gigantic dimensions. Unhappily the slave system increased along with it. Before the outbreak of the war which put an end to slavery in the Southern States of America, it is believed that no fewer than a million of acres of rice-land were in cultivation in South Carolina alone, while the whole production of rice in the United States was in one year more than 215 millions of pounds.

9. Rice is also largely grown in India, China, the southeastern part of Asia, Japan, and Egypt. It supplies food to nearly one-third of the human race, and is thus one of the most useful and extensively cultivated of all grains.

Questions on the lesson:-The size of some rice plantations? Number of persons employed? What requires to be at hand for a rice-field? Why is the management of the apparatus connected with the watering of the rice-field important? What is the danger connected with a flood? The appearance of the women? The weight they carry? How is the rice carried to the mill? The time of sowing? What is done immediately after? The appearance in autumn? What rice is the best? When was rice first cultivated in Carolina? To what dimensions did rice-culture grow in Carolina? What fact shows the utility of rice to man?

THE CITY OF THE HEAVENS.

1. Among the distinguished men who did much for the advancement of science in his own day Tycho Brahe1 held a conspicuous place. He was born in 1546 at Knudsthorp in Denmark. An event which occurred while he was at college directed all the powers of his mind to the science of astronomy. Public attention had been long fixed on a great eclipse of the sun, which was to happen on the 21st of August, 1560; and as in those days an event of this kind was linked with the fortunes of nations as well as of individuals, the interest which it excited was as intense as it was general. Tycho watched its arrival with peculiar anxiety. When he saw the sun darkened at the very moment that had been predicted and to the very extent that was expected, he resolved to make himself master of a science which had proved itself capable of predicting future events.

2. With his pocket-money he purchased astronomical books which, as his parents did not approve of his studies, he read in secret. By means of a celestial globe, not larger than his fist, he made himself acquainted with the stars and followed them night after night through the heavens, when sleep had lulled the watchfulness of his teacher. Tycho afterwards found means to prosecute his studies in various parts of Europe, and soon acquired a reputation that procured him a warm welcome from his countrymen on his return home.

3. On the 11th of November, 1572, he made a remarkable discovery. As he was returning home he looked up to the sky and was surprised to observe an extraordinary light in one of the constellations which was then above

1 Pronounce Bra-hé.

his head. Distrusting the evidence of his own senses, he called out his servants and the peasants, and receiving their testimony that it was a huge star such as they had never seen before, he was satisfied with the correctness of his own vision.

4. It was indeed a very remarkable body that he had thus unexpectedly discovered. It continued to be seen during sixteen months and then suddenly disappeared. In its appearance this body was exactly like a star, having none of the distinctive marks of a comet. It twinkled strongly and grew larger than any of the fixed stars. It seemed to be somewhat larger than Jupiter when he is nearest the earth, and rivalled Venus in her greatest brightness. It gradually diminished in size and at last disappeared. Its colour changed also with its size. At first it was white and bright; in the third month it began to become yellowish; in the fifth it became reddish, then bluish, growing afterwards duller and duller.

5. By the King of Denmark Tycho was invited to accept the island of Huen, between Denmark and Sweden, as a permanent residence, in which, furnished with all the necessary appliances, he might pursue his favourite studies. The island is six miles in circumference, and rises into the form of a mountain, which, though very high, terminates in a plain. Tycho gratefully accepted the offer of the king. In the centre of the plain he built a magnificent tower which he called The City of the Heavens. This observatory, the most splendid that had ever been erected in Europe, was surrounded by a rampart, each face of which was 300 feet long. Its four angles corresponded exactly with the four cardinal points, and turrets were erected at the north and south angles.

6. Two round towers forming the observatories were attached to the principal building, with windows in their

roof, that could be opened towards any part of the heavens. The instrument with which the buildings of his "city" were furnished were of the most splendid description. During the twenty-one years which Tycho spent in the examination of the stars in his island-home, he made vast additions to astronomical science.

7. After the death of the king, the hostility of the Danish court was excited against Tycho, and his means of living were taken from him. He left Huen but settled in Prague under the patronage of the Emperor. He died in 1601.

8. As a practical astronomer, Tycho has not been surpassed by any observer of ancient or of modern times. The splendour and number of his instruments, the ingenuity which he exhibited in inventing new ones and in improving and adding to those which were formerly known, and his skill and assiduity as an observer, have given a character to his labours, and a value to his observations, which will be appreciated to the latest posterity.

Questions on the lesson:-Tycho Brahe's date? What first directed his attention to astronomy? What was it in connection with the eclipse which interested him so much? How did he procure books? In what way did he learn the stars? The discovery he made in 1572? What were the remarkable things about the heavenly body which he discovered? What was the "City of the Heavens?" Where was it built? Who gave it to him? How long did he occupy it? What led to his leaving it? Where did he settle? What merit belongs to Tycho Brahe?

Jupiter, one of the larger planets, remarkable for its brightness. Venus, the most brilliant of all the planets; the morning and evening star.

appreciate, to value aright. astronomy, the science of the

stars.

cardinal, principal, applied to

the points of the compass.

observatory, a building for mak

ing astronomical observations. peasant, a countryman. predict, to tell beforehand. prosecute, to follow out.

THE BURIAL OF MOSES.

1. By Nebo's lonely mountain,
On this side Jordan's wave,
In a vale in the land of Moab,
There lies a lonely grave;
And no man dug that sepulchre,
And no man saw it e'er;

For the "Sons of God" upturned the sod,
And laid the dead man there.

2. That was the grandest funeral
That ever passed on earth;
But no man heard the trampling,
Or saw the train go forth-
Noiselessly as the daylight

Comes back when night is done,
And the crimson streak on ocean's cheek,
Grows into the great sun.

3. Noiselessly as the spring-time

Her crown of verdure weaves,
And all the trees on all the hills
Open their thousand leaves;

So, without sound of music,

Or voice of them that wept,
Silently down from the mountain's crown
The great procession swept.

4. Perchance the bald old eagle,

On grey Beth-peor's height,