to whom it is a niggard of its goods, whom it suffers in its bosom rather than cherishes, for the stout arm that can hardly win its bread, and the stout heart almost broken by witnessing distress it cannot relieve, the terrors of the boundless forest must be small indeed. Listen to Mr. Head, who does not speak without experience: the privations of this species of life he was as likely to feel as another, and yet his memory is charged almost wholly with the advantages of such an existence in comparison at least with pauperism at home; and pauperism is not confined to the dependancy of the parish. "It seemed wonderful to think there should be so few among our poorer classes with energy enough to break the chains of poverty, and visit a land where pauperism is yet unknown; where youth and strength supply the catalogue of human wants, and where industry must meet its sure reward. The exuberant abundance of wood for fuel renders the fire side of the peasant, during the long evenings of winter, a solace equal to that of many a wealthier citizen of the world, and as his children, with united strength, drag each log to the hearth, he rejoices at the clearance of the encumbered earth, when those of the civilized world pay dearly for the enjoyment of warmth. An emulative feeling stimulates the natural industry of his constitution. The rattling clank of a neighbour's axe, the crashing fall of a heavy tree, seem to demand responsive exertion on his part, and give rise to an energy, which, even if the tinkling frosty air at his fingers' ends fails to remind him that he has work on hand, quickly rouses within him the spirit of active labour. The work of his young children is of a value to him, far exceeding the expense of their maintenance, and he lives in the enjoyment of the consciousness of being able to leave them an inheritance of peace, if not of affluence. With facilities of water carriage, fish in abundance, and fuel, by the help of his gun, he may complete the necessaries of life, and while the partridge and wild pigeon supply him with variety in food, he has also in store both recreation and amusement."-pp. 259-260.

It must be understood all along that our author speaks of the Canadas: other countries, as New South Wales, South Africa, may have their advantages-may have also greater countervailing evils. The apparent objection to the more northern parts of North America is the severity of the cold, which it is very possible may be so far from being a real objection, that it may contribute to the production of energy and the preservation of health.

Polypus-Take the fresh water polype (Hydra viridis or grisea) a small lump of translucent jelly, about the size of a pea when contracted, but when extended, and viewed under favourable circumstances, lengthened in its body to about three quarters of an inch, and more resembling the finger of a small glove, with a few ravelings round the edge, than any other familiar figure. This creature possesses neither wings nor legs, nor any of the ordinary organs of progression; it is apparently homogeneous in its structure, showing not even a rudiment of bone for leverage, or a semblance of muscle for contraction, and yet it protrudes and withdraws its tentacles, moves from leaf to leaf, travels from plant to plant, from stone to stone, quits the dark and approaches the light side of the vessel in which it may be kept, basks in the sunbeams, enjoys the warmth of summer, becomes torpid during cold weather, and hybernates like the tortoise or the dormouse; retreats if touched, defends itself when attacked, and often attacks in turn; pursues its prey with avidity, and, although it has neither tongue, nor teeth, nor palate, yet with hungry relish it devours the minute animalcules it can catch; nay, even with cannibal propensities, will force smaller or weaker individuals of its own species into its simple pouch or stomach, digest a part, and then reject the

fæces by that single aperture which is both entrance and exit, both mouth and vent to this gastric prototype, which thus absorbs a part of its ingested food and vomits up the rest: such being the natural process in this simple being, to which the higher grades return in many cases of disorder or disease. And yet so finely does this prima communis via participate in the peculiarities of digestion, and acknowledge its general laws, that, like the animal stomach of the highest grade which will digest a bone when dead, but cannot act on a pulpy worm when living, this pouch can only feed on prey that has been truly killed. Trembley, I think, it was who observed two hungry polypes fighting which should become the other's meal; or perhaps the little one endeavouring to escape, the greater attempting to devour the less: strength, however, at last prevailed, and this Saturnian polype swallowed at one gulp his son: the little fellow, not being, however, slain, was indigestible, and played such freaks within his living tomb, that the greater one, quite sick at heart, returned his dinner, unhurt, uninjured, to the light of day. But again, the polype has neither eyes nor ears, nor any of the ordinary organs of our senses, and yet it sees and feels, or at least is sensible both to light and touch, and probably to odours and to sound. Every part of this thing's body is equally sensible to the various stimuli which affect its system; it is an eye, an ear all over, but of what a kind!-an eye which sees not, an ear which does not understand: and when vision is to be perfected, the visive function becomes isolated, and the power concentered to a peculiar organ, which is developed by degrees to its highest point; and as of the eye, so of the ear, the hand, and all the rest.

