dans les ténèbres de l'oubli, ou ne sait pas même leurs noms. Les Muses seules peuvent immortaliser les grandes actions. FENELON (Dialogues des Morts). COMPOSITION. Mrs. Peerybingle's Teakettle.-The kettle was aggravating and obstinate. It wouldn't allow itself to be adjusted on the top bar; it wouldn't hear of accommodating itself kindly to the knobs of coal; it would lean forward with a drunken air, and dribble, a very idiot of a kettle, on the hearth; it was quarrelsome, and hissed and spluttered morosely at the fire. To sum up all, the lid resisting Mrs. Peerybingle's fingers first of all turned topsy-turvy, and then, with an ingenious pertinacity deserving of a better cause, dived sideways in-down to the very bottom of the kettle. And the hull of the Royal George has never made half the monstrous resistance to coming out of water which the lid of that kettle employed against Mrs. Peerybingle before she got it up again. It looked sullen and pig-headed enough, even then; carrying its handle with an air of defiance, and cocking its spout pertly and mockingly at Mrs. Peerybingle, as if it said, "I won't boil. Nothing shall induce me." DICKENS (The Cricket on the Hearth). 43. Quarante-troisième Leçon: Participe passé. --Syntaxe, 66 THEME. 92-97. 1. The besieging troops became besieged in their turn. 2. My sisters have gone to the ball, and have met there a great many persons whom they had not known before. 3. She has written to us that her cousin (f.) and herself ( = she) had planned to take a tour in Switzerland, and they had undertaken to be ready in a fortnight. 4. Sire," the Marshal de Luxembourg wrote to Louis XIV., "your enemies have done wonders, your troops better still; you (have) told me to take a town and to win a battle-I have taken it and I have won it." 5. "Let them speak," exclaimed Coriolanus, "let them speak those whom I have rescued in battles, let them appear those whom I have snatched from the sword of the enemies, and whose lives (sing.) I have saved." 6. The festivities have succeeded each other. 7. These ladies had fancied that we had been reconciled. 8. The information (pl.) that we have procured has not turned out favourable. 9. It is generally the trouble which an author has taken in polishing and perfecting his writings which is the = cause ( makes) that one has no trouble in reading them. 10. These merchants have mutually acknowledged the receipt of their letters. II. The two criminals have accused each other of the crime. 12. They have racked their brains to get out of the difficulty. 13. We have perceived too late that a number of mistakes had crept into our work. 14. Constantinople had been taken by the Turks in 1453; at that time many Greeks had taken refuge in Italy, where they had been well received. 15. These girls have pledged each other's word never to allow themselves to be separated. DIALOGUE ENTRE DÉMOSTHÈNE ET CICERON. Démosthène. Il y a longtemps que je souhaitais de vous voir : j'ai entendu parler de votre éloquence; César, qui est arrivé ici depuis peu, m'en a instruit. Cicéron. Il est vrai que ç'a été un de mes plus grands talents. Démosthène. Parlez m'en en détail, je vous en prie. Cicéron. D'abord j'ai défendu plusieurs gens accusés injustement; j'ai fait bannir Verrès, préteur de Sicile ; j'ai parlé pour et contre des lois ; j'ai abattu Catiline et son parti ; j'ai plaidé pour Sextius, tribun du peuple, qui avait toujours été pour moi même pendant mon exil; enfin j'ai couronné ma vie par ces Philippiques si célèbres, qui... Démosthène. J'entends, ...ont surpassé les miennes; je ne pensais pas que vous eussiez apporté ici votre vanité; mais laissons cela: comment vous êtes-vous gouverné dans la rhétorique ? Cicéron. J'ai fait des ouvrages qui dureront éternellement, j'ai parlé des orateurs les plus célèbres ; j'ai .. Démosthène. Je vois bien que vous voulez toujours revenir à vos oraisons; ne croyez pas me tromper, j'en sais autant qu'un autre, et... Cicéron. Tout beau, vous me reprenez de ma vanité, et vous vous louez vous-même ! FENELON (Dialogues des Morts). COMPOSITION. Rome and the Barbarians.-Divided by inveterate hatred (plur.), unnerved by the luxuries which they had brought from the East, crushed by a despotism which had enslaved them, the Romans have allowed themselves to be subjugated by the barbarians which the North had poured forth, and who, hardened by warlike expeditions, had gloriously (103) served in the Roman armies, and had settled in close proximity to the empire which they in some manner had divided (among) themselves beforehand. Several sovereigns, guided by a blind policy, had employed in their armies whole corps of these barbarians, and had given them settlements in the border provinces of the empire to reward [them for] the services they had received from them; but they (have) soon repented of their imprudence, for they saw ( have seen) them invade their beautiful native land, which had made itself master of the world. = 44. Quarante-quatrième Leçon: Participe passé. -Syntaxe, $$ 98-102. THÈME. 1. In that year three Romans (have) allowed themselves to be beaten by Hannibal. 2. Have you heard them quarrel?—No, but I have seen them come to blows to settle their difference in a more expeditious manner. 3. The boots which I have had made in Paris are so tight that I thought I should never be able to put them on. 4. What have you seen acted in the theatre ?— The Magic Flute, one of the masterpieces of Mozart, the overture of which was played to perfection. 5. The weather having prevented us from going out, we began (Past Indef.) to do the lessons which you had set us (to do). 6. Those are secrets which your mother confided to me, and which she did not want you to know. 7. The steps which I (have) thought I ought to take have not been successful. 