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NEGROES IN AFRICA.

from a short description of Murray Town, a Two or three years ago, his Majesty's erected in April, 1829, and peopled with three village two or three miles west of Freetown, ship Dryad was appointed to the western hundred and twenty-six Africans just imported, coast of Africa on the service for the sup- placed here under the management of a dispression of the slave-trade. Since its charged black soldier of the Royal African return from that station, Mr. Peter Leo- Corps. It comprises four wide streets, the huts nard has given to the public an interest-ranged on each side, and separated from each ing account of his observations, from other by pieces of cultivated ground. which we extract the following statements respecting the character and condition of the negroes there. The first respects the

state of education in Freetown.

In Freetown (says Mr. Leonard), there are two government schools, on Bell's system, for the education of black children of every race, Maroons, Settlers, and liberated Africans. In the male school, there are at present three hundred and eighty-five pupils, divided into ten classes; in the female school, two hundred and sixty-four, into eight classes. The boys are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic only; the girls, besides these, are instructed in needle-work. Every attention seems to be paid to their instruction; and, besides being remarkably clean, neatly dressed, and well-behaved, the progress they have made in these rudimental branches of education deserves the highest praise. I examined several classes in each school, and studiously compared the acquirements of the liberated African with the other children. There was no perceptible difference. The lights and shades of intellect seemed to bear much the same proportion among them as among the children of our own labouring classes at home. For the age of these children, their progress, under the system of education adopted, seemed to be very rapid.

negroes in

Respecting the manumitted Sierra Leone-that is, those who have been rescued by the capture of slaveships, and located in Sierra Leone, he gives the following account :

Again, in referring to the conduct of the manumitted negroes on board ship, his accounts are equally satisfactory.

the statements so often made by the adwhatever condition, is essentially inferior vocates of slavery, that the African, in to the rest of the species, or that his disposition is so radically indolent as to render compulsion indispensable. We conclude with the following statement to the same effect, respecting those settlers in Canada who have escaped by flight from a state of slavery in America.

I was struck (says Fergusson, in his Notes on Canada) with the conspicuous activity and industry of a negro family. Numbers of these poor creatures, as opportunity favours, are ever watching to escape from bondage in the Slave States of the Union, and are to be met with in various parts of Canada. It has been alleged that the negro will prove too indolent for labour in a state of freedom-a remark which, without stopping to prove unphilosophical, and at variance with every principle of human nature, was here most signally contradicted. The same remark applies to several other farms, noticed even in my limited excursion; and the one in question exhibited a set of as busy and happy dingy faces as a philanthropist could wish to look on; while the appearance of the farm spoke to the steady labour which had been employed; and the barn (the test of a thriving colonist) was decidedly the handsomest and largest that I passed.

FORMATION OF CORAL ISLANDS. explain than the prodigious quantity of coral FEW things are more curious or difficult to formed in the sea, especially in the tropical regions. Coral is the produce of different species of vermes, or worm tribes, and it consists chiefly of carbonate of lime. Now, it is difficult to conceive where these animals procure such prodigious quantities of this subsulphate of lime, but no other calcareous salt, stance. Sea-water, indeed, contains traces of as far as we know. Hence it would appear that these creatures must either decompose sulphate of lime, though the quantity of that salt contained in sea-water seems inadequate to supply their wants, or they must form car

