Little Buttercup.—Hot mineral springs boil up from volcanic action under ground, and which become impregnated with mineral substances. The hot springs at Bath were known to the Romans in the first century, who had a station there called Aquæ Solis, or Aquæ Calidæ, and to the English conquerors as Bathan. But the discovery of the healing properties of the Bath waters dates back to the time of Bladud, the father of King Lear, who consequently built the city, one of the wells of which was called Bladud’s Well. Any little handbook of Bath will give you the whole history of his discovery of them, and the cure of the diseased swine from drinking and bathing in the waters.
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J. Noel.—The origin of the word “ostracism” is Greek, and the founder of this arbitrary law was Clisthenes, the leader of an advanced Democratic party in Athens. It provided for the banishment of any individual, however innocent of crime, who was obnoxious to the citizens, because too influential in their estimation, or disposed to restrict their own liberty of action. Their votes for his exile were recorded by the inscription of his name on the shells. The “biter bitten” was demonstrated in the case of this demagogue, as Clisthenes was himself the first on whom his own law was put in force.