preme power, destroyed the Shogun's rule, and abolished the feudal titles and tenures. At the command of the mikado, two hundred and fifty vassal nobles, resigning their princely incomes, lands, and retinues, retired to private life.

The Portuguese, during the era of maritime adventure in the 16th century, came to Japan. The missionary quickly followed the sailor. Francis Xavier, the apostle to the Indies, introduced Christianity (1549), and in time six hundred thousand converts were made. This second influx of foreign civilization was stopped by the expulsion of the Portuguese and a violent persecution of the Christian Japanese. The history of the Church in Europe presents no more devoted faith or heroic constancy than were shown by the martyrs of this bloody period. The Dutch alone were allowed a residence upon an island in the harbor of Nagasaki, and to exchange a single ship-load of merchandise per year.

Commodore Perry, with a squadron of United States vessels, entered the harbor of Yokohama (1854). He made a treaty with Japan, and secured the opening of certain ports to our trade. Since then the third foreign wave has swept over the Sun-land. Successive commercial treaties have been made. The former exclusiveness has been broken down, old ideas have been uprooted, and the nation has been thrust into the path of modern civilization. In 1875 the mikado established a senate; in 1879 he inaugurated provincial and departmental assemblies; and in 1889 Japan became a constitutional monarchy, with a Cabinet, a Privy Council, a House of Peers, and a House of Representatives. Under the new order, absolute religious freedom is secured, elementary education made compulsory, kindergarten methods are provided, and a flourishing government university is supported. The principles and practice of modern jurisprudence rule the

courts. Thus in this progressive little island a single generation has witnessed governmental changes that required in Europe centuries to perfect.

READING REFERENCES.

For works on the French Revolution, see p. 558.-Müller's History of Recent Times, translated by Peters (commended to all as an excellent résumé of General History from 1816 to 1881).-McCarthy's Epoch of Reform (Epochs of History Series).-Griffis's The Mikado's Empire, and Political Progress in Japan (The Forum, Feb., 1891).McCarthy's History of Our Own Times.-Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea.-Hunt's History of Italy (Freeman's Historical Course).-May's Constitutional History of England (especially valuable in its account of reforms).-Mackenzie's The Nineteenth Century.-Wrightson's History of Modern Italy, 1815-50.-Felton's Ancient and Modern Greece.-Freeman's The Turk in Europe.-Talleyrand's Memoirs.

APPENDIX.

THE

HE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD, as reckoned by the Greeks, were The Egyptian Pyramids; The Temple, Walls, and Hanging Gardens of Babylon; The Greek Statue of Jupiter at Olympia; The Temple of Diana at Ephesus; The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; The Pharos at Alexandria; and The Colossus of Rhodes. All but the last three have already been described.

The Mausoleum was a monument erected by Artemisia, Queen of Caria (B. C. 353), to her deceased husband Mausolus. It was built of the most precious marbles, and decorated in the highest style of Grecian art. Its cost was so immense that the philosopher Anaxagoras on seeing it exclaimed, “How much money is changed into stone!" Not a vestige of it now remains.

The Pharos was a lighthouse built by the first two Ptolemies on the Isle of Pharos. The wrought stone of which it was constructed was adorned with columns, balustrades, etc., of the finest marble. The tower, protected by a sea-wall, stood about four hundred feet high, and its light could be seen over forty miles.

The Colossus of Rhodes was a hollow bronze statue of Apollo, one hundred and five feet high, near the Rhodian harbor. An inner winding staircase led up to the head. It was overthrown by an earthquake (224 B. C.). The Delphic oracle having forbade its reërection, it lay in ruins for over nine centuries, when it was sold by the Saracens to a Jew, who, it is said, loaded nine hundred camels with the metal.

THE SEVEN WISE MEN were variously named even in Greece. The following translation of a Grecian doggerel gives one version :—

"I'll tell the names and sayings and the places of their birth

Of the Seven great ancient Sages, so renowned on Grecian earth.
The Lindian Cleobulus said, 'The man was still the best;'
The Spartan Chilo, Know thyself,' a heaven-born phrase confessed;
Corinthian Periander taught 'Our anger to command;'
Too much of nothing,' Pittacus, from Mitylene's strand;
Athenian Solon this advised, 'Look to the end of life;'
And Bias from Prienè showed 'Bad men are the most rife;'
Milesian Thales urged that 'None should e'er a surety be;'
Few were these words, but, if you look, you'll much in little see."
Collins's Ancient Classics.

