sary to put an end to his life. The length of this animal, from the nose to the root of the tail, was five feet four inches, and from the bottom of the foot to the top of the shoulder, thirty-one inches. Its head was round, and much like that of a cat, the upper lip being entire, and supplied with whiskers; the nose flat, the eyes large, of a brownish hue, but very much suffused with blood; the ears short and pointed. It had no mane. The neck, back, and sides were of a dusky ash colour, with some yellowish spots; the belly of a dirty white; the hair on his buttocks long and shaggy. Each jaw was armed with four cutting, four canine, and sixteen grinding teeth; each of its fore-paws and hind-feet with five toes, and very strong talons.

Four lassos, attached to the girths of the saddles of two horses, were fastened to the lion, which was thus dragged to the village, where we arrived about nine o'clock, and were received by the whole of the inhabitants with shouting and rejoicing. The remainder of the night was spent in dancing and carousing.

The people informed me that the favourite food of the lion is horse-flesh; that watching a good opportunity it jumps upon the back of its prey, which it worries, tearing the flesh with one paw, whilst it secures its hold with the other; after sucking the blood it drags the carcase to some hiding-place, covers it with leaves, and returns when hungry to devour it. If it enter a place where horned cattle are kept, the bulls and cows immediately form a circle, and place the calves and young cattle in the centre; they then face their enemy boldly, and not unfrequently oblige him to retreat, on which the bulls follow him and often gore him to death. It would therefore appear to be more from fear than choice that he is attached to the flesh of horses. The animal was never known to attack a man; so timid is he of the human race, that he runs away at the apearance of a child, which may, perhaps, be accounted for from the abundance of cattle supplying him so easily with food, that he is seldom in want of flesh.

[STEVENSON'S Residence in South America.]

THE cheerfulness of heart which springs up in us, from the survey of Nature's works, is an admirable preparation for gratitude. The mind has gone a great way towards praise and thanksgiving, that is filled with such secret gladness. A grateful reflection on the supreme Cause, who produces it, sanctifies it in the soul, and gives it its proper value. Such an habitual disposition of mind, consecrates every field and wood, turns an ordinary walk into a morning or evening sacrifice, and will improve those transient gleams of joy which naturally brighten up and refresh the soul on such occasions, into an inviolable and perpetual state of bliss and happiness.-ADDISON.

In the wildest anarchy of man's insurgent appetites and sins, there is still a reclaiming voice; a voice which, even when in practice disregarded, it is impossible not to own; and to which, at the very moment that we refuse our obedience, we find that we cannot refuse the homage of what ourselves do feel and acknowledge to be the best, the highest principles of our nature.-CHALMERS.

ONE reason why God hath scattered up and down several degrees of pleasure and pain, in all the things that environ and affect us, and blended them together, in almost all that our thoughts and senses have to do with, is, that we, fiuding imperfection, dissatisfaction, and want of complete happiness in all the enjoyments which the creatures can afford us, might be led to seek it in the enjoyment of Him with whom there is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore." -LOCKE.

The

The Greeks seem to have derived their ideas of architecture from the Egyptians, and some of their earlier buildings partook of much of the Egyptian character; but as the climate of Greece was subject to frequent rains, it was found necessary to raise the whole structure on an artificial platform, and to cover it with an inclined roof, with projecting eaves. different materials, also, of which the buildings were constructed, as we have already noticed, produced a great difference in the relative proportions of the various parts. The edifices of the Egyptians being chiefly formed of immense blocks of granite, the heaviest kind of stone; the supports of the superstructure were necessarily massive in proportion: the mysterious character, also, of their idolatry, was assisted by the dismal grandeur of their stupendous temples. The stone, of which the Grecian temples are constructed, is of a much lighter description, and many parts of their buildings show, that before they had learnt the method of working in marble, the material usually employed was wood; so that, partly following the design of their original wooden buildings, and partly importing the style of the Egyptians, a structure, partaking of the character of the architecture of both nations, was the consequence.

In noticing the progress of the art, we find the plain and sturdy Doric column succeeded by the more graceful and ornamented Ionic, and that, again, by the richly decorated Corinthian and the Composite order of the Romans.

The principal feature in an order of architecture is the perpendicular support, or column. The bottom of this column rests upon a square plinth, sometimes ornamented with mouldings; this is called the base; the top of the column is also covered in the same manner, and this ornament is the capital; the body of the column is named the shaft. That part of the building which rests on the column is the

147-2

When water freezes, it crystallizes; that is, its particles arrange themselves in such an order as to produce certain regular forms. The small needlelike spikes of which it is composed, are found to cross each other at angles of sixty degrees, or at the same inclination as that of two sides of a triangle, which has its three sides equal to one another. By the combination of a number of these, the beautiful feathery forms are composed, which may be seen upon a window, on a frosty morning. These form objects of great beauty, when viewed through a microscope, even of small magnifying power. And if the particles be melted, by gently breathing upon the glass, and then be suffered to freeze, the spicule of ice will be observed darting forth with immense rapidity. The effect may be seen very well, even with the naked eye. Another beautiful form of frozen water is snow. If a large flake be observed just as it falls, it will be found to consist of a great number of minute spikes, loosely adhering together. A flake of snow occupies about nine times as much space as the water of which it is composed. These spikes are probably formed by the freezing of vapour in the upper parts of the atmosphere, and collect into masses as they descend. In very clear and calm weather, it is not uncommon to have pieces of ice fall, crystallized in the form of stars, and in other shapes arising from the combination of particles arranged according to the laws of crystallization.

