Imatges de pàgina
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thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. xv. 55, 57.)

And now, my beloved children, I must bring my long series to a close. Very happy have I been in thus endeavouring to search out, both through the fields of nature, and especially in God's blessed word, instruction for you. Imperfectly I feel it is done; but still, I trust, the Lord will own it. May you, and OUR DEAR ABSENT ONE, be indeed found children of God, and adopted into his happy, holy family; and know in your own souls the power of this word,— "Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation." (Heb. ix. 28.) How sweet the invocation of our poet Cowper!

"Come, then, and added to thy many crowns,

Receive yet one,- the crown of all the earth,-
Thou who alone art worthy! It was thine

By ancient covenant, ere Nature's birth,

And thou hast made it thine by purchase since,

And overpaid its value with thy blood.

Thy saints proclaim thee King; and in their hearts,

Thy title is engraven, with a pen,

Dipp'd in the fountain of eternal love.

Come, then, and added to thy many crowns,

Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest,
Due to thy last and most effectual work,—
Thy word fulfilled-the conquest of a world!"

Farewell, my beloved children; my first and last prayer shall be for you, that you may love the Lord; and, resting alone on the precious blood and righteousness of Christ, may be faithful in every good word and work-blessed of God—and a blessing to others.

Believe me,

Ever your affectionate Father.

now?"

APPENDIX.

FRONTISPIECE.*-The arrangement of the names on the inner circle is to meet the desire of those who have friends going abroad, or already settled there. How often is the question asked, in every family where those dear to them are far away, "I wonder what our brother, or sister, or friends, are doing One glance at the dial, will, at least, in part, answer the question. The line of the steam voyage to Bombay, Calcutta, China, is marked by Malta, Alexandria, the entrance to the Red Sea, Bombay, Calcutta, Canton, Chusan; and the long sea voyage by the Cape of Good Hope, &c. The voyage to Australia and Otaheite may be also traced. Those having friends in the United States, and Canada, and the high northern latitudes, where the fur trade is carried on, will see they are not forgotten. Nice, in the south of France, will be interesting to those who have friends in that quarter. And lastly, with the object of showing, that even places so near as Dublin have a sensible variation of time, that city is marked, though it is not quite 7 degrees west of us; but it has been inserted, being so well known.

LIGHT Page 8. The opinions of learned men, as to light, are various; but all agree in certain principles, viz., that it is compounded of seven different colours, that is, violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red; these, mixed in their due proportions, make that pure transparent light, so great a blessing to man. This separation of its parts may be produced by a glass prism or by painting on a card the seven primary colours; and making it turn rapidly round, nothing is seen but one colour, and that white.

The glow-worm of our own country, the fire-fly of South America, and those marine animalculæ, which are seen in the ocean, are striking proofs of the existence of light apart from the sun. The former is known

A few of the places will not be found quite opposite their proper degrees of longitude; but sufficiently so to mark the time within a few minutes. Other names might have been selected, but not so well known.

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to every one. And you doubtless remember how often you have come to me with the happy tidings that you have seen one, like a bright star, glittering at your feet. Now, with one of these in your hand, you might tell the time by your watch, and, indeed, some have said, that you can read small print by this light. The fire-fly I do not remember myself to have seen in South America, but travellers have given the most beautiful account of it: they describe it thus :-"The fire-fly of South America is about an inch long, and one-third of an inch broad; when on the wing it appears adorned with four brilliant gems of the most beautiful golden-blue lustre ; in fact, the whole body is said to be full of luminous matter, which shines forth between the rings of the abdomen when stretched. The light, which proceeds from the two spots on the thorax, placed immediately behind the head, is said to be sufficient for a person to see to read the smallest print, by moving one of these insects, when placed between the fingers with the light downwards, along the line; and when several are put together in a glass, or any other transparent tube, the light will be sufficiently great for writing by it." The last-mentioned, i. e. the animalculæ, I have witnessed, night after night, as our vessel glided along the coast of Jamaica, in untold millions around us: indeed the whole ocean seemed sparkling with innumerable gems of light. The plant Rhizamorpha is also a striking example of light existing separate from the sun: "In the coal mines near Dresden, it gives those places the air of an enchanted castle; the roofs-walls-pillars are covered with them-their bright and beautiful light almost dazzles the eye."-Ed. Phil. Journal, xiv. p. 178.

THE ATMOSPHERE-Page 20. It is a singular thing to say, that we can weigh that which we cannot see; and yet this is strictly true of the atmosphere; and we little think how it is pressing upon us on every side; for it is calculated, that on the body of a full grown man, its pressure is equal to 30,000 pounds; but then, as it presses equally on every side, and as also we have an equal resistance within, we not only do not feel any inconvenience from it, but positive blessing. But as a proof of the pressure of the atmosphere, supposing you doubled or trebled the weight of the atmosphere, that is, condensed two or three atmospheres into one, around a thin glass vessel,

from which you had exhausted the air, the outward pressure would crush it to pieces. But the principle of expansion of the atmosphere is much more wonderful than that of its condensation; for it is calculated, that at the height of five hundred miles, a cubic inch of rarified air would fill a sphere equal in diameter to the orbit of Saturn. The proof of the power of expansion is very simple. Suppose you put into an air tight vessel a bladder, with its mouth tied, out of which you have expelled as much air as possible, and then exhaust the air from the vessel, the bladder would swell out quite distended reverse the experiment, and again let in the atmospheric air, and it would shrink up as if there were nothing in it.

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AEROSTATION-Page 23. What makes the balloon so struggle to get free? simply, it is filled with a gas lighter than atmospheric air, i.e. with hydrogen, and pants to have its string loosed, that it may ascend to regions where its weight is in harmony with the rarified atmosphere; and so it sails through the firmament, not indeed in a given direction, but just as the fickle currents of air direct it; and when its adventurous guide has satisfied his curiosity, he lets some of the light hydrogen escape, and rapidly descends-if too rapidly, he throws out sand, and thus balances himself. But the experiment is a dangerous one; and since 1783, when Mr. Montgolfier first discovered the principle of Aerostation, or air sailing, there has been no progress whatever made in guiding the balloon, and men of science say there never will ;-but deaths and narrow escapes have frequently marked its brief history. Whether the Aërial Steam Vessels, if they are ever launched, will lead to further discoveries on this subject, time only will show.

THE NILE-Page 24. The sources of this famous river appear to lie in the Mountains of the Moon, about 7° north latitude.

EVAPORATION-Page 24. The following beautiful passage, in Ecclesiastes, is very descriptive of the sources of rivers-their ebb into the ocean, and their return to their original source," All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again," Eccles. i. 7. The principle of evaporation draws up the waters to the clouds; and the clouds in their turn empty their contents, and so the supply never fails. See also the prophet Amos ix. 6.

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