L'ALVIANO, General of the Venetian armies, was taken prisoner by the troops of Louis XII. and brought before him. The king treated him with his usual humanity and politeness, to which the indignant captive did not make the proper return, but behaved with great insolence. Louis contented himelf with sending him to the quarters where the prisoners were kept, saying to his attendants, "I have done right to send Alviano away. I might have put myself in a passion with him, for which I should have been very sorry. I have conquer

ed him, I should learn to conquer myself."

WHEN Catherine de Medicis one day overheard some of the soldiers abusing her extremely, the Cardinal of Lorraine said he would order them immediately to be hung. "By no means," exclaimed the princess," I wish posterity to know, that a woman, a queen, and an Italian, has once in her life got the better of her anger."

THE Duke of Marlborough possessed great command of temper, and never pemitted it to be ruffled by little things, in which even the greatest men have been occasionally found unguarded. As he was one day riding with Commissary Marrict, it began to rain, and he called to his servant for his cloak. The servant not bringing it immediately, he called for it again. The servant being embarrassed with the straps and buckles, did not come up to him. At last, it raining very hard, the duke called to him again, and asked him what he was about that he did not bring his cloak. "You must

stay, Sir," grumbles the fellow, "if it rains cats and dogs, until I can get at it." The Duke turned round to Marriot, and said, very coolly, "Now I would not be of that fellow's temper for the whole world."

Two gentlemen were riding together, one of whom, who was very choleric, happened to be mounted on a high mettled horse. The horse grew a little troublesome, at which the rider became very angry, and whipped and spurred him with great fury. The horse, almost as wrong-headed as his master, returned his treatment by kicking and plunging. The companion concerned for the danger, and ashamed of the folly of his friend, said to him coolly, "Be quiet, be quiet, and show yourself the wiser creature of the two."

THE SOLDIER AND HIS BIBLE.

IN the January number of the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, for the present year, we find the following interesting article, by Rev. William Ash, of Whitby.

SAMUEL PROCTOR is a useful class-leader, in Gainsborough circuit. His father was a member of society; the son was trained up in the use of religious ordinances, and in early life became a subject of divine influence. He afterward enlisted as a soldier, in the first regiment of foot guards, and was made a grenadier Notwithstanding this, the impressions made upon his mind continued; and the fear of the Lord, as a guardian angel, attended him through the changing scenes of life. There were a few persons in the regiment who met for pious and devotional exercises; he cast in his lot among them, and met in the classes, one of which was under the direction of Sergeant Wood. He took part in the struggle on the plains of Waterloo, in the year 1815, and always carried a small bible in one pocket, and his hymn book in the other. On the evening June 16th, in the tremendous conflict just mentioned. his regiment was ordered to dislodge the French from a wood, of which they had taken possession, and from which they annoyed the Allied army. While thus engaged, he was thrown a distance of four or five yards by a force on his hip, for which he could not account at the time; but when he came to examine his bible, he saw, with overwhelming gratitude to the Preserver of his life, what it was that had driven him. A musketball had struck his hip where the bible rested in his pocket, and penetrated nearly half through that sacred book. All who saw the ball said it would undoubtedly have killed him, had it not been for the bible, which served as a shield. The bible is kept as a sacred deposit, and is laid up in his house, like the sword of Goliah in the tabernacle. I examined it with peculiar interest, and while I held it in my hand, "That Bible," said he," has twice saved me instrumentally, from darkness and condemnation; and from the shot of the French at the battle of Waterloo. It was the first bible I had of my own, and I shall keep it as long as I live"

A FUTURE STATE.

