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and found myself much moved to praise and magnify the Lord for all his admirable dealings towards mankind, even from the beginning of the world, and the most remarkable instances came readily to my remembrance whilst I was praying. I was so elevated in praising and magnifying God, that I insisted only on that exercise of my present devotion, and found no inclination to put up many anxious petitions to be delivered in the present necessity. At length, my friend taking his leave, I accompanied him to the door, where I found the steward waiting on one side, for the money he wanted, and on the other, a person who brought an hundred and fifty erowns for the support of the hospital.

At another time, thirty crowns were required to pay off the workmen. When the overseer of the building came to fetch the money, I was obliged to dismiss him with this comfort: The Lord, who is faithful, will take care for us.' Away he went, and found the workmen before the hospital waiting for their pay, but, by the way, he unexpectedly met with one of his acquaintance, to whom he unbosomed himself, and discovered the pressing circumstances he then was in, who thereupon readily lent him fourteen crowns, and so he went to pay at least some part of the money due to the workmen; but, before he had done, I received above thirty crowns from another place, whereupon I immediately sent away the aforesaid thirty crowns to pay off the workmen. At the end of the following week we were reduced to like straits, and I was called upon for money to recruit our provision, according to custom, on Friday, and to pay the workmen on Saturday, but there was not a farthing for either of these uses; so I said, 'Twas now time again to rejoice; for the Lord would undoubtedly give us another instance of his providence.' I dispatched the steward with that saying of Samuel: Hitherto the Lord has helped us.' 1 Sam. vii. 12. Which expression is, as it were, turned into a most comfortable proverb among us, and experience hath been the most useful comment upon it. Betimes, next morning, fifty crowns were sent in, by means whereof the Lord graciously carried us through the difficulties of that week. Another time, being reduced to the lowest ebb, and the burden of unavoidable expenses lying upon the steward, he found himself oppressed with care and concern how to extricate himself. He got together as much as he could to discharge the debts, and, among the rest, he sold a silver spoon that had been presented to the hospital. But all this would not serve the turn. In this extremity an hundred crowns were delivered to me for the poor, and being thus provided, Which I sent presently sixty of them to the steward. strange providence, how effectual it was to raise his languishing faith, and to refresh his mind after so many toils and cares, may, I think, be easily conjectured. He said, indeed, 'Now I will rejoice, even in time of want, in hopes of seeing some discovery of the admirable providence of God, which had been hitherto, as he said, beyond his strength.' A little while after we had another hour of probation, but the Lord was pleased to supply us then likewise with fifty crowns, which was a help not in the least foreseen. At the same time I was acquainted that twenty-eight cumin cheeses were forthwith to be sent us from Leyden in Holland. Another time, being taken up with other affairs, I quite forgot the want we were in, having composed my mind to a quiet frame, that I might the better dispatch the business in hand. But, at the same time, I received a letter with a piece of gold of eighteen crowns value, whereby both our want was relieved, and I myself kept from any disturbance in my other affairs. I remembered then the saying of the Lord: All these things shall be added unto you.'

"Upon another time, when all provision was spent, one of my fellow-labourers, in the evening conference, mentioned the present want, which proved a matter of

comfort, and presented to us an occasion to strengthen our faith, by means of a grateful remembrance of all the benefits we all along had received at the hand of God, and to rejoice in that great privilege, of a resigned dependance upon God, which alone is able to free the mind both from fearful doubts and wavering hopes, whereby generally such are haunted and hurried about, as, for want of resignation, are left to their own shifts. Hereupon we put up our petitions, unanimously extolling the name of the Lord, for his infinite goodness, and resigned our want to his fatherly protection. That very hour the Lord was pleased to incline the heart of a patron to relieve our want the next morning, giving a particular charge to some of his attendants to remember him of it. Accordingly, the next day, he sent three hundred crowns. Upon which occasion, I think fit to take notice, that a particular juncture of circumstances, working both from within and without, was observable in this affair, which rendered the providence of God more conspicuous at this time. In the year 1701, a certain lady offered to bestow every year as much salt as the hospital wanted. No sooner had she resolved on this, but another was moved hereby to send some corn for the benefit of the hospital. About June 1701, our stock beginning to decay, a person, who would not be known, presented us with five and twenty crowns, and a General paid down the sum of a hundred crowns, which was followed with a gift of six, sent by a professor of divinity. But, O how faithful is God! when all this was not sufficient to defray the necessary charges, I just then received two letters of advice by the post, in one whereof I was told that two hundred and fifty crowns should be paid down for the relief of the hospital. This sum came from a certain doctor of physic, beyond sea, who ordered the payment thereof here, and, I must needs say, it gave me no small encouragement, for I thought The Lord will rather excite some good souls beyond sea to assist us, than let us suffer any want.' The other letter of advice promised seventy crowns, which were collected far from the place in a charity-box, by some friends, for the relief of the hospital.

