the exception of one man left behind as a guard, we set out for the Dead Sea, distant about three hours, crossing the most dreary, parched and desert plain imaginable, having the appearance of land left bare by the receding waters of the lake, which seems to have shrunk considerably. Three Weeks in Palestine and Lebanon. To be continued. ON THE FOLLY OF INDULGING IN ANGER, PERHAPS there is nothing more necessary or important to mankind, than to be in possession of that habitual self command which will enable them to guard against those bursts of anger, and ebullitions of temper, to which we are all, more or less, inclined. The man who has so studied himself, as to be able to withstand firmly such a furious assailant, has undoubtedly achieved a great work, and merits the applause and approbation of his fellow men. The only way in which this can be accomplished or possibly effected, is by seriously watching over ourselves at all times, by cultivating an acquaintance with our own dispositions, and by so learning our peculiar temperament, that we may be able, in the first rising of this Satanic passion, to oppose a firm barrier to its progress. If man so acts, and makes it his duty to "know himself," which, as Thales the Milesian observed, was, of all knowledge, the most valuable, and consequently, the most to be desired, he will be able successfully to resist anger, with all its train of subsequent evils. To expatiate upon the evils inevitably arising from unsubdued passion, and to point ont the sin and folly of anger, seems scarcely necessary, when we have such abundant evidence of the ill consequences attending it; evidence not merely collected from the pages of history, or the verses of the poets, but also other incontestable evidence furnished by the pens of inspired writers, and from our own social intercourse in life. If we were to attempt to heap up examples, and gather illustrations of the ruinous consequences of this dreadful passion, our pages would swell far beyond our present purpose. The poets of old sang of the direful wrath and malignant fury of degenerate man.-Homer begins his poem with discoursing of the destructive wrath of Achilles; and Euripides with the infernal spirit which led on Medea to a fatal revenge. Every historian supplies manifold instances. One informs us of the maddened rage of an Alexander, who stabbed, in a moment of exasperation, his noblest friend. Another of the ruthless Saul, who, fired at once by malice and envy, would have smote the valiant but unassuming warrior, David. All, indeed, both ancient and modern, both sacred and profane, have united in exclaiming with a celebrated poet, that, "neither sword, nor tempest, nor shipwreck, nor even the thunderbolts of Jove himself, have been the cause of so much ruin and destruction as anger. We see then the folly of the passion, from a glance at its effects, and thus we behold the danger of heedlessly throwing ourselves into that state of mind, which, where in the least indulged, involves us in difficulties and troubles, the extent and danger of which cannot be known, inasmuch as they cannot be confined or receive any limits. H. THE lizard division of the amphibia presents to us, as its leading class, the formidable crocodiles: a name to which dread and aversion are, by the hasty prejudices of our defective knowledge, almost inseparably attached: for, although this class of creatures is the largest of all known animals, except the elephant, the hippopotamus, and the whale, and a few enormous serpents; yet it is neither a fierce nor a cruel animal, nor ever purposely or unnecessarily injures. It seeks its appointed prey when hunger urges it; but destroys only for food, and has no passion or malignity. In its general form it is extremely similar to the other lizards; but with distinctive characters peculiar to itself. The mouth is enormously large, opening even beyond its ears, with jaws that are sometimes several feet long. Its teeth, about thirty in each jaw, pass between each other when the mouth is shut; and have others of a very small size, in their socket, to replace their first ones. The lower jaw is alone moveable; and having no lateral motion, they mostly swallow what they take without mastication. They are sometimes thirty feet long. Their whole body is covered by strong, hard scales, except the top of the head, and can be only wounded between the rows of these, which are impenetrable by a musket ball, unless it be fired very near, or the piece be very strongly charged. Having no lips, their teeth are always bare; and from this peculiarity, though they be walking or swimming with the utmost tranquillity, the aspect seems animated with rage. Another circumstance that contributes to increase the terrific nature of its countenance, is the fiery appearance of the eyes, which being placed