natives. They lived in simple cabins of reeds or wood; practised agriculture; manured the soil by the addition to it of a white chalky marl; stowed away the corn in the ear for future consumption, in subterranean granaries or caves; used pieces of copper as money; constructed spear and axe-heads, knives, and other implements, of different proportions of copper and tin; excelled in basketmaking and wicker-work; and wove clothing which enveloped the whole body, fastened with a girdle round the waist. Intercommunication was maintained by the rivers, and by trackways, some of which afterwards marked out the line of the Roman roads. Boats formed of osiertwigs, covered with skins, so light as to be carried on the back, were used in navigating the inland waters, and are still known on the streams of Wales.

MILNER, "History of England."

KNOWLEDGE.

It is not the mere cry of moralists, and the flourish of rhetoricians: but it is noble to seek truth, and it is beautiful to find it. It is the ancient feeling of the human heart-that knowledge is better than riches; and it is deeply and sacredly true! To mark the course of human passions as they have flowed on in the ages that are past; to see why nations have risen, and why they have fallen ; to speak of heat, and light, and the winds; to know what man has discovered in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath; to hear the chemist unfold the marvellous properties that the Creator has locked up in a speck of earth; to be told that there are worlds so distant from our sun, that the quickness of light travelling from the world's creation has never yet reached us; to wander in the creations of poetry, and grow warm again, with that eloquence which swayed the democracies of the old world; to go up with great reasoners to the First Cause of all, and to perceive, in the midst of all this dissolution and decay, and cruel separation, that there is one thing unchangeable, indestructible, and everlasting ;-it is worth

while in the days of our youth to strive hard for this great discipline; to pass sleepless nights for it; to give up for it laborious days; to spurn for it present pleasures; to endure for it afflicting poverty; to wade for it through darkness, and sorrow, and contempt, as the great spirits of the world have done in all ages and in all times.

SYDNEY SMITH, "Moral Philosophy."

OCCUPATIONS OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.

Fishing was a principal occupation, owing to the frequent abstinences from flesh-meat enjoined by a superstitious ritual. Eels were taken in immense numbers in the marsh lands of the eastern counties; salmon in the Dee; herrings along the shores of Suffolk, Kent, and Sussex, in their annual migration; while larger species, the whale and grampus, were captured in the open sea Hunting and falconry were the field-sports of the great. The beasts of the forest or chase, which were protected by fines, and reserved for privileged persons, were the stag, roebuck, hare, and rabbit. The wolf, fox, and boar might be killed by any one with impunity, if found without the limits of the chase or forest. In falconry the wild duck and heron were the common quarry.

MILNER, "History of England."

THE LAND HAS RISEN OR FALLEN.

I.

It appeared clear, as the science of geology advanced, that certain spaces on the globe had been alternately sea, then land, then estuary, then sea again, and, lastly, once more habitable land, having remained in each of these states for considerable periods. In order to account for such phenomena, without admitting any movement of the land itself, we are required to imagine several retreats and returns of the ocean; and even then our theory

applies merely to cases where the marine strata composing the dry land are horizontal, leaving unexplained those more common instances where strata are inclined, curved, or placed on their edges, and evidently not in the position in which they were first deposited. Geologists, therefore, were at last compelled to have recourse to the doctrine that the solid land has been repeatedly moved upwards or downwards, so as permanently to change its position relatively to the sea. There are several distinct grounds for preferring this conclusion.

II.

First, it will account equally for the position of those elevated masses of marine origin in which the stratification remains horizontal, and for those in which the strata are disturbed, broken, inclined, or vertical. Secondly, it is consistent with human experience that land should rise gradually in some places and be depressed in others. Such changes have actually occurred in our own days, and are now in progress, having been accompanied in some cases by violent convulsions, while in others they have proceeded so insensibly, as to have been ascertainable only by the most careful scientific observations, made at considerable intervals of time. On the other hand, there is no evidence from human experience of a rising or lowering of the sea's level in any region, and the ocean cannot be raised or depressed in one place without its level being changed all over the globe.

LYELL, "Student's Elements of Geology."

ANGLO-SAXON DRESS.

The dress of civilians in general consisted of a shirt and tunic descending to the knee, of linen or woollen, according to the season, a belt or girdle being often worn round the waist with a short cloak over the whole. Drawers, leather shoes or short boots and hose, or sandals, completed the ordinary cosume. Labourers are generally

represented with shoes, but without hose. Females of all ranks wore long loose garments reaching to the ground, completely hiding all symmetry of shape. Long hair, parted on the forehead, and falling naturally down the shoulders, with an ample beard and moustache, distinguish the Anglo-Saxons from the closely cropped Normans. Planche remarks that the character of the face, as delineated in illuminations immediately designates the age wherein the early portraits of our Lord, which have been reverently copied to the present day, were originally fabricated.

MILNER, "History of England."

NORMAN AND SAXON WORDS CONTRASTED.

66

29 66

66

66

66

Here is the explanation of the assertion made just now-namely, that we might almost reconstruct our history, so far as it turns upon the Norman Conquest, by an analysis of our present language, a mustering of its words in groups, and a close observation of the nature and character of those which the two races have severally contributed to it. Thus we should confidently conclude that the Norman was the ruling race, from the noticeable fact that all the words of dignity, state, honour, and preeminence, with one remarkable exception, (to be adduced presently,) descend to us from them. sovereign," "throne," 66 sceptre," realm," "royalty," homage," "prince," duke," count," ("earl," indeed, is Scandinavian, though he must borrow his "countess" from the Norman,) "chancellor," "treasurer," 29 66 palace," "castle," "hall," ," "dome," and a multitude more. At the same time the one remarkable exception of "king" would make us, even did we know nothing of the actual facts, suspect that the chieftain of this ruling race came in not upon a new title, not as overthrowing a former dynasty, but claiming to be in the rightful line of its succession; that the true continuity of the nation had not, in fact any more than in word, been entirely broken, but survived in due time to assert itself anew. TRENCH, "On the Study of Words."

THE DISMAL SWAMP.

I.

There are many swamps or morasses in this low flat region, and one of the largest of these occurs between the towns of Norfolk and Weldon. We travelled several miles of its northern extremity on the railway, which is supported on piles. It bears the appropriate and very expressive name of the "Great Dismal," and is no less than forty miles in length from north to south, and twenty-five miles in its greatest width from east to west, the northern half being situated in Virginia, the southern in North Carolina. I observed that the water was obviously in motion in several places, and the morass had somewhat the appearance of a broad inundated riverplain, covered with all kinds of aquatic trees and shrubs, the soil being as black as in a peat-bog.

II.

The accumulation of vegetable matter going on here in a hot climate, over so vast an area, is a subject of such high geological interest, that I shall relate what I learned of this singular morass. It is one enormous quagmire, soft and muddy, except where the surface is rendered partially firm by a covering of vegetables and their matted roots; yet, strange to say, instead of being lower than the surrounding country, it is actually higher than nearly all the firm and dry land which encompasses it, and, to make the anomaly complete, in spite of its semifluid character, it is higher in the interior than towards its margin. Towards the north, the east, and the south, the waters flow from the swamp to different rivers, which give abundant evidence by the rate of their descent, that the Great Dismal is higher than the surrounding firm ground. This fact is also confirmed by the measurement made in levelling for the railway from Portsmouth to