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purpose well; they had only had the land one year, and had dug it up, and cropped it, chiefly with potatoes, of which they all had a sufficient supply for their own use, and some were able to sell. They all came and brought the rent punctually, excepting one man, who, it seemed, was obliged to be at a distance that day, on some business of his master's.

The same benevolent gentleman is in the habit of lending his poor neighbours, in case of necessity, a sum of money, enough to enable them to buy a pair of shoes, or some other needful article; and they pay him again by a shilling at a time, or some such proportion; and it appears that they have been very exact in their repayments. This is a very good and charitable method of assisting a poor neighbour. It would, however, be far better for the labourers themselves, if they could save the money beforehand, and then go to the shoemaker, or any other tradesman, with their own money in their hand. It is wonderful the difference between a man who is ten or twelve shillings beforehand, and one who is the same sum behindhand;-it is almost the difference between being rich and poor.

V.

THE TAMARISK.

TAMARISK, planted by cuttings in the spring, in driving, sands on the sea-shore, will immediately take root; and the falling leaves in a few years will fix the sand. Sea-weed may also be collected and spread over the land, which the stems of the tamarisk would hold in their place. Tamarisk may be cut every spring, and yield an annual profit. The wood is heavy and good to burn *. Horticultural Register.

* The Tamarisk flourishes at Sandgate, near Folkstone, in Kent.

The Traveller.

555

THE TRAVELLER.

I KNOW no passage that ever struck me more forcibly with a sense of the vanity of all merely human pursuits, however successful they may be, than the following melancholy confession of a most enterprising traveller. The source or spring of the famous river Nile in Egypt, had long been sought for by travellers, and sought in vain. At length it was discovered, after the most severe trials, and appalling dangers, by the indefatigable Bruce. His feelings, on first coming in sight of the spring from whence the river rises, may easily be imagined to have been those of the greatest triumph. What they were afterwards, his own words shall tell us.

"I stood," says he, "in rapture over the principal fountain, which rises in the middle of it. It is easier to guess than to describe the situation of my mind at that moment,-standing in that spot which had baffled the genius, industry, and inquiry of both ancients and moderns, for the course of nearly 3000 years! Kings had attempted this discovery at the head of armies; and each expedition was distinguished from the last only by the difference of the numbers which had perished, and agreed alone in the disappointment which had uniformly, and without exception, followed them all. Fame, riches, and honour, had been held out for a series of ages to every individual of the myriads which those princes commanded, without having produced one man capable of gratifying the curiosity of his sovereign, or wiping off this stain from the enterprises and abilities of mankind, or adding this much-desired discovery for the encouragement of geography. Though a mere private Briton, I triumphed here in my own mind, over kings and their armies. Every comparison was leading me nearer and nearer to presumption, when the place itself where I stood, the object of my vain glory, suggested what put an end to my short-lived triumph. I had, but a

few moments, arrived at the sources of the Nile, through numberless dangers and sufferings, the least of which would have overwhelmed me, but for the continued goodness and protection of Providence. I was, however, but then half through my journey; and all those dangers which I had already passed, awaited me again in my return. I found a despondency gaining ground fast upon me, and blasting the crown of laurels which I had too rashly woven for myself *.

Reader, learn a lesson from this. Remember, if you are a Christian indeed, that you are, in some sense, like Bruce, in search of a river's spring; you are seeking that river of life, of whose waters you are, in Scripture, freely invited to drink, and live for ever. If you look at the 22d chapter of the Revelations of St. John, it will show you of 66 a pure river of a water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb;" and there you are invited to take of that water of life freely. Obey the call; accept the invitation. In other words," set your affections on things above, and not on things in the earth; look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen, are temporal; but the things which are not seen, are eternal. E. of S.

WE

MANNERS OF THE CHINESE.

(Taken chiefly from Travels in South-Eastern Asia.)

gave our readers, in our September number, an account of the manner of printing in China, in which they saw that, instead of metal types, composed of separate letters, such as are used by our printers, the Chinese engraved every separate work on a board.

*Head's Life of Bruce, p. 354.

Manners of the Chinese.

557

The moveable types which are used by us, could not be introduced into China; for, though there be no great difficulty in putting together the words of our language, which are composed of only twenty-six letters, yet this could not easily be done in a language like that of the Chinese, where there are eighty thousand letters. In the art of printing, then, the Chinese are far behind us, while in other arts they appear to be beyond us. In carving ivory they are far superior to us, although great improvements in that art have lately been made amongst us. In the manufacturing of porcelain they are considered to excel all other nations; and the finest specimens have, therefore, the name of China, from them. So great, however, has been the progress made of late years, in our manufacturing of China, that our porcelain is not only far more beautiful than theirs in the figures and paintings which adorn. it, but the material itself is of nearly equal delicacy. The Chinese are very backward in the art of making glass, and are generally supplied from Europe.

The Chinese do not suffer strangers to come from foreign countries to settle amongst them, and they seldom or never emigrate from their native land. To this latter cause may be attributed the overflowing population of their country, which, according to the appearance that Pekin presented to our travellers, seemed to be almost greater than the country could maintain.

The villages which the travellers passed, were many of them large enough to be considered as towns, but none of them are reckoned of any importance by the Chinese, excepting those that are walled. In small villages the houses are usually of one story high, and built of mud, or else formed of wicker-work overlaid with a sort of plaster or mortar; and they are roofed either with a thatch of straw or a covering of sods. In large town the houses are built of bricks, and these were generally of a blue colour, like slates; they have only one story; they are roofed with tiles;

and the windows are very small, and made of paper instead of glass. Very little iron is used, scarcely even a nail in any of their buildings, and the floors are not of boards, but of bare earth; the houses have generally a small court round them, inclosed by frames of wicker-work. The Chinese call their great men mandarins. The annexed print is a representation of a house belonging to one of these Chinese noblemen.

V.

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