the bodies of the trees, and apes that are perpetually in search of prey; but, by the instinct with which they have been endowed, they elude the gliding of the one and the activity of the other. An Indian forest is a scene the most picturesque that can be imagined; the trees seem perfectly animated; the fantastic monkeys give life to the stronger branches, and the weaker sprays wave over your head, charged with musical and various-plumed inhabitants. It is an error to say that nature hath denied melody to the birds of hot climates, and formed them only to please the eye with their gaudy plumage. Ceylon abounds with birds equal in song to those of Europe, which warble among the leaves of trees, grotesque in their appearance, and often laden with the most delicious and salubrious fruit. Birds of the richest colours cross the glades, and troops of peacocks complete the charms of the scene, spreading their plumes to a sun that has ample powers to do them justice. The landscape, in many parts of India, corresponds with the beauties of the living creation: the mountains are lofty, steep, and broken, but clothed with forests, and enlivened with cataracts of a grandeur and figure unknown to this part of the globe. But to give the reverse of this enchanting prospect, which it is impossible to enjoy with a suitable tranquillity, you are harassed in one season with a burning heat, or in the other with deluges of rain; you are tormented with clouds of noxious insects; you dread the spring of the tiger, or the mortal bite of the naja (a species of venomous snake). The brute creation are more at enmity with one of an ounce;-so that the materials of the nest, and its own size, are not likely to draw down a habitation that depends on so slight a tenure. The leaf in the print is that of the mango tree. A nest of this bird is preserved in the British Museum. -PENNANT'S Indian Zoology. The Chimpansés are less numerous than the other apes, but it is not altogether improbable that they count appears in a "Voyage performed by Hanno, were known to the ancients, as the following aca Carthaginian admiral, three hundred and thirtysix years previous to the Christian era." He met some of these animals in an island on the western coast of Africa. "There were many more females than males, all equally covered with hair on all parts of the body. The interpreters called them gorillés. On pursuing them, we could not succeed in taking a single male; they all escaped with astonishing swift ness, and threw stones at us; but we took three females, who defended themselves with so much violence, that we were obliged to kill them, but we brought their skins, stuffed with straw, to Carthage." man. another than in other climates; and the birds are obliged to exert unusual artifice in placing their little broods out of the reach of an invader. Each aims at the same end, though by different means. Some form The Chimpansé is covered with black or brown their hanging nest in shape of a purse, deep, and open hairs, which are not so thick on the front as on the at the top; others with a hole in the side; and others, back, and, if the relation of travellers is to be bestill more cautious, with an entrance at the very bot-lieved, frequently grows to a size surpassing that of a tom, forming their lodge near the summit. But the little species we describe seems to have greater diffidence than any of the others: it will not trust its nest THE RIDER NOT ALWAYS WISER THAN HIS HORSE-Two even to the extremity of a slender twig, but makes gentlemen were riding together, one of whom, who was one more advance to safety by fixing it to the leaf very choleric, happened to be mounted on a very high-metitself. It picks up a dead leaf, and, surprising to tled horse. The horse grew a little troublesome, at which relate, sews it to the side of a living one, its slender the rider became very angry, and whipped and spurred him bill being its needle, and its thread some fine fibres; with great fury. The horse, almost as wrongheaded as his master, returned his treatment with kicking and plunging. the lining-feathers, gossamer, and down. Its eggs | The companion, concerned for the danger, and ashamed of are white; the colour of the bird, light yellow; its | the folly of his friend, said to him, coolly, “Be quiet, and length, three inches; its weight only three-sixteenths show yourself the wiser creature of the two." THE SWEET PEA.