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shored up with props, he learns that the fatal convulsion was not the first, and that the doomed towns must have been before shaken on their foundations, by the throes of the labouring earth.

"To establish all this, it is of no decisive importance that scholars have gleaned, here and there, a fragment from ancient Roman classics, to show that such cities once existed; and that they were probably overthrown by the eruption of the year 79 of the Christian era, which gave occasion for the interesting letter of the younger Pliny, describing the death of his uncle, while observing the volcanic storm which proved fatal to him. In such cases, the coincidences of historical and other writings, and the gleanings of tradition, are indeed valuable, and gratifying, and are of great utility in fixing not only the order but the time of the events: but the nature of the catastrophe which buried the devoted cities, is perfectly intelligible from the appearances themselves, and needs no historical confirmation."

Apply this illustration to the question of the existence of the earth before the creation of man. The materials of the crust of

the earth, and the manner in which these materials are disposed, indicate events which could not have happened since man was created. The external surface of our planet is "full of crystals and crystallised rocks; it is replete with the entombed remains of animals and vegetables, from entire trees to lichens, fuci, and ferns-from coal-beds to mere impressions of plants; it is stored with animals, from the minutest shell-fish to gigantic reptiles; it is chequered with fragments, from fine sand to enormous blocks of stone; it exhibits, in the materials of its solid strata, every degree of attrition, from the slightest abrasion of a sharp edge or angle to the perfect rounding which produces globes and spheroidal forms of exquisite finish; it abounds with dislocations and fractures; with injections and fillings up of fissures with foreign rocky matter; with elevations and depressions of strata, in every position, from horizontal to vertical; it is covered with the wreck and ruins of its upper surface; and finally, its ancient fires, sometimes for variable periods dormant and relenting, have never been extinguished, but still struggle for an exit through its two hundred volcanic mouths. The present crust is only the result of the conflicting energies of physical forces, governed by fixed laws; its changes began from the dawn of its creation, and will not cease unless its materials and its physical laws should be annihilated."

Geologists, having thus carefully based their opinion on facts, lay it down as an incontestible truth, that the structure of the crust of our planet affords decisive evidence of a long series of events, during which stupendous changes occurred. "It is obvious," says Professor Silliman, "that ages must have passed, while the various geological events which are recorded in the structure of the earth were happening, and particularly while the innumerable organic forms, after their creation, were in the course of reproduction, life, death, deposition, consolidation, and preservation. We will not inquire whether Almighty power inserted animals and plants in mineral masses, and was thus exerted in working a long series of useless miracles, without design or end, and therefore incredible. The man who can believe, for example, that the Iguanodon, with his gigantic form, seventy feet in length, ten in height, and fifteen in girth, was created in the midst of consolidated sandstone, and placed down one thousand or twelve hundred feet from the surface of the earth, in a rock composed of ruins and fragments, and containing vegetables, shells, fish, and rolled pebbles; such a man can believe anything, with or without evidence. If there are any such persons, we must leave them to their own reflections, since they cannot be influenced

by reason and sound argument; with them we can sustain no discussion, for there is no common ground on which we can meet."

Leaving for the present the nature of the changes which have taken place, and their order, as conjectured by geologists, let us assume that, previous to the creation of man, the crust of the earth had undergone a violent revolution or derangement, and then see if the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis can be reconciled with such an assumption. The first verse is understood, as has been already mentioned, to signify a fact, without reference to time or period-" In the beginning"--at some time or period" God created the heavens and the earth." The second verse,-" And the earth was without form and void "_ "takes up," says Dr. Pye Smith, "this globe which we inhabit in the condition into which it had been reduced from (it appears probable) a watery envelopment, putting an end to the last of the strata, lying immediately below the crust of the earth on which we dwell. It may be objected, that the conjunction 'and' connects the following sentence with the preceding' and the earth was without form and void.' But I reply that

this conjunction is used in the Hebrew language with a very remarkable comprehension of meaning; even in tracing its application through but two or three chapters at the beginning of the book of Genesis, I have found it rendered by such expres. sions as but, moreover, now,'-and with the highest propriety. In point of fact, it introduces a new sentiment, which has connection with what went before, according to the nature and relation of circumstances. There is nothing at all, theretime between that beginning,' and the moment in which the fore, to prevent our supposition of the lapse of immeasurable

sacred historian takes up this globe, and presents it to us in the condition described by the words-' without form and void.' These words together occur only in two other passages of the Bible; and there they signify ruin and desolation. The former of the two occurs in many other passages, and is used to signify a vast desert, or a ruined city, and other subjects in which desolation and destruction are. the leading ideas. So that we of ruin and desolation from an anterior state; and then in the have here presented to us very plainly this globe in the condition following portions of the chapter we see the earth made fit for the new purpose to which God was pleased to appropriate it, by a series of operations, partly the result of the attraction of gravitation and the chemical affinities, and partly the result of an immediate exertion of the divine power."

