limits and boundaries of that which is often now confused and confounded. It is difficult to measure the amount of food for the imagination, as well as gains for the intellect, which the observing of this single rule 5 would afford us. Let me illustrate this by one or two examples.

We say of such a man that he is desultory. Do we attach any very distinct meaning to the word? Perhaps not. But get at the image on which desultory rests; 10 take the word to pieces; learn that it is from de and salto, "to leap from one thing to another," as a man who, in the ring, technically called a desultor, riding two or three horses at once, leaps from one to the other, being never on the back of any one of them long; take, I say, 15 the word thus to pieces, and put it together again, and what a firm and vigorous grasp will you have now of its meaning. A desultory man is one who jumps from one study to another, and never continues for any time in

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one.

Again, you speak of a person as capricious, as being full of caprices; but what exactly are caprices? Caprice is from capra, a goat. If ever you have watched a goat, you will have observed how sudden, how unexpected, how unaccountable are the leaps and springs, now for25 ward, now sideward, in which it indulges. A caprice then is a movement of the mind as unaccountable, as little to be calculated on beforehand, as the springs and bounds of a goat. Is not the word so understood a far more picturesque one than it was before? and is there 30 not some real gain in the vigor and vividness of impression which is in this way obtained?

Then, what poetry is there, as indeed there ought to be, in the names of flowers! I do not speak of those, the exquisite grace and beauty of whose names is forced on us so that we cannot miss it, such as meadowsweet, eyebright, sundew, forget-me-not, Venus's looking-glass, 5 queen of the meadows, love-in-idleness, Reine Marguerite, and the like. Take daisy; surely this charming little English flower, which has stirred the peculiar affection of English poets from Chaucer to Wordsworth, and received the tribute of their song, becomes more charming 10 yet, when we know, as Chaucer long ago has told us, that daisy is day's eye, the eye of day; these are his words :

"That well by reason it men callen may
The daisie, or else the eye of day."

For only consider how much is implied here. To the 15 sun in the heavens this name, eye of day, was naturally first given; and those who transferred the title to our little field flower, meant no doubt to liken its inner yellow disk or shield to the great golden orb of the sun, and the white florets which encircle this disk to the rays which 20 the sun spreads on all sides round him. What imagination was here, to suggest a comparison such as this, binding together as this does the smallest and the greatest! what a traveling of the poet's eye, with the power which is the privilege of that eye, from earth to heaven, and 25 from heaven to earth, and uniting both!

Pillars of Hercules: two mountains, the Rock of Gibralter and Apes' Hill on the coast of Africa, which were the bounda

ries of the world as known to the ancients. The Greek story says that Hercules raised them to mark the limits of the world. 'ad: a celebrated Greek epic poem, by Homer, describing the destruction of Ilium or Troy. Paradise Lost: the greatest English epic poem, by John Milton.

The Counsel of Polonius to his Son

BY WILLIAM SHAKSPERE

William Shakspere (1564-1616): The greatest English dramatic poet. He wrote "Hamlet," "Macbeth," "Othello," "Julius Cæsar," and many other plays. A biographical sketch of Shakspere will be found in the Fifth Book of the "Graded Literature Readers."

Here is an often quoted passage from "Hamlet":

Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame;
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And you are stayed for. There, my blessing with thee! And these few precepts in thy memory

5 See thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

Beware

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
10 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear't, that the opposèd may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
15 Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;

For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are most select and generous, chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all, to thine own self be true,

And it must follow as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!

Çen'sure (shur): opinion,—an old use of the word.

Queen Mary's Escape from Lochleven

BY SIR WALTER SCOTT

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): A Scotch novelist, poet, and historian. Some of his best novels are historical, such as "Ivanhoe," "The Talisman," "Kenilworth," and "The Abbot," from which this selection is taken. He wrote several spirited narrative poems, including "The Lady of the Lake," and "Marmion." A sketch of Scott's life will be found in the Fifth Book of the "Graded Literature Readers."

Mary, Queen of Scots, whom Scott warmly admired, is one of the characters in "The Abbot." Justly or unjustly, she had been accused by her people of great crimes, imprisoned in the castle of Lochleven, and forced to resign her royal authority to a regent, who ruled in the name of her infant son, James. Scott gives this interesting account of her escape from Lochleven.

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Mary's freedom was, however, of brief duration. Seeking refuge in England, she threw herself on the mercy of Queen Elizabeth, was made prisoner, and, after being kept in close confinement many years, was finally put to death.

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They went to the presence chamber, where almost immediately entered supper and the lady of the castle. The queen, strong in her prudent resolutions, endured her presence with great fortitude and equanimity, until her 5 patience was disturbed by a new form, which had hitherto made no part of the ceremonial of the castle. When the other attendant had retired, Randal entered, bearing the keys of the castle fastened upon a chain, and, announcing that the watch was set and the gates locked, delivered 10 the keys with all reverence to the Lady of Lochleven.

The queen and her ladies exchanged a look of disappointment, anger, and vexation; and Mary said aloud : "We cannot regret the smallness of our court, when we see our hostess discharge in person so many of its offices. 15 In addition to her charge of principal steward of our household, she has to-night done duty as captain of our guard."

"And will continue to do so in future, madam," answered the Lady of Lochleven, with much gravity; and 20 retired from the apartment, bearing in her hand the ponderous bunch of keys.

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"Now," said the queen, "how say you, girls? Here is a new difficulty. How are these keys to be come by? There is no deceiving or bribing this dragon, I trow.”

"May I crave to know," said Roland, "whether, if your