WHENE'ER a noble deed is wrought,
Whene'er is spoke a noble thought,
Our hearts, in glad surprise,
To higher levels rise.

The tidal wave of deeper souls
Into our inmost being rolls,

And lifts us unawares

Out of all meaner cares.

Honour to those whose words or deed
Thus help us in our daily need,

And by their overflow

Raise us from what is low!

Thus thought I, as by night I read
Of the great army of the dead,
The trenches cold and damp,

The starved and frozen camp,—

The wounded from the battle-plain,
In dreary hospitals of pain,

The cheerless corridors,

The cold and stony floors.

Lo in that house of misery
A lady with a lamp I see

Pass through the glimmering gloom,
And flit from room to room.

And slow, as in a dream of bliss,
The speechless sufferer turns to kiss
Her shadow, as it falls

Upon the darkening walls.

As if a door in heaven should be
Opened and then closed suddenly,
The vision came and went,

The light shone and was spent.

On England's annals, through the long
Hereafter of her speech and song,
That light its rays shall cast
From portals of the past.

A Lady with a Lamp shall stand,
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good,

Heroic womanhood.

Nor even shall be wanting here
The palm, the lily, and the spear,
The symbols that of yore

Saint Filomena bore.

LONGFELLOW.

Santa Filomena.-This poem is a noble tribute by the foremost American poet to the heroism of Miss Nightingale, who, during the Crimean war, left the comforts of her English home to minister to the wants of our soldiers. The form of the poem was suggested by the following extract from Mrs. Jamieson's "Sacred and Legendary Art," vol. ii. p. 298:-" At Pisa, the church of San Francisco contains a chapel, dedicated lately to Santa Filomena; over the altar is a picture, representing the saint as a beautiful nymph-like figure, floating down from heaven, attended by two angels, bearing the lily, palm, and javelin, and beneath in the foreground the sick and maimed, who are healed by her intercession.” To higher levels rise.-Reach heights unattained before; feel nobler thoughts welling up. The figure is borrowed from the tide, and is pursued in the following stanza, where the poet speaks of the "tidal wave of deeper souls," i.e., the thoughts of nobler men take possession of us, and lift us into a region where everything mean and low is forgotten.

The trenches cold and damp.-When an army is besieging a fortified town, which cannot be approached directly, it is usual to cut trenches or ditches. Ditches are dug from three to five feet deep, from ten to twelve broad, and the earth taken from them is thrown up on the side toward the fortress, to afford a defence against the shot. By drawing these ditches in a line gradually approaching the fortress, the besiegers reach a point where they can bring their guns into position to reach the fortress. Trenches of this sort were first used by the French at the siege of Harfleur, 1449. The trenches in the poem were those dug round Sebastopol.

The starved and frozen camp.-The sufferings of our own troops in the Crimea in the winter of 1854 were terrible in the extreme,

The cheerless corridors.-A corridor is a covered way running round a building from which the various rooms open. A lady with a lamp I see.—Miss Nightingale. The speechless sufferer, &c.—This was literally true. "I could kiss her very shadow," were words which fell from many of the wounded.

EXERCISES.

1. To what did this poem owe its origin? What suggested its form? Tell what you know of the lady alluded to. When was the Crimean war? Who took part in it?

2. What effect ought the noble words and deeds of noble men to have on us? What figure does the poet use to call this forth? Show how he applies the figure.

3. What are trenches, corridors, portals, symbols?

4. Give the derivation of portals, and show how the meaning of gate arose from this root. Give all the words from the same root which you can remember.

Virtue.

brid'-al, marriage.

clos'-es, ends, conclusion.

gives, yields, gives way.

com-pact'-ed, closely packed together.

sea'-son-ed, fitted for use.

SWEET day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky!
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night;
For thou must die.

Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave,
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye!
Thy root is ever in its grave-

And thou must die.

Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie!
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.

Only a sweet and virtuous soul,

Like seasoned timber, never gives;

But, though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.

G. HERBERT.

EXERCISES.

1. Distinguish between bridal, bridle; dew, due; die, dye; hue, hew; whole, hole.

2. Point out the various objects, with which the poet contrasts the eternity of virtue.

ON Christmas-eve grandmamma is always in excellent spirits, and after employing all the children during the day in stoning the plums, and all that, insists, regularly every year, on Uncle George coming down into the kitchen, taking off his coat, and stirring the pudding for half-an-hour or so, which Uncle George good-humouredly does to the vociferous delight of the children and servants. The evening concludes with a glorious game of