Scott, Campbell, Moore, Byron, Shelley, and
Keats.

B. Except Goethe, the greatest European poet
since Molière. For, in real poetic achieve-
ment, he ranks above the leading poets of 5
a. Germany Klopstock, Lessing, Schiller,
Uhland, Rückert, and Heine;

b. Italy—Filicaia, Alfieri, Manzoni, and Leopardi ;

c. France-Racine, Boileau, Voltaire, André 10 Chenier, Béranger, Lamartine, Musset, and M. Victor Hugo.

III. This greatness most readers fail to perceive, be

cause:

A. His poems of greatest bulk are by no means 15 his best-the "Excursion and the "Pre

lude ";

B. His good pieces are mingled with a mass of inferior ones, which destroy the effect;

C. He classified his poems in an unsatisfactory 20 fashion-poems of fancy, poems of imagina

tion, poems of sentiment, poems of reflec-
tion, etc.

IV. Well arranged selections would show him,
A. Not by comparison of single pieces, superior 25

to the best of the later

a. English poets- Gray, Burns, Coleridge, and

Keats;

b. Or the Continental poets-Manzoni and

Heine ;

B. But superior to all these in ampler body of

30

powerful work.

5

ΙΟ

15

20

25

30

V. Wordsworth's superior power is found in,

A. His noble and profound application of ideas to life. For

a. Poetry is at bottom a criticism of life from the point of view of morals, even though morals, the essential thing in life,

1. Are often treated in a narrow and false fashion;

2. Are bound up with systems of thought
and belief which have had their day;
3. Have fallen into the hands of profes-
sional dealers and pedants;

4. Have grown tiresome to some of us;
5. And at times inspire revolt.

b. A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a
poetry of revolt against life. For

1. The concern how to live—a moral ideais the chief and master thing;

2.

The play of the senses, literary form or finish, or argumentative ingenuity, are subordinate things.

c. Though other poets revolt against moral ideas, or are content with these subordinate things, Wordsworth criticises life according to moral ideas; he deals with life,

1. Directly. In this respect he is above those who have not this distinctive accent of high and genuine poets, such as Voltaire, Dryden, Pope, Lessing, and Schiller.

2. As a whole.

3. And more powerfully than others who actually have the distinctive accent, such as Burns, Keats, and Heine. Such dealing consists,

i. Not in uttering philosophic truths, as 5 in the Excursion,"

ii. Nor in setting forth a scientific system of thought,

iii. But in feeling,

a. The joy offered to us in Nature;
p. The simple, primary affections and
duties which are universally ac-

cessible.

B. His style, which is,

ΤΟ

a. Often ponderous and pompous, as in the 15
"Excursion,"

b. Yet often has the subtle turn and heighten-
ing we find in Shakespeare and Milton.
c. It has also a noble plainness, like that of
Burns.

20

d. In spite of these suggestions of the style of
other poets, Wordsworth's style is unique
and unmatchable in two respects:
1. The profound sincerity with which he
feels his subject, as in "Resolution and 25
Independence";

2. The profoundly sincere and natural
character of the subject itself, as in
"Michael," "The Fountain," and
"The Highland Reaper."

30

VI. Summary.

I

The Steam-Engine.

GEORGE C. V. HOLMES.

The following selection is based upon the first chapter of George C. V. Holmes's "The Steam-Engine," in the "TextBooks of Science." London, 1888. The chapter has been shortened by the omission of passages referring to subsequent 5 parts of the book and by minor changes in phrasing.

This explanation of the engine is an example of exposition which for perfect clearness needs illustration by diagram. Such illustration is a valuable supplement to most writing which deals with mechanism or with natural objects at all complex in struct10 ure, like animal or vegetable forms. Another point worth noting is the careful definition of technical terms, which makes the piece generally intelligible, even though it is intended for those who already know something of the subject. Of course writing technical treatises which can be understood only by those possessing 15 technical knowledge is perfectly legitimate, but the average student will find better practice, so far as English Composition is concerned, in the harder task of imparting his technical knowledge to laymen. The student who does well in this more difficult undertaking will be fairly sure of success in the easier.

20 A COMPLETE knowledge of the steam-engine involves an acquaintance with the sciences of physics, of chemistry, and of pure and applied mathematics, as well as with the theory of mechanism and the strength of materials. My plan, however, is to begin by showing in a very

simple case how steam can do work, and then to explain an actual engine of the most modern construction, but at the same time remarkably free from complexity.

Take a hollow cylinder, figure 1, the bottom closed while the top remains open, and pour in water to the 5 height of a few inches. Next cover the water with a flat plate, or piston, which fits the interior of the cylinder perfectly; then apply heat to the water, and we shall witness the following phenomena. After the

lapse of some minutes the water 10 will begin to boil, and the steam accumulating at the upper surface will make room for itself by raising the piston slightly. As the boiling continues, more and more steam 15 will be formed, and raise the piston higher and higher, till all the water is boiled away, and nothing but steam is left in the cylinder. Now this machine, consisting of cylinder, 20 piston, water, and fire, is the steamengine in its most elementary form. For a steam-engine may be defined as an apparatus for doing work by means of heat applied to water; and since raising such 25 a weight as the piston is a form of doing work, this apparatus, clumsy and inconvenient though it may be, answers the definition precisely.

Fig. 1.

Furthermore, if instead of a simple piston we had taken one loaded with weights, and had applied heat as 30 before, the result would have been similar, but not exactly the same. The water would not have begun to boil