Mine are all,-this sceptre sways them,-mine is all in every part!"

And he named himself most happy, and he blessed himself in heart,

Blessed himself, but on that blessing tears abundant followed straight,

For that moment thoughts came o'er him of man's painful brief estate:

Ere a hundred years were finished, where would all those myriads be?

Hellespont would still be rolling his blue waters to the sea; But of all those countless numbers, not one living would be found,

A dead host with their dead monarch, silent in the silent ground.

THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS.-ÆSCHYLUS.

[Translation by J. S. Blackie.]

Some evil god, or an avenging spirit,

Began the fray. From the Athenian fleet

There came a Greek, and thus thy son bespoke:
"Soon as the gloom of night shall fall, the Greeks
No more will wait, but, rushing to their oars,
Each man will seek his safety where he may
By secret flight." This Xerxes heard, but knew not
The guile of Greece, nor yet the jealous gods,
And to his captains straightway gave command
That, when the sun withdrew his burning beams,
And darkness filled the temple of the sky,
In triple lines their ships they should dispose,
Each wave-plashed outlet guarding, fencing round
The isle of Ajax surely. Should the Greeks
Deceive this guard, or with their ships escape
In secret flight, each captain with his head
Should pay for his remissness. These commands
With lofty heart, thy son gave forth nor thought
What harm the gods were weaving. They obeyed.
Each man prepared his supper, and the sailors
Bound the blithe oar to its familiar block.
Then, when the sun his shining glory paled,
And night swooped down, each master of the oar,
Each marshaler of arms, embarked; and then
Line called on line to take its ordered place.
All night they cruised, and with a moving belt
Prisoned the frith, till day 'gan peep, and still

No stealthy Greek the expected flight essayed.
But when at length the snowy-steeded day
Burst o'er the main, all beautiful to see,
First from the Greeks a tuneful shout uprose,
Well omened, and, with replication loud,
Leaped the blithe echo from the rocky shore.
Fear seized the Persian host, no longer tricked
By vain opinion; not like wavering flight
Billowed the solemn pæan of the Greeks,
But like the shout of men to battle urging,
With lusty cheer. Then the fierce trumpet's voice
Blazed o'er the main; and on the salt sea flood
Forthwith the oars with measured plash descended,
And all their lines, with dexterous speed displayed,
Stood with opposing front. The right wing first,
Then the whole fleet, bore down, and straight uprose
A mighty shout:

"Sons of the Greeks, advance! Your country free, your children free, your wives,The altars of your native gods deliver,

And your ancestral tombs,-all's now at stake!"
A like salute from our whole line back rolled
In Persian speech. Nor more delay, but straight
Trireme on trireme, brazen beak on beak,
Dashed furious. A Greek ship led on the attack,
And from the prow of a Phoenician struck
The figure-head; and now the grapple closed
Of each ship with his adverse desperate.

At first the main line of the Persian fleet

Stood the harsh shock: but soon their multitude

Became their ruin: in the narrow frith

They might not use their strength, and, jammed together, Their ships with brazen beaks did bite each other,

And shattered their own oars. Meanwhile the Greeks

Stroke after stroke dealt dexterous all around,

Till our ships showed their keels, and the blue sea

Was seen no more, with multitude of ships

And corpses covered. All the shores were strewn,
And the rough rocks, with dead: till, in the end,
Each ship in the barbaric host, that yet

Had oars, in most disordered flight rowed off.

As men that fish for tunnies, so the Greeks,

With broken booms, and fragments of the wreck,

Struck our snared men, and hacked them, that the sea
With wail and moaning was possessed around,
Till black-eyed Night shot darkness o'er the fray.
These ills thou hearest: to rehearse the whole,
Ten days were few; but this, my queen, believe,
No day yet shone on earth whose brightness looked
On such a tale of death.

THE FLIGHT OF XERXES.-MARIA JANE JEWSBURY.

I saw him on the battle-eve,

When like a king he bore him,—
Proud hosts in glittering helm and greave,
And prouder chiefs before him;
The warrior, and the warrior's deeds,
The morrow, and the morrow's meeds,
No daunting thoughts came o'er him;
He looked around him, and his eye
Defiance flashed to earth and sky.

He looked on ocean,-its broad breast
Was covered with his fleet;

On earth,—and saw from east to west
His bannered millions meet;

While rock and glen and cave and coast
Shook with the war-cry of that host,
The thunder of their feet!

He heard the imperial echoes ring,-
He heard, and felt himself a king.

I saw him next alone: nor camp
Nor chief his steps attended;
Nor banner blazed, nor courser's tramp
With war-cries proudly blended.
He stood alone, whom fortune high
So lately seemed to deify;

He who with heaven contended
Fled like a fugitive and slave!
Behind, the foe; before, the wave.

He stood-fleet, army, treasure, gone—
Alone, and in despair!

