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crown should never more be possessed by a Papist was an important declaration made by the Bill of Rights. The king was invested with every power which his predecessors had exercised over parliaments, corporations, the army, and the navy, except the power of doing injury; and his subjects were laid under those equitable restraints which were most consistent with rational liberty.

To complete their independence, the privileges of Englishmen were not solicited as a favour, but asserted as an undoubted and inherent right. Allegiance and protection were declared to be reciprocal ties, and the dignity and honour of the king were interwoven with the security and happiness of his subjects. William III. reigned thirteen years, and died in 1701, aged fifty-two.

1. Where and when did Prince William of Orange land?

2. What circumstances form the most distinguished epoch in the annals of English history?

3. What is this epoch denominated?

4. What completed the fabric of the British Constitution?

LESSON XLV. — FEBRUARY THE FOURTEENTH.

Captain Cook.

On this day, in 1779, Captain James Cook was killed at Owyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands. Eager to serve his country, he bade adieu to his domestic comforts, and a third time embarked to circumnavigate the world. He set sail in the "Discovery" in July, 1776, and penetrated towards the north-west of America, and turned back only when his further progress was impeded by vast fields of floating ice.

Unable, in consequence of the advanced season, to go further, he visited the Sandwich Islands, and stopped at Owyhee, where he unfortunately lost his life. During the night the Indians carried away the Discovery's cutter, and Cook, determined to recover it, seized the king of the island, to confine him on board his ship till the restoration of the vessel.

In the struggle which took place, the captain and his men were assailed by the Indians, who viewed with resentment the captivity of their monarch, and, before he could reach the boat, Cook received a severe blow on the head which brought him to the ground. Unable alone to resist a multitude of savage foes, while his men in the boat and

on the shore seemed intent on defending themselves, he was overpowered by his assailants. His body was treated with savage barbarity, and only a few bones were recovered, which his disconsolate companions committed to the deep.

When Cook-lamented, and with tears as just
As ever mingled with heroic dust-

Steer'd Britain's bark into a world unknown,
And in his country's glory sought his own;
Whate'er the clime- if man to nature true
Was found, his rights were sacred in his view.
He sooth'd with gifts, and greeted with a smile,
The simple native of the new-found isle;
He spurn'd the wretch that slighted or withstood
The tender argument of Christian blood;
Nor would endure that any should control
His free-born brethren of the southern pole.

1. Where was Captain Cook killed, and in what year ? 2. Where are the Sandwich Islands situated?

3. What motive of resentment induced the savage Indians to take the life of Captain Cook?

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Shakspeare's Literary Character.

THIS great dramatist was born in 1564; he was eighteen years of age, or more, when he went to London, and in about six years from that time he was a distinguished writer for the stage; so that his progress must have been rapid. Queen Elizabeth was fond of plays; but the dramatic writers of a previous age had shown but little knowledge of nature, and had discovered none of the hidden treasures of genius: the poet's path was therefore open to him, and he was destined to seize the laurel crown. He looked on man, and at once became master of the inmost recesses of his soul, as it were by intuition.

He saw the defects of character at once, as well as the brighter parts; and all the advantages, as well as the absurdities of customs and laws, he struck off as though each one had been the study of his life. The Dramatic Muse brought him to the great fountain of her inspirations, and as he bent to quaff the waters, he saw all the natural, moral, political, and intellectual world reflected in the pure mirror of his fancy.

Classically speaking, Shakspeare was an uneducated man, for he had not been allowed to drink of the sweet fountains of ancient learning; but he lived at a period

SHAKSPEARE'S LITERARY CHARACTER.

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when much of this literature had been "done into English' by learned men. When Shakspeare was a schoolboy, the press had been teeming with vernacular literature-either original productions or translations--for a century, and he had the advantage of all this. These works were sufficient to set him to thinking and writing, and his mind was free from all shackles. He knew nothing of the logic of the schoolmen, nor was he bound to regard their rules. He was indebted to no Alma Mater for nursing him in learning. Shakspeare took his words from the people, - that is, from all classes in the busy scenes of life, — and from those books written for popular reading. He had but little assistance from dictionaries, for but few had turned their attention to the making of dictionaries, nor could this be expected while a language was daily fluctuating.

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The memory of the poet was richly stored with wordsgood, domestic, household words in his mother-tongue, and he had enough of the grammar of it for all his purposes. His thoughts were all new creations, however much he might be indebted to old ones for begetting them; and his taste has stood the test of every age since his own. He understood human nature, and he wisely wrote for two purposes, in some sort to please those of his own times, and to secure all those who should come after him. With Shakspeare posthumous fame never seemed to be a passion: he rather felt sure of it, than panted after it; he that could so well judge of the present and the past, had a just idea of what was to come.

