ILLUSTRATIVE SELECTIONS FROM LA FONTAINE.

I. THE OAK AND THE RUSH.*

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From The Fables."

The Oak said to the Rush (when oaks could talk)—

Nature has dealt but hardly with you, friend; The wren's light weight sits heavy on your stalk; The lightest breeze that for a moment's space Ruffles the water's face

Will make you bend;

While my grand crest like Caucasus upsoars,
Baffles the high sun's scorching heat,

Braves every wind that roars;

All blasts to you are storms—to me are zephyrs sweet.
Yet still had you been born

Within the circle of these branches vast

Which round my trunk their sheltering shadows cast,
Your lot had not been so forlorn-

I should have screened you from the sweeping blast.
But you are wont to grow

Down in the marshes low,

The bleak dominions of the tyrant Wind:
Nature to you has been indeed unkind."
Then the Rush spake-

"Your pity shows a generous heart, 'tis true;

But pray be not uneasy for my sake;

* This fable is said to have been the author's own favorite. The translation is by the Rev. W. Lucas Collins, M.A.

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Storms are less dangerous to me than you—

I bend, but do not break.

You to this hour have held their force in check,
Nor ever bowed your neck

To any wind that blows-yet wait the end."

As the Rush spoke,

Forth o'er the horizon's verge the tempest broke―
The fiercest of his sons the North could send.
The Oak bore stoutly up-the Rush bent low.
Fiercer and fiercer raged the storm,

Nor would its wrath forego,

Till all uprooted lay the giant form

Whose topmost branch had seemed to touch the sky,
Whose roots pierced down to where the dead men lie.”

II. THE MILK-WOMAN AND HER PAIL.*

From "The Fables."

With milk-pail deftly cushioned on her head,
High-kilted petticoat, shoes stout and strong,
The good Perrette

Fast towards the neighboring town to market sped.
Dreaming no ill, lightly she stepped along,
Counted the price that she would surely get
For that fine pail of milk, and cast about
How she should lay it out.

First she would buy a hundred eggs, from which

Three broods at least would hatch; she should get rich,

By care and pains, no doubt.

So very easy it will be," she thought,

"To raise the chickens by my cottage door;

And Master Fox-he must be sharp indeed

If he don't leave enough of my fine breed

* Probably the best known of all La Fontaine's fables. The translation is again by the Rev. W. Lucas Collins, M.A.

To buy one pig at least-it may be more.

My pig will soon get fat, at no expense

He must be pretty forward when he's bought-
And if I sell him fairly, as I ought,

My gains will be immense.

Then what should hinder me from being able (Things are so cheap just now)

To put a cow and calf into my stable?

Then, when they join the village herd,

How nice to see them skip-my calf and cow!"
And, at the word,

She gave three skips herself-the milk-pail fell—

And so at once farewell

To cow and calf, and pig, and chickens that would sell!
The mistress of this visionary store

Cast one sad glance around

To where her ruined fortunes soaked the ground,
Then turned and bore

Her empty pail back to her husband's door;

He would meet all excuses with a curse,

And very probably with something worse.

Who does not weave such dreams at fancy's call?
Who does not build his castles in the air?
Picrochole, Pyrrhus,† and the milkmaid-all.
Wise men and fools alike, are builders there.
All have our waking dreams, our visions sweet,
Some fond illusion all our souls beguiles;
All that the world can give lies at our feet—

Honors unbounded, beauty's warmest smiles.
In fancy's hour, no man can stand before me;
I dethrone sultans, and I reign instead;
Elected king, my subjects all adore me,

And diadems come raining on my head:

A chance recalls me to myself once more-
And I am poor Tom Noddy, as before.

*The ambitious and visionary King of Lerna, to whom his officers promised a long career of chimerical victories.-Rabelais, Garg. i, 33.

+ When Pyrrhus was planning the conquest of Rome, Sicily, Africa, and Greece, in succession, his minister, Cineas, checked him with the repeated question, and what next?"

