SICKNESS, when sanctified, teaches us four things: the vanity of the world, the vileness of sin, the helplessness of man, and the preciousness of Christ.

CONTENTMENT AND GRATITUDE.I have somewhat of the best things; I will thankfully enjoy them, and will want the rest with contentment.-Bishop Hall.

FROM many circumstances it appears that the atoms even of the most solid bodies, are not in actual contact with each other, but are retained in their respective places by a balance between attraction and repulsion. Thus, a solid body dilates or contracts, according as heat is added to, or taken away from it. A rod of iron becomes shorter or longer according as a weight is lodged upon its end, or is suspended from it: the rod in both cases, returning to its former length as soon as the weight is removed. Tin and copper melted together to form bronze, occupy less space by one fifthteenth than they do when separate : proving that the atoms of one, are partially received into what were vacant spaces in the other. And so also a hundred pints of air may be compressed into a pint vessel, as in the chamber of an air gun; and if the pressure be still increased, the atoms of air at last collapse and form an oily liquid. The heat which was contained in the air, and gave it its form, is forced out in the operation, and becomes perceptible in every thing around.

THE great Albatross, with wings extending fourteen feet or more, is seen in the stormy solitude of the southern ocean, accompanying ships for whole days without ever resting on the waves.

A man ought never to be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong; which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser to day than he was yesterday.

SWIFT.

DETRACTION is among those vices which the most languid virtue has sufficient force to present, because by detraction that is not gained which is taken away.

"He who filches from me my

I cannot but regard it, both as the interest and duty of persons of taste, and sentiment, and knowledge, to take every opportunity of discountenancing a species of fashionable amusement, that of card playing which is only adapted to the propagation and perpetuation of ignorance; which occasions a shameful waste of that time which might be more beneficially as well as agreeably employed; which is equally useless both to the body and to the mind; and which is best calculated to please those persons of both sexes, who are most devoid of genius, and the most insignificant and frivolous. History of Philip Waldegrave, Vol. 1, pp 32, 33.

SLAVE AUCTON-SCENE IN AMERICA. IN the winters of 1840 and 1841, having business in Western Virgina, where this particular institution flourishes in its mildest form, (be it remembered, I was at this time opposed to anti-slavery principles,) December 28th, I found myself at Martinsburg, the county seat of Berkley. About ten of the aforesaid day I observed a crowd congregated in the public square, in frout of a superior looking building, which had very much the appearance of a jail, as it proved to be.

66

On enquiring of my landlord the cause of the meeting, he said it was a hiring" in other words, a Negro sale, as I afterwards found that a number were hired for life. I walked down to the market; and, to obtain a better view, I mounted a large waggon in the street, directly opposite to the stand of the auctioneer, who had commenced his work. He was a large man, dressed in aristocratic style with a profusion of ruffles, gold fingerrings, watch seals, and last, and not least a large whip, called by the the drivers a

"loaded whip." The hiring I understood to be a number of slaves of a certain estate, who were hired out, from year to year, to the highest bidder, for the benefit of the heirs. These sales take place between Christmas and new year, (the holidays,) quite a recreation for the slaves who are to change masters. After a number had been disposed of in this way, the crier announced that he would offer for sale six slaves. He then put up two, father and son. The old man was near sixty years of age, a cripple; the son was about twenty-three, a perfect specimen of man. There were two Georgian soul-drivers, who bid eight hundred dollars for both. When the crier remarked it was a small bid for both the Georgian replied, he would give eight hundred without the old man, as he was of no account. The young man gave the bidder a look that could not be well mistaken the old man wept bitterly. The son sold on the bid; and the father was sold for sixty dollars to an old farmer, who had never kept a slave in his life. Thus the father and son were separated. The next case was that of a girl, fifteen years of age. (These slaves had been hired out to different individuals the past year.) She was brought crying upon the stand. With an oath he bid her to stop her "blubbering," and then pro

ceeded with the sale. She was sold for one hundred and fifty dollars.

THE next case was that of a young white women, sixteen years old, with a young child. I say white woman, because the auctioneer said she was only one-eighth black; and I have seen many of the women of Ohio who could not boast of as fair complexion, or as good figure or features. She came upon the stand with her infant in her arms, in the deepest misery. A gentleman, who had taken his seat beside me, observing that I was much interested, remarked, he thought I was a stranger in that country. I answered that I was. "These things look odd to you." "They do." Said he, "You see that man in the crowd,' pointing to one within a few paces of the stand: "that is Dr. CHe hired that girl last year, and that child is his!" The Georgian bid 300 dollars; some one bid 400; the Georgian bid 450; the girl cast a piercing glance at the crowd; her eye rested on Dr. C▬▬, who instantly averted his face. gazed one moment, then burst into a torrent of tears. She was knocked off to the Georgian. Thus the fiend saw his child and its mother sold into southern bondage. oh horror! thought I, is it possible? I was cured of my pro-slavery principles.-Cincinatti Herald.

She

day.

N deciphering this page, let it first be read through in continuous lines, without regard to the spaces, the points, or the figures of the crosses. The first line will thus be, "My God! My God! in rivers of my tears. The fifth line will be "Let not my God! my God! my faults, tho' great.' The eighth line will be "Thou, Lord, rememberest thine if thou be sought." &c. Then let the crosses be read from top to bottom, and they will give the words of our Lord, and of the two thieves, respectively. The letters I. N. R. I. at the top of the centre cross, are the initials of the Latin words JESUS NAZARENUS REX JUDÆORUM. Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.