people,' and to follow the occupations of their fathers."
Though the infant schools are calculated to produce
the greatest amount of good in their application to the
working classes, in whose character, indeed, they pro-
mise to effect a total revolution, yet nobody who has
witnessed their admirable effect in an early but not
premature unfolding of the youthful mind, and in
accustoming it to submit to discipline and authority,
can fail to wish the same system practised in the
education of every class. Its advantages awakened
the attention of the higher ranks in Edinburgh, many
of whom were anxious that their children should
share in the benefits conferred on the children of the
poor. Accordingly, a school for the children of the
higher classes was established by Mr. Wilderspin in
that city;
and we have means of knowing, that it has
gone on very successfully. It does not appear, how-
ever, that schools of this kind have as yet become
numerous. Parents, in the higher ranks, are still not
sufficiently aware of the inestimable benefits of which,
by their negligence in this respect, they are depriving
their offspring.

THE CHURCH BELLS.

What varying sounds from yon grey pinnacles
Sweep o'er the ear, and claim the heart's reply!
Now the blithe peal of home festivity,

Natal or nuptial, in full concert swells:

Now the brisk chime, or voice of alter'd bells,
Speaks the due hour of social worship nigh:
And now the last stage of mortality

The deep dull toll with lingering warning tells.
How much of human life those sounds comprise ;
Birth, wedded love, God's service, and the tomb!
Heard not in vain, if thence kind feelings rise,
Such as befit our being, free from gloom
Monastick, pray'r that communes with the skies;
And musings mindful of the final doom.

HISTORY OF BELLS.

D. C. July, 1832.

[Abridged from FAULKNER'S History of Kensington.]

The arrival of kings, and great personages, was anciently greeted by ringing the church bells.

Ingulphus, Abbot of Croyland, who died about 1109, speaks of them as being well known in his time, and says that "the first Abbot of Croyland gave six bells to that monastery, that is to say, two THE origin of church bells, is an interesting subject great ones, which he named Bartholomew and Beof enquiry. The ancients, as we learn from the direct ladine; two of a middling size, called Turketullum and incidental mention of them, by the old historians and Beterine; two small ones, denominated Pega and other writers, had bells for both sacred and pro-and Bega; he also caused the great bell to be made fane purposes. By Strabo we are told that markettime was announced by their sound; and by Pliny, that the tomb of an ancient king of Tuscany was hung round with bells. The hour of bathing was made known in ancient Rome by the sound of a bell; the night watchman carried one, and it served to call up the servants in great houses. Sheep had them tied about their necks to frighten away wolves, or rather by way of amulet. In our own day this custom, like many others, serves to remind us of former times.

Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, is generally considered as the first person who introduced bells into ecclesiastical service, about the year 400. And we are told by ancient historians, that in the year 610, the Bishop of Orleans, being at Sens, then in a state of siege, frightened away the besieging army by ringing the bells of St. Stephen's church; which is a clear proof that they were not at that time generally known in France.

The first large bells are mentioned by Bede in the year 680. Before that period the early British Christians made use of wooden rattles to call the congregation of the faithful together.

Handbells probably first appeared at religious processions, and were afterwards used by the secular musicians. The small bells were not always held in the hand; they were sometimes suspended upon a

called Gudla, which was tuned to the other bells, and produced an admirable harmony not to be equalled in England."

The bells used in the monasteries were sometines rung with ropes having brass or silver rings at the ends for the hand; they were anciently rung by the priests themselves, afterwards by the servants, and sometimes by those incapable of other duties, as persons who were blind.

In the flourishing days of Popery, bells were actually baptized, and anointed with the Chrism, or holy oil! They were also exorcised and blessed by the bishop, from a belief, that when these ceremonies had been performed, they had power to drive the devil out of the air, to calm tempests, and to keep away the plague. The ritual for these ceremonies is contained in the Roman Pontifical, and is still used in Roman Catholic countries, where it is usual to give the bells the name of some saint, as was formerly done in England.

