Kherson, a village on the Dnieper, near the Crimea, still as of old with indefatigable resolution and kindness pursuing his work. In visiting a young lady dying of a fever, the infection seized him, and he soon felt that death was upon him. On his death-bed he was just what we have always known him. We hear the voice of prayer for his son, of inextinguishable pity for the afflicted, and, concerning himself, these words, addressed to his friend Admiral Priestman, "Let me beg of you, as you value your old friend, not to suffer any pomp to be used at my funeral, nor any monument, or monumental inscription whatsoever, to mark where I am laid: but lay me quietly in the earth, place a sun-dial over my grave, and let me be forgotten." Thus, with the same calm, saintly smile, so still but so immovable, which he had worn during life, he passed away. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF WASHINGTON. Con'gress, n. (L. con, gressum), a meeting; an assembly; the legislature of the United States. Pres'i-dent, n. (L. prae, sedeo), one placed with authority over others; a governor; the supreme executive officer of the United States is called President. George Washington, the celebrated commander of the American army, was born in 1732, in Virginia. When the disaffection of the Americans to the British government had become general, he was made commander-in-chief, in 1775. He was inaugurated as the first President of the United States on the 30th April, 1789. On more than one occasion, if he could not with certainty have achieved life-long despotic power, he might have acquired the flattering title of king; but it was his great merit that he sought only as much power and greatness as enabled him to do his duty, and no more. He retired from public life in 1796, and died on the 14th December, 1799, leaving a reputation without a stain. ANECDOTE-PUNCTUALITY. When General Washington assigned to meet Congress at noon, he never failed to be passing the door of the hall while the clock was striking twelve.-Whither his guests were present or not, he always dined at four. Not unfrequently new members of Congress, who were invited to dine with him, delayed until dinner was half over, and he would then remark, "Gentlemen, we are punctual here." When he visited Boston in 1788, he appointed eight A. M. as the hour when he should set out for Salem, and while the Old South church clock was striking eight, he was mounting his horse. The company of cavalry, which volunteered to escort him, were parading in TremontStreet, after his departure, and it was not until the President reached Charles River Bridge, that they overtook him. On the arrival of the corps, the President, with perfect good-nature, said, "Major, I thought you had been too long in my family, not to know when it was eight o'clock." Captain Pease, the father of the stage establishment in the United States, had a beautiful pair of horses which he wished to dispose of to the President, whom he knew to be an excellent judge of horses. The President appointed five o'clock in the morning to examine them. But the captain did not arrive with the horses until a quarter after five, when he was told by the groom that the President was there at five, and was then fulfilling other engagements. Pease, much mortified, was obliged to wait a week for another opportunity, merely for delaying the first quarter of an hour. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF MUNGO PARK. In-nu ́mer-a-ble, adj. (L. in, numer-| Termi-nate, v. (L. terminus), to us), that cannot be numbered for multitude. Ex-pe-di'tion, n. (L. ex, pes), a march, journey or voyage requiring promptness or despatch. bound; to limit; to end. Im-men'si-ty, n. (L. in, mensus, see meiior), unlimited extension; boundlessness. MUNGO PARK, the African traveller, was born near Selkirk, in Scotland, 10th Sept., 1771. In 1790 he repaired to London, and was introduced to Sir Joseph Banks, who recommended him to the members of the African Association, as a fit person to undertake a journey to the interior of Africa. He undertook his first expedition in 1795. After innumerable hardships and privations, and an absence of more than two years and a half, he arrived in England in December, 1797. In January, 1806, he undertook a second expedition, marked with as many painful and disastrous circumstances as the former, and which terminated his life. By the following November, he had reached the banks of the Niger. His last letter was dated the 19th of that month, when having got a sort of schooner constructed and rigged out, he was about to set sail down the river, in hopes of tracing the lower course of that famed stream. In this letter he speaks in a hopeful strain, declaring his confidence of reaching the ocean in safety, and the probability of his being in England before the letter itself. This however, the intrepid traveller was destined never to accomplish. For a considerable period the circumstances of his death were shrouded in mystery, but at last it was distinctly ascertained that when he had descended the river as far as Boussa, 650 miles below Timbucto, he was attacked by the Moors, and after a vain struggle against superior numbers, Park and his companions leaped into the river, attempting to escape by swimming, and were drowned. ANECDOTE-AFRICAN HOSPITALITY. When the