Suffolk, and for two canals cut through different parts of the morass, for the sake of obtaining timber.

III.

Much timber has been cut down and carried out from the swamp by means of canals, which are perfectly straight for long distances, with the trees on each side arching over, and almost joining their branches across, so that they throw a dark shade on the water, which of itself looks black, being coloured as before mentioned. When the boats emerge from the gloom of these avenues into the lake, the scene is said to be " as beautiful as fairy land."

The bears inhabiting the swamp climb the trees in search of acorns and gum-berries, breaking off large boughs of the oaks in order to draw the acorns near them. These same bears are said to kill hogs, and even cows. There are also wild cats, and occasionally a solitary wolf, in the morass.

Sir CHARLES LYELL, "Travels in North America."

THE STUDY OF LANGUAGES.

I.

Now the necessary instrument-thought's indispensable tool-is language; and, therefore, although people speak naturally and almost without any teaching, merely through living together, yet if a person wish to become an able locksmith or a skilful mason, he must get instruction in the processes of art, and be initiated in the rules and methods which make it easier and more efficient. This is obtained by the study of languages, which is the object of classical pursuits. From the elementary class to the "humanities," it is one course of logic by means of comparative grammar-and it is the only logic of which youth is capable. It is the easiest training of thought by and through words, its material signs.

II.

A youth is thus taught for several years to learn the connections of ideas by the relations of words, which he is continually fashioning and refashioning; and while learning to form sentences, ever with a thought in view, the details of which he must explain and convey, he becomes used to analysis and combination, and executes in the humble functions of grammar, a prelude to the highest operations of science, which, after all, are but the decomposition and marshalling of ideas.

Who does not at once see what facility the mind acquires by this perpetual comparison of the terms and idioms of two languages, which must be made to fit each other, and to what a degree thought becomes refined and subtle, in the presence of some idea which has to be expressed? The phrases of two languages are measured and weighed incessantly; they are compared, each with each, and each with the idea, to ascertain which will render it best.

III.

The efforts are not useless which are made by these youthful minds who thus, day after day, wrestle with the thoughts of the most illustrious writers of antiquity, in order to understand and translate them. How great a privilege to commune daily with the exalted reason, the noble ideas, and the splendid diction of those great and noble minds. How great the advantage derived from such an intercourse, and how great the intellectual gain in such a company, and daily familiarity! Then what pleasure to have found an equivalent term, and to have transferred into one's own language, with the same vigour or the same delicacy, what profit in this concussion of idioms, from which the spark of ideas is so often stricken forth-this strife, unequal, indeed, yet replete with a noble emulation, between a youth, trying the nascent strength of his thoughts and some inaster mind whose works enlighten and guide humanity!

M. BAUTAIN, "Extempore Speaking."

ANGLO-SAXON RURAL LIFE.

An interesting calendar in the British Museum, executed in the latter part of the tenth century, illustrates rural life by drawings at the head of each month, representing the agricultural employment peculiar to the season. Thus the ploughman is shown at his labour, with four oxen in his team, guided by a man in front, the sower following in the rear; sheep are depicted at pasture with an attendant shepherd, and a labourer carrying a lamb in his arms; woodmen appear felling timber for fuel, and carting it away; reapers are represented cutting down the corn, binding it in sheaves, and transporting it to the barn, under the superintendence of an overseer; and the processes of threshing out the produce with a flail, and winnowing it with a sieve, are pictured. The months received names from coincident seasonal phenomena or rustic pursuits.

MILNER, "History of England."

Minstrelsy, as every one knows, was a great craft in the time of the Troubadours, some of whom (for example, Bertrand de Born) were not only knightly in station, but famous for deeds in arms. At Arles there was a minstrel college, which issued poetical degrees and certificates of merit-documents which were somewhat more than testimonials of accomplishments; for they served as passports throughout Europe. This system, however, which was in full force about the time of the third crusade, soon fell into desuetude, owing to the discontinuance of the Provencal dialect as a spoken language, and to the common use of the vernacular by all classes of society in the various countries. In like manner, when the Norman-French speech was supplanted in England by the Saxon, the

compositions of the Trouveres, or romancists of the north of France, disappeared. Still minstrelsy flourished, retaining something of its own dignity, though indigenous subjects were substituted for the traditionary fabliaux, and the signs and symbols of the antique freemasonry were well-nigh forgotten.

II.

At the courts of our earlier Scottish kings, and at the mansions of the principal nobility, some of whom exercised, if they did not rightfully possess, little less than regal authority, minstrelsy was a favourite pastime. It has always been so with northern nations. The Celts, the Saxons, and the Danes alike encouraged and practised it; and the subjects in which they most especially delighted were the narratives of the dead of old, which redounded to the glory of their ancestors, and, by implication, of themselves. In those days exclusiveness was a thing unknown. Earls, barons, and chieftains feasted in the hall with their retainers, and mingled with them in their sports; and when the tables were drawn, and the minstrels called in, great was the crush to hear the last ballad of the gifted Mæonides of the district. In this way the taste for popular poetry was not only kept alive, but very widely disseminated; and the minstrel, wherever he went, be it to castle or cottage, received a ready and most hospitable welcome.

W. E. AYTOUN, "The Ballads of Scotland."

SPHERICITY OF THE EARTH.

That the earth is of a spherical, or, at all events, of a spheroidal form, is patent to the observation even of unscientific persons. The gradual appearance of a vessel above the horizon as she approaches the land, the possibility of a traveller returning to the spot whence he started by pursuing an undeviating course in one direction-the circular shadow which the earth throws upon the moon at

the time of an eclipse-these phenomena furnish indications which tend to show that the earth must either be a sphere, or very nearly a sphere. Its exact form can only be ascertained by measurements and calculations of great precision, and is a subject which still engages the attention of scientific men.

BEVAN, "Student's Modern Geography."

HISTORY OF ENGLAND COMPARED TO THE COURSE OF A RIVER.

I.

On tracing back the course of a river, which at its confluence with the ocean has force enough to affect the powerful currents of the deep, with breadth sufficient to bear upon its surface the collected navies of the world, the channel gradually becomes more contracted, till we arrive at a point where it is the bed of an insignificant stream. Farther progress brings us to a number of rills still more feeble, contributing to form it, while the true head is sometimes an object difficult to detect, only the issue of a spring over which frolicsome childhood may leap with ease, often commencing its flow apart from human observation, in those wild fastnesses of nature which defy the efforts of the most adventurous to reach.

II.

It is thus with the history of our own England-now a world-renowned country, with unsurpassed monuments of industry and evidences of wealth, waving a flag in every accessible sea, extending an influence to every known political body, while her sons, her language, and her products are diffused over the face of the habitable earth. But turning over the chapters of our national annals retrospectively, the process leads us through successive centuries of gradually diminishing power; we reach a period when the state and relations of our pro