injury to the real story. Make another list of incidents that could not be omitted without spoiling the story. Find two little plots that make complete stories in themselves, but that help only in a moderate degree to make the main story clearer.

OETRY AND PROSE. Do any of the characters speak always in prose? Do any speak always in poetry? Do some speak partly in prose and partly in poetry? Can you see any connection between each character and his method of speech? How many songs are sung in the play? Who sings them? Do Do you like any of the songs? What effect do the songs have upon the play? Can you find rhyming lines anywhere excepting in the songs? Does any character speak in rhyme ?

ONCLUSION. If we study a play too long or continue to read it after our interest ceases for a time, we are liable to be prejudiced against it, and to feel that it is not worth the labor we have put upon it. If,

however, a person will stop studying when he begins to lose interest and work seems a drudgery, he will come back a little later with renewed interest. Again, when we study a play minutely as we have been doing, and view it from many sides, we may lose sight for a time of the unity and beauty of the whole composition. This is peculiarly unfortunate, for the poet

intends us to view his work as a whole, and to produce his effect with the whole. It is The Tempest that we will remember as a work of art, and, if our studies are fruitful, that will draw us back to it at intervals for many years to come. Before we leave it, we must take it and read it through in a leisurely manner, pausing merely to enjoy its beauty, to smile at its playfulness and to feel our hearts expand under the benign influence of the grand old man Prospero. Now Miranda,' Ferdinand and Ariel have passed the line of mere acquaintances, and have become to us fast friends, who, though they may be forever silent, have yet given us a fragment of their lives to cheer us on our way.

PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE. Shakespeare wrote a great many plays, and all are not equally good; a few seem so inferior that many who study

them think they were not written by the same hand that penned The Tempest. Some of the plays are more difficult than others, and some cannot be comprehended until the reader has had some experience in life. There are several, on the other hand, that may be read with great interest and profit by almost any one, while those who have read The Tempest as we have recommended, should find some measure of enjoyment in all. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a charming fairy story; The Merchant of Venice is a good story, contains fine characters and shows some of Shakespeare's most beautiful thoughts,

Vol. IX.-29.

although some people are inclined to believe he has dealt too severely with the Jew. Much Ado About Nothing is a jolly comedy to match with The Comedy of Errors. Julius Cæsar, Richard III and Coriolanus are interesting historical plays, and Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet are among the best of his tragedies. If a person would read just the plays mentioned in the thoughtful way we have indicated here, he would gain a benefit whose great value never can be estimated, and thereafter all reading would seem easier and more delightful.

THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN

HASTINGS

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

ARREN HASTINGS, the remarkable man whose trial is described in this selection, was born on the sixth of December, 1732. As he was in his childhood dependent on his grandfather, a poor man, his early advantages were no greater than those of the peasant children of the neighborhood. He had, however, from his earliest years, an indomitable will, and the determination, made when he was but seven years old, to regain possession of the estate of Daylesford, which had passed out of the hands of the family, he kept before him all his life.

1. Thomas Babington Macaulay, English statesman and author, was born in 1800. That he was a remarkably precocious child is shown by the fact that he read widely at the age of three, that he wrote a history of the world at seven, and that by the time he was ten, he had written poems, metrical romances and treatises on various subjects. Both at school and at college he showed that the precocity of his childhood was no false promise. He first attracted wide attention in 1825, when he published his famous Essay on Milton, and he immediately found himself popular in the social as well as the literary world. Shortly after he left college, the financial reverses of his father made it necessary that he should do something to earn his own living, and to help his family. From this time on he showed the most tireless energy, writing essays, poems and historical articles, which constantly increased his fame. In 1830 he entered Parliament and was a most active and influential member. At times his

At the age of ten he was sent by an uncle to Westminster School, where he received an excellent education, and at seventeen he was sent to India as a clerk in the service of the East India Company. In 1764 he returned to England, and five years later he went back to India as member of the Council at Madras. In 1774 he was made governor-general of India, and it was while in this position that he committed those acts for which he was impeached.

The chief of these were the rendering of military assistance to Sujah Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, in his successful attempt to subdue the province of Katahr, occupied by the Rohillas; his acquiescence in the condemnation and execution of Nuncomar, an intriguing Brahmin; the deposition of Cheyte Sing, Rajah of Benares, for alleged disloyalty, and the enrichment of Asaph-ul-Dowlah, son and successor of Sujah Dowlah, at the expense of the Begums, or Princesses, of Oude—the mother and the grandmother of Asaph-ul-Dowlah. It is but just to Hastings to state that these things were done not to enrich himself, but to satisfy the constant speeches were so powerful that they changed the vote of the House of Commons.

His greatest work was his History of England from the Accession of James II. The fascinating descriptions and exciting episodes made this work instantly popular on both sides of the Atlantic, despite the fact that its most ardent admirer could not claim for it the merit of impartiality.

Macaulay's life was too laborious; by 1852 his health broke down, and seven years later he died.

The essay on Warren Hastings, from which this selection is taken, is one of his historical essays, and shows very clearly many of the peculiar characteristics of his style.