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ON TIME.

It has been well said, "If you would know the value of a guinea, try to borrow one of a stranger:" we would add, if you would know the value of Time, place yourself for a moment in imagination on the brink of eternity. Suppose some dreadful accident to have happened to you, by which your days are numbered; that you are suddenly, thrown upon a sick bed, and your physician tells you, you have only a few days to live. Do you think that any desire would come upon you to borrow (if we may so express it) a few days more. If so, what would be your hope of obtaining them? Or what your state of mind on finding that the riches of the whole world, were they at that moment under your control, could not purchase the boon for you, and that, consequently, you must go without it? In the case of the guinea, you know that the difficulty is great, but you also know that there is a possibility, that by importunity and perseverance, you may succeed in obtaining the loan of half or a lesser portion, and so will not go without it altogether. Is it so with Time? Oh, but you say, Time is altogether a different thing; our time is always our own, and as long as we have health and strength, it only rests with ourselves to lay it out in whatever way we please; that is a matter which we can always control. Just so; and this is the point where we all err. Did we but carry this great truth always in view, and not be satisfied with stopping here, but following it up in its consequences, we venture to predict, that the result would be very different to what it is.

We will not now stop to inquire the relative proportion of value, which the two talents of Time and Money bear to each other; it is sufficient for our present purpose, that it is in both cases very great, and as the value of one is sufficiently familiar to us, we will suppose that of the other, to be at least equal, and we shall have no difficulty in illustrating the subject. Now, without going too deeply into the matter, we all know that the object of these being placed in our hands is, that they should be laid out in such a way, as to produce as large a return for the future as possible; hence it happens, that every prudent man in making a purchase, considers first, what prospect is held out of making an advantage of his money, or, to speak in the common phrase, "what he will have to show for it." Again, in lending money at interest, he will not be satisfied with a lower rate, if he thinks he can obtain a higher, or he will even take usurious interest if he can get it; in short, his only desire is to make the most of his money, and the consequence is, that when the day of reckoning comes, and he is called upon to make good a loss, which has come upon him suddenly, he has wherewith to pay; he is not plunged into the difficulty of making an unsuccessful attempt, to borrow of a stranger to make up his deficiency, or of submitting to go to prison, as must be the case with an improvident man, whose conduct we will suppose to have been the reverse of what we have stated.

Let us now apply this illustration to the case of Time: do you see no similarity in the two cases? Your time you admit is, even with the busiest, to a certain extent, your own. Every one of us must allow that there are a thousand ways in which it may be laid out with a certainty of producing a return; possibly, a usurious return. You are content, however, to know, that the means are always within your reach; it is a loan you can always make, whenever your interest or your inclination impels

you to it; for the present you are content to live on the principal; it will last your life, or at all events, when it is drawing to a close, it will be time enough for you to bestir yourself; the means are always at hand. But the day of reckoning comes unexpectedly; it is, perhaps, heavy; the amount to be made up is large; the time short; it may be (dare we think it!) a few hours; you look into your account, and a frightful deficiency stares you in the face; you have always imagined that at most you had only to answer for the omission of having neglected to lay out your talent in such a way as would have enabled you to meet your present deficiency; the appalling truth strikes you, for the first time, that you have done more. You have borrowed from eternity, and unconsciously incurred a debt which it is utterly out of your power to pay; you have not only omitted to do that which you were required to do, but you have done that which it would take a long and laborious life to repair; and you have a few short hours to do it! Think of these things, reader; think of them when, without any intention of committing a wilful sin, you engage in a work, having, it may be, no particular good or evil for its object; say to yourself, “Am I laying out this hour in such a way as will repay me with future advantage?" be candid with yourself, and we venture to hope that you will, at least, pause before you deliberately incur the responsibility of a waste of time, which is forcibly described by your excellent poet Cowper, as no better than

Dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up.

