universe, gives vegetation to every blade of grass, and motion to every particle of blood which circulates through the veins of the minutest animal; that though his mind takes into his comprehensive grasp immensity and all its wonders, I am as much known to him as if I were the single object of his attention; that he marks all my thoughts; that he gives birth to every feeling and every movement within me; and that, with an exercise of power which I can neither describe nor comprehend, the same God who sits in the highest heaven, and reigns over the glories of the firmament, is at my right hand to give me every breath which I draw, and every comfort which I enjoy. -Astronomical Discourses.

[JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 1780-1851.] A HURRICANE IN AMERICA.

when I observed a yellowish oval spot, the appearance of which was quite new to me. Little time was left to me for consideration, as the next moment a smart breeze began to agitate the taller trees. It increased to an unexpected height, and already the smaller branches and twigs were seen falling in a slanting direction towards the ground. Two minutes had scarcely elapsed, when the whole forest before me was in fearful motion. Here and there, where one tree pressed against another, a creaking noise was produced, similar to that occasioned by the violent gusts which sometimes sweep over the country. Turning instinctively toward the direction from which the wind blew, I saw, to my great astonishment, that the noblest trees of the forest bent their lofty heads for a while, and unable to stand against the blast, were falling to pieces. First, the branches were broken off with a crackling noise, then went the upper part of the massy trunks, and in many places whole trees of gigantic size were falling entire to the ground. So rapid was the progress of the storm, that before I could think of taking measures to insure my safety, the hurricane was passing opposite the place where I stood. Never can I forget the scene which at that moment presented itself. The tops of the trees were seen moving in the strangest manner, in the central current of the tempest, which carried along with it a mingled mass of twigs and foliage that completely obscured the view. Some of the largest trees were seen bending and writhing under the gale; others suddenly snapped across, and many, after a momentary resistance, fell uprooted to the earth. The mass of branches, twigs, foliage, and dust that moved through the air, was whirled onwards like a cloud of feathers, and, on passing, disclosed a wide space filled with fallen trees, naked stumps, and heaps of shapeless ruins, which marked the path I was leaning on my knees, with my of the tempest. This space was about a lips about to touch the water, when, from fourth of a mile in breadth, and to my my proximity to the earth, I heard a dis-imagination resembled the dried-up bed of tant murmuring sound of an extraordinary nature. I drank, however, and as I rose on my feet, looked towards the south-west,

I HAD left the village of Shawaney, situated on the banks of the Ohio, on my return from Henderson, which is also situated on the banks of the same beautiful stream. The weather was pleasant, and I thought not warmer than usual at that season. My horse was jogging quietly along, and my thoughts were for once at least in the course of my life entirely engaged in commercial speculations. I had forded Highland Creek, and was on the eve of entering a tract of bottom land or valley that lay between it and Canoe Creek, when on a sudden I remarked a great difference in the aspect of the heavens. A hazy thickness had overspread the country, and I for some time expected an earthquake, but my horse exhibited no propensity to stop and prepare for such an occurrence. I had nearly arrived at the verge of the valley, when I thought fit to stop near a brook, and dismounted to quench the thirst which had come upon

me.

the Mississippi, with its thousands of planters and sawyers strewed in the sand, and inclined in various degrees. The hor

rible noise resembled that of the greating that much damage was done by this cataracts of Niagara, and as it howled awful visitation. The valley is yet a along in the tract of the desolating tem- desolate place, overgrown with briers and pest, produced a feeling in my mind which | bushes, thickly entangled amidst the tops it is impossible to describe.

The principal force of the hurricane was now over, although millions of twigs and small branches, that had been brought from a great distance, were seen following the blast, as if drawn onwards by some mysterious power. They were floated in the air for some hours after, as if supported by the thick mass of dust that rose high above the ground. The sky had now a greenish lurid hue, and an extremely disagreeable sulphureous odour was diffused in the atmosphere. I waited in amazement, having sustained no material injury, until nature at length resumed her wonted aspect. For some moments I felt

and trunks of the fallen trees, and is the resort of ravenous animals, to which they betake themselves when pursued by man, or after they have committed their depredations on the farms of the surrounding district. I have crossed the path of the storm, at a distance of a hundred miles from the spot where I witnessed its fury, and again, four hundred miles farther off, in the state of Ohio. Lastly, I observed traces of its ravages on the summits of the mountains connected with the Great Pine Forest of Pennsylvania, three hundred miles beyond the place last mentioned. In all those different parts, it appeared to me not to have exceeded a quarter of a mile in breadth.

[SIR DAVID BREWSTER. 1781-1868.] IS THE PLANET JUPITER INHABITED?

undetermined whether I should return to Morgantown, or attempt to force my way through the wrecks of the tempest. My business, however, being of an urgent nature, I ventured into the path of the storm, and, after encountering innumerable difficulties, succeeded in crossing it. I was obliged to lead my horse by the bridle to enable him to leap over the fallen IN studying this subject, persons who trees, whilst I scrambled over or under have only a superficial knowledge of astrothem in the best way I could, at times sonomy, though firmly believing in a pluhemmed in by the broken tops and tangled branches, as almost to become desperate. On arriving at my house, I gave an account of what I had seen, when, to my surprise, I was told that there had been very little wind in the neighbourhood, although in the streets and gardens many branches and twigs had fallen in a manner which excited great surprise.