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"Soon after this the Lord inclined also the heart of a person in England bountifully to disburse the sum of three hundred crowns for the hospital, which, by a bill of exchange, was sent hither. The Lord remember this benefit! I must say, that this support, coming from abroad, proved a fresh instance both of the admirable providence of God, and of his perpetual care for relief.

66 About harvest we met with a wonderful train of trials and deliverances; for, though a certain minister had sent in twelve crowns, acquainting us withal, that a certain person had designed them for the hospital, who desired, in the mean time, the prayers of our poor, in a certain concern they were then engaged in, and some other small sums fell in, yet all this seemed too little to carry us through the present want. But, soon after, a student brought forty crowns in silver, and five ducats in gold, from a person whose name he would not tell, desiring only a receipt, which, while I was writing, a godly minister came to see me, and praised the Lord, when he heard after what manner our want was just then supplied, offering me, at the same time, a parcel of silver-lace, which a gentlewoman, now growing sensible of her vanities, had given him, for the relief of our hospital, she having ript them off from her fine clothes, wherewith she heretofore usually endeavoured to adorn herself in the eye of the world, with positive order that we should not sell it till we had burnt it, for fear that somebody else would apply it to the same ill use of gratifying their pride. But all this was soon spent in that extremity to which we were reduced. the steward came for money, I had but a crown to give him; and soon after, when he importuned me again, I

When

told him He had received the last crown yesterday, | His own children had, of course, the advantage and I had not a farthing left.' He asked, What he should do with the man that used to cleave the wood,

and the women that cleaned the children, for, being poor people, they would sadly want their money?' adding, 'If there was but one crown to be had, he would make shift. I replied, 'There was not so much now in store, but the Lord knew it was an hospital for the poor, and that we had nothing for its maintenance.' 'Tis true,' says he, and so away he goeth pretty comfortable. Coming within sight of the hospital, he sees a waggon before it laden with corn, which one of our benefactors had caused to be conveyed thither (knowing nothing of the want we then were reduced to) at which sight the steward was surprised with joy, exceedingly admiring the wonderful providence of God. Soon after he got also together the little money he wanted for the cleaver of the wood, and the women that cleaned the children, and so was happily carried through the difficulties he at that time did lie under. It hath often happened, that some persons having only heard or read some account either of the good design of the undertaking, or of the wonderful ways by which the Lord supported us, have presently found themselves inclined to cast in something into our treasury, for our relief: for instance, a certain nobleman, hearing some passages of God's providence over this work, freely offered to pay down yearly, the sum of twenty crowns; and he has been as good as his word."

DISCOURSE.

BY THE REV. WALTER M'GILVRAY, Minister of St. Mark's Church, Glasgow. "Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew

not the Lord."-1 SAM. ii. 12. In the history of Eli's family, we are furnished with an example, the most impressive, perhaps, on record, of the danger of neglecting the moral and religious education of youth. Here we are called upon to mark the miseries that resulted from the injudicious partiality of a parent, who, in every other respect, was distinguished for his piety and worth; and to observe, moreover, the practical inefficacy both of precept and example combined, without the strict and vigilant exercise of parental control. Let us direct your notice, more particularly, to what is related concerning these sons of Eli, whose gross misconduct caused them to be branded with the disgraceful designation of "sons of Belial, who knew not the Lord." And we would especially entreat the attention of parents, and of such as are intrusted with the care and training of youth, that they may be led, from a consideration of the subject before us, to weigh well the responsibility which attaches to them in this respect, and the fatal consequences that may follow the neglect, or inadequate performance, of those duties which their situation requires them to discharge.

