times over, and never going out without a little Horace in his pocket. The poet Wordsworth was exceedingly fond of Horace, and so was a man as unlike Wordsworth as can be imagined, -the fat Louis XVIII., King of France after Waterloo. This king, it is said, did actually know very many of the poems of Horace by heart.

It was the strong desire of Horace that he might not live longer than his beloved friend Mecenas. His words, expressive of this wish, have been well translated :

This desire was destined to be gratified. The two friends did not, indeed, depart this life on the same day, but in the same year. Mecenas died in July, bequeathing Horace to the friendship of Augustus. Horace died in November of the same year, which was the eighth before the birth of Christ.

Horace was a short man, inclining to corpulency, of a happy disposition, and much disposed to innocent merriment; simple in his habits; not less pleased when mingling with the people in the market-place, or supping at home upon bread and onions, than when reclining in the banqueting room of the emperor's palace. And again the question occurs, Why should so many of the grave people of New England name their children after this merry poet?

CAPTAIN COOK.

Ir is of not much consequence in what station of life an able man is born. If he has it in him to rise, rise he will, and nothing can keep him down.

The father of James Cook, the famous navigator, was a farmlaborer in Yorkshire, England, who had a family of nine children and earned about fifteen shillings a week. The employer of the father sent the son to school long enough for him to learn to read and write; and this was all the instruction the boy ever received. At thirteen (which was in the year 1741) he was apprenticed to a dealer in dry goods near one of the seaport towns of Yorkshire. and passed his time in carrying home parcels and waiting upon customers. He did not like this occupation; and the sea, the open sea, was ever before his eyes, alluring him to a life of adventure. His father dying, he persuaded his master to give up his indentures, and restore him to liberty. He hastened to the port, and binding himself apprentice to the owner of a coal vessel, he went on board in the capacity of cabin-boy. Certainly, if a dandy naval officer had cast his eyes upon this coal-blackened cabin-boy, and had been told that that boy would die a post-captain in the royal navy of Great Britain, he would have laughed the prediction to scorn.

Nevertheless, it came to pass. The cabin-boy was rapidly advanced until he was first mate of a vessel, and he acquired such a knowledge of the construction and rigging of a ship that he was frequently entrusted by his master with the building of his coal vessels. Every one connected with this youth felt that he was to be trusted, that he understood his business, that his judgment was sound, his hand expert, and his will that of a master. He lived such a life as this commanding and buikl.

ing coal ships- until he was twenty-seven years of age, when a second time he struck into a new career.

In 1755 that long war among the powers of Europe and the races in America broke out, which is now known as the Seven Years' War. James Cook, expecting to be forced into the king's service by the press-gang, thought it best to enlist in the His merit as a seaman was instantly recognavy as a sailor. nized, and he was promoted from one rank to another, until at length his captain procured for him a commission as master, a rank just below that of lieutenant. In the summer of 1759 he was master of a ship which belonged to the fleet that was supporting General Wolfe in his designs against Quebec; and it was he who was entrusted with the important duty of sounding the river, drawing charts of the locality, and placing beacons for the guidance of the disembarking troops. So well did he do his work, though he had never learned drawing, that his maps of that region continued to be used as late as 1830. He was present at the disembarkation, and rendered invaluable assistance to the young hero who was about to scale the heights of Quebec and lay down his life on the summit.

During the long winter following these operations, being still retained in Canada, he set about preparing himself for a higher rank in the navy, by studying geometry and other branches of mathematics connected with navigation. He served eight years in America, during which he was frequently employed in exploring coasts and sounding channels, drawing charts and plans, and in making and recording astronomical observations. He sent some papers of a scientific nature to the Royal Society, in London, which were much admired, and he was known in the navy as an excellent astronomer and geographer, as well as a most efficient officer.

During one of his visits to England he married a girl fifteen years of age, whom he had held at the baptismal font in her infancy, and whom he had then said he would marry. He was nineteen when he made this vow, and thirty-four when he fulfilled it. He was a sailor in a coal ship when he held the baby in his arms at the altar; he was a rising naval officer when, to the same altar, he led the blooming bride.

In 1768, when James Cook was forty years old, the Royal Society prevailed upon the government to fit out an expedition to make certain highly important astronomical observations in the Pacific Ocean. The Secretary of the Admiralty, whose office had made him acquainted with Cook's talent and peculiar knowledge, recommended him for the command of the expedition. The king promoted him to a lieutenancy, and, in July, 1768, the ship Endeavor, three hundred and sixty tons, Lieutenant Cook commanding, dropped down the Thames, bound for the Pacific, having on board Sir Joseph Banks and many other men of note in the world of science. In nine months and ten days after leaving London he cast anchor in the harbor of Otaheite, the largest of the Society Islands, where the astronomical observations were to be made.

There he remained three months. The observations were successfully recorded. In their intercourse with the natives, the crew of the Endeavor did not always obey the humane orders of their commander, and there was much stealing and violence committed on both sides. The Indians, nevertheless, professed the utmost regard and veneration for "Captain Tooty," who, in his turn, pronounced them to be the most audacious and persevering thieves in the world. Desiring to give the savages an idea of the Christian religion, he invited them to attend service on a Sunday morning. A cloud of naked Indians, men, women, and children, gathered about the group of Englishmen, the chaplain in the centre. They behaved with the most perfect decorum. When the white men knelt, or stood, or sat, the natives followed their example, keeping strict silence till the service was over, and then went away without asking a question, or manifesting the least curiosity to know what it all meant. In the afternoon they returned the compliment by inviting the strangers to witness their religious ceremonies, which were of so very primitive a character as to be unfit for description here.

The charms of this island life induced two of the marines to desert and attach themselves to two of the dusky beauties. Captain Cook hit upon a very simple expedient to get them back : he took the king and royal family prisoners, and gave notice

that he should keep them in confinement until the sailors were brought to him. In a very short time the men were produced. The hostages were released, and the two amorous adventurers expiated their offence under the cat-o'-nine tails.

From Otaheite the Endeavor sailed away in search of the great island, then called New Holland, now named Australia, which had been discovered some years before, but had never been explored or circumnavigated. Captain Cook spent six months upon the coasts of that great continent, and made many important discoveries. It was he who discovered that it was divided into two portions by a strait; and he sailed through the strait. In one of the bays in which he anchored, the botanists of his ship found so many new plants and flowers, that he named it Botany Bay. The native inhabitants of Australia were so untamably savage as to prevent his extending his observations into the interior; and so addicted were they to eating human flesh that he long supposed they did so because they preferred it as food, and went to war for the purpose of getting a supply of sustenance. He discovered afterwards that the eating of the flesh of an enemy was a rite of their religion, and was supposed to guard them from the vengeance of his tribe. It was while sailing about Australia that the Endeavor had a most strange and narrow escape from destruction. She struck a rock one day with great force, but immediately floated off; and, although she leaked badly, the crew managed to keep her afloat until they reached a harbor. What was their astonishment, on docking the ship, to find a large rock stuck in the cavity, which alone had kept her from going down!

At the Dutch settlement of Batavia, where he repaired his ship, the crew suffered fearfully from the fever caused by the malaria of the country. Death was so common there, he relates, that if a man announced to another the death of an acquaintance, the remark which the news usually called forth, was, "Good, he owed me nothing;" or, "Is he? then I must go and collect my account of his heirs." The ship was a mere hospital for many weeks, and a large number of the crew died. After three years of most adventurous and skilful voyaging, the Endeavor cast