And when its yellow lustre smiled

O'er mountains yet untrod,
Each mother held aloft her child
To bless the bow of God.

Methinks, thy jubilee to keep,
The first made anthem rang
On earth delivered from the deep,
And the first poet sang.

Nor ever shall the Muse's eye
Unraptured greet thy beam:
Theme of primeval prophecy,
Be still the prophet's theme!
The earth to thee her incense yields,
The lark thy welcome sings,
When glittering in the freshened fields
The snowy mushroom springs.

How glorious is thy girdle cast
O'er mountain, tower, and town,
Or mirrored in the ocean vast,
A thousand fathoms down!
As fresh in yon horizon dark,
As young thy beauties seem,
As when the eagle from the ark
First sported in thy beam.
For, faithful to its sacred page,
Heaven still rebuilds thy span,

Nor lets the type grow pale with age

That first spoke peace to man.-Campbell.

LESSON XIV.-THURSDAY.

ENGLISH HISTORY-PLANTAGENET LINE.

Henry IV. ascended the throne in 1399, by the choice of the people, not by hereditary right, the true heir being the young earl of March. His reign was disturbed by successive conspiracies and rebellions. At its commencement, an attempt was made to restore the deposed monarch, which

failed, and probably accelerated his fate. The earl of Northumberland, who had helped to place the crown on the head of Henry, next revolted from him, and, leagued with the Scotch Earl Douglas, Owen Glendower of Wales, and other nobles, opposed him with a formidable power. The contending armies met at Shrewsbury, where, in a sanguinary battle, the rebels were defeated and fled; but, among the mountains of Wales, Owen Glendower still kept up a brave resistance, and assisted the enemies of Henry in their long-continued hostilities. Nor were pretexts for rebellion wanting. At one time it was pretended that Richard was living; at another, the cause of the earl of March was espoused. The archbishop of York suffered death for his participation in a great rising in Yorkshire. Northumberland did not cease to harass the king till his castles were reduced and himself slain in battle. Owen Glendower was never entirely subdued.

The power and privileges of Parliament continued to be augmented during this reign; the manner in which Henry had obtained the crown, compelling him to adopt popular measures of government. An iniquitous enactment, however, condemning heretics to the flames, received his sanction. It was directed against the Lollards, who had embraced the opinions of Wickliffe, and who now became the victims of a cruel persecution. Henry IV. died in 1413.

Henry V. began his reign in a manner which earned for him deserved popularity. His youth had been wild and dissipated, but he now dismissed all his evil companions, and retained in office his father's old and approved counsellors. He restored to their lands and honours the banished Percies, and had the remains of the unfortunate Richard II. removed from their obscure resting-place, and interred with his ancestors in Westminster Abbey. One blot rests upon his government at this period-that of persecution. Great numbers of the Lollards were burned as heretics, among whom was Lord Cobham, a man of rank and of high military reputation.

France at this time was in a wretched condition. Her king was incapacitated from governing by mental derangement, as the rival factions of Burgundy and Orleans filled

the land with confusion and bloodshed. Henry took advan tage of these troubles to renew the old claim to the French crown. This being at once rejected, he limited his demands to the restitution of the provinces formerly belonging to England. These proposals met with the fate of the former one, and Henry prepared for war. His departure was delayed by the discovery of a plot against him, but as soon as it was defeated and its agents punished, he embarked for France, besieged and took Harfleur, and marched towards Calais. Disease and want had thinned the ranks of the English army to half their original number, but they were sustained by the undaunted spirit of their leader, and animated by the strongest attachment to him. The two armies met near the village of Agincourt. The French forces numbered upwards of 50,000 horsemen, and included all the chivalry of the nation, whilst the English scarcely amounted to 10,000 men, exhausted by the fatigues of a long march. The battle was a fatal one for France; the slaughter was tremendous, and her defeat decisive. The prisoners are said to have exceeded their captors in number, and Henry sullied his fame by ordering many of them to be put to death. The noblest were reserved to witness his triumphant entrance into London.

