elders, and afterwards by judges, who were extraordinary magistrates, appointed for the purpose of defending the people against their enemies;-of promulgating the law;-and of preserving the purity of divine worship. For the history and transactions of these we refer the reader to the books of Joshua and Judges in the Old Testament. The character of Samuel, the last of the judges of Israel, deserves to be had in remembrance; he was an excellent magistrate, and, upon his death, the people fell again into the practice of idolatry, and were in consequence of it oppressed and kept in bondage eight years, by Chushan, a king of Mesopotamia. This whole history exhibits striking and remarkable instances of the inconstancy of the Hebrews, and shows that their piety varied in proportion to the prosperity or adversity of their worldly concerns.

(To be continued.)

LIVES OF CELEBRATED CHILDREN.-NO. I. VOLNEY BECKNER, born at Londonderry, in 1748, and devoured by a shark at the age of twelve years. The child whom we here commemorate, had not the advantage of springing from a wealthy or distinguished family; but of what importance is birth? What is the effect of riches? They often corrupt the morals. He who is worthy, he who is honest and wise has no need of ancestors. Volney Beckner was the son of a poor Irish sailor; he received no instruction but what related to his father's profession. Yet, all destitute as he was of education, he does not the less deserve a place in this biography. Nature had endowed his body with singular address and agility, and his mind with unusual intelligence and penetration. He had a soul of no common temper; and from his earliest years he discovered sentiments of valour, which would certainly have led him to great enterprizes, had he run a longer course. One art essentially necessary to a sailor, and to all others who travel by sea, is that of

swimming. Besides that this exercise is very favourable to the health, and that it gives suppleness to the limbs, it is indispensable in a shipwreck; there is no medium in such a case; a person must either swim or be drowned. After little Beckner was weaned, his father taught him to move and to guide himself in the water. He threw him down into the sea from the stern of the ship; then suddenly plunging into this perfidious element, which swallows so many men and so much riches, he sought for him again. He afterwards supported him with one hand, taught him to extend his little arms and legs, and thus accustomed him from his cradle to brave dangers in their very bosom. When he grew a little bigger the ship-boy already knew how to render himself useful to the crew. In tempestuous weather, when the wind blew with violence, when it tore the sails, and the rain fell in torrents, he was not one of the last in manoeuvering. When he was at the top of the highest mast, even in the fiercest of the storm, he appeared as little agitated as a passenger stretched on his hammock. Such is the force of habit and example! Happy are those who see none but good ones! Cradled in the effeminacy of cities, abandoned to timorous and ignorant nurses, most children tremble like a leaf at the creaking of a door, they are ready to faint at seeing a inouse pass by at their feet. It is not so with those who are brought up in the midst of toils, and contemplate brave men. To be fed with biscuit broken with a hatchet, sparingly moistened with muddy water full of worms, to be half covered with a garment of coarse cloth, to take some hours of repose stretched on a plank, and be suddenly wakened at the moment when his sleep was the soundest; such was the life of Volney, and yet he enjoyed a robust constitution. He never caught cold, he never knew fevers, or any of that crowd of diseases springing from gluttony and idleness. A severe and hardy education is always the best, it alone forms superior men; of this fact the history of all ages furnishes us with a multitude of examples. Such was the aptitude and industry of Beckner in his twelfth

much valour and obtaining a place Little Volney was

year, that at this age he was judged worthy of a higher station, and double pay. The captain of the ship, on board which he served, cited him as a model to the other boys. He did not even fear to say once, in the presence of the whole crew, "If this little man continues to conduct himself with so prudence, I have no doubt of his much above that which I occupy." very sensible to the praises that he had so well deserved. Although deprived of the study of letters, which cultivates the mind, extends our knowledge, and gives us juster ideas of things, he loved glory by instinct, and made great efforts for its acquisition. From several instances of intrepid daring, which he manifested in many dangerous emergencies, we shall only select the following, since this alone is sufficient to confer eternal honour on the memory of the young sailor.

