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CHRIST'S COMMISSION TO THE APOSTLES-BLISSFUL ANTICIPATION.

It may not be so with all, but it is with many, that the very sight of these remnants of former ages, drives away much of doubt, and brings much of certainty to the mind. We do, in general, but half credit the annals of antiquity we are, in a degree, sceptics, while professing to believe the records of holy Writ; but these mummy cases reprove us, and seem to say to us, "See and believe." While our sight and senses are, beyond a doubt, convinced that these are the remains of ancient Egypt, our faith is confirmed in the recorded verities of Scripture. Yes, it is a truth, and we feel it as such, that "Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmelites," Gen. xxxix. 1. It is a truth that Joseph sent for his father Jacob to dwell with him in the land of Egypt, and that "when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob revived." "It is enough," said he; "Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die," Gen. xlv. 27, 28. The miracles that God performed for his people, rise to our remembrance, and the plagues that were spread over the land, When Moses stretched his wonder-working rod, And brought the locust on the foes of God; When countless myriads with despoiling wing, Scourged the hard heart of the Egyptian king.

I have wandered from one piece of sculpture to another. Here the chisel of Phidias, and there that of Praxiteles has been at work giving an inestimable value to stone. The Elgin marbles; the relics of the Athenian temples; the statues of Theseus, Illyssus, and the Fates; the frieze of the Parthenon; the alto-relievo representations of the strifes of the Centaurs and the Lapithæ; the Townley marbles, and the Egyptian collection of sculpture, have all been visited, and I could now sit me down opposite this huge hieroglyphical sarcophagus, and muse and moralize. The temples of olden time; the artists of genius and talent, whose works are before us, and those to whose fame they have vainly sought to give immortality"Where are they?" The mutilated marbles and time-worn inscriptions of the most splendid works of art seem to press on the reflective mind the lesson, Gratefully enjoy the things of time, but forget not those of eternity."

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The print room, to those who are

fond of engravings, is a treat absolutely inexhaustible. Historical subjects, landscapes, seascapes, architectural designs, portraits, animals, birds, fishes, insects, trees, shells, fossils, fruit, flowers, and ornaments by the most eminent artists, English and foreign, are kept in the nicest order. The connoisseur and amateur may here revel in boundless variety.. The library is, perhaps, after all, still more generally valuable than any other part of the Museum, containing as it does, almost every book from which pleasure and information can be derived. The

manuscripts are very numerous, and the persons in the reading room, where I am making my closing remarks, sufficiently testify by their numbers and busy attention, how highly they estimate the advantages of the institution.

CHRIST'S COMMISSION TO THE APOSTLES.

OUR Lord's commission to the apostles for preaching the gospel, was extensive as the human species. The middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles being demolished, those first ministers of Christ were not only permitted, but required, as Providence gave opportunity, to proclaim the glad tidings wherever they came, without any exception of nations, of rank, or of character. The prerogatives connected with carnal descent from Abraham, the covenant made at Sinai, and the Mosaic economy, being all abolished, those ambassadors of Heaven were commanded through Jesus Christ, by faith in his to publish pardon, and proclaim peace, blood, among all nations, beginning at

Jerusalem.-Booth.

BLISSFUL ANTICIPATION.

How divinely full of glory and pleasure shall that hour be, when all the millions of mankind, that have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, shall meet together and stand around him, with every tongue_and every heart full of joy and praise! How astonishing will be the glory and the joy of that day, when all the saints shall join together in one common song of gratitude and love, and of everlasting thankfulness to this Redeemer? With what unknown delight, and inexpressible satisfaction, shall all that are saved from the ruins of sin and hell, address the Lamb that was slain, and rejoice in his presence !-Dr. Watts.

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POWERSCOURT WATERFALL, COUNTY
WICKLOW, IRELAND.

THE glen of the waterfall is a deep mountain recess, environed on every side, except the entrance, by steep and lofty hills, adorned with wood and rock and broken ground, and sweeping down from every side with the greatest boldness and variety. The head of the recess is crossed by a mural precipice of denuded rock, down the front of which the river Glenisloreane falls perpendicularly a depth of three hundred feet. A velvet turf is spread over the undulating surface of the bottom of this glen, and majestic oaks of picturesque forms clothe the mountain sides, and climb the rocky precipice in front.

