times in spite of Aunt Martha- what a nurse she is! It is worth while to be a little sick to be so attended. Her accomplishments are exactly of this sympathetic order; all calculated to administer much to the pleasure of her companions, and nothing to her own importance or vanity. She leaves to her nieces the higher enchantments of the piano, the harp, and the guitar, and that noblest of instruments the human voice, — ambitious of no other musical fame than such as belongs to the playing of quadrilles and waltzes for their little dances, in which she is indefatigable: she neither caricatures the face of man nor of nature, under pretence of drawing figures or landscapes; but she ornaments the reticules, bell-ropes, ottomans, and chair-covers of all her acquaintance with flowers as rich and luxuriant as her own beauty. She draws patterns for the ignorant, and works flounces, frills, and baby-linen for the idle; she reads aloud to the sick, plays at cards with the old, and loses at chess to the unhappy. Her gift in gossiping, too, is extraordinary; she is a gentle newsmonger, and turns her scandal on the sunny side. But she is an old maid still; and certain small peculiarities hang about her. She is a thorough hoarder: whatever fashion comes up she is sure to have something of the sort by her or, at least, something thereunto convertible. She is a little superstitious; sees strangers in her tea-cups, gifts in her finger-nails, letters and winding-sheets in the candle, and purses and coffins in the fire; would not spill the salt "for all the worlds one ever has to give;" and looks with dismay on a crossed knife and fork. Still, with all these "imperfections on her head," she is a dear and happy Aunt Martha ! 1. What appears to be Aunt Martha's real vocation in the family? 2. What does she leave to her nieces? 3. How does Aunt Martha show that she is a little superstitious? LESSON CLXXIII. JUNE THE TWENTY-SECOND. Battle of Morat. NOT far from Morat, a considerable town of Switzerland, on this day, 1476, a celebrated battle was fought, in which the heroic Swiss nearly destroyed the entire army of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. On the high road, there was formerly a chapel filled THE LIGHT OF HOME. 249 with the bones of the Burgundian soldiers who were slain at the siege of the town and in the battle. Lord Byron, who visited this spot in 1816, observes, "The chapel is destroyed, and the pyramid of bones diminished to a small number by the Burgundian legion in the service of France, who anxiously effaced this record of their ancestors' less successful invasions. A few still remain, notwithstanding the pains taken by the Burgundian foragers, all who passed that way removing a bone to their own country, and the less justifiable larcenies of the Swiss postilions, who carried them off to sell for knife-handles,a purpose for which the whiteness imbibed by the bleaching of years had rendered them in great request. Of these relics I ventured to bring away as much as may have made a quarter of a hero; for which the sole excuse is, that, if I had not, the next passer-by might have perverted them to worse uses than the careful preservation which I intend for them." The following lines on this subject are from the sixtythird and sixty-fourth stanzas of the third canto of Childe Harold: "There is a spot should not de pass'd in vain,- Themselves their monument; the Stygian coast Unsepulchred they roam'd, and shriek'd each wandering ghost. "While Waterloo with Canna's carnage vies, Morat and Marathon twin names shall stand; They were true Glory's stainless victories, Won by the unambitious heart and hand Of a proud, brotherly, and civic band, Making kings' rights divine, by some Draconic clause." 1. What took place on this day in 1476, near Morat ? 2. What was there formerly on the high road? 3. What does Lord Byron observe concerning this? LESSON CLXXIV. JUNE THE TWENTY-THIRD. The Light of Home.-A Parable. A PILGRIM was hastily returning from a distant land to his home, and his soul was full of sweet anticipation: for he had not seen his beloved parents and brothers for many years. Therefore he returned in great haste. But when he had arrived at the summit of the mountain, night overtook him, and it was very dark, so that he could not see the staff which he carried in his hand. And when he came down from the mountain into the valley, he lost his way and wandered in every direction, and was very sorrowful, and sighed - "Oh, could I but meet some one who would lead me from this labyrinth, and direct me in the right path, how gratefully would I acknowledge his kindness!" Thus he spake and stood still, and waited for a guide. The knowledge of error is the first step towards truth, and it makes man willing to trust in humility to a conductor. But even then he stands in danger of falling into the hands of seducers, being often misled by a false light. As the erring pilgrim thus stood full of doubt and uneasiness, behold! at a distance, an unsteady light glimmered in the darkness, and its faint splendour appeared beautiful to him in the gloom of night. "Be propitious to me," cried he, "thou messenger of peace! You proclaim that human beings are near! The lovely beam of the dawning day never appeared to me so joyful as this