We have quoted the opinion of this eminent biblical scholar, in order to show that the description of the creation of the universe and of the formation of the earth, as given in the first two verses of the first chapter of Genesis, does not jar with modern geological discovery. We shall in a future Number consider the six days of creation, as connected with geological views.

THE SOUL.

MEN are not what they seem to the outward eye-mere machines, moving about in customary occupations; productive labourers of food and wearing apparel; slaves, from morn to night, at task-work set them by sleeps. All the souls now in this world are for ever awake; and this life, the wealth of nations. They are the children of God. The soul never though in moral sadness it has often been rightly called so, is no dream. In a dream we have no will of our own, no power over ourselves; ourselves are not felt to be ourselves; our familiar friends seem strangers from some far off country; the dead are alive, yet we wonder not; the laws of the physical world are suspended, or changed, or confused by our fan

tasy; intellect, imagination, the moral sense, affection, passion, are not possessed by us in the same way we possess them out of that mystery. Were life a dream, or like a dream, it would never lead to heaven.

LETTER-WRITING.

Out of all question one of the greatest blessings enjoyed in modern life, is the expedition, secrecy, and safety, with which we are enabled to communicate our thoughts and our business to distant friends; and if one were called upon to give a unique decisive proof of the superiority of social life as it at present exists over that of the ancients, it would be quite conclusive to point to the post-office. What an exquisite chain of connexion between distant friends does the post-office afford! What a sweetener is it of the bitterness of absence! What intense anxieties it takes from the mind of the parent-relieving the lover of a thousand fears; easing the man of business of innumerable difficulties! It is indeed one of the greatest blessings conferred upon mankind by a high state of social refinement. The boasted public institutions of Sparta must have been incomplete without a "general post-office."

The average annual number of letters transmitted through the London general post-office has been estimated at 48,945,624, by

Lord Litchfield, in his evidence before the select committee on postage.

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"Suppose,' says the author of Travels in Town,' "some four or five thousand letters were taken out of the Post-office at random, and their contents placed before the public eye. What variety in the subjects! What variety in the spirit and temper! What variety in the style of writing! Oh, what an insight into mankind would be got from such revelations ! More might be learned in one day of human nature as it really exists, from such an exhibition of it, than could be learned in a year from one's ordinary intercourse with society. In writing to private friends, people are more open and explicit than in ordinary conversation. Reserve is in a great measure laid aside: what the heart thinketh the pen inditeth."

In fact the only just and unerring materials for the biographies of great men are their private letters. In these the nicer shades of their character are truly portrayed-their changes of thought, habit, and opinion, broadly marked. The veil of constraint and "outward shows" is torn aside, and the inmost feelings of the heart are rendered "open as day."

The progressive stages of existence may be well illustrated by the various styles of letters written during the different ages of man. In the first age, however, the only letters made use of are those of the alphabet; but the "whining schoolboy, with shining morning face," does not want for early opportunities of displaying whatever epistolary talent he may possess. The announcement of a forthcoming vacation-with the down-strokes carefully patched up by the master-supplies the first hint towards an epistolary catalogue of wants, with which few young students fail to trouble their friends at least once a fortnight. If successful in obtaining their wishes from head-quarters, their first "friendly epistles" are usually addressed to some juvenile relation or playfellow, who is earnestly requested to "ask cousin to ask sister to ask mother," for whatever is required. The best specimen of the sort we know of, may be found among the "Pugsley papers," in Hood's Comic Annual for 1832.