8. They have sent for us, but we have declined to go out. 9. They (have) sent us to fetch some provisions, and we did not return until very late. IO. Those are trees which I have caused to be planted and which I have seen grow up; the fruit (pl.) which I have gathered from them has already compensated me for the trouble which they have cost me. II. Experience is not so much the fruit of a great number of years that one has lived as of a great number of moments spent in observing (=that one has observed). How many men we have found on whose gratitude we had relied, and who not only have not helped us, but who moreover have done us an ill turn. 13. If you had taken more trouble to follow the advice (pl.) that I had given you, you would not have failed in your enterprise. 14. The great heat (pl.) which has prevailed this week has prevented us from setting out. 15. The true cause of this war was the spite of the Carthaginians at having seen Sicily and Sardinia snatched from them. 16. What time, what reflections has it not required to watch and to know the wants. freaks, and resources of nature? 12. COMPOSITION. 1. William Pitt.-The situation which Pitt occupied at the close of the reign of George II. was the most enviable ever occupied by any public man in English history: he had conciliated the king; he domineered over the House of Commons; he was adored by the people; he was admired by all Europe. He was the first Englishman of his time, and he had made England the first country in the world. ... The old party distinctions were almost effaced; nor was their place yet supplied by distinctions of a still more important kind. A new generation of country squires and rectors had arisen who knew not the Stuarts. The Dissenters were tolerated; the Catholics not cruelly persecuted. The Church was drowsy and indulgent. The great civil and religious conflict which had began at the Reformation seemed to be terminated in universal repose. A few years sufficed to change the whole aspect of affairs. A nation convulsed by faction, a throne assailed by the fiercest invective, a House of Commons hated and despised by the nation, England set against Scotland, Britain set against America, a rival legislature sitting beyond the Atlantic, English blood shed by English bayonets, our armies capitulating, our conquests wrested from us, our enemies hastening to take vengeance for past humiliation, our flag scarcely able to maintain itself in our own seas, such was the spectacle which Pitt lived to see. MACAULAY. 2. Pyrrhus and Cineas.-Cineas, seeing Pyrrhus determined to cross over to Italy, one day said to him, "You meditate carrying your arms against the Romans; if we succeed in conquering them, what advantage shall we derive from this victory?"-"The Romans once conquered,” replied Pyrrhus," all Italy will be ours."-"And when we are masters of it, what shall we do?"-" Sicily stretches out her arms to us.""And Sicily [once] taken, will that (= she) be the end of our expeditions?"-"Certainly not. Carthage, Africa, Macedonia, all Greece, will become our prey."- "And when we have conquered all, what shall we do?"-"We shall live in peace, we shall spend whole days in banquets, pleasant conversations, festivities, and we shall only think of amusing ourselves."– Why, my lord,” then said Cineas, "what prevents us this very day from living in peace, giving banquets, celebrating festivities, and enjoying ourselves well? Why go so far for a happiness which we have in our hands, and buy so dearly what we can obtain without difficulty?" This sensible speech did not convince Pyrrhus. 66 45. Quarante-cinquième Leçon: L'Adverbe.Syntaxe, § 103-108. THÈME. 1. You always confound the adverbs davantage and plus; in fact, they are both adverbs of comparison, but plus is used with que followed by a second term of comparison; davantage is only used when the second term has already been expressed, or when it is understood. 2. It has not been raining for a long time. 3. That despot had flatterers, but no friends. 4. Many people have the foolish vanity to wish to appear more than they are. 5. Take care lest he surprise you. 6. You cannot deny that he has spoken to you. 7. I do not trust him any more than his brother. 8. There is hardly any friendship possible except between equals. 9. He is not only not learned, but he is even very ignorant. 10. You say you don't like this man; in truth, he does not like you either. II. You look very uneasy; are you afraid something awkward has happened? 12. The man who 13. is continually pursued by sad ideas cannot enjoy any rest. No one doubts that the sea (has) once covered a great part of the earth now inhabited. 14. Do not walk so quickly. 15. He walks, sleeps, eats, and drinks like (the) others; that does not prevent him from being very ill. 16. Take care lest one should see you. 17. I do not understand what he has to say to us.Nor do I either. 18. I should know him among a thousand, were it only by his gait. 19. I am much afraid he will not succeed. 20. He acts differently from what he says. DIALOGUE ENTRE LUCULLUS ET CRASSUS. Lucullus. Jamais je n'ai vu un souper si délicat et si somp tueux. Crassus. Et moi je n'ai pas oublié que j'en ai fait de bien meilleurs dans votre salle d'Apollon. Lucullus. Point; je n'ai jamais fait de meilleure chère. Mais voulez-vous que je vous parle d'un ton libre et gai? ne vous en fâcherez-vous point? Crassus. Non; j'entends raillerie. Lucullus. Quoi, un souper pendant lequel nous avons eu une comédie de pantomimes, plusieurs parasites affamés et bien impudents, qui par jalousie ont pensé se battre ; c'est une fête merveilleuse ! Crassus. J'aime le spectacle, et je sais que vous l'aimez aussi ; j'ai voulu vous faire ce plaisir. |