the secretary of state. The secretary presently sent down1 a special messenger, who brought up the traitor to court, and provided him, at the king's expense, with proper accommodations on the road.2 As soon as he appeared, he was known to be3 the celebrated Rabelais, and his powder, upon examination, being 5 found very innocent, the jest was only laughed at; 6 for which a less eminent droll would have been sent to the galleys.-(BUDGELL, Spectator.)

THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE.

A HARE jeered at a tortoise for the slowness of his pace. But he laughed and said that he would run against her and beat her any day she should name.8 "Come on,"9 said the hare, "you shall soon see what my feet are made of." 10 So it was agreed that they should start at once. The tortoise went off jogging along, without a moment's stopping, at his usual steady pace.11 The hare, treating the whole matter very lightly, said she would first take little nap, and that she should soon overtake the tortoise. Meanwhile the tortoise plodded on, 13 and the hare, oversleeping herself, arrived at the goal only to see 14 that the tortoise had got in before her. Slow and steady wins the race.15

1 'sent down; envoya sur les lieux, or, simply, envoya.

2 en lui faisant fournir sur la route, au frais du roi, le logement et les vivres nécessaires.

3 on reconnut en lui; or, on le reconnut pour. See page 1, note 2, and page 8, note 15.

4

après, followed by no article. 5 Translate, having been.' 6 l'on ne fit que rire du tour. Notice this use of ne before a verb, and que after it.

7 raillait une tortue sur (or, de). 8 qu'elle le vaincrait à la course quand il voudrait.-A la course, running;' in the same way we say, passer une rivière à la nage ('swimming'); tuer un oiseau au vol ('flying'), &c. 9 Allons,

(JAMES'S Fables of Esop.)

12

a

10 ce que peuvent (page 44, note 4) mes jambes. See page 3, note 3.

11 n'attendit pas un instant, et se mit en route tout doucement, de son pas ordinaire et régulier.

12 commencerait par faire.

13 continua de s'évertuer (p. 184, note 12). When translating such strongly elliptical expressions as the present, formed with a verb and a preposition, we are compelled to render in full the idea only partly expressed by the words used. Thus, 'kick him out,' faites-le sortir à coups de pied; to refine people out of their veracity,' (HERVEY,) polir les gens au point de leur faire perdre leur véracité, &c.

14 See above, note 6.

15 Hatez-vous lentement. This pro

MULY MOLUC.

WHEN Don Sebastian, king of Portugal, invaded the territories of Muly Moluc, emperor of Morocco, in order to dethrone him, and set his crown upon the bead of his nephew, Moluc was wearing away with a distemper which he himself knew was 2 incurable. However, he prepared for the reception of3 so formidable an enemy. He was, indeed, so far spent with1 his sickness that he did not expect to live out the whole day;5 but, knowing the fatal consequences that would happen to his children and his people, in case he should die before he put an end to that war, he commanded his principal officers, that, if he died during the engagement, they should conceal his death from his army, and that they should ride up to 10 the litter in which his corpse was 11 carried, under pretence of receiving orders as usual. 12V Before the battle 13 began, he was carried through all the ranks of his army in an open litter, as they stood drawn up in array,14 encouraging them 15 to fight valiantly in 16 defence of their religion and

verbial expression, which has been used by Regnard, Boileau, and La Fontaine, is nothing more than the old Greek proverb,σnevde ẞpadéws,' which the Latins took from the Greeks, and translated by festina lente, and which the English often render by 'most haste, worst speed.' se mourait de.

1

2 he himself;' see p. 86, n. 1.'knew was,' savait être. This turn is French (in the case where, as here, the nominatives, or subjects, of the two verbs are different), only after a relative pronoun. Thus we cannot say, je le sais être savant (I know him to be learned'); it should be, je sais qu'il est savant. See p. 1, n. 2.-Sometimes the following elegant turn, which comes nearer to the English construction above, is used: je le crois savant, on le dit habile, &c.

3 à recevoir.

4 tellement épuisé par.

4

3

country. Finding 2 afterwards the battle to go against him, though he was very near his last agonies, he threw himself out of his litter, rallied his army, and led them 5 on to the charge, which afterwards ended in a complete victory on the side of the Moors. He had no sooner brought his men 7 to the engagement, but finding himself utterly spent, he was again replaced in his litter, where, laying his finger on his mouth, to enjoin secrecy to his officers who stood about him, he died a few moments after in that posture.-(Spectator.)

DESTRUCTION OF THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY.9

WHEN Alexandria was taken by the Mahomedans, Amrus, their commander, found there Philoponus,10 whose conversation highly pleased him, as Amrus was a lover of letters,11 and Philoponus was a learned man. 12 On a certain day 13 Philoponus said to him: "You have visited all the repositories or public warehouses in Alexandria, and you have sealed up 14 things of every sort that are found there. 15

46

'very near à l'agonie.

