nstruction and entertainment derivable from the fixed contemplation of any object that presents itself most readily to my notice. Perchance, while resting by the road-side, I take into my hand the first flower or insect that comes in my way, examine the structure of the one, or the form and habits of the other, with earnest and fixed attention. And how many times have I risen from that silent contemplation with a mind utterly weaned from the heaviness occasioned by ruminating over the existence of some petty sorrow,-entirely engrossed with the wonders thus unveiled to me, and a heart filled with adoration of the greatness and goodness of that God, who is the maker and sustainer of all things. Examined in this temper of mind, I have seldom held a flower in my hand which I did not think curious and beautiful enough to have bloomed in paradise; and never returned the insect or reptile to its bed of leaves, without a feeling that the link that binds me to every living thing had become strengthened, and my sympathy towards the subjects of my investigation excited and increased." A CURE FOR TRIVIAL ANOYANCES. "Mental trouble and exertion are not always to be avoided, let our position be what it may. Circumstances may produce and add physical to moral suffering, and the weight of both may seem capable of weighing you to the ground. But take heart you may believe my testimony, that the sum and quality and order of your enjoyments [a cheerful Christian pedestrian he is speaking of] will, when put into the balance against your troubles, far outweigh them. Moreover, the mercy and goodness of our Creator has so moulded our minds, that past pleasures and enjoyments can always be vividly recalled to our recollection ;-past suffering with difficulty, and seldom in detail. I own that, surrounded by flies, fleas, and musquitoes, it may be some time before you can get your philosophy and good humour uppermost. However, pray attempt it, and having once succeeded, do not let them again be overcome. Sometimes a very slight and trivial circumstance will give you considerable assistance. I recollect at St. Quirico, after having been repeatedly bitten by my winged assailants, when I would have sunk into transient repose, I first lost my assumed temper of patience and endurance, and then suddenly took the fancy into my head to see how, in all the world, they effected their entry into my skin. I need not say that the very amusement produced by the experiment repaid me for the smart: for it was curious to see the little blood-thirsty marauder address himself to his work in quite a workmanlike manner,-poise himself upon four of his delicate legs, while the other two were extended laterally to keep him in balance. He then forced in his little transparent proboscis deeper and deeper, till I felt him in the quick, when, holding my hand between my eye and the light, I could see that it acted just as well as that of an elephant, and drew up a minute stream of blood into his little thirsty stomach. The effort at once turned the tide of my reflections; and the circumstance, trivial as it was, led to thoughts which restored to my mind both equanimity and patience. In the same manner I would advise you to attempt by all means to divert your attention from your own person to other objects. The Providence of God has surrounded us with objects of improving distraction, by considering which we may be led to think of him. If you are attentive you will find that the same hand which, in rocky, heated and thirsty lands, has strewed the seeds of the finest aromatic shrubs and plants, preferably to those of any other species, for the comfort and solace of the passenger; has left no situation however painful or disagreeable where an antidote to your distress has not been placed within your reach. But you must rouse yourself to seek for it." A MAY MORNING. "I do not envy the man who can breathe the perfumed air of a May morning, and gaze upon the bright face of as soothed many a fit of mental impatience and disquiet, and I hope I shall never cease to be alive to, and observant of it. "There are few habits more essentially necessary to the enjoyment and comfort of a pedestrian traveller than that of early rising, and there are few which under all circumstances bring so certain a return of advantage. I will not here dilate upon the peculiar beauty of external nature at that hour when the early grey gradually wakes into warmth and colour; or speak of the fresh feeling of enjoyment both in body and soul which he experiences whose feet brush away the heavy dews from the meadows." SUNSET AT SEA. "The sun went down to the horizon, and our second day of trial was drawing to an end. I may truly say that whatever may have been my feeling of disappointment at seeing my hopes of soon gaining the destined port so strangely frustrated-yet sunset, that glorious, inexpressibly glorious, spectacle to the eyes of those who float upon the bosom of the wide waters-never failed to bring a season of peace, an hour of calm enjoyment, a feeling of resignation, and a disposition to humble myself before God, and weigh his infinite mercies against his mild chastisements. If indeed the objects comprised within the mariner's range of vision are few in number and admit of comparatively little variety; though a species of sameness may be said to dwell upon the scene around him for a greater proportion of his hours; yet there are seasons