pond and the bank, the varied lights and the deep shadows gave a wondrous interest to the scene before me. The sky, the trees, the bushes, the brambles, the straggling wires, and scarlet berries, were all plainly reflected in the clear dark waters. A dry leaf fell, however, from the bending branches of the oak, a light breeze rippled the surface of the pond, and the whole scene became animated in the reflecting water. But my description is poor and tame. The whole was entrancingly beautiful, and I could hardly endure my emotions of joy. I left the pond to gaze on a far more glorious scene, and to partake a yet more exalted gratification. the brightest object in creation, was about to set. The sun, Oh, it was glorious, in the midst of all my weakness and unworthiness, to know and to feel that I was God's creature, gifted to gaze on his beautiful creation, and to thrill with overpowering emotions at the soul-absorbing spectacle before me. To the east, lay a range of murky, mountainous hills, on which the dark, and almost inky, clouds seemed to rest, as they slowly rolled their heavy weight along the lower part of the heavens. In the south, the woods and coppices, rich with the coloured tints of autumn, were illumined with the straggling rays of the declining sun, and right in the west a big black cloud stretched itself across the sky, with edges of gold and silver, bright even to intensity. Behind the cloud was ensconsed the sun, flinging right and left, above and below, his glittering beams. I clasped my hands with transport, and while I gazed on the glowing scene in an ecstacy, the sun thrust forth below the dark cloud, pouring his unendurable beams in a torrent of light, full in my face, blinding for a season the enthusiastic idolater who was so engrossed in admiring the king of day, as for a season almost to forget his Almighty Maker, the King of kings and Lord of lords! Silent, solemn, and sublime was that glorious and gorgeous spectacle. Subdued, even to tears, I faltered a prayer to the Father of mercies, that while his glorious creation produced such entrancing emotions of wonder and joy in my heart, his grace might fit me, despite of all my unworthiness, to discern the greater glories of redemption, so that I might know him, and adore him, and love him, and obey him, and rejoice in him, for ever and ever! PREPARATION OF FLAX AND HEMP. LINEN is a kind of cloth usually constructed of the thread of flax; but sometimes hemp is also employed. Linen has been long used as an article of clothing. From the earliest periods of the Egyptian history, we have evidence of its use among that people. The bodies of the dead were always swathed with it, and, in all probability, it was the common article of dress. Among the Romans it was not used till the time of Alexander Severus, who was the first emperor that wore it; and it was not till a long time after his death, that it became a common article of dress. Many writers think that the manufacture of linen goods was introduced into England by the Romans, a supposition supported by strong probability; for we not only know that this people endeavoured to promote the arts among the uncivilized tribes they conquered; but we have also evidence in the present day, of the zealous efforts they made to introduce the art of building, and the comforts of life, among the rude and barbarous aborigines of our native land. The introduction of the cotton manufacture, and its surprising increase, may be considered as the causes why the linen manufacture has not attained that pre-eminence among us which might naturally be expected. In the year 1693, King William III. received a petition from both houses of parliament, stating that the woollen manufacture of Ireland had so far surpassed that of England, it was expedient for the well-being of the latter, that some impediments should be thrown in the way of the former; and praying him to establish the linen manufacture in its stead. The king returned answer, that he would do all in his power to discourage the woollen manufacture of Ireland, and to promote the trade of England. Soon after this, the government prohibited the exportation of all woollen goods from Ireland, except to England; and such heavy duties were levied, that the Irish soon found themselves unable to compete with the English manufacturers. This unjust and short-sighted policy excited some murmuring among | commerce. It is employed extensively in the manufacture of cordage, and is also sometimes used in linen goods, although it has a much stronger and coarser fabric than flax. In Russia, Poland, and Italy, it is extensively cultivated; a small quantity is also grown in Ireland, but it is not sufficiently pro the Irish, but the parliament and government succeeded in their object; the woollen manufacture was destroyed, and the linen introduced. The Irish linen trade has been ever since supported and protected by legislative interference, but whether this has been advantageous