that Jesus Christ is God? Then I did wrong to appoint you general!

St. Helena. Napoleon after Waterloo in 1815 was sent to this island by the English government, on whose generosity he had thrown himself. He died here on the 5th of May, 1821, of cancer in the stomach.

Invalides: Hôtel-des-Invalides, a military hospital in Paris. It contains the tomb of Napoleon I.

SINAI.

1. As we advanced, the valley still opened wider and wider, with a gentle ascent, and became full of shrubs and tufts of herbs, shut in on each side by lofty granite ridges with rugged, shattered peaks a thousand feet high, while the face of Horeb rose directly before us. Both my companion and myself involuntarily exclaimed, "Here is room enough for a large encampment!"

2. Reaching the top of the ascent, or watershed, a fine broad plain lay before us, sloping down gently towards the S.S. E., inclosed by rugged and venerable mountains of dark granite, stern naked splintered peaks and ridges of indescribable grandeur, and terminated at the distance of more than a mile by the bold and awful front of Horeb, rising perpendicularly in frowning majesty, from twelve to fifteen hundred feet in height.

3. It was a scene of solemn grandeur wholly unexpected, and such as we had never seen; and the associations which at the moment rushed upon our minds were almost overwhelming. As we went on, new points of interest were continually opening to our view. On the left of Horeb, a deep and narrow valley runs up S.S.E. between lofty walls of rock, as if in continuation of the S.E. corner

of the plain. In this valley, at the distance of near a mile from the plain, stands the convent; and the deep verdure of its fruit-trees and cypresses is seen as the traveller approaches,—an oasis of beauty amid scenes of the sternest desolation.

4. Still advancing, the front of Horeb rose like a wall before us; and one can approach quite to the foot and touch the mount. As we crossed the plain, our feelings were strongly affected at finding here, so unexpectedly, a spot so entirely adapted to the scriptural account of the giving of the law. No traveller has described this plain, nor even mentioned it, except in a slight and general manner, probably because the most have reached the convent by another route, without passing over it; and perhaps too because neither the highest point of Sinai (now called Jebel Mûsa), nor the still loftier summit of St. Catharine, is visible from any part of it.

5. The extreme difficulty and even danger of the ascent was well rewarded by the prospect that now opened before us. The whole plain er-Râhah lay spread out beneath our feet, with the adjacent wadys and mountains; while Wady esh-Sheikh on the right, and the recess on the left, both connected with and opening broadly from er-Râhah, presented an area which serves nearly to double that of the plain. Our conviction was strengthened that here, or on some one of the adjacent cliffs, was the spot where the Lord "descended in fire" and proclaimed the law.

6. Here lay the plain where the whole congregation might be assembled; here was the mount that could be approached and touched, if not forbidden; and here the mountain brow, where alone the lightnings and the thick cloud would be visible, and the thunders and the voice of the trump be heard, when the Lord " came down in

the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai." We gave ourselves up to the impressions of the awful scene, and read, with a feeling that will never be forgotten, the sublime account of the transaction and the commandments there promulgated, in the original words as recorded by the great Hebrew legislator.-Edward Robinson (1794–1864).

Questions on the lesson:-What were found on each side of the valley? Height of the peaks? First exclamation? The plain bounded by? Horeb-how high? What on the left of Horeb? At the distance of a mile what stands? Surrounded by? What thought was uppermost when the travellers came close to the front of Horeb? Why has the plain not been described before? What points of interest did the travellers seem to find when they ascended the mountain?

MILTON.

A SONNET.

1. Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen

Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
2. Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men:
O! raise us up, return to us again;

And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

3. Thy soul was like a Star and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea,
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free;

4. So didst thou travel on life's common way
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay.—Wordsworth.

PARADISE.

1. Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow
All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste;
And all amid them stood the tree of life,
High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit
Of vegetable gold; and next to life,

Our death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by,
Knowledge of good, bought dear by knowing ill.
2. Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill
Passed underneath ingulfed; for God had thrown
That mountain as his garden mould, high raised
Upon the rapid current, which through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up-drawn,
Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill
Watered the garden; thence united fell
Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood,
Which from his darksome passage now appears;
And now, divided into four main streams,
Runs diverse, wandering many a famous realm
And country, whereof here needs no account;

3. But rather to tell how, if art could tell,

How from that sapphire fount the crispéd brooks,
Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,
With mazy error under pendent shades
Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed
Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art
In beds and curious knots, but nature boon
Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plain,
Both where the morning sun first warmly smote
The open field, and where the unpierced shade
Imbrowned the noontide bowers.

4.

Thus was this place

A happy rural seat of various view;

Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm;
Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind,
Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true,

If true, here only, and of delicious taste.
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interposed;
Or palmly hillock, or the flowery lap
Of some irriguous valley spread her store,
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.
5. Another side, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant. Meanwhile murmuring waters fall
Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake,
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.
The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune
The trembling leaves, while universal Pan

Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance
Led on the Eternal Spring. Not that fair field
Of Enna, where Prosérpine gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower by gloomy Dis

Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world.

"Paradise Lost," Book IV.

ambrosial is derived from a Greek word ambrosia which means immortal. The word was commonly applied to the food of the gods, as nectar designated their drink.

Hesperian fables true, referring to the gardens where three nymphs, called Hesperides, guarded the golden apples which Juno gave to Jupiter on the day of their marriage. The fruits of the