to be closed, or to be converted into churches; in other cities they were destroyed, and the idols of the gods broken into pieces, or removed. He employed every means within his power to induce the idolaters to embrace the new faith; and it appears, that towards the close of his reign, he published a universal prohibition, which forbade the public worship of the gods: the law, however, was never enforced.

THERE are several species of bees distinguished by the appellation of solitary, because they do not associate, to carry on any joint operations. Of this kind is the mason-bee, so called, because it builds a habitation composed of sand and mortar. The nests of this bee are fixed to the walls of houses, and when finished, have the appearance of irregular prominences arising from dirt or clay, accidentally thrown against a wall or stone by the feet of horses. These prominences are not so

remarkable as to attract attention; but when the external coat is removed, their structure is discovered to be truly admirable. The interior part consists of an assemblage of different cells, each of which affords a convenient lodgment to a white worm, pretty similar to those produced by the honey-bee. Here they remain till they have undergone all their metamorphoses. In constructing this nest, which is a work of great labour and dexterity, the female is the sole operator. The manner in which the female mason-bees build their nests, is the most curious branch of their history.

After choosing a part of a wall, on which she is resolved to fix a habitation for her future progeny, she goes in quest of proper material. The nest to be constructed, must consist of a species of mortar, of which sand is the basis. She knows, like human builders, that every kind of sand is not equally proper for making good mortar. She goes therefore to a bed of sand, and selects, grain after grain, the kind which is best to answer her purpose. With her teeth, which are as large and as strong as those of the honey-bee, she examines and brings together several grains. But sand alone will not make mortar; recourse must be had to a cement, similar to the slacked lime employed by masons. Our bee is unacquainted with lime, but she possesses an equivalent in her own body. From her mouth she throws out a viscid liquor, with which she moistens the first grain; to this she cements a second, which she moistens in the same

manner; and to the former two she attaches a third, and so on till she has formed a mass as large as the shot usually employed to kill hares. This mass she carries off in her teeth, to the place she had chosen for erecting her nest, and makes it the foundation of the first cell. In this manner she labours incessantly till the whole cells are completed; a work which is generally accomplished in five or six days. All the cells are similar, and nearly of equal dimensions. Before they are covered, their figure resembles that of a thimble. She never begins to make a second till the first is finished. Each cell is about an inch high, and nearly half an inch in diameter. SMELLIE.

THESE ruins are highly impressive; yet when I saw them six years ago, they had a stronger effect on my imagination: whether it was the charm of novelty, or that my mind was fresher, or that the circumstances under which I saw them were peculiar, I know not; but, probably, all these causes

operated in affecting my mind. It was a still and beautiful evening in the month of May; the last sun-beams were dying away in the western sky, and the first moon-beams shining in the eastern; the bright orange tints lighted up the ruins, and, as it were, kindled the snows that still remained on the distant Apennines, which were visible from the highest accessible part of the amphitheatre. In this glow of colouring, the green of advanced spring softened the grey and yellow tints of the decaying stones, and as the lights gradually became fainter, the masses appeared grander and more majestic; and when the twilight had entirely disappeared, the contrast of light and shade in the beams of the full moon, and beneath a sky of the brightest sapphire, but so highly illuminated, that only Jupiter, and a few stars of the first magnitude, were visible, gave a solemnity and magnificence to the scene, which awakened the highest degree of that emotion, which is so properly termed the sublime. The beauty and permanence of the heavens, and the principle of conservation belonging to the system of the universe, the works of the eternal and divine Architect, were finally opposed to the perishing and degraded works of man in his most active and powerful state. And at this moment, so humble appeared the condition of the most exalted beings belonging to the earth; so feeble their combinations, so minute the point of space, and so limited the period of time in which they act, that I could hardly avoid comparing the generations of man, and the effects of his genius and

power, to the swarms of fire-flies, which were dancing around me, and that appeared flitting and sparkling amidst the gloom and darkness of the ruins, but which were no longer visible when they rose above the horizon-their feeble light being lost and utterly obscured in the brightness of the moon-beams in the heavens.

THE musician, in a more especial manner, is indebted to the sense of hearing, for the influence which he can exert over our nature. That dexterous arrangement and correspondence of sounds, which are capable, without being in any way addressed to our understanding, of exciting so many lively emotions within our minds, are entirely the offspring of this sense. If it served no other and no higher purpose than this alone, of furnishing mankind with so sweet a solace, amid the toils and trials of the world, they would surely find ample cause for gratitude in the endowment. How