have foretold an eclipse of the sun which took place in his time during a battle between the Medes and the Lydians. Sir George Airy has written a very learned and interesting memoir, in which he proves that such an eclipse was visible in Lydia, on the afternoon of the 28th May in the year 585 B.C. No one doubts that, on the day, and at the hour mentioned by the Astronomer Royal, the people of Asia Minor saw the face of the sun totally obscured. But though we implicitly believe this retrospective prophecy, it is incapable of verification. It is impossible even to conceive any means of ascertaining directly whether the eclipse of Thales happened or not. All that can be said is, that the prospective prophecies of the Astronomer are always verified and that, inasmuch as his retrospective prophecies are the result of following backwards the very same method as that which invariably leads to verified results, when it is worked forwards, there is as much reason for placing full confidence in the one as in the other. HUXLEY. 299. Country Life. In the country every morning of the year brings with it a new aspect of springing or fading nature, a new duty to be fulfilled upon the earth, and a new promise or warning in heaven. The companionship of domestic, the care of serviceable animals, soften and enlarge his life with lowly charities, and discipline him in familiar wisdoms and unboastful fortitudes; while the divine laws of seedtime which cannot be recalled, harvest which cannot be hastened, and winter in which no man can work, compel the impatience and coveting of his heart into labour too submissive to be anxious, and rest too sweet to be wanton. RUSKIN. 300. Town Life. What thought can enough comprehend the contrast between such life, and that in streets where Summer and Winter are only alternations of heat and cold; where snow never fell white, nor sunshine clear; where the ground is only a pavement, and the sky no more than the glass roof of an arcade; where the utmost power of a storm is to choke the gutters, and the finest magic of Spring to change mud into dust; where-chief and most fatal difference in statethere is no interest of occupation for any of the inhabitants but the routine of counter or desk within doors, and the effort to pass each other without collision outside; so that from morning to evening the only possible variation of the monotony of the hours must be some kind of mischief, limited, unless by more than ordinary God-send of fatality, to the fall of a horse, or the slitting of a pocket? RUSKIN. UNIVERSITY EXAMINATION PAPERS. 301. The assembly broke up without coming to any resolution. When the day came on which they were to give their suffrages, Pompey retired into the country; and, on receiving information that the decree was passed, he returned to the city by night, to prevent the envy which the multitudes of people coming to meet him would have excited. Next morning at break of day he made his appearance, and attended the sacrifice. After this he summoned an assembly, by which he was empowered to fit out five hundred ships, and to raise an army of a hundred and twenty thousand foot and five thousand horse. Twenty-four senators were selected, who had all been generals or prætors, and were appointed his lieutenants; and he had two quæstors given him. As the price of provisions fell immediately, the people were greatly pleased, and it gave them occasion to say, "The very name of Pompey had terminated the war". OXFORD UNIV., RESPONSIONS, 1869. 302. In the interval between his campaigns, Agricola was employed in the great labours of peace. He knew that the general must be perfected by the legislator; and that the conquest is neither permanent nor honourable which is only an introduction to tyranny. His first care was the regulation of his household, which under former legates had been always full of faction and intrigue, lay heavy on the province, and was as difficult to govern. He never suffered his private partialities to intrude into the conduct of public business; nor in appointing to employments did he permit solicitation to supply the place of merit, wisely sensible that in a proper choice of officers is almost the whole of government. He eased the tribute of the province, not so much by reducing it in quantity, as by cutting off all those vexatious practices which attended the levying of it, far more grievous than the imposition itself. Every step in securing the sub jection of the conquered country was attended with the utmost care in providing for its peace and internal order. Agricola reconciled the Britons to the Roman government by reconciling them to the Roman manners. His conduct is the most perfect model for those employed in the unhappy but sometimes necessary task of subduing a rude and free people. OXFORD UNIV. FIRST PUBLIC EXAM., 1869. 303. Mr. Grenville was bred to the law, which is, in my opinion, one of the finest and noblest of human sciences; a science which does more to quicken and invigorate the understanding than all other kinds of learning put together; but it is not apt, except in persons very happily born, to open and to liberalise the mind exactly in the same proportion. Passing from that study, he did not go very largely into the world, but plunged into business-I mean into the business of office, and the limited and fixed methods and forms established there. Much knowledge, undoubtedly, is to be had in that line, and there is no knowledge which is not valuable. But it may be truly said that men too much conversant in office are rarely minds of remarkable enlargement. Their habits of office are apt to give them a turn to think the substance of business not to be much more important than the forms in which it is conducted. These forms are adapted to ordinary occasions, and therefore persons who are nurtured in office do admirably well, as long as things go on in their common order, but when the high roads are broken up, and the waters out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file affords no precedent, then it is that a greater comprehension of things is requisite than ever office gave, or than office can ever give. OXFORD UNIV. SECOND PUBLIC EXAM., 1869. 304. N.B. The piece may be done either in oratio recta or obliqua. I am charged with being an American. If warm affection towards those over whom I claim any share of authority be a crime, I am guilty of this charge. But I do assure you (and they who know me publicly and privately will bear witness to me) that if ever one man lived more jealous than another for the supremacy of parliament and the rights of this imperial crown, it was myself. Many others, |