in such a state as to act like a mirror. We have a common instance of the inversion of an image by reflection in a sheet of water. If you place a mirror on the ground, or hold it above your head, an inverted image of yourself will in either case be produced. When then an image, as of a distant ship, is seen suspended in the air in an inverted position, rays of light from some ship out of sight have been brought to the eye by means of refraction, and the image is seen upside down by means of reflection. An instance of this kind of spectral illusion was witnessed by Captain Scoresby while sailing in the Polar seas in 1822. He saw the inverted image of a ship, apparently suspended in the air, some miles distant. "It was," he writes, "so well defined, that I could distinguish, by a telescope, every sail, the general rig of the ship, and its particular character, insomuch that I pronounced it to be my father's ship the Fame, which it afterwards proved to be; though on comparing notes with my father when we met, I found that at the time we were thirty miles from each other." In the hot sandy deserts of Africa the traveller is sometimes cruelly deceived with the false appearance of a beautiful expanse of water near the horizon. This phenomenon is known as the mirage. The apparent sheet of water is nothing but the reflection of the sky, the atmosphere in certain states, as before explained, acting as a mirror. PYRRHUS IN ITALY. NE of the most famous warriors in the history of who invaded Italy B.C. 281. He gained every battle he fought against the Romans, but failed to conquer them. After one of his victories, in which he had lost many of his best troops, when congratulated on his success, he replied," Another victory like this, and we are undone." Pyrrhus greatly admired the Romans as soldiers. When he visited the field of battle next day, and saw every slain Roman with his wounds in front, he exclaimed: "If these were my soldiers, or I were their general, we should conquer the world." Finding that, in spite of his victories, his chance of conquest was but small, he sent an ambassador to Rome to make peace. This was the famous Cinias, "whose tongue," Pyrrhus used to say, "had won him more than his own sword." The Senate was about to accept the terms of peace, when the arrival of a very aged and illustrious senator, named Appius Claudius, changed the entire aspect of affairs. Claudius, who was blind, addressed the Senate, and this was the opening of his speech. "Hitherto, I have regarded my blindness as a misfortune, but now, Romans, I wish I were deaf as well as blind; for then I should not have heard of the shameful proposals you seem willing to accept." When he had finished speaking they unanimously voted in favour of continuing the war till Pyrrhus should quit the shores of Italy. In the following winter the Romans sent an ambassador, named Fabricius, to the camp of Pyrrhus, to treat about the ransom and exchange of prisoners. Pyrrhus, who was a generous enemy, received the ambassador with particular distinction, and offered him a present of gold as a mark of his good-will. Fabricius, who was remarkable for his frugality and simplicity of life and integrity of character, refused the present, lest it should be intended as a bribe. The next day the king desired to play upon his fears. Knowing that Fabricius had never seen an elephant, he ordered the biggest he had to be placed behind a curtain in the room where they were to be in conference. At a given signal the curtain was drawn, and the elephant, raising his trunk over the head of Fabricius, made a frightful noise, but the Roman remained unmoved at the unusual sight and sound. Pyrrhus had such a high opinion of the integrity of the Romans, that he allowed his prisoners to return to Rome, on condition that they would pledge their word of honour to return, if they could not prevail upon the Senate to make peace on the terms he had offered. The Senate proved inflexible," and the prisoners returned by the appointed day. After this, Fabricius being consul," and at the head of the Roman army, an unknown person came to his camp, with a letter from the king's physician, who offered to take off Pyrrhus by poison, and so end the war without any further hazard to the Romans, if they would only give a suitable reward for his services. Fabricius detested the man's villany, and despatched a messenger to the king, with a letter, enclosing that received from his physician. The consul's letter ran thus: "It appears that you judge very ill both of your friends and enemies. For you will find by this letter, which was sent to us, that you are at war with men of honour, whilst you place your life in the custody of knaves and villains. Nor is it out of kindness that we give you this information; but we do it lest your death should bring disgrace upon us, and we should seem to have put an end to the war by treachery when unable to do so by valour." On receipt of this letter, the king was surprised at the baseness of Nicias, his physician, and filled with admiration at the noble conduct of the Roman consul. As a token of his gratitude, he dismissed all the Roman soldiers without a ransom. The Romans, unwilling to receive a favour from an enemy, or a reward for not profiting by another's treachery, sent the king in exchange all the prisoners they had taken. Shortly after, a peace, honourable to both sides, was concluded, Pyrrhus, of course, withdrawing his troops from Italy. 1 Epirus, a state in ancient Greece. 4 Conference, a consultation, or serious talk together on some question of importance. 5 Inflexible, not able to be turned from their purpose. (Lat. flecto, I bend.) 6 Consul, chief magistrate of Rome. DINAH AND HER KITCHEN. [This extract is from "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and presents a picture of the interior of a gentleman's house at New Orleans, at a time when slavery existed in the southern states of America. The head of the household is an indulgent master, named St. Clair. His wife being a confirmed invalid, he has made his cousin, Miss Ophelia, the working mistress of his establishment. She has just arrived from a well-ordered home in Vermont, one of the northern states, where slavery was unknown.] THE PART I. HE first morning of her regency, Miss Ophelia was up at four o'clock; and having attended to all the adjustments1 of her own chamber, she prepared for a vigorous onslaught on the cupboards and closets of the establishment of which she had the keys. The store-room, the linen-presses, the china-closet, the kitchen, and cellar, that day, all went under an awful review. Hidden things of darkness were brought to light to an extent that alarmed all the principalities and powers of kitchen and chamber, and caused many wonderings and murmurings about "dese yer northern ladies" from the domestic cabinet. Old Dinah, a pure African, if one might judge from her sable countenance, the head cook and principal of all rule and authority in the kitchen department, was filled with wrath at what she considered an invasion of privilege. No feudal baron in Magna Charta times could have more thoroughly resented some incursion of the crown.1 6 2 Dinah was mistress of the whole art and mystery of excuse-making in all its branches. Indeed, it was an axiom with her that the cook can do no wrong; and a cook in a "southern" kitchen finds abundance of heads and shoulders on which to lay every sin and frailty, so as to maintain her own immaculateness entire. If any part of the dinner was a failure, there were fifty indisputably good reasons for it; and it was the fault, undeniably, of fifty people, whom Dinah berated with unsparing zeal. But it was very seldom that there was any failure in Dinah's last results. Though her mode of doing everything was peculiarly meanderings and circuitous, and without any sort of calculation as to time and placethough her kitchen looked as if it had been arranged by a hurricane blowing through it, and she had about as many places for each cooking utensil as there are days. in the year-yet, if one would have patience to wait her |