From Blackwood's Magazine.

ON THE PORTRAIT OF WICKLIFFE.

BY DELTA.

"Had it not been the obstinate perverseness of our prelates, against the divine and admirable spirit of Wick. liffe, to suppress him as a schismatic or innovator, perhaps neither the Bohemian Husse, and Jerome, no, nor the name of Luther or of Calvin, had ever been known."

Milton, for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. WHEN Superstition overspread the realm, And Truth's bright star was shaded; When Tyranny struggled to overwhelm A world by a gloom pervaded; From out that midnight, so dark and deep, A voice cried, "Ho-awaken!" Till the sleepers aroused themselves from sleep, And the thrones of earth were shaken. Wickliffe! that noble voice was thine,

Which called the free to their stations; Thou gavest the light of Heaven to shine. Again on the blinded nations:When foes were many, and friends were none, Though pitfalls yawn'd around thee, On the hill of defiance aloft-alone

The hour of danger found thee.

I love to trace the lines of that face,
So calm, yet so commanding;
Thy white beard's venerable grace

O'er thy russet vest expanding;
Thine eyebrows so deeply arch'd-thy look
Of serenest contemplation,
At whose kindling glance the guilty shook
In pitiful consternation.
Methinks I note thy youthful gaze,

Truth's holiest pages perusing,
Where summer boughs exclude the rays,
An emerald calm diffusing;

I follow thy steps from bower to bower,

Still pondering on what enthrall'd thee, Till the bell of Merton's toll'd forth the hour, Which to vesper service call'd thee. Fear never smote thy dauntless heart, That, spurning at craft and folly, Burn'd, in its ardours, to impart

The Gospel unmarr'd and holy; 'Mid persecution's storm it rose,

And, triumphing nobly o'er it, Pierc'd through the corslet of Craft, and bore Superstition to earth before it.

Long after thy days were ended,
The sound of thy words, to times unborn,
Like a trumpet-call descended.
A light was struck-a light which show'd
How hideous were Error's features,
And how perverted the law, bestow'd

By Heaven to guide its creatures;
At first, for that spark, amid the dark,
The Friar his fear dissembled;
But soon at the fame of Wickliffe's name,
The throne of St. Peter trembled!
Oh! that the glory, so fair to see,

Should from men's eyes be shrouded;
Oh! that the day-dawn, which rose with thee,
Illumining all, should be clouded!

In vain have heroes and martyrs bled-
When all that they nobly fought for
Is recklessly given, like carrion dead,

To the dogs, whenever sought for!!
Oh! that the lamp of Faith burns dim-

That our public men grow cravens-
And oh! for the spirit that burn'd in him,
An eagle amid the ravens !

Of the book which had been a sealed-up book,
He tore the clasps, that the nation,
With eyes unbandaged, might thereon look,
And learn to read salvation.

I turn me from him-I cannot gaze
On the calm, heroic features,

When I think how we have disgrac'd our days-
Poor, miserable creatures!

And when, how we have betray'd our trust
The sons of our sons shall hearken,
Can it be else than that o'er our dust
The spittle of scorn should barken!

BOYHOOD.

BY CHARLES SWAIN.

THE dreams of early youth,
How beautiful they are-how full of joy,
When fancy looks like truth,

And life shows not a taint of sin's alloy.

