about fourteen years after he began the conquest of the world. If we examine his history, we shall be equally at a loss whether most to admire his great abilities or his wonder ful fortune. To pretend to say, that from the beginning he planned the subjugation of his native country, is doing no great credit to his well known penetration, as a thousand ob stacles lay in his way, which fortune, rather than conduct was to surmount. No man, therefore, of his sagacity, would have begun a scheme in which the chances of succeeding were so many against him; it is most probable, that, like al very successful men, he only made the best of every occur rence; and his ambition rising with his good fortune, from at first being contented with his humbler aims, he at last be gan to think of governing the world, when he found scarce an obstacle to oppose his designs. Such is the disposition of man, whose cravings after power are always most insatiable when he enjoys the greatest share.

CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY.

1. ABOUT sixty-one years before Christ, one of the mos dangerous conspiracies broke out that had ever threatened Rome. At the head of this conspiracy was Lucius Sergius Catiline, who was descended from a very illustrious patrician family of great antiquity. He had been brought up amidst the tumults and disorders of a civil war, and had been the instrument of the cruelties of Sylla, to whom he was devoted. Destitute of either morals or probity, he discovered not the least veneration for the gods; and being ever disgusted with the present, was always unhappy with respect to the future.

2. Though master of few abilities, he was bold, rash, and intrepid, and had not even prudence enough properly to conceal his own infernal designs, where it was necessary he should, in order to prevent their miscarriage. As extrava gance is the first cause of the violation of all laws, so Catiline, having contracted vast debts, and being unable to pay them, grew desperate, and aimed at nothing less than the highest and most lucrative employments. For this purpose,

When was Catiline's conspiracy formed?—What was the character of Catiline?

he associated with those young Romans, whose excesses had ruined their fortunes, and rendered them the contempt of every discerning person in the city.

3. These abandoned wretches formed a horrid conspiracy to murder the consuls, and to put to death the greatest part of the senators. Even the day was fixed, which was to have given birth to the most infamous attempt that had ever happened in the commonwealth since the foundation of Rome. At the signal given by Catiline, they were to rush on the consuls and murder them; but Catiline being too hasty in the signal, it was not obeyed; and thus the massacre was put off till another time.

4. This conspiracy was daily strengthened by all the young people of Rome, who, having been rocked in the cradle of luxury, and enervated by a continual succession of pleasures; such as had ruined themselves by excesses, and were no longer able to support their extravagancies; the ambitious, who aspired to the highest posts in the state; and others, who had revenge, which they wanted to gratify on some superior; all these, actuated by different passions, embarked in the cause of Catiline, who made them the largest promises, and at the same time exhorted them to employ their interest to procure his being elected consul. No time could better suit the conspirators, as Pompey was then engaged in a war in the east, and Italy had no army to protect it.

5. Cicero, however, who was then consul, found means to bribe Fulvia, a lady of an illustrious family, which she had dishonored by her criminal amours with one of the chief of the conspirators. From this woman, Cicero got such information as enabled him to counteract all Catiline's projects. Soon after, Cicero accused Catiline, while he was present in the senate, of his impious design; but he endeavored to clear himself of the charge. Finding he could not bring the senators to his way of thinking, and being called by them an enemy and a parricide, he cried out in a furious tone of voice, "Since snares are every where laid for me, and those to whom I am odious exasperate me beyond measure, I will not perish singly, but involve my enemies in my ruin."

6. Catiline, having spoken these words, flew out of the

What was the object of this conspiracy?-Who was instrumental in counteracting this conspiracy?

senate-house, and sending for the chief conspirators, to them what had passed. Then exhorting them to murder t consul, he left Rome that night, accompanied by three hu dred of his associates, and went and joined Manlius. I caused lictors, with fasces and axes, to walk before him, if he had really been a magistrate. Upon the news of th insurrection, the senate ordered Antonius, the consul, march the legions against the rebels, and Cicero to look aft the peace of the city.

7. Soon after, Lentulus, Cethegus, Gabinius, and two mor who were principals of the conspiracy, were arrested, co victed, and conveyed to different prisons. The contest in th senate was long and warm, respecting the nature of the p nishment that should be inflicted upon them. It was, how ever, at last resolved that they should be put to death; an Cicero, upon the bare sentence of the senate, and withou submitting the matter to the people, as was usual, ordere them to be executed in the different prisons in which the were confined. These executions at once crushed the plo and overturned all the designs of the conspirators, who ha that night resolved to rescue them from confinement, tha they might immediately join Catiline.