I. We are to consider the advantages which these sons of Belial enjoyed. Their father, as you are already aware, was the high priest of Israel, and in that capacity presided over the house of the Lord at Shiloh. Thither the people were wont to repair from all parts of Judea to join in the worship of Jehovah, and to wait upon the ministrations of that devoted man of God.

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of listening to the religious instructions that were delivered, and of witnessing the religious rites that were performed on all these occasions an advantage which it is not likely that their parent would permit them to neglect. Indeed, the circumstance of their being both destined for the priestly office would-had other considerations been awanting-be sufficient to induce him to enforce their regular and particular attendance upon the public ordinances of the sanctuary. But, in addition to the opportunities of spiritual improvement which they enjoyed in common with the rest of their countrymen, they had the farther benefit of their father's private instructions, of his prayers, and of his pious example. In all these respects their situation was one of

the most favourable that can well be conceived.

From their earliest childhood they were trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,— taught to call upon his name, and to reverence his Word, and to walk in his ways, and preserved from those evil communications by which the minds and the manners of the young are so easily corrupted. And set apart, as they were, for the duties of the sacred profession, they would at a very early period of life be removed from the indulgence of the domestic circle, to dwell in the house of the Lord," where every means would be used to promote their personal religion, and to qualify them for discharging with due solemnity, and with godly sincerity, the functions of that holy office to which they had from infancy been dedicated. Many a prayer would they hear their pious parent offer up on their behalf, as he bent his grey head to worship at the altar of his God; and many an affectionate admonition would he drop into their young hearts, as they walked along with him through the dim and silent courts of the sanctuary, or sat with reverent attention at his feet in their hours of solitary retirement. Nor was it by their father's prayers and precepts only that these youthful priests would be prepared for the service of the Lord. They had also the instructive and enviable privilege of witnessing their father's example, of seeing in his character a living illustration of those sacred lessons which he preached in public to the people, and which he laboured in private to impress upon themselves. Possessing such advantages as these,surrounded from their very birth by such hallowed influences and solemnizing associations,-breathing daily the very atmosphere of holiness and peace, we should be ready to predict that such auspicious circumstances could scarcely fail of producing a most salutary effect upon their minds,

we would naturally conceive, that if ever children could be brought under the fear of God, and kept from falling into evil courses, the sons of Eli would be so. But, alas! we should not have now to learn that "there is foolishness bound up in the heart of a child," which no outward cultivation can eradicate, and no outward restric

allotted to the offerers themselves, and which he commanded them to eat in his presence, to signify their communion with him. The parts of the sacrifices which they thus preferred, they drew they were boiling, and sometimes they took them raw, that they might have an opportunity of preparing them to their own taste; and in this way they converted a solemn religious rite into an occasion of gratifying their own sensual indulgences, till the people observing how the rite was desecrated, came at last to "abhor the offering of the Lord."

tions can avail to repress, we should not have now to learn, that even the new-born babe bears the image of the earthly Adam, and conceals in its apparently pure and unconscious bosom, those seeds of sin and depravity which all his posterity" with flesh-hooks" out of the caldrons in which have inherited from him, and which are found in every case "to grow with their growth, and strengthen with their strength;" and however carefully, therefore, the youthful bosom may be guarded from external contamination, and however diligently it may be plied with the lessons of religion, yet the heart within will still remain "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" retaining in the midst of all the restraints that may be imposed, upon it, and all the care and cultivation that may be given it, its rooted and inveterate proneness to depravity; even as the wild beast of the menagerie retains, notwithstanding the training it receives, and the seeming tractability it shews, its instinctive tendencies to violence and blood; and is ready, the moment it escapes from the cage, to rush upon its victim with as little remorse as when it prowled in its native ruthlessness unfettered in the forest. So was it with the sons of Eli, as we shall perceive by considering :

