surprised by want, in his infirm old age, sold one of the first productions of the human mind for five pounds. The great boast of English philosophy was expelled from his place in Oxford, and kept in banishment, "the King having been given to understand," to use the words of Lord Sunderland, who ordered the expulsion, “that one Locke has, upon several occasions, behaved himself very factiously against the government." Dryden was compelled to sacrifice his genius to the spur of immediate want. Otway was choked with a morsel of bread, too ravenously swallowed, after a long fast. Johnson was taken to prison for a debt of five shillings; and Burke petitioned for a professorship at Glasgow, and was denied. When we consider these facts, and the innumerable others of which these are a specimen, we may probably be led to the conclusion, that the appearance of eminent geniuses, under the forms of government subsisting in Europe, furnishes no decisive proof that they are the most friendly to intellectual progress.-EVERETT's Education and Knowledge.'

1. It is quite true that the "Paradise Lost was sold for five pounds, but it is not true that Milton was ever "surprised by want." The stories here referred to about Bacon, Milton, and Johnson, are

6

all of doubtful authority, and in fact, the tone assumed throughout the piece is exaggerated. Still it is true that a literary life is beset with difficulties, and it is right that the young should know it.

AMONG the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I am tempted to distinguish the memorable fable of the Seven Sleepers, whose imaginary date corresponds with the reign of the younger Theodosius, and the conquest of Africa by the Vandals. When the Emperor Decius persecuted the Christians, seven noble youths of Ephesus concealed themselves in a spacious cavern in the side of an adjacent mountain, where they were doomed to die by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly secured with a pile of huge stones. They immediately fell into a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged, without injuring the powers of life, during a period of one hundred and eighty-seven years. At the end of that time the slaves of Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the mountain had descended, removed the stones, to supply materials for some rustic edifice; the light of the sun darted into the cavern, and the seven sleepers were permitted to awake. After a slumber as they thought of a few hours, they were pressed by the calls of hunger; and resolved

that Jamblichus, one of their number, should secretly return to the city to purchase bread for the use of his companions.

The youth (if we may still employ that appellation) could no longer recognise the once familiar aspect of his native country; and his surprise was increased by the appearance of a large cross, triumphantly erected over the principal gate of Ephesus. His singular dress, and obsolete language, confounded the baker, to whom he offered an ancient medal of Decius as the current coin of the empire; and Jamblichus, on the suspicion of a secret treasure, was dragged before the judge. Their mutual inquiries produced the amazing discovery, that two centuries were almost elapsed since Jamblichus and his friends had escaped from the rage of a pagan tyrant. The Bishop of Ephesus, the clergy, the magistrates, the people, and as it is said, the emperor Theodosius himself, hastened to visit the cavern of the seven sleepers; who bestowed their benediction, related their story, and at the same instant peaceably expired. The origin of this marvellous fable cannot be ascribed to the pious fraud and credulity of the modern Greeks, since the authentic tradition may be traced within half a century of the supposed miracle. James of Sarug, a Syrian Bishop, who was born only two years after the death of the younger Theodosius, has devoted one of his two hundred and thirty homilies to the praise of the young men of Ephesus. Their legend, before the end of the sixth century, was translated from the Syriac into the Latin language, by the care of Gregory of Tours.

The hostile communions of the East preserve their memory with equal reverence; and their names are honourably inscribed in the Roman, the Abyssinian, and the Russian calendar. Nor has their reputation been confined to the Christian world. This popular tale, which Mahomet might have learned when he drove his camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced, as a divine revelation, into the Koran. The story of the seven sleepers has been adopted and adorned by the nations from Bengal to Africa, who profess the Mahometan religion; and some vestiges of a similar tradition have been discovered in the remote extremities of Scandinavia. This easy and universal belief, so expressive of the sense of mankind, may be ascribed to the genuine merit of the fable itself. We imperceptibly advance from youth to age, without observing the gradual but incessant change of human affairs; and even in our larger experience of history, the imagination is accustomed, by a perpetual series of causes and effects, to unite the most distant revolutions. But if the interval between two memorable eras could be instantly annihilated; if it were possible, after a momentary slumber of two hundred years,

to display the new world to the eyes of a spectator, who still retained a lively and recent impression of the old, his surprise and his reflections would furnish the pleasing subject of a philosophical romance. The scene could not be more advantageously placed than in the two centuries which elapsed between the reigns of Decius and of Theodosius the younger.

During this period, the seat of government had been transported from Rome to a new city' on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus; and the abuse of a military spirit had been suppressed by an artificial system of tame and ceremonious servitude. The throne of the persecuting Decius was filled by a succession of Christian and orthodox princes, who had extirpated the fabulous gods of antiquity; and the public devotion of the age was impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the Catholic church, on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the Roman empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of the north, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.-GIBBON'S 'Roman Empire.'