Many wondrous accounts of the devastating effect of this hurricane were circulated in the country after its occurrence. Some log-houses, we were told, had been overturned, and their inmates destroyed. One person informed me that a wire sifter had been conveyed by a gust to a distance of many miles. Another had found a cow lodged in the fork of a large half-broken tree. But as I am disposed to relate only what I have myself seen, I will not lead you into the region of romance, but shall content myself by say

rality of worlds, have felt the force of cer-
tain objections, or rather difficulties,
which naturally present themselves to the
inquirer. The distance of Jupiter from
the sun is so great, that the light and heat
which he receives from that luminary are
supposed to be incapable of sustaining
the same animal and vegetable life which
exists on the earth. If we consider the
heat upon any planet as arising solely
from the direct rays of the sun, the cold
upon Jupiter must be very intense, and
water could not exist upon its surface in
a fluid state.
Its rivers and its seas must
be tracks and fields of ice. But the tem-
perature of a planet depends upon other
causes-upon the condition of its atmos-
phere, and upon the internal heat of its
mass. The temperature of our own globe
decreases as we rise in the atmosphere and
approach the sun, and it increases as we
descend into the bowels of the earth and

go further from the sun. In the first of of plants, the materials of buildings, the these cases, the increase of heat as we human body itself, would, it is imagined, approach the surface of the earth from a be crushed by their own enormous weight. great height in a balloon, or from the This apparently formidable objection will summit of a lofty mountain is produced be removed by an accurate calculation of by its atmosphere; and in Jupiter the the force of gravity upon Jupiter, or of atmosphere may be so formed as to com- the relative weight of bodies on its surpensate to a certain extent the diminution face. The mass of Jupiter is 1230 times in the direct heat of the sun arising from greater than that of the earth, so that if the great distance of the planet. In the both planets consisted of the same kind second case, the internal heat of Jupiter of matter, a man weighing 150 pounds on may be such as to keep its rivers and seas the surface of the earth would weigh in a fluid state, and maintain a tempera- 150 x 1,200, or 180,000 pounds at a ture sufficiently genial to sustain the same distance from Jupiter's centre equal to the animal and vegetable life which exists earth's radius. But as Jupiter's radius is upon our own globe. These arrange- eleven times greater than that of the earth, ments, however, if they are required, and the weight of bodies on his surface will have been adopted, cannot contribute to be diminished in the ratio of the square increase the feeble light which Jupiter of his radius-that is, in the ratio of receives from the sun; but in so far as II x II, or 121 to I. Consequently, if the purposes of vision are concerned, an we divide 180,000 pounds by 121, we enlargement of the pupil of the eye, and shall have 1,487 pounds as the weight of an increased sensibility of the retina, a man of 150 pounds on the surface of would be amply sufficient to make the Jupiter-that is, less than ten times his sun's light as brilliant as it is to us. The weight on the earth. But the matter of feeble light reflected from the moons of Jupiter is much lighter than the matter of Jupiter would then be equal to that which our earth, in the ratio of 24 to 100, the we derive from our own, even if we do numbers which represent the densities of not adopt the hypothesis, which we shall the two planets, so that if we diminish afterwards have occasion to mention, that 1,487 pounds in the ratio of 24 to 100, a brilliant phosphorescent light may be or divide it by 4'17, we shall have 312 excited in the satellites by the action of pounds as the weight of a man on Jupiter, the solar rays. Another difficulty has who weighs on the earth only 150 pounds presented itself, though very unneces- -that is, only double his weight -a sarily, in reference to the shortness of the difference which actually exists between day in Jupiter. A day of ten hours has many individuals on our own planet. A been supposed insufficient to afford that man, therefore, constituted like ourselves, period of rest which is requisite for the could exist without inconvenience upon renewal of our physical functions when Jupiter; and plants, and trees, and buildexhausted with the labours of the day.ings, such as occur on our own earth, This objection, however, has no force. Five hours of rest is surely sufficient for five hours of labour; and when the inhabitants of the temperate zone of our own globe reside, as many of them have done, for years in the arctic regions, where the length of the days and nights are so unusual, they have been able to perform their usual functions as well as in their native climates. A difficulty, however, of a more serious kind is presented by the great force of gravity upon so gigantic a planet as Jupiter. The stems

could grow and stand secure in so far as the force of gravity is concerned.

[WASHINGTON IRVING. 1783-1859.]

ENGLISH COUNTRY LIFE. IN some countries, the large cities absorb the wealth and fashion of the nation; they are the only fixed abodes of elegant and intelligent society, and the country is inhabited almost entirely by

boorish peasantry. In England, on the contrary, the metropolis is a mere gathering-place, or general rendezvous, of the polite classes, where they devote a small portion of the year to a hurry of gaiety and dissipation, and having indulged this carnival, return again to the apparently more congenial habits of rural life. The various orders of society are therefore diffused over the whole surface of the kingdom, and the most retired neigh-rich and genial qualities have no time to bourhoods afford specimens of the different ranks.

his mind is wandering to another; and while paying a friendly visit, he is calculating how he shall economise time so as to pay the other visits allotted to the morning. An immense metropolis like London is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting. In their casual and transient meetings, they can but deal briefly in common-places. They present but the cold superficies of character-its