The next degree in the scale of life-that attained when

"The lover

Sighs like a furnace with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow "

is decidedly the most literary state of existence. Not only are more letters written during this turbulent period than at any other; but too frequently it bears out the seldom-erring Shakspeare, and perhaps distracts a hitherto well-regulated matter-offact mind with the fantasies of poetry. The lover generally writes and (if he be fortunate) receives more letters in a week, than either the schoolboy or the man of business does in a month. He makes the most trifling circumstance the subject of an important discussion that fills a whole sheet of paper, in which, the words "hope-despair-torture-bliss-madnessdelight," and divers other super-superlatives are inscribed in the largest letters. Though we had selected one or two examples of this sort of epistle, we cannot find it in our hearts to print them. To publish a love-letter is like betraying a profound and delicate secret; one, too, which though delightful to the parties immediately concerned, seldom has any better effect upon the truly disinterested than that of causing a smile. The most we can do is to refer our readers to the "Complete Letter Writer," where they will find sentiments for every stage of the passion,

expressed with the nicest regard to English grammar, and the most scrupulous attention to the proprieties of composition. Next, according to the bard, comes the soldier, "jealous of honour, sudden, quick in quarrel." His letters are brief as the flash of a priming-he has not time for words; blows occupy him too constantly. He can describe a great battle in three lines,* and has seldom time in active service, to write even those. The following is almost the longest soldier's letter we can find. Giving as it does some account of the disasters and privations to be encountered in the scenes of war, it is well calculated to have the effect of damping that kind of ardour which seeks "the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth." Guillot was a captain in the 25th half brigade of the French cavalry while in Egypt. The taking of Alexandria and Cairo are despatched with a true soldier's brevity.

Dear Mother,

Head Quarters, Cairo, July 27, 1798.

arrival of the French army, in which I have the honour to I take the earliest opportunity of acquainting you with the

serve, at Alexandria in Egypt. I suffered a vast deal during the two months that our voyage lasted. For the whole time I was sea-sick without intermission, and brought up blood all day long. When we set foot upon land, however, under the walls of Alexandria, I was cured of my sea-sickness, but my sufferings were by no means at an end.

We lost 300 men in scaling the ramparts of the city. After a halt of four days, we set out in pursuit of the Arabs, who had retreated and encamped in the desert; but the first night of our march was a very terrible one for me. I was with the advanced guard: we came suddenly upon a corps of the enemy's cavalry; and my horse, which you know was always a very hot one, was the unfortunate cause of all my trouble. He sprang forward like a lion, upon the horses and horsemen of the enemy; but unluckily in rearing he fell quite backwards, and to avoid being crushed to death, I was obliged to fling myself on one side of him. As it was night, I had not time to seize him again': he got up, and set off like lightning after the enemy's cavalry, which was quitting the field.

I had put on all my old clothes for the sake of preserving my new ones, which were packed up in my portmanteau; so that I lost my horse completely bridled and saddled, my pistols, my cloak, my portmanteau, everything that was in it, my clothes, twenty-four louis-d'or which I received at Marseilles to fit me out; and, what is still worse, my portfolio which contained all my papers. Thus I found myself in an instant stripped of every thing, and obliged to march barefoot for nineteen days on the burning sand and gravel of the desert; for the very day after this unhappy affair, I lost the soles of the old boots which I happened to have on my legs: my coat and my old breeches were very soon torn to a thousand tatters :-not having a bit of bread to eat, nor a drop of water to moisten my mouth, all the comfort I had was in cursing the trade of war more than a hundred times a day.

At last, on the twenty-second of this month, we arrived at the gates of Cairo, where all the enemy's army was intrenched, and waiting for us with great boldness; but with our usual impetuosity we marched to attack them in their intrenchments; in about three quarters of an hour, they had three thousand killed outright; the rest not being able to save themselves, plunged into the Nile, which is a river as large as the Rhone, consequently they were all drowned or shot under water. After such a victory, we entered, drums beating, into the city of Cairo, and consequently became masters of all Egypt.

I do not know, my dear mother, when I shall have the pleasure of seeing you. I repent more and more of ever coming here; but it is now too late. In a word, I resign myself to the Supreme will. In spite of the seas which separate us, your memory will always be graven on my heart; and the moment circumstances permit, I will break through all obstacles to return to my country.

Adieu, take care of yourself, a thousand things to my relations. Your son, GUILLOT +.

The Duke of Wellington's account of the battle of Waterloo occupied no more. See his Despatches, edited by Col. Gurwood.

+ Copies of original letters from the army of General Buonaparte in Egypt, intercepted by the Fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson. London, 8vo. 1798.

