THE SHEPHERD'S DOG.

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mists which frequently descend so rapidly amidst these mountains, as, in the space of a few minutes, almost to turn day into night. The anxious father instantly hastened back to find his child; but owing to the unusual darkness, and his own trepidation, he unfortunately missed his way in the descent.

After a fruitless search of many hours amongst the dangerous morasses and cataracts with which the mountains abound, he was at length overtaken by night. Still wandering on without knowledge whither, he at length came to the edge of the mist, and by the light of the moon, discovered that he had reached the bottom of the valley, and was now within a short distance of his cottage. To renew the search that night was equally fruitless and dangerous. He was therefore obliged to return to his cottage, having lost both his child and his dog, which had attended him faithfully for years.

Next morning by daybreak, the shepherd, accompanied by a band of his neighbours, set out again to seek his child; but after a day spent in fruitless fatigue, he was at last compelled by the approach of night to descend from the mountain. On returning to his cottage, he found that the dog, which he had lost the day before, had been home, and on receiving a piece of cake had instantly gone off again. For several successive days the shepherd renewed the search for his child, and still on returning in the evening disappointed to the cottage, he found that the dog had been there, and on receiving his usual allowance of cake, had instantly disappeared.

Struck with this singular circumstance, he remained at home one day; and when the dog, as usual, departed with his piece of cake, he resolved to follow him, and find out the cause of this strange procedure. The dog led the way to a cataract at some distance from the spot where the shepherd had left his child. The banks of the waterfall almost joined at the top, yet, separated by an abyss of immense depth, presented that abrupt appearance which so often appals the traveller amidst the Grampian mountains, and indicates that these stupendous chasms were not the silent work of time, but the sudden effect of some violent convulsion of the earth. Down one of these rugged and almost perpendicular descents, the dog began without hesitation to make his way, and at last disappeared in a cave, the mouth of which was almost upon a level with the torrent. The shepherd with difficulty followed; but, on entering the cave, what were his emo

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tions when he beheld his infant eating with much satisfaction the cake which the dog had just brought him, while the faithful animal stood by, eyeing his young charge with the utmost complacency!

From the situation in which the child was found, it appears that he had wandered to the brink of the precipice, and had either fallen or scrambled down till he reached the cave, which the dread of the torrent had afterwards prevented him from quitting: the dog, by means of his scent, had traced him to the spot, and afterwards prevented him from starving by giving up to him his daily allowance. He appears never to have quitted the child by night or day, except when it was necessary to go for its food, and then he was seen always running at full speed to and from the cottage.

1. Where are the Grampian mountains?

2. In what situation did the shepherd find his child? 3. How had the child been fed?

LESSON CCXX.. -AUGUST THE EIGHTH.

Catherine Howard.

On this day in 1540, Henry VIII., King of England, after having divorced Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife, was married to Catherine Howard, niece to the Duke of Norfolk. This union brought him more under the influence of the Catholic party, and a rigorous persecution was carried on against the Protestants. At the same time, with an impartiality of intolerance, papists who denied the king's supremacy were put to death, and the opposite victims were sometimes dragged to execution coupled together.

The aged Countess of Salisbury, mother of Cardinal Pole, and the only relic of the Plantagenets, was the most violent of the Catholic sufferers. Her death was hastened by an insurrection in the north, supposed to have been instigated by that cardinal.

Henry proceeded to extend his rapacity over the church, and even included in his grasp the revenues of colleges and hospitals. At the same time he was extremely solicitous to bestow upon his subjects the benefits of true religion, according to the model of his own fluctuating creed. The successive publications of the "Institution of a Christian Man," and the "Erudition of a Christian Man," contained the royal standards of orthodoxy. The

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use of the Scriptures was permitted, but not without great restrictions; alterations were made in the massbook; dubious saints were expunged, and popular superstitions discouraged; and, upon the whole, the principles of the Reformation were gaining ground to an extent of which Henry himself was not sensible.

1. What took place on this day, in 1740?

2. What was Henry solicitous about?

3. Did the principles of the Reformation gain ground?

Poetical Description of the Violet.

FROM the world's gaze, with meek retiring grace,
The fragrant Viola averts her face.

