KING CANUTE.

BERNARD BARTON.

"CANUTE, the greatest and most powerful monarch of his time, sovereign of Denmark and Norway, as well as of England, could not fail of meeting with adulation from his courtiers; a tribute which is liberally paid, even to the meanest and weakest princes. Some of his flatterers, breaking out one day in admiration of his grandeur, exclaimed, that everything was possible for him; upon which the monarch, it is said, ordered his chair to be set on the sea-shore, while the tide was rising; and as the waters approached he commanded them to retire, and to obey the voice of him who was lord of the ocean. He feigned to sit some time in expectation of their submission; but when the sea still advanced towards him, and began to wash him with its billows, he turned to his courtiers, and remarked to them, that every creature in the universe was feeble and impotent, and that power resided with one Being alone, in whose hands were all the elements of nature; who could say to the ocean, Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther; and who could level with his nod the most towering piles of human pride and ambition."-Hume's History of England.

UPON his royal throne he sat,

In a monarch's thoughtful mood;
Attendants on his regal state
His servile courtiers stood,

With foolish flatteries, false and vain,
To win his smile, his favour gain.

They told him e'en the mighty deep
His kingly sway confessed:
That he could bid its billows leap,
Or still its stormy breast!

He smiled contemptuously, and cried,
"Be then my boasted empire tried!"

Down to the ocean's sounding shore
The proud procession came,
To see its billows' wild uproar

King Canute's power proclaim;
Or, at his high and dread command,
In gentle murmurs kiss the strand.

Not so, thought he, their noble king,
As his course he seaward sped,-
And each base slave like a guilty thing,
Hung down his conscious head:-
He knew the ocean's Lord on high!
They, that he scorned their senseless lie.

His throne was placed by ocean's side,
He lifted his sceptre there;
Bidding, with tones of kingly pride,
The waves their strife forbear:-
And, while he spoke his royal will,
All but the winds and waves were still.

Louder the stormy blast swept by,
In scorn of his idle word;

The briny deep its waves tossed high,
By his mandate undeterred,

T

As threatening, in their angry play,
To sweep both king and court away.

The monarch with upbraiding look,
Turned to the courtly ring;

But none the kindling eye could brook
Even of his earthly king;

For in that wrathful glance they see
A mightier monarch wronged than he!

Canute! thy regal race is run;
Thy name had passed away
But for the meed this tale hath won,
Which never shall decay:

Its meek, unperishing renown,
Outlasts thy sceptre and thy crown.

The Persian, in his mighty pride,'
Forged fetters for the main;
And when its floods his power defied,
Inflicted stripes as vain ;-

But it was worthier far of thee
To know thyself, than rule the sea!

1. Of what countries was Canute king? 2. How great did his flatterers say his power was?

3. To what verb is they, in verse 4th the nominative?

4. When seated on the shore, what command did the monarch give the sea? 5. What effect did it produce?

6. Who are meant by the word all, in verse 5th.

7. What mightier monarch is meant? 8. When did Canute flourish ?

9. What keeps his name still alive i our minds?

10. Relate the historical fact referred to in the last verse?

ABOU BEN ADHEM AND THE ANGEL.

LEIGH HUNT.

1 John iii. 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

ABOU BEN ADHEM (may his tribe increase)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An Angel, writing in a book of gold:-
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,

"What writest thou?"-The vision raised its head,
And, with a look made of all sweet accord,

Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."

1 Xerxes king of Persia was the son and successor of Darius. He raised an immense army of nearly three millions of men, it is said, to subdue Greece, caused a bridge of boats to be built over the Hellespont, and in his folly had the sea flogged for breaking the bridge to pieces. This great army was completely scattered, and the fleet also destroyed, by the bravery of the Greeks, and Xerxes himself was assassinated by Artaba'nus the captain of his guard. Xerxes is called in scripture Ahasueʼrus.

"And is mine one?" said Abou. แ Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

STUDY OF THE WORKS OF NATURE.

