most parts, with spots cleared, where the people had their towns. The houses were made of wood, and were very rough and poor, and you may be sure the roads were very bad. Indeed they were so bad that the Romans had to make new roads before their soldiers could march through the land.

Their priests were very cruel and bloody. They used to burn men and women and children alive, saying it would please their god, Baal, that is, the Sun. The great rough stones on which they used to put people to death in this way, may still be seen in some parts.

39. THE DEATH OF THE BRAVE.

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow'd mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.

By fairy hands their knell is rung;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
There Honour comes, a pilgrim grey,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell a weeping hermit there.

THERE once was a school-boy of Harwich,

(It's a pity he hadn't a carriage),

Who would go fast asleep,

As to school he did creep,

The lazy young school-boy of Harwich.

One day as to school he was creeping-
I almost believe he was sleeping-
The rude boys cried, "Oh, dear,
What a snail's creeping here!"

And laughed till he burst out a weeping.

guide
tongue

41.-THE BLIND.

judging
scratches

reason

polished

How can a blind girl or boy read? Let me tell you. They have books with the words pricked through the paper with sharp points, so that the letters stand up on the page, and can be felt by the fingers. They first learn the shape of the letters by feeling them, then they go on to short words, and before long, so quick are they in learning, they can read as fast as if they could see.

You or I could not do anything like this, and the reason is, that not needing to use our touch so much, it is not so keen and quick as theirs. But as they have no eyes, and must find out what they want to know in other ways, God has helped them by making their touch grow so fine that it becomes almost as good a guide to them in many things as the eye would have been. A blind man who used to write about plants could tell what kind of plant any one brought him by his fingers, or, if he were not quite sure after touching it with them, by putting it to the tip of his tongue. Another blind man who used to teach in a college, that is in a school for young men, could tell scratches on a sheet of polished steel, though they were so fine that other people needed a strong glass to see them at all. A girl who had for years read her Bible by the touch of her fingers was taken ill, and found that after a time her hands grew numb, so that

she could not feel the letters as before. You may be sure she was very sorry to think that she could no longer read that Book which had been so great a comfort to her in her darkness. Her heart was like to break, and she did not know how to part with it. She could at least kiss it tenderly before she gave it up, and so she lifted it to her lips and kissed it over and over. What was her joy to find that she could feel the dear letters with her lips, and that she could read just as she had done by drawing the lines over her lips instead of passing. her fingers over them. From that day she read her Bible in this way.

THERE was once a blind German who could read print just like this, if it was printed on coarse paper which let the letters make a deep mark in it. It is very strange what some blind people have been able to do. A blind man used to be postman to three villages in Wales. The addresses on the letters were read to him in a certain order, and he was never known to make a mistake in giving them to the different persons for whom they were meant. There was a blind man in the north of England some years since who was a great angler. He fished in all the brooks among the hills,

and knew every gate and stile in all the district. A friend of his who was stone blind was a famous player at cards. Another blind man was a great swimmer and a bold rider. He was in the habit of going out with the hounds, over hill and dale after the hare and the fox, and he once rode his horse in a race and won it. In 1745 he went into the army, and fought at the battle of Culloden. In the depth of winter, when the driver of the stage-coach from York could not make out the road under the deep snow, the blind man would take the reins and drive the coach safely to its journey's end. He could play on the fiddle, he was a famous horse dealer, and traded in many things besides, and in the end took to making roads, and made many in the northern counties. He was often to be seen roaming through the country, climbing hills, and searching the best way for the road through valleys, with no help but that of a long staff. His name was John Metcalf.

Blind men have often become very clever in other ways. One who was born blind, taught himself to be a first-rate clock and watch-maker. Another kept his wife and children by mending clocks, and almost anything else that came in his way. Mr. Milburn, the blind preacher, went to college though he was blind, and became a good scholar by keeping all that he heard in his head. He lived after that in a wild country, with bad bridges, and streams which had to be forded, and the roads were often only tracks through the woods, and yet he went about safely, year after year, with the help of his pony. In four years he travelled