H. H.

AMONG other instructive lessons with which the book or Job abounds, we have a lively instance of the weakness and insecurity of our condition, unless the watchful eye and hand of Providence be over us, to guard us against to break in upon us. the dangers and miseries that surround us, and are ready for the trial and exercise of this good man's virtues, to No sooner did the Almighty see fit, remove the hedge that was set about him for his defence, than men and devils invade his happiness. His greedy neighbours spoil his goods, and slay his servants; fire from heaven consumes the rest; a wind from the desert overturns the house where his sons and daughters were all feasting together, and buries his children in its ruin. His person is next attacked, and his body smitten with sore and grievous boils, from the crown of his head, to the sole of his feet. And the patriarch became at once childless, destitute, and afflicted, who, the day before, was famous among the people of the East, for his prosperity and the glory of his house.

The calamities which Job suffered, were indeed uncommon. But what was it that rendered them so? It was because God, in his wisdom, was pleased to suspend for a while the ordinary protection of his Providence; and not because any new evils were called up from the bottomless pit, on purpose to torment him. The terror by night, the arrow that flieth by day, the pestilence that walketh in always ready to invade us, as they did him, but that the darkness, the destruction that wasteth at noon-day, are Almighty controls their fury. For the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, are his.

These considerations leave no room for confidence in the arm of flesh; at the same time, they remove all just ground of anxiety and disquiet, while we so live, as to make God our friend! without whose permission, nothing sad or disastrous can befall us. And, although we may expect to meet trials, for this life is a state of trial, and we see that the good and righteous have their afflictions, yet, under a sense of God's disposing and overruling providence, we have no reason to be cast down: nay, we have all reason to the contrary, whatever may befall us: since, what is appointed by Him, must be wisely and graciously appointed; either to correct and amend what is amiss, their improvement in grace, and preparation for glory.→→ or to try and exercise what is good, in his servants; for TowNSON.

PREJUDICE.

Νο

THOSE who are prejudiced or enthusiastic, live, and move, and think, and act, in an atmosphere of their own conformation. The delusion so produced is sometimes deplorable, sometimes ridiculous, always remediless. events are too great, or too little, to be construed by such persons into peculiar or providential corroboratives, or consequences of their own morbid hallucinations. An old maiden lady, who was a most determined espouser of the cause of the Pretender, happened to be possessed of a beautiful canary-bird, whose vocal powers were the annoyance of one half of the neighbourhood, and the admiration of the other. Lord Peterborough was very solicitous to procure this bird, as a present to a lady who had set her heart on being mistress of this little musical wonder Neither his lordship's entreaties, nor his bribes could prevail; but so able a negociator was not to be easily foiled. He took an opportunity of changing the bird, and of substituting another in its cage, during some lucky moment, when its vigilant protectress was off her guard. The changeling was precisely like the original, except in that particular respect which alone constituted its value; it was a perfect mute, and had more taste for seeds than for songs. Immediately after this manoeuvre, that battle which utterly ruined the hopes of the Pretender took place. A decent interval had elapsed, when his lordship summoned up resolution to call again on the old lady: in order to smother all suspicion of the trick he had played upon her, he was about to affect a great anxiety for the possession of the bird; she saved him all trouble on that score

by anticipating, as she thought, his errand, exclaiming, "O ho! my Lord, then you are come again, I presume, to coax me out of my dear little idol, but it is all in vain, he is now dearer to me than ver; I would not part with him for his cage full of gold. Would you believe it, my lord? From the moment that his gracious sovereign was defeated, the sweet little fellow has not uttered a single

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'IN passing through Mitre Alley, the eye is attracted by an angular sign-board, projecting from the wall, on which is the following inscription. "Domestic medicine prescribed from Irish manuscripts," and a couplet of Irish poetry follows. Attracted by this notice, we visited the doctor, in the hope of meeting with those Irish manuscripts from which he derived his prescriptions. Nor were we disappointed. We found an old man of a genuine Milesian aspect, possessed of seventy-three very old volumes of vellum, bound in modern covers. They contained several thousand receipts in Latin and Irish, written in a beautiful but very old Irish character. From this ancient repertory, the doctor collected all his knowledge of the healing art, and practised to some extent among the poor of his vicinity. History of Dublin. L. C.

