and purity. Like the winds, the currents tend to equalize differences, and to soften extremes.

The cold waters of the Antarctic pole temper the scorching heats of the coast of Peru; the warm waters of the Gulf Stream lessen the severity of the climate of Norway and the British Islands. Their importance is no less in the commerce of nations. It is the currents which, together with the winds, trace the great lines of communication upon the ocean, favouring or obstructing intercourse of one country with another, bringing near together places apparently the most remote, and separating others that seem to touch each other.

GUYOT, "Earth and Man."

CHARACTER OF CHARLEMAGNE.

In analyzing the characters of heroes, it is hardly possible to separate altogether the share of fortune from their own. The epoch made by Charlemagne in the history of the world, the illustrious families which prided themselves in him as their progenitor, the very legends of romance, which are full of his fabulous exploits, have cast a lustre around his head, and testify the greatness that has embodied itself in his name. None, indeed, of Charlemagne's wars can be compared with the Saracenic victory of Charles Martel; but that was a contest for freedom, his for conquest; and fame is more partial to successful aggression than to patriotic resistance. As a scholar, his acquisitions were probably little superior to those of his unrespected son; and in several points of view the glory of Charlemagne might be extenuated by an analytical dissection. But rejecting a mode of judging equally uncandid and fallacious, we shall find that he possessed in everything that grandeur of conception which distinguishes extraordinary minds. Like Alexander, he seemed born for universal innovation; in a life restlessly active, we see him reforming the coinage, and establishing the legal divisions of money; gathering about him the learned of every country; founding schools

and collecting libraries; interfering, but with the tone of a king, in religious controversies; aiming, though prematurely, at the formation of a naval force; attempting, for the sake of commerce, the magnificent enterprise of uniting the Rhine and Danube; and meditating to mould the discordant codes of Roman and barbarian laws into a uniform system.

HALLAM, "The Student's Middle Ages."

THE OCEAN THE HIGHWAY OF

COMMERCE.

I.

The ocean is the highway of commerce. God seems wisely and graciously to have ordained that man should not be independent, but under perpetual obligation to his fellow-man, and that distant countries should ever maintain a mutually beneficial dependence on each other. He might have made every land produce every necessary and comfort of life in ample supply for its own population; the result of the separation has been, generally, an easy means of exchanging home for foreign productions, which constitutes commerce.

It is lamentably true that the evil passions of men have often perverted the facilities of communication for purposes of destruction, yet the sober verdict of mankind has for the most part been, that the substantial blessings of friendly commerce are preferable to martial glory. And the transport of goods of considerable bulk and weight, or of such as are of a very perishable nature, would be so difficult by land, as very materially to increase their cost; while land communication between countries tens of thousands of miles apart would be attended with difficulties so great as to be practically insurmountable.

II.

Add to this the natural barriers presented by lofty mountain ranges and impassable rivers, as well as the

dangers arising from ferocious animals and from hostile nations, and we shall see that, with the existing power and skill of man, commerce in such a condition would be almost unknown, and man would be little removed from a state of barbarism. The ocean, however, spreading itself over three-fourths of the globe, and penetrating with innumerable windings into the land, so as to bring, with the aid of the great rivers, the facilities of navigation comparatively near to every country, affords a means of transport unrivalled for safety, speed, and convenience. GOSSE, "The Ocean."

IMPROVEMENT AND INNOVATION.

Seasonable improvements are like the timely and regular showers, which, falling softly and silently upon the earth, when fittest to be received, awaken its powers of fertility. Hasty innovation is like the headlong hurricane, which may indeed be ultimately followed by beneficial consequences, but is, in its commencement and immediate progress, attended by terror, tumult, and distress.

Sir WALTER SCOTT.

THE HEBRIDES.

The Hebrides are mountainous and destitute of natural woods, though considerable spaces have been planted with a kind of vindictive alacrity since Dr. Johnson paid his famous visit, and sarcastically alluded to the paucity of trees. But as in the case of the Orkneys, oak-timber found in the bogs and marshes affords evidence of the existence of woods in ancient times. Their destruction is traditionally referred to the Danes, who harassed the shores during many centuries, and like the Romans in England, extirpated the forests as far as possible, to deprive the natives of their fastnesses. The winds rapidly

made havoc of the remainder, when exposed to their full play by the devastations of the invaders, especially the south-west winds, appropriately called in Cornwall the south-west shears. Their destructive influence is attested by the trunks lying generally in the direction from southwest to north-east.

A vast portion of the surface of the islands consists of morasses and lakes, poor pasture ground, barren districts of shifting sand, peat-mosses, and kelp-shores, dry at low MILNER, "Our Home Islards."

water.

THE CRUSADES.

At length the Crusades excited a new spirit of enterprise, and introduced into the courts and ceremonies of European princes a higher degree of splendour and parade, caught from the riches and extravagance of eastern cities. These oriental expeditions established a taste for hyperbolical description, and propagated an infinity of marvellous tales, which men returning from distant countries easily imposed on credulous and ignorant minds. The unparalleled emulation with which the nations of Christendom universally embraced this holy cause, the pride with which emperors, kings, barons, earls, bishops, and knights strove to excel each other on this interesting occasion, not only in prowess and heroism, but in sumptuous equipages, gorgeous banners, armorial cognisances, splendid pavilions, and other expensive articles of a similar nature, diffused a love of war, and a fondness for military pomp. Hence their very diversions became warlke, and the martial enthusiasm of the times appeared in tilts and tournaments. These practices and opinions co-operated with the kindred superstitions of dragons, dwarfs, fairies, giants, and enchanters, which the traditions of the Gothic scalders had already planted; and produced that extraordinary species of composition which has been called Romance.

WARTON, "History of English Poetry."

ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF TIME.

DEAR SIR,

TO MR. SAMUEL ROSE,

I.

Though it be long since I received your last, I have not yet forgotten the impression it made upon me, nor how sensibly I felt myself obliged by your unreserved and friendly communications. I will not apologize for my silence in the interim, because, apprised as you are of my present occupation, the excuse that I might allege will present itself to you of course, and to dilate upon it would, therefore, be waste of paper.

You are in possession of the best security imaginable for the due improvement of your time, which is a just sense of its value. Had I been, when at your age, as much affected by that important consideration as I am at present, I should not have devoted, as I did, all the earliest parts of my life to amusement only. I am now in the predicament into which the thoughtlessness of youth betrays nine-tenths of mankind, who never discover that the health and good spirits which generally accompany it, are in reality blessings only according to the use we make of them, till advanced years begin to threaten them with the loss of both.

II.

How much wiser would thousands have been, than now they ever will be, had a puny constitution, or some occasional infirmity, constrained them to devote those hours to study and reflection, which, for want of some such check, they have given entirely to dissipation! I therefore account you happy, who, young as you are, need not to be informed that you cannot always be so, and who already know that the materials upon which age can alone build its comfort, should be brought together at an earlier period. You have, indeed, in losing a father, lost