then eligible, being but just thirty years old (for the Roman laws required for one of the humblest of the great offices of . state the very same age which our American Constitution requires for one of the highest), he paid a visit to Syracuse,' then among the greatest cities of the world. 2. The magistrates of the city, of course, waited on him at once, to offer their services in showing him the lions of the place, and requested him to specify any thing which he would like particularly to see. Doubtless, they supposed that he would ask immediately to be conducted to some one of their magnificent temples, that he might behold and admire those splendid works of art with which-notwithstanding that Marcellus had made it his glory to carry not a few of them away with him for the decoration of the Imperial City-Syracuse still abounded, and which soon after tempted the cupidity, and fell a prey to the rapacity, of the in'famous Verres.' 3. Or, haply, they may have thought that he would be curious to see and examine the ear of Dionysius, as it was called,—a 1 Syracuse (sir' a kůz), a fortified city of Sicily. Its noble harbor is admirably adapted for a commercial emporium; but its trade is now very limited. This famous city of antiquity was founded B. c. 736, by a colony from Corinth, governed alternately as a republic or under kings; unsuccessfully besieged by the Athenians B. c. 414, and taken by the Romans B. C. 212, and after a lengthened siege by the Saracens, who partially destroyed it; but it was chiefly ruined by the earthquake of 1693. —2 MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS, a distinguished Roman general, who, when the Sicilians declared in favor of Hannibal, marched against Syracuse, and after a siege of nearly a year's duration, took and sacked the city, carrying the statues of the Syracusan temples to Rome. Two years later, B. c. 210, he was chosen consul. He was famous for his victories over Hannibal and the Gauls, and was slain in a battle against the former, B. c. 208. VERRES, an infamous pro-prætor in Sicily, where he remained for nearly three years (73-71 B. C.) His extortions and exactions in the island have become notorious through the celebrated orations of CICERO.—a DIONYSIUS (di o ni' she us) the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse, was born B. c. 480. His reign began when he was twentyfive, and continued without interruption for thirty-eight years. An able and successful general, he was fond of literature and the arts; adorned Syracuse with splendid temples and other public edifices; and just before his death, as a poet, oore away the first prize at the Lenæa, with a play called "The Ransom of Hector." In his latter years he became extremely suspicious, even of his best friends, and adopted most huge cavern, cut out of the solid rock in the shape of a human ear, two hundred and fifty feet long and eighty feet high, in which that execrable tyrant confined all persons who came within the range of his suspicion; and which was so ingeniously contrived and constructed, that Dionysius, by applying his own ear to a small hole, where the sounds were collected as upon a tympanum, could catch every syllable that was uttered in the cavern below, and could deal out his proscription and his vengeance accordingly, upon all who might dare to dispute his authority, or to complain of his cruelty. 4. Or they may have imagined, perhaps, that he would be impatient to visit at once the sacred fountain of Arethusa, and the seat of those Sicilian Muses whom Virgil' so soon after invoked in commencing that most inspired of all uninspired compositions, which Pope has so nobly paraphrased in his glowing and glorious Eclogue-the Messiah. To their great astonishment, however, Cicero's first request was that they would take him to see the tomb of Archime'des. 5. To his own still greater astonishment, as we may well believe, they told him in reply, that they knew nothing about the tomb of Archime'des, and had no idea where it was to be found, and they even positively denied that any such tomb was still remaining among them. But Cicero understood perfectly well. what he was talking about. He remembered the exact descrip excessive precautions to guard against treachery. He became a sort of type of tyrant, in its worst sense; though his wickedness and cruelty were undoubtedly much exaggerated by ancient writers.- VIRGIL, see p. 215, note 2.- ARCHIMEDES (ar ki mẻ' dèz), the most celebrated of ancient geometers, was born at Syracuse, about 291 B. C. Having acquired at an early age all the knowledge that could be obtained in his native city, he visited Egypt, from whence, after seven years, he returned to Syracuse, ladened with the intellectual spoils of the East, and devote 1 his time to the cultivation of the mathematical and physical sciences In the war which the Romans carried on against King HIERO, of Sicily, to whom ARCHIMEDES was related on his father's side, several engines prepared by the latter were so effectual in the defense of Syracuse against MARCELLUS as to convert the siege into a blockade, and delay the taking of the city for several months. In 212 B. C., when Syracuse was taken, he was killed by the Roman soldiers, being at the time intent upon a mathematical problem. There are excellent French and English translations of his numerous works. tion of the tomb. He remembered the věry verses which had been inscribed on it. He remembered the sphere and the cylinder which Archimedes had himself requested to have wrought upon it, as the chosen emblems of his eventful life. And the great orator forthwith resolved to make search for it himself. 6. Accordingly, he rambled out into the place of their ancient sepulchres, and, after a careful investigation, he came at last to a spot overgrown with shrubs and bushes, where presently he descried the top of a small column just rising above the branches. Upon this little column the sphere and the cylinder were at length found carved; the inscription was painfully deciphered, and the tomb of Archime'des stood revealed to the reverent homage of the illustrious Roman questor. 7. This was in the year 76 before the birth of our Saviour. Archimedes died about the year 212 before Christ. One hundred and thirty-six years, only, had thus elapsed since the death of this celebrated person, before his tombstone was buried up beneath briers and brambles, and before the place, and even the existence of it, were forgotten by the magistrates of the very city of which he was so long the proudest ornament in peace, and the most effective defender in war. 8. What a lesson to human pride, what a commentary on human gratitude, was here! I do not learn, however, that Cice ro was cured of his cager vanity and his insatiate love of fame by this "turn" among the Syracusan tombs. He was then only just at the threshold of his proud career, and he went back to pursue it to its bloody end, with unabated zeal, and with an ambition only extinguishable with his life. 9. And after all, how richly, how surpassingly, was this local ingratitude and neglect made up to the memory of Archime ́des himself, by the opportunity which it afforded to the greatest orator of the greatest empire of antiquity, to signalize his appreciation and his admiration of that wonderful genius, by going out personally into the ancient grave-yards of Syracuse, and with the robes of office in their newest gloss around him, to search for his tomb and to do honor to his ashes! The greatest orator of Imperial Rome anticipating the part of Old Mortality upon the grave-stone of the great mathematician and mechanic of antiquity! This, surely, is a picture for mechanics in all ages to contemplate with a proud satisfaction and delight. R. C. WINTHROP. ROBERT C. WINTHROP, a descendant of one of the oldest and most eminent of New England families, was born in Boston, on the 12th of May, 1809. He pursued his preparatory studies at the Boston Latin School, and graduated at Harvard, in 1828. For the next three years he studied law with DANIEL WEBSTER. He became a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1834, and speaker of its House of Representatives from 1838 till his election to Congress in 1840. He was speaker of the national House of Representatives for the sessions of 1848-9. He was appointed to succeed WEBSTER in the Senate in 1850, when the latter was Secretary of State. His claims to literary distinction are derived from his able addresses and speeches, a volume of which was published in 1852. He has since published his address before the alumni of Harvard in 1852; a lecture on Algernon Sidney, before the Boston Mercantile Library Association in 1853; and in the same season, his lecture on Archimedes and Franklin, from which the above extract is taken. 154. MESSIAH. 1. THE Saviour comes, by ancient bards foretold: THE Hear him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold! 3. No more shall nation against nation rise, Nor ardent warriors meet, with hateful eyes, Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover❜d o'er, 4. The swain in barren deserts, with surprise, Sees lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise; To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed, 5. The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead, And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead; The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet. Pleased, the green luster of the scales survey, 6. Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem,' rise! *Falchion (fal′ chân).—* Salem, Jerusalem |