may be fairly doubted; we believe the manu-fitable for the British farmer. Sailfacturing interest would have been in a more healthy state without this intended assistance. Even in the year 1830, bounties were granted for the exportation of linen goods, as well as premiums. In the year 1829, the bounty alone, although it had been then much decreased, amounted to nearly £300,000, or nearly one-seventh the value of the goods exported that year. Such a system was calculated to produce an indifference to all improvement, and such was in fact the effect. Besides this, the foreign markets were supplied with goods at a price less than they cost. "There is no reason to doubt," says a writer on this subject, "that were the various sums expended in well-meant, but useless attempts to force this manufacture, added together, with their accumulations at simple interest, they would be found sufficient to yield an annual revenue, little, if at all inferior to the entire value of the linens which we now send abroad." These bounties, however, are now withdrawn, the duties upon flax and hemp have been removed, the ridiculous attempts to force the growth of the raw material at home have been given up; and the manufacture has already assumed a more healthy appearance. Flax is a plant more or less cultivated in nearly all European states, and is found in its wild state in many foreign countries. It is an annual plant, and the seed, which must be of the previous year's growth, is sown between the second week of March and the middle of April. At the end of July or middle of August, it is ripe, and fit for pulling. It is frequently sown with clover-seed, which is then an after-crop. Agriculturists inform us, that it succeeds best in a rich deep loam, and that any ground, which has the previous year yielded a good crop of barley, turnips, or broad clover, is suited for flax. Hemp is supposed to be a native of India, but is now grown in many other countries, and is an important article of cloth is the fabric in which hemp is most extensively employed; it makes excellent huckaback for towels and table-cloths. The Manilla hemp, obtained from the banana tree, is very abundant in the Philippine Isles, and is an excellent material for the cables and rigging of vessels. The Riga hemp is preferred in this country, andsells at the best price. From these remarks it will be evident, that although hemp is occasionally employed in the manufacture of what are called linen goods, yet flax is the principal and proper fibre. Our remarks, therefore, in explaining the preparation and manufacture will, for the most part, apply to the latter substance. When the flax is full ripe, and pulled from the ground, the first process must be, to separate the useful fibre from the other parts of the plant. This is situated between the interior wood and the bark, and has been for ages obtained by a process called water-rotting; that is, by rotting away the wood, the fibre being able to resist for a considerable time the solvent power of the water. This process is one of great antiquity; it was used by the Egyptians, and from the time in which they lived, till very recently, by all modern nations. There are, however, many objections to it, and especially the injurious effect it has upon the health of the inhabitants and the cattle in those districts where it is performed. It is well known that no country is so unhealthy as one in which a large quantity of vegetable matter is in a state of rapid decomposition. The reader will perhaps remember the disastrious results of the expedition to explore the Congo, a large river in Western Africa. In a few days, nearly all those who were engaged in following the course of this river, were carried off by fever and other diseases, produced by the noxious vapours arising from decaying vegetable matter. It is the opinion of persons who are capable of judging, that the many pestilential diseases to which persons are subject in the neigh bourhood of Rome and Naples, may be traced to the same cause; and in all places where large quantities of flax are in preparation by immersion in water, diseases become more numerous and violent. The operation of rotting is one which requires the greatest care, and as it must be done as soon as the flax is ripe, about the month of August, it is exceedingly troublesome to the farmer, who is then anxious to devote all his time to the ingathering of his corn harvest. No fixed time can be stated as sufficient for the decomposition of the woody fibre, as it is, in certain cases, hastened or retarded without any evident cause. If it be macerated too long, the fibre is destroyed as well as the wood, and if not long enough, a portion of the woody matter is left, and the flax will not dress well. In the very first process of the manufacture there is, therefore, a danger of destroying or injuring the crop. The watering of the flax is generally performed in the following manner :An artificial pond or