When every heart appears

The temple of high thought and noble deed;
When our most bitter tears

Fall o'er some melancholy page we read!
The summer morn's fresh hours,

Her thousand woodland songs-her glorious hues

Oh! life's so full of flowers,

The difficulty then, is where to choose.

The wonderful blue sky

Its cloudy palaces,-its gorgeous fanes-
The rainbow tints which lie

Like distant golden seas near purple plains.
These never shine again

As once they shone upon our raptured gaze;
The clouds which may remain,
Paint other visions than in those sweet days!

In hours thus pure-sublime-
Dreams we would make realities: life seems
So changed in after time,

That we would wish realities were dreams!

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of the evening stars and the rising moon shown down from the skies above, upon the new made grave, where reposed Mary Trevor.

ON TAKING LAUDANUM.
From the Journal of Health.

It is a difficult task to so lay down any general principle, and enforce it by examples in detail, that the perverse ingenuity of some cannot find omissions, which they are fain to regard as exceptions in their favour. We have repeatedly, in this Journal, entered our solemn protest against the sin of drunkenness, and pointed out, with some care, the masks its votaries put on, to evade the reprobation with which the vice, in its grosser forms, is universally stamped. We have indicated the various means by which at first the health, and af terwards the disposition of children are ruined by an early indulgence of their appetites; and reprobated the false method, devised in wellintentioned but mischievous ignorance, of attempting to restore lost strength by domestic prescriptions, recourse to wine bitters or homebrewed liquors. Our efforts have, we are well assured, been attended, with some success; and we are encouraged thereby to persevere and continue to point out the various malprac tices, by which the body's health and mind's peace are slowly, but surely destroyed.

The evil to which we would now direct the attention of our readers, and entreat them to abandon or shun, as the case may be, is not confined to either sex exclusively; nor is it one for which the inconsiderateness of youth, or the infirmities of age, can be pleaded as palliation. The enjoyment which it brings is solitary, as that from dram-drinking itself, and in its consequences, if possible, still more pernicious. It is, in fact, dram-drinking on a small scale, and in a more fashionable, and, as it is thought, scientific manner. It is a concentrated poison, not jovially quaffed from the glass and the bowl amid songs, and joyous shouts; but carefully meted out in drops by the idle and luxurious man, who has lounged away his day in listlessness at home, in place of courting occupation and enlivenment by active exercise in the open air; or by the belle, whose pallid face and sunken eye show the exhaustion of the midnight assembly and dance. They dare not hope for, they are sure they cannot obtain, the sweet sleep which follows industrious labour and useful exertion; but they must forget themselves: the day had for them sufficient horrors, without a wakeful night redoubling the store. What then, say they, remains for them to do, if not to take their accustomed number of drops of laudanum, or some equivalent stupifying solution. They who are afraid to meet the summer's heat or winter's ice-whose nerves are too feeble to bear the slight motion of a carriage, or the shortest ride on horseback-and to whom pain is dreadful even in idea, have no hesitation in thus nightly swallowing a poison, each drop of which, causelessly taken, brings with it more bodily uneasiness and mental torment, than the longest day to the lashed galley slave. They may sleep the sleep of stupefaction, or dream themselves in paradise; but when they awake, "fear, sorrow, suspicion, discontent, cares, and weariness of life, surprise them in a moment, and they can think of nothing else: continually suspecting, no sooner are their eyes open, but this infernal plague of melancholy seizeth on them and terrifies their souls, representing some dismal object to their minds, which now, by no means or persuasions they can avoid."

However repugnant to our feelings as rational beings may be the vice of drunkenness, it is not more hurtful in its effects than the practice of taking laudanum. Disgusting and repulsive to the eyes of others, and injurious to the indulgers in it, as is the chewing of tobacco, it is not more censurable, nor so much to be dreaded in its consequences, as the habit of chewing and swallowing opium, to mitigate unpleasant feelings, or remove melancholy.

VICENZA.

Monia, templa, domus, et propugnacula, et arces, Atque alia in multis sunt monumenta locis Istius ingenio, et cura fabrefacta decenter Fama unde illius vivet, honorque diu.

