arter a long sleep, and contends for its lost authority. Instance, any sudden reformation. This is not after the analogy of other things, and is unaccountable upon natural principles. Finally, it is clothed with a mysterious and dreadful authority. Though oftentimes it yields to our prejudices and passions, yet frequently it drives us to our duty with a despotic power, or scourges us for our neglect of it, as with scorpion stings. And in the future world, methinks, the sinner will need no sulphurious burnings to constitute a hell. Conscience once let loose upon him, will riot on more than fiery fangs.

Shenstone very justly observes, that genteel abruption in composition sometimes has a prodigious effect upon a reader. Example, "Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber."

Dugald Stuart observes, Some writers who almost disgrace themselves when following their own taste and genius, gain great applause by a successful imitation of the style and sentiments of others. But this is a dangerous idea for this generation of plagiarizing authors. Sectarianism is nothing more than self-love.

"He who resolves to amend hath God on his side."

"Of all compliments, deference is the most elegant and effective." "Nothing so begets love as giving." From the moment we give to any person or object, we feel as if we had some personal interest in them.

"Satan hath desired to have thee." Perhaps the devil often fixes a longing eye upon an individual without any particular reason; and lays plans for his undermining, which require years for their unfolding.

It takes all my learning, observed a Scotch Divine, to make my sermons plain.

LOGICAL.-Crambe supposes that a man's brain is like a forest where his ideas range like animals. The major and minor propositions of a syllogism are males and females, which unite and produce the conclusion. When those of different species unite, the result is a moral monster-i. e. an absurdity!

Language should be like a mirror-unseen itself, but clearly reflecting our ideas.

Happiness depends much less on our possessions than on our prospects.

"Providence has set up racks and gibbets in the bosom of every transgressor.'

"I have often reflected that it is a pity there is not something that would exhibit to our view the moral character as faithfully as the mirror reflects our personal appearance."-Does not the Bible do this?

If there are any subjects in the Bible that ought to be spoken of with more simplicity of style and manner, than others, these are the judgment day and the crucifixion scene. They are in themselves so august and so interesting that every attempt at hyperbole reminds one of the shining spray that is thrown over the solid rock of the ocean. Colloquial language spurns the rules of grammatical construction. Men have right, in one sense, to talk as they please.

"Society teaches us what we are; solitude teaches us what we ought to be."

Cecil says a minister and a worldling should meet "like two men in a rain."

Pectus facit theologus. It is the heart that makes the theologian. When Julian took from the early Christians their earthly possessions, he told them scoffingly a great truth, that these privations would make them more fit for heaven.

G.

FAMILY CULTURE.

CONVERSATIONS AT THE CARLTON HOUSE.

No. XIII.

Olympas. My dear children, hitherto has the Lord helped us. He has brought us to see the early dawn of a new year. Its first sun already gilds the gates of day and spreads its golden radiance over the joyful chambers of the morning. We welcome its rising glory and praise the name of the Lord whose mercy endureth forever. To Him we owe life, and health, and all that we have that is worth possessing, with all that we hope that is worth enjoying. Praised be his name! We live and we enjoy life, while many as young, as cheerful, and as fond of life as you, whose eyes on last new year's morning sparkled with life, and whose rosey cheeks bloomed with health and beauty, have "left the warm precincts of the cheerful day," and gone down into the cold, dark, and dreary mansions of the dead. Let us sing a song of thanksgiving, and consecrate this first fruits of the new year to the Father of our mercies, whose days are the days of eternity, and whose years know neither beginning nor end. Song 99, p. 175.

race.

"I'll praise my Maker while I've breath,
And when my voice is lost in death

Praise shall employ my nobler powers;

My days of praise shall ne'er be past
While life, and thought, and being last,

And immortality endures," &c. &c &c.

We read this morning the 11th chapter of Genesis, which is itself the commencement of a memorable epoch in the history of the human You will read audibly and slowly five verses each in rotation. "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And

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the Lord said, Behold the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth," &c.

[The chapter being read, the question was, Who were confederate in this bold and heaven-defying project of raising a fortification against heaven; whereupon the conversation commenced.]

Thomas. It would seem as the whole human race were confederate, inasmuch as it is said, "the whole earth was of one language and of one speech; and immediately after it is said, "they journeyed from the East."

