the frigid, one-seventeenth of the entire. Central Asia rises to a considerable height above the sea, and forms a plateau, or table-land, from four to ten thousand feet in elevation, which gradually descends to a level with the lowlands, by which this elevated mass is surrounded. Upon the eastern or highest part of this plateau, are placed the lofty Himmalehs, the highest mountains in the world; nature, as it were, proportioning the superstructure to the foundation on which it was to be erected. Taurus and Caucasus mark the western limits of this plateau; the Himmaleh range and its branches form the southern boundary; while the mountain ranges of Western China, and the Alpine region of Da-uria, mark its limits on the other sides. All the great rivers of Asia have their sources in the highlands of this middle region. The Obi, Yenisei, and Lena, with their tributaries, discharge their torrents, under seas of ice, into the Frozen Ocean. The two great rivers of China, the Hoang-ho, and Kiang-ku, the respective courses of which are two thousand and two thousand nine hundred miles, rise in the mountain region of Eastern Asia, their sources not very distant from each other. The high tides of the Pacific Ocean ascend these rivers several hundred miles, and render them navigable a considerable distance from the sea. The Irrawady, Ganges, Brahmapoutra, Indus, Euphrates, and several rivers of less note, descend from the western terraces of this great plateau, and carry their waters, and those of the lowlands of Southern

Asia, which they traverse, to the Indian Ocean. Some of these rivers, as the Ganges and Brahmapoutra, like the Nile, inundate the adjacent countries to a considerable distance.

Asia, on account of its immense extent, possesses every variety of soil and climate. The character of its people varies with their climate. The Chinese are remarkable for, their industry; the Hindoos for the opposite failing; while the Arabs and Tartars lead the same wandering life as in the ancient patriarchal times. The form of government is almost universally despotic. The rapid rise and disappearance of Asiatic towns has been accounted for by the slight and perishable nature of the materials which form the houses. In Arabia and on the great plateau, where wood is scarce, they are mere tents, covered with skins of beasts, or with stuff made of their hair or wool. In India, where wood is abundant, they are formed of that material, but so slightly, that they soon decay. Asia derives its name from a city called Asia, belonging to the tribe of the Asiones, in a district of Lydia. The name of the city was first extended by the Greeks to Asia Minor, and ultimately to the other regions of the east. Until the rise of the Roman empire, it occupied the first place in the history of mankind. It was the scene of all the leading events recorded in Sacred Writ; of the creation of mankind, the delivery of the law, the miraculous favours which God bestowed upon his chosen people, of our redemption by his onlybegotten Son, and of the establishment of his

Church, which was afterwards to extend itself over all the nations of the earth. It was also the seat of the most powerful empires of antiquity, a great part being successively governed by the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, though the ancient conquerors knew little of India or of China. The population is generally allowed to be primitive, excepting, perhaps, a few colonies from Russia, and the European settlements in Hindostan and the south-eastern islands.

Almost the entire of this great continent is reduced to the very lowest state of moral degradation; its people, the slaves of the grossest superstitions. Attempts have been made, and with much success, to diffuse the light of the Gospel amongst them, particularly in the south and east; and fatigues, sufferings, and persecutions, are daily and cheerfully undergone by Catholic Missionaries, to effect this glorious object. The recent persecutions in Cochin-China have given new martyrs to the Church of God, and manifested to the world, that she still possesses within her bosom that spirit of zeal, fortitude, and self-sacrifice, for which, in all ages, her children have peculiarly been distinguished.

A.

If it excites our admiration, that a varied edifice, or even a magnificent city, can be constructed of stone from one quarry, what must our feeling be to learn how few and simple the elements are, out of which the sublime fabric of the universe, with all its orders of phenomena, has arisen, and is now sustained! These elements are general facts and laws which human sagacity is able to detect, and then to apply to endless purposes of human advantage.

Now the four words, atom, attraction, repulsion, and inertia, point to four general truths, which explain the greater part of the phenomena of nature. Being so general, they are called physical truths, from the Greek word signifying nature; as also, “truths of natural philosophy," with the same meaning; and sometimes," mechanical truths," from their close relation to ordinary machinery. These appellations distinguish them from the remaining general truths, namely, the chemical truths, which regard particular substances, and the

vital and mental truths, which have relation only to living beings. And even in the cases where chemical or vital influence operates, it modifies, but does not destroy, the physical influence. By fixing the attention, then, on these four fundamental truths, the student obtains, as it were, so many keys to unlock, and lights to illumine the secrets and treasures of nature.

Every material mass in nature is divisible into very minute indestructible and unchangeable particles,-as, when a piece of any metal is bruised, broken, cut, dissolved, or otherwise transformed, a thousand times, but can always be exhibited again as perfect as at first. This truth is conveniently recalled by giving to the particles the name atom, which is a Greek term, signifying that which cannot be farther cut or divided, or an exceedingly minute resisting particle.

It is found that the atoms above referred to, whether separate or already joined into masses, as when the atoms of which any mass is composed, are, by an invisible influence, held together with a certain degree of force; or when a block of stone is similarly held down to the earth on which it lies; or when the tides on the earth rise towards the moon. These facts are conveniently recalled by connecting with them the word attraction, a drawing together, or gravitation.

Atoms, under certain circumstances, as of heat diffused among them, have their mutual attraction. countervailed or resisted, and they tend to or separate; as when ice heated melts into water; or