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ILLUSTRATIVE SELECTION FROM RACINE.

JEHOIDA AND ABNER.*

From Athalie (Athaliah)-A Tragedy Founded on Holy Scripture." The Selection is the Opening Scene.

ABNER.

Yea, to the Temple of the Lord I come,
To worship with the solemn rites of old,
To celebrate with thee the famous day

When from the holy mount our Law was giv'n.
How times are changed! Soon as the sacred trump
With joyous blast announced this day's return,

The Temple porticoes, with garlands gay,
Could not contain the crowds of the devout;

Before the altar all in order due,

Bringing the earliest harvest of their fields,
Offered those first fruits to the Lord of all;
Nor were there priests enough for sacrifice,

"In his preface to"Athalie" Racine has given us the groundwork upon which he has laid his tragedy; it may not be amiss for us to recall the portion of Old Testament history from which his play is taken. Most of us will remember the name of Athaliah. She was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel the king and queen of Israel. She married Joram, the king of Judah; and at the beginning of the tragedy is represented as usurping the throne on the death of her son Ahaziah, who had been killed by Jehu. Joram, and all his sons except Ahaziah, had been slain by the Philistines; and Jehu had exterminated all the posterity of Ahab. When Athaliah heard of the massacre of Ahab's children, she undertook to destroy the whole race of David: and she put to death her own grandchildren-the children of her son Ahaziah. But Jehosheba, the sister of Ahaziah, and the daughter of Joram-but by a different mother-found means to steal away her nephew Joash, one of the sons

A woman's will has dared to check these throngs,

And turn'd the day's bright glory into gloom.
Scarce dare a few most zealous worshipers
Recall for us some shadow of the past;
The rest are all forgetful of their God,

Or, e'en to Baal's altars flocking now,

In shameful orgies learn to bear their part,

And curse the Name on which their fathers call'd.

My soul is troubled—naught will I conceal—

Lest Athaliah visit upon thee

Her vengeance, spurn all remnant of respect,
And tear thee from the altar of the Lord.

JEHOIDA.

Whence comes to thee this presage dark to-day?

ABNER.

Holy and righteous, how canst thou escape?

Long has she hated that rare constancy

Which adds new brilliance to thy mitred brow;

Long has she treated thy religious zeal

of Ahaziah and grandsons of Athaliah, then an infant in arms, and intrusted him and his nurse to her husband, Jehoida, the high priest, who hid the boy and his nurse in one of the rooms appertaining to the Temple, until the day when he was proclaimed king of Judah. The Bible does not tell us when Joash was proclaimed, and, as some commentators have considered it was on a feast day, Racine thought that the feast of Pentecost was the time most fitting for the events in his play.

"There is something very grand in the opening of this tragedy. We become at once impressed with the dignity and with the religious spirit of Old Testament history. As we read the first few lines aloud to ourselves, we perceive that there is to them a majestic roll of sound, finer, perhaps, and fuller in its tone than anything we find elsewhere in Racine's plays. The scene is laid in the vestibule forming part of the apartment of the high priest in the Temple at Jerusalem; and Abner, one of the chief officers of the kings of Judah, has come there with Jehoida, the high priest, to celebrate the feast of Pentecost, according to the old and solemn custom. Abner laments that the times have become changed, that ancient observances have now fallen into disuse, and that there are only a few who still keep up the pious custom. The people now worship Baal, and they blaspheme the name that had once been so sacred to their fathers. Abner fears, too, that Athaliah has got some secret design against Jehoida. He believes that the queen hates the high priest, because of his strong attachment to God; and that she also hates his wife, Jehosheba, her own step-daughter, the sister of Ahaziah, the late king. And worse still, Mattan, the high priest of Baal-whom Racine has made an apostate priest-is her constant adviser. Jehoida cares neither for Mattan nor for the queen. He has no other fear but that of God. He is determined that Athaliah shall not triumph over him, and he exhorts Abner to remain steadfast in his faith."-H. M. Trollope, in "Racine," Foreign Classics for English Readers" series.

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