Bressani.

VICENZA is to be visited as the city of Palladio. It is the Mecca of architects, adorned with a hundred shrines, each claiming the devotion of the pilgrim. "Vicenza," says an excellent critic (Mr. Forsyth), "is full of Palladio. His palaces here, even those which remain unfinished, display a taste chastened by the study of ancient art. Their beauty origi nates in the design, and is never superinduced by ornament. Their elevations enchant you, not by the length and altitude, but by the consummate felicity of their proportions, by the harmonious distribution of solid and void, by that happy something between flat and prominent, which charms both in front and in profile; by that maestria which calls in columns, not to encumber, but to support, and reproduces ancient beauty in combinations unknown to the ancients themselves. Even when obliged to contend with the coarsest Gothic at La Ragione, how skilfully has Palladio screened the external barbarism of that reversed hulk, by a Greek elevation as pure as the original would admit. His Vicenti villas have been often imitated in England, and are models more adapted to resist both our climate and our reasoning taste, than the airy extravagant structures of the south."

Some have habitual recourse to laudanum or opium, to relieve pain and uneasiness, caused usually by the undue gratification of their appetite. Let them learn, that there is no example on record of any agent used for medicinal purposes, in particular diseases or alarming emergencies, which has on these occasions a direct, controlling, and sanitary power, that will not, when persistently used, become noxious to the animal economy, and poison all the springs of life. It is thus with wine, alcoholic liquors, opium and laudanum, and the various tinctures and cordials of which opium is the basis: it is thus with all the vegetable bitters and mineral tonics without exception. All the powders and cordials which have been recommended for the cure of gout, have invariably, when taken for any length of time, destroyed the digestive powers, enfeebled the brain and nervous system, and often brought on dropsy, palsy, and apoplexy. A physician, after due deliberation and much counsel with himself or medical friends, will prescribe mercury, bark, opium, or perchance arsenic, for the cure of the violent and dangerous malady under which his patient is labouring at the time; and his efforts will often be crowned with success. But let this patient, of his own accord, or under the pestilential influence of domestic or empirical advice, use any of these articles for a length of time, and, for one uneasy symptom, which he wished removed, ten will take its place; and his constitution will be so broken down, that even his first successful adviser and medical One of the latest and most signal triumphs friend, can now be little more than a melan- of Palladio's genius, is the Teatro Olimcholy spectator of remediless decay. This is pico, or Olympic Theatre, erected at the exnot the language of exaggeration or specula- pense of the Olympic Academy, an association tive fear. We speak from a full knowledge of formed in the sixteenth century for the prothe facts. We repeat it-the person who gives motion of polite literature. This splendid ediinto the habit for weeks, (he may not reach to fice, framed upon the model of the ancient months, or if he pass these, his years will be theatres, exhibits, in the place of the moveable but few and miserable,) of daily measuring out scenery which decorates modern theatres, a to himself his drops of laudanum, or his pills of stationary view. Looking through the proopium, or the like deleterious substance, call scenium, which consists of a magnificent archit tincture, solution, mixture, potion, what you way, supported by columns, the spectator sees will, is destroying himself as surely as if he five several streets or approaches to the stage, were swallowing arsenic, or had the pistol ap- formed from actual models of buildings, 80 plied to his head. The fire of disease may for framed as to imitate an architectural perspecawhile be concealed-he may smile incredu- tive. The centre portion of the theatre is oclous at our prediction; but the hour of retribu-cupied by the orchestra, and around it rise the tion will come, and the consequences will be terrible.

seats in the form of an ellipsis, and above the seats a range of Corinthian columns.

been described by Mr. Stuart Rose. The Rotonda of Palladio was imitated by Lord Burlington in his villa at Chiswick, now the property of the Duke of Devonshire.