The exploded doctrine of the church of Rome concerning bells is, that they have merit, and pray God for the living and the dead; secondly, that they produce devotion in the hearts of the faithful.

The dislike of evil spirits to bells is extremely well expressed by Wynken de Worde in the Golden Legend.

The passing bell was anciently rung for two purposes, one to bespeak the prayers of all good Chris

tian people for a soul just departing, the other to drive away the evil spirits who stood at the bed's foot, or about the house. Hence, perhaps, exclusive of the additional labour, was occasioned the high price demanded for tolling the greatest bell of the church, for that being loudest, the evil spirits might go further off to be clear of the sound.

Such was the general opinion respecting the efficacy of bells before the Reformation; but since that period "it has been the usual course in the Church of England, and it is a very laudable one, that when any sick person lay drawing on, a bell should toll to give notice to the neighbours, that they might pray for the dying party, which was commonly called a passing bell, because the sick person was passing hence to another world; and when his breath was expired, the bell rung out, that the neighbours might cease their prayers, for that the party was dead." It is now only tolled after death.

The saint's bell was not so called from the name of the saint that was inscribed on it, or of the church to which it belonged, but because it was always rung out when the priest came to that part of the service, Sancte, Sancte, Sancte, Domine Deus Sabaoth;" purposely that those persons who could not come to church, might know in what a solemn office the congregation were, at that instant, engaged, and so, even in their absence, be once, at least, moved, "to lift up

their hearts to Him that made them."

"Bells," says Dr. Fuller, " are no effectual charm against lightning. The frequent firing of abbey churches, by lightning, confuteth the proud motto commonly written on the bells in their steeples, wherein each intitled itself to a six-fold efficacy, viz.

Men's death I tell, by dollfull knell,
Lightning and thunder, I break asunder,
On Sabbath all, to church I call,
The sleepy head, I raise from bed,
The winds so fierce, I do disperse,
Men's cruel rage, I do assuage.

Whereas it appears that abbey steeples, though
quilted with bells almost cap-à-piè, were not proof
against the sword of God's lightning. Yea, generally,
when the heavens in tempests did strike fire, the
steeples of abbeys proved often their timber, whose
frequent burnings portended their final destruction."
"It has anciently been reported," observes Lord
Bacon," and is still received, that extreme applauses
and shouting of people assembled in multitudes, have
so rarified and broken the air, that birds flying over
have fallen down, the air not being able to support
them;
and it is believed by some, that great ringing
of bells, in populous cities, hath chased away thunder,
and also dissipated pestilent air. All which may be
also from the concussion of the air, and not from the
sound."

Ever since the introduction of bells, the English have been distinguished for their proficiency in the art of ringing, and for their partiality to this amusement.

The following are the weights of the principal bells in Europe:

Empress Anne's, Moscow

lbs. 432,000
288,000
70,000
40,000
40,200

Boris Godinuf's, ditto

Novogorod Great Bell

Amboise Bell, Rouen

Vienna Bell, cast from Turkish cannon

Erfurt, Prussian Saxony

30,000

Great Tom of Oxford

18,000

11,400

11,000 10,400

6,600

6,600

6,000

A CHILD'S EVENING PRAYER,

BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

[The following simple and beautiful lines were composed by the great poet above-named, for the use of his daughter when a child. A very little ingenuity will be sufficient to make such alterations as may be necessary to suit the prayer to the circumstances of every fireside.]

ERE on my bed my limbs I lay,

God grant me grace my prayers to say ;-
O God! preserve my mother dear
In strength and health for many a year ;
And, O! preserve my father too,
And may I pay him reverence due,-
And may I my best thoughts employ
To be my parents' hope and joy;
And O! preserve my brothers both
From evil doings and from sloth,
And may we always love each other,
Our friends, our father, and our mother-
And still, O Lord, to me impart
An innocent and grateful heart,
That after my last sleep I may
Awake to thy eternal day!

Amen.

