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nations upon earth. To go back to the earlier documents, we find in a similar way the dove sent out the second time seven days after her first mission, Pharaoh's dream shows him twice seven kine, twice seven ears of corn, etc.

The Seven Churches of Rev. i.-iii. are Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.-The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth.—The Seven Principal virtues are faith, hope, charity, prudence, temperance, chastity and fortitude.--The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost are wisdom, understanding, counsel, ghostly strength or fortitude, knowledge, godli. ness and the fear of the Lord.

Among the Greeks the seven was sacred to Apollo and to Dionysus, who, according to Orphic legends, was torn into seven pieces; and it was particularly sacred in Euboea, where the number was found to pervade, as it were, almost every sacred, private or domestic relation. On the many ancient speculations which connected the number seven with the human body and the phases of its gradual development and formation, its critical periods of sicknesses-partly still extant as superstitious notions-we cannot here dwell. The Pythagoreans made much of this number, giving it the name of Athene, Hermes, Hephaistos, Heracles, the Virgin unbegotten and unbegetting (i.e. not to be obtained by multiplication), Dionysus, Rex, etc. Many usages show the importance attached to this number in the eyes not only of ancient but even of our own times, and it is hardly necessary to add that the same recurrence is found in the folklore of every race.

Hippocrates (B.C. 460-357) divided the life of man into seven ages, a division adopted by Shakspeare.

The Egyptian priests enjoined rest on the seventh day, because it was held to be a dies infaustus. In Egyptian astronomy there were seven planets, and hence seven days in the week, each day ruled by its own special planet. The people of Peru had also a seven-day week.

The Persians and Mexicans have a tradition of a flood from which seven persons saved themselves in a cave, and by whom the world was subsequently repeopled.

The Seven Champions of Christendom are St. George for England, St. Andrew for Scotland, St. Patrick for Ireland, St. David for Wales, St. Denis for France, St. James for Spain, St. Anthony for Italy.

LESSONS OF THE LETTERS.

A popular magazine writer professes to have discovered that our lives would surely be happy, as well as useful and meritorious, if we were always careful to avoid:

The incessant round of idle pleasures, which make life so-M. T. That undisciplined spirit, which carries everything to-X. S. Fixing our hearts upon aught that can know-D. K.

Looking upon the possessions of others with-N. V.

Exulting over a fallen-N. M. E.

Shirking all the difficult duties of our state, and fulfilling only those that are-E. Z.

A haughty, repellant manner, which may be alphabetically described as-I. C.

Encumbering our souls with faults which we shall, either here or hereafter, be required to-X. P. VIII.

That pride which leads us to refuse a work in which we are not sure we shall-X. L.

That porcupine susceptibility which is irritated at—O.

Discussing topics that cause the strings of social life to-G. R.

Thinking that acquaintances have no good qualities, because at first sight we don't-C. N. E.

Being gloomy sometimes as though life were an-L. E. G.

If our readers cannot make out all these maxims we confess we cannot-C. Y.

A FEW CURIOUS ANAGRAMS.

The anagram is a word or words formed by the transposition of the letters of a sentence or word: e.g., live becomes the Anagram evil. Anagrams were in use among the ancient Greeks, Romans, etc., and many that have been recorded are curiously suggestive. Following are a few of the historic anagrams:

CHARLES JAMES STUART, (James I.) Claims Arthur's Seat.

DAME ELEANOR DAVIES (prophetess in the reign of Charles I.) Never so mad a ladie. HORATIO NELSON. Honor est a Nilo.

MARIE TOUCHET (mistress of Charles IX ). Je charme tout (made by Henri IV.) Pilate's question, QUID EST VERITAS? Est vir qui adest.

SIR ROGER CHARLES DOUGHTY TICHBORNE, BARONET.

Orton biggest rascal here.

DOUGLAS JERROLD: Sure, a droll dog.

THOMAS MOORE: Homo amor est.

EDGAR ALLAN POE: A long peal, read.

JOHN RUSKIN: No ink rush.

UNITED STATES: In te Deus stat.

JAMES WATT: Wait, steam.

WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE: A man to wield great wills.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: I ask me has Will a peer.

THREE FOR A FINISH.

You horrid butcher,

The line of kings in England never exceeds three reigns without interruption or catastrophe.

WILLIAM I., II., HENRY I.-A usurper, Stephen.

HENRY II., RICHARD I.-A usurper, John.

HENRY III., EDWARD I.-Edward II. murdered.

EDWARD III.-Richard II. deposed.

HENRY IV., V., VI.-Line of Lancaster changed.
EDWARD IV., V., RICHARD III.-Dynasty changed.
HENRY VII., VIII., EDWARD VI.-Lady Jane Grey.
MARY, ELIZABETH-Dynasty changed.

