6. "A modest Acorn! never to tell What was enclosed in her simple shell That the pride of the forest was then shut up And meekly to sink in the darksome earth, To come and admire that beautiful tree, 7. "Useless and vain, a cumberer 5 here, 1 A-BASHED' (-băsht'). Confused. 2 RE-TÖRT'. Answer. ÂU-GUST'. Grand; majestic. 4 A-BASED'. Lowered; humbled. 5 CUM BER-ER. Burden. G VÂUNTING. Boasting. XV. NOW IS THE TIME. 1. THE bud will soon become a flower, Then seize, O youth! the present hour.- As in the furrows of a plough 3. The sun and rain will ripen fast 4. And soon the harvest of thy toil, Or o'er thy wild, neglected soil [Daniel De Foe was born in London in 1661, and died in 1731. He was a hosier by trade; but being a ready and able writer, and much interested in the political questions of the day, he neglected his business, and finally forsook it. He wrote a great number of works, comprising political pamphlets and fictitious narratives. His style is easy, vigorous, and idiomatic; but his great merit consists in the wonderful air of truth he gives to his works of fiction. This is especially exemplified in his Robinson Crusoe, from which the following extract is taken, which is, probably, the most popular book in the English language. It was first published in Aprii, 1719. It was founded on the narrative of Alexander Selkirk, a native of Scotland, who was mate of a vessel called the Cinque Ports, on a trading voyage round the world in 1704. Having quarrelied with the captain. he was left, at his own request, on the Island of Juan Fernandez, where he remained, without seeing a human being, for four years and four months, till he was found and brought away by Captain Rogers, commander of a commercia! expedition round the world, which sailed in 1709, and returned to Great Britain in 1711. An account of this expedition was given to the world, in which Selkirk's narrative first appeared. It is only a few pages long, and merely furnished De Foe with a point to start from.] 1. It happened one day about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thun. derstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition.1 I lis tened, I looked round me. I could hear nothing, nor see anything. I went up to a rising ground to look farther. I went up the shore and down the shore; but it was all one, I could see no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the very print of a foot, toes, heel, and every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor could in the least imagine. 2. But after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused, and out of myself, I came home to my fortification. I did not feel, as we say, the ground I went on, but was terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man. It is not possible to describe how many various shapes an af frighted imagination represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were formed every moment in my fancy, and what strange, unaccountable whimseys 3 came into my thoughts by the way. 3. When I came to my castle, for so I think I called it ever after this, I fled into it like one pursued: whether I went over by the ladder, as first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which I called a door, I cannot remember; for never frighted hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of mind than I to this retreat. 4. I had no sleep that night: the farther I was from the occasion of my fright, the greater my appre. hensions 5 were; which is something contrary to the nature of such things, and especially to the usual practice of all creatures in fear. But I was so embarrassed with my own frightful ideas of the thing, that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to myself, even though I was now a great way from it. 5. In my terror, I thought it might be a device 6 of Satan himself, but a few moments' reflection relieved me of that delusion. And I then came to the conclusion that it must have been the work of some of the savages of the main land over against me, who had wandered out to sea in their canoes, and, either driven by the currents or by contrary winds, had made the island, and had been on shore, but had gone away again to sea, being as loath,8 perhaps, to stay on this desolate island as I would have been to have had them. 6. While these reflections were rolling in upon my mind, I was very thankful not to have been thereabouts at that time, and that they did not see my boat, by which they would have concluded that some inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps have searched farther for me. Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination, about their having found my boat, and thus learned that there were people here; and that, if so, they would certainly come again in greater numbers, and devour me. And if they did not find me, yet they would find my enclosure, destroy all my corn, carry away all my flock of tame goats, and I should perish at last for mere want. 7. How strange a checker-work 10 of Providence is the life of man! and by what secret differing springs are the affections hurried about, as differing circumstances present themselves! This was exemplified 11 in me at this time in the most lively manner imaginable; for I, whose only affliction was, that I seemed banished from human society, that I was alone, shut in by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and condemned to what I call a silent life, should now tremble at the very thought of seeing a man, and be ready to sink into the ground at but the shadow, or silent appearance, of a man's having set his foot on the island. 1 KP-PA-RÌTION. A ghost ; a spectre. 5 ĂP-PRE-HĚN'SIONS. Fears; dread. 7 DE-LÜ'ŞION. A false belief; an illu 8 LOATH (lōth). Unwilling. Tortured; tormented. 10 CHECK'ER-WORK (-würk). Work having cross stripes of different colors. • DE-VICE'. An act implying ingenuity 11 EX-EM'PLI-FIED. Illustrated by exor cunning; a contrivance. ample. XVII.A PARABLE. 1. ONE day in spring, Solomon, then a youth, sat under the palm trees in the garden of the king, his father, with his eyes fixed on the ground, and absorbed 2 in thought. 2. Nathan, his preceptor, went up to him, and said, "Why sittest thou thus, musing 3 under the palm trees?" 3. The youth raised his head, and answered, "Nathan, I am very desirous to behold a miracle." 4. "A wish," said the prophet, with a smile, " that I had myself when I was young." 5. "And was it granted?" hastily asked the prince. 6. "A man of God," answered Nathan, "came to |