celebrated Mungo Park was in Africa, he was directed by one of the native kings to a village to pass the night. He went, but as the order was not accompanied with any provision for his reception, he found every door shut. Turning his horse loose to graze, he was preparing, as a security from wild beasts, to climb a tree, and sleep among the branches, when a beautiful and affecting incident occured, which gives a most pleasing view of the negro female character. An old woman, returning from the labours of the field, cast on him a look of compassion, and desired him to follow her. She led him to an apartment in her hut, procured a fine fish, which she broiled for his supper, and spread a mat for him to sleep upon. She then desired her maidens, who had been gazing in fixed astonishment on the white man, to resume their tasks, which they continued to ply through a great part of the night. They cheered their labours with a song, which must have been composed extempore, as Mr. Park, with deep emotion, discovered that he himself was the subject of it. It said, in a strain of affecting simplicity:-"The winds roared, and the rain fell. The poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our He has no mother to bring him milk, no wife to grind his corn." Chorus. "Let us pity the white man, no mother has he," &c. Our traveller was much affected, and next morning could not depart without requesting his landlady's acceptance of the only gift he had left, two out of the four brass buttons that still remained on his waistcoat. tree. SECTION III. GENERAL HISTORY. THE TAKING OF BABYLON BY CYRUS, (B.c. 538.) From "Rollin's Ancient History." Ap-pa-ri'tion, n. (L. ad, pareo), | In-ter-pre-ta ́tion, n. (L. interpres), appearance; the object seen; a spectre. As-trol'o-ger, n. (Gr. astēr, logos), one who professes to foretell events by the stars. Astrology, anciently in great repute, is now universally exploded by true science and philosophy. Sor'cer-y, n. (L. sors), fortune-telling by casting lots; witchcraft; enchantment. Prog-nos'ti-ca-tor, n. (Gr. pro, ginosko), a foreknower; a foreteller of a future event by present signs. explanation; exposition. Ford ́a-ble, adj, (Sax.) that may be AS SOON as Cyrus saw that the ditch, which they had long worked upon, was finished, he began to think seriously upon the execution of his vast design, which as yet he had communicated to nobody. Providence soon furnished him with as fit an opportunity for this purpose as he could desire. He was informed, that in the city, on such a day, a great festival was to be celebrated; and that the Babylonians, on occasion of that solemnity, were accustomed to pass the whole night in drinking and debauchery. 1 1 Belshazzar himself was more concerned in this public rejoicing than any other, and gave a magnificent entertainment to the chief officers of the kingdom, and the ladies of the court. In the heat of his wine he ordered the gold and silver vessels, which had been taken from the temple of Jerusalem, to be brought out; and, as an insult upon the God of Israel, he, his 1 Dan. v 1-29. whole court, and all his concubines, drank out of those sacred vessels. God, who was provoked at such insolence and impiety, in the very action, made him sensible who it was that he affronted, by a sudden apparition of a hand, writing certain characters upon a wall. The king, terribly surprised and affrighted at this vision, immediately sent for all the wise men, his diviners, and astrologers, that they might read the writing to him, and explain the meaning of it. But they all came in vain, not one of them being able to expound the matter, or even to read the characters.2 It is probably in relation to this occurrence, that Isaiah, after having foretold to Babylon, that she should be overwhelmed with calamities which she did not expect, adds, "Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries. Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee," Isa. xlvii. 12. 13. The queen-mother, Nitocris, a princess of great merit, coming upon the noise of this prodigy into the banqueting-room, endeavoured to compose the spirit of the king, her son, advising him to send for Daniel, with whose abilities in such matters she was well acquainted, and whom she had always employed in the government of the state. Daniel was therefore immediately sent for, and spoke to the king with a freedom and liberty becoming a prophet. He put him in mind of the dreadful manner in which God had punished the pride of his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar, and the crying 3 abuse he made of his power, when he acknowledged no law but his own will, and thought himself master to exalt and to abase, to inflict destruction and death wheresoever he would, only because such was his will and pleasure. "And thou his son," says he to the king, "Hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee; and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, have drank wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not 2 The reason why they could not read this sentence was, that it was written in Hebrew letters, which are now called the Samaritan characters, and which the Babylonians did not understand. 3 "Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive, and whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down." Dan. v. 19. F |