novelists, appeared in 1859. After the death of Mr. Lewes she married J. W. Cross, a London banker. She died in 1880. Her best novels are "Adam Bede," ," "The Mill on the Floss," "Romola," and " Middlemarch." She was the author, also, of several miscellaneous poems and of a dramatic poem, "The Spanish Gypsy " (1868), which deserves to rank among the classics.

Read "George Eliot's Life and Letters" (edited by her husband, J. W. Cross), and "George Eliot and her Heroines," by Abba Goold Woolson. This selection is from "Adam Bede."

2.-CRAB. Crab-apple. From Irish garbh, harsh, sour.

3.-PALAVER (pa lä' ver). Idle talk. From Gr. parabola, a comparison. 4.-BAILIFF. A sort of steward in respect of farming business. 5.-MICHAELMAS (mik' al mas). A festival of the Roman Catholic Church, observed on the 29th of September.

ADDITIONAL READING SUGGESTED: Selections from any of the works of George Eliot; also Sheppard's "Character Readings from George Eliot."

XXXIV.-TIE ISLES OF GREECE.

Page 185, Note 1.-GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON, was born in 1788. He was educated at Harrow, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. His first volume of poems, "Hours of Idleness," published in 1807, was ridiculed by the Edinburgh Review. This led to a retort from Byron, in a satirical poem entitled "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." Five years afterwards he was made famous by the publication of the opening cantos of a long poem, "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage." Other poems followed in rapid succession: "The Prisoner of Chillon,' " "Manfred,' ""Lament of Tasso," and "Don Juan." Then came several dramas, never intended for the stage, but which unprincipled managers afterwards presented upon the boards. He died at Missolonghi, in Greece, in 1824, whither he had gone to aid in the revolution against the Turks.

This selection is from "Don Juan," canto iii., and is supposed to have been sung by a minstrel in the suite of the hero of that poem. Of this minstrel it is said that

"In France, for instance, he would write a chanson;

In England, a six-canto quarto tale;.

In Italy he'd ape the Trecentisti';

...

In Greece he'd sing some sort of hymn like this t'ye."

2.-SAPPHO. A Greek lyric poet, died about B.C. 592. Her poems formed nine books, but of these only fragments have come down to us.—Burning, i. e., with poetic fervor. See page 315, line 26.

3.-DELOS. A small island in the Egean Sea, the birthplace of Apollo. 4. SCIAN MUSE. The epic poets-"the hero's harp"-notably Homer.TEIAN MUSE. The lyric poets-"the lover's lute "-notably Anacreon, whose birthplace was Teos, in Asia Minor.

5.-ISLANDS. See Note 5, page 457.--FARTHER WEST, i. e., to America. 6.-MARATHON. The plain on which the Persians were defeated by the Greeks, B.C. 490. It is situated about twenty-two miles north-east of Athens. 7.-A KING. Xerxes, in the battle of Salamis, B. C. 480. Salamis is a small island off the western coast of Attica. The battle took place in the strait between the island and the coast of Attica.

8.-THERMOPYLE (ther mop' i la). See Harper's Fourth Reader, page 347. 9.-SAMIAN. Pertaining to Samos, one of the principal islands of the Egean Sea. Samos was long the centre of Ionian luxury, science, and art. 10.--BACCHANAL. See note, page 477, also Note 15, p. 491.

11.-PYRRHIC DANCE. An ancient war-dance, invented by one Pyrrhicus. -PHALANX (fa'lanx). A square body of soldiers formed in ranks and files close and deep, with their shields joined, and pikes crossing each other. 12.--CADMUS. A mythical prince of Phoenicia, the founder of Thebes, and the inventor of the Greek alphabet.

"The

13. ANACREON. A Greek lyric poet, born at Teos, in Asia Minor, about B.C. 563. Only a few fragments of his poems have come down to us.POLYCRATES. See Harper's Fifth Reader, page 510.-MILTIADES. The Athenian general who defeated the Persians at Marathon.-CHERSONESE. Chersonesus" is the narrow strip of land between the Hellespont and the Gulf of Melas. It was colonized by the Athenians under the elder Miltiades. 14. HERACLEIDAN. Belonging to Hercules, or to his descendants, some of whom were said to have settled in Dorus.-SULI. A fortified town in Epirus.-PARGA. A coast town of Epirus.

15.-FRANKS. A general term for the inhabitants of Western Europe. 16.-SUNIUM. A celebrated promontory forming the southern extremity of Attica, on which was a temple and statue of Athena.

"The

ADDITIONAL READING SUGGESTED: Selections from Byron's poems: Prisoner of Chillon,' ""The Dream," ," "The Battle of Waterloo" (from Childe Harold), "The Corsair," Part II.

