A. Not openly; but secretly he was, or the information would not have been given.
Q. Where is the mountain lake Shawangunk?
A. The Shawangunk (Shon-gum) mountain is properly a continuation of the Appalachian, or Allegheny chain in New York. Like the Adirondacks and Catskills, south of the Mohawk, also outliers of the chain, it seems separated by intervening lands of lower elevation, and the relationship is shown by similarity of the geological formation. Look for the lake in the same region. It is probably small, and may not be found on most maps.
Q. Was it not Leonidas who, before the battle of Thermopylæ, said, “The Persians are so numerous that their arrows will darken the sun?”
A. No. Those words may intimate fear of the overwhelming force of the enemy, and the Greek historian does not mention their author, but says that on hearing them, a brave Spartan replied: “All the better, as we will then fight in the shade.”
Q. Which construction? “Thus were music and poetry born in the same family, and we shall notice how that they have clung to each other,” or “how they have clung?”
A. The latter is preferred. The conjunctive particle is not needed, and though occasionally thus used by a good writer, only encumbers the sentence.
A. A wealthy Roman citizen of the Augustan age, a client of Cicero, of not much distinction, though rich. A part of his estate was employed in building for him a fine mausoleum, which remains to the present day, though most of the contemporaneous surrounding structures have long been in ruins. Near it lie the ashes of Keats and Shelly. After the death of Keats, Shelly wrote of his friend: “He lies in the lovely, romantic cemetery of the Protestants of Rome, near the tomb of Caius Cestius, and within the mossy walls and towns, now mouldering and desolate, which formed the circuit of ancient Rome. The cemetery is an open space among the ruins, covered in winter with violets and daisies. It might make one in love with death to think of being buried in so sweet a place.”
Q. Can you give the date of Mrs. Browning’s birth in 1809?
A. We can not. No records now at hand give the day or month. It is not best to be greatly troubled over our want of information on the subject, as it is quite safe to conclude she was “well born” some time during the year mentioned. Many other eminent writers have gone into history with the same uncertainty as to the day of their birth.