had no iron among them, only flint and sharpened bones, yet they contrived to kill and eat the mammoths, and the giant oxen, and the wild horses, and the reindeer, and to hold their own against the hyænas, and tigers, and bears, simply because they had wits, and the dumb animals had none. And that is the strangest part to me of all my fairy tale. For what a man's wits are, and why he has them, and therefore is able to invent and to improve, while even the cleverest ape has none, and so can invent and improve nothing, and therefore therefore cannot better himself, but must remain from father to son, and father to son again, a stupid, pitiful, ridiculous ape, while men can go on civilising themselves, and growing richer and more comfortable, wiser and happier, year by year, how that comes to pass, I say, is to me a wonder and a prodigy and a miracle, stranger than all the most fantastic marvels you ever read in fairy tales. 5. You may find the flint weapons which these old savages used buried in many a gravel-pit up and down France and the south of England. But most of their remains are found in caves which water has eaten out of the limestone rocks, like that famous cave of Kent's Hole at Torquay. In it, and in many another cave, lie the bones of animals which the savages ate, mixed up with their flint weapons and bone harpoons, and some times with burnt ashes and with round stones, all baked together into a hard paste by the lime. These are in the water, and are often covered with a floor of stalagmite, which has dripped from the roof above and hardened into stone. 6. In these caves, no doubt, the savages lived; for not only have weapons been found in them, but actually drawings scratched (I suppose with flint) on bone or mammoth ivory; drawings of elk and bull, and horse and ibex ; and one, which was found in France, of the great mammoth himself, the woolly elephant, with a mane on his shoulders like a lion's mane. 7. So you see that one of the earliest fancies of this strange creature called Man was to draw, as you like to draw ; but why you like it, neither you nor any man can tell. It is one of the mysteries. of human nature; and that poor savage clothed in skins, dirty it may be, and more ignorant than you (happily) can conceive, when he sat scratching on ivory in the cave the figures of the animals he hunted, was proving thereby that he had the same wonderful and mysterious human nature as you that he was the kinsman of every painter and sculptor who ever felt it a delight and duty to copy the beautiful works of God. Grammar. (1) What may form the object of a sentence? (2) Make three sentences, using "that" as a different kind of speech in each. (3) Form adjectives from following verbs:-pity, bend, change, drunk. Analyse-"Ice mast-high came floating by, As green as emerald." LESSON X. BORGUND CHURCH. feudal system, the system during the tiers, rows or ranks generally placed dragon, a fabulous winged serpent. pagoda-like, resembling an Indian temple. verandah, a kind of covered balcony. fabric, building. Celtic, belonging to the Celts, a race to which the Welsh and Irish belong. picturesque, like a picture; natural. dwarfs (v.), makes to look small. 1. The interest which attaches to Borgund Church is caused chiefly by its antiquity. Owing to wood being the material used for building purposes in Norway for centuries past, there are but few ancient structures standing at the present moment. Some old houses here and there have survived the wreck of time and fire, and surprise us by their quaint architecture, and curious and elaborate, even if rude carvings. Owing partly to the feudal system being totally unknown in Norway in the past ages, castles and strongholds are nowhere to be found. Among churches, however the only public buildings ancient Norway possessed-there are but two now left. One of these is in Hitterdal, and the other is the old parish church of Borgund Valley. |