bread (that is, bread with anything put into the dough to make it ferment, or rise), and to suffer no leaven to remain in their houses. On the thirteenth day of the month, in the evening, the most careful and minute search is made by the master of each family, through every part of his house, in order to clear it of leavened bread, and every other particle of leaven. All that can be found is collected together in a vessel, carefully preserved during the night, and, together with the vessel in which it is deposited, is solemnly burnt a little before noon the next day. No vessels are to be used at the Passover that have had any leaven in them; and, therefore, the kitchen utensils used at other times are to be put away, and their places to be supplied by new vessels, or by some that are kept from one Passover to another, and never used but upon that occasion. For the same reason, the kitchen tables and chairs, shelves and cupboards, undergo a thorough purification, first with hot water, and then with cold.

After the burning of the leaven, they make unleavened cakes, as many as will be wanted during the festival, to be in the place of all common bread. Amongst other rules for preparing the grain for these cakes, the meal is to be kneaded in the presence of a Jew, and the dough is not to be left a moment without working or kneading, lest any the least fermentation should take place. The cakes are commonly round, thin, and full of little holes, and, in general, they consist of flour and water only; but the more wealthy and dainty Jews enrich them with eggs and sugar; cakes of this latter kind, however, are not allowed to be eaten on the first day of the festival. They are also forbidden to drink any liquor made from grain, or that has passed through the process of fermentation. During this season, therefore, their drink is either pure water, or a home-made raisin wine.

On the fourteenth day of the month, the first-born son of each family is required to fast, in remembrance of the first-born of the Israelites being delivered, when the Lord smote all the first-born of the Egyptians. In the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, the men assemble in the synagogue, to enter upon the festival with prayers and

other appointed observances, during which the women are occupied at home in preparing the tables against their return; and all the most costly furniture which each can procure is then made use of. The table is covered with a clean linen cloth, on which are placed several plates and dishes: on one is laid the shankbone of a shoulder of lamb or kid, but generally lamb, and an egg: on another, three cakes, carefully wrapped in two napkins: on a third, some lettuce, chervil, parsley, and celery, wild succory, or horseradish. These are their "bitter herbs." Near the salad is placed a cruet of vinegar, and some salt and water. They have also a dish made to represent the bricks which their forefathers had to make in Egypt. This is a thick paste, composed of apples, almonds, nuts, and figs, dressed in wine, and seasoned with cinnamon. Every Jew who can afford wine, also, provides some for this great occasion.

The ceremony then proceeds in this way. The family being seated, the master of the house pronounces a grace or blessing over the table in general, and over the wine in particular; then, leaning on his left arm, in a somewhat stately manner, so as to show the liberty which the Israelites regained when they came out of Egypt, he drinks a portion of wine; in this also he is followed by the rest of the family or party assembled. Then they dip some of the herbs in vinegar and eat them, whilst the master repeats another blessing. He next unfolds the napkins, and taking the middle cake, breaks it in two, replaces one of the pieces between the two whole cakes, and conceals the other piece under his plate, or under the cushion on which he leans. And for what reason is this? In allusion, as they say, to the circumstance mentioned by Moses,* that the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes. He then removes the lamb and the egg from the table, and next the plate, containing the cakes, being lifted up by the hands of the whole company, they joined in saying, "This is the bread of poverty and affliction, which our fathers did eat in Egypt; whosoever hungers let him come and eat; whosoever needs, let him come and eat of

* Fvod. xii. 34.

the paschal lamb. This year we are here, and the next, God willing, we shall be in the land of Canaan. This year we are servants, the next, if God willing, we shall be free children of the family and lords." The lamb and the egg are then again placed on the table, and another portion of wine is taken; the plate containing the cakes is removed, to lead the children of the family to inquire into the meaning of this festival: if no children are present, some person of riper years puts the question, according to a regular form. This is answered, by an account being given of the captivity, bondage, and slavery of the people of Israel in Egypt, their deliverance by the hand of Moses, and of the institution of the Passover on that occasion.* This history is followed by some psalms and hymns being sung, after which the cakes are again placed on the table, and pieces of them are distributed amongst those present, who, instead of the paschal lamb, the offering of which is now altogether discontinued, eat this unleavened bread, with some of the bitter herbs and part of the paste made in memory of the bricks. The reason they give for not eating the paschal lamb is, that this cannot be lawfully done out of the land of Canaan, or Holy Land, all other countries being unholy and polluted.

After the unleavened bread has been eaten, then follows a plentiful supper. Then some more pieces of the cakes are taken, and two more portions of wine. Each is required to drink, on this occasion, four portions; and every cup of wine, the rabbis or teachers say, is in memory of some special blessing vouchsafed to their forefathers. The fourth, and last cup, is accompanied with some prayers, borrowed from Scripture, calling down the divine vengeance on the heathens, and on all the enemies of Israel.

This same course of discourses is repeated on the second night; and the modern Jews profess to consider that all this will be as acceptable in the presence of the Lord as the actual offering of the Passover.

The first two days, and the last two, are kept as days of high solemnity, being celebrated with great pomp by extraordinary services in the synagogue, and by abstaining

* Exod. xii.

from all labour, nearly as strictly as on the Sabbath. The four middle days are not so strictly kept. The last day of the festival is concluded with a peculiar ceremony, called Habdala, in the course of which the master of the house, holding a cup of wine in his hand, repeats a very considerable portion of Scripture, and finishes with drinking, and giving to others to drink, of the cup; after this they are at liberty to return to the use of leavened bread as usual.

Exercises in Word Building-X.

Form lists of English words, according to the models, from— 1. The Greek substantives NAUS, a ship; NESOS, an island; NEURON, a nerve or string; NOMOS, a law; ODĒ (o'-de) a poem ; OIKOS, a house; ONOMA, a name; OPS, the eye; and ORAMA, a view.

2. The Greek adjectives NEOS, new; and ORTHOS, right, straight; and the Greek verb OPTOMAI, I see.

BRUTUS AND THE PROPOSED ASSASSINATION OF CÆSAR.

From Shakespeare's Historical Play of “Julius Cæsar.”

To be read slowly and reflectively, with emphatic pauses.

It must be by his death: and, for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn at him;
But for the general. He would be crowned-

How that might change his nature, there's the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking: crown him-that-
And then I grant we put a sting in him,

That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins

Remorse from power: and, to speak truth of Cæsar,
I have not known when his affections swayed
More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upwards turns his face ;

But when he once attains the utmost round,
He then upon the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend: so Cæsar may:

Then, lest he may, prevent. And since the quarrel
Will bear no colour, for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these and these extremities:

And therefore think him as the serpent's egg,
Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,
And kill him in the shell.

We are told in the opening chapter of the Bible that "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void;” irregular, confused, and unfurnished. It had, therefore, to be put into form. Its material substance had been created, but had not been arranged into any specific formation. It was also "void;" that is, it was not enriched with all that now adorns its surface, or that was afterwards made within it. It had to receive and be replenished, both internally and externally, with all those additional and organised things and beings, or more specific metals and minerals which were intended to be within it, and upon it. The Divine Spirit operated "upon the face of the waters," and the effects we may presume to have been those formative arrangements which constitute the present structure of the earth, at least the elements of it,-its great masses of rocks and strata, its geological system and construction. By the various acts of creating and disposing power, recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, "the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them;" so easily, indeed, that the psalmist ascribes their creation to "the breath of his mouth."*

*Psalm xxxiii. 6.