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freemen, socmen, villains, bordars, freedmen, cot- | order that he might be apprized of the particular tagers, serfs, tradesmen, labourers, Englishmen, sum which each town, village, and hamlet was bound Normans, &c:-the number of hogs, goats, sheep, to pay, and to exact it accordingly. horses, asses, oxen, cows, calves, colts, stocks of bees, &c.; together with the number of mills, fish-ponds, fisheries, marshes, vineyards, &c., on each manor :— an account of the rents, tributes, census, services, tolls, customs, homage, and what works were to be done for the lords of the manors. In several counties also was noted down an account of what goods, chattels, and treasure each person possessed, what were his debts, and how much was owing to him.

A work of such extraordinary extent and minuteness must have required a well arranged system to put it into execution. The plan which William adopted was this. Men of the greatest discretion, whose talents were familiar to him, and in whom he could confide, were sent into every county throughout England with authority to summon and impanel juries in every hundred, lath, and wapentake; the jury to be composed of all orders of freemen, from the great barons downwards. These juries were bound by oath to communicate to the commissioners, by verdict or presentment, every particular relative to the estates, manors, &c., contained in that hundred, lath, or wapentake. The commissioners having received the inquisitions, they were transmitted to the king, and shortly afterwards arranged in systematic order, the lands of each tenant being entered separately from those of others, and classed under their respective heads: the whole detail was then written in Domesday Book and deposited in the king's treasury. Every return and statement had to be made on the oath of the sheriffs of each county, the lords of each manor, the presbyters of every church, the reeves of every hundred, and the bailiff and six villains of every village. In some cases the jurors were required to state not only the value of a manor at the time of Edward the Confessor, at the time of the assumption of the crown by William, and at the time of the survey, but also whether any advance could be made in its then present value. This survey was made about the year 1080.

Although it is probable that the juries did not always honestly give the true value of the manors and property on which they reported, yet Domesday Book became an authority of the very first order. For a considerable time subsequent to its preparation; Domesday Book was considered as the only fountain of titles to estates, and no one was allowed to make a claim beyond it.

Different opinions have been expressed as to the real object which William had in view in ordering and carrying such a vast undertaking. Ingulphus, a contemporary of the Conqueror, says that William, on his return to England, after having subdued Scotland, obliged every individual of the realm to do homage and swear fealty to him in London, and that he immediately afterwards began the survey, in order to ascertain the number and the condition of his subjects. A Saxon chronicle tells us that the survey was made in order that the king might obtain exact knowledge of his demesne lands, and what the amount of that branch of the revenue which arose from hidage (a sort of land-tax) ought to be. Matthew of Westminster states that the object of the king was to discover, by means of the survey, the numerical strength of the kingdom, the number of men in each county, and what forces he had to depend upon in cases of emergency. Agard gives it as his opinion that William, finding the land-tax called Danegeld to be assessed and paid in an uncertain and unequal manner, made a general survey of the kingdom, in