But, along with this profanity towards God, they were also guilty of the grossest profligacy in the sight of man. The crimes which they committed in the very tabernacle of worship, are too shameful to be mentioned. Suffice it to say, that they prostituted their office and their influence to the basest and most brutal purposes-that, instead of teaching the worshippers the doctrines of purity and peace, they, with little less than diabolical wickedness, tempted and seduced them to commit the most infamous abominations. How astonishing, that young men, who were so carefully and so religiously educated-who were trained under the eye of so excellent a parent, and II. The manner in which they abused their brought up from their very childhood in the advantages. Of their early years no account is house of God, remote from the vices and the vahere given; and we cannot, therefore, ascertain nities of the world-how peculiarly astonishing is when or how it was that they began to fall away it that these young men, with all the advantages from the path of duty, and to follow those vicious they enjoyed, should have become so early and so courses for which at last they became so infa- thoroughly corrupted! But so it was. The sons mous. It is probable that in this, as in all simi- of Eli-of that holy man of God to whom all lar cases, the process of degeneracy proceeded by Israel looked up with veneration-were the most degrees. It is probable that it commenced with vicious and abandoned characters throughout the secret sins, committed at first with hesitation and whole country, insomuch that the people who came reluctance, and remembered with compunction to worship at Shiloh, no longer able to suppress the and regret; but gradually their vicious propensi- indignation and disgust with which they witnessties, fostered by indulgence, struggled into strength, ed their conduct, broke out, from secret murmurwhilst their better principles, resisted and conti-ings, into loud complaints, which at length reachnually violated, sunk into feebleness and contempt, and left them at length to pursue their career of guilt without remonstrance or restraint. And accordingly, we find that by the time at which their conduct begins to be recorded, they had risen to manhood stained with iniquities the most impious and revolting. So completely abandoned were they become, that they did not even attempt to conceal their wickedness: They sinned openly, boldly, unblushingly, they threw off the restraints alike of duty and of decency, and ran into every excess of riot." In the chapter before us, they are charged at once with the most daring profanity towards God, and with the grossest profligacy in the sight of men. Their profanity was evinced by the conduct which they pursued in reference to the victims which the people brought to the tabernacle to be offered in sacrifice. The law assigned them, as priests, the breasts and shoulders of all the animals that were thus brought; but dissatisfied with this particular provision, and disregarding the divine ap.pointment in the case, they seized upon those portions of the victims which God had specially

ed the ears of their aged father.

It seems very strange, that he should have been the last to learn of their misconduct that they should have continued in the open commission of such heinous iniquities without his knowledge. It proves, that he must have been culpably remiss in superintending their conduct; or it probably arose from that deadness to the sayings and doings of the world, by which old age is commonly characterised. But however this may be, it is very certain, that nothing can excuse the weak partiality, the infatuated indulgence, with which he acted when he was really made aware of the nature of the case. Although he discovered that his sons were so scandalously wicked, that all Israel rung with the rumour of their shameful misdeeds, instead of condemning their conduct with indignant abhorrence, and using instant means to curb and correct them, he merely said,—" Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord's people to transgress." Here the deluded parent only pleads and expostulates when he should

oudly and indignantly condemn-he feebly remonstrates, when he should effectually restrain: and the consequence was, that his reproof was treated with regardless contempt, and the unprincipled young men continued to fill up the measure of their iniquities, and to ripen for the ruin which they so recklessly provoked, and so emphatically deserved. But as Eli had thus winked at the wickedness of his sons, God resolved to take their punishment into his own hands, and to make the father also feel, to his bitter cost, that he ought not "to honour his sons above him." Before proceeding, however, to final measures against them, he sent a messenger to warn Eli of the judgments with which he had determined to visit himself and his house. ** But even this warning, severe as it was, did not seem to be enough. The parent was still stronger in the heart of Eli, than the priest of God. He still allowed his fondness to get the better of his faithfulness; and if he at all attempted to restrain his children again, it was evidently done in the same weak irresolute spirit that dictated his first remonstrance; for we are not informed that the slightest amendment had taken place in their conduct. God therefore, to humble him still more, sends a second warning to him through young Samuel, then a mere child under his own charge, wherein he repeats the threatenings which were formerly announced to him, and declares his unaltered determination to "make an end" of his house. † But these sons of Belial, who were the occasion of all this, had now become too hardened to be any longer controlled by their infirm and aged parent. They had by this time attained to the haughty daring of practised and reckless profligates, and nothing could now restrain them till they were struck down by the strong hand of Jehovah himself; and very soon did they feel the effects of his dread interference, as we shall see, when we consider, in the

