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ing conspirators were some of the first men in Rome. It appears that a vague rumour both of the persons engaged in the conspiracy, and of the time fixed for its execution, had got abroad; and Calpurnia, the wife of Cæsar, was so possessed with the reality of the danger, that she, with great earnestness, pressed him not to quit his house on the ides of March, the day appointed for the meeting of the senate.

Though Cæsar in his actions had never been guided by those superstitious observances which so much swayed the Romans in general, yet he was moved with Calpurnia's conjugal apprehensions and bodings, and determined to remain at home. From this resolution he was diverted by the representations of Decimus Brutus respecting the importance of the matters to be proposed in the senate, and he set out with Brutus. In his way a paper was put into his hand by one Artemidorus, containing a discovery of the whole plot, and he was requested immediately to read it, but the crowd about him prevented him from so doing.

On his arrival in the hall of the senate a number of the conspirators got round him, pretending to join their supplications with those of Metellus Cimber in behalf of his banished brother. Their importunity becoming troublesome, he angrily pushed them from him; when Cimber, by way of signal, took hold of his robe and pulled it from his shoulders, and at the instant Casca stabbed him in the neck. Cæsar, turning round, caught Casca by the hand; but now the other conspirators drew their daggers and rushed upon him. Cassius springing at him with peculiar rage, gave him a deep wound in the head; and he received stabs in his body on all sides. It is said that he still resisted, till he saw Brutus aiming at him with his dagger; when, crying out, What, my son Brutus too!" he covered his face with his robe and fell, pierced with twenty-three wounds, at the very pedestal of Pompey's

statue.

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1. Who was assassinated on this day, B. c. 44?

2. Who pressed Cæsar not to quit his house on the ides of March? 3. What did the paper contain, given him by Artemidorus ?

4. What did Cimber, by way of signal ?

5. What did Cæsar say, on seeing Brutus aiming at him with his dagger?

LESSON LXXV.-MARCH THE SIXTEENTH.

A Naval Ode: by T. Campbell.

YE mariners of England!

That guard our native seas;

Whose flag has braved a thousand years
The battle and the breeze!

Your glorious standard launch again
To match another foe,

And sweep through the deep,
While the stormy tempests blow;
While the battle rages loud and long,

And the stormy tempests blow.

The spirit of your fathers

Shall start from every wave!

For the deck it was their field of fame,
And ocean was their grave:

Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell,
Your manly hearts shall glow,

As ye sweep through the deep

While the stormy tempests blow;
While the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy tempests blow.

Britannia needs no bulwark,

No towers along the steep;

Her march is o'er the mountain waves,

Her home is on the deep.

With thunders from her native oak,

She quells the floods below

As they roar on the shore,

When the stormy tempests blow,

When the battle rages loud and long,

And the stormy tempests blow.

The meteor flag of England

Shall yet terrific burn;

Till danger's troubled night depart,

And the star of peace return.
Then, then, ye ocean-warriors!
Our song and feast shall flow
To the fame of your name,

When the storm has ceased to blow;
When the fiery fight is heard no more,

And the storm has ceased to blow.

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Obs. Although the foregoing naval ode was written as an incentive to deeds of arms, and therefore perhaps only strictly applicable in the event of a war, it breathes such patriotic sentiments, and is couched in such vigorous yet harmonious language, that it must come home to the feelings of every one who is proud of his country's naval glories.

LESSON LXXVI.

MARCH THE SEVENTEENTH.
St. Patrick.

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On this day, in 493, died, at Saal-Abbey, in the county of Down, St. Patrick, the tutelary saint of Ireland. He was in the 120th year of his age; having, according to the most generally received opinion, been born in 373, at Kirkpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland. The place of his birth has, however, been the frequent subject of controversy, some ascribing it to Cornwall, and others to Brittany. At the age of sixteen, say his biographers, he was carried into captivity by certain barbarians, together with many of his father's vassals and slaves, and was taken to Ireland, where he kept cattle on the mountains and in the forests, in hunger and nakedness, amid snows, rains, and ice. After six months he escaped from this slavery, only to fall into the hands of another master. At length, emancipated, he travelled into Gaul and Italy, and spent many years in preparing himself for the holy functions of a priest, studying intensely until his 55th or 60th year. Being successively ordained deacon, priest, and bishop, he received the apostolical benediction from Pope Celestine, and was sent by him, about the beginning of the year 432, to preach the gospel in Ireland. He died, as before observed, at a patriarchal age, and was buried at Down, in Ulster.