light, which in comparison is only like a small spark!" Such is man. In the darkness of the night he knows the worth of the sweet brightness of day; in solitude, the pleasing sound of human salutation; in necessity, the friendly pressure of a brotherly hand. He hastened with a quick step towards the light that glimmered in the distance, and thought of seeing the person who bore it. But behold! it was an ignis fatuus, which originates in marshes, and moves over the standing pool. And he walked hastily to the very edge of the precipice. Then a voice sounding behind him exclaimed, "Halt! or you are a child of death!" He stopped and looked around. It was the voice of a fisherman calling to him from his boat. 66 "Why," inquired he, “should I not follow the friendly guide? I am a lost wanderer.” 'Friendly guide!" said the fisherman: "is this the name you give the deceiving glimmer that allures the traveller to destruction? It is not a production of nature, but subterranean evil powers bring forth out of loathsome marshes the nocturnal vapour, which resembles the brightness of the friendly light. See how unsteadily it 66 moves, the evil offspring of night and darkness!" Thus he spake, and the deluding ignis fatuus disappeared. Thus the sound mind of man curses, in rude unsophisticated language, the glittering illusion which mimics the sweet splendour of truth. He is sensible that the pure beam only descends from heaven, and calls deceit and falsehood not the offspring of benevolent nature, but the creation of an infernal spirit. Uncertainty and a long wandering in the darkness of night can alone exclude the truth so effectually from his heart and his eyes that he will follow illusion as though it were light. 1. What is the first step towards truth? 2. What is an ignis fatuus? 3. What moral lesson does this parable teach? LESSON CLXXV. - JUNE THE TWENTY-FOURTH. John Hampden. On this day, in 1643, died John Hampden, one of the most celebrated names among the opposers of arbitrary power. He took up arms against Charles I., and accepted the command of a regiment of foot in the parliament army, under the Earl of Essex; but his military career only permitted him to make a brief display of the same courage in the field which he had shown in civil debate. Prince Rupert having beat up the quarters of the parliament troops near Thame, in Oxfordshire, on the 18th of June, 1643, Hampden eagerly joined a few cavalry who were rallied in haste, and proceeded to Charlgravefield, where the royalists faced about. The rest of the officers would have waited for a reinforcement, but Hampden persuaded them to advance. In the skirmish that ensued, he received a shot in the shoulder, which broke the bone; and, after suffering extreme pain for six days, his wound proved fatal. It is said that the king testified his respect for him by sending his own physician to visit him, and offering the aid of his surgeons. His death was equally a subject of rejoicing to the royal party, and of grief to his own, with whom he stood in prospect of a superior command; and it is scarcely to be doubted that, had he lived, he would have been a powerful check upon the unprincipled ambition of Cromwell. As to himself, if ambition had any share in his charac ter, it does not seem to have been capable of making him swerve from strict integrity, and attachment to what he thought the true interests of the nation. Lord Clarendon, indeed, has summed up an elaborate view of his qualities with the strong sentence that "he had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute, any mischief:" but this, we must recollect, is the language of one of the most zealous defenders of that monarch to whose principles Hampden was conscientiously opposed. It is true, he was one of those whose ideas of reform went beyond that moderate restriction of the royal authority which might have been the justest and safest course, and he is politically chargeable with contributing to the overthrow of the existing constitution. But there were confessedly good men even in the extremes of both parties; and the judgment of his country has placed Hampden in that list of genuine patriots which is its highest boast. 1. Against whom did Hampden take up arms? 3. What strong expressions does Lord Clarendon make use of in summing up Hampden's character ? LESSON CLXXVI. JUNE THE TWENTY-FIFTH. On Music. "All music is the mystery of sound, Whose soul lies sleeping in the air, till roused, - MUSIC is a succession of pleasing sounds, either simple or combined, following each other by certain intervals, and regulated by time, accent, and cadence. Music is also either vocal or instrumental: that which is called vocal being the melody of a single voice, or the harmony of two or more voices in concert; and that which we term instrumental being produced by the means of musical instruments. But of all kinds of music, that which is produced by the human voice is the most universally pleasing to the ear. This superiority is to be attributed, not only to the exquisite sweetness of tone which the best voices possess, but also to that varied and almost unlimited power of expression which no instrument can reach. From the prevalence of music in every age, and by its cultivation in every part of the world, it is evident there |