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Ast Aid Bonne, WE aithionn Howitt ‘arian Urarpara Joyktistins puntie Library Govt. of Wor Beoga ALOFF AND HENNEKA. 4 LEGEND OF THE NORTH wx WILLIAM Wowrer- Yon mighbest system of inartal despotiwa that ever ruse on the world, wat in the wane those iron men of anent Rose, who had subyected to their invincible armas the greutyg portions of the three known Yeon tinents, wore no more: their sons, corrupted and. enfevbled by the wealth of their fathers’ conquests, were retiring fiom the extremilies of thoir immense empire,—from the hot sehds of Africa, from the popnlous cities of Asia, from tho forous and moranes of Europe, towards that great centraBheart, which naw’ was diseased to the very enve, and wax ready te sink, into inapstion, and he buried fot ages with its fallen children, A hundrod kingdums, rising from the wreck of this uugust state, were shout to grow, through centurios‘of butte and strife, inta strength and renown, But uw mightior power than even flome, was caming over them From the 8s of Syria, 2 peasant youth ALOFr axD had gone forth to the capital of Judes,—the ancient, the wise, the holy,—stattling the people by his soage nificent deeds, and confounding the powerful and the sage by bis wisdom. —‘Thiv youth hofl been Jooked. for froin the beginning of the world, God anruuneed hina tu the first pair-—pateiawehs bi kings founded thei oming,—prophets, 2 wontlrous only to. bear the throues fomaurs of his renting, aapon the ope uf his and peculiar racy, hud risen in Jong succession, to pare their hives in lens and desarts, musing on his naine, his pature, sud his fortunes, and writing the most glorious poems in hix hunour, ‘The $ery kingdom of his birth Jad been planted and preseeved fur him;—but his arrival from the depths of eternity ; from the hopes, sand expeatatigns, and murvels of w hundied generations, was the most wonderful of all, He was neither monarch nor warrivr 5 neither priest nor seribes neither patrician, nor one.of thuse*splendid adveuturers who rise from the gloom of the lywest resiuns of Life, to render more dagglitg that brilliance which soars up ghove all otbor Thugsies, and puts ot the fainter fights of legitimate rulers; he was but a simple, country youth, the repute sonef a carpenter! But what was birth or station to pim? He possessed powers whieh made universal nature tremble and bow before him ; his wisdom was truth itself, freed from all the follies auc the failings of men: Be spoke such wards of beauty, of power, of love in the publie streets, that men stood UnYNTKA. 3 in astonishment ; and the maxims he uttered, fell with an everlasting frition on their hearts, and ehangud them from base gndyignoble, to" great, gencroum, snd diving, "We fived, and did. ‘The wicked and envious trimmphed for a moment, and sll that he had done aud shewn, seemed gone like a moming dream: but it was not so, His supernaturnl powers wevived iit otyor men; his wisdom and his love inspired thom., They ‘went forth to a hundred uations, doing wonders in his name, ‘Men fell on Quan, and stew thom; but uthers aroxe, and proseeuted their wark. They conquered the prajudives of their countrymen ; they trhumphed over all the power of the mighty and universal Rome; they triumphed over the haughtiness of imperial prides the emperor ofegie world became their disiple!® But they stopped not here, Into every nation they went w into the learned cities of Grpecu; into the vast plains of central Asin; into the mysterious retlms of India they penetrated, The deserts of Africa, stopperl not their course: the demicsavage lands aid weods of Europe, were not too abject, ar tuo rude, thawake their lovers Everywhere they proceeded, and everywhere they brought blessings and strength, ‘Phe rocks and snowy. wastes of the north belield them appfoach; they errived in the desolate vales af the very Ultima Thule. It is in this part of the'world that we shall make & momentary pause, to contemplate the decds of these ‘Christians, these “dark-attired Cultecs.” It way hore