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FIRMNESS OF ALEXANDER SEVERUS.

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WHILST Alexander Severus lay at Antioch, in his Persian expedition, the punishment of some soldiers excited a sedition in the legion to which they belonged. Alexander ascended his tribunal, and, with a modest firmness, 3 represented to the armed multitude the absolute necessity, as well as his inflexible resolution, of correcting the vices introduced by his impure5 predecessor, and of maintaining the discipline, which could not be relaxed without the ruin of the Roman name and empire. Their clamours interrupted his mild expostulation. "Reserve your shouts,' said the undaunted emperor, "till you take the field against the Persians, the Germans, and the Sarmatians.7 Be silent in the presence of your sovereign and benefactor, who bestows upon you the corn, the clothing, and the money of the provinces. Be silent, or I shall no longer style you soldiers, but citizens;8 if those, indeed, who disclaim the laws of Rome, deserve to be ranked among the meanest 10 of the people." His menaces inflamed the fury of the legion, and their brandished arms already threatened his person. "Your courage," resumed the intrepid Alexander, "would be more nobly displayed in a field of battle: me you may destroy, you cannot intimi

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date; and the severe justice of the republic 2 would punish your crime and revenge my death." The legion still persisting in clamorous sedition, the emperor pronounced with a loud voice the decisive sentence, "Citizens ! lay down your arms, and depart in peace to your respective habitations." The tempest was instantly appeased; the soldiers, filled with grief and shame, silently confessed the justice of their punishment, and the power of discipline; yielded up their arms and military ensigns, and retired in confusion, not to their camp, but to the several inns of the city. Alexander enjoyed during thirty days the edifying spectacle of their repentance; nor did he restore them to their former rank in the army till he had punished those tribunes whose connivance had occasioned the mutiny. GIBBON. (History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)

SCHOOL-DAY ANECDOTES.9

I.

The

OUR class contained some very excellent scholars.10 first Dux11 was James Buchan, who retained his honoured place,12 almost without a day's interval,13 all the while we

1 Vous pouvez m'ôter la vie (page 10, note 10): vous ne sauriez (or, n'espérez pas) m'intimider. Put a full stop, here, after 'intimidate,' as well as after 'battle,' higher up (see page 24, note 19).ne sauriez, &c. (cannot'). The conditional of savoir ('to know') is often used, in French, with ne only, instead of the indicative of pouvoir ('to be able') conjugated negatively. Thus, je ne saurais, for je ne puis (or peux) pas, or, simply, je ne puis (or peux)-see page 48, note 12-I cannot.' See the LA FONTAINE, page 21, note 9. 2 Le glaive de la justice.

3 Les cris redoublaient, lorsque.

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were at the High School.1 He was afterwards at the head of the medical staff in Egypt,2 and in exposing himself to the plague infection,3 by attending the hospitals there,1 displayed the same well-regulated and gentle, yet determined perseverance, which placed him most worthily at the head of his school-fellows, while many lads of livelier parts and dispositions 7 held an inferior station. next best scholars (sed longo intervallo) were my friend. David Douglas, the heir and élève 10 of the celebrated Adam Smith, and James Hope, now a Writer to the Signet,11 both since well known and distinguished in their

1 tout le temps que nous fames (page 18, note 9, and page 1, note 3) -or, que nous fimes nos études or, que nous fumes sur les bancsau High School (or, à la Grande Ecole-or, à l'Ecole publique d'Edimbourg).

2 du corps des médecins (or, officiers de santé) de l'armée d'Egypte. 3 à la contagion de la peste. 4 dans la visite des hôpitaux pendant la guerre.

See page 23, note 9.

6 qui l'avait mis à si juste titre (or, à si bon droit) à la tête de ses condisciples.

7 tandis que plus d'un garçon qui montrait une plus grande vivacité dans l'intelligence (or, les moyens) et les dispositions (see page 49, note 8). Plus d'un (more than one,' 'many a') requires the following verb to be in the singular; unless this verb expresses an idea of reciprocity, e. g., plus d'un fripon se dupent l'un l'autre (MARMONTEL), because there is then absolute plurality in the idea. 8 The imperfect of the indicative, not the preterite definite, must be used here. The imperfect of the indicative, in French, does not solely imply wont, or habit, in the doer or doers of an action, or a certain continuity in an action or a state, as mentioned at page 1, note 3; it is also used to indicate a fact which was taking

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place when another, also mentioned, happened. This latter difference will be more easily understood than the other, perhaps, by an English student, as the English use, in many instances, at least, a form of conjugation corresponding, in a like case to that just pointed out, to the French imperfect. Ex.-J'écrivais ('I was writing'-imperfect) quand vous êtes entré; J'écrivis (I wrote '— preterite) quand vous êtes entré. The sense, in each of these cases, is very different.

9 Immédiatement après ces deux élèves venaient; or, better, here, not to clash with the idea of 'a long interval, Les meilleurs élèves après ceux-ci

étaient.