-(Lathyrus odoratus.) We have much pleasure in introducing to our friends so pretty a group of their favourite acquaintances,varieties of the ever-admired Sweet Pea. This is one amongst other annual beauties, which never tires by its presence. The Sweet Pea. The purple variety is believed to be native of Sicily; the pink and white, or painted-lady, of Ceylon. The combination of their colours is variable, and some are called striped, but they have more the appearance of shadings in chalk, which rather diminishes than increases their beauty. Their formation, as well as that of other papilionaceous flowers, should not be neglected. The family is called papilionaceous from papilio, the systematic name of the butterfly, which their blossoms somewhat resemble. Those who have not examined this flower should do so. The seed parts, which require protection, are securely enclosed in the central or lower petal, called the keel, from its resemblance to the keel of a boat. Over this is placed a little roof, as a shelter from rain, composed of two other petals, placed in a sloping direction, which are called the wings. Human wisdom would have stopped here, as having effected sufficient for the purpose; for man's best intentions seldom carry his exertions beyond the point he believes to be requisite; and even in that degree of perfection he is usually deficient. But not so the wisdom and unbounded beneficence of the Divine Being. His care exceeds our conceptions. Even in the flower before us, the very wind is debarred from ruffling its beauty, or disturbing its operations. Over the wings, as previously noticed, is erected a single broad petal, called the standard or banner. whole flower is raised by a long flower-stalk, to which it is attached by a short, soft, and flexible pedicle or secondary flower-stalk. Thus elevated, the Sweet Pea blossom becomes a vane. The rude blast that would injure it, blowing on its standard, turns it from the wind, and preserves it from harm. The We now, concisely, state our culture and produce. Seeds sown in October, in a rich light soil, and warm situation. In June the plants were nine feet high, clothed in a mingled blaze of blossom. The produce, within a space of little more than five square yards, is 7825 pods.-MAUND'S Botanic Garden. LIBERIA. NO. II. THE climate of Liberia was thought at first to be unhealthy; but experience has shown, as might have been expected, that it is not unsuited to the constitution of persons descended from Africans. White men cannot live there. We perhaps should not be sorry for this, when we think of the many injuries which the blacks have suffered from the whites. The experiment will now be tried, whether negroes, when left to themselves, cannot make as great advances in civil and social life as the natives of Europe or Asia. There are at present only two white men in the colony, the governor, who is an American, and the physician. It is probable, that in a few years they will have a governor of their own nation; and a black physician is now being educated: so that they will not want any assistance from the whites. The soil is rich, and will produce quite enough for the support of the colony, as well as for carrying on a trade with other nations. Sugar, cotton, coffee, rice, and various trees and plants, yielding valuable dyes and medicinal gums, can be cultivated with success. A trading company has been formed at Monrovia, with a capital of 4000 dollars; and an agreement entered into, that no dividend shall be made until the profits increase the capital to 20,000 dollars. The stock has risen from fifty to seventy-five dollars per share in one year. There are already some vessels belonging to the colony, and ships of other countries have touched at the port of Monrovia. There is an account of seventeen vessels having gone to or from the port in one month, so that it may be said to have already made a good beginning as a commercial country. We may hope that it is now safe from any fear of attack from the neighbouring tribes; but it is right. that all proper measures should be taken for meeting dangers of this kind; and the following account, which was written by a person who visited the colony in 1830, may interest those persons who are fond of military affairs :-" The means the colony have for defence at present, consist of twenty pieces of ordnance, and muskets, &c. for 1000 men, which may be increased from private stores, if wanted. In Monrovia there are Captain Steward's company of infantry, Weaver's company of artillery, and Draper's company of rifle rangers; in Caldwell, Davis' company of infantry, and Brown's artillery; in Millsburg, White's company of rifle rangers. All these are volunteers, and in uniform; beside which, a respectable number of militia, not in uniform, and as many of the natives, under the protection of the colonial government, as it may think proper to arm. There is a respectable fort on Cape Montserado, which commands the roadstead, and has protected an English vessel chased in by a pirate." These, however, are very inferior considerations, when compared with the moral and religious condition of the inhabitants; and it is in this point of view that Liberia appears of such great interest to the Christian. It is impossible to cast our eyes over the vast continent of Africa, without thinking of the millions of human beings who are without the blessings of Christianity. We cannot doubt that God in his own good time will call them into the fold of his beloved Son; but it pleases him to