to fail, for his fits took him again, so that he could by no means go after them. Then they went on, and came to the king's highway, and so were safe. Now when they were gone over the stile, they began to contrive with themselves what they should do at that stile to prevent those that should come after from falling into the hands of Giant Despair. So they consented to erect there a pillar, and to engrave upon the side thereof this sentence: "Over this stile is the way to Doubting Castle, which is kept by Giant Despair, who despiseth the King of the Celestial Country, and seeks to destroy his holy pilgrims." Many therefore that followed after read what was written and escaped the danger. Dif'fi dence, distrust; want of confi- | lam'en ta ble, sorrowful, miserable. dence. Cel es'tial Coun'try, heaven. con dole', to grieve over. JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688) was an English tinker who afterward became a clergyman. He spent twelve years in prison, where he was confined because of his religious views and his methods of making them known. While in Bedford jail he wrote his immortal allegory, "The Pilgrim's Progress." NEITHER a borrower nor a lender be: SHAKESPEARE. THE BUGLE SONG ALFRED TENNYSON THE splendor falls on castle walls Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: O love, they die in yon rich sky, They faint on hill or field or river: And grow forever and forever. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. ALFRED TENNYSON was one of the greatest poets of the last century. He was born in England in 1809, and died in 1892. He was poet-laureate for forty-two years. His verse is noted for its perfect form and melody. "The Bugle Song" is from "The Princess," a poem which contains other very beautiful songs. THE VALUE OF LITTLE THINGS SAMUEL SMILES UNFAILING attention and painstaking industry mark the true worker. The greatest men are not those who "despise the day of small things," but those who improve them the most carefully. Michael Angelo was one day explaining to a visitor at his studio what he had been doing upon a statue since his last visit. "I have retouched this part-polished that-softened this featurebrought out that muscle-given some expression to this lip, and more energy to that limb." "But these are trifles," remarked the visitor. "It may be so," replied the sculptor; "but remember that trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle." It was said of Nicolas Poussin, the painter, that the rule of his conduct was that "whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." When a friend asked him, late in life, why he had become so famous among the painters of Italy, Poussin answered, "Because I have neglected nothing." The difference between men consists largely in the way in which they observe. The Russian proverb says of the man who is not observing, "He goes through the forest and sees no firewood." "The wise man's eyes are in his head," says Solomon, "but the fool walketh in darkness." It is the mind that sees as well as the eye. Where unthinking gazers observe nothing, men who look carefully see into the very root of what is going on around them; they are careful in noting differences, making comparisons, and seeing the true, deep meaning of everything. Many men before Galileo had seen a hanging weight swing before their eyes with a measured beat; but he was the first to discover the value of the fact. One of the workmen in the cathedral at Pisa, after filling with oil a lamp which hung from the roof, left it swinging to and fro. Galileo, then only eighteen years old, watched it carefully, and finally thought of applying the principle to the measurement of time. But he studied the idea and labored over it fifty years before he completed the invention of the pendulum. This invention, for the measurement of time and for the uses of astronomy, is one of the most important ever made. While Captain (afterward Sir Samuel) Brown was studying the building of bridges, with the view of contriving a cheap one to be thrown across the River Tweed, near which he lived, he was walking in his garden one dewy autumn morning. There he saw a tiny spider's net suspended across his path. The idea at once came to him that a bridge of iron ropes or chains might be made in the same way, and the result was the invention of his suspension bridge. It is the watchful eye of the careful observer which gives apparently trivial things their value. So small a matter as the sight of seaweed floating past his ship helped Columbus to put down the mutiny which arose among his sailors because they had not discovered land, and to show them that the New World was not far off. There is nothing so small that it should remain forgotten; and no fact so trifling but may prove useful in some way if understood. Who would have thought that the famous chalk cliffs of England had been built up by tiny insects, seen only by the aid of the microscope? Little creatures of about the same kind have built many islands of coral in the sea. And who that sees such tremendous results arising from such very tiny causes can doubt the power of little things?' The close observation of little things is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit in life. Human knowledge is only a collection of small facts, made by one generation of men after another. The little bits of knowledge and experience have been carefully treasured up until at length they have grown into a mighty pyramid. Mi'cha el An'ge lo (1474-1563), an Italian painter, sculptor, and ar- sculp'tor, one who carves statues. ca the'dral, a large church; the church of a bishop. mu'ti ny, an uprising against a rightful ruler or officer. Pi'sa (Pe'za), a city in Italy. SAMUEL SMILES is an English writer, born in 1812. His best known books are "Self-Help," "Duty," and "Character." |