twenty-five hundred feet; or, what is about its equal, half a mile from the mouth. We here found ourselves exceedingly fatigued; but our torches forbade us to tarry, and we once more turned our lingering steps towards the common world. When arrived once more at Washington-Hall, one of our company three times discharged a pistol-the report was truly deafening. It was as loud as any cannon I ever heard, and as its sound reverberated and echoed through one room after another till it died away in distance, it seemed like the fancied moanings of spirits. We continued our wandering steps till we arrived once more at daylight, having been nearly three hours in the cavern. covered with dirt, and a cold sweat; yet we regretted to We were much fatigued, leave it. From the further end of the cave I gathered some handsome stalactites, which I put into my portmanteau and preserved as mementos of that day's visit.

In contrasting the Natural Bridge and the Cave together, as objects of curiosity, we find comparison difficult. Many consider the Bridge as the greatest curiosity, but I think the Cavern is. bridge we are filled with fear; at the cavern with delight. In looking at the At the bridge we have several views that are awful; at the cave hundreds that are pleasing. stand, and look, and feel absorbed in astonishment; at At the bridge you the cave awfulness is lost in beauty, and grandeur is dressed in a thousand captivating forms. you feel yourself to be looking into another world, at the At the bridge cave you find yourself already arrived there. The one presents us a God who is very "wonderful in working ;" the other exhibits the same power, but with it is mingled loveliness in a thousand forms. In each is vastness. Greatness constitutes the whole of one; but the other is elegant, as well as great. They are both certainly very great natural curiosities. impressions; and to witness such displays of the CreaOf each we must retain lively tor's power, must ever be considered as among the most humbling events of our lives. While viewing scenes like these, we involuntarily exalt the energy of creating power, and shrink under the thoughts of our own insignificance. These mighty works are admirably well calculated to impress us deeply with a sense of the omni

potence of God, who can exhibit, between two mountains, an almost fathomless abyss; or fill the bowels of a third with beauties, that man, with all the aid of art, can only admire, but never imitate.

THE ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY OF

NATIONS.

Of the ROMAN STATE, from the Destruction of the regal Government to the burning of Rome by the Gauls. (Continued from page 198.)

The regal power in Rome being overthrown, a form of government nominally republican was substituted. Instead of a king two annual magistrates, whom they called consuls, were chosen. Brutus, who, from the share he took in driving Tarquin from his throne, has generally been styled the deliverer of his country, and Tarquinius Collatinus, were the first consuls in Rome. From the period of Tarquin's banishment the Romans became more sensible of their consequence; and so jealous were they of their independence and newly acquired liberties that Collatinus, who, had been animated in the assertion of their freedom, was banished from the city, because he bore the name, and was of the family of the tyrant. Brutus made the people swear that they never would again submit to kingly authority; but the first who violated their oaths were his own family. His sons conspired with the Tuscan ambassador to restore the Tarquin family. Their designs were discovered by a slave, who immediately acquainted the consuls with the circumstances of the plot. The young men were brought before the tribunal, at which Brutus presided as judge. No situation could be more affecting than that of the Roman consul; impelled by justice to condemn the guilty, and by nature to spare his sons. They pleaded nothing in their own defence, but with conscious guilt awaited their sentence in silence and agony. The other judges who were present felt all the pangs of nature: some of them strongly inclined to mercy, but Brutus was inflexible; he pronounced the awful sentence, and himself saw it strictly executed.

-Methinks I see

The ELDER BRUTUS, venerable man!
Parent and judge; hard fate! to join two names
That must for ever jar; but yet, behold,

To one great cause still constant, he disclaims
All partial ties, proud only to be call'd

THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY.

Ancient and Modern Rome.

All Tarquin's hopes of an insurrection being baffled, he resolved to force himself upon his former throne by foreign assistance: for this purpose he engaged several of the neighboring states to afford him the necessary aid. During these struggles we have several instances of heroisin recorded, which are highly honorable to the individuals who achieved them, and deserve to be impressed upon every mind. Our limits will allow us to mention only a single fact.

