mences in the tenth year, and ends before the termination of the war, which is represented to have happened in different ways.

11. By some ancient authority it is said, that the Trojans betrayed the city into the hands of their enemies; but the poets say, that the Greeks pretended to withdraw almost all their forces, and that some who remained, constructed a great wooden horse, into which they contrived to enter unperceived by the Trojans. This horse, as a curiosity, was drawn within the walls of Troy, and on the first favourable opportunity the men concealed within it, rushed out, opened the gates to their comrades, and thus gave up the city to destruction.

12. This happened about 1184 years before Christ. Helen is said to have returned with her husband to Sparta, and the death of Paris is variously related. The war of Troy was a very unhappy one to the Greeks. Many of the princes were killed, and their respective governments suffered extremely in their absence.

13. Ulysses, king of the little island of Ithaca, was principally distinguished among the Greeks for his cunning and his eloquence. Homer's

Odyssey is a narrative of the adventures of Ulysses on his return from the Trojan war; he was driven about for ten years from one country to another, on the shores of the Mediterranean, and his account of the men, and the manners he observed, together with the adventures of other heroes from the siege of Troy, make the reading of the Odyssey one of the most delightful entertainments which a book can afford.

PHOCION.

"To show what good men are."

Among the good men who deserve never to be forgotten was Phocion. He lived at the period when Athens became subject to Philip of Macedon. The Athenians, after submitting to Philip, retained their forms of government, their police, and many of their rights. Phocion endeavoured to preserve all these, both as a magistrate, and at the head of the Athenian army. Philip, and his son Alexander, attempted to corrupt him, to make him give up the privileges of Athens for bribes or money. But though he was poor he refused bribes, held fast his integrity, and always defended the interests of his country against her enemies.

2. The Scripture says of Moses, the Hebrew legislator," he chose rather to suffer with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season," than to enjoy the favours of a profligate king of Egypt, and the pleasures procured by illgotten wealth. In the same manner the virtuous Athenian devoted himself to the welfare of his countrymen, when, by doing so, he doomed himself to poverty and labour.

3. Antipater, one of the successors of Alexander, endeavoured to seduce Phocion, as the Macedonian princes had done before him; and a friend once urged him, for the sake of his children, to accept of these offers. "My children," replied this good man, 66 if they resemble their father, can subsist by their own industry; they will need no

thing to supply their extravagance, or to encourage any evil inclination."

4. When the harbour of Athens was taken, the Athenians falsely accused Phocion of conniving with the enemy, and he became liable to death by their judgment. He sought safety in the protection of Polyperchon, governor of Macedonia, but Polyperchon refused him an asylum, and had him conveyed back again to Athens. There he was immediately condemned to drink poison. He endured the indignities of the Athenians with the utmost fortitude and self-complacency, and when one of his friends lamented his fate, he answered him calmly, "This is what I have expected; the most illustrious Athenians have been treated thus before me."

5. Phocion took the cup of poison with serenity, and when he had swallowed it, he prayed for the prosperity of Athens, and requested his friends to tell Phocas his son, that he must,forget the injuries which his father had suffered. The dead body of Phocion was deprived of a funeral by a public order, and it is related that the remains of this venerable man were interred by a woman, who performed the last service by stealth, and placed this insription ever the hearth which concealed the ashes of the patriot: "Keep inviolate, O sacred hearth, the precious remains of a good man, till a better day shall restore them to the monuments of their fathers, when Athens shall have been delivered from her frenzy, and again become wise."

Phocion's death happened after he had attained his eightieth vear, B. C. 318.

Illustration.

The ingratitude of the Athenians to their benefactors may create some objections to a Democracy, or a government of the people. When the greater number of any nation are ignorant they will do wrong and unjust actions, because they do not know better-but when the whole people are well informed, they can reflect upon what is just, and can understand the intentions and abilities of those who are employed in the public service.

2. In the present age of the world, when the Christian religion is universally known, men respect the life and liberty of the magistrates, and of all who are employed in the government of their country; so that even when the people are unjust, they are not cruel, Thus it is plain that knowledge and true religion enable men to choose their rulers wisely, and inform them likewise how to reward suitably those who exert their abilities for the benefit of their fellow citizens.

3. In regarding that unworthy trait of the Athenian character-ingratitude to public benefactors, it is agreeable to meet with an instance of a different conduct among them. One that occurred in a late period of their history is recorded. During the reign of the Antonines, Roman Emperors, nearly two centuries after Christ, Herodes Atticus, an Athenian, reputed to be a descendant of Miltiades, and possessing a large fortune, devoted it to the public benefit. He erected an aqueduct, the Stadium Panathenaicum, and a theatre, the ruins of which are still remaining, called the Odeum of Regilla; besides other magnificent works for the

advantage of his countrymen. This generous man, when he died was seventy-six years old; and in the instructions which he left for his interment, he directed that he should be buried at Marathon, where he was born; but the Athenians would not consent to be deprived of his remains. All had participated in his liberality, for by his will he left every man in Athens about thirteen dollars of our money; and the monuments of his larger bounties were given to all. They caused the youth of the city to bear, with their own hands, the body of their benefactor and friend to the Stadium which he had erected, and there committed him to the earth with reverence and sorrow as for a deceased parent.