Domesday Book was merely in MS. until the last century, when, in 1767, in consequence of an address from the House of Lords, George the Third ordered it to be printed. The work was intrusted to Mr. Abraham Farley, a literary gentleman who was well acquainted with the nature and contents of the work, and under whose care it at length appeared, after having been more than ten years in passing through the press. It was printed as nearly as possible to resemble the original, in a kind of Norman-Latin language. Since that time an elaborate introduction, indexes, &c., have been prepared by Sir Henry Ellis, under the authority of the Royal Record Commission ; but the work does not exist in a complete form in the English language. A translation was commenced about thirty years ago, by the Rev. William Bawdwen, of Hooten Pagnell, Yorkshire: it proceeded in as far as Yorkshire, Derby, Nottingham, Rutland, Lincoln, Middlesex, Hertford, Buckingham, Oxford, and Gloucester, and was then stopped. Portions of the Domesday Book have however been translated and introduced into many of our best country histories, such as Nichols's Leicestershire, Dugdale's Warwickshire, Hutchin's Dorsetshire, Warner's Hampshire, Bray and Manning's Surrey, Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, &c. In these several works that portion of Domesday has been translated which treated of the country to which the history related. Domesday was not by any means the only name given to this important record. It is called by different authors, and at different times, Rotulus Wintoniæ, Scriptura Thesauri Regis, Liber de Wintonia, Liber Regis, Liber Judiciarius, Censualis Angliæ, Angliæ Notitia et Lustratio, and Rotulus Regis. It is remarked in the introduction published by the commissioners, that the names of the hundreds in the respective counties have undergone a great change since the survey was made. Lincolnshire is divided into thirty wapentakes, or hundreds, yet there are only about nineteen which bear anything like the names in Domesday which they do at present; and in Warwickshire there is not now one remaining out of the ten there set down. In Leicestershire, indeed, they have remained nearly the same, also in Cambridgeshire. In Bedfordshire the names of the hundreds have been altered comparatively in few instances, but in many cases the manors have been transformed from one hundred to another. The same may be said of Berkshire, and probably of a very large portion of the counties in general. Buckinghamshire, when the survey of Domesday was taken, was divided into eighteen hundreds, and there are now only eight which compose separate districts.

SUICIDE.

When all the blandishments of life are gone,
The coward sneaks to death; the brave live on.

BOTANY has one advantage over many other useful and
necessary studies, that even its first beginnings are pleasing
and profitable, though pursued to ever so small an extent:
the objects with which it is conversant are in themselves
charming, and they become doubly so to those who contem-
plate them with the additional sense, as it were, which
science gives: the pursuit of these objects is an exercise no
less healthful to the body, than the observation of their laws
and characters is to the mind.—SIR J. E. SMITH.
In particular arts, beware of that affectation of speaking
technically, by which ignorance is often disguised and
knowledge disgraced.

[merged small][graphic]

II. CORFU.

DRAWBRIDGE AT CORFU.

HAVING in a preceding paper endeavoured to convey to the reader some general idea of the Ionian Islands taken collectively, we shall on the present occasion direct our notice to the principal one of the group, viz., Corfu.

Corfu is about thirty-five miles in length, and its greatest breadth about twelve. It is within a hundred miles of the south-east coast of Italy, near Otranto, and is at one point within two miles of the Turkish province of Albania, from which it is separated by a strait or channel. The island is rather mountainous: a chain of mountains runs throughout from north to south, which in one spot reaches an elevation of 2000 feet; and there is a cross chain running from east to west, which reaches a height of 3500 feet, from the summit of which a magnificent panoramic view is obtained, embracing Macedonia, the Adriatic, the Mediterranean, and sometimes even Italy.

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as an English chapel and school,) barrack, artillery stores, an hospital, several houses, (formerly private Property, but now occupied by officers connected with the government or the army,) and one or two churches. of the Greek religion.

The esplanade is a piece of ground about 450 yards in length and 180 in width. It has no buildings on the south side; but the new palace and the old hospital are situated on the northern side. This espla-nade forms the parade for the troops, (of whom there are generally 3000 in the island, half of whom are at. Corfu,) and its situation is beautiful: looking from the town the citadel is in front, the mountains of Albania in the distance, and the sea to the right and left. A carriage drive has been formed round it, and. it has become a place of common resort for the inhabitants and the garrison.

the margin of the sea.

The town is, in proportion to its size (says Mr. Goodison),. one of the meanest in construction of any in the Mediter

ranean.

