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ENGLAND.

Ancient Britons.

It is supposed that Great Britain and Ireland were 1originally settled by a colony from 3 Gaul. These were called Gaels, or Celts. Their descendants are found, at this day, in Ireland and Wales, and in the highlands of Scotland. Some of them still speak the ancient Gaelic or Celtic language.

Very little is known about these islands till the time of Julius Cæsar. He invaded England in the year 55 before the Christian era. The country was then called Britannia, or Britain. It was inhabited by barbarians, some of whom wore the skins of wild beasts, while others were entirely naked. They were painted like the American Indians. Their weapons were clubs, spears, and swords, with which they fiercely attacked the Roman invaders.

The ancient Britons, like the other northern nations of Europe, were idolaters. Their priests were called 1 Druids. Their places of worship were in the open air, and consisted of huge stone pillars, standing in a circle. A large stone in the middle was used as an altar, and human victims were sacrificed upon it. The ruins of one of these temples still remain at Stonehenge, and are very wonderful.

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The druids considered the oak a sacred tree. They

1. Vide Root.

2. Great Britain includes England, Scotland, and Wales. 3. Now called France. 4. Descended from Gomer, eldest son of Japhet. 5. Iu Wiltshire. 6. Of earth, A.D. 120, by the emperor Adrian. Another between the Friths of Clyde and Forth, by the emperor Antoninus, A.D. 138. Severus substituted a strong wall for Adrian's rampart, A.D. 208. 7. In dress, in agricul ture, architecture, manners, and even in the adoption of the Latin language. 9. Doubtless greatly weakened by the Romans withdrawing the able men to assist in the Roman wars.

In 410.

10. A.D. 450.

set a great value on the mistletoe, a sort of plant which sometimes grows round the oak. Wherever they found the mistletoe, they held a banquet beneath the spreading branches of the oak on which it grew.

The druids incited the Britons to oppose the Roman power; they fought fiercely, but Suetonius, a Roman general, cut down the sacred groves of oak, and destroyed the temples; and Julius Agricola finally subdued the island to the Roman power in the year 78.

The Scots, who inhabited the northern part of the island, were a fierce people, and were still unconquered. To prevent them from making incursions into Britain, the Romans built a wall from the river Tyne to the Frith of Solway.

The Britons remained quietly under the government of Rome for nearly five centuries after the Christian era; adopting, during this period, many of the Roman customs They never attempted to free themselves. But, at last, the Roman empire became so weak, that the emperor Honorius withdrew his troops from Britain.

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The inhabitants had grown so 'unwarlike, that, when the Roman soldiers were gone, they found themselves unable to resist the Scots. They therefore asked the 10 assistance of the Saxons, a people from Germany. A tribe of these Saxons was called Angles, from whom the country was called Angle-land and England.

These people drove back the Scots into their own part of the island. Then, instead of returning to Germany, they took possession of Britain by the right of the strongest. It was divided by them into seven small kingdoms, called the Saxon Heptarchy.

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GEOGRAPHICAL.-Area of England 58,320 square miles, that is, 360 miles long, and 162 miles average breadth; 360 × 162= 58,320.-Population 15,000,000. Show Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and mention what separates them. Find on the map of Europe ;-England, France, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, and Waleɛ; and mention their boundaries, North, South, East, and West.

Write the names of the principal oceans and seas of the globe.

ASTRONOMY.

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The Earth.

THAT Our planet is a globular body is easily proved. Mariners, when they leave land, first begin to lose sight of the lower parts, and so on gradually of the higher; and persons on shore first see the tops of the masts, before the ships themselves appear. If the earth were a perfect plane, all parts would be seen at once. The earth is not, however, a perfect 2 sphere, but a spheroid, having its equatorial diameter longer than the polar, or the axis. The diameter at the equator is 7977 miles, and at the poles 7940 miles.

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For the purposes of calculation, the circumference of the earth has been divided into 360 equal parts, called degrees. As the earth moves, from west to east, through the whole 360 degrees in twenty-four hours, it moves in that direction, fifteen in one hour. If the sun, therefore, rise at a certain hour, at a given place, it will rise one hour earlier at a place fifteen degrees further east, or one hour later at a place fifteen degrees further west; because the one place will reach the verge of the illuminated atmosphere one hour earlier, and the other one hour later, than the given place. This difference of time is perceptible even at small distances; as the difference of one degree, about 693 miles, eastward or westward, makes a 'difference of four minutes in time.

The roundness of the earth being proved, a way is opened for the discovery of its motion. While the earth was considered as a plane, mankind thought it must be supported upon some other body. But the figure of a globe seems to infer motion.

The earth has two motions, one round its axis, which takes place every twenty-four hours, and forms our day