we go along.

His first care was to settle the revenues of his kingdom.

J.

What are revenues, mama? Mrs H Taxes. Hitherto, each province had paid as much as they pleased; and if the king wanted more, he sent to them again: and there was no fixed rule about it, except that they were obliged to furnish a certain number of troops, and money, whenever the king wanted them. Sometimes, certain cities were given to persons whom the kings wished to reward, and they were obliged to supply those persons with whatever they wanted of certain articles. And so of the queen; one city furnished her with girdles, another with veils, another with head-dresses; and so on, as many and as rich as she or they pleased.

H. Well, now, this is really a curious way of paying taxes. But how did Darius

alter it?

Mrs H. He did not alter it in the last particular; but, in those provinces that paid money, he fixed it to a particular sum, so that the people might always know when they had paid enough, and he might know how much he might depend upon. He first sent for some of the wisest and best men from each province, and inquired of them, whether a sum which he named, would be too heavy for their respective provinces to

pay. They replied, that on the contrary,

But Darius assurwish to burden his

it would hardly be felt. ed them that he did not subjects; and he only called for half the sum he had mentioned.

F. That was very kind in Darius. But, mama, what became of the wives of Smerdis? were they killed too?

Mrs H. Darius married them all, and some of the ladies, among whom was Aristona, one of the daughters of Cyrus who had never been married before; and Darius loved her better than he did any of his other wives.

H. I should think the ambition of these ladies would be satisfied by and by, as it seems they have already been wives to three kings in succession; or at least some of them have.

Mrs H. You must not condemn them too quickly, however; for it is not likely they were consulted at all upon the subject.

H. Not consulted! I thought it depended entirely upon the ladies, whether a man could be married or not-pray what do gentlemen go courting for, if it is not to consult them, whether they will marry them or not?

Mrs H. That is the way in our days, my boy; but you must remember that in all heathen countries, females have ever been

considered the property of the other sex, to be disposed of for their company, or their slaves, or their profit, as it happened to suit their convenience or pleasure.

J. But they do not oblige ladies to marry gentlemen if they do not love them, do they?

Mrs H. Not merely if they do not love them, but often when they dislike them extremely, and very frequently when they have never seen them.

J. Oh what works! Fanny, a 'nt you glad we do not live among the heathen.

Mrs H. You can scarcely read a page of history, without being reminded of the blessings which the light of Christianity has poured around our happy land.

F. I wonder if Darius did any thing for the Jews, or whether they were all gone away from Persia to Jerusalem.

Mrs H. They were not all gone, but Palestine was a province of his empire, and his care was extended to his subjects there as well as elsewhere. Cyrus lived so little time after the Jews returned to Jerusalem, that they did not get their temple entirely finished, before his death-and when Cambyses, (who is also called in scripture Ahasuerus,) came to be king, the Samaritans, who were great enemies to the Jews, sent word to him, that they were building the

temple, intending to revolt from the Persians. Cambyses never staid to inquire into the truth of any thing, but gave his orders in an instant, and just as it happened to suit him at the moment: and so in this case, he ordered the work to stop.

But now that so good a prince as Darius was on the throne, the Jews, encouraged by their prophets, began to build again. Their enemies undertook to stop them, as before; but as before too, the Jews showed the decree of Cyrus as their authority, and kept about their work. Tatnai, the governor of the province, then wrote a statement of the case to Darius, who very wisely ordered search to be made among the records of the kingdom, to see if any such decree could be found, as the Jews professed to haveand to the great joy of the nation, it was found. And Darius confirmed it, and added to it, that whatever expenses the Jews needed for the sacrifices at the temple, should be furnished out of the revenues of the province, and whoever hindered them, should be punished.

J. This was excellent! But you can tell us as good stories about Darius, as you did about Cyrus, I suspect.

Mrs H. I can tell you some very good ones, if you are not tired of your lesson. J. Oh no, mama; you know we never tire, hearing stories.

Mrs H. Upon second thoughts, however, I think I have time to tell you but one, and that is a part of the history. You will soon be old enough, to read and understand history yourselves, and you will find a great many things extremely interesting, which I have not time to tell you. But the story. The great and proud city of Babylon, became impatient of the Persian power, and took an opportunity to revolt. Darius besieged it with his forces, twenty months, and was no nearer taking it, than at first, as he could see. Yet the Babylonians, fearing their provisions would not last them, took the horrible resolution to destroy all who were unable to be of service in defending the city. So they collected all the aged, and the little children; and only allowed each man to keep one wife and one female servant; all the other females, shared the fate of the old and the young. They were all strangled!

F. Oh! is it possible any body could be so cruel!

Mrs H. They were now prepared to hold out much longer. But Zopyrus, one of Darius' officers, conceived a plan to get into the city.

H. But why did not Darius do as Cyrus did?

Mrs H. I do not know; probably there