Women, it has been often remarked, are better writers of friendly gossiping letters than men. After the romance of girlhood has subsided, and their powers of observation have become sharpened by worldly experience, they communicate their ideas with more graceful ease, and with a greater degree of fluency. The following epistle from one of the female wits of the court of Louis XIV. is an admirable specimen of lively, flowing humour. It is addressed by the celebrated Madame de Sévigné to her sonin-law, from whose "Correspondence we have translated it.

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Paris, Monday, 15 December, 1670.

"I am going to communicate to you the most astonishing thing in the world; an affair the most surprising, the most marvellous, the most miraculous, the most triumphant, the most confounding, the most unheard-of, the most singular, the most extraordinary, the most inconceivable, the most unforeseen, the most important, the most insignificant, the most rare, the most common, the most public, the most private; till this day, the most brilliant, the most to be envied; in short, a thing of which past ages furnished no example, at least no precise example, a thing which we don't know how to believe in Paris; how then will you manage to believe it in Lyons? a thing which has set everybody exclaiming, 'Bless me!' A thing which has covered Madame de Rohan and Madame d'Hauterive with joy, a thing, indeed, which is to take place on Sunday, when those who will see it shall think their eyes are playing tricks of deception, a thing which is to be done on Sunday, though it may not happen till Monday. I do not expect you to solve the mystery all at once. Guess! I'll give it you in three. Are you silent? Then I suppose I must tell it you. Listen! M. de Lauzun marries on Sunday in the Louvre. Answer: Whom? I

more.

will give it you in four, I will give it you in six, I will give it you in a hundred. 'Oh!' exclaims Madame de Coulanges, this is a hard matter to guess; it is Madame de la Vallière. Quite wrong, madame. Mademoiselle de Retz?' Wrong again; your notions are horribly countrified. Truly, we are very stupid,' you answer; 'it must be Madame Colbert.' Once Then it certainly must be Mademoiselle de Créqui.' No. I suppose I must tell you at last; he marries on Sunday at the Louvre, with the king's permission, Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle de * * Mademoiselle-Oh do guess her name! He espouses Mademoiselle! The great Mademoiselle! Mademoiselle, daughter of the late Monsieur, grand-daughter of Henry the Fourth, Mademoiselle d' Eu, Mademoiselle de Dombes, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, Mademoiselle d'Orleans, Mademoiselle cousin-german to the King, Mademoiselle destined for the throne, Mademoiselle the only lady in France worthy of Monsieur. Here's a pretty subject for gossip! If you talk about it till you talk away your senses, if you tell us plainly we lie, that our news is false, that we want to hoax you, to play a joke upon you, if, in short, you call us names, we will not be affronted. We have done unto others as you would do unto us. Adieu! By your other letters from here, you will see if we speak

pen; and yet he is too jealous of his country's honour, not to wish in silence, that it had been the first composition, as well as the writing of Mr. Garrick, whose talents are not only equal, but much superior to such a work; Lord Bute desires Mr. Garrick would excuse his freedom as to the purport of his letter; he is persuaded his silence can never be taken ill; were it possible, he would take care to prevent it*."

If any one of our readers should come to be prime minister, we hope he will never have sufficient ingenuity to put together so many words rendered so cleverly innocent of all meaning. The interpretation of this extra-official complimentary note is thought to have been a farce, founded on the Duke of Bucksupposed to be as follows: the "present" to Lord Bute is ingham's "Rehearsal," hence, though written by Garrick, was not original, though the minister thought the actor had enough had not worked upon his own material. of talent to have invented as good a plot, and regrets that he There could hardly be

cited a more blundering instance of the utter confusion of relative pronouns with their antecedents, than this note presents.

Our last specimen is the pleasant and shrewd letter of a man of the world. The picture it gives of Parisian society, as it existed before the great Revolution, is interesting, because doubtless true. It supplies conclusive evidence of the height of extravagance and prodigality to which the old régime had attained, and which procured its downfall.

her.

