144. =put the question by.= Did not reply to the king’s question. He had forgotten what the bill was about. THE DEPARTURE. 148. The world of love which was new to them but which was old to others. 156. =this and this.= He kisses her again. 157. =sliding.= Softly moving. 159. The light of dawn streamed through the openings in the clouds. _Stream’d_ is a participle modifying _twilight_. 165-6. Evening is approaching. The lines of flowing clouds, rosy in the light of sunset, are compared to waves upon which the crescent moon is floating like a boat upon the sea. 167. =rapt.= Carried along, moved forward. MORAL. 177-84. A thing that is beautiful in itself, as this story is, needs no moral. “Beauty is its own excuse for being.” 185-92. In all things in Nature we can find a meaning if we choose. So with this story, as with other forms of art, it is possible to read into it different meanings. * * * * * YOU ASK ME, WHY, THO’ ILL AT EASE. 2-4. England, whose misty climate depresses the spirits and makes men long for the warmth and colour of the South. 6. =sober-suited.= Not showy. 10. =of just and old renown.= England has long been renowned for her free institutions, and justly so. 11-2. British freedom has been gained gradually, each new step growing out of events that have gone before. The Magna Charta, for example, was a precedent for the Petition of Right. 13. Those who seek to create dissension seldom succeed in bringing about an actual struggle. 15. A diffusive thought is one which readily spreads or circulates from mind to mind. 16. =Hath time and space.= Because Great Britain in itself is a small country. 17-26. If the time should ever come when any body of men should band themselves together to persecute those who do not agree with them, and when a man may not “speak the thing he will,” then, no matter how powerful or wealthy Britain may become, I will leave this country. 23-4. Note the metaphor in these two lines. Though the country should be overflowing with wealth from all its various sources—its mines, its fisheries, etc. 28. Read line 4. * * * * * THE TRAVELLER. Published in 1764. Goldsmith dedicated _The Traveller_ to his brother Henry, who was a country curate in Lissoy, a village in Ireland. The substance of the poem is briefly summed up by Macaulay as follows:—