graces of his composition, and the seductive elegance of his forms, were only surpassed by the probity of his character, the simplicity of his manners, and the benevolence of his heart.

"Bless'd be the skill which thus enshrines the great,
And rescues virtue from oblivious fate!
Which seems to fix the falling stars of mind,
And still preserve their lustre to mankind!
Immortal art, whose touch embalms the brave,
Discomfits death, and triumphs o'er the grave!
In thee our heroes live-our beauties bloom,
Defy decay, and breathe beyond the tomb!
Mirror divine! which gives the soul to view,
Reflects the image, and retains it too!
Recals to friendship's eye the fading face,
Revives each look, and rivals every grace.
In thee the banish'd lover finds relief,
His bliss in absence, and his balm in grief.
Affection, grateful, owns thy sacred power,
The father feels thee in affliction's hour;
Then catching life ere some loved cherub flies,
To take its angel station in the skies,
The portrait soothes the loss it can't repair,
And sheds a comfort- —even in despair.
How bursts the flood of sorrow past control!
What sense of anguish rushes o'er the soul!
When, turning from the last sad rite that gave
His heart's best joy for ever to the grave,
The widow'd husband sees his sainted wife,
In picture warm, and smiling as in life;
Yet though 'tis madness on that form to dwell,
Now cold and mould'ring in its clammy cell;
Though each soft trait that seems immortal there,
But deeper strikes the dagger of despair;
Say-if for worlds he would the gift forego;
That mocks his eye, and bids the current flow?
No-while he gazes with convulsive thrill,
And weeps and wonders at the semblance still,
He breathes a blessing on the pencil's aid,
That half restores the substance in the shade."

LESSON CCCXLIX.

-DECEMBER THE FIFTEENTH.
Retirement.

RETIREMENT enables us to derive happiness from ourselves in the same manner as the sun, shining from his own centre, is indebted to no other globe for its splendour or its heat. Tracing all happiness to his own fountain, and living in a world of his own creating, the lettered recluse, (to whom a well-furnished library is a dukedom large

enough,) indifferent even to the report of fame, "that last infirmity of noble minds," becomes almost invincible; for the world, as a celebrated French writer justly observes, to him is a prison, and solitude a paradise.

But solitude is only beneficial to the wise and the good; since schemes of rapine may be there engendered, as well as plans of beneficence. If Numa retired to one of the deepest recesses of Etruria, in order to digest his code of civil and criminal jurisprudence, Mahomet, in the silence and solitude of Mount Hara, shunning all intercourse with men, first formed the conception of enslaving the bodies, deluding the imaginations, and corrupting the manners and morals of mankind.

To men of weak and unenlightened minds, too, retirement is productive of fatal results. To them retirement is but another name for obscurity: a condition mortifying to those who have never acquainted themselves with the world, and grateful only to that rare order of men who have early perceived how little substantial happiness it is capable of affording. But to a certain class of mankind, nothing is so galling to their conceit, as the compelled necessity of remaining in obscurity.

To beings of this inferior order, the idea of being undistinguished is the ne plus ultra of mortification! Rather than be unknown, they would tyrannize over villagers. The natural cause of this compulsion is ignorance, as the natural result is personal vanity, and a purse-proud, or a family conceit. Hence it arises, that though nothing is more beautiful to the imagination, than the idea of genius sheltering itself in retirement, so nothing is more offensively ridiculous, than the pompous dulness and the awkward consequence of a vain (and perhaps wealthy) country booby: a country gentleman, be it understood, is a person cast in a very different mould. The former is abject to his superiors in the same proportion as he is tyrannous to his inferiors; and totally unconscious of the nobility and capacities of his nature, he frets throughout a long life, to the conscious ridicule of a whole neighbourhood. Sliding into eternity, as he crept into existence, he is forgotten on the morrow.

LESSON CCCL.-DECEMBER THE SIXTEENTH.

Jacobins.

THE term Jacobins was given during the revolution in France to the more violent advocates for republican government. The appellation originated in the circumstance, that the secret meetings of that party were held in a building anciently belonging to the Jacobin monks (an order of Dominicans), where they concerted measures to direct the proceedings of the National Assembly. Hence the word Jacobin has been applied to any turbulent demagogue who opposes government in a secret and unlawful manner.

The Jacobin club had the following origin :— Some short time after the American revolution, political societies were formed in Paris, (where bureaux d'esprit, or associations for the discussion of literary subjects, had previously been common,) in which political subjects were debated, and the members of which were almost universally inclined to republicanism. At first their real object was studiously concealed; but, gathering strength, they displayed their real intentions. Their external symbol was a red cap; afterwards, a dirty dress was the token of their sans-culottism.