6

1 Translate, 'of their religion and of their country.' Remember this rule, which enjoins, in French, the repetition of the pronoun, article, &c., as well as of the preposition in certain cases, before each of the substantives, whatever their number may be. See page 49, note 8. 2 Use voir. 3 tourner. &c.; simply, 5 See p. 41, n. 8, ce qui. Whenever 'which' does not relate to a word in particular, as its antecedent, in the first part of the sentence, but rather to the whole of that first part, or to a fact mentioned in it; in short, whenever it can be turned by a thing which,' or • a fact which,'-the French for it is ce qui, instead of qui (nomina tive), and ce que, instead of que (accusative). It corresponds to the Latin id quod, similarly used. Likewise, in such a case, the genitive would be ce dont, instead of dont (of which').

7

8

ses troupes, or son monde.
que.

9 Alexandria was taken by the Saracens in 640. Its great library had been created about the year 287 B. C., and contained upwards of 700,000 volumes.

10 John Philoponus, a philosopher and grammarian.

11 était un ami des lettres; or, aimait les lettres. 12 un savant.

13 Simply, Un jour.

14

vous avez mis le scellé sur.

15 qui s'y trouvent. The English (as the Latin) passive is to be translated into French, wherever there is a certain vagueness about the person or persons that could serve as a nominative to the verb, if conjugated actively, by the active voice with on, or, sometimes also, by the reflective form, as here. Ex.: dicitur, (Latin ;) 'it is said,' (English ;) on dit (French). That is done every day,' cela se fait tous les jours. The reflective form is also

"3

The

As to those things that may be useful to you, I presume to say nothing; but as to things of no service to you,2 some of them perhaps may be more suitable to me." Amrus said to him: "And what is it you want? "4 philosophical books," replied he, " preserved 5 in the royal libraries."—" This," said Amrus, "is a request upon which I cannot decide. You desire a thing where I can issue no orders, till I have leave from Omar, the commander of the faithful." Letters were accordingly written to Omar, informing him of what Philoponus had said; and an answer was returned by Omar to the following purport: \ As to the books of which you have made mention, if there be contained in them what accords with the book of God (meaning 10 the Koran), there is without them,11 in the book of God, all that is sufficient. But, if there be any thing in them repugnant12 to that book, we in no respect want them.13 Order them therefore to be all destroyed.” 14 Amrus upon this ordered them to be dispersed through 15 the baths of Alexandria, and to be there burnt in making the baths warm.16 After 17 this manner, in the space of

used where the name of a thing is the nominative, to express the motions of or changes in it, or its appearance; as, la porte se referma d'elle-même (closed of itself), l'eau se congèle (congeals), le château se dessinait sur un ciel bleu (the outline of the castle came out on the blue sky).

1

je prétends n'en rien dire. 2 qui ne vous sont d'aucun usage (or, d'aucune utilité).

3 me conviendraient peut-être lavantage, When 'more' is taken absolutely, davantage is used instead of plus.

'you want;' vous voudriez. 5 déposés.

6 pour (or, sur) laquelle. The relative pronoun lequel is always used instead of qui, with a preposition, when speaking of a thing, not of a person.

7 On écrivit en conséquence (or, donc). See page 8, note 15; and Vage 6, renderings at notes 3 and 6.

six months they were all consumed. Thus ended this noble library; and thus began, if it did not begin sooner, the age of barbarity and ignorance.-(HARRIS.)

VALENTINE AND UNNION.

Ar the siege of Namur by the allies, there was in the ranks of the company commanded by Captain1 Pincent, in Colonel1 Frederic Hamilton's regiment, one Unnion, a corporal, and one Valentine, a private sentinel: 2 there happened between these two men a dispute about an affair of love, which,3 upon some aggravations, grew to an irreconcilable hatred. Unnion, being the officer of Valentine, took all opportunities even to strike his rival, and profess the spite and revenge which moved him to it.5 The sentinel bore it without resistance; but frequently said he would die to be revenged of that tyrant. They had spent whole months in this manner, the one injuring, the other complaining; when, in the midst of this rage against each other, they were commanded upon 10 the attack of the castle, where the corporal received a shot in 11 the thigh, and fell. The French pressing on,12 and Unnion expecting to be trampled to death,13 he called out 14 to his enemy: Ah, Valentine! can you leave me here?" Valentine immediately ran back,15 and, in the midst of a thick fire 16 of the French, took the corporal upon his back, and brought him through all the danger as far as the Abbey of Saltine, 1 See page 4, note 1. geance qui l'y portaient.

2 un caporal, nommé U—, et un simple soldat, nommé V—.

The French grammar requires a relative pronoun to be always placed as near as possible to its antecedent. Construct, therefore, the French sentence as if the Eng"There happened be&c., about.. &c., a

lish were,

tween

dispute which.'

...

4 en raison de quelques provocations, dégénéra en.

5 et de témoigner son esprit de rancune et de vengeance; or, more literally, ... la rancune et la ven

6 Le soldat.

7 il disait souvent qu'il (see p. 1, n. 8) mourrait volontiers pour se venger.

8 commettant des outrages. 9 The preposition, in French, always stands between l'un' and l'autre,' instead of before, as in English. 11 un coup de feu à.

12 les serrant de près.

10

pour.

13 écrasé sous les pieds. 14 cria. 15 revint immédiatement sur ses