It has been a custom with the liberated African department, for a long period, to send on board our ships of war a number of African lads recently emancipated, to be employed, as may be deemed fit, by the officer commanding. They receive no pay, are supplied with twothirds of a rations daily, and are scantily clothed from the store of the department at Freetown. direct from this department, we have had on Eleven of these boys, received board for upwards of twelve months, and about fifteen of them for shorter periods, received from different ships on the station, which had taken them on board, like ourselves, at Sierra Leone, but a short time before. The youngest of the first eleven who came on board appeared about fourteen, the eldest nineteen years old. They were recently manumitted, of course unable to utter a word of English, and, being nearly all of different tribes, were also incapable of communing with each other-in fact, perfect specimens of young savages just escaped from the wild and desolated country arrival they were put to different employments which gave them birth. Soon after their on board, and certainly no extraordinary degree of care was taken concerning their instruction; but, for all this, two of thein, who have assisted the rope-maker, have shown themselves so very apt that they can already manufacture as good rope as their master, who honestly acknowledges such to be the fact. Another was placed to assist the armourer, and is already a very passable blacksmith; a fourth with the carpenter, who assures us his progress is astonishing, and that he is already highly useful to him; and a fifth with the sail-maker, and his improvement is in a similar ratio. The rest have been placed to various other employments, their progression in which has been only equalled by their zeal water, in a way totally above our comprehenand good humour, and by the willingnesssion. Be that as it may, there is one consewho, from age or infirmity, are incapable of with which they set about their work. Of quence of this copious formation of coral in the supporting themselves. Females receive twothe others, who have been still a shorter time tropical regions of considerable importance to pence a-day for three months only, and as on board than these, six were received from navigation, which has been clearly pointed out many of the children as possible above a cerhis Majesty's ship Medina, before she sailed by Mr. Dalrymple, and is now pretty well tain age, on condemnation of the vessel, are for England, who had been a considerable time on board of her, and had met with great marks this accurate observer, more curious, or There is not a part of natural history, reapprenticed out, as has been already stated, to persons of respectable appearance in the colony. kindness, and had received the most attentive With the exception of those negroes recently instruction at the hands of her experienced perhaps to a navigator more useful, than an commander. They had been taught a seainquiry into the formation of islands. arrived, who, from the excessive crowding, The and the bad quality and scantiness of the food man's duty, and were infinitely more expert be discussed, but of low, flat islands in the origin of islands in general is not the point to and water, are almost always filthy, emaciated. and active aloft than the white boys of the wide ocean, such as are most of those hitherto and covered with disease, the manumitted ship; and, while with us, did their duty, in discovered in the vast South Sea. slaves appear in general to be clean in their every respect, with so much zeal and alacrity islands are generally long and narrow; they persons, sleek, and well fed, and very well satisfied with their condition. After a short stay in the colony, the industrious are occasionally permitted to cultivate patches of waste land in the country, besides their own allotted piece of ground, with the understanding that their occupation of the former shall be temporary. By selling the produce of this they are enabled to obtain many of the comforts, and a few of the luxuries, enjoyed by their European neighbours. Some idea may be formed of the actual condition of these people

The articles at present supplied to each male emancipated slave on his location cost about £1 10s., which, together with his six months' allowance of twopence a-day, make the whole of the mere personal expense of each male adult to his Majesty's government amount to about £3. The daily allowance is,

of course, extended in the cases of

persons

that their behaviour called forth the most un-
these boys became affected with a disease of
qualified praise. While at Ascension, one of
the brain and spinal marrow, which produced
paralysis of the lower extremities, and even-
tually carried him off. The attention of the
duous; and, when the fatal event took place,
other boys to their poor friend was most assi-
they exhibited every mark of deep, unfeigned

sorrow.

We hope these extracts will be received as additional evidence to the falsehood of

bonate of lime from the constituents of sea

understood.

These

with some channel of ingress at least to the are formed by a narrow bar of land, inclosing the sea within it; generally, perhaps always, tide, commonly with an opening capable of receiving a canoe, and frequently sufficient to admit even larger vessels.

nature.

deduction was an observation of Abdul RooThe origin of these islands will explain their What led Mr. Dalrymple first to this off the north-east coast of Borneo had shoals bin, a Sooloo pilot, that all the islands lying to the eastward of them. These islands being

covered to the westward by Borneo, the winds from that quarter do not attack them with violence. But the north-east winds, tumbling in the billows from a wide ocean, heap up the coral with which those seas are filled. This, obvious after storms, is perhaps at all other times imperceptibly effected. The coral banks, raised in the same manner, become dry. These banks are found at all depths at all distances from shore, entirely unconnected with the land, and detached from each other; though it often happens that they are divided by a narrow gut, without bottom.

Coral banks also grow, by a quick progression, towards the surface; but the winds, heaping up the coral from deeper water, chiefly accelerate the formation of these into shoals and islands. They become gradually shallower, and, when once the sea meets with resistance, the coral is quickly thrown up by the force of the waves breaking against the bank; and hence it is that, in the open sea, there is scarcely an instance of a coral bank having so little water that a large ship cannot pass over, but it is also so shallow that a boat would ground on it. Mr. D. has seen these coral banks in all the stages; some in deep water, others with a few rocks appearing above the surface, some just formed into islands, without the least appearance of vegetation, and others, from such as have a few weeds on the highest part to those which are covered with large timber, with a bottomless sea at a pistol-shot distance.

