3

country. Finding 2 afterwards the battle to go against him, though he was very near his last agonies, he threw himself out of his litter, rallied his army, and led them 5 on to the charge, which afterwards ended in a complete victory on the side of the Moors. He had no sooner brought his men 7 to the engagement, but finding himself utterly spent, he was again replaced in his litter, where, laying his finger on his mouth, to enjoin secrecy to his officers who stood about him, he died a few moments after in that posture.—(Spectator.)

DESTRUCTION OF THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY.9

11

WHEN Alexandria was taken by the Mahomedans, Amrus, their commander, found there Philoponus,10 whose conversation highly pleased him, as Amrus was a lover of letters,11 and Philoponus was a learned man." 12 On a certain day 13 Philoponus said to him: "You have visited all the repositories or public warehouses in Alexandria, and you. have sealed up 14 things of every sort that are found there. 15 7 ses troupes, or son monde.

1 Translate, 'of their religion and of their country.' Remember this rule, which enjoins, in French, the repetition of the pronoun, article, &c., as well as of the preposition in certain cases, before each of the substantives, whatever their number may be. See page 49, note 8. 2 Use voir. 3 tourner. 46 'very near &c.; simply, à l'agonie. 5 See p. 41, n.

6

6 ce qui. Whenever 'which' does not relate to a word in particular, as its antecedent, in the first part of the sentence, but rather to the whole of that first part, or to a fact mentioned in it; in short, whenever it can be turned by a thing which,' or a fact which,'-the French for it is ce qui, instead of qui (nominative), and ce que, instead of que (accusative). It corresponds to the Latin id quod, similarly used. Likewise, in such a case, the genitive would be ce dont, instead of dont (' of which').

8

que.

9 Alexandria was taken by the Saracens in 640. Its great library had been created about the year 287 B. C., and contained upwards of 700,000 volumes.

10 John Philoponus, a philosopher and grammarian.

11 était un ami des lettres; or, aimait les lettres. 12 un savant. 13 Simply, Un jour.

14 vous avez mis le scellé sur.

15 qui s'y trouvent. The English (as the Latin) passive is to be translated into French, wherever there is a certain vagueness about the person or persons that could serve as a nominative to the verb, if conjugated actively, by the active voice with on, or, sometimes also, by the reflective form, as here. Ex.: dicitur, (Latin ;) it is said,' (English ;) on dit (French). That is done every day,' cela se fait tous les jours. The reflective form is also

6

"3

As to those things that may be useful to you, I presume to say nothing;1 but as to things of no service to you,2 some of them perhaps may be more suitable to me." Amrus said to him: "And what is it you want? "4. "The philosophical books," replied he, " preserved 5 in the royal libraries." "This," said Amrus, " is a request upon which I cannot decide. You desire a thing where I can issue no orders, till I have leave from Omar, the commander of the faithful." Letters were accordingly written' to Omar, informing him of what Philoponus had said; and an answer was returned by Omar to the following purport: 8" As to the books of which you have made mention, if there be contained in them what accords with the book of God (meaning 10 the Koran), there is without them,11 in the book of God, all that is sufficient. But, if there be any thing in them repugnant12 to that book, we in no respect want them.13 Order them therefore to be all destroyed.” 14 Amrus upon this ordered them to be dispersed through the baths of Alexandria, and to be there burnt in making the baths warm.16 After 17 this manner, in the space of

15

six months they were all consumed. Thus ended this noble library; and thus began, if it did not begin sooner, the age of barbarity and ignorance.—(HARRIS.)

VALENTINE AND UNNION.

8

AT the siege of Namur by the allies, there was in the ranks of the company commanded by Captain1 Pincent, in Colonel1 Frederic Hamilton's regiment, one Unnion, a corporal, and one Valentine, a private sentinel: 2 there happened between these two men a dispute about an affair of love, which,3 upon some aggravations, grew to an irreconcilable hatred. Unnion, being the officer of Valentine, took all opportunities even to strike his rival, and profess the spite and revenge which moved him to it.5 The sentinel bore it without resistance; but frequently said he would die to be revenged of that tyrant. They had spent whole months in this manner, the one injuring, the other complaining; when, in the midst of this rage against each other, they were commanded upon 10 the attack of the castle, where the corporal received a shot in11 the thigh, and fell. The French pressing on,12 and Unnion expecting to be trampled to death,13 he called out 14 to his enemy: "Ah, Valentine! can you leave me here?" Valentine immediately ran back,15 and, in the midst of a thick fire16 of the French, took the corporal upon his back, and brought him through all the danger as far as the Abbey of Saltine, 1 See page 4, note 1. geance qui l'y portaient. 6 Le soldat.

