed and surrounded with his protection; the shop of war hath not there more anvils and hammers 49. whereof ye are to which ye be long. to the Anglo-Saxon invasion in the fifth century A.D. 51. subtile, keen, discerning; to dis- 56. Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher, born about 570 B.C. 58. civil, civilized, refined. learning of the Druids, previous 62. his. See note on line 53, above. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-51. Give the derivation of "subtile." Discriminate between subtile and subtle. 51. subtile and sinewy. What is the figure of speech? 52, 53. the highest... soar to. To what noun is this adjective element an adjunct? ... 57-59. And that wise and civil. ... French. Analyze this sentence.-preferred before. Modernize. 61-70. Behold... convincement. rhetorically? What kind of sentence grammatically and 63. the shop of war. What word now signifies a place where arms are manufactured? бо working, to fashion out the plates and instruments of armed Justice in defence of beleaguered Truth, than there be pens and 65 heads there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions and ideas wherewith to present, as with their homage and their fealty, the approaching reformation: others as fast reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of reason and convincement.* * 70 3. What could a man require more from a nation so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge? What wants there to such a towardly and pregnant soil but wise and faithful laborers to make a knowing people, a nation of prophets, of sages, and of worthies? We reckon more than five months yet to harvest ; 75 there need not be five weeks, had we but eyes to lift up: the fields are white already. Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. Under these fantastic terrors of sect and schism, we wrong 8 the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and understanding which God hath stirred up in this city. What some lament of, we rather should rejoice at, should rather praise this pious forwardness among men to re-assume the ill-deputed care of 71-75. What could a man... worthies. What is the rhetorical effect obtained by the use of the interrogative form in these two sentences?-Point out an instance of alliteration in the first of these sentences. 76. had we: what is the mood of the verb? 84, 85. re-assume... again. What fault may, perhaps, be pointed out here? their religion into their own hands again. This is a lively and 85 cheerful presage of our happy success and victory. For as in a body when the blood is fresh, the spirits* pure and vigorous, not only to vital, but to rational faculties, and those in the acutest and the pertest* operations of wit* and subtlety, it argues in what good plight* and constitution the body is; s0 90 when the cheerfulness of the people is so sprightly up as that it has not only wherewith to guard well its own freedom and safety, but to spare, and to bestow upon the solidest and sublimest points of controversy and new invention, it betokens us not degenerated, nor drooping to a fatal decay, by casting off the old 95 and wrinkled skin of corruption to outlive these pangs, and wax young again, entering the glorious ways of truth and prosperous virtue, destined to become great and honorable in these latter ages. 4. Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation 100 rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks; methinks I see her as an eagle mewing* her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam, purging and unscaling her long-abused sight at the 88. not only to not only in regard to. 89. pertest, briskest, liveliest. 90. plight, condition. which here means excited, stirred up. 96. wax, become. 91. sprightly. The word is here used 102. mewing, renewing by moulting, or as an adverb modifying "up," | shedding feathers, as a bird. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-85, 86. lively and cheerful presage. Milton frequently uses pairs of adjectives and nouns. Sometimes they raise different images, and at other times the second merely adds emphasis. Point out examples in the subsequent parts of this piece, and distinguish between double-imaged and merely emphatic pairs. 87. the spirits pure. Supply the ellipsis, and what is now deemed bad grammar will appear; state the fault. 91. is so sprightly up. State the grammatical construction of these words. 95. by casting off. From what is the metaphor drawn? 100-108. Methinks I see... schisms. Point out the two similes. Which is the grander?-Explain "Methinks." What is its subject?-in my mind: that is, in his "mind's eye," so that the sentence is an example of the figure vision. (See Def. 24.) The whole passage fairly glows with celestial fire.-It has been fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noise* of 105 timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms. 105. noise, set, company. 106. flocking birds: that is, those that "lone-flying" birds, like the eagle. hover about in companies-not 108. gabble, meaningless sounds. pointed out that a rhythmical movement pervades this passage, the character of which appears from the following division: "Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation Rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, And shaking her invincible locks; Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, And kindling her undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam, At the fountain itself of heavenly radiance; While the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, With those also that love the twilight, Flutter about, amazed at what she means, And in their envious gabble would prognosticate A year of sects and schisms." |