k; 7. There rose no murmur from the ranks, no thought 8. So we made women with their children go. 9. What followed why recall? The brave who died, Exercises: 1. Parse and analyze: The men looked on without a murmur. 2. What words rhyme with-repose, steel, clear, reply, seek, turf? 3. Make Sentences containing-palate, pallet, palette; pastor, pasture; peak, pique. 4. Why do women and children receive the first care and attention in times of danger? Give an example. THE EARTH'S JOURNEY ROUND THE SUN. 1. One, two, three, four, five! Does the reader know that while he has been counting these five beats-five seconds-he has actually been conveyed through space a distance of more than a hundred miles ? Yet so it is. However incredible it may seem, no fact is more certain than that the Earth is constantly on the wing, flying around the Sun with a velocity so prodigious that for every breath we draw we advance on our way forty or fifty miles. 2. When, passing across the waters in a steamboat, we wake after a night's repose, and find ourselves conducted on our voyage a hundred miles, we exult in the triumphs of art, which has moved the ponderous vessel so swiftly, and yet so quietly as not to disturb our slumbers. But with a motion vastly more quiet and uniform, we have, in the same time, been carried with the Earth over a distance of more than half a million of miles. 3. In the case of the steam-ship, however perfect the machinery may be, we still, in our waking hours at least, are made sensible of the action of the forces by which the motion is maintained; but in the more perfect machinery which carries the Earth forward on its grander voyage, no sound is heard, nor the least intimation afforded of the mighty power by which this immense ball is rolled forward through space. 4. The distance of the Earth from the Sun is more than ninety millions of miles. No human mind can fully comprehend what this vast distance is; but we may form some conception of it by such an illustration as this: A ship may cross the Atlantic by less than ten days' steady sailing; but it would take that ship, moving at the rate of ten miles an hour, more than a thousand years to reach the Sun. 5. And yet, at this vast distance, the Sun, by his power of attraction, serves as the great regulator of the planetary motions, bending them continually from the straight line, and compelling them to circulate around him, constantly keeping at about the same distance from him, and all in perfect harmony. 6. What a wonderful force must the Sun put forth to bend out of their courses into circular orbits such a number of planets, some of which are more than a thousand times as large as the Earth! Were a ship of war under full sail, we can easily imagine how great a force it would need to turn her from her course by a rope attached to her bow, especially were it required that the force should remain stationary, and the ship be so held as to be made to go round the force as a centre. 7. Somewhat similar to this, but on a much grander scale, is the action which is exerted on the Earth in its journey round the Sun. By an invisible influence which we call gravitation, the Sun turns all the planets out of a straight course, and bends them into circular orbits round himself, though they are all many millions of times more ponderous than the largest ship, and are moving many thousand times more swiftly. Questions:-1. At what speed does the Earth move round the Sun? 2. What do we regard as a triumph of art? 3. In what does the motion of the Earth differ from that of machinery? 4. How may we form some conception of the distance from the Earth to the Sun? 5. How does the Sun influence the planetary motions? 6. What is a proof of the wonderful force put forth by the Sun? 7. What is this force called? Notes and Meanings. 1 In-cred-i-ble, hard to believe; un likely. On the wing, in motion. Pro-dig-ious, great; enormous. 4 Com-pre-hend', understand; grasp. Plan-et-a-ry, relating to the planets, Summary: The Earth moves so quickly on its journey round the Sun, that while we count five we are carried through space a distance of more than a hundred miles. The Earth is more than ninety millions of miles from the Sun, and yet so great is its power of attraction that at this great distance the Sun serves as the great regulator of the planetary motions. Exercises: 1. Parse and analyze: We are carried through space a distance of more than a hundred miles. 2. Change into Nouns-know, quiet, perfect, imagine, more, steady. 3. Make Sentences containing-pearl, peril; peer, pier; place, plaice; plaintiff, plaintive. 4. What do you know about the Motions of the Earth? THE ENGLISH BOY. 1. Look from the ancient mountains down, My noble English boy! Thy country's fields around thee gleam, 2. Ages have rolled since foeman's march 3. Gaze proudly on, my English boy, 4. There in the shadow of old Time (770) Which poured forth to the fields of yore 5. How bravely and how solemnly They stand 'midst oak and yew, 10 |