Questions: What is ambition? How does all ambition end? What is meant by "the purple of pride"? Relate the parable of the New Testament where "fine purple” is spoken of. Explain "who hid, in their turn have been hid." How is the worm "a reveller"? Why has death trophies enough? Who is "the Lamb of the great sacrifice"?

Memorize the last stanza, and give it in your own words.

A

USING THE EYES.

CCIDENT does very little toward the production of any great result in life. Though what is called "a happy hit" may be made by a bold venture, the old and common highway of steady industry and application is the only safe road to travel. Sedulous attention and painstaking industry always mark the true worker.

The greatest men are not those who "despise the doing of small things," but those who improve them the most carefully. Michael Angelo was one day explaining to a visitor at his studio, what he had been doing to a statue since his previous visit. "I have retouched this part, polished that, softened this feature, brought out that muscle, given some expression to this lip, and more energy to that limb." "But these are trifles," remarked the visitor. "It may be so," replied the sculptor, "but recollect that trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle." So it was said of Nicholas Poussin, the painter, that the rule of his conduct was, "whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well;" and when asked, later in life, by a friend, by what means he had gained so high a reputation among the painters of Italy, he emphatically answered: "Because I have neglected nothing."

Although there are discoveries which are said to

have been made by accident, if carefully inquired into it will be found that there has really been very little that was accidental about them. For the most part, these so-called accidents have only been opportunities carefully improved by genius.

The fall of the apple at Newton's feet has often been quoted in proof of the accidental character of some discoveries. But Newton's whole mind had already been devoted for years to the laborious and patient investigation of the subject of gravitation; and the circumstance of the apple falling before his eye was suddenly apprehended only as genius could apprehend it, and served to flash upon him the brilliant discovery then bursting on his sight.

The difference between men consists, in a great measure, in the intelligence of their observation. The Russian proverb says of the non-observant man: "He goes through the forest and sees no firewood." "The wise man's eyes are in his head," says Solomon; “but the fool walketh in darkness."

"Sir," said Johnson, on one occasion, to a fine gentleman, just returned from Italy, "some men will learn more in the Hampstead stage than others in the tour of Europe." It is the mind that sees as well as the eye.

Many, before Galileo, had seen a suspended weight swing before their eyes with a measured beat; but he was the first to detect the value of the fact. One of the vergers, in the cathedral at Pisa, after replenishing with oil a lamp which hung from the roof, left it swinging to and fro; and Galileo, then a youth of only eighteen, noting it attentively, conceived the idea of applying it to the measurement of time.

Fifty years of study and labor, however, elapsed before he completed the invention of his pendulum,—

an invention the importance of which, in the measurement of time, and in astronomical calculations, can scarcely be overvalued.

While Sir Samuel Brown was occupied in studying the construction of bridges, with the view of contriving one of a cheap description to be thrown across the Tweed, near which he lived, he was walking in his garden one dewy autumn morning, when he saw a tiny spider's net suspended across his path. The idea immediately occurred to him that a bridge of iron ropes or chains might be constructed in like manner, and the result was the invention of his Suspension Bridge.

So James Watt, when consulted about the mode of carrying water by pipes under the Clyde, along the unequal bed of the river, turned his attention, one day, to the shell of a lobster presented at table; and from that model he invented an iron tube, which, when laid down, was found effectually to answer the purpose.

Sir Isambard Brunel took his first lessons in forming the Thames Tunnel from the tiny ship-worm. He saw how the little creature perforated the wood with its well armed head, first in one direction and then in another, till the archway was complete, and then daubed over the roof and sides with a kind of varnish; and by copying this work exactly on a large scale, Brunel was at length enabled to accomplish his great engineering work.

So trifling a matter as the sight of sea-weed floating past his ship, enabled Columbus to quell the mutiny which arose amongst the sailors at not discovering land, and to assure them that the eagerly sought New World was not far off.

It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit in life. Though many of these facts and

observations seemed in the first instance to have but slight significance, they are all found to have their eventual uses, and to fit into their proper places.

Write a short sketch of this lesson, and give any other examples you may know of.

THE PICKET OF THE POTOMAC.

"ALL quiet along the Potomac," they say,

"Except now and then a stray picket

Is shot as he walks on his beat to and fro,
By a rifleman hid in the thicket."

'Tis nothing a private or two now and then
Will not count in the tale of the battle;

Not an officer lost — only one of the men

Breathing out all alone the death rattle.

All quiet along the Potomac to-night,

Where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming,
Their tents in the ray of the clear autumn moon,
And the light of the watch fires gleaming.
A tremulous sigh from the gentle night wind
Through the forest leaves slowly is creeping,
While the stars up above, with their glittering eyes,
Keep watch while the army is sleeping.

There's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread,

As he tramps from the rock to the fountain,

And thinks of the two in the low trundle-bed
Far away in the hut on the mountain.

His musket falls slack; his face, dark and grim,
Grows gentle with memories tender,

As he mutters a prayer for the children asleep,
may heaven defend her!

For their mother,

The moon seems to shine as serenely as then,

That night when the love, yet unspoken,

Lingered long on his lips, and when low murmured vows
Were pledged, never more to be broken.
Then, drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes,

He dashes the tears that are welling,
And gathers his gun closer up to its place,
As if to keep down the heart-swelling.

He

passes the fountain, the blasted pine tree,
The footstep is lagging and weary;

Yet onward he glides through the broad belt of light,
Towards the shade of a forest so dreary.

Hark! Was it the night wind that rustled the leaves?
Is it moonlight so suddenly flashing?

It looked like a rifle-"Ha! Mary, good night!"
His life-blood is ebbing and dashing.

All quiet along the Potomac to-night,

No sound save the rush of the river;

But the dew falls unseen on the face of the dead-
The picket's off duty for ever.

COMPOSITION.

Write an account of the death of a picket, from the following summary: War is declared; the regular troops go to the front but are insufficient; volunteers are called for, but still the enemy's advance is not checked. A draft is ordered. (What is a draft? describe it ). A father of a family is drawn; having no substitute he is compelled to He is put on picket duty; tell what the duty of a picket is. One moonlight night while pacing his rounds he thinks of his family; he forgets himself, and steps within the enemy's range. Suddenly he

serve.