when the small number of those objects is materially favourable to their combining together scenes of, I would almost say, greater sublimity than the variegated face of the land, with its endless diversity of objects and forms, ever produces. The sun, moon and stars, and the clouds above and the ocean with its changeful surface below, are perhaps all —but they are as an open book to him, the pages of which alternately instil delight into his mind, or give warning of danger and peril. It is indeed an awful and delightful volume." to us. WHOEVER Wishes, says Augustin, to be with God, ought always to pray and often to read: for when we pray we speak to God, and when we read he speaks The study of the Holy Scriptures works in us two effects of grace given. It enlightens and instructs the understanding, and then withdrawing the man from the vanities of the world, it carries him to the love of God. But then (adds Basil) if we speak to God in prayer we must speak from the heart, for when he speaks to us by his word, it is to our heart that he speaks. As the rose-tree is composed of the sweetest flowers, and the sharpest thorns; as the heavens are sometimes fair and sometimes overcast, alternately tempestuous and serene; so is the life of man intermingled with hopes and fears, with joys and sorrows, with pleasures and with pains.-BURTON. THE FIRST MONTHLY PART OF THE will be ready for delivery on tho 30th instant; price, with the Supplement, Sixpence, sewed in a Neat Wrapper. The MONTHLY PARTS, will be regularly continued on the last day of each succeeding Month, so that Subscribers in all parts of the Country may receive them with the Magazines, &c. from London, by giving the necessary orders to their respective Booksellers. LONDON: JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, 445, (WEST) STRAND.` Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in the Kingdom. renewed nature without emotion. I am no longer a boy, Hawkers and Dealers in Periodical Publications supplied on wholesale terms by but at such moments seldom fail to find my spirit imbued with the feelings of one: and fresh, cheering, and delicious they are." EVENING CALM AND MORNING FRESHNESS. "At Kolsass I came to a halt; night having begun to darken around me, and the stars to twinkle over the mountains. I retain a delightful remembrance of the calm which, spreading over the face of nature during the last hours of my evening's walk, shed some portion of its peace and quiet upon my soul and spirits. There is a tranquillity in the mood of that hour, in the hues of natural objects, and the hounds and scenes of closing day which I never can resist. It W. S. ORR, Paternoster-Row; G. BERGER, Holywell-st., London, And by the Publisher's Agents in the following places :Aberdeen..........Brown and Co. Bath...... Birmingham Bristol Cambridge Carlisle Colchester... Derby Dublin Edinburgh. Exeter.. .George. ..Langbridge. Westley and Co. Stevenson .Thurnam. ..Swinborne & Co. Penny and Co. .Griffin and Co. Hull .Wilson. Lancashire and Bancks and Co. Cheshire Manchester. Robinson. C. RICHARDS, Printer, 100, St. Martin's Lane, Charing Cross. F.GENERAL Magazine. ATURE&EDUCATION 1832. PRICE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. ON THE FITNESS OF THE FORMS OF ANI- THERE are few things more worthy of observation, or and the other beneath it; that one, also, should feed while on land as well as on water, but the other in the water exclusively. Now the gull cannot dive, however well it can swim; and, in consequence, it can only obtain such prey, or eatable substances, as are to The Black-backed Gull. Common Cormorant. species of gulls, many of the duck tribe, the auks, the | be found floating on or near the surface; but the corguillemots, the petrels, the divers, the cormorants, the goosanders, and various others, people the rocks and precipices, obtain their food in the ever restless waves, and many may in truth be said to have "their home upon the deep." Now the foot of a bird is always adapted to its mode of life. If any of these sea birds had a foot like that of a common fowl, a crow, a magpie, or a pigeon, it would not have served well for swimming; and hence we see that they are web-footed, like the duck or the goose. Their mode of living, however, is not in all cases the same, and in order to meet their different circumstances in this respect, there are corresponding variations in the foot; relating to its form, the degree in which it is webbed, the comparative length of the leg, or some other particular; for example, we have here represented the black-backed gull, and the common cormorant. Both swim, and both have webbed feet, yet there are several points of difference between them. Why are the feet placed so much further back in the cormorant? they are so far behind, that the bird, as you see, stands nearly erect. The reason is this: the Creator has determined, in his wisdom, that the one bird should seek its food on the surface of the water, Vor, I morant feeds on fishes, which it pursues under water; and the backward position of the legs, it will be evident, must assist it most materially in diving after them. You will observe a difference, too, in the manner in which the foot is webbed in the two species; in the gull, the back-toe is very small, and not connected with the others; while in the cormorant it is not only of considerable length, but is united by a membrane to the other