5 of the leaders of American thought. He made his home in the historic town of Concord, Massachusetts. There he lived a placid and beautiful life. His last public appearance was at the funeral of his friend Longfellow. Among his principal works are Poems, Nature, Essays, Representative Men, English Traits, Conduct of Life, Society and Solitude. He was the friend and aider of those who would live in the spirit. MATTHEW ARNOLD. The words of such a man, what words he finds good to speak, 10 are worth attending to.- CARLYLE. The glory of the farmer is that, in the division of labors, it is his part to create. All trade rests at last on his primitive activity. He stands close to nature; he obtains from the earth the bread and 15 the meat. The food which was not, he causes to be. The first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land. Men do not like hard work, but every man has an exceptional respect for tillage, and a feeling that 20 this is the original calling of his race, that he himself is only excused from it by some circumstance which made him delegate it for a time to other hands. If he have not some skill which recommends him to the farmer, some product for which 25 the farmer will give him corn, he must himself return into his due place among the planters. And the profession has in all eyes its ancient charm, as standing nearest to God, the first cause. Then the beauty of nature, the tranquillity and innocence of the countryman, his independence, and his pleasing arts,― the care of bees, of poultry, of sheep, of cows, the dairy, the care of hay, of fruits, of orchards and forests, and the reaction 5 of these on the workman, in giving him a strength and plain dignity like the face and manners of nature, all men acknowledge. All men keep the farm in reserve as an asylum where, in case of mischance, they may hide their poverty, or a solitude, 10 if they do not succeed in society. And who knows how many glances of remorse are turned this way from the bankrupts of trade, from mortified pleaders in courts and senates, or from the victims of idleness and pleasure? Poisoned by town life and 15 town vices, the sufferer resolves: "Well, my children whom I have injured shall go back to the land, to be recruited and cured by that which should have been my nursery, and now shall be their hospital." primitive: early. — delegate : turn over to others. — tranquillity: quiet. reaction: action in an opposite direction. 20 THE PLOWMAN OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809-1894), an American poet, essayist, novelist, and physician, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During both his academic and his medical course at Harvard University he was a contributor to college peri5 odicals. He experimented with law before he studied medicine. While a law student he saw it announced that the frigate Constitution was to be dismantled. Filled with indignation, he wrote in rapid protest his poem Old Ironsides, a poem that kept "the tattered ensign" of the old ship from being torn down. 10 Thus Holmes, a "meek-minded, modest-mannered, undersized law student, just turned twenty-one, became measurably known as a poet." In 1847 he was elected professor of anatomy in Harvard University, a position that he filled for thirty-five years. In his lecture 15 room the dry principles of anatomy were enlivened by a constant flow of illustrative humor. His colleagues always assigned him the last lecture period of the day, for he alone could keep the attention of the tired students. When the Atlantic Monthly was started he was called into fresh 20 literary activity by Lowell, who accepted the editorship of the magazine only on condition that Holmes should contribute regularly to its columns. To meet this new demand he began his now famous Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. From that date until his death his literary activity never ceased. 25 Clear the brown path, to meet his coulter's gleam! First in the field before the reddening sun, Marks the broad acres where his feet have trod; These are the hands whose sturdy labor brings These are the lines which heaven-commanded Toil coulter: a cutter in front of a plow. - convoy: escort, used here in place of team. ARION AND THE DOLPHIN HERODOTUS HERODOTUS (484 B.C.-424(?) B.C.), often called The Father of History, was born in Halicarnassus, a Greek city in southwest Asia Minor. The historian does not seem to have had many early educational advantages, but he was a reader and a tireless 5 traveler. He spent days in the most important cities of his own and of foreign lands, studying customs and habits, making measurements, and collecting all sorts of material for his history. Tradition says that, offended by the ridicule of the natives of his own city, he went to Athens, where he recited a part of his 10 history at the Olympic games. His recital impressed the cultured Greeks of Athens and moved to tears a lad of fifteen, Thucydides, who also became a famous historian. Herodotus, however, did not make his home in Athens, but joined "the sons of freedom" in founding the colony of Thurii, 15 in Italy. There he spent his last years, and there he revised his history. His book gives us the story of the great Persian war of invasion; tells of Croesus, Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius; of the Grecian victories at Marathon, Salamis, and Platea. It happened once upon a time, in the olden days, 20 that a young man, Periander of Corinth, started from a port in the south of Greece to sail to Miletus. Being caught in a storm, the boat was carried out of her course as far as the island of Lesbos, where she stayed for several days, in order 25 that the damage caused by the storm might be repaired. In the meantime Periander landed, and occupied himself in wandering about the island |