origin of our freedom, our prosperity, and our glory. Then it was that the great English people was formed, that the national character began to exhibit those peculiarities which it has ever since retained, and that our fathers became emphatically islanders,-islanders not merely in geographical position, but in their politics, their feelings, and their manners. Then first appeared with distinctness that constitution which has ever since, through all changes, preserved its identity; that constitution of which all the other free constitutions in the world are copies, and which, in spite of some defects, deserves to be regarded as the best under which any great society has ever yet existed during many ages. Then it was that the House of Commons, the archetype of all the representative assemblies which now meet, either in the old or in the new world, held its first sittings. Then it was that the common law rose to the dignity of a science, and rapidly became a not unworthy rival of the imperial jurisprudence. Then it was that the courage of those sailors who manned the rude barks of the Cinque Ports first made the flag of England terrible on the seas. Then it was that the most ancient colleges which still exist at both the great national seats of learning were founded. Then was formed that language, less musical, indeed, than the languages of the south, but in force, in richness, in aptitude for all the highest purposes of the poet, the philosopher, and the orator, inferior to the tongue of Greece alone. Then, too, appeared the first faint dawn of that noble literature, the most splendid and the most durable of the many glories of England.

NOTES.-John, King. - Born, 1166; reigned from 1199 to 1216. He was the third Plantagenet King, and was the brother of Richard Coeur de Lion. Richard the First. - Elder brother of King John. Born, 1157; reigned, from 1189 to 1199. Cinque Ports.-Originally five ports to which a Charter, with special privileges, was given by William the

Conqueror, in 1067. Others were afterwards included under the name. They are, now, Dover, Sandwich, Hythe, and Romney, on the coast of Kent, and Rye, Winchelsea, Hastings, and Seaford, in Sussex. House of Commons.-Began in 1258. Common Law.-The law based on custom, the decision of judges, &c., as distinct from statute law.

ANECDOTE OF SHELLEY.-Leigh Hunt.

Leigh Hunt, an English critic, essayist, and minor poet of the first half of this century. In early life he was Editor of the Examiner newspaper, and was imprisoned for two years for a so-called libel on the Prince Regent-afterwards George IV. Through this, Byron became his friend,

and supported him and his family for years. Shelley also befriended him greatly, and he became intimate with all the literary men of his day. He was born in 1784; died, 1858. For Shelley's life, see page 18.

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I was returning home one night to Hampstead after the opera. As I approached the door, I heard strange and alarming shrieks, mixed with the voice of a man. The next day it was reported by the gossips that Mr. Shelley, no Christian (for it was he who was there), had brought some very strange female ” into the house, no better, of course, than she ought to be. The real Christian had puzzled them. Shelley, in coming to our house that night, had found a woman lying near the top of the hill, in fits. It was a fierce winter night, with snow upon the ground; and winter loses nothing of its fierceness at Hampstead. My friend, always the promptest as well as most pitying on these occasions, knocked at the first houses he could reach, in order to have the woman taken in. The invariable answer was, that they could not do it. He asked for an

outhouse to put her in, while he went for a doctor. Impossible! In vain he assured them she was no impostor. They would not dispute the point with him; but doors were closed, and windows were shut down. Had he lit upon worthy Mr. Park, the philologist, that gentleman would assuredly have come, in spite of his Calvinism. But he lived too far off. Had he lit upon my friend Armitage Brown, who lived on another side of the Heath; or on his friend and neighbour, Dilke; they would either of them have jumped up from amidst their books or their bed-clothes, and have gone out with him. But the paucity of Christians is astonishing, considering the number of them. Time flies; the poor woman is in convulsions; her son, a young man, lamenting over her. At last my friend sees a carriage driving up to a house at a little distance. The knock is given; the warm door opens; servants and lights pour forth. Now, thought he, is the time. He puts on his best address, which anybody might recognise for that of the highest gentleman as well as of an interesting individual, and plants himself in the way of an elderly person, who is stepping out of the carriage, with his family. He tells his story. They only press on the faster. "Will you go and see her ?" 'No, sir; there's no necessity for that sort of thing, depend on it. Impostors swarm everywhere: the thing cannot be done; sir, your conduct is extraordinary." cried Shelley, assuming a very different manner, and forcing the flourishing householder to stop out of astonishment, “I am

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"Sir,

sorry to say that your conduct is not extraordinary; and if my own seems to amaze you, I will tell you something which may amaze you a little more, and I hope will frighten you. It is such men as you who madden the spirits and the patience of the poor and wretched; and if ever a convulsion comes in this country (which is very probable) recollect what I tell you :you will have your house, that you refuse to put the miserable woman into, burnt over your head." "God bless me, sir! Dear me, sir!" exclaimed the poor, frightened man, and fluttered into his mansion. The woman was then brought to our house, which was at some distance, and down a bleak path (it was in the Vale of Health); and Shelley and her son were obliged to hold her till the doctor could arrive. It appeared that she had been attending this son in London, on a criminal charge made against him, the agitation of which had thrown her into the fits on her return. The doctor said that she would have perished, had she lain there a short time longer. The next day my friend sent mother and son comfortably home to Hendon, where they were known, and whence they returned him thanks full of gratitude.