III. And last place, The fatal consequences that resulted from their crimes. Not long after the denunciations of wrath against Eli, to which we have referred, we are told, that war broke out between the Israelites and the Philistines, and that the latter were permitted to prevail. Finding themselves thus defeated, the elders of Israel, with mingled presumption, hypocrisy, and superstition, sent men to Shiloh to "fetch the ark of the covenant into the field of battle; trusting that God would fight upon their side, and secure them the victory, rather than allow that precious deposit to fall into the hands of their foes. The impious sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, in virtue of their priestly office, conducted the ark in procession to the camp. Their father, it seems, had not been consulted with regard to this unprecedented proceeding, or, if consulted, it was undertaken against his consent, for we find that he was filled with the most alarming apprehensions when he thought of the sacred symbol of the divine presence, and the depository of the divine law being thus exposed to

Read from verse 27 to the end of the chapter.
+1 Sam. iii. 11-14. ̧

the assaults of the enemy, and perilled with sacrilegious rashness, on the issue of the contest. On that issue he felt that every thing dear depended, their religion,-their liberty, their lives; and he had his own reasons for dreading that all would not be well. He, no doubt, remembered, in that moment of menacing suspense, the solemn threatening which the Lord had denounced against himself and his house, and, no doubt, experienced many painful misgivings lest the hour of vengeance, and the crisis of his fate, had actually arrived. Agitated with these thoughts," he sat down by the wayside and watched, for his heart trembled for the ark of God." At length a cry of consternation and distress was heard rising above the tumult of battle, and immediately a man of Benjamin, flying from the pursuit" with his clothes rent and earth upon his head," announced to him, as he passed, the disastrous fate of the field:" Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter of the people, and thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.

How terrible to the heart of the old man must these tidings of death and defeat have sounded! His worst fears, he then found, were realized. The threatened wrath had gone forth from the Lord, and his unhappy sons, those sons whom he loved so fondly, but whom he had so fatally indulged, were cut off, in the very midst of their guilty and impenitent career. Well might the heart-stricken parent have exclaimed, in the desolation of his spirit: O my sons, my sons! would to God I had died for you, my sons, my sons!!

But with all his criminal indulgence towards his ill-fated children, Eli was yet a good man, who felt deeply concerned for the honour of Jehovah. It was, therefore, for the ark of God" that his heart trembled," when he sat in anxious disquietude by the wayside; and it was that part of the tidings which told him that the ark of God was taken, that awakened his keenest anguish. It smote him with grief and dismay to think that the Philistines should seem to prevail over the God of Israel, that the ark of the covenant should be subjected to the profanations of these uncircumcised idolaters, and be exhibited as a trophy of their triumph, in the temple of Dagon,-and when there came along with this the piercing reflection that it was all owing to the iniquity of his sons, and to his own unfaithfulness in failing to restrain them, it was more than he could bear, the blow struck with such force that it crushed him to the earth, for "he fell backward," says the sacred historian, "and his neck brake, and he died."

But this was not all. The judgment was not yet expended. Another victim must be added to signalize the vengeance which God had resolved to take upon the members of that family, who had dared to insult and dishonour him so deeply, and therefore it is added, that "Eli's daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered; and when she heard the tidings that the ark. of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and

her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed, for her pains came upon her. And, about the time of her death, the women that stood by her said unto her, fear not, for thou hast born a son." But these words of comforting fell unheeded on the ear of the heart-broken sufferer. "She answered not, neither did she regard" them, for the stroke that left her house desolate was too

heavy for her to withstand, and she died, directing them to name the child I-chabod; and uttering, with her last breath, that sentiment so full of melancholy beauty "The glory is departed from Israel; for the ark of God is taken."

