and represents to our minds the most enraged and the most powerful as altogether harmless and impotent. There is no true fortitude which is not founded upon this fear, as there is no other principle of so settled and fixed a nature. . . . That courage which proceeds from the sense of our duty, and from the fear of offending Him that made us, acts always in a uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason. What can a man fear, who takes care in all his actions to please a Being that is omnipotent ?-ADDISON. (b) Many people suppose that poetry is something to be found only in books, contained in lines of ten syllables, with like endings: but wherever there is a sense of beauty, or power, or harmony, as in the motion of a wave of the sea, in the growth of a flower that "spreads its sweet leaves to the air, and dedicates its beauty to the sun,"-there is poetry, in its birth. If history is a grave study, poetry may be said to be a graver: its materials lie deeper, and are spread wider. History treats, for the most part, of the cumbrous and unwieldy masses of things, the empty cases in which the affairs of the world are packed, under the heads of intrigue or war, in different states, and from century to century: but there is no thought or feeling that can have entered into the mind of man, which he would be eager to communicate to others, or which they would listen to with delight, that is not a fit subject for poetry. It is not a branch of authorship: it is "the stuff of which our life is made." The rest is " mere oblivion," a dead letter: for all that is worth remembering in life is the poetry of it. Poetry is that fine particle within us that expands, rarefies, refines, raises our whole being. . . . Those of us who do not study the principles of poetry, act upon them all our lives, like Molière's Bourgeois Gentilhomme, who had always spoken prose without knowing it.-HAZLITT. ... JUNE, 1841. Examiner-M. DELILLE. A. Translate into English : Quand vous voyez passer comme en un instant devant vos yeux, je ne dis pas les rois et les empereurs, mais ces grands empires qui ont fait trembler tout l'univers; quand vous voyez les Assyriens anciens et nouveaux, les Mèdes, les Perses, les Grecs, les Romains se présenter devant vous successivement, et tomber, pour ainsi dire, les uns sur les autres; ce fracas effroyable vous fait sentir qu'il n'y a rien de solide parmi les hommes, et que l'inconstance et l'agitation est le propre partage des choses humaines. Mais ce qui rendra ce spectacle plus utile et plus agréable, ce sera la réflexion que vous ferez, non seulement sur l'élévation et la chute des empires, mais encore sur les causes de leur progrès et sur celles de leur décadence. Car ce même Dieu qui a fait l'enchaînement de l'univers, et qui, tout-puissant par lui-même, a voulu, pour établir l'ordre, que les parties d'un si grand tout dépendissent les unes des autres; ce même Dieu a voulu aussi que le cours des choses humaines eût sa suite et ses proportions: je veux dire que les hommes et les nations ont eu des qualités proportionnées à l'élévation à laquelle ils étaient destinés ; et qu'à la réserve de certains coups extraordinaires, où Dieu voulait que sa main parût toute seule, il n'est point arrivé de grand changement qui n'ait eu ses causes dans les siècles précédents. -BossUET, Discours sur l'Histoire Universelle, 3ème partie. B. Translate into French : (a) Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by the supreme ordinance of a parental guardian and legislator, who knows us better than we know ourselves, as he loves us better too. . . . He that wrestles with us, strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This amicable conflict with difficulty obliges us to an intimate acquaintance with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial. -BURKE. (b) Public Schools in France established by Charlemagne. The establishment of public schools in France is owing to Charlemagne. At his accession, we are assured that no means of education existed in his dominions; and in order to restore in some degree the spirit of letters, he was compelled to invite strangers from countries where learning was not so thoroughly extinguished. Alcuin of England, Clement of Ireland, Theodulf of Germany, were the true Paladins who repaired to his court. With the help of these, he revived a few sparks of diligence, and established schools in different cities of his empire; nor was he ashamed to be the disciple of that in his own palace, under the care of Alcuin. (c) Foundation of the University of Paris. About the latter part of the eleventh century, a greater ardour for intellectual pursuits began to show itself in Europe, which, in the twelfth, broke out into a flame. This was manifested in the numbers who repaired to the public academies, or schools of philosophy. None of these grew so early into reputation as that of Paris. This cannot, indeed, as has been vainly pretended, trace its pedigree to Charlemagne. The first who is said to have read lectures at Paris was Remigius of Auxerre, about the year 900. For the next two centuries, the history of this school is very obscure; and it would be hard to prove an unbroken continuity, or at least a dependence and connection of its professors. In the year 1100, we find William of Champeaux teaching logic, and apparently some higher parts of philosophy, with much credit. But this preceptor was eclipsed by his disciple, afterwards his rival and adversary, Peter Abelard, to whose brilliant and hardy genius the University of Paris appears to be indebted for its rapid advancement. Abelard was almost the first who awakened mankind, in the ages of darkness, to a sympathy with intellectual excellence. . . . The resort of students to Paris became continually greater. They appear, before the year 1169, to have been divided into nations; and probably they had an elected rector, and voluntary rules of discipline, about the same time. This, however, is not decisively proved; but in the last year of the twelfth century, they obtained their earliest charter from Philip Augustus. -HALLAM, State of Europe during the Middle Ages. C. Translate into English : MOLIÈRE, Les Femmes Savantes (Comédie). PHILAMINTE, femme de Chrysale; BÉLISE, sœur de Chrysale ; Vite, sortez, friponne; allons, quittez ces lieux; Chrysale. Tout doux. Philaminte. Non, c'en est fait. Chrysale. Hé! Philaminte. Je veux qu'elle sorte. Chrysale. Mais qu'a-t-elle commis, pour vouloir de la sorte Philaminte. Quoi! vous la soutenez ! Chrysale. En aucune façon. Philaminte. Prenez-vous son parti contre moi? Chrysale.] Mon dieu! non; Je ne fais seulement que demander son crime. Philaminte. Suis-je pour la chasser sans cause légitime ? Chrysale. Je ne dis pas cela; mais il faut de nos gens. Philaminte. Non; elle sortira, vous dis-je, de céans. Chrysale. Hé bien! oui. Vous dit-on quelque chose là-contre? Philaminte. Je ne veux point d'obstacle aux désirs que je montre. D'accord. Être Chrysale. Philaminte. Et vous devez, en raisonnable époux, pour moi contre elle, et prendre mon courroux. Chrysale (se tournant vers Martine). Aussi fais-je. Oui, ma femme avec raison vous chasse, Coquine, et votre crime est indigne de grâce. G ? |