Definitions.—­Dis-po-si’tion, disposal.  Grace’less, depraved, corrupt.  Rep’ro-bate, one morally lost.  Lack’ey, an attending servant, a footman.  De-ceased’, dead.  Con-vened’, met together, assembled.  Im-pri’mis (Latin), in the first place.  Chaise (pro. shaz), a kind of two-wheeled carriage.  Re-formed’, returned to a good state.  Prof’li-gate, a person openly and shamelessly vicious.  In’stru-ment (a term in law), a writing expressive of some act, con-tract, etc.

Notes.—­Terms having the same, or nearly the same, meaning, as, “will and testament,” “give and bequeath,” “to have and to hold,” “sole and exclusive,” are commonly joined in this way in legal documents.

Personal property usually consists of things temporary and movable, while real property includes things fixed and immovable such as lands and tenements.

LV.  THE NOSE AND THE EYES.

William Cowper (b. 1731, d. 1800) was the son of an English clergyman, and was born in Great Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England.  He was sent to Westminster School when he was ten years of age, and he remained there, a diligent student, eight years.  He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but he never practiced his profession.  He was appointed to a clerkship in the House of Lords when he was about thirty years old, but he never entered upon the discharge of his duties.  He became insane, and was sent to a private asylum.  After his recovery, he found a home in the family of the Rev. Mr. Unwin.  On the death of this gentleman, he resided with the widow till her death—­most of the time at Olney.  His first writing’s were published in 1782.  “The Task,” some hymns, a number of minor poems, and his translations or Homer, composed his published works.  His insanity returned at times, and darkened a pure and gentle life at its close.

1.  Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose;
     The spectacles set them, unhappily, wrong;
   The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
     To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

2.  So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause,
     With a great deal of skill and a wig full of learning,
   While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,
     So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.

3.  “In behalf of the Nose, it will quickly appear,
     And your lordship,” he said, “will undoubtedly find,
   That the Nose has the spectacles always to wear,
     Which amounts to possession, time out of mind.”

4.  Then, holding the spectacles up to the court,
     “Your lordship observes, they are made with a straddle
   As wide as the ridge of the Nose is; in short,
     Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle.

5.  “Again, would your lordship a moment suppose
     (’T is a case that has happened, and may happen again)
   That the visage or countenance had not a Nose,
     Pray, who would or who could wear spectacles then?