Young King Sesostris walked one quiet e'en
Alone, in order naught might intervene
To make his converse with his guide less free.
"My friend," said he, "to be a King is much,
And of my kingdom I would worthy be;

What shall I do?" The Angel, with a touch
Said, "Come! To yonder labyrinth be our way,
And there to great Osiris homage pay;

Then thou shalt learn."

Anxious his Guide to please

The Prince obeys; and in the court he sees

Two deities of very different mien :

The one a beauty of most dazzling sheen,

In smiles all wreathed; with Loves, and Graces hovering round,

In deepest depths of dear delight all drowned.

Three worshippers stood some way from her throne,
Dry, pale, and trembling-naught but skin and bone.
The King, astonished, bids his guide confess.
"Who is this nymph of such rare loveliness?
And who these three of ugliness intense?

His Guide, in whispered words, replies: "My Prince,
This beauty know you not, indeed? Her fame
Is great at Court; there all for her evince

Profoundest love; and Pleasure is her name.
These haggard three, who give you so much pain,
March always close behind their Sovereign:
Disgust, Fatigue, Repentance, you must call
This trio-Pleasure's horrid offspring all."
Pained by the sight, and by the story grieved,
He turned, and then the other form perceived.
"My friend, be pleased to let me know," said he,
"Yon goddess' name, whom further off we see ;
And who presents a much less tender mien,
Although her air, so noble and serene,
Delights me much. Close by her side appear
A sceptre made of gold, a sword, a sphere,
A balance, too, and in her hands she holds
A scroll, the which she reads as she unfolds;
Of every ornament her breast seems free,
Except a shield. A temple made of gold

Flies open at her voice; and there I see Upon its front-oh, wondrous to behold!These blazing words: To Immortality!! And may I enter there?"

"Yes," said the Guide; "But chiefly on yourself you must depend, And obstacles encounter without end.

This goddess hath no facile, tender side By which you may approach her grace to steal. In Pleasure, though more charms may be descried, The other will a truer love reveal;

To please this being of immortal birth

Both mind and heart must be of sterling worth.
Her name is Wisdom; and this brilliant fane,
Just shown to you, to glorious deeds she gives;
And he who lives well, here forever lives;

And here may you a dwelling-place obtain.
Then let your choice between the two be made;
True service to them both cannot be paid."

The Prince replied: "If mine, then, be the choice,
A single moment will I not defer.

I might in either of the twain rejoice.

The first a moment's bliss could in me stir ; The second, through me others' bliss command."The first, then, greeting with a gracious word, The Prince two kisses flung her from his hand, And on the second all his love conferred.

-Translation of F. W. RICORD.

Voltaire's theory of the aim and scope of history, as set forth in his Philosophy of History, is better than his execution of it, either before or afterward. His best work of this class-though by no means a masterpiece-is the History of Charles XII. of Sweden.

ON HISTORY.

My object has been the history of the human intellect, and not the detail of facts, nearly always distorted.

York Public Library

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR LENOX

TR.DEN FOUNDATIONS

It was not intended, for instance, to inquire of what family the lord of Puiset, or the lord of Montlheri may be, who made war on the Kings of France; but to trace the gradual advancement from the barbarous rusticity of those days to the polish of ours.

There is no object in knowing in what year a prince unworthy of remembrance succeeded a barbarous ruler in a rude nation. The more important it is to know of the great actions of sovereigns who have rendered their people better and happier, the more we should ignore the herd of kings who only load the memory.-The Philosophy of History.

THE DEATH OF CHARLES XII. OF SWEDEN.

In October, 1718, Charles departed a second time for the conquest of Norway. He hoped within six months to make himself master of that kingdom. He chose rather to go and conquer rocks amidst ice and snow in the depth of winter than to retake his beautiful provinces in Germany from the hands of his enemies. These he expected he should soon be able to recover in consequence of his alliance with the Czar of Russia; and his vanity, moreover, was more flattered at ravishing a kingdom from his victorious enemy, the King of Poland. At the mouth of the River Tistendall stands Frederickshall, a place of great strength and importance, and considered as the key of the kingdom. Charles formed the siege of this place in the month of DecemThe soldiers, benumbed with cold, could scarcely turn up the earth, which was so hardened by the frost that it was almost as difficult to pierce it as if they had been opening trenches in a rock; yet the Swedes could not be disheartened while they saw at their head their king, who partook of all their fatigues. Charles had never before undergone so many hardships. His constitution, hardened by eighteen years of severe labors, was fortified to such a degree that he slept in the open field in Norway, in the midst of winter, without the least injury to his health. On the 11th of December he went at nine in the evening to visit the trenches; and not finding the parallel so far advanced as he expected,