made. He fell under the care of Matthias, who would neither allow his friends to visit him, nor to call medical aid, declaring himself to "have power of life and death." Mr. Pierson's body having been removed to New Jersey for interment, a post mortem examination was taken by four respectable physicians, all of whom certified that they found in Mr. Pierson's stomach a "large quantity of an unwholesome and deadly substance." A warrant has been issued against Matthias since his first arrest, charging him with having poisoned Mr. Pierson, and this charge it is believed will be supported by evidence. the twelve apostles written around it, and "Jesus Matthias," adorning the front in prominent characters; the other surrounded with the names of the twelve tribes, the front like the other. Though Matthias professes to be a priest after the order of Melchisedek, yet he seems to have somewhat imitated in his habiliments the priests of the order of Aaron. (See Josephus 1. 3. c. 7. Exod. c. 28.) As to Melchisedek, Adam Clarke says, "who this person was, must remain a secret. We know nothing more of him than is written in Gen. xiv. 18. &c. in which this very mysterious person is represented as a type of Christ." (See also Ps. 110. Heb. 5 and 7.) With his two-edged sword Matthias was to destroy the Gentiles, as Gideon did the Midianites. With his six feet rule he was to measure the New Jerusalem, 'the gates thereof, and the walls thereof,' and divide it into lots for those who believed on him, and obeyed the Spirit of Truth, as it came from him, the trumpet. With the golden key which he possessed, he was to unlock the gates of Paradise. After the death of Mr. Pierson, Matthias came to the city of New York, and entering the family of Mr. Folger continued to reside with him until the middle of last September. About that time the mysterious death of Mr. Pierson, and the attending circumstances, having shaken the confidence of Mr. Folger and his family, they began to be conscious of their delusion, and resolved to abandon Matthias and his principles. On announcing this determination to Matthias, he resorted Somewhat versed in the antiquities and inexplicable to his old practices of threats and promises, and told rites of the Jews, this impostor unites to a quick and them that they must not throw him destitute on the active mind, a considerable cunning, a fluent speech, world; that if they did so the blessing of God would and a vast deal of persevering impudence; endeavourdepart from them, and sickness and perhaps deathing to impress his dogmas by assuming a sanctified and would follow; but that if they gave him money to sup-uncompromising air, and fixing upon his victim invariaport him, the blessing of God should continue to them.' bly his remarkably fierce and penetrating eyes. He Mr. Folger having become bankrupt, Matthias was per- reasons plausibly and ingeniously, and is exceedingly haps willing to leave him; not however without first subtle at evasion. This however, taken into view with having insisted upon a supply of money, which he ob- the absurdity of his general schemes, will give him no tained to the amount of $630, and immediately left the more merit than a maniack possesses in that respect. city. On the morning of that day Matthias partook of "A remarkable peculiarity," says Abercrombie, "in a very little breakfast, and scarcely tasted the coffee, many cases of insanity is, a great activity of mind, and alleging as an excuse that he was ill. Immediately rapidity of conception, a tendency to seize rapidly upon after breakfast, Mr. Folger, his wife, and children were incidental or partial relations of things,-and often a taken sick. Mr. Folger did not suspect the cause of fertility of imagination which changes the character of their illness until after Matthias had left the city; when, the mind, sometimes without remarkably distorting it." upon examination, he learned that the black woman Although Matthias has this acuteness of mind, and who did, the cooking for the family, had also abstained seems to have a control over it, yet in all his philosophy from the use of coffee that morning, and from other it seems remarkably distorted. His doctrines are all circumstances he became confirmed that the woman opposite to those commonly received; as for example, was bribed by Matthjas to poison the family! The he considers "the seat of understanding to be in the effort was unsuccessful, the poison producing but a belly," "casting out devils he considers vomiting up temporary sickness. This nefarious transaction in- diseases of the stomach," &c., to all of which he gives duced Mr. Folger to procure the arrest of Matthias, a plausible support. He is undoubtedly insane, and firmly convinced at this melancholy stage, that he was perhaps actually believes himself to be, all that he proa base Impostor. fesses to be. But it is certain that he has made a diabolical use of what art or power he has, which is less to be wondered at than the effects are to be regretted. Although Matthias never could have obtained an extensive and permanent influence, even if his knavery had not been detected, since his schemes were too wild and incoherent and his demands too absurd to produce an effect that would endure beyond his actual and immediate presence; yet that his blasphemous pretensions should have gained credence among intelligent minds is to be lamented; and the whole history of these transactions will form a dark page in the records of modern fanaticism, and will present an enduring but