2 his bold career through hazards and dangers enough to have stopped1 a prudent man; but his eyes were always open, and his vigilance never slumbered; his presence of mind never left him, and he was full of resources in his vigorous understanding and his resolute will. He,3 who said himself that he was not cruel, who spared the lives of 5 Roman citizens, his enemies, who pardoned his countrymen who would have taken his life,7 pursued barbarians with unrelenting ferocity. He spared neither age nor sex; he slaughtered men in battle, in flight, and after submission; he plundered them, he sold them for slaves; he mutilated them; he burnt their houses; he wasted their fields; he left them to perish in the winter, houseless 9 and without food. His most formidable enemy, who was cruel like himself, 10 and, 11 as active and as brave, the Gallic chief who, in the seventh year of the war, made a last effort to crush the Roman proconsul, and nobly surrendered to save his countrymen, was thrown into a Roman dungeon, to wait six years for Cæsar's triumph; and then 12 he was put to death. Such a man, with all his great qualities, ought not to be made the 13 object of vulgar admiration, 14 as he often is by modern writers. He ought to be estimated justly. He was better than many, perhaps than most of his contemporaries; and that is all we can say. 15-(GEORge Long, Preface to his Edition of the Gallic War.) 1 capables d'arrêter. 2 The French construction is, in such cases, he had always the eyes open.' 3 Le même homme. 4 Translate, who has said. 10 lui. 13 être représenté comme un. 14 No article, here, as at page 25, note 16; but whilst we say, un objet d'admiration vulgaire, we should say, l'objet d'une admiration vulgaire (see page 27, note 8). 13 et c'est dire autant qu'on en peut dire. THE DEAD ASS. "AND this," said he, putting the remains of a crust into his wallet,1 1" and this should have been thy portion," said he, "hadst thou been alive to have shared it2 with me." I thought, by the accent, it had been an apostrophe to his child; but 't was 5 to his ass, and to the very ass we had seen dead in the road, which had occasioned La Fleur's misadventure. The man seemed to lament it much; and it instantly brought into my mind Sancho's lamentation for his; but he did it with more true touches of nature.9 The mourner 10 was sitting upon a stone bench at the door, with the ass's pannel and its bridle on one side,11 which he took up from time to time, and laid them down, looked at them, and shook his head.12 He then took his crust of bread out of his wallet again,13 as if to 14 eat it, held it for some time in his hand, then laid it upon the bit of his ass's bridle.... looked wistfully at the little arrangement he had made.... and then gave 15 a sigh. The simplicity of his grief drew numbers 16 about him; and La Fleur amongst the rest, whilst the horses were getting ready; 17 as I continued sitting in the post-chaise, I could see and hear over their heads. 1 See page 22, note 1.-'remains; use the singular.-'crust,' croûte de pain. 2 Si tu avais vécu pour le par3 d. tager. 4 que c'était. 5 c'en était une. 6 et qui. 7 cela. 8 sur. 13 Ensuite il reprit . ... 14 comme pour. dans son 15 et poussa; but we may also use soupirer. 16 nombre de gens. The word nombre, thus used adverbially, for beaucoup, corresponds to the English numbers,' or to a number,' in the sense of a great number;' but in French, if we prefix the article un to the substantive nombre, it has not in that case the sense of 'a great number,' and it then requires the adjective grand, thus, un grand nombre, to give it that meaning. 17 pendant qu'on préparait (page 8, note 6) les chevaux. K He said he had come last1 from Spain,2 where he had been from the furthest borders3 of Franconia; and had got so far on his return home, when his ass died.5 Every one seemed desirous to know what business could have taken so old and poor a man so far a journey from his own home.6 It had pleased Heaven, he said, to bless him with three sons, the finest lads in 8 all Germany; but having in one week lost two of the eldest of them by the small-pox, and the youngest falling 10 ill of the same distemper, he was afraid of being bereft of them all; and made a vow, if Heaven would not take him from him