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aloud, to accustom himself to the noise and tumult of a large assembly. He constructed a subterranean study, where he would often stay for two or three months together, shaving one side of his head, that in case he should wish to go abroad, the shame of appearing in that condition might keep him within. In this solitary retreat, by the light of his lamp, he copied, and recopied, ten times at least, the orations scattered throughout the history of Thucydides, for the purpose of moulding his own style after so pure a moděl.

It remains for us, briefly, to notice his oratorical character. The name of Demosthenes shines with incomparable splendor. His reputation, like that of Homer, than which it is only less ancient, may be considered as resting on an immovable basis. It is established by the admiration of his acute and fastidious countrymen-by the unbounded sway which he exerted over them-and by the dread with which he inspired their foes. Cicero the all-accomplished orator, philosopher, and statesman, Quintilian the greatest of rhetoricians, and Longinus the ablest of critics, alike awarded to him the palm of unrivaled eloquence. Nor has the decision of antiquity been reversed by the moderns. Little as his sententious energy has been imitated, its vast superiority has been conceded by all.

Industry and perseverance were the leading traits in the character of this prince of orators. Without these inestimable qualities he could never have attained the grand summit at which he finally arrived. This persevering energy has marked the course of all who are celebrated for their attainments in oratory, science, and general literature, whose names shine with resplendency on the page of history. To this indomitable trait of character they were indebted for the performance of their greatest labors; for the magnificence of those intellectual monuments which they have reared for the admira tion of all ages and nations.

DAVID A. HARSHA.

CVIII. HOPE AND LOVE.

ONE day through fancy's telescope,
Which is my richest treasure,
I saw, dear Susan, Love and Hope
Set out in search of Pleasure;
All mirth and smiles I saw them go;
Each was the other's banker;
For Hope took up her brother's bow,
And Love, his sister's anchor.

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They met stern Danger in their way,
Upon a ruin seated;

Before him kings had quaked that day,
And armies had retreated:

But he was robed in such a cloud,

As Love and Hope came near him, That though he thundered long and loud, They did not see or hear him.

A gray-beard joined them, Time by name; And Love was nearly crazy,

To find that he was very lame,

And also very lazy:

Hope, as he listened to her tale,

Tied wings upon his jacket;
And then they far outran the mail,

And far outsailed the packet.

And so, when they had safely passed

O'er many a land and billow,
Before a grave they stopped at last,
Beneath a weeping willow:
The moon upon the humble mound
Her softest light was flinging;
And from the thickets all around
Sad nightingales were singing.

"I leave you here," quoth Father Time,
As hoarse as any raven;

And Love kneeled down to spell the rhyme
Upon the rude stone graven:

But Hope looked onward, calmly brave;
And whispered, "Dearest brother,

We're parted on this side the grave,—
We'll meet upon the other."

W. M. °PRAED.

CIX.-DESCENT IN A "PARACHUTE.

MR. COCKING was an enthusiast in parachutes. He felt sure he had discovered a new, and the true principle. All parachutes, before his day, had been constructed to descend in a concave form, like that of an open umbrella; the consequence of which was, that the parachute descended with a violent swinging from side to side, which sometimes threw the man in the basket in almost a horizontal position. Mr. Cocking conceived that the converse form, viz., an inverted cone (of large dimensions) would remedy this evil; and becoming convinced, we suppose, by some private experiments with models, he agreed to descend on a certain day. The time was barely adequate to his construction of the parachute, and did not admit of such actual experiments with a sheep, or pig, or other animal, as prudence would naturally have suggested. Besides the want of time, however, Cocking equally wanted prudence; he felt sure of his new principle; this new form of parachute was the hobby of his life, and up he went on the appointed day (for what aèronaut shall dare to 'disappoint the public?"), dangling by a rope fifty feet long, from the bottom of the car of Mr. Green's great Nassau balloon.

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The large upper rim of the parachute, in imitation, we suppose, of the hollow bones of a bird, was made of hollow tin-a most inapplicable and brittle material; and besides this, it had two fractures. But Mr. Cocking was not to be deterred; convinced of the truth of

his discovery, up he would go. Mr. Green was not equally at ease, and positively refused to touch the latch of the liberating iron, which was to detach the parachute from the balloon. Mr. Cocking arranged to do this himself, for which means he procured a piece of new cord upward of fifty feet in length, which was fastened to the latch above in the car, and let down to his hand in the basket of the parachute. Up they went to a great height, and disappeared among the clouds. Mr. Green had taken up one friend with him in the car; and knowing well what would happen the instant so great a weight as the parachute and man were detached, he had provided a small balloon inside the car, filled with atmospheric air, with two mouthpieces. They were now upward of a mile high.

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"How do you feel, Mr. Cocking?" called out Green. "Never better or more delighted in my life," answered Cocking. Though hanging at fifty feet distance, in the utter silence of that region every your mind?" 'But perhaps you will alter accent was easily heard. By no means," cried Cocking; "but how high suggested Green. are we?" "Upward of a mile." "I must go higher, Mr. Green; I must be taken up two miles before I liberate the parachute." Now Mr. Green, having some regard for himself and his friend, as well as for poor Cocking, was determined not to do any such thing. After some further colloquy, therefore, during which Mr. Green threw out a little more ballast, and gained a little more elevation, he finally announced that he could go no higher, as he now needed all the balVery well," said last he had for their own safety in the balloon. Cocking, "if you really will not take me any higher, I shall say good-by." At, this juncture, Green called out, "Now, Mr. Cocking, if your mind at all misgives you about your parachute, I have provided a tackle up here which I can lower down to you, and then wind you up into the car by my little grapnel-iron windlass, and nobody Certainly not," cried Cocking; "thank you need be the wiser." all the same. I shall now make ready to pull the latch cord." Finding he was determined, Green and his friend both crouched down in the car, and took hold of the mouthpieces of their little air-balloon. "All ready?" cried out Cocking. "All ready!" answered the veteran aèronaut above. "Good-night, Mr. Green!" "Good-night, Mr. Cocking!" "A pleasant voyage to you, Mr. Green-good-night!"

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There was a perfect silence-a few seconds of intense suspense-and then the aeronauts in the car felt a jerk upon the latch. It had not been forcible enough to open the liberating iron. Cocking had failed to detach the parachute. Another pause of horrid silence ensued.

Then came a strong jerk upon the latch, and in an instant the great balloon shot upward with a sidelong whirl, like a wounded serpent. They saw their flag clinging flat down against the flag staff, while a torrent of gas rushed down upon them through the aperture in the

balloon above their heads, and continued to pour down into the car for a length of time that would have suffocated them, but for the judgmatic provision of the little balloon of atmospheric air, to the mouthpieces of which their own mouths were fixed, as they crouched down at the bottom of the car. Of Mr. Cocking's fate, or the result of his experiment, they had not the remotest knowledge. They only knew the parachute was gone!

The termination of Mr. Cocking's experiment is well known. For a few seconds he descended quickly but steadily and without swinging—as he had designed and insisted would be the result-when, suddenly, those who were watching with glasses below, saw the parachute lean on one side-then give a lurch to the other-then the large upper circle collapsed (the disastrous hollow tin tubing having evidently broken up), and the machine entered the upper part of a cloud: in a few more seconds it was seen to emerge from the lower part of the cloud-the whole thing turned over-and then, like a closed up, broken umbrella, it shot straight down to the earth. The unfortunate, and, as most people regard him, the foolish enthusiast, was found still in the basket in which he reached the earth. He was quite insensible, but uttered a moan; and in ten minutes he was dead. CHARLES DICKENS.

CX. CATILINE'S ADDRESS.

ARE there not times, °Patricians! when great states
Rush to their ruin? Rome is no more like Rome

Than a foul dungeon's like the glorious sky.
What is she now? Degenerate, gross, defiled;
The tainted haunt, the gorged receptacle
Of every slave and vagabond of earth:
A mighty grave, that luxury has dug,
To rid the other realms of pestilence!
And, of the mountain of corruption there,
Which once was human beings, procreate
A buzzing, fluttering swarm; or venom toothed,
A viper brood: insects and reptiles only!
"Consul! Look on me-on this brow-these hands;
Look on this bosom, black with early wounds:
Have I not served the state from boyhood up,
Scattered my blood for her, labored for her, loved her?
I had no chance; wherefore should I be Consul?
Patricians! they have pushed me to the gulf;

I have worn down my heart, wasted my ineans,

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