an appeal from them to the people, yet for several ages, such was their caution, and such the integrity of this tribunal, that none seemed desirous of seeking farther justice, and both parties acquiesced in the equity of their decrees. The great power of which the senate was possessed, was, about a century after, tempered by the formation of a superior court, called the court of the Ephori, which consisted of but five in number, and the members were chosen annually into their office. They were elected from the people and possessed the power of arresting and imprisoning even the persons of their kings, if they acted unbecoming their station.

The people also had a nominal share in the government. They had their assemblies, consisting of citizens only; and also their great convention of all persons who were free of the state; these were called upon to approve or reject the decrees of the senate, but without the liberty of debating any subject. They were not permitted to hold any of the offices of the states, and were considered merly as machines, which their wiser fellow citizens were to conduct and employ.

To reconcile the people to the small degree of power granted to them, Lycurgus boldly resolved to give them a share in those lands of which, by dissipation and other causes, they had been deprived. To keep the people in plenty, but in a state of entire dependence, appears to have been one of the most refined strokes in his system of legislation. He accordingly divided all the lands of Laconia into thirty thousand parts, and those of Sparta into nine thousand, which he portioned out to the respective inhabitants of each district. Each portion was sufficient to maintain a family with frugality; and though the kings had a larger share assigned to them to support their dignity, yet their tables had rather the air of competency than of superfluity and profession. With so much judgment did Lycurgus carry this plan into effect, that, at the end of several years, he was able to appeal to his fellow citizens, "whether Laconia had not the appearance of an estate, which several brothers had been dividing among themselves."

This measure, however, at first, created, a violent opposition, and the legislator narrowly escaped with his life. In his attempt to take refuge in a temple he was pursued by Alcander, a young nobleman, who, on Lycurgus's looking back, beat out one of his eyes; the legislator immediately stopt, and showing his face covered with blood, the people were at once so struck with their own ingratitude and his danger, that, with one consent, they asked his pardon, and delivered up the offender to his revenge. Instead, however, of punishing or upbraiding him harshly, he caused him to wait upon his person: this instance of forbearance greatly conciliated the people's esteem and affection.

After Lycurgus had established every thing agreeable to his wishes, his next care was how to secure a perpetual observance of the laws which had been instituted. For this purpose he pretended a necessity of going to Delphos, and required an oath from the senate and people to adhere to his regulations until he return ed. Upon this he imposed upon himself a voluntary banishment, in which he died.

The Spartans were long distinguished for a strict and rigid observance of the laws, which was not so much a compliance with the orders of individuals, as a respect for established customs and a regard for their country. Private affections and interest gave way to, and were absorbed in, a desire of promoting the public good.

(To be continued.)

CABINET OF NATURE.

VARIETY OF NATURE

In every region on the surface of the globe, an endless multiplicity of objects, all differing from one another in shape, color, and motion, present themselves to the view of the beholder. Mountains covered with forests, hills clothed with verdure, spacious plains adorned with vineyards, orchards, and waving grain, naked rocks, abrupt precipices, extended vales, deep dells, meandering rivers, roaring cataracts, brooks and

rills; lakes and gulfs, bays and promontories, seas and oceans, caverns and grottos-meet the eye of the student of Nature, in every country, with a variety which is at once beautiful and majestic. Nothing can exceed the variety of the vegetable kingdom, which pervades all climates, and almost every portion of the dry land, and of the bed of the ocean. The immense collections of Natural History which are to be seen in the Museum at Paris, show, that Botanists are already acquainted with nearly fifty-six thousand different species of plants. And yet, it is probable, that these form but a very small portion of what actually exist, and that several hundreds of thousands of species remain to be explored by the industry of future ages. For, by far the greater part of the vegetable world still remains to be surveyed by the scientific botanist. Of the numerous tribes of vegetable nature which flourish in America, in the interior of Africa, in the immense islands of New Holland, New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Ceylon, Madagascar, and Japan; in the vast regions of Tartary, Tibet, Siberia, and the Birman empire; in the Philippines, the Moluccas, the Ladrones, the Carolinas, the Marquesas, the Society, the Georgian, and in thousands of other Islands which are scattered over the Indian and Pacific oceanss-little is known by Naturalists; and yet it is a fact which admits of no dispute, that every country hitherto explored. produces a variety of species of plants peculiar to itself; and those districts in Europe which have been frequently surveyed, present to every succeeding explorer a new field of investigation, and regard his industry with new discoveries of the beauties and varieties of the vegetable kingdom. It has bec: conjectured by some Naturalists, on the ground of a multitude of observations, that "there is is not a square league of earth, but what presents some one plant p culiar to itself, or, at least, which thrives there be ter, or appears more beautiful than in any other part of the world." This would make the number of species of vegetables to amount to

* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal July, 1822, p. 48.

as many millions as there are of square leagues on the surface of the earth.

Now, every one of these species of plants differs from another, in its size, structure, form, flowers, leaves, fruits, mode of propagation, color, medicinal virtues, nutritious qualities, internal vessels, and the odors it exhales. They are of all sizes, from the microscopic mushroom, invisible to the naked eye, to the sturdy oak and the cedar of Lebanon, and from the slender willow to the Banian tree, under whose shade 7000 persons may find ample room to repose. A thousand different shades of color distinguish the different species. Every one wears its peculiar livery, and is distinguished by its own native hues; and many of their inherent beauties can be distinguished only by the help of the microscope. Some grow upright, others creep alone in a serpentine form. Some flourish for ages, others wither and decay in a few months; some spring up in moist, others in dry soils; some turn towards the sun, others shrink and contract when we approach to touch them. Not only are the different species of plants and flowers distinguished from each other, by their different forms, but even the different individuals of the same species. In a bed of tulips or carnations, for example, there is scarcely a flower in which some difference may not be observed in its structure, size, or assemblage of colors; nor can any two flowers be found in which the shape and shades are exactly similar. Of all the hundred thousand millions of plants, trees, herbs, and flowers, with which our globe is variegated, there are not, perhaps, two individuals precisely alike, in every point of view in which they may be contemplated; yea, there is not, perhaps, a single leaf in the forest, when minutely examined, that will not be found to differ, in certain aspects, from its fellows. Such is the wonderful and infinite diversity with which the Creater has adorned the vegetable kingdom.

His wisdom is also evidently displayed in this vast profusion of vegetable nature-in adapting each plant to the soil and situation in which it is destined to flourish-in furnishing it with those vessels by which

it absorbs the air and moisture on which it feeds—and in adapting it to the nature and necessities of animated beings, as the earth teems with animated existence,' and as the different tribes of animals depend chiefly on the productions of the vegetable kingdom for their subsistence, so there is an abundance and a variety of plants adapted to the peculiar constitutions of every individual species. This circumstance demonstrates, that there is a pre-contrived relation and fitness between the internal constitution of the animal, and the nature of the plants which afford it nourishment; and shows us, that the animal and the vegetable kingdoms are the workmanship of one and the same Almighty Being, and that, in his arrangements with regard to the one, he had in view the necessities of the other. (To be continued.)

NATURAL HISTORY.

HIVE BEES-INSECT ARCHITECTURE.

BEES have, in all ages of the world, excited the attention of mankind; as well for the honey they produce in such marvellous abundance, as for the indefatigable industry by which they uniformly appear to be animated in their excursions beyond the place of their habitation. Hyliscus, the philosopher, we are informed by Cicero and Pliny, appears to have been one of the first who made the habits of this insect an object of study. For this purpose he retired into the desert. The ancients had a popular notion that bees were endowed with moral qualities. Virgil and others of his day, it is well known, paid great attention to bees. But it may be justly said, that nothing was known of their domestic economy until Rèaumur and Huber rendered it the object of their study. The latter could not be said to have made it the object of his contemplation, for, strange to say, he was blind when he took to this pursuit, and only saw through the eyes of an affectionate wife, who attended on all his labors, and participated ân his enthusiasm.