The town, exclusive of the esplanade, is about a mile and three quarters in circumference: it is sepaThe city or town of Corfu is built on an irregular rated from the rest of the island by a strong double promontory, sloping to the N.W., which juts out wall, which bounds it on the west: the northern and nearly from the central part of the island on its east-southern boundaries consist of a single wall, along. ern shore. The town is walled, and has been rendered a place of great strength, from the number and position of the outworks. The citadel, or old fort, was built at the extremity of the promontory: this The streets are miserably dirty, narrow lanes, which, upon the occupation of the place by the British, were promontory was by nature peninsular, but it has been nearly impassable from the offal of butchers' stalls, and completely separated from the mainland by a military litter of the venders of vegetables, who had been allowed to work, or ditch, about 150 yards in length, 80 in establish themselves promiscuously throughout the town. breadth, and 40 deep. The sea enters at the north- There are but two streets which might be considered habitern mouth of this ditch; but at the southern end able, (besides that which fronts the esplanade,) by a person there is a wall which cuts off the communication. used to the comfort and cleanliness of a well-regulated EuThe communication with the esplanade is by a draw-streets, one at each side, and in one is the Church of St. ropean town. These are parallel with the two centre main bridge. Within the citadel, whose circumference is Speridion. The houses are built in the Venetian manner, 180 yards, are the old palace, an armoury, (now used the lowermost storv supporting the rest upon pilasters con

nected by arches, which form a sort of piazza at each side, nearly through the whole of the principal streets. This method of building is well suited to a hot and rainy climate,

as it affords shelter both from sun and rain.

There have been, however, many improvements made through the influence of the British residents within the last few years.

The Senate-House is a plain square building. There are many churches in the town, of which tha of St. Speridion is the best. It contains the relics of the saint and the shrine in which they are deposited, which is richly ornamented with precious stones. The interior is decorated with chandelier-lamps and candlesticks of solid gold and silver, the fashion and size being according to the taste or devotion of the donor. So great is the accumulation of wealth from the contributions of rich devotees, that it has been found necessary to place a sentry upon this church; for it must be understood that the English interfere as little as possible with the national religion (the Greek Church) of the Ionians.

In connexion with this church, we may describe the festival of St. Speridion, from the accounts of Sauveur, Goodison, and others. Eight days previous to the ceremony, the doors, windows, and steeple of the church are ornamented with festoons of laurel and myrtle. On the eve of the festival, the shrine which contains the body of the saint is exposed to the venerating gaze of the people. The shrine is of ebony, embossed with silver, and enriched with precious stones. The 'front is enclosed with glass, through which is seen the saint in an upright position, dressed in his robes: over the shrine is supported a beautiful silk canopy. The head of the government* attends the procession, with the military staff, and a large proportion of the garrison under arms; a military band precedes it. The procession first moves towards the citadel, where a royal salute is fired from each battery. They then make the round of the esplanade, and proceed along the wall at the harbour side, where a salute is fired by each ship of war, decorated with her flags. In the streets through which the procession moves the houses are all ornamented with their drapery suspended from the windows. The ceremony is often interrupted by the sick, who are brought out upon this occasion to be placed under the shrine, in the full confidence of a cure. In all public calamities, the relics of the saint are exposed with the most religious confidence. There is a circumstance mentioned by Mr. Goodison, which shows the superstition of the people in its true light. In the month of December, 1815, there was a festival in the church of St. Speridion, which was numerously attended by persons from all parts of the island; some of whom, from the district of Leftimo, returning home, died of the plague, which had at that time made its appearance in the island. This very circumstance exalted still higher St. Speridion in the estimation of the townspeople, who failed not to attribute to his interposition their escape from this powerful malady; as it was suspected, and not without reason, that some of those persons from Leftimo were, whilst in the town, actually infected with the contagion.

The Church of St Speridion enjoys the revenues of some lands which pious individuals have bestowed for

As the procession was originally described several years ago, we would fain hope that official participation in such a scene has since that been abolished. Whether such has beeu the case recently we do not know. Mr. Montgomery Martin, writing in 1834, makes the following remark:-"This absurdity ought to be done away with. In granting full toleration and protection to every form of religion, there is no necessity for the head of the government and the representative of our sovereign being made a participator in a heathenish system of idolatry, which degrades man below the level of brutes."

its support. The devotion of the islanders affords a very considerable produce: the mariner and the artisan believe that they ensure the success of their speculation in sacrificing a part to St. Speridion: no boat leaves the port in which the saint has not an interest in the profits of the voyage.