XXXV.-READING FOR PROFIT.

Page 188, Note 1.-JOHN MORLEY was born in Lancashire in 1838. He was educated at Oxford and at Lincoln's Inn. He was for some time editor of the Morning Star, and afterwards of the Fortnightly Review; then of the Pall Mall Gazette, and finally of Macmillan's Magazine. He takes an active part in politics, and is now a member of Parliament. His biog raphies of "Voltaire" and "Rousseau," his work on 'Compromise," and his contributions to the periodical press, have made his name well known in this country as well as in Europe.

2.-"IMITATION OF CHRIST." The title of a book of devotional meditations written by Thomas à Kempis, a German abbot of Mount St. Agnes, early in the fifteenth century. Perhaps no other book, save only the Bible, has been so universally read and loved by religions people of all creeds.

3. MR. MILL. John Stuart Mill, a writer upon philosophical subjects, and one of the clearest thinkers of modern times (1806-1873).

XXXVI.-ZENOBIA.

Page 193, Note 1.-EDWARD GIBBON was born at Putney, England, in 1737. He was educated at Oxford, and in 1774 was elected to Parlia

ment. He died in 1794. His great work is "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," the first volume of which appeared in 1776. "Gibbon's conception of the whole subject was as poetical as a great picture. Rome, eastern and western, was painted in the centre, slowly dying like a lion. Around it he pictured the nations and hordes that wrought its ruin, told their stories from the beginning, and the results on themselves and on the world of their victories over Rome." See Morison's "Edward Gibbon" (English Men of Letters).

2.-AURELIAN, Emperor of Rome (A.D. 270–275), was born about A.D. 212. He entered the Roman army as a common soldier, but, on account of his extraordinary ability and courage, he rose, step by step, to the highest offices in the empire. On the death of Claudius II. he was elected emperor. He was assassinated by some of his officers.

3.-ZENOBIA. See Harper's Fifth Reader, pages 376 and 505.

4.-SEMIRAMIS (se mir' a mis). Queen of Assyria, the founder, with Ninus, her husband, of the Assyrian empire, about B.C. 2000.

5.-LONGINUS (lon gi' nus). A celebrated Greek philosopher and grammarian. The last years of his life were spent in Palmyra, where he taught Greek literature to the Queen, and finally became her chief counsellor.

6.—The Great KING. Shapur, or Sapor, King of Persia (240–273).--CTESIPHON A city of Assyria, on the eastern bank of the Tigris.

7.-VALERIAN. Valerianus, "the captive emperor," was treacherously made prisoner by Shapur, A.D. 260, and passed the remainder of his life in captivity, subject to every species of insult. He was succeeded, as Emperor of Rome, by Gallienus, "his insensible son." The latter was slain by his own soldiers at Milan, A.D. 268, and was succeeded by Claudius II.

8.-CLAUDIUS. Claudius II., surnamed Gothicus, for his great victory over the Goths, had, by his military talents, risen from obscurity to a position of great distinction under Gallienus. His reign was brief. Dying in 270, he

was succeeded by Aurelian.

9.-APOLLONIUS. Apollonius of Trana was a Pythagorean philosopher, born about four years before Christ. He obtained great influence by pretending to magical powers.

10. After a short siege Palmyra was captured, the philosopher Longinus was put to death, and Zenobia was carried prisoner to Rome, where she adorned the triumph of Aurelian (274). The remainder of her life was spent in captivity, with her sons, in the vicinity of Tibur (Tivoli).

ADDITIONAL READING SUGGESTED: William Ware's "Zenobia." See Harper's Fifth Reader, page 376.

XXXVII. THE DELECTABLE MOUNTAINS.

Page 198, Note 1.-JOHN BUNYAN was born at Elstow in 1628. He served in the Parliamentary army in 1645; became a Baptist preacher in 1655; was imprisoned in Bedford jail from 1660 to 1672. During his imprisonment he wrote "The Pilgrim's Progress," the first part of which was published in 1678. He died in 1688.

'Bunyan's is a homespun style, not a manufactured one. If it is not a

well of English undefiled, it is a clear stream of current English-the vernacular speech of his age." "-SOUTHEY.

See Taine's "English Literature," Macaulay's "Essay on John Bunyan," and Froude's "John Bunyan" (English Men of Letters).

2.-"S -"Shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus."-ST. PAUL.

XXXVIII.-TO A SKYLARK.

Page 202, Note 1.-PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY was born near Horsham, in Sussex, in 1792, and was educated at Eton and at Oxford. He was drowned in the Bay of Spezia, 1822. His principal works are "Prometheus Unbound," "Adonais," "Alastor," "The Cenci," and some miscellaneous shorter poems, as "To the Skylark," "To a Cloud," etc. See Symonds's "Shelley" (English Men of Letters).