HISTORICAL RECREATIONS.

ANCIENT PEOPLES.

1. How did a workman's scribble, made thousands of years ago, preserve a royal name, and link it to a monument?

2. What king ordered the sea to be whipped because the waves had injured his bridges?

3. Who among the ancients were the greatest sailors? Who had a religious horror of the sea?

4. What kings took a pet lion when they went to war? Who once took cats and dogs? Who used elephants in battle? Camels? Scythed chariots?

5. What is the oldest book in the world?

6. Compare the character of an Egyptian and an Assyrian; an Egyptian and a Chinaman; a Babylonian and a Persian.

7. What king was so overwhelmed by his successes that he prayed for a reverse?

8. What Roman emperor gave up his throne to enjoy his cabbagegarden?

9. What emperor once convened the senate to decide how to cook a fish?

10. Who gained a kingdom by the neighing of a horse?

11. Who is the oldest literary critic on record?

12. What was the "Dispensary of the Soul"?

13. Who was the "Egyptian Alexander the Great"?

14. What statue was reported to sing at sunrise?

15. Which of the earliest races is noted for intellectual vigor? For religious fervor? For massive architecture?

16. What is the "Book of the Dead"? The Zend-Avesta? The Epic of Pentaur? The Rig-Veda?

17. Who had a palace at Nimroud? At Koyunjik? At Khorsabad? At Persepolis? At Luxor? At Karnak? At Susa?

18. Compare the character of a Spartan and an Athenian; a Roman and a Greek.

19. What people made the intoxication of their king an annual display?

20. What city was called the "Daughter of Sidon and the Mother of Carthage"? What was the "School of Greece"? The "Eye of Greece"? The "Seven-hilled City"?

21. What king had a servant remind him three times a day of a proposed vengeance?

22. Who fought and who won the battle of Marathon? Platea? Thermopyla? Salamis? Himera? Mycale?

23. Who were the Cyclops?

24. Where and when were iron coins used as currency? Gold and silver rings? Engraved gems?

25. Who was Asshurbanipal?

Tiglath-Pileser? Khufu? Seti?

Asshur-izir-pal? Sennacherib? Cyrus? Cambyses?

26. Which do you think was the most religious nation? The most warlike? The most patient? The most intellectual? The most artistic?

27. Where were animals worshiped? The sun? The planets? The elements? Vegetables? The Evil Spirit?

28. Who built the Great Wall of China? The Great Pyramid? The Labyrinth?

29. How were women treated in Egypt? In Assyria? In Persia? In Athens? In Sparta? In Rome?

30. Who was Buddha? Sebak? Pasht? Thoth Bel? Ishtar? Moloch? Asshur? Ormazd? Nin? Nergal? Baal?

31. How many Assyrian and Babylonian kings can you mention who bore the names of gods?

32. How did a Babylonian gentleman compliment the gods!

33. What does the word Pharaoh or Phrah mean? Ans. According to some authorities it means the sun, from the Egyptian "ph-Ra;" by others it is derived from "pe-raa," grand house, a title corresponding to our "Sublime Porte."

34. Who was the "Religious Conqueror"?

35. What were the Pools of Peace? The realms of Hades?

36. Who was Che Hwang-te? Nebuchadnezzar? Darius? The Last of the Ptolemies?

37. Who was the "False Smerdis"?

38. Who were the Accadians, and where did they live?

39. What city was captured during a royal revelry?

40. What nations believed in the transmigration of souls?

41. When was the Era of Nabonassar? The First Olympiad? The age of Pericles?

42. What famous story is related of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi?

43. Mention the ornaments worn by gentlemen in ancient times. 44. Who was the real Sardanapalus? Sesostris?

45. What religion teaches that the vilest insects and even the seeds of plants have souls?

46. What poem is called the "Egyptian Iliad"?

47. What Roman emperor resembled Louis XI. of France in character?

48. Who was Herodotus? Manetho? Thucydides? Livy? Xenophon? Tacitus? Sallust? Cæsar?

49. What is meant by "seceding to the Sacred Mount"?