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Diseases haunt our frail humanity;

Self-wandering through the noon, the night, they glide
a voice the power all-wise denied:

Voiceless

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Know then this awful truth-it is not given

To elude the wisdom of omniscient Heaven.

That these two subjects have been favorites with. many poets, is apparent from the selections given.

The student is also referred to "Prometheus; or, the Poet's Forethought," "Epimetheus; or, the Poet's Afterthought," and "The Masque of Pandora," all by Longfellow.

In them we discover how the modern poet adapts ancient classic thought to the expression of his own ideas.

Icarus was the son of Dædalus, whose fame rests upon his building of the Labyrinth for Minos, king of Crete. The story of "The Minotaur," by Hawthorne, explains the design of this building.

IC'ARUS.

JOHN G. SAXE.

I.

There lived and flourished long ago, in famous Athens town, One Dædalus, a carpenter of genius and renown ;

('Twas he who with an auger taught mechanics how to bore,An art which the philosophers monopolized before.)

II.

His only son was Ic'arus, a most precocious lad,

The pride of Mrs. Dædalus, the image of his dad ;

And while he yet was in his teens such progress he had made, He'd got above his father's size, and much above his trade.

III.

Now Dedalus, the carpenter, had made a pair of wings, Contrived of wood and feathers and a cunning set of springs, By means of which the wearer could ascend to any height, And sail about among the clouds as easy as a kite!

IV.

“O father," said young Icarus, "how I should like to fly!
And go like you where all is blue along the upper sky;
How very charming it would be above the moon to climb,
And scamper through the Zodiac, and have a high old time!

V.

"Oh, wouldn't it be jolly though, to stop at all the inns;
To take a luncheon at 'The Crab,' and tipple at 'The Twins';
And, just for fun and fancy, while careering through the air,
To kiss the Virgin, tease the Ram, and bait the biggest Bear?

VI.

"O father, please to let me go!" was still the urchin's cry: "I'll be extremely careful, sir, and won't go very high; Oh, if this little pleasure trip you only will allow,

I promise to be back again in time to fetch the cow!"

VII.

"You're rather young," said Dædalus, " to tempt the upper air; But take the wings and mind your eye with very special care; And keep at least a thousand miles below the nearest star. Young lads, when out upon a lark, are apt to go too far!"

VIII.

He took the wings that foolish boy-without the least dis

may;

His father stuck 'em on with wax, and so he soared away;

Up, up he rises like a bird, and not a moment stops
Until he's fairly out of sight beyond the mountain-tops!

And still he flies

IX.

away- away; it seems the merest fun;

No marvel he is getting bold, and aiming at the sun;

No marvel he forgets his sire; it isn't very odd

That one so far above the earth should think himself a god!

X.

Already in his silly pride, he's gone too far aloft ;

The heat begins to scorch his wings; the wax is waxing soft; Down-down he goes! - Alas! next day poor Icarus was

found

Afloat upon the Ægean Sea, extremely damp and drowned!

L'ENVOI.

The moral of this mournful tale is plain enough to all:
Don't get above your proper sphere, or you may chance to fall;
Remember, too, that borrowed plumes are most uncertain
things;

And never try to scale the sky with other people's wings!

NOTE.

The student should also read "The New Icarus" by Lucian. A translation of some of Lucian's Satires and Dialogues is published in cheap form by John B. Alden, New York.

GROUP III.

EVENTS PRECEDING THE TROJAN WAR.

THE APPLE OF DISCORD.

Ar the marriage of Pē'leus and Thē'tis, all the deities were present except E'ris (Discord). Indignant at not being invited, she determined to cause dissension, and threw into the midst of the guests a golden apple, with the inscription on it, "For the Fairest." The claims of all others were obliged to yield to those of Hera (Juno), Pallas Athene (Minerva), and Aphrodite (Venus), and the decision was left to Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, who, ignorant of his noble birth, was at that time feeding flocks on Mount Ida. Hermes conducted the rival beauties to the young shepherd. Each tried to bribe Paris to decide in her favor by promising him what she thought he desired most. Hera offered him power as a ruler over extensive dominions, if he would award the prize to her; Athené promised him fame in war; Aphrodite promised him the fairest woman in Greece for his wife, and to her, the queen of beauty, he awarded the prize. Paris soon afterward deserted

his wife, none, and carried off Helen, the wife of Menela'us, king of Sparta. This was the immediate cause of the Trojan War.

Tennyson's "none" tells this story:

There lies a vale in Ida, lovelier

Than all the valleys of Ionian hills.

The swimming vapor slopes athwart the glen,
Puts forth an arm, and creeps from pine to pine,
And loiters, slowly drawn. On either hand
The lawns and meadow ledges midway down
Hang rich in flowers, and far below them roars
The long brook falling thro' the clov'n ravine
In cataract after cataract to the sea.

Behind the valley topmost Gargarus

Stands up and takes the morning: but in front
The gorges, opening wide apart, reveal
Troas and Ilion's column'd citadel,

The crown of Troas.

Hither came at noon

Mournful (Enone, wandering forlorn

Of Paris, once her playmate on the hills.

Her cheek had lost the rose, and round her neck
Floated her hair or seem'd to float in rest.
She, leaning on a fragment twined with vine,
Sang to the stillness, till the mountain-shade
Sloped downward to her seat from the upper cliff.

"O mother Ida, many-fountain'd Ida,
Dear mother Ida, hearken ere I die.
For now the noonday quiet holds the hill:
The grasshopper is silent in the grass :
The lizard, with his shadow on the stone,

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