AN upright posture is easier than a stooping one, because it is more natural, and one part is better supported by another; so it is easier to be an honest man than a knave. -SKELTON.

ARABIAN TALE.

THE ignorant have often given credit to the wise, for powers that are permitted to none, merely because the wise have made a proper use of those powers that are permitted to all. A little Arabian tale of THE DERVISE will show how this may happen.

A dervise was journeying alone in the desert, when two merchants suddenly met him :-" You have lost a camel," said he to the merchants. "Indeed we have," they replied. "Was he not blind in his right eye, and lame in his left leg?" said the dervise. "He was," replied the merchants. And was he not loaded with honey on one side, and wheat on the other?" "Most certainly he was," they replied," and as you have seen him so lately, and marked him so particularly, we pray you to conduct us to him.”

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"My friends," said the dervise," I have never seen your camel, nor ever heard of him but from you." A pretty story, truly," said the merchants; "but where are the jewels which formed a part of his cargo?" "I have neither seen your camel nor your jewels," repeated the

dervise.

On this they seized his person, and forthwith hurried him before a justice, where, on the strictest search, nothing could be found upon him, either of falsehood or of theft.

They were then about to proceed apainst him as a sorcerer, when the dervise, with great calmness, thus addressed the

court.

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I have been much pleased with your surprise, and own that there has been some ground for your suspicions; but I have lived long, and alone; and I can find ample scope for observation, even in a desert. I knew that I had crossed the track of a camel that had strayed. from its owner, because I saw no mark of any human footstep on the same route. I knew that the animal was blind in one eye, because it had cropped the herbage only on one side of its path; and I perceived that it was lame in one leg, from the faint impression which that particular foot had produced upon the sand. I concluded that the animal had lost one tooth, because, wherever it had grazed, a small tuft of herbage was left uninjured in the centre of its bite. As to that which formed the burden of the beast, the busy ants informed me that it was corn on the one side, and the clustering flies that it was honey on the other."-COLTON A TRAVELLING man, one winter's evening, laid himself down upon the platform of a lime-kiln, placing his feet, probably benumbed with cold, upon the heap of stones, newly put on to burn through the night. Sleep overcame him in this situation, the fire gradually rising and increasing, until it ignited the stones upon which his feet were placed. Lulled by the warmth, the man slept on; the fire increased until it burned one foot, (which probably was extended over a vent-hole,) and part of the leg above the ancle entirely off, consuming that part so effectually, that a wretch slept on! and in this state was found by the kilncinder-like fragment was alone remaining, and still the men in the morning. Insensible to any pain, and ignorant of his misfortune, he attempted to rise and pursue his journey; but, missing his shoe, requested to have it found, and when he was raised, putting his burnt limb to the ground to support his body, the extremity of his leg-bone crumbled into fragments, having been calcined into lime. Still he expressed no sense of pain, and probably experienced none, from the gradual operation of the fire, and his own torpidity, during the hours his foot was consuming. about a fortnight; but the fire having extended to other This poor drover survived his misfortunes in the hospital parts of his body, recovery was hopeless.Journal of a Naturalist.

THE heart may be engaged in a little business, as much, if thou watch it not, as in many and great affairs. A man may drown in a little brook or pool, as well as in a great river, if he lie down and plunge himself into it, and put his head under water. Some care thou must have, that thou mayest not care. Those things that are thorns indeed, thou must make a hedge of them, to keep out those temptations that accompany sloth, and extreme want that waits on it; but let them be the hedge: suffer them not to grow within the garden.-COLERIDGE.

THE MIRAGE.

THE first march from Abusheher we had to pass over a desert plain of considerable extent, on which I amused myself by watching narrowly the various changes, as we were near or remote from it, of that singular vapour, called by the French MIRAGE, and by the Arabs and Persians SIRAB.

