that he seemed more like a cavalier bōrne upon a fiery steed, than a man swimming.

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8. The shark, dreadfully wounded, ceased to pursue the sailor, but only to direct his fury against a new victim; he allowed not a moment's respite to him who had struck him. By a generous impulse, Volney Bekner, fearing lest the monster might hesitate between him and his father, directed his course away from the vessel, whilst the sailor, who still protected the little American, gained the ship.

9. However stout a swimmer our youthful pilot might be, it was impossible for him to maintain a lengthened contest with his terrible enemy. When he perceived that his father had seized the rope thrown to him, he then thought of his own safety. Darting from right to left in oblique lines, in order to embarrass the enemy, who was close upon him, he succeeded in reaching a rope. 66 He is saved!" was shouted with enthusiasm from the deck. 10. The rope was hastily drawn in, and already had it reached the height of fifteen feet above the surface of the water, when the shark, who had just disappeared, and had only dived to take more vigorous spring, darted in pursuit of the heroic boy, caught him by the middle of the body, and snapped it in two. Thus died, in 1760, in the twelfth year of his age, a youth as remarkable for his wonderful daring as for the gentler virtues of obedience, filial devotion, and a martyr-like fortitude of spirit. From the French of Michel Masson.

L.- -THE LESSON OF THE SEASONS.

1. A PLEASANT story is told by Mrs. Barbauld of a youth who, rejoicing in the full play of healthful life and spirits, returned from a day of skating on the frozen pond, to tell his father that he wished it were always winter. The wise father simply got him to

made no comment on the boyish wish, but write it down; and soon, amid the changes of the season, and varying occupations, all recollection of his wish had been forgotten.

2. The spring came in with its milder breezes; the leaves began to appear, the early flowers to bloom in the garden; the birds to build their nests, and the groves to thrill with the melody of their loves. Delighted with the change, young Henry could not help exclaiming to his father, as they walked forth together to enjoy the awakening beauties of nature, he wished that it were always spring. This, also, was noted down and forgotten.

3. Summer came, with its delightful warmth and its flōral beauties, and autumn followed, with its changeful harvest-fields; and each in succession seemed to the happy boy more delightful than all that had preceded. At length, when he gave utterance to the wish that the season of harvest, with its joyous reaping and its abundant fruits, should never cease, his father produced the record of his successive wishes, and proved to him how little capable we are of ordering that which is best for ourselves, or of wisely comparing the present with the past.

4.

5.

O Nature all thy seasons please the eye

Of him who sees a present Deity in all.

It is His presence that diffuses charms

Unspeakable o'er mountain, wood and stream.
To think that He, who hears the heavenly choirs,57
Hearkens complacent to the woodland song ;
To think that He, who rolls yon solar sphere,

Uplifts the warbling songster to the sky;
To mark His presence in the mighty bow
That spans
the clouds as in the tints minute"
Of tiniest flower; to hear His awful voice
In thunder speak, and whisper in the gale;
To know and feel His care for all that lives
'Tis this that makes the barren waste appear
A fruitful field, each grove a paradise.

Yes! place me 'mid far stretching woodless wilds,
Where no sweet song is heard; the heath-bell there
Would please my weary sight, and tell of Thee!
There would my gratefully uplifted eye

Survey the heavenly vault, by day, by night,
When glows the firmament from pole to pole;
There would my overflowing heart exclaim,
"The heavens declare the glory of the Lord,
The firmament shows forth His handiwork!"

GRAHAME.

6. It is not requisite for us to explore those vast fields wherein the imagination is lost in the boundlessness of creation, in order to form some adequate conception of the attributes of the Creator. The minutest of his works alike proclaim "The hand that made us is divine." The Spring discloses to us the swelling seed, the bursting bulb, the snow-drop and the crocus piercing through the half-melted snow, and the birds already. beginning their ingenious structures in the still leafless boughs. 7. The Summer adds new and inexhaustible sources of instruction. Every leaf teems with life. The air is filled with the sounds of animated and joyous existence; the earth abounds with proofs of Divine beneficence, wisdom and power; and nature opens upon us in all her fulness, defying as effectually the comprehension of all that she discloses, as does that wider universe to which the astronomer directs his curious gaze.

