child, nor is the father entitled to receive it according to the conditions." It will be noticed that the difficulty arises in the fact of self-relation: the one assertion relates to another assertion of the same person; and the one assertion being conditioned upon the other, the difficulty arises. It is the question of self-contradiction-of two mutually contradictory statements; one must be false. It is a sophism, but one that continually occurs among unsophisticated reasoners. It is also a practical sophism, for it is continually being acted in the world around us (e. g., a person seeks pleasure by such means that, while he enjoys himself, he undermines his health, or sins against his conscience, and thus draws inevitably on him physical suffering and an uneasy soul). It is therefore all-worthy of studying in its purely logical form. All universal negative assertions (and a lie is a negation) are liable to involve the assertion itself in self-contradiction: "I never tell the truth" (if you do now, your assertion is false; if what you say is true, then it is false). Said a selfish clown: "I wish all men were dead except my family; then we would keep a hotel." Suicide is a practical application of this sophism. In the interest of pleasure, to escape physical pain, he precludes also physical pleasure. Murder incurs the punishment of death; self-murder unites crime and punishment. "Killing the goose that laid the golden egg" is also another application. LXV. THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE AT BALAKLAVA 1. Half a league-half a league— All in the valley of Death, 2. Into the valley of Death Rode the Six Hundred! Some one had blundered: Rode the Six Hundred ! 3. “Forward, the Light Brigade!" No man was there dismayedNot though the soldiers knew Some one had blundered. Theirs not to make reply; 4. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them, Volleyed and thundered! 5. Stormed at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode, and well; Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of hell, Rode the Six Hundred! 6. Flashed all their sabers bare, All the world wondered. 7. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them, Volleyed and thundered. 8. Stormed at with shot and shell, Left of Six Hundred ! 9. When can their glory fade? Noble Six Hundred! Alfred Tennyson. FOR PREPARATION.-I. "Balaklava "-find it on the map of the Black Sea. When was this "charge"? What nations were ranged against the Russians? What military object had they in capturing Sebastopol? Who was "Nolan"? Who had "blundered"? II. League (leeg), vŏl'-leyed (-led), dis-mayed', vål'-ley, sa'-bers. III. Explain meaning given by rs in theirs; why the change of y to i; -why fought instead of fight. IV. Explain "light brigade";- "they broke the Russian line; "—"half a league." Correct "Cannon to right of 'em." V. "Charging an army "—why a whole army? (They rode, unsupported, into the ranks of the enemy, and thus exposed themselves to the attack of the entire Russian army. See LXVI., § 2.) "Jaws of Death" (personification). Mark the feet in the 1st stanza. Does the rhythm seem appropriate for the description of galloping horses? What passages describe well the soldiers' obedience to command? What moral traits did the soldiers of the Light Brigade exhibit? What nation is proud of their deed? LXVI. THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. 1. The whole brigade scarcely made one effective regiment, according to the numbers of Continental armies, and yet it was more than we could spare. As they rushed toward the front, the Russians opened on them from the guns in the redoubt on the right, with volleys of musketry and rifles. They swept proudly past, glittering in the morning sun in all the pride and splendor of war. 2. We could scarcely believe the evidence of our senses! Surely that handful of men are not going to charge an army in position! Alas! it was but too true. Their desperate valor knew no bounds, and far indeed was it removed from its so-called better part-discretion. 3. They advanced in two lines, quickening their pace as they closed toward the enemy. A more fearful spectacle was never witnessed than by those who beheld these heroes rushing to the arms of death. At the distance of twelve hundred yards the whole line of the enemy belched forth from thirty iron mouths a flood of smoke and flame, through which hissed the deadly balls. Their flight was marked by instant gaps in our ranks, by dead men and horses, by steeds flying wounded or riderless across the plain. 4. The first line is broken !—it is joined by the second! —they never halt, or check their speed an instant. With diminished ranks, thinned by those thirty guns, which the Russians had laid with the most deadly accuracy— with a halo of flashing steel above their heads, and with a cheer which was many a noble fellow's death-cry, they flew into the smoke of the batteries; but, ere they were lost from view, the plain was strewed with their bodies, and with the carcasses of horses. 5. They were exposed to an oblique fire from the batteries on the hills on both sides, as well as to a direct fire of musketry. Through the clouds of smoke we could see their sabers flashing as they rode up to the guns and dashed between them, cutting down the gunners as they stood. 6. To our delight, we saw them returning after breaking through a column of Russian infantry, and scattering them like chaff, when the flank-fire of the battery on the hill swept them down, scattered and broken as they were. Wounded men and dismounted troopers flying toward us told the sad tale. Demigods could not have done what they had failed to do. 7. At the very moment when they were about to retreat, an enormous mass of lancers was hurled on their flank. Colonel Shewell, of the Eighth Hussars, saw the danger, and rode his few men straight at them, cutting his way through with fearful loss. The other regiments turned, and engaged in a desperate encounter. With courage too great almost for credence, they were breaking their way through the columns which enveloped them, when there took place an act of atrocity without parallel in the modern warfare of civilized nations. 8. The Russian gunners, when the storm of cavalry passed, returned to their guns. They saw their own cavalry mingled with the troopers who had just ridden over them; and, to the eternal disgrace of the Russian name, the miscreants poured a murderous volley of grape and canister on the mass of struggling men and horses, mingling friend and foe in one common ruin! It was as much as our heavy cavalry brigade could do to cover the retreat |