art.

day, or warmth of summer. But a retrospect into past times awakes us to a sense of our obligation to advancing How often have periodical pestilences arisen from deficiency of water and accumulation of impurities; and how often have whole cities been devoured by fire, which a timely supply of water might have saved. In the present day, he who has travelled on the sandy plains of Asia or Africa, where a well is more prized than mines of gold-or he who has spent months on ship-board, where the fresh water is often doled out with more caution than the most precious product of the still-only he can appreciate fully the blessing of that abundant supply, which most of us now so thoughtlessly enjoy.

DR ARNOTT.

MARTYRS.

PATRIOTS have toiled, and in their country's cause
Bled nobly; and their deeds, as they deserve,
Receive proud recompense. We give in charge
Their names to the sweet lyre. The Historic Muse,
Proud of the treasure, marches with it down
To latest times; and Sculpture, in her turn,
Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass
To guard them, and to immortalize her trust.

But fairer wreaths are due—though never paid—
To those who, posted at the shrine of Truth,
Have fallen in her defence. A patriot's blood,
Well spent in such a strife, may earn indeed,
And for a time ensure, to his loved land
The sweets of liberty and equal laws;
But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize,
And win it with more pain. Their blood is shed
In confirmation of the noblest claim,
Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,
To walk with God, to be divinely free,

To soar and to anticipate the skies.—

Yet few remember them! They lived unknown,
Till Persecution dragged them into fame,

And chased them up to Heaven. Their ashes flew
-No marble tells us whither. With their names
No bard embalms and sanctifies his song;
And History, so warm on meaner themes,

Is cold on this.

She execrates indeed

The tyranny that doomed them to the fire,
But gives the glorious sufferers little praise.

COWPER.

THE HUMAN FRAME.

How wonderful is the union of my soul with my body! I daily find that, when the rays of light are reflected from external objects, my soul forms a conception of the magnitude, figure, and colour of these objects. I find, that when a certain tremulous motion of the air penetrates my ears, my soul receives an idea of sound. By these means I have a perception of a thousand changes that take place around me, and even obtain a knowledge of the thoughts of others. I find, that whenever my soul is desirous that my body shall move from one place to another, and do this or that, the members of my body instantly comply with the suggestions of my soul; that my arms, hands, and legs, immediately set themselves in motion to execute their respective functions. All these are incontestable facts; but how these changes take place is beyond my comprehension. In this influence of the soul upon the body, and the body upon the soul, is displayed a wisdom too profound for me to fathom; and the result of all my researches on this subject is astonishment and admiration.

My body, separately considered, is a surprising masterpiece of the Creator. It has nothing superfluous, nothing deficient. Every member is placed in the most convenient situation, whether for service or for ornament. My body was made to answer more than one purpose, and to fulfil various functions. It was intended, in the first place, for a medium to convey to the soul, in various ways, information concerning external objects. To this end it is provided with the organs of sight, of hearing, of smelling, of taste, and of feeling. Each of these is a miracle of the Divine power and wisdom. That the body may be serviceable to the soul in the perception of external objects, and in many other respects, it is necessary that it should be moveable. And what a number of parts concur to accomplish this end. The

G

bones, the joints, the ligaments, the muscles, susceptible of contraction and expansion, give my body and its members the faculty of moving in a thousand ways. But so wonderful a machine must sustain a continual loss by its motions, and the performance of its various functions. This loss must be repaired. Thus other parts became necessary,―some to receive the aliments; others to grind them ; others to digest them, and to separate their nutritious juices; others to circulate these juices through the body, and to convey to each member the portion of which it stands in need. All these parts are actually found in my body, and so constructed that the end for which they were destined is perfectly accomplished.

STURM.

MARKS OF DESIGN IN THE ANIMAL ECONOMY-THE EYE THE BONES OF THE NECK.

