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past, that the rain were over and gone; that the fig tree would put forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape would give a good smell, that the flowers would appear on the earth; the time of the singing-birds come, and the voice of the turtle be heard once more in our land." "Warner.

SINGULAR VIRTUE AND CONSUMMATE DEPRAVITY

MET together in the following extraordinary case, which is recorded in the history of Derby; the different attitudes which human nature assumes are well worthy attention.

"ABOUT the reign of Oliver Cromwell, or the beginning of Charles the Second, a whole family, consisting of a father and two sons, of the name of Crosland, were tried at Derby assizes, and condemned, I think for horse-stealing. As the offence was capital, the Bench, after sentence, entertained the cruel whim of extending mercy to one of the criminals, but upon this barbarous condition, that the pardoned man should hang the other two! When power wantons in cruelty, it becomes detestable, and gives greater offence than even the culprits. The offer was made to the father, be ing the senior. As distress is the season for reflection, he replied with meekness." Was it ever known that a father hanged his children? How can I take away those lives which I have given, have cherished, and which of all things are most dear?" He bowed, declined the of fer, and gave up his life. Barbarous judges! I am sorry I cannot transmit their names to posterity. This noble reply This noble reply ought to have

pleaded his pardon. It was then made to the eldest son, who, trembling, answered--"Though life is the most valuable of all possessions, yet even that may be purchased too dear. I cannot consent to preserve my existence by taking away him who gave it, nor could I face the world, or even myself, should I be left the only branch of that family I had destroyed!" Love, tenderness, compassion, and all the appendages of honour, must have associated in returning this answer. The proposition was then, of course, made to the younger, John, who accepted it with an avidity that seemed to tell the court he would hang half the creation, and even his judges, rather than be a sufferer himself. He performed the fatal work without remorse upon his father and brother, in which he acquitted himself with such dexterity, that he was appointed to the office of hangman, in Derby, and two or three neighbouring counties, and continued it to extreme age. So void of feeling for distress, he rejoiced at a murder, because it brought the prospect of a guinea. Perhaps he was the only man in court who could hear with pleasure a sentence of death. The bodies of the executed were his perquisite; signs of life have been known to return after execution, in which case he prevented the growing existence by violence ! Loving none, and beloved by none, he spent a life of enmity with man. The very children pelted him in the streets! The mothers endeavored to stop the infant cry with the name of John Crosland, and I have the irksome task of recording him." Hutton.

dearest interests by falsehood; the maxims of war applaud it when employed in the destruction of others. That a familiarity with such maxims must tend to harden the heart, as well as to pervert the moral sentiments, is too obvious to need illustration. The natural conse. quence of their prevalence is an unfeeling and unprincipled ambition, with an idolatry of ta lents, and a contempt of virtue; whence the esteem of mankind is turned from the humble, the beneficent, and the good, to men who are qualified by a genius fertile in expedients, a courage that is never appalled, and a heart that never pities, to become destroyers of the earth! While the philanthropist is devising means mitigate the evils, and augment the happiness of the world, a fellow-worker together with God in exploring, and giving effect to the benevolent tendencies of nature, the warrior is revolving, in the gloomy recesses of his capacious mind, plans of future devastation and ruin---prisons crowded with captives; cities emptied of their inhabitants; fields desolate and waste; among his proudest trophies! The structure of his fame is cemented with tears and blood, and if his name is wafted to the ends of the earth, it is in the shrill cry of suffering humanity, in the curses and imprecations of those whom his sword has reduced to despair! --Hall.

ASTRONOMY

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Is so noble and sublime a science, that every opportunity should be taken of introducing it to the acquaintance of the young and tender mind. The wonderful scenes it unfolds expand the intellectual powers, and lay the basis of a profound devotion towards the Supreme Being.

Hows bereft of their best help, too fully instruct us! Look into private life; behold how good and pleasant a thing it is to live together in unity; it is like the precious ointment poured on the head of Aaron that ran down to hisskirts!" importing that this balm of life is felt, and en. joyed not only by governors of kingdoms, but is derived down to the lowest ranks of life, and tasted in the most private recesses; all from the king to the peasant are refreshed with its blessings, without which we can find no comfort in any thing this world can give. It is this blessing gives every one to sit quietly under his vine, and reap the fruits of his labour and industry. In one word, which bespeaks who is the bestower of it, it is that only which keeps up the harmony and order of the world, and preserves every thing in it from ruin and confusion."--Sterne.

THE CURSE OF WAR

MAY be emphatically learnt from the enumeration of the horrors and miseries with which it is attended; it is one of those tremendous 'evils which the Almighty employs to chastise a guilty world.

"THE morality of peaceful times is directly opposite to the maxims of war. The fundamental rule of the first is to do good; of the latter, to inflict injuries. The former commands ns to succour the oppressed; the latter to over. whelm the defenceless. The former teaches men to love their enemies, the latter to make themselves terrible even to strangers. The rules of morality will not suffer us to promote the

dearest interests by falsehood; the maxims of war applaud it when employed in the destruction of others. That a familiarity with such maxims must tend to harden the heart, as well as to pervert the moral sentiments, is too obvious to need illustration. The natural conse. quence of their prevalence is an unfeeling and unprincipled ambition, with an idolatry of ta lents, and a contempt of virtue; whence the esteem of mankind is turned from the humble, the beneficent, and the good, to men who are qualified by a genius fertile in expedients, a courage that is never appalled, and a heart that never pities, to become destroyers of the earth! While the philanthropist is devising means to mitigate the evils, and augment the happiness of the world, a fellow-worker together with God in exploring, and giving effect to the benevolent tendencies of nature, the warrior is revolving, in the gloomy recesses of his capacious mind, plans of future devastation and ruin-prisons crowded with captives; cities emptied of their inhabitants; fields desolate and waste; are among his proudest trophies! The structure of his fame is cemented with tears and blood, and if his name is wafted to the ends of the earth, it is in the shrill cry of suffering humanity, in the curses and imprecations of those whom his sword has reduced to despair! -Hall.

ASTRONOMY

Is so noble and sublime a science, that every opportunity should be taken of introducing it to the acquaintance of the young and tender mind. The wonderful scenes it unfolds expand the intellectual powers, and lay the basis of a profound devotion towards the Supreme Being.

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