Comes Winter unprovided, and a train Of clamant children dear. Ye masters, then, 40 Whose toil to yours is warmth, and graceful pride; 45 Which covers yours with luxury profuse; Makes your glass sparkle, and your sense rejoice! 1. Give the dates of Thomson's birth and death. 2. What is the subject of the words " defeating oft"? (Line 1.) 3. Substitute a word for " potent," and explain "collecting a blast." (Line 2.) 4. Explain lines 10 and 11. What is meant by "yet untimely"? (Line 11.) 5. Paraphrase clearly lines 12, 13, 14. Explain "dissipated storm." 6. Explain each "or" in line 19. 7. What part of the verb is "shook" in line 20? 8. What part of the verb is "swept "? (Line 21.) 9. How would you justify the use of the adjective "sordid" in line 25? 10. What is the subject of "lift” in line 29? 11. Explain the expression " painful year". (Line 33.) 12. What is the meaning of "at once," and to what does it refer? (Line 36.) 13. Give the commoner form of "instant". (Line 38.) 14. Explain "clamant". What is its derivation? (Line 40.) 15. What appeal, and on what grounds, is made at the close of these lines? 16. By what particular kind of poetical writing is Thomson known, and what are the characteristics of the "Seasons"? LESSON XXII. RASSELAS. BY SAMUEL JOHNSON. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 1. SAMUEL JOHNSON, the great author of the English Dictionary, was born at Lichfield on the 18th September, 1709. His parents were in poor circumstances, and though he received an education at various schools, and even spent some time at Oxford, his whole life was but one long struggle against poverty, obscurity, and distress. He was of weakly constitution, further disfigured by coarse manners, and strange, involuntary contortions of face and figure-facts which probably told materially against him in the course of his long struggle for existence. 2. In 1737, after having married a widow considerably older than himself, and endeavoured to keep a school which failed, he went to London in company with one of his pupils, David Garrick, afterwards the famous actor. Here, for many years, by the publication of poems, and diligence in all kinds of obscure literary hack work, he just contrived to keep body and soul together. Often homeless, starving, and wandering about the streets, he was a sort of typical instance of the wretchedness of literary life in those days-for literary talent though, as in the case of Addison, often rewarded with splendour, was, on the other hand, almost as often left to starve. We have no such instance in our day, of literary misery such as fell to the lot of Samuel Johnson. There is this to be said, however, and it is almost the highest praise which can be bestowed, that although his was the age of fulsome G adulation of literary patrons, Johnson preferred poverty and the noble independence of a man of letters to writing false and flattering prefaces for bread. 3. It was not till he was about fifty-three that Government awarded the author of the great Dictionary and of the poetical satires "London," and "The Vanity of Human Wishes a pension of £300 a year, which henceforward enabled him to live at ease. It was then that he became (and will always be best remembered by this) the centre and head of a certain literary circle, worshipped and admired as few literary men have been, all his conversations recorded by his enthusiastic biographer Boswell, and every trait, grotesque or otherwise, noted and admired by his disciples. In this halo of literary sanctity he continued till his death, which took place December 13th, 1784, and few figures in literary history, few portraits of literary men, are so well known and will be so easily recognized, as that of Dr. Samuel Johnson, the great lexicographer. 4. The portion of his work here given for analysis, is taken from "Rasselas," a so-called Eastern tale, written rapidly, it is said, to defray the expenses of his mother's funeral. The "Arabian Nights " had then not long been before the world, and the rage for Eastern scenery was great, generally taking the form of apologues, or a kind of fable, or moral allegory, in an Eastern dress. "Rasselas is a mere vehicle for long dissertations on all the subjects which occurred to the author's somewhat gloomy and melancholy turn of mind. 5. The prose of Dr. Johnson is peculiar, and differs from that of Addison by being much more serious, pedantic, ponderous, and if not long-winded, at least long-worded. Dr. Johnson's prose has more Latinisms than that of any other author in the language, and so pompous and verbose was his style in many of his productions, that he may almost be said to have created a new language, known as "Johnsonese." Nevertheless it is always sonorous, grave, and majestic, and seems to carry weight with every sentence. In "Rasselas "it is, perhaps, more pleasing than elsewhere. We cannot conclude this notice without calling attention to the extreme goodness and generosity of Dr. Johnson-if his style was pompous and his manner imperative, his heart was soft and true. His home was ever open to the homeless, and his purse to the needy, and unlike many others, his long struggle with poverty had neither hardened his heart nor embittered his intellect. In Boswell's Life of Johnson we possess a perfect picture of him as he appeared to the world of his day. RASSELAS. CHAPTER I. Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty Emperor, in whose dominions the Father of Waters begins his course whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over half the world the harvests of Egypt. According to the custom which has descended from age to age among the monarchs of the torrid zone, Rasselas was confined in a private palace, with the other sons and daughters of Abyssinian royalty, till the order of succession should call him to the throne. The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abyssinian princes, was a spacious valley in the kingdom of Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, of which the summits overhang the middle part. The only passage by which it could be entered was a cavern that passed under a rock, of which it has long been disputed whether it was the work of nature or of human industry. The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a thick wood, and the mouth which opened into the valley, was closed with gates of iron, forged by the artificers of ancient days, so massy that no man without the help of engines could open or shut them. From the mountains on every side rivulets descended that filled all the valley with verdure and fertility, and formed a lake in the middle, inhabited by fish of every species, and frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water. This lake discharged its superfluities by a stream which entered a dark cleft of the mountain on the northern side, and fell with dreadful noise from precipice to precipice till it was heard no more. The sides of the mountains were covered with trees, the banks of the brooks were diversified with flowers; every blast shook spices from the rocks, and every month dropped fruits upon the ground. All animals that bite the grass, or browse the shrub, whether wild or tame, wandered in this extensive circuit, secured from beasts of prey by the mountains which confined them. On one part were flocks and herds feeding in the pastures, on another all the beasts of chase frisking in the lawns; the sprightly kid was bounding on the rocks, the subtle monkey frolicking in the trees, and the solemn elephant reposing in the shade. All the diversities of the world were brought together, the blessings of nature were collected, and its evils extracted and excluded. * * * * * |