Hail appears to be formed by the freezing of drops of rain, in their descent. The formation of hail is closely connected with electricity. In a thunderstorm hail frequently falls. An attempt was made in France, some years ago, to defend tracts of country from the ill-effects of hail-storms, which are very injurious to the vines. It was supposed, that by erecting numerous conductors to draw off the electric fluid, it would be prevented from accumulating to such a degree as to form hail. Conductors for this purpose were called Para-gréles, or Hail-defenders; but they do not appear to have answered the expectations of their inventors.

C.

NATURE never deceives us; the rocks, the mountains, the streams, always speak the same language; a shower of snow may hide the verdant woods in spring, a thunderstorm may render the blue limpid streams foul and turbulent; but these effects are rare and transient: in a few hours, or at most in a few days, all the sources of beauty are renovated. And nature affords no continued trains of misfortunes and miseries, such as depend upon the constitution of humanity; no hopes for ever blighted in the bud, no beings, full of life, beauty, and promise, taken from us in the prime of youth. Her fruits are all balmy and sweet: she affords none of those blighted ones, so common in the life of man, and so like the fabled apples of the Dead Sea, fresh and beautiful to the sight, but when tasted, full of bitterness and ashes.-SIR HUMPHRY DAVY.

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POWER OF HABIT.

THAT balancing moment, at which pleasure would allure, and conscience is urging us to refrain, may be regarded as the point of departure, or divergency, whence one or other of the two processes (towards evil, or towards good,) take their commencement. Each of them consists in a particular succession of ideas, with their attendant feelings; and whichever of them may happen to be described once, has, by the law of suggestion, the greater chance, in the same circumstances, of being described over again. Should the mind dwell on an object of allurement, and the considerations of principle not be entertained, it will pass onward from the first incitement to the final and guilty indulgence, by a series of stepping-stones, each of which will present itself more readily in future, and with less chance of arrest or interruption by the suggestions of conscience than before.

But should these suggestions be admitted, and, far more, should they prevail, then, on the principle of association, will they be all the more apt to intervene, on the repetition of the same circumstances, and again break that line of continuity, which, but for this intervention, would have led, from a temptation, to a turpitude or a crime. If, on the occurrence of a temptation, formerly conscience did interpose, and represent the evil of a compliance, and so impress the man with a sense of obligation, as led him to dismiss the fascinating object from the presence of his mind, or to hurry away from it; the likelihood is, that the recurrence of a similar temptation will suggest the same train of thoughts and feelings, and lead to the same beneficial result; and this is a likelihood ever increasing with every repetition of the process. The train which would have terminated in a vicious indulgence, is dispossessed by the train which conducts to a resolution and an act of virtuous self-denial.

The thoughts which tend to awaken emotions and purposes on the side of duty, find readier entrance into the mind; and the thoughts which awaken and urge forward the desire of what is evil, more readily give way. The positive force on the side of virtue is augmented, by every repetition of the train which leads to a virtuous determination.

The resistance to this force, on the side of vice, is weakened in proportion to the frequency wherewith that train of suggestions, which would have led to a vicious indulgence, is broken and discomfited. It is thus that, when one is successfully resolute in his opposition to evil, the power of making the achievement, and the facility of the achievement itself, are both upon the increase, and Virtue makes double gain to herself by every separate conquest which she may have won. The humbler attainments of moral worth are first mastered and secured, and the aspiring disciple may pass onward, in a career that is quite indefinite, to nobler deeds and nobler sacrifices.CHALMERS.

MISERY is caused for the most part, not by a heavy crush of disaster, but by the corrosion of less visible evils, which canker enjoyment, and undermine security. The visit of an invader is necessarily rare, but domestic animosities allow no cessation.-DR. JOHNSON

NEW CHAPEL AND BUKIAL-GROUND OF THE BRITISH PROTESTANT RESIDENTS AT CARACCAS, THE CAPITAL OF VENEZUELA, IN SOUTH AMERICA. "RIGHT dear in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints:" and "He shall gather them out of all lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south."-PSALMS Cxvi, and cvii,

It is not much more than fifteen years, since we first had any established residents in Venezuela. From the period of the Spaniards becoming masters of that portion of the New World, its shores were closed to the rest of Europe, particularly to Protestant England; and the mutual rivalries, and religious prejudices, between our mariner-adventurers on the Atlantic Ocean and those of its Spanish Catholic terra-firma, continued for many generations to augment into actual antipathy, until time, and almost an entire absence from any relative communication, sunk both parties into a reciprocal oblivion of each

other.

