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Cependant que_mon front au Caucase pareil,
Non content d'arrêter les rayons du Soleil,
Brave l'effort de la tempête.

Tout vous est aquilon, tout me semble zéphyr.
Encor si vous naissiez à l'abri du feuillage
Dont je couvre le voisinage

Vous n'auriez pas tant à souffrir;
Je vous défendrois de l'orage:

Mais vous naissez le plus souvent

Sur les humides bords des royaumes du vent.
La Nature envers vous me semble bien injuste.
Votre compassion, lui répondit l'arbuste,

Part d'un bon naturel: mais quittez ce souci ;
Les vents me sont moins qu'à vous redoubtables;
Je plie, et ne romps pas. Vous avez jusqu'ici
Contre leurs coups épouvantables

Résisté sans courber le dos

Mais attendons la fin.

Comme il disoit ces mots,

Du bout de l'horizon accourt avec furie

Le plus terrible des enfans

Que le nord eut portés jusques là dans ses flancs.
L'arbre tient bon; le roseau plie.

Le vent redouble ses efforts

Et fait si bien qu'il déracine

Celui de qui la tête au ciel étoit voisine,

Et dont les pieds touchoient à l'empire des morts."

THE OAK AND THE REED.

ONE day the oak said to the reed, you have great right to complain of nature, a wren is to you a heavy load; the least wind, that by chance ruffles the surface of the water, obliges you to stoop; whilst my head, Caucasus like, not satisfied with intercepting the beams of the sun, bids defiance to the efforts of the tempest. Every wind is to you a north wind, to me it seems a zephyr. If you grew but up under the shelter of the foliage with which I cover the neighbourhood, you would not have so much to suffer, I should protect you against the storm; but you mostly grow on the damp shores of the dominions of the wind. Nature seems very unjust towards you. Your compassion, answered the shrub, proceeds from a kind disposition; but be not uneasy about me; the winds are less dreadful to me than to you: I bend, and break not. Hitherto you withstood their frightful blows, without stooping, (bending the back ;) but let us wait for the end. As the oak said these words, there rushed upon them with fury, from the extremities of the horizon, the most terrible of the storms which the North had till then carried in its womb. The tree held

out; the reed bent. The wind increased its efforts, and so effectually (managed so well,) that he rooted up him (the tree,) whose head was a neighbour to the skies, and whose feet reached the empire of the dead.

Chêne, an oak-tree, m. The words in êne require to be particularly remembered, as there are nearly as many m. as f. The pronunciation is the same with that of the words in aine; but the latter are all fem. except le domaine, and of course, un Capitaine.

roseau, a reed, m. All the words in au and eau, which terminations are both the English o, are m., except l'eau, the water, and la peau, the skin, which are f. Several nouns in eau are diminutives, as un bécasseau, a young snipe; un perdreau, a young partridge; un cableau, a small cable. Seafaring men spell it improperly cablot; it is what they call the painter, or cablet, or warp. un lapereau, a young rabbit, &c.

vous avez bien sujet. Sujet. s. m. is also adj. sujet, sujette, and is the English "subject." But avoir sujet de, is to have a reason or motive for, a right to; vous avez bien sujet de, you have great right to; bien being here an expletive to strengthen the assertion. We say ironically, vous avez bien sujet de vous plaindre! you have great right to complain, indeed! un sujet, a subject of a state. A French wit being asked by the unfortunate Louis XVI. whether he could make a pun upon him, replied instantly; le roi n'est pas un sujet.

d'accuser la nature. accuser, r. v. a. 1. to accuse, to impeach, to reproach, to complain of. In French correspondence, it signifies to acknowledge the receipt of a letter, accuser la réception d'une lettre. In these two expressions, accuser juste, and accuser faux, it means "to be correct, or incorrect, in an assertion or quotation."

un pesant fardeau, a heavy load; pesant, pesante, adj., but it is sometimes adv.; as une livre pesant d'or, a pound weight in gold; fardeau, m., a burthen. A wag said to a French lady, who rouged very much, votre beauté n'est qu'un fardeau, which might mean, "your beauty is but a burthen to you;" but he intended it for un fard d'eau," a water paint." The d in fard, m., " paint for ladies' faces," is not heard.

Le moindre vent, the least wind. vent is m., like all the numerous nouns in ent, except une dent, a tooth, and une jument, a mare.

d'aventure, adv. by chance; à l'aventure, adv. at random. The subst. aventure, used in the pl. of females, is always taken in a bad sense. Cette femme a eu plusieurs aventures. Fait rider, ruffles, causes to ruffle; rider, r. v. a. 1. to wrinkle, to cause wrinkles. Se rider, refl. v. to get wrinkled. The verb faire is perhaps the most important verb in the French language. It is irr. and ought to be carefully learnt in the grammar. When placed before another verb in the infin. it means to cause the action expressed by the next verb to be performed, as in English; il m'a fait boire, he made me drink; elle m'a fait danser, she made me dance. Before its own infin. it signifies" to get made." Je me fais faire un habit, I get a coat made, or to cause to make; vous me faites faire une faute, you make me commit a fault. It has a great variety of meanings, according to the different words with which it is construed; for instance, c'est un homme à tout faire, he is capable of any thing, though ever so bad. je n'y saurois que faire, I cannot help it, I cannot remedy it; c'est un faire le faut, it must be done.

la face de l'eau, the surface of the water, face being here poetically employed instead of surface. All the words in ace are fem. except un espace, a space. The common expression for the human face is le visage; the word face is reserved for the Deity.