As a last instance of the debasing character of the Greek church, as professed by these islanders, we may mention the ceremony of excommunication. According to Mr. Goodison, one of the most lucrative sources of profit to the priests, and at the same time one of the most powerful means of retaining the people in their stupid credulity, are the excommunications which a Greek, for the smallest sum, may hurl against his neighbour. The latter has it also in his power to retaliate by another excommunication, which renders null that of his adversary. The same priest performs both parts with equal zeal. These thunderbolts of the Greek church are administered in public, in the street, and opposite the house of him who is to be excommunicated. If the party have means enough, he secures the service of the chief priest himself, who comes at the head of his clergy to pronounce the anathema. He proceeds to the house of the individual in a habit of mourning, a black wax candle in his hand, and preceded by a large crucifix and a black banner; his suite all likewise clothed in black. The imprecations are accompanied with violent gestures. From that moment the person excommunicated is excluded from every church, and deprived of the prayers of the faithful. He cannot be restored to his rights, except by a counter excommunication, and if he have not the means of paying the expense, it often happens that he is driven to the last excess, and revenges himself upon his adversary by assassinating him.

One of the out-door amusements of the inhabitants of Corfu is called the chiostra publica: it is somewhat similar to the old knightly custom of tilting at the ring, and generally takes place in summer. A long line of strong woodwork is erected on the esplanade; about two-thirds of the way a string is drawn across the top of two elevated posts, and from it is suspended a ring. The ring is divided into a certain number of circles, and the candidate who hits nearest and fairest in the inner one wins the prize, which is sometimes a sword of great value, or something of equal amount. Seats are erected on each side the course for the accommodation of the spectators; in front of the ring are seated the judges. This ceremony is attended by all the principal inhabitants, together with a vast concourse of the lower orders. Those competitors who engage in the affair are gaily dressed, and attended by esquires; their horses are likewise richly caparisoned: the lances of the competitors are about six feet long, having at the end a sharp steel point.

Dancing is a favourite amusement with the Corfiotes, and their national dance is supposed to be the same with the ancient Pyrrhic dance. A circle is formed by men and women joining handkerchiefs; the circle opens, and the leading person goes through the evolution of the dance, which consists of forming and re-forming the circle, sometimes completely,-again only to half its extent,-and sometimes it doubles back on itself; very often the leader passes through the middle of the waving line, under the uplifted hands of the dancers, and is followed by the whole train. After a variety of movements of this description, the first leader is succeeded by another. During the whole continuance of this performance, the leader alone is the active person.

The poorer classes of Corfiotes generally sleep on mats on the floor, but in most houses there is to be

FAREWELL TO BRIGHTON.

HEALTH-giving Brighton, with thy breezy Downs,
I love thee best of all the British towns
That crowd our sea-girt isle, and grace her coast.
Brighton, I love thee best, I owe thee most!

found a good bed, stuffed with wool, hair, or straw, | publication in the island, except the Government and placed either on a regular bedstead, or on boards newspaper at Corfu, which is printed half in Italian, and tressels. In lieu of blankets, a counterpane, and half in Romaic Greek. thickly quilted and stuffed with wool, forms a very usual and very comfortable substitute. The Greek females pride themselves on the elegance of their beds: they are covered with silk and embroidered counterpanes, and with ornamental pillows, according to the means of the owner. The generality of the middle, and the whole of the lower, order of people, sleep in their ordinary clothes, and rarely change their personal or bed linen oftener than once a month: this affords a sad contrast to the silk and embroidered counterpanes, &c.; but we may presume that the latter are confined to the higher classes. The furniture of the humbler dwellings consists of a few chairs, tables, a chest of drawers, a copper cooking kettle, and a few earthen pots and pans.

