faced girl was my teacher; and I presume that she felt the irksomeness of the confinement quite as severely as I did. The weather was delightful, and the birds were singing every where; and the thought came to me, that if I could only stay out of doors, and lie down in the shadow of a tree, I could get my lesson.

4. I begged the privilege of trying the experiment. The kind heart that presided over the school-room could not resist my petition; so I was soon lying in the coveted shadow. I went to work very severely; but the next moment found my eyes wandering; and heart, feeling, and fancy were going up and down the earth in the most vagrant fashion. It was hopeless dissipation to sit under the tree; and discovering a huge rock on the hillside, I made my way to that, to try what virtue there might be in a shadow not produced by foliage.

5. Seated under the brow of the boulder, I again applied myself to the dim-looking text, but it had become utterly meaningless; and a musical cricket under the rock would have put me to sleep if I had permitted myself to remain. I found that neither tree nor rock would lend me help; but down in the meadow I saw the brook sparkling, and, spanning it, a little bridge where I had been accustomed to sit, hanging my feet over the water and angling for minnows. It seemed as if the bridge and the water might do something for me; and, in a few minutes, my feet were dangling from the accustomed seat.

6. There, almost under my nose, close to the bottom of the clear, cool stream, lay a huge speckled trout, fanning the sand with his slow fins, and minding nothing about me at all. What could a boy do with Colburn's First Lessons, when a living trout, as large and nearly as long as his arm, lay almost within the reach of his fingers? How long I sat there I do not know, but the tinkle of a distant bell startled me, and I startled the trout, and fish and vision faded before the terrible consciousness that I knew less of my lesson than I did when I left the school-house.

XXIV.-ADDRESS TO A MUMMY.

HORACE SMITH.

1. And thou hast walked about (how strange a story!) In Thebes's streets, three thousand years ago, When the Memnonium was in all its glory,

And time had not begun to overthrow Those temples, palaces, and piles stupendous, Of which the very ruins are tremendous!

2. Speak for thou long enough hast acted dummy;
Thou hast a tongue, come, let us hear its tune;
Thou'rt standing on thy legs above ground, mummy!
Revisiting the glimpses of the moon;

Not like thin ghosts or disembodied creatures,
But with thy bones and flesh and limbs and features.

3. Tell us for doubtless thou canst recollect

To whom should we assign the Sphinx's fame? Was Cheops or Cephrenes architect

Of either pyramid that bears his name?

Is Pompey's pillar really a misnomer?

Had Thebes a hundred gates, as sung by Homer?

4. Perhaps thou wert a mason, and forbidden By oath to tell the secrets of thy trade ; Then say, what secret melody was hidden

In Memnon's statue, which at sunrise played? Perhaps thou wert a priest-if so, my struggles Are vain, for priestcraft never owns its juggles.

5. Perchance that very hand, now pinioned flat,

Has hob-a-nobbed with Pharaoh, glass to glass; Or dropped a halfpenny in Homer's hat,

Or doffed thine own to let Queen Dido pass

Or held, by Solomon's own invitation,

A torch at the great temple's dedication.

6. I need not ask thee if that hand, when armed,

Has any Roman soldier mauled and knuckled,
For thou wert dead and buried and embalmed,

Ere Romulus and Remus had been suckled:
Antiquity appears to have begun

Long after thy primeval race was run.

7. Since first thy form was in this box extended,

We have, above ground, seen some strange mutations:
The Roman empire has begun and ended;

New worlds have risen; we have lost old nations,
And countless kings have into dust been humbled,
Whilst not a fragment of thy flesh has crumbled.

8. Didst thou not hear the pother o'er thy head,
When the great Persian conqueror, Cambyses,
Marched armies o'er thy tomb with thundering tread,
O'erthrew Osiris, Orus, Apis, Isis,

And shook the Pyramids with fear and wonder,
When the gigantic Memnon fell asunder?

9. If the tomb's secrets may not be confessed,
The nature of thy private life unfold:

A heart has throbbed beneath that leathern breast,
And tears adown that dusky cheek have rolled !
Have children climbed those knees and kissed that face?
What was thy name and station, age and race?

10. Statue of flesh! immortal of the dead!

Imperishable type of evanescence !

Posthumous man, who quitt'st thy narrow bed,
And standest undecayed within our presence!
Thou wilt hear nothing till the judgment morning,
When the great trump shall thrill thee with its warning!

11. Why should this worthless tegument endure,
If its undying guest be lost for ever?

O, let us keep the soul embalmed and pure
In living virtue, that, when both must sever,
Although corruption may our frame consume,
The immortal spirit in the skies may bloom.

ANALYSIS OF SELECTION XXIV.

What kind of composition is this? Show the difference between prose and poetry. [For the answer to this question, study carefully the first paragraph of the analysis of Exercise V.] What kind of poetry is this? Are any parts of it in any degree sublime? What stanzas are most so? Are the thoughts in this piece highly poetical? With what tones should it be read? What rate of speed does it require? What pitch?

First Stanza.

Why should the first line begin with "and"? What is the " strange story" referred to? Where was Thebes? What is said of it in the Note? To whom are these words addressed? Why is Thebes spoken of? What is said, in the Note, of the "Memnonium"? How does "time overthrow temples," &c.? What structures are here meant? What is the effect of the word "very" in the last line? What other word might have been used to convey the same thought? Would one expect the "ruins" or the original structures to be the more tremendous "?

66

Give the etymology and meaning of story, streets, glory, temples, palaces, stupendous, ruins, tremendous.

Where is the first positive statement? Inflection of the voice upon the word story? ago? glory? tremendous? Is tremendous the greatest thing suggested here? What inflection must the word have, therefore?

Second Stanza.

What is it to "act dummy"? Who has been acting dummy? How long? What reasons are given why the "mummy" should "speak"? What is a mummy? Are these good reasons for his speaking? What is usually done with people when they cease speaking, or die? Is this stanza serious or humorous? What is meant by "glimpses of the moon"? Why are ghosts " mentioned? meant by their being "thin"?

What is

Give the etymology and meaning of mummy, revisiting, disembodied, creatures, features.

Where is the first falling inflection in this stanza? What inflection upon dummy? [Let great care be taken to determine the most natural way of saying what is contained in this stanza, as well as every other. In this way let the emphasis and inflection be determined.]

Third Stanza.

Why is it supposed that the mummy can "recollect" the events here named? What was "the Sphinx"?

How

many "pyramids are mentioned in the third and fourth lines? What is "a misnomer"? Give the meaning of the fifth line. Meaning of the clause "sung by Homer"?

Give the etymology of doubtless, recollect, assign, fame, architect, pyramid, really, misnomer.

Where should the first falling inflection be used? Is the question in the second line positive or negative in its essential character? [See Introduction, Inflections, VI.] Is the question in the third and fourth lines of the same character? What inflection does the word fame require, therefore?

The word name? the word misnomer? Homer? What words require emphasis here, and why? What tones are required in this stanza? What pitch? force? speed?

Fourth Stanza.

Why should the idea of being "a mason" be here suggested? What sort of things were the inquiries of the fourth stanza about? What is a mason, as the word is here used? What custom is referred to in the first and second lines? What is said in the Note about Memnon? What is the force of the word “then,” as used in the third line? What course did the Egyptian priests pursue in reference to disclosing their secrets? What struggles are vain” ?

Give the etymology and meaning of mason, mysteries, melody, statue, secret, priest, struggles.

What inflection is required on the word mason? trade? played? What kind of question ends with the last word? Determine carefully the remaining inflections, and also the emphasis.