MORNING AND EVENING.

BY THE REV. RICHARD TREFFRY, JUN. MORN and its freshness! O how fair and bright

Its virgin sunbeams, and its laughing breeze,

Wooing the dew-clouds till they melt in light;

Its twice ten thousand mirrors on the trees, And all the charms that eye or fancy please. While the glad feather'd tribe awake their notes,

(That mingle with the busy hum of bees,) To hail the morn they swell their quiv'ring throats,

And through the woods and sky the joyful music floats.

Eve, and its calmness! Eve, the lovely eve! It sails in beauty o'er the western sea, Paces along where rising billows heave

To meet the spirit of her minstrelsy. Soft sigh the winds across the sedgy lea, Heaven is empurpled with the sun's last

ray,

The birds have ceased their thrilling melody, The twilight shades throughout heaven's expanse stray,

And balmy silence shuts at length the gates of day.

CAPT.'S EXCUSE FOR NOT FIGHTING A DUEL.

WHAT! you're afraid, then?—Yes, I am; you're right:

I am afraid to sin, but not to fight.
My country claims my service; but no law
Bids me in folly's cause my sword to draw:
I fear not man or devil; but, though odd,
I'm not ashamed to own, I fear my God!
-Sacred Poems, &c., by J. Fordyce, published
in 1798.

ON SENDING A FRIEND A SLIP OF
THE WEEPING WILLOW.

Go plant this weeping-willow tree,
To mark the spot where dear friends sleep;
O'er them to wave full mournfully,

O'er them to weep.

MISSIONS.

BY MRS. SIGOURNEY.

LIGHT for the dreary vales
Of ice-bound Labrador,

Where the frost-King breathes on the slippery sails,

And the mariner wakes no more;

Lift high the lamp that never fails,

To that dark and sterile shore.

Light for the forest child!
An outcast though he be,

From the haunts where the sun of his childhood smiled,

And the country of the free; Pour the hope of heaven o'er his desert wild, For what hope on earth has he!

Light for the hills of Greece!

Light for that trampled clime, Where the rage of the spoiler refused to cease Ere it wreck'd the boast of time:

If the Moslem hath dealt the gift of peace, Can you grudge your boon sublime?

Light on the Hindoo shed!

On the maddening idol-train;

The flame of the suttee is dire and red,
And the fakir faints with pain,
And the dying moan on their cheerless bed,
By the Ganges laved in vain.

Light on the Persian sky!

The Sophi's wisdom fades,
And the pearls of Ormus are poor to buy
Armour when death invades :

Hark! hark! 'tis the Christian wanderer's sigh,

From Ararat's mournful shades.

WILLIAM TYNDALE AT SODBURY MANOR-HOUSE, GLOUCESTER

SHIRE.

WHEN Tyndale returned to his native county he was soon actively engaged, and so continued to be, from Stinchcombe-Hill down to Bristol, to the close of 1522. As the place where he lived is only eight miles south from that of his birth, it is well known; nay, and the house under whose roof he spent his best and zealous exertions in discussing and defending the word of God, is happily still in existence; to all those who may take an interest in the following history, there is not a more heart-stirring spot in all England. The halls of our colleges, wherever they stand, have never given birth to a design so vitally important in its origin, so fraught with untold benefit to millions, and now so extensive in its range, as that which ripened into a fixed and invincible purpose in the dining-hall of Little Sodbury Manor-house. It was in this house that Tyndale resided for about two years, as a tutor; and adjoining to it behind there still stands, with its two ancient yew-trees before the door, the little church of St. Adeline, where of course the family and tenants attended. Foxe has said of Tyndale, while at Antwerp, that when he "read the Scriptures he proceeded so fruitfully, sweetly, and gently, much like unto

the writing of John the Evangelist, that it was a heavenly comfort to the audience to hear him;" and so it may have been, under some of his earlier efforts within the walls of this diminutive and unpretending place of worship. At all events, let it be observed, when his voice was first heard Luther had not yet been denounced even by Leo X., at Rome, much less by Cardinal Wolsey in England. "About A.D. 1520" we are informed that " William Tyndale used often to preach in Bristol." This he did on the great Green, sometimes called the Sanctuary, or St. Justin's Green. "He was at that time resident with Sir John Walsh, at Little Sodbury, as tutor to his children; and on Sundays he preached at the towns and parishes in the neighbourhood, and frequently he had debates with the Abbots and other Clergy who frequented the house."

This small parish, with its Manor-house and inmates, thus become objects of no little interest; and for the sake, not of Tyndale only, but especially of the design then formed, as well as of the circumstances that led to it, we must not refrain from going into some further particulars.

In this part of Gloucestershire there are three contiguous parishes of the same name: Old Sodbury; Chipping-that is, MarketSodbury; and the third, named Little Sod

bury, by way of distinction. This last, consisting of about nine hundred acres, chiefly in pasture, lies on the side of Sodbury-hill, and extends to its summit. On the edge of this hill is a strong Roman camp, of an oblong square, where first Queen Margaret, and then Edward IV., in pursuit, had rested before the battle of Tewkesbury. Immediately below this camp, on the side of the hill fronting south-westward, stands the Manor-house, an ancient building, from which there is a beautiful and extensive prospect over the vale as far as the Bristol Channel. Four clumps of large trees growing above, objects very observable, are taken notice of through a large extent of country on that side of the hills. In the sketch already given, one of these clumps may be seen on the left, but a nearer view will give a better idea of the house itself.

