far remote from them:-" Thus do chasms in the interior of the earth open and close; and the sonorous waves either reach us, or are interrupted in their progress."

In

In contemplating the natural agencies just referred to, belonging to the deeply awful and occasionally destructive class, it is important to mark the consoling light in which they are presented to view by the sacred records. They are exhibited as implements in the hands of infinite Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, and not as independent energies acting without direction, and subservient to no control. order more fully to fasten this truth upon the mind, a beautiful mode of representation is usually adopted in the Scriptures. There is a description of effects, omitting the instrumental machinery operating in their production, and recognising only the supreme First Cause, whose will is performed, whose pleasure is accomplished, and upon whom the entire economy of nature depends for the working and issue of its every process. Thus it is declared:-" He toucheth the hills, and they smoke". "Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble"-" He divideth the sea with his power"—"The voice of the Lord is upon

the waters: . the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh." The intention of these, and kindred statements, which so sublimely express the physical agency of the Deity, is not more to excite and keep alive in the mind his reverent worship and fear, than to calm its natural apprehensions, and arm it with a felicitous confidence, in the presence of awful phenomena. In the hour when some great catastrophe of the material elements is transpiring, it is no mean advantage which the Bible-honouring peasant possesses over the undevout philosopher. He is able to recur to the composing thought, not only that the appalling energies exerted are the "ministers" of God, acting therefore in harmony with general principles of intelligent design; but in perfect keeping also with the spirit of a particular paternal government, the discipline of which, however occasionally "not joyous but grievous," points to a personal result of infinite beneficence. This promise of revealed religion has inspired in the minds of its appropriators, in modern as in ancient times, amid the wildest apparent war of nature's powers, a mental calmness "more precious than rubies" "God is our refuge-therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though

the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." At the same time, the formidable attributes developed in the working of the Creator's scheme, argue the desperate case of man striving with his Maker; and give an impressive urgency to the appeal made to him by the gospel of Christ-" Be ye reconciled to God."-" Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?"-" Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?" Though the present life is passed in circumstances of external tranquillity-though in the course of man's current history, he never comes into contact with displays of the Divine omnipotence, but those that minister to his quietude, and are overlooked owing to being ordinary and common-there will come a period of terrestrial change, when the dead will be raised to witness its startling phenomena, and all human consciousness be compelled to recognise the mighty hand of God, with adoration or with terror. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up."

CHAPTER V.

GRAND EXAMPLES OF CAVERNS.

Paros-Antiparos-Tournefort-Grotto of Antiparos-Visit of the French ambassador-Cave of Adelsberg-Quicksilver mine at Idria-Lake of Zirknitz-Subterranean course of the Peuka -Adelsberg Cavern described-Animal inhabitants-ProteiTheir habits-Cavern of the Maddelena-Sir Humphrey Davy -Cave of Cacahuamilpa-Mrs. Ashburnham-Madame Calderon-Description of the Salas-Discovery of a skeletonCavern del Guacharo-Humboldt and Bonpland-Equinoctial vegetation-Habits of the Guacharo-Indian superstition.

FOUR examples of what may be called cavern formations of the first class may be selected for notice, two from the Old, and two from the New World-the grotto of Antiparos, the cave of Adelsberg, the cave of Cacahuamilpa, and the cavern of the Guacharo.

1. Antiparos, in the Greek archipelago, near to Paros, as the name signifies, is one of the Cyclades, a group to the westward of that which contains the isle of the Apocalypse, the scene of John's banishment. The celebrated Parian Chronicle, containing a chronological account of the principal events in Greek history from

the earliest times to two centuries and a half before Christ, was found in Paros, on a block of marble, of which the whole island is composed. Antiparos, separated from it by a narrow, dangerous channel, is entirely of the same material, of small dimensions, and thinly inhabited, but often resorted to by travellers, on account of its great cavern, popularly called a grotto. The island, "despicable as it ap pears," says Tournefort, "has in it one of the greatest varieties that perhaps is in nature, and which proves one of the important truths of philosophy, to wit, the vegetation of stones"

-his theory respecting the origin of stalactites. A rough cavern is the first object observed, about thirty paces broad, vaulted in a kind of arch, and inclosed with a court made by the shepherds. On some natural pillars about the entrance there are the remains of an ancient inscription, containing some proper namesAntipater among the rest, which local tradition supposes to be the names of the conspirators against Alexander the Great, who, after having failed in their design, are said to have here taken refuge.

Having entered the cavern, the passage proceeds without difficulty for about twenty yards,