In contending with Porsenna, king of Etruria, the republic was exposed to the severest disasters; the consuls at the head of the army were carried from the field of battle wounded, and the Romans were flying in all directions, and in the greatest consternation. All appeared to be lost, when Horatius Cocles, who had been placed as sentinel to defend the bridge leading to the city, opposed himself to the enemy, and, assisted only by two more, sustained for some time the whole fury of the assault till the bridge was broken down behind him: when he found the communication thus cut off, plunging with his arms into the Tiber, he swam back victorious to his fellow soldiers.

The consular form of government had scarcely been eatablished ten years when it was involved in consider able difficulties, from the opposition given by the lower orders of the people to the system of warfare which was carrying on against the neighboring states. They considered themselves as oppressed by the rich, and loaded with debts from which they had no means of extricating themselves. They acknowledged no city nor country which would not give them protection; and by leaving Rome they only left behind them their miseries, their oppressors, and their debts; and unless these were cancelled by a decree of the senate they would not take the field. The number of malcontents increased every hour,

which obliged the senate to have recourse to an expedient, which, though successful, proved in time fatal to the republic of Rome. A magistrate was chosen, under the title of DICTATOR, whose power extended not only over all ranks of the state, but even over the laws themselves. Thus the people, who could not endure the name of king to be mentioned, readily submitted to a magistrate possessed of much greater power.

The dictator entered upon his new office, surrounded with all the ensigns of ancient royalty, and caused levies to be made according to his own pleasure. The populace, alarmed at such uncontrollable power, went peaceably to the stations allotted to each, and for the present they forgot their complaints, and gained a complete triumph over their foreign enemies. Returned, however, from the field of victory, they found the courts of justice opened against them, and the prosecution of their creditors revived with more than usual severity. This excited fresh murmurs, and the people began to meditate some new revolution, when a spectacle of uncommon distress roused their passions to the highest pitch of fury.

A Roman soldier, venerable in years, but wasted with famine; covered with rags, and loaded with cruel chains, sought refuge among the people. His country was indebted to him for a thousand feats of valor, and his scars called to mind the sufferings he had endured and the battles he had won. In the last war he had lost his all, and was forced to contract debts for the subsistence of his family; and his unfeeling creditor had dragged him to prison, where he was loaded with chains, and torn with the whips of the executioner. The marks of recent stripes, still bleeding, exasperated the people; they flew to take revenge, not only on the delinquent, but on the general body of their oppressors. By the remonstrances of Servilius, one of the consuls, they were restrained from executing their threats; and were led by him against an invading army of Volscians, who were obliged speedily to retreat to their own country. Another and more formidable irruption was made upon Rome by the allied forces of the Sabines, the Equi, and the Volscians, which obliged the senate to elect a new dictator, who was also successful in opposing the efforts of a foreign

enemy. At the return of peace the rich were clamorous against their debtors, and the poor feeling the indignity of their situation civil commotions became still more alarming, till at length it was agreed by all parties that, for the security of the people, officers should be annually elected from among themselves, who should have power to give redress to such of them as should be injured, and plead the cause of the people at large. These officers were called tribunes of the people; at first they were five in number, but afterwards they were increased to ten. They had the power of annulling such decrees of the senate as appeared to them injurious to the people; and to show their readiness to protect the meanest, their doors stood open night and day to receive complaints. At first they had their seats placed before the doors of the senate-house, and were called in to confirm or annul every decree as it was made. Their persons were sacred, but their authority extended not beyond the walls of the city.

(To be Continued.)

CIRCLE OF THE SCIENCES, WITH SUITABLE REFLECTIONS.

ASTRONOMICAL SKETCHES-NO. XIV.

(Continued from page 89.)

Saturn was for ages considered the most remote planet in the solar system; and it is only lately that another has been discovered by Dr. Herschel, at the surprising distance of one thousand nine hundred and eighteen millions of miles. This planet the Doctor called Georgium Sidus, from respect to His Majesty King George the Third, in whose reign it was discovered.

The diameter of Herschel is thirty-four thousand four hundred and fifty-seven miles. Its revolution is nearly eighty-four years, of our time; and its hourly motion is at the rate of sixteen thousand miles an hour.

To a good eye, unassisted by a telescope, this planet appears like a faint star of the fifth magnitude; and it cannot readily be distinguished from a fixed star with a less magnifying power than that of two hundred times. Six satellites accompany this planet; which move in orbits, making very large angles with the plane of the ecliptic.