The loose coral, rolled inward by the billows in large pieces, will ground, and, the reflux being unable to carry them away, they become a bar to coagulate the sand, always found intermixed with coral; which sand, being easiest raised, will be lodged at top. When the sand bank is raised by violent storms, beyond

the reach of common waves, it becomes a resting-place to vagrant birds, whom the search of prey draws thither. The dung, feathers, &c., increase the soil, and prepare it for the reception of accidental roots, branches, and seed, cast up by the waves, or brought thither by birds. Thus islands are formed; the leaves and rotten branches, intermixing with the sand, form in time a light black mould, of which in general these islands consist, more sandy as less woody, and, when full of large trees, with a greater proportion of mould. Cocoa-nuts, continuing long in the sea without losing their vegetative powers, are commonly to be found in such islands; particularly as they are adapted to all soils, whether sandy, rich, or rocky.

always abound greatly with fish; and such as
he has seen, with turtle-grass and other sea
plants, particularly one species, called by the
Sooloos gammye, which grows in little glo-
bules, and is somewhat pungent as well as
acid to the taste. It need not be repeated that
the ends of those islands only are the places to
expect soundings; and they commonly have
a shallow spit running out from each point.
Adbul Roobin's observations point out another
circumstance, which may be useful to navi-
gators: by consideration of the winds to which
any islands are most exposed, to form a pro-
bable conjecture which side has deepest water
and, from a view which side has the shoals, an
idea may be formed which winds rage with
most violence.-Thomson. Phil. Trans.

ICE-STORM IN AMERICA.

THE following account of this curious phenomenon is extracted from Mr. Taylor's notes on the weather at Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, in the "Magazine of Natural History" for March, 1833.

Feb. 8th. This morning a heavy rain set in after the thaw, and increased in violence throughout the day and night; and now commenced the most singular, and even sublime, meteorological phenomenon I have observed in this region. It was an occurrence of unusual note, and extended over a large area in this and the adjoining state, and is commonly referred to under the name of the "ice storm." I shall be somewhat minute in describing so much respecting it as fell under my own observation, as noted at the time. Immediately on the descent of the rain, it froze, so as to envelope the trees and earth with a thick coating of transparent ice, and to render walking

no easy process.

ing of the topmost branches, which fell to the earth with a noise like the breaking of glass, yet so loud as to make the woods resound. As the day advanced, instead of branches, whole trees began to fall; and, during twenty-four hours, the scene which took place was as sublime as can well be conceived. There was no wind perceptible, yet, notwithstanding the calmness of the day, the whole forest seemed in motion; falling, wasting, or crumbling, as it were, piecemeal. Crash succeeded to crash, until, at length, these became so rapidly continuous as to resemble the incessant discharges of artillery, gradually increasing, as from the irregular firing at intervals of the outposts, to the uninterrupted roar of a heavy cannonade. Pines of 150 feet and 180 feet in height came thundering to the ground, carrying others before them; groves of hemlocks were bent to the ground like reeds; and the spreading oaks and towering sugar maples were uprooted like stubble, and often without giving a moment's warning. Under every tree was a rapidly accumulating debris of displaced limbs and branches; their weight increased more than tenfold by the ice, and crushing every thing in their fall with sudden and terrific violence. Altogether, this spectacle was one of indescribable grandeur. I could not resist devoting the whole day to the contemplation, notwithstanding the continued rain, of the desolating and tremendous effects of this unusual phenomenon. It was necessary, however, to be careful to remain at a prudent distance from the falling timber. Of all the scenes in the American forests, this was the most awful I had witnessed. The roar, the cracking and rending, the thundering fall of the uprooted trees, the startling, unusual sounds and sights produced by the descent of such masses of solid ice, and the suddenness of the crash, when a neighbouring tree gave way, I shall not easily forget. Yet all this was going on in a dead calm, except, at intervals, a gentle air from the south-east slightly waved the topmost pines. Had the wind freshened, the destruction would have been still more appalling. It was awful to witness the sudden prostration of oaks of the largest class. These trees were the greatest sufferers; and it seemed remarkable that the deciduous trees should be less able to

bear the additional burden than the heavily laden evergreens. The branches of the oaks rapidly gave way, while the thickly encased foliage of the hemlocks hung drooping around the stems, upon their long pliant branches, until they appeared like a solid mass, or monumental pillar of ice. In order to obtain some data for estimating the increased weight which the forest trees had now to sustain, I cut off and weighed several boughs of different species, and compared them after the ice was removed by thawing. The following is the result:

Feb. 9th.-Such an accumulation of ice had now formed upon the branches of the forest trees as presented a beautiful and extraordinary spectacle. The small underwood, or "brush," was bowed to the earth, while the noblest timbers were every where to be seen bending beneath the enormous load of ice with which their branches were incrusted, and the icicles which thickly depended from every point. The heavy foliage of the hemlock and spruce was literally encased, or rather formed solid masses of ice, the smallest twig or blade of grass being surrounded by more than an The violence of the waves within the tropics inch of ice, and resembled the vegetable submust generally be directed to two points, ac- stances sometimes occurring in masses of cording to the monsoons. Hence the islands crystal. Rain fell in torrents all this day, and formed from coral banks must be long and the chief part of the ensuing night, until there narrow, and lie nearly in a meridional direc- were about four inches of clear ice overspreadtion. For even supposing the banks to being the surface of the ground. The change round, as they seldom are when large, the sea, which this phenomenon effected in the usual meeting most resistance in the middle, must appearance of the woods was striking. The heave up the matter in greater quantities there bushes, and smaller trees, extending to those than towards the extremities; and, by the of fifty feet in height, were now bent to the same rule, the ends will generally be open, or ground, and pressed upon each other beneath at least lowest. They will also commonly have their unwonted burden, resembling, in some soundings there, as the remains of the banks, respects, fields of corn beaten down by a temnot accumulated, will be under water. Where pest. Above, the tall trees drooped and swung | 4. Another the coral banks are not exposed to the common heavily; their branches glittering, as if formed monsoon, they will alter their direction, and of solid crystal, and, on the slightest movebe either round, or extend in the parallel, or ment of the air, striking against each other, be of irregular forms, according to accidental and sending down an avalanche of ice. During circumstances. the night of the 8th, and on the succeeding morning, the limbs of the trees began to give way under such an unusual load. Every where around was seen and heard the crash

The interior parts of these islands, being sea, sometimes form harbours capable of receiving vessels of some burthen, and Mr. D. believes

No.

1. A branch of white pine
[Pinus Strobus]

2. Another bough

3. Hemlock or spruce
branch

Weight in the Weight when frozen state.

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thawed.

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17

alb. 1

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By this it appears that the evergreens had about twenty times their accustomed burden.

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THIS animal, in some of its various | at length the mullet betook himself to species, is found upon coasts in almost all parts of the world. They are amphibious, although there are some shores on which they are rarely or never known to land, and are said to be as regularly migratory as birds of passage. Their habits are, in general, indolent and harmless, although at certain times, and especially when they have their young to defend, they are remarkably fierce. The growth of these animals, when young, is very remarkable; the seal-hunters in Caithness declare that in nine tides (108 hours) they become as active as their parents.

shallower water; the seal pursued, and the former, to get more surely out of danger, threw itself on its side, by which means it darted into shallower water than it could have swam in with the depth of its paunch and fins, and so escaped. On these coasts the seal sleeps on rocks, surrounded by the sea, or on the less accessible parts of cliffs left dry by the ebb of the tide, and, if disturbed by any thing, rolls off into the sea. They are extremely watchful, and never sleep longer than a minute without moving, then raise their heads, and, if they perceive no danger, lie down again for a similar interval. Some general notion of the habits of Nature seems to have given them this the seal may be gathered from Pennant's precautionary instinct, as being unproBritish Zoology, and from Crantz's His-vided with auricles or external ears, and tory of Greenland. On the shores of consequently not hearing very quickly, nor Cornwall they are seen in the greatest from any great distance. plenty in the months of May, June, and July. They vary in size from that of a cow to that of a small calf. They feed on all kinds of fishes, and are so swift, in their proper depth of water, as to exercise an undisputed tyranny, diving with great rapidity, and re-appearing in a very short time at a distance of fifty yards. In shallow water, however, their prey more easily evade them. Dr. Borlase states, in one of his letters, that a person in the parish of Sennan saw a seal in pursuit of a mullet, which it turned to and fro in deep water, as a greyhound does a hare;

But it is to the Greenlander, and other
arctic tribes, that these animals are indis-
pensably useful. In fact, they constitute
their flocks, and are more essential to
Their flesh is
them than sheep to us.
the most palatable and substantial food
of these people; with their fat they make
the oil which, during so large a propor-
tion of their time, is necessary for lamp
light; with their skins they clothe them-
selves and cover their boats, sewing it
with their fibres and sinews, and also
make use of their blood, and most other
parts, for various useful purposes.

THE OCEAN.

BY BARRY CORNWALL.

On, thou vast ocean!