At a distance, the fall is seen partly gliding in frothy streams down the slop

ing surface of the moss-clad rocks, and partly dashing, in angry mood, against some projecting cliff, whence being rejected, it seems to vanish like the floating mists of morn. In the broken and varied foreground, a sloping bank protrudes, worn by the mountain torrent, which has bared the tenacious roots of the great monarch of the wood; confident in strength, he seems to disregard the persevering efforts of the stream that rolls so rapidly at his feet, to undermine his throne so long enjoyed: more in the distance still, less venerable oaks, candidates for that preeminence yielded by the leafy tribe to the royal inhabitant of the grove, fling their shady branches over the verdureclad lawn, and afford cool shelter to the "deer that desire the water brooks."Fisher's Views in Ireland.

THE SCOTCH FIR. (Pinus Sylvestris.)

a, Male catkin. b, Another shedding its pollen c, Female catkin. d, Ripe cone. e, Cone expand ing to discharge its seeds. f, Winged seed.

NATURAL ORDER. Coniferæ, or Pinaceæ, LINNEAN ARRANGEMENT. Monoecia Monadelphia.

Barren Flowers placed at the end of the branches of the preceding year, and at the base of the young shoots; in a deciduous catkin of numerous naked spreading stamens, connected by a common stalk. Calyx none. Filaments two or more, and very short, with a scale at their base, Anthers

two on each stamen, erect, wedge-shaped, crowned

by a jagged, membranous crest. Fertile Flowers on the summit of the shoots of the current year, generally in clusters of two together. Catkin eggshaped, or roundish, afterwards enlarged, conical and pointed, composed of numerous, imbricated, close, woody scales. Corolla none. Scales oblong, swelled at the upper extremity into a sort of pyramid truncate at the summit. Style, one to each germen. Stigma simple. Seeds two within each, recurved scale, oval, each crowned with a membranous wing. The apex of the cone opens when the seeds are ripe, and changes in colour from green to reddish brown. Leaves linear, smooth, obtuse, and acuminated, arranged spirally on the branches in pairs within a scale. A tall, straight tree, with scaly, reddish brown bark. Flowers in May and June; but the cone does not attain its full size till the autumn of the following year.

-The pine, long-haired, and dark and tall,

In lordly right predominates o'er all."

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L. HUNT.

The pine of mountain race,
The fir, the Scotch fir, never out of place."
CHURCHILL.

THE Scotch fir, or pine, is the only species of the natural order, Abietina, indigenous to this country; an order equally distinguished by the remarkable resemblance which prevails throughout the numerous and widely diffused families of which it is composed, their extreme utility to man, and their peculiar adaptation to the situation in which they are placed. "No order," says Lindley, "can be named of more

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universal importance to mankind than this, whether we view it with reference to its timber or secretions. Gigantic in size, rapid in growth, noble in aspect, robust in constitution, these trees form a considerable proportion of every wood or plantation in cultivated countries, and of every forest where nature remains in a cultivated state.' They clothe the interminable plains of northern Europe and America, and mantle the craggy heights of the Himalaya and the Andes. But, although this order ranks among its many species, the goodly cedar, the tufted larch, the spiry, spruce fir feathered to the ground, the fanciful arancaria, the silver fir, of graceful symmetry, the gloomy cypress, and the arbor vita; still our native species is universally allowed to be inferior to none of its brethren, either in useful properties, or picturesque grandeur of appearance.

