perature better than one made of thick glass, as the heat will be diffused more rapidly through thin glass, and the expansion consequently will be more uniform, which accordingly is found to be the case.

It may be as well to notice here a singular instance of what appears to be an exception to the law of expansion. We say appears, because we have no doubt that, if our knowledge of the laws of Nature was more extended, instead of appearing a solitary exception to a general law, we should see in it a connecting link of the great system of the universe. In cooling, water, according to this law, contracts or decreases in volume; but, when it is cooled down to about 40 deg. Fahrenheit, instead of continuing to contract, it begins to expand, and continues to expand, till it reaches the 32d degree, when it freezes. Ice is, therefore, bulk for bulk, lighter than water, and accordingly it floats on the surface. Now, this is a very curious fact; and although, no doubt, it does appear a complete departure from an established law, we have in it a beautiful example of the benevolent care which the Almighty takes of the safety and comfort of the various inhabitants of the earth. Let us see what would have been the consequence had there been no exception to the law of expansion in this case. Had the water, on arriving within a few degrees of the freezing point, continued to contract, the coldest water, instead of remaining on the surface and freezing there, would have fallen to the bottom, where it would have frozen, and, as the surface of the water would be freely exposed to the cold air, a lake of very considerable depth would have been frozen from top to bottom in the course of a very few days. The consequence would have been, the destruction of the fishes and other inhabitants of the waters; and, instead of our beautiful lakes and rivers, we should have huge masses of ice from January to December, because our warmest summers would be unable to melt them. But, on the other hand, as the Almighty hath decreed that water should expand on approaching to the freezing point, the ice, on being formed, floats on the surface, and, being a bad conductor of heat, it prevents the water underneath from being too rapidly cooled, and, consequently, it requires a long and intense frost to freeze any considerable depth of water. That water expands on freezing may be easily proved :-Fill a bottle full of water, and, having corked it, place it in a freezing mixture of two parts of snow or ice to one of salt, or expose it to the open air in a frosty night, as soon as the water freezes, the bottle will burst. Country people well know the beneficial influence which frost has on rough cloddy land. The water which the clods contain is frozen, and, in freezing, it expands, and thus forces the different parts to fall asunder, like a lime shell when we pour water on it. We shall stop for the present, but by and by we shall treat of the expansion of fluid and aëriform bodies;of the conduction and radiation of heat, and of the different capacities which different bodies have for heat.

CHILDISH CONCEIT CORRECTED.

I was lelling one evening on my father's knee, waiting to receive my usual modicum of three roasted chestnuts, when my mother happened to say, "Pray take care of my beautiful goblet, Mr. Harding,-water so hot will break it I fear." My father was mixing his wine with hot water, and he set down the jug till the water would get cooler.

"Such nonsense, mamma," said I, pertly, "how can water, which is soft, break glass?" My mother was going away, and did not hear me, but my father looked closely, and, as I fancied, admiringly, at his "clever little Jane."

"Do you think hot water cannot break glass, Jane ?" "Surely not, papa,-how should it stand to reason, that water, which is soft," and I triumphantly repeated my former assertion, or, as I thought, rational argument. We were now alone at table. "So I find little Jane does not take things on hearsay, quite right that," said my father, "she grows a reasoner-wiser than her mother."-"Oh, no, papa, don't say 80,-only I am sure water which is soft," &c. &c.

"Suppose we try," said my father; and as I knew my other was very careful of those richly-cut goblets, which she had lately got in a present from my Aunt Ellen, and often washed and put them away herself, I said I would wash them up for her. Sally, the housemaid, had secretly allowed me to wash china cups, on trial, before now. My own

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calabash basin was procured; papa gravely assisted me in collecting all the glasses and goblets on the table into it, and over them I directed him to pour the boiling tea-kettle. He warned me to pause-"I might be wrong.' “Oh, no-nonsense!" He poured away. Crack! crack! My heart fluttered. My father looked at me, but I did not now construe his looks into admiration. "All

The havoc was complete! My eldest sister came in. my mother's favourite glasses! ignorant conceited child!" My mother came. "The cut wine goblets, mamma," said my sister, "my aunt's present-Jane has broken them all." My mother looked much displeased. "Jane has just learned that there may be truths beyond her comprehension," said my father. I wish she had made her experiment at a cheaper be too dear for so good a lesson. Jane had learned one of rate," said my mother; but my father said, " Nothing could humility and self-distrust, that would, he hoped, last her for life.

