31. AMERICA-NATIONAL HYMN.

The writer of this famous hymn is a New England clergyman. Oliver Wendell Holmes and he were classmates at college. Many years after they left college, Holmes wrote these lines about him:

And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith,
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith;
But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,
Just read on his medal, "My country-of thee."

The last stanza of the hymn was written when the author was eighty years of age, on the day that our country was one hundred years old.

My country! 't is of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrims' pride;
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring.

My native country! thee,
Land of the noble free,

Thy name I love;

I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees,
Sweet freedom's song;

Let mortal tongues awake,
Let all that breathe partake,
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our father's God! to Thee,
Author of Liberty!

To Thee we sing;

Long may our land be bright

With freedom's holy light;

Protect us by Thy might;

Great God, our king.

'Templed hills" refers to the hills, high up on the sides of which the early settlers of New England built their churches, or "meeting houses," in order to be in a better position to repel the attacks of Indians, then so frequently made.

Read Mrs. Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic," beginning: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." What other national hymn or poem do you know?

32. ABOUT MYTHS.

For the better understanding of this and the five following lessons, a map of Europe should be consulted under the direction of the teacher.

Articulation.-hardy | and | rough and; | dreaming; childhood | of.

The people who settled long, long ago in the northern part of Europe, in Norway and Sweden, and Germany, were at first quite different from those living in the south.

The people of the south, in Greece and Rome, had a warm country, and lived mostly by farming. Owing to their mild climate they had time for games, and pleasure, and dreaming beautiful fancies. In the cold north the men were hardy and rough. They lived by hunting and fishing, and never had rest, or ease, or plenty.

In that childhood of mankind people had no teachers or books to tell them about the world, and the sky, and the stars. Like children, they wondered at the strangeness of it all. “What is the world? Who made it? What gives light? Why do the trees grow?"—and many such questions were in their minds.

Both the northern and the southern people after awhile began to make themselves answers to these questions, and their guesses and stories are what we now call myths.

Some of these myths are very beautiful. People long since stopped believing them true, but they are still woven into our stories, and poetry, and pictures. No one is considered properly educated who does not know something of the myths, and no one can understand many of the best writers and artists if he does not know these old tales, which are a part of so much of the best literature and art of the present time, for they are still told over and over in new ways, and artists are always trying to paint scenes from them, and the most beautiful statues in the world represent people of myth-land.

Many of these pretty fancies of the myths are in relation to the sun and the sea, which were supposed to The sun, they said, was a shepherd, and the clouds were his sheep.

be men.

The sea was a hoarse, noisy old man, whose true form no one could tell, because he changed so often. He shook the earth in his anger, and the white-maned waves were his horses.

The thunder was the rumbling of chariots rolling over the clouds, and the lightning was the flashing of shields.

Definitions. Literature, a term including all the best writing of the world, whether prose or poetry, truth or fancy. Art, a term including painting and sculpture; that is, the making of pictures and statues.

Spell northern; different; Sweden; guesses; myths; shields.

Look at a map of Europe and see where the Northmen lived; where the Southmen lived. Can you now close your eyes and see a picture of these regions? Try to imagine how you would have felt if you had lived when these people lived, with no one to answer your questions about the world and everything you saw, and no books to read. What would you have most wished to know? What is a myth? What do you think is meant by the "childhood of mankind"?

33. THE MYTHS OF THE SOUTH.

Articulation.-facts; bravest | and | best; men | and | women. The myths of Greece and Rome were more beautiful than those of the rude Northmen. It is curious to see how differently the two peoples, neither of which knew the other's stories, explained the facts about the world.

The Greeks, from whom the Romans took their ideas, believed the earth to be flat and in the shape of a circle. They thought it upheld by Atlas, once a giant, but afterwards changed to a mountain.

Twelve gods, they said, sat together on Mount Olympus, feasting on nectar and ambrosia, and planning the affairs of men. There were gates of cloud guarding Mount Olympus, and the bravest and best men and women, when they died, were taken up there to dwell with the immortals, as the gods were called.

Jupiter, the father of gods and men, was himself the son of Time. The eagle was his favorite bird, and he carried a scepter and a statue of victory. Juno was his wife. Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, was her attendant, and the peacock her favorite bird.

Pluto, a brother of Jupiter, was called a god of the underworld, and had the care of the dead. He, you will remember, stole Proserpine for his wife.

Neptune, another brother, kept watch of the ocean and its monsters. He carried a trident with which he could create or subdue storms.

Vulcan, the smith of heaven, forged thunderbolts, and volcanoes were the fires of his forges. Venus, the most

beautiful of the goddesses, was given

him for a wife.

The little blind Cupid was her son. Her favorite birds were swans and doves, and the plants sacred to her were the rose and myrtle.