TRUST no friend till you have proved him: there are many more at the table of feasting than at the door of a prison.

A man had three friends. Two of them he loved very much, but he cared very little about the third, though he was really the truest of them all.

So it was that, after a time, this man was summoned before the king, to give an account of a trust that had been committed to him. Then he asked his friends—“Who among you will go with me and bear witness for me, for I am hard accused, and the king is angry?”

The first of his friends excused himself at once, saying, "that he could not go with him on account of other business.' The second went with him to the door of the judgment hall, but then turned back, for fear of the angry judge. But the third, on whom he had built least hopes, not only went with him, but went in and spoke for him before the judge, and bore such witness in his favour, that the judge not only acquitted him, but gave him rich gifts.

Man has three friends in this world: how do they bear themselves in that hour when God calls him to judgment? Money, his best friend, leaves him first and will not go with him. His relations and friends, who are the second in his regard, go with him to the doors of the grave, and then turn back to their

homes. The third, whom, in life, he well-nigh overlooked, are his good deeds. They, alone, accompany him to the throne of the judge; they go before him, and speak for him, and are heard with favour and love.

QUESTIONS.-What advice does the first paragraph give? What happened to the man with three friends? What did he ask them to do? What did the first say? What did the first do? What did the second do? What were the names of the three friends? DICTATION.-Use the last paragraph for a dictation lesson.

THE DOG IN THE MANGER.-Esop. ill-tem-pered fu-ri-ous-ly howl-ing wretch-ed A DOG was lying in a manger which was full of hay, when four horses, for whom the hay had been provided, came to it to eat their supper. But the illtempered cur rose the moment they came near, and

snapped and barked so furiously that the poor horses could not get a mouthful. As they were about to turn away hungry the farmer came up, and saw how things stood. Hitting the dog a good thump with his stick he sent it out of the manger howling, and added, as it ran off-" You wretched cur-you can neither eat the hay yourself, nor will you let others eat it that can you well deserve what you've got."

QUESTIONS.-Where was the dog lying? What did it do when the horses came for supper? What did the farmer say and do? What lesson should you take from this fable?

DICTATION.-Use the fable as it stands for a dictation lesson.

HOME.-James Montgomery.

Born at Irvine, Ayrshire, 1771; died at Sheffield, 1851. THERE is a land, of every land the pride, Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside; Where brighter suns dispense serener light, And milder moons emparadise the night; A land of beauty, virtue, valour, truth, Time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth. The wandering mariner, whose eye explores The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores, Views not a realm so bountiful and fair, Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air; In every clime the magnet of his soul, Touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole; For in this land of Heaven's peculiar grace, The heritage of nature's noblest race, There is a spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest,

Where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside

His sword and sceptre, pageantry and pride, While in his softened looks benignly blend The sire, the son, the hus

band, brother, friend; woman reigns;

Here

the mother, daughter, wife,

Strew with fresh flowers

the narrow path of life! In the clear heav'n of her delightful eye, An angel-guard of loves

and graces lie; Around her knees do

mestic duties meet, And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet.

Where shall that land, that spot of earth, be found!

Art thou a man?- -a patriot ?-look around; Oh, thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps

roam,

That land thy country, and that spot thy Home.

OUTLINES OF ENGLISH HISTORY.

I. THE ROMAN PERIOD.

B.C. 55 to A.D. 410.

1. B.C. 55. BRITAIN was known for centuries before Christ, for its tin mines and trade in skins, but the first authentic history begins with the invasion of Julius Cæsar, B.C. 55. His "Commentaries" supply the earliest detailed notices of our ancestors or their country. He came over from a port between Calais and Boulogne, and landed in August B.C. 55, near Deal, in Kent, but left our island again in September. Next year (B.c. 54) he returned with a great fleet and strong army, but his success could not have been great, for he very soon went back again to Gaul (France), and the Romans did not trouble England any more for nearly 100 years. The British, in Cæsar's day, were of the Celtic race.

2. In A.D. 43, the Emperor Claudius came with his generals Plautius and Vespasian (afterwards emperor), who made the first serious conquests.

3. In A.D. 50 or 51, Caractăcus, the leader of the British, was defeated, and taken to Rome, to grace the conqueror's triumph.

4. A.D. 58. Suetonius Paulinus, another Roman general, subdued the island of Anglesea (Mona), the great seat of Druidism, which was the religion of the ancient British. The priests seem to have kept alive a spirit of resistance to the Romans, and their superstitions were, besides, bloody and hateful.

5. In A.D. 61, Boadicea, queen of some confederated tribes of British, rose in revolt, and massacred the Romans in London (Londinium) and the district round it, but she was routed by Suetonius. This was in the reign of Nero.

6. In A.D. 78, Agricola received the command in Britain, and it was only under him that the conquest was finally completed. His wisdom, firmness, and gentleness first subdued the minds of the British, and gave the Romans a firm footing in the island. He invaded Scotland, and defeated its tribes near the Grampians, thus extending the Roman province to the line between the Forth and Clyde, which he held by strong garrisons and forts.

7. A.D. 121. The Emperor Hadrian built a great wall from the