JAMES I.-Charles I. beheaded.

CHARLES II.-James II. dethroned.

WILLIAM III., ANNE.- Dynasty changed.

GEORGE I., II., III.-Regency.

GEORGE IV., WILLIAM IV., VICTORIA.—Indirect successions.

Except in one case, that of John, England has never had a greatgrandchild as sovereign in direct descent.

SEVEN SLEEPERS.

The Seven Sleepers were the heroes of a celebrated legend, which is first related in the West by Gregory of Tours in the close of the sixth century, but the date of which is assigned to the third century, and at

the persecution of the Christians under Decius. According to the story, during the flight of the Christians from the persecution, seven Christians of Ephesus took refuge in a cave near the city, where they were discovered by their pursuers, who walled up the entrance in order to starve them to death. They fell instead into a preternatural sleep, in which they lay for nearly two hundred years. This is supposed to have taken place in 250 or 251; and it was not till the reign of Theodosius II. (447) that they awoke. They imagined that their sleep had been but of a single night; and one of the seven went secretly into the city to purchase provisions, and he was amazed to see the cross erected on the churches and other buildings. Offering a coin of Decius in a baker's shop he was arrested, his startling story not being believed until he guided the citizens to the cavern where he had left his comrades. The emperor heard from their lips enough to convince him of the life beyond the grave of the dead, whereupon they sank again to sleep till the resurrection. Gregory explains that his story is of Syrian origin-it is widely current in the East, and was adopted by Mahommed, who even admits their dog Kitmer also into Paradise. The Roman Catholic Church holds their festival on June 27.

"I."

I am not in youth, nor in manhood or age,
But in infancy ever am known,

I'm a stranger alike to the fool and the sage,
And though I'm distinguished on history's page,
I always am greatest alone.

I'm not in the earth, nor the sun, nor the moon;
You may search all the sky, I'm not there:

In the morning and evening, though not in the noon,
You may plainly perceive me, for, like a balloon,

I am always suspended in air.

Though disease may possess me, and sickness, and pain,
I am never in sorrow or gloom,

Though in wit and in wisdom I equally reign,

I am the heart of all sin, and have long lived in vain,
Yet I ne'er shall be found in the tomb.

SOME "LUCKY" AND "UNLUCKY” NUMBERS.

Harold's day was October 14. It was his birthday, and also the day of his death. William the Conqueror was born on the same day, and, on October 14, 1066, won England by conquest.

October 7, Rienzi's foes yielded to his power.

7 months Rienzi reigned as tribune.

7 years he was absent in exile.

7 weeks of return saw him without an enemy (October 7).

7 was the number of the crowns the Roman convents and Roman council awarded him.

It is said that it is unlucky for thirteen persons to sit down to dinner at the same table, because one of the number will die before the year is out. This silly superstition is based on the "Last Supper," when Christ and His twelve disciples sat at meat together. Jesus, of course, was crucified, and Judas Iscariot hanged himself.

The 3rd September was considered by Oliver Cromwell to be his redletter day. On 3rd September, 1650, he won the battle of Dunbar; on U. I.-21

3rd September, 1651, he won the battle of Worcester; and on 3rd September, 1658, he died. It is not, however, true that he was born on 3rd September, as many affirm, for his birthday was 25th April, 1599.

In British dynasties two has been an unlucky number; thus: Ethelred II. was forced to abdicate; Harold II. was slain at Hastings; William II. was shot in the New Forest; Henry II. had to fight for his crown, which was usurped by Stephen; Edward II. was murdered at Berkeley Castle; Richard II. was deposed; Charles II. was driven into exile; James II. was obliged to abdicate; George II. was worsted at Fontenoy and Lawfeld, was disgraced by General Braddock and Admiral Byng, and was troubled by Charles Edward, the Young Pretender.

"Five," says Pythagoras, “has peculiar force in expiations. It is everything. It stops the power of poisons, and is redoubted by evil spirits. Unity, or the monad, is Deity, or the first cause of all things-the good principle. Two, or the dyad, is the symbol of diversity-the evil principle. Three, or the triad, contains the mystery of mysteries, for everything is composed of three substances. It represents God, the soul of the world, and the spirit of man. Five is 23, or the combination of the first of the equals and the first of the unequals; hence also the combination of the good and evil powers of nature."

The number fourteen plays a very conspicuous part in French history, especially in the reigns of Henry IV. and Louis XIV. For example:

14th May, 1029, the first Henri was consecrated, and 14th May, 1610, the last Henri was assassinated.

