features of those great men, who have influenced the condition of mankind in times long past, and shed a lustre on the page of history.

But it is not for the purpose of enjoying a brief and transient, although exquisite happiness, that you have been gifted with this enchanting faculty. It is given you for higher and far more beneficial uses. It enables you to behold and applaud the visible wonders of the Creator, and by the constant observation of his benefits, to raise your hearts in gratitude and affection to Him, who fashioned all things into shapes so fair, and tinged them with hues so beautiful.

To appreciate all the excellence of this wonderful organ, cast your eyes in the depth of a starlight night upon the skies. Every star which you there behold, is a globe of many hundreds of miles in diameter, and you can comprehend, by a single glance, many millions of millions of those worlds! Consider, now, the excellence of that little organ, in the bottom of which, that vast circumference, with all those myriads of illuminated worlds, is pictured in so minute a space, with so much accuracy and distinctness.

But it is in the indications which it affords of the affections and emotions of the mind within, that the chief beauty of this organ consists. In what part of the frame are the affections mirrored so beautifully as here? In joy, how bright and sparkling is the appearance of the eye! The lid is raised, and the slight gush of tears heightens the brilliancy of its reflection, while it seems to start

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forward, as if eager to meet the impression which has awakened so lively a sensation within the mind. In grief, how touching is its depression!-The lid falls, the lashes droop, and the eyeball seeks the earth, as if unwilling to disturb, by the sight of any other object, the memory of that beloved and long-accustomed one, which it shall never more behold on earth. How amiable its half-shut and retiring look, when merit, diffident even of itself, hesitates to assume its rightful place in the social order! How glorious is the fire which fills it when a tempered zeal for truth, or injured homes and altars, is swelling in the heart! Track it through all its changes, whether it glistens with compassion, lights up with courage, or droops with humility, and in every instance you will find it the silent tongue of the heart-the window of

the affections.

Remember, also, the destiny of this sense. It is not given you for purposes merely temporal and earthly. Its destiny in time is not to tempt you to fix your affections on scenes and spectacles which shall pass away, but to furnish you with motives for divine love, and enable you to acquire wisdom. Its destiny in eternity is to behold the God that made it for ever and for ever.

Employ this happy gift with prudence and selfpossession, and reserve the full abandonment of its power to that promised time, when it shall be called to look upon light that fades not, hues that change not, and forms which shall never be dissolved.

G. GRIFFIN.

THERE extends over a space of more than 8000 miles a labyrinth of islands, an immense archipelago, in the midst of which are twenty countries, spacious like minor continents, and one of them nearly equalling Europe in extent.

These regions present in every quarter scenes fitted to move the most frigid imagination. Many nations are here found in their earliest infancy. The amplest openings have been afforded for commercial activity. Numberless valuable productions have been already laid under contribution to our insatiable luxury. Here many natural treasures still remain concealed from scientific observation. How numerous are the gulfs, the ports, the straits, the lofty mountains, and the smiling plains! What magnificence, what solitude, what originality, and what variety! Here the zoophyte, the motionless inhabitant of the Pacific Ocean, creates a rampart of calcareous rock round the bank of sand on which it has grown. Grains of seed are brought to this spot by the birds, or wafted by the winds. The nas

cent verdure makes daily acquisitions of strength, till the young palm waves its verdant foliage over the surface of the waters. Each shallow is converted into an island, and each island improved into a garden. We behold at a distance a dark volcano ruling over a fertile country, generated by its own lava. A rapid and charming vegetation is displayed by the side of heaps of ashes and of scoriæ. Where the land is more extended, scenes more vast present themselves: sometimes the ambiguous basalt rises majestically in prismatic columns, or lines, to a distance too great for the eye to reach, the solitary shore, with its picturesque ruins. Sometimes enormous primitive peaks boldly shoot up among the clouds; while, hung on their sides, the dark pine forest varies the immense void of the desert with its gloomy shade. In another place, a low coast, covered with mangroves, sloping insensibly beneath the surface of the sea, stretches afar into dangerous shallows, where the noisy waves break into spray. To these sublime horrors a scene of enchantment suddenly succeeds. A new Cythera emerges from the bosom of the enchanted wave. An amphitheatre of verdure rises to our view. Tufted groves mingle their foliage with the brilliant enamel of the meadows. An eternal spring, combining with an eternal autumn, displays its opening blossom along with the ripened fruits.

A perfume of exquisite sweetness embalms the atmosphere, which is continually refreshed by the wholesome breezes from the sea. A thousand

rivulets trickle down the hills, and mingle their plaintive murmurs with the joyful melody of the birds animating the thickets. Under the shade of the cocoa, the smiling, but modest hamlets present themselves, roofed with banana leaves, and decorated with garlands of jessamine. Here might mankind, if they could only throw off their vices, lead lives exempt from trouble and from want. Their bread grows on the trees which shade their lawns, the scenes of their festive amusement. Their light barks glide in peace on the lagoons, protected from the swelling surge by the coral reefs surrounding their whole island, at a short distance from the shore, and confining their domestic water in the stillness of a prison.

MALTE BRUN.

LESSON XI.

TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.

As the mute nightingale in closest groves

Lies hid at noon, but when day's piercing eye Is lock'd in night, with full heart beating high Poureth her plain song o'er the light she loves: So Virgin, ever pure, and ever blest,

Moon of religion, from whose radiant face, Reflected streams the light of heavenly grace On broken hearts, by contrite thoughts oppress'd.