away. Paintings are rent, sculpture | and your glory? whose gentleness, tenmutilated, inscriptions defaced; and derness, and affection are to influence, in family records, love tokens, and gifts of future years, the more rugged heart of friendship are torn, trampled, and burned. man? It remains with you, whether Oaths and blasphemies resound, riot your child, by encouraging in others the and debauchery are every where seen selfish dreams of ambition and pride, with the wildest forms of cruelty and shall strengthen the ranks of war, and death. spread around desolation and death; or by the exercise of persuasion, kindness, and mercy, she shall prove the gentle advocate and influential promoter of peace.

long as he loves temporal power, he will hold on to his professed priestly supremacy, and seek to perpetuate the reign of superstition and darkness. Every one who has at all examined the subject, will see that there are prodigious incitements in the papal church to unsanctified ambition. The most obscure monk, clad in the coarsest robe, girded with a flaxen rope, and shod with wooden sandals, may, by tact and cunning, and a certain course of management, obtain a cardinal's hat, ride in a princely chariot, roll in splendour, and ultimately sit in the papal chair. The now reigning Pope rose to his present station, from an obscure monk of the order of St. Gregory.

execution any plan he had formed. The vigour and strength of his body appeared every way equal to the activity and restlessness of his mind. But all these qualities seemed now suddenly annihilated. He would not connect himself with either party in the conclave, after the death of Pius v. He withdrew almost wholly from the court, and very reluctantly took any part in political affairs, under Gregory x111. He treated every one with kindness and affability, and suffered injuries without seeking revenge. He expended his income in acts of benevolence and literary enterprise; erecting monuments to forgotten saints, and ministering to the poor. His whole bodily Sixtus v. also, who filled the papal appearance was changed. Instead of a see the latter part of the sixteenth cen- stout, vigorous frame, he had become tury, might be referred to, as another greatly emaciated, and presented the instance, illustrative of the preceding appearance of a sick and broken-down remarks. He was born near Montalto, old man, who loved, above all things of very indigent parents, and spent his else, tranquillity and devotion. Under early years in the most humble labours, the mask of pious simplicity and feeble to procure his daily bread. His proper old age, he gained much information name was Felix Peretti. He had an from the licentious nobles, who confided uncle that was a Franciscan monk, to him their secrets, while he acted as through whose influence he obtained ad- their confessor. He thus deceived all mittance into one of the schools of this about him, as to his true character. religious order. Evincing brilliancy of Upon the death of Gregory XIII., the intellect, he ingratiated himself so far majority of candidates were of the opiinto the favour of his instructor, that he nion, that a pope like Montalto would be was continued in school till he had re- most easily managed, and probably would ceived a thorough education. He parti- soon, by his demise, leave the see vacularly distinguished himself in scholastic cant for another election. In the midst philosophy and theology, and in Roman of the conclave, convened in the electoral literature. He now rose rapidly, and chapel, stood Montalto, leaning with bent obtained not only holy orders, but the form and tremulous limbs, upon a staff, title of Doctor of Divinity. His cele- to all appearance on the verge of the brity as an acute logician and eloquent grave, when his election to fill the ponpreacher, soon became widely diffused. tifical chair was announced. Instantly His learning and talents, and increasing he threw down, as with scorn, the staff distinction, awakened the jealousy of not on which he had leaned, and stood forth a few of the great men in the Roman erect in form, and with an elasticity of Catholic church, whose fame he threat-step that perfectly astonished and elecened to eclipse. They engaged in controversy with him, and tried to crush him. For a while they partially succeeded but at length, he obtained a cardinal's hat, and took the name of Montalto. Well acquainted with the policy of his colleagues, he believed the surest way to gain the triple crown, the great object of his ambition, was to pursue a course of conduct which should not awaken the jealousy of the other cardinals. Up to this period, he had been distinguished as an intolerant, violent, and most ambitious man. His habits, also, were very active; no labour or toils would prevent him from carrying into

trified the whole college of cardinals. He was no longer the feeble, decrepit, simple old man, but the firm, vigorous, shrewd, ambitious pope Sixtus v., who showed that he could grasp and wield the sceptre of the world. His object was now attained. He had been acting a part fifteen years, and now, having obtained the object of his wish, the mask was thrown off.

The possibility of attaining this high eminence is more clearly illustrated by the fact, that the occupants of the papal chair are generally selected, as in the instance just related, from those whose prospects of continued life were not the

in London is more generally visited than the British Museum; and it might be difficult to find a place that has been more frequently described. It possesses two very great attractions: one, that it has much within it deserving attention; the other, that it may be seen for nothing.

and now a carriage has driven up to the gate. It is time for me to trudge across the street, and to enter the place myself.