Ever sounding sea!
Thou symbol of a drear iminensity!
Thou thing that windest round the solid world

change

Like a huge animal, which, downward hurl'd
From the black clouds, lies weltering and alone,
Lashing and writhing till its strength be gone.
Thy voice is like the thunder, and thy sleep
Is as a giant's slumber, loud and deep.
Thou speakest in the east and in the west
At once, and on thy heavily laden breast
Fleets come and go, and shapes that have no life
Or motion yet are moved and meet in strife.
The earth hath nought of this; no chance nor
Ruffles its surface, and no spirits dare
Give answer to the tempest-waken air;
But o'er its wastes the weakly tenants range
At will, and wound its bosom as they go
Ever the same, it hath no ebb, no flow;
But in their stated rounds the seasons come,
And pass like visions to their viewless home,
And come again, and vanish; the young spring
Looks ever bright with leaves and blossoming,
And winter always winds his sullen horn,
When the wild autumn, with a look forlorn,
Dies in his stormy manhood; and the skies
Weep, and flowers sicken, when the summer flies.
Oh! wonderful thou art, great element:
And fearful in thy spleeny humours bent,
And lovely in repose: thy summer form
Is beautiful, and when thy silver waves
Make music in earth's dark and winding caves,
I love to wander on thy pebbled beach,
Marking the sunlight at the evening hour,
And hearken to the thoughts thy waters teach-
Eternity, eternity and power."

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MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE
OF THE CLASSICS.

No. IX.

BRITISH CLASSICS-JOHNSON.

THE powerful and lofty spirit of Johnson was far more capable of scorning the ridicule, and defying the opposition, of wits and worldlings. And yet his social life must have been greatly unfavourable to a deep and simple consideration of Christian truth, and the cultivation of Christian sentiment. Might not even his imposing and unchallenged ascendency itself betray him to admit, insensibly, an injurious influence on his mind? He associated with men of whom many were very learned, some extremely able, but comparatively few made any decided profession of piety; and perhaps a considerable number were such as would in other society have shown a strong propensity to irreligion. This however dared not to appear undisguisedly in Johnson's presence; and it is impossible not to revere the strength and noble severity that made it so cautious. But this constrained abstinence from overt irreligion had the effect of preventing the repugnance of his judgment and religious feelings to the frequent society of men from whom he would have recoiled, if the real temper of their minds, in regard to the most important subjects, had been unreservedly forced on his view. Decorum toward religion being preserved, he would take no rigorously judicial account of the internal character of those who brought so finely into play his mental powers and resources, in conversations on literature, moral philosophy, and general intelligence; and who could enrich every matter of social argument by their learning, their genius, or their knowledge of mankind. But if, while every thing unequivocally hostile to Christianity was kept silent in his company, there was nevertheless a latent impiety in possession of the heart, it would inevitably, however unobviously, infuse something of its spirit into the communications of such men. And, through the complacency which he felt in the high intellectual intercourse, some infection of the noxious element would insinuate its way into his own ideas and feelings. For it is hardly possible for the strongest and most vigilant mind, under the genial influence of eloquence, fancy, novelty, and bright intelligence, interchanged in amicable collision, to avoid admitting some effluvia (if I may so express it) breathing from the most interior qualities of such associates, and tending to produce an insensible assimilation; especially if there should happen to be, in addition, a conciliating exterior of accomplishment, grace, and liberal manners. Thus the very predominance by which Johnson could repress the direct irreligion of statesmen, scholars, wits, and accomplished men of the world, might, by retaining him their intimate or frequent associate, subject him to meet the influence of that irreligion acting in a manner too indirect and refined either to excite hostility or caution.

and his apostles; and he has more explicit
and solemn references to the grand purpose of
human life, to a future judgment, and to
eternity, than almost any other of our elegant
moralists has had the piety or the courage
to make. There is so much that most power-
fully coincides and co-operates with Christian
truth, that the disciple of Christianity the
more regrets to meet occasionally a sentiment,
respecting, perhaps, the rule to judge by in
the review of life, the consolations in death,
the effect of repentance, or the terms of
acceptance with God, which he cannot recon-
cile with the evangelical theory, nor with those
principles of Christian faith in which Johnson
avowed his belief. In such a writer he cannot
but deem such deviations a matter of grave
culpability.

SOURCE OF THE SCAMANDER,

Now called the Mender.

