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so that when he is pleasant upon any of them,1 all his family are in 2 good humour, and none so much as the person whom he diverts himself with:3 on the contrary, if he coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it is easy for a stander-by to observe a secret concern in the looks of all his servants.

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My worthy friend has put me under the particular care of his butler, who is a very prudent man, and, as well as the rest of his fellow-servants, wonderfully desirous of pleasing me, because they have often heard their master talk of me as of his particular friend.—(ADDISON, Spectator.)

COWPER TO MR. J. NEWTON.

ON SOME PLEASURES IN RURAL LIFE.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

FOLLOWING your good example, I lay before me a sheet of my largest paper. It was this moment fair and unblemished, but I have begun to blot it, and having begun, am not likely to cease till I have 10 spoiled it. I have sent you many a sheet that in my judgment of it 11 has

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cilie) tous les cœurs. Whenever the two substantives, being nearly synonymous, thus follow each other immediately, the verb, and also the adjective, must be in the singular.

quand il plaisante (or, badine) l'un ou l'autre.

2 est de. See page 41, note 7. 3 et plus que le reste celui même sur le compte duquel (or de qui) il se divertit. See page 1, note The pronoun duquel is here used instead of dont, as the word (celui) to which that pronoun relates is followed by a preposition (sur). Besides, if we were speaking here of a thing, instead of a person,

it would no longer be optional to use de qui as well as duquel. (See page 11, note 8.)

4 au contraire.

5 à un spectateur.

6 m'a confié tout particulièrement aux soins (or, à la garde).

7 le reste des domestiques.

8 Elie était tout à l'heure (or, il n'y a qu'un moment) bien blanche et sans tache aucune (or, bien blanche et bien propre, or nette).

il n'est pas probable que je, with the subjunctive.

10 avant de l'avoir, &c. See page 7, note 7; and page 32, note

11 mainte feuille qui, à mon avis (or, à mon gré-à mon sens, &c.).

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been very unworthy of your acceptance,1 but my conscience was in some measure2 satisfied by reflecting,3 that if it were good for nothing, at the same time it cost you nothing, except the trouble of reading it. But the case is altered now.6 You must pay a solid price for frothy matter; and though I do not absolutely pick your pocket, yet you lose your money, and, as the saying is, are never the wiser.9

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My green-house is never so pleasant as when we are just on the point of being turned out of it.10 The gentleness of the autumnal suns, and the calmness of this latter season, make it 11 a much more agreeable retreat than we ever find it 12 in the summer; when1s the winds being generally brisk,14 we cannot cool it by admitting 15 a sufficient quantity of air, without being at the same time, incommoded by it.16 But now I sit with all the windows and the door wide open,17 and am 18 regaled with 19 the

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5 d'autre part; or, elle ne . non plus.

. . .

6 Mais à présent les choses sont changées (or, le cas n'est plus le même).-See page 27, note 13.

7 Il vous faut payer en espèces de la viande creuse.

8 et quoique je ne vous vole pas dans toute la force du terme.

9 votre argent ne laisse pas d'être (or, que d'être) déboursé, et vous n'en êtes pas (or, sans que vous en soyez) plus avancé; or, simply, vous perdez votre argent, rien de plus. This expression, ne pas laisser de (or, que de), followed by a verb in the infinitive, denotes an action done, or a state undergone, notwithstanding what has been stated above.

10 d'en être chassés. en font.

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17 je reste assis, les fenêtres et la porte toutes grandes ouvertes. though tout, before an adjective or participle, when it is an adverb (used for tout à fait, 'quite'), is in its nature an invariable word, yet it agrees, for the sake of euphonyin the feminine singular and plural, but never in the masculine plural, -if the adjective or participle, being feminine, begins with a consonant or an aspirate .

18 et je suis. Notice the repet:tion of the pronoun, here also, besides the cases we have seen above, page 30, note 15, and page 31, note 8. The present instance is similar to that of page 23,

note 9.

19 de.

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scent of every flower, in a garden as full of flowers as I have known how to make it. We keep no bees; 2 but if I lived in a hive, I should hardly hear more3 of their music. All the bees in the neighbourhood resort to a bed of mignonette opposite to the window, and pay me for the honey they get out of it, by a hum, which, though rathers monotonous, is as agreeable to my ear 9 as the whistling of my linnets. All the sounds that Nature utters 19 are delightful, at least in this country. I should not perhaps find the roaring of lions in Africa, or of bears in Russia, very pleasing; 12 but I know no beast 13 in England whose voice I do not account musical,14 save and except 15 always the braying of an ass. The notes of all our birds and fowls please me, without one exception.16 I should not indeed think 17 of keeping a goose in a cage, 18

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1 su le rendre.

2 Nous n'avons point d'abeilles. 3 davantage. See page 8, note But more music' would be plus de musique, because more,' here, would no longer be taken absolutely. 4 du.

5 un carré une plate-bande, &c. 6 'for' is not to be translated. In French, the reverse of the English takes place here: it is the thing bought which is the direct regimen, and the person paid is the indirect regimen. Thus, me (dative) payent (or, paient) le miel (accusative) qu'elles en tirent.

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avec; or, de.

8 assez; or, un peu.