O NATURE! all-sufficient! over all!
Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works!
Snatch me to heaven; thy rolling wonders there,
World beyond world, in infinite extent,
Profusely scattered o'er the blue immense,
Show me; their motions, periods, and their laws,
Give me to scan; through the disclosing deep
Light my blind way; the mineral strata there;
Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world;
O'er that the rising system more complex,
Of animals; and higher still, the mind,
The varied scene of quick-compounded thought,
And where the mixing passions endless shift;
These ever open to my ravished eye;

A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust!
But if to that unequal; if the blood,

In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid
That best ambition; under closing shades,
Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook,
And whisper to my dreams. From thee begin,
Dwell all on thee, with thee conclude my song;
And let me never, never stray from thee!

1. What is meant by Nature here?
2. What mean you by the rolling wonders
of heaven?

3. What would the poet like to learn about these worlds?

4. Name the kingdoms of nature in their order, beginning with the lowest.

5. Where are the strata or beds of minerals found?

THOMSON

6. Whence is the vegetable world thrust! 7. What system of works stands above the vegetable kingdom?

8. What is the grandest work of creation here below?

9. What perfections of God may we learn from the material world?

10. Ah! but where do we learn that He is a God of mercy and justice combined?

NAPOLEON AND THE BRITISH SAILOR.

I LOVE Contemplating-apart

From all his homicidal glory—

The traits that soften to our heart

Napoleon's story.

CAMPBELL.

At last when care had banished sleep,
He saw one morning, dreaming, doating,
An empty hogshead from the deep
Come shoreward floating.

He hid it in a cave, and wrought
The live long day, laborious, lurking,
Until he launched a tiny boat,
By mighty working.

Oh dear me! 'twas a thing beyond
Description!-such a wretched wherry,
Perhaps, ne'er ventured on a pond,
Or crossed a ferry.

For ploughing in the salt sea field,
It would have made the boldest shudder;
Untarred, uncompassed, and unkeeled,—
No sail-no rudder.

From neighbouring woods he interlaced
His sorry skiff with wattled willows;
And thus equipped he would have passed
The foaming billows.

A French guard caught him on the beach,
His little Argo sorely jeering,

'Till tidings of him chanced to reach
Napoleon's hearing.

With folded arms Napoleon stood,
Serene alike in peace and danger,
And, in his wonted attitude,

Addressed the stranger.

"Rash youth, that wouldst yon channel pass
On twigs and staves so rudely fashioned,
Thy heart with some sweet English lass
Must be impassioned."

"I have no sweetheart," said the lad;
"But absent years from one another,
Great was the longing that I had
To see my mother."

"And so thou shalt," Napoleon said,
"You've both my favour justly won,
A noble mother must have bred
So brave a son."

He gave the tar a piece of gold,
And, with a flag of truce, commanded
He should be shipped to England old,
And safely landed.

Our sailor oft could scantly shift
To find a dinner, plain and hearty,
But never changed the coin and gift
Of Buonaparte.

1. In what light did the poet love to contemplate Napoleon?

2. What is meant by his homicidal glory? 3. What freedom was our captive tar allowed?

4. How far to Boulogne from Dover? 5. Why think you, would he watch the birds flying to England?

6. Explain midnight watch. 7. What saw he floating towards him one morning?

8. What did he make from the large cask?

9. State what his wretched wherry was deficient in.

10. To whom was the story told? 11. What was Napoleon's usual attitude?

12. What did the Emperor think must have caused the sailor to make such a rash attempt?

13. Give the exact words of the sailor's reply.

14. Repeat Buonaparte's reply to the tar. 15. Tell me how the sailor's mother had won Napoleon's favour.

16. How was the sailor's filial affection rewarded?

17. How greatly did the sailor value the coin?

THE SAILOR'S MOTHER.

Prime, adj. (L. primus).

Ma'tron, n. (L. mater).

WORDSWORTH.

Dig'ni-ty, n. (L. dignus).

Pro-tect', part. (L. tectum, see tego).

ONE MORNING (raw it was and wet,

A foggy day in winter time),

A woman on the road I met,

Not old, though something past her prime;
Majestic in her person, tall and straight;

And like a Roman matron's was her mien and gait.