3. They knew by his awful and kingly look, By the order hastily spoken, That he dreamed of days when the nations shook, And the nations' hosts were broken. 4. He dreamed that the Frenchman's sword still slew, 5. The bearded Russian he scourged again, And again, on the hills of haughty Spain, 6. Over Egypt's sands, over Alpine snows, Where the wave of the lordly Danube flows, 7. On the snowy cliffs, where mountain streams He led again, in his dying dreams, 8. Again Marengo's field was won, And Jena's bloody battle; Again the world was overrun Made pale at his cannon's rattle. 9. He died at the close of that darksome day, A day that shall live in story: In the rocky land they placed his clay, And left him alone in his glory.-Isaac M'Lellan. VIII. Character of Napoleon. Much was said, by the different members of our party, about the leading traits in the character of Napoleon. Was he worthy to be called GREAT? It was soon decided that he was utterly deficient in that moral grandeur of thought and sentiment which throws all other forms of greatness into obscurity. Was he intellectually great? Yes, but it was wholly of the earth earthy, and not of the kind that soars to the infinite and the everlasting. "His characteristic greatness," said Prof. Howard, "was the greatness of action." Then he read to us what one of our own writers has said on this subject : "That Napoleon possessed greatness of action, we need not prove, and none will be hardy enough to deny. A man who raised himself from obscurity to a throne; who changed the face of the world; who made himself felt through powerful and civilized nations; who sent the terror of his name across seas and oceans; whose will was feared as destiny; whose donatives were crowns; whose antechamber was thronged by submissive princes; who broke down the barrier of the Alps, and made them a highway; and whose fame has spread beyond the boundaries of civilization to the steppes of the Cossack and the deserts of the Arab,-a man who has left this record of himself in history has taken out of our hands the question whether he shall be called great. All must concede to him a sublime power of action-an energy equal to great effects." W. E. Channing. IX.-Onward to the Cape. 1. It was a voyage of more than two thousand miles from St. Helena to Cape Town, at which we expected to make our next landing. We had some rough weather on the passage; but, on the whole, our time passed pleasantly, and not unprofitably; for the Doctor and Prof. Howard always managed to bring forward topics of interest for our consideration. 2. As we sailed southward from Gibraltar, Dr. Edson often called our attention, on pleasant evenings, to the constant changes in the apparent positions of what are called the fixed stars, in addition to their well-known westward rotation caused by the eastward revolution of the earth on its axis. As the Doctor expressed it, "the multitude of the heavenly host" seemed to be moving northward around the earth in majestic array; so that, one after another, those orbs below the northern pole-star sank out of sight: and, at length, even the pole-star itself disappeared below the northern horizon. 3. At the same time stars and constellations that we had never before seen were constantly rising up before us out of the Southern Ocean. Thus the constellation known as the Southern Cross became visible to us when we were off the western extremity of Africa, while another constellation, the Magellanic Clouds, made its appearance on the southern horizon soon after we had crossed the southern tropic; and in this way new heavens seemed to be constantly opening to our view. 4. Prof. Howard tells us that the Portuguese poet Camoens, the author of the Lusiad," represents Vasco de Gama, when he was making his great discovery of an ocean route to India, as speaking thus of the changing appearances of the heavens: 5. "O'er the wild waves, as southward thus we stray, Our port unknown, unknown the watery way, a The Lusiad, or, "The Lusiads," from the Latin name of Portugal, sometimes called "The Epic Poem of Commerce," is devoted to the voyage and discoveries of Vasco de Gama, in 1497-99. The best English translation is by William Julius Mickle. Each night we see, impressed with solemn awe, 6. "While, nightly, thus, the lonely seas we brave, Full to the south a shining Cross appears; Camoens. 7. These subjects very naturally led the Doctor to speak of the labors of that celebrated astronomer, Sir John Herschel, who passed nearly four years at Cape Town, near the Cape of Good Hope, at his own expense, for the purpose of studying the heavens of the Southern hemisphere. Thus astronomy became the subject of the Doctor's "talks," and of conversation among the rest of us, after leaving St. Helena. It seemed like a regular school on board our steamer, and we all became deeply interested in the study that was thus brought before us. 8. On the Sunday before we reached the Cape, Prof. Howard, in the religious excrcises of the day, surprised us by taking, as the subject of his remarks, the text "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork." Perhaps it might not be called a sermon, that he gave us; but it was a grand discourse on the glories and the immensity of creation. The Professor read to us many beautiful extracts from celebrated writers,— and closed with that famous ode, long attributed to Addison, but now known to have been written by Andrew Marvell. Why should it not make an appropriate ending for my letter? X.-The Spacious Firmament. 1. The spacious firmament on high, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, The unwearied sun, from day to day, 2. Soon as the evening shades prevail, While all the stars that round her burn, And spread the truth from pole to pole. 3. What though, in solemn silence, all Move round the dark terrestrial ball? Forever singing, as they shine, "The hand that made us is divine." CHAPTER XXX.-AUTHORS AND THEIR WRITINGS. I.—A Love of Books. 1. It was one of the leading objects of Mr. Agnew's teachings to instil into his pupils such a love of books |