employ human means in propagating the Gospel; and the benighted. nations of Africa never had a fairer prospect of being visited by the light than when a settlement of free negrocs was made in Liberia. The glorious work has in fact begun places of Christian worship are now open every Sunday, on the same spot where slaves were sold but a few years before: schools are esta blished, to which, as we have already mentioned, the | neighbouring blacks are anxious to send their children. Two native kings have put themselves and their subjects (supposed to amount to ten thousand) under the protection of the colony, and are ready, should it be thought necessary or expedient by the settlers, to put arms into their hands, to make common cause with them in case of hostilities by any of the natives; which, however, is not anticipated, as the most friendly disposition is manifested by all the natives of the country from whom any danger might have been apprehended. In this way, religion and civilization will gradually spread into the interior of Africa. Our own commerce and manufactures will be likely to reap the benefit; and it is interesting to us, as Englishmen, to think that the English language, which is already spoken by many millions in America and India, has thus established itself also on the western coast of Africa. A printing-press has been set up at Monrovia, and the first number of a newspaper, called the Liberia Herald, appeared in March, 1830. The object of this publication can best be told in its own words :-" Our principal aim will be the publication of the most interesting domestic and foreign occurrences of the day-the arrival and departure of vessels-dissertations on the manners and customs of the surrounding natives and essays on subjects which shall have a tendency to cement more closely the bonds of society, and to uphold the hands of the lawful authorities." The desire for newspapers has not yet risen to a great height in the colony, since they are satisfied with having it printed once a month; but we have seen nothing in the few numbers which have yet appeared, which any person might be ashamed either to read or to have written. Our account of the colony may be concluded by the following extracts from an address, which was drawn up, in 1827, by the citizens of Monrovia, and sent to the free people of colour in the United States: "Forming a community of our own in the land of our forefathers—having the commerce, and soil, and resources of the country at our disposal-we know nothing of that debasing inferiority with which our very colour stamped us in America: there is nothing here to create a feeling of inferiority on our part-nothing to cherish the feeling of superiority in the minds of foreigners who visit us. It is this moral emancipation-this liberation of the mind from worse than iron fetters-that repays us ten thousand times over for all that it has cost us, and makes us grateful to God and our American patrons for the happy change which has taken place in our situation. “The true character of the African climate is not well understood in other countries. Its inhabitants are as robust, as healthy, as long-lived, to say the least, as those of any other country. Nothing like an epidemic has ever appeared in this colony; nor can we learn from the natives, that the calamity of a sweeping sickness ever yet visited this part of the continent. In the early years of the colony, want of good houses, the great fatigues and dangers of the settlers, their irregular mode of living, and the hardships and discouragements they met with, greatly helped the other causes of sickness, which prevailed to an alarming extent, and were attended with great | mortality. But we look back to those times as to a season of trial long past, and nearly forgotten. Our houses and circumstances are now comfortable; and for the last two or three years, not one person in forty from the middle and southern states has died from the change of climate. "Away with all the false notions that are circulat ing about the barrenness of this country! they are the observations of such ignorant or designing men as would injure both it and you. A more fertile soil, and a more productive country, so far as it is cultivated, there is not, we believe, on the face of the earth. Its hills and its plains are covered with a verdure which never fades; the productions of nature keep on in their growth through all the seasons of the year. Even the natives of the country, almost without farming tools, without skill, and with very little labour, make more grain and vegetables than they can consume, and often more than they can sell. Cattle, swine, fowls, ducks, goats and sheep, thrive without feeding, and require no other care than to keep them from straying. Cotton, coffee, indigo, and the sugar-cane, are all the spontaneous growth of our forests, and may be cultivated at pleasure, to any extent, by such as are disposed. The same may be said of rice, Indian