vo-ca-tion [L. voco, to call], calling, business, employment. laure-ate [L. laurus, the laurel], one who is decked with a wreath of laurel; here the poet-laureate, an officer of the royal household, whose business it is to compose an ode annually for the sovereign's birthday and New Year's day. How does the water come down at Lodore? My little boy asked me thus, once on a time, So I told them in rhyme, for of rhymes I had store. And 'twas in my vocation that thus I should sing, Because I was laureate to them and the king. From its sources which well In the tarn on the fell, From its fountain in the mountain, Through moss and through brake, And through the wood shelter, How does the water come down at Lodore ? It hastens along, conflicting and strong, As if a war waging, Rising and leaping, Sinking and creeping, Swelling and flinging, Showering and springing, Eddying and whisking, Spouting and frisking, Twining and twisting, Around and around, Collecting, disjecting, A sight to delight in ; Dizzing and deafening the ear with its sound. Reeding and speeding, And falling and crawling and sprawling, And grumbling and rumbling and tumbling, And gleaming and steaming and streaming and beaming, And thumping and flumping and bumping and jumping, EXERCISE.-16. MEANINGS OF WORDS. 1. Give the meaning of the following:-turmoiling, spraying, riving, floundering, eddying, darkling, tarn, vocation, laureate, helter-skelter, hurry-skurry. 2. Distinguish between the meanings of:-through, threw; wood, would sight, site; wrath, wroth; own, hone; rhyme, rime; o'er, oar, hoar. 3. Illustrate the different meanings the following words may have :ear, sounding, lies, spouting, batter. THE STUART DYNASTY. CHARLES II.; JAMES II. ac-ces-sion [L. accessus, from ad, to; cedo, to go], the act of coming to, or arriving at a throne, increase. in-dem-ni-ty [L. in, not; damnum, loss, injury], security from loss or punishment. ex-humed [L. ex, out of; humus, the ground], taken out of the ground, disinterred. ad-he-rents [L. ad, to; hæreo, to stick], followers, partisans. IMMEDIATELY after the accession of Charles II., an act of indemnity was passed for the benefit of the majority of those who had supported the parliament and taken up arms against Charles I. A few, however, of the more conspicuous actors in the civil war and the king's trial were executed, while the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were exhumed and exposed on the gibbet at Tyburn. But if the king showed no great desire to punish those who had been his enemies, he was equally slow to reward his friends and adherents. In his thoughtless good-nature he made many promises, few of which he afterwards performed; and thus he lost the good-will of many who had risked life and limb for the royal cause, and suffered for it in purse as well as in person. He married Catherine of Braganza, a princess of Portugal, who brought him Bombay in the East Indies, and Tangier in Morocco, as a dowry. Bombay was soon after made over to the East India Company, which was incorporated in 1600, by royal charter, for the purpose of carrying on a trade with the East Indies. In a war with Holland, which broke out in 1665, a naval victory was gained by his brother, the Duke of York, off Lowestoft. Sums of money were voted by parliament to carry on this war, but Charles devoted them to his private purposes. He had fallen into the very unfortunate fault of the Stuarts, in surrounding himself by worthless associates. These soon led him into shameful extravagance, the result of which was that he was constantly in want of money, and soon became very unscrupulous as to how he obtained it. By withholding the money voted for the navy, the best ships were obliged to remain in port. The Dutch took advantage of this, and even sent a fleet up the Thames. They fortunately contented themselves with merely destroying some shipping, but the disgrace was keenly felt. Many thought of the days of Cromwell, and even regretted that he was gone, tightly as he held the reins of power. The year 1665 was memorable for the great plague in London. More than 10,000 persons perished, and the town became like a city of the dead. Profound silence reigned for days in her streets, broken only by the carts hurrying off the dead to a hasty burial. Even the nearest relations shunned each other for fear of infection. The plague was followed, in 1666, by the great fire of London, in which an immense amount of property was de |