Besides, who are the unfortunate creatures, Another celebrated structure of Palladio is who, in impious despair, destroy themselves the Rotonda, so called from its containing in by poisoning with opium or laudanum? hTe the centre a large circular room, with a cupola. very same who had long been in the practice The building itself is square, having four coof using it as a soother and a balm: as a means lonnades, each of six unfluted Ionic columns, of procuring repose after the languor of idle- with a flight of steps and a pediment. The ness, or the perturbations of vice. Miserable Rotonda is situated on the Monte of Vicenza, resource from care or grief! to stupify one's a hill near the city, covered with the seats and self with such a drug for a few short hours, casinos of the Vicentine gentry, and which may only to awake in renewed despondency, with a be ascended under the cover of porticos, remind paralyzed and unfitted for the commonest sembling those near Padua, and leading to the duties of life. The countenance of the unhap- church of Madonna di Monte. The extraordipy victims of the practice, reveals too painful-nary view from the summit of the Monte has ly to an observant eye their condition. The expression is more haggard, and the features more distorted, than even from common drunkenness, and produce on others a mingling feeling of pity and fear. The humid lustre of the eyes is exchanged for a dull, turbid, and dejected appearance of this organ, which is sunk in its orbit: the rounded cheek, once flushed with the glow of health, is now pale or leaden, and the corners of the mouth no longer raised into ready smiles, have a downward direction, indicative of suffering alternated with listlessness and apathy. The moral nature is not less fearfully changed than the physical. All manly resolution is fled: to think is too great an effort: the sight of distress elicits childish grief, without furnishing sufficient incentive to its relief or mitigation. Not very different, in fine, is the confirmed opium-taker from the torpid animal warmed into motion by artificial heat: it twists itself about, attempts some gambols, or with impotent malice, tries to bite and annoy those near it. But in a few minutes, the stimulus of heat is gone, and it sinks once more into torpidity.

In examining the palaces designed by Palladio, it must be remembered that the architect was frequently compelled to sacrifice his own pure and beautiful conceptions to the false taste of the persons by whom he was employed. This appears not only from an inspection of his published works, but especially, as is stated by a writer in one of our literary journals, from a collection of original drawings by Palladio, now in the possession of the Signor Pinale of Verona. Amongst those drawings are many designs for buildings which were never executed, but which are more creditable to the architect than any of his existing edifices. Amongst others, there is a beautiful design for the bridge of the Rialto. It must not be forgotten that the modest and tasteful mansion built by Palladio for his own residence, is to be seen near his most celebrated work, the Teatro Olimpico.

While residing at Vicenza, Mr. Stewart

Rose witnessed the exhibition of an improvvisatore in one of the halls of the Teatro Olimpico. "Two understrappers appeared upon the stage with materials for writing, and a large glass vase; one of those took down, on separate scraps of paper, different subjects, which were proposed by such of the audience as chose to suggest them. The other having duly sealed them, threw them into the above mentioned vase, which he held up and shook before the spectators. He then presented it amongst them for selection, and different subjects were drawn, till they came to Alfieri alla tomba di Shakspeare,' an argument which was accepted by universal acclamation.

"The two assistants now retired, and the principal appeared in their place. He was young and good-looking, and being of opinion that a neckcloth took from his beauty, wore his neck bare, but in other respects had nothing singular in his dress, which was precisely that of an Englishman. He received the paper on entering, and immediately threw himself on a chair, from whence, after having made a few Pythian contortions, but all apparently with a view to effect, he poured forth a volley of verse, without the slightest pause or hesitation; but this was only a prelude to a mightier effort.

"He retired, and the two assistants re-appeared; subjects were proposed for a tragedy, the vase shaken as before, and the papers containing the arguments drawn.

"Amongst the first titles fished out was that of Ines de Castro,' which, as no objection was taken to it, was adopted, and communicated to the improvvisatore. He advanced, and said, that, as he was unacquainted with the story, he desired to be instructed in the leading facts. These were communicated to him, succinctly enough, by the suggestor of the theme, and he proceeded forthwith to form his dramatis persone, in the manner of one who thinks aloud. There were few after the example of Alfieri. As soon as the matter was arranged, he began, and continued to declaim his piece without even a momentary interrup. tion, though the time of recitation, unbroken by any repose between the acts, occupied the space of three hours.

"Curiosity to see how far human powers can be carried, may tempt one to go and see a man stand upon his head; but to see a man stand on his head for three hours is another thing. As a tour de force, the thing was marvellous; but I have seen as wonderful in this country, which is fertile in such prodigies. I recollect once seeing a man to whom, after he had played other pranks in verse, three subjects for sonnets were proposed, one of which was, 'Noah issuing from the ark;' the other, The death of Cæsar;' and the third, The wedding of Pantaloon.' These were to be declaimed, as it may be termed, interlacedly; that is, a piece of Noah, a piece of Cæsar, and a piece of Pantaloon. He went through this sort of bread and cheese process with great facility, though only ten minutes were given him for the composition, which was moreover clogged with a yet more puzzling condition: he was to introduce what was termed a verso obligato, that is, a particular verse, specified by one of the audience, at a particular place in each of the sonnets. This last somerset in fetters appeared to please the spectators infinitely, who proposed other tricks which I do not remember, but which were all equally extraordinary."

In the earlier part of the present century, the Signora Fantastici was the favourite improvvisatrice of the day. Mr. Forsyth has described her performances, which displayed very extraordinary powers: "She went round her circle, and called on each person for a theme. Seeing her busy with her fan, I proposed the fan as a subject; and this little weapon she painted, as she promised, col pennel divino di fantasia felice. In tracing its origin, she followed Pignotti, and in describing its use, she acted and analyzed to us all the coquetry

of the thing. She allowed herself no pause, as the moment she cooled, her estro would escape. So extensive is her reading, that she can challenge any theme. One morning, after other classical subjects had been sung, a Venetian count gave her the boundless field of Apollonius Rhodius, in which she displayed a minute acquaintance with all the Argonautic fable. Tired at last of demigods, I proposed the sofa for a task, and sketched to her the introduction of Cowper's Poem. She set out with his idea, but being once entangled in the net of mythology, she soon transformed his sofa into a Cytherean couch, and brought Venus, Cupid, and Mars on the scene; for such embroidery enters into the web of every improvvisatore."

The curious philologist who visits Vicenza will not neglect the Sette Communi, the des cendants of some northern tribes, residing amongst the hills in the neighbourhood of Vicenza, and retaining not only the characteristic habits and manners, but even the language of their ancestors. Much controversy has arisen as to the original stock from which this tribe is derived, which, undoubtedly, from the language still spoken by them, was of northern extraction. It is said that one of the kings of Denmark, visiting Italy, found that the idiom of the Sette Communi so much resembled the Danish, as to enable him with ease to understand their language. This tribe furnishes by no means a singular instance of a community retaining the language of their ancestors in the midst of another nation. On the borders of Transylvania a Roman colony is still in existence, by whom the Latin language is familiarly spoken. A late traveller, passing through this part of the country, was wakened one morning at his inn by the entrance of a Transylvanian Boots, with a glass in his hand, who addressed him in the following words, "Domine, visne schnaps?" The traveller, summoning up his classical acquirements, replied by another interrogatory, "Quid est Schnaps?" "Schnaps est res," said the Boots," omnibus maxime necessaria omne die,"-presenting to him the glass of brandy.

In the neighbourhood of Vicenza a singular contrivance is described by Ray, who visited Italy in 1663. "In the same village we had also sight of the famous Ventiduct, belonging to a nobleman of Vicenza, contrived for the coolness of his palace, during the heat of the summer, to effect which channels are cut through the rocks from a spacious high-roofed grotto to the palace, so that when they intend to let in the cool air, they shut up the gate at the cave, and by opening a door at the end of the channel, convey the fresco into the rooms of the palace, each of which has a conduit or hole to receive it."

