what stock I am? but if you desire to hear the truth of my religion, be it known to you that I am now a Christian and addicted to Christian duties.' 'I ask your name,' said the judge, which tell me immediately.' 'I am called Alban by my parents,' replied he, and ever worship and adore the true and living God, who created all things. Then the judge, inflamed with anger, said, 'If you will enjoy the happiness of eternal life, do not delay to offer sacrifice to the great gods.' Alban rejoined, 'These sacrifices, which by you are offered to devils, neither can they avail the subjects, nor answer the wishes or desires of those that offer up their supplications to them. On the contrary, whosoever shall offer sacrifice to these images shall receive the everlasting pains of hell for his reward.' The judge, hearing these words, and being much incensed, ordered the holy confessor of God to be scourged by the executioners, believing he might by stripes shake that constancy of his heart, on which he could not prevail by words. He being most cruelly tortured, bore the same patiently, or rather joyfully, for our Lord. When the judge perceived that he was not to be overcome by tortures, or withdrawn from the worship of the Christian religion, he ordered him to be put to death. Being led to execution, he came to the river, which was divided, at the place where the stroke was to be given him, with a wall and sand, the stream being most rapid. He there saw a multitude of persons of both sexes, and of several ages and conditions, which was doubtless assembled by divine instinct, to attend the most blessed confessor and martyr, and had so taken up the bridge on the river, that he could scarce pass over that evening. At length, almost all being gone out, the judge remained in the city without attendance. St. Alban, therefore, whose mind was possessed with an ardent devotion to arrive quickly at martyrdom, drew near to the stream, and, lifting up his eyes to heaven, the channel being immediately dried up, he perceived that the water had departed and given way for him to pass. The executioner who was to have put him to death, observing this among the rest, hastened to meet him at the place of execution, being moved by divine inspiration, and casting down the sword which he had carried, ready drawn, fell down at his feet, earnestly praying that he might rather suffer with or for the martyr whom he was ordered to execute. Whilst he of a persecutor was become a companion in the truth and faith, and the sword being laid down, there was some hesitation among the executioners, the most reverend confessor of God ascended the hill with the throng, the which decently pleasant agreeable place is about five hundred paces from the river, embellished with several sorts of flowers, or rather quite covered with them; wherein there is no part upright, or steep, nor anything craggy, but the sides stretching out far about are levelled by nature like the sea, which of old it had rendered worthy to be enriched with the martyr's blood for its beautiful appearance. On the top of this hill, St. Alban prayed that God would give him water, and immediately a living spring broke out before his feet, the course being confined, so that all men perceived that even the stream had been subservient to the martyr. Nor could it be that the martyr should ask water, which he had not left in the river, on the high top of the hill, had he not been sensible that it was convenient. That river having performed the service, and fulfilled the devotion, returned to its natural course, leaving a testimony of its obedience. The most courageous martyr, having his head struck off, received there the crown of life, which God has promised to those that love him. But he who gave the wicked stroke was not permitted to rejoice over the deceased; for his eyes dropped upon the ground together with the blessed martyr's head. At the same time was also beheaded there the soldier, who before, through the divine admonition, refused to give the stroke to the holy confessor of God: of whom it is apparent, that though he was not regenerated by baptism, yet he was cleansed by the washing of his own blood, and rendered worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven. The judge then, astonished at the novelty of so many heavenly miracles, ordered the persecution to cease immediately, beginning to honour the death of the saints, by which he before thought they might have been diverted from the devotion of the Christian faith. The blessed Alban suffered on the tenth day of the Kalends of July, near the city of Verolam, which is now by the English nation called Uverlamacestir or Uvarlingacester, where afterwards, when peaceable Christian times were restored, a church of wonderful workmanship, and suitable to his martyrdom, was erected. In which place, there ceases not to this day the cure of sick persons, and the frequent working of wonders. At the same time suffered Aaron and Julius, citizens of Chester, and many more of both sexes in several places, who, having endured sundry torments, and their limbs torn after an unheardof manner, sent their souls by perfect combat to the joys of the heavenly city. (1) Take SIMPLE PROPORTION. tons 13 cwt. 2 qrs. 1 lb. 8 oz. from 6 tons 10 cwt., and find the value of the remainder at £2 15s. for 3 qrs. 26 lbs. (2) If the land- tax of an estate be £22 15s. per annum, and it be charged at the rate of £2 16s. 3d. per £100, what will be the net income of the owner? (3) If a bankrupt has property to the amount of £340, and his debts are £1,076, what will he pay in the £? (4) A man lent his friend the sum of £525 15s. for 1 year 20 days; his friend would return the obligation by lending him £630 18s. for how long should he lend this amount? (5) What sum must a person spend in 96 days, if he desires to save every year £75 out of an income of £600 ? con-sum'-mate, produced with the greatest skill, complete ob'-so-lete, out of use ce-ler'-i-ty, quickness ap-pa-ra'-tus, tools or instruments con-tem'-po-ra-ries, persons who live at the same time pre-ci'-sion, exactness su-per-se'-ded, set aside spon-ta'-ne-ous, of one's own accord, voluntary sub-ser-vi-en-cy, serviceableness, wil- mech'-an-ism, machinery, and the art of a-bridg-ment, a shortening making it manner that EACH succeeding age and generation leaves behind it a peculiar character, which stands out in relief upon its annals, and is associated with it for ever in the memory of posterity. One is signalised for the invention of gunpowder, another for that of printing; one is rendered memorable by the revival of letters, another by the reformation