Wentworth..

Which is the strongest,

Mamma? the lion I have seen in other picture books, but I never saw an Unicorn; it looks like a horse with one horn.

Mamma. You will be surprised to hear that there is no animal in the world like the

unicorn in the picture. According to the

best writers the unicorn so often mentioned in Scripture as a type of great strength, is the wild one-horned rhinoceros, which in Latin is called rhinoceros unicornis. I forget when coats of arms were first used, but no doubt the lion and the unicorn were taken for those of Kings and Queens of England and Scotland, because both animals are so frequently mentioned as types of strength in the Bible.

The first mention of the unicorn in the

Bible is where God by the mouth of Balak, compares His strength to that of an unicorn, and in the next verses the lion is also mentioned. See Numbers, twenty-third chapter, twenty-second and twenty-fourth verses; also look at the thirty-third chapter of Deuteronomy, and you will also find the same animals spoken of together. In the thirty-ninth chapter of Job he says, “Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe in him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?"

The one-horned rhinoceros lives in Ethi

opia, a country near where Job lived, so most likely he meant it as the unicorn. There is only one quadruped larger,-the elephant; and in strength and power the rhinoceros gives place to none. The one horn is at the end of its nose, and is sometimes four feet in length; nearly as tall as you are, and when cut through the middle it is said one can see on each side the rude figure of a man; the outlines being marked by small white strokes; drinking cups are made of it, and in Java they make shields of the skin. The rhinoceros has never been tamed so as to assist man in his labours, or to appear in the ranks of war. He never hurts the lesser, or fears the greater beasts of the forest, but lives in peace with all.

Wentworth. But Mamma, all the pictures of the rhinoceros are so ugly; why is the unicorn in this picture so different in every thing but the single horn?

Mamma. Some hundred years ago, the people of England did not travel into other and distant countries, therefore, of course, knew less of the animals that lived in them.

I suppose the person who first drew the unicorn for the royal arms, drew it as he thought or fancied the real animal might be he had never been to Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, or Ethiopia, where only he could have seen the huge, strong, wild, one horned rhinoceros.

THE VIPER.

Mamma. All the stories I have hitherto told you have been taken from the Old Testament; now I will tell you one from the New Testament about the Apostle called St. Paul. We first hear of him as one who hated those who believed in Jesus Christ, and when he was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus to take some of the Christians prisoners, he heard a voice saying unto him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he, trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou