purple woodpeckers, fiery cardinal birds climbing and circling to the tops of cypress trees; humming birds flashing over Florida jasmine, and birdcatching serpents hissing suspended from tree 5 cupolas, balancing like vines. If all is silence and repose upon the savannas on the other side of the river, here, on the contrary, all is movement and murmur. Strokes of beaks upon trunks of oak, crashing of animals as they 10 walk, browsing and crunching fruit stones between their teeth; the rush of waves, feeble moans, dull bellowings, gentle cooings, fill these wilds with a delicate savage harmony. But when there comes a breeze to animate this solitude, to wave these 15 floating bodies, to pour together these masses of white, of azure, of green, of rose, to mingle all colors, to combine all murmurs; then from the depth of the forest there issue sounds, before the eye there pass visions such as I should in vain 20 attempt to describe to men who have never ranged these wild tracts of nature. realm country.-league: a measure of length. - silt: fine earth deposited by a stream. — colonnade: a series of columns at regular intervals. lateral side. secluded: hidden. savanna: a tract of level land. verdure green. azure the unclouded sky.fending: keeping off. antique: old. crypt: a vault. sylvan woody. - ranged: traveled. HARVEST THANKSGIVING SONG NOTE. This is a metrical arrangement of Psalm LXVII by Franz Delitzsch. God be merciful unto us and bless us, May he cause his face to shine among us- (Selah) That thy way may be known upon earth, Peoples shall praise thee, O God, The peoples shall praise thee, all of them. Nations shall rejoice and shout for joy, Peoples shall praise thee, O God, The peoples shall praise thee, all of them. The earth hath yielded her fruit, God our God doth bless us. God shall bless us, And all the ends of the earth shall fear him. 10 15 THE FIRST AMERICAN LEGISLATURE JOHN FISKE JOHN FISKE (1842-1901), an American historian and philosopher, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a boy of unusual brightness. At the age of twelve he had mastered algebra, geometry, navigation, and surveying. Before he was eighteen 5 he was able to read Greek, Latin, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and had made a fair beginning in Sanskrit and Hebrew. After being graduated from Harvard University he devoted himself to a study of history and of sociology. He held in succes10 sion the positions of lecturer on philosophy, instructor in history, and assistant librarian in Harvard. He lectured on historical and sociological subjects in many of the principal cities of the world. His reputation as a scholar of marked ability and a writer of 15 brilliance began with his review of Buckle's History of Civilization and continued with unabated vigor until his death. It is now time for us to attend a session of this House of Burgesses, to make a report of its work, and to mention some of the vicissitudes which it 20 encountered in the course of the reign of Charles I. The place of meeting was the wooden church at Jamestown, fifty feet in length by twenty in width, built in 1619, for Lord Delaware's church had become dilapidated; a brick church, fifty-six feet by 25 twenty-eight, was built there in 1639. From the different plantations and hundreds the burgesses came mostly in their barges or sloops to Jamestown. In 1634 the colony was organized into counties and parishes, and the burgesses thenceforth represented counties, but they always kept their old title. At first the governor, council, and burgesses met 5 together in a single assembly, just as in Massachusetts until 1644, just as in England the Lords and Commons usually sat together before 1339. A member of this Virginia parliament must take his breakfast of bacon and hoecake betimes, for 10 the meeting was called together at the third beat of the drum, one hour after sunrise. The sessions were always opened with prayers, and every absence from this service was punished with a fine of one shilling. In the choir of the church 15 sat the governor and council, their coats trimmed with gold lace. By the statute of 1621, passed in this very church, no one was allowed to wear gold lace except these high officials and the commanders of hundreds, - a class of dignitaries who, in 1634, 20 were succeeded by the county lieutenants. In the body of the church, facing the choir, sat the burgesses in their best attire, with starched ruffs and coats of silk or velvet in bright colors. All sat with their hats on, in imitation of the time-hon- 25 ored custom of the House of Commons, - an early illustration of the democratic doctrine, "I am as good as you." These burgesses had their speaker, as well as their clerk and sergeant-at-arms. Such was the first American legislature, and two of its 5 acts in the year 1624 were especially memorable. One was the declaration, passed without any dissenting voice, "that the governor shall not lay any taxes or impositions upon the colony, their lands or commodities, otherway than by the au10 thority of the general assembly, to be levied and employed as the said assembly shall appoint." This general assembly was both a legislative and a judicial body. It enacted laws and prescribed the penalties for breaking them; it tried before a jury 15 persons accused of crime, and saw that due punishment was inflicted upon those who were adjudged guilty; it determined civil causes, assessed the amount of damages, and saw that they were collected. From sweeping principles of constitu20 tional law down to the pettiest sumptuary edicts, there was nothing which this little parliament did not superintend and direct. It was, moreover, enacted that any person found drunk was for the first offense to be privately 25 reproved by the ministers; the second time this reproof was to be publicly administered; the third |