In Nine Volumes, Imperial Octavo, for Forty-five Shillings, OF HENRY'S COMMENTARY ON THE HOLY BIBLE. No Exposition has ever been so endeared to the Christian Church, and none so honoured by its Heavenly Head, as that of MATTHEW HENRY. "He is, perhaps, the only commentator so large that deserves to be entirely and attentively read through," was the deliverance of Dr. Doddridge, himself a distinguished expositor; and Dr. Doddridge's strong-minded but paradoxical fellow-townsman, the elder Ryland, declared it "impossible for a person of piety and taste to commence it without wishing to be shut out from all the world to read it through without a moment's interruption;" and amidst all his toils it is said, that the apostolic Whitfield was able to complete its continuous perusal four times. During the last two years of his life Robert Hall read daily two chapters of this Commentary, "feeling, as he proceeded, increasing interest and pleasure; admiring the copiousness, variety, and pious ingenuity of the thoughts; the simplicity, strength, and pregnancy of the expressions." In his "Biblical Library," and as one of the five works which he exclusively consulted in preparing his "Horæ Quotidiana," Dr. Chalmers had always at hand Henry's "Commentary." And what Mr. Bickersteth said of it thirty years ago may still be repeated: "No subsequent commentary has rendered it less valuable, or less desirable in every Christian's library. The private Christian will find it a practical and devotional Exposition of the Word of God, spiritual and experimental, cheerful, edifying, and judicious. The minister will obtain from it constant assistance for his ministry, and to him it will be especially useful in furnishing good hints for expounding the Scriptures." Born and brought up in the peaceful seclusion of Broad Oak, not only did MATTHEW HENRY from his childhood know the Scriptures, but in the abode of his heavenly-minded father the Bible was the book pre-eminent,-expounded in daily worship, the theme of animated and edifying conversation at the family table, and the subject of a frequent and special research in the friendly circle. To the young scholar it was the centre to which all his earnest thoughts reverted, and the nucleus round which his progressive acquisitions grouped and arranged themselves, whilst in maturer years the business of his profession became his ruling passion, and the elucidation of the Word of God formed the pursuit of his studious days and sometimes of his wakeful nights. At last, Nov. 12, 1704, and soon after he had completed his forty-second year, he wrote in his diary, "This night, after many thoughts of heart, and many prayers concerning it, I began my Notes on the Old Testament." Never was learned task a labour of intenser love, and, flowing freely from his well-stored memory, his lively fancy, and his deeply devotional spirit, volume steadily succeeded volume, till at the commencement of St. Paul's Epistles death staid the commentator's hand, and on the longest summer day of 1714 his bright and gladsome spirit was translated to the perpetual sunshine of the beatific vision. The work will be published in nine handsome imperial 8vo. volumes, of 800 pages each, printed on fine paper, and strongly bound in cloth; and as it is already in the hands of the printer, the publication will take place before Christmas. Notwithstanding the great size of this work-in itself a library-exceeding 7000 pages of closely-printed matter, the Publishers have determined to make it the cheapest Work ever produced in this or any other country. To Subscribers, who will forward their names before the 1st of October, the price will be Forty-five Shillings. Subscribers' names are to be accompanied with a Post-Office Order for 108., payable to the Publishers, who will transmit a printed receipt. The balance will not be required until the Work is ready for publication. JAMES NISBET & CO. 21 BERNERS STREET, LONDON. THE EAGLE. EAGLES are now comparatively rare birds in this country, except in Zoological Gardens. Fifty years ago no one could visit the mountain parts of Great Britain and Ireland, without seeing some specimens of the Golden Eagle soaring among the mountains, or pursuing their prey over the ridgy sides of Welsh and Scottish hills. The Sea Eagle, too, was not an uncommon bird on rocky coasts, now all but deserted by his lonely majesty. Civilisation, the great enemy of Rapacious Birds and Beasts, and continued persecution, have rendered our two largest birds of prey well-nigh strangers to these lands. The sheep-farmer and the deer-stalker unite in destroying the noble game; even the collector of birds' eggs is content to import his specimens from the nests of eagles which have bred in Norway or some more southern Bears and wolves have long since been extirpated; golden eagle, sea-eagle, and osprey, are likely soon to be numbered in the lists of former occupants. The naturalist, the artist, and the sportsman, lament their rarity, but the sheep-owners, and, if tales be true, the mothers of sweet little children, have every reason to rejoice. There are many species of Eagles in the world; at least eight are indigenous to southern Europe. Like monarchs they require large space for their wings and domains, and in no part of the earth are they abundant. They prefer mountainous regions, for there they can nestle securely, and in such a position they can alone find a fit centre for their operations. The eagle "Is the sultan of the sky; and earth Pays tribute to his eyrie." The Poet Laureate describes him well: "He clasps the crag with hooked hands; Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. He watches from his mountain walls, Any one, who has gazed upon the great North Sea, from that dizzy precipice the Noup of Noss in Shetland, has seen the haunt of our sea-eagle, even although he may be disappointed in seeing the birds themselves,-off, perhaps, on some excursion of pleasure to the nearest mainland, that of Norway, or resting for a while on some rock near Iceland. It can be no want of food that tempts him to wander, for the Shetland seas abound with fish of all kinds, and the lofty rocks are, in places, white with birds. The eagle, though she "wanders from her nest," is very constant in her attachment to its site, and the same pair have been watched for years, rearing their young in the same spot,-pictures of constancy and natural affection, worthy of being copied from characters otherwise ferocious. The male eagle, like the male of most birds of prey, is smaller than his mate, and it requires the lapse of two or three years before eagles acquire their perfect plumage. In books, not older than that of the worthy Bewick, the golden eagle is figured under two names, while the sea-eagle was believed to form two species, now known to be old and young of the same bird. The Scriptures allude to this differently-coloured moult of feathers, and infer, in that way so peculiar and so characteristic of Holy Writ, that strength increases with the change of plume. Christopher North exclaims, -and the late Edinburgh Professor had studied the birds in their native haunts,— "Oh for the Life of an Eagle, written by himself! Proudly would |