The dress of the peasantry consists chiefly of a white capote of thick felt, (the principal ingredient in which is goats' hair,) or coarse shaggy woollen cloth in summer, and of an additional article of the same material in cold or wet weather. The capot is very rarely taken off. The under dress is a woollen vest, large breeches of coarse cotton, called thorake, with cloth leggings, and a coarse sandal of undressed hide, secured by thongs, or a shoe of half-dressed leather, scarcely less rude. This is the national dress of the aboriginal peasantry; but the settlers, whether Albanians, Moreotes, or others, retain some traces of their native costume, such as the red skullcap, the turban, &c. A girdle or zone, of silk or cotton, is almost invariably worn round the waist by both sexes. The better classes wear a double-breasted vest, usually made of blue or maroon-coloured velvet, with a double row of hanging gold or silver buttons, descending from the shoulder to the waist, generally bordered with broad gold lace, and fastened with a sash of coloured silk: Cossack trousers, cut short at the knee, or the white Albanian kilt or petticoat, white stockings, and buckled shoes, complete the dress. The hair is worn floating on the shoulders by the men, and by the women plaited and hanging down to the heels, and a handkerchief on the head.

1 sought thee not gay Fashion's haunts to throng,
Far higher pleasures prompt my grateful song;
Thy bold, bright sea, with every freshening wave,
New strength imparted, and new vigour gave;
But not alone to mortal sense confined,
Rich intellectual stores attract the mind.-
Of thy fair cliffs along the eastern line

I sought Devotion's pure and holy shrine.
God's hallowed words in memory still I hear,
In tones which long must dwell upon the ear,
(May ear, obedient to a high control,
Return them back, to graft them on the soul.)
Each proud imagination, each vain thought,
Has such abashed when such a preacher taught,
'Tis Heaven's authority.-Who would deny
The Christian humble,-though his office high?
What though his speech, to royal ears addressed,
Gained willing entrance to a royal breast,
No prophet he to "prophesy smooth things,"
Mocking the presence of the King of Kings-
Unawed by courtly frowns, (if such there are,)
Or courtly plaudits, more ensnaring far.-
God's laws unchangeable,—His will supreme,→
"The truth in Jesus" is his constant theme.
The meanest of his flock his equal care,
Claims equal interest in the good man s prayer.
His voice impressive conscience can awake,
And selfish feelings to their centre shake,-
Can wing the heart with penitential tears,
Awake, and yet assuage such mourner's fears.
Then when the soul cast down shall sad confess
Its burthen great, and its own nothingness,
He bids the humbled spirit upward gaze,
With eye of faith and words of holy praise.
He paints the christian hope, and well I ween
Can peace instil, and hope and joy serene,-
That hope eternal,-" peace which passeth show,"
Which, meteor like, no mortal hope can know.
Then, when the softened spirit inly feels
The joys which Christianity reveals,
He teaches how, to show its heavenly birth,
And prove its fruits, it must descend on earth.-
That true religion sanctifies above,

And closely knits the bonds of human love,
And God, to make "his perfect work appear,
Demands our gratitude and our obedience here!

The women are loaded with as much clothes of coarse cotton, silk, or brocade, as they can procure; and are passionately fond of every species of ornament, especially necklaces, earrings, and girdle buckles. The vests are made, like those of the men, of rich velvet, ornamented with gold lace, and flowing open: beneath is worn a cestus or girdle, fastened in front by a clasp of gold or silver (we are here speaking of the higher class of females). Many of the women tinge the nails and tips of the fingers of a pink colour; and the practice of inserting powdered antimony along the edges of the eyelids is very common, especially among such as come from the islands of the Archi-Ir is not in the hey-day of health and enjoyment,-it is not pelago.

The preceding details relate principally to the city of Corfu, the only large town in the island. There are about 100 small villages, averaging from 300 to 400 inhabitants each. The total population on the island is about 34.000 males, and 29,000 females. Of the whole 63,000, about 16,000 are engaged in agriculture, 2000 in manufactures, and 2000 in commerce, the remainder being government officers, military force, professional men, and gentry. There is at Corfu a public University, and an ecclesiastical seminary for the education of young men intended for the priesthood of the Greek church. There is also a secondary school, maintained at the public expense, for general instruction; as well as central, district, and village schools. There is no periodical |