Cesar has stated in his Commentaries, that the abies was not found in Britain, and hence much discussion has arisen, and many ingenious arguments brought forward to explain his meaning, as it is an indisputable fact, not only that the Scotch fir is indigenous to our island; but that at that early period the greater part of, at least, our northern districts, was completely overrun with trackless forests of this tree. The question admits of a very easy solution, if we consider, that by abies he intended the silver fir, a native of the southern parts of Europe, and but recently introduced among us. The mistake evidently arose from the name fir having been injudiciously applied to our native species, instead of that of pine, to which botanical genus it undoubtedly belongs. The pinus sylvestris was well known to the ancients, and a native of the Alps, and many parts of Gaul; and Cesar, in the passage alluded to, says that Britain had all the trees of Gaul, excepting the fagus and the abies. Both the spruce and silver firs are found in many parts of France and Italy, but are not indigenous in England. The difference between the two genera of pinus and abies, is very slight, though easy to be distinguished; in the former, the leaves are long and spirally inserted on the branch, two, three, or five being grouped within one sheath; in the latter, they are short, and inserted singly in whorls round the branch. The habits and properties of the two genera are

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remarkably similar, and they are often | wood, is quite fresh and elastic. Many indiscriminately mentioned by the poets, as applied to the same purpose. "The adventurous fir that sails the vast profound, And pine fresh bleeding from the odorous wound."-HARTE'S STATIUS.

"The pine, with whom men through the ocean
venture,

The firre that oftentimes doth rosin drop."-
W. BROWNE.

Although an undoubted native of Scotland, the Scotch pine is found in every part of the north temperate zone, from grim Kamtschatka's desert plains, to the rocky chain of Caucasus. On the Alps, the Apennines, the Tyrol, and the Pyrennees, it skirts the region of eternal snows; and, in connexion with the spruce fir, extends over vast districts in Lapland, Russia, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Austria. Of the Scandinavian forests, Dr. Clarke thus speaks:-"If the reader cast his eyes upon the map of Sweden, and imagine the Gulf of Bothnia to be surrounded by one continuous, unbroken forest, as ancient as the world, consisting principally of pine trees, with a few mingling birch and juniper trees, he will have a general and tolerably correct notion of the real appearance of the country. If the sovereigns of Europe were to be designated, each by some title, characteristic of the nature of their dominions, we might call the king of Sweden, Lord of the Woods; because, in surveying his territories, he might travel over a great part of his kingdom, from sunrise to sunset, and find no greater subjects than the trees of his forests. The population is everywhere small, because the whole country is covered with wood." Such was, no doubt, in former times, the condition of a large proportion of our island. The famous levels of Hatfield Chase, when drained in the seventeenth century, discovered vast multitudes of trees, of various sorts, the roots in their natural position, and the trunks lying beside them; one third, at least, of them are pines, and some of these were thirty feet in length. In the extensive peat mosses, or bogs, which are found in every part of Scotland, and afford fuel little inferior to coal, the remains of pine trees are very abundant, and principally in the most exposed districts; even when the damp and cold have reduced the birch to a pulp, and the oak to splinters, the heart of the pine, preserved by the resinous properties of the

vestiges yet remain of the vast forests, which there is every reason to believe, once extended over the hilly regions of Scotland, though they suffered much, in consequence of the scarcity of Norway deals during the last war, being felled, more than otherwise would have been the case. Of the principal, yet remaining, we shall have occasion to speak hereafter; but in those districts which are now open, the remains of roots on the surface, and extensive peat mosses in which scarcely any other timber is found, prove that they formerly extended much further. In the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, this submerged timber is so abundant, that it forms an article of trade, as the vast quantity of turpentine which it contains renders it superior to any other fire wood; and among the peasants, slips of it are used as a substitute for candles.

The pine attains to the greatest perfection in mountainous districts, in situations and soils in which scarcely any other tree will thrive. Its very name betokens that it is a native of the mountain, being derived from the Celtic word, pen or pin, signifying rock or mountain, and is retained in the various languages derived from this as a common source. Thus the tree is known as peinge, in the Erse; pinna, in Welsh; pymbaum, in German; piner, in Anglo Saxon; pin, in French; and pino, in Italian. Hence also the term Appennines (or Alps pennines) mountains covered with pines, and the Spanish towns Pennafiel and Pennaflor, etc., which are amid the mountains; nor is it unlikely that the Scotch ben is derived from the same word. The more bleak and exposed the situation, and the more sterile the soil, the better timber is produced, because its growth is slower. A light hazelly loam, or the debris of granite, is best adapted to it. On clay or bog its growth is stunted, and it soon dies; on a rich soil, it grows rapidly, but the timber is inferior and perishable, being composed, for the most part, of sap wood.