obliquely, and very near each other, have a malignant aspect. Over its hard and much wrinkled eyelids, is an indented rim, resembling an eyebrow drawn into a menacing frown. Its brain is extremely small. Its tail and its webbed hind toes, acting like fins, assist it swimming. Its figure being flattened laterally, with some resemblances to an oar, enables it to cut the waters with great swiftness, and with astonishing velocity when about to sieze its prey. On land, it can overtake a man in direct running; but if he turn quickly round into a circle, he escapes with ease, as the animal cannot so rapidly wheel round its great length of body. We have reason to presume that it will live for more than a hundred years. When pressed with hunger, it devours mankind; and the large ones even attempt to leap or scramble into boats during the night; and in some places use their tails to overturn small skiffs, and then sieze on the men or animals within them. It has not been determined at what times, and from what causes, crocodiles acquire this voracity; for they often subsist a long time without any sustenance. In the colder climates they are torpid in the winter; and bellow like a bull when they wake into sensitiveness from this state. They congregate together in numerous assemblies; but not for any common purpose, like bees or beaver; nor like seals, from affection. Yet the habit shews that they have a gratification from each other's society; and their not meeting for any specific co-operation, rather implies that a pleasurable sympathy, in seeing and moving with each other, is the real motive of the association. They abound chiefly between the tropics; but are met several degrees to the north of the one, and to the south of the other. They are smaller, however, as more distant from the equator. In the Rio San Domingo, and on the west coast of Africa, M. Brue was astonished to find the crocodiles perfectly harmless; insomuch that children played with them, mounted on their backs, and even beat them, without danger, or any appearance of resentment. This gentleness of disposition proceeds, probably, from the care which is taken by the natives to feed them, and treat them well. M. De la Borde saw crocodiles in Cayenne kept in ponds, where they lived without doing any harm, even to the tortoises kept in the same ponds, and fed along with them on the refuse of the kitchens. To tame these formidable animals, it is stated, nothing is necessary but to supply them abundantly with food; the want of which is the only cause of their being dangerous.--Turner's Sacred History of the World. AMONG the many picturesque villages which adorn the county of Suffolk, Polstead certainly claims particular regard. Viewed from the town of Stoke, it presents a very pleasing appearance, standing nearly upon the summit of a hill, embosomed in trees. To the east the eye may range over the finelywood valley of the Stour, as it rolls its ample waters into the German Ocean; and there, in the most beautiful portion of the landscape, rises the majestic tower of Dedham Church "lifted above the clouds Of the dense air which town or city breeds; Alas! that such a spot should have acquired so dreadful a notoriety among the blood-stained corners of our land. It was here that a wretched man, having begun his career by dishonouring his father, proceeded, step by step, along the dreadful road of crime till, at length, he forfeited his life to the offended laws of his country. It was here that the miserable partner of his vice, and victim of his murderous hand, first left the path of purity and peace, to wander onward in that course of sin, which brought her, at last to a premature and awful grave! Let us turn from so sickening a scene with the hope that it may be made useful as a warning to all who know its fearful history. Surely we may say with the wise man, "the way of transgressors is hard," Polstead Church-the subject of the sketch above-stands within the Park of Polstead Hall, and is almost surrounded hy trees. It contains a number of escutcheons belonging to the Brand family, one of whose monuments stands near the altar-piece, bearing the effigies of a man and his infant son, the former looking at a book, and the latter at a human skull which he holds in his hand. Here are also the monuments of Dr. Bakehouse, formerly Archdeacon of Canterbury, and of several other Clergymen who have been incumbents. The sacred edifice, like most of those which adorn our christian country, has undergone many alterations in form and architectural detail. The decorated style, however, predominates, and it is altogether a very pleasing example of a village "house of prayer." POETRY. [In Original Poetry, the name, (real or assumed) of the Author, is printed in Small Capitals, under the title; in Selections it is printed in Italics at the