"

My kind parents never said more to their weeping penitent, though my sisters sometimes, when I was saucy, reminded me of the broken glasses. It needed not; for I never forgot that dreadful, reiterated crack. Several other circumstances occnrred about this time, which made me suspect I was not quite the prodigy I had imagined myself.-Nights of the RoundTable-First Series.

TO THE NEUT RALS.

I hate and abhor all neutrals. They are a species of hermaphrodite for which both sexes blush. They constitute that abominable gender which no French man or Italian can tolerate a gender in name only, but not in reality-a thing in um or on, below the dignity of vegetable life. I never could" it” even a child or an idiot "O thou whom Johnston must abhor, List, list, oh list! (I do not mean in my regiment, but to my And Ralph will soon turn to the door," words.)

For the elective franchise you have struggled, petitioned, speechified, written, published, and all but risen in open rebellion; and now that, through exertions unparelleled, you have obtained it, you decline making use of the privilege! With all the fickleness of a lover who has obtained the object of his heart's wish, you turn from possession, and neglect the object of your former idolatry!

Manly it cannot be; for it is the cowardly offspring of intimiIs this manly? Is it rational? Is it right? dation-the fruit of a spirit that had rather offend conscience than a party.

Rational it is not; for our reason teaches us to prize objects in proportion to the price of labour and exertion which they have cost.

Right it is not; for it can never be right to yield on private grounds that which conscience tells us should be exercised for the public good.

What is it, then?

It is cowardly mean! despicable! and must ultimately subject those who have recourse to it to the curse of the Laodiceans. (Rev. chap. iii. v. 15, 16.)

Is there nothing yet to be done in the great harvest-field of abuse, that you remain idle with the sickle in your hand?

1. Are there no town-councils to rectify? Is the present mode of election the very best and fairest mode possible? 2. Are sinecure offices to be continued, that the minister of the day may command a majority in the House?

3. Is the pension list still to be ornamented with Graces and Right Honourables in petticoats ?

4. Are the poor to pay taxes, that hundreds of thousands may be squandered in building up and pulling down-in making sand-hills, in short, with gold dust?

5. Are we to pay 6s. 6d. for a pound of tea, when we might have it for eighteenpence?

6. Is the chain never, and under no circumstances, to be struck from the neck of the slave?

7. Are the laws of the land, civil and criminal, never to be amended?

8. Is one English or Irish non-resident Bishop to be paid L.20,000 per annum for doing nothing, whilst fifty efficient curates are starving on a thousandth part of the sum ?

ENGLISH MALT.-Thirty millions of bushels of barley are annually converted into malt by the breweries of Great Britain, and upwards of eight millions of barrels of beer (of which more than four-fifths are strong) are brewed annually. This enormous consumption attests the fondness of the people for the beverage of their forefathers.

ELEMENTS OF THOUGHT.

RELIGIOUS TOLERATION.

THE argument we have to state is contained in an appeal made by William Penn, the Quaker, the founder of Pensylvania, to the King of Holland :-

"Now, oh prince! give a poor Christian leave to expostulate with thee. Did Christ Jesus, or his holy followers, endeavour, by precept or example, to set up religion with a carnal sword? Called he any troops of men or angels to defend him? Did he encourage Peter to dispute his right with the sword? But did he not say, Put it up? Or did he countenance his over. zealous disciples, when they would have had fire from heaven, to destroy those that were not of their mind? No. But did not Christ rebuke them saying, "Ye know not what spirit ye are of?" And if it was neither Christ's spirit, nor their own spirit, that could have fire from heaven, oh! what is that spirit that would kindle fire on earth, to destroy such as peaceably dissent upon the account of conscience. Oh king! when did true religion persecute? When did the true church offer violence for religion-were not her weapons prayers, tears, and patience?”

