charged with such monstrous enormities by those whom they accounted wise and learned, became half persuaded of their own guilt, and assented to all the nonsensical questions which were put to them. But this was not all. Very many made these confessions under the influence of torture.

An old woman and her daughter were tried as witches at Haddington. The principal evidence of the crime was, that though miserably poor, the two females had contrived to look "fresh and fair" during the progress of a terrible famine, which reduced even the better classes to straits, and never either begged for assistance or seemed to suffer by the general calamity.

The jury were perfectly satisfied that this could not take place by any natural means; and, as the accused persons, on undergoing the discipline of one Kincaid, a witch-finder, readily admitted all that was asked about their intercourse with the Devil, the jury, on their confession, brought them in guilty of witchcraft without hesitation.

The king's advocate for the time was skeptical on the subject of witchcraft. He visited the women in private, and urged them to tell the real truth. They continued at first to maintain the story they had given in their confession. But the advocate, perceiving them to be women of more sense than ordinary, urged upon them the crime of being accessory to their own death, by persisting in accusing themselves of impossibilities, and promised them life and protection providing they would unfold the true secret which they had used for their subsistence.

The poor women looked wistfully on each other, like people that were in perplexity. At length, the mother said, "You are very good, my lord, and I dare say your power is very great, but you cannot be of use to my daughter and

me.

If you were to set us at liberty from the bar, you could not free us from the suspicion of being witches. As soon as we return to our hut, we shall be welcomed by the violence and abuse of all our neighbors, who, if they do not beat our brains out, or drown us on the spot, will retain hatred and malice against us, which will be shown on every occasion, and make our life so miserable, that we have made up our minds to prefer death at once."

"Do not be afraid of your neighbors," said the advocate. 66 If you will trust your secret with me, I will take care of you for the rest of your lives, and send you to an estate of mine in the north, where nobody can know anything of your history, and where, indeed, the people's ideas are such, that, if they even thought you witches, they would rather regard you with fear and respect than hatred."

The women, moved by his promises, told him, that, if he would cause to be removed an old empty trunk which stood in the corner of their hut, and dig the earth where he saw it had been stirred, he would find the secret by means of which they had been supported through the famine; protesting to Heaven, at the same time, that they were totally innocent of any unlawful arts such as had been imputed to them, and which they had confessed in their despair.

The advocate hastened to examine the spot, and found concealed in the earth two firkins of salted snails, one of them nearly empty. On this strange food the poor women had been nourished during the famine. The advocate was as good as his word; and the story shows how little weight is to be laid on the frequent confessions of the party in cases of witchcraft.

1. Peevishness, froward, slighted, imprecations, credulous, practitioners, gratuity, murrain, absurdities, ridiculous, monstrous, skeptical.

2. What is "witchcraft"? When did this superstition prevail in this country? On what did it depend for support? Is there any belief in charms among civilized people? Do you think that imagination will ever cure disease?

VIII. POETICAL SELECTIONS.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882) was born in Portland, Maine, February 27, 1807, "in an old square wooden house, upon the edge of the sea."

He graduated at Bowdoin College at the age of eighteen, and after his graduation served as professor there and, later, at Harvard University, for some years. After his resignation at Harvard, he remained in Cambridge and devoted himself entirely to literature.

Longfellow's style is always in keeping with his subject, and in simple, melodious, earnest verse he expresses a universal sentiment with the force of a practiced rhetorician.

I. DAYBREAK.

The genius of Longfellow has given us an American idyl, has brought to us the quaint old German poets with an interpretation in their highest forms, and, in his "Golden Legend," has taken us back to the Middle Ages and shown us the life then lived by the people. His translations from the Spanish poets are faithful to the spirit of their originals, and he has given us the most notable English translation of Dante's "Divina Commedia." Longfellow's art is free from pedantry, and his skill is never forced.

"Evangeline" is usually considered the best of his longer poems, but of the many gems with which he decked our American literature it would be difficult to select any one that is better than the rest. "Hyperion," "OutreMer," "Kavanagh," "Evangeline," "Hiawatha," "The Courtship of Miles Standish," ," "Tales of a Wayside Inn," "Excelsior," "A Psalm of Life,' "The Village Blacksmith," and "The Skeleton in Armor" illustrate his skill and versatility, both in prose and in poetry.

A wind came up out of the sea,

And said, "O mists! make room for me."

It hailed the ships, and cried, "Sail on,
Ye mariners! the night is gone."

And hurried landward far away,
Crying, "Awake! it is the day.'

It said unto the forest, "Shout!
Hang all your leafy banners out."

It touched the wood-bird's folded wing,
And said, "O bird! awake and sing."

And o'er the farms, "O chanticleer!
Your clarion blow; the day is near."

It whispered to the fields of corn,
"Bow down, and hail the coming morn."

It shouted through the belfry-tower,
"Awake, O bell! proclaim the hour."

It crossed the churchyard with a sigh,
And said, "Not yet! in quiet lie."

H. W. Longfilame