canal is excavated near some river or other reservoir, where water can be obtained. A space, forty feet long, six feet wide, and four feet deep, is sufficient to receive the produce of an acre. The flax is then bound in bundles, and thrown into the water, one upon the other, so that the weight of the uppermost causes those which are beneath to sink. Hurdles or boards are then placed on the top, and sufficient weights are added to cause all the flax to sink beneath the surface of the water, but no bundle is allowed to touch the bottom. In about a fortnight the operation will be completed, and the bundles, which will then be exceedingly soft and liable to injury, are removed on boards, and spread out on short grass. Here they are allowed to remain for some time, exposed to the dew and occasional showers, which not only complete the decomposition, but also wash away the decomposed matter which hangs about them. After about a month's exposure, and when perfectly dry, the bundles are carried away, and are ready for the next process, which is the breaking away of the brittle woody fibre that remains, technically called the boon. It has been the custom for many ages, to separate the remaining woody matter from the useful fibre, either by hand, or by a simple machinery. In the first method a mallet was used; but more commonly it was done by a breaker. This instrument consists of a set of blunt iron teeth, which are fixed in a solid piece of wood, and meet another set of teeth fixed in a moveable piece; this is worked with one hand, while the other supplies the flax. When the wood has been broken into small pieces by either of these methods, the flax is beaten against a smooth post, called the scutching post; after which it is again beaten by a small hand instrument, which greatly resembles a curry-comb. By these operations the flax is prepared and comes into the hands of the hackler as a long fibre. The inconvenient and unhealthy method so long adopted of preparing the flax would, before this, have induced many mechanists to attempt the invention of some machine suited to perform the operation, had flax been sufficiently cultivated in this country to offer the prospect of remuneration. This was attempted in the year 1812, and a patent was obtained for the invention. Since this period, Mr. Bundy, of Camden Town, obtained two patents, one for a machine he calls a breaker, and one for a rubber. The former is intended to separate the bark from the useful fibre; and the latter to rub and separate the fibres, bringing them into that state fit for the hackler. Hackling is that process by which the fibres of the flax are straitened. The instrument by which this operation is performed, consists of a number of teeth fixed upright in a flat board. When firmly attached to a bench, the workman draws the flax rapidly between the teeth; and when the combing or hackling has been performed with one instrument, the workman takes another which is finer, and continues to repeat the process, until the requisite degree of fineness has been obtained. When the flax has been thus prepared, it is given into the hands of the manufacturer. To trace the several processes by which it is converted into linen is not necessary, for they scarcely differ in principle from those already explained in our description of cotton spinning. Some parts of the machinery are constructed in a different manner, but there is so great a similarity in the operations, that to follow them in detail, would be little more than a repetition of what has been already said. TRUE KNOWLEDGE IS HUMBLING. YOUNG Scholars are the proudest. Duarenus used to say of those that came to the university the first year, they were doctors in their own conceit; the second year they were licentiates; and the third year, students and learners. None of the apostles outstripped Paul in the knowledge of God and Christ, nor did any arrive at an equal measure with him; neither did any of them equal him in his humility, for he sets himself upon record to the world as the least of all saints and the chiefest of sinners. The more clear the revelations of God are to our souls, the more voluntary disannulments there are of ourselves. The angels, that have the nearest approach to the Deity, and the richest prospect of his glory, cover their faces with an awful sense of his Majesty. A great stock of knowledge debases a wise man in his own eyes, because it impresses him with a sense of his own weakness to get to the top of the mountain which he would reach by his inquiries. Socrates, who was the most knowing man of his age, was sensible that he knew nothing; because the more a man knows, the more he finds his own ignorance, and his inability to shake it off: and that the things of which he is ignorant far exceed those which he seems to grasp in his understanding. So it is with the Christian; he is sensible that what he knows of God and Christ is inconceivably less than what remains to be known. The more any man sees of God, the lower he falls in his own eyes.