Last evening in Sever 11. Mr. Black delivered the second of his interesting course of lectures to a large audience. He began at the beginning of English Literature. likening its growth to that of a tree; and investigated when and where it first look root. In the following lectures he will show how the tree grew and leafed out gradually to us present size and proportions. The various periods of the English language are as follows: - before the Roman, the Roman, the Anglo Saxon, the Anglo Norman and English proper. The first of these was the subject of last evenings lecture.

The earliest literature was naturally of a mythical nature, and while we may smile at the old tales and legends it is to our advantage to know something of them. These old works have a poetical as well as a political value for us. At first there were the two distinct literatures of the Northern and Southern Celts, first of a Pagan type, and later influenced by Christianity.

Mr. Black then gave a short sketch of the old Norsemen, their habits and character, and their religion. He showed how they brought with them their old songs and legends, and how they influenced the native legends in Britain. Only three of these legends have safely passed the destructive hands of the monks, namely. "The Gleeman's Song." "The Fight at Frimsburg," and "Beowulf," and they are the beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry. 'The Fight at Frimsburg' is short but alive with the fire of war, and the description of battles. Beowulf, however, is a long and thrilling tale, and told with Homeric simplicity. A deep fatalism broods over the poem, but it is counteracted by a certain manliness. The poem was composed almost wholly by one man and with one definite aim in view. Two destinct strains are felt throughout, one military, one of the sea. Always is heard the clanging of armour, but in the back ground is the unceasing roar of the sea. These legends were sung or rather chanted to the accompaniment of a musical instrument. and together with the peculiar accent and alliteration of the poetry, their reading was made very impressive. Our ancestors were a religious people even when pagans, their literature being as much of religion as of war, the sea, or domestic love.

With Christianity came a softening influence, and though the war-like spirit did not for a long time die out, it took a milder course. Soon Northumbria took the lead in literature, and gave birth to one Caedmon, a monk in Whitby monastery, and the first true English poet. The other poets of this division of the Heptarchy were Aldhelm of Wessex, Bede, King Alfred and Cynewulf. Wessex took the lead in rose and produced King Alfred, St. Dunstan, and Abbots Wulfstan and Aelfric.

In this early work three things interest us, the mater, the literary form, and the cast of genius: the latter especially as it tells us the character of mind and temperament and modes of feeling and thinking of our progenitors, as nothing else can.