ber, and calied, Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Calliope, and Urania. They were generally represented as young, beautiful, and modest virgins, and commonly appeared in different attire, according to the differents arts and sciences over which they were supposed to preside.

NIAGARA. The perpendicular descent of this cataract, is 151 feet; and the whole descent in the course of ten miles, is 300 feet. There are other cataracts which have a greater perpendicular descent: but there is no one in the known world where so great a mass of water is percipitated from so great a height.

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PAGAN WORLD. About three fourths of the inhabitants of the globe are without the Bible; and these may be considered as pagans. The population of the world is computed at 800,000,000. Of these, 200,000,000 are included in Christendom.

PALMYRA, the capital of Palmyrene, a country in the eastern boundaries of Syria, now called Tadmor. It is famous for being the seat of the celebrated Zenobia and Odenatus. It is now in ruins, and the splendor and magnificence of its porticoes, temples, and palaces, excite the astonishment and rapture of the curious and learned who visit it.

PERSEPOLIS, a celebrated city, the capital of the Persian empire. It was laid in ruins by Alexander, after the conquest of Darius. Its ruins still astonish the modern traveller, by their grandeur and magnificence.

PERSONIFICATION. It is that figure by which life and action are attributed to inanimate objects. The use of this figure is very natural and extensive. There is a wonderful propensity in man, when excited, to animate all objects. We say, the ground thirsts for rain; the earth smiles with plenty; we call ambition restless; and a disease deceitful. Impassioned prose, and almost all poetry, abounds with this figure. The Bible contains many most beautiful personifications: "The sea saw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back: The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea! that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob."

PLYMOUTH, the place where our fore-fathers landed, Dec. 22, 1620, when they first arrived from England.

POLES, of the Earth, the Northern and Southern extremities of the globe; the points in which meridian circles all cut each other; the ends of an imaginary axis passing through the

centre of the earth at right angles to the Equator; and on which the earth may be supposed to revolve.

PRIAM, the last king of Troy. He fortified and embellished the city, and according to Homer, was the father of 19 children, many of whom were celebrated. Priam was slain in his old age by Neoptolemus, while fighting against the Greeks in the ten years' war.

PRISONERS of War. In ancient times, they were generally either put to death, or made slaves for life.

PROUD PERSIAN, Darius, king of Persia, whose dominions Alexander invaded, to avenge the injuries which the Greeks had received from the predecessors of Darius. The king of Persia, with an army of 600,000, met Alexander, and a battle was fought near the Granicus, in which the Persians were defeated. Another was soon after fought, near Issus, and Alexander left 110,000 of the Persians dead on the field, and took among the prisoners of war the mother, wife, and children of Darius. Darius retreated under covert of night, and soon assembled another and more powerful army, and the last decisive battle was fought at Arbela, and Alexander was completely victorious. Darius fled to Bactriana, whose Governor, Bessus, took away his life in hopes of succeeding to his throne, B. C. 331. With Darius the Empire of Persia was extinguished, 228 years after it had been first founded by Cyrus the Great.

SANDWICH ISLANDS. Idolatry, to which all the inhabitants of these Islands were formerly devoted, is now entirely abolished in almost every one of them, through the influence of the Missionaries sent there a few years ago by the American Board. In all other respects too, great improvements have been made in their character and condition.

SARDANAPALUS, The fortieth and last king of Assyria, celebrated for his luxury and voluptuousness. The monarch generally appeared in the midst of his concubines, disguised in the habit of a female and spinning wool for his amusement. Being overpowered in a conspiracy, he burned himself with his eunuchs, concubines, and attendants in his own palace, and his kingdom was divided among the conspirators.

SENECA, a celebrated moralist, a native of Corduba in Spain: He went to Rome, and was made a Roman Knight. After being banished by the Emperor Caligula to Corsica and recalled by Claudius, he was appointed preceptor to the young Nero. During the reign of his pupil he was suspected of being engaged in a conspiracy, and was consequently ordered to destroy himself. Not being successful in two or three attempts which he made upon his own life, the impatient soldiers sinothered bim. He was destroyed the 65th year of the Christian era, in

the 53d year of his age. The morals which he taught, are impure and worthless, when compared with the morals of the Bible.

SLAVES. At present there are about two millions in the United States. To hold slaves is contrary to the Christian Religion, which commands us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; to the voice of reason, which says, that the rights and liberties of all persons are alike precious and inviolable; and to the dictate of Nature, which has made all men equal. Portugal, France and Spain, are the only countries which tolerate the Slave-Trade.

THEBES, an ancient and celebrated city of Thebais, in Egypt, called also Hecatompylos, on account of its hundred gates, and Diospolis, as being sacred to Jupiter. In the time of its splendor it extended above 23 miles, and upon any emergency, could send into the field, by each of its hundred gates, 20,000 fighting men. Thebes was ruined by Cambyses, king of Persia.

THERMOPYLAE,

small pass leading from Thessaly into Locris and Phocis. It receives its name from the hot baths in its neighborhood. It is celebrated for a battle which was fought there, B. C. 480, on the 7th of August between Xerxes and the Greeks, in which Leonidas at the head of 300 Spartans resisted for three successive days the attacks of the most brave and courageous of the Persian army, which, according to some historians, amounted to five millions, The 300 Spartans were all slain before the army of Xerxes could advance.

TIDES. The ebbing and flowing of the Tides are occasioned by the attraction of the moon and sun. The waters being in loose particles, and the land firm; the water rises in that part of the earth which is towards the moon. When the sun

and moon are in one direction, the tides in those parts of the earth towards them, are then the highest. As the land is one solid mass, it is all affected in the same degree; while the waters being separated, are affected more than the land, and in two directions. The waters exposed to the moon are raised, and the waters opposite, being less attracted than the land opposite, are also raised, being not so much moved as the land; and the waters between these extremes are, of course, lowered; so that we have the reason for the ebbing and flowing of the tides, twice, at one revolution of the moon.

TROY, a city, the capital of Troas, its situation not clearly xnown. It has been made famous by the poems of Homer and Virgil, in their description, of the ten years' war carried on between the Trojans and Grecians. Paris, the son Priam, while on a visit to Menelaus, a Grecian Prince, was se

cunning as to steal his wife, Helen, and carry her away to Troy. This was the cause of the ten years' war in which the Grecians were finally successful in taking and destroying the city.

TWILIGHT. When the sun goeth beneath the horizon, his rays, by the earth and the medium around, are attracted towards the earth; so that the light is enjoyed for some time after sunset. The same also takes place before sunrise. And this constitutes twilight.

VOLCANO. The most celebrated Volcano, or burning mountain, is Etna, near the eastern coast of the Island of Sicily in the Mediterranean. Its height above the level of the sea, is 10,963 feet, and may be distinctly seen in a clear day at the distance of 150 miles. This volcano was famous with the Ancients, and was the cause of many fabulous stories respecting their Divinities.

WEST INDIES. These Islands, lying in the Caribbean sea, between North and South America, are called the West Indies, in distinction from the countries in the East called the East Indies, which comprise the southern part of Asia.

WILBERFORCE, a man who distinguished himself in the British parliament, by advocating for a number of years, and finally causing it to be passed, the motion for the abolition of the Slave Trade in Great Britain.

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