DEFINITIONS.-1. As sĭd'u oŭs, attentive. 3. Ex trěm'i ty, greatest need. As eribed', imputed. 4. Re môrse', anguish excited by a sense of guilt. Erāved, entreated; begged. 5. Sŭs'te nançe, food. As suage' (swage'), ease or lessen. 7. Leth är'gie, heavy. NOTE.-Elizabeth, Queen of England, was the daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn; she was born September 7, 1533, and died March 24, 1603, after a reign of nearly forty-five years. 98.-SCHEMES OF LIFE OFTEN ILLUSORY. SAMUEL JOHNSON was born at Lichfield, England, September 18, 1709. He received some instruction from a man named Hunter in his own town, and in 1728 he went to Pembroke College, Oxford, but did not complete the course. Some of his writings are imitations of Juvenal, some are biographical, but the best known are his contributions to various periodicals, especially The Rambler and The Idler, which he himself conducted. His Dictionary, which cost him eight years' unceasing application, entitles him to be called the father of Englsh lexicography. His writings display strength of intellect, great power for observing character, and an ample supply of caustic wit. He died December 13, 1784. 1. OMAR, the son of Hassan, had passed seventy-five years in honor and prosperity. The favor of three successive Caliphs had filled his house with gold and silver, and whenever he appeared the benedictions of the people proclaimed his passage. 2. Terrestrial happiness is of short continuance. The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel; the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors. The vigor of Omar began to fail; the curls of beauty fell from his head; strength departed from his hands, and agility from his feet. He gave back to the Caliph the keys of trust and the seals of secrecy, and sought no other pleasure for the remains of life than the converse of the wise and the gratitude of the good. 3. The powers of his mind were yet unimpaired. His chamber was filled by visitants eager to catch the dictates of experience and officious to pay the tribute of admiration. Caled, the son of the Viceroy of Egypt, entered every day early and retired late. He was beautiful and eloquent ; Omar admired his wit and loved his docility. "Tell me," said Caled, "thou to whose voice nations have listened, and whose wisdom is known to the extremities of Asia,tell me how I may resemble Omar the prudent. The arts by which thou hast gained power and preserved it are to thee no longer necessary or useful: impart to me the secret of thy conduct, and teach me the plan upon which thy wisdom has built thy future." 4. "Young man," said Omar, "it is of little use to form plans of life. When I took my first survey of the world, in my twentieth year, having considered the various conditions of mankind, in the hour of solitude I said thus to myself, leaning against a cedar, which spread its branches head: 'Seventy years are allowed to man; I have fifty yet remaining. Ten years I will allot to the attainment of knowledge, and ten I will pass in foreign countries. I shall be learned, and therefore shall be honored; every city will shout at my arrival, and every student will solicit my friendship. over my 5. "Twenty years thus passed will store my mind with images which I shall be busy, through the rest of my life, in combining and comparing. I shall revel in inexhaustible accumulations of intellectual riches; I shall find new pleasures for every moment, and shall never more be weary of myself. I will not, however, deviate too far from the beaten track of life, but will try what can be found in female delicacy. I will marry a wife beautiful as the Houries and wise as Zobeide; with her I will live twenty years within the suburbs of Bagdad, in every pleasure that wealth can purchase and fancy can invent. 6. "I will then retire to a rural dwelling, pass my days in obscurity and contemplation, and lie silently down on the bed of death. Through my life it shall be my settled resolution that I will never depend on the smile of princes, that I will never stand exposed to the artifices of courts; I will never pant for public honors, nor disturb my quiet with the affairs of state.' Such was my scheme of life, which I impressed indelibly on my memory. 