A little girl, the daughter of an American gentleman, who was going to Port-au-Prince, had slipped from her nurse, who was ill, and ran upon deck. There, whilst she fixed her eyes with greedy curiosity on the immense expanse of water, a sudden heaving of the ship caused her head to turn, and she fell into the sea. The father of Volney darted after her, and in five or six strokes caught her by her frock. Whilst he swam with one hand to regain the vessel, and with the other held the child close to his breast, Beckner perceived at a distance a shark advancing directly towards him. He called out for assistance. The danger was pressing. Every one ran on deck, but no one dared to go farther; they contented themselves with firing off several carbines; and the animal, lashing the sea with his tail, and opening his frightful jaws, was now just about to seize his prey. In this terrible extremity, what strong men would not venture to attempt, filial piety excited a child to execute. Little Volney armed himself with a broad and pointed sabre; he threw himself into the sea; then plunging with the velocity of a fish, he slipped under the animal, and stabbed his sword into him. Thus suddenly assailed, and deeply wounded, the shark quitted the sailor, but

he returned doubly exasperated, against the aggressor, who attacked him with repeated blows. What a heartrending sight! How worthy of admiration! On one side the American, trembling for his little girl, who seems devoted to destruction; on the other a generous mariner exposing his life for a child not his own; and here the whole crew raising their hands to heaven, on seeing young Volney contending with an enemy so greatly superior, and encountering inevitable death, to divert it from his father! Who can recal a scene like this, without dissolving into tears of tenderness?

The combat was too unequal, and no refuge remained but in a speedy retreat. A number of ropes were quickly thrown out to the father and the son, and they each succeeded in seizing one. They were hastily drawn up; already they were more than fifteen feet above the surface of the water; already cries of joy were heard: "Here they are, here they are-they are saved!" Alas! no-they were not saved! at least one victim was to be sacrificed to the rest. Enraged at seeing his prey about to escape him, the shark plunged to make a vigorous spring, then issuing from the sea with impetuosity, and darting forward like lightning, with his sharp teeth he tore asunder the body of the intrepid and unfortunate child while suspended in the air. A part of his palpitating and lifeless body was drawn up to the ship with his father and the fainting American.

Thus died, at the age of twelve years and some months, this hopeful young sailor, who so well deserved a better fate. When we reflect on the generous action which he performed, and the sacred motive by which he was animated to the enterprize, we are penetrated with sorrow to see him sink under it. Yet these great

examples cannot be lost. The memory of them does not perish with the individual who gave them. A faithful relation of them cannot but animate with a generous zeal the tender minds of youth, and produce from age to age the repetition of actions not less praiseworthy.

POPULAR AND INSTRUCTIVE TALES.

THE SIGHTLESS.

I do not always think, Ellen, said Catharine Dorman, that I could have been so happy as I now feel, under this affliction. When I first knew that I was no more to see the familiar faces that I had so long loved, I thought that as sleep, a darkness would be for ever upon my heart, as that which dwelt perpetually around me in the outward world.

The speaker was a young pale girl, who was sitting with the companion she addressed upon the steps of a vine-wreathed portico. As she turned her face while she spoke, it caught a slight flush from the rich glow of a summer sunset, and her beautiful eye-beautiful even amidst its darkness-seemed to discourse almost as eloquently as in former hours.

Ellen answered only by stooping to touch her lips to the quiet brow of her companion.

It is true, resumed the gentle speaker, that there are sometimes moments when I feel impatient and sorrowful; but when I hear the soft step of my mother, or the approaching tread of your own light foot, Ellen, your affection seems such a deep fountain of blessedness, that I wonder how I could for an instant yield to repinings. I did not love you half so well, my friend, when I could read your thoughts in your gentle eye, as now that your face has become to me only as a memory.

Then how finely acute are the other perceptions rendered by blindness! I did not know half the exquisite touches of the human voice till now-nor the thousand melodies of nature-nor the numberless delieate varieties of perfume that are mingled in the smell of sweet flowers-nor the almost impalpable differences of touch; and then, although I can no longer look abroad upon the living forms of nature, I have them all pictured here upon my heart, vividly and distinctly— as a lens will throw back into a darkened apartment, in VOL. I.-3.