Stranger! however great,
With lowly rev'rence bow;
There's one in that poor shed-
One by that paltry bed-
Greater than thou.

Beneath that beggar's roof,

Lo! death doth keep his state!
Enter-no crowds attend;

Enter-no guards defend
This palace gate.

That pavement damp and cold
No smiling courtiers tread;
One silent woman stands,
Lifting with meagre hands
A dying head.

No mingling voices sound-

An infant wail alone;

A sob suppress'd--again

That short deep gasp, and then—

The parting groan.

O change! O wondrous change!
Burst are the prison bars--

This moment there so low,
So agonised--and now
Beyond the stars!

O change!-stupendous change!
There lies the soulless clod;
The sun eternal breaks-

The new immortal wakes

Wakes with his God!

Thomas Babington Macaulay, a poet and historian, and one of our most brilliant writers, was born at Leicester in 1800. He was educated at Cambridge, where he distinguished himself by gaining two medals

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1 Tarquinius Superbus was the last of the Roman kings. On account of his tyranny and the wickedness of his son, false Sextus,' he was dethroned and banished from Rome B.c. 509. A few years after this time, Lars Porsena, King of Etruria, attempted to restore the Tarquins, and led an army against Rome. What followed is recorded by Macaulay in this stirring ballad, which is supposed to be recited by a Roman minstrel about a hundred years after the events to which it relates.

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for prize poems. In 1825 his first article, an essay on Milton, appeared in the Edinburgh Review.' This was the beginning of the long series of brilliant papers which he continued to contribute to that magazine till 1844. He was member of Parliament in succession for Calne, Leeds, and Edinburgh. In 1834 he was appointed to an important Government position in India, and this office he held till 1838, when he returned to England and again entered the House of Commons. He was raised to the peerage in 1857, but the state of his health, and his anxiety to complete a History of England' upon which he had been many years engaged, prevented him from taking any active part in politics in the House of Lords. His brilliant essays, his History of England,' and his 'Lays of Ancient Rome,' are his principal writings. He died in 1860.

BUT the Consul's brow was sad,

And the Consul's speech was low,
And darkly looked he at the wall,
And darkly at the foe.
'Their van will be upon us

Before the bridge goes down;
And if they once may win the bridge,
What hope to save the town?'

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
'To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,

And the temples of his gods?

Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?'

Then out spake Spurius Lartius;
A Ramnian proud was he:
'Lo, I will stand at thy right hand,
And keep the bridge with thee.'

1 Ramnian-Titian. The original settlers in Rome consisted of three tribes-the Ramnes, the Tities, and the Luceres, These constituted the patricians, or true citizens of Rome.

And straight against that great array
Forth went the dauntless three.
For Romans in Rome's quarrel

Spared neither land nor gold,
Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life,
In the brave days of old.

The three stood calm and silent,
And looked upon the foes,
And a great shout of laughter

From all the vanguard rose:

And forth three chiefs came spurring

Before that deep array;

To earth they sprang, their swords they drew,
And lifted high their shields, and flew

To win the narrow way.

These and several other chiefs being slain by the dauntless three,' Horatius is attacked by the great Lord of Luna.'

But hark! the cry is Astur:

And lo! the ranks divide;
And the great Lord of Luna 1

Comes with his stately stride.
Upon his ample shoulders

Clangs loud the fourfold shield,

And in his hand he shakes the brand
Which none but he can wield.

Then, whirling up his broadsword
With both hands to the height,

He rushed against Horatius,
And smote with all his might.
With shield and blade Horatius
Right deftly turned the blow.

1 Luna, a town in Etruria, near the famous marble quarries which are now known as those of Carrara.