STURMIUS held that the examination of the eye was a cure for atheism. There is to be seen, in every thing belonging to it and about it, an extraordinary degree of care, an anxiety for its preservation, due, if we may so speak, to its value and its tenderness. It is lodged in a strong, deep, bony socket, composed by the junction of seven different bones, hollowed out at their edges. Within this socket it is imbedded in fat, of all animal substances the best adapted both to its repose and motion. It is sheltered by the eyebrows; an arch of hair, which, like a thatched penthouse, prevents the sweat and moisture of the forehead from running down into it. But it is still better protected by its lid. The eye

lid defends the eye, it wipes it, it closes it in sleep. Are there, in any work of art whatever, purposes more evident than those which this organ fulfils? or an apparatus for executing those purposes more appropriate? If it be overlooked by the observer of nature, it can only be because it is obvious and familiar. This is a tendency to be guarded against. We pass by the plainest instances, whilst we are exploring those which are rare and curious; by which conduct of the understanding we sometimes neglect the strongest observations.

In order to keep the eye moist and clean (which qualities are necessary to its brightness and its use), a wash is constantly supplied by a secretion for the purpose; and the superfluous brine is conveyed to the nose through a perforation in the bone as large as a goose-quill. When once the fluid has entered the nose, it spreads itself upon the inside of the nostril, and is evaporated by the current of warm air, which, in the course of respiration, is continually passing over it. Can any pipe or outlet, for carrying off the waste liquor from a dye-house or a distillery, be more mechanical than this is?

It is observable that this provision is not found in fishes, the element in which they live supplying a constant lotion to the eye.

I challenge any man to produce, in the joints and pivots of the most complicated machine that was ever contrived, a construction more artificial than that which is seen in the vertebræ of the human neck.-Two things were to be done. The head was to have the power of bending forward and backward, as in the act of nodding, stooping, &c.; and, at the same time, of turning itself round upon the body to a certain extent.-For these two purposes two distinct contrivances are employed: First, the head rests immediately upon the uppermost of the vertebræ, and is united to it by a hinge-joint; upon which joint the head plays freely forward and backward, as far either way as is necessary: this was the first thing required.But then the rotatory motion is unprovided for: Therefore, secondly, to make the head capable of this, a farther mechanism is introduced, not between the head and the uppermost bone of the neck, where the hinge is, but between that bone and the next bone underneath it. It is a mechanism resembling a tenon and mortice. This second, or uppermost bone but one, has what anatomists call a process, viz. a projection somewhat similar in size and shape to a tooth; which tooth, entering a corresponding hole or socket in the bone above it, forms a pivot or axle, upon which that upper bone, together with the head which it supports, turns freely in a circle, and as far in the circle as the attached muscles permit the head to turn. Thus are both motions

perfect without interfering with each other. When we nod the head, we use the hinge-joint, which lies between the head and the first bone of the neck. When we turn the head round, we use the tenon and mortice, which runs between the first bone of the neck and the second. We see the same contrivance, and the same principle, employed in the frame or mounting of a telescope. It is occasionally requisite that the object-end of the instrument be moved up and down as well as horizontally. For the vertical motion there is a hinge, upon which the telescope plays; for the horizontal motion, an axis upon which the telescope and the hinge turn round together. And this is exactly the mechanism which is applied to the motion of the head: nor will any one here doubt of the existence of counsel and design, except it be by that debility of mind which can trust to its own reasonings in nothing. DR PALEY.

MUSCULAR POWER.

I HAVE calculated the average weight carried by a stout porter in London, at two hundred pounds; but we are told there are porters in Turkey, who, by accustoming themselves to this kind of burden from an early period, are able to carry from seven hundred to nine hundred pounds. The weakest man can lift with his hands about one hundred and twenty-five pounds, a strong man four hundred. Topham, a carpenter, could lift eight hundred pounds. He lifted with his teeth and knees a table six feet long, with a half-hundred weight at the end. He bent a poker, three inches in circumference, to a right angle, by striking it upon his left fore-arm; another he bent and unbent about his neck, and snapped a hempen rope two inches in circumference.-A few years ago, there was a person at Oxford who could hold his arm extended for half a minute, with half a hundred weight hanging on his little finger. We are also told of a man who, by bending his body into an arch, and having a harness fitted to his hips, was capable of sustaining a cannon weighing two or three thousand pounds. And not many winters ago, the celebrated Belzoni, when first