And sable stole of Cyprus lawn,
Over thy decent shoulders drawn!
Come, but keep thy wonted state,
With even step and musing gait,
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes;

2. There, held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad, leaden, downward cast,
Thou fix them on the earth as fast;
And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet,
Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet,
And hears the Muses in a ring

Aye round about Jove's altar sing;
And add to these retired Leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure;

3. But, first and chiefest, with thee bring
Him that yon soars on golden wing,
Guiding the fiery-wheeléd throne,
The cherub Contemplation;
And the mute Silence hist along,
'Less Philomel will deign a song
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of Night,
While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke
Gently o'er the accustomed oak.

4. Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy!

Thee, chantress, oft the woods among

I

Woo, to hear thy even-song;

And, missing thee, I walk unseen

On the dry, smooth-shaven green,

To behold the wandering moon
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led astray
Through the heavens' wide, pathless way,
And oft, as if her head she bowed,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.

5. Oft, on a plat of rising ground,
I hear the far-off curfew sound
Over some wide-watered shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar ;
Or, if the air will not permit,
Some still removéd place will fit,
Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom;
Far from all resort of mirth,

Save the cricket on the hearth,
Or the bellman's drowsy charm,

To bless the doors from nightly harm;

6. Or let my lamp at midnight hour
Be seen in some high, lonely tower,
Where I may oft outwatch the Bear
With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere
The spirit of Plato, to unfold
What worlds, or what vast regions, hold
The immortal mind that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshly nook;
And of those demons that are found
In fire, air, flood, or under ground,
Whose power hath a true consent
With planet or with element.
Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy
In sceptred pall come sweeping by,

Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line,
Or the tale of Troy divine,

Or what (though rare) of later age
Ennobled hath the buskined stage.

II.—SOBER DAY-SCENES IN FOREST, CLOISTER, AND HER

MITAGE.

7. Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career,

Till civil-suited morn appear,

Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont
With the Attic boy to hunt,

But kerchiefed in a comely cloud,

While rocking winds are piping loud,

Or ushered with a shower still,
When the gust hath blown his fill,
Ending on the rustling leaves,
With minute drops from off the eaves.

8. And when the sun begins to fling
His flaring beams, me, goddess, bring
To archéd walks of twilight groves,
And shadows brown that Sylvan loves,
Of pine, or monumental oak,

Where the rude ax with heavéd stroke
Was never heard the nymphs to daunt,
Or fright them from their hallowed haunt.

9. There in close covert by some brook,
Where no profaner eye may look,
Hide me from Day's garish eye,
While the bee with honeyed thigh,
That at her flowery work doth sing,
And the waters murmuring,
With such consort as they keep,

Entice the dewy-feathered sleep;

10. And let some strange, mysterious dream
Wave at his wings, in airy stream
Of lively portraiture displayed,
Softly on my eyelids laid;

And as I wake, sweet music breathe
Above, about, or underneath,

Sent by some spirit to mortals good,
Or the unseen genius of the wood.

11. But let

my due feet never fail
To walk the studious cloisters pale,
And love the high embowéd roof,
With antic pillars massy proof,
And storied windows, richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.
There let the pealing organ blow
To the full-voiced choir below,
In service high, and anthems clear,

As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstacies,

And bring all heaven before mine eyes.

12. And may, at last, my weary age
Find out the peaceful hermitage,
The hairy gown and mossy cell,
Where I may sit and rightly spell
Of every star that heaven doth shew,
And every herb that sips the dew,
Till old experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain.
These pleasures, Melancholy, give,
And I with thee will choose to live.

John Milton.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Omission of thirty lines from the beginning and of eighteen from the middle of this poem. "Il Penseroso" (the pensive

or thoughtful, hence "Melancholy"). "Cynthia" (the moon-drives a yoke of dragons attached to her chariot).

II. Deign (dan), Měl'-an-ehol-y, wan'-der-ing, plăt, rīş'-ing, eoun'ter-feit (-fit), heärth (härth), drow'-sy, gôr'-geous, rus'-tling (rus'sling), daunt, mys-te'-ri-ous, pōr'-trait-ure, gen'-ius, ehoir (kwir), če'-sta-siēş. III. "'Less Philomel," etc. (3)—un omitted for '? "Do attain "-why

not doth attain ?

66

99 66

IV. Pensive, devout, demure, sable, stole, "wonted state," commercing with the skies," rapt, Philomel, Cynthia, sullen, "outwatch the Bear," Hermes, Plato, element, Tragedy, “Thebes, or Pelop's line,” “ Jove's altar," "fall of Troy," buskined, ushered, Sylvan (-us), garish, cloisters, antic (-ique), pillows, dight, hermitage.

V. "Decent shoulders" (decent = becoming, the old Latin meaning). "Forget thyself to marble" (until there is no more trace of emotion than in a marble statue). 66 Spare Fast" (which lets the mind soar into the heavens). "Hist along" (bring by commands of hush). "Chantress " (the nightingale). Thrice great Hermes" ("Hermes Trismegistus," the famous alchemic work, studied for its deeply-concealed wisdom). "That hath forsook her mansion" (referring to Plato's doctrine of the descent of the soul as presented in the Phædo). "Rightly spell "-what meaning has spell?

CXL.-GARDEN-PLANTS.

1. Lettuce has always been loyal. Herodotus tells us that it was served at royal tables some centuries before the Christian era, and one of the Roman families ennobled its name with that of Lactucinii. So spinach, asparagus, and celery, have been held in high repute among the eastern nations, as with us; and the parable of the mustard-seed shows that plant was known in Christ's time.

2. The Greeks are said to have esteemed radishes so highly, that, in offering oblations to Apollo, they presented them in beaten gold. And the Emperor Tiberius held parsnips in such high repute that he had them