corn, Guinea corn, millet, and too many species of fruits and vegetables to be enumerated. Add to all this, we have no dreary winter here, for one half of the year to consume the productions of the other half. We could say more on this subject; but we are afraid of exciting too highly the hopes of the imprudent. It is only the industrious and the virtuous that we can point to independence, and plenty, and happiness, in this country; such people are nearly sure to attain, in a very few years, to a style of comfortable living which they may in vain hope for in the United States; and however short we come of this character ourselves, it is only a due acknowledgment of the bounty of Divine Providence, to say that we generally enjoy the good things of this life to our entire satisfaction. "Our trade is chiefly confined to the coast, to the interior parts of the continent, and to foreign vessels; it is already valuable, and fast increasing; it is carried on in the productions of the country, consisting of rice, palm oil, ivory, tortoise-shell, dye woods, gold, hides, wax, and a small amount of coffee; and it brings us, in return, the products and manufactures of the four quarters of the world. Seldom indeed is our harbour clear of European and American shipping; and the bustle and thronging of our streets show something already of the activity of the smaller sea-ports of the United States. Not a child or youth in the colony but is provided with an appropriate school. We have a numerous public library, and a court-house, meeting-houses, school-houses, and fortifications, sufficient or nearly so for the colony in its present state. houses are constructed of the same materials, and finished in the same style, as in the towns of America. We have abundance of good building stone, shells for lime, and clay of an excellent quality for bricks. Timber is plentiful of various kinds, and fit for all the different purposes of building and fencing. Our Truly we have a goodly heritage; and if there is any thing lacking in the character or condition of the people of this colony, it never can be charged to the account of the country; it must be the fruit of our own mismanagement, or slothfulness, or vices; but from these evils we confide in Him to whom we are indebted for all our blessings to preserve us. It is the topic of our weekly and daily thanksgiving to Almighty God both in public and in private, and He knows with what sincerity, that we were ever conducted by His providence to this shore. Such great favours in so short a time, and mixed with so few trials, are to be ascribed to nothing but His special blessing: this we acknowledge: we only want the gratitude which such signal favours call for." E. B. A FATHER'S ADVICE TO HIS SON. THE following letter was written by Sir Henry Sidney to his son Philip, then twelve years of age, at school in Shrewsbury. The original is kept at Penshurst. "I have received two letters from you; which I take in good part; and, since this is my first letter that ever I did write to you, I will not that it be empty of some advices, which my natural care of you provoketh me to wish you to follow, as documents to you in this your tender age. "Let your first action be the lifting up of your mind to Almighty God by hearty prayer; and feelingly digest the words you speak in prayer, with continual meditation, and thinking of him to whom you pray, and of the matter for which you pray; and use this at an ordinary hour, whereby the time itself will put you in remembrance to do that which you are accustomed to do in that time. 66 Apply your study, to such hours as your discreet master doth assign you, earnestly; and the time, I know, he will so limit as shall be both sufficient for your learning, and safe for your health. "And mark the sense and the matter of that you read, as well as the words; so shall you both enrich your tongue with words, and your wit with matter; and judgment will grow as years groweth in you. "Be humble and obedient to your master; for, unless you frame yourself to obey others, yea, and feel in yourself what obedience is, you shall never be able to teach others how to obey you. "Be cautious of gesture, and affable to all men, with diversity of reverence, according to the dignity of the person. There is nothing that winneth so much with so little cost. "Use moderate diet, so as, after your meat, you may find your wit fresher and not duller, and your body more lively, and not more heavy. "Seldom drink wine, and yet sometimes do; lest being enforced to drink upon the sudden, you should find your self inflamed. "Use exercise of body, but such as is without peril of your joints or bones; it will increase your force and enlarge your breath. Delight to be cleanly, as well in all parts of your body as in your garments; it shall make you grateful in each company, and, otherwise, loathsome. "Give yourself to be merry; for you degenerate from your father, if you find not yourself most able in