9. What is the purpose of the pause?

10. What effect has the speech produced on the populace so far? 11. What is Antony's purpose in lines 50–56?

12. Why does Antony produce the will?

13. Why add "which, pardon me, I do not mean to read"?

14. What effect does what he says immediately following have on the people?

15. Why does he urge patience and state, "I must not read it"? 16. What is the purpose of line 70?

17. Why does he not say outright what he insinuates in the next four lines?

18. What hint is given the populace in line 75?

19. Why does he urge further patience and suggest that he has wronged "the honorable men whose daggers have stabbed Cæsar"?

20. Why does he have them form a ring?

21. Why show rents in the mantle instead of wounds in the body? 22. Explain "envious Casca," "well beloved Brutus," "cursed steel," "most unkindest cut."

23. Why does he describe the assassination so vividly?

24. What daring declaration in lines 118-120?

25. Why does he wait until now to show the body?

26. Why not let the citizens go now?

27. Why does he mention "private griefs"?

28. Why does he speak of wounds as "poor dumb mouths"?

29. Why suggest that eloquence like that of Brutus could cause "The very stones of Rome to rise and mutiny"?

30. Why does he still hold the people?

31. What does he accomplish by reading the will of Cæsar?

32. What final effect was produced by the oration?

33. What was the attitude of the people at the outset?

34. Make a list of the steps by which their attitude was changed.

ADDITIONAL READINGS

SHAKESPEARE: Julius Cæsar.

KELLOGG Spartacus to the Gladiators.
PIERPONT: Warren's Address at Bunker Hill.

PATRICK HENRY: A Call to Arms.

READ: The Rising in 1776.

WORDSWORTH: Character of the Happy Warrior.

WEBSTER: Reply to Hayne. Supposed Speech of John Adams.

PHILLIPS: Napoleon Bonaparte.

PLUTARCH: Life of Julius Cæsar..

THREE GATES OF GOLD

If you are tempted to reveal
A tale some one to you has told
About another, make it pass,

Before you speak, three gates of gold;
These narrow gates: First, "Is it true?"
Then: "Is it needful?" In your mind
Give truthful answer, and the next
Is last and closest, "Is it kind?"
And, if to reach your lips at last,
It passes through these gateways three,
Then you may tell the tale, nor fear
What the result of speech may be.

-Selected.

TRUE DIGNITY

True dignity abides with him alone,
Who, in the patient hour of silent thought,
Can still respect and still revere himself.

-Wadsworth.

THE BROTHER OF MERCY

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER was a devout Quaker, and his interpretations of religion are remarkably liberal and practical. He seemed to catch clearly the vision that religion and life are one, and that true religious faith must find expression in service for others. He could not approve the Puritan idea of a future life spent in perfect bliss with white robes, harps, and crowns of gold. Longfellow in his Excelsior had already hinted at growth of the soul even in an immortal existence. Whittier's interpretation of the future life, as given in this poem, is presented so artistically and so reasonably that even his Puritan neighbors did not resent it.

Whittier based this poem upon a touching account of the death of a Brother of Mercy, Piero Luca, in Florence. The Brothers of Mercy, known also as Fathers of Mercy and Priests of Mercy, were an order of monks devoted exclusively to helping the needy, caring for the sick, and similar “tasks of love or pity." " They were a working, not a praying, order of monks. When one of these working brothers came to

die, a member of a religious order was called in to give spiritual guidance and comfort.

In the scene described, Piero, a Brother of Mercy, lay dying after forty years of faithful ministry. By his side sat the religious monk of La Certosa assuring him that his life of faithful labor should be rewarded by rest and perfect

bliss among the white-robed saints. The significant reply of the sincere Piero, the muttering reproach and flight of the pale monk, and the sweet benediction of an angel presence, are the framework upon which Whittier constructs his practical philosophy of a future life, culminating

in the tender, compassionate voice of the angel saying,

"Never fear!

For heaven is love, as God himself is love;
Thy work below shall be thy work above."

A hurried reading of such a poem will not satisfy. The poem must be studied until its message sinks into the very soul of the reader. THE BROTHER OF MERCY*

Piero Luca, known of all the town
As the gray porter by the Pitti wall

Where the noon shadows of the gardens fall,
Sick and in dolor, waited to lay down

His last sad burden, and beside his mat
The barefoot monk of La Certosa sat.

Unseen, in square and blossoming garden drifted,
Soft sunset lights through green Val d' Arno sifted;
Unheard, below the living shuttles shifted
Backward and forth, and wove, in love or strife,
In mirth or pain, the mottled web of life:
But when at last came upward from the street
Tinkle of bell and tread of measured feet,
The sick man started, strove to rise in vain,
Sinking back heavily with a moan of pain.
And the monk said, ""Tis but the Brotherhood
Of Mercy going on some errand good:
Their black masks by the palace-wall I see.”

*Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, the authorized publishers, Houghton Mifflin Company.