In the first line we have both substitutes the foot of three syllables, and the foot of one emphatic syllableand a change of accent on the last foot; and in the last line the change of the accent on the first foot.

These irregular feet, and the changes in the place of the accent in the regular measure, are valuable for the larger freedom they give to the poet in his choice of words, as well as for their rhythmic variety. Shakespeare's "heroic measure" is so often varied by these changes to suit the infinite variety of his thoughts and language, that his poetry reads with all the freedom of rhythmic prose, as well as with the smoothness which only perfect measure can give.

The regular meter is five dissyllabic feet, with the accent on the last syllable (iambic), as in these lines from "Henry V.":

"If we' are marked' to die', we are' enough'
To do' our coun'try loss'; and if' to live',
The few'er men' the great'er share' of hon'or."

Only the last foot is irregular, having an extra syllable. But take the opening of "Mark Antony's Oration":

"Friends', Ro'mans, | coun'trymen, | lend' me your ears'!

I come' to bur'y Cæ'sar, not' to praise' him.
The e'vil that' men do' lives aft'er them'."

The last line is regular. In the first line only the last foot-"your ears'"-is regular. The first foot is monosyllabic; the second has the accent on the first syllable; the third foot has three syllables, and the accent on the first; and the fourth has the accent of the "trochee" also. In the second line the last foot has an extra syllable.

XCI.-MAN'S PHYSICAL AND MENTAL SUPERIORITY.

1. Man's grand distinction is his intellect-his mental capacity. It is this which renders him highly and peculiarly responsible to his Creator.

2. It is on account of this that the rule over other animals is established in his hands; and it is this, mainly, which enables him to exercise dominion over the powers of Nature, and to subdue them to himself.

3. But it is true, also, that his own animal organization gives him superiority, and is among the most wonderful of the works of God on earth. It contributes to cause, as well as prove, his elevated rank in creation.

4. His port is erect, his face toward heaven, and he is furnished with limbs which are not absolutely necessary to his support or locomotion, and which are at once powerful, flexible, capable of innumerable modes and varieties of action, and terminated by an instrument of wonderful, heavenly workmanship-the human hand.

5. This marvelous physical conformation gives man the power of acting with great effect upon external objects in pursuance of the suggestions of his understanding, and of applying the results of his reasoning power to his own purposes. Without this particular formation he would not be a man, with whatever sagacity he might have been endowed.

6. No bounteous grant of intellect, were it the pleasure of Heaven to make such grant, could raise any of the brute creation to an equality with the human race.

7. Were it bestowed on the leviathan, he must remain, nevertheless, in the element where alone he could maintain his physical existence; he would still be but the in

elegant, misshapen inhabitant of the ocean, "wallowing, unwieldy, enormous in his gait.”

8. Were the elephant made to possess it, it would but teach him the deformity of his own structure, the unsightliness of his frame, though "the hugest of things,' his disability to act on external matter, and the degrading nature of his own physical wants, which led him to the desert, and gave him for his favorite home the torrid flames of the tropics.

9. It was placing the king of Babylon sufficiently out of the rank of human beings, though he carried all his reasoning faculties with him, when he was sent away to eat grass like an ox.

Daniel Webster.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. "King of Babylon "-what king is referred to? II. Phys'-ie-al (fiz'-), sug-ges'-tions (-jest'yunz), un-wield'-y, ěl'-ephant, suf-fi'-cient-ly (-fish'ent-), fā'-vor'-ĭte.

III. Innumerable (in, ble?); wonderful (ful?); bounteous (ous ?); misshapen (mis, en ?); inelegant (in ?); disability (dis?).

IV. Distinction, intellect, capacity, peculiarly, responsible, established, dominion, subdue, organization, superiority, contributes, elevated, furnished, absolutely, locomotion, flexible, innumerable, varieties, terminated, instrument, marvelous, conformation, pursuance, applying, sagacity, bounteous, leviathan, maintain, inelegant, enormous, gait, deformity, unsightliness, degrading.

V. Though "the hugest of things" (an intended quotation from Milton's description of the leviathan, "Which God of all his works created hugest that swim the ocean stream ").

XCII.-EACH AND ALL.

1. Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown Of thee, from the hill-top looking down.

2. The heifer that lows in the upland farm, Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm ;

3. The sexton, tolling his bell at noon, Deems not that great Napoleon

4. Stops his horse, and lists with delight,
While his files sweep round yon Alpine height;

5. Nor knowest thou what argument
Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent.

6. All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.

7. I thought the sparrow's note from heaven,
Singing at dawn on the alder bough;

I brought him home in his nest, at even;
He sings the song, but it pleases not now;
For I did not bring home the river and sky;
He sang to my ear-they sang to my eye.

8. The delicate shells lay on the shore;
The bubbles of the latest wave
Fresh pearls to their enamel gave,
And the bellowing of the savage sea
Greeted their safe escape to me.
I wiped away the weeds and foam;
I fetched my sea-born treasures home;
But the poor, unsightly, noisome things

Had left their beauty on the shore,

With the sun and the sand, and the wild uproar.

9. The lover watched his graceful maid, As 'mid the virgin train she strayed;

10. Nor knew her beauty's best attire

Was woven still by the snow-white choir.

11. At last she came to his hermitage,

Like the bird from the woodlands to the cage;

12. The

gay enchantment was undone—

A gentle wife, but fairy none.

13. Then I said, "I covet truth;

Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat

I leave it behind with the games of youth."

14. As I spoke, beneath my feet

The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath,
Running over the club-moss burrs;
I inhaled the violet's breath;
Around me stood the oaks and firs;
Pine-cones and acorns lay on the ground;
Over me soared the eternal sky,
Full of light and of deity;

15. Again I saw, again I heard

The rolling river, the morning bird;
Beauty through my senses stole-

I yielded myself to the perfect whole.

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. The poems of Emerson are so elevated in their tone, and are so far removed from the jingle of rhyme and rhythm, and express such subtleties of thought, that a beginner makes very little "rhyme

or reason "oracles."

out of them. They belong to the class of literature called Like the hymns of the Vedas, the lyrics of Orpheus and of Pindar, or the Zoroastrian oracles, they belong to a serene height, and will grow more and more in honor.

II. Hĕif'-er (hef'-), yield'-ed, bŭb'-bleş, trèaş'-ureş (trězh'urz), vi'-olet's breath (brěth).

III. Make a list of twelve words with the prefixes super or hyper (meaning over); also a list of twelve words with the prefixes sub and hypo (mean