REVELATION declares that we are to live hereafter in a state differing considerably from that in which we live here. Now the constitution of nature in a manner says so too. For do we not see birds let loose from the prison of the shell and launched into a new and noble state of existence? insects extricated at length from their cumbrous and unsightly tenement, and then permitted to unfold their beauties to the sun? seeds rotting in the earth, with death, and clothed with luxu riant apparel? Is not our own solid flesh perpetually thawing and restoring itself, so that the numerical particles of which it once consisted have by degrees dropped away, leaving, meanwhile, the faculties of the soul unimpaired, and its consciousness uninterrupted for a moment? Is not the eye a telescope, and the hand a vice, and the arm a lever, and the wrist a hinge, and the leg a crutch, and the stomach a laboratory, and the whole frame but a case of beautiful instruments, which may accordingly be destroyed without the destruction of the agent that wields them? Nay, cannot that agent, when once master of its craft, work without the tools, and are not its perceptions in a dream as vivid as when every organ of sense is actively employed in ministering to its wants? What though the silver chord be loosed, and the golden bowl broken, and the pitcher broken at the well, and the wheel broken at the cistern; still may not the immortal artist itself have quit. ted the ruptured machinery, and retired to the country from whence it came? What though the approach of death seems, by degrees, to enfeeble, at last to suspend the powers of the mind, will not the constitution of na ture bid us to be of good cheer, seeing that the ap proach of sleep does the same? Of sleep, which, in stead of paralyzing the functions of the man, is actually

their

"second course,

Chief nourisher in life's feast."

And if, in some instances, death does lie heavy on the trembling spirit, in how many others does it seem

to be only cutting the chords that bound it to earth, exonerating it of a weight that sunk it so that agreeably to a notion too universal to be altogether groundless, at the eve of its departure it should appear,

'to attain

To something of prophetic strain ?'

Here, then, the constitution of nature and the voice of revelation conspire to teach the same great truth, 'non omnis moriar.'

INSPIRATION OF ASTRONOMY.

THERE are several recorded instances of the powerful effect which the study of astronomy has produced upon the human mind. Dr. Rittenhouse, of Pennsylvania, after he had calculated the transit of Venus, which was to happen June 3d, 1769, was appointed, at Philadelphia, with others, to repair to the township of Norriston, and there to observe this planet until its passage over the sun's disc should verify the correctness of his calculations. This occurrence had never been witnessed but twice before by any inhabitant of our earth, and was never to be again seen by any person then living. A phenomenon so rare, and so important in its bearings upon astronomical science, was indeed well calculated to agitate the soul of one so alive as he was to the great truths of nature. The day arrived, and there was no cloud on the horizon. The observers, in silence and trembling anxiety, waited for the predicted moment of observation. It came-and in the instant of contact, an emotion of joy so powerful was excited in the bosom of Mr. Rittenhouse, that he fainted. Sir Isaac Newton, after he had advanced so far in his mathematical proof of one of his great astronomical doctrines, to see that the result was to be triumphant, was so affected in view of the momentous truth which he was about to demon. strate, that he was unable to proceed, and begged one of his companions in study to relieve him, and carry out the calculation. The instructions, which the heavens give, are not confined to scholars; but they are

imparted to the peasant and to the savage. The pious shepherd often feels a sudden expansion of mind, while attempting to form an idea of that power, which spread out and adorned the heavens with so many worlds of light.

DEAF AND DUMB.

To enter the world without a welcome-to leave it without an adieu-to suffer and to be unable to communicate your suffering-to stand a sad and silent monument amid the joys of others, which you cannot understand nor conceive of—to be shut out of life—to

carry within your bosom the buried seeds of happiness which is never to grow, of intellect which is never to germinate to find even your presence afflictive, and not to know whether you excite compassion or horror -a whole existence without one cheering sound-without one welcome accent-without one exhilarating thought-without one idea of the present-without one hope of the future-Oh! what a cloud of wretchedness covers, surrounds, and overwhelms such a deplorable victim of sorrow.

Now to throw over such a benighted being the sweet rays of intelligence-to open the intellect, and let it gush forth in streams of light and joy-to rouse the affections that they may know and love God, the giver of all things, merciful in his chastisements-to enlighten the soul, that it may see its origin and its destiny -to cause the lips to smile, although they cannot speak -the eye to glisten with other emotions than those of sorrow and the mind to understand, although it cannot hear!-Oh! what a beautiful supplement to the benevolence of Heaven!

EARLY RISING.

THERE is nothing that contributes more to the maintenance of health and elasticity of muscle, than early rising. To breathe the fresh air of the morning before the freshness of the dew has passed, not only tends to a joyous lightness of spirits, but imparts to the animal VOL. I.

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