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the contrary, if he lowers it. And so in every situation of the eye, the objects upon the window will seem to rise higher or lower; and consequently the depth of the whole prospect will be proportionably greater or less, as the eye is elevated or depressed; and the horizon will, in every situation of the eye, be upon a level with it: that is, the imaginary line which parts the earth and sky will seem to be raised as far above the ground upon which the spectator stands as his eye is.

Now suppose the person at the window, keeping his head steady, draws the figure of an object seen through it upon the glass with a pencil, as if the point of the pencil touched the object, he would then have a true representation of the object in perspective, as it appears to his eye: for as vision is occasioned by pencils of rays coming in straight lines to the eye from every point of the visible object, it is plain that, by joining the points in the transparent plane through which all those pencils of rays respectively pass, an exact representation must be formed of the object, as it appears to the eye in that particular position, and at that determined distance. And were pictures of things to be always first drawn on transparent planes, this simple operation, with the principle on which it is founded, would comprise the whole theory and practice of perspective.

1. What is perspective?

2. Into what is it divided?

3. What will a spectator at the window perceive, as he alters his situation?

LESSON CCCVIII.

NOVEMBER THE FOURTH.

Character of the Hindus.

THE Hindûs (or, as the word is more frequently spelt, Hindoos,) are a meek, superstitious, charitable people; a character formed by their temperance, custom, and religion. They are almost strangers to those passions that form the pleasures and pains of our lives.

Ambition is effectually restrained by their religion, which has, by an insurmountable barrier, confined every individual to a limited sphere; and those follies arising from intemperance and excess of all kinds are completely curbed by their abstaining from all intoxicating liquors. But they are strangers to that vigour of mind, and all the

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virtues grafted on those passions which actuate our more active spirits. They prefer a lazy apathy, and, frequently, quote this saying from some favourite book: "It is better to sit than to walk, to lie down than to sit, to sleep than to wake, and death is best of all."

Their temperature, and the enervating heat of the climate, starve all natural passions, and leave them only avarice, which preys most on the narrowest minds. This bias to avarice is also promoted by the oppression of their government, which comes with a spoiler's hand, and ravishes the fruit of their labour. To counteract this, the Hindûs bury their money under ground; and they will suffer death rather than betray it. The Hindûs of the lower provinces are a slight-made people. Rice is their chief food, and it seems to afford but poor nourishment; for strong, robust men are seldom seen among them.

Though the people in general are healthy, yet they rarely attain to any great age; which is in some measure made up to them by an early maturity. The spring of life is but of short duration, and the organs decay before the faculties of the mind can attain to any perfection. No wonder then, that, with such customs, such bodies, and such minds, they fall an easy prey to every invader.

ང་ཀཀཀཀ

1. Of what country are the Hindûs?

2. What favourite saying do the Hindûs frequently quote? 3. What is said of the duration of their lives?

LESSON CCCIX.-
-NOVEMBER THE FIFTH.

Gunpowder Plot.

THE Catholics, disappointed in their expectations of favour from James I., formed a conspiracy to blow up the parliament house. Catesby, Piercy, and Guy Fawkes, hired a house adjoining that in which the parliament assembled; and finding that a cellar was to be let under the House of Lords, they seized the opportunity of renting it, and, forming a communication between Piercy's house and it, deposited there thirty-six barrels of gunpowder.

The dreadful secret, though communicated to above twenty persons, had been faithfully kept during the space of near a year and a half. Ten days, however, before the meeting of parliament, Lord Monteagle, a Catholic, received

a letter, written in mysterious terms, to warn him against attendance in parliament on that day. This circumstance led to the discovery of the conspiracy on the eve of the designed execution. About midnight SirThomas Knevet, a justice of peace, was sent with proper attendants; and before the door of the vault finding Fawkes, who had just finished all his preparations, he immediately seized him, and, turning over the fagots, discovered the powder. The matches and everything proper for setting fire to the train were taken in Fawkes's pocket; who, finding his guilt now apparent, and seeing no refuge but in boldness and despair, expressed the utmost regret that he had lost the opportunity of firing the powder at once, and of sweetening his own death by that of his enemies. Before the council he displayed the same intrepid firmness, mixed even with scorn and disdain; refusing to discover his accomplices, and showing no concern but for the failure of the enterprise.

This obstinacy lasted two or three days; but being confined in the Tower, left to reflect on his guilt and danger, and the rack being just shown to him, his courage, fatigued with so long an effort, and unsupported by hope or society, at last failed him; and he made a full discovery of all the conspirators. Catesby, Piercy, and the other criminals fled immediately to the country upon the seizure of Fawkes; but they were closely pursued, and, being surrounded on all sides, they were either killed, or taken prisoners. The greater part of the prisoners were tried, found guilty, and hanged. Garnet also, the superior of the Jesuits, who had been greatly instrumental in forwarding the plot, was executed.