The influence of this vapour in changing the figure of objects is very extraordinary; it sometimes gives to those seen through it the most fantastical shapes, and, as a general effect, it always appears to elevate, and make objects seem much taller than they really are. A man, for instance, seen through it at the distance of a mile and a half upon the level plain, appears to be almost as tall as a date-tree.

Its resemblance to water is complete, and justifies all the metaphors of poets, and their tales of thirsty and deluded travellers.

The most singular quality of this vapour is its power of reflection. When a near observer is a little elevated, as on horseback, he will see trees and other objects reflected as from the surface of a lake. The vapour, when seen at a distance of six or seven miles, appears to lie upon the earth like an opaque mass; and it certainly does not rise many feet above the ground, for I observed that, while the lower part of the town of Abusheher was hid from the view, some of the more elevated buildings, and the tops of a few date-trees, were distinctly visible.Sketches of Persia.

THE GYMNOTUS, OR ELECTRIC EEL. THE Gymnoti, or Electrical Eels, which resemble large water serpents, inhabit several streams of South America, and abound also in the Oroonoko, the Amazon, and the Meta, but the strength of the current, and the depth of the water in these large rivers, prevent their being caught by the Indians. They see these fish less frequently than they feel electric shocks from them, when swimming or bathing in the river. To catch the Gymnoti with nets is very difficult, on account of the extreme agility of the fish, which bury themselves in the mud like serpents. Roots are sometimes thrown into the water to intoxicate or benumb these animals, but we would not employ these means, as they would have enfeebled the gymnoti: the Indians, therefore, told us, that they would "fish with horses." We found it difficult to form an idea of this extraordinary manner of fishing; but we soon saw our guides return from the savannah, which they had been scouring for wild horses and mules. They brought about thirty with them, which they forced to enter the pool.

THE GYMNOTUS.

The extraordinary noise caused by the horses' hoofs, makes the fish issue from the mud, and excites them to combat; they swim on the surface of the water, and crowd under the bellies of the horses and mules. A contest between animals of so different an organization, furnishes a very striking spectacle. The Indians, provided with harpoons and long slender reeds, surround the pool closely; and some climb upon the trees, the branches of which extend horizontally over the surface of the water. By their wild cries, and the length of their reeds, they prevent the horses from running away, and reaching the bank of the pool. The eels, stunned by the noise, defend themselves by the repeated discharge of their electric power, and during a long time they seem to prove victorious. Several horses sink beneath the violence of the invisible strokes, which they receive from all sides, and stunned by the force and frequency of the shocks, disappear under the water. Others, panting, with mane erect, and haggard eyes, expressing anguish, raise themselves, and endeavour to flee from the storm by which they are overtaken. They are driven back by the Indians into the middle of the water; but a small number succeed in eluding the active vigilance of the fishermen. These regain the shore, stumbling at every step, and stretch themselves on the sand, exhausted with fatigue, and their limbs benumbed by the electric shocks of the gymnoti. In less than five minutes two horses were drowned. The eel being five feet

long, and pressing itself against the belly of the horses, makes a discharge along the whole extent of its electric organ. The horses are probably only stunned, not killed, but they are drowned from the impossibility of rising, amid the prolonged struggles between the other horses and the eels.

We had little doubt, that the fishing would terminate by killing, successively, all the animals engaged; but, by degrees, the impetuosity of this unequal contest diminished, and the wearied gymnoti dispersed. The mules and horses appeared less frightened; their manes no longer bristled, and their eyes expressed less dread. The Gymnoti, which require a long rest and abundant nourishment to repair what they have lost of galvanic force, approach timidly the edge of the marsh, where they are taken by means of small harpoons, fastened to long cords.