RESPECT. It is sometimes unreasonable to look after respect and reverence from servants and inferiors. A great lord and a gentleman talking together, there came a boy by leading a calf. "You shall see me make that boy let go his calf," thinking the boy would take off his hat; but the lad took no notice of him, "Sirrah," says the great man, "do you know me, that you use no reverence?"-"Yes," says the boy, "if your lordship will hold my calf, I will put off my hat."-Selden.

MEDICAL SELECTIONS.

DISEASES OF TRADESMEN.-Schultz and Co., tailors of London, employ 334 men. Of these six are above sixty years of age; fourteen about fifty; and the greater number of the remainder about forty; three men of the above six above sixty have distorted spines. They are so subject to anal fistula, that they have a "fistula club." Their most common affections are difficulty of breathing, and dull headache, with giddiness, especially during summer. They attribute their complaints to two causes--one of which is the posture, the body bent for thirteen hours a-day; the other the heat of the shop.-The Doctor.

There is, at present, an artist of the Louvre, an eminent historical painter, of the name of Ducornet, who paints with his feet. He was born without arms, of poor parents, at Lille. There are also about the French metropolis a number of beggars, twelve or thirteen of them, at least, all deformed in various ways, and all born at Lille, in certain dark caverns, under the fortifications. The effect of these places, from their want of light, producing malformed births, is so notorious, that the magistrates of Lille have issued strict orders to prohibit the poor from taking up their abode in them. It is added, by our correspondent, that he had a conversation with Mr. Edwards on the subject, and that gentleman was greatly struck with the coufirmation which the above circumstances afford to his views, stated in his work, " Sur l'Influence des Agens Physiques sur la Vie." Mr. Edwards' experiments of detaining tadpoles in darkness, and thus causing them to grow into gigantic and monstrous tadpoles, instead of being transformed into frogs, are well known.—Medical Gazette.

USEFUL NOTICES.

SOAP.-The word soap (sapo) occurs first in Pliny. He informs us that it was an invention of the Gauls, who employed it to render their hair shining; that it was a compound of

wood ashes and tallow, and there were two kinds of it, hard and soft, (spissus et liquidus;) and that the best kind was made of the ashes of the beech and the fat of goats. Among the Germans it was more employed by the men than the women. It is curious that no allusion whatever is made by Pliny to the use of soap as a detergent; shall we conclude from this that the most important of all the uses of soap was unknown to the and during the early part of the government of the emperor, ancients? It was employed by the ancients as a pomatur; it was imported into Rome from Germany, as a pomatum for the young Roman beaux. Beckmann is of opinion that the Latin word sapo is derived from the old German word sepe word still employed by the common people of Scotland. It is well known that the state of soap depends upon the alkali employed in making it. Soda constitutes a hard soap, and potash tween the two alkalies, and using wood ashes in the preparation a soft soap. The ancients being ignorant of the difference be of it, doubtless formed soft soap. The addition of some com mon salt, during the boiling of the soap, would convert the soft into hard soap. As Pliny informs us that the ancients were acquainted both with hard and soft soap, it is clear that they must have followed some such process.

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THE USE OF THE BERRIES OF THE ELDER-TREE IN MANUFACTURING SPIRITS-M. Aloys Wehrle, of Vienna, has found, by a series of experiments, that the berries of the elder tree produce a much greater quantity of spirit than the best wheat. The spirit is obtained by pressing the berries, and the afterwards distilled. If the results obtained by M. Wehrle juice is treated in the same way as the must of the grape, and are confirmed, it will be an additional motive for cultivating a plant which possesses many other useful qualities.

GARDENERS CALENDAR, &c. FOR OCTOBER.-In this and the three following months dig and trench all vacant ground. Plant early cabbages, where they are intended to come to per fection. About the end of the month plant gooseberry, currant, The stage polyanthuses and auriculas should by this time be and raspberry bushes, and the greater part of delicious shrubs properly secured from the inclemency of the weather.

