mighty tyrants of tropical rivers, the Crocodiles, which have been celebrated from remotest antiquity as the very impersonation of bestial power and ferocity. The noble description of Leviathan in the book of Job,-the climax of those majestic interrogatories wherewith Jehovah withered the pride of his too audacious servant, -is a picture of one of these Reptiles, drawn from the life by the master-hand of Him who made it.

"Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about. His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered. By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething-pot or caldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.

"The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved. His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone. When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves. The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold; the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon. He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear. Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp-pointed things upon the mire.

"He maketh the deep to sea like a pot of ointment.

boil like a pot; he maketh the He maketh a path to shine

after him; one would think the deep to be hoary. Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride."-JOв xli. 14-34.

The most prominent characteristics of the Crocodile of the African rivers are here distinctly painted. The impenetrable nature of the integument, a sort of surface-bone; its arrangement in strong square scales, set firmly edge to edge, one against another in close array; the peculiar fiery glare of the eyes; and above all, the serried teeth, which, to the number of thirty or more on each side of each jaw, are never concealed by lips, giving to the animal, even when tranquil, the terrific appearance of a grinning rage,— are all points that scientific naturalists have dwelt on in their descriptions of these monsters. When we remember that they are among the most gigantic of all animals, far exceeding the Elephant, the Crocodile of the Nile being asserted to attain a length of twenty-five feet-we shall acquiesce in the propriety of the concluding epithet,— "King over all the children of pride."

If space in "Excelsior's" valuable pages permitted, we should delight to trace the transition, through the fierce Chelydra of Florida, from the Crocodiles to the Tortoises. But we must be content with directing our readers' attention to the contrast which subsists between one of these latter, enclosed as it is in an immoveable box of bone, with only an opening in front at which to poke out its head and hands, and a similar hole behind for its tail and hind limbs, waddling along with painfully slow and heavy tread; the contrast, we say, between such a creature and the lithe Snake, the very type of flexibility, altogether destitute of limbs, yet shooting along with an undulating velocity that the eye of the gazer can scarcely follow.

P. H. G.

PIONEERS AND FIRST-FRUITS.

MORRISON IN CHINA.

CHINA Contains a third of the human species. Nothing can be sooner said; few things are harder to realise. But some standards of comparison may help us. Taking our own country as the measure, the population of China would fill England and Wales twenty times over, and Scotland 120 times. If a book is published in the English language, including the inhabitants of the old world and the new, there are probably fifty millions of persons who, if they possessed the art of reading, would be able to peruse it; but when a book is published in Chinese, it commands a range of readers seven times greater: that is to say, for one person who can read the "Paradise Lost" and "Bacon's Essays," there are seven who can read Mencius and Confucius in their native tongue. If the population of London be two millions and a half, and if an attempt were made to supply every citizen with a copy of the Scriptures, could the distributor prevail on the whole to pass in single file before him, by working ten hours a-day for six days in the week, and giving away at the rate of 1000 Bibles per hour, in the course of less than ten months every Londoner would be supplied with the Word of God; but at the same rate it would require 120 years to supply every Chinaman: were the distribution now begun it would not on that plan be ended before A.D. 1976. There is another and a very solemn way of putting it: out of every three deaths which occur, one occurs in China. Of the three accountable and immortal beings who last passed into the presence of their

་

Maker, it may be assumed that one came from the Chinese Empire.

Not only are the Chinese exceedingly numerous, but physically and mentally they are a superior race. Tartar domination, with its Gorgon eye, has petrified their civilisation into something very stiff and stupid-looking; and with its cold metaphysical selfishness, and its absence of a God holy, benign, and ever ready to hear and answer prayer, the religion of China has made its people cunning, rapacious, deceitful, sensual, and heartless. But they have great capabilities. With their muscular frames and great tolerance of fatigue, they are industrious, and, when opportunity is given, they are very enterprising. And although we laugh at their noisy arrogance and great swelling words, we must concede their intelligence. Inventing for themselves paper, gunpowder, book-printing, the compass, spectacles for aiding feeble vision, and many of those appliances which have immortalised the sages of Europe, their civilisation is of much earlier date than ours. At a period when the nations of Europe felt interest in little except mutual slaughter; when every castle on the Rhine was a robber's den, and the very barons of England were little better than high-born ruffians; the Chinese were pursuing the arts of a peaceful culture; were intersecting their "flowery land" with canals and elaborate highroads; were building porcelain pagodas; were suspending in the air gardens full of delicious fruits and rare exotics; were manufacturing the most exquisite fabrics of silk and cotton, as well as objects ingenious or beautiful in ivory, silver, and stone. It is only within the last generation that the descent of solid bodies, or meteorites, from the firmament, has become a recognised fact among the learned; but it is a remarkable circumstance, and shows the early intelligence and observant habits of this singular people, that for centuries a

careful registration of every aerolite has been kept throughout the empire by command of the Chinese Government.

Populous and interesting as this empire is, it was almost unknown to Britain at the commencement of the present century. A few had read the travels of Marco Polo, and Macartney's Embassy had attracted some attention, and for commercial purposes ships and merchants traded to Canton and Macao; but in as far as they influenced the thoughts and actions of most British Christians, that portion of Adam's family might as well have had their dwelling in the moon. Sir George Staunton was the only Englishman acquainted with the language, and there was a prevailing impression that the speech as well as the territory of this mysterious people effectually debarred the stranger's entrance. It was not till the year 1807 that the first Protestant missionary found his way to China.

Robert Morrison was born at Morpeth, January 5, 1782; but his parents left it soon afterwards, and Newcastle was the home of his youth. His father, who was a Scotchman by birth, and a last-maker by trade, was a God-fearing man, and an elder in the High Bridge Meeting. He brought up his family very strictly, taking pains to teach them the Shorter Catechism, and encouraging them to commit the Scriptures to memory. In his boyhood Robert could repeat such difficult portions as the 119th Psalm without a single mistake. But it was not till his seventeenth year that he felt the grace of God in truth. At that period his conscience effectually awoke. He felt his guilty state before God, was haunted with the dread of everlasting damnation,- broke off from his loose companions,-and from the usual levity of youth showed a change to the solidity and sobriety of one who lived under the powers of the world to Along with this change sprang up an earnest desire

come.