t name, and in this his last act of
war, affixing the seal of fate to our nation's birth.

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,
he was second to none in humble and endearing scenes of private life.
Pious, just, humane, temperate, sincere, uniform, dignified, and
commanding, his example was edifying to all around him, as were the
effects of that example lasting.

To his equals, he was condescending; to his inferiors, kind; and to the
dear object of his affections, exemplarily tender. Correct throughout,
vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand;
the purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues.

His last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life. Although in
extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan, escaped him; and with undisturbed
serenity he closed his well-spent life. Such was the man America has lost!
Such was the man for whom our nation mourns!

NOTES.--At Brandywine Creek, in Pennsylvania, 18,000 British, under Howe,
defeated 13,000 Americans under Washington.

Germantown, near Philadelphia, was the scene of an American defeat by the
British, the same generals commanding as at Brandywine.

The battle of Monmouth, in New Jersey, resulted in victory for the
Americans.

The hero of Saratoga was General Gates, who there compelled the surrender
of General Burgoyne.

At Eutaw Springs, General Greene defeated a superior force of British.

Cornwallis, Charles, second earl and first marquis (b. 1738, d. 1805),
surrendered his forces to a combined American and French army and French
fleet at Yorktown, in 1781, virtually ending the war.

CXXXII. THE SOLITARY REAPER. (446)

William Wordsworth, 1770-1850, the founder of the "Lake School" of poets,
was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. From his boyhood he was a
great lover and student of nature, and it is to his beautiful descriptions
of landscape, largely, that he owes his fame. He was a graduate of
Cambridge University, and while there commenced the study of Chaucer,
Spenser, Milton, and Shakespeare, as models for his own writings. Two
legacies having been bequeathed him, Wordsworth determined to make poetry
the aim of his life, and in 1795 located at Racedown with his sister
Dorothy, where he commenced the tragedy of "The Borderers." A visit from
Coleridge at this period made the two poets friends for life. In 1802
Wordsworth married Miss Mary Hutchinson