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and cruel, was determined that this recantation should avail him nothing; and sent orders that he should be required to acknowledge his errors in church, before the whole people; and that he should thence be immediately carried to execution.

Cranmer, whether he had received a secret intimation of their design, or had repented of his weakness, surprised the audience by a contrary declaration. He said, that he was well apprised of the obedience which he owed to his sovereign and the laws; but that this duty extended no further than to submit patiently to their commands; and to bear without resistance, whatever hardships they should impose upon him; that a superior duty, the duty which he owed to his Maker, obliged him to speak truth on all occasions, and not to relinquish by a base denial the holy doctrine which the Supreme Being had revealed to mankind: that there was one miscarriage in his life, of which, above all others, he severely repented; the insincere declaration of faith to which he had the weakness to consent, and which the fear of death alone had extorted from him; that he took this opportunity of atoning for his error, by a sincere and open recantation; and was willing to seal, with his blood, that doctrine which he firmly believed to be communicated from heaven; and that as his hand had erred, by betraying his heart, it should first be punished by a severe but just doom, and should first pay the forfeit of its offences.

He was then led to the stake, amidst the insults of his enemies; and having now summoned up all the force of his mind, he bore their scorn, as well as the torture of his punishment, with singular fortitude. He stretched out his hand, and without betraying, either by his countenance or motions, the least sign of weakness, or even of feeling, he held it in the flames till it was entirely consumed. His thoughts seemed wholly occupied with reflections on his former fault, and he called aloud several times, "This hand has

offended." Satisfied with that atonement, he then discovered a serenity in his countenance; and when the fire attacked his body, he seemed to be quite insensible of his outward sufferings, and by the force of hope and resolution, to have collected his mind altogether within itself, and to repel the fury of the flames. He was undoubtedly a man of merit ; possessed of learning and capacity, and adorned with candour, sincerity, and beneficence, and all those virtues which were fitted to render him useful and amiable in society. HUME.

JAMES WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE.

[FRANCIS JEFFREY, born 23rd October, 1773, studied for the Scotch Bar. Along with Horner, Brougham, and Sydney Smith, he founded the Edinburgh Review; the first number of which appeared in October, 1802, and of which he was editor from July, 1803, until June, 1829; when he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. He became Lord Advocate, and a Member of Parliament in 1830, and in 1834 he was raised to the Bench under the title of Lord Jeffrey. He died 26th January, 1850. His conduct of, and contributions to, the Edinburgh Review produced a revolution in the style of criticism which had prevailed up to his day.]

JAMES WATT was the great Improver of the steamengine; but, in truth, as to all that is admirable in its structure, or vast in its utility, he should rather be described as its Inventor. It was by his inventions that its action was so regulated as to make it capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate manufactures, and its power so increased as to set weight and solidity at defiance. By his admirable contrivance, it has become a thing stupendous alike for its force and its flexibility-for the prodigious power which it can exert, and the ease, and precision, and ductility with which that power can be varied, distributed, and

applied. The trunk of an elephant, that can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it-draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin and forge anchors-cut steel into ribands, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.

It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits which these inventions have conferred upon this country. There is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them; and, in all the most material, they have not only widened most magnificently the field of its exertions, but multiplied a thousandfold the amount of its productions. It was our improved steam-engine, in short, that fought the battles of Europe, and exalted and sustained, through the late tremendous contest, the political greatness of our land. It is the same great power which now enables us to pay the interest of our debt, and to maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged [1819] with the skill and capital of countries less oppressed with taxation. But these are poor and narrow views of its importance. It has increased indefinitely the mass of human comforts and enjoyments; and rendered cheap and accessible, all over the world, the materials of wealth and prosperity. It has armed the feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which no limits can be assigned; completed the dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of matter; and laid a sure foundation for all those future miracles of mechanic power which are to aid and reward the labours of after generations. It is to the genius of one man, too, that all this is mainly owing! And certainly no man ever bestowed such a gift on his kind. The blessing is not only universal, but unbounded; and the fabled inventors of the plough and the loom, who were deified by the erring gratitude of their rude contemporaries, conferred less important

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benefits on mankind than the inventor of our present steam-engine.

This will be the fame of Watt with future generations and it is sufficient for his race and his country. JEFFREY.

VALUE OF ATTENTION.

[CHARLES DICKENS, the greatest, most popular, and most fascinating of modern novelists, was born 7th February, 1812. At a comparatively early age he published the "Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" in 1837, and from that day until his death, in 1870, his prolific pen poured forth work after work, which have taken their place among English classics. He was an active man of the world, and delighted to lend his powerful influence to all movements connected with the education of the people.]

"COURAGE-PERSEVERE." This is the motto of a friend and worker. Not because the eyes of Europe are upon you, for I don't in the least believe it; nor because the eyes of even England are upon you, for I don't in the least believe it; not because your doings will be proclaimed with blast of trumpet at street corners, for no such musical performances will take place; not because self-improvement is at all certain to lead to worldly success, but simply because it is good and right of itself, and because, being so, it does assuredly bring with it its own resources and its own rewards. I would further commend to you a very wise and witty piece of advice on the conduct of the understanding which was given more than half-a-century ago by the Rev. Sydney Smith-wisest and wittiest of the friends I have lost. He says-and he is speaking, you will please understand, as I speak, to a school of volunteer students-he says: "There is a piece of foppery which is to be cautiously guarded against, the foppery of universality, of knowing all sciences and excelling in all arts-chemistry, mathematics, algebra, dancing, history, reasoning, riding, fencing, Low Dutch,

High Dutch, and natural philosophy. In short, the modern precept of education very often is, 'Take the Admirable Crichton for your model, I would have you ignorant of nothing.' Now," says he, "my advice, on the contrary, is to have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order that you may avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything."

The one serviceable, safe, certain, remunerative, attainable quality in every study and in every pursuit is the quality of ATTENTION. My own invention or imagination, such as it is, I can most truthfully assure you, would never have served me as it has, but for the habit of commonplace, humble, patient, daily, toiling, drudging attention. Genius, vivacity, quickness of penetration, brilliancy in association of ideas—such mental qualities, like the qualities of the apparition of the externally armed head in Macbeth, will not be commanded; but attention, after due term of submissive service, always will. Like certain plants which the poorest peasant may grow in the poorest soil, it can be cultivated by any one, and it is certain in its own good season to bring forth flowers and fruit.

DICKENS.

Admirable Crichton.-James Crichton was a native of Perthshire, and was born sometime about the year 1560. He received his early education in Perth, whence he went to the University of St. Andrews, at that time considered the chief seat of learning in Scotland. The progress he made in his studies is said to have been astonishing. He was acquainted, so tradition asserts, with all the learning and accomplishments of that age, and had, besides, the advantage of a very handsome person. He went to the Continent, and in Paris, Rome, and Venice he held disputation with the most learned men of the day, all of whom he easily overthrew in these intellectual contests. He is said to have perished in a street brawl in Mantua. On account of his various accomplishments he obtained the title of the "Admirable Crichton."

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