On the 11th of March, having collected our guides and horses as upon the preceding day, we set out again from Evgillar, and proceeded up the mountain, to visit the cataract which constitutes the source of the Mender, on the north-west side of Gargarus. Ascending by the side of its clear and impetuous torrent, we reached, in an hour and a half, the lower boundary of the woody region of the mountain. Here we saw a more entire chapel than either of those described in our excursion the preceding day, situated upon an eminence above the river. Its form was quadrangular and oblong. The four walls were yet standing, and part of the roof; this was vaulted, and Omission is his other fault. Though he did lined with painted stucco. The altar also reintroduce in his serious speculations more dis-mained, in an arched recess of the eastern extinct allusions to religious ideas than most tremity; upon the north side of it was a small other moralists, yet he did not introduce them and low nich, containing a marble table. In so often as may be claimed from a writer who the arched recess was also a very ancient frequently carries seriousness to the utmost painting of the Virgin; and below, upon her pitch of solemnity. There scarcely ever was left hand, the whole-length portrait of a saint, an author, not formally theological, in whose holding an open volume. The heads of these works a large proportion of explicit Christian figures were encircled by a line of glory. Upon sentiment was more requisite for a consistent the right hand side of the Virgin there had entireness of character than in the moral wri-been a similar painting of some other saint, tings of Johnson. No writer ever more completely exposed and blasted the folly and vanity of the greatest number of human pursuits. The visage of Medusa could not have darted a more fatal glance against the tribe of gay triflers, the competitors of ambition, the proud exhibitors in the parade of wealth, the rhapsodists on the sufficiency of what they call philosophy for happiness, the grave consumers of life in useless speculations, and every other order of "walkers in a vain show." His judicial sentence is directed, as with a keen and mephitic blast, on almost all the most favourite pursuits of mankind. But it was so much the more peculiarly his duty to insist, with fulness and emphasis, on that one model of character, that one grand employment of life, which is enjoined by Heaven, and will stand the test of that unshrinking severity of judgment, which should be exercised by every one who looks forward to the test which he is finally to abide. No author has more impressively displayed the misery of human life; he laid himself under so much the stronger obligation to unfold most explicitly the only effectual consolations, the true scheme of felicity as far as it is attainable on earth, and that delightful prospect of a better region which has so often inspired exultation in the most melancholy situation. No writer has more expressly illustrated the rapidity of time, and the shortness of life; he ought so much the more fully to have dwelt on the views of that great futurity at which his readers are admonished by the illustration that they will speedily arrive. No writer can make more poignant reflections on the pains of guilt; was it not indispensable that he should oftener have directed the mind suffering this bitterest kind of distress to that great sacrifice once offered for sin? No writer represents with It must however be admitted that this illus- more striking, mortifying, humiliating truth trious author, who, though here mentioned the failure of human resolutions, and the only in the class of essayists, is to be ranked feebleness of human efforts, in the contest among the greatest moral philosophers, is less with corrupt propensity, evil habits, and adapted at variance with the essentials of the Christian temptation; why did not this melancholy obeconomy than the very great majority of servation and experience prompt a very freeither of these classes of authors. His specu-quent recollection, and emphatical expression, lations tend in a far less degree to beguile the approving and admiring reader into a spirit which feels repelled in estrangement and disgust on turning to the instructions of Christ

of the importance of that assistance from on
high, without which the divine word has so
often repeated the warning that our labours
will fail?

but part of the stucco, whereon it was painted,
no longer remained. The word ПAPOENON,
written among other indistinct characters, ap-
peared upon the wall. The dimensions of this
building were only sixteen feet by eight. Its
height was not quite twelve feet, from the
floor to the beginning of the vaulted roof.
Two small windows commanded a view of the
river, and a third was placed near the altar.
Its walls, only two feet four inches in thick-
ness, afforded, nevertheless, space for the roots
of two very large fir-trees: these were actually
growing upon them. All along the banks of
this river, as we advanced towards its source,
we noticed appearances of similar ruins; and
in some places, among rocks, or by the sides
of precipices, were seen remains of several
habitations together; as if the monks, who
retreated hither, had possessed considerable
settlements in the solitudes of the mountain.
Our ascent, as we drew near to the source of
the river, became steep and stony. Lofty sum-
mits towered above us, in the greatest style of
Alpine grandeur; the torrent, in its rugged
bed below, all the while foaming upon our
left. Presently we entered one of the sublimest
natural amphitheatres the eye ever beheld;
and here the guides desired us to alight. The
noise of waters silenced every other sound.
Huge craggy rocks rose perpendicularly to an
immense height, whose sides and fissures, to
the very clouds, concealing their tops, were
covered with pines, growing, in every possible
direction, among a variety of evergreen shrubs,
wild sage, hanging ivy, moss, and creeping
herbage. Enormous plane-trees waved their
vast branches above the torrent.
As we ap-
proached its deep gulph, we beheld several
cascades, all of foam, pouring impetuously
from chasms in the naked face of a perpendi-
cular rock. It is said, the same magnificent
cataract continues during all seasons of the
year, wholly unaffected by the casualties of
rain or melting snow.
That a river so enno-
bled by ancient history should at the same
time prove equally eminent in circumstances
of natural dignity, is a fact worthy of being
related. Its origin is not like the source of
ordinary streams, obscure and uncertain-of
doubtful locality and indeterminate character—
ascertained with difficulty, among various petty
subdivisions, in swampy places, or amidst in-