ON THE BLACK PESTILENCE OF THE
FOURTEENTH CENTURY.

Of all the great diseases, the remembrance of which
has been preserved to us by history, the black pesti-
lence of the fourteenth century is that which caused
the greatest ravages. In some respects there exists an
analogy between the discase of which we are speak-
ing, and the ASIATIC CHOLERA. The name of black
pestilence' seems to point out to us, in the scourge to
which it was applied, something similar to the disco-

loration of those who have died of the Cholera. Indeed many persons are of opinion, that the scourge, which in the present day has already swept off many millions, is only a new appearance of that which prevailed in the fourteenth century. It is of importance to ascertain whether this supposition is well founded. At all events, it is well to know the nature of that terrible instrument of death, which Divine Providence permitted to rage from the extremity of the east, to the western limits of the then known world. Professor Hecker, of Berlin, has just published a volume on this subject, in which he attempts, not only to answer the question as to the sameness of the two diseases, but also to solve many others, relative to the influence produced by the great scourge of the middle age. We therefore select a few of the details collected by M. Hecker, for the information of our readers.

In the first place, the documents which he has brought together, prove that the black pestilence was in fact the plague of the east, but with some additional features. Besides the swellings under the arm-pits, and in the groin, and the gangrenous tumours which characterize the plague, numerous black spots were observed over the whole surface of the body; the palate and tongue were black, and, as it were, filled with blood; and the patients were tormented with insatiable thirst. But the most distinguishing and aggravated feature of the black pestilence, was the thorough alteration experienced by the lungs. These organs were struck with a gangrenous inflammation, which was indicated by acute pains in the chest, spitting of blood, and such an infection of the breath, that parents even fled from their children. The disorder was communicated, not only by contact with the infected patients, but also by touching any thing which had belonged to them. It was even imagined that the disorder was imparted by a glance or look—an error which may be ascribed either to the extraordinary lustre of the eyes, or to the belief in fascination which anciently prevailed.

The black pestilence did not advance westward by

the same route as the Cholera. Originating in Upper globe. The following are some or the remarkable Asia-as the Cholera also originated, (and it is also circumstances which he has collected from the hissaid, in China) the black pestilence descended towards tory of that time. the Caucasus and the Mediterranean Sea; and instead About the year 1333, numerous earthquakes and of entering Europe through Russia, it first spread over volcanic eruptions did much mischief in Upper Asia, the south, and after devastating the rest of Europe, it which in the year after successively appeared in Greece, entered that country. It followed the caravans, which Italy, France, and Germany. To these convulsions of came from China across Central Asia, until it reached the earth were added extraordinary inundations, which the shores of the Black Sea: thence it was conveyed drowned the harvests, and loaded the atmosphere by ships to Constantinople, the centre of commercial with moisture. These were succeeded by barren years, intercourse between Asia, Europe, and Africa. That scarcity, famine, and great mortality. Clouds of locapital was certainly the focus whence the pestilence custs invaded the plains of Europe, and covered them darted its poisonous rays in every direction, except with their dead bodies, which poisoned the air with towards Muscovy. In the year 1347 it reached Sicily, putrid exhalations. And lastly, dense mists, emitting some of the maritime cities of Italy, and Marseilles. a disagreeable smell, spread over whole countries, in In the following year, it spread from the European consequence of which the inhabitants were exposed to shores of the Mediterranean into the interior of the various accidents. continent. The northern part of Italy, France, Germany, and England, were invaded by it in the same year; the northern kingdoms of Europe in 1349; and finally, Russia, in 1351,-that is to say, four years after it reached Constantinople.

In France, the pestilence advanced by Avignon, at that time the seat of the рарасу. It broke out there in a frightful manner: many persons fell down suddenly, as if they had been struck by a thunderbolt. The patients rarely reached the third day: as soon as any one found himself affected with tumours, either in the groin, or beneath the arms, he bade adieu to the world, and sought consolation only in the absolution granted to all the dying by Pope Clement VI, who arrogantly declared in a Bull, that God had given him the empire of heaven and earth.

