10. Where Freedom sheltered, when the world was dark, Bade exiled Piety, Truth, Valour, come, And every bleeding virtue find a home; 20. In fairy state, on emerald couch reclined, 25. Rocked by the waves and cradled in the wind! Far o'er the deep thy crimson flag unfurled, Streams like a meteor to the gazing world. With stately necks and bounding motion, ride Thy gallant barks, like swans, upon the tide : 30. Lift up their swelling bosoms to the sky, And spread their wings, to woo the gales from high. Gem of the ocean! empress of the sea! My heart could weep in fondness over thee. 35. My soul looks forward, through a mist of tears, To pierce the darkness of the coming years, And dimly reads, amid the future gloom Warning she dare not utter of thy doom. And canst thou perish, island of the free? 40. Shall Ruin dare to fling her shroud o'er thee Thou who dost light the nations like a star Can desolation reach thy hallowed strand, Hervey. Zion of the seas means, that as Mount Zion—that is, Jerusalem—is the Holy Place of the earth, so is England of the seas. Nestled like a halcyon in the sea. The ancients believed that the "halcyon❞—which is probably the same bird as our kingfisher—built its nest on the sea waves, where it floated in perfect security and calm. While Shakespere's, etc. That is, so long as the spirit breathed by Shakespere's plays still lives in England, and John Milton's poems are held in honour, and Sir Isaac Newton, the great astronomer and man of science, is remembered, so long will England be safe from destruction. 1. Explain the words nursling, ark, billows, sea-girt, sceptred, meteor, barks, shroud. 2. Express in prose, in your own words, the lines beginning, "Far o'er the deep," down to "from high,"—that is, lines 26 to 31. 3. Give six other words ending in ness besides darkness; and six others ending in tion besides desolation. Beau'-te-ous. Pierce. Scep'-tred. So'-li-ta-ry SPRING IN CANADA. 1. THE Canada spring commences with a brilliant, but rather an uncomfortable admixture of warm days and of freezing cold nights. By the beginning of April the sun is as hot as it is in the south of France; the roads are slushy until sunset, when in a few minutes they congeal, and become covered with ice. 2. As this operation continues, as the sun strengthens and as the day lengthens, the thick stratum of snow, which has so long covered the surface of the country, gradually melts by day and freezes by night, until, the heat increasing and the cold diminishing, the black ground begins to appear. 3. And no sooner does the earth, escaping from its wearisome imprisonment, once again see daylight, than, without waiting for a general clearance, there start up in each of these little oases in the desert of snow that surrounds them a variety of small, lovely flowers, which seem to have burst into existence as if to hail the arrival and ornament the happy path of approaching spring. 4. But while this joyful process is proceeding in the vegetable world, the interminable forest is once again becoming the cheerful scene of animal life. The old bear slowly descends, tail foremost, from the lofty chamber in which he has so long been dormant. 5. The air is filled-the light of heaven is occasionally almost intercepted from morning till night—by clouds of pigeons, which, as the harbingers of spring, are seen for many days flying over the forest, guided, I have been credibly informed, by a miraculous instinct, not only to the particular remote region in which they were reared, but to build their own nests in the very trees upon whose branches each individual bird was hatched! but if, as is well known, they are instinctively led to the country of their birth, it is not improbable that, when they reach it, they will readily search out for themselves their own "homes." 6. In a very short time the whole surface of the country becomes cleared from snow, and the effect of the change is most interesting; for instance, on my arrival in Canada I found everything around me buried in snow, and my lonely house standing apparently in a white, barren, desolate field, to which my eyes soon became accustomed. 7. But as soon as the spring removed this covering, flower borders of all shapes, a green lawn, and gravel walks meandering in various directions, made their welcome appearance, until I found myself the possessor of a beautiful English garden, the monument of the good taste of my predecessors, who many years ago had planned it and had stocked it with roses and shrubs of the best description. Sir F. B. Head. "The Emigrant." Canada is a wide stretch of country in North America, situated chiefly in the basin of the river St. Lawrence, and forming a part of the British Empire. With other provinces it is now formed into a Confederation, called the Dominion of Canada. Ottawa is the capital. Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, and Kingston are amongst the principal towns. Canada East, or Lower Canada, contains most of the settlers of French descent; Canada West, or Upper Canada, those of British origin. The winter is long and extremely cold. 1. Give names of as many spring flowers as you can think of. 2. Which are the garden vegetables which appear earliest in spring? 3. Parse: "In a very short time the whole surface of the country becomes cleared from snow." Bril-li-ant, bright and sparkling. Ex-ist'ence. Hail, welcome; or frozen raindrops. Hale, well and hearty. Har'-bin-ger, forerunner. Im-pri'-son-ment. In-ter'-min-a-ble, without end. Me-an'-der-ing, winding. a previous holder of an office. TRIUMPHAL arch that fill'st the sky, When storms prepare to part, I ask not proud philosophy To teach me what thou art. 2. Still seem, as to my childhood's sight, A mid-way station given For happy spirits to alight Betwixt the earth and heaven. 3. Can all that optics teach, unfold As when I dreamed of gems and gold |