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tion and vigour, excites sentiments of pleasure and admiration.

To us, with the exception of a few, they are wholly inoffensive. Not many, even in their own domain, would molest us, but all, even the most hostile, remain there, helpless and indefensible against our power, however great their magnitude may be.

The general character of fishes is not that of voracity and hostility: it is gentleness, harmlessness, sociality, and animation. They are peaceful animals; happy in themselves, and, for the most part, harmonizing together, without any general display of savage cruelty or malignant passions. Such as are appointed to be the food of others, die in that way, and are sought and taken for that purpose, when the appetite actuates, but no further. They cannot be justly stigmatized as voracious for this habit, more than ourselves for taking and eating them and cattle, sheep, fowls, game, and other living creatures.

The mild and harmless character of the fish-class is impressively shewn by most of its largest tribes. The great Greenland Whale pursues no other animal, leads an inoffensive life, and is harmless in proportion to its strength. The Sturgeon, with a form as terrible and a body as large as the Shark, is yet harmless. The great Narwhal, one of the largest and strongest, is one of the most harmless and peaceable inhabitants of the ocean. It is seen constantly sporting among the other great monsters of the deep, no way attempting to injure them.

The ocean, indeed, contains some of a different humour, as the woods and mountains have the wolf and the tiger, but their object seems chiefly food. Fish which devour others for their subsistence, act only as the other carnivorous animals of nature, but they are for the most part indifferent or inoffensive to each other, and many are highly social, flocking peaceably together in shoals.

They have no organ of voice, nor lungs,-yet a few emit sounds. As the Tunnies sail in their vast shoals, they utter a very loud hissing noise. The Ground Ling makes a similar sound when handled. The Scieria Stridens gives a small shriek when first taken out of the water. The great Morse roars like a bull when disturbed, and snores while asleep. The common Seal moans piteously when pursued on land, as it is hurrying to the sea; the

ursine kind low like an ox, and the leonine both grunt and snort.

Fish are probably susceptible of pleasurable feelings, for no bird or quadruped seems to be happier. They appear to be easily satisfied with food, and do not suffer from inclemency of weather, or variations of the seasons. They are always in one even temperature, and are supposed to enjoy a longer continuity of health and strength than most other animals. They possess a natural longevity, which, in some of their classes, surpasses that of man. Like the vegetable and other animal tribes, they have been made useful to man, both in contributing to his sustenance, and in supplying him with many important conveniences, (as for instance, the Whale supplies us with oil and whalebone.) But independently of the human race, they have been created to be happy beings in themselves. They display to us our Creator's power; enlarge our knowledge of His omnipotence; and give us ocular evidence of its multifarious application.

Turner's Sacred History.

BEAUTIES OF NATURE.

How sweet at summer's noon to sit and muse
Beneath the shadow of some ancient elm!
While at my feet the mazy streamlet flows
In tuneful lapse, laving the flowers that bend
To kiss its tide; while sport the finny throng,
On the smooth surface of the crystal depths,
In silvery circlets, or in shallows leap,
That sparkle in the sunbeam's trembling glare.
Around the tiny jets, where humid bells
Break as they form, the water-spiders weave,
Brisk on the eddying pools, their ceaseless dance.
The wild bee winds her horn, lost in the cups
Of honied flowers, or sweeps with ample curve,
While o'er the summer's lap is heard the hum
Of countless insects sporting on the wing
Inviting sleep. And from the leafy woods
One various song of bursting joy ascends,
While echo wafts the notes from grove to hill;

From hill to grove the grateful concert spreads,
As borne on fluttering plumes, in circling maze
The happy birds flit through the balmy air,
Where plays the gossamer; and, as they felt
The general joy, bright exhalations dance;
And shepherd's pipe, and song of blooming maid,
Quick as she turns the odour-breathing swathes
Of new-mown hay, and children playing round
The ivy-cluster'd cot, and low of herds,

And bleat of lambs, that crop the verdant sward
With daisies pied, while smiles the heaven serene;
All wake to ecstacy, or melt to love,

And to the source of goodness raise the soul,——
Raise it to Him, exhaustless source of bliss ;
That like the sun, blest emblem of Himself,
For ever flowing, yet for ever full,

Diffuses life and happiness to all.-Gillespie.