The Gymnotus is the largest of electrical fishes; I measured some that were from five to five feet three inches long, and the Indians assert that they have seen still longer. We found that a fish of three feet ten inches long weighed twelve pounds; the transverse diameter of the body was three inches five lines. The Gymnoti of Cano de Bera are of a fine olive-green; the under part of the head is yellow, mingled with red. Along the back are two rows of small yellow spots, from which exudes a slimy matter that spreads over the skin of the animal, and which, as Volta has proved, conducts electricity twenty or thirty times better than pure water. It is, in general, somewhat remarkable, that no electrical fish yet discovered in the different parts of the world, is covered with scales.

The Gymnoti, which are objects of the most lively interest to the philosopher of Europe, are dreaded and detested by the natives. Their flesh furnishes pretty good food, but the electric organ fills the greater part of the body, and this being slimy and disagreeable to the taste, is carefully separated from the rest. The presence of the Gymnoti is also considered as the principal cause of the want of fish in the ponds and pools of the Llanos, where they kill many more fish than they devour. The Indians told us, that when they take young alligators and gymnoti at the same time in very strong nets, the latter never display the slightest trace of a wound, because they disable the young alligators before they are attacked by them. All the inhabitants of the waters dread the Gymnoti; lizards, tortoises, and frogs, seek the pools, where they are secure from their action. It became necessary to change the direction of a road near Uritucu, because these electrical eels were so numerous in one river, that they every year killed a great number of mules of burden as they forded the river.

It would be temerity to expose ourselves to the first shocks of a very large and strongly irritated Gymnotus. If by chance you receive a stroke before the fish is wounded, or wearied by a long pursuit, the pain and numbness are so violent, that it is impossible to describe the nature of the feeling they excite. I do not remember having ever received from the discharge of an electrical machine, a more dreadful shock, than that which I experienced by imprudently placing both my feet on a Gymnotus just taken out of the water. I was affected the rest of the day with a violent pain in the knces, and in almost every joint.

[HUMBOLDT's Personal Narrative.]

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LONDON:

JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND.
PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY FARTS
PRICE SIXPENCE, AND
Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in the Kingdom.

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UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

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VOL. IV,

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HULL, IN YORKSHIRE. HULL, or Kingston upon Hull, is a seaport, in the East Riding of the county of York, containing 54,110 inhabitants. It was founded by Edward the First, from whom it received the name of King's Town, now Kingston, to which was added upon Hull, to distinguish it from Kingston-upon-Thames, and other places of similar appellation. The harbour was formed in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, and in the same year he granted the town a charter. From this time the increase of the town remarka le, and in 1316, a ferry over the Humber was established, between Hull and Barton. Ten years afterwards the town was fortified; and so rapid was its improvement, that in the reign of Edward the Third, it supplied sixteen ships towards an armament for the invasion of France, when London only furnished twenty-five. During the contests between the houses of York and Lancaster, Hull continued faithful to the latter, whose cause they maintained in the battles of Wakefield and Towton. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, this place suffered greatly, in common with many others, from pestilential diseases, but continued to prosper and extend its commerce. In 1541, it was visited by Henry the Eighth, who made additions to the fortifications. During the civil war, in the reign of Charles the First, it became a place of great importance to both parties, as it contained a larger quantity of stores and ammunition than that in the Tower of London. The King attempted to put the Earl of Northumberland into the town as governor, but the mayor refused to receive him, and admitted Sir John Hotham, who was sent by the Parliament. The town was unsuccessfully besieged, first by the king, and afterwards by the Marquis of Newcastle.

Hull is situated at the confluence of the rivers Hull and Humber. The streets in the older part of the town are narrow and incommodious; but in the new, more spacious and regular. The houses in general are built of brick; the streets are paved with stone brought from Iceland, as ballast in the ships employed in the whale-fishery, and are lighted with gas. The inhabitants are supplied with water from springs, which rise near Kirk Ella, about four miles from the town. Hull consists of three unequal divisions; that which was first built is completely insulated by the docks, which have been constructed on the site of the ancient military works; on the north side of the old dock, is Sculcoates, containing several handsome modern streets; and of still more recent date, is that part which lies westward from the Humber dock, occupying the supposed site' of the ancient hamlet of Myton, which name it still retains. The Garrisonside, which is extra parochial, is connected with the principal part of the town by a bridge of four arches, over the river Hull, having a drawbridge in the centre.

