ing year he was made Secretary of State, from which office he retired in 1843; was re-elected to the Senate in 1845, and again made Secretary of State in 1850, which position he retained until his death. As an orator, statesman, and expounder of constitutional law, he is generally regarded as having had no superior among his countrymen. His eulogy on Adams and Jefferson was delivered July 4, 1826.

Page 182.-Joan of Arc, the "Maid of Orleans," was a peasant-girl of Domremy, in Lorraine, France, who, in 1628, at the age of sixteen, believed herself required by supernatural "voices" to take the lead of the French army against the English, and to secure the crowning of the young king. This she succeeded in accomplishing; but being persuaded to go beyond what the "voices" required, she was taken prisoner and afterwards burnt at the stake as a sorceress.

Page 183.-Schiller (Johann Christoph Friedrich von) was a German poet, dramatist, and historian, born in Marbach, Würtemberg, 1759, and died in Weimar, 1805. His parents intended him for the Church, but at the age of fourteen he was placed by the reigning duke in a government seminary, to receive a prescribed professional education. This was against his taste, and he secretly devoted himself to the study of poetry and the drama. Having completed the required studies in 1781, he was appointed surgeon in the ducal army, and soon after published his first drama. This was offensive to the duke, who ordered him to confine himself to his medical duties and write no more poetry. Chafing under such restraint, he soon after escaped from the duke's dominions and followed his chosen pursuit elsewhere. In 1787 he took up his residence at Weimar, where he became associated with the immortal Goethe, and two years later he was made Professor of History at the University of Jena. His historical, dramatic, and poetic productions are regarded as possessing high merit. His drama of The Maid of Orleans (Joan of Arc) was one of the most successful of his acting plays.

Page 185.-John Lingard, D. D., LL. D., an English historian, was born in Winchester, 1771, and died in 1851. He was educated at the Catholic College in Douay, France, took orders in the Church of Rome, and for the last forty years of his life resided at Hormby, in Lancashire. Besides a valuable History of England, in 8 vols., he published several other historical and controversial works.

Page 189.—Cardinal Wiseman (Nicholas, D.D.) was born in Seville, Spain, of English parentage, in 1802, and died in England in 1865. He was sent to England at the age of five to be educated, and in 1818 entered the English College at Rome. Here he was advanced to

the professorship of Oriental Literature, and subsequently to the rectorship of the college. He returned to England in 1835, became popular as a preacher and lecturer, was made President of St. Mary's College, Oscott, in 1840; Vicar-Apostolic in 1849; Archbishop of Westminster, and Cardinal, in 1850. He was very eminent as a scholar and an author.

Page 191.-G. Croly (George, LL. D.) was born in Dublin, Ireland, 1780, and died in 1860. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, became a clergyman of the Church of England, and was rector of a parish in London, where he attained great celebrity as a preacher and author. He was a poet, a writer of fiction, a historian, a literary critic, and a religious controversialist.

Page 205.-Isaac I. Hayes (DR.), the Arctic explorer, was born in Chester county, Pa., in 1832. He received his title of M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1853, and the same year accompanied Dr. Kane's exploring expedition to the Arctic regions, returning in 1855. In 1860 he led a second expedition to the same regions, and returned in 1861, after which he served as a surgeon in the army during the war. His narratives of explorations are works of great interest and value.

Page 206.-Shakspeare (William), the greatest of dramatists, was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, Eng., in 1564, and died at the same place in 1616. Of his early life and education, and indeed of his later personal history, little is known. He went to London about 1585, where he is supposed to have attached himself to a theatrical company, and, from retouching and improving old plays, to have gradually proceeded to the composition of new ones. Thirty-five of these productions are attributed to him, besides a small volume of poems. His plays are, by the universal voice of the civilized world, conceded to be unapproached if not unapproachable as works of genius. Having acquired wealth by these productions, he returned to Stratford, as is supposed, between 1610 and 1613, where the remainder of his life was spent at ease.

Page 208.-G. A. Sala (George Augustus), an English author and novelist, was born in London in 1827. He was a prominent contributor to Household Words for several years, and subsequently editor of Temple Bar.

Page 210.-T. B. Read (Thomas Buchanan), painter and poet, was born in Chester, Pa., in 1822, and died in New York, May, 1872. At the age of seventeen he entered a sculptor's studio in Cincinnati, but afterwards studied the art of painting. He established himself in Philadelphia in 1846; visited Europe in 1850; returned to Cincinnati ; and in 1853 went to Florence, and resided there and at Rome during

most of the remainder of his life. He published several successive volumes of popular poems, and painted some pieces of high merit.

Page 212.-Mirabeau (Gabriel Honoré de Riquetti) was a distinguished orator and publicist of France in the period of the Revolution. He was born at Bignon, near Sens, in 1749, and died in Paris in 1791. Unfortunately characterized by some physical deformities as well as by mental precocity, his father, who was a marquis, conceived a strong aversion to him, and treated him with great severity. He was educated at first under private tutors, and subsequently at a military school in Paris. After a life of remarkable vicissitudes, hardships, and irregularities, he became, at the age of forty, a popular leader in Provence, and was elected to represent the people of Aix in the Constituent Assembly. Here his eloquence, genius, and untiring activity gave him a commanding position, but in less than two years he wore himself out by herculean labors and reckless living. He published a history of the Prussian monarchy, and several works on public affairs.

