he was not aware; but it afterwards suggested the idea of obtaining literal impressions from engravings on wooden blocks; and hence originated the art of Printing, which has so essentially contributed to the diffusion of knowledge. It was also a very powerful assistant to the great work of the REFORMATION, which took place about fifty years after the time of Koster,-wooden blocks having been exchanged for

metal types. WILLIAM CAXTON was the first Printer in England. He introduced and practised the art about the year 1474.

1517.

The REFORMATION shone where clouds had been, In the Eighth Harry's reign-Fifteen, Seventeen.

Ꭰ

TO THE SUN.

(From Ossian.)

O Thou! that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! Whence are thy beams, O Sun? Thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty, and the stars hide themselves in the sky; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave: but thou thyself movest along; who can be a companion of thy course? The oaks of the mountains fall: the moun

tains themselves decay with years; the ocean shrinks and grows again: the moon herself is lost in heaven, but thou art for ever the same; rejoicing in the brightness of thy

course.

When the world is dark with tempests; when thunder rolls, and lightning flies; thou lookest in thy beauty from the clouds, and laughest at the storm. But to Ossian thou lookest in vain; for he beholds thy beams no more; whether thy yellow hair flows on the eastern clouds, or thou tremblest at the gates of the west. But thou art perhaps like me, for a season, and thy years will have an end. Thou shalt sleep in thy clouds, careless of the voice of the morning. Exult

then, O Sun! in the strength of thy youth! Age is dark and unlovely; it is like the glimmering light of the moon, when it shines through broken clouds, and the mist is on the hills; the blast of the north is on the plain, the traveller shrinks in the midst of his journey.

The SUN is a spherical body. It is the source of light and heat.

And it exceeds the earth in bulk 1,377,633 times.

A NIGHT SCENE.

Literally translated from Homer's Iliad, bk. 8, v. 550---561.

***But the Trojans, greatly elated, sat all night in battle array; and many fires burned for them.

As

when in heaven the beauteous stars are seen round the bright moon, when the air is breathless, and all beacons and lofty summits and forests appear; but in heaven the boundless ether is opened, and all the stars are seen, and the shepherd is delighted in his mind; so