GALGACUS TO HIS ARMY.

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Can any one imagine that Gauls, Germans, and, — with shame I must add, -Britons, who basely lend, for a time, their limbs and their lives, to build up a foreign tyranny: can one imagine that these will be longer enemies than slaves? or that such an army is held together by sentiments of fidelity or affection? No: the only bond of union among them is fear; and whenever terror ceases to work on the minds of that mixed multitude, they, who now fear, will then hate their tyrannical masters. On our side there is every possible incitement to valour. The Roman courage is not, as ours, inflamed by the thought of wives and children in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy. The Romans have no parents, as we have, to reproach them, if they should desert their infirm old age. They have no country here to fight for. They are a motley collection of foreigners, in a land wholly unknown to them, cut off from their native country, hemmed in by the surrounding ocean, and given, I hope, a prey into our hands, without any possibility of escape.

Let not the sound of the Roman name affright your ears; nor let the glare of gold or silver upon their armour dazzle your eyes. It is not by gold or silver that men are either wounded or defended; though they are rendered a richer prey to the conquerors. Let us boldly attack this disunited rabble. We shall find among themselves a reinforcement to our army. The degenerate Britons, who are incorporated into their forces, through shame of their country's cause, deserted by them, will quickly come over to us. The Gauls, remembering their former liberty, and that it was the Romans who deprived them of it, will forsake their tyrants and join the assertors of freedom. The Germans who remain in their army will follow the example of their countrymen, the Usipii, who so lately deserted. And what will there be then to fear? A few half-garrisoned forts; a few municipal towns inhabited by worn-out old men ; discord universally prevailing, occasioned by tyranny in those who command, and obstinacy in those who should obey. On our side, an army united in the cause of their country, their wives, their children, their aged parents, their liberties, their lives. At the head of this army, I hope I do not offend against modesty in saying, there is a general ready to exert all his abilities, such as they are, and to hazard his life in leading you to victory and to freedom.

I conclude, my countrymen and fellow-soldiers, with putting you in mind, that on your behaviour this day

depends your future enjoyment of peace and liberty, or your subjection to a tyrannical enemy, with all its grievous consequences. When, therefore, you come to engage, -think of your ancestors, and think of your posterity.

1. What is the modern name of the ancient Caledonia ?

2. Name the several reasons which Galgacus gives for the Romans attacking a country?

3. What nations are named as forming part of the Roman army? 4. How does Galgacus conclude his speech?

On the 11th of June, 1806, Captain Lewis set out on foot with four men, in order to explore this river. They proceeded till the 13th, when, finding that the river bore considerably to the south, fearing that they were in an error, they changed their course, and proceeded across the plain. In this direction the captain had gone about two miles, when his ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water; and, as he advanced, a spray, which seemed driven by the high south-west wind, rose above the plain like a column of smoke, and vanished in an instant. Towards this point he directed his steps; and the noise increasing as he approached, soon became too tremendous to be mistaken for any thing but the great falls of the Missouri.

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Having travelled seven miles after first hearing the sound, he reached the falls about twelve o'clock. hills, as he approached, were difficult of access, and about 200 feet high. Down these he hurried with impatience; and seating himself on some rocks under the centre of the falls, he enjoyed the sublime spectacle of this stupendous cataract, which, since the creation, had been lavishing its magnificence on the desert.

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The falls extend, in all, over a distance of nearly twelve miles, and the medium breadth of the river varies from 300 to 600 yards. The principal fall is near the lower extremity, and is upwards of eighty feet perpendicular. The river is here 300 yards wide, with perpendicular cliffs on each side, not less than 100 feet high. For ninety or a hundred yards from the left cliff the water falls in one smooth even sheet, over a precipice at least eighty feet high. The remaining part of the river precipitates

itself also with great rapidity; but being received, as it falls, by irregular and projecting rocks, forms a splendid prospect of white foam, 200 yards in length and 80 in perpendicular elevation.

The spray is dissipated in a thousand shapes, flying up in high columns, and collecting into large masses, which the sun adorns with all the colouring of the rainbow. The fall just described must be one of the most magnificent and picturesque that is any where to be found. It has often been disputed, whether a cataract, in which the water falls in a sheet, or one in which it is dashed irregularly among the rocks, is the finer object. It was reserved for the Missouri to resolve this doubt, by exhibiting both at once in the greatest magnificence.

1. In what country is the river Missouri?

2. When did Captain Lewis set out to explore the Missouri? 3. How far do the falls extend ?

4. What is there respecting a cataract which has often been disputed?

LESSON CIV.-APRIL THE FOURTEENTH,
Otway.