In England, the disorder was characterized, as it had been at Avignon, by an almost sudden mortality, consequent on the spitting of blood. The patients who exhibited this symptom sunk under the pestilence in twelve hours, and rarely survived to the second day. The malady spread rapidly throughout the country, and covered it with the dead. (Ireland, however, at that time, suffered very little.) On the north seas— as previously on the Mediterranean, vessels were seen floating at the pleasure of the winds, deprived of their whole crews, and carrying only corpses.

The following estimates, which may be relied on as pretty correct, will give an idea of the losses sustained by the population of Europe at that time.

Inhabitants.

Florence lost......... 60,000 | Strasburg

Basle....
Erfurth* (at least)...
50,000 London (at least)...
60,000 Norwich

It will be readily admitted that facts like these must produce an injurious effect upon the health of the generations that were contemporary with them; but are they sufficient to account for the deadly malady which shortly after manifested itself? In order to answer this question, we ought to know, at least, whether there is any constant proportion between the supposed causes of the black pestilence, and the intensity of this scourge in the different countries which it devastated. M. Hecker's opinion, however, does not differ from that entertained by many physicians who lived in those times. The faculty of Paris, which was consulted on that occasion, assigned a mist or fog as the cause of the evil, and recommended the lighting of fires with aromatic plants. A learned man of Padua, attributed the pest to an occult quality of the atmosphere. A physician of Avignon, ascribed it (as some medical men in France in our day have done) to influences arising from the earth. In short, they knew at that time nearly as much as we do now, concerning the real causes of this great pestilence; and many doctors endeavoured to account for them by having recourse to astrology.

Nothing is more afflicting than the details which have been transmitted to us of the moral effects produced by the black pestilence upon the generation who witnessed it. There doubtless were some happy exceptions; but, among the majority, this scourge called forth only a manifestation of selfishness, frequently the most revolting, together with superstitious Inhabitants. practices and fanatical excesses. Then, as we have re16,000 cently witnessed in France, the people began by Venice .............. 100,000 14,000 ascribing to poison the almost sudden deaths which Marseilles (in 1 month) 56,000 16,000 The fanaticism of that age directed Paris....... 100,000 they witnessed. Avignon......... 50,000 their suspicions against the Jews, who were the objects of general hatred, and whose riches moreAbout 200,000 country towns or villages were com- over excited the cupidity of their enemies. Europe pletely depopulated. At Paris, 500 patients died every then presented one of the most frightful spectacles day at the Hôtel-Dieu. Italy, we are informed, lost that can be conceived. The hapless Jews were seized, at least one half of her inhabitants. At Cairo, during tortured, condemned, and burnt; in most cases the the height of the pestilence, ten or twelve thousand people did not wait for a judicial sentence, but therndied daily. In Mohammedan countries, on the great selves massacred the Israelites. They were heaped roads, and in the caravanserais, nothing was seen but up by thousands in vast funeral piles. At Mayence, deserted corpses. after a vain attempt at resistance, they shut themIf, notwithstanding all the progress made in the na-selves up in their quarters, to which they set fire, and tural sciences, the doctors of the nineteenth century twelve thousand perished! Pursued by the people-by have failed in ascertaining what are the causes of the the magistrates, who ought to have protected them, Cholera, how much more reason have we to acknow- and by the feudal lords, these miserable strangers ledge our ignorance of the causes of the black pesti- found no asylum but in Lithuania, where Casimir the lence. M. Hecker, however, has found in the history Great granted them his protection. This circumof the fourteenth century some facts which he thinks stance accounts for the great numbers of Jews who may be applied to explain the causes of its appear- are still found in Poland. He considers that it was principally caused by great commotions in the interior parts of the

ance.

This city, which at that time was one of the most commercial places in Germany, never recovered this blow.

While professing Christians thus avenged upon the ancient people of God that chastisement with which the same God had punished them, they, on the other hand, endeavoured to appease the divine displeasure,