palm-trees, shooting up among its temples and palaces, and on the other hand the plain in its immediate vicinity is so thickly adorned with magnificent structures of the purest marble, that it is not easy-nay, it is impossible -at the distance at which I contemplated the whole, to distinguish the line which divided the one from the other. It was all city and all country, all country and all city. Those which lay before me I was ready to believe were the Elysian Fields. I imagined that I saw under my feet the dwellings of purified men and of gods. Certainly they were too glorious for the mere earth-born. 4. There was a central point, however, which chiefly fixed my attention, where the vast Temple of the Sun stretched upwards its thousand columns of polished marble to the heavens, in its matchless beauty casting into the shade every other work of art of which the world can boast. I have stood before the Parthenon, and have almost worshipped that divine achievement of the immortal Phidias. But it is a toy by the side of this bright crown of the Eastern capital. I have been at Milan, at Ephesus, at Alexandria, at Antioch; but in none of these renowned cities have I beheld anything that I can allow to approach, in united extent, grandeur, and most consummate beauty, this almost more than work of man. 5. On each side of this, the central point, there rose upwards slender pyramids, pointed obelisks, domes of the most graceful proportions, columns, arches, and lofty towers, for number and for form beyond my power to describe. These buildings, as well as the walls of the city, being all either of white marble or of some stone as white, and being everywhere in their whole extent interspersed, as I have already said, with multitudes of overshadowing palm-trees, perfectly filled and satisfied my sense of beauty, and made me feel for the moment as if in such a scene I should love to dwell and there end my days.-William Ware (1797—1852). Questions on the lesson :—What are the two names of the city? Its builder? Its situation? Its queen? Her date? Her ambition? The result? By whom finally destroyed? The extent of its ruins ? What made it difficult for one looking down on it to separate city and country? What was the central point? Of what were the public buildings constructed? Elysian Fields, the place in the regions of the dead which was assigned to the good, according to Greek and Roman mythology. Parthenon, the noblest of all the great temples of Athens. Some of its finest sculptures are in the British Museum—the Elgin Marbles. Phidias, perhaps the greatest sculptor and statuary that ever lived. He belonged to Athens, and was born about B.C. 489 or 490. THE FALL OF WOLSEY. 1. 2. Norfolk. And so we'll leave you to your meditations How to live better. For your stubborn answer, About the giving back the great seal to us, The king shall know it, and, no doubt, shall thank you. So fare you well, my little good lord cardinal. [All go out except WOLSEY. Wolsey. So farewell to the little good you bear me. Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness ! This is the state of man: To-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him: The third day comes a frost, a killing frost; And, -when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a ripening,-nips his root, And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, This many summers in a sea of glory; а Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye; and fears than wars or women have; And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. Enter CROMWELL, amazedly. 3. Why, how now, Cromwell ? What, amazed Nay, an you weep, How does your grace? Why, well; Crom. I am glad your grace has made that right use of it. Wol. I hope I have: I am able now, methinks, (Out of a fortitude of soul I feel, To endure more miseries, and greater far, Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer. The heaviest, and the worst, God bless him! That's somewhat sudden: But he's a learned man. May he continue (100) D Long in his highness' favour, and do justice Crom. That Cranmer is returned with welcome, Installed lord archbishop of Canterbury. Wol. That's news indeed. 5. Crom. Last, that the Lady Anne, Wol. There was the weight that pulled me down. Cromwell, The king has gone beyond me; all my glories In that one woman I have lost for ever: No sun shall ever usher forth mine honours, Or gild again the noble troops that waited Upon my smiles. Go, get thee from me, Cromwell, I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now To be thy lord and master: Seek the king; That sun, I pray, may never set! I have told him O, my lord, 6 |
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