at his head. Ulysses moves quietly to the door-way, and raises his voice in solemn imprecation to the powers Divine who are the protectors of the stranger and the poor.

THE IMPRECATION OF ULYSSES.

Hear me, ye suitors of the queen divine!

Men grieve not for the wounds they take in fight, Defending their own wealth, white sheep or kine: bear witness-doth Antinous smite

But me

Only because I suffer hunger's bite,

Fount to mankind of evils evermore.

Now may Antinous, ere his nuptial nightIf there be Gods and Furies of the poor

Die unavenged, unwept, upon the palace floor.

Translation of WORSLEY.

Amphinomus, one of the suitors, of less ignoble spirit than the rest, is indignant at this outrage upon a poor old man, and utters a righteous rebuke to Antinous the only decent word spoken by any of that vile crew whose doom is so close at hand.

AMPHINOMUS REBUKES ANTINOUS.

Not to thine honor hast thou now let fall,
Antinous, on the wondering poor this blow.
Haply a god from heaven is in our hall,
And thou art ripe for ruin; I bid thee know,
Gods in the garb of strangers to and fro
Wander the cities, and men's ways discern;

Yea, through the wide earth in all shapes they go, Changed, yet the same, and with their own eyes learn How live the sacred laws

spurn.

who hold them, and who - Translation of WORSLEY.

The next day is the day of retribution. It is the feast of Apollo, and the suitors celebrate it with even

more than their wonted revelry and insolence. They even insult Telemachus upon his father's own hearthstone. Penelope- still ignorant of the return of Ulysses has come to the sad conclusion that she will be forced to make choice of one of the hated suitors. But she bethinks herself of an expedient which may at least put off the hated moment. There is one noted feat which she had seen Ulysses perform in olden days. This is to shoot an arrow through the eyes of twelve axe-heads set up in a line. She brings down the mighty bow, which Ulysses had not taken with him to Troy, and promises that she will accept as her future lord the suitor who can bend that bow, and send the arrow through the axe-eyes. One after another makes the attempt; but not one of them can even bend the bow. Then the seeming beggar — who has in the meantime revealed himself to a few in whom he has found that he may confide- makes request that he may make trial of this wonderful bow. The suitors fling fierce abuse upon him for his audacity. But Telemachus, whose authority in his father's house they are not quite prepared to deny, gives permission. Ulysses takes the bow, examines it carefully to see that wood and string are in proper order, fits the arrow to the notch, and without even rising from his seat draws the bow to its full stretch, and sends the arrow through the whole line of axe-heads.

THE RETRIBUTION OF ULYSSES.

"Behold the mark is hit, Hit without labor! The old strength cleaves fast Upon me, and my bones are stoutly knitNot as the suitors mock me in their scornful wit. Now is it time their evening meal is set Before the Achaians, ere the sun goes down.

And other entertainment shall come yet:

Dance and the song, which are the banquet's crown." He spake, and with his eyebrows curved the frown. Seizing his sword and spear Telemachus came,

Son of Ulysses, chief of high renown,

And, helmeted with brass like fiery flame,

Stood by his father's throne, and waited the dire aim.
Stripped of his rags then leapt the godlike king
On the great threshold, in his hand the bow
And quiver, filled with arrows of mortal sting.
These with a rattle he rained down below,
Loose at his feet, and spoke among them so:
"See at the last our matchless bout is o'er!
Now for another mark, that I may know

If I can hit what none hath hit before,
And if Apollo hear me in the prayer I pour."

-Translation of WORSLEY.

He aims the first arrow at Antinous. It pierces his throat, and he falls with the untasted goblet at his lips. The suitors stand aghast for a moment, when Ulysses declares himself and his purpose. They look around for the weapons which are wont to hang upon the walls; but they have been secretly removed by Ulysses and his son. Unarmed as they are, the suitors make a rush. But Amphinomus, who is foremost and for whom one would have hoped a better fate falls by the spear of Telemachus. Ulysses plies his fatal arrows until the quiver is exhausted; and then he and Telemachus, aided by Eumæus and another faithful retainer who have just come into the hall, complete the work of death.

Penelope, who had retired to her distant chamber before the axe-eye trial had begun, and knew nothing of what had since taken place, is now told of it by the nurse. She goes down to the fatal hall, from which the bodies had been removed. She cannot at

first believe that Ulysses has come back, but apprehends that someone had assumed his name. And she is not fully assured that it is really her husband until he recalls to her recollection a domestic incident of which only she and he could have had any knowledge.

PENELOPE'S RECOGNITION OF ULYSSES.

Then from the eyelids the quick tears did start,
And she ran to him from her place, and threw
Her arms about his neck, and a warm dew
Of kisses poured upon him, and thus spake:

"Frown not, Ulysses, thou art wise and true!
But God gave sorrow, and hath grudged to make
Our path to old age sweet, nor willed us to partake
Youth's joys together. Yet forgive me this,
Nor hate me that when first I saw thy brow,
I fell not on thy neck, and gave no kiss,
Nor wept in thy dear arms, as I do now.
For in my breast a bitter fear did bow

My soul, and I lived shuddering day by day,

Lest a strange man come hither, and avow

False things, and steal my spirit, and bewray

My love: such guile men scheme to lead the pure astray." -Translation of WORSLEY.

Here, with the twenty-third Book, the story of the Odyssey properly comes to an end. There is another Book, however, which is so decidedly inferior to the others that some critics are inclined to question its authenticity.

OOD, EDWIN PAXTON, an English clergyman and biographer; born in 1820; died in 1885. For many years he was pastor of an Independent Chapel in London and was a popular lecturer on literary and social subjects. He edited the Eclectic Review, and the Preacher's Lantern. Among his works are Wordsworth, a Biography; The Age and Its Architects; A Life of Swedenborg; The Peerage of Poverty; Dream Land and Ghost Land; Genius and Industry; Mental and Moral Philosophy of Laughter; The Uses of Biography, Romantic, Philosophic, and Didactic; Lamps, Pitchers, and Trumpets, lectures on the preacher's vocation; Blind Amos; Life of the Rev. Thomas Binney; Oliver Cromwell: His Life, Times, Battle-fields, and Contemporaries (1882); Scottish Characteristics (1883), and an Exposition of the Life and Genius of Thomas Carlyle. He also edited The World of Anecdote, and The World of Religious Anecdote.

THE BATTLE OF DUNBAR.

The orders of the Scots were to extinguish their natches, to cower under the shocks of corn, and seek some imperfect shelter and sleep; to-morrow night, for most of them, the sleep will be perfect enough, whatever the shelter may be. The order to the English was, to stand to their arms, or to lie within reach of them all night. Some waking soldiers in the English army were holding prayer-meetings too. By moonlight, as the gray heavy morning broke over St. Abb's Head its first faint streak, the first peal of the trumpets ran along the Scottish host. But how unprepared were they then for the loud reply of the English host, and for the thunder of their cannons upon their lines. Terrible was the awaken