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a show of mystery and eager circumspectness; in the ""Tis there! 'tis there!" lay a boundless longing; and her “with me must go!" she modified at each repetition, so that now it appeared to entreat and implore, now to impel and persuade.

7. On finishing her song for the second time, she stood silent for a moment, looking keenly at Wilhelm, and asked him, "Know'st thou the land?" "It must mean Italy," said Wilhelm; "where didst thou get the little song?" "Italy!" said Mignon, with an earnest air. "If thou go to Italy, take me along with thee; for I am too cold here!" "Hast thou been there already, little dear?" said Wilhelm. But the child was silent, and nothing more could be got out of her.

Goethe (Thomas Carlyle's Translation).

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Mignon, a little girl, has been stolen in her infancy from her beautiful home in Italy by a band of strolling acrobats, who bring her up as a dancing girl. She is rescued from their cruel treatment by Wilhelm Meister, and adopted. She can not tell anything of her origin, but one morning sings this song to him. This incident is supposed to take place in Southern Germany, and is related in Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister." By a strange coincidence, Mignon's father, who had become deranged and is wandering about the country as a harper, makes his appearance at the place where Wilhelm is staying, and, without recognizing Mignon as his lost child, is attracted (instinctively) by her, and we are left to infer that he taught her this song.

II. Myr'-tle (mēr't!), lạu'-rel, pil'-larş, ān'-cient (-shent), stăn'-zȧş, in-eom'-pa-ra-ble, weight'-y (wat',, mys'-ter-y, per-suade' (-swad'), Mignon' (me-nyôn').

III. "If thou go "-why not say, "If thou goest"? Mark off the feet and accented syllables in the lines of the 1st stanza.

IV. Crag, originality, vanished, process, phraseology, uniformity, disjointed, repetition.

V. Make a list of things mentioned in the poem that indicate Italian scenery. Is there an element of homesickness in this poem? Compare it

with Mrs. Hemans's Adopted Child and Hood's I Remember (Fourth Reader). Note particularly Goethe's description of the style of singing this song. "The bridge that hangs on cloud" (the mists from below shutting out of view the piers that sustain it).

XXXI. THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.

1. The thirteen original colonies-" the old Thirteen," as they were often called-were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. All the rest of the present States were made from these, or from territory added to these. The history of our country down to the Revolution is, therefore, the history of these thirteen colonies.

2. Each of the thirteen had something peculiar in its history to distinguish it from the rest. To begin with, they were established by several different nations. Most of them were founded by Englishmen; but New York and New Jersey were settled by the Dutch, and Delaware by the Swedes; while the Carolinas were first explored and named by a French colony.

3. Most of them were founded by small parties of settlers, among whom no great distinctions of rank existed. Two of them-Pennsylvania and Maryland—had each a single proprietor, who owned the whole soil. New York had its "patroons," or large landholders, with tenants under them.

4. Most of them were founded by those who fled from religious persecutions in Europe. Yet one of them -Rhode Island-was made up largely from those persecuted in another colony; and another—Maryland—was

founded by Roman Catholics. Some had charter governments, some had royal governments without charters, and others were governed by the original proprietors, or those who represented them.

5. They were all alike in some things, however much they differed in others. They all had something of local self-government; that is, each community, to a greater or less extent, made and administered its own laws. Moreover, they all became subject to Great Britain at last, even if they had not been first settled by Englishmen. Finally, they all grew gradually discontented with the British Government, because they thought themselves illtreated. This discontent made them at last separate themselves from England, and form a complete union with one another. But this was not accomplished without a war-the war commonly called the American Revolution.

3. When the troubles began, most of the people supposed themselves to be very loyal, and they were ready to shout, "God save King George!" Even after they had raised armies, and had begun to fight, the Continental Congress said, "We have not raised armies with the ambitious design of separating from Great Britain, and establishing independent States."

7. They would have been perfectly satisfied to go on as they were, if the British Government had only treated them in a manner they thought just; that is, if Great Britain either had not taxed them, or had let them send representatives to Parliament in return for paying taxes.

8. This wish was considered perfectly reasonable by many of the wisest Englishmen of the day. But King

George III. and his advisers would not consent; and so they lost not only the opportunity of taxing the American colonies, but finally the colonies themselves.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

What was the

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Adapted from Higginson's "Young Folks' History of the United States." Who was King George III.? Continental Congress? Was it like our Congress? What is the Congress of Great Britain called?

II. Sep'-a-rate, Pär'-lia-ment (--), těr'-ri-to-ry, Єŏn-něct'-i-eŭt (-nět'-), Măs-sa-chu'-setts, Penn-syl-va'-ni-a, Geôr'-gi-a, pa-troons'.

III. Make a list of ten describing-words used in the above lesson, and write after each the name-word of its object; e. g., "thirteen colonies," "present States," etc.

IV. Original, colonies, peculiar, established, explored, proprietor, tenants, persecutions, "charter governments," local, community, gradually, loyal, ambition, satisfied.

V. "Distinctions of rank "-explain this phrase, and give an example of such distinctions that exist in England. Explain in your own words what "local self-government" is. Do you think it important? Tell some evils that occur where it does not exist. Explain the expression, "administer its own laws." Does the Legislature, or lawmaking power, administer the laws? Do the courts of law? Does the President, the Governor, or the Mayor do it?

XXXII. THE VANITY OF HUMAN PRIDE.
1. Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
Man passes from life to his rest in the grave.

2. The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,
Be scattered around and together be laid;

And the young and the old, and the low and the high,
Shall molder to dust and together shall lie.

3. The infant, a mother attended and loved,

The mother, that infant's affection who proved, The husband, that mother and infant who blessed, Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest.

4. The maid, on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye,

Shone beauty and pleasure—her triumphs are by ;

And the memories of those who have loved her and praised

Are alike from the minds of the living erased.

5. The hand of the king that the scepter hath borne, The brow of the priest that the miter hath worn, The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave, Are hidden and lost in the depth of the grave.

6. The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap, The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the

steep,

The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread,
Have faded away like the grass that we tread.

7. The saint, who enjoyed the communion of Heaven,
The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven,
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.

8. So the multitude goes, like the flower or the weed, That withers away to let others succeed;

So the multitude comes, even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that has often been told.

9. For we are the same that our fathers have been; We see the same sights that our fathers have seen;

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