three, (as you may observe in the off foot of the figure) so that, in this bird, the whole four toes are webbed and connected together, a circumstance which tends to give it great velocity, when diying in pursuit of prey. Montagu, speaking of a tame cormorant, observes, that, "it is almost incredible, to see with what dexterity this bird dives and seizes its prey: knowing its own powers under water, if a fish is thrown in at a great distance, it frequently dives immediately, and pursues its course under water, in a line to the spot: it is observed to fall with vast celerity; and, if the water is clear, takes the fish with certainty, and frequently before it falls to the bottom." But, in the natural state, how does the cormorant know where the prey is? If you were in a boat, even on the calmest day, you could not see a fish from a distance of twenty or thirty feet, at ten û or twelve below the surface, and still less if there were any breeze or ripple. Now how does the bird manage? The author just quoted states, that, when fishing, it always keeps its head under water, in order that it may the more clearly and certainly discover the prey. There is still something more in the foot of the cormorant but I must first explain to you what I mean by the foot of a bird; for, anatomically speaking, it consists of more than the part merely on which the bird rests. Observe a common fowl walking about,which is its leg? You point to the pillar covered by a scaly skin, which stands between the toes and the feathers. Now suppose that this fowl submits to the usual fate of its race; that it is killed and dressed, and that I request you to help me to a leg. Do you find any difference in the part you send me, from what you considered as the leg in the living fowl? In fact, you help me not to the leg only, but also to the thigh; while the naked part, which you considered as the leg in the living bird, is wanting altogether. From this you will see, that what you had considered as the knee is in reality the ankle or heel; that what is commonly called the drumstick is the leg, and the portion above it, which is attached to the side bone by the round ball, or head of the thigh bone, is the thigh. If you examine, then, the leg of a duck or goose, you will find, that though it is compressed at the sides, still it has considerable thickness in front. These birds, however, do not require to swim with great velocity; and, in fact, a slow and deliberate examination and search with their bills is the most usual way of obtaining their subsistence. But we may readily conceive that in a bird, which, like the cormorant, depends chiefly for its success in capturing its prey on the rapidity with which the latter can be followed, such a leg would be less properly fitted, since it would offer considerable resistance and retard the velocity. Now here again we have an example of that wisdom which pervades every thing, whether the revolutions of worlds, the motions of a fly, or the structure of a bird. The cormorant's leg is so flattened on the sides, that the front edge, which cuts the water, is not thicker than the blade of a carving-knife.-Letters to a young Naturalist. FRENCH WIT AND ENGLISH SENSE. THE President Montesquieu and Lord Chesterfield became acquainted as they were travelling to Italy. On the road they began to dispute about the merits of their two nations. My lord allowed that the French had more wit than the English, but said they had no common sense. The president agreed to this; but they could not settle the difference between wit and common sense. Before the dispute was ended, they arrived at Venice. Here the president went about every where-saw every thing-asked questions-and talked to every body; and at night noted down his observations. An hour or two after, a Frenchman, shabbily dressed, came into his room, and addressed him thus: "Sir, I am a countryman of yours. I have lived here these twenty years, but I have always kept up my friendship towards my countrymen; and I always think myself too happy when I have an opportunity of serving them, as I have you to day. You may do any thing in this country, except meddle with affairs of state. One thoughtless word costs a person his head; and you have already spoken a thousand. The State Inquisitors have their eyes upon you; their spies are following you every where: they note down your plans, and they know that you are going to write a book. To my certain knowledge they intend to pay | you a visit to-day or to-morrow. Consider, Sir, if you have actually written any thing; that an innocent line, if misinterpreted. may cost you your life. That is all I haye to say, and I now take my leave. The only recompense which I ask for a service which I think of some importance, is, that if you meet me in the streets you will not recognize me; and that in case it is too late to save you from being taken, you will not inform against me."-So saying he disappeared, leaving the poor President in great alarm. His first movement was to run to his secretary, snatch the papers, and throw them into the fire. Scarcely was that done, when in came Lord Ches. terfield. He soon saw that his friend was in trouble, and asked him what could have happened. The president related what had happened; said, that he had burnt his papers, and ordered a post-chaise to be ready at three o'clock in the morning, that he might quickly leave a place where a few moments longer stay might be fatal. Lord Chesterfield listened calmly to all this, and then said: "this is all very well, my dear president, but let us sit down and examine your adventure with our heads cool and calm."