Such were his words- his precepts high and pure,
(Oh! may they ever in each heart endure!)
And thus revered, prosperity increase,-
Brighton farewell!-Be thine health, jcy, and peace!
E. F. W.

in the morning sunshine of his vernal day, that man can be expected feelingly to remember his latter end, and to fix his heart upon eternity. But in after-life many causes operate to wean us from the world: grief softens the heart; sickness searches it; the blossoms of hope are shed; death cuts down the flower of the affections; the disappointed man turns his thoughts toward a state of existence where his wiser desires may be fixed with the certainty of faith; the successful man feels that the objects which he has ardently pursued fail to satisfy the cravings of an immortal spirit; the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, that he may save his soul alive.-SOUTHEY.

I CAN suppose an inhabitant of the primeval world so much the end of many centuries, that they had all slipped through occupied as to sigh over the shortness of life, and to find at his fingers, and were passed away like a shadow.—Cow. PER.

CONSIDERATIONS ON ROME.

FROM A SERMON DELIVERED IN THE ENGLISH CHAPEL AT ROME.

Ir the feelings I have wished to excite have been awakened within you it must already have occurred to you that we who are here assembled may in a still more special sense be said to have come out into the wilderness to see a prophet. We may have had no such purpose: we may have been unconscious what we were doing. But what is Rome? Is she a reed shaken by the wind? she who has stood the assault of five and twenty centuries, who has conquered, and has been conquered, and again has conquered her conquerors, and made them bow down before her. Is she clothed in soft raiment? Nature indeed has clothed her in its beauty: Art has clothed her in its beauties: Time has fused and blended them together; and majestic and solemn is the garb of the city so full of years, so rich in the memories of bygone generations. But vain and most frivolous were the thought, if any have come hither in search of luxuries. Let them go to Baia; this is no place for them. They, on the other hand, who have come out into the wilderness to see a prophet may tarry here. For where upon earth is there any spot, Jerusalem alone excepted, in which the power of the Lord has been manifested, as it has been in this fateful city?-in this monumental mass, which neither the ferocity nor the cupidity of man has yet been able to sweep away, and in contending against which Time seems to have been curtailed of its all-effacing power,-in this vast indestructible tomb of her who once was the Mistress of the World. When other mighty cities have fallen, they have fallen utterly: the dominion of death over them has been total: the very ground on which some of them stood has become a prey to the elements: the generations that won and rejoiced in their glory live only, if at all, in the scanty and shadowy records of history. But when Rome had fallen, she rose again. When her carnal empire had been stripped off from her, she came forth as the queen of a spiritual empire: and within her walls the dead seem still to subsist side by side with the living, in awful and most indistinguishable communion. So that here the most trivial can hardly escape being struck with some lessons of serious thought, such as bear the mind from the present into the past, and through the past into the future. Even they can hardly fail to discern some of the truths which are here written in characters of gigantic size, legible even to the most short-sighted, intelligible even to the dullest. For who can fail to perceive here how strong and mighty man is, feeble as he may appear outwardly, when the Lord of Hosts is bearing him onward? how strengthless and impotent, on the other hand, although armed with all the power and skill of the earth, when the Lord of Hosts is against him? Where else has the Lord shown such strength with His arm? Where else has he so scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts? Where else has He so put down the mighty from their seat? and so exalted those that were of low degree? Where else do we read so plainly that it is the Lord who giveth the victory, and that it is the Lord who taketh it away? Where else do we see so palpably, that, even in this world, despite of the violence and wiles of its prince, that which is morally the best is in the end also the strongest,--that virtue, like knowledge, is power,-that moral energy in a people is indispensable, not only to win an empire, but to keep it, and that luxury and vice enfeeble the arm, until the sceptre drops from its grasp? Of what place on the whole globe may it be said with such truth, that, so far at least as regards natural religion, it is a prophet, yea, and more than a prophet.