melancholy evidence of the weakness of human nature. The third gentleman named as one of the dupes of Matthias, became a lunatick under this unfortunate delusion. But on a removal to the country and from the influence of the Prophet,' he recovered, and is now convinced of his lamentable errour. By recent developments it appears, that Matthias had received in the aggregate from these gentlemen about $10,000 in money and negotiable paper, which he had appropriated, as he says, in furnishing the establishment at Zion Hill, and in Third street. "I have always declared," said he on his examination, "that I could receive nothing from them as if their property; but that if they felt as though they had in their possession property which they believed belonged to God, and if they believed that I was the servant of God, then they could give me of that property whatever they pleased; and I have never received any property or money from any person in any other way, since I commenced preaching the everlasting gospel." But by whatever means he obtained money, it is evident he used it for the wildest and most extravagant purposes. Besides those things which we mentioned at the outset as adorning his person, his wardrobe was bountifully supplied with new boots, shoes and pumps; linen shirts of the most exquisite fineness, the wristbands fringed with delicate lace; silk stockings. handkerchiefs and gloves; a green frock-coat heavily embroidered with gold; merino morning dresses, and two caps made of linen cambrick, folded in the form of a mitre, richly embroidered--one with the names of SKELETON OF THE FOSSIL DEER. When and where, did this gigantick species of deer exist? Such is the question which arises at once to every man's mind-yet nothing but mere conjecture can be given in reply. No tradition of its actual existence remains: yet so frequently are bones and antlers of enormous size dug up in the various parts of the island, that the peasantry are acquainted with them as the "old deer," and in some places these remains are so frequent, that they are often thrown aside as useless lumber. A pair of these antlers were used as a field gate near Tipperary. Another pair had been in use for a similar purpose near Newcastle, in the county of Wicklow, until they were decomposed by the action of the weather. There is also a specimen in Charlemont House, the town residence of the Earl of Charlemont, which is said to have been used for some time as a temporary bridge across a rivulet in the county Tyrone. Now, though similar remains have been found in Yorkshire, on the coast of Essex, in the isle of Man, in different parts of Germany, in the forest of Bondi, near Paris, and in some parts of Lombardy, it is evident that the animal had its favourite haunts in our fertile plains and valleys, and has some claim to the title of the Irish fossil deer. Thus one part of the question is answered-we can tell where the animal existed, as far as extreme probability can go, but as to when, it baffles our investigations. What could be the use of the immense antlers with which the animal was furnished? It is evident that they would prevent it from making any progress through a country thickly wooded with trees, and that the long, tapering, pointed antlers were totally unfit for lopping off the branches of trees, a use to which the elk sometimes applies his antlers, and for which they seem well calculated. It is said that the elk, when pursued in the forests of America, will break off branches of trees as thick as a man's thigh. But the antlers of the fossil deer seem to have been given to it for its protection, a purpose for which they doubtless have been admirably designed; for their lateral expansion is such, that should occasion require the animal to use them in his defence, their extreme tips would easily reach beyond the remotest parts of his body; and when we consider the powerful muscles for moving the head, with the length of the lever afforded by the antlers themselves, we can easily conceive that he could wield them with a force and velocity which would deal destruction to any enemy having the hardihood to venture within their range. There is presumptive evidence that MAN existed at the same period with this animal-one proof of which seems to be in a rib of the deer (presented to the Society by the same gentleman who presented the skeleton,) and which has evidently been perforated with an arrow, or some similar sharp pointed instrument. It is not improbable that the chase of this gigantick creature formed part of the business and pleasure of the then inhabitants of the country, and that amongst its enemies might be included the Wolf, and the celebrated Irish Wolf Dog.-Dublin Penny Journal. AERONAUTICKS. The art of sailing in, or navigating the air. The idea of inventing a machine, which should enable us to rise in the air, appears to have occupied the human mind even in ancient times, but was never realized till the last century. The first suggestion for a sailing vessel with any pretensions to the character of science, is due to Francis Lana, a distinguished jesuit. This occurred in 1670. Lana proposed to support his car by the aid of four balls. These were to be exhausted of air; and the inventor argued that their diminished weight would cause the balls to support themselves and the aeronaut. We notice this apparatus, as similar schemes have been put forth even within our own times; but it must be obvious to any intelligent mind, that the external pressure of the atmosphere would