66

MR. HORACE WALPOLE TO LADY SUFFOLK.

reliefs in marble. Then there must be immense armories of

"Paris, Decr. 5, 1765; but does not set out till the 11th. "Since Paris has begun to fill in spite of Fontainebleau, I am much reconciled to it, and have seen several people I like. I am established in two or three societies, where I sup every night. Richelieu, so pretty and pleasing, that if I thought it would There is a young Comtesse d'Egmont, daughter of Marshal break anybody's heart in England, I would be in love with Yesterday I dined at La Borde's, the great banker of the court. Lord! madam, how little and poor all your houses in London will look after his! In the first place, you must have a garden half as long as the Mall, and then you must have fourteen windows, each as long as the other half, looking into it, and each window must consist only of eight panes of looking. glass. You must have a first and second ante-chamber, and they must have nothing in them but dirty servants. Next must be the grand cabinet hung with red damask, in gold frames, and covered with eight large and very bad pictures, that cost four thousand pounds; I cannot afford them a farthing cheaper. Under these, to give an air of lightness, must be hung bastortoise-shell and or-molu, inlaid with medals. And then you may go into the petit-cabinet, and then into the great salle, and the gallery, and the billiard-room, and the eating-room; and all these must be hung with crystal lustres and looking-glasses, from top to bottom; and then you must stuff them fuller than they will hold with granite tables, and porphyry urns, and bronzes, and statues, and vases, &c. &c. But for fear you When men have become "full of wise saws, and modern in- should ruin yourself or the nation, the Duchess de Grammont stances," their epistolary correspondence exhibits a great variety must give you this, and Madame de Marsan that; and if you both of matter and style. The man of business pares down all have anybody that has any taste to advise you, your eating-room the redundancies of youthful' verbosity, to "Yours of the must be hung with huge hunting pieces in frames of all-coloured ultimo duly received," &c. or " Herewith you will receive," golds, and at the top of one of them you may have a setting-dog, &c. The lawyer will not afford any more words for his six-and- who, having sprung a wooden partridge, it may be flying a yard eight-pence, than are honestly necessary to make his communi-off against the wainscot. To warm and light this palace it must cation intelligible; while, on the contrary, the statesman seems to overburden his sentences with verbiage on purpose that his true meaning may be unintelligible. The art of conducting a genuine diplomatic correspondence has been set forth as being most perfect when certain words are arranged in a certain way, so as to leave the actual intent and purpose of the writer quite uncertain. This has no doubt arisen from persons holding high situations of trust and responsibility, being fearful of what is called 66 committing themselves." The following note from Lord Bute to Mr. Garrick, though on a most trivial subject, is an amusing instance of the kind.

truth or not."

THE EARL OF BUTE TO MR. GARRICK. "Wednesday, July 17, 1768. "Lord Bute's compliments attend Mr. Garrick! He receives with great pleasure the present sent him, and he assures him that it is much more agreeable, by being the produce of his own

cost you eight-and-twenty thousand livres a-year in wood and
candles. If you cannot afford that, you must stay till my Lord
Clive returns with the rest of the Indies,+" &c.
The last scene of all,

"That ends this strange, eventful history,"
is the letter with the black seal. Few words are required in
that; the sable wax is the mute, but all-sufficient communicant.
Death is stamped legibly upon it; and tears flow too fast to
break the charm at once, and learn the worst. The black-sealed
epistle is always a melancholy object; it is the alloy which
balances the delight so universally imparted by the letter from
the distant friend, or the loved relation.

* "Private Correspondence of David Garrick," &c. &c. Vol. 1. p. 307. † Letters to and from Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk, and her second husband, the Hon. George Berkely, &c. &c. Vol. ii. p. 311.

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MARRIAGE BIDDINGS IN WALES.

A CUSTOM is in general use in South Wales, which is called a Bidding," and adopted for the purpose of furnishing the outfit of a young couple, when entering the holy state of matrimony.

In the principality of Wales, where kindred is acknowledged to the remotest degree of relationship, and the claims of cousin ship extend over a large connexion, considerable sums are often collected on occasion of these biddings; particularly when the parties are the children of respectable farmers and sometimes cases occur when hundreds of pounds are subscribed at the call or bidding of some popular or influential person, such as a steward or titheman, whose good-will it is the policy of a tenantry to cultivate.

An announcement of the intention is made in the following form, being a literal copy of a bidding letter, addressed to a country friend. The parties named therein are the children of small farmers in the county of Carmarthen.

"Nov. 30th, 1838.

"As we intend to enter the MATRIMONIAL STATE, on Tuesday, the 25th day of December next, being Christmas-day, we are encouraged by our Friends to make a BIDDING on the occasion the same day, the Young Man at his own Dwelling-house, called TREBEDDOD, and the Young Woman at her Father's House, called PARC-Y-MYNYDD, both in the Parish of Llanelly; at either of which places the favour of your good Company is most humbly solicited; and whatever Donation you may be pleased to confer on us then will be thankfully received, and cheerfully repaid whenever called for on a similar occasion.

