proclaiming Sunday as a legal day of rest, and holy unto the Lord, which edict was subsequently incorporated in the civil law of the empire, and ultimately adopted by all the nations which arose from the ruins of the Roman Empire.

255- OUR FLAG VICTORIOUS IN THE OLD WORLD.

The only town in the Old World ever captured by ~ pay the United States is the town of Derne, in Tripoli, on the northern coast of Africa.

The inhabitants were chiefly Moors, Turks, and Arabs, of the Mohammedan religion. The ports of the Barbary States-Algiers, Morocco, Tunis, and Tripoli

were infested with pirates, who darted out upon vessels which sailed up and down the Mediterranean Sea, and, after plundering them, either murdered the crew, or sold them into slavery. These pirates became the terror of Europe; and some mercantile countries had to pay a yearly tribute, in order to secure safety for their vessels.

England was the only nation feared by these pirates; and, so long as American vessels sailed under the English flag, they were reasonably secure: but, when the United States became a separate nation, the pirates demanded tribute.

For a time the government paid the tribute, as the easiest way to secure her commerce; but in 1801 the Dey of Tripoli grew so bold as to declare war against the United States, being dissatisfied with the payments of the tribute.

For four years a series of fights took place, until, in 1804, the American navy having been increased in the Mediterranean Sea, a vigorous attack was made upon

the pirates. Gen. Eaton succeeded in taking Derne, one of their ports, and raised the American flag over it : this was the first and the last time our flag was unfurled in victory over a foreign town. A treaty of peace was made, prisoners were exchanged, and piracy for a time came to an end.

256. THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE HINDOOS.

The Hindoos have sacred books of great antiquity, and a literature extending back twenty or thirty centu ries, but no history, no chronology, no annals.

The oldest of their sacred books, the Vedas (knowledge or science), contain the revelation of Brahma, and were preserved by tradition until collected by Vyasa (compiler); and they represent an epoch, probably the fifteenth century B.C.

The Vedas are three in number: first, the Rig-Veda, containing hymns and mystic prayers; second, the YajurVeda, containing the religious rites; third, the SâmaVeda, with prayers in the form of songs. The Vedas were written in Sanscrit, and were first translated into English by Sir William Jones. Few Hindoos now read the Vedas. The Puranas and the two great epics constitute their sacred books. The Râmâyana and the Mahâbhârata are the most colossal epic poems to be found in the literature of the world.

According to Lassen, the period of the two great epics follows the period of the Vedas. The whole life. of ancient India is found in them.

The Râmâyana contains about fifty thousand lines, and is held in great veneration by the Hindoos.

It describes the youth of Râma, who is an incarnation of their god Vishnu; his banishment and residence

THUN-W YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

in Central India. It is probably founded on some real war between the early Aryan invaders of Hindostan and the indigenous inhabitants.

The Mahabharata, supposed to be of later date, consists of about two hundred and twenty thousand lines, divided into eighteen books.

From these epics, there appear to have been two dynasties in ancient India, the solar and the lunar. Râma belonged to the first, and Bhârata to the second. Five brothers, the descendants of Bhârata, are the heroes of the Mahâbhârata; and episodes in the lives of these heroes occupy three-fourths of the poem.

The Puranas are derived from the same religious system as the two epics.

They relate more fully their mythological legends. The gods, Siva and Vishnu, are almost the sole objects of worship in the Puranas.

These Puranas, eighteen in number, are in the form of dialogue, and contain one million six hundred thousand lines.

Mr. Talboys Wheeler has recently incorporated the epics of the Hindoos (much abridged) in his "History of India."

257. CATHEDRAL OF ST. ISAAC.

By far the most important church in St. Petersburg is the great Cathedral of St. Isaac, built between the years 1819 and 1858; and it is one of the largest and most expensive buildings in modern Europe.

The church is a rectangle with four porticos, - two with eight, and two with sixteen, columns each, which are of rose-colored granite, and, after Pompey's Pillar and the column of Alexander in St. Petersburg, are