and Timorous told him of, how they were frighted with the sight of the lions. Then said Christian to himself again, "These beasts range in the night for their prey; and if they should meet with me in the dark, how should I shift them? how should I escape being by them torn in pieces?" Thus he went on his way. But while he was thus bewailing his unhappy miscarriage, he lifted up his eyes, and behold there was a very stately palace before him, the name of which was Beautiful, and it stood just by the highway side.

So I saw in my dream that he made haste, and went forward, that if possible he might get lodging there. Now before he had gone far, he entered into a very narrow passage, which was about a furlong off the porter's lodge; and looking very narrowly before him as he went, he espied two lions in the way. Now, thought he, I see the dangers that Mistrust and Timorous were driven back by. (The lions were chained, but he saw not the chains.) Then he was afraid, and thought also himself to go back after them, for he thought nothing but death was before him. But the porter at the lodge, whose name is Watchful, perceiving that Christian made a halt as if he would go back, cried unto him, saying, "Is thy strength so small? Fear not the lions, for they are chained, and are placed there for trial of faith where it is, and for discovery of those that have none; keep in the midst of the path, and no hurt shall come unto thee."

From "The Pilgrim's Progress," by JOHN BUNYAN.

22. GRADATIM.

Heaven is not reached at a single bound;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to the summit round by round.

I count this thing to be grandly true,

That a noble deed is a step toward God,
Lifting the soul from the common sod
To a purer air and a broader view.

We rise by things that are under our feet;
By what we have mastered of good and gain;
By the pride deposed and the passion slain,
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet.
We hope, we aspire, we resolve, we trust,

When the morning calls us to life and light;
But our hearts grow weary, and ere the night
Our lives are trailing the solemn dust.

We hope, we resolve, we aspire, we pray,

And we think that we mount the air on wings,
Beyond the recall of sensual things,

While our feet still cling to the heavy clay.

Wings for the angels, but feet for the men!

We may borrow the wings to find the way— We may hope, and resolve, and aspire, and pray; But our feet must rise, or we fall again.

Only in dreams is a ladder thrown

From the weary earth to the sapphire walls; But the dreams depart, and the vision falls, And the sleeper wakes on his pillow of stone. Heaven is not reached at a single bound;

But we build the ladder by which we rise From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, And we mount to the summit round by round. J. G. HOLLAND.

23. A LION HUNTING.

We went by secret and circuitous paths through an immense tract of country covered with forest-trees and jungle. I never lived so long without seeing the sun as when toiling through that dreary world of shade. Not a ray could have penetrated it since the creation. Even the winds, wandering vagrants as they are, could find no entrance there. In that everlasting twilight great owls and vampire-bats gambolled about all day long, like swallows in spring.

The birds and beasts, which were very few, lacked their natural dyes to distinguish them, all partaking of the monotonous hue of the yellow, mossy, and mouldy trees and plants. Fawns, hares, foxes, and jackals were of a brindled gray. There were toadstools and fungi grouped in knots, which in colour and size so closely resembled lions crouching with their cubs, that we, knowing they abounded there, prepared to defend ourselves.

Parasitical creepers, gasping, like myself, for air, had plunged their wiry roots in the deep, dingy vegetable soil till their trunks swelled to the bulk of the teak tree, up which they had climbed to redden their heads and spread their scarlet flowers in the sun ; then, as if to monopolize all, they extended themselves on the tops of the highest trees, fanned by the air, and basking in sunshine. Oh, how I envied them!

You have seen this on a smaller scale: imagine, then, my delight when I, accustomed from my youth to a boundless expanse of sea and sky, left this

gloomy twilight, and burst from the belt of deathfor so it is properly named-into broad, open, unobscured light. I blinked like the owl in the sun, shouted in ecstasy, and respired the free air as you did when you emerged from your plunge off the frigate's yard-arm.

The scene looked like a lake fenced by a forest. To the east, the mountains rose to a stupendous height they bordered the Chinese Empire. There was a clear stream winding through this narrow and beautiful valley. After crossing it, we came to the bed of a mountain torrent, deep and of great breadth, but at that time dry, with the exception of a few pools of water. In the middle of this bed of gravel, interspersed with pieces of rock, was a small island formed by a rock, and enlarged by fragments which had been brought down by the torrent, and which adhered to it in natural arches overgrown with moss, flowers, and shrubs.

The security of the position, added to its beauty, tempted us to make it our place of halt and repose. I was then young and romantic as you are, and, after passing through the dreary gloom of that forest, thought I could have dwelt there all my life. The night was clear and bright; and long before it was day, I was up smoking my callian, and planning a shooting bungalow.

The transition from night to day came on so gently that I did not notice it; yet in the forest I could see it was midnight. A herd of wild buffaloes, the largest I had ever seen, came out to graze within

a little more than musket-shot of us.

Suddenly I sprang on my feet at hearing a confused noise, like the rumbling of a thunderstorm or distant guns at sea. The woods seemed in motion: jackals, foxes, and dappled deer came bounding out of the forest; the herd of black buffaloes ceased to graze, and turned towards the place whence the noise proceeded. A large flock of glittering peacocks and other birds flew screaming over our heads. A pelican that I had watched making prize of a snake dropped it within a yard of my feet, and flew away. Our little wirehaired elephants, feeding on the shrubs beneath us, looked terrified, and their keepers left them and crawled up the rocks.

I watched the opening in the dark forest, which was half screened by thick and thorny bushes, when presently a stag of the elk kind burst cover, and with one long, magnificent bound, appeared in the plain. In his stature he was far beyond those which are known in Europe, and his twisted horns were long as a Malay's spear. At the same instant a single, clear, deep, terrific roar, like a burst of thunder, announced the hunting lion. He forced his way through bush and brier, with his nose to the ground, followed by four others.

On entering the plain, he seemed for some moments endeavouring to catch the scent in silence, his nose always to the ground. Having, as it appeared, hit it, he again gave a roar, which was now echoed by all the others; and pursuing the track of the stag, he started off at a long gallop, the rest following