significant rivulets, falling from different parts of the same mountain, and equally tributary; it bursts at once from the dark womb of its parent, in all the greatness of the divine origin assigned to it by Homer. The early Christians, who retired or fled from the haunts of society to the wilderness of Gargarus, seem to have been fully sensible of the effect produced by grand objects, in selecting, as the place of their abode, the scenery near the source of the Scamander-where the voice of nature speaks in her most awful tone-where, amidst roaring waters, waving forests, and broken precipices, the mind of man becomes impressed as by the influence of a present Deity.

The course of the river, after it thus emerges, with very little variation, is nearly from east to west. Its source is distant from Evgillar about nine miles; or, according to the mode of computation in the country, three hours; half this time is spent in a gradual ascent from the village. The rock whence it issues consists of micacious schistus, containing veins of soft marble. While the artist was employed in making drawings, ill calculated to afford adequate ideas of the grandeur of the scenery, I climbed the rocks, with my companions, to examine more closely the nature of the chasms whence the torrent issues. Having reached these, we found, in their front, a beautiful natural bason, six or eight feet deep, serving as a reservoir for the water in the first mo

source.

and cast dust upon their heads, according to a national usage, supplicating his forgiveness for the fault which they had committed. For twenty years the name of Kosciusko had not been heard in Poland save as that of an exile; yet it still retained its ancient power over Polish hearts-a power never used but for some good and generous end.

The Emperor Alexander honoured him with a long interview, and offered him an asylum in his own country. But nothing could induce Kosciusko again to see his unfortunate native land. In 1815 he retired to Soleure, in Switzerland, where he died, October 16th, 1817, in consequence of an injury received by a fall from his horse. Not long before he had abolished slavery upon his Polish estate, and declared all his serfs entirely free, by a deed registered and executed with every formality that could ensure the full performance of his intention. The mortal remains of Kosciusko were removed to Poland at the expense of Alexander, and have found a fitting place of rest in the Cathedral of Cracow, between those of his companion in arms, Joseph Poniatowski, and the greatest of Polish warriors, John Sobieski.-Gallery of Portraits, No. I.

HIEROGLYPHICS.

most difficult to be explained, and we will borrow the illustration adopted in the Edinburgh Review. "Suppose the spoken language of England to be what it is-but that no other sort of writing, except by pictures or symbols, had yet been invented-and that it was wanted to record, in some legend or inscription, that an individual called James had done or suffered something. The word James here was evidently a mere sound, and could not be described or defined in any other way than as that sound by which the individual in question was suggested to those who heard it. It could not, therefore, be directly intimated to posterity, by a mere visible symbol or picture, that such a sound had in his day been associated with that individual; and, if this was what was proposed to be done, it is plain enough that some new device or contrivance must of necessity be adopted; and, according to the late discoveries, the device was as follows:-They set down a series of pictures of familar objects, the names of which, in the spoken language, began with the sounds which were successively to be expressed, and which, taken together in that order, made up the compound sound or Name that was wanted. For the sound now expressed by the letter J, for example, they would set down the figure of a Jug or Jar; for that corresponding to A, an Ape or Acorn; for M, a Man or a Mouse; and for S, a Spear or Spur; and thus, by a sort of Symbolical Acrostic, they would spell

WE intimated our intention, in a late number, of entering briefly into the interesting subject of Egyptian hieroglyphics; and, in doing so, we have no hesitation in character-out the word James, and intimate, to all who read the figures into the spoken tongue, the name or sound which it was intended to commemorate."