Here, my friends, we behold the direful consequences of filial unworthiness, on the one hand, and parental unfaithfulness on the other. We see that, for this reason, the family of Eli were ruined the armies of his country routed and discomfited-and the honour of his God betrayed into the hands of blind and blaspheming heathens. Such are the complicated disasters that may result from the wickedness of indulged and neglected children; disasters that are confined not to the active offenders alone the profligate sons and daughters by whose misconduct they are primarily occasioned, but which extend to the parents who connive at their iniquities, to the relations who conceal or countenance their crimes, and to the communities that fail to provide the means whereby the prevalence of evil principles and vicious examples may be prevented or restrained. The lesson which the subject affords is too prominent to need farther enforcement. The example it presents is too speakingly impressive to be lightly overlooked. Masters, guardians, ministers, magistrates! remember the misfortunes of Eli's house, and study to counteract the causes from whence these misfortunes arose. Be careful in providing the means of religious instruction for the young immortals, whose training for immortality is intrusted to your charge. See to it that you suffer them to come to Christ, and that you neither actively nor passively forbid them to do so. In the virtue of his blood, and in the blessings of his redemption, is to be found the only sufficient remedy for removing the guilt and depravity of nature, and the only sufficient safeguard against the corrupting examples and the evil communications by which they are beset. And O let the time never come, -let the day be never reckoned in the calendar of ages, when it shall be said of the youth of our land, that they are "sons of Belial who know not the Lord." Amen.

THE VARIETY OF STRUCTURE IN PLANTS AND ANIMALS, CORRESPONDING TO THE VARIETY

OF CLIMATE.

"THE organization of plants and animals is in different tribes formed upon schemes more or less different, but in all cases adjusted in a general way to the course and action of the elements. The differences are connected with the different habits and manners of living which belong to different species; and at any one place the various species, both of animals and plants, From Professor Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise.

have a number of relations and mutual dependencies arising out of these differences. But, besides the dif ferences of this kind, we find in the forms of organic life another set of differences, by which the animal and vegetable kingdom are fitted for the variety which exists

in the climates of the earth.

"The existence of such differences is too obvious to require to be dwelt upon. The plants and animals which flourish and thrive in countries remote from each

other, offer, to the eye of the traveller, a series of pictures, which, even to an ignorant and unreflecting spectator, is full of a peculiar and fascinating interest, in consequence of the novelty and strangeness of the successive scenes.

"Those who describe the countries between the tropics, speak with admiration of the luxuriant profusion and rich variety of the vegetable productions of those regions. Vegetable life seems there far more vigorous and active, the circumstances under which it goes on far more favourable, than in our latitudes. Now, if we conceive an inhabitant of those regions, knowing, from the circumstances of the earth's form and motion, the differences of climate which must prevail upon it, to guess, from what he saw about him, the condition of other parts of the globe as to vegetable wealth, is it not likely that he would suppose, that the extratropical climates must be almost devoid of plants? We know that the ancients, living in the temperate zone, came to the conclusion that both the torrid and the frigid zones must be uninhabitable. In like manner, the equatorial reasoner would probably conceive, that vegetation must cease, or gradually die away, as he should proceed to places further and further removed from the genial influence of the sun. The mean temperature of his year being about 80 degrees, he would hardly suppose that any plants could subsist through a year, where the mean temperature was only 50, where the temperature of the summer quarter was only 64, and where the mean temperature of a whole quarter of the year was a very few degrees removed from that at which water becomes solid. He would suppose, that scarcely any tree, shrub, or flower, could exist in such a state of things, and, so far as the plants of his own country are concerned, he would judge rightly.

"But the countries further removed from the equator are not left thus unprovided. Instead of being scantily occupied by such of the tropical plants as could support a stunted and precarious life in ungenial climes, they are abundantly stocked with a multitude of vegetables which appear to be constructed expressly for them, inasmuch as these species can no more flourish temperate regions. And such new supplies, thus adaptat the equator than the equatorial species can in these ed to new conditions, recur perpetually as we advance towards the apparently frozen and untenantable regions in the neighbourhood of the pole. Every zone has its peculiar vegetables; and while we miss some, we find others make their appearance, as if to replace those

which are absent.

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'If we look at the indigenous plants of Asia and Europe, we find such a succession as we have here spoken of. At the equator we find the natives of the Spice Islands, the clove and nutmeg trees, pepper, and mace. Cinnamon bushes clothe the surface of Ceylon; the odoriferous sandal wood, the ebony tree, the teak tree, the banyan, grow in the East Indies. In the same latitudes in Arabia the Happy we find balm, frankincense, and myrrh, the coffee tree, and the tamarind. But in these countries, at least in the plains, the trees and shrubs which decorate our more northerly climes are wanting. And as we go northwards, at every step we change the vegetable group, both by addition and by subtraction. In the thickets to the west of the Caspian Sea, we have the apricot, citron, peach, walnut. In the same latitude in Spain, Sicily, and Italy, we find

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