And crests of Scottish chieftains brave The border slogan rent the sky : "A Home! a Gordon!" was the cry; As bends the bark's mast in the gale, Swift to the fray Blount rode amain, The fiery youth, with desperate charge, But darkly closed the war around,- Then, fast as shaft can fly, Bloodshot his eyes, his nostrils spread, The loose rein dangling from his head, Housing and saddle bloody red, Lord Marmion's steed rushed by. And soon, straight up the hill there rode A wounded knight they bore. His hand still strained the broken brand, Young Blount his armor did unlace, Said, "By Saint George, he's gone! "Unnurtured Blount! thy brawling cease: When, doffed his casque, he felt free air, That shout shall ne'er be heard again! "Yet my last thought is England's; fly! Must I bid twice? Hence, varlets! fly! The war, that for a space did fail, A light on Marmion's visage spread, He shook the fragment of his blade, And shouted "Victory!”— Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on!" Were the last words of Marmion. SIR WALTER SCOTT. CI. GOING UP IN A BALLOON. CON'CLAVE, n., an assembly of cardi- | VER'TI-CAL, a., being in the zenith, or nals. BRA'SIER (-zher), n., a pan for coals. perpendicularly over head. THE'O-RIST, n., one given to speculation. AL'TI-TUDE, n., height. HY'DRO-GEN (-jen), n., a gas which is PAR'A-CHUTE (-shoot), n., an instru one of the elements of water. E-LON'GATE (e-long'gate), v. t., to ment like an umbrella, for safety against a fall from a balloon. A-E'RI-AL, a., belonging to the air. lengthen. CO-HE'SION (ko-he’zhun), n., the act A'ER-O-NAUT, n., one who goes up in of sticking together. DEM-O-LITION, n., destruction. a balloon. PEN'AL-TY, n., punishment. Avoid saying attemps for at-tempts'; objex for objects. Pronounce Bologna, Bolön'ya; Montgolfier, Mōng-gol-fe-a'; the e in Re'no as in prey; Rozier, Ro-ze-u'. 1. WILD and daring as was the act, it is no less true that men's first attempts at a flight through the air were literally with wings. They supposed that, by elongating their arms with a broad mechanical covering, they could convert them into wings. They did not consider that birds possess air-cells, which they can inflate; that they have enormous strength of sinew, expressly for the purpose of flying; and that their bōnes are full of air instead of marrow. 2. And so there have been desperate half-theorists, who, in their ignorance, have launched themselves from towers and other high places, and floundered down, to the demolition of their necks or limbs, according to the obvious laws and penalties of nature. The most successful of these instances of the extraordinary but misapplied force of human energies and daring was that of a certain citizen of Bologna, in the thirteenth century, who actually managed, with some kind of wing contrivance, to fly from a mountain of Bologna to the River Reno, without injury. 3. "Wonderful! admirable!" cried all the citizens. "Stop a little," said the religious authorities of the times; "this must be looked into." They sat in sacred con'clave. "If the man had been killed," said they, แ or even mutilated shockingly, our religious scruples would have been satisfied; but, as he has escaped unhurt, it is clear he must be in league with the evil one." The poor "successful" man was therefore condemned to be burnt alive, and the sentence was carried into execution. 4. So far as we can see, the first real discoverer of the balloon was Dr. Black, who, in 1767, proposed to inflate a large skin with hydrogen gas; and the first who brought theory into practice were the brothers Montgolfier. But their theory was that of the "fireballoon," or the formation of an artificial cloud of smoke, by means of heat from a lighted brasier placed beneath an enormous bag, or balloon, and fed with fuel while up in the air. The Academy of Sciences immediately gave the invention every encouragement, and two gentlemen volunteered to risk an ascent in this alarming machine. 5. The first of these was De Rozier, a gentleman of scientific attainments, who was to con-duct' the machine; and he was accompanied by an officer of the Guards. They ascended, in the year 1783, in the presence of the Court of France and all the scientific men in Paris. The intrepid voyagers had several narrow escapes. The whole machine was near taking fire; but eventually they returned to the ground in safety, after a journey of about six miles. Both these courageous men subsequently came to untimely ends. 6. But let us ascend into the sky. Taking balloons as they are, "for better, for worse," let us for once have an aërial flight. The first thing you naturally expect is some extraordinary sensation, which takes away your breath for a time, in springing high up into the air. But no such matter occurs. The extraordinary thing is, that you experience no sensation at all, so far as motion is concerned. 7. A very amusing illustration of this is given in a letter published by Mr. Poole, the well-known author, shortly after his ascent. "I do not despise you," says he, "for talking about a balloon going up, for it is an error which you share in common with some millions of our fellow-creatures; and I, in the days of my ignorance, thought with the rest of you. I know better now. The fact is, we do not go up at all; but at about five minutes past six, on the evening of Friday, the 14th of September, 1838-at about that time, Vauxhall Gardens, with all the people in them, went down!" 8. Feeling nothing of the ascending motion, the first impression that takes possession of you, in "going up in a balloon, is the quietude, the silence, that grows more and more entire. The restless heaving to and fro of the huge inflated sphere above your head (to say nothing of the noise of the crowd), the flapping of ropes, the rustling of silk, and the creaking of the basket-work of the car all has ceased. There is a total cessation of all atmospheric resistance. You sit in a silence which becomes more perfect every second. After the bustle of many moving objects, you stare before you into blank air. 9. So much for what you first feel; and now what is the thing you first do? In this case every body is alike. We all do the same thing. We look over the side of the car. We do this very cautiously, keeping a firm seat, as though we clung to it by a certain attraction of cohesion; and then, holding on by the edge, we carefully protrude the peak of our travelingcap, and then the tip of the nose, over the edge of the car, upon which we rest our mouth. 10. Every thing below is seen in so new a form, sa flat, compressed, and so simultaneously, so much |