a constant and ever-victorious struggle with nature, and whose annals record a magnificent series of splendid benefits conferred upon mankind. 2. In the earliest ages, the chief effort was to make the land fit for habitation by draining its marshes, irrigating its fields, protecting its low grounds from inundation, and, as larger communities were formed, in bringing supplies of pure water from distant springs. Of the hydraulic works of the nations of antiquity, we need say nothing here; but what a triumph of engineering has it been in our own country, to have transformed the Fen region round the Wash, from a dreary water-level overgrown with rushes, into a rich land smiling with golden grain, and supporting noble herds of cattle! Surely, too, it was a victory of man over nature to confine a river like the Thames within a definite channel, fitting it to be a highway for London's mighty commerce, and at the same time winning for agriculture a wide extent of fertile land. 3. Of endeavours to supply water to great cities, one of the earliest in England was the formation of the New River, by which Sir Hugh Myddelton brought a copious stream from Hertfordshire to London, undertaking the work, as Smiles says, in a spirit more like that of a Roman emperor than of a private London citizen. 4. In modern times, perhaps the most wonderful feats have been those of our railway engineers, who, in their efforts to enable man to communicate freely with man, have constructed magnificent roads across great countries and continents, bridging over or tunnelling under river and estuary, establishing a firm way over fen and marsh, and piercing a passage through the very heart of even the mightiest mountains. One of the earliest of such exploits, and the forerunner of yet greater triumphs, was the construction of the railway between Liverpool and Manchester. Part of this line had to pass over Chat Moss, an immense peatbog of spongy vegetable pulp. The project was declared by the most distinguished engineers of the day to be an impossible thing which no man in his senses would undertake to do.' Yet George Stephenson, worthily called 'the Father of Railway Engineering,' solved the problem, and constructed a firm road for the heaviest trains, over the yielding marsh which had been found incapable of supporting the weight of a single man. 5. Since that time the development of our railway system has been prodigious. Even as early as 1850, Robert Stephenson could use such words as these, which could be far more than confirmed by us now: 'It seems to me but as yesterday that I was engaged as an assistant in laying out the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Since then, the Liverpool and Manchester, and a hundred other great works, have sprung into existence. As I look back upon these stupendous undertakings, accomplished in so short a time, it seems as though we had realised in our generation the fabled power of the magician's wand. Hills have been cut down and valleys filled up, and when these simple expedients have not sufficed, high and magnificent viaducts have been raised, and, if mountains stood in the way, tunnels of unexampled magnitude have pierced them through, bearing their triumphant attestation to the indomitable energy of the nation, and the unrivalled skill of our artisans.' 6. Some time ago it was calculated that the railways of Europe were upwards of 70,000 miles in length, with 60,000 bridges, and 400 miles of tunnels; 20,000 locomotives were employed, and the engines and vehicles might be formed into a train that would reach from St Petersburg to Paris. 7. Still greater has been the progress of railways in the United States of America, where, at the end of 1884, there were about 140,000 miles open and in actual use, while an immense number of men were directly or indirectly employed in connection with the lines. Chief in importance are the gigantic 'tracks' which stretch across the entire continent from ocean to ocean. On the Union Pacific Railway, for example, entering a Pullman car, in which he may live as luxuriously as in a first-class hotel, the traveller is borne from the Atlantic seaboard at New York, through the crests of the Alleghany Chain, across the great Mississippi basin, onward and upward amidst the white peaks of the Rocky Mountains, to a height of 8242 feet above the level of the sea, until, having traversed the dreary tableland of Utah and Nevada, and overpassed the last Sierra, he descends into the rich western valleys, and safely reaches the great city of San Francisco, and the wide Golden Gates' of the Pacific. The like journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific can also now be made through the territories of the Dominion of Canada, by the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which carries communication across the Rocky Mountains to Port Moodie in British Columbia. En-gin-eer', one who makes engines, and all sorts of machines. Cen'-tu-ry, a period of a hundred years. From Lat. centuria, a body of a hundred men, from centum, hundred. Ann'-als, record of events from year Ir-ri-gat-ing, causing water to flow Con'-ti-nent, one of the great the globe. From Lat. continens, holding together, from con, together, and teneo, I hold. Es'-tu-ar-y, the mouth of a river. So called from the boiling and foaming caused by the meeting of the tide with the current of the river. From Lat. æstuo, I boil up. Ex-ploit', great deed. Through the French from Lat. explicitum, displayed, achieved, passive participle of explico, I unfold or display. De-vel'-op-ment, growth. Vi'-a-duct, a road carried by a structure over a valley or river. At-tes-ta'-tion, testimony. From ness. In-dom'-i-ta-ble, not to be overcome. From Lat. in, not, and domo, I subdue. Lo-co-mo'-tive, a railway engine. From Lat. locus, place, and moveo, I move. Veh'-i-cle, any kind of carriage. Gi-gan'-tic, huge, very large. Crests, tops. EXERCISES.-1. Explain the following: (1) The hydraulic works of the nations of antiquity; (2) the development of our railway system; (3) when these simple expedients have not sufficed; (4) bearing their triumphant attestation to the indomitable energy of the nation. 2. Analyse and parse the following: 'The letter says what he says it says; but I contend that it also says what I say it says.' 3. Name all the derivatives you know from the following Latin roots (1) Locus, a place; (2) ager, a field; (3) colo, cultum, I till; (4) dies, a day. BLESSINGS OF FREEDOM. [This lesson is by the well-known English poet, William Cowper (1731— 1800), and forms the introduction to the second book of his greatest poem, The Task.] Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Where rumour of oppression and deceit, Of unsuccessful or successful war, Might never reach me more! My ear is pained, 5 My soul is sick, with every day's report Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled. There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart, It does not feel for man; the natural bond Of brotherhood is severed as the flax 10 He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not coloured like his own; and, having power 15 |