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every one of you have we given a law, and an open path; and if God had pleased, He had surely made you one people. But He hath thought fit to give you different laws, that He might try you in that which He hath given you respectively. Therefore strive to excel each other in good works: unto God shall ye all return, and then will He declare unto you that concerning which ye have disagreed." "To every people God," he declared, "had sent a messenger," and he claimed for himself only a coordinate position with the prophets which went before him. His revelation was an advance upon theirs-that was all. But his pretensions increased with his success, till they culminated at last in a decree of perpetual war against all who refused to accept the Koran. The Jews were the first to experience his vengeance. He had fortified his earlier Suras with spurious quotations from the Pentateuch, which he said contained the same revelation to the Jews which he was commissioned to deliver, in the Koran, to the Arabs. But when he went to Medina, the Jews denounced his quotations as forgeries, and he retaliated by fiercely accusing them of having corrupted and falsified their Sacred Books. Denunciations, however, were not enough. The presence of the Jews, confuting his revelations out of their Hebrew Scriptures, was a standing menace to him; and he took measures, first to silence them, and when that failed, to get rid of them altogether. A Hebrew woman of the name of Asma, who exposed the Prophet and his claims to ridicule in some satirical verses, was soon afterwards assassinated by an agent of Mahomet, who crept into her apartment at midnight and plunged his dagger into her breast as she lay asleep between her little ones. A few weeks afterwards an aged Jew, of learning and ability, was murdered in the same way and for the same crime.

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THERE'S A GOOD TIME COMING.-MACKAY.

CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D., was born at Perth, in 1812. He was formerly editor of the "Illustrated London News," and is the author of several volumes of poetry. Some of his pieces are of high merit, and, as in the case of the following one, have attained high popularity.

THERE's a good time coming, boys,

A good time coming:

We may not live to see the day,
But earth shall glisten in the ray
Of the good time coming.
Cannon-balls may aid the truth,

But thought's a weapon stronger;
We'll win our battle by its aid-
Wait a little longer.

There's a good time coming, boys,

A good time coming:

The pen shall supersede the sword,
And Right, not Might, shall be the lord

In the good time coming.

Worth, not Birth, shall rule mankind,
And be acknowledged stronger;
The proper impulse. has been given ;—
Wait a little longer.

There's a good time coming, boys,

A good time coming :

War in all men's eyes shall be

A monster of iniquity

In the good time coming;

Nations shall not quarrel then,

To prove which is the stronger,
Nor slaughter men for glory's sake-
Wait a little longer.

There's a good time coming, boys,
A good time coming :
Hateful rivalries of creed

Shall not make their martyrs bleed
In the good time coming.
Religion shall be shorn of pride,
And flourish all the stronger,
And Charity shall trim her lamp ;—
Wait a little longer.

There's a good time coming, boys,

A good time coming :
Let us aid it all we can,
Every woman, every man,

The good time coming.

Smallest helps, if rightly given,

Make the impulse stronger;

"Twill be strong enough one day ;

Wait a little longer.

SPELL AND PRONOUNCE

supersede', take the place of.

im'pulse, here, influence acting on the popular mind.

THE RANSOM OF THE INCA.-PRESCOTT.

THE INCAS were the native rulers of Peru. Pizarro, a Spaniard, invaded that country in 1524. Atahuallpa, the Inca, was after a time taken prisoner by Pizarro, and in his eagerness to have his liberty restored, made the wondrous offer recorded in the following Lesson. After all, Pizarro had the indescribable meanness to put him to death!

PRESCOTT was an American writer. He was born in 1796, and died in 1859. His writings, which are of high value, illustrate what can be done under the greatest difficulties, where there is a resolute desire to attain an end. One of his eyes having been destroyed at college, the sight of the other also failed almost entirely, so that he had, through life, to depend on hearing another person read for all the knowledge he acquired.