Other men share the throes of composition; and even those which are dedicated to Momus, and all the laughterloving train, have some lines of mental melancholy about them. Not so with Shakspeare. Yet to suppose that those productions were not of profound thought would, indeed, be idle. He meditated, not only at noon in the field, but in the dark watches of the night. He read nature from season to season, and man in every hour of his existence; but there was about his doing this the wild complacency of a superior being, not the swollen muscle and bursting veins of the gladiator; nor was it ever known that he rolled his eye in phrensy, although he glanced from heaven to earth, and answered his own description of a poet, as to the mental part of it.

"And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothings
A local habitation and a name."

1. In what year was Shakspeare born; and how long after his arrival in London was he known as a dramatist?

2. As Shakspeare was not a classical scholar, from what sources did he derive his literary acquirements?

3. What is meant by Alma Mater?

4. What was his memory richly stored with?

5. When, and on what universal theme, did Shakspeare meditate?

LESSON XLVII.-FEBRUARY THE SIXTEENTH.

Melancthon.

On this day, in 1497, was born at Britten, in the palatinate of the Rhine, Germany, Philip Melancthon, a celebrated divine, coadjutor with Luther in the Reformation, and one of the wisest and greatest men of his age.

The moderation of Melancthon exhibited a striking contrast to the violence of Luther, while his learning contributed much to the progress of the Reformation. He was invited to France and England by the monarchs of those kingdoms; but never went out of Germany. He died at Wittemberg, April 19th, 1560. Some days before he died, he wrote upon a piece of paper the reasons which made him look upon death as a happiness; and the chief of them was, that it "delivered him from theological persecutions."

Nature had given him a peaceable temper, which was but ill-suited for the time in which he lived. His moderation greatly augmented his uneasiness. He was like a lamb in the midst of wolves. Nobody liked his mildness; it looked as if he was lukewarm; and even Luther himself was sometimes angry at it. It was, indeed, considering his situation, very inconvenient; for it not only exposed him to all kinds of slander, but would not suffer him to 66 answer a fool according to his folly." The only advantage it procured him was to look upon death without fear, by considering that it would secure him from the odium theologicum, "the hatred of divines, and the discord of false brethren." He was never out of danger, but might truly be said, "through fear, to be all his lifetime subject to bondage." Thus he declared, in one of his works, that he had held his professor's place forty years without ever being sure that he should not be turned out before the end of the week.

Melancthon was a very affectionate father, and there is an anecdote preserved of him which perfectly agrees with his character for humility. A Frenchman, it is said, found him one day holding a book with one hand, and

HERBERT KNOWLES.

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rocking a child with the other; and upon his expressing some surprise, Melancthon made such a pious discourse to him about the duty of a father, and the state of grace in which the children are with God, "that the stranger went away," says Bayle, "much more edified than he came." While the disputes raged fiercely about religion, Melancthon called upon his mother, who asked what she should believe in those troublesome times, at the same time repeating a summary of her devotions. "Go on," said he, " "in the same course, and leave controversial questions to the disputants."

1. What did the moderation of Melancthon exhibit?

2. What was Melancthon's chief reason for looking upon death as a happiness?

3. What anecdote is related of him and his mother?

LESSON XLVIII.

FEBRUARY THE SEVENTEENTH.

Herbert Knowles.

On this day, in 1817, expired Herbert Knowles, at the early age of nineteen. The following touching lines, written by him in Richmond churchyard, in Yorkshire, will plainly evince that the premature death of this amiable young man deprived his country of one who bade fair to place himself among the foremost of its poetical orna

ments:

"It is good for us to be here; if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles ; one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias."- MATT. xvii. 4.

Methinks it is good to be here:

If thou wilt, let us build: but for whom?
Nor Elias nor Moses appear,

But the shadows of eve that encompass the gloom,
The abode of the dead, and the place of the tomb.

Shall we build to Ambition? Oh, no!

Affrighted he shrinketh away:

For, see, they would pin him below,

In a small narrow cave, and begirt with cold clay,
To the meanest of reptiles a peer and a prey.

To Beauty? Ah, no! she forgets
The charms which she wielded before;

Nor knows the foul worm that befrets

The skins which but yesterday fools could adore,
For the smoothness it held, or the tint which it wore.

Shall we build to the purple of Pride,

The trappings which 'dizen the proud?

Alas! they are all laid aside;

And here's neither dress nor adornment allow'd,

But the long winding-sheet, and the fringe of the shroud.

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