NOTES.

BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL, ETC., EXPLANATORY

OF ALLUSIONS IN THE SELECTIONS.

These Notes are in no degree intended as a substitute for an unabridged dictionary of the English Language. Every child should become familiar with the use of a dictionary, and understand its notation.

SELECTION I.

ALFRED B. STREET, an American poet, was born in Poughkeepsie in 1811. In 1839, he settled in Albany, where for a number of years he was State Librarian. He commenced his literary career by writing for Magazines, and he has delivered poems before different colleges in New York, and one before Yale College. Since then, he has written quite a collection of poems, and several prose works.

SELECTION III.

GEORGE P. MORRIS, an American poet and journalist, was born in 1802. He has been connected with various literary journals, but his fame chiefly rests upon his lyric poetry. Several of his pieces have acquired great popularity, among which the chief is the song entitled "Woodman, spare that Tree," of which several million copies have been sold.

SELECTION IV.

JOHN S. SLEEPER was formerly a shipmaster, but for many years he has been devoted to literary pursuits. He resides in Roxbury, Mass.

NEPTUNE, in the Roman mythology, was the god of the sea, and of fountains and rivers.

SELECTION V.

JOHN G. WHITTIER, an American poet, was born in 1807. He was employed in labor upon a farm until his eighteenth year, and his early educational advantages were limited. Mr. Whittier has always been an earnest and consistent advocate of freedom, and

many of his poems are a vigorous, fearless, and glowing protest against every form of oppression. There is in his poetry a manly ring that never fails to stir the feelings and arouse the manliness of the reader. He stands very high as a poet, but his poetry is sometimes made subordinate to his ever-gushing philanthropy.

SELECTION VIII.

THOMAS MOORE, an Irish poet, was born in 1779, and died in 1852. The most widely known of his works is Lalla Rookh, which is rich and melodious in composition, and full of beautiful imagery. He also wrote a collection of poems under the name of Irish Melodies.

SELECTION IX.

HORACE SMITH, an English author, was born in London in 1779, and died in 1849. His name is commonly associated with that of his brother James. Their most popular poems are entitled Rejected Addresses, which purported to have been written by eminent authors, for a prize offered on the reopening, in 1812, of the Drury Lane Theater in London. Many editions of these poems have been issued in both England and America.

SELECTION X.

CHARLES LAMB, an English author, was born in 1775, and died in 1834. His writings have a charm not found in any other author. They are representatives of his own character,—genial, kindly, unique. From 1792 to 1825, he was employed as an accountant by the East India Company, with a gradually increasing salary. A beautiful trait in his character was exhibited in the affectionate care he took of his sister Mary, who was insane at intervals for many years.

SELECTION XII.

EDNA DEAN PROCTOR, an American poet, is a native of New Hampshire, and a resident at present, of Brooklyn, New York. Her poems have been largely published in the newspapers and in some of the periodicals of the country. They are characterized by vigor, beauty, and a fervid enthusiasm in the cause of country and of right. A volume of these has recently been published.

SELECTION XIV.

CHARLES DICKENS, an English author, was born in 1812. He was apprenticed to an attorney, but evinced such a taste for literature, that he soon changed his occupation, and became con

nected with the newspapers as a contributor. In 1837 he published the Pickwick Papers, considered by some the best of his works. This publication established his popularity, and his subsequent works have been received with the greatest eagerness, both in England and America. Mr. Dickens excels as a delineator of humble life, and his works have had the effect of turning the public attention to the wants and wrongs of the poor. Many old abuses, legal and social, have been brought into disrepute by the keenness of his satire, while his genial humor and graphic descriptions charm his readers.

SELECTION XV.

WM. C. BRYANT, an American poet, was born in Cummington, Massachusetts, in 1794. His poetic genius was early manifested. Lines written by him at ten years of age were thought worthy of being printed, and two poems written at fourteen went through two editions. Mr. Bryant's poetry is characterized by loftiness of sentiment and purity of diction, as well as by the most accurate description of natural scenery. On the whole, he stands in the very front rank of American poets, and enjoys a high reputation abroad, where, as well as at home, he has been a frequent traveler. As a man, he is very highly respected for his kindly and benevolent disposition and his unbending integrity. Since the year 1826 he has been connected as editor with the New York Evening Post, of which he has for many years been chief editor and proprietor. On the seventieth anniversary of his birth, a very pleasant meeting of his friends, poets and others, was held in his honor.

SELECTION XVI.

J. G. HOLLAND, an American author, was born in Massachusetts in 1819. He is associate editor of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican. He is the author of several popular works, mostly in the form of novels, but having a didactic aim.

