THE RIMY WINTER MORNING.

from a holly bush, has somewhat rustled its frosted leaves; but other sounds have not yet reached me. How eloquent is silence! Solitude has given birth to many a high-wrought and ennobling plan of benevolent action. But there is danger even in scenes like this of remaining satisfied with our admiration of the wondrous works of God, and our kindly feeling towards mankind. Love to God and man is but a delusion, a mere mockery, if not embodied, according to our ability, in cheerful obedience to the one, and in active benevolence to the other.

As I gaze on the wild, the fantastic, and the beautiful around me, the cold is intense, and hardly can my benumbed fingers note down my passing thoughts. But what is the cold here to that of Baffin's Bay, where the whaler harpoons the huge leviathian of the deep? or at the Great Slave Lake? or still farther north, where the white fox and the beaver, the musk ox, the buffalo, the rein-deer, and the big white bear, wander amid the snows? The Bird-rind, and the Dog-rib Indian, would think this climate, in winter, mild; and the Esquimaux, with his seal-skin boots and hairy dress, could tell me of a degree of cold that would indeed make me shiver. In northern climes the cold is truly fearful. God congealeth the floods by his breath, and "giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. Who can stand before his cold ?"

But it is time to retrace my steps. How unequal is the pencil or pen to describe the delight of the eye, and the jubilee of the heart, when the beauties of creation are abundant around us!

I have gazed on the sun, rising and setting, till my eyes have been blinded with tears, caused less by the effulgence of the glowing orb, than by the unutterable delight his glory has given me; and I have been spell. bound by the silvery clouds, as they have sailed majestically, or flitted fitfully, through the azure

heavens; but never have I felt a more entrancing emotion of irrepressible joy, on beholding outward objects, than when I have gazed on the rime-clad creation around me. After all, perhaps, it is not so much the glory or beauty of the object gazed on as the mood of the mind of the gazer that occasions delight. Let the heart be in the attitude of adoring the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth, and of admiring his works, and whether we look on an elephant or an ant, the splendour of the sun or the lustre of the diamond beetle, the glittering glacier of Mont Blanc, or the pearly rime upon a thorn, our bosoms will, almost equally, expand with thankfulness, and our mouths be filled with praise. We shall be ready to cry aloud, "I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High." M.D.

ETERNITY.

O ETERNITY, Eternity! how are our boldest and our strongest thoughts lost and overwhelmed in thee! Who can set landmarks to limit thy dimensions, or find plummets to fathom thy depths? None can truly say, after the most prodigious waste of ages, "so much of eternity is gone!" For when millions of centuries are elapsed, it is but just commencing; and when millions more have run their ample round, it will be no nearer ending. Yea, when ages, numerous as the bloom of spring, increased by the herbage of summer, both augmented by the leaves of autumn, and all multiplied by the drops of rain which drown the winter,when these and ten thousand times ten thousand more, --more than can be represented by any similitude, or imagined by any conception,-when all these are revolved and finished, Eternity,-vast, boundless, amazing Eternity will only be beginning. DOBSON.

CHINA AND THE CHINESE.

THIS country, and the people who inhabit it, are certainly among the most singular and curious of any on the earth.

All young people love to hear something about China and the Chinese. For a long time we could only get to know little about them, or the country they inhabit. But since the late wars many merchants and missionaries have visited the various towns and cities of China, and we are now beginning to know much more about the country and the manners and customs of the people. First I shall tell my little readers a few things about the country.

China is at the other side of the world, as far off from England as it well can be, so that it is a great distance. Formerly it required six or eight months

to reach China in sailing vessels. Now, by means of steam vessels, China may be reached in less than half that time.

Chambers thus describes this vast region which is said to contain one-third of the human race-or above three hundred million of "mouths."

China Proper is situated at the south-eastern extremity of the great Asiatic continent, and consists, for the most part, of a series of steppes or table-lands, gradually rising from the shores of the Chinese and Yellow Seas to the western boundary. The coast line extends for 2500 miles, and consists of flats, and of the low hills upon which are grown the finest teas. The further we go inland to the north-west the higher the lands become, till we arrive at the snow-clad summits of the Yun-ling chain-a vast branch of the Himalaya ranges-which marks the western boundary of the country. Tracing the level from the sea in a northerly direction, however, the gradual ascent is interrupted by the great plain of China, which being 700 miles long, and varying from 150 to 500 broad, is seven times larger than the great plain of Lombardy. The northern limit of China Proper is definitely marked by an artificial barrier 1250 miles long-the well-known great wall of China. What materially contributes to give the country its gradual elevation, is two parallel ranges of hills which intersect it from the north and west-where their height is great-to the east, where it is gradually depressed near the sea. The great extent of mountainous territory supplies China with springs which interlace it with watercourses in every direction. Next to the Amazon and Oroonoco, two of its rivers are the largest in the world-the Hoang-ho, or 'Yellow River,' and the Yang-tse-kiang, or 'Son of the Ocean.' Besides natural water-courses, the indefatigable industry of the people has covered the country with canals, which are so numerous, that, when viewed from the heights

CHINA AND THE CHINESE.

of some districts, they appear like a network covering the land. The climate of China though of course different in various districts, has been pronounced to be one of extremes, it being in the same localities very hot in summer and very cold in winter. On the whole, however, it appears to be generally favourable to health, and uncommonly so to vegetation. In extent, China Proper occupies an area of 1,348,870 square miles; thus it is eight times greater than France, and eleven times larger than Great Britain.

The Chinese are very proud of their country, and hence their dislike, and jealousy, and contempt of all foreigners. The people are forbidden to leave the country on pain of death, and a stranger entering without permission runs the same risk.

They regard large families and crowded places as among Heaven's choicest blessings.

Although the numerical amount of the Chinese population has never been correctly ascertained, yet its unequalled density is undoubted. The few travellers who have been indulged with a sight of the interior of the 'celestial' kingdom, speak with astonishment of the multitudes they saw in the towns and villages, and of the concourse of passengers to be met even on the country roads. Every habitable spot throughout China is built upon, and every rood of ground capable of bearing produce is incessantly culti vated. As if to show that there is not room enough on land for the overgrown populace, the waters are inhabited: houses built in boats, and ranged in long rows or streets, float upon every river and canal, forming aquatic suburbs to the cities, towns, and villages.

The industry of the people is unequalled.

Every expedient that ingenuity could at an early period invent, or energy accomplish, has been put in force to make the soil productive; every acre of