Inhabited by different families from the thirteenth century, it was now in possession of Sir John Walsh, Knight, as inherited from his father. Happening to have been Champion to Henry VIII. on certain occasions, and to please his royal master, the heir of little Sodbury had been knighted, and received from him, in addition, the Manorhouse of Old Sodbury, then in the gift of the Crown. Intimate as Walsh had been, both with the young King and the court, and now given to hospitality, his table was the resort of not only the neighbouring gentry, but of the Abbots and other dignified Ecclesiastics, swarming around him. Thus it was, that, whether in company, or alone with the family, where he was treated as a friend, Tyndale enjoyed one of the best opportunities for becoming intimately acquainted with the existing state of things, whether civil, or ecclesiastical, so called.

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Sir John had married Anne Poyntz, the daughter of an ancient Gloucestershire family in the neighbourhood, a lady who took as warm an interest as her husband in the discussions at their table. "This gentleman," says Foxe," as he kept a good ordinary commonly at his table, there resorted to him many times sundry Abbots, Deans, Archdeacons, with divers other Doctors and great beneficed men; who there together with Master Tyndale sitting at the same table, did use, many times, to enter into communication. There Tyndale, as he was learned and well practised in God's matters, so he spared not to show unto them simply and plainly his judgment, and when they at any time did vary from his opinions, he would show them the book, and lay before them the manifest places of the Scriptures, to confute their errors, and confirm his sayings.' It was not long, however, before Sir John and his lady had been invited to a banquet given by these great Doctors. There they talked at will and pleasure, uttering their blindness and ignorance without any resistance or gainsaying. On returning home, both Sir John and his lady began to reason with Tyndale respecting those subjects of which the Priests had talked at their banquet; one decided proof that some considerable impression had been made. Tyndale firmly maintained the truth, and exposed their false opinions. "Well," said Lady Walsh, "there was such a Doctor there as may have disposed of a hundred pounds, and another two hundred, and another three hundred pounds; and what! were it reason, think you, that we should believe you before them?" To this Tyndale at the moment gave no reply, and for some time after said but little on such subjects.-Anderson's Annals of the English Bible.

POPISH INSTRUMENT OF
TORTURE.

IN Shoberl's new work, entitled "Persecutions of Popery," there is the following description of an instrument of torture, found in a Spanish monastery so recently as the year 1808" In a recess in a subterranean vault, contiguous to the private hall for examinations, stood a wooden figure, made by the hands of Monks, and representing the Virgin Mary. A gilded glory encompassed her head, and in her right hand she held a banner. It struck us all, at first sight, that, notwithstanding the silken robe, descending on each side in ample folds from her shoulders, she should wear a sort of cuirass. On closer scrutiny, it appeared that the forepart of the body was stuck full of extremely sharp nails and small narrow knife-blades,

with the points of both turned towards the spectator. The arms and hands were jointed, and the machinery behind the partition set the figure in motion. One of the servants of the Inquisition was compelled, by command of the General, to work the machine, as he termed it. When the figure extended her arms, as though to press some one most lovingly to her heart, the well-filled knapsack of a Polish grenadier was made to supply the place of a living victim. The statue hugged it closer and closer; and when the attendant, agreeably to orders, made the figure unclasp her arms, and return to her former position, the knapsack was perforated to the depth of two or three inches, and remained hanging on the points of the nails and knifeblades. To such an infernal purpose, and in a building erected in honour of the true faith,

was the Madonna rendered subservient: she, the immaculate and the blessed, who transfused celestial grace into the pencils of the greatest painters, and the highest charm of which art is susceptible into the works of the most eminent sculptors ! One of the Familiars (as they are called) of the Inquisition, gave us an account of the customary mode of proceeding on using this machine. The substance of his report was as follows:Persons accused of heresy, or of blaspheming God or the saints, and obstinately refusing to confess their guilt, were conducted into this cellar, at the further end of which, numerous lamps, placed round a recess, threw a variegated light on the gilded glory and on the head of the figure and the flag in her right hand. At a little altar, standing opposite to her and hung with black, the prisoner received the sacrament; and two Ecclesiastics earnestly admonished him, in the presence of the mother of God, to make a confession. "See," said they, "how lovingly the blessed Virgin opens her arms to thee! on her bosom thy hardened heart will be melted: there thou wilt confess." All at once the figure began to raise her extended arms; the prisoner, overwhelmed with astonishment, was led to her embraces; she drew him nearer and nearer, pressed him almost imperceptibly closer and closer, till the spikes and knives pierced his breast. Either agony and terror extorted a confession from the writhing wretch; or, if he still withheld it, he

remained insensible in the arms of the figure, while the blood trickled from an hundred small but not mortal wounds. Oil and healing balsam were applied to them; and on a carpet spread at the feet of the figure, in the vault now brilliantly lighted up, he was left to come to himself. If this experiment failed, he was remanded to his dungeon, there probably to await fresh torments. It deserves remark, that the barbarians, by a perversion of language worthy of Satan himself, gave this machine of torture the appellation of madre dolorosa, not "the afflicted," but "the afflicting mother."

