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FIRST VOICE.

"Ah me-the weary way!

The burden heavy to bear!

The short, swift nights that die to day,
The silence everywhere!"

SECOND VOICE.

"The oasis will rise

Over the sand-swept ring;

In music under cool, starry skies
Will ripple the running spring."

FIRST VOICE.

"Ah me-the scorching sand!

The cloudless, burned-out blue!
The choking air on every hand,

That the rain drops never through!"

Anna C. Brackett.

The

FOR PREPARATION.-I. What deserts in Asia ?—Africa ?—America ? What mountains surround each in such a way as to prevent the rain-clouds from visiting them? (The clouds are so chilled when they reach the mountain-ranges, on their way from the sea, that they lose all their moisture; consequently the air that passes over to the other side is very dry. soil cannot support vegetation without moisture. The prevailing winds blow eastwardly in the temperate zones, and westwardly in the torrid; hence the deserts of the temperate zones are caused by mountain-chains to the west of them, and the deserts of the torrid zones are caused by mountains on the east. The Sahara desert and the deserts of Arabia and of Western Asia get no winds direct from the ocean, but only the winds that have lost their moisture in passing the immense stretch of mountainous land in Asia.

II. Chōk'-ing, o'-a-sis, run'-ning, stär'-ry.

III. Change the first stanza into the order of prose.

IV. "Swift nights that die to day" (into day).

V. The song of two travelers in a caravan. "The burden heavy to bear"--what goods do people carry across deserts ? "Burned-out blue " (after a rain, when the air is clear of smoke and vapors, the air looks bluest). Note the repetition of the first verse, and its poetic effect.

CXXXII. CANDLES NOT USED BY THE ANCIENTS.

1. With the lark it was that the Roman rose. Not that the earliest lark rises so early in Latium as the earliest lark in England—that is, during sunimer; but then, on the other hand, neither does it even rise so late. The Roman citizen was stirring with the dawn, which, allowing for the shorter longest day and longer shortest day of Rome, you may call about four in summer, and about seven in winter.

2. Why did he do this? Because he went to bed at a very early hour. But why did he do that?-By backing in this way we shall surely back into the very well of truth. Always, if it is possible, let us have the why of the wherefore.-The Roman went to bed early for two special reasons: First, because in Rome, which had been built for a martial destiny, every habit of life had reference to the usages of war.

3. Every citizen, if he were not a mere animal kept at public cost, held himself a sort of soldier-elect. The more noble he was, the more was his liability to military service. Now, it was a principle of ancient warfare, that every hour of daylight had a triple worth if valued against hours of darkness. That was one reason-a reason suggested by the understanding.

4. But there was a second reason far more remarkable, and this was a reason dictated by a blind necessity. It is an important fact that this planet on which we

live, this little, industrious earth of ours, has developed her wealth by slow stages of increase. She was far from being the rich little globe in Cæsar's days that she is at present.

5. The earth, in our days, is incalculably richer, as a whole, than in the time of Charlemagne. At that time she was richer by many a million of acres than in the era of Augustus. In that Augustan era we descry a clear belt of cultivation, averaging about six hundred miles in depth, running in a ring fence about the Mediterranean. This belt, and no more, was in decent cultivation.

6. Beyond that belt there was only a wild Indian cultivation. At present, what a difference! Such being the case, our mother, the Earth, being, as a whole, so incomparably poorer, could not in the pagan era support the expense of maintaining great empires in cold latitudes; her purse would not reach that cost.

7. Man, therefore, went to bed early in those ages, simply because his worthy mother Earth could not afford him candles. She, good old lady (or good young lady, for geologists know not whether she is in that stage of her progress which corresponds to gray hairs, or to infancy, or to a "certain age"), would certainly have shuddered to hear any of her nations asking for candles. "Candles!" she would have said; "who ever heard of such a thing?—and with so much excellent daylight running to waste as I have provided gratis! What will the wretches want next?"

8. The daylight, furnished gratis, was certainly neat, and undeniable in its quality, and quite sufficient for all purposes that were honest. Seneca, even in his own luxu

rious period, called those men "lucifuga" (light-shunners), and by other ugly names, who lived chiefly by candle-light. None but rich and luxurious men—nay, even among these, none but idlers did live much by candle-light.

9. An immense majority of men in Rome never lighted a candle, unless sometimes in the early dawn. And this custom of Rome was the custom also of all nations that lived round the great pond of the Mediterranean. In Athens, Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor, everywhere, the ancients went to bed, like good boys, from seven to nine o'clock. The Turks, and other people who have succeeded to the stations and habits of the ancients, do so to this day.

10. The Roman, therefore, who saw no joke in sitting round the table in the dark, went off to bed as the darkness began. Everybody did so. Old Numa Pompilius himself was obliged to trundle off in the dusk. Tarquinius might be a very superb fellow, but we doubt whether he ever saw a farthing rushlight; and, though it may be thought that plots and conspiracies would flourish in such a city of darkness, it is to be considered that the conspirators themselves had no more candles than honest men: both parties were in the dark.

Thomas De Quincey.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. "Latium" (the old name of that part of Italy in which Rome is situated. Date of Augustus Cæsar's death? (A. D. 14)— of Charlemagne's? (A. D. 814). Who were Seneca (died A. D. 65) and Numa Pompilius? (died в. c. 672).—Tarquinius? (called "Superbus ❞—not "superb " in our sense, but because he was haughty).

II. Ne-çěs'-si-ty, eăn'-dleş (-dlz), suf-fi'-cient (-fish'ent), floŭr'-ish (flŭr'-), trip'-le (trip'l).

III. "About four in the winter "-what is omitted?

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