Five tender brothers, in retirement's shade,
With fond affection, guard the tender maid.
Ah! ye who love with studious eye to trace
Those simple charms that boast no borrow'd grace,
Seek not this flower, and its fraternal tribe,
Amid the garden's gay luxuriant pride:
Explore the woods, the meadows, and the wild,
For sweet Simplicity - untainted child.
Let Nature be your guide; trust not to Art
To deck the form, she mars the better part.
From those rich flowers, that taste and fancy prize,
No embryo seeds, no future race arise:

These, 'mid your smiles, your bounty, and your toil,
Mourn social pleasures and a parent soil.

So the poor exile, in a foreign clime,

Pines his lone hours, and counts the ling'ring time,
Torn from each charm of life, and doom'd to roam
From friendship's blessings and his native home;
That home, perhaps, where some endearing fair,
Some smiling babes, might soothe their father's care.
Ah! for their voice to meet his list'ning ear,
For their kind hand to wipe the starting tear.
To chase the thought, more distant hills he roves,
But finds no clime can change the heart that loves;
For him, in vain, the groves and meadows bloom,
And the gay sun but lights him to his tomb :
Scorn'd by a number, pitied by a few,

He shrinks indignant from the public view;

Assail'd by poverty, a prey to grief,
Too sad to hope, too poor to ask relief,
On some lone spot he rests his weary head,
The air his canopy, the earth his bed ;
No gentle friends, to ease the pangs of death,
Hear his last prayer and catch his parting breath.
Yet o'er his alter'd mind peace mildly gleams,
And his last hours reflect its soften'd beams.
With smile serene he meets his hast'ning fate,
Trusts in his God, and seeks a better state.

LESSON CCXXII.—AUGUST THE TENTH.
Saint Lawrence's Day.

"ST. LAWRENCE was by birth a Spaniard, and treasurer of the church of Rome, being deacon to Pope Sextus, about the year 259. Soon afterwards his bishop was killed by the soldiers of the Emperor Valerian, with whom the saint would willingly have died.

Lawrence refused to deliver up the church treasure, which the Roman soldiers imagined to be in his custody; he was therefore, as the Romish legend tells us, laid upon a gridiron, and broiled over a fire; which torture he bore with such incredible patience and cheerfulness, that he told his tormentors to turn him round, as he was done enough on one side!

His memory was so highly esteemed, that Pulcheria, the empress, erected a temple to his honour, which was afterwards either rebuilt or greatly enlarged by Justinian. In this temple, the gridiron on which he died was deposited with great pomp and solemnity; and, if we may believe St. Gregory, it became famous for abundance of miracles.

The celebrated palace of the Escurial is dedicated to this saint. This summer residence of the Spanish court is but a short distance from Madrid. It is a monastery founded by Philip II., in consequence of a vow made on the day of the battle of St. Quentin, which also happened on the festival of St. Lawrence. In Spain it is called by the name of this saint, San Lorenzo, and everything in the Escurial reminds us of the instrument of his martyrdom. It is not only seen upon the doors, windows, altars, rituals, and sacerdotal habits, but the edifice itself bears form.

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It is a quadrangular building, with the principal front to the west, behind which is a mountain; the opposite side, which faces Madrid, takes the form of the shortened handle of a gridiron reversed; and the four feet are represented by the spires of four little square towers, which rise above the four angles. There is nothing magnificent in the architecture of this building; on the contrary, it is rather the serious simplicity suitable to a convent than the splendid elegance which should announce the residence of a monarch.

The front to the west alone has a fine portal, formed by large columns of the Doric order, half sunk in the wall, and on each side two great doors of noble dimensions. By this portal we pass to an elegant square court, at the bottom of which is the church. This principal entrance is never open for the kings of Spain and the princes of the blood, except on two solemn occasions: when they come for the first time to the Escurial, and when their remains are deposited there—a striking emblem of the gates of life and eternity.

The front to the south is entirely destitute of ornament; but in its four stories, including the basement, rendered necessary by the inequality of the ground, there are nearly 300 windows. The two great doors of entrance are on the opposite front. The whole edifice is built of hewn stone of a species of granite, which, by its colour, become brown with time, adds to the austerity of the building. The quarry from which it was dug is in the neighbourhood of the Escurial, and it is said that this is one motive for the choice of its site. It furnished blocks of such considerable dimensions, that three stones were sufficient to form the case of the greatest doorways, and each step of the principal staircase is composed but of one.

1. Of what country was St. Lawrence a native ?

2. What did St. Lawrence refuse ?

3. What did he say to his tormentors?

4. What does the form of the Escurial represent ?