wit and body to do any thing when you be most merry. But let your mirth be ever void of all scurrility and biting words to any man; for a wound given by a word is oftentimes harder to be cured than that which is given with the sword. "Be you rather a hearer and bearer away of other men's talk, than a beginner or procurer of speech; otherwise you shall be counted to delight to hear yourself speak. If you hear a wise sentence, or an apt phrase, commit it to your memory, with respect to the circumstance when you shall speak it. "Let never oath be heard to come out of your mouth, nor word of ribaldry; detest it in others, so shall custom make to yourself a law against it in yourself. "Be modest in each assembly; and rather be rebuked of light fellows for maiden-like shamefacedness, than of your sad friends for pert boldness. "Think upon every word that you will speak before you utter it, and remember how nature hath rampired up, as it were, the tongue with teeth, lips, yea, and hair without the lips, and all betokening reins or bridles for the loose use of that member. "Above all things, tell no untruth; no, not in trifles. The custom of it is naught; and let it not satisfy you, that, for a time, the hearers take it for a truth; for, after, it will be known as it is, to your shame; for there cannot be a greater reproach to a gentleman than to be accounted a liar. shall be counted labes generis, one of the greatest curses that can happen to man. Well, my little Philip, this is enough for me, and too much, I fear, for you. But, if I shall find that this light meal of digestion nourish any thing the weak stomach of your young capacity, I will, as I find the same grow stronger, feed it with tougher food. "Your loving father, so long as you live in the fear of God. H. SIDNEY." The Little Philip of this beautiful letter was the Sir Philip Sidney, of whom we gave a memoir and a portrait in a former number. THE WALRUS. THE WALRUS, (frequently but unmeaningly, called Sea-Horse and Sca-Cow,) formerly resorted to the shores of the Gulf of St. Laurence, but is now chiefly seen on the northern coast of Labrador and Hudson's Bay, and occasionally at the Magdalen Islands, and near the Straits of Belle Isle. They are fond of breeding in herds, and their affection for each other is very apparent. The form of the body, and of the head, with the exception of the nose being broader, and having two tusks from fifteen inches to two feet long in the upper jaw, is not very unlike that of the seal. A full-grown Walrus will weigh at least four thousand pounds. The skins are valuable, being about an inch in thickness, astonishingly tough, and the Acadian French used to cut them into stripes for traces and other purposes. The tusks are excellent ivory. The flesh is hard, tough, and greasy, and not much relished even by the Esquimaux. They are said to feed on shell-fish, and marine plants. They will attack small boats, merely through wantonness; and, as they generally attempt to stave it, are extremely dangerous. Their blazing eyes, and their tusks, give them a formidable appearance; but, unless wounded, or any of their number be killed, they do not seem ever to intend hurting the men. distance into the woods; and persons acquainted with They have been known at times to enter some the manner of killing them, have got between them and the sea, and urged them on with a sharp-pointed pole, until they got the whole drove a sufficient distance from the water, when they fell to and killed these immense animals, incapable of resistance out of their element. It is said, that on being attacked in this manner, and finding themselves unable to escape, they have set up a most piteous howl and cry. The foregoing account is abridged from Mr. M'Gregor's valuable work on British America, to which we add some interesting particulars from Brooke's Winter in Lapland. The sea-horse fishery in the north, partly on account of the war, and other causes, among which the increasing scarcity of this animal was a principal one, was for some time almost given up by the Russians. The respite, however, that the animal obtained in consequence, for some time, again brought immense herds of the walrus to Cherie and the Spitzbergen Islands; and this fishery is again prosecuted with spirit by the Russians, as well as by the people of Finmark. The success of the vessels sent has been great, without the numbers of the animal being visibly diminished. Mr. Colquhoun, who lately returned from an expedition to Spitzbergen and the Finmark coasts, to try the power of the Congreve rocket against the species of whale, known by the name of 'the finner,' informs me they found the walrus lying in herds of many hundreds each, on the shores of Hope and Cherie Isles, and took a great quantity of them. The most favourable time for attacking them is when the tide is out, and they are reposing on the rocks. In this case, if the sailors be very alert, and fortunate enough to The Walrus, or Sea