7. "The first part of my ensuing time was to be spent in the pursuit of knowledge, and I know not how I was diverted from my design. I had no visible impediments without, nor any ungovernable passions within. I regarded knowledge as the highest honor and the most engaging pleasure; yet day stole upon day, and month glided after month, till I found that seven years of the first ten had vanished and left nothing behind them. 8. "I now postponed my purpose of traveling; for why should I go abroad while so much remained to be learned at home? I immured myself for four years, and studied the laws of the empire. The fame of my skill reached the judges; I was found able to speak upon doubtful questions, and was commanded to stand at the footstool of the Caliph. I was heard with attention; I was consulted with confidence; and the love of praise fastened on my heart. 9. "I still wished to see distant countries, listened with rapture to the relation of travelers, and resolved some time to ask my dismission, that I might feast my soul with novelty; but my presence was always necessary, and the stream of business hurried me along. Sometimes I was afraid lest I should be charged with ingratitude, but I still proposed to travel, and therefore would not confine myself by marriage. 10. "In my fiftieth year I began to suspect that the time of traveling was past, and thought it best to lay hold on the felicity yet in my power and indulge myself in domestic pleasures. But at fifty no man easily finds a woman beautiful as the Houries and wise as Zobeide. I inquired and rejected, consulted and deliberated, till the sixty-second year made me ashamed of wishing to marry. I had now nothing left but retirement; and for retirement I never found time till disease forced me from public employment. 11. "Such was my scheme, and such has been its consequence. With an insatiable thirst for knowledge, I trifled away the years of improvement; with a restless desire of seeing different countries, I have always resided in the same city; with the highest expectations of connubial felicity, I have lived unmarried; and with unalterable resolutions of contemplative retirement, I am going to die within the walls of Bagdad." DEFINITIONS.-Il lu'so ry, deceptive. 3. Of fl'cious, excessively forward. Viçe'roy, a governor who rules with royal authority. 7. Di vērt ́ed, turned aside. Im pěd'i ments, obstacles. 8. Immured', confined. 11. In sa'ti a ble, incapable of being satisfied. Єon nu'bi al, pertaining to the marriage state. Con těm'pla tive, studious; thoughtful. NOTES.-5. Hour'ies, nymphs of the Mohammedan paradise. 99.-SPEECH ON THE AMERICAN WAR. WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM, was born November 15, 1708. He was prepared at Eton for Oxford University, and after he was graduated spent some time on the Continent. In 1756 he became Secretary of State. When the trouble with the American colonies began, he criticised severely the domineering policy of the government toward the Americans, and urged an amicable adjustment of disputed questions. Afterward, when France had become an ally of the American colonies, he objected to the peace which had been proposed, on the ground that it implied the humble prostration of Great Britain before the throne of France; and he declared that war was preferable to peace on such terms. He was as true a patriot and as eloquent an orator as England ever produced. He died May 11, 1778, 1. I CANNOT, my lords,-I will not,-join in congratulation on misfortune and disgrace. This, my lords, is a perilous and tremendous moment; it is not a time for adulation: the smoothness of flattery cannot save us in this rugged and awful crisis. It is now necessary to instruct the throne in the language of truth. 2. We must, if possible, dispel the delusion and darkness which envelop it, and display in its full danger and genuine colors the ruin which is brought to our doors. Can ministers still presume to expect support in their infatuation? Can Parliament be so dead to their dignity and duty as to give their support to measures thus obtruded and forced upon them,-measures, my lords, which have reduced this late flourishing empire to scorn and contempt? 3. But yesterday, and England might have stood against the world; now, none so poor to do her reverence. The people whom we at first despised as rebels, but whom we now acknowledge as enemies, are abetted against you, supplied with every military store, have their interest consulted and their ambassadors entertained, by your inveterate enemy; and ministers do not, and dare not, interpose with dignity or effect. 4. The desperate state of our army abroad is in part known. No man more highly esteems and honors the English troops than I do: I know their virtues and their valor; I know they can achieve anything but impossibilities; and I know that the conquest of English America is an impossibility. You cannot, my lords,— you cannot conquer America. 5. What is your present situation there? We do not know the worst, but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing and suffered much. You may swell |