The Public Rooms, of which the first stone was laid on the day on which his Majesty William the Fourth was proclaimed, form a handsome edifice of brick, with an elegant portico of the Ionic order: they comprise a room for concerts and public meetings, a drawing-room, a dining-room, baths, a museum of natural history, &c. Hull also possesses an Exchange; a Subscription Library established in 1775; the Lyceum Library in 1807; the Theological Library, containing many scarce works; a Literary and Philosophical Society with a good museum; a Mechanics' Institute, having a library and a fine picture by Briggs, representing the progress of civilization in Britain; and a Botanic Garden, opened in 1812. There are also Baths, a Theatre, and various charitable and scientific institutions.

Hull has long been famed for its trade and shipping, for which its situation is peculiarly favourable. It carries on a considerable foreign trade with Norway, Sweden, Holland, Hamburgh, France, Spain, and America, to which it exports the manufactured goods and produce of the counties of Lancashire, York, Nottingham, Derby, Stafford, and Chester: the manufactured goods and produce brought into this port, from the west riding of the county of York alone, are estimated at five millions sterling per annum. It carries on also an extensive coasting trade. The whale-fishery originated at this place in 1589, when the merchants fitted out two vessels for Greenland: at present, few ships are sent from this port to Greenland, nearly the whole being fitted out for Davis's Straits. Between forty and fifty vessels are employed in this way annually.

The Docks, which contribute so much to the commercial prosperity of the town, were commenced in 1774, when a subscription was set on foot, and an Act of Parliament obtained, for incorporating the shareholders under the name of the Dock Company of Kingston-upon-Hull. The crown granted the military works of the town, and the parliament voted £15,000 towards defraying the expense of the undertaking. The first stone of what is now called the Old Dock, was laid October 19th, 1775, and the whole completed in four years: this dock is 600 yards long, 85 broad, and 23 deep. The Humber Dock was begun April 13th, 1807, and completed June 30th, 1809; it communicates with the river, from which it takes its name, by a lock large enough to admit a fifty-gun ship: it is 300 yards long, 114 wide, and 30 deep. These two docks are capable of holding six hundred vessels. The Junction Dock, uniting the two former, enables vessels to pass round the town: it was completed in 1830, and will contain sixty vessels, besides allowing room for others to pass. In addition to these there are two basins, the Old Dock Basin and the Humber Dock Basin. total area of water of the several docks and basins, is upwards of twenty-six acres. There are two entrances to the docks, one from the river Humber on the south, and the other from the river Hull, or the harbour, on the east.

The

Of the ancient fortifications there remain only two of the forts erected by Henry the Eighth, by which, and by several batteries on the east side of the river, the town and harbour are defended.

The principal manufactures are turpentine and tar, white lead, soap, tobacco and snuff, sails, sailcloth, ropes, and chain cables. There are several linseed mills, a sugar-refinery, and large breweries. The government of the town is vested in a mayor, recorder, twelve aldermen, sheriff, chamberlain, &c. A new gaol and house of correction was built about 1830 on Mr. Howard's plan. Hull returns two members to parliament.

́Hull, about the year 1534, was made the see of a bishop, but this was abolished on the death of Edward VI. The borough comprises the parishes of Drypool, St. Mary, the Holy Trinity, Sculcoates and Sutton, and Garrisonside. St. Mary's Church, of which the greater part was demolished in the reign of Henry VIII., consists principally of the chancel of the original structure; it contains some good windows in the later style of English architecture. Trinity Church is an ancient and spacious cruciform building with a very beautiful tower. St. John's Church, in the same parish, was erected in 1792. There is also another church in Myton, and there are several places of worship for the various classes of dissenters.

The Grammar School was founded in 1486 by Dr.

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