PSALM CXLVIII

Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens praise him in the heights.

Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.

Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars 5 of light.

Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.

Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created. . .

Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:

Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

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Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: 15 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:

Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name 20 alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. ... Praise ye the Lord.

DON QUIXOTE

CERVANTES

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES (1547-1616) was born in Spain and studied at the great Spanish universities. A great English critic has said of his celebrated romance, "Don Quixote," "It is to Spain what Shakespeare is to England, the one book to which allusion may be made without affectation, but not missed without discredit." It is an interesting coincidence 5 that Cervantes and Shakespeare died on the same day.

NOTE. These brief selections are taken from J. G. Lockhart's translation, and will serve to introduce the reader to a picture of Spanish life and manners which has never been surpassed.

At a certain village in La Mancha of which I cannot 10 remember the name, there lived not long ago one of those old-fashioned gentlemen who are never without a lance upon a rack, an old target, a lean horse, and a greyhound. His diet consisted more of beef than mutton; and with minced meat on most nights, lentils on Fridays, griefs and 15 groans on Saturdays, and a pigeon extraordinary on Sundays, he consumed three quarters of his revenue; the rest was laid out in a plush coat, velvet breeches with slippers of the same for holidays, and a suit of the very best homespun cloth, which he bestowed on himself 20 for working days. His whole family was a housekeeper something turned of forty, a niece not twenty, and a man that served him in the house and in the field, and could saddle a horse and handle the pruning hook. The master

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himself was nigh fifty years of age, of a hale and strong complexion, lean-bodied and thin-faced, an early riser, and a lover of hunting.

You must know, then, that when our gentleman had 5 nothing to do (which was almost all the year round), he passed his time in reading books of knight-errantry, which he did with such application and delight that at last he in a manner wholly left off his country sports, and even the care of his estate.

In fine, he gave himself up so wholly to the reading of romances that a-nights he would pore on until it was day, and a-days he would read on until it was night; and thus by sleeping little and reading much, the moisture of his brain was exhausted to that degree that at last he lost 15 the use of his reason. A world of disorderly notions, picked out of his books, crowded into his imagination; and now his head was full of nothing but enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, complaints, and abundance of stuff and impossibilities, insomuch that all 20 the fables and fantastical tales which he had read seemed to him now as true as the most authentic histories.

Having thus lost his understanding, he unluckily stumbled upon the oddest fancy that ever entered into a madman's brain; for now he thought it convenient and 25 necessary, as well for the increase of his own honor as for

the service of the public, to turn knight-errant and roam through the whole world, armed cap-a-pie and mounted

on his steed, in quest of adventure; that thus imitating those knights-errant of whom he had read, and following their course of life, redressing all manner of grievances, and exposing himself to danger on all occasions, at last, after a happy conclusion of his enterprises, he might 5 purchase everlasting honor and renown.

The first thing he did was to scour a suit of armor that had belonged to his great-grandfather and had lain time out of mind carelessly rusting in a corner; but when he had cleaned and repaired it as well as he could, he perceived 10 there was a material piece wanting; for instead of a complete helmet there was only a single headpiece. However, his industry supplied that defect; for with some pasteboard he made a kind of half-beaver or visor, which, being fitted to the headpiece, made it look like an entire 15 helmet. Then, to know whether it were cutlass proof, he drew his sword and tried its edge upon the pasteboard visor; but with the very first stroke he unluckily undid in a moment what he had been a whole week a-doing. He did not like its being broken with so much ease, and 20 therefore, to secure it from the like accident, he made it anew and fenced it with thin plates of iron, which he fixed on the inside of it so artificially that at last he had reason to be satisfied with the solidity of the work; and so, without any further experiment, he resolved it should 25 pass to all intents and purposes for a full and sufficient helmet.