2 un caporal, nommé U—, et un simple soldat, nommé V—.

The French grammar requires a relative pronoun to be always placed as near as possible to its antecedent. Construct, therefore, the French sentence as if the English were, "There happened between &c., about &c., a dispute which.'

...

en raison de quelques provocations, dégénéra en.

5 et de témoigner son esprit de rancune et de vengeance; or, more literally, . . . la rancune et la ven

7 il disait souvent qu'il (see p. 1, n. 8) mourrait volontiers pour se venger.

8 commettant des outrages. 9 The preposition, in French, always stands between l'un' and l'autre,' instead of before, as in English. pour.

10

un coup de feu à. 12 les serrant de près. 13 écrasé sous les pieds. 15 revint immédiatement sur ses

14 crra.

when a cannon ball took off his head : his body fell under his enemy, whom he was carrying off.2 Unnion immediately forgot his wound, rose up, tearing his hair,3 and then threw himself on the bleeding carcase, crying: “Ah, Valentine! was it 5 for me, who have so barbarously used thee, that thou hast died? I will not live after thee!" 6 He was not by any means to be forced from the body, but was removed with it bleeding in his arms, and attended with tears by all their comrades who knew their enmity. When he was brought to a tent, his wounds were dressed by force; 10 but the next day, still calling upon Valentine, and lamenting his cruelties to 11 him, he died in the pangs of remorse.—(Tatler.)

9

THE FOX WITHOUT A TAIL.12

A Fox being caught in a trap, was glad to compound for his neck by leaving his tail behind him ; 13 but, upon coming abroad into the world,14 he began to be so sensible of 15 the disgrace such defect would bring upon him,1

16

a

17

that he almost wished he had died rather than come away without it.18 However, resolving to make the best of a bad matter,19 he called a meeting of 20 the rest of the foxes, and proposed that all should follow his example. "You tout sanglant.

1 lui emporta la tête; literally, 'took off the head to him.' Notice this use of a personal pronoun and of the definite article, where the English use a possessive pronoun.

2 tomba, entraînant son ennemi dans sa chute; to avoid an awkward repetition of the verb emporter.

3 s'arrachant les cheveux; literally, 'tearing the hair to himself:' same remark as above.

4 cadavre sanglant: carcasse, in French, is said almost exclusively of the bones.

5 est-ce-hast died;' see p. 66,

note 12.

6 Je ne veux pas te survivre. 7 Il n'y eut pas moyen de l'arracher du cadavre.

8 mais on l'enleva qui le tenait

9 Après qu'il eut été (p. 28, n. 5.) 10 malgré lui.-'to dress,' here, panser.

11 envers (see p. 36, n. 11).

12 sans queue.

13 fut fort aise d'y laisser sa queue pour sauver sa tête.

14 mais comme il allait entrer (or, était pour entrer) dans le monde. 15 il sentit si vivement. 16 See page 1, note -2. 17 See page 3, note 3.

18

qu'il en vint presque à souhaiter d'être mort plutôt que d'avoir échappé du piège ainsi écourté.

19 de tirer le meilleur parti de sa mésaventure; or, de faire bonne mine à mauvais jeu.

20 il assembla.

have no notion," said he, " of the ease and comfort with which I now move about: 1 I could never have believed it if I had not tried it myself; but really, when one comes to reason upon it, a tail is such an ugly, inconvenient, unnecessary appendage, that the only wonder is that, as foxes, we could have put up with it so long. I propose, therefore, my worthy brethren, that you all profit by the experience that I am most willing to afford you, and that all foxes from this day forward cut off their tails." Upon this one of the oldest, stepped forward, and said, "I rather think,5 my friend, that you would not have advised us to part with our tails, if there were any chance of recovering your own." 7-(JAMES's Fables of Esop.)

4

ON MODESTY.

8

MODESTY is a very good quality, and which generally accompanies true merit: it engages and captivates the minds of people; 9 as, on the other hand, nothing is more shocking and disgustful than presumption and impudence. We cannot like a man who is always commending and speaking well of himself,10 and who is the hero of his own story. On the contrary, a man who endeavours to conceal his own merit, who sets that of other people in its true light,11 who speaks but little of himself, and with modesty, such a man makes a favourable impression upon the

8 Leave out 'and.'

9

10

Simply, les esprits.

qui veut toujours se faire valoir, qui parle avantageusement de luimême. Notice that this turn, 'commending and speaking of himself,' is not allowed by the French grammar, as commending' requires a régime direct (accusative or objective case), and 'speaking' a régime indirect. Thus, e. g., we should say, Il attaqua la ville et s'en empara,not Il attaqua et s'empara de la ville. (He attacked and took possession of the town.')

11 qui relève celui des autres.