He fought a thousand glorious wars,
And more than half the world was his,

And somewhere now, in yonder stars,
Can tell, mayhap, what greatness is.

Abridged.

sons:

Napoleon: Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of the French, after a series of brilliant military successes, met with defeat, and died in exile in 1821. His character is an interesting study, and different opinions are still held as to his real greatness. - wrack: ruin, destruction. Wrack, wreak, and wreck come from a word meaning to drive out or punish. poetical license for heirs or successors. Napoleon had only one son, who died before he was twenty.-rood: a rood is a measure of length, sixteen and a half feet. borrowed from his enemies: Napoleon was buried in English ground at St. Helena. Later his body was brought to Paris. It was on the occasion of the second funeral that this poem was written.

CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850) was one of the greatest of English poets. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey are known as the Lake Poets, because they lived in the lake district of England and described that region. Wordsworth was a poet of remarkable but unequal powers.

Who is the happy warrior? Who is he

That every man in arms should wish to be? -It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought: 10 Whose high endeavors are an inward light

That makes the path before him always bright :
Who, with a natural instinct to discern
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes his moral being his prime care;
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train !
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;

In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower;
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives:
'Tis he whose law is reason; who depends

Upon that law as on the best of friends;
-Who, if he rise to station of command,
Rises by open means; and there will stand
On honorable terms, or else retire,

And in himself possess his own desire:

Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honors, or for worldly state.
-He who, though thus endued as with a sense
And faculty for storm and turbulence,
Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans
To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes:-
'Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted high,
Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye,
Or left unthought-of in obscurity, —
Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not-
Plays, in the many games of life, that one
Where what he most doth value must be won:
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;

Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpassed:

This is the happy warrior; this is he

That every man in arms should wish to be.

Abridged.

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS

WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT

WILLIAM HICKling Prescott (1796-1859) was an American historian whose brilliant success, like that of Parkman, was won under hard conditions of constant suffering and almost total blindness. Prescott's special subject was that of Spanish conquest and civilization.

5 NOTE. - This description of the Peruvian palaces is taken from the "Conquest of Peru." The discoverer of Peru and the chief hero of its

conquest was Francisco Pizarro (1496–1541).

The royal palaces were on a magnificent scale, and, far from being confined to the capital or a few principal 10 towns, were scattered over all the provinces of their vast empire. The buildings were low, but covered a wide extent of ground. Some of the apartments were spacious, but they were generally small, and had no communication with one another, except that they opened into a common 15 square or court. The walls were made of blocks of stone of various sizes, rough-hewn, but carefully wrought near the line of junction, which was scarcely visible to the eye. The roofs were of wood or rushes, which have perished under the rude touch of time that has shown more 20 respect for the walls of the edifices. The whole seems to have been characterized by solidity and strength rather than by any attempt at architectural elegance.

But whatever want of elegance there may have been in the exterior of the imperial dwellings, it was amply

compensated by the interior, in which all the opulence of the Peruvian princes was ostentatiously displayed. The sides of the apartments were thickly studded with gold and silver ornaments. Niches prepared in the walls were filled with images of animals and plants curiously wrought 5 of the same costly materials; and even much of the domestic furniture, including the utensils devoted to the most ordinary menial services, displayed the like wanton magnificence! With these gorgeous decorations were mingled richly colored stuffs of the delicate manufacture 10 of the Peruvian wool, which were of so beautiful a texture that the Spanish sovereigns, with all the luxuries of Europe and Asia at their command, did not disdain to use them.

But the favorite residence of the Incas was at Yucay, 15 about four leagues distant from the capital. In this delicious valley, locked up within the friendly arms of the sierra, which sheltered it from the rude breezes of the east, and refreshed by gushing fountains and streams of running water, they built the most beautiful of their 20 palaces. Here, when wearied with the dust and toil of the city, they loved to retreat, wandering amidst groves and airy gardens that shed around their soft, intoxicating odors, and lulled the senses to repose. Here, too, they loved to indulge in the luxury of their baths, replenished 25 by streams of crystal water which were conducted through subterranean silver channels into basins of gold. The