GREAT VALUE OF WATER IN HOT CLIMATES.

"For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye be of Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward."

IN our temperate climate we scarcely understand the full force of this expression of our Saviour; but in hot eastern climates, a cup of cold water is frequently a very essential relief and refreshment. In some parts of the East, considerable pains and expense have been bestowed on inventions to supply travellers with water, and these are always considered as works of peculiar benevolence. It is remarkable, that it is mentioned of the Hindoos in some parts of India, that they sometimes go a considerable distance to fetch water, and bring it to the road-side, where travellers are likely to pass, and offer it to them in honour of the gods. Fountains are common in the East. Their number is owing to the nature of the country and climate.

The soil, parched and thirsty, demands moisture to aid vegetation; and a cloudless sun, which inflames the air, requires for the people verdure, shade, and coolness, its agreeable attendants; hence fountains occur not only

in the towns and villages, but in the fields and gardens, and by the sides of the roads, and by the beaten tracks on the mountains. Many of them are the useful donations of humane persons, while living, or have been bequeathed as legacies on their decease. The Turks esteem the erecting of them as meritorious, and seldom go away after performing their ablutions or drinking, without gratefully blessing the name and memory of the founder.

The method used by the ancients for obtaining the necessary supplies still prevails; this is done by pipes or paved channels. When arrived at the destined spot, it is received by a cistern with a vent, and the waste current passes below from another cistern, often an open sarcophagus. It is common to find a cup of tin or iron hanging near by a chain, or a wooden scoop with a handle placed in a niche in the wall.

The front is of stone or marble, and in some painted and decorated with gilding, and with an inscription in Turkish characters in relievo. The blessing of the name and memory of the builder of one of these fountains, shows that a cup of water in these countries is by no means a despicable thing. Niebuhr tells us, that among the public buildings of Kahira those houses ought to be reckoned where they daily give water gratis to all passengers that desire it. Some of these houses make a very handsome appearance, and those whose business it is to wait on passengers, have some vessels of copper curiously tinned and filled with water, always ready on the window next the street. Hall, in his "Peru," gives the following account of the value of water at Payta.-Being nearly choked with dust, I began the conversation by begging a glass of water; upon which one of the matrons pulled a key from her pocket, and gave it to a young lady, who carried it to a corner of the room, where a large jar was placed, and unlocking the metal lid, measured out a small tumbler-full of water for me; after which she secured the jar, and returned the key to her mother. This extraordinary economy of water arose, as they told us, from there not being a drop to be got nearer than three or four leagues off; and as the supply, even at this distance, was precarious, water at Payta was not only a necessary of life, but, as in a ship on a long voyage, was considered

luxury." The following extract from Carne's Letters from the East, will show the value of water in these climes."Fatigued with heat and thirst, we came to a few cottages in a palm wood, and stopped to drink of a fountain of delicious water. In our northern climate, no idea can be formed of the exquisite luxury of drinking in Egypt: little appetite for food is felt; but when, after crossing the burning sands, you reach the rich line of woods on the brink of the Nile, and pluck the fresh limes, and mixing their juice with Egyptian sugar, and the soft river-water, drink repeated bowls of lemonade, you feel that every other pleasure of the senses must yield to this. One then perceives the beauty and force of those similes in Scripture, where the sweetest emotions of the heart are compared to the assuaging of thirst in a sultry land." Saturday Magazine.

GRACIOUS RAIN.

THE east wind has whistled for many a day
Sere and wintry o'er summer's domain;
And the sun, muffled up in a dull robe of grey,
Look'd sullenly down on the plain.

The butterfly folded her wings as if dead,

Or awaked ere the full destined time;

Every flower shrunk inward, or hung down its head
Like a young heart, grief-struck in its prime.

I too shrunk and shiver'd, and eyed the cold earth,
The cold heavens, with comfortless looks;

And I listened in vain, for the summer bird's mirth,
And the music of rain-plenished brooks.

But, lo! while I listen'd, down heavily dropt

A few tears from a low-sailing cloud:

Large and slow they descended, then thickened-then stopt

Then pour'd down abundant and loud.

Oh, the rapture of beauty, of sweetness, of sound,
That succeeded that soft gracious rain!

With laughter and singing, the valleys rang round,
And the little hills shouted again.

K

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