THE EVENING WIND.
SPIRIT that breathest through my lattice-thou
That cool'st the twilight of the sultry day-
Gratefully flows thy freshness round my brow,
Thou hast been out upon the deep at play,
Riding all day the wild blue wave till now,
Roughening their crests, and scattering high their spray,
And swelling the white sail. I welcome thee
To the scorch'd land, thou wanderer of the sea!
Nor I alone: a thousand bosoms round

Inhale thee in the fulness of delight,
And languid forms rise up, and pulses bound
Livelier, at coming of the wind of night;
And, languishing to hear thy grateful sound,

Lies the vast island, stretched beyond the sight.
Go forth into the gathering shade-go forth,
God's blessing breathed upon the fainting earth!
Go, rock the little wood-bird in his nest,

Curl the still waters, bright with stars, and rouse The wide old wood from his majestic rest;

Summoning from the innumerable boughs The strange, deep harmonies that haunt his breast. Pleasant shall be thy way where meekly bows The shutting flower, and darkling waters pass, And 'twixt the o'ershadowing branches and the grass. The faint old man shall lean his silver head

To feel thee; thou shalt kiss the child asleep,
And dry the moistened curls that overspread
His temples, while his breathing grows more deep;
And they who stand about the sick man's bed

Shall joy to listen to the distant sweep,
And softly part his curtains to allow
Thy visit, grateful to his burning brow.
Go; but the circle of eternal change,

Which is the life of nature, shall restore,
With sounds and scents from all thy range,
Thee to thy birth place of the deep once more;
Sweet odours in the sea-air, sweet and strange,
Shall tell the home-sick mariner of the shore;
And, listening to thy murmer, he shall deem
He hears the rustling leaf and rushing stream.

THE STORY-TELLER.

JOHN KIERNANDER;

OR, THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES. JOHN KIERNANDER was born in 1711, at Akstad, in Sweden. He here received the first rudiments of learning, but completed his education at the university of Upsal. In his twenty-fourth year he became desirous of visiting foreign universities; letters of recommendation and a passport being obtained by the influence of his friends in Stockholm, he journeyed to Halle, in Saxony. He was well received by Professor Augustus Francke, who conferred upon him several appointments. He spent four years; and, having satisfied his youthful curiosity, began to think of returning to Sweden. A circumstance, however, occurred at this time, which changed his purpose, and took him away from his native country, never to return. The Society, instituted in London, for Promoting Christian Knowledge, wrote to Professor Francke, requesting him to recommend a proper person to be sent out as a missionary to Cuddalore. The latter made the proposal to Kiernander, who, after some deliberation, consented. There was evidently a struggle in his mind; for he was an ambitious man; conscious, also, of endowments, both of mind and person, that justified his ambition. The only alternative was to return to his native Akstad, and push his fortune at the university of Upsal. The office of a missionary was, at this time, held in far less estimation than at present; and the influence of religion on the mind could not be feeble, when he decided to choose the former as his portion for life. He was ordained to the ministry, and went to London, whence he sailed for the East.

At Cuddalore he found a congregation, left by Sartorius, now removed to Madras, and he was appointed to be the successor. He was treated with the most polite attention by Admiral Boscawen, and the English settlement of Fort St. David, who having judged it necessary, as a measure of policy, to expel all Popish priests from this part of the Company's territories, put Kiernander into possession of the Portuguese Church. It was solemnly dedicated anew, and from this time the mission at Cuddalore prospered under his care. He seems to have been delighted with the situation and climate, so different from those of his native Akstad; whose barren hills and rocks, and eternal snows, were exchanged for a noble plain, amidst whose wild and glowing vegetation rose the city of Cuddalore. In the first letter to the Society, he writes, "that his prospects were good; that he went out into the villages several times a-week, to make known to the people the truths of Christianity; that his congregation in the town was increased. In the year 1745, its number amounted to near 200 persons, including those who were left by Sartorius, and, in the following year, it received an increase of a hundred and sixty converts." In more than one place, he speaks of the happiness he felt; he had reason to be satisfied; for no mission in India prospered so rapidly at this time as that of Cuddalore. But the hour of trial had not yet come.

