bushes over our heads, panting, stamping, dripping, and looking like upright seals or walruses. "Oh, Mr. Murphy, how thankful we are to you for making us come down that way," we exclaimed. 10. The east meadow-land of Ah-wah'nee looked lovelier than ever as we rode slowly back through it at sunset. Long shadows linked tree to tree in the groves; the little brooks reflected bits of crimson cloud and yellow sky; the azalia blossoms seemed to expand, like white wings, in the dimmer light; and the primroses were all shut. NOTE. This selection is taken from a description of a visit of Mrs. Jackson to the Yosemite Valley. Murphy is the guide. 70. JERUSALEM. BENJAMIN DISRAELI (1805-1881) was born of Hebrew parents in London. He was educated privately, and, though intended for the law, his inherited bent for literature soon asserted itself, and his father, a distinguished man of letters, furthered his desire. Vivian Grey was published in 1827, and was received with applause by the most fastidious critics. Disraeli now set out on his travels, and his Letters during four years are full of interest. He entered Parliament in 1837, and, though he was so unfortunate as to be hissed when he made his first speech, he was soon at the head of the Conservative party. In 1854, and again in 1858 as chancellor, Disraeli practically held the reins of government. He became prime minister in 1874, holding the position six years. In 1877 he was created Earl of Beaconsfield. 1. THE broad moon lingers on the summit of Mount Olivet, but its beam has long left the garden of Gethsem'ane on the tomb of Absalom, the waters of Kedron, and the dark abyss of Jehos'aphat. Full falls its splendor, however, on the opposite city, vivid and defined in its silvery blaze. A lofty wall, with turrets and towers, and frequent gates, un dulates with the unequal ground which it covers, as it en circles the lost capital of Jehovah. It is a city of hills, far more famous than those of Rome; for all Europe has heard of Zion and of Calvary, while the Arab and the Assyrian, and the tribes and nations beyond, are ignorant of the Capitolian and Aventine Mounts. 1 2. The broad steep of Zion, crowned with the tower of David; nearer still, Mount Moriah, with the gorgeous temple of the God of Abra 2 ham, but built, alas! by the child of Hagar, and not by Sarah's chosen one;3 close to its cedars and its cypresses, its lofty spires and airy archés, the moonlight falls upon Bethesda's pool; farther on, entered by the gate of St. Stephen, the eye, though 't is the noon of night, traces with ease the Street of Grief, a long, winding ascent to a vast cupolaed pile that now covers Calvary, called the Street of Grief because there the most illustrious of the human as well as of the Hebrew race, the descendant of David, and the divine Son of the most favored of women, 5 twice sunk under that burden of suffering and shame which is now throughout all Christendom the emblem of triumph and of honor; passing over groups and masses of houses built of stone, with terraced roofs, or surmounted with small domes, we reach the hill of Salem, where Melchi'sedek built his mystic citadel. 3. The moon has sunk behind the Mount of Olives, and the stars in the darker sky shine doubly bright over the sacred city. The all-pervading stillness is broken by a breeze ALT. V.-15. that seems to have traveled over the plain of Sharon from the sea. It wails among the tombs, and sighs among the cypress groves. The palm-tree trembles as it passes, as if it were a spirit of woe. 4. Is it the breeze that has traveled over the plain of Sharon from the sea? Or is it the haunting voice of prophets mourning over the city that they could not save? Their spirits surely would linger on the land where their Creator had deigned to dwell, and over whose impending fate Omnipotence had shed human tears. Who can but believe that, at the midnight hour, from the summit of the Ascension, the great departed of Israel assemble to gaze upon the battlements of their mystic city? 5. There might be counted heroes and sages, who need shrink from no rivalry with the brightest and wisest of other lands; but the lawgiver? of the time of the Pharaohs, whose laws are still obeyed; the monarchs whose reign has ceased for three thousand years, but whose wisdom is a proverb in all nations of the earth; the teacher whose doctrines have marked civilized Europe,-the greatest of legislators, the greatest of administrators, and the greatest of reformers; what race, extinct or living, can produce three such men as these? 6. The last light is extinguished in the village of Bethany. The wailing breeze has become a moaning wind; a white film spreads over the purple sky; the stars are veiled, the stars are hid; all becomes as dark as the waters of Kedron and the valley of Jehosaphat. The tower of David merges into obscurity; no longer glitter the minarets of the mosque of Omar; Bethesda's angelic waters, the gate of Stephen, the street of sacred sorrow, the hill of Salem, and the heights of Scopas can no longer be discerned. Alone in the increasing darkness, while the very line of the walls gradually eludes the eye, the church of the Holy Sepulcher is a beacon-light, Definitions.-2. Çit'a del, a castle near a fortified city, intended as a final point of defense. 4. Deigned, condescended. 6. Min'a ret, a slender tower used on the buildings of Turkey and other parts of the East. 2. The NOTES. -1. Capitolian and Aventine Mounts, two of the seven hills on which the original city of Rome is fabled to have been built. Mohammedans, who are supposed to be the descendants of Ishmael. 3. Isaac, the Hebrew. 4. Jesus Christ. 5. Mary, the mother of Jesus. 6. Melchisedek, "king of righteousness," see Genesis xiv: 18. 7. Moses. 8. King Solomon. 9. Another reference to Jesus Christ. 71. YOUTH AND AGE. SAMUEL TAYLor Coleridge (1772-1834) was born in England. He received a university education, but his unstable disposition caused him to lose many of the advantages it offered. He wrote dramas, sermons, delivered lectures, and projected a system of philosophy. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel, written in 1798 and 1799, are “two of the noblest pieces of imaginative writing produced by a modern poet." To those who can appreciate the weird beauty of the latter, it is without a peer in literature. In his old age his influence was keenly felt: described as the "broadest, deepest, and most effectual genius of the nineteenth century," his work was but fragmentary in any department, partly induced by an excessive use of opium. The following poem was written when Coleridge was a prematurely old man, and is unsurpassed in the annals of pathetic literature. 1. VERSE, a breeze 'mid blossoms straying, When I was young? Ah, woful when. This body that does me grievous wrong, That fear no spite of wind or tide! Naught cared this body for wind or weather, When Youth and I lived in't together. 2. Flowers are lovely: Love is flower-like; Friendship is a sheltering tree; 3. O the joys that came down shower-like, Ere I was old? Ah, woful ere, It can not be that thou art gone! 4. Dewdrops are the gems of morning, |