1. In the hope to effect his purpose by appealing to the avarice of his keepers, Atahuallpa one day told Pizarro that, if he would set him free, he would engage to cover the floor of the apartment

on which they stood with gold. Those present listened with an incredulous smile; and as the Inca received no answer, he said, with some emphasis, that "he would not merely cover the floor, but would fill the room with gold as high as he could reach;" and, standing on tiptoe, he stretched out his hand against the wall. All stared with amazement, while they regarded it as the insane boast of a man too eager to procure his liberty to weigh the meaning of his words. Yet Pizarro was sorely perplexed. As he had advanced into the country, much that he had seen, and all that he had heard, had confirmed the dazzling reports first received of the riches of Peru. Atahuallpa himself had given him the most glowing picture of the wealth of the capital, where the roofs of the temples were plated with gold, while the walls were hung with tapestry, and the floors inlaid with tiles of the same precious metal. There must be some foundation for all this. At all events, it was safe to accede to the Inca's proposition; since, by so doing, he could collect, at once, all the gold at his disposal, and thus prevent its being purloined or secreted by the natives. He therefore acquiesced in Atahuallpa's offer, and, drawing a red line along the wall at the height which the Inca had indicated, he caused the terms of the proposal to be duly recorded by the notary. The apartment was about seventeen feet broad, by twenty-two feet long, and the line round the walls was nine feet from the floor. This space was to be filled with gold; but it was understood that the gold was not to be melted down into ingots, but to retain the original form of the articles into which it was manufactured, that the Inca might have the benefit of the space which they occupied. He further agreed to fill an adjoining room of smaller dimensions twice full with silver, in like manner; and he demanded two months to accomplish all this.

2. No sooner was this arrangement made than the Inca despatched couriers to Cuzco and the other principal places in the kingdom, with orders that the gold ornaments and utensils should be removed from the royal palaces, and from the temples and other public buildings, and transported without loss of time to Caxamalca. Meanwhile he continued to live in the Spanish quarters, treated with the respect due to his rank, and enjoying all the freedom compatible with the security of his person.

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3. Several weeks had now passed since the Inca's emissaries had been despatched for the gold and silver that were to furnish

his ransom to the Spaniards. But the distances were great, and the returns came in slowly. They consisted for the most part of massive pieces of plate, some of which weighed two or three arrobas, a Spanish weight of twenty-five pounds. On some days, articles of the value of thirty or forty thousand pesos d' oro were brought in, and occasionally of the value of fifty or even sixty thousand pesos. The greedy eyes of the conquerors gloated on the shining heaps of treasure, which were transported on the shoulders of the Indian porters, and, after being carefully registered, were placed in safe deposit under a strong guard. They now began to believe that the magnificent promises of the Inca would be fulfilled. But, as their avarice was sharpened by the ravishing display of wealth, such as they had hardly dared to imagine, they became more craving and impatient. They made no allowance for the distance and the difficulties of the way, and loudly inveighed against the tardiness with which the royal commands were executed.

4. The Inca represented to the Spanish commander that the distances of many of the places were very great; that to Cuzco, the capital, although a message might be sent by post, through a succession of couriers, in five days, it would require weeks for a porter to travel over the same ground, with a heavy load on his back. "But that you may be satisfied I am proceeding in good faith," he added, "I desire you will send some of your own people to Cuzco. I will give them a safe-conduct, and, when there, they can superintend the execution of the commission, and see with their own eyes that no hostile movements are intended." It was a fair offer, and Pizarro, anxious to get more precise and authentic information of the state of the country, gladly availed himself of it.

5. At a distance of a hundred leagues along the coast there was a temple of surpassing wealth; and Atahuallpa, anxious to collect his ransom as speedily as possible, urged Pizarro to send a detachment in that direction, to secure the treasures before they could be secreted by the priests of the temple.

6. It was a journey of considerable difficulty. Two-thirds of the route lay along the table-land of the Cordilleras, intersected occasionally by crests of the mountain range, that imposed no slight impediment to their progress. In some places the rocky ridges were so precipitous, that steps were cut in them for the travellers; and though the sides were protected by heavy stone balustrades or parapets, it was with the greatest difficulty that

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