He now united himself in marriage to a Miss Wendela Fischer, a lady of some property. Hitherto Augustus Francke had sent him presents at one time of L.150: the Council of Fort St. David had also been generous and kind: he needed no benefactions now; nor would he receive any. In 1758, the celebrated Count Lally appeared with his forces before the city; it was quickly compelled to surrender, and a general confiscation took place. Kiernander waited on this officer on behalf of the mission, and entreated to be allowed to remain in peace, and continue his office. It was answered that no Protestant minister was required there; that he must instantly leave the city and the church, in the same summary way that he had ejected the Romish minister a few years before. It was a measure of retaliation; Lally spoke politely, but decidedly; yet at the same time offered him a passport to the Danish settlement of Tranquebar. The offer was accepted, and the latter set out on his journey to this city, where he arrived in safety, stripped of all his property, except a few articles of wearing apParel In the following month, Fort St. David also fell

into the hands of the French. In consequence of these events, every prospect of his restoration was at an end, and Kiernander turned his attention toward Bengal.

He left Tranquebar, furnished with ample means by the munificence of the Danes, and arrived in Calcutta, where the celebrated Clive, flushed with his recent victory of Plassey, was pleased with the intention of establishing a mission in the city. It was a strange design for Clive to approve of; but the truth was, Kiernander was a man of polite and insinuating address, and handsome countenance; alike fitted to make his way at the court of a nabob, or in the hamlet of the Hindoo. His portrait, in the old German volume, as well as the painting still preserved in the vestry room of the Calcutta church, by Garbrand, gives a faithful idea of the spirit and character of the man. They are thus sketched by an able hand: "At this period he appeared a man of ardent zeal, of great integrity, with a dauntless courage, and decision of mind." This is a high character, but it is a just one; for his heart was now full of devotion to his cause, and pursued it with fervour and sincerity; his talents and attainments, such as seldom fall to the lot of the missionary, were various and brilliant.

He opened his cause in a dwelling given him by the government. The birth, soon after, of a son, may afford a criterion of the estimation in which he was held at Calcutta ; for Clive and Watts, the chief members of the government, stood sponsors, with their ladies, to the infant. In the following year, 175 children were taught in his school, of which number forty were maintained at his own expense. In addition to his many engagements, he preached occasionally at Serampore, where the Danish settlement, then in its infancy, had no chaplain. Three years afterwards he lost his wife, a loss that exercised a dark influence on all his subsequent career. It had been a marriage of affection, not impaired by the bitter vicissitudes of life. Wendela Fischer was a woman of piety, and devoted to her husband; she had borne the wreck of her fortune without complaining, and had journeyed from her home, first to Tranquebar, then to Calcutta, with a mind armed for yet greater reverses. She lived to see her husband admired and esteemed by all, while his religion was stedfast in the midst of many snares. Had she lived, Kiernander had served God with fidelity, and man with usefulness; but when she sunk into a early grave, it was as if his guardian angel had passed away from him.

With such an exterior and manner, the popular preacher need not long remain companionless. About a year afterwards, he married a wealthy widow of Calcutta, a Mrs. Ann Wolley. Now came the love of the world, in full tide, on his heart; the obscure and well-educated Swede, who had tasted of affluence for a short time at Cuddalore, but to be utterly stripped of it again, now saw himself secure. Poverty, like an armed man, would no more claim him for a prey. Is it any wonder that, in the exultation of his heart, he fell into some errors? He raised a handsome tomb over his first wife, in the burial ground to which he had given his own name. And now he mingled with wealthy and well-descended associates; was a favourite guest beneath the roof of the conqueror of Plassey. To his own table numbers came;-were they such as the poor and devoted student of Akstad, the messenger of God to the Hindoo, should have loved? He knew that they were not; but he was carried away by the torrent of example, by the influence of his wife also, who was a young and luxurious woman, and cared little for the souls of the heathen.

The love of one so dowered, so attractive, who lived in splendour, and was courted by the first society in Calcutta, was a subtle and fearful thing. He first assumed great external state in his equipage and mode of living; and displayed the vanity of driving a carriage-and-four through the city. He thus created many enemies, and drew on himself much censure. He now sought some assistance in his ministry, and chose for that purpose two persons, Bento de Silvestre and Manuel da Costa, who had been priests of the church of Rome, but, on their arrival at Calcutta, ha made a public abjuration of the errors of Popery.

Manuel da Costa was a Dominican friar, who, after