of the engine. The rude contrivance was soon improved, and is now in universal use.

5. Newcomen's first engine was erected near Wolverhampton. Several other improvements of a minor character were introduced, but the real difficulty of procuring a reliable and economical steam engine was not overcome until James Watt made his great discoveries.

6. Watt was born at Greenock, on the Clyde, in 1736. He was a weakly boy, and unable to join in the usual sports of boyhood. From childhood he showed a great taste for mechanical pursuits, and was fond of taking his toys to pieces, and trying to invent new ones. It is said that his aunt scolded him one evening for his indolence at the tea-table. He had been watching the steam issuing out of the spout of the tea-kettle, and not speaking a single word for an hour. Some have supposed that the boy's mind was absorbed in the study which afterwards made him so famous.

7. As Watt grew older, mathematics and drawing became his favourite studies, and he acquired great skill in the use of tools. A punch-ladle is still preserved which he made out of a large silver coin. With such tastes he resolved to become a maker of mathematical instruments, such as compasses, slides, scales, &c. In Glasgow he could. find no person who knew the trade, and was compelled to go to London. In those days that was a very formidable journey, as there was no stagecoach, and he was obliged to go on horseback. The journey occupied a fortnight.

8. It was with some difficulty that he found a place where he could learn what he wanted, and as he had to pay very dearly for the privilege he only remained there one year. He then returned to Glasgow. As he was not the son of a citizen, nor had served his apprenticeship in the city, he was strongly opposed in his efforts to commence business. Watt had however already become known to some of the Professors of Glasgow College, who had employed him in making some repairs to their instruments, and had been struck by his ingenuity.

9. The Professors therefore offered him a workshop in the college buildings, and appointed him maker of mathematical instruments to the University. Here he remaind for some years, but had great difficulty in obtaining a livelihood. To his regular trade he added several other occupations. We find him repairing and then constructing organs. He planned and executed several canals, but whatever he did he determined to do well.

10. In 1759 he was advised to turn his attention to the steam engine, and was thus led to examine into the defects of the engines then in use. It was while repairing a model belonging to the University, which is still preserved as a sacred relic, that he made the great discoveries which have made his name immortal. Hitherto it had been the custom to condense the steam in the cylinder, but at the same time the cylinder was required to be of the same heat as the steam.

11. These two conditions seemed impossible at the same time. One afternoon, in 1765, while walking in the Glasgow Green, the idea flashed into his mind of making a separate condenser. He had discovered the right principle, but he had many difficulties to overcome. Owing to want of money he was unable to turn his discovery to any useful purpose, until in 1775, when he became partner with Matthew Boulton of the Soho Ironworks, near Birmingham.

12. Here the remainder of his busy life was spent in carrying on a business which, after great anxieties and difficulties, at last became very successful. Though many further improvements were made by himself, and have since been made by others, in the perfection of the steam engine, yet the true principles of its construction were discovered by James Watt.

13. He died at Handsworth, near Birmingham, in 1819, in the eighty-third year of his age, and was buried in the Parish Church. A splendid monument was erected over his remains, and another in Westminster Abbey. A statue of him stands in one of the principal squares of Glasgow, and another is to be found within the precincts of the college, which has never had reason to repent of the help and encouragement given by her professors to the young and friendless mechanic.

Civil Wars.-The wars between Charles I. and his Parliament. The first battle was fought at Edgehill in 1642, and the last at Naseby, in Northamptonshire, in 1645. Charles was beheaded in 1649.

Horse-power.

"One horse

power" is reckoned to indicate the power of lifting up 33,000 pounds for one foot.

Glasgow at that time consisted of two main streets. The Cathedral

and the University were the two principal buildings. The old University buildings have now been converted into a railway station, and a splendid new University has been erected on Gilmore Hill, on the west side of the city. The room used by Watt has

been more recently used by the distinguished Professor of Natural Philosophy (Sir William Thompson) for perfecting the apparatus connected with the Atlantic Telegraph. The present population of Glasgow consists of nearly half a million.

QUESTIONS.-What ancient nation made use of the power of steam? Who was the first Englishman, as far as we know, who invented a machine worked by steam? What person made the first actual working steam engine? Who was Thomas Newcomen? Why was his engine of little use? Where was James Watt born? What was his favourite pursuit during childhood? What trade did he learn? What appointment did he afterward receive? What led him to turn his mind to the question of steam? What discovery did he make? Where did he now go to live? Who was his partner? At what age did he die, and where was he buried?

How still the morning of the hallowed day!

Mute is the voice of rural labour, hushed

The ploughboy's whistle and the milk-maid's song.
The scythe lies glittering in the dewy wreath
Of tedded grass, mingled with faded flowers
That yester-morn bloomed waving in the breeze.
Sounds the most faint attract the ear;-the hum
Of early bee, the trickling of the dew,
The distant bleating, midway up the hill.
Calmness sits throned on yon unmoving cloud.
To him who wanders o'er the upland lea,

The blackbird's note comes mellower from the dale,
And sweeter from the sky the gladsome lark
Warbles his heaven-tuned song; the lulling brook

Murmurs more gently down the deep-worn glen;
While from yon lowly roof, whose curling smoke
O'ermounts the mist, is heard at intervals
The voice of psalms, the simple song of praise.

With dove-like wings, Peace o'er yon village broods;
The dizzying mill-wheel rests; the anvil's din
Hath ceased; all, all around is quietness.

Less fearful on this day, the limping hare

Stops, and looks back, and stops, and looks on man,
Her deadliest foe. The toil-worn horse, set free,
Unheedful of the pasture, roams at large;
And, as his stiff unwieldy bulk he rolls,
His iron-armed hoofs gleam in the morning ray.
But chiefly man the day of rest enjoys;
Hail, Sabbath! thee I hail, the poor man's day;
On other days the man of toil is doomed
To eat his joyless bread, lonely; the ground

Both seat and board; screened from the winter's cold,
And summer's heat, by neighbouring hedge or tree.
But on this day, embosomed in his home,
He shares the frugal meal with those he loves;
With those he loves, he shares the heartfelt joy
Of giving thanks to God—not thanks of form,
A word and a grimace, but reverently,
With covered face, and upward, earnest eye.
Hail, Sabbath! thee I hail, the poor man's day.
The pale mechanic now has leave to breathe
The morning air, pure from the city's smoke;
While, wandering slowly up the river's side,
He meditates on Him, whose power he marks
In each green tree that proudly spreads the bough.
As in the tiny dew-bent flowers that bloom