Between his cankered teeth a venomous toad, But inwardly he chawéd his own maw At neighbour's wealth, that made him ever sad, And wept, that cause of weeping none he had: But when he heard of harm he waxéd wondrous glad. 9. All in a kirtle of discoloured say He clothed was, ypainted full of eyes; And, who with gracious bread the hungry feeds, Flora, the goddess of flowers and spring, among the Romans. Juno, the queen of the Roman gods, wife of Jupiter-here designated Jove. Usually the peacock is represented as standing by Juno's side, not yoked to her chariot. Argus had a hundred eyes, some of which were always awake. His eyes were transplanted to the tail of the peacock. six unequal beasts, i.e., unlike each other. The beasts were taught to obey the behests or commands of the six counsellors who sat upon them, representing, along with Pride their queen, the seven deadly sins. The commands suited the characteristics of the several animals. habit is a dress: amis or amice, a square linen cloth fastened round the neck and spread over the shoulders. portesse, a small portable prayer-book: wain, waggon or carriage. pelf here means money. Originally it meant the scraps or shreds left by tailors and skinners, which of course were little accounted of. yplaced, placed: compare, to procure: thorough through: covetiɛe covetousness: eke, also or likewise: chaw=chew (jaw is the same word): say, silk: imply, to fold in or envelop: griple, grasping. ANGELS. 1. And is there care in heaven? And is there love In heavenly spirits to these creatures base, That may compassion of their evils move? There is: else much more wretched were the case To come to succour us that succour want! O! why should heavenly God to men have such regard? -Edmund Spenser. THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE. 1. Now the golden Morn aloft Waves her dew-bespangled wing, With vermeil cheek and whisper soft She woos the tardy Spring: But chief, the sky-lark warbles high 3. Yesterday the sullen year Saw the snowy whirlwind fly; 4. Smiles on past Misfortune's brow While Hope prolongs our happier hour, 5. Still, where rosy Pleasure leads, The hues of bliss more brightly glow And breathe and walk again: The meanest floweret of the vale, To him are opening Paradise. -Thos. Gray (1716–1771). BABYLON. 1. Whoever may have been the founder of Babylon, it was Nebuchadnezzar and Nitocris that made it one of the wonders of the world. Herodotus, "the Father of History," who appears to have seen with his own eyes some of its gigantic ruins, asserts that its walls were 300 feet high and 80 broad; while the compass of the city was little less than sixty miles. 2. The walls, "artificial mountains" rather, surrounded the city in the form of a square. They were built of bricks cemented by a glutinous slime or bitumen, which still issues in great abundance from the ground at some distance from the site formerly occupied by the city. This bitumen binds more firmly than lime, and soon becomes harder even than the bricks or stones which it unites. The walls, moreover, were defended on the outside by a vast moat or ditch lined with bricks that it might be capable of being filled with water. 3. In each of the four sides of the city were twenty-five gates of solid brass with brazen lintels and side-posts. From each of them a street passed in a straight line to the gate directly over against it on the opposite side. The whole number of streets was fifty, each fifteen miles long, whereof twenty-five went one way and twenty-five the other, crossing one another at right angles. Round the |