O God, when Thou

Dost scare the world with tempests, set on fire
The heavens with falling thunderbolts, or fill,
With all the waters of the firmament,

The swift, dark whirlwind, that uproots the woods
And drowns the villages; when, at Thy call,
Uprises the great deep, and throws himself
Upon the continent, and overwhelms
Its cities; who forgets not, at the sight
Of these tremendous tokens of Thy power,
His pride, and lays his strifes and follies by!
Oh, from these sterner aspects of Thy face
Spare me and mine; nor let us need the wrath
Of the mad, unchain'd elements, to teach
Who rules them. Be it ours to meditate,
In these calm shades, Thy milder majesty,
And to the beautiful order of Thy works
Learn to conform the order of our lives.

Lesson talk. This selection lends itself particularly to practise in deep-toned voice, in which the orotund quality prevails. The student should endeavor to realize the depth and majesty of the thought, as well as its spirit of praise and devotion. The general movement is dignified and stately, with occasional swelling and increasing intensity of the voice. The rate should not be so slow as to suggest tardiness, nor so uniform as to be monotonous. All the effects of variety, depth, fulness, animation, and intensity, should be brought to the reading aloud of this inspiring poem. Consult your dictionary for the pronunciation of all doubtful words, such as: architrave, boughs, sanctuaries, columns, humble, nature, solitude, solitary, herbs, grandeur.

GIVE US MEN!

BY BISHOP OF EXETER

Give us Men!

Men-from every rank,
Fresh and free and frank;
Men of thought and reading,
Men of light and leading,
Men of loyal breeding,

The nation's welfare speeding:
Men of faith and not of fiction,
Men of lofty aim in action;
Give us Men-I say again,
Give us Men!

Give us Men!

Strong and stalwart ones;

Men whom highest hope inspires,

Men whom purest honor fires,

Men who trample self beneath them,

Men who make their country wreath them As her noble sons,

Worthy of their sires;

Men who never shame their mothers,

Men who never fail their brothers,

True, however false are others:
Give us Men-I say again,

Give us Men!

Give us Men!

Men who, when the tempest gathers,
Grasp the standard of their fathers
In the thickest fight:

Men who strike for home and altar,
(Let the coward cringe and falter),
God defend the right!

True as truth tho lorn and lonely,
Tender, as the brave are only;

Men who tread where saints have trod,
Men for Country-Home-and God:

Give us Men! I say again-again—
Give us Men!

CASSIUS AGAINST CÆSAR

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Honor is the subject of my story,

I can not tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but for my single self,
I had as lief not be, as live to be

In awe of such a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæsar; so were you;
We both have fed as well; and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he.

For once, upon a raw and gusty day,

The troubled Tiber, chafing with her shores,
Cæsar said to me "Darest thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me, into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word,
Accoutered as I was, I plunged in,

And bade him follow; so, indeed, he did.
The torrent roared, and we did buffet it;
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside,

And stemming it, with hearts of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Cæsar cried "Help me, Cassius, or I sink.”
I, as Æneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulder

The old Anchises bear, so, from the waves of Tiber Did I the tired Cæsar; and this man

Is now become a god; and Cassius is

A wretched creature, and must bend his body
If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him.

He had a fever when he was in Spain,

And when the fit was on him, I did mark
How he did shake: 'tis true, this god did shake;

His coward lips did from their color fly;

And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world, Did lose its luster; I did hear him groan:

Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans

Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,

'Alas!" it cried-"Give me some drink, Titinius,"

As a sick girl.-Ye gods! it doth amaze me,

A man of such a feeble temper should

So get the start of the majestic world,

And bear the palm alone.

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus; and we, petty men,
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about,
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

Men, at some time, are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves that we are underlings.

Brutus and Cæsar! What should be in that Cæsar?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write them together: yours is as fair a name;
Sound them: it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them: it is as heavy; conjure with them:
Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cæsar.
Now, in the name of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Cæsar feed,

That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed:
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods.
When went there by an age, since the great flood,
But it was famed with more than one man?

When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome,
That her wide walks encompassed but one man?
Now is it Rome, indeed, and room enough,

When there is in it but one only man.

Oh! you and I have heard our fathers say,
There was a Brutus once, that would have brooked
The eternal devil, to keep his state in Rome,

As easily as a king.

THE BATTLE OF IVRY

BY THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY

Now glory to the Lord of hosts, from whom all glories are!

And glory to our sovereign liege, King Henry of Navarre! Now let there be the merry sound of music and of dance, Through thy corn-fields green, and sunny vines, O pleasant land of France!