allow him to go, promising to return on the day of execution. But Dionysius, fearing that it was a plot to get Damon out of his hands, promised to let him go on condition that he would get some one to act as surety for him. With this Damon's heart sank, for he never thought that any one would be willing to risk his life for him. But Damon had at least one true friend, who did not desert him in this time of trouble. This friend was Pythias. He freely offered to go security, saying that, if Damon did not return, he would cheerfully die in his stead. So Damon went to his home, and Pythias went to prison. As the day of execution drew near, the people began to ridicule Pythias for running such a risk; they said they knew very well that Damon would not return. However, Pythias said that he could trust his friend's integrity; and he was not deceived; for, true to his promise, on the day appointed, Damon did return. This so pleased the king that he freely forgave Damon, and asked to be a sharer in their friendship, a friendship which made them stand by each other in such a time of trial. Condensation, on the other hand, consists in expressing thought with greater brevity. Example.-Though a man has all other perfections and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his particular station of life. Condensed. — In our intercourse with the world, discretion is of more value than any other quality of mind. EXERCISE LV. DIRECTION. — In the following sentences, change the wording by putting in place of the nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs, one of their synonyms that will express as nearly as may be the same meaning. 1. Indolence is the cause of many evils. 2. Wealth which is desired by all is accompanied by many troubles. 3. In establishing his government he had to feel his way, to sound men's dispositions, and to conciliate different interests. 4. The Protectorate, with all its glories, was not the conception of a lowly intellect, but the revolutionary energy of a mighty nation concentrated in a single chief. 5. Attempts have often been made, and very recently have been renewed with much affirmation of success, to prove that such low forms of life may originate spontaneously from their materials in the water. 6. Great gates of brass, richly and delicately wrought, turn heavily upon their hinges, as if proudly reluctant to admit the feet of common mortals into this most gorgeous of sepulchres. 7. The more, however, James pressed for the consummation of his projects, the more Spain held back; but so bent was the king on its realization that, after fruitless negotiations, the prince quitted England in disguise, and appeared with Buckingham at Madrid, to claim his promised bride. 8. Human fat is fuel laid away for use. It constitutes a hoard of combustible material upon which the owner may draw whenever his ordinary supplies are intercepted. 9. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever. IO. It may well be doubted if any one of the great poets who have arisen during the last half century has so closely touched the popular heart as Longfellow has. EXERCISE LVI. TRANSPOSING. DIRECTION.-Express in different phraseology as illustrated in the preced ing Lesson. 1. He gives his parents no anxiety. 2. Truth, crushed to death, shall rise again. 3. Cradles rock us nearer to the tomb. 4. He hides his own offences, and strips others' bare. 5. The gale had sighed itself to rest. 6. When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead. 7. He who would search for pearls must dive below. 8. The evil that men do lives after them. 9. They never pardon who have done the wrong. 10. That life is long which answers life's great end. 14. They all with one consent began to make excuse. 15. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. 16. How very much happier we should all be if people attended to their own business, and let their neighbors attend to theirs. 17. The Court of Elizabeth was as immoral as that of her successor, but its immorality was shrouded by a veil of grace and chivalry. 18. He was a most severe judge of himself as well as of others. 19. There is scarcely a man living who is not actuated by ambition. 1. Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely. In great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest. 2. It was a mystery to many people why Governor Briggs, of Massachusetts, wore a cravat but no collar. Some people thought it was an absurd eccentricity. This was the secret: Many years before he was talking with an inebriate and telling him that his habit was unnecessary, and the inebriate retorted upon him and said, "We do a great many things that are not necessary. It is not necessary for you to wear that collar. "Well," said the governor, "I will never wear a collar again if you won't drink." "Agreed," said the inebriate. Governor Briggs never wore a collar. They both kept their bargain for twenty years. They kept it to the death. That is the reason Governor Briggs did not wear a collar. 3. When Syracuse was taken, Archimedes was describing mathematical figures upon the earth, and when one of the enemy came upon him, and asked his name, he was so engrossed with the desire of preserving the figures entire, that he answered only by an earnest request to the soldier to keep off, and not break in upon his circle. The soldier, thinking himself scorned, ran Archimedes through the body, and the purple stream of blood soon obscured all traces of the problem on which he had been so intent. Thus fell this illustrious man by the mere neglect to tell his name, for the general, Marcellus, had given orders to respect the life and person of the philosopher. 4. Sir Cloudesley Shovel, whose melancholy shipwreck on the rocks of Scilly is well known, was, when a boy, on board a ship commanded by Sir John Narborough, who, during an action, expressed a very earnest wish to have some orders of consequence conveyed to a ship at a considerable distance. Shovel, hearing this, immediately undertook to convey it; and this he actually performed, swimming through the enemy's line of fire with the despatches in his mouth. EXERCISE LVIII. EXPANSION. DIRECTION. Expand each of the following into a paragraph of two or more sentences. 1. Columbus discovered America. 2. Brevity is the soul of wit. 3. Wisdom is justified of her children. 4. It is glorious to die for one's country. 5. War is a great evil. 6. There is strength in unity. 7. The amiable gain many friends. 8. Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few. 9. Procrastination is the thief of time. 10. There's nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. II. We know what we are, but know not what we may be. 12. There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. 13. Every one can master a grief but he that has it. 14. The great clock at Strasburg is a wonderful piece of mechanism. 1. I was not, like His Grace of Bedford, swaddled and rocked and dandled into a legislator. "Nitor in adversum" is the motto for a man like me. I possessed not one of the qualities, nor cultivated one of the arts, that recommend men to the favor and protection of the great. I was not made for a minion or a tool. 2. Malevolence to the clergy is seldom at a great distance from irreverence of religion, and Dryden affords no exception to this observance. His writings exhibit many passages, which, with all the allowance that can be made for character and occasions, are such as piety would not have admitted, and such as may vitiate light and unprincipled minds. But there is no reason for supposing that he disbelieved the religion which he disobeyed. He for |