14 letters compose the name of Henri di Bourbon, the 14th king of France and Navarre.

14th December, 1553 (14 centuries, 14 decades and 14 years from the birth of Christ), Henri IV. was born, and 1553 added together = 14.

14th May, 1554, Henri II. ordered the enlargement of the Rue de la Ferronnerie. This order was carried out, and 4 times 14 years later Henri IV. was assassinated there. 14th May, 1552, was the birth of Margaret de Valois, first wife of Henri IV.

14th May, 1588, the Parisians revolted against Henri III., under the leadership of Henri de Guise.

14th March, 1590, Henri IV. gained the battle of Ivry.

14th May, 1590, Henri IV. was repulsed from the faubourgs of Paris.

14th November, 1590, "The Sixteen" took oath to die rather than serve the Huguenot king, Henri IV.

14th November, 1592, the Paris parlement registered the papal bull which excluded Henri IV. from reigning.

14th December, 1599, the duke of Savoy was reconciled to Henri IV.

14th September, 1606, the dauphin (Louis XIII.), son of Henri IV., was baptized. The second of the month was Louis Napoleon's day. It was also

one of the days of his uncle, the other being the fifteenth.

The coup d'état was December 2; he was made emperor December 2, 1852; the Franco-Prussian war opened at Saarbrück, August 2, 1870; he surrendered his sword to William of Prussia September 2, 1870.

Napoleon I. was crowned December 2, 1804; and the victory of Austerlitz was December 2, 1805.

THE VOWELS.

We are little airy creatures,

All of different voice and features;
One of us in glass is set,
One of us you'll find in jet,
T'other you may see in tin,
And the fourth a box within,
If the fifth you should pursue,
It can never fly from you.

MASTERPIECES OF ALLITERATION.

The frequent recurrence of words beginning with the same letters is called alliteration. A good example of its use is to be found in that famous couplet of Churchill's:

Who often, but without success, had prayed

For apt alliteration's artful aid.

The Siege of Belgrade, claimed for Alaric A. Watts, is probably the best-known alliterative poem in the English language:

An Austrian army, awfully arrayed,
Boldly by battery, besieged Belgrade.
Cossack commanders, cannonading come,
Dealing destruction's devastating doom;
Every endeavor, engineers essay

For fame, for fortune, forming furious fray.
Gaunt gunners grapple, giving gashes good
Heaves high his head heroic hardihood.
Ibraham, Islam, Ismael, imps in ill,
Jostle John Jarovlitz, Jem, Joe, Jack, Jill;

Kick kindling Kutusoff, king's kinsman kill;

Labor low levels loftiest longest lines;

Men march 'mid moles, 'mid mounds, 'mid murderous mines.

Now nightfall's nigh, now needful nature nods.

Opposed, opposing, overcoming odds.

Poor peasants, partly purchased, partly pressed,

Quite quaking, "Quarter! Quarter!" quickly quest.

Reason returns, recalls redundant rage,

Saves sinking soldiers, softens signiors sage.

Truce, Turkey, truce! truce, treacherous Tartar train!

Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine!

Vanish, vile vengeance! vanish, victory vain!

Wisdom wails war-wails warring words. What were

Xerxes, Xantippê, Ximenês, Xavier?

Yet yassy's youth, ye yield your youthful yest.
Zealously, zanies, zealously zeal's zest.

Tusser has a poem on "Thriftiness," twelve lines in length, and in rhyme, every word of which begins with t (died 1580). Leon Placentius, a dominican, wrote a poem in Latin hexameters, called Pugna Porcorum, 253 stanzas long, every word of which begins with p (died 1548).

Here's another antique specimen :

The thrifty that teacheth the thriving to thrive,
Teach timely to traverse, the thing that thou 'trive,
Transferring thy toiling, to timeliness taught,

This teacheth thee temp'rance, to temper thy thought.

Take Trusty (to trust to) that thinkest to thee.

That trustily thriftiness, trowleth to thee.

Then temper thy travell, to tarry the tide;

This teacheth thee thriftiness, twenty times tryed.

Take thankful thy talent, thank thankfully those

That thriftily teacheth [? teach thee] thy time to transpose.

Troth twice to be teached, teach twenty times ten,
This trade that thou takest, take thrift to thee then.

EASY SUMS IN ARITHMETIC.

Take 15. Multiply that by itself, then multiply the product by itself and proceed until you have thus multiplied 15 products in turn.-It has been said that it will take twenty-five years to solve this problem.

"If a goose weighs ten pounds and half its own weight, what is the weight of the goose?"

"A snail climbing up a post twenty feet high ascends five feet every day and slips down four feet every night; how long will the snail take to reach the top of the post?"

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