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1. What conspiracy did the Catholics form?

2. What happened ten days before the meeting of parliament ?

3. What did Sir Thomas Knevet about midnight?

4. What was discovered on turning over the fagots ?

LESSON CCCX.

NOVEMBER THE SIXTH.

Princess Charlotte.

On this day, in the year 1817, expired the much-beloved Charlotte, Princess of Wales, daughter of King George IV., and consort of the Prince of Cobourg, (now Leopold L., King of Belgium). Her child, to which she had just

PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.

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given birth, was interred in the same tomb with its un

fortunate mother.

'Lo! where youth and beauty lie,

Cold within the tomb !

As the Spring's first violets die,
Wither'd in their bloom.

"O'er the young and buried bride
Let the cypress wave-

A kingdom's hope, a kingdom's pride,
Lie hid in yonder grave.

"Place the vain-expected child
Gently near her breast!

It never wept, it never smiled,
But seeks its mother's rest.

"Hark! we hear the general cry!
Hark! the passing bell!

A thousand thousand bosoms sigh
A long and last farewell."

"Hark! forth from the abyss a voice proceeds,
A long, low, distant murmur of dread sound,
Such as arises when a nation bleeds

With some deep and immedicable wound;

Through storm and darkness yawns the rending ground,
The gulf is thick with phantoms, but the chief

Seems royal still, though with her head discrown'd;

And pale, but lovely, with maternal grief,

She clasps a babe, to whom her breast yields no relief.

"Scion of chiefs and monarchs, where art thou?
Fond hope of many nations, art thou dead?
Could not the grave forget thee, and lay low
Some less majestic, less beloved head?

In the sad midnight, while thy heart still bled,

The mother of a moment, o'er thy boy,

Death hush'd that pang for ever; with thee fled
The present happiness and promised joy

Which fill'd the Imperial isles so full it seems to cloy.

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Peasants bring forth in safety. - Can it be,

Oh thou that wert so happy, so adored!

Those who weep not for kings shall weep for thee,
And Freedom's heart, grown heavy, cease to hoard
Her many griefs for One; for she had pour'd
Her orison for thee, and o'er thy head
Beheld her Iris. Thou, too, lonely Lord,
And desolate consort-vainly wert thou wed!
The husband of a year! the father of the dead!
"Of sackcloth was thy wedding garment made;
The bridal's fruit is ashes; in the dust
The fair-hair'd Daughter of the Isles is laid,
The love of millions! How we did entrust

Futurity to her! and, though it must

Darken above our bones, yet fondly deem'd

Our children should obey her child, and bless'd

Her and her hoped-for seed, whose promise seem'd

Like stars to shepherds' eyes-'twas but a meteor beam'd."

LESSON CCCXI.

BYRON.

NOVEMBER THE SEVENTH.

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Fata Morgana.

THE singular aerial phenomenon, to which the name of Fata Morgana has been given, is observed in the Straits of Messina. This atmospherical refraction is not, however, altogether confined to that locality, it having occasionally been seen on our own coasts. But we will describe it as it there appears: When the rising sun shines from that point whence its incident ray forms an angle of about 45° on the sea of Reggio, and the bright surface of the water in the bay is not disturbed either by the wind or current,— when the tide is at its height, and the waters are pressed up by currents to a great elevation in the middle of the channel, the spectator being placed on an eminence, with his back to the sun and his face to the sea, the mountains of Messina rising like a wall behind it, and forming the back-ground of the picture, -on a sudden there appears in the water, as in a catoptric theatre, various multiplied objects-numberless series of pilasters, arches, castles, well-delineated regular columns, lofty towers, superb palaces, with balconies and windows, extended alleys of trees, delightful plains, with herds and flocks, armies of men on foot, on horseback, and many other things, in their natural colours and proper actions, passing rapidly in succession along the surface of the sea, during the whole of the short period of time while the above-mentioned causes remain. All these objects, which are exhibited in the Fata Morgana, are proved by the accurate observations of the coast and town of Reggio, by P. Minasi, to be derived from objects on shore.

If in addition to the circumstances we before described, the atmosphere be highly impregnated with vapour and dense exhalations, not previously dispersed by the action of the wind and waves, or rarified by the sun, it then happens, that in this vapour, as in a curtain extended along the channel to the height of above forty palms, and nearly down to the sea, the observer will behold the scene of the same objects not only reflected from the surface of the

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