This was the state of things until the heroic fidelity of the South American Spaniards to their ancient dynasty of kings, when called upon to acknowledge a brother of the emperor of the French for their sovereign, aroused the recollection of Englishmen, and filled them with respect for the conduct of men whose existence they had nearly forgotten.

Many brave Britons had gone out, and proffered their aid in the war of liberation; and when that was crowned with an apparently assured independence of the country, then the British merchant, and industrious artisan, followed the British military volunteer to the land of commercial promise. They were received with welcome, but, until within these last two years, the old wall of partition between Catholic and Protestant continued to be so determinately retained, that the Protestant settlers had neither a place for Christian worship, according to the forms of their own church, nor a spot of ground wherein to bury their dead.

The English consul, Sir Robert Ker Porter, though a civil officer, was the only representative to the British residents there, of their own church, as well as of their state. He baptized their children, performed their marriage ceremony, and buried those who died amongst them. The first two duties might be respectably solemnized in the hall of the consulate; but the last was overwhelmed with a double weight of affliction to the mourning survivors; the land which had received the living Protestant with hospitality, seemed to deny his dead body the common right of human nature,-a decent grave. A cellar floor, the pavement of the stable-yard, or at best, the garden's most hidden nook, were the only places which might afford a last bed for the remains of a friend or relative. Alas! perhaps not the last receptacle for such sacred relics! for they must be left there at the caprice of any future tenant of the premises, to dig up, and cast they knew not where.

To remedy this distressing state of things, the British Consul directed his serious attention; and when the ameliorating character of the Venezuelan government warranted the attempt, and he had obtained the sanction of his own government, he lost no time in proposing his wishes. The result was, that he succeeded in purchasing a plot of ground, conveniently situated near the city of Caraccas, with an express guarantee from the President and Senate of the Republic, that it should hereafter remain inviolably the possession of the British Protestant residents at Caraccas, for a cemetery, or burial-place for their dead. A sum of money was advanced by our Government, towards the security of the spot, with walls, &c., in aid of the means which the English mer

chants, whose dust was to mingle within them, had subscribed.

Sir Robert Ker Porter obtained the land in the summer of 1832. It was a beautiful green expanse, on a gentle slope in the valley of the mountain; a sequestered spot, promising the sanctity and the rest to be sought there. He made no delay in drawing the plan, and laying the foundations for the walls and gates; and he planted young trees, of the Cypresspoplar order, to afford shadowy avenues from the gates to the little building, erected for the performance of the funeral service, in a climate in which the bared heads of the mourners and their functionary were exposed to a vertical sun at one season, or a plunging rain at another.

Our sketch represents the little building, or chapel, just mentioned, in the form of a colonnaded portico, with the symbol of the Holy Trinity cut on its stone pediment. It stands at the hither end of the ground, whence the sepulchral field slopes gently down in the shape of a parallelogram. The whole is surrounded by a handsome wall, of a secure height and thickness; and the gates by which it is entered are of the Grecian porch architecture, like the chapel, only without columns. The principal gate at the lower extremity of the ground, immediately facing the chapel, is surmounted by a cross. The second gate opens on one side of the parallelogram, and is partly shown in the sketch by one of its pillars, buttressed by a noble old tree of the country. A few grave-stones, in neatly arranged lines, are also seen, their compartments being divided by chain-railings; for Sir Robert had several of his countrymen to commit to this safer sepulchre, before it became, like our English churchyards, "consecrated ground."

That it might be so hallowed, was the wish, but hardly the expectation, of many a pious individual, who, in that stranger land, remembered the dear familiar homes of their childhood, the parish-bell gladsomely summoning them to the Sabbath-duties of morning and evening prayers, or solemnly tolling the passing knell of the decent funeral, moving with reverent pace to the consecrated spot of the body's rest! To have such a sanctuary, even under seclusion in the land of their distant sojourn, every heart yearned; and their indefatigable consul and friend completed the work by, in due time, obtaining this sacred object also, from the Venezuelan government. Dr. W. H. Coleridge, our Protestant Bishop of Barbadoes, was invited from that island to perform the rite.

As soon as his duties in his own wide diocese, the Leeward Islands, would permit his absence, he embarked in H.M.S. Forte, Commodore Pell, on the 27th of January in this year, and arrived at La Guayra, the port of Caraccas, on the 22nd of February. On the evening of his reaching La Guayra, he proceeded across the mountains (a journey of twenty miles,) to the city of Caraccas, and became the immediate guest, with his official attendants, of the Consul. On the 24th, his lordship received the respect of an especial audience by General Paez, the President of the Republic of Venezuela. Similar reverence, by visits, &c. was paid to him by the other chief authorities; and on the 26th of the month, in the presence of his Excellency the President, and the Ministers of the Republic, with other great officers, civil and military, and of Sir Robert Ker Porter, his Majesty's Consul, with Colonel Stopford, and the Commodore and officers of H.M.S. Forte, and of the British residents, male and female, young and old, and a large mixed concourse of the inhabitants of the city, the Bishop of Barbadoes, (the first bishop our church ever sent to that