observe nothing but regularity and perfection in these microscopic objects.

How inconceivably thin and tender are the threads of a spider! It has been calculated that it would take thirty-six thousand of them to make the thickness of a thread of common sewing-silk! Each of the six papillæ from which the spider draws that glutinous liquor of which it forms its web, is composed of a thousand insensible pores, which give passage to so many threads; so that, however fine the spider's thread may appear, it is composed of six thousand smaller

ones.

You are struck with astonishment; but suppose we had microscopes which could magnify some thousands of times more than those glasses do, through which a mite appears no larger than a grain of barley, what wonders should we then see! And, even then, should we reach the limits of creation in these inconceivably small productions? Certainly not; and it would be presumption and extravagance to believe it. Each creature has a kind of infinity; and the more we contemplate the works of God, the more the wonders of his power will be multiplied in our sight.

Our imagination is confounded in the two extremes of Nature, the great and the small; and we know not whether we should admire the divine power more in those enormous masses which roll over our heads, or in those microscopic objects which are invisible to the naked eyes. Should not the contemplation of the works of God be our most pleasing occupation? The trouble of study would be amply compensated by the pure and innocent pleasures which it would afford.

It would, at least, awaken in us an ardent desire to arrive in those blessed regions where we should require neither microscopes nor telescopes to enable us to discover the wondrous works of God. There all his works shall be so unveiled to our eyes, that we shall be able to distinguish the y 98, 255

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destination, structure, and relations of each object. There immortal songs of praise shall resound to the honor of the Creator of the universe. There all distinction of great and small shall be entirely done away; for every thing shall appear great in our sight, and fill our souls with admiration and joy!

SAC. PHIL. SEASONS.

MICROSCOPE; an optical instrument, which renders visible minute objects which cannot be seen by the naked eye, or greatly magnifies small visible bodies. MINIATURE; a picture or representation in a small compass, or less than the reality. GLOBULE; a small particle of matter of a spherical form. ODORIFEROUS; diffusing fragrance.

ADDRESS TO THE SUN.

PEERLESS; ĕss, not iss. STARS; sound r. THOUSAND; sound nd. MISTS; Sound sts. FORM; sound r. HARK; sound r.

sound nths; do not call it munse.

MONTHS;

THOU peerless Sun!

O, let me hail thee, as in gorgeous robes,
Blooming, thou leav'st the chambers of the east,
Crowned with a gemmed tiara, thick embossed
With studs of living light. The stars grow dim
And vanish in thy brightness; but on earth
Ten thousand glories, sparkling into life,
Their absence well repay. The mists, dispersed,
Flit o'er the mountain tops. Cliffs, glens, and woods,
And lakes, and oceans, now are burnished o'er
With scintillating gold. Where'er the eye
Erratic turns, it greets thee; for thy form,

Nature, delighted, multiplies, and makes

Each sand, each dew-drop, the small floret's crown,
The tiny orbit of the insect's eye,

And the rayed texture of the sparry rock,
A mirror for thy glory. Life awakes
From dewy slumber. Hark! the jocund lark
Awakes her carols; now their morning hymn -
The birds are chanting, and the voice of joy
Has filled the ethereal vault. Reflection fair
Of thy Creator! strange had heathen worlds
Not paid thee rites divine! Shouldst thou refuse
Thy wonted smile, or stay thy chariot wheels,
Soon Nature's mighty pulse would cease to beat,
And, all her powers collapsing, might she dread
Sad dissolution. But the Eternal's breath
Has kindled thee with fires that never know
Extinction nor exhaustion. His command
Proud to fulfil, thou measurest days and weeks,
Months, years, and cycles, to the sons of men,
And seest their generations rise and bloom,
Wax old and die; - thyself unchanged by Time.
Ne'er has his hand thy golden tresses shorn,
Nor on thy dazzling forehead has he left
Trace of his wrinkling breath, nor aught thy speed
And juvenile strength abated. Matchless orb!
Roll ever glorious, ever round thee pour
The streams of life and joy, thy Maker's praise
. Exalting high, his noblest image thou!

DRUMMOND.

TIARA; a turban, or ornament worn round the head. GORGEOUS; splendid, glittering with gay colors. SCINTILLATING; emitting sparks, sparkling. ERRATIC; wandering, having no certain course, roving about without a fixed destination. COLLAPSING; falling together as the two sides of a vessel. CYCLE; a round of years or a period of time in which the same course begins again, a perodical space of time.

PROGRESS OF THE MECHANICAL ARTS.

BEYOND; O as in not; do not sound o like й. HISTORY; do not blend the last two syllables. LEVER; give the first e its long sound. GENERAL; er as in her; make three syllables.

A HISTORY of mechanical philosophy would not begin with Greece. There is a wonder beyond Greece. Higher up in the annals of mankind, nearer, far nearer, to the origin of our race, out of all reach of letters, beyond the sources of tradition, beyond all history except what remains in the monuments of her own art, stands Egypt, the mother of nations! Egypt! Thebes! the Labyrinth! the Pyramids! Who shall explain the mysteries which these names suggest? The Pyramids! Who can inform us whether it was by mere numbers, and patience, and labor, aided, perhaps, by the simple lever; or, if not, by what forgotten combinations of power, by what now unknown machines, mass was thus aggregated to mass, and quarry piled on quarry, till solid granite seemed to cover the earth and reach the skies?

The ancients discovered many things, but they left many things also to be discovered; and this, as a general truth, is what our posterity, a thousand years hence, will be able to say, doubtless, when we and our generation shall be recorded also among the ancients. For, indeed, God seems to have proposed his material universe as a standing, perpetual study to his intelligent creatures; where, ever learning, they can yet never learn all; and if that material universe shall läst till man shall have discovered all that is unknown, but which, by the progressive improvement of his faculties, he is capable of knowing, it will remain through a duration beyond human measurement, and beyond human comprehension.

But if the history of the progress of the mechanical arts

be interesting, still more so, doubtless, would be the exhibition of their present state, and a full display of the extent to which they are now carried. The slightest glance must convince us that mechanical power and mechanical skill, as they are now exhibited in Europe and America, mark an epoch in human history worthy of all admiration.

Machinery is made to perform what has hitherto been the toil of human hands to an extent that astonishes the most sanguine, with a degree of power to which no number of human arms is equal, and with such precision and exactness as almost to suggest the notion of reason and intelligence in the machines themselves. Every natural agent is put unrelentingly to the task. The winds work, the waters work, the elasticity of metals works; gravity is solicited into a thousand new forms of action; levers are multiplied upon levers; wheels revolve on the peripheries of other wheels.

The saw and the plane are tortured into an accommodation to new uses; and, last of all, with inimitable power, and "with whirlwind sound," comes the potent agency of steam. In comparison with the past, what centuries of improvement has this single agent comprised in the short compass of fifty years! Every where practicable, every where efficient, it has an arm a thousand times stronger than that of Hercules, and to which human ingenuity is capable of fitting a thousand times as many hands as belonged to Briareus.

Steam is found in triumphant operation on the seas; and under the influence of its strong populsion, the gallant ship,

"Against the wind, against the tide,

Still steadies with an upright keel."

It is on the rivers, and the boatman may repose on his oars; it is in the highways, and exerts itself along the courses of land conveyance; it is at the bottom of mines a thousand feet below the earth's surface; it is in the mill, and in the workshops of the trades. It rows, it pumps, it excavates,