44. SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS.

1. In all ages of the world, savages have believed in evil spirits or demons, and have made use of charms and magic to ward off their bad influences. There have always been medicine-men, rain-makers, wizards, conjurers, sorcerers, astrologers, and fortune-tellers, ready to trade on the fears of the weak, the ignorant, and the superstitious. 2. It is only within two hundred years that the belief in magic has died out among enlightened people. Indeed, in civilized nations there are millions that still have a lingering belief in ghosts and witches. In every great city, in our own country, there are scores of "fortunetellers" that live upon the superstitions of deluded people, who visit them in the hope of finding out what is to happen in the future.

3. Within two hundred years, many people in our own country, the United States, were charged with witchcraft, tried and convicted, and some were put to death.

In Europe, within five hundred years, it has been estimated that several hundred thousand people were burned for being witches.

4. In those dark days, if any one fell sick, it was thought to be the work of witches. It was the witches that were said to cause the storm, the drought, the pestilence, the frost, or the failure of the crops.

5. The poor creatures that were charged with being in league with evil spirits were old and helpless. If any one had a spite against his neighbor, he charged that neighbor with bewitching him, or his children, or his cattle, or his crops.

6. It was the sign of a witch to be old and wrinkled; to have a squint eye, a squeaking voice, or a scolding tongue. The unfortunate person accused of witchcraft was generally tortured into a confession of guilt, and then burned alive.

Adapted, from CLODD.

45. MYTHS ABOUT ECLIPSES.

1. There is something so weird and gloomy in eclipses of the sun and moon, that we can readily understand how they have been looked upon, in all ages, as the direct work of some dreadful power.

2. The Chinese imagine them to be caused by great dragons trying to devour the sun and moon. They, therefore, beat gongs to make the monsters let go their hold.

3. Some tribes of American Indians think the moon is hunted by dogs. Even in Europe, not more than three hundred years ago, both eclipses and comets were thought to forebode great calamities.

4. But astronomers are able, not only to explain the cause of eclipses, but also to predict the exact time when they will occur. An eclipse of the sun is caused by the passing of the moon between the sun and the earth, so that the sun's rays are left out, or cut off, for a short time, that is, when the earth passes into the moon's shadow.

5. An eclipse of the moon occurs when the moon passes into the earth's shadow, that is, when the earth is in a direct line between the moon and the sun.

COMPOSITION. Write what you can remember of this lesson

13

WRITTEN SPELLING.-WORDS OFTEN MISSPELLED.

Divide into syllables, mark the accented syllable, and use the proper diacritical marks.

46.

RHYME OF THE RAIL.

John Godfrey Saxe, born in Vermont in 1816, was graduated in Middlebury college, practiced law for a few years, was editor of different newspapers, and subsequently became a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y. He devoted himself to lecturing and authorship. He excelled in humorous and satirical poetry.

This piece affords a good illustration of quick movement, and the circumflex inflection.

1. Singing through the forests,

Rattling over ridges,

Shooting under arches,

Rumbling over bridges;

Whizzing through the mountains,

Buzzing o'er the vale-
Bless me! this is pleasant,
Riding on the rail!

2. Men of different stations
In the eye of fame
Here are very quickly
Coming to the same;
High and lowly people,
Birds of every feather,
On a common level,
Traveling together!

3. Gentlemen in shorts,
Looming very tall;

Gentlemen at large,
Talking very small;
Gentlemen in tights,

With a loose-ish mien;
Gentlemen in gray,

Looking rather green;

4. Gentlemen quite old,
Asking for the news;
Gentlemen in black,

In a fit of blues;
Gentlemen in claret
Sober as a vicar;
Gentlemen in tweed

Dreadfully in liquor!

5. Stranger on the left,
Closing up his peepers;
Now he snores amain
Like the seven sleepers;
At his feet a volume
Gives the explanation,
How the man grew stupid
From "associations"!

6. Ancient maiden lady
Anxiously remarks,
That there must be peril
'Mong so many sparks;
Roguish-looking fellow,
Turning to the stranger,
Says it's his opinion,
She is out of danger!

7. Woman with her baby,
Sitting vis-à-vis;
Baby keeps a-squalling,
Woman looks at me;
Asks about the distance,
Says it's tiresome talking,
Noises of the cars

Are so very shocking!

8. Market woman, careful
Of the precious casket,
Knowing eggs are eggs,
Tightly holds her basket;
Feeling that a smash,

If it came, would surely
Send her eggs to pot,
Rather prematurely.

9. Singing through the forests,
Rattling over ridges,
Shooting under arches,

Rumbling over bridges;

Whizzing through the mountains,
Buzzing o'er the vale-
Bless me! this is pleasant,
Riding on the rail!

JOHN G. SAXE.

47.

LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

Mark this piece for inflection, emphasis, and pauses. read, assign it to the boys of the class for a declamation.

After it is

1. The liberty of the press is the highest safeguard to all free government. Ours could not exist without it. It is like a great, exulting, and abounding river. It is fed by the dews of heaven, which distill their sweetest drops to form it. It gushes from the rill, as it breaks from the deep caverns of the earth. It is augmented by a thousand affluents, that dash from the mountain top, to separate again into a thousand bounteous and irrigating streams around.

2. On its broad bosom it bears a thousand barks.

There genius spreads its purpling sail. There poetry