Horse. kill the lower rank of them, which lies nearest the shore, before the hindmost can pass, they are able to secure the whole; as the walrus, when on shore, is so unwieldy a creature, that it cannot get over the obstacles thrown in its way by the dead bodies of its companions, and falls in this manner a prey to the lance of the seamen. It does not, however, die tamely; and perhaps no animal offers a more determined resistance, when attacked on an element where they are incapable of exerting their prodigious strength, striking furiously at their enemy, and continually turning round to assist their companions in distress. When an alarm of the approach of an enemy is given, the whole herd makes for the sea. When they reach the water they tumble in as expeditiously as possible; but the numbers are often so immense, and the size of the animal is so great, that a short time elapses before they can escape, from want of space. In this case, those who happen to be in the rear, being pressed by the danger behind them, and finding their way blocked up by their companions in front, attempt, by means of their tusks, to force their way through the crowd; and several that have been taken at the time by means of the boats, have borne visible proofs of the hurry of their comrades, in the numerous wounds inflicted on their hind quarters. The principal use of their tusks is probably to enable them to detach their food from the ground or rocks. They also employ them to secure themselves to the rocks while they sleep; and it not unfrequently happens, that during their sleep the tide falls, and leaves them suspended by their tusks, so that they are unable to extricate themselves. Though the value of the ivory and oil obtained from the walrus has latterly suffered a considerable fall, the fishery is still a very profitable one; and the distance from Finmark to the seat of it not being great, two voyages may be made sometimes in the course of the season. The oil derived from the animal, as well as the ivory from the tusks, is of a very fine quality. EVERY man hath a kingdom within himself: Reason, as the princess, dwells in the highest and inwardest room: the senses are the guard and attendants on the court; without whose aid, nothing is admitted into the presence: the supreme faculties (as will, memory, &c.) are the Peers: the outward parts, and inward affections, are the Commons: violent passions are rebels, to disturb the common peace. -BISHOP HALL. COTTON.-The following account of a pound weight of unmanufactured Cotton strikingly proves the importance of the trade and employment afforded by this vegetable."The cotton wool came from the East Indies to London; from London, it went to Manchester, where it was manufactured into yarn; from Manchester it was sent to Paisley, where it was woven; it was then sent to Ayrshire, where it was tamboured; it came back to Paisley, and was there veined; afterwards it was sent to Dumbarton, where it was hand sewed, and again brought to Paisley; whence it was sent to Renfrew to be bleached, and was returned to Paisley, whence it went to Glasgow and was finished, and from Glasgow was sent, per coach, to London. The time occupied in bringing this article to market was three years, from its being packed in India till it arrived in cloth at the merchant's warehouse in London it must have been con veyed 5000 miles by sea, and about 920 by land; and contributed to support not less than 150 people, by which the value had been increased 2000 per cent. GRASSES.-Grasses are Nature's care. With these God clothes the earth; with these He sustains its inhabitants. Cattle feed upon their leaves, birds upon their smaller seeds, men upon the larger; for few readers need be told that the plants which produce our bread-corn belong to this class. In those tribes, which are more generally considered as grasses, their extraordinary means and powers of preservation and increase, their hardiness, their almost unconquerable disposition to spread, their properties of reproduction, coincide with the intention of Nature concern ing them. They thrive under a treatment, by which other plants are destroyed. The more their leaves are consumed, the more their roots increase; the more they are trampled upon, the thicker they grow. Many of the seemingly dry and dead leaves of grasses revive, and renew their verdure in the spring. In lofty mountains, where the summer heats are not sufficient to ripen the seeds, grasses abound, which are able to propagate themselves without seed. It is an observation, likewise, which has often been made, that herb-eating animals attach themselves to the leaves of grasses, and, if at liberty in their pastures to range and choose, leave untouched the straws which support the. flowers.-PALEY. PRAYER. THERE is an eye that never sleeps, When sink the beams of light. When human strength gives way; There is a love that never fails, When earthly loves decay. That eye, that arm, that love to reach, |