18. But Julian, sitting by her, answered all:
"She is but dumb, because in her you see
That faithful servant whom we spoke about,
Obedient to her second master now;

Which will not last. I have here to night a guest
So bound to me by common love and loss-
What! shall I bind him mōre? in his behalf,
Shall I exceed the Persian, giving him

That which of all things is the dearest to me,
Not only showing? and he himself pronounced
That my rich gift is wholly mine to give.
Now all be dumb, and promise all of you
Not to break in on what I say by word
Or whisper, while I show you all my heart."

14. And then began the story of his love

As here to-day, but not so wordily—
The passionate moment would not suffer that-
Past through his visions to the burial; thence
Down to this last strange hour in his own hall;
And then rose up, and with him all his guests
Once more as by enchantment; all but he,
Lionel, who fain had risen, but fell again,
And sat as if in chains-to whom he said:
Take my free gift, my cousin, for your wife;
And were it only for the giver's sake,
And though she seem so like the one you lost,
Yet cast her not away so suddenly,

Lest there be none left here to bring her back:
I leave this land forever." Here he ceased.

15. Then taking his dear lady by one hand,
And bearing on one arm the noble babe,
He slowly brought them both to Lionel.
And there the widower husband and dead wife
Rushed each at each with a cry, that rather seemed
For some new death than for a life renewed;

At this the very babe began to wail;

At once they turned, and caught and brought him in
To their charmed circle, and, half killing him

With kisses, round him closed and claspt again.
But Lionel, when at last he freed himself
From wife and child, and lifted up a face
All over glowing with the sun of life,

And love, and boundless thanks-the sight of this
So frighted our good friend, that turning to me
And saying, "It is over: let us go"-

There were our horses ready at the doors-
We både them no farewell, but mounting these
He past forever from his native land;

And I with him, my Julian, back to mine.

TENNYSON.

ALFRED TENNYSON, poet laureate of England, the son of a clergyman, was born in Lincolnshire, in 1810. He received his university education at Trinity College, Cambridge. His first volume of poems was published in 1830; his second, three years afterward. Some of his early minor pieces, as well as his selections from "The Princess," are simple, true to nature, and exquisitely beautiful. "In Memoriam," one of his most characteristic poems, is the most important contribution which has yet been given to what may strictly be entitled Elegiac Poetry. It first appeared in 1850, nearly twenty years after the death of young Hallam, the son of the celebrated historian, to whom he was bound by many endearing ties, and to whose memory the work is a tribute. Careful study, and reflection on the reader's own inmost being, are required to fully reveal the imaginative power, the wisdom, and the spiritual beauty of this work. The poet's early fame is fully sustained by his later writings. "Idyls of the King," for vigor, exquisite utterance, and varied interest, is probably inferior to no corresponding poem in any language. His latest volume, "The Holy Grail, and Other Poems," from which the above is selected, was published in 1870. In person, the poet is of dark complexion and imposing stature and appearance. His poems have passed through many editions both in England and America.

SECTION XXI.

I.

92. TIBERIUS AND VIPSANIA.

[VIPSANIA, the daughter of AGRIPPA, was divorced from TIBERIUS by AUGUSTUS and LIVIA, in order that he might marry JULIA, and hold the Roman empire by inheritance.]

IBERIUS. Vipsaniä, my Vipsania, whither art thou walking?
Vipsania. Whom do I see? my Tiberius?

Tib. Ah! no, no, no! but thou seest the father of thy little Drusus. Press him to thy heart the more closely for this meeting, and give him—

Vip. Tiberius! the altars, the gods, the destinies, are between us. I will take it from this hand; thus, thus shall he receive it.

Tib. Raise up thy face, my beloved! I must not shed tears. Augustus! Liviä! ye shall not extort them from me. Vipsania! I may kiss thy head-for I have saved it. Thou sayest nothing. I have wronged thee; ay?

Vip. Ambition does not see the earth she treads on the rock and the herbage are of one substance to her. Let me excuse you to my heart, O Tiberius. It has many wants; this is the first and greatest.

Tib. My ambition, I swear by the immortal gods, placed not the bar of severance between us. A stronger hand, the hand composes Rome and sways the world

that

Vip. Overawed Tiberius. I knew it; Augustus willed and commanded it.

Tib. And overawed Tiberius! Power bent, Death terrified, a Nero! What is our race, that any should look down on us and spurn us! Augustus, my benefactor, I have wronged thee! Liviä, my mother, this one cruel deed was thine! To reign forsooth is a lovely thing! O womanly appetite! Who would have been before me, though the palace of Cæsar cracked and split with emperors, while I, sitting in idleness on a cliff of Rhodes, eyed the sun as he swang his golden censer athwart the heavens, or his image as it overstrode the sea. I have it before me; and though it seems falling on me, I can smile at it; just as I did from my little favorite skiff, painted round with the marriage of Thetis," when the sailors drew their long shaggy hair across their eyes, many a stadium' away from it, to mitigate its effulgence.

These too were happy days: days of happiness like these I could recall and look back upon with unaching brow. O land of Greece! Tiberius blesses thee, bidding thee rejoice and floŭrish.

1 The Colossus was thrown down by an earthquake during the war between Antiochus and Ptolemy, who sent the Rhodians three thousand talents for the restoration of it. The first residence of Tiberius in Rhodes was when he returned from

his Armenian expedition, the last was after his divorce from Vipsania and his marriage with Julia.

2 Thetis (the' tĭs), in Greek mythology, a Nereid, the wife of Peleus, and the mother of Achilles.

Stādi um, 606 feet 9 inches.