end.] AN ACROSTIC. El canta, che n'l' anima si sento. GUARINI. The song that's to the soul so sweet, And the wrapt soul then soars among Soham. CHRISTIAN TRIUMPHS. THOUGH laurel crowns and victor wreaths Be for the sons of triumph twin'd: O let them mourn, for death shall turn Which never faints and never dies; TO-MORROW. How sweet to the heart, is the thought of To-morrow, When wearisomě sickness hath taught me to languish, When travelling alone, quite forlorn, unbefriended, Sweet the hope, that to-morrow my wand'rings will cease: I shall rest unmolested, and slumber in peace. O, when from the friends of my heart long divided, When six days of labour each other succeeding, With hurry and toil have my spirits oppress'd, And when the vain shadows of time are retiring, Beholds a To-morrow of endless delight. J. Brown. MISCELLANY AND EXTRACTS. WONDERS OF THE OCEAN.-In one of the Tonga Isles in the Pacific ocean, there is a very curious submarine cavern. Mr. Mariner, who describes it, informs us, that being in the vicinity one day, a chief proposed to visit this cave. One after another of the young men dived into the water without rising again, and, at length the narrator followed one of them, and, guided by the light reflected from his heels, entered a large, opening in the rock, and presently emerged in a cavern. The entrance is at least a fathom beneath the surface of the sea at low water, in the side of a rock upwards of sixty feet in height; and leads into a grotto about forty feet wide, and of about the same height, branching off into two chambers. As it is apparently closed on every side, there is no light but the feeble ray transmitted through the sea; yet there was found sufficient, after the eye had been a few minutes accustomed to the obscurity, to show objects with some little distinctness Mr. Mariner, however, desirous of better light, dived out again, procured his pistol, and after carefully wrapping it up, as well as a torch, re-entered the cavern as speedily as possible. Both the pistol and torch, on being unwrapped, were found perfectly dry, and by flashing the powder of the priming, the latter was lighted, and the beautiful grotto illuminated. The roof was hung with stalactites in fantastic forms, bearing some resemblance to the grotto arches and carved ornaments of some old church. ON LISTENING TO EVIL REPORTS.The longer I live, the more I feel the importance of adhering to the rules which I have laid down for myself in relation to such matters. 1st. To hear as little as possible what is to the prejudice of others. 2nd. To believe nothing of the kind until I am absolutely forced to it. 3rd. Never to drink into the spirit of one who circulates an ill report. 4th. Always to moderate, as far as I can, the unkindness which is expressed towards others. 5th. Always to believe that if the other side were heard, a very different account would be given of the matter. I consider love as wealth; and as I would resist a man who should come to rob my house, so I would a man who would weaken my regard for any human being. I consider, too, that persons are cast into different moulds; and that to ask myself, what should I do in that person's situation, is not a just mode of judging. I must not expect a man who is naturally cold and reserved to act as one that is naturally warm and affectionate; and I think it a great evil that persons do not make more allowances for each other in this particular. I think religious people are too little attentive to these considerations: * amongst whom there is a sad propensity to listen to evil reports, and to beleive the representations they hear. The more prominent any person's character is, the more likely he is to suffer in this way; there being in the heart of every man, unless greatly subdued by grace, a pleasure in hearing anything which may sink others to his 'level, or lower them in the estimation of the world. We seem ourselves elated in proportion as others are oppressed.-Simeon. A sneer is the weapon of the weak. Like other devil's weapons, it is always cunningly ready to our hand, and there is more poisou in a handle than in the point. Bnt how many noble hearts have withered with its venomous stab, and festered with its subtile malignity. MERCHANTS' LEDGERS.-It was an ancient custom for merchants in their books of accounts, to have "Laus Deo," or, Praise to God, written on the beginning of every leaf; and it stood on the head of the page in large and fair letters, to put them always in mind, that in all their human affairs they should carry on a divine design for the glory of God. HONEST INDUSTRY.-If there is a man who can eat his bread at peace with God and man, it is that man who has brought that bread out of the earth by his own honest industry. It is cankered by no fraud-it is wet by no tear-it is stained by no blood. |