"For sweetness, the 'Ode to the Skylark' is inferior only to Coleridge; in rapturous passion, to no man. It is like the bird it sings-enthusiastic, enchanting, profuse, continuous, and alone-small, but filling the heavens." -LEIGH HUNT.

Has any one, since Shakespeare and Spenser, lighted on such tender and such grand ecstasies ?"-TAINE.

2.-SUNKEN SUN. The sun not yet risen above the horizon.

3. UNBEHOLDEN. Unseen.

4.—SPRITE. Spirit. Spelled also spright.

5.-CHORUS HYMENEAL (hy men e' al). Marriage song. From Hymen, the god of marriage.

6. WE LOOK BEFORE. See "Ode on the Intimations of Immortality" (page 327).

XXXIX.-CULTURE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.

Page 206, Note 1.-DAVID MASSON, biographer and literary critic, was born in 1822. He was, for many years, Professor of English Literature in the University College, London, and afterwards in the University of Edinburgh. He was also for some time editor of Macmillan's Magazine. His most important work is "The Life and Times of John Milton," in four large volumes. Among his other writings are "British Novelists and their Styles,' "Drummond of Hawthornden," and "Biographical and Critical Essays."

2.-GEOFFREY CHAUCER, "the father of English poetry," was born in 1328 (according to some authorities, in 1340), died in 1400. His great work was the "Canterbury Tales." See Lowell's "My Study Windows," Charles Cowden Clarke's "Riches of Chaucer," and Ward's "Geoffrey Chaucer " (English Men of Letters).

3.-JOHN BARBOUR, Archdeacon of Aberdeen (born in 1316, died in 1396), wrote "The Book of Robert Bruce," and other poems, and is regarded as the first Scottish poet.

4.-The spelling in these selections has been modernized, except in cases

where a different pronunciation from that now in vogue is required. Hence, in reading these verses, pronounce the words, as nearly as possible, as spelled. 5.-OVEREST COURTEPY. Coat, or overcoat.

6.-NE. Nor.

7.-LIEFER. Rather. From A. S. leof, love.

8.-SAUTRIE. A musical instrument; harp.

9.-HENT. Borrow; get. From A. S. hendan, to lay hold of.

10.-SCHOLÁY. Pursue his studies.-Cure.

Care.

11.-YCRASED. Broken. O. E. crased, bruised, crashed.

12.-GLOSE. Ornament; illustration.

13.-RÓMAUNT OF THE ROSE. A celebrated allegory of the fourteenth century, translated by Chaucer from the French.

14.-GRAMERCY (gra mer' cy). A word used to express thankfulness with surprise. From Fr. grand-merci, great thanks.

15.-Wor. Know. From A. S. witan, to know.

16.-DREE. Continue to do. From A. S. dreogan, to complete.
17.-KEN. Understand. From A. S. cunnan, to know.

18.-GIF. If.-YEARNED. Desired.-THIRLDOM. Thraldom; slavery.
19. ESSAYED. Tried, experienced.

20.—PERQUÉRE. By earnest seeking.-SULD. Should.

ADDITIONAL READING SUGGESTED: The following selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales": "The Knight's Tale," "The Clerke's Tale," and the whole of the "Prologue."

XL. THE ART OF IMPROVING BEAUTY.

Page 211, Note 1.-SIR RICHARD STEELE was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1671. He was educated at Charterhouse School and at Oxford. He died in 1729, almost forgotten by his contemporaries. Besides his essays in The Spectator (see p. 455), he wrote contributions for The Tatler and The Guar dian. He was the author, also, of "The Christian Hero," and of several comedies. "The great charm of Steele's writing," says Thackeray, "is its naturalness. He wrote so quickly and carelessly that he was forced to make the reader his confidant, and had not the time to deceive him. He had a small share of book-learning, but a vast acquaintance with the world." Read Thackeray's "English Humorists" and "Henry Esmond."

This essay comprises the 33d number of The Spectator, and was published on Saturday, April 7, 1711.

2.—CHANCE-MEDLEY. The killing of another by misadventure, or without premeditation or evil intent.

3.-CHARLES DE ST. DENIS (Sieur de St. Evremond) was a native of France, who, having offended the French Government, fled to England in 1661. He was granted a pension by Charles II., and was in high favor with both James II. and William III. He died in 1703, at the age of ninety-five, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The passage quoted by Steele is found in a volume entitled "Miscellany Essays, by M. de St. Evremond" (1694).

4.—Dryden makes use of this expression in his drama of "Don Sebastian” (1690). The Emperor of Barbary is represented as saying: