they began to alter their sentiments, when they perceived that his flight was only pretended, in order to separate his antagonists, whom he was unable to oppose united; for quickly after, stopping his course, and turning upon him who followed most closely behind, he laid him dead at his feet; the second brother advancing to assist him who was fallen, soon shared the same fate; and now there remained but the last Curiatius to conquer, who, fatigued and quite disabled with his wounds, slowly came to offer up an easy victory. He was killed almost unresistingly, while the conqueror, exultingly, offered him as a victim to the superiority of the Romans, whom now the Alban army consented to obey. A victory so great, and attended with such signal effects, deserved every honor Rome could bestow: but, as if none of the virtues of that age were to be without alloy, the hand, which in the morning was exerted to save his country, was, before night, imbrued in the blood of a sister. Returning triumphant from the field, it raised his indignation to behold her bathed in tears, and lamenting the loss of her lover, one of the Curiatii, to whom she was betrothed; but, upon seeing the vest which she had made for her lover among the number of his spoils, and hearing her upbraidings, it provoked him beyond the power of sufferance, so that he slew her in a rage. This action greatly displeased the senate, and drew on himself the condemnation of the magistrates; but he was pardoned by making his appeal to the people. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. LVIII. NIAGARA. FLOW on, for ever, in thy glorious robe Keep silence and upon thy rocky altar pour Ah! who can dare To lift the insect trump of earthly hope, Or love, or sorrow-mid the peal sublime Back from thy brotherhood: and all his waves Dost rest not, night or day. The morning stars When first they sang o'er young creation's birth, Lo!-yon birds Thy glorious features with our pencil's point, Thou dost make the soul A wondering witness of thy majesty, To pierce thy vestibule, dost chain its step, MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY. LIX.-ON LIGHT AND COLOR. LIGHT, which is an extremely attenuated fluid matter, is constantly transmitted from the sun to the earth; and we know, from the labors of those eminent men who have made philosophical discoveries the study of their lives, that it reaches us in a little more than eight minutes, which is a velocity almost equal to 200,000 miles in a second of time. The velocity of light, indeed, will appear truly astonishing, when we consider that were a cannon ball ejected from the sun, it would be more than thirty years in arriving at this earth, though it traveled throughout with the same swiftness that it acquires when first shot out of a cannon! Milton, alluding to the Divine mandate, at the creation, "Let thêre be light, and there was light," thus apostrophizes: "Hail, holy light! offspring of Heaven, first born, Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam, Bright effluence of bright essence increate- The rising world of waters dark and deep." Light is capable of entering into bodies, and of being afterwards extricated without any alteration. Many instances might be adduced of substances which, after being exposed to the sun's rays, appear luminous in the dark, and emit light for a longer or shorter period. In short, light possesses many singular and striking properties. Sir Isaac Newton described it to be a substance consisting of small particles, constantly separating from luminous bodies, moving in straight lines, and rendering bodies luminous by passing from them and entering the eye. We may also observe that light is decomposable into seven distinct rays, of different colors. Some bodies absorb one colored ray, others another, while they reflect the rest. This is the cause of colors in bodies. A red body, for instance, reflects the red rays, and absorbs the rest. A white body reflects all the rays and absorbs none; while a black body, on the contrary, absorbs all the rays and reflects none. Dr. Paley has remarked, “that if light had been made by a common artist, it would have been of one uniform color; whereas, by its present composition, we have that variety of colors which is of such infinite use to us for the distinguishing of objects; which adds so much to the beauty of the earth, and greatly augments the stock of our innocent pleasures." "Nature's resplendent robe! Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapt In unessential gloom." A ray of solar light passing into a dark room through a hole in the shutter, and falling upon a glass prism placed to receive it, becomes divided into seven different rays, each of which bears its own color. The oblong image which the refraction of the glass produces, affords seven colored stripes distributed in regular order. The first from the upper part is red, the second orange, the third yellow, the fourth gray, the fifth blue, the sixth indigo, and the seventh violet. These stripes pass from one into another by gradations or shades. If a glass lens be presented to the seven rays, divided by the prism, they will be united into a single ray, which will exhibit a round image of shining white. Hence all the colors united produce white; but if only five or six of these rays be taken in by the lens, it will produce but a dusky white. Two rays only, reùnited by this means, afford a color that partakes of both. A stream of white or natural light, therefore, is a union of seven kinds of rays, the division of which produces seven principal and immutable colors, and their reunion forms white. The absence of all color, or the negation of light, is black or darkness. The foregoing remarks will partly demonstrate the cause of that most beautiful object, the rainbow. The sun shines on the drops of rain as they descend in a shower, and the light which enters those drops is broken or divided into various colors, on the principal of the lens above described; and is afterwards refracted and reflected out of the drops all round (according to the position of the spectator) so as to produce that regular succession of prismatic colors by which the heavenly vault is spanned. ANONYMOUS. LX.-CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. HALF a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. Rode the six hundred. "Forward, the Light Brigade!" Some one had blundered: Thêirs not to make reply, Cannon to right of them, Cannon in front of them Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, Into the jaws of Death, Rode the six hundred: Flashed all their sabres bâre, All the world wondered: Reeled from the sabre-stroke Shattered and sundered. Then they rode back, but not Not the six hundred. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell, They that had fought so well Came through the jaws of Death When can their glory fade? Noble six hundred! ALFRED TENNYSON. |