MONDAY, February 23.

Into Greek Iambics.

Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment,
And state of bodies would bewray what life
We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself
How more unfortunate than all living women

Are we come hither; since that thy sight, which should
Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comfort,
Constrains them weep, and shake with fear and sorrow;
Making the mother, wife, and child, to see

The son, the husband, and the father, tearing
His country's bowels out.

Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 3.

WEDNESDAY, February 25.

Into Greek Prose.

Singular as my present situation is, it is neither painful, nor was it unforeseen. He is not fit for public business who does not, even at the entrance, prepare his mind for such an event. Health, fortune, tranquillity, and private connexions, I have sacrificed upon the altar of the public; and the only return I received, because I will not concur to dupe and mislead a senseless multitude, is barely, that they have not yet torn me in pieces. That this has been my only return is my pride, and a source of more real satisfaction than honours or prosperity. I can practise before I am old, the lessons I learned in my youth; nor shall I forget the words of my ancient monitor.-Letters of Junius.

FRIDAY, February 27.

Into Latin Elegiacs.

What can atone, (oh, ever injured shade,)
Thy fate unpity'd, and thy rites unpaid?
No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear
Pleased thy pale ghost, or graced thy mournful bier ;
By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,
By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed.
What though no sacred earth allow thee room,
Nor hallowed dirge be muttered o'er thy tomb?

Yet shall thy grave with rising flowers be drest,
And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast:
There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow,
There the first roses of the year shall blow;
While Angels with their silver wings o'ershade
The ground now sacred by thy relics made.

Pope.-Elegy on a Lady.

MONDAY, March 2.

Into Latin Hexameters.

Then kneeling, with her hands across her breast,
Thus lowly she preferred her chaste request:
O Goddess, haunter of the woodland green,
To whom both heaven and earth and seas are seen,
Queen of the nether skies, where half the year
Thy silver beams descend, and light the gloomy sphere;
Goddess of maids, and conscious of our hearts,

So keep me from the vengeance of thy darts,

Which Niobe's devoted issue felt,

When hissing through the skies the feathered deaths were dealt;

As I desire to live a virgin life,

Nor know the name of mother or of wife.

Thy votress from my tender years I am,

And love, like thee, the woods and sylvan game.

Dryden.-Palamon and Arcite.

WEDNESDAY, March 4.

Into Latin Prose.

Epaminondas was born and educated in that honest poverty which those less corrupted ages accounted the glorious mark of integrity and virtue. The instructions of a Pythagorean philosopher, to whom he was intrusted in his earliest years, formed him to all the temperance and severity peculiar to that sect, and were received wi thadocility and pleasure which bespoke an ingenuous mind. Music, dancing, and all those arts which were accounted honourable distinctions, he received from the greatest masters. In the athletic exercises he became conspicuous, but soon learned to apply particularly to those which might prepare him for the labours and

occasions of a military life. His modesty and gravity rendered him ready to hear and receive instruction; and his genius enabled him to learn and improve. A love of truth, a love of virtue, tenderness, and humanity, and an exalted patriotism, he had learned, and soon displayed. To these glorious qualities he added penetration and sagacity, a happiness in improving every incident, a consummate skill in war, an unconquerable patience of toil and distress, a boldness. in enterprise, vigour and magnanimity.-Leland.

FRIDAY, March 6.

Into Greek Iambics.

And to poor we,

Thine enmity's most capital: thou barr'st us
Our prayers to the Gods, which is a comfort
That all but we enjoy: For how can we,
Alas! how can we for our country pray,
Whereto we are bound; together with thy victory
Whereto we are bound? Alack or we must lose
The country, our dear nurse; or else thy person,
Our comfort in the country. We must find
An evident calamity, though we had
Our wish which side should win.

Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 3.

MONDAY, March 9.

Into Greek Prose.

For one (if they be properly treated) I despair neither of the public fortune nor of the public mind. There is much to be done, undoubtedly, and much to be retrieved. We must walk in new ways, or we can never encounter our enemy in his devious march. We are not at an end of our struggle nor near it. Let us not deceive ourselves, we are at the beginning of great troubles. I readily acknowledge that the state of public affairs is infinitely more unpromising than at the period I have just now alluded to, and the position of all the powers of Europe, in relation to us and in relation to each other, is more critical and difficult beyond comparison.-Burke.

WEDNESDAY, March 11.

Into Latin Hexameters.

Meanwhile the south wind rose, and with black wings
Wide hovering, all the clouds together drove
From under heaven; the hills to their supply,
Vapour and exhalation dusk and moist
Sent up amain. And now the thickened sky
Like a dark ceiling stood; down rushed the rain
Impetuous; and continued, till the earth
No more was seen; the floating vessel swam
Uplifted, and secure with beaked prow
Rode tilting o'er the waves; all dwellings else
Flood overwhelmed, and them with all their pomp
Deep under water rolled; sea covered sea,
Sea without shore; and in their palaces,
Where luxury late reigned, sea-monsters whelped
And stalked; of mankind so numerous late
All left, in one small bottom swam embarked.

Milton's Paradise Lost, B. XI.

FRIDAY, March 13.

Into Latin Elegiacs.

Nymphs and shepherds, dance no more
By sandy Ladon's lilied banks;
On old Lycæus or Cyllene hoar,
Trip no more in twilight ranks;
Though Erymanth your

your loss deplore,

A better soil shall give ye thanks.

From the stony Mænalus

Bring your flocks, and live with us;

Here ye shall have greater grace,

To serve the lady of this place.

Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were,

Yet Syrinx well might wait on her,

Such a rural queen

All Arcadia hath not seen.-Do. Arcades.

MONDAY, March 16.

Into Latin Prose.

It is hard to personate and act a part long; for where truth is not at the bottom, nature will always be endea

vouring to return, and will peep out and betray herself one time or other. Therefore if any man think it convenient to seem good, let him be so indeed, and then his goodness will appear to everybody's satisfaction; so that upon all accounts, sincerity is true wisdom. Particularly as to the affairs of this world, integrity hath many advantages over all the fine and artificial ways of dissimulation and deceit; it is much the plainer and easier, much the safer and more secure way of dealing in the world, it has less of trouble and difficulty, of entanglement and perplexity, of danger and hazard in it; it is the shortest and nearest way to our end. The arts of deceit and cunning do continually grow weaker and less effectual and serviceable to them that use them; whereas integrity gains strength by use; and the more and longer any man practiseth it, the greater service it does him, by confirming his reputation and encouraging those with whom he has to do to repose the greatest trust and confidence in him, which is an unspeakable advantage in the business and affairs of life.-Spectator.

WEDNESDAY, March 18.

Into Greek Anapæstics.

This, this is he; softly a while,
Let us not break in upon him:

O change beyond report, thought or belief!
See how he lies at random carelessly diffused,
With languished head unpropt,

As one past hope abandoned,

And by himself given over;

Or do my eyes misrepresent? Can this be he,

That heroic, that renowned,

Irresistible Samson? whom unarmed

No strength of man or fiercest wild beast could with

stand?

Milton.-Samson Agonistes.

FRIDAY, March 20.

Into Latin Sapphics.

I weigh not fortune's frown or smile,
I joy not much in earthly joys;
I seek not state, I seek not style,