most encouraging. To show the truth of this remark, it will be enough to state, that since the death of Pius VII., in July, 1823, a period less than fifteen ears, there have been three popesLeo XII., Pius VIII., and Gregory xvI., the present Roman pontiff. In a body composed of about fifty, never exceeding seventy persons, there is held out the As viewed from the spot where I am strong probability, that at least three of now standing, it has little in appearance this number, every fifteen years may to recommend it. Neither its guarded Occupy a throne. Are there no stimu- gateways, its square turrets, its front lants to unsanctified ambition here? of dirty red brick, nor its old crazy cuAnd then the Pope is not a tool, subject pola, is of an alluring character. Even to the dictation of his ministers. He is in the short time it has occupied me an absolute monarch. No government to note down this remark, twenty-three can be more despotic than that_ estab- persons have passed by the two senlished over the papal states. I might tinels, who are on duty with their bayorefer to the case of Torlonia, a distin-nets fixed at the end of their muskets; guished banker in Rome, in illustration of the position that the Romish church is upheld and strengthened in these states, from worldly and political considerations. Torlonia was the son of a poor pedlar, but by his tact and industry, he accumulated a large fortune. He desired to ennoble his family, and therefore purchased a dukedom, and acquired the title belonging to it. He must of course live in a style which comports with his acquired nobility. He has therefore purchased one of the old palaces on the Corso, and is fitting it up with an elegance that will throw the mansions of the wealthiest princes of Rome into the shade. But observe, no one can lift up his head here among the magnates of the land, upon whom the pope and church do not smile; and, therefore, Torlonia has purchased, for the sum of eighteen thousand dollars, the privilege of putting up and adorning a chapel in one of the unoccupied recesses of the church of St. John Lateran. It is said, that already contracts have been made for sculpture and paintings, for the adornment of this chapel, to the amount of more than a hundred thousand dollars. What political men in our country are willing to scatter among the people to buy golden opinions, Torlonia is willing to lavish on the church, to obtain the good opinion of him whose thunders issue from the Vatican.-Clarke's Glimpses of the Old World.

THE PERAMBULATOR.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

WITH the exception of St. Paul's Cathedral, perhaps no public building

Ay! This spacious quadrangle gives a different aspect to the building, and the fine flight of steps adds much to its general appearance. The French architect, Peter Puget, who designed the edifice, now rises in the estimation of the spectator. But the sarcophagus, covered with hieroglyphics, near the gateway, and the ancient canoe, formed apparently from a large tree, hollowed out by the chisel or by fire, draw the visitors aside, and claim for a season their attention.

At the foot of the flight of steps, surrounded by a slight enclosure, the gigantic head bones of two enormous creatures arrest the eye of the spectator. They are of a most astonishing size and form; and a stranger, until he reads the inscription beside them, wonders to what kind of animal they could belong. I have something to say on this subject, which is a little curious.

A few years ago, on passing over London Bridge, my attention was attracted by half a dozen bright yellow placard papers, pasted against a wall near the bridge. On these papers, was printed the following wonderful announcement: "Wonderful Remains of an Enormous Head, eighteen feet in length, seven feet in breadth, and weighing seventeen hundred pounds. The complete bones of which were discovered, in excavating a passage for the purpose of a railway, at the depth of seventy-five feet from the surface of the ground in Louisiania, and at a distance of one hundred and sixty miles from the sea. This great

curiosity to be seen from ten in the morning till six in the evening.'

posite the elephant and giraffes, sometimes regarding them, and sometimes leaning my head backwards to admire the painted ceiling, whereon the fall of Phaeton, and the synod of heathen gods, are beautifully painted.

Youth, maturity, and age, all press forward to see the British Museum. There is a perfect throng now upon the staircase. Holiday and cheerfulness may be seen in almost every face. A pleasant sight it is to witness human happiness!

In a very short time, I directed my steps to the Cosmorama, in Regent Street, where the enormous head was to be seen. There I gazed on the prodigy, and much did it excite my wonder. The proprietors were Frenchmen, and many were the dreams of imagination in which they indulged. It was thought the head might have belonged to a bird, for the beaklike formation of the projecting bones gave some colour to such a possibility; but, then, had such a monster lived, kitelike, on other birds, he would speedily have depopulated a space equal to a whole parish, ay, a whole county of its feathered tribes. It was suggested by one, that it might have belonged to a fish; but the circumstance of it being found so deep in the earth, and so far from the sea, threw a difficulty in the way of this suggestion. It was intimated by another, as no improbability, that it belonged to a reptile, a gigantic lizard; and to such a creature, supposing that he sustained himself by vegetation, shrubs and bushes must have been as grass, and young oaks and elms as a pleasant sort of asparagus. In short, from the conversation I had with these foreigners, it was clear that in their apprehension, the eagle might be but a lark, the whale but a minnow, and the mammoth but a mite, compared to the creatures that once inhabited the air, the ocean, and the earth in the ages that have longed winged their way to eter-implacable spirit of savage men. How nity.

Well! I lost sight altogether of this "Enormous Head" for some years, and did not expect to see the like again, until one day visiting this place I saw the two heads now before me, one that of the Spermaceti whale, (Physeter macrocephalus,) the other the skull and lower jaw of the northern whalebone whale, (Balana mysticetus.) The strong resemblance of the latter convinced me that the "Enormous Head" was nothing more than the head of a whale.

