f New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land,
New Zealand, and Norfolk Island--all now colonial possessions of
Britain, and rapidly becoming the seat of a large and flourishing nation
of Anglo-Australians--the England of the southern hemisphere.

The intelligence of Captain Cook's death was received with melancholy
regrets in England. The king granted a pension of L200 per annum to his
widow, and L25 per annum to each of the children; the Royal Society had
a gold medal struck in commemoration of him; and various other honors at
home and abroad were paid to his memory.

"Thus, by his own persevering efforts," as has been well observed by the
author of the 'Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties,' "did this great
man raise himself from the lowest obscurity to a reputation wide as the
world itself, and certain to last as long as the age in which he
flourished shall be remembered by history. But better still than even
all this fame--than either the honors which he received while living, or
those which, when he was no more, his country and mankind bestowed upon
his memory--he had exalted himself in the scale of moral and
intellectual being; had won a new and nobler nature, and taken a high
place among the instructors and benefactors of mankind."

Honor and fame are not to be achieved by seeking for them alone, nor are
their possession the end and aim of human existence. It is only by an
unwearied striving after a new and nobler nature; only by being useful
to our fellows, and making the most of those qualities of mind which God
has given us, that happiness is to be attained, or that we fulfill the
ends of our being.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

EXCELLENT BOOKS.

SIX MONTHS AT MRS. PRIOR'S. By Emily Adams. Illustrated. Boston: D.
Lothrop & Co. $1.25.

"In this fresh little story, which is addressed especially to young
girls, the author tries to impress the lesson that the disagreeable and
annoying duties of life may be made pleasant by accepting them as
inevitable, and asking help from above. Mrs. Prior is the widow of a
clergyman, and has been left with five little ones to support. She
discharges her servant, and divides the lighter duties of the household
between herself and the two eldest of her children, Minnie and Helen.
Unaccustomed to any thing but study and play, the girls find it very
hard to have their old time appointments for enjoyment circumscribed,
and complain bitt