It is

ments of its emission. It was so clear, that the minutest object might be discerned at the bottom. The copious overflowing of this reservoir causes the appearance, to a spectator be-izing the subject as an interesting one. low, of different cascades, falling to the depth 50, as standing in immediate connexion with of about forty feet; but there is only one the country which witnessed the birth and Behind are the chasms whence the fostered the infancy of science and letters; water issues. We entered one of these, and it is interesting, because it is only comparapassed into a cavern. Here the water appeared tively lately that any information has been rushing with great force, beneath the rock, obtained respecting it; and it is further intetowards the bason on the outside. It was the resting, because past discoveries and coincicoldest spring we had found in the country, found the clue which is to guide us through a dences make it certain that we have at length the mercury in the thermometer falling, in two minutes, to thirty-four, according to the scale field of study which has for centuries been deemed a labyrinth. of Fahrenheit. When placed in the reservoir immediately above the fall, where the water

was most exposed to the atmosphere, its temperature was three degrees higher. The whole

rock about the source is covered with moss. Close to the bason grew hazel and plane trees; above were oaks and pines; all beyond was a naked and fearful precipice.—Clarke's Travels.

ANECDOTE OF KOSCIUSKO.

WHEN the Russians, in 1814, had penetrated into Champagne, and were advancing towards Paris, they were astonished to hear that their former adversary was living in retirement in that part of the country. The circumstances of this discovery were striking. The commune in which Kosciusko lived was subjected to plunder, and among the troops thus engaged he observed a Polish regiment. Transported with anger, he rushed among them, and thus addressed the officers :"When I commanded brave soldiers they never pillaged; and I should have punished severely subalterns who allowed of disorders such as those which we see around. Still more severely should I have punished older officers, who authorized such conduct by their culpable neglect." "And who are you," was the general cry, "that you dare to speak with such boldness to us?" "I am Kosciusko." The effect was electric; the soldiery cast down their arms, prostrated themselves at his feet,

The discoveries to which we allude are

chiefly the results of the researches of the English Dr. Young, and the French M. Champollion, of whom the former led the way. It father of history, as Herodotus is called, and had long been known, on the testimony of the kinds of writing common among the Egypof early historians, that there were various tians; and modern study has accurately determined what they are. They may be generally classed under two heads; the popular, or epistolographic, and the sacred. The first of these represents words by characters desig. nating the letters which compose them, and constitute in fact a scanty alphabet. But the second was distinguished by some most curious peculiarities, and was of several kinds, which were employed on different subjects and occasions. In one, objects were represented by imitation; thus the Egyptians, when making use of this kind of writing, drew a circle to signify the sun, and a crescent for the moon. In another, they represented objects metaphorically; thus, they would designate a brave man by the figure of a lion, &c. In another, they denote objects by more obscure and remote analogies; as if they should have represented the word justice by the blind-folded female figure with scales which we see in the present day. And, in another, they designate words (chiefly proper names) by a number of common objects one after another; the initials of whose names, taken together, would make the name in question. This last kind is the

From all these kinds of writing, a tolerably full language, though a very inconvenient one, was formed. It would occupy far more than the sheet in the hands of the reader to give intelligible instances of each of these modes of writing, and to describe the process by have spelt out a translation. Having, therewhich the laborious men we have referred to fore, given a general idea of what sort of a written language the Egyptian was, we conclude with an account of the way in which this knowledge of it (and much more) has been obtained. We quote from the Edinburgh Review.

It is well known that a Commission of the French Institute was sent out to Egypt during the occupose of investigating every thing that related to its pation of that country by their forces, for the purancient history; and that the greatest interest was taken in the proceedings of this body by no less a person than Napoleon himself. Under their auspices much was done, undoubtedly, for the elucidation of its antiquities, and the progress of its arts; but as to its language and letters, its hieroglyphics and papyri, absolutely nothing. They had not time, perhaps perhaps they had not

means.

The fact, however, is certain; and it is, no doubt, a little mortifying to them, and, indeed, ral, that an accident, which occurred in the course to the pride of human skill and learning in geneof their military labours, did more for the elucidation of these interesting subjects, than all the study which had been bestowed on them for upwards of a thousand years. While a division of the French troops occupied Rosetta, a party of workmen, employed in digging for the foundations of Fort St. Julian, discovered and disinterred a huge block or pillar of black basalt, exhibiting the remains of three distinct inscriptions; but, having been soon afterwards dislodged by the British, this monubrought to England, among other trophies, and ment fell into their hands, and was subsequently deposited in the British Museum.

A cursory inspection of the pillar of Rosetta was sufficient to establish, as incontrovertible, Bishop Warburton's profound observation, already

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