Calendar: 1869-1870 Page 506

508 GENERAL LITERATURE AND SCIENCE which gives tincture of its nature to every action of one's life It were as little hazard to be lost in storm as to lie thus per- petually becalmed and it is to no purpose to have within one the seeds of thousand good qualities if we want the vigour and resolution necessary for the exerting them Death brings all persons back to an equality and this image of it this slumber of the mind leaves no difference between the greatest genius and the meanest understanding faculty of doing things remark- ably praiseworthy thus concealed is of no more use to the owner than heap of gold to the man who dares not use it Translate into Greek prose Homer does not only outshine all other poets in the variety but also in the novelty of his characters He has introduced among his Grecian princes person who had lived thrice the age of man and conversed with Theseus Hercules Polyphemus and the first race of heroes His principal actor is the son of god- dess not to mention the offspring of other deities who have like- wise place in his poems and the venerable Trojan prince who was the father of so many kings and heroes There is in these several characters of Homer certain dignity as well as novelty which adapts them in more peculiar manner to the nature of heroic poem Though at the same time to give them the greater variety he has described Vulcan that is buffoon among his gods and Thersites among his mortals Translate into Latin verse The leaves are rustling in the breeze The bird renews her song From field to brook o'er heath o'er trees The sunbeam glides along The insect happy in its hour Floats softly by or sips the flower Now dewy rain descends and now Brisk showers the welkin shroud care not though with angry brow Frowns the red thunder-cloud Let hail-storm pelt and lightning harm 'Tis nature's work and has its charm