Paul Revere tells his friend to show a light from the Old Church tower, if the British should leave town by night. He rows to the Charlestown shore and gets on his horse, ready to spread the alarm in the country. He passes the British man-of-war. His friend mounts to the Church tower and watches the British fleet and army. He sees the fleet move and gives the signal. Paul Revere sees the signal mounts his steed, dashes down the village street. At twelve o'clock he reaches Medford; at one, Lexington; at two, Concord. The result of his warning was to prepare the colonists so that they were able to resist the advance of the British on the following day. George Bancroft was born in Worcester, Mass., in 1800. He graduated at Harvard, and studied for two years in German universities. He entered actively into political life at an early age, and held several high offices under the general government, including that of Minister to England. The first volume of the History of the United States appeared in 1834, and has been followed at intervals by others to the number of nine. This great work is remarkable for "patient industry, eloquent style, and a capacity to array the theme in a garb of philosophy." In the opinion of Dr. Brownson, Bancroft has written the only work that deserves the title of History of the United States. From a Catholic point of view some objections can be made to the first volumes, but on the whole it is a noble monument of the genius of the author and the genius of his country.” DARKNESS closed upon the country and upon the town, but it was no night for sleep. Heralds on swift relays of horses transmitted the war message from hand to hand, till village repeated it to village; the sea to the backwoods; the plains to the highlands; and it was never suffered to droop, till it had been borne North, and South, and East, and West, throughout the land. It spread over the bays that receive the Saco and the Penobscot. Its loud reveille broke the rest of the trappers of New Hampshire, and ringing like bugle notes from peak to peak, overleapt the Green Mountains, swept onward to Montreal, and descended the ocean river, till the responses were echoed from the cliffs of Quebec. The hills along the Hudson told to one another the tale. As the summons hurried to the South, it was one day at New York; in one more at Philadelphia; the next it lighted a watch fire at Baltimore; thence it waked an answer at Annapolis. Crossing the Potomac near Mount Vernon, it was sent forward without a halt to Williamsburg. It traversed the Dismal Swamp to Nansemond, along the route of the first emigrants to North Carolina. It moved onwards and still onwards, through boundless groves of evergreen, to Newbern and to Wilmington. "For God's sake, forward it by night and by day,' wrote Cornelius Harnett, by the express which sped for Brunswick. Patriots of South Carolina caught up its tones at the border and despatched it to Charleston, and through pines and palmettos and moss-clad liveoaks, further to the South, till it resounded among the New England settlements beyond the Savannah. The Blue Ridge took up the voice, and made it heard from one end to the other of the valley of Virginia. The Alleghanies, as they listened, opened their barriers that the "loud call" might pass through to the hardy riflemen on the Holston, the Watauga and the French Broad. Ever renewing its strength, powerful enough even to create a commonwealth, it breathed its inspiring word to the first settlers of Kentucky; so that hunters who made their halt in the matchless valley of the Elkhorn, commemorated the 19th day of April, 1776, by naming their encampment Lexington. With one impulse the colonies sprang to arms; with one spirit they pledged themselves to each other "to be ready for the extreme event." With one heart the continent cried, "LIBERTY OR DEATH.” Questions: Explain "Darkness closed. . . . sleep." Mention three occasions on which a "reveille" is used. Tell anything historical you know about "the cliffs of Quebec" and "Revolution." Show the different places named in this lesson. Where are palmettos found? What is a commonwealth? Name some "extreme events" in history. Alexander Pope was born in London, of Catholic parents, in 1688; died in 1744. His name marks an era in English poetry, that of the correct, classical school of Queen Anne's reign. His principal poems are a translation of the "Iliad" of Homer; "The Dunciad," a bitter satire upon rival poets of his time; a mock-heroic entitled the "Rape of the Lock;" the "Imitations from Horace," the "Essay on Criticism" and the "Essay on Man." They are characterized by wit, brilliancy and clearness, if not depth of thought, and by vigor and conciseness of expression. His verse is highly polished and harmonious, and completed the work, begun by Dryden, of rendering fluent and easy the language of poetry. It is to be regretted that a number of his sentiments offend against religion and morals. VITAL spark of heavenly flame, Quit, O quit this mortal frame! Hark! they whisper; angels say: - The world recedes; it disappears; Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! O Death, where is thy sting?" Questions:- When is anything "vital"? Why is the soul called a "vital spark"? What is "the mortal frame"? Why is man "trembling, hoping, lingering, fiying"? How is death a pain, yet a bliss? What does "languish into life" mean? Who is told to hearken? Whose is the "sister spirit"? How does death "absorb us quite"? "Steal our senses, shut our sight, drown our spirit"? What recedes and disappears? What happens to my ears? Who are asked to lend their wings? When are we victorious over death? When do we escape its sting? What is said in Holy Writ of the just man's death? Name some very good deaths you know, or have read of. lingering absorbs senses recedes INSUFFICIENCY OF NATURAL RELIGION. IF F Natural Religion is a sufficient revelation, and no other is necessary, it has been written with a sunbeam upon all lands, — it has been inscribed from the beginning of the creation upon the face of the glorious orb of day. But what is the result? What has Natural Religion effected, in any, in every age?-in any, in every country? "The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands." But "the world by wisdom knew not God;" they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator;" they fell down to the hosts of heaven; or "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things." Now call for Natural Religion, and she shall answer you from the depths of the forest and the summits of the mountains; from the sea, and from the shore; from the crowded city, and the uncultivated desert; from the hut of the savage, and the dome of the monarch; - everywhere her altars are planted, and her worship maintained. Her influence and her footsteps may be traced on the face of the whole earth, in barbarous rites, revolting superstitions, and disgusting obscenities; in all the forms of idolatry, from the feathered gods of the South Sea Islands, to the misshapen logs of Africa, up to the three hundred and thirty-three thousand deities of philosophic India. 66 Would you see her in her own person? Bid her come forth, she appears "in garments rolled in blood; "the battle of the warrior with confused noise" rages around her; her children drop into the fires kindled to her honor; human victims are slaughtered on the altars |