destroy the vessels, even if they could be rendered light enough. Henry Cavendish, having discovered, about 1766, the great levity of inflammable air or hydrogen gas, Dr. Black, of Édinburgh, was led to the idea that a thin bladder, filled with this gas, must ascend into the air. Cavallo made the requisite experiments in 1782, and found that a bladder was too heavy, and paper not air tight. Soap bubbles, on the contrary, which he filled with inflammable air, rose to the ceiling of the room where they burst. In the same year, the brothers Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier constructed a machine which ascended by its own power. In Nov. 1782, the elder Montgolfier succeeded, at Avignon, in causing a large bag of fine silk, in the shape of a parallelopiped, and containing 40 cubick feet to mount rapidly upwards, to the ceiling of a chamber, and afterwards, in a garden, to the height of 36 feet, by heating it in the inside with burning paper. The two brothers soon afterwards repeated the experiment at Annonay, where the parallelopiped ascended in the open air 70 feet. A larger machine, containing 650 cubit feet, rose with equal success. They now resolved to make the experiment on a large scale, and prepared a machine of linen, lined with paper, which was 117 feet in circumference, weighed 430 pounds, and carried more than 400 pounds of ballast. This they sent up, June 5, 1783, at Annonay. It rose in ten minutes to a height of 6,000 feet, and fell 71,688 feet from the place of ascension. The method used to cause it to ascend was, to kindle a straw fire under the aperture of the machine, in which they threw, from time to time, chopped wood. But though the desired effect was produced, they had no clear nor correct idea of the cause. They did not attribute the ascension of the vessel to the rarefaction of the air enclosed in it by the operation of the heat, but to a peculiar gas, which they supposed to be developed by the burning of the straw and wood. The errour of this opinion was not discovered till a later period. These experiments roused the attention of all the philosophers of Paris. It occurred to some of them that the same effect might be produced by inflammable air. M. Charles, professor of natural philosophy, filled a ball of lutestring, 12 feet in diameter, and coated with a varnish of gum-elastick, with such gas. It weighed 25 pounds, rose 3,123 feet in two minutes, disappeared in the clouds, and descended to the earth, after threequarters of an hour, at the village of Gonesse, about 15 miles from Paris. Thus we see two original kinds of balloons; those filled with heated air, and those filled with inflammable air. The common mode of filling balloons on a small scale, is to generate hydrogen gas in a bottle, by pouring dilute sulphurick acid on granulated zinc, but the acid speedily destroys the balloon. To prevent this, the experimentor has only to employ a second bottle containing water, and carry a bent pipe from the first bottle through a cork in the second, it dips beneath the surface, and is condensed, and the pure hydrogen ascends by the second pipe to the balloon. To continue: Montgolfier had gone to Paris, and found an assistant in Pilater de Rozier, the superintendent of the Royal Museum.-They completed together, in Oct. 1783, a new machine, 74 feet in height, and 48 in breadth, in which Rozier ventured for the first time to ascend, though only 50 feet. The balloon was from caution fastened by cords, and soon drawn down. Eventually the machine, being suffered to move freely, took an oblique course, and at length sunk down gradually about 100 feet from its starting place. By this the world was convinced that a balloon might, with proper management, carry a man through the air; and the first aerial expedition was determined on. Nov. 21, 1783, Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d' Arlandes ascended from the castle la Muette, in the presence of an innumerable multitude, with a machine containing 6,000 cubick feet. The balloon, after having attained a considerable height, came down in 25 minutes, about 9,000 yards from la Muette.-But the daring aeronauts had been exposed to considerable danger. The balloon was agitated very violently several times; the fire had burnt holes in it; the place on which they stood was injured, and some cords broken. They perceived that it was necessary to descend without delay; but when they were on the surface of the earth, new difficulties presented themselves. The weak coal fire no longer supported the linen balloon, the whole of which fell into the flame. Rozier, who had not yet succeeded in descending, just escaped being burnt. M. Charles, who had joined with M. Robert, soon after informed the publick that they would ascend in a balloon filled with inflammable air. To defray the necessary expense of 10,000 livres, he opened a subscription. The balloon was spherical, 26 feet in diameter, and consisted of silk, coated with a varnish of gum-elastick. The car for the aeronauts was attached to several cords, which were fastened to a net, drawn over the upper part of the balloon. A valve was constructed above, which could be opened from the car, by means of cords, and shut by a spring. This served to afford an outlet to the inflammable air, if they wished to descend, or found it necessary to diminish it. The filling lasted several days; and, Dec. 1, the voyage was commenced from the gardens of the Tuilleries. The balloon quickly rose to a height of 1800. feet, and disappeared from the eyes