of religion; one is marked in history by the conquests of Napoleon, another is rendered illustrious by the discoveries of Newton. If we are asked by what characteristic the present age will be marked in future records, we answer, by the miracles which have been wrought in the subjugation of the powers of the material world to the uses of the human race. In this respect no former epoch can approach to competition with it. The author of some of the most popular fictions of the day has affirmed, that in adapting to his purpose the results of his personal observations on men and manners, he has not unfrequently found himself compelled to mitigate the real in order to bring it within the limits of the probable. No observer of the progress of the arts of life, at the present time, can fail to be struck with the prevalence of the same character in their results, as that which compelled this writer to suppress the most wonderful of what had fallen under his eye, in order to bring his descriptions within the bounds of credibility. Many are old enough to remember the time when persons, correspondence, and merchandise were transported from place to place in this country by stage coaches, vans, and waggons. In those days, the fast coach, with its team of spanking blood-horses, and its bluff driver with broad-brimmed hat and drab box-coat, from which a dozen capes were pendant, who handled the ribbons' with such consummate art, could pick a fly from the ear of the offleader, and turn into the gateway at Charing-cross with the precision of a geometrician, were the topics of the unbounded admiration of the traveller. Certain coaches obtained a special celebrity and favour with the public. We cannot forget how the eye of the traveller glistened when he mentioned the Brighton Age,' the Glasgow Mail,' the Shrewsbury 'Wonder,' or the Exeter 'Defiance; '—the 'Age,' which made its trip in five hours, and the 'Defiance,' which acquired its fame by completing the journey between London and Exeter in less than thirty hours. 6 The rapid circulation of intelligence was also the boast of those times. How foreigners stared when told that the news of each afternoon formed a topic of conversation at tea-tables the same evening, twenty miles from London; and that the morning journals, still damp from the press, were served at breakfast within a radius of thirty miles, as early as the frequenters of the London clubs received them! Now let us imagine that some profound thinker, deeply versed in the resources of science at that epoch, were to have gravely predicted that the generation existing then and there would live to see all these admirable performances become obsolete, and consigned to the history of the past; that they would live to regard such vehicles as the 'Age' and 'Defiance' as clumsy expedients, and their celerity such as to satisfy those alone who were in a backward state of civilisation! Let us imagine that such a person were to affirm that his contemporaries would live to see a coach like the ‘Defiance' making its trip between London and Exeter, not in thirty, but in five hours, and drawn, not by 200 blood-horses, but by a moderate-sized stove and four bushels of coals! Let us further imagine the same sagacious individual to predict that his contemporaries would live to see a building erected in the centre of London, in the cellars of which machinery would be provided for the fabrication of artificial lightning, which should be supplied to order, at a fixed price, in any quantity required, and of any prescribed force; that conductors would be carried from this building to all parts of the country, along which such lightning should be sent at will: that in the attics of the same building would be provided certain small instruments like barrel-organs or pianofortes; that by means of these instruments, the aforesaid lightning should, at the will and pleasure of those in charge of them, deliver messages at any part of Europe, from St. Petersburgh to Naples; and, in fine, that answers to such messages should be received instantaneously, and by like means; that in this same building offices should be provided, where any lady or gentleman might enter at any hour, and for a few shillings send a message by lightning to Paris or Vienna, and, by waiting for a few moments, receive an answer! Might he not exclaim after the inspired author of the book of Job:-Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are' (xxxviii. 35)? But, suppose that his foresight should further enable him to pronounce that means would be invented by which any individual, in any one town or city of Europe, should be enabled to take in his hand a pencil or pen, the point of which should be in any other town or city, no matter how distant, and should, with such pen or pencil, write or delineate in such distant place such characters or designs as might please him, with as much promptitude and precision as if the paper to which these characters or designs were committed lay upon the table before him; or that an individual pulling a string at London should ring a bell at Vienna, or holding a match at St. Petersburgh should discharge a cannon at Naples! Suppose he should affirm that means would be discovered for converting charcoal into diamonds; that the light of the sun would be compelled, without the intervention of the human hand, to make a portrait or a picture, with a fidelity, truth, and precision, with which the productions of the most exalted artistic skill would not bear comparison; and that this picture should be produced and completed in its most minute details, in a few seconds-nay, even in the fraction of a second; that candles and lamps would be superseded by flame manufactured on a large scale in the suburbs of cities, and distributed for use in pipes carried under the streets, and into the houses and other buildings to be illuminated; and that the precious and other metals, being dissolved in liquids, would form themselves into the articles of ornament and use by a spontaneous process, and without the intervention of human labour!! No authority however exalted, no attainments however profound, no reputation however respected, could have saved the individual rash enough to have given utterance to such predictions some forty years ago, from being regarded as labouring under intellectual derangement. Yet all these things have not only come to pass, but the contemplation of many of them has become so interwoven with our habits, that familiarity has blunted the edge of wonder. Compared with all such realities, the illusions of oriental romance grow pale: fact stands higher than fiction in the |