WOULD YOU BE YOUNG AGAIN ?-Baroness Nairne.

The Baroness Nairne was born August 16, 1766; died October 27, 1845, aged 79. She was the Authoress of many touching songs, lyrics, &c.; among others, of the exquisite song, "The Land o' the Leal."

WOULD you be young again?

So would not I—

One tear to memory giv'n,

Onward I'd hie—

Life's dark flood forded o'er,

All but at rest on shore,

Say, would you plunge once more,
With home so nigh?

If you might, would you now
Retrace your way?

Wander through thorny wilds,

Faint and astray?

Night's gloomy watches fled,

Morning all beaming red,

Hope's smiles around us shed,

Heavenward-away.

Where are they gone, of yore
My best delight?

Dear and more dear, tho' now
Hidden from sight?
Where they rejoice to be,
There is the land for me;
Fly time, fly speedily,
Come life and light.

CHEERFULNESS OF GREAT MEN.-S. Smiles.

Samuel Smiles was born at Haddington, N.B., in 1812. He was educated as a medical man, but, after practising for six years, became secretary to two railway companies successively. Author of "Self Help," "Lives of the Engineers," "Visits to the Country of the Vaudois," and "Character," from which the following is taken.

CHEERFULNESS is an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the heart. It gives harmony of soul, and is a perpetual song without words. It is tantamount to repose. It enables nature to recruit its strength; whereas worry and discontent debilitate it, involving constant wear-and-tear.

How is it that we see such men as Lord Palmerston growing old in harness, working on vigorously to the end? Mainly through equanimity of temper and habitual cheerfulness. They have educated themselves in the habit of endurance, of not being easily provoked, of bearing and forbearing, of hearing harsh and even unjust things said of them without indulging in undue resentment, and avoiding worreting, petty, and selftormenting cares. An intimate friend of Lord Palmerston, who observed him closely for twenty years, has said that he never saw him angry, with perhaps one exception; and that was when the ministry responsible for the calamity in Affghanistan, of which he was one, were unjustly accused by their opponents of falsehood, perjury, and wilful mutilation of public documents.

So far as can be learnt from biography, men of the greatest genius have been for the most part cheerful, contented mennot eager for reputation, money, or power-but relishing life, and keenly susceptible of enjoyment, as we find reflected in their works. Such seem to have been Homer, Horace, Virgil, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Cervantes. Healthy, serene cheerful

ness is apparent in their great creations. Among the same class of cheerful-minded men may also be mentioned Luther, More, Bacon, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michael Angelo. Perhaps they were happy because constantly occupied, and in the pleasantest of all work-that of creating out of the fulness and richness of their great minds.

Milton, too, though a man of many trials and sufferings, must have been a man of great cheerfulness and elasticity of nature. Though overtaken by blindness, deserted by friends, and fallen upon evil days" darkness before and danger's voice behind "—yet did he not bate heart or hope, but "still bore up and steered right onward."

Henry Fielding was a man borne down through life by debt, and difficulty, and bodily suffering; and yet Lady Mary Wortley Montague has said of him that, by virtue of his cheerful disposition, she was persuaded he "had known more happy moments than any person on earth."

Dr. Johnson, through all his trials and sufferings and hard fights with fortune, was a courageous and cheerful-natured man. He manfully made the best of life, and tried to be glad in it. Once, when a clergyman was complaining of the dulness of society in the country, saying, "they only talk of runts' (young cows), Johnson felt flattered by the observation of Mrs. Thrale's mother, who said, Sir, Dr. Johnson would learn to talk of runts"-meaning that he was a man who would make the most of his situation, whatever it was.

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Johnson was of opinion that a man grew better as he grew older, and that his nature mellowed with age. This is certainly a much more cheerful view of human nature than that of Lord Chesterfield, who saw life through the eyes of a cynic, and held that "the heart never grows better by age; it only grows harder." But both sayings may be true according to the point from which life is viewed, and the temper by which a man is governed; for while the good, profiting by experience, and disciplining themselves by self-control, will grow better, the ill-conditioned, uninfluenced by experience, will only grow

worse.

Sir Walter Scott was a man full of the milk of human kindness. Everybody loved him. He was never five minutes in a room ere the little pets of the family, whether dumb or lisping, had found out his kindness for all their generation. Scott related to Captain Basil Hall an incident of his boyhood which showed the tenderness of his nature. One day a dog coming