of the spectators. The aeronauts diligently observed the barometer, which never stood at less than 26 degrees, threw out gradually the ballast they had taken in to keep the balloon steady, and descended safely at Nesle. But as soon as Robert stepped out, and it was thus lightened of 130 pounds, it rose again with great rapidity about 9,000 feet. It expanded itself with such force, that it must have been torn to pieces, had not Charles, with much presence of mind opened the valve to accommodate the quantity of gas to the rarity of the surrounding atmosphere. After the lapse of half an hour, the balloon sunk down on a plain, about three miles from the place of its second ascent. Another ascent, which nearly proved disastrous to the aeronauts, may now be noticed. On the 15th of July, 1784, the Duke of Chartres, the two brothers Roberts, and another person, ascended with an inflammable-air balloon from the Park of St. Cloud, at 52 minutes past 7 o'clock in the afternoon. This balloon was of an oblong form, measuring 55 feet in length, and 34 in diameter. It ascended with its greatest extension nearly horizontal; and after remaining in the atmosphere about 45 minutes, it descended at a little distance from whence it had ascended, and at about 30 feet distance from the Lac de la Garenne, in the park of Meudon. But the incidents that happened in this aerial excursion deserve to be particularly described, as nothing like it had pened before to any of the aerial travellers. This machine contained an interior smaller balloon filled with common air; by which means, according to a mode hereafter to be mentioned, the machine was to be made to ascend or descend without any loss of inflammable air or ballast. The boat was furnished with a helm and oars, intended to guide it, &c.—Brit. Cyc. TO OUR READERS. · With this number we close our Mythological department. Those who have followed us, from the beginning through this interesting branch of knowledge, are now possessed of the whole circle of eastern Mythology. And those who have interested themselves in it, will be able not only to understand the heathenish institutions and their history, but will be able to appreciate the classick allusions which embellish and illustrate poetry and eloquence. And indeed if opportunity should elicit the effusive efforts of their own intellects, they will be able perchance to adorn truth in its presentation with graces borrowed from these classick remembrances. At any rate they will be upon a par in this respect with college scholars, and able to contend on these matters against the imposition of pedantry. Geography will take the place of Mythology, and we flatter ourselves, that we shall present to the reader and student as good and comprehensive a system of Geography as has ever been published. If the best system can be collected from the combined learning and records of Malte-Brun and Bell, Myers, Morse, and Goodrich, and from the journals of modern explorators and travellers, we assure the reader that no effort on our part shall be wanting to accomplish it. STEEL PENS change red ink to a jet black. The quill should only be employed in using this ink. Muriatick acid turns black ink to a beautiful red. ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE. Mr. Coleridge the Poet died at Highgate on the 25th day of July last. A month or two before his death, he wrote his own humble and affectionate epitaph. 64 Stop, Christian passer-by! Stop, child of God, He asked, and hoped through Christ. Do thou the same." An equestrian bronze statue of his late Majesty, George the Fourth, has been recently completed by Chantrey, at the cost of 9,000 guineas. It is to be placed over the grand marble entrance in St. James's Park. The magnificent gates to be fixed to the archway, enriched with mosaick gold, are said to be the most splendid in Europe-the cost of the whole entrance when completed will be upwards of $300,000. 26,208,000 sheets are printed annually in France, and put into a book form, for the gratification of French readers. If light and heat be matter, they must be matter in a state of far more minute division than we can ever observe with our best glasses. Were the atoms of the size of the grains of dust floating the earth like cannon-balls, and it would have been long ere this in the atmosphere, invisible to the naked eye, they would tell upon pounded into dust. Air, by being compressed, has been made twice as heavy as water. Water confined in a boiler, and intensely heated becomes redhot. Savages light their fires by rubbing two pieces of wood. Forof the branches against each other by the wind. Iron has been ests have been burned down by fires kindled by the violent friction made red-hot by being struck a few blows with the hammer. Air may be condensed by pressure so as to set tinder on fire. Pieces of ice have been melted by being rubbed together, when the air was cooled many degrees below the freezing point, and great quantities of water have been made to boil by a blunt borer hap-rubbing against a mass of metal immersed under the water. The pageant of the Erial ship at Paris, recently, proved a failure, to the great disappointment of thousands of spectators. turvy, and burst with a tremendous explosion! It fell into the After it had ascended a short distance, it suddenly turned topsyhands of goths who tore it in pieces. A fish in Java called the jaculator, catches flies and insects by spirting water from its mouth, and seldom misses its aim at the distance of five or six feet, bringing