distinctions, -in a most willing expenditure of money to alleviate human woe,-and in those daily acts of Christian courtesy and kindness which tenderly endear him to his family and friends, and constrain the love even of his opposers. His countenance presents a remarkable union of mildness and intelligence, and his manners are charming. He is on the whole the most complete gentleman with whom it has ever been my lot to associate. The old age of the bishop is distinguished by a very rare measure of mental tranquillity; and the deplorable family afflictions which have happened to him of late years, have never appeared materially to break his calm. I have repeatedly found him sitting alone in his garden, engaged in quiet meditation. He is now in his eighty-fifth year, and his bodily powers are evidently withering; but his mental faculties continue in great brightness. called upon him shortly before I left home, and adverting to his state of mental serenity, I said he reminded me of that exquisite description of a tranquil old age, which Cicero gives us in his work De Senectute. I ventured to add the expression of my hope, that his quietness of mind was not merely philosophical. His answer is worthy of concluding the present brief tribute of unfeigned affection and gratitude.-"No, Joseph, I am looking forward with peaceful expectation to my last change. My tranquillity is founded on the merits of Jesus Christ" May the Almighty, in unbounded mercy,

I

be pleased to grant that the sun of my honored aged friend may set in peace and rise in glory!

Some of our colloquies, in this place, have related to that very interesting subject, Geology, respecting which, being myself an ignoramus, I am always glad to receive instruction. It is a science ardently pursued, though I hope within due limits, by our dear friend M. B., a medical student here, who unites the three characters of a consistent friend, a man of science, and a gentleman; and whose daily association with us in this time of need, has been the means of tying us together in the pleasant bonds of brotherhood. He proposes to come to us regularly of an evening, and to give us Professor Jamieson's Lectures on Geology-second-hand.

Our party one morning consisted of M. B., my wife and self, and the two brothers Greville. The elder brother, a Doctor of Law, is well known in this city for two things, different, but not inconsistent, philanthropy and botany. He is a man of decided talent, and great amiability, in middle life, and has of late become, what is far better than all, a serious and decided Christian. I am heartily glad that he, with many others, in these parts, is prepared to give up much of his time to the furtherance of those great objects--the amelioration of the criminal code, the abolition of slavery, the distribution of the Scriptures, and last, but not least, the lessening of intoxication. But at present I have to do with him as a naturalist. I am not going to turn lecturer

myself, but I may be permitted just to advert to the manner in which the geologists are pleased (I presume on sufficient data) to dissect and classify the crust of the earth. They tell us, that this mighty envelope of an inscrutable centre is composed first of the Primitive rocks, consisting generally of gneiss or granite; and next of four successive deposits all bearing the appearance of an aqueous formation. These are the Transition; the Secondary, (composed of alternate strata of sandstone and limestone,) the Tertiary, and lastly, the Alluvial. These layers of our native Crust are not often found all together: sometimes one is missing, sometimes another; but they are never known to change their order. Taking it for granted that they are of aqueous origin, it is plain that they would form level strata, were it not for some interrupting cause. And abundantly interrupted they are, and thrown into all varieties of inclination (the order of the series still being uniform) by the protrusion of the rocks of igneous formation, which, impelled by the agency of some mighty combustion, appear to have shot upwards from the bowels of the earth, notwithstanding all the incumbent resistance of the aqueous strata. Some of these igneous formations divide only the primitive, others advance no higher than the transition, or the secondary rocks, while others triumph over all their aqueous opponents, and rear their heads in air. When the aqueous stratum, contiguous to the igneous intruder, is thrown upwards into an inclined

3 there is another

do một nghìn con 20. EIKO TO in opposite quarter, Math #want hay erre a now that this conclusion is tempat she, Accoring to the law of reproducToy Bloch The Bantannous order of nature is regu17 wadada nädergoes many changes before it #4 préfaction. It is by an established and per conse, that a child becomes a man, a calf throk a brus, and a mineral a crystal. But bogså original creation, as declared in Freek must come forth from the hand ad peclection. The man, the tree,

"

and the quadruped, were arrayed, by the first fiat of Omnipotence, in all the fulness of their beauty, and all the completeness of their strength. May we not then suppose that the mineral formations partook of the general law? May we not conclude that the immense masses of primitive granite were endued at once with the perfection of their hardness, their durability, and their lustre? God beheld the work of his hands, "and saw that it was GOOD."

Both Chalmers and Greville approve and admire this argument, which is borrowed from the able work of Granville Penn. That author has endeavored to reconcile the discoveries of geology with the usual method of interpreting the first chapter of Genesis, and is accordingly of opinion, that the fossil remains found in the Secondary rocks were deposited at the time of the Deluge, and belong to the history of that present order of things which commenced with the six days' work recorded in Genesis. On this subject we have enjoyed some interesting conversations with Dr. Chalmers, as well as with Dr. Greville, and our friend M. B. We are all inclined to differ from Granville Penn on this point, and to view it as by no means improbable, that the geology of the Secondary rocks unfolds the operations of nature at a period anterior to the glorious work described by Moses in his history of the six days. I believe there is not one of us who would for a moment insinuate that the contents of the first chapter of Genesis are not lite