6. "As soon as I have married the Grand Vizier's daughter, I will make my father-in-law a visit with a grand train and equipage; and when I am placed at his right hand-where I shall be, of course, if it be only to honour his daughter-I will give him the thousand pieces of gold which I promised him, and afterwards, to his great surprise, will present to him another purse of the same value, with some short speech, as, 'Sir, you see I am a man of my word; I always give more than I promise.' 7. "When I have brought the princess to my house I shall take particular care to keep her in a due respect for me. To this end I shall confine her to her own apartment, make her a short visit, and talk but little to her. Her women will represent to me that she is inconsolable by reason of my unkindness, and beg me with tears to caress her, and let her sit down by me; but I shall still remain inexorable and will turn my back upon her.

8. "Her mother will then come and bring her daughter to me, as I am seated upon my sofa. The daughter, with tears in her eyes, will fling herself at my feet and beg of me to receive her into my favour. Then will I, to imprint in her a thorough veneration for my person, draw up my legs and spurn her from me with my foot in such a manner that she shall fall down several paces from the sofa."

9. Alnaschar was entirely swallowed up in this chimerical vision, and could not forbear acting with his foot what he had in his thoughts. So that, unluckily striking his basket of brittle ware, which was the foundation of all his grandeur, he kicked his glasses to a great distance from him into the street, and broke them into ten thousand pieces.-Addison.

chimerical (ki-mer'-i-kal), imaginary, fanciful.

drachma, a coin worth about 8d. retail, to sell in small parts.

This poem was suggested by the noble deeds of Florence Nightingale at the time of the Crimean War. In the autumn of 1854 when reports reached England of what was being done for the sick and wounded of the French army, a corps of volunteer nurses was organised under the superintendence of Miss Nightingale. She reached Constantinople on the day after the battle of Inkermann, and soon had many wounded soldiers to tend in the Hospital at Scutari. She afterwards visited the Camp-hospitals at Balaclava. She returned to England in 1856. "Young, well-born, and with every worldly advantage, she sacrificed health and the enjoyments of her age and station to a perilous work of charity."

1. Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought,
Our hearts in glad surprise,
To higher levels rise.

2. The tidal wave of deeper souls Into our inmost being rolls; And lifts us unawares

Out of all meaner cares.

3. Honour to those whose words and deeds
Thus help us in our daily needs,
And by their overflow

Raise us from what is low.

4. Thus thought I as by night I read
Of the great army of the dead,

The trenches cold and damp,
The starved and frozen camp,-

5. The wounded from the battle-plain,
In dreary hospitals of pain,
The cheerless corridors,

The cold and stony floors.

6 Lo! in that house of misery
A lady with a lamp I see

Pass through the glimmering gloom,
And flit from room to room.

7. And slow, as in a dream of bliss,
The speechless sufferer turns to kiss
Her shadow as it falls
Upon the darkened walls.

8. As if a door in heaven should be
Opened, and then closed suddenly,
The vision came and went,

The light shone, and was spent.

9. On England's annals, through the long
Hereafter of her speech and song,

That light its rays shall cast
From portals of the past.

10. The lady with the lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good

Heroic womanhood.

11. Nor even shall be wanting here

The palm, the lily, and the spear,-
The symbols that of yore

Saint Filomena bore.

-Longfellow.

Questions on the lesson:-What effect, does the poet say, is produced by noble deeds and noble words? To what does he compare the influence of deeper souls? [The great tidal wave.] What effect does the flow of the tide produce on vessels in harbour? [It lifts them up.] What corresponding effect is produced on men's minds? What scenes had the poet read of? How did he see their misery relieved? How did the sufferers show their love for her? What does the poet expect in the future for her?

Filoména, was a martyr in the time of the Emperor Diocletian. In a church in Pisa, in Italy, there is a picture in which she is represented as a beautiful nymph-like figure floating down from heaven. Two angels attend her bearing the lily, palm, and javelin, emblems of martyrdom. Beneath her are represented the sick and maimed who are healed by her.

annals, history.

corridor, a gallery in a building. portals, gates.

symbols, signs or emblems.

tidal, belonging to the tide. trenches, cuttings in the earth to hinder the approach of an enemy.

RECENT DISCOVERIES ABOUT THE SUN.

1. A total eclipse of the sun was visible in the United States in the year 1878. Astronomers gathered from all parts of the world to witness it. Instruments were made use of which were unknown on similar occasions before. Moreover, every man had a limited share of work assigned him to do in the few minutes during which the

totality lasted, and thus a more complete series of observations was obtained than ever before from a single eclipse. 2. During a total eclipse the sun appears surrounded by a red envelope, from four to five thousand miles in height, consisting of hydrogen and other gases, from which vast masses of glowing vapour are given off with more or less frequency. These masses, or prominences as they are called, rise like huge jets sometimes to a height of 80,000 miles. They then bend back and fall like water from a fountain on the surface of the sun.

3. The prominences are regarded as true solar eruptions, as if from a gigantic volcano, and during periods of their greatest activity have been known to eject matter to a height of 200,000 miles. The ejected material, or at least its outer coating, consists of glowing hydrogen gas.

4. Beyond this vast envelope lies the halo of light, or corona, which during a total eclipse is seen to radiate in all directions from the black disc of the moon. This halo has been shown to be a true appendage of the sun, and consists chiefly of minute solid or liquid particles in a state of incandescence.

5. In 1878 the red envelope of the sun was seen to be remarkably quiescent. Solar eruptions were few and insignificant, while the corona, instead of having the ruddy appearance which it presented in the eclipse of 1869, shone with a faint white light. A similar quiescence was observed on the surface of the sun, as indicated by the scarcity of sun spots, so that it seems certain that a close connection exists between the condition of the sun's surface, as indicated by its spots, and these great appendages.

6. The spectroscope, which ranks next to the telescope in the service which it has rendered to astronomy, has made us aware of the presence in the sun of a large num