down a fly at a single drop. Since the commencement of the working of the gold mines, that run in a mineral belt, it may be said, parallel to the course of the Blue Ridge, from Georgia to Maryland, gold has been ob tained to the amount of no less than 6,000,000 of dollars. A captain of one of the companies of the western Dragoons, states that the village where the recent conciliatory council was held with 8,000 of the Kioway, Camanche, and Waco Indians, is situated on a large branch of the Red River, whose waters are as salt as the sea. They derive their saltness from a cliff near the banks containing mountains of salt rock which can be used without any preparation whatever. SECTION XXVI. HISTORY. evil-entreated this people? why is it that thou hast 66 unto the These miracles were the infliction of the memorable ten plagues upon the Egyptians, to punish the obstinacy and hardheartedness of their rulers; and they were the most extraordinary manifestations of the Divine power to man, and through man, that occurred antecedent to Christ. And the conduct of Pharaoh during these events as related in all history, sacred and profane, who knew the wishes of God as well as the ruinous consequences of such conduct if persisted in, presents a tissue of folly, blindness and obstinacy unparalleled in the history of the world. It was not enough that all the waters of Egypt should be changed into blood, sickening and distressing every Egyptian who tasted them; it was not enough that innumerable multitudes of frogs should overspread the land, and infest his houses, his sleeping and his eating places with loathsomeness and filth: it was not enough that the dust should become lice throughout the fields of Egypt to torment and kill both man and beast; nor that the air should be filled with flies which spoiled and corrupted every thing they approached; these had not the power to change the mind of Pharaoh permanently, although his obstinacy relented while these plagues were immediately afflicting his country; yet as soon as it was relieved of them he was base enough to revoke what he had promised, and return to his old determination. But the cattle were smitten with a grievous murrain, and all the cattle of Egypt died. The men were infected with fetid and dangerous diseases. The heavens were obscured with clouds, that poured forth torrents of rain and hail, while lightnings and thunder filled every heart with dismay. All Egypt was laid waste, and the little verdure which remained became the prey of swarms of locusts, that came at the call of Moses. During several days this unhappy country was enveloped in darkness so intense that there seemed reason to fear the sun had disappeared for ever; while at the same time there was light in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, and which was entirely exempt from all these plagues. (Exod. ix. 26.) The last terrible prodigy remained, of which Moses informed the king, at the same time directing the Israelites to be ready to depart at the moment this last THE ISRAELITES. The History of the Israelites now assumes a very marked and interesting character. Having lived in Egypt for about two hundred and fifteen years, as Josephus and other historians assert, groaning towards the close of that period especially, under the unrighteous bondage and oppression of the Egyptian king, who imposed upon them those intolerable tasks and hardships enumerated in the first of Exodus, they were now destined to throw off their chains, and to experience a divine deliverance. Moses, who was appointed to be their deliverer had fled into Midian to escape the envy and ingratitude of the Egyptians after having led them successfully against the Ethiopians. He had remained there about forty years, having married one of Jethro's daughters, and it is believed written the book of Job during the interval. Near the end of this long retirement, it is related, that, "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." This was the commencement of that series of miracles which the Divinity saw fit to employ in the deliverance of the Israelites. From out of this burning bush the voice of God revealed to Moses the design of using him as the instrument. Moses seems to have been at first exceedingly distrustful of his abilities in accomplishing this undertaking against the obdurate and selfish Pharaoh. But the Lord having inspired him with the divine power of working miracles, and having promised to be with him, and to assist him "in his words, when he was to persuade men, and in his deeds, when he was to perform wonders ;" Moses' confidence increased, and he became convinced of the certainty of his mission. Accordingly Moses took his wife and two children, and set out for Egypt. On his way he met his brother Aaron who had been sent by divine command. Having arrived in the country inhabited by the Hebrews, they communicated to them the command of God, concerted their measures, and presented them selves before the king of Egypt. "We are sent," said they to him, "by the Lord God of Israel, who commands his people, under pain of the severest punishments, to go three days' journey into the desert to celebrate a festival in his honour, and offer him sacrifices." "But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." To prove more evidently his contempt of this command, he oppressed the Israelites with additional hardships and new deprivations. The latter, who, relying on the word of Moses and Aaron, now expected a speedy deliverance, broke out into murmurs