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They were particularly jealous of the honor of their wives. In ordinary times they acknowledged no single chief, but were governed by an aristocracy; from among the members of which, in the event of war, they chose a king. But the authority of the sovereign lasted only while hostilities continued: at their close, he returned to his original station among the nobles.

The Saxons delighted in the perpetration of cruelties, and were themselves regardless of danger. They carried on their predatory warfare chiefly by sea; launching their vessels most cheerfully

during the prevalence of the wildest storms, because they took it for granted that their intended victims would, at such moments, be least prepared to escape or to resist them. When the first of these bands arrived in England, they came under the guidance of two nobles, Hengist and Horsa, whom they had themselves elected as leaders in a piratical expedition; and whom they continued to obey, only because the war, in which they became engaged, lasted during the lifetime of those who began it.

The religion of the Anglo-Saxons, as they imported it into Britain, was a wild

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Danes.

and hideous polytheism, which demanded from its votaries, among other rites, the occasional offering up of human victims. Of some of their gods we retain a remembrance in the names which

still attach to the days of the week. They worshipped the Sun, thence our Sunday; the Moon, thence our Monday; Tiw, thence Tuesday; Woden, thence Wednesday; Thurse, thence Thursday;

Friga, thence Friday; and Saterne, whence Saturday.

About the year 800, the Danes, a nation of sea rovers and robbers, began to infest England. This country had been divided into seven kingdoms, called the Saxon Heptarchy; but these had been condensed into three, and at last the whole Saxon portion of the nation became subject to one king, for the first time. This king was Egbert. He died in 836, and the sceptre passing into feeble hands, the country was exposed to the incursions of the people whom we have mentioned above.

The Danes came from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and in many respects resembled the Saxons. They were pirates by profession, who took to themselves the appellation of Sea-kings; and Europe has never produced a race of men more stained with the crimes of treachery and cruelty. Not content, like the generality of savage warriors, to slay, without remorse, all by whom they were opposed in battle, the Sea-kings appeared to delight in the infliction of unnecessary torture; razing to the ground every town of which they obtained possession, and slaughtering men,

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others became mingled with the inhabitants, and made another ingredient in the compound of British blood and bone.

The last introduction of foreign people into Britain took place in 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy in France, came with an army, and triumphed over King Harold in the battle of Hastings, and established himself and his family on the throne. Many French people came over with William and settled in the country. The French language became the language of the court and the laws, and French customs were largely introduced among the people.

From this brief sketch, we can see that the English people derive their origin from five races: the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans; and we, descendants of the English, must look back for our first grand

fathers and grandmothers to these various nations and tribes. It is from them we derive our blood, our language, and our customs.

It is true that the Anglo-Saxons form the basis of our ancestry: the mixture of the other races with them is not considerable. Our language may afford a pretty fair index to the proportion which the Saxon stock bears to the others. The foundation of our language is Saxon, and consisting chiefly of the short expressive words called monosyllables. To this original stock, we have added words from the Celtic Britons, the Romans, the Danes, and the Norman French. Our language may be compared to a patched garment, the main cloth of which is a Saxon texture; but the patches are furnished by the other nations that have worn it. It is, however, a pretty good language, after all.

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changing its temper, it presents us with soft southern breezes, seeming to remind us of spring.

As far south as Virginia, March seems to bring spring with it, and many of the flowers venture to peep forth during this month; but even there, the weather is uncertain. In New England, nothing can exceed its versatility. Often the sun will rise bright and clear, and the hills will seem to breathe the atmosphere of spring. But before noon the scene is entirely changed; dark and heavy clouds come heaving from the west, the cold wind rises to a gale, and the whole air is filled with a whirling storm of snow. And thus the sun that rose on the hills, where spring had apparently began its reign, as it sets, sees these hills re-conquered by winter, and wear ing its white livery in token of vassalage. So sudden are these changes, that the birds, weather-wise as they generally are, are often taken by surprise. The blue-birds, sparrows, and robins are always in haste to get back to their birth-places, and accordingly, following the retreat of winter, come northward as fast as the season will permit. But spring and winter are, in March, like two armies, constantly contending-one prevailing one day, and the next day giving way before the other. In these skirmishes of the seasons the birds we mention are often involved, and it is not seldom that they are glad to escape to the south, till the conflict of the elements is over, and the triumphant reign of spring is established.