At the same time, my brethren, before I conclude, I must remind you, that, though among men born of women there had not risen a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that was least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than he. Though among the works of men's hands and minds none is greater, even in the sense we have been considering, none fitter to impress us with deep and momentous truths, than this city, in which all the might of the heathen world was concentrated and consummated, and all the fruits of its genius were stored up, yet the least of those truths which we draw exclusively from the Gospel is deeper and more momentous than all that come from this or any other natural source. This city may tell us of the terrors of the Lord; but it cannot tell us of His mercies. It may display His power; but it cannot display His love. It may teach us to fear Him as our Governor; but it cannot

teach us to love Him as our Father. It may show us the ways of destruction; but it cannot show us the ways of salvation. For this higher doctrine there is but One Teacher and Guide, even He who came down from the right hand of the Father, and divested Himself of His terrors, and arrayed Himself in mercy, and emptied Himself of His power, and showed Himself as the pure Spirit of Love, and put on the form of a Servant, appearing amongst us as our Brother, that He might lead us to look up to His Father as ours, and offered up His precious body on the cross, to check the progress of destruction, and to purchase the salvation of all such as would follow His gracious guidance. Before Him therefore, the Captain of our Salvation, let us now and ever cast down our hearts and minds; and whatever power, whatever talent, whatever knowledge, whatever wisdom we may receive as our portion in this world, whatever of noble and solemn feeling it may awaken, let us lay them meekly and devoutly at His feet, and employ them faithfully and diligently in His service.

[The Victory of Faith, and other Sermons: By JULIUS CHARLES HARE, now Archdeacon of Lewes.]

OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.

THE importance of the religious observance of the Sabbath is seldom sufficiently estimated. The violation of this duty by the young is one of the most decided marks of incipient moral degeneracy. Religious restraint is fast losing its hold upon that young man, who, having been educated in the fear of God, begins to spend the Sabbath in idleness or in amusement. And so also of communities. The desecration of the Sabbath is one of those evident indications of that criminal recklessness, that insane love of pleasure, and that subjection to the government of appetite and passion which forebodes that the "beginning of the end" of social happiness, and of true national prosperity, has arrived.

Hence we see how imperative is the duty of parents, and of legislators, on this subject. The head of every family is obliged, by the command of God, not only to honour this day himself, but to use all the means in his power to secure the observance of it by all those committed to his charge. He is thus not only promoting his own, but his children's happiness; for nothing is a more sure antagonist force to all the allurements of vice, as nothing tends more strongly to fix in the minds of the young a conviction of the existence and attributes of God, than the solemn keeping of this day. And hence, also, legislators are false to their trust, who, either by the enactment of laws, or by their example, diminish, in the least degree, in the minds of a people, the reverence due to that day which God has set apart for Himself.-WAYLAND's Elements of Moral Science.

LET us turn to the contemplation of Nature, ever new, ever abundant in inexhaustible variety. Whether we scrutinize the damp recesses of woods in the wintry months, when the numerous tribes of mosses are displaying their minute but highly interesting structure; whether we walk forth in the early spring, when the ruby tints of the hawthorn-bush give the first sign of its approaching vegetation, or a little after, when the violet welcomes us with its scent, and the primrose with its beauty; whether we contemplate in succession all the profuse treasures of the summer, or the more hidden secrets of Nature at the season when fruits and seeds are forming; the most familiar objects, like old friends, will always afford us something to study and to admire in their character, while new discoveries will awaken a train of new ideas. The yellow blossoms of the morning, that fold up their delicate leaves as the day advances; others that court and sustain the full blaze of noon; and the pale night, scented tribe, which expand and diffuse their very sweet fragrance, towards evening, will all please in their turn.

Though spring is the season of hope and novelty, to a naturalist more especially, yet the wise provisions and abundant resources of Nature, in the close of the year, will yield an observing mind no less pleasure, than the rich variety of her autumnal tints affords to the admirers of her external charms. The more we study the works of the Creator, the more wisdom, beauty, and harmony become manifest, even to our limited apprehensions: and while we admire, it is impossible not to adore.

Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flowers,
In mingled clouds, to Him, whose sun exalts,
Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints.

Sir J. E. SMITH's Introduction to Botang,

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