-"You are joking," said the President, "it is impossible for one's head to be at ease when it hangs only by a thread."-" But, pray," said the earl, "who is this man who has so generously exposed himself to danger to save you from it? This seems not very natural: he may be a Frenchman; but the love of one's country does not lead men to travel into dangers which lie out of their way, especially for the sake of a person who is unknown to them. This man was not a friend of yours?"-"No!"-"Was he badly dressed?"—"Yes; very badly."-" Did he ask you for money?"-" Not a farthing,' Why that is still more extraordinary: but whence did he learn all that he told you?"—"Oh! I don't know at all; perhaps from the inquisitors themselves."-" Absurd," said the earl, " that council is the most secret in the world, and he is not the man to get near them."-" Perhaps he is one of their spies," said the President." Perhaps not," said the earl: " can one suppose a foreigner to be a spy, and that spy clad like a beggar while he is employed in a calling for which he must be well paid; and, again, that spy betrays his masters to you at the hazard of being strangled if you inform against him, or if he is suspected of having assisted you to escape! It's all a joke, depend upon it, my friend."-"What can it be, then?" said the President." I am thinking about it," said the earl. Having puzzled themselves to no purpose, the president still persisted in leaving the place immediately: when Lord Chesterfield, after walking about the room, apparently in a deep study, stopped short, and putting his hand to his forehead, as if a sudden thought had struck him, said, very gravely: "President, listen to me: an idea has just come into my head. Yes! that must be the man: I have not the least doubt of it!"-" What man?" said the President; "if you know who he is, pray tell me quickly."-" Oh! yes," was the answer; "I know him well enough: he was sent by one Lord Chesterfield, who wished to prove to you by experience, that an ounce of common sense is worth a hundred weight of wit."-The president never forgave him for the joke.-DIDEROT's Memoirs. A TRUE STORY. YES! I remember him well, though more than twenty years have elapsed. I had many opportunities of observing his short, neat figure; his small regular features; his dark complexion, and thick black hair, 1832.] 43 His appearance was on the whole prepossessing; but the next day poison was found in the cup of the His mother was of good family. She was still a girl at I know little of his conduct in India, nor do I recollect the reason which he gave for quitting his regiment; but, whatever it was, he came to London with letters of recommendation, and some money in his pocket. Here, wholly unprepared to resist temptation, he became dissipated, neglected all who might have been of service to him, keeping back the letters which he brought with him, until he was ashamed to produce them at all: he exhausted every farthing, incurred great debts, and was as miserable as man could be who saw no hope of recovering the ground which he had lost, and felt himself completely ruined in character as well as fortune. A violent illness at length seized him, and he was conveyed in almost a hopeless state to a hospital. The surgeon who attended him, moved with compassion, invited him to become his assistant, as soon as Here was his health permitted him to exert himself. a providential opportunity of repentance, and had of this act on another; but circumstances, which he He How truly has it been said by the Apostle, that he who "offends in one point is guilty of all." fled immediately on the discovery of the attempt to poison, but was soon overtaken by the officers of justice. The evidence, however, adduced before A susthe magistrates, being too slight to establish a conviction, after two or three examinations he was set at liberty. But what could he now do? pected thief-a suspected murderer-he had not the courage to apply again to the members of his own but more freprofession. Sometimes he procured support by honest means, writing for law-stationers quently were his necessities supplied by fraud. At length he answered an advertisement for a footreceived man; recommended himself by his address; in person a letter sent by the post to solicit informa He was now in a new tion respecting him; answered the enquiries in his own hand, and was accepted. situation; but he was clever, and soon learned how to please. He never stirred out: in fact, he was afraid to appear; because of the frauds of which he had been guilty. But this was not known to his master; and so regular a servant was considered a most unexceptionable person to be left in charge of his master's house, when the family removed for the season into the country. But the moment that the coast was clear, keys were procured of all the closets, cellars, and drawers; another marriage was contracted with a female servant, and a scheme had The master, however, been formed for a general and extensive robbery of all that was in the house. had now returned, and a key was accidentally hampered in a lock, too prominently in sight to escape detection. Intent was too visibly displayed to admit of palliation by the most artful lie: he knew