disappeared. It recorded how Titus subjugated the nation of the Jews and destroyed "the city of Jerusalem, which generals, kings, and nations before him had vainly attacked and besieged."

7. From the term Divine applied to Titus, it may be inferred that the arch was erected after his death, that is in the year 82 or 83 A.D. If not the first, it is one of the first of twenty-one arches of a similar kind with which Rome was once adorned. Five specimens only of this peculiar species of architecture now survive: the three most splendid those of Titus, Constantine, and Trajan —stand quite near to one another.

8. "In point of execution, delicacy, and design" that of Titus "is among the most perfect that antiquity has left." It is 49 feet high and 42 in breadth. The material used was white marble, either Parian or Pentelican, but portions of the structure were injured in the Middle Ages and have been restored in stone of an inferior description. Two fluted Corinthian columns originally stood on either side of both faces of the arch but the inner two alone are left. The others are modern and in a different style.

Questions on the lesson :-What are the feelings of the Jews with reference to the arch? Tell the incident which illustrates this? What different circumstances make the neighbourhood of the arch disliked? What is represented in the great bas-reliefs? How have they been preserved? What is in the northern bas-relief? What in the southern? What words may still be read on the face of the arch? What of the effaced inscription on the opposite side? When was it erected? What is said of its merit? What is its height? Breadth? What material was used in its construction?

SONG FOR A SABBATH MORNING.

1. Arise, ye nations, with rejoicing rise,
And tell your gladness to the listening skies;
Come out forgetful of the week's turmoil,
From halls of mirth and iron gates of toil;

Come forth, come forth, and let your joy increase
Till one loud pæan hails the day of peace.

2. Sing, trembling age, ye youths and maidens sing;
Ring, ye sweet chimes, from every belfry ring;
Pour the grand anthem till it soars and swells,
And heaven seems full of great aerial bells!
Behold the Morn from orient chambers glide,
With shining footsteps, like a radiant bride;
The gladdened brooks proclaim her on the hills,
And every grove with choral welcome thrills.

3. Rise, ye sweet maidens, strew her path with flowers, With sacred lilies from your virgin bowers;

Go, youths, and meet her with your olive boughs;
Go, age, and greet her with your holiest vows;-
See where she comes, her hands upon her breast,
The sainted Sabbath comes, and smiles the world to rest.
-Thos. Buchanan Read (1822-1872).

JELLY-FISHES.

1. The most unobservant of seaside visitors can scarcely fail to notice those gelatinous organisms commonly known as jelly-fishes. The tide rarely recedes without leaving specimens of them on the beach, while after storms our shores are sometimes almost covered with them. To see them aright, however, they must be watched in their watery element, when the unsightly jellies of the shore

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are seen to possess the most shapely forms and the most lovely and delicate colours.

2. Resembling a mushroom in shape, a jelly-fish consists for the most part of a transparent dome-shaped swimming bell, within which, and corresponding to the stalk of the mushroom, an organ is suspended containing both mouth and stomach. These strange creatures float near the surface by means of their umbrella-like disc, yet their movements are not altogether at the mercy of the waves. They swim gracefully about by the alternate expansion and contraction of their swimming bells. By this contraction the capacity of the bell is greatly reduced, water is ejected, and thus a movement is made which has the effect of urging the creature forwards.

3. Some of the species attain a large size, the swimming bell in certain cases measuring upwards of two feet in diameter. These are the forms dreaded by bathers on account of their well-known stinging properties. The weapons which they use are chiefly the long tentacles attached to their mouths, and these continue to sting after they have been broken off from the parent body.

4. Our seas possess several of these venomous forms, but they are altogether distanced in stinging power by tropical species. A naturalist states, that when sailing among the Antilles, he tried to secure one of them for examination. "Scarcely had I stretched out my hand when it was suddenly enveloped by a network of tentacles, and after the first impression of cold, it seemed as if my arm had been plunged up to the shoulder in a cauldron of boiling oil, so that I screamed with pain." They are thus said to secure their prey by first paralysing it, and it is alleged that this enables the larger forms to catch and devour creatures, such as fishes, so much more highly organised than themselves.

5. If jelly-fishes are thus in some cases fish-devourers, it is still more certain that in other cases they play the part of their protectors. Small fishes, when attacked or alarmed, have been seen to hasten for shelter under the

umbrella and among the tentacles of the jelly-fish, remaining there until the danger had passed, and then emerging to sport and play around their protector. An observer states that as many as twenty individuals of a small species of fish were sometimes found under one of those pulsating umbrellas, and in one instance a jelly-fish was observed occasionally to turn on its back so as to evict its relentless tenants, with the result that no sooner did it regain its normal position, than the fish returned to their old quarters.

6. These jelly-like organisms are also the principal

cause of the phosphorescence of the sea-a phenomenon frequently observed in temperate waters, but most brilliantly displayed in the tropics.

7. Those creatures are also of special interest, as being the lowest in which traces of a nervous system have yet been discovered. When the extreme edge of the bell has been cut, it is found that its previously active movements are suddenly and finally stopped, while the narrow margin of the bell which had been severed from it "continued its motions with a vigour and a pertinacity not in the least impaired by its severance from the main organism" -an activity which seems to have continued for days after the operation.

8. It has thus been proved that the pulsating move ments in the bell of the jelly-fish are due to the presence of nervous centres in its margin. In the majority of those creatures, however, no trace of nerves can be distinguished. But that these, however, exist, would appear from the fact that if the bells of certain formsnot the lowest-be pricked with a needle, the centre stalk containing the mouth immediately moves over and touches the point irritated.

9. It is also found that those jelly-fishes with nerves and nerve centres have the power, not possessed by others, of steering themselves in any given direction. Comparatively complex as the structure of some of those creatures is, they are, after all, little more than animated masses of sea-water. Farmers have been known to cart them away form the sea-shore as manure; but that they could be of little service for this purpose will appear when it is stated that a ton of these organisms does not contain more than four pounds weight of solid material.-Adapted.

Questions on the lesson :-Where and when may jelly-fishes be best seen? What is said of the shape of the jelly-fishes-their