in Portugal it passed in like manner to the Order of Christ.

But this decision, equitable and unexceptionable as it was, suffered. considerable reversals as it came into operation. Clement and Philippe levied such large fines on the transfer of the property as almost to impoverish the lessees; the King, moreover, brought in heavy charges for expenses incurred in connection with the custody of the Templars; and at length, in 1317, the Hospitallers were but too happy to sign a quittance of all accounts with the royal exchequer. In England, the estates of the Order had been sequestrated, and receivers appointed to take the rents until further arrangements.

But it was not likely, even in those days, that courtiers or barons could quite keep their hands from the goods of the Church. As early as the spring of 1308, Clement was compelled to send a half-conciliatory, half-objurgatory missive to Edward II., interdicting any appropriations to his barons and courtiers of property of which the Church alone could dispose ; and not till several years afterwards did a formal vote of Parliament confirm the sentence of the council, and assign and deliver the lands to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.

While the principle of the restoration was thus publicly acknowledged, some little private arrangements were of course managed without much difficulty. The Lord Darcy got a few convenient acres in Yorkshire-a case which we select, because the descendant of this nobleman, three centuries after, forfeited to Henry VIII. these very Church lands and his life, for heading an insurrection of which the principal object was the reinstatement of the poor monks and friars in those abodes and estates from which they had recently been ejected. The "Temple" in London was given to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, whose widow

afterwards founded Pembroke College at Cambridge; and from him it passed to Hugh le Despencer, upon whose attainder, in the first year of Edward III.'s reign, it reverted to the Crown. Then at length it was delivered to its legitimate proprietors, the Knights of St. John, and by them leased to the students of the Laws of England; in the safe keeping of which learned body, after the lapse of so many ages, it still remains.

The rest of the "Temple" manors and estates passed, with more or less curtailment, to the Hospitallers in due course; and in the hands of this Order they rested, till the confiscation, in 1539, of so much of the property which piety had dedicated to the offices of charity or religion. Still they retained, through all the changes, the titles which a continuous tradition had preserved in the memory of the people; and there are many counties in England in which such names as Templeton, or Templestowe, or some similar compound, accompanied, perhaps, by an ancient stone homestead or fragmentary grange, may connect in an antiquary's eye an obscure hamlet or secluded manor with the proudest and richest brotherhood the world ever saw.

CHAPTER LVI.

SIMPLE DEFINITIONS IN ASTRONOMY.

The reader must attend carefully to the definitions given here, and in the Lessons on Geometry. The words in this and in the following Lesson printed in Italics are defined either here or in previous Lessons.

ASTRONOMY is the science which gives an account of the heavenly bodies.

A sphere is a globe, such that every point on its surface is equally distant from a certain point within it. This point is called the centre of the sphere. A round ball is a sphere.

The axis of a sphere is a straight line, supposed to

be drawn through the centre, to meet the surface at each of its ends.

The poles of a sphere are the extremities of the axis. The earth is a sphere, or so very nearly a sphere as to be called one without inaccuracy.

The supposed line round which the earth turns is called the axis of the earth.

The extremities of the axis of the earth are called the North and South Poles.

If a sphere be cut through by a plane in any direc tion, it is divided into two parts, the plane surfaces of which are circles.

If the cutting plane pass through the centre of the sphere, it divides it into equal parts called hemispheres. A circle may be drawn upon a sphere where the cutting plane would pass.

If the cutting plane passes through the centre, the circle is called a great circle.

If the cutting plane does not pass through the centre, the circle is smaller than a great circle, and is called a small circle.

The great circle, described as a cutting plane at right angles to the axis of the earth, is called the Equator

The Equator is equally distant from the North and South Poles.

The Equator divides the earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Circles of latitude are small circles parallel to the Equator.

A meridian is a great circle passing through the poles.

The cutting plane, which would form a meridian, would pass through the axis from pole to pole.

Meridians are also called circles of longitude.

A vertical line is a line drawn from any point on the earth's surface to its centre.

A plumb-line hangs vertically, because the earth draws all bodies to its centre.

A horizontal plane is a plane at right angles to a vertical line.

The surface of still-water is horizontal.

As we stand upon the earth, we stand vertically, our feet pointing towards the centre of the earth.

The point in the heavens immediately above our heads is called the zenith of the place where we are.

If we suppose a plane at our feet to extend to the vault of the heavens, it will seem to be bounded by a circle, with a vast hemisphere above it. This boundary is called the horizon.

CHAPTER LVII.

COMPARISON AND METAPHOR.

NOTHING is more common, whether in speaking or writing, than the expression of our ideas by comparing one thing with another.

In Poetry, comparison is continually introduced by way of ornament and illustration. There is a beautiful instance of this in Milton's description of the admiration with which he supposes the Serpent to have gazed upon Eve in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall:

"Much he the place admired, the person more,
As one who long in populous city pent,
Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air,
Forth issuing on a summer's morn to breathe
Among the pleasant villages and farms
Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight;
The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,
Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound;
If chance, with nymphlike step, fair virgin pass,
What pleasing seem'd, for her now pleases more :
She most, and in her look sums all delight.
Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold
This flow'ry plat, the sweet recess of Eve,
Thus early, thus alone."

Such a comparison is called a Simile.* Besides these more studied comparisons, we constantly employ, both in poetry and prose, short comparisons to convey our meaning readily and forcibly. Thus we say, "swift as an eagle," "fierce as a lion," and such like expressions.

A Metaphor is an indirect comparison. It occurs when, in describing one thing, we employ terms which properly belong to something else. The use of the term carries our mind to that to which we indirectly compare the thing of which we are speaking. Thus, if we say, "Evil often lurks unseen in the heart," the words suggest a comparison between evil in the heart and some beast of prey lurking unseen in a thicket. Many of the most common phrases are really metaphorical, though we often do not think of the comparison suggested. The word "inspire" means, literally, "breathe upon;" but we are so accustomed to use it that we constantly lose sight of its original meaning. "The music inspires delight," may seem to say no more than “The music causes delight;" but the additional force of the word "inspire" will be understood by the beautiful comparison in Shakspeare:

"That strain again; it had a dying fall:

Oh! it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odours."

Here music coming to the ear is compared to the south-wind breathing upon a bank of violets; and so in the word "inspires," a comparison is suggested between the approach of music to the ear and the breath of the wind. It is necessary to know accurately the meaning of each word employed in order to understand the full sense of a sentence. This is especially the case in poetry, because comparison is among the chief ornaments of language, and poetry delights in ornament.

*Simile is a Latin word, meaning like.