The revolution proceeded rapidly; similar societies were formed in nearly all the towns in France; and thus it became enabled to direct the public opinion. In 1792, the leading club, in which sometimes more than 2500 members convened, kept up a correspondence with more than 400 affiliated societies, and the number of Jacobins in all France was estimated at about 400,000. It is not our purpose here, however, to enter into a history of these execrable terrorists, but merely to describe them.

Though they split into parties and denounced each other, yet they vied with each other in savage ferocity and a blasphemous contempt for religion; their malign influence accordingly extended far and wide; and there is abundant reason to believe that the seed of Jacobinism continues even yet to produce, not only in the country which first engendered it, but throughout the whole civilized world, that rabid and ruthless spirit which wars against social order, and is continually plotting the destruction of all that is holy, wise, or venerable.

1. To whom was the term Jacobins given? and how did the appellation originate?

2. What was their symbol ?

3. In what did they vie with each other?

PALM TREES.

LESSON CCCLI.-DECEMBER THE SEVENTEENTH.

Palm Trees.

481

THE palms are the pride of tropical climates, and contribute greatly to give a peculiar and imposing character to the vegetation of those regions. Their straight and lofty branching trunks, crowned at the summit by a tuft of large radiating leaves or fronds, give them an aspect entirely unique, and far surpassing that of other trees in majesty. They belong to the monocotyledonous division of plants, and have their parts arranged in threes, or one of the multiples of that number. The calyx has six divisions; the stamens are six in number; and the fruit consists of a berry or drupe, composed of a substance sometimes hard and scaly, but more often fleshy, or fibrous, surrounding a one-seeded nut. Though sometimes growing to a very great height, in other species the stem rises only a few inches above the surface of the ground. Among the most useful of the palms may be mentioned the cocoa-nut, the sago, and the date, the last of which sometimes grows to the height of 100 feet. In Congo the natives are very expert in making wine of the juice of the palm. At certain times of the year they ascend the trees by the help of a hoop, and when they perceive a flower blown, they cut it off with a knife, and fasten the point of the cut stalk into a calabash, called a capasso. It remains suspended in that way for a short time, and, on being taken down, is found full of a liquor as white as whey, which is fermented, and drunk in three days. The fermented juice of the palmira tree also forms the wine of India. In many parts this tree grows spontaneously; in others it is cultivated with great care. When planted in a fertile soil, and of thirty years' growth, it yields callu or palm-wine. Previous to the bursting of the membrane which covers the flowering branch, called by botanists the spatha, or spadix, the workman mounts the tree by means of a strap passed round his back, and a rope round his feet, and bruises the part between two flat pieces of stick; this is done for three successive mornings, and on each of the four following he cuts a thin slice from the top to prevent the spatha from bursting. On the eighth morning a clear sweet liquor begins to flow from the wound, which is then collected. But this exudation, if continued for three years, will kill the trees.

Y

1. What is meant by the monocotyledonous division of plants?

2. Which part of a plant is the calyx ?. -what are the stamens ?

3. Which are among the most useful of the palms ?

4. What use is made of the fermented Juice of the palmira tree in India?

LESSON CCCLII.—DECEMBER THE EIGHTEENTH.

Lord Lynedoch.

DIED, on the 18th of December, 1843, at the very advanced age of ninety-three years, Lord Lynedoch, an illustrious British general, formerly known as Sir Thomas Graham.

The early life of this eminent man was that of a private country gentleman, but one whose mind had been cultivated in no ordinary degree. He was born at Balgowan, in Perthshire, in the year 1750. In 1774 his father died, and, in the same year, he married the Hon. Mary Cathcart, with whom he lived in the enjoyment of great domestic felicity for a period of nearly twenty years.

In the year 1792, however, his domestic happiness was brought to a termination by the death of his wife, to whom he was most tenderly attached. This change in his condition and prospects imparted almost a romantic character to the tenor of his life. His grief was so deep and lasting as greatly to injure his health, and he was recommended to travel, with the view of alleviating the one and restoring the other by change of scene and variety of objects. At Gibraltar he fell into military society, and there he first conceived the possibility of obtaining some respite from his sorrows by devoting himself to the profession of

arms.

He entered the army as a volunteer, and in 1794 served at the siege of Toulon, under Lord Mulgrave; for his conduct on which occasion he received the special thanks of that nobleman. Having returned to England he raised a battalion of the 90th regiment, of which he was appointed colonel commandant. In the following year the regiment was stationed at Gibraltar, where Colonel Graham endured for a short time the idleness inseparable from garrison duty in so strong a place; but a continuance of such a life proved intolerable to such a mind as his, and he therefore obtained permission to join the Austrian army. His connection with that service con

ed during the summer of 1796, taking the opportuniwhich his position presented him of sending to the