"WALTER WALTERS,

" HANNAH DAVIES.

"**The Young Man desires that all Gifts of the above nature due to him be returned on the above day, and will be thankful for all additional Favours granted.

"Also, the Young Woman's Father and Mother (John and Hannah Davies), her Sister (Margaret), together with her Grandmother (Catherine Davies), desire that all Gifts of the above nature due to them be returned to the Young Woman on the above day, and will be thankful for all additional Favours conferred on her."

On this occasion the friends were invited to two places, but sometimes they all assemble at the house of one of the parties, where they are regaled with wheaten and oaten cakes, and cheese, and cwrw da (good ale), brewed for the occasion.

The refreshments are laid out on a long table, at the head of which sits a person, having a pewter dish before him to receive the gifts; and as each offering is made he registers the name of the person who presents or sends it; for these moneys are reclaimed on like occasions, either by the parties themselves, or to whomsoever they assign them in the invitation letter.

It is considered highly discreditable to neglect attending these biddings, either in person or by deputy, for the purpose of repaying any offering that may be claimed; and so well is the custom established, that the sums have actually been recovered in courts of law, the judges deciding on the plea of immemorial prescription.

The amount of the gift—which, although so called, is, strictly speaking, a loan-varies from a crown to a sovereign; the sum received altogether depends upon the connexions of the parties, and their rank in life. It is seldom less than twenty or thirty pounds, and oftentimes exceeds one hundred-quite a fortune for a young couple entering life.

It is true that, with the exception of what is sent by the neighbouring gentry, the money collected must be afterwards repaid, but the calls for this purpose occur at long intervals; in the mean time the debt bears no interest, and with common industry, a young couple, becoming by this means possessed of all the necessaries, and even comforts, that their situation requires, can make their way in the world, and rear their children creditably.

In the districts where this custom prevails, the country

people have benefit clubs, and other means for averting the misfortunes brought on by illness or want of work; and they are as religious, frugal, sober, honest, and well-behaved a community as any in existence.

That this mode of advancing a loan bearing no interest to new-married couples, payable by small and uncertain intervals, answers extremely well in the almost primitive society where it is practised, is certain. It is an ancient custom, amongst an ancient people. In the district in which it is practised, there is little movement among the families; almost all are connected with each other by ties of blood, there held in much higher regard than in England, where little or nothing of the feelings which bind clans and tribes together are known, because those relations do not exist.

Wherever the population is fixed, as is found in many agricultural districts, a general subscription of this sort, founded as it is upon some of the best feelings of our nature, might perhaps be introduced with advantage; but it would be a very doubtful experiment.

The fact of such a system being in operation from time out of mind, to the present day, is curious and instructive. It appears to have been a very ancient Celtic custom; the penny-weddings of Scotland bear some resemblance to it, but there, as far as we have ever heard, repayment, the peculiar feature of these Biddings, is not expected. It would be interesting to ascertain whether this custom obtains in Brittany, where the inhabitants we know still retain many very ancient British customs.

A RUSSIAN BATH.