But wave and wind swept ruthless on,

For they were monarchs there;

And Xerxes, in a single bark,

Where late his thousand ships were dark,

Must all their fury dare.

What a revenge,-a trophy, this,-

For thee, immortal Salamis!

PADDY MCGRATH'S INTRODUCTION TO MR. BRUIN.

Not long since I was walking with Jimmy Butler through a thick wood on me way to Judy O'Flinn's, to pay me bist addrissis to her, whin Jimmy very suddintly cries out, "Be

jabers! but there's Mr. Bruin!" and with that he runs off like a shot, lavin' me alone jist forninst the ould gintleman. "Mr. Bruin, are ye?" says I. "How do you do, Mr. Bruin? Happy to know yer worship, and hope yer honor's well. Happy o' yer acquaintince," says I. A grunt was the only answer I resaved.

"Och, sure!" thinks I," yer a quare ould chap at iny rate;" and thin I axed him how Mrs. Bruin, and all the young spalpeen Bruins prospered. He only gev me another grunt. "Bad luck to yer eddication!" says I. "Where did ye hev yer bringin' up? Me name's Paddy McGrath, of Tipperary county, ould Ireland, at yer sarvice," says I agin, thinkin' to hev some conversation wid him. He only showed me his big grinders and gev me another grunt, but he still stood lookin' at me. "Be dad! but he's niver been taught his letthers, and cannot understhand me, or his eyes must be mighty wake and bad. The top o' the mornin' to yez? Do yez always wear yer coat with the wool on the outside?" says I agin. This samed to touch a tinder pint wid him, and he kem towards me. Holdin' out me hand, I wint to mate him. "Excuse the complimint," says I," but you've a mighty oogly moog, so ye hev."

He grinned mighty plazed like, and held out his arrums to embrace me. Jist as I kem widin rache of his long arrums, he gev me a cuff aside me hid, which sint me flyin'. Me sinsis lift me mighty quick afther he struck me, and whin they kem back, I found mesel a-rollin' down a shtape hill, wid no chance to sthop. Prisintly, howiver, I sthruck a big stoomp, and suddintly sthopped. Whin I got on me fate agin, I saw Mr. Bruin comin' afther me on his hands and knase, and grinnin' as much as to say, “I beg yer pardin, but I didn'ț mane to tip yez so hard."

"Och, I furgive yez;" says I: come to me arrums, Mr. Bruin. Paddy McGrath is not the filler to hould a groodge agin a frind. Yer as welcome to me embrace as me own Judy." This samed to plaze the ould gint mightily, for ho shtood on his fate and agin held out his arrums; I rushed to his embrace widout anoother wurd.

"Och, murdher! murdher!" I scramed;"yer a practiced hugger, yo are! ye've been in the business afore! How I pity

Mrs. Bruin if ye sarve her this way often. Och, murdher!" I cried agin; "I don't like such tight squazin'. I'll be satisfied wid the little ye've gev me if ye'll loosen yer howld, and gev me a rist."

He gev me a harder squaze than iver, and opened his big oogly jaws and tried to bite me nose off.

"Bedad! are ye a haythen cannibal?" says I, "that ye'd take a filler's hid off to show yer love for him?"

He gev me another hug, and fastened his big taath onto me lift shoulder. "Bad cess to ye!" says I, "but yer afther makin' too fra wid me on short acquaintince; but I'll be aven wid yez,"--so sayin', I twisted me arrum from his grasp, and, thrustin' me shillaly into his mouth, gev it a twist with such mighty force that I broke his under jaw.

The ould gint samed to think he had been too lovin' wid me, so givin' a grunt, he let go me shoulder, takin' a pound of me tinder flish wid him, which he ate wid a big relish.

“Bedad! Paddy! if yez don't outdo yer new friend, he'll lave but little of yez for yer Judy," thinks I, and widout more ado I gev him a blow between his eyes. He gev a quick jerk back, and I sprang from his embrace-but, och! deary me! he took the whole of me fine coat, weskit, and shirt but the shlaves, and started off wid 'em. "Och! ye thavin' murdherin' nager," says I, bring back me close or I can't pay me addrissis to me Judy, darlint.”

He niver paid me a bit o' notice, but rooshed off. I stharted afther the haythenish baste.

He climbed up a big tra mighty quick, takin' me close wid him. I axed him, very perlite like, to throw down me wearin' apparel, but he only blinked his bloody eyes at me.

I was jist goin' to throw me shillaly at him, when I heard a gun go off, and Mr. Bruin gev a terrible squail, dhropped me close, and kem toomblin' to the ground. I looked around in astonishmint, and saw Jimmy Butler and siveral others, comin' down the hill towards me.

Whin Jimmy saw me alive he cried like a spalpeen, and rushed into me arrums. When he let me go, I axed him what he mint by shootin' Mr. Bruin in that way. He told me he was a bear and would hev kilt me. "A bear! did ye say!" says I, "why didn't yez tell me afore so that I could hev kipt