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when you had to make your way through a forest? What a furious uprooting of trees there would have to be, in order that you might make a path.

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Fred. I should be no more fatigued than if I were to make a hole sufficient to go through a hedge. Henry: I would uproot the tallest oaks that lay in my path, and throw them on one side, so that I should have room to pass.

Mr. Jones: I should sincerely pity those condemned to live about you. But with such long legs as you would have, you would take it in your head, no doubt, to travel? Fred. Travel! Why, papa, I would go from one end of the world to the other.

Mr. Jones: Like enough! And without halting, I suppose! For where would you find a house, or room, or bed, half big enough for your enormous body? You would certainly be compelled to lie all night on the bare earth, or upon a haystack.

Fred. Alas! I should then find myself as badly off as poor Gulliver in Lilliput.

Henry: Ah! brother, you have not made your system quite perfect. You must have all other men as big as yourself.

Mr. Jones: Why, that is more generous, I must own. But how, then, would the ground suffice to feed so many giants? In a parish where 500 people now live comfortably, twenty would then not be able to obtain a livelihood. We should each consume our ox in eight and forty hours, and might easily drink a hogshead of milk at breakfast only.

Henry: Oh! but I should have the oxen bigger also, and then they would give a greater quantity of milk. Mr. Jones: And how many of such oxen could be put to graze in a common meadow?

Henry: Certainly not a very large number.

Mr. Jones: I see, then, that for want of pasture we should soon want cattle.

Henry: Well, then, there is but one thing more to alter, and the matter is settled. We must have the world bigger also.

Mr. Jones: If in nature everything were to become bigger, still preserving its present proportion, you would be exactly at the point where you first of all set out. You would not then be able to frighten people in these garrets by looking at them through the window; you would find it just as difficult to wade across the water, and drive piles in the ground without assistance, as at present. You would be, also, equally incapable of twisting off a bull's neck, or sending him up two hundred yards in the air. He would be still much bigger than yourself.

Henry: Yes, yes; I see he would.

Mr. Jones: Again, you would not be able to gather cherries with as much ease as you gather currants, as you thought to do in your enlarged state.

Fred. No, papa; I should then be obliged to use my ladder and my pail.

Mr. Jones: And would the carriages then pass between your legs?

Fred.: No, certainly; I should be still obliged to keep upon the pavement if I did not wish to be thrown down.

Mr. Jones: And what advantage, Henry, would you then derive from such a general change of nature as your pride would introduce?

Henry: I do not see now that I should be any better than before.

Mr. Jones: Your wishes then were foolish, since the fulfilment of them could not have made you more happy.

CONTENTMENT.

My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such perfect joy therein I find
As far exceeds all earthly bliss

That world affords or grows by kind;
Though much I want what most men have,
Yet doth my mind forbid me crave.

Content I live-this is my stay ;
I seek no more than may suffice-
press to bear no haughty sway;

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Look, what I lack my mind supplies. Lo! thus I triumph like a king,

Content with that my mind doth bring.

I see how plenty surfeits oft,

And hasty climbers oft do fall ;

I see how those that sit aloft

Mishap doth threaten most of all;

They get they toil-they spend with care-
Such cares my mind could never bear.

I laugh not at another's loss,

I grudge not at another's gain ;
No worldly wave my mind can toss,
I brook that is another's pain.
I fear no foe-I scorn no friend;
I dread no death-I fear no end.

Some have too much, yet still they crave;
I little have, yet seek no more :
They are but poor, though much they have,
And I am rich-with little store.

They poor-I rich; they beg-I give ;

They lack-I lend; they pine-I live.

!

I wish not what I have at will;

I wander not to seek for more;
I like the plain-I climb no hill:
In greatest storm I sit on shore,
And laugh at those who toil in vain
To get what must be lost again.

This is my choice; for why?—I find
No wealth is like a quiet mind.

Old Song

THE BATTLE OF DUNBAR IN 1650.

The command of the Scottish army was given to Leslie, an experienced officer, who formed a very proper plan of defence. He entrenched himself in a fortified camp between Edinburgh and Leith, and tock care to remove from the counties of Merse and the Lothians everything which could serve to the subsistence of the English army. Cromwell advanced to the Scottish camp, and endeavoured by every expedient to bring Leslie to a battle; but the prudent Scotchman knew that, though superior in numbers, his army was much inferior in discipline to the English, and he carefully kept himself within his entrenchments. By skirmishes and small encounters he tried to confirm the spirits of his soldiers; and he was successful in these enterprises. His army daily increased both in numbers and courage.

Charles, who had been proclaimed king by the Scots after his father's execution in 1648, came to the camp; and, having exerted himself in an action, gained on the affections of his soldiers, who were more desirous of serving under a young prince of spirit and vivacity

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than under a committee of talking gown-men. The clergy were alarmed. They ordered Charles immediately to leave the camp. They also purged it carefully of about 4,000 Malignants and Engagers, whose zeal had led them to attend the king, and who were the soldiers of chief credit and experience in the nation. They then concluded that they had an army composed entirely of saints, and could not be beaten. They murmured extremely, not only against their prudent general, but also against the Lord, on account of his delays in giving them deliverance. An advantage having offered itself on a Sunday, they hindered the general from making use of it, lest he should involve the nation in the sin of Sabbath-breaking.

Cromwell found himself in a very bad situation. He had no provisions but what he received by sea. He had not had the precaution to bring these in sufficient quantities; and his army was reduced to difficulties. He retired to Dunbar. Leslie followed him, and encamped on the heights of Lammermuir, which overlooked that town. There lay many difficult passes between Dunbar and Berwick, and of these Leslie had taken possession. The English general was reduced to extremities. He had even embraced a resolution of sending by sea all his foot and artillery to England, and of breaking through at all hazards with his cavalry. The madness of the Scottish ecclesiastics saved him from this loss and dishonour.

Night and day the ministers had been wrestling with the Lord in prayer, as they termed it; and they fancied that they had at last obtained the victory. Revelations, they said, were made them that the sectarian and heretical army, together with Agag--meaning Cromwell-was delivered into their hands.

Upon

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