and forty-six English prisoners were shut up one night in a close, narrow dungeon, called the "Black Hole," which had only two small windows by which air could be admitted. In the morning, when the door was opened, only twenty-three were found alive; and several of these died afterwards of fevers brought on by the poison they had breathed. How many millions of living creatures are incessantly pouring this poison into the atmosphere from their lungs! And how many fires are constantly increasing the evil! When you think of this, you may well ask what becomes of all the deadly gas which is being so widely and so unceasingly formed. Here is the answer. This gas, so hurtful to us, is as necessary to vegetables as oxygen is to animals. They cannot grow without it. Every blade of grass, every green leaf that waves on field or tree, is occupied all day long sucking it in from the air and converting it into food. The plant is, so to speak, a chemist. Silently it abstracts from the floating air this noxious substance, and by a mysterious process separates it into its elements, which you now know to be carbon and oxygen; and while it retains the carbon for its own use, it returns the oxygen to the atmosphere. And thus a perfect balance is maintained; and plants and animals are made to depend upon each other for their existence and welfare! Who can think of this wonderful arrangement without reverently admiring the wisdom and goodness of Him in whom we live and move and have our being? QUESTIONS. What is the atmosphere? How high is it supposed to reach? What effect has it when in rapid motion? What is its pressure on every square inch? What is a barometer? What change is observed in the atmosphere as we ascend? How does this affect people who ascend? What would be the result if there were no atmosphere? What takes place when we breathe? Do we exhale the same substance that we inhale? What is air composed of? How much oxygen is there in the atmosphere? How much nitrogen? What is carbonic acid? How is it formed? What are its properties? Why are crowded rooms injurious to health? Give an example from history. Describe the "Poison Valley" of Java. What becomes of all the carbonic acid produced by respiration and combustion? What does this arrangement illustrate? Pronounce, and tell the part of speech of-breath, breathe; wreath, wreathe; bath, bathe; cloth, clothe; sheath, sheathe; ex'port, export'; im'port, import'; fre'quent, frequent'; pres'ent, present', prod'uce, produce'; reb'el, rebel'; ob'ject, object'; sub'ject, subject'. DICTATION. Clothe yourself with woollen cloth. Do you bathe in the sea, or take a bath at home? Do not breathe your own breath over again. Shall I sheathe the sword? Yes, return it to the sheath. Wreathe her head with a wreath of roses. What are the exports and imports of Canada? China exports tea and imports grain. He presented me with a handsome present. Let your visits be more frequent. What birds frequent this lake? He objects to this course; what can be his object? Every sentence should have a subject. Do not subject him to such cruel treatment. What is the yearly produce of your farm? How much corn does it produce? Ma-hon', a seaport in the island of Minorca, in the Mediterranean Sea. OLD Ironsides at anchor lay In the harbour of Mahon; The waves to sleep had gone, Climbed shroud and spar, and then upon The maintruck rose and stood ! A shudder ran through every vein, No hold had he above, below; At that far height none dared to go, We gazed, but not a man could speak ; In groups, with pallid brow and cheek, As, riveted unto the spot, Stood officers and crew. The father came on deck. He gasped, And aimed it at his son ! "Jump far out, boy, into the wave! "That chance alone your life can save; He sank,-he rose, he lived, he moved, He for the ship struck out. On board we hailed the lad beloved His father drew, in silent joy, Those wet arms round his neck, Then folded to his heart the boy, And fainted on the deck.-G. P. Morris. QUESTIONS. Where was the Ironsides lying? What kind of weather was it? What did the Captain's son do? Describe his situation. What is said of the spectators? What did the father say when he came on deck? What did he do? Why did he order him to jump into the sea? What did the boy do? How did the crew salute him? How did his father receive him? Spell abstract nouns derived from these adjectives:-dead, calm, gallant, brave, hardy, high, long, broad, deep, wide, slow, dizzy, thick, hot, safe, silent, faint, strong, dear, warm, brave. DICTATION. The boy's gallantry and hardihood were much admired. He reached the ship in safety. Health and strength are the best blessings. There is a dearth of fruit this autumn. Death and the tomb await us all. The warriors stood in solemn silence. The height of the column is forty feet. Measure the length, breadth, and depth. What is the width of this road? Heat expands bodies. Sloth prevents progress. Condemn no man unheard. The choir chanted two psalms and sang a hymn. [GEORGE STEPHENSON, the great railway engineer and the inventor of the locomotive engine, was born at Wylam in Northumberland, and died in 1848. Не constructed the first railway in England-the Liverpool and Manchester Linewhich was opened in 1830.] GEORGE STEPHENSON and a friend were once looking at a train which was rushing along. The trains in those days were not so common as they are now, and George asked his friend what he thought propelled or drove the train along. His friend answered: "Probably the arm of some stalwart north-country driver." "No," said George, "it is the heat and light of the sun that shone millions of years ago, which has been bottled up in the coal all this time, and is now driving that train." What did he mean? Can we get an idea whether that extraordinary statement is true-that it is really the heat and light of the sun which is driving the train? I want to try and make that plain to you. What is the coal that we put under the steam-engine? A pound of coal, if we could convert the whole of the heat which it is capable of producing into mechanical power, would jump up two thousand miles high. Now, where did that coal come from? What has that coal been? These are questions which we all may ask ourselves. The coal really was at one time a living plant: the coal, or the constituents of the coal, composed a living plant that grew in the bright sunshine on the surface of this earth, not buried, as it is now, below a thousand feet of rock, but living in and enjoying the bright sunshine, as the trees nowadays do when the sun shines. Well, how did these coal plants grow? They grew, as all plants only can grow, by the sunshine. If we take away the sunshine, plants cannot flourish. You cannot grow plants in a cellar, because there is no sunshine. Put plants in a window, and see how they creep up to the light. That is because the light is absolutely necessary to their growth; they cannot grow without the sunlight. So our coal plants could not grow without the sunlight. Remember it is the sunlight which enables the plant to take its food-namely, the carbon-from the air, by decomposing the carbonic acid which the air contains. This it can only do by the help of the sunlight. Now, a certain definite amount of light and heat must shine upon the plant, before it can gain one pound in weight-before one pound of the stem, or leaf, or branch of that plant can be formed. A certain definite amount of force, as light and heat, must shine upon the plant, and be used up in decomposing the carbonic acid of the air. Now, what happens if we burn a plant? Why, that definite amount of force, as light and heat, comes out again, and we get absolutely the same amount of heat out of a piece of coal, when burnt, as was necessarily used up ages |