IMAGE-WORSHIP.

SIR C. E. SMITH states that about two years ago, on entering Rome, one of the first carriages he saw was that of the infant Saviour, an image of whom was drawn in this carriage by horses, and paid visits to the sick. For a fee of five scudi, about one guinea, the image was placed by the bed of a sick person in order to recovery. The celebrated Cardinal Gonzalvi had this image placed by his dying bed by the command of his housekeeper. It was a fact, also, that the King of Naples paid ten thousand pounds to the Pope for the purpose of canonizing a female. This same amount of English money was equal to fifty thousand crowns, which was the canonization fee fixed many years ago by Pope Benedict.

RELIC OF LORD NELSON. AN interesting relic of Nelson has been discovered; and some interest also attaches to the manner in which it has been secured to the nation. Sir Harris Nicolas, in his laborious researches for editing the hero's despatches, had satisfied himself that the coat and waistcoat which Nelson wore when he fell at Trafalgar were carefully preserved. In pursuance of the Admiral's directions, they passed, with several other things, through Sir Thomas Hardy, his Captain, to a late Alderman of London; and they remained in possession of the Alderman's widow. The lady is not rich, and she asked £150 for the relic. The sum being beyond his own means, Sir Harris determined to raise it by subscription, in order that the coat and waistcoat might be deposited, like the coat which Nelson wore at the battle of the Nile, in Greenwich Hospital. With that view, he put the proposition in writing, and had it printed as a circular. Before issuing the circular, however, he sent a copy to Prince Albert; who immediately desired that the purchase might be made for himself, as he should feel "pride and pleasure" in presenting the precious memorials to Greenwich

Hospital. Sir Harris Nicolas took them to the royal purchaser on Wednesday; and we understand that the Prince manifested a very fine feeling on the occasion. There is a kind of generous wisdom in this act; for nothing could so help to identify the Queen's husband with the British people, as such little tributes to their maritime pride. The coat is thus described in Sir Harris Nicolas's circular, and it will be seen that it has an historical value" The coat is the undress uniform of a Vice-Admiral, lined with white silk, with lace on the cuffs, and epaulets. Four stars, of the Order of the Bath, St. Ferdinand and Merit, the Crescent, and St. Joachim, are sewn on the left breast, as Nelson habitually wore them which disproves the story, that he purposely adorned himself with his decorations on going into battle. The course of the fatal ball is shown by a hole over the left shoulder, and part of the epaulete is torn away which agrees with Dr. Sir William Beattie's account of Lord Nelson's death, and with the fact, that pieces of the bullion and pad of the epaulete adhered to the ball, which is now in Her Majesty's possession. The coat and waistcoat are stained in several places with the hero's blood."

THE SYCAMORE.

THE Sycamore is a large tree, (according to the description of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Galen,) resembling the mulberry-tree in the leaf, and the fig in its fruit: some have fancied that it was originally produced by ingrafting the one tree upon the other. Its fruit is palatable. When ripe, it is soft, watery, somewhat sweet, with a little of an aromatic taste.

The trees are very common in Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt; grow large and to a great height; and, though the grain is coarse, are much used in building. To change sycamores into cedars, (Isai. ix. 10,) means to render the buildings of cities and the base of the nation much more magnificent than before. Dr. Shaw remarks, that, "as the grain and texture of the sycamore is remarkably coarse and spongy, it could therefore stand in no competition at all with the cedar for beauty and ornament." We meet with the same opposition of cedars to sycamores, 1 Kings x. 27; where Solomon is said to have made silver as the stones, and cedars as the sycamores of the vale for abundance. 66 By this mashal, or figurative and sententious speech," says

Bishop Lowth, "they boast (in this place of Isaiah) that they shall easily be able to repair their present losses, suffered perhaps by the first Assyrian invasion under TiglathPileser, and to bring their affairs to a more flourishing condition than ever." Mr. Norden, in his "Travels into Egypt and Nubia," (vol.i., p. 79,) has given a particular account of the tree and its fruit. "The sycamore," says he, "is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in a manner quite different from other trees; it has them on the trunk itself, which shoots out little sprigs in form of grape-stalks, at the end of which grow the fruit close to one another, almost like clusters

of grapes. The tree is always green, and bears fruit several times in the year, without observing any certain seasons; for I have seen some sycamores that have given fruit two months after others. The fruit has the figure and smell of real figs, but is inferior to them in the taste, having a disgustful sweetness. Its colour is a yellow inclining to an ochre, shadowed by a flesh colour. In the inside it resembles the common figs, excepting that it has a blackish colouring with yellow spots. This sort of tree is pretty