8. News being brought to Catiline's camp, of the late exe cutions, great numbers of his soldiers abandoned him in th night; but this did not disconcert or dishearten Catiline, fo he was determined either to ruin the commonwealth, or pe rish in the attempt. He thereupon raised new forces, fille the cohorts with them, and soon completed the legions which were all inflamed with the same passion for blood an slaughter and the destruction of their native country. B the good management of the consul, Catiline found himsel surrounded by the enemy. He therefore resolved to hazar a battle, though he was considerably inferior in number.

- 9. Petreius, who had served thirty years in the field, and from a private soldier had been made a general, commande for the republic in the room of the consul, who was suddenly taken ill. He engaged Catiline with the greatest bravery and the battle was sustained on both sides with the utmost intrepidity. Petreius was at last victorious, and the rebels were all put to the sword. But Catiline, who could not bear the thoughts of surviving the ruin of his party, rushed into that part of the battle where death was making the greatest

aroc, and there fell a victim to his own folly and iniquity. He was afterwards found among the dead and mangled boies of the rebels, which lay in heaps. On his pale and lifess face was still pictured the haughty ferocity of his soul, hich even death could not extinguish.

THE TEARS OF JUDAH.

HUSH'D is the voice of Judah's mirth-
And Judah's minstrels too are gone;
The harps that told Messiah's birth,
And hung on Heaven's eternal throne.

Fled is the bright and shining throng
That swell'd on earth the welcome strain,
And lost in air the choral song

That floated wild on David's plain.

For dark and sad is Bethlehem's fate,
Her valleys gush with human blood;
Despair sits mourning at her gate,

And Murder stalks in frantic mood.

At morn, the mother's heart was light,
Her infant bloom'd upon her breast;
At eve, 'twas pale and wither'd quite,
And gone to its eternal rest.

Weep on, ye childless mothers, weep!
Your babes are hush'd in one cold grave!
In Jordan's stream their spirits sleep,
Their blood is mingled with the wave.

DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

1. JERUSALEM was built on two mountains, and surrounded by three walls on every side, except where it was enclosed ith deep valleys, which were deemed inaccessible. Each all was fortified by high towers. The celebrated temple, nd strong castle of Antonia, were on the east side of the

city, and directly opposite to the Mount of Olives. But no withstanding the prodigious strength of this famed metrop lis, the infatuated Jews brought on their own destruction their intestine contests. At a time when a formidable arm was rapidly advancing, and the Jews were assembling fro all parts to keep the passover, the contending factions we continually inventing new methods of mutual destruction and in their ungoverned fury they wasted and destroyed suc vast quantities of provisions as might have preserved the ci many years.

Th

2. Such was the miserable situation of Jerusalem, whe Titus began his march towards it with a formidable army and, having laid waste the country in his progress, ar slaughtered the inhabitants, arrived before its walls. sight of the Romans produced a temporary reconciliatio among the contending factions, and they unanimously resol ed to oppose the common enemy. Their first sally was a cordingly made with such fury and resolution, that, thoug Titus displayed uncommon valor on this occasion, the b siegers were obliged to abandon their camps, and flee to t mountains. No sooner had the Jews a short interval of qui from their foreign enemies, than their civil disorders we renewed. John, by an impious stratagem, found means cut off, or force Eleazer's men to submit to him; and t factions were again reduced to two, who opposed each oth with implacable animosity.

3. The Romans, in the mean time, exerted all their ene gy in making preparations for a powerful attack upon Jer salem. Trees were cut down, houses levelled, rocks cle asunder, and valleys filled up; towers were raised, and ba tering rams erected, with other engines of destructio against the devoted city. After the offers of peace, whic Titus had repeatedly sent by Josephus, were rejected wi indignation, the Romans began to play their engines with their might. The strenuous attacks of the enemy again un ed the contending parties within the walls, who had also e gines, which they plied with uncommon fury. They ha taken them lately from Cestius, but were so ignorant of the

When did Titus commence his march towards Jerusalem ?-Wh feast were the Jews observing at this time?-By whom did Tit frequently send offers of peace?