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PRONUNCIATION.-Ef'fort 9, prog'ress 27a, par'lia-ment 33, ex'cel·lent 3b,

pat'ten 4c.

SWEEPING OUT THE ATLANTIC.

You

1. “You sneer at our efforts to check the progress of intemperance say that the evils we fear exist only in our imagination. that we are fighting windmills, and that people of sense never fight windmills. We reply that the popular will is on our side. You cannot resist its movement. You are trying to sweep out the Atlantic Ocean."

2. A youth, coming to this paragraph, looked up from the newspaper he was reading. "Fight windmills!" repeated he; "people of sense never fight windmills! I should think not. Sweep out the Atlantic Ocean! What in the world can all this mean?"

3. His father noticed his perplexity, and came to his relief. "Many years ago," said he, "the house of lords in the English parliament set their faces against some measures of reform demanded by the English people. The witty Sidney Smith, an English clergyman, and a warm friend of the proposed measures, made a speech from which I will read a short extract." Taking up a volume, he read as follows: :

4. "The attempt of the lords to stop the progress of reform reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion. In the winter of 1824 there set in a great flood upon that town the tide rose to an incredible hight-the waves rushed in upon the houses, and every thing was threatened with destruction.

5. "In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean.

6. "The Atlantic was roused. Mrs. Partington's spirit was up; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle; but she should not have meddled with a tempest."

7. "Now, my son," continued the father putting aside the book, "perhaps you understand the allusion in the newspaper.""Clearly. It means that the attempt to resist the progress of temperance is as useless as Dame Partington's efforts to sweep out the Atlantic. But

what about fighting windmills? Please to explain the phrase, of which I do not understand the force.

For the reply to this question the reader is referred to the next lesson.

LESSON CCV.

BRI-A RE-US, the name of a fabulous giant who was said to have a hundred

arms.

BUCK'LER, a kind of shield.
CAI'TIFF, a mean villain.
DON, a title in Spain, formerly given to
noblemen only; it is now applied to all
classes, like Mr in English.
LANCE, a long spear.
To set the lance
in the rest is to put it in position for
charging upon an enemy.

KNIGHT-ER RANT, (from knight, and Latin errans, wandering.) a knight going about the world in search of adventures.

MU-TA TION, change.

MET-A-MORPH OSE, to change into a dif ferent form, to transform.

SQUIRE, (a contraction of esquire, from the old French word escu, a shield,) a shield-bearer, or armor-bearer, an at tendant on a knight.

PRONUNCIATION.-Cer-van'tes, San'cho (not san'ko), ad-ven ture 17 and 18, windmill 32c, dis-cern' 33, at-tacked' (not at-tact'ed) 32b, wont (wunt), length 25, Ro-zi-nan'te.

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"This

1. THE youth and his father were sitting in the library. book," said the father, taking up a copy of Don Quixote, "was written by Cervantes, a Spanish author, who lived about three hundred years ago. In his time there were a great many books containing absurd stories of knights-errant, telling how they went about the world, conquering enormous giants and dragons, and other like follies.

2. To destroy the taste for these works, Cervantes wrote this book, in which he ridicules such absurdities. The hero of the work is a Spanish gentleman, called Don Quixote, who is represented as having read these books so much that he became crazy on the subject, and imagined himself a knight-errant.

3. He accordingly determined to arm himself, and go in search of such adventures as he had read of in the works of knight-errantry. As knights-errant were represented in his books as accompanied by squires, he induced a simple-minded laborer, named Sancho Panza, to go with him as his squire.

4. When all their arrangements had been made, these two set out, Don Quixote mounted on a lean horse, which he called Rozinante, and Sancho Panza on a dappled donkey. They had traveled but a short distance when they met with their first adventure. The father then proceeded to read from the book.

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5. "They saw on the plain before them thirty or forty windmills. As soon as Don Quixote espied them he said to his squire, Fortune disposes our affairs better than we ourselves could have desired. Look yonder, friend Sancho Panza, where you may discover somewhat more than thirty monstrous giants, with whom I intend to fight and take away all their lives, and with whose spoils we will begin to enrich ourselves; for it is lawful war and doing God service to take away so wicked a generation from off the face of the earth!' 6. "What giants?' said Sancho Panza.- Those you see yonder,' answered his master, with those long arms, for some of them are wont to have them almost of the length of six miles.'-' Consider, sir,' answered Sancho, 'that those which appear yonder are not giants, but windmills, and what seem to be arms are the sails. which, whirled about by the wind, make the millstone go.' 7. "One may easily see,' answered Don Quixote, 'that you are not versed in the business of adventures. Those are giants, and, if you are afraid, get aside and pray, whilst I engage with them in a fierce and unequal combat.'

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8. "So saying, he clapped spurs to Rozinante, without minding the cries his squire sent after him, assuring him that those he went to assault were, without all doubt, windmills, and not giants.

