TS JET THREr & flaw:

LIKE The new brocade:

For beter om & masquerade;

The near, or neglace, at a bal :

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whether Beaver nas doom & that Shock must fall. Haste then, ye spirits to your charge repair: The butt ring far i Zephiretta's care; The drops to thee, Brillante, we consign; And Momentilla, let the watch be thine; To thou, Crispissa, tend her favourite lock; Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock. To fifty chosen sylphs, of special note We trust th' important charge Oft have we known that sev

Tho' stiff with steel, and

Form a strong line about the silver bound
And guard the wide circumference around.
Whatever spirit, careless of his charge,
His post neglects, or leaves the fair at large,
Shall feel sharp vengeance soon o'ertake his sins,
Be stop'd in vials or transfixed with pins:
Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie,

Or wedg'd whole ages in a bodkin's eye:
Gums and pomatums shall his flight restrain,
While cloy'd he beats his silken wings in vain :
Or alum styptics with contracting power
Shrink his thin essence like a rivel'd flower:
Or, as Ixion fixed, the wretch shall feel
The giddy motion of the whirling mill,
In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow,
And tremble at the sea that froths below!
He spoke; the spirits from the sails descend:
Some, orb in orb, around the nymph extend;
Some thread the mazy ringlets of her hair,
Some hang upon the pendents of her ear;
With beating hearts the dire event they wait,
Anxious and trembling for the birth of fate.

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100

105

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1. To what does the word "than," refer? (Line 3.) 2. What part of the verb is the word "launch'd”? (Line 4.) Is it used in an active or passive sense?

What is "etherial plain"? (Line 1.) What is al meaning of the word etherial?

ay Jews and Infidels especially named as pers of Belinda's cross? (Line 8.)

hat special system of s belong? (Line 25.)

7. Give the meaning and derivation of the word "denizen." (Line 27.)

8. Explain" lucid" and "shrouds." (Lines 28 and 29.) What other meanings has shrouds?

9. What kind of verb is the word "waft"? (Line 32.) How is it generally used, and how used here ? 10. What is the meaning of "fluid body"? (Line 34.)

11. Explain the meaning and derivation of the word "texture." (Line 36.)

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12. To what does "flings" refer, in line 39, and they" in line 40 ?

13. What is the supposed difference between a Sylph and a Sylphid? (Line 45.)

14. What is the origin of the expression "sphere when used in the sense of assigning a special sphere to any person or thing?

15. Explain the word "athwart" in line 54. What verb is akin to it?

16. Explain lines 61 and 62.

17. What part of speech is "threat?" (Line 73.) What is it usually, and what word would we now make use of, instead of the one used here?

18. What part of speech is "Fair" in the same line? What does it mean here? Substitute a word.

19. What meaning have the two "or's" in line 75 ? 20. Explain the peculiar appropriateness of the names given to the spirits in lines 84, 85, 86, and 87, and describe their several duties.

21. What kind of dress was apparently worn by the belles of that day? (Lines 91, 92.)

22. What part of speech is "bound" in line 93 ? 23. Explain stop'd in vials? (Line 98.)

24. Explain the words "alum," "styptic," "contract," and "rivel'd." (Lines 103, 104.)

25. Who was Ixion? (Line 105.)

26. What species of poem is "The Rape of the Lock"? Give arguments in support of your opinion from the extract given.

27. In what reign are its events supposed to take place?

28. Relate shortly the action of the poem in the portion given.

LESSON XX.

ESSAY ON MAN.

BY ALEXANDER POPE.

BOOK I.

The bliss of man, (could pride that blessing find)

Is, not to act or think, beyond mankind;

No pow'rs of body, or of soul to share,

But what his nature and his state can bear.

Why has not man a microscopic eye?

5

For this plain reason, man is not a fly.

Say, what the use, were finer optics given,

T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n?

And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres,
How would he wish that heav'n had left him still

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The whisp❜ring zephyr and the purling rill?
Who finds not Providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies?

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body, nature is, and God the soul;

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That chang'd through all and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth as in th' etherial frame;

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,

Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 25
Spreads undivided, operates, unspent ;

Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,

As full, as perfect, in a hair, as heart;

As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns:
To him, no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.
Cease then, nor order, imperfection name:
Our proper

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bliss depends on what we blame. Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree, 35 Of blindness, weakness, heaven bestows on thee.

Submit-in this or any other sphere,

Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:

Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

Safe in the hand of one disposing power,

40

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;

All discord, harmony not understood;

All partial evil, universal good:

And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

45

One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

1. What proposition is stated in the first four lines ? Substitute a word for "share" in line 3.

2. Explain the word" comprehend." Would "understand" do as well? (Line 8.)

3. What part of speech is "touch," in line 9?