Page 214.-Gerald Griffin, an Irish novelist, was born in Limerick, 1803, and died in Cork, 1840. At the age of seventeen he began to write poetry and occasional pieces for the Limerick journals, and at twenty went to London, where he wrote for the periodical press. After many vicissitudes, he at length became known as a brilliant magazine writer, and published several novels which met with success. He portrayed Irish peasant life with remarkable fidelity.

Page 220.-Charles Reade, an English novelist, was born in 1814. He studied at Oxford, and was admitted to the Bar, but has devoted himself to letters. He has published a series of works of fiction, some of which have been highly popular.

Page 221.-Theodore Tilton is a native of New York City, born in 1835, and educated at Yale College. He edited the Independent for several years, and subsequently established the Golden Age. He has published various poems and essays, mainly on reformatory topics, and is a popular and entertaining writer and lecturer.

Page 225.-Edmund Burke, a British statesman, orator, and philosopher, was born in Dublin in 1728 or 1730, and died at Beaconsfield in 1797. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1744, where he spent five years. In 1750 he went to London and engaged in the study of law. His mind appears to have been first attracted to metaphysical and philosophical subjects, and his earliest productions in those departments exhibited extraordinary abilities. Subsequently he turned his

attention to public affairs, published an Account of the European Settlements in America, and began a history of England. In 1766 he entered Parliament, and for nearly thirty years devoted the energies of a master mind to the affairs of state. During a part of this time he held the office of privy-councilor and paymaster-general of the forces, and exhibited the unwonted spectacle of offering in Parliament a reform bill which materially reduced his own emoluments. He was a powerful friend of the American colonies during the controversy which led to the war of the Revolution, and as an orator he has had no superior.

Page 226.-R. W. Emerson (Ralph Waldo), an American poet and essayist, was born in Boston in 1803, and graduated at Harvard in 1821. He taught school for five years, and from 1829 to 1832 was colleague pastor of a Unitarian church in Boston. After a visit of about a year in Europe, he began his career as a public lecturer, in which he gained a high distinction. He published a volume of poems and several volumes of essays, which are characterized by a singular terseness and vigor of style, acuteness of perception, and originality of thought. He resided for many years at Concord, Mass., where he died in 1882.

Page 229.-Elihu Burritt, “the learned blacksmith," was born in New Britain, Conn., in 1811. He was the son of a shoemaker, was educated at a common school, and at the age of sixteen was apprenticed to a blacksmith. Desiring to read the Scriptures in their original languages, he applied himself to their acquisition, at intervals of labor, with remarkable success. Removing to Worcester, Mass., for the sake of better advantages, while still working at his craft he became acquainted with the principal ancient and modern languages. In 1844 he edited a paper at Worcester, and in 1846 went to England, where he remained about seven years, laboring principally for the abolition of war and slavery, for temperance and cheap ocean postage. He held the position of U. S. consul at Birmingham, Eng., for some years. He died in 1879.

Page 244.--Milton (John), the great English poet, 1608-1674, was born and died in London. He was a remarkably studious boy, and was able to compose Latin prose and verse, and was familiar with Greek and Hebrew, when, at the age of sixteen, he entered Christ's College at Cambridge. Here he studied seven years, and after graduating with honor, continued for five years longer "a ceaseless round of study and reading" at his father's house, during which time he composed several of his lighter but exquisite poems. After fifteen months' sojourn on the Continent, in the society of the most learned men of the time, he returned to take an active part in the stormy struggle between liberty and despotism which agitated England for twenty years. His writings

during this time were mainly prose and controversial, but marked by consummate learning and ability. In 1648 he was appointed Foreign Secretary, which position he held for several years. Before 1653 he had become totally blind, and in this condition his great poems of Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, etc., were dictated.

Page 246.-Hugh Miller, an eminent Scotch geologist, was born in Cromarty, Scotland, in 1802, and died at Portobello, near Edinburgh, in 1856. His opportunities for school-education were limited, but their lack was more than supplied by early habits of reading, observation, and reflection. He followed the business of stone-mason until the age of thirty-six, when he became for two years an accountant in a bank, and was then called to Edinburgh to take the editorship of The Witness, a religious newspaper devoted to the interests of the Free Church. He published a volume of Poems written in the Leisure Hours of a Journeyman Mason, in 1819, and subsequently several volumes detailing his geological observations and discoveries, which were highly esteemed by the scientific world.

Page 251.-Charles James Fox was a distinguished statesman and orator of England in the time of Burke and Pitt. He was born in London in 1749, and died at Chiswick in 1806. He studied at Westminster, Eton, and Oxford, traveled on the Continent, and was elected to Parliament in 1768, before he was of age. He, however, at once took a prominent position, and soon acquired, in the opinion of Burke, the distinction of being "the most brilliant and successful debater the world ever saw." He stood with Burke as a friend of the American colonies, but subsequently differed with him in regard to the French Revolution. In 1782, Mr. Fox was made Foreign Secretary, which office he held for short periods on two different occasions. He subsequently re-entered Parliament, but in 1797 retired, and thereafter devoted himself to literary labors.

Page 251.-Charge of the Light Brigade. In the Crimean War, 1854-55, between the English and French on the one side, and the Russians on the other, an English brigade of six hundred horsemen—a totally inadequate force-was (by some mistake of the commanding general, as was believed) ordered to charge upon a powerful battery of the enemy. The terrible result is graphically told in this poem.

Page 253.-Livy (Titus Livius) was a Roman historian, born in Padua, B. c. 59, and died A. D. 17.

Page 253.-Cannæ, a place not far from Naples, Italy, where, 216 years B. C., occurred a fearful slaughter of Romans by Hannibal.