- Charnock. DIVINE CHASTISEMENTS. As it concerns us to observe when the creatures become corrosives, so it does also to improve this corroding dispensation. Let it be a means to eat out the proud flesh of some sin or other, which is the procuring cause of all. The creatures frown; but doth not God frown on some sin, in their frowning? It would better become those who cry out against their superiors, to consider how the taking cold in the feet is often the cause of disorder in the head. The sins of people, wives, children, servants, are the cold vapours which cause a distemper. The headache of some above others, becomes a heartache to and from those below others. View sin, then, so as to be more abased for it, and creatures less in the way of disquiet. So the prophet teaches, Lam. iii. 40. The overtaking of sin with hue-and-cry, is the best remedy under such maladies.- Crane. EXCELLENCY OF THE BIBLE. THE Scripture of the Old and New Testament is a most solid and precious system of Divine truth. Every part thereof is worthy of God, and altogether is one entire body, wherein is no defect, no excess. It is the fountain of heavenly wisdom, which those who are able to taste, prefer to all the writings of men, however learned or holy. - John Wesley. THE SUITABLENESS OF THE GOSPEL. How admirably adapted is the economy of redemption to our apostate state! Are we miserable, in consequence of sin? God is merciful through the propitiation which is in the blood of Christ. Are we unworthy? God is gracious. Are we to the last degree impoverished? God is immensely bountiful. The spiritual benefits which he confers are absolutely free gifts; and gifts, we know, are not purchased, but bestowed; not obtained upon conditions to be performed, but received as matters of mere favour. The blessings of Divine grace were not intended to recognise moral worth, but to relieve the indigent; not designed to indicate holy qualities in the receiver, but to display generosity in the Giver-Booth AFFLICTION. WHEN you see the refiner cast his gold into the furnace, do you think he is angry with the gold, and means to cast it away? No, he sits as a refiner. He stands warily over the fire, and over the gold, and looks to it that not one grain be lost. And when the dross is severed, he will out with it presently; it shall be no longer there.— Crisp. HUMILITY. GENERALLY speaking, those who have the most grace, and the greatest gifts, and are of the greatest usefulness, are the most humble, and think the most meanly of themselves. So those boughs and branches of trees which are most richly laden with fruit, bend downwards, and hang lowest.-Gill. THE most important discovery during the period under consideration, was the art of printing; but its effects, great and rapid as they were, did not begin to be generally manifested till a later period. The first book printed in England was at Westminster, in 1474, by William Caxton, as already noticed: see pages 297 and 304. When a book could only be produced by the slow operation of writing, literature was confined to a comparatively small number. The profession of a scribe was respectable and well paid; and we find from the Paston letters that the cost of writing a book in 1469, containing about two hundred leaves, was thirty-one shillings and fourpence, the wages of a mere copyist being about double those of a skilful artificer in handicraft. Most of the manuscripts were produced in the abbeys and monasteries. A part of the building frequently was set apart for this work by far the greater portion of books thus produced, however, were the complicated Romish service books, and legends of saints. In the plunder of the NOVEMBER, 1838. abbey of Abingdon, A.D. 1517, were found two hundred and forty psalters, grayles, and missals, all of which were service-books, but only twenty-two other manuscripts. Some copies of the Scriptures, usually with glosses and comments, were produced, and a few works of a scientific character, including some moral treatises. Most of the latter, however, were in accordance with the scholastic pursuits and the imperfect philosophy of that day, and are now of little interest, and devoid of use; and a large proportion are occupied by the worse than profitless discussions of the schoolmen, who would solemnly argue such questions as those of Thomas Aquinas, How an angel passes from one place to another-Whether a child born in a desert could be saved without baptismWhether God could annihilate matter, with others still more blasphemous. Other questions were more harmless, though equally useless, such as the famous discussion, debated for centuries and never decided, Whether a pig led to market by a rope round his neck, was led by the rope, or by the man who held it! Books of any size were costly articles, and were given with all the formality of bequest, by will, and often the right of perusal was reserved to the donors, or I I |