know the reasons that all the world is pleased to use in so hopeful a dispute."

6. At this, the spider, having swelled himself into the size and posture of a disputant, began his argument, in the true spirit of controversy, with resolution to be heartily scurrilous and angry, to urge on his own reasons without the least regard to the answers or objections of his opposite, and fully predetermined in his mind against all conviction. "Not to disparage myself," said he, "by the comparison with such a rascal, what art thou but a vagabond without house or home, without stock or inheritance, born to no possession of your own but a pair of wings and a drone-pipe? Your livelihood is a universal plunder upon Nature,—a freebooter over fields and gardens, and for the sake of stealing will rob a nettle as easily as a violet. Whereas I am a domestic animal, furnished with a native stock within myself. This large castle (to show my improvements in the mathematics) is all built with my own hands, and the materials extracted altogether out of my own person."

7. "I am glad," answered the bee, "to hear you grant at least that I am come honestly by my wings and my voice; for then, it seems, I am obliged to heaven alone for my flights and my music, and Providence would never have bestowed on me two such gifts without designing them for the noblest ends. I visit, indeed, all the flowers and blossoms of the field and garden, but whatever I collect thence enriches myself, without the least injury to their beauty, their smell, or their taste.

8. "Now, for you and your skill in architecture and other mathematics, I have little to say. In that building of yours there might, for aught I know, have been labor and method enough, but, by woeful experience for us both,

it is too plain the materials are naught; and I hope you

consider duration and You boast, indeed, of

will henceforth take warning, and matter, as well as method and art. being obliged to no other creature, but of drawing and spinning out all from yourself,-that is to say, if we may judge of the liquor in the vessel by what issues out, you possess a good plentiful store of dirt and poison in your breast; and, though I would by no means lessen or disparage your genuine stock of either, yet I doubt you are somewhat obliged, for an increase of both, to a little foreign assistance.

9. "Your inherent portion of dirt does not fail of acquisitions by sweepings exhaled from below, and one insect furnishes you with a share of poison to destroy another; so that, in short, the question comes all to this: Whether is the nobler being of the two, that which by a lazy contemplation of four inches round, by an overweening pride, feeding and engendering on itself, turns all into venom, producing nothing at all but flybane and a cobweb, or that which by a universal range, with long search, much study, true judgment, and distinction of things, brings home honey and wax?"

DEFINITIONS.—1. Păl i sā ́doeş, palisades; stakes driven in the ground for defense. 2. Çit'a del, a fortress. 3. Ae quit'ted, released. Toils, snares. 4. DI lǎp i da'tions, injuries. Pruned, trim

med. 5. Troth, faith. 6. Scŭr'ril oŭs, abusive. Dis păr age, to undervalue. Free boot er, a robber. 9. In hēr ́ent, inborn. Exhaled', sent out; breathed out. Ō ver wēen ́ing, arrogant; conceited. En gen'der ing, producing.

NOTES.-The Spider and the Bee is an allegory taken from The Battle of the Books, in which the author discusses the comparative merits of ancient and modern learning. The bee represents the ancients; the spider makes the argument for the moderns.

3. Be ěl'ze bub signifies the "Lord of Flies."

109.-ROBINSON CRUSOE AND HIS RAFT.

DANIEL DE FOE was born in London in 1661. His name was originally Foe; but when he attained his majority, he added the prefix De. He wrote numerous political pamphlets, and held several positions under the government; but finally he became disgusted with politics and took to writing fictitious narratives, the most famous of which is his Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719. His works of fiction still charm by their air of truth and the simple, natural beauty of their style. He died in 1731.

1. My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight. My next care was what to load it with, and how to preserve what I laid upon it from the surf of the sea; but I was not long considering this. I first laid all the planks and boards upon it that I could get, and, having considered well what I most wanted, I first got three of the seamen's chests, which I had broken open and emptied, and lowered them down upon my raft.

2. The first of these I filled with provisions,—namely, bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goat's flesh, which we lived much upon, and a little remainder of European corn, which had been laid by for some fowls that we brought to sea with us; but the fowls were killed. There had been some barley and wheat together, but, to my great disappointment, I found afterward that the rats had eaten or spoiled it all. While I was doing this I found the tide began to flow, though very calm; and I had the mortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I had left on shore upon the sand, swim away.

3. This put me upon rummaging for clothes, of which I found enough, but took no more than I wanted for present use, for I had other things which my eye was more upon,--as, first, tools to work with on shore; and it was after long searching that I found out the carpenter's chest,

which was indeed a very useful prize to me, and much more valuable than a ship-loading of gold would have been at that time. I got it down to my raft, even whole as it was, without losing time to look into it; for I knew in general what it contained.

4. My next care was for some ammunition and arms. There were two very good fowling-pieces in the great cabin, and two pistols; these I secured first, with some powder-horns, and a small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. I knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but knew not where our gunner had stowed them; but with much search I found them,-two of them dry and good the third had taken water. Those two I got to my raft with the arms.

5. And now I thought myself pretty well freighted, and began to think how I should get to shore with them, having neither sail, oar, nor rudder; and the least capful of wind would have overset all my navigation. What little wind there was blew toward the land, and, having found two or three broken oars belonging to the boat, and-besides the tools that were in the chest-two saws, an axe, and a hammer, with this cargo I put to sea.

6. For a mile or thereabouts my raft went very well, only that I found it drive a little distant from the place where I had landed before; by which I perceived that there was some indraft of the water, and consequently I hoped to find some creek or river there, which I might make use of as a port to get to land with my cargo. As I imagined, so it was there appeared before me a little opening of the land, and I found a strong current of the tide set into it; so I guided my raft as well as I could to keep in the middle of the stream.

7. Here I had like to have suffered a second shipwreck,

which, if I had, I think verily would have broke my heart, for, knowing nothing of the coast, my raft run aground, one end of it upon a shoal; and, not being aground at the other end, it wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off toward that end that was afloat, and so fallen into the water. I did my utmost, by setting my back against the chests, to keep them in their places, but could not thrust off the raft with all my strength; neither durst I stir from the posture I was in.

8. Holding up the chests with all my might, I stood in that manner near half an hour, in which time the rising of the water brought me a little more upon a level; and a little after, the water still rising, my raft floated again, and I thrust her off with the oar I had into the channel; and then, driving up higher, I at length found myself in the mouth of a little river, with land on both sides, and a strong current, or tide, running up. I looked on both sides for a proper place to get to shore; for I was not willing to be driven too high up the river, hoping, in time, to see some ship at sea, and therefore resolved to place myself as near the coast as I could.

9. At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek, to which, with great pain and difficulty, I guided my raft, and at last got so near as that, reaching ground with my oar, I could thrust her directly in. But here I had like to have dipped all my cargo in the sea again; for, that shore lying pretty steep,-that is to say, sloping,—there was no place to land but where one end of the float, if it ran on shore, would lie so high, and the other sink lower as before, that it would endanger my cargo again.

10. All that I could do was to wait till the tide was at the highest, keeping the raft with my oar like an anchor,