And every shepherd tells his tale

Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures
While the landscape round it measures

Russet lawns and fallows gray

Where the nibbling flocks do stray,
Mountains on whose barren breast
The laboring clouds do often rest,
Meadows trim with daisies pied,
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide.
Towers and battlements it sees
Bosomed high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps some beauty lies,
The cynosure of neighboring eyes.
Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes
From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon and Thyrsis met
Are at their savory dinner set

Of herbs and other country messes,

Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses;
And then in haste her bower she leaves,
With Thestylis to bind the sheaves,
Or, if the earlier season lead,

To the tanned haycock in the mead.
Sometimes with secure delight
The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecs sound

To many a youth and many a maid,
Dancing in the checkered shade;

And young and old come forth to play

On a sunshine holiday,

Till the livelong daylight fail;
Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,

With stories told of

many a feat :
How fairy Mab the junkets eat;

She was pinched and pulled, she said,
And he, by friar's lantern led,
Tells how the drudging goblin sweat
To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-laborers could not end;
Then lies him down the lubber fiend,
And, stretched out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength;
And crop-full out of doors he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings.
Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,
By whispering winds soon lulled asleep.
Towered cities please us then,

And the busy hum of men,

Where throngs of knights and barons bold
In weeds of peace high triumphs hold,
With store of ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize

Of wit or arms, while both contend
To win her grace whom all commend.
There let Hymen oft appear

In saffron robe, with taper clear,
And pomp and feast and revelry,
With mask and antique pageantry;

Such sights as youthful poets dream
On summer eves by haunted stream.
Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Jonson's learned sock be on,

Or sweetest Shakspere, Fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
And ever, against eating cares,
Lap me in soft Lydian airs,
Married to immortal verse

Such as the meeting soul may pierce
In notes with many a winding bout

Of linked sweetness long drawn out,
With wanton heed and giddy cunning,
The melting voice through mazes running,
Untwisting all the chains that tie

The hidden soul of harmony;

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Çer'bė rus: a three-headed, serpent-tailed dog which guarded the entrance to Hades. Styg'i an: pertaining to the river Styx, in the region of shades; hence, hellish; infernal. Çim mē'ri an : pertaining to the Cimmerii, a people fabled to live in a land of utter darkness. Y clěped': called; named. Eu phros' (fros)ǎ nē: one of the three Graces, the attendants of Venus. Băc'

chus the Roman god of wine and revelry. Quips: smart turns or jests; taunts. Cranks twists of speech consisting in changing the form or meaning of a word. He'bê: the goddess of youth, at one time the cupbearer of the gods. Un reprov'èd: blameless. Sweetbrier, eglantine: the sweetbrier and the eglantine are the same plant. Milton probably applies the name eglantine to the honeysuckle. Dight: dressed; ornamented. Tells his tale: tells or counts the number of his flock. Pied variegated with spots of different colors. Çy'no sure (shur): any thing to which attention is strongly turned; a center of attraction. Cor'y don and Thỹr'sis: names of two shepherds in Roman pastoral poetry. Měss'es: dishes of food set on a table at one time. Phyl' (fil) lis: the name of a country girl in Roman pastoral poetry; hence, any country girl. Thěs'ty lis: a female slave mentioned in Greek pastoral poetry; hence, a country girl. Se cure': free from care; confident. Rē'becs: musical instruments somewhat like the violin. Măb: the queen of the fairies. Jun'kets: sweetmeats; delicate food. Friar's lantern will o' the wisp. Lub'ber: awkward; clownish. Weeds garments; clothing. Hy'men: the Roman god of marriage. Jonson's learned sock: if one of Jonson's comedies is being acted. In the classic drama the sock and buskin were the respective footgears of comic and tragic actors. Ben Jonson (1584-1637) was one of the greatest of English dramatic poets. Lyd'i an: one of the three Greek modes or keys, the music in which was soft and pathetic. Eu ryd'i çē: the wife of the musician Orpheus. After her death he followed her to Hades, and so charmed Pluto with his music that Pluto consented to let Eurydice return to the upper world, on condition that she would not look back before reaching it. She failed, however, to comply with the condition, and had to return to the land of shades.

A Nation in its Strength

FROM "AREOPAGITICA," BY JOHN MILTON

Lords and commons of England; consider what nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors a nation not slow and dull, but of quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit; acute to invent, subtile and sinewy; to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point the highest 5 that human capacity can soar to. Therefore, the studies of learning in her deepest sciences have been so ancient and so eminent among us, that writers of good antiquity and ablest judgment have been persuaded that even the school of Pythagoras and the Persian wisdom took begin- 10 ning from the old philosophy of this island. And that wise and civil Roman, Julius Agricola, who governed once here for Cæsar, preferred the natural wits of Britain before the labored studies of the French.

Behold now this vast city, a city of refuge, the man- 15 sion house of Liberty, -encompassed and surrounded with his protection; the shop of war hath not there more anvils and hammers working, to fashion out the plates and instruments of armed Justice in defense of beleaguered Truth, than there be pens and heads there, sitting by their studi-20 ous lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions and ideas wherewith to present, as with their homage and their fealty, the approaching reformation; others as fast reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of reason and convincement.

What could a man require more from a nation so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge? What wants

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