In our "Biographical Treasury" we have made an observation which it may be as well to quote here: "Various miracles are attributed to him, particularly the oftenrepeated assertion of the absence of all venomous creatures from Ireland, ascribed by the superstitious to his holy benediction. We can no more reconcile the conflicting testimonies relative to the place of his birth, than we could determine the validity of his miraculous powers; and, perhaps, for the sake of truth, the least that is said of either the better."

The order of St. Patrick was instituted by George III., in 1783. It consists of the sovereign, a grand master, a prince of the blood-royal, and thirteen knights, making in

the whole sixteen, and seven officers. The lord-lieutenant, for the time being, is the grandmaster. The star is charged with three imperial crowns of gold, within a circle of gold, and the motto, "Quis separabit, MDCCLXXXIII.," the whole surrounded with eight rays of silver; and is embroidered on the left side on the coat or cloak. The collar is of pure gold, composed of six harps and five roses, alternately joined together by five knots. In the centre before, is a crown, from which is suspended the badge or jewel of the order, of gold, enamelled, which, the rays excepted, is similar to the star.

1. Who died on this day in 493 ?

2. What befell St. Patrick when he was sixteen years old?

3. What did he receive from Pope Celestine ?

4. Where was he sent in 432?

5. By whom was the order of St. Patrick instituted, and of what did t consist?

LESSON LXXVII.

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MARCH THE EIGHTEENTH.

Edward, King of the West Saxons.

THIS day of Edward's death was ordered to be kept as a festival by Pope Innocent IV., in 1245.

Edward was the son of Edgar, who first united the Heptarchy into one kingdom. He succeeded his father at the age of fifteen in 975. His succession was opposed by his step-mother, Elfrida, who wished to raise her own son, Ethelred, to the throne; but the firmness of Dunstan in supporting his cause prevailed, and he was peaceably crowned.

The incidents of his short reign were chiefly disputes between Dunstan and his foreign monks on the one side, and the secular clergy on the other. The young king himself, who possessed an amiable simplicity of character, chiefly attended to the amusement of the chase, which gave occasion to his unhappy death.

Being one day hunting in Dorsetshire, he was separated in the heat of the diversion from his attendants, and rode to Corfecastle, where Elfrida resided. After paying his respects to her, for he retained no resentment of the part she had taken against him, he desired, while on horseback, that a cup of liquor might be brought him. As he was drinking, a servant of Elfrida gave him a deep stab behind. He set spurs to his horse; but becoming faint through loss of blood, he fell, and was dragged in the stirrup till he died. His body was tracked by his servants, and privately buried at Wareham.

ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.

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The pity excited by his innocence and tragical fate caused him to be regarded by the people as a martyr, and miracles were said to be wrought at his tomb. His reign had continued four years.

1. By whom was this day ordered to be kept as a festival?

2. By whom was Edward's succession opposed?

3. Who did Elfrida wish to seat upon the throne ?

4. What befell Edward while he was hunting in Dorsetshire? 5. What did Edward desire while on horseback?

LESSON LXXVIII.

MARCH THE NINETEENTH.

Eclipse of the Moon.

THE first eclipse of the moon, of which we have any account upon record, happened on this day, B. c. 720.

An eclipse of the moon is a privation of the light of the moon, occasioned by an interposition of the body of the earth (as she revolves in her orbit) directly between the sun and the moon; by which mean, the sun's rays are so intercepted that they cannot illuminate the moon.

It is at the time of full moon that lunar eclipses happen; because it is only then that the earth is between the sun and moon: neither do they happen every full moon (as they would do if the orbits of the earth and moon were coincident) because of the obliquity of the moon's path with respect to the earth's; but only in such full moons, as happen at the intersection of those two paths, called the moon's nodes; or, at least, on those full moons which happen but a little distance from the nodes.

The chief circumstances in lunar eclipses are as follows: - 1. All lunar eclipses are universal, or visible in all parts of the earth which have the moon above the horizon; and are every where of the same magnitude, with the same beginning and end.—2. In all lunar eclipses, the eastern side is what first immerges and emerges again; i. e. the left side of the moon as we look toward her from the north; for the proper motion of the moon being swifter than that of the earth's shadow, the moon approaches it from the west, overtakes it and passes through it with the moon's east side foremost, leaving the shadow behind, or to the westward.-3. Total eclipses, and those of the longest duration, happen in the very nodes of the ecliptic; because the section of the earth's shadow then falling on the moon, is considerably larger than her disc.

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