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exhausted; to recoil with manly dread from the slaughter of our fellow-creatures; to put confidence in the justice which other nations will do to our motives; to have that consciousness of courage which will make us scorn the 5 reproach of cowardice; to feel that there is something grander than the virtue of savages; to desire peace for the world as well as for ourselves; and to shrink from kindling a flame which may involve the world, — these are the principles and feelings which do honor to a people. 10 For one, I look on war with a horror which no words. can express. Were the world of my mind, no man would fight for glory; for the name of a commander who has no other claim to respect seldom passes my lips, and the want of sympathy drives him from my mind. 15 The thought of man, God's immortal child, butchered by his brother; the thought of sea and land stained with human blood by human hands, of women and children buried under the ruins of besieged cities, of the resources of empires and the mighty powers of nature all turned by 20 man's malignity into engines of torture and destruction,

this thought gives to earth the semblance of hell.

I cannot now, as I once did, talk lightly, thoughtlessly, of fighting with this or that nation. That nation is no longer an abstraction to me. It is no longer a vague 25 mass. It spreads out before me into individuals, in a thousand interesting forms and relations. It consists of husbands and wives, parents and children, who love one

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another as I love my own home. vast multitude of laborers at the plow and in the workshop, whose toils I sympathize with, whose burden I should rejoice to lighten, and for whose elevation I have pleaded. It consists of men of science, taste, genius, 5 whose writings have beguiled my solitary hours and given life to my intellect and best affections. Here is the nation which I am called to fight with, into whose families I must send mourning, whose fall or humiliation I must seek through blood. I cannot do it without a 10 clear commission from God.

If, indeed, my country were invaded by hostile armies, threatening without disguise its rights, liberties, and dearest interests, I should strive to repel them, just as I should repel a criminal who should enter my house to slay what 15 I hold most dear and what is intrusted to my care. But I cannot confound with such a case the common instances of war. In general, war is the work of ambitious men, whose principles have gained no strength from the experience of public life, whose policy is colored if not swayed 20 by personal views or party interests, who do not seek peace with a single heart, who, to secure doubtful rights, perplex the foreign relations of the state, spread jealousies at home and abroad, enlist popular passions on the side of strife, commit themselves too far for retreat, and 25 are then forced to leave to the arbitration of the sword what an impartial umpire could easily have arranged.

Abridged.

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20

A BALLAD OF GOOD COUNSEL

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1340-1400) is known as the father of English poetry. His chief work was "The Canterbury Tales." Chaucer ranks with the great poets of the world.

NOTE.

This little poem was apparently written in a period of busi5 ness misfortune. The rendering is as nearly like the original as is consistent with clearness, for it must be remembered that the English of Chaucer's time is a foreign tongue to readers of to-day.

Flee from the press and dwell with truthfulness;
Suffice to thee thy good, though it be small,—
For wealth breeds hate, and climbing, dizziness;
The mob hath envy, riches blind us all;

Wish not to taste what doth not to thee fall;
Do well thyself, before thou striv'st to lead,
And truth shall thee deliver without dread.

Distress thee not all evil to redress,

Trusting to her that turneth as a ball,
For little meddling brings most easiness;

Beware lest thou dost kick against an awl;
Strive not as doth a clay pot with a wall;
Judge thou thyself, that judgest others' deed,
And truth shall thee deliver without dread.

That which is sent, receive with cheerfulness;
The wrestling of this world invites a fall;
Here is no home, 't is but a wilderness,

Forth, pilgrim, forth!- Forth, beast, out of thy stall!
Look up above and thank the God of all;

Hold the high way and let thy soul thee lead,
And truth shall thee deliver without dread.

her that turneth as a ball: For

press: crowd. dread (drēd): doubt. tune. -easiness: comfort. -an awl: a tool with a sharp point. Compare Acts xxvi. 14. In Chaucer's English this is a nall. In the development of the language the n has become part of the article. See note on a newt, Book Five, page 119. In the same way napron has become apron.clay pot with a wall: the weak with the strong.

a

5

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING

Channing's estimate of Napoleon, though severe, is not con

NOTE. sidered unjust.

Napoleon Bonaparte was characterized by nothing more 10 strongly than by the spirit of self-exaggeration. The singular energy of his intellect and will, through which he had mastered so many rivals and foes, and overcome what seemed insuperable obstacles, inspired a consciousness of being something more than man. His strong 15 original tendencies to pride and self-exaltation, fed and pampered by strange success and unbounded applause,

swelled into an almost insane conviction of superhuman greatness. In his own view he stood apart from other men. He was not to be measured by the standard of humanity. He was not to be retarded by difficulties to 5 which all others yielded: He was not to be subjected to laws and obligations which all others were expected to obey. Nature and the human will were to bend to his power. He was the child and favorite of fortune, and, if not the lord, the chief object of destiny. His history 10 shows a spirit of self-exaggeration unrivaled in enlightened ages, and which reminds us of an Oriental king to whom incense had been burnt from his birth as to a deity.

This was the chief source of his crimes. He wanted the sentiment of a common nature with his fellow-beings. 15 He had no sympathies with his race. That feeling of brotherhood, which is developed in truly great souls with peculiar energy, and through which they give up themselves willing victims, joyful sacrifices, to the interests of mankind, was wholly unknown to him. His heart, amidst 20 its wild beatings, never had a throb of disinterested love. The ties which bind man to man he broke asunder. proper happiness of a man, which consists in the victory of moral energy and social affection over the selfish passions, he cast away for the lonely joy of a despot. With 25 powers which might have made him a glorious representative and minister of the beneficent Divinity, and with natural sensibilities which might have been exalted into

The

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