estimation, by the wisest and best part of mankind.

"AT the same time that you are assiduous to secure and to perpetuate the blessings of friendship, be careful to deserve them. Never forget, that he who has a friend must show himself friendly. Between minds, as well as between bodies, attraction can subsist no longer than it is reciprocal: and mutual kindness can only be cherished by mutual endeavours to serve and oblige. If you are frequently receiving from your friend tokens of attachment and affection, watch for opportunities of making equivalent returns; or if inequality of condi tion should on your part render this impracti cable, be the more careful to seize every oc casion of expressing, in ways not inconsistent with the delicacy of friendship, your sense of obligation. Above all, study to render your self worthy of the friendship you value, by cherishing all those amiable qualities, and prac tising all those substantial virtues, which unite to form the character of a true friend. More particularly cultivate the kind and generous affections. Friendship is the reciprocation of affection; and he who has none to bestow, has no right to expect any in return. To hope to gain a friend without this, is as if the merchant should expect to purchase a jewel of the high. est value without being able or willing to pay the price for it. On the contrary, kindness will always be found to produce kindness; and no man will fail to be rich in the returns of love, who is careful to purchase it with the payment of love. Exercise an habitual com mand over yourselves, to check those sudden gusts of ill-humour or passion which the casual

interference of opinions, inclinations, or inter ests may tend to excite.

The maxim is well-founded, that friendship is not to be formed with an angry man. Be ever ready to allow to your friend that indulg. ence which you claim for yourself; and rather by gentleness and forbearance invite genero. sity, than by a rude and unyielding assertion of your right awaken the latent spirit of discord. Be upon your guard against every propensity to peevishness and fretfulness: nothing is more dissonant to the tones of love, than the harsh murmurs of discontent. Friendship loves to breathe a free and pleasant air, and to bask in the sunshine of cheerfulness: amidst the fogs and damps of fretfulness it sickens and dies! Even in sorrow, if you wish to secure the consolations of friendship, you must refrain from peevish and ill humoured complaints. Friendship must provide itself against the storm as well as the calm; and he who wishes to preserve a friend to the last hour of his life, must endeavour to carry a mild, placid, and affectionate temper through all the vicissitudes of the world."--Dr. Enfield.

MECHANICAL WONDERS OF A FEATHER

ARE thus most ingeniously delineated; it is a subject we little think of, and yet it yields suitable topics for our meditation.

"EVERY single feather is a mechanical won. der. If we look at the quill, we find proper ties not easily brought together,--strength and lightness. I know few things more remarkable than the strength and lightness of the very pen with which I am now writing. If we cast

our eye toward the upper part of the stem, we see a material made for the purpose, used in no other class of animals, and in no other part of birds; tough, light, pliant, elastic. The pith, also, which feeds the feathers, is neither bone, flesh, membrane, nor tendon.

But the most artificial part of a feather is the beard, or as it is sometimes called, the vane; which we usually strip off from one side or both when we make a pen.

The separate pieces of which this is composed are called threads, filaments, or rays. Now the first thing which an attentive observer will remark is, how much stronger the beard of the feather shows itself to be when pressed in a direction perpendicular to its plane, than when rubbed either up or down in the line of the stem; and he will soon discover, that the threads of which these beards are composed are flat, and placed with their flat sides to wards each other; byfwhich means, while they easily bend for the approaching of each other, as any one may perceive by drawing his finger ever so lightly upwards, they are much harder to bend out of their plane, which is the direction in which they have to encounter the impulse and pressure of the air, and in which their strength is wanted.

It is also to be observed, that when two threads, separated by accident or force, are brought together again, they immediately reclasp. Draw your finger down the feather which is against the grain, and you break, probably the junction of some of the contigu. ous threads; draw your finger up the feather, and you restore all things to their former

state.

It is no common mechanism by which this

contrivance is effected. The threads or lamina above mentioned are interlaced with one ano ther: and the interlacing is performed by means. of a vast number of fibres or teeth which the. threads shoot forth on each side, and which hook and grapple together.

Fifty of these fibres have been counted in one twentieth of an inch. They are crooked, but curved after a different manner; for those which proceed from the thread on the side toward the extremity of the feather are longer, more flexible, and bent downward; whereas those which proceed from the side toward the beginning or quill-end of the feather, are short, er, firmer, and turned upward. When two laminæ, therefore, are pressed together, the crooked parts of the long fibres fall into the ca vity made by the crooked parts of the others; just as the latch which is fastened to a door, enters into the cavity of the catch fixed to the. door post, and there hooking itself, fastens the door!"...Dr. Paley.

THE INEQUALITIES OF THE GLOBE

HAVE afforded to naturalists a variety of speculation, and they are to be considered as a necessary part of the terrestrial globe, which God has assigned for the habitation of man.

"WERE the Earth an even and regular plain, instead of that beautiful variety of hills and valleys, of verdant forests and refreshing streams, which at present delight our senses, a dismal sea would cover the whole face of the globe, and at best it would be only the habita tion of fishes.

It is not therefore to be supposed, that even

in its origin the surface of the earth was perfectly regular; and since its first production a variety of causes, such as the motion of the waters, subterraneous fires, winds, and other circumstances, have greatly contributed to the increase of this irregularity. The greatest inequalities of the globe are the depths of the ocean, compared to the elevations of moun. tains. The depth of the sea is very different even at great distances from the land; it is said there are parts above a mile deep; but these are few, and the general profundities are from sixty to one hundred fathoms.

In general the mountains between the tropics are loftier than those of the temperate zones, and those of the frigid zones, so that the nearer we approach the equator the greater are the inequalities. These inequalities, although very considerable with respect to us, are nothing when considered with respect to the globe itself; for the earth, which appears to us crossed and cut by the enormous height of mountains, and by the frightful depth of the sea, is nevertheless, relatively to its bulk, very slightly furrowed with irregularities so very trifling, that they can cause no perceptible difference to the visible figure of the globe.

Precipices are formed by the sinking of rocks the base of which sometimes gives way more on one side than the other, by the action of the air and frost, which splits and divides them; and by the impetuous fall of torrents, which opens passages, and carries along with them all that opposes their violence.

But those vast and enormous concavities found at the summit of mountains, have gene rally been formed by the operation of fire. These concavities were formerly the craters or