The botanical student is aware that the dicotyledous plants of our northern countries deposit every year a fresh portion of wood within the bark, and that the circles, which are said to mark the yearly increase of the trunk, are produced by the check given by the severity of winter to the flow of the sap. He will also

readily understand that the extreme durability and hardness of this timber is occasioned by the very trifling annual addition made to its circumference; so that the hard substance of the yearly circles greatly preponderates over the sap wood. Thus the best timber, which is known by the name of red deal, is fine grained, hard, and solid; and the trunk, when severed, presents the appearance of a close and compact series of fine circles the white deal is less resinous, coarser, and more spongy, and much more liable to decay. It was formerly imagined that these were two distinct species; but it seems now to be satisfactorily proved, that this great difference arises solely from a variety of soil, situation, and climate. A northern aspect is likewise desirable; for it has been observed that where trees have been much exposed to the mid-day sun, the whole southern half of the tree was frequently little better than sap wood, while the northern half contained only a layer or two at the circumference. The most valuable timber is that produced in natural forests, or by planting in large masses; the trunks being then drawn up, and destitute of side branches, sometimes even to the height of fifty or sixty feet, yield planks which are long, straight, and free from knots, a circumstance so peculiar to this tree, that Ovid describes it as unknotty fir."

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The stem of this tree is remarkably straight and taper; in favourable situations, it attains the height of from eighty to one hundred feet, though the diameter of the trunk rarely exceeds four feet.

"Nod the cloud-piercing pines their troubled

heads."-WORDSWORTH.

"Straighter than straightest pine upon the steep Head of an aged mountain."-SPENSER. "The slender fir that taper grows."-DYER.

grows older, it assumes a richer brown, and often becomes deeply furrowed. The leaves are evergreen, but fall every fifth year; they are arranged spirally on the branches in twos, within a scaly sheath. When young, they are of a bright hue, but afterwards assume a bluish tint, probably on account of their peculiar form, by not allowing much scope for the influence of the solar rays, so necessary to enable a plant to deposit carbonic acid. This acid is considered to be of a dark blue colour, which when seen through the yellowish green tint of the cellular tissue of the leaf, produces the refreshing green, by which nature everywhere clothes the earth, and thus soothes the tired eye.

The barren, or staminiferous flowers of the pine appear in the month of May, at the extremity of the shoots of the preceding year, and below those of the current year. The pollen is of a yellow colour, and so abundant that when ripened, it is sometimes carried by the wind to a distance, and has often been the cause of much alarm to the superstitious Highlanders, who have believed themselves to be visited by a shower of brimstone. The cones generally appear in pairs above the shoots of the current year; their colour varies, being sometimes yellowish or red, though more frequently of a purplish green., They do not attain their full size till the autumn of the following year, nor is it till the succeeding spring that their scales expand, beginning from the upper end, and thus allow the seeds to fall. They are then in a fit state to sow. Each seed is furnished with a large, oval wing, and inclosed within this membranaceous covering, being attached to the axis of the cone. As the cones remain on the tree for some months after the seeds have fallen, we discover on a pine tree, at the same time, specimens of them in all their various stages.

As a timber tree, our native pine is inferior in value to none within the north temperate zone. In strength and durability, it is only surpassed by the oak, and for many important purposes is even superior to it. By the experiments which have been recently so successfully made, to raise the remains of the gallant ship, in which

The branches are disposed so that the tree, when young, presents a pyramidal appearance; but the branches afterwards assume a horizontal direction; the lower ones, however, as in the other species of this order, have a remarkable tendency to decay, and fall off as it advances in age. In fact, some naturalists have considered them rather as gigantic fronds, or leaves; and thus the abietina form a connecting link between the monocotyledonous and dicotyledous tribes. The bark in young trees is thin, and easily scales off; as it it has been discovered that the fir planks

"Brave Kempenfelt went down, And twice four hundred men,' 39

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