to

9. Appease. Literally, appease means make peace. It also means to satisfy, and is derived directly from the Latin. We try to appease those who are in passion and try to calm those who are in trouble or apprehension. Does Macaulay use the word properly when he speaks of appeasing indignation ?

10. Fluency. The Latin word from which fluency is derived means to flow. Accordingly, a fluent person is one from whom speech flows smoothly and readily. To lack fluency Macaulay considers an unfortunate defect in Francis.

11. Asperity. The Latin word asper means rough or harsh, and was applied to things which had a rough surface. Macaulay uses the word as we now know it, in the same figurative sense in which we now sometimes use the word rough

ness.

12. Lapse. This word from the Latin means sliding or following. In speaking of the lapse of years Macaulay intimates that they gradually slid away.

13. Pharisaical. The Pharisees were a sect of the Jews who were noted for the strict way in which they followed the rites and ceremonies that had been handed down to them by tradition, and who believed themselves superior in sanctity to the other Jews. They held themselves apart and were charged with being hypocrites. The word Pharisaical has now come into common English use, and means hypocritical.

14. Ostentation. This is a Latin word meaning show or parade. Ostentation and parade

both imply effort, but the former refers to the intent rather than to the manner. Ostentation may be shown by parade.

From The Death of Cæsar

(Volume X, page 86)

As preliminary to the intensive study of the speech alluded to below, read to the class or have them read all of the three selections, namely: The Death of Cæsar, from Plutarch (page 55); The Death of Cæsar, from Shakespeare (page 74), and Julius Cæsar, from Froude (page 87). As an example of selections worthy of close reading, take the speech of Cæsar as given on page 86, beginning, "I could be well mov'd, if I were as you.

Bring out by questions these facts:

A. Words. "Moved"; induced to change my mind.

"Constant"; fixed, unchangeable, immovable. "Northern star"; the pole star; the north star. To us this star always appears fixed in the northern heavens. The other stars and the constellations revolve around it; Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, is most conspicuous, and by a line through its two front stars we may always locate the North Star and, hence, the direction, north. Mariners have steered by this star for centuries. Many a lost and wandering man has found his way to safety by its fixed light.

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'Resting"; always stationary. "Fellow"; equal.

"Firmament"; sky, heavens.

"Painted"; decorated.

"Sparks"; stars.

"Doth"; does.

"Furnished"; filled.

"Apprehensive"; doubtful, filled with forebodings and easily moved.

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'Unassailable"; not subject to attack; here the meaning is rather that of unconquerable.

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'Constant"; insistent, the first time the word appears; but unchangeable, the second time it appears.

B. Phrases. "Well moved"; easily moved. "If I were as you"; if I were as you are, or if I were like you.

"Could pray to move"; could try to change the opinion or the determination of someone else. "True-fixed and resting quality"; quality of always remaining true or fixed to the one spot in the heavens.

"So in the world"; as all the unnumbered stars shine in the heavens and all move but one, thus in the world.

"Holds on his rank unshak'd of motion"; is fixed in his ideas and unmoved by prayers and petitions.

"And that I am he"; and I am that one immovable man.

"Let me a little show it"; let me give a little proof.

C. Sentences. The first sentence means: If I could beg others to change their purposes, I could be induced to change mine; but I am as fixed in my conclusions as the north star is fixed

in the heavens. The second sentence says: As there are unnumbered movable stars in the heavens and only one that is fixed, so in the world there are unnumbered changeable men and only one who is fixed in his determination; that I am the one determined man let me prove a little by saying that, as I was persistent in banishing Cimber so will I continue to keep him in banish

ment.

D. The paragraph. The whole speech is a refusal on Cæsar's part to grant the petition of the conspirators who plead that Cimber may be brought back from banishment. The words are well calculated to stir up resentment and to fix the plotters in their plan to murder Cæsar. Even Brutus would be convinced by such sentiments that Cæsar was a dangerous man; if the great Roman thought himself the only man with such determination, might he not think himself the one man of the world in all respects? The conspirators were looking for an excuse for killing Cæsar, and they might find it in this speech; Brutus was being led to believe that Cæsar was too ambitious and here was the final argument to convince him.

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CHAPTER XI

CLOSE READING-(Concluded)

The Author-Figures of Speech

TEAL appreciation of literature is dependent on effort, and each acquired impression aids all others in proportion to its intensity. We can interpret only by what our minds already contain, so that the earlier years of one's reading are largely devoted to the acquirement of material for future use. In this way the myths and folk stories with which children fill their minds become the touchstones that enable them in later years to read with interest and judge accurately the literature that falls within their reach. The later one begins his reading, the more difficult it is for him to master the art. He has not the simplest standards of literary judgment nor even the ideas from which such standards are to be formed. Elegance of style and skill in the choice of words are entirely lost upon him, as is the delicate meaning involved in the play of appropriate figures and in the brilliance of the pictures limned in colors to which his eye is blind. Such a person can come to enjoy the pleasures of literature, but it is by way of a long and careful course of study, and it is probable that his appreciation will never be so keen as it would have been if he had gathered his literary