In 1418, Henry again led an army to France. Caen, Bayeux, Falaise, successively yielded to his arms, and the fall of Rouen at length compelled the French government to treat with the conqueror. After several months of negotiation, all Henry's terms were agreed to, he received the French princess Catherine in marriage, and the “ perpetual peace" was signed. The dauphin, however, still held out. Henry drove him from place to place, but in the midst of his conquests a fatal disease seized him, and in 1422, at the early age of 34, he died at Vincennes.

LESSON XV.-FRIDAY.

THE EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY.

Christianity has not only an adaptation for improving the condition of society, but it has actually won its moral victories, and in all ages has exhibited its trophies. In every

pagan country where it has prevailed, it has also abolished idolatry, with its sanguinary and polluted rites. It also effected this mighty revolution, that the sanctions of religion should no longer be in favour of the worst passions and practices, but be directed against them. It has raised the standard of morality, and by that means, even where its full effects have not been suffered to display themselves, has insensibly improved the manners of every Christian State. What heathen nations are, in point of morals, is now well known; and the information on this subject, which for several years past has been increasing, has put it out of the power of infidels to urge the superior manners of either China or Hindostan. It has abolished infanticide and human sacrifices, so prevalent among ancient and modern heathens; put an end to polygamy and divorce; and by the institution of marriage in an indissoluble bond, has given birth to a felicity and sanctity in the domestic circle which it never before knew. It has exalted the condition and character of woman, and by that means has humanized man, and given refinement and delicacy to society. It abolished domestic slavery in ancient Europe; and, from its principles, the struggle which is now successfully terminated with African slavery, drew its energy; It has given a milder character to war, and taught modern nations to treat their prisoners with humanity, and to restore them by exchange to their respective countries. It has laid the basis of a jurisprudence more equal and just; given civil rights to subjects, and placed restraints on absolute power; and crowned its achievements by its charity. Hospitals, schools, and many other institutions for the aid of the aged and the poor, are almost exclusively its own creations, and they abound most where its influence is most powerful. The same effects, to this day, are resulting from its influence in those countries into which the Gospel has been carried by missionaries sent out from our own and other lands. In some of them, idolatry has been renounced; infants, and widows, and aged persons, who would have been immolated to their gods, or abandoned by their cruelty, have been preserved, and are now "living to praise its Divine Author, as they do at this day." In other instances, the light is prevailing against the

darkness; and those systems of dark and sanguinary superstition, which have stood for ages only to pollute and oppress, without any symptom of decay, now betray the shocks they have sustained by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and nod to their fall.-Richard Watson.

LESSON XVI.-MONDAY.

THE PREVALENT WINDS.

The air rotating eastward, as it sweeps from the polar regions, where it rotates with a less towards the equatorial regions where it rotates with a greater velocity, continually hangs back upon the earth's surface rotating beneath it; thus producing the perception of a wind partly from the poles, and partly westward, or from the east; so that

These winds from the north and the east in the northern hemisphere, and from the south and the east in the southern, are the TRADE WINDS. They attain the earth's surface at, and begin to be felt about, 28 deg. from the equator; being, before they reach that latitude, currents of the higher atmosphere. The counter-currents by which the air returns from the equator to the poles being, on the other hand, as to their rotatory motion, continually in advance of the earth's surface, over which they are passing, produce, in the temperate regions, where they first come in contact with it, a wind from the south-west in the northern hemisphere, and from the north-west in the southern.

The prevalence of such winds is well known to navigators; they are accustomed to calculate upon them in their voyages, and shape their course with reference to them.

To the prevalence of winds coming in a westerly direction from the tropics is to be attributed an extensive influence upon the climate of the temperate regions of the earth.

They gather heat the most readily and retain it the longest when traversing the surface of the ocean. It is therefore to countries having a western sea-board and a wide

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