Olympas. The whole earth is not the antecedent to they. The construction intimates no more than as men journeyed from the East. Besides it would be much more incredible, because without any evidence or reason that the whole human race then existing should rise up and leave all their improvements, and the labors of a century or more behind them, and go in quest of a new location, than to make the pronoun they represent a part of mankind, as we are wont to use that word every day; as when we say, "They say so," "The people love to have it so," and "They will have it so;" intimating not the whole human race, but those of a certain district or country. True, there is little or nothing of any importance depending on the latitude we give to the pronoun they in this passage. I am more concerned to determine the legitimate use of the sacred language, than to establish any point of doctrine involved in this passage.

Edward. Were we to suppose that Noah, Shem, and all their immediate descendants were a part of their colony, we should then have to encounter other and greater difficulties, as it appears to me, than merely to find cause for their abandonment of their early plantations and local attachments.

Olympas. Of these difficulties of which you speak, will you state the chief?

Edward. We should have Noah who was perfect in his generation, and Shem, and the holy seed all in one daring conspiracy against Heaven-all engaged in an attempt to prostrate the designs of God in allotting to each family its own country and clime; or, if not in this, in something worse-the erection of an idolatrous temple devoted to some of my late readiugs would clearly intimate.

Olympas. True, my dear Edward, this would be a strange case, that Noah, in one hundred and twenty years after the flood, who had faithfully served the Lord so many centuries before the flood, should now abandon his worship for idolatry, or for any scheme, to subvert his decrees and appointments. We think, therefore, that in journeying from the East they left in the East the faithful portion of the human race, who were determined to cleave to the patriarchal altar in the families of Noah and Shem. This new colony, this swarm from the East, as all ancient records seem to indicate, were, for the major part at least, composed of the families of Ham and Japhet.

With regard to language, James, how many were spoken before the flood?

James. Only one.

Olympas. And till this time of which we now speak, how many were spoken, Susan?

Susan. Only one. "The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

Olympas. Can any of you tell the difference between being "all of one language and of one speech.? Are not language and speech the same thing?

Edward. The margin says they were of one lip and of one word. But this may mean the same thing.

Olympas. Unity of design and unity of language appear to express the original full as well as any other terins we have. Now that this is the meaning is farther evident from the 6th verse. "And the Lord said, Behold the people is one, and they all have one language; and this they begin to do, and nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do." And hence we learn the power of unity of language and unity of design. If the whole world still spoke one language, and were of one opinion, who could calculate to what extent they could carry any project of good or evil intent! The strength of Satan's realm consists much in this fact, that he and his angels are of one language and of one design. What, William, constituted the region called "the East," in the Old Testament style?

William. Mesopotamia, Assyria, and the lands east of the Euphrates.

Olympas. The tide of emigration has, it seems, from ancient days, rolled westwardly. From Mount Ararat Noah and his sons descended the valleys that marked the course of the Euphrates. Tell me, William, what notable persons came from the East?

William. Abraham came from the East. From the mountains of the East Balaam came to curse Israel; and from the East came the

Magi to pay their honors to the new-born King of the Jews. And "still the star of empire westward wends its way."

Olympas. Where, Susan, did this migrating colony first settle?

Susan. They found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

Olympas. Tell me, Edward, where Shinar lay?

Edward. It lay along the Tigris, or was a part of that rich valley that bordered on, or lay between the Tigris and the Euphrates, once the richest valley in the world.

Olympas. And there they projected the tower of Babel, that immense pile, designed as a monument of their skill and as a means of consolidation and concentration to prevent their dispersion over the earth. Of what, James, was this tower composed?

James. Of brick and bitumen.

Olympas. How high was it, William?

William. According to Strabo and other ancient historians, such as Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, it was one stadium, or five hundred feet in height, having a statue of Belus of forty feet.

Olympas. And what was its square at the base, Henry?

Henry. You said it was one thousand feet.

Edward. It was almost as high as the steeple of St. Paul's Church in London, which formerly measured five hundred and twenty feet.— But since the fire of London it has been reduced, and it was twenty feet higher than the loftiest pyramid of Egypt.

Olympas. Whence, Edward, had it the name Babel?

Edward. It was called Babel because there human language was confounded, and because from that place the Lord dispersed them over the earth.

Olympas. It was, indeed, a marvellous confusion; because it was instantaneous, because it seems to have run in families according to consanguinity, and because it was both a bond of union and a cause of schism. Many languages made many parties, and one language made one party, For the Lord, it is said, divided them according to their languages "every one after his tongue, after their families in their nations."

Henry. Did the Lord come down himself to see this city and tower which they builded?

Olympas. This is rather a form of expressing that the Lord took notice of it, and considered the meaning and design of it, than that he literally descended from heaven and came to Shinar to survey this work of rebellion, or of idolatry..

Thomas. Into how many languages were the Babel-builders divided?