Ir is now impossible to unravel the truth of many strange things which are told us of former days; for, before the art of printing was known, few persons could read or write; so that what was really true, in passing from one to another, soon became mingled with much falsehood, owing to the general disposition among men to make wonderful things appear still more wonderful. This disposition to alter truth is very wrong; but it is as now observable as it ever has been. The accounts given us of Robin Hood, of Guy Earl of Warwick, and of Whittington, Lord Mayor of London, have not been magnified more than many occurrences of a later date. Boys should endeavour to adhere strictly to truth in giving an account of the simplest event, as well as of the most remarkable. Thousands of persons hardly ever give a report of a common conversation, without either adding to, or taking away a part of the truth. A farmer once was told that his turnip field had been robbed, and that the robbery had been committed by a poor inoffensive man, of the

name of Palmer, who, many of the people of the village said, had taken away a waggon-load of turnips. Farmer Brown, much exasperated by the loss of his turnips, determined to prosecute poor Palmer with all the severity of the law. With this intention he went to Molly Saunders, the washerwoman, who had been busy in spreading the report, to know the whole truth; but Molly denied ever having said anything about a waggon-load of turnips. It was but a cart-load that Palmer had taken, and Dame Hodson the huckster had told her so, over and over again. The farmer, hearing this, went to Dame Hodson, who said that Molly Saunders was always making things worse than they really were; that Palmer had taken only a wheelbarrow-full of turnips, and that she had her account from Jenkins the tailor. Away went the farmer to Jenkins the tailor, who stoutly denied the account altogether; he had only told Dame Hodson that Palmer had pulled up several turnips, but how many he could not tell, for that he did not see him himself, but was told it by Tom Slack, the ploughman. Wondering where this would end, Farmer Brown next questioned Tom Slack, who, in his turn, declared tha the never said a word about seeing Palmer pull up several turnips; he only said he had heard say that Palmer had pulled up a turnip, and that Barnes the barber was the person who had told him about it. The farmer, almost out of patience at this account, hurried off to Barnes the barber, who wondered much that people should find pleasure in spreading idle tales which had no truth in them! He assured the farmer, that all he had said about the matter, while he took off the beard of Tom Slack, was, that for all he knew, Palmer was as likely a man to pull up a turnip as his neighbours.

There are a thousand tales passing current among us to the prejudice of others, the truth of which, if inquired into, would dwindle away just like Farmer Brown's waggon-load of turnips.

We

Truth is a jewel that should be worn in every bosom. have, in the death of Ananias and Sapphira, an awful warning against lying. If the boy be inattentive to truth, when a man he will be addicted to falsehood. All the good qualities in the world will never make amends for the want of integrity; and where truth abides not, integrity is not to be found.—' Boy's Week-day Book.'

1. "Accustom your children constantly | to a strict attention to truth, even in the most minute particulars. If a thing happened at one window, and they. when re

lating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but iustantly check them: you do not know where deviation from truth will end. JOHNSON.

THE THREE BLACK CROWS.

Two honest tradesmen, meeting in the Strand,
One took the other briskly by the hand;
"Hark ye," said he, " 'tis an odd story this
About the crows !"-" I don't know what it is,"

Replied his friend. "No! I'm surprised at that-
Where I come from, it is the common chat;
But you shall hear an odd affair indeed!
And that it happened they are all agreed.
Not to detain you from a thing so strange,
A gentleman who lives not far from 'Change,
This week, in short, as all the Alley knows,
Taking a vomit, threw up Three Black Crows!"
Impossible!"- "Nay, but 'tis really true;

66

I had it from good hands, and so may you.""From whose, I pray ?"-So, having named the man, Straight to inquire his curious comrade ran.

"Sir, did you tell ”—relating the affair ;

Yes, Sir, I did; and, if 'tis worth your care,

"Twas Mr." Such-a-one-" who told it me;

But, by the bye, 'twas Two black crows, not Three."
Resolved to trace so wondrous an event,

Quick to the third, the virtuoso went.

"Sir," and so forth-" Why, yes; the thing is fact
Though, in regard to number, not exact;
It was not Two black crows, 'twas only One;
The truth of that you may depend upon :

The gentleman himself told me the case.

"Where may I find him ?”—“ Why, in "--such a place Away he went: and, having found him out,

66

Sir, be so good as to resolve a doubt."-

Then to his last informant he referred,

And begged to know if true what he had heard;

"Did you, Sir, throw up a black crow ?”—“ Not I ”—

"Bless me!-how people propagate a lie!-

Black crows have been thrown up, Three, Two, and One; And here I find all comes at last to none !

Did you say anything of a crow at all ?"

"Crow-crow-perhaps I might,-now I recal
The matter over"-" And pray, Sir, what was 't ?”

Why, I was horrid sick, and at the last

I did throw up, and told my neighbour so,

Something that was-as black, Sir, as a crow."-BYROM.