10 The French do not generally use any article in such a case as this (see page 27, note 2): but here, the use of the definite article will point more to a particular and well-known person; which is, I believe, the object of the author. And if the article is to be used here, before the first noun, it must, of course, be repeated before the second.

11 aujourd'hui avoué (attorney). Writer,' in Scotland, is a term of nearly the same meaning as 'attorney' in England. 'Writer to the Signet' (abbreviated W. S.), is the designation of the members of the most numerous and import

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departments of the law. As for myself, I glanced like a meteor from one end of the class to the other, and com、 monly disgusted my kind master as much by negligence and frivolity, as I occasionally pleased him by flashes of intellect and talent. Among my companions, my goodnature, and a flow of ready imagination, rendered me very popular. Boys are uncommonly just in their feelings,8 and at least equally generous. My lameness, and the efforts which I made to supply that disadvantage,9 by making up in address what I wanted in activity,1o engaged the latter principle in my favour;11 and in the winter play

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ant class of attorneys in Scotland.
The business of an attorney is
transacted, in France, partly by
an avoué and partly by a notaire,
who also corresponds to 'notary,'
and conveyancer.'
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i qui tous deux (or, tous les deux) se sont acquis depuis une réputation méritée, chacun dans la partie du droit qu'il a embrassée (see page 32, note, and page 18, note 13).-Some grammarians have, on their own authority, established a difference between tous deux and tous les deux, which, I think, is not worth notice, being as little observed by good authors as it is absurd in

itself.

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solely in the expression couler de source, 'to be said or written in an easy fluent manner,' and the adverb coulamment (fluently).

7 Les écoliers, in this sense. 8 en général, ont le cœur singulièrement droit.

9 Le défaut que j'avais de boiter, joint aux efforts que je faisais pour y suppléer. The pronoun y (to it,' and also to them') is the dative, and applies to things (lui, 'to him,' and to her,' and leur, 'to them,' apply to persons). - We make a distinction, in French, between suppléer une chose (objective case) and suppléer à une chose (dative). Suppléer une chose, is, to furnish it so as to complete a whole, to add to a thing what is wanting to make it entire. Ex. :-Ce sac doit être de mille francs, et ce qu'il y a de moins je le suppléerai. Suppléer à une chose, is, to put in its place a thing which is intended to do instead of it. Ex.:-Son mérite supplée au défaut de sa naissance; and, Dans les arts, le travail ne peut suppléer au génie.

10 en compensant avec de l'adresse ce qui me manquait en fait d'ac

tivité.

11 concilia (preterite, here-see page 1, note as it only did so once for all) en ma faveur la dernière de ces deux dispositions natives. See page 22, note 1.

hours,1 when 2 hard exercise was 3 impossible, my tales used to assemble an admiring audience round Lucky Brown's fireside,5 and happy was he that could sit next to the inexhaustible narrator. I was also, though often negligent of my own task, always ready to assist my friends, and hence I had a little party of staunch partisans and adherents, stout of hand and heart, though somewhat dull of head-the very tools for raising a hero to eminence.10 So, on the whole, I made a brighter figure in the yards than in the class.

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II.

THERE was a boy in the class, who 12 stood always at the top,13 nor could I with all my efforts supplant him.14 Day

1 et durant les... en hiver. 2 alors que; which is more pointed than quand, or lorsque. It corresponds more particularly to 'when,' used pointedly in the sense of at a time when.' Some grammarians and lexicographers have condemned this term in prose. The best prose writers, however, and academicians in the number, have used it repeatedly. I can only say that it is a very elegant and expressive term. See, among other works, Picciola, by M. SAINTINE, Messrs. Bell and Daldy's Edition, with notes by Dr. Dubuc, page 26, note 1, and other places.

3 les exercices violents étaient devenus.

4 Use simply here the imperfect of the indicative. See page 1, note, and page 55, note 8.

5'admiring;' émerveillé. Change the construction, here, to avoid ambiguity (page 22, note 1).

6 et heureux celui qui; or, simply, and more elliptically still, et heureux qui.

7 quoique je négligeasse.-'often ;' see page 19, note 5.

8 Put a full stop here (see page 24, note 19).—hence,' Par là.

9 parti qui m'était (page 41, note 7) très attaché (or, très dévoué), composé de gaillards aux bras vigoureux, au cœur intrépide, bien qu'à la tête quelque peu (or, tant soit peu) dure;-bien que is synonymous with quoique, and is often used to prevent a dissonance: quelque following close, the hard sound of the q, four times in this way, would not sound well. Always take great care of euphony, when you write French: the French are very particular about it, and even frequently sacrifice grammar to it.

10 précisément les instruments (or, les instruments mêmes) propres à élever un héros.

11 après tout; or, tout considéré en somme à tout prendre-en (or, au) résumé.

12 See page 14, note 5. 13 était toujours le premier (or, à la tête).

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14 et dont, malgré tous je ne pouvais (page 1, note 3, and page 55, note ) venir à bout de prendre la place (see page 14, note 13, and page 35, latter end of note 14); or, et auquel, malgré tous ..., je ne pouvais venir à bout de damer le pion. This figurative expression

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