I MOUNTED a drosky and hurried to a bath. Riding out to the suburbs, the drosky boy stopped at a large wooden building, pouring forth steam from every chink and crevice. At the entrance stood several half-naked men, one of whom led me to an apartment to undress, and then conducted me to another, in one end of which were a furnace and apparatus for generating steam. I was then familiar with the Turkish bath; but the worst I had known was like the breath of the gentle south wind, compared with the heat of this apartment. The operator stood me in the middle of the floor, opened the upper door of the stove, and dashed into it a bucketful of water, which sent forth volumes of steam, like a thick fog, into every part of this room, and then laid me down on a platform about three feet high, and rubbed my body with a mop, dipped in soap and hot water : then he raised me up, and deluged me with hot water, pouring several tubfuls on my head; then laid me down again, and scrubbed me with soap and water, from my head to my heels, long enough, if the thing were possible, to make a blackamoor white; then gave me another sousing with hot water, and another scrubbing with pure water, and then conducted me up a flight of steps to a high platform, stretched me out on a bench within a few feet of the ceiling, and commenced whipping me with twigs of birch, with the leaves on them, dipped in hot water. It was as hot as an oven where he laid me down on the bench; the vapour, which had almost suffocated me below, ascended to the ceiling, and finding no avenue of escape, gathered round my devoted body, fairly scalding and blistering me; and when I removed my hands from my face, I felt as if I had carried away my whole profile. I tried to hold out to the end, but I was burning, scorching, and consuming. In agony, I cried out to my tormentor to let me get up; but he did not understand me, or was loth to let me go, and kept thrashing me with the bunch of twigs, until, perfectly desperate, I sprang off the bench, tumbled him over, and descended to the floor. Snow, snow, a region of eternal snow, seemed paradise; but my tormentor had not done with me; and, as I was hurrying to the door, he dashed over me a tub of cold water. I was so hot, that it seemed to hiss as it touched me; he came at me with another, and at that moment I could imagine, what had always seemed a traveller's story, the high satisfaction and perfect safety with which the Russian, in mid-winter, rushes from his hot bath, and rolls himself in the snow. The grim features of my tormentor relaxed as he saw the change that came over me. I withdrew to my dressing-room, dozed an hour on the settee, and went out a new man.-Stephens's Incidents of Travel.

MISSIONS TO THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. POLYNESIA presents to the view of the philosopher, the philanthropist, and the Christian, some of the most extraordinary moral phenomena. Numerous tribes of the most ignorant of our species, have been raised to something like their true rank as rational beings, to the possession of letters and the elements of science, to the enjoyment of social delights, and to the elevation of moral and devout worshippers of the true God. The contemplation of such a spectacle cannot fail to excite the most lively satisfaction and delightful feelings in the breast of every Christian.

The islands in the Pacific, in which Christian Missions have been established, comprise the chief clusters of Eastern Polynesia, and comprehend New Zealand, the Friendly, Feejees, the Navigators' and Harvey Islands, Tahiti, or as it was formerly written, Otaheite, the Society, and Austral or Southern Islands, and the almost innumerable clusters of low islands forming the labyrinth or dangerous archipelago, the Marquesas, and the Sandwich Islands. Of all these, Hawaii, the chief of the Sandwich group, is probably the largest, being nearly 300 miles in circumference, rising to an elevation equal to the highest land in Europe, and presenting a surface which has been computed to contain four thousand square miles. The climate is remarkably pleasant, most equally removed from the severity of a northern winter, and the oppressive heat of the East and West Indies. However numerous the islands of the Southern Ocean, and especially valuable their convenient harbours for various commercial purposes, little was known of them until the latter part of the last century: most of them were then first discovered by British navigators.

Captain Wallis, of his Majesty's ship Dolphin, pursuing his way across the comparatively untraversed waters of the Pacific, discovered, June 19, 1767, the lofty island of Tahiti, and anchored on the 23rd, in the Bay of Matavai: this he called "Port Royal," and designated the island itself, "King George the Third's Island," in honour of his royal master.

Captain Cook being sent, in 1768, to convey certain astronomers, to observe, at Tahiti, the transit of the planet Venus, cast anchor in the bay of Matavai, April, 13, 1769. This distinguished navigator visited the Pacific on two subsequent occasions: once in search of a favourite object of geographical speculation at that period-a Southern Continent; and afterwards in hopes of discovering a northern passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. During these voyages, Captain Cook visited and explored the eastern coast of New Holland; he re-discovered New Zealand, first seen by Tasman, a Dutch navigator, December 13, 1642, and discovered the most northerly of the Marquesas, the Society, Friendly and Sandwich Islands. This great commander, however, fell a victim to the mistaken apprehensions of the natives; being killed February 14, 1779, in a quarrel at Hawaii, then called Owhyhee.

Captain Cook's published journals produced a deep impression on the public mind, as to the importance of his discoveries; and excited the liveliest interest among reflecting and religious persons, throughout England: a mission was therefore seriously contemplated by several eminent Christians, to ameliorate the condition of the numerous tribes of savages in the South Sea Islands. Among those most zealous for the enterprise, was Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. That excellent lady died June 17, 1791, charging her worthy chaplain and friend, Dr. Haweis, with whom she had previously conferred on the practicability of such an undertaking, to endeavour to accomplish her wishes in relation to Otaheite.