I have entered my name in the book, kept in the hall, for the purpose of receiving signatures of visitors: given a glance at the gilded idol, and the mysterious impression made by his foot, ascended the staircase, paused a moment opposite the musk ox, polar bear, and gigantic fernsprays, and am now op

Here is a room crowded with curiosities, once the property of savage tribes, living thousands of miles apart from each other! The Esquimaux, the new Zealander, the Otaheitan, and the South American Indian have all contributed to the collection. Implements of labour, fishing tackle, warlike weapons, and instruments of music are ranged around. The spear, the javelin, the shark-tooth saw, the club, the tomahawk, and the scalping knife, are mingled with bows and arrows, canoes, sledges, fish hooks, harpoons, bowls, and calabashes. Here is a screen made of the feathers of an eagle; there, a dancing dress of the fibres of cocoa nut bark, and yonder are ugly idols, bracelets of boars' tusks, mirrors of black slaty stone, necklaces of seeds and shells, and wooden coats of armour.

Nor are the trophies of war forgotten; the scalps of the vanquished in battle may here be seen, a species of spoil that is too dear to the cruel and

opposed to the fierce hostility and relentless revenge of the untutored Indian, is the merciful injunction, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them whieh despitefully use you, and persecute you," Matt. v. 44. And yet the time will come, for the mouth of the Holy One has declared it, when this Christian command shall run through the wigwam and through the world, when the javelin of the savage shall be broken, his bow be snapped in sunder, and his scalping knife be guiltless of his fellow's blood.

In the centre of the room, in a glass case, lies the far famed Magna Charta, wrung from a tyrannous monarch by the armed hands of his barons; and many a prying eye pores over the time-worn document with curiosity and wonder. It takes us back to the days when king

was his amazement, when the first article taken out of the nest, was the missing yellow silk handkerchief; then the broad blue bonnet, with three eggs most comfortably ensconced in it; next appeared an old tartan waistcoat, with to

nac, for 1839, in the other, the almanac having the words, scarcely legible, 'J. Fraser,' written upon it; then came a flannel nightcap, marked with red worsted, 'D. C. J. ;' a pair of old

John, a treacherous and false-hearted and dangerous rock on the farm, to deking, made, as it were, the land "deso-stroy the nest of a glede, (kite.) Great late because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger,' Jer. xxv. 38. But his tyranny prevailed not. What a fine burst of language is that, in which the prophet Isaiah rebukes those who are fearful of the oppression of man, and yet forgetful of the good-bacco in one pocket, and Orr's Almaness of God! "Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the found-white mittens, a piece of a letter with ations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor ?" Isaiah li. 12, 13. The painted ceilings by Charles de la Foss, and the splendid groupes of flowers, by James Rousseau, are admirable productions. They remind me of the vivid pencillings of Le Brun, in the palace of Versailles. The more I look on them, the more I like them.

To describe the animals, birds, reptiles, fishes, and insects, the shells, minerals, fossils, petrifactions, and antiquities of this place, would be impossible; for there is not one department that would not furnish amusement for a week. They are all classed in a scientific manner; the carnivorous animals are separated from those that are granivorous; and the birds of prey from the aquatic and those that sing. From the diminutive humming bird to the stately ostrich; the feathered creation may here be seen in all their varied forms and gaudy plumage. The kite in the glass case there, reminds me of an anecdote that has just been related to

me.

"A respectable farmer in Scotland, after a walk over his farm, at the beginning of this year's lambing season, and on a very warm morning, fell asleep on a high hill. On awaking, he found that his broad blue bonnet, and a yellow silk handkerchief, which he had placed beside him, were both missing. At first, he suspected they had been taken away in sport by some person on the farm; but, on inquiry, every individual on the farm and neighbourhood, who could possibly have approached the spot, denied all knowledge of the missing articles. Some weeks after, our correspondent and a party were ascending a very steep

green wax, and the Inverness postmark, an old red and white cravat, and a miscellaneous assortment of remains of cotton, paper, and other things. This bird had, indeed, been a daring robber, and had carried on his extensive larcenies for a long time with impunity."

Herculaneum and Pompeii have sent of their long buried stores to add to the costliness of this extended treasure house. Greek and Roman antiquities are here, and numerous idols of metal, stone and wood; terracottas, sculptures, vases, jars, and urns; with busts and figures, coins and medals, rings and curious seals. There are also beautiful specimens of precious stones, of all the kinds that are known, so that almost every shade of disposition may find something that will add to its gratification.

One of the most costly curiosities of the place, is the Portland Vase; for two hundred years, it was the principal ornament of a palace: it was found in the road between Rome and Frascati. By far the greater number of visitors pass this by, as a thing of little value, yet thousands of pounds would not purchase it.

What a number of mummies are here, and ornamented mummy cases! and yet this is London, and not Egypt. They set one thinking of the pyramids, of the statue of Memnon, and Thebes with her hundred gates, of the idols, Orus, Apis, Isis, and Osiris. Here is a splendid mummy case, half opened, and the embalmed mummy half unswathed.

"And thou hast walked about, how strange a story!

In Thebes' streets, three thousand years ago, When the Memnonium was in all its glory,

And time had not begun to overthrow Those temples, palaces, and piles stupendous, Of which the very ruins are tremendous."