SELECTION XIX.

LEIGH HUNT, an English poet and essayist, was born in 1784, and died in 1859. At the age of 24, in connection with his brother, he edited a paper entitled the Examiner, in which public measures were so freely discussed that both editors were fined and imprisoned. During his imprisonment he prepared several works for his paper, among which was his most celebrated poem, The Story of Rimini. After this he wrote many other works and contributed to the leading magazines and journals. An edition of his poems, collected and arranged by himself, has been published both in Boston and New York.

SELECTION XXI.

JOHN G. SAXE, an American poet and journalist, was born in Vermont in 1816. His earliest poems were published in the Knickerbocker Magazine. Among the best known of his poems is his Proud Miss McBride. His writings are mostly of a satirical character.

SELECTION XXII.

B. F. TAYLOR is a resident of Illinois. He has enjoyed a good reputation as a lecturer, and as a writer of short poems.

SELECTION XXIV.

THEBES, a famous city of antiquity, was long the capital of Egypt. It presents the finest collection of ancient monuments existing in the world. It was captured and pillaged by the Persians under Cambyses, 525 B. C.

THE EGYPTIAN SPHINXES were figures of different forms placed in the avenues leading to the temples. They generally had the head of a man with the body of a lion, but sometimes the head was that of a`ram, a hawk, or a snake. The great sphinx at the pyramids is supposed to represent King Cephren, the builder of the second pyramid. The figure is of solid rock, and though its proportions are huge, its outline is graceful.

MEMNON was a colossal statue, near Thebes, which excited a great deal of wonder on account of its vocal powers. On the lower part of the statue are 72 inscriptions by travelers, testifying that they have heard the voice of Memnon at sunrise. The Memnonium was a large and magnificent structure near Thebes.

CHEOPS was an Egyptian king, who is supposed to have built the pyramid called by his name.

CEPHRENES, or Cephren, was an Egyptian king, and brother of Cheops. He built the second pyramid.

POMPUY'S PILLAR is a celebrated column near Alexandria in Egypt. It is about 98 feet in height. The shaft, 67 feet in height, is a single piece of red granite. The purpose of its erection is not clearly known..

HOMER was the reputed author of the Iliad and Odyssey,two poems, the first descriptive of the Trojan war, and the other of the voyage of Ulysses to his home in Ithaca, after participating in the destruction of Troy. The very existence of Homer, however, has been denied, and the poems passing under his name are by some supposed to be compilations made from the poetic utterances of many rhapsodists. But this view is not so probable as that a man of this name actually lived. He probably flourished

about the 9th century B. C. Seven cities contended for the honor of being his birth-place; among these were, Athens, Chios, Colophon, and Smyrna.

PHARAOH was the name of an Egyptian dynasty of kings, and was applied to all the rulers of that country before the Persian conquest.

DIDO, the reputed founder of Carthage, was a Phoenician princess.

SOLOMON, King of Israel, came to the throne about 1015 B. C., and has ever since been famous for his wisdom.

ROMULUS AND REMUS were the legendary founders of Rome. According to the story, they were for a time nourished by a wolf; but afterwards, becoming known as royal princes, they founded Rome.

CAMBYSES was a Persian king who conquered Egypt in the year 525 B. C. He destroyed many of the sacred monuments of the country and slew the god Apis, which was a bull worshiped by the Egyptians.

OSIRIS, ISIS, AND ORUS, were Egyptian deities. Osiris was represented as the husband of Isis and father of Orus.

SELECTION XXV.

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE is pleasantly situated in Hanover, a post-village of New Hampshire, about 55 miles N. W. of Concord. It was founded in the year 1769, and received its name from William, Earl of Dartmouth. Some of our most eminent statesmen, among whom may be mentioned Daniel Webster, received their education at this college.

PINDUS is the name of a mountain chain of ancient Greece and of modern European Turkey.

ARAXES is a river of Armenia.

OLYMPUS is a mountain range of Thessaly, on the border of Macedonia. Homer and other poets have made the summit of this mountain famous as the abode of the gods.

SELECTION XXVIII.

ROBINSON CRUSOE, the hero of De Foe's great novel, is a ship-wrecked sailor, who for many years leads a solitary life on an uninhabited island. The personal adventures of Alexander Selkirk, a ship-wrecked sailor, are supposed to have suggested the story.

DANIEL DE FOE, an English novelist and political writer, was born in London in 1661, and died in the same city in 1731. He was a very prolific and somewhat acrimonious writer. His