Christian missions to the heathen had already been a subject of solemn consideration with many ministers of the gospel of different denominations, to which their minds had been especially awakened by Dr. Doddridge. Hence originated the Baptist Missionary Society, projected in 1792, by that learned and successful missionary labourer, Dr. Carey; and hence, after various correspondence, and published addresses in 1794, by the Evangelical Magazine, then first established, the formation, in 1795, of the "MISSIONARY SOCIETY," since, for the sake of distinction, called the "London Missionary Society." Subsequently, the Church Missionary Society" was established, and afterwards the organization of the "Wesleyan Missionary Society."

Dr. Haweis was faithful to the charge received from his noble patroness, and became one of the founders and directors of the Missionary Society, by which, at its first general meeting, held in

London, during five days, September 21-25, 1795, it was resolved, "That a mission be undertaken to Otaheite, the Friendly Islands, the Marquesas, Sandwich, and the Pelew Islands, as far as may be practicable and expedient." This resolution was passed with unanimity, and with tears of joy, by an unusually large assembly, and carried out at a series of meetings of the most extraordinary character that had ever been held in the British empire for the propagation of the gospel of Christ among the heathen. Large contributions were made on the occasion: Captain Wilson, an eminently qualified gentleman, nobly offered his gratuitous services to convey the missionaries to Otaheite. The ship "Duff" was purchased for £5000; and all needful preparations having been made, thirty missionaries, (six of them, being married, were accompanied by their wives,) embarked at London, August 10, 1796, and arrived at Tahiti, March 4, 1797.

Christian missionary labours and successes among the heathen of the South Sea Islands cannot be rightly appreciated, without some general knowledge of their previous condition. These, therefore, it will be necessary to describe, especially as regards the Tahitians, whose character corresponded in most particulars with those of the other islanders.

They were entirely destitute of letters: they possessed a system, or rather fragments of an absurd mythology. They had "gods many, and lords many,"-warriors, chiefs, and heroes, whom they had deified. Besides, they regarded with religious veneration certain animals, birds, insects, and fishes, as having been entered and possessed by their gods. Their idols, to represent their divinities, were made of stone and of wood; the latter rudely carved to resemble the human face, and braided with the fibres of the cocoa-nut husk, and adorned with the beautiful feathers of the parroquet. Their worship was of a character with their gods; all was repulsiveness and deformity in vice, recklessness in oppression, or diabolical in wanton and diversified cruelties. Benevolence, forbearance, or forgiveness, were never associated with the ideas of their gods, who were considered as beings invested with power only to wreak their vengeance on the hapless objects of their wrath, often implacable and destructive. Human victims were sacrificed when they commenced one of their sacred temples, during its progress, and when it was completed; and also on other occasions, accompanied with rites the most revolting and horrible. Captain Cook was present at one of these sacrifices, when he counted forty-nine human skulls, all of which appeared recently taken from the victims !

Morals among this people were as low as it was possible for the existence of their miserable society. Domestic love could hardly be said to exist: the father and mother with their children, never, as one social, happy band, surrounded the domestic hearth, or partook together, as a family, of the bounties of Divine Providence. Their sacred institutes of Oro and Tane inexorably required that the wife should not eat those kinds of food on which her husband fed, nor eat in the same place with him, nor yet prepare them at the same fire: this degrading restriction applied to all females, and from their birth to their death; nor was it ever relaxed in sickness or pain, for wife, sister, or daughter. Various flesh, fowls, and fish, were held sacred as food for the men; but inferior provisions for women were kept in separate baskets, and eaten in lonely solitude by them, in mean huts, resembling dog-kennels, when compared with the habitations of the men. Woman was, therefore, a wretched slave, doomed to neglect, insult, oppression, and cruelty.

Infanticide prevailed to a most fearful extent among these islanders: the bloody practice attracted the notice of Captain Cook. The first three infants were frequently killed: in the largest families, more than two or three children were seldom spared, while the numbers killed were astonishing. Many parents, according to their own confessions, and the united testimony of their neighbours, had barbarously consigned to an untimely grave, four, or six, or eight, or ten children, and sometimes even a greater number!

Messrs. Bennett and Tyerman, the deputation from the London Missionary Society, when at Tahiti, in 1821, inquired concerning this dreadful practice. They state, "We conversed with Mr. Nott, who has resided here from the commencement of the mission, on the subject of infanticide, and learned with horror, that it had been practised to an extent incredible, except on such testimony and evidence as he and the brethren on other stations have had the means of accumulating. He assured us, that three

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