we to live them out to the last? I solemnly declare that, but for the love of knowledge, I should consider the life of the meanest hedger and ditcher as preferable to that of the greatest and richest man in existence; for the fire of our minds is like the fire which the Persians burn on the mountains-it flames night and day, and is immortal, and not to be quenched! Upon something it must act and feed-upon the pure spirit of knowledge, or upon the foul dregs of polluting passions.

2. Therefore, when I say, in the conduct of your understanding, love knowledge with a great love, with a vehement love, with a love coeval with life—what do I say, but love innocence; love virtue; love purity of conduct; love that which, if you are rich and great, will vindicate the blind fortune which has made you so, and make men call it justice; love that which, if you are poor, will render your poverty respectable, and make the proudest feel it unjust to laugh at the meanness of your fortunes; love that which will comfort you, adorn you, and never quit you—which will open to you the kingdom of thought, and all the boundless regions of conception, as an asylum against the cruelty, the injustice, and the pain that may be your lot in the outer world-that which will make your motives habitually great and honourable, and light up in an instant a thousand noble disdains at the very thought of meanness and of fraud.

3. Therefore, if any young man have embarked his life in pursuit of knowledge, let him go on without doubting or fearing the event; let him not be intimidated by the cheerless beginnings of knowledge, by the darkness from which she springs, by the difficulties which hover around her, by the wretched habitations in which she dwells, by the want and sorrow which sometimes journey in her

train; but let him ever follow her as the angel that guards him, and as the genius of his life. She will bring him out at last into the light of day, and exhibit him to the world comprehensive in acquirements, fertile in resources, rich in imagination, strong in reasoning, prudent and powerful above his fellows in all the relations and in all the offices of life.

Sydney Smith (1770-1845).

EXERCISES.-1. Explain the following sentences and phrases, and give synonyms for the single words: (1) The conduct of your understanding. (2) A love coëval with life. (3) This love will open to you all the boundless regions of conception. (4) Asylum. (5) Let him not be intimidated. (6) Comprehensive in acquirements. (7) Resources.

2. Parse all the words in the following sentence: 'I solemnly declare that, but for the love of knowledge, I should consider the life of the meanest hedger and ditcher as preferable to that of the greatest and richest man in existence.'

3. Analyse the following sentence:

Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, He would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.

Careless, free from care.
Tendeth, takes care of. From Lat.
tendere, to stretch. (Hence
tend means originally to stretch
the mind to.) Compounds:
Attend, attention; pretend,
pretence; intend, intention.
Than who = than he who.

Dainty, not at all easy.

Pleading, conducting a plea in law.

From O. Fr. plait; Low Lat. placitum, that which pleases (the judge or court). Conscience, the inner knowledge of

right and wrong. From Lat. con, with, and scio, I know. Sufficeth, is sufficient. From Lat. sufficere, to be enough.

1. What pleasures have great princes
More dainty to their choice,
Than herdsmen wild, who careless
In quiet life rejoice;

And Fortune's favours scorning,
Sing sweet in summer morning?

2. All day their flocks each tendeth;
At night they take their rest;
More quiet than who sendeth
His ship into the East,
Where gold and pearl are plenty,
But getting very dainty.

3. For lawyers and their pleading,
They 'steem it not a straw:
They think that honest meaning
Is of itself a law:

Where Conscience judgeth plainly,
They spend no money vainly.

4. O happy who thus liveth,
Not caring much for gold;
With clothing which sufficeth
To keep him from the cold:
Though poor and plain his diet,
Yet merry it is and quiet.

Unknown (probably 16th century).

CAUTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR READING.

VERSE 1.-Line 1: Avoid the verse-accent on have; and place a slight emphasis on great.-Line 2: Read to-their-choice as one word.-Line 3: Make a slight pause after who.-Line 5: A pause after and.

VERSE 2.-Line 3: Avoid the verse-accent on than.-Line 4: No accent on into; but read into-the-East as one word.

VERSE 3.-Line 1: Avoid the verse-accent on and.-Line 4: Read of-itself as one word.-Line 5: The emphatic word is Conscience.

VERSE 4.-Line 1: The emphatic word is thus.-Line 3: A slight pause after clothing; and no emphasis on which.—Line 4 : Avoid the verse-accent upon from.

MR LAYARD'S DISCOVERIES.

Sheikh, a chief or petty king. | Portrayed, pictured or set forth.