Vous oblige, obliges you. The pron. pers. conj. before the verb obliger, r. v. a. 1. to oblige; vous m'obligerez de n'en rien dire, you will oblige me by saying nothing of it. But when it means "to force," you may use indifferently à or de, but the first is most usual, particularly in the refl. v. il s'oblige à le faire, he binds himself to do it. In the passive voice de is preferable; il est obligé de le faire, he is obliged to do it.

à baisser la tête, to bend the head, to stoop. You may observe here, that whenever any limb or part of the body is mentioned in a Fr. sentence in which there is a noun or pr. pers.

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that shows whose limb is spoken of, you must not use a pron. poss.; "forces you to bend your head," would be right in English, but not in French. Thus you say, J'ai mal à la tête, my head aches; mon frère s'est cassé le bras, my brother broke his arm; baisser, to lower, to let down, v. r. a. 1. Se baisser, refl. v. to stoop. baisser, n. to come down. Les fonds publics ont baissé, the Stocks have fallen; la rivière baisse, the water in the river is decreasing; son crédit baisse, his credit is sinking.

la tête, f. the head. Observe carefully the gender of every word in êle you commit to memory, as there are nearly as many m. as f.: un tête-à-tete, a private conversation, is m.

dant

Cependant que, whilst, conj. is poetical; in prose it is penque. Lisez cette brochure pendant que je m'habille; read this pamphlet whilst I dress myself.

mon front, my forehead, here my head. (pars pro toto.) Front, like all the words in ont, which are but few, is m.; avoir le front, to have the impudence. Au Caucase pareil, Caucasus like; in prose it would be pareil au Caucase. Thus you say: Votre robe est pareille à la mienne, your gown is like mine; pareil, pareille, adj. similar, like; à la pareille, tit for tat; rendre la pareille, to treat as you are treated. Il n'a pas son pareil, there is no one like him.

Non content, not satisfied. If there be a nom. before, you must put ne before the verb, and pas after it. Je ne suis pas content, I am not satisfied. It is construed with de. Je suis content de vous. And it may be used absolutely. Monfrère vit content à sa campagne, my brother lives happy in his country-house.

d'arrêter, of stopping, with stopping: here it means to intercept. It is a reg. act. verb. 1. to interrupt the motion of any moving object, refl. to stop one's self. It is also employed as a neuter verb, particularly in the imperative. Arrête, Cocher; Stop, Coachman. As a commercial expression, arrêter means to settle. Arrêter un mémoire, to settle a bill, an account.

les rayons du soleil. Un rayon, m. a ray, a beam; un rayon de miel, the honey of a honeycomb. The nouns in on,

(not ion) may be considered as masculine. There are above 300 of this gender, and only 26 fem.; as garnison, garrison; leçon, lesson; prison, prison, &c.; du soleil, of the sun: le soleil is masculine, like all the words in eil.

Brave l'effort de la tempête, defies the effort of the tempest. braver, reg. act. 1. to brave, to affront, to bid defiance; l'effort, masc. like all the words in ort, except la mort, death; de la tempête, of the tempest, f.

Tout vous est aquilon, every thing to you is a northwind. Tout, used in an indeterminate manner, means every thing whatever; it has no plural in this sense. Tout is one of the general indeterminate French pronouns which demand particular attention; we shall frequently recur to it.

Tout me semble zéphyr, every thing to me seems a zephyr. Sembler, r. v. n. 1st conj. to seem, to appear. Il me semble, me thinks; si bon vous semble, if you think fit; que vous en semble? what do you think of it?

Zéphyr and martyr, the only words in yr, are both masculine: it means here a gentle west-wind, in opposition to aquilon, the north-wind.

Encor; in prose it must be encore, yet.

Si vous naissiez, if you were born, from the irr. n. v. naitre, to be born, which must be learnt in the grammar.

à l'abri du feuillage, at the shelter, under the shelter; un abri, m. All the words in i are masc. except une aprèsmidi, an afternoon; une fourmi, an ant; la merci, pity.

du feuillage, m. like all the words in age, except une image, and five words of two syllables, une cage, a cage; à la nage, by swimming; la page, the page of a book; la plage, the strand; and la rage, rage, fury.

Dont, gen. of the pron. rel. qui, whose, of whom, of which it is of both genders and numbers. C'est le monsieur dont je vous ai parlé, this is the gentleman of whom I spoke to you. - C'est la dame dont il a épousé la fille, this is the lady whose daughter he married. les oiseaux dont les petits sont éclos, the birds whose little ones are hatched.

je couvre le voisinage, I cover the neighbourhood. Couvrir, irr. v. a. to cover, must be learnt in the grammar.

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