On this day, in 1685, extreme indigence, attended by deep mental anguish, brought to his grave, in the thirtyfourth year of his age, that eminent English dramatic writer, Thomas Otway:

"Kindred spirits, pitying, shall relate Poor Otway's sorrows, and lament his fate."

His tragedies of "The Orphan," and "Venice Preserved," contain some of the finest specimens of impassioned poetry to be found in our language. The heart that does not melt at the distresses of his "Orphan " must be hard indeed! But though Otway possessed in some eminent degree the rare talent of writing to the heart, yet he was not always successful in his dramatic compositions.

Dr. Johnson gives this account of his death. "He died in a manner which I am unwilling to mention. Having been compelled by his necessities to contract debts, and hunted, it is supposed, by terriers of the law, he retired to a public-house on Tower Hill, where he died of want; or, as it is related by one of his biographers, by swallowing, after a long fast, a piece of bread, which charity had supplied. He went out, as it is reported, almost naked, in the

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rage of hunger, and finding a gentleman in a neighbouring coffee-house, asked him for a shilling; the gentleman gave him a guinea; and Otway, going away, bought a roll, and was choked with the first mouthful. All this, I hope, is not true; but that indigence, and its concomitants, sorrow and despondency, brought him to the grave, has never been denied." The Doctor adds, that "Otway had not much cultivated versification, nor much replenished his mind with general knowledge. His principal power was in moving the passions, to which Dryden, in his latter years, left an illustrious testimony. He appears by some of his verses to have been a zealous royalist, and had what in those times was the common reward of loyalty: he lived and died neglected!"

1. When and at what age did Otway die ?

2. What are the titles of his two most successful tragedies? 3. To what was Otway's death said to be owing?

LESSON CV.

.APRIL THE FIFTEENTH.
Flowers and Insects.

AMONG other graceful, healthful, and intelligent employments, particularly for females, the study of flowers is not to be undervalued. It is a cheerful and interesting occupation: it is not inconsistent with other pursuits: it requires some degree of that perseverance which is the most important lesson of the young; and it furnishes some of those contemplations which can do no dishonour to wisdom and to age.

No combination of chemical agents has ever been able to make a flower, or even to restore it from its materials. Whether the astonishing abundance of this lovely family of nature (probably more than 100,000 distinct kinds) is produced by some great physical process, or by the direct skill, if we may use such an expression, of those intermediate beings who fill the ranks of the invisible world, must still be a matter of fantasy. But no part of the creation gives richer evidence of the profuse beauty which nature can afford to expand; or of the will of Providence, that the senses of man should feel delight. It is no doubtful conclusion, that the same Supreme Intelligence which thus provides for our passing and trivial enjoyments will not be slow to care for our essential interests; that HE

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who so clothes the flower, will not forget the immortal; or that HE, who covers a world of trouble and anxiety with such matchless luxuriance, will not pour out for those whom He summons to share in the happiness of the life to come, a splendour and beauty, a variousness, extent and duration of loveliness, glory, and grandeur, such as it hath not entered into the imagination of man to conceive.

Nor is it the least advantage of this study, that it compels the mind to some knowledge of nature, as it regards the mechanism of the insect world; for, repulsive as its general aspects may seem, it abounds in proofs of an invention, an exact application of means to the end, a variety of powers, functions, and faculties, altogether beyond the art, or even the imagination of man.

The deeper we penetrate into the inquiry, the more singular, delicate, and astonishing seems the work of this minute creation. The most powerful microscopes only show us, that beyond the smallest species that we can investigate, there is something smaller still; that life, thought, the power of satisfying their wants, of providing for their security, of passing through space with a comparative swiftness of foot, or wing, to which the most rapid speed of the higher animals is slow, and from time to time a lavish and oriental splendour of ornament and colour, to which gold and gems are pale, are to be found in creatures that almost elude vision.

It is not improbable that this descending creation may have as many degrees as the ascent from man to the most glorious spirit that ministers before the throne in Heaven; that there may be creatures to whom a leaf is a world, or a drop of water an ocean. Human imagination is confounded by such conceptions; but they may be truths to our powers cleared in a nobler state of existence, and they may among the direct motives of the intellect risen from the grave, to offer the eternal honour of its reason and its heart to HIM who has filled the heights and depths of the universe with wonder and beauty without end.

1. Why is the study of flowers not to be undervalued?

2. What other advantage has this study?

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3. With what proofs does the mechanism of the Insect world abound? 4. What will the most powerful microscopes show us with respect to this minute creation?