Nor are the birds alone in suffering from the capricious tricks of the month of March. It sometimes happens that a Vermont farmer, tempted by the solid snow-path, and the appearance of steady cold weather, sets out with his onehorse sleigh upon a journey of a hundred miles, to Boston. Though it is perhaps the middle of March, still the traveller's

ton.

sleigh glides along as if upon a railroad, and in two days he reaches BosHere he spends a day or two, and then sets out to return. But what a change has come over the scene! The wind has veered from north-west to south-west; the snow is melting and running in rills down the hill-sides, and every time the horse steps, he is up to his knees in sposh. The traveller with his sleigh plods. on, but, after a severe day's work, he advances in his journey but twenty miles. The next day the snow is entirely gone, and he is obliged to proceed on foot, as you see him in the preceding picture, his weary horse dragging the sleigh over the grating mud and stones. After five days. of toil he reaches his home, and has the comfort to be met by his wife and all his neighbors, exclaiming, with a jeer, "I told you so!"

But although March has thus acquired a character that is not the best in the world, there are some pleasant things to be said about it. William Howitt, who takes a cheerful view of almost everything in nature, admits that "March is a rude and sometimes boisterous month, possessing many of the characteristics of winter;"-" yet," he adds, "it awakens sensations, perhaps, more delicious than the two following spring months, for it gives us the first announcement and taste of spring."

Bryant too-our own poet, and one of the sweetest that ever sung-finds something pleasant to say of March; a pretty good proof that nothing is wanting but good humor to render a person always able to find something agreeable to talk about. See how truly and yet how pleasantly Bryant describes this capricious month:

The stormy MARCH has come at last,

With wind, and cloud, and changing skies; I hear the rushing of the blast,

That through the snowy valley flies.

Ah! passing few are they who speak,
Wild, stormy month, in praise of thee;
Yet, though thy winds are loud and bleak,
Thou art a welcome month to me.
For thou to northern lands again

The glad and glorious sun dost bring, And thou hast joined the gentle train, And wear'st the gentle name of spring. And in thy reign of blast and storm

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Smiles many a long, bright, sunny day, When the changed winds are soft and warm, And heaven puts on the bloom of May.

The fourth day of this month will be distinguished this year by the inauguration of William Henry Harrison as President of the United States. The people of this country chose him to that office last autumn, and on the fourth day of March he enters upon its duties. He goes to the capitol at Washington, and in the presence of the Senate, and a great concourse of people, he takes an oath, administered by the chief justice of the nation, by which he pledges himself to use his best efforts to govern the people according to the laws, and with a view to promote their best happiness.

The Child and the Violets. 'Он, mother, mother!" said the child, "I saw the violets blue; Thousands were there, all growing wild; Mother, I tell you true! They sat so close upon the ground,

Here and there, and all around, It seemed as if they had no stems,

And all the grass was strown with gems. "Whence came ye, flowers?' I asked them all; They would not say a word;

Yet something seemed to hear my call,
And near me was a bird.

I turned mine eye, he flew away,-
Up he went with joyous lay;
And seemed to sing, as high he flew,
'From yonder sky come violets blue.""
The mother answered thus the child:
"The bird did tell you true;
These pretty violets, low and wild,

Of heaven's own azure hue,
Though here they have their bloom and birth,
And draw their sustenance from earth,
Still One, who fills immensity,

Made these sweet flowers for you and me."

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Varieties.

HOW TO SLEEP IN SNOW.-The man

ner in which Captain Ross' crew preserved themselves, near the north pole, after the shipwreck of their vessel, was by digging a trench in the snow when night came on. This trench was covered with canvass and then with snow. The trench was made large enough to three trenches, with one officer and six contain seven people; and there were men in each. At evening, the shipwrecked mariners got into bags, made of double blanketing, which they tied round their necks, and thus prevented their feet from slipping into the snow while asleep; they then crept into the trenches and lay close together. The cold was generally sixty-four degrees below the freezing-point of Fahrenheit; but in January, 1831, the half below the freezing-point. mercury was ninety-two degrees and a

THE FIGHTING BUSINESS.-" What are you thinking of, my man?" said Lord Hill, as he approached a soldier, who was leaning in a gloomy mood upon his firelock, while around him lay mangled thousands of French and English; for it was a few hours after the battle of The soldier started, and, after saluting Salamanca had been won by the British. his general, answered, "I was thinking, my lord, how many widows and orphans

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