8. So it is with Autumn: rich in her abundant harvests, and no less fruitful in abundant mental stores than in plenteous supplies for our bodily appetites. Last of all comes the Winter,the sleep of nature, with its snows, its ice, its decay, and withering, and death; and yet it, too, no less than all the others, abounds in proofs of wondrous wisdom, goodness and power.

9. God is indeed manifest in all his works. We cannot shut our eyes on the proofs which surround us, proclaiming for all existences a Divine Creator; for all governance, a Divine Ruler; and for all that is, animate or inanimate, a Divine sustainer, without whom existence becomes inconceivable, even for a moment.

10. Behind the visible is everywhere manifest the invisible. Nature, law and order, generation, vitality, reproduction, and all the instincts which so wisely guide the animate creation, will satisfy no intelligent mind as final causes. They are but steps in a process of reasoning by which, at length, we reach to that great First Cause, the Alpha and O-me'ga, the beginning and ending, the first and the last, the Almighty.

11.

These, as they change, Almighty Father, these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring

12.

Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm ;
Echo192 the mountains round; the forest smiles;
And every sense and every heart is joy.

Then comes thy glory in the Summer months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then thy sun
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year:
And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks,
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales
Thy bounty shines in Autumn unconfined,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives.
14. In Winter awful Thou! with clouds and storms
Around thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest rolled,
Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing,
Riding sublime, thou bid'st the world adore,
And humblest Nature with thy northern blast.

13.

1. A GENTLEMAN, who possessed an estate of about five hundred pounds a year in the eastern part of England, had two sons. The elder, being of a rambling disposition, went abroad. After several years, his father died; when the younger son, destroying the will that had been made in the elder brother's favor, seized upon the estate. He gave out that his elder brother was dead, and bribed false witnesses to attest the truth of this report.

2. In the course of time, the elder brother returned; but, being in destitute circumstances, found it difficult to establish his claims. At length he met with a lawyer who interested himself in his cause so far as to consult the first judge of the age, Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice, in regard to it. The judge satisfied himself as to the justice of the claims of the elder brother, and then promised his assistance.

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3. The cause came to trial at Chelmsford, in Essex. On the appointed day, Sir Matthew Hale disguised himself in the clothes of an honest miller whom he had met on his way, and, thus equipped, entered the county hall where the cause was to be tried. Here he found out the plaintiff, and, entering into con

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versation with him, inquired what were his prospects; to which the plaintiff replied, "My cause is in a very precarious situation, and if I lose it I am ruined for life."

4. "Well, honest friend," replied the pretended miller, "will you take my advice? Every Englishman has the right and privilege to take exception to any one juryman through the whole twelve; now, do you insist upon your privilege, without giving a reason why, and, if possible, get me chosen in place of some one whom you shall challenge, and I will do you all the service in my power."

5. The plaintiff shook the pretended miller by the hand, and promised to follow his advice; and so, when the clerk called over the names of the jurymen, he objected to one of them. The judge on the bench was much offended at this liberty. "What do you mean," he asked, "by taking exception to that gentleman?”—“I mean, my lord," said the plaintiff, "to assert my privilege as an Englishman, without giving a reason why."

6. The judge had been highly bribed; and, in order to conceal it by a show of candor, and having confidence in the superiority of his party, he said, "Well, sir, whom would you wish to have in place of him you have challenged?" After a short time spent in looking round upon the audience, "My lord," said the plaintiff, "I will choose yonder miller, if you please." Accordingly the supposed miller was directed to take his place on the jury.

7. As soon as the clerk of the court had administered the usual oath to all, a little, dexterous fellow came into the apartment, and slipped ten golden guineas into the hand of every one of the jurymen except the miller, to whom he gave but five. "How much have you got?" whispered the miller to his next neighbor. "Ten pieces," said the latter. The miller said nothing; the cause was opened by the plaintiff's counsel, and all the scraps of evidence that could be adduced in his favor were brought forward.

8. The younger brother was provided with a great number of witnesses and pleaders, all plentifully bribed, like the judge. The witnesses deposed that they were in the same country