moon moving in silent majesty in heaven, and the vast ocean on earth under its mystic attraction, obeying its call, stirred to its lowest depth, moved over its whole extent, never at rest yet always within the same limits; since when the moon has drawn its waters up to a height that is sufficient and safe, she has advanced onward to a point where her power becomes feeble, the earth resumes its attractive force, for a time interrupted, and the mighty mass settles back to its previous level.

LESSON LX.-FRIDAY.

ASTRONOMY.

Astronomy is confessedly the most sublime of the physical sciences. The distances, the magnitudes, the forces with which it is conversant, are vast to a degree that bewilders and exceeds conception. The motions it traces, the laws it develops, are equally wonderful and grand. The majestic beauty that pervades the immense field of its discoveries, in perfect harmony with their grandeur-to which every separate orb contributes its splendour, and which the grouping and motions of the numberless hosts endlessly repeat in ever-varying forms of loveliness-gives to this science an attraction all its own. It is, besides, a science of calculation and certainty. It measures distances, estimates magnitudes, traces motions, and defines laws with the accuracy of that great science of perfect evidence, the mathematics. If it fail to impress, enlarge, and exalt the mind, it must be from the excess of those qualities that would otherwise and in smaller degrees produce that result. Here the vast and the sublime reach the point where the faculties begin to sink under the pressure. All things appear indistinct and confused. The mind labours to obtain a clear conception of the ideas intended to be conveyed by the formulæ of numbers without number, by which the sage would communicate to his wondering disciple the results of his profound, unerring processes, by which, if both the teacher and the taught learn nothing else with certainty, they arrive at least at one conclusion, which no doubt disturbs, no obscurity dims, that by the mind of man in its noblest powers, its highest improve

ment, not only the Creator himself, but his productions and works, can never be explored, never comprehended.

The first impression produced by the discoveries of astronomy must be a most profound and awful sense of the power, wisdom, and benevolence of the great Creator. What words, what thoughts, can equal the proofs of greatness and goodness rising, multiplying, and crowding on the amazed view of the inquirer into the system of the universe! To look with the naked eye-with an uninstructed mindon the vast expanse, is itself sufficient deeply to affect a thoughtful observer. On a starlight night, the visible scene makes its appeal to the eye; the sensible, profound silence to the ear; together, they awe, expand, and elevate the mind. But when reason inquires,-when sense is aided by knowledge, when what we see is explained by what we know, when the eye of reason sees order where all appeared confused, discerns and traces motions by a mere passing gaze either not perceived, or, if perceived, not understood,-when magnitudes, to the naked eye dwindled by distance to the apparent diminutiveness of a twinkling point, expand in the light of science to their real immensity,-when the law, in itself simple, but endlessly combined and applied, by which the order, harmony, safety and motions of the whole are regulated, is understood and can be traced,-when the results of all, so beautiful and so beneficent, are known, and the manner of their attainment is followed out in all its amazing processes, -then homage becomes more profound by becoming more enlightened, and-contrary to the maxim, that wonder is the child of ignorance-it is found to increase with each step of advancing knowledge, and every new conception of the greatness of the work exalts the mind to some more worthy, more sublime ideas of its infinite Author.

The second effect produced on a thoughtful mind by the wonders of astronomical science, will be a chastened wonder and admiration at the capabilities and attainments of the human intellect—a reflection not at all inconsistent with the preceding, as the same Divine Being is equally the author of the wonders that are discovered and of the faculties by which they are explored, and is equally to be adored in both,-a reflection, too, in no way inconsistent with genuine humility,

which does not consist in denying or depreciating the faculties which God has given us, but in a profound sense of the fact that they are his gifts not our merits, and that while he has made them in some respects so powerful and noble, in many others they are so limited, and so baffled; as if these infirmities had been left or introduced in our minds for the express purpose of checking exaltation. But man's present knowledge of the system of the universe is a stupendous wonder. Here he is placed as it were in a remote obscure province of boundless space, and furnished with senses adapted to the objects of his own abode with which he is immediately surrounded and conversant. To procure instruments in aid of his defective vision he digs from the bowels of his own planet its rudest masses, refines them and draws out their hidden properties and powers-the telescope now discloses its wonders, and seems to transport the observer into the midst of the distant glories of space-the most remote orbs appear to attend at his summons, and submit to his near and leisurely inspection. He verifies his principles of mensuration by actual experiment on the surface of the globe, and then applies them by analogy to distances that may be calculated, but cannot be conceived-he patiently watches the mystic and seemingly confused motions of the starry heavens, till he knows their times, has traced their courses, and deciphered their combinations-he has detected the hidden secret of that grand principle of attraction which suspends, moves, and preserves innumerable worlds by their mutual influence and action on each other-and now, ignorant of his own fate on the morrow, and unable by any analogy or sagacity to penetrate an hour, into the to him contingent future of human affairs and events, he assumes the prophet and fixes-as without presumption so without error-the moment of the arrival, departure and occultation of the sun, moon, planets and stars, for years or ages yet to come. Nor have even erratic comets so far eluded his patient science but that their orbits have been traced and their return calculated. All the sciences are mutually helpful. The chemist fuses, the optician elaborates, the mathematician provides his demonstration and his calculus, to bring their contributions for the aid of the astronomer, while he dependent on their