also, he would gol in gratitude to St. Iago 12 in Spain. When the mourner got thus far 13 his story, he stopped to pay nature her tribute, 14 and wept bitterly. on 11 He said, Heaven had accepted the conditions; and that he had set out from his cottage with this poor creature, who had been a patient partner of his journey, that it had eat the same bread with him all the way, and was unto him as a friend. Everybody who stood about,15 heard the poor fellow with concern. La Fleur offered him money. The mourner said he did not want it.... it was not the value of the ass reference to time. Thus, we say, 10 Translate, 'having fallen' (p. par. 13 en fut là de; see page 59, note 6. 14 See page 35, note 6. 15 Simply, Tous les assistants. .... but the loss of him.:..1 the ass, he said he was assured, loved him.... and upon this told them a long story of a mischance upon their passage over the Pyrenean mountains which had separated them from each other3 three days; during which time the ass had sought him as much as he had sought the ass, and that they had scarce either eat or drank till they met.5 "Thou hast one comfort, friend," said I," at least, in the loss of thy poor beast; I'm sure thou hast been a merciful master to him...." "Alas!" said the mourner, "I thought so, when he was alive; but now that he is dead, I think otherwise. I fear the weight of myself and my afflictions together 7 have been too much for him, they have shortened the poor creature's days, and I fear I have 10 them to answer for."11" Shame on the 12 world!" said I to myself; "did we love each other 13 as this soul 14 but loved his ass, 't would be something."-(STERNE, Sentimental Journey.) poor THE STARLING. THE mind sits 15 terrified at the 16 objects she has magnified herself and blackened : reduce them to their proper size and hue, she overlooks them.17 ""Tis true," said I, correcting the proposition, "the Bastille is not an evil to be despised; 2 but strip it of its towers, fill up the fossé, unbarricade the doors, call it simply a confinement, and suppose 't is some tyrant of a distemper, and not of a man which holds you in it, the evil vanishes, and you bear the other half5 without complaint." 9 I was interrupted in the hey-day of this soliloquy with a voice which I took to be of a child, which complained it could not get out. I looked up and down the passage,10 and seeing neither man, woman, or child,11 I went out without farther attention. 12 In my return back through the passage, I heard the same words repeated twice over; and looking up,' 13 I saw it was a starling hung 14 in a little cage. I can't get out, I can't get out, said 15 the Starling. I stood looking at 16 the bird; and to every person who came through the passage it ran fluttering to the 17 side toward which they approached it, with the same lamentation of its captivity. . I can't get out, said the starling. -"God help thee!" said I, "but I'll let thee out,18 cost what it will." 19 So I turned about the cage to get to the not leur (nor lui, sing.). See page 21, note 2. The rule on this point will presently be explained at full length. 1 Il est vrai; il, instead of ce, here if it' (taken in the sense of the demonstrative pronoun that') related to what precedes, instead of depending on the following que (that,'-conjunction, either expressed or understood, in English), we should then translate 'it is true' by c'est vrai. 2 à mépriser. 3 une retraite forcée. 4 la tyrannie. 5 le reste. 6 les boutades. 7 par. 8 Translate, 'took for that.' See page 7, note 7. 10 d'un bout à l'autre du ridor. 11 See page 42, note 3. cor 12 Translate, 'I heard repeat twice,' &c., and leave out 'over.' 13 levant les yeux (page 26, note 12). 14 Leave this word out. 15 See page 1, note 3, and page 55, note 16 'to stand looking at,' rester à regarder. 17 du. 18 je vais te faire sortir (see page 6, note 5). Whenever the fact mentioned is going to take place immediately, the French prefer using thus the verb aller to employing the future, as is done in English: as, in this common phrase, 'Why? If you will listen, I'll tell you (why),' Pourquoi? Si vous voulez bien m'écouter, je vais vous le dire (not je vous le dirai). 19 coûte que coûte. The English student is particularly cautioned against some gross blunders, of |