9. "But Don Quixote was so fully possessed with the belief that they were giants that he neither heard the outcries of his squire Sancho, nor discerned what they were; but went on, crying out aloud, Fly not, ye cowards and vile caitiffs, for it is a single knight who assaults you.'

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10. "Now the wind rose a little, and the great sails began to move, which Don Quixote perceiving, he said, Well. though you should move more arms than the giant Briareus, you shall pay for it.'

11. "So saying, being well covered with his buckler, and setting his lance in the rest, he rushed on as fast as Rozinante could gallop, and attacked the nearest mill.

12. "When he had run his lance into the sail the wind whirled the sail about with such violence that it broke the lance into shivers, dragging horse and rider after it, and tumbling them over and over on the plain in very evil plight.

13. "Sancho Panza hastened to his assistance as fast as his donkey could carry him. When he came up to Don Quixote he found him unable to stir, so violent was the blow he and Rozinante had received in falling.

14. "Dapple is my witness,' quoth Sancho, 'that I warned you to have a

care of what you did, for that those things were nothing but windmills. And nobody could mistake them but one that had windmills in his head.'

15. "Peace, friend Sancho,' answered Don Quixote, 'for matters of war are of all others the most subject to continual mutation. Now, I verily believe. and it is most certainly so, that an enchanter has metamorphosed these giants into windmills, on purpose to deprive me of the glory of vanquishing them. But when he has done his worst his wicked arts will avail but little against the goodness of my sword.'

16. "I hope, in truth, it may prove so,' answered Sancho Panza; and, helping him to rise, he mounted him again upon Rozinanté, who was half-shoulderslipped."

17. When the father had finished reading this passage he said, "When any one imagines danger in what is innocent, and conjures up enemies where there are none, we say that he is fighting windmills. He is like to be worsted in the battle."

LESSON CCV 1.

BOOT'LESS, unavailing, useless.

| Bow'ER, place of repose and ease.

PRONUNCIATION.-Aye 33, put 33, mornʼing 12, a 31, the 31, and 29.

"EARLY TO BED, AND EARLY TO RISE."

1. "Early to bed, and early to rise :-"
Aye, note it down in your brain;
For it helps to make the foolish wise,
And uproots the weeds of pain.
Ye who are walking on thorns of care,
Who sigh for a softer bower,

Try what can be done in the morning sun,
And make use of the early hour.

2. Full many a day forever is lost

By delaying its work till to-morrow;
The minutes of sloth have often cost
Long years of bootless sorrow.

And ye who would win the lasting wealth
Of content and peaceful power,
Ye who would couple labor and health,
Must begin at the carly hour.

3. Oh! pleasure and rest are most easily found
When we start through morning's gate

To sum up our figures, or plow up our ground,
And weave out the web of fate.

The eye looks bright, and the heart keeps light,
And man holds the conqueror's power,

When, ready and brave, he chains time as his slave,
By the help of the early hour.

ANONYMOUS.

LESSON CCVII.

BE SIEGE', to surround with armed forces |
for the purpose of compelling to sur
render, either by famine or by violent
attacks.

CATHEDRAL, the principal church in a
diocese, or bishop's jurisdiction.
OR LE-A S, a large city in the interior of
France.

DAU'PHIN, the title of the eldest son of the King of France, the presumptive heir of the crown.

RHEIMS (Reemz), an ancient city of France, the cathedral of which is one of the most splendid Gothic structures in Europe.

SQUIRE, an attendant on a noble warrior.

PRONUNCIATION.- Lor-raine', heard 33, figʻure 16, bade 33, linʼger-ing 36.

JOAN OF ARC.

Part First.

1. In the year 1429, France had been almost entirely conquered by the English. It was customary to crown the kings of France at Rheims; but this place at the death of Charles VI. being in possession of the English, his son, the Dauphin, could not go there to be crowned.

2. The Dauphin was so poor that it is said a shoemaker refused to sell him a pair of boots upon credit. Orleans was the only remaining town of importance in his possession, and this was besieged by the English.

3. The French had defended this city for some time; but they were now about to surrender it. The Dauphin was preparing to fly to some other country when relief came from an unexpected

source.

4. In a remote village, among some wild hills in the province of Lorraine, lived a country girl, Joan of Arc, at this time about twenty years old.

5. She had been a solitary girl from her childhood. She had often tended sheep and cattle for whole days in remote places where no human figure was seen and no human voice heard. She had often knelt, for hours together, in the gloomy, empty little village chapel, looking up at the altar and at the dim lamp burning before it, till she fancied that she saw shadowy figures standing there, and even that she heard them speak to her.

6. The people in that part of France were very ignorant and superstitious. They easily believed that Joan saw strange sights, and whispered among themselves that angels and spirits talked to her.

7. At last Joan told her father that she had one day been surprised by a great unearthly light, and had afterward heard solemn voices saying, "Joan, thou art appointed by Heaven to go and help the Dauphin!" She almost always heard them while the chapelbells were ringing.

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