help-must gaze with the eye of a shepherd or a mariner, but for the instruments they place in his hands. Sagacity and observation might teach him much, but knowledge, certainty, discovery, are the offspring of perseverance, combination and mutual aid. One science aids another-one discovery opens the way to another; one generation, inheriting the discoveries of those that have preceded it, receives the treasure on condition of adding to the store, and bequeathing the augmented inheritance to the industry and improvement of those yet to come. Algernon Wells.

THE SEASONS.

The Seasons are my friends, companions dear :-
Hale Winter will I tend with constant feet,
When over world, and desert, lake and mere,
He sails triumphant in a rack of sleet,
With his rude joy the russet earth to greet,
Pinching the tiny brook, and infant ferry;

And I will hear him on his mountain-seat
Shouting his boisterous carol, free and merry,
Crown'd with a Christmas wreath of crimson holly-berry.
Young Spring will I encounter, coy and arch!
When in her humid scarf she leaves the hills,
Her dewy cheek dried by the winds of March,
To set the pebbly music of the rills,
As yet scarce freed from stubborn icicles
And Summer shall entice me once again,

;

Ere yet the light her golden dew distils,
To intercept the morning on the plain,
And see Dan Phoebus slowly tend his drowsy wain.
But, pensive Autumn! most with thee I love,
When the wrung peasant's anxious toil is done,
Among thy bound and golden sheaves to rove,
And glean the harvest of a setting sun
From the pure mellowing fields of ether won;
And in some sloping meadow musing sit,

Till Vesper rising slowly, widow'd nun,
Reads whisperingly, her radiant lamp new lit,
The gospel of the stars, great Nature's holy writ.

Thomson.

APPENDIX.

ENGLISH HISTORY.

Early notices of the British Isles:-Herodotus, born 484 B.C., mentions them under the name of Cassiterides; Aristotle, born 384, died 322 B.C., speaks of Albion and Ierne; Strabo, a contemporary with Julius and Augustus Cæsar, tells of their tin.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.

The first inhabitants of Britain were Celts; Gauls, probably, the first colonists; the Phoenicians and Massileans traded in the tin of Cornwall. B.C.

55. Julius Cæsar lands in Britain August 26.

54. The invasion renewed, Cassivelaunus defeated.

A.D.

43. The Emperor Claudius attempts the subjugation of the island. Aulus Plautius lands with 50,000 men; is joined by Claudius; Vespasian, the second in command, subdues Vectis (Isle of Wight) and the south and east coasts; after seven years, the country south of the Thames is reduced.

50. Ostorius Scapula, pro prætor, reduces the country as far as the Severn, where he erects a line of forts; disarms the natives, which occasions the revolt of the Iceni (Norfolk and Suffolk); the Brigantes (Yorkshire and Lancashire) rise; the Silures (South Wales) revolt, are defeated at Caer Caradoc, in Shropshire, and their leader Caractacus is sent prisoner to Rome.

59. Suetonius Paulinus subdues Mona (Anglesey), the stronghold of Druidism; he is called off by the revolt of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who destroys Camolodunum (Colchester or Maldon), London, and Verulam, and slays 70,000 Romans; the Britons defeated with great slaughter. 71-81. Agricola invades Scotland, joins by fortified posts the Friths of Forth and Clyde.

84. Agricola carries the Roman arms to the farthest extent. Defeats Galgacus at Mons Grampius.

120. A second wall (Hadrian's) is built from Solway Frith to the mouth of the Tyne.

130. Antoninus builds another wall to the north.

138. Lollius Urbicus places the Roman frontier between the Clyde and Forth.