was wedded to science. She prepared an able treatise on conic sections, which was not published till after her death, and a work of profound research entitled Institutions of Analytical Geometry -published about 1750. In that year her father's health being infirm, she was appointed his successor as Professor of Mathematics, and retained the chair for a number of years, but late in life resigned and retired to a convent, where her last years were spent in deeds of charity and benevolence to the poor. She retained her wonderful beauty to the close of life. She died in 1799. SELECTION LXIX.

ISAAC MCLELLAN is an American poet, born in Maine in 1806.

SELECTION LXXII.

JAMES R. LOWELL, an American poet, critic, and satirist, was born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1819. He is now professor of modern languages and belles-lettres in Harvard College. He is also editor of the Atlantic Monthly. An English critic, editor of the English reprint of his works, says: "The tone of his compositions is singularly high-minded, vigorous, and pure. Many of his pieces impress us forcibly with the idea of great power, of imagination scattering its wealth with singular profuseness, and of a daring originality of conception." Mr. Lowell's writings are very popular in the United States, and breathe forth a truly national and freedom-loving spirit.

DANTE, an illustrious Italian poet, was born about 1265. He occupies a very high rank as a poet, philosopher, and rhetorician. His great poem, the Divine Comedy, is considered the best in the Italian language. He died in 1321.

SELECTION LXXIV.

LORD BYRON, an English poet, was born in 1788, and died in 1824. As a poet he occupies a high rank, but as a man he had many very serious faults. He indulged in a morbid misanthropy, both in his writings and his social intercourse, which rendered his example and teachings very pernicious in their influence. died in Greece, while attempting to aid that people in gaining their independence.

He

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, an English poet, was born in 1770, and died in 1850. His first appearance as a poet was in the year 1793. His principal poem is entitled The Excursion. The grand characteristics of his poetry are his extreme sensibility to the changing phenomena of nature, and his accurate descriptions of them. His style is simple and sometimes vigorous.

HESIOD, one of the earliest Greek poets, is supposed to have lived in the time of Homer.

THE SPICE ISLANDS, or MOLUCCAS, are a group of islands in the Malay Archipelago.

HAROLD, LARA, AND MANFRED are heroes in Lord Byron's

poems.

THE TAGUS is a river flowing through Spain and Portugal.

CINTRA is a town of Portugal, remarkable for the picturesque beauty of its situation, and for its delicious climate. It has an ancient royal castle, and numerous villas.

MOUNT PENTELICUS is situated in Greece, 10 miles northwest of Athens. It was famous in ancient times for its great quarries of white marble.

THE RHINE is a river of Germany. It is noted for the beauty of its scenery and for the rich fields and vineyards which clothe its banks. It is much visited by tourists.

CLARENS, a village of Switzerland, is situated on Lake Ge

neva.

It commands a fine view of the lake and of the mountains on the opposite shore.

LAKE LEMAN, or Lake Geneva, is situated between Switzerland and the Sardinian States. Its waters have a peculiar deep blue color, are very transparent, and contain a great variety of fish.

EGERIA was a nymph in the Roman mythology, who was believed to have dictated to Numa Pompilius his wise laws, and to have instructed him respecting the forms of worship which he introduced. A grove was consecrated to her in the environs of Rome, and to strangers visiting that city the grotto and fountain of Egeria are still pointed out.

ROME is one of the most celebrated cities of the world, either in ancient or modern times. It has been the residence of the

Popes for about twelve hundred years.

PROMETHEUS is a character in the Greek mythology represented to have been chained by Jupiter to a rock in Mt. Caucasus, as a punishment for stealing fire from heaven and giving it to men, when Jupiter had withheld it from them.

PETRARCH, an Italian poet, was born in 1304, and died in 1374. He was very influential in perfecting the Italian language, and in restoring classical literature in Italy. His chief works are in Latin prose, Latin poetry, and Italian poetry. His chief poems are in praise of Laura, a lady of Avignon in France.

ROUSSEAU, a French philosopher and author, died in 1778. He first became generally known to the public by writing a prize essay, which placed him among the great writers of the age. One

of his most celebrated works is his autobiography, written under the title of Confessions.

MASTER STEPHEN is a name given to a country gull in Ben Johnson's comedy, Every Man in his Humor.

MINERVA PRESS was the name of a printing establishment in London, noted for its trashy but popular novels.

SELECTION LXXV.

WILLIAM PITT, first earl of Chatham, an English orator and statesman, was born in 1708, and died in 1778. His figure, when he first appeared in Parliament, was graceful and commanding, and his voice remarkably pleasing and eloquent. He soon became a most powerful, vigilant, and patriotic opponent of unconstitutional and unwise measures. From 1757 to 1761 he was the ruler of England, and exerted an influence and wielded a power rarely equaled in history.

WILLIAM PITT, an English statesman, son of the earl of Chatham, was born in 1759, and died in 1806. He was a remarkably precocious child, having at the age of fourteen the intellect of a man. His first speech in Parliament made a great impression, and Burke, on hearing it, exclaimed: "It is not a chip of the old block: it is the old block itself." Macaulay declares him to have been, at the age of twenty-five, the greatest master of the whole science of parliamentary government that ever existed. He was prime minister of England from 1783 to his death, with the exception of about one year.

