Reading Made Easy for Foreigners - Third Reader | Page 9

to the richest. A hundred persons turned into a meadow
full of flowers would be drawn together in a transient brotherhood.
It is affecting to see how serviceable flowers often are to the necessities
of the poor. If they bring their little floral gift to you, it cannot but
touch your heart to think that their grateful affection longed to express
itself as much as yours.
You have books, or gems, or services that you can render as you will.
The poor can give but little and can do but little. Were it not for flowers,
they would be shut out from those exquisite pleasures which spring
from such gifts. I never take one from a child, or from the poor, without
thanking God, in their behalf, for flowers.

CHARACTERISTIC OF HEROISM
The characteristic of heroism is its persistency. All men have
wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have
chosen your part, abide by it, and do not weakly try to reconcile
yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the

common the heroic.
_R. W. Emerson_.

LESSON XVIII
BEHAVIOR
There is always a best way of doing everything, if it be to open a book.
Manners are the happy ways of doing things. They form at last a rich
varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned.
Manners are very communicable; men catch them from each other.
The power of manners is incessant,--an element as unconcealable as
fire. The nobility cannot in any country be disguised, and no more in a
republic or a democracy than in a kingdom. No man can resist their
influence. There are certain manners which are learned in good society,
and if a person have them, he or she must be considered, and is
everywhere welcome, though without beauty, or wealth, or genius.
Give a boy address and accomplishments, and you give him the
mastery of palaces and fortune wherever he goes.
Bad behavior the laws cannot reach. Society is infested with rude,
restless, and frivolous persons who prey upon the rest. Bad manners are
social inflictions which the magistrate cannot cure or defend you from,
and which must be intrusted to the restraining force of custom. Familiar
rules of behavior should be impressed on young people in their
school-days.

LESSON XIX
ESSENCE OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
1. Congress must meet at least once a year.
(Congress consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives.)
2. One State cannot undo the acts of another.
3. Congress may admit any number of new States.
4. One State must respect the laws and legal decisions of another.
5. Every citizen is guaranteed a speedy trial by jury.
6. Congress cannot pass a law to punish a crime already committed.
7. Bills of revenue can originate only in the House of Representatives.
8. A person committing a crime in one State cannot find refuge in
another.

9. The Constitution forbids excessive bail or cruel punishment.
10. Treaties with foreign countries are made by the President and
ratified by the Senate.
11. Writing alone does not constitute treason against the United States.
There must be an overt act.
12. An Act of Congress cannot become law over the vote of the
President except by a two-thirds vote of both Houses.
13. The Territories each send one delegate to Congress, who has the
right to debate, but not the right to vote.
14. An officer of the Government cannot accept any title of nobility,
order or gift without the permission of Congress.
15. Only a natural-born citizen of the United States can become
President or Vice-President of the United States.

SELECTION VIII
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
1. Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we
hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright
stars, through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so
gallantly streaming; And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in
air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there: Oh, say,
does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and
the home of the brave?
2. On that shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the
foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the
breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now
discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full
glory reflected now shines in the stream: 'Tis the Star-Spangled Banner;
oh, long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the
brave!
3. And where are the foes who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of
war, and