it, and left the house: none but the basest of the base, forgers and swindlers, could now receive him. Within a few weeks he committed a forgery, which was detected and proved against him at the Old Bailey. Sentence of death followed, but was commuted for transportation. I visited him several times in Newgate, and still feel an involuntary shudder whenever I reflect on the horrors which I witnessed in that prison under the old system. I believe much has been done of late years to improve the moral condition of its inmates; but I never pass its walls without thanking God that I was blessed with honest and religious parents, who took care of me in my childhood, and taught me something more than mere professional knowledge; nor without a hearty prayer that my own children may be enabled by the grace of God, to resist temptation, to grow up useful members of society, and finally may receive R. the blessings which God has promised to those who obey his commandments. Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.-Dryden. 6-2 IN the Book of Joshua there is a very interesting account of the wily artifice by which the Gibeonites prevailed upon Joshua to make a covenant of peace with them, when he was drawing near to their country in the course of subduing the lands in which the people of Israel were to be settled. A party of Gibeonites were sent to meet Joshua, pretending that they had come from a far distant land as ambassadors, on behalf of their countrymen. They took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles old and rent and bound up. They had also old shoes and garments, and a few remains of stale and dry provisions, to give the appearance of having just finished a long journey. When they came before Joshua, they informed him that their home was far distant, and that having heard of his great victories, they had been sent to entreat that he would make a league with them. "Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake unto us saying, take victuals with you for your journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants, wherefore now make a league with us. This our bread we took hot for our provisions out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you, but now behold it is dry and it is mouldy-and these bottles of wine which were filled were new and behold they be rent-and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey." The bottles here spoken of were not like those now used in European countries, but were bags made of the skin of animals. The same kind of bottle is frequently referred to in Scripture, both literally and figuratively, but the mention of it occurs with peculiar interest in the three following instances. A bottle filled with water was given by Abraham to Hagar, when he sent her away from his house, (Genesis XXI.) When "Sisera took shelter in the tent of Jael, she opened a bottle of milk and gave him drink. (Judges IV.)" And in I Samuel XVI, we are told that "Jesse took an ass laden with bread and a bottle of wine and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul." In the East, water and other liquors are to this day carried and kept in skin bags, of which the construction is exceedingly simple, and thus we are en abled to illustrate, by the present practices of a people in our own day, one of the customs so frequently referred to in the clear and familiar language of Holy Writ. In making the bottles here described, the hide is stripped off entire, except at the openings where the head and feet of the animal have been cut off: these openings are sewed up, except one which is left for a spout and secured by a string removable at pleasure, While the skin is being prepared, it is filled with hot sand to stretch it to its proper size, and the hides of different animals being used, as the kid, the sheep or goat, and the ox, the bottles or bags are of various sizes, some scarcely larger than our ordinary bottles. Our plate represents the water carrier of India who loads his bullock with a large skinful at the well, either to accompany travellers, or to sell the water to those who live at a distance. Whenever troops or other large bodies of people proceed upon a march into the interior of the country, a number of water carriers of this description accompany them. Bags of skin are also used in Spain to carry wine from the vineyards to the places where it is sold, and sherry wine is very often observed to retain the flavour of the hides in which it has been transported. Such bottles as those which have now been described were of course strongest when they were new. Our Saviour says to his disciples, no man putteth new wine into old bottles, else the new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled, and the bottles perish; but new wine must be put into new bottles and both are preserved." He meant leathern bottles. There is a passage in the hundred and nineteenth Psalm, which becomes peculiarly and powerfully beautiful to the reader who clearly understands what sort of " bottles" were used in the East. The Psalmist is describing the depth of his tribulation and grief-and the comfort he derives from reflecting on the certainty of God's promises. He likens his outward appearance to that of a skin bottle or bag, which, when not in use, is hung up near the fire, and becomes withered and blackened by the smoke. "I am become like a bottle in the smoke, yet do I not forget thy commandments." |