song reflects the tone of mind (feeling of relief and of restfulness, and quiet even to tediousness) of these refugees—just as a lake reflects the hills that surround it. (See remarks on Poe's Haunted Palace.) From As you Like It. II. Rough (ruf), hith'-er, weath'-er, am-bi'-tion (-bish'un), en'-e-my, pleased.

III. Mark the feet and accented syllables in the above piece. Explain ï' the sun.

IV. "Greenwood tree,"
" "tune his merry note."

V. In the country-away from society and its complications of love and hate, of business relations and intrigues-the city-born-and-bred find opportunity of rest and repose. "Here shall he see no enemy," etc., repeated (called "a refrain "). Seeking the food " (i. e., having to hunt for it).

XLII.—MEXICO AS FIRST SEEN BY THE SPANIARDS.

1. The troops, refreshed by a night's rest, succeeded, early on the following day, in gaining the crest of the sierra of Ahualco, which stretches like a curtain between the two great mountains on the north and south. Their progress was now comparatively easy, and they marched forward with a buoyant step, as they felt they were treading the soil of Montezuma.

2. They had not advanced far, when, turning an angle of the sierra, they suddenly came on a view which more than compensated the toils of the preceding day. It was that of the valley of Mexico (or Tenochtitlan, as more commonly called by the natives), which, with its picturesque assemblage of water, woodland, and cultivated plains, its shining cities and shadowy hills, was spread out like some gay and gorgeous panorama before them.

3. In the highly rarefied atmosphere of these upper regions, even remote objects have a brilliancy of coloring

and a distinctness of outline which seem to annihilate the distance. Stretching far away at their feet were seen noble forests of oak, sycamore, and cedar; and beyond, yellow fields of maize, and the towering maguey, intermingled with orchards and blooming gardens; for flowers, in such demand for their religious festivals, were even more abundant in this populous valley than in other parts of Anahuac.

4. In the centre of the great basin were beheld the lakes, occupying then a much larger portion of its surface than at present; their borders thickly studded with towns and hamlets; and, in the midst, like some Indian empress with her coronal of pearls, the fair city of Mexico, with her white towers and pyramidal temples, reposing, as it were, on the bosom of the waters -the farfamed "Venice of the Aztecs.”

5. High above all arose the royal hill of Chapultepec (the residence of the Mexican monarchs), crowned with the same grove of gigantic cypresses which at this day fling their broad shadows over the land. In the distance, beyond the blue waters of the lake, and nearly screened by the intervening foliage, was seen (a shining speck) the rival capital Tezcuco; and still farther on, the dark belt of porphyry, girdling the valley around, like a rich setting which Nature had devised for the fairest of her jewels.

6. Such was the beautiful vision which broke on the eyes of the conquerors; and even now, when so sad a change has come over the scene-when the stately forests have been laid low, and the soil, unsheltered from the fierce radiance of a tropical sun, is in many places abandoned to sterility-when the waters have retired, leaving a broad and ghastly margin, white with the incrustation

of salts, while the cities and hamlets on their borders have mouldered into ruins-even now that desolation broods over the landscape, so indestructible are the lines of beauty which Nature has traced on its features that no traveler, however cold, can gaze on them with any other emotions than those of astonishment and rapture.

7. What, then, must have been the emotions of the Spaniards, when, after working their toilsome way into the upper air, the cloudy tabernacle parted before their eyes, and they beheld these fair scenes in all their pristine magnificence and beauty! It was like the spectacle which greeted the eyes of Moses from the summit of Pisgah ; and, in the warm glow of their feelings, they cried out, "It is the promised land!"

William H. Prescott.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Have you read Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico"? Examine on your map the site of the city of Mexico-situated on a circle of table-land hollowed out in the centre. Who was Montezuma ? What is the maguey plant? Where is Anahuac (ä-nä-wäk')? (the entire table-land of central Mexico). What is porphyry? Find Pisgah, on the map of Palestine.

II. Ear'-ly (ẽr'-), buoy'-ant, piet'-ur-ĕsque (-ěsk), gôr'-ġeoŭs (-jus), brill'-ian-cy, pуr'-a-mid, eon'-quer-ors (konk'er-urs), Ä-huäl'-eō (-wäl-), Te-noch-tit-län', Chä-pul-te-pĕe', Tez-eu'-eō (těth-).

III. Every sentence has a subject and predicate-i. e., it names something (the subject) of which something is said, and then predicates (asserts, asks, or commands) something of it. This distinction is the basis of all grammatical definition. In the first three paragraphs of the above piece find the subjects and corresponding predicates (e. g., troops-succeeded).

IV. Crest, sierra, compensated, preceding, cultivated, panorama, rarefied, atmosphere, annihilate, maize, studded, hamlets, coronal, intervening, foliage, rival, porphyry, devised, sterility, margin, incrustation, mouldered, desolation, indestructible, emotions, rapture, tabernacle, pristine, spectacles, summit.

V. Why did they feel buoyant in spirits at treading the soil of Montezuma? (They approached the object of their long and dangerous journey.) Explain the simile, "like a rich setting," etc.

XLIII. MARMION AND DOUGLAS.

1. Not far advanced was morning day,
When Marmion did his troops array,
To Surrey's camp to ride;

He had safe conduct for his band,
Beneath the royal seal and hand,
And Douglas gave a guide.

2. The ancient earl, with stately grace,
Would Clara on her palfrey place,
And whispered in an undertone,
"Let the hawk stoop, his prey is flown."
The train from out the castle drew,
But Marmion stopped to bid adieu :

3. "Though something I might plain,” he said, "Of cold respect to stranger guest, Sent hither by your king's behest, While in Tantallon's towers I stayed; Part we in friendship from your land, And, noble earl, receive my hand."

4. But Douglas round him drew his cloak,
Folded his arms, and thus he spoke :
"My manors, halls, and bowers, shall still
Be open at my sovereign's will,

To each one whom he lists, howe'er
Unmeet to be the owner's peer.

My castles are my king's alone,
From turret to foundation-stone:
The hand of Douglas is his own,
And never shall, in friendly grasp,
The hand of such as Marmion clasp."

5. Burned Marmion's swarthy cheek like fire,
And shook his very frame for ire;

And "This to me," he said,
"An't were not for thy hoary beard
Such hand as Marmion's had not spared
To cleave the Douglas' head!

6. "And, first, I tell thee, haughty peer,
He, who does England's message here,
Although the meanest in her state,
May well, proud Angus, be thy mate;
And, Douglas, more I tell thee here,
Even in thy pitch of pride-
Here in thy hold, thy vassals near
(Nay, never look upon your lord,
And lay your hand upon your sword),
I tell thee thou'rt defied!

And if thou saidst I am not peer
To any lord in Scotland here,
Lowland or highland, far or near,

Lord Angus, thou hast lied!"

7. On the earl's cheek the flush of rage
O'ercame the ashen hue of age;

Fierce he broke forth: "And dar'st thou then
To beard the lion in his den,

The Douglas in his hall?

And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go?—
No! by Saint Bride of Bothwell, no!

8. "Up drawbridge, grooms-what, warder, ho! Let the portcullis fall!”

Lord Marmion turned-well was his need-
And dashed the rowels in his steed