9 m'est aussi agréable à entendre; or, simply, m'est aussi agréable, as the word entendre inevitably occurs just below. 10 fait entendre. 11 ce pays-ci.

12 Je ne trouverais peut-être pas très gai... &c.

13 Je ne sache point d'animal (or, aucun animal). Je ne sache is fre quently used, in French, with pas, point, rien, or personne, for Je ne sais, or, je ne connais, pas, &c. This Gallicism is only used in the

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first person singular and plural: thus we say, likewise, nous ne sachons, &c., for &c. &c.

14 dont je ne tienne la voix mélodieuse (or, pour mélodieuse). Notice here, first, the use of the subjunctive (tienne) after a verb conjugated negatively (Je ne sache point); secondly, the suppression of the negation (pas, or point) (though ne shows the sentence to be negative) in this latter part of the proposition, for the sake of elegance, as it is already expressed in the former-(see for a similar example, page 25, note 8); and, thirdly, the position of the thing possessed (voix) after the verb, as it is here the object of the verb, whereas if it was the subject of the verb, 't would then precede it, in French, as it always does in English.

15 Simply, excepté; or, sauf. 16 me plaisent toutes sans exception.

17 Il est vrai que (or, A la vérité) je n'aurais jamais dans l'idée; or, il est vrai qu'il ne me viendrait jamais à l'esprit.

18 de tenir (or, simply, de mettre) une oie en cage.

that I might1 hang him up in the parlour for the sake of 2 his melody, but a goose upon a common,3 or in a farmyard, is no bad performer; and as to insects, if the black beetle, and beetles indeed of all hues, will keep out of my way, I have no objection to any of the rest ;6 on the contrary, in whatever key they7 sing, from the guat's fine treble to the bass of the humble-bee, I admire them all. Seriously, however, it strikes me as a very observable instance of providential kindness to man, that such an exact accord has been contrived 10 between his ear and the sounds with which,11 at least in a rural situation, it is almost every moment visited. All the world is sensible of 12 the uncomfortable effect that certain sounds have upon the nerves, and consequently upon the spirits;13 and if a sinful world 14 had been filled with such as would have curdled 15 the blood, and have made 16 the sense of hearing a perpetual inconvenience, I do not know that 17 we should have a right to complain. But now the fields, the woods, the gardens, have each their concert, and the ear of man is

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1 afin de. See page 7, note 7. par goût pour; or, pour jouir de; or, "simply, à cause de; or, pour.

3 dans la campagne.

est parfaitement en situation. 5 et quant aux.

6 si l'escarbot et ceux de son espèce de toutes les couleurs, veulent bien éviter de se trouver sur mon chemin-passage-(or, veulent bien se tenir à l'écart), aucun des autres ne m'est désagréable.

7 quelque clef qu'ils; with the subjunctive.

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8 from,' depuis; 'treble,' dessus (masc.); 'to,' jusqu'à.

9 Je crois découvrir (page 7, note 7) un exemple très remarquable de la bonté de la Providence envers l'homme, dans ce fait, que. Whenever 'to' expresses certain relations of behaviour, &c., and can be turned by 'towards,' always translate it into French by envers.

10 un accord aussi parfait a été

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for ever regaled by creatures who seem only to please themselves.2 Even the ears that are deaf to the Gospel are continually entertained, though without knowing it,3 by sounds for which they are solely indebted to its author. There is, somewhere in infinite space, a world, that does not roll within the precincts of mercy; and as it is reasonable, and even scriptural,5 to suppose, that there is music in heaven, in those dismal regions 6 perhaps the reverse of it is found ;7 tones so dismal, as to makes woe itself more insupportable, and to acuminate even9 despair. But my paper admonishes me in good time to draw the reins,10 and to check the descent of my fancy into deeps,11 with which she is but too familiar. 12

THE COMPARISON OF WATCHES.

WHEN Griselda thought 13 that her husband had long enough 14 enjoyed his new existence, and that there was danger of his forgetting15 the taste of sorrow, she changed her tone.16 One day, when he had not returned home exactly at the appointed minute,17 she received him with a frown

1 constamment; or, sans cesse. 2 uniquement se donner à ellesmêmes du plaisir.

3 quoique à leur insu.

4 dont ils sont redevables exclusivement à son auteur. This use of the possessive son is the second and last exception (see page 30, note 9) to the rule given, page 18, note, as the object possessed (auteur) is here what the French call the complement of a preposition-the prep. d.

5 suivant (or, selon) l'Écriture; or, conforme à l'Ecriture sainte.

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7 Simply, le contraire. found :' see page 8, note 6; and page 32, note1.

lugubres au point de rendre.

9 aiguiser jusqu'au.

10 à temps (or, à point—à propos) de serrer les rênes.

11 dans des profondeurs.—'with,' avec; 'which: see page 36, note 11. 12 See page 5, note 12.

13 See page 1, note 3.
14 assez longtemps.

15 il était (or, il y avait) à craindre qu'il n'oubliât. See page 21, note 3, and notice likewise the use of ne and the subjunctive with craindre; this verb, however, rejects ne when conjugated negatively.

16 See page 2, note 7.

17 qu'il (page 18, note 10) n'était pas rentré chez lui (or, au logis) à la minute (or, à point nommé).

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