T. B. MACAULAY, Baron, an English writer and statesman, was born in Leicestershire in 1800, and died in Kensington in 1859. Lord Macaulay was a man of brilliant powers and unquestioned integrity. In Parliament he was an earnest and able advocate of reform and liberal measures. Though not an extreme radical, he was always the enlightened and judicious friend of the people. During his four years of residence in India, he devoted his time to the improvement and codification of the laws of that vast province of the British Empire. In his code, among other excellent provisions, there was one for securing justice to the natives, by enabling them to take an appeal to the highest courts; but the code was not popular among the English officials in India, and was not adopted. Lord Macaulay occupied the highest rank, both as a speaker and a writer, a union rarely exhibited among Englishmen. His most important work is his History of England, covering the English Revolution of 1688.

WESTMINSTER is a city near London, in Middlesex County,

England.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY is a building in Westminster, in which British sovereigns and other eminent men are buried. It was formerly used for religious purposes.

HAYES is a parish of England, in the County of Middlesex.

LONDON is the capital of England, and the largest and most important city in the world. It is situated on the river Thames, about 40 miles from its entrance into the North Sea.

ISAAC BARRÉ, a colonel in the British army, was born in Dublin in 1726, and died in 1802. He witnessed the death of Wolfe, at the siege of Quebec, and was bearer of despatches announcing the same to Lord Chatham. In 1765 the stamp act was introduced into Parliament, and opposed by him with a forcible appeal in favor of the colonies.

LORD ROCKINGHAM, an English statesman, was born in 1730, and died in 1782.

EDMUND BURKE, a British statesman, orator, and writer, was born in Dublin in 1730, and died near London in 1797. Mr. Burke rose, by his talents and industry, to the highest position among British statesmen. He was a member of Parliament for many years, and always a leader. His influence was always exerted on the side of what he conceived to be justice and freedom. He was eminent also for his unflinching adherence to principle, and for his incorruptible honesty. He repeatedly sacrificed his own interest to the public good, as he understood it. His friends appointed him paymaster of the forces, and one of his first acts after his appointment was to do away with various perquisites which a corrupt custom had attached to the office, and to diminish its annual income by about 230,000 dollars. He took an active part in the impeachment of Hastings, because he looked upon the latter as a great criminal, and considered that justice to India and a regard to the honor of the English nation demanded his punishment. Mr. Burke felt the same interest in preventing injustice to the people of India that he would if they had been Englishmen. The fact that they had no votes to give was, in his mind, no cause for neglecting them. His liberal course in Parliament did not satisfy his wealthy constituents at Bristol, and he was not reëlected from that city. One paragraph in his address to them at that time is pronounced by some critic the most eloquent in all literature.

LORD CAMDEN, an English judge and statesman, was born in Devonshire in 1714, and died in 1794. In 1757 he was made attorney-general, and knighted under Lord Chatham. He distinguished himself while in Parliament by the eloquent manner in which he contended for the rights of the Americans. He was made an earl in 1786.

LORD MANSFIELD, a British jurist and statesman, was born in 1705, and died in 1793. He was an earnest advocate of the stamp-act, which he aided in preparing, and his fine abilities and persuasive eloquence contributed greatly to its passage. His judicial career was characterized by justice, when he was not influenced by political views. He was Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1756 to his death. He was made a baron in 1756, and an earl in 1792.

CHARLES J. Fox, an English statesman and orator, was born in London in 1749, and died in 1806. He was one of the most brilliant and successful debaters in the world. His style was clear and simple, yet, when aroused, impulsive and vehement. He is thought to have resembled Demosthenes in his language and manner of delivery more than any other speaker of modern time. He was an earnest advocate of the rights of the Americans, and very enthusiastic in his efforts to abolish the slave trade.

HENRY GRATTAN, an Irish statesman and orator, was born in Dublin in 1750, and died in London in 1820. He is noted for his patriotism, which was shown in his earnest and eloquent speeches in behalf of the rights of the Irish people.

GEORGE CANNING, a British statesman, was born in London in 1770, and died in 1827. He was a keen, sarcastic, witty, and eloquent speaker. As a man he was vain and self-complacent,— a fact due, doubtless, to his rare natural endowments, which had enabled him to rise from a low condition to one of the very highest in the state.

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, an English philanthropist and statesman, was born in 1759, and died in 1833. He was a member of Parliament, and one of the chief supporters of William Pitt's administration before he was 21 years of age. He was earnest and efficient in helping to plan and execute measures of reformation. He was very strongly interested in the abolition of slavery; and throughout his life spent from a fourth to a third of his income for purposes of charity.

SELECTION LXXVI.

MIDDLESEX is a populous county in the north-eastern part of Massachusetts.

CHARLESTOWN, a city and seaport of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, is situated on a peninsula immediately north of Boston, with which it is connected by the Warren and Charles River bridges.

MEDFORD is a town of Middlesex County, Mass., five miles northwest of Boston.