which they would bring down to a level with affairs of the most common nature. They forget, or overlook its true and essential character; they are insensible to its institution, recorded in that book of truth which bears the impress of God's own signet. They listen not to the voice which informs us that, even in a state of innocency, man, the lord of the creation, "created a little lower than the angels, to be crowned with glory and worship," found a void, an insufficiency, which could only be replenished by the gift of his benevolent Creator. That gift was woman, lovely woman, abstracted from man himself, and therefore part of his very existence. "A help meet for him," was thus provided, that being "bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh," she might, knowing her dependence on him as her superior, grow up by his side, and repay his protection and support by smiles of loveliness, and the charins of willing and affectionate duty. Thus was "marriage instituted in Paradise in the time of man's innocency," amidst angels and blessed spirits, who walked familiarly on the earth, the Almighty's last and most interesting work of creation; whilst the eternal God pronounced his blessing on the guileless pair, and proclaimed, once and for ever, such union divine and indissoluble. Thus instituted in Paradise, the record and usage of it descended through successive ages to the various families who peopled the earth. Hence we find not only amongst the Jews, upon whom especially the light of Jehovah's countenance beamed, but also among the Gentiles, alienated as they were from their first estate, and darkened by the clouds of immorality and ignorance, marriage was considered holy, and celebrated with religious observances.

Had marriage been merely a civil contract, every individual would have been at liberty to enter into it with any one whomsoever he might choose without any restriction whatever; at least, such is the nature of civil contracts, there is no prohibition of bargains between even the nearest relations and kindred. But amongst the Jews there were express restraints imposed, prohibiting the intermarrying of persons of the same family within certain degrees of consanguinity. The priests also were limited within certain rules, which they might not disregard in the choice of their wives. Surely such restriction exalts marriage, independent of its divine institution, high above civil obligations, and stamps it with a seal which belongs not to the common transactions of life. Founded as it was in Paradise, and containing the germ of man's salvation, the chosen people upon whom these restrictions were laid, considered it a holy ordinance, which they might neither corrupt nor defile by any unclean mixture or impure debasement. Hence, they call its observance "a conjugal sanctification," and they celebrated it by several religious rites and blessings. Surely, therefore, they held it in the estimation of something more than a civil contract. They appear to have entertained juster notions of this benevolent institution than the enlightened patriots and reformers of the nineteenth contury, the splendour of whose brilliant minds and philanthropic hearts bewilders their understandings, and contracts their mental visions against the milder, and purer, and more heavenly dispensations and ordinances of God. Either they are more enlightened by reason than the Jews were by revelation, or they la. Omnipresence of the Deity. bour under an eclipse more dark than that "WHAT is truth?" was the question put by which involved the heathens; for even these the Roman governor to his innocent and hea- erected the obligation of marriage upon a pevenly victim. The question involved a com- destal made hallowed by religion. They callprehensive reply, for which, however the in-ed marriage holy; and the ceremonies instiquirer, to mark either his contempt or fear of the answer, did not wait. There are many in the present day disposed to say, What is marriage? with the same feelings and sentiments of indifference to the result of their inquiry. Such people, and there are such even amongst British senators, esteem the ordinance of marriage as a civil contract, the celebration of

MARRIAGE.

BY THE REV. W. SHEPHERD. "Young, chaste, and lovely-pleased, yet half afraid, Before yon altar droops a plighted maid, Clad in her bridal robes of taintless white, Dumb with the scene, and trepid with delight, Around her hymeneal guardians stand, Each with a tender look and feeling bland; And oft she turns her beauty-beaming eye, Dimm'd with a tear for happiness gone by! Then coyly views, in youth's commanding pride, Her own adored one panting by her side, Like lilies bending from the noon-tide blaze, Her bashful eyelids droop beneath his gaze; While love and homage blend their blissful power, And shed a halo round his marriage hour."

tuted by Romulus were such as "to bind the wife entirely to her husband as her only resource, and the husband to rule his wife as a possession closely allied to him, and which might not be taken away." Let the Remuses of the present day, who would insultingly leap over the walls which protect the Capitol of public morality and domestic virtue, blush to