and complaints. "And they said unto them, the Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned into the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so VOL. II. 29 of Asia, the pampas of South America, and the deserts of Africa, are alike destitute of timber. But they have existed from different causes; and while one has been found too arid and sterile to give birth to vegetation, and another snow-clad and inhospitable, others exist in temperate climates and exhibit the most amazing fertility of soil. These facts show that there are various causes inimical to the growth of the trees, and the forest is not necessarily the spontaneous product of the earth, and its natural covering, wherever its surface is left uncultivated by the hand of man. The vegetable kingdom embraces an infinite variety of plants, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that groweth on the wall;' and the plan of nature, in which there is no miscalculation, has provided that there shall be a necessary concatenation of circumstances-a proper adaptation of soil, climate, moisture-of natural and secondary causes, to produce and to protect each: just as she has assigned the wilderness to the Indian, the rich pasture to the grazing herd, and the Alps to the mountain goat. I apprehend that the intense astonishment with which the American pioneers first beheld a prairie, and which we all feel in gazing over those singularly beautiful plains, is the result of association. The adventurers who preceded us, from the champaign districts of France, have left no record of any such surprise; on the contrary, they discovered in these flowery meadows something that reminded them of home; and their sprightly imaginations at once suggested, that nothing was wanting but the vineyard, the peasant's cottage, and the stately chateau, to render the resemblance complete. But our immediate ancestors came from lands covered with wood, and in their minds the idea of a wilderness was indissolubly connected with that of a forest. They had settled in the woods upon the shores of the Atlantic, and there their ideas of a | new country had been formed. As they proceeded to the west, they found the shadows of heavy foliage deepening upon their path, and the luxuriant forest becoming at every step more stately and intense, deepening the impression, that as they receded from civilization, the woodland must continue to accumulate the | gloom of its savage and silent grandeur around themuntil suddenly the glories of the prairie burst upon their enraptured gaze, with its widely extended landscape, its verdure, its flowers, its picturesque groves and all its exquisite variety of mellow shade and sunny light. Had our English ancestors, on the other hand, first settled upon the plains of Missouri and Illinois, and the tide of emigration were now setting towards the forests of Ohio and Kentucky, climbing the rocky barriers of the Alleghany ridge, and pouring itself down upon the wooded shores of the Atlantic, the question would not be asked how the western plains became denuded of timber, but by what miracle of Providence, a vast region had been clothed, with so much regularity, with the most splendid and gigantic productions of nature, and preserved through whole centuries from the devastations of the frost and the fire, the hurricane and the flood. We have all remarked how simple and how rapid is the process of rearing the annual flower, or the more hardy varieties of grass, and with what ease a spot of ground may be covered with a carpet of verdure; and we know equally well how difficult it is to rear an orchard or a grove, and how numerous are the accidents which assail a tree. An expanse of natural meadow is not therefore so much an object of curiosity, as a continuous forest; the former coming rapidly to perfection, with but few enemies to assail it, the latter advancing slowly to maturity, surrounded by dangers. Hence there is to my mind no scene so imposing, none which awakens sensations of such admiration and solemnity, as the forest standing in its aboriginal integrity, and bearing the indisputable marks of antiquity-where we stand upon a soil composed of vegetable mould, which can only have been produced by the undisturbed accumulation of ages, and behold around us the healthful and gigantic trees, whose immense shafts have been increasing in size for centuries, and which have stood during that whole time exposed to the lightning, the wind, and the frost, and to the depredations of the insect and the brute. (To be concluded in our next.) "AFTER man, those animals which live on flesh only are the greatest destroyers: they are at the same time both the enemies of nature and the rivals of man. It is only by an attention always new, and by cares premeditated and followed, that these flocks, these birds, &c. can be sheltered from the fury of the birds of prey, and the carnivorous wolf, fox, weasel, &c. and it is only by a continual war that he can preserve his grain, fruits and all his subsistence, and even his clothing, | against the voracity of the rats, moths, mites, &c. Insects are among those creatures which do more harm than good in the world; on the contrary, the Ox, the sheep, and those other animals which feed on grass, are the best, the most useful, and the most valuable for man; since they not only nourish him, but consume and cost him least: the Ox, above all the rest, is the most excellent in this respect, for he gives as much to the earth as he takes from it, and even enriches the |