In Egypt the rice grounds are inundated from the time of sowing nearly to harvest: the seed is commonly cast upon the water, a practice twice alluded to in scripture. Balaam, prophesying of Israel, Num. xxiv. 7. says, "His seed shall be in many waters;" and Solomon, when speaking of acts of charity in his beautiful exhortations, Eccl. xi. 1. "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days," finely intimates, that as he who commits the seed to the waters, which is the mode of sowing in that country, always reaps after a certain interval the abundant recompense of his labor, so they that regard the sufferings of the distressed, and cast their bread upon the waters by feeding the hungry or clothing the naked, shall in no wise lose their reward, but find it after many days. This custom completely elucidates the meaning of the preacher, which has been greatly mistaken by many, who suppose that his allusion was to bread cast into the rivers or upon the waters of the ocean, which it is obvious could seldom, if ever, be found again, for substances of that kind are very soon disposed of by both birds and fishes.

In order to cover the lands with the water upon which they cast their seed, various methods are employed by the Egyptians. To raise the waters of the Nile into the high ground near the river, they use buckets fastened to a wheel, something like those used to some of our deep wells; but where the land is not much elevated above the surface of the river, they employ the simple and probably very ancient contrivance of lifting it in a basket apparently lined with close matting or leather. This is the mode represented: two men holding the basket between them by a cord in each hand fastened to the edge of it, lower it into the Nile, and then swing it between them, until it acquires a velocity sufficient to enable them to throw the water over a bank into a canal near the river. The regular continuance of their motion, gives them at a distance the appearance of automaton figures rather than of living beings. They work with only a coarse sort of cotton shirt girded round their loins, and sometimes entirely naked, exposed to the sun's most powerful rays during the whole day, repeating one of the Arabian songs; for they seem to have a peculiar air adapted to every kind of labor.

YOUNG GENTLEMEN'S DEPARTMENT.

FORMATION OF CHARACTER.

Extracts from an Address of President How, to the graduates of Dickinson College.

On

The great end of education, as you have often been reminded, is the formation of character; of a character marked by lofty, intellectual and moral excellence. the formation of such a character greatly depends your usefulness and honor through life, and the reward for well doing which in the world to come you will receive from your righteous Judge. A mind richly fraught with knowledge, and a heart deeply imbued with the fear of God and the love of virtue, bestow on character a loveliness, an elevation and grandeur that can be derived from no other sources: and happy indeed shall we esteem ourselves, if our instructions and counsels have awakened in your bosoms a fixed determination to seek such high endowments.

The period at which you enter on the theatre of action is one of unusual excitement and effort in every part of the world. Great changes are taking place in the physical, the intellectual, and the moral condition of mankind; a feverish restlesness seems to pervade every rank and every nation; and mighty conflicting energies are at work, which threaten to alter the whole aspect of society. Under such circumstances, we view with deep interest the entrance of every new actor on the troubled scene. To you we look as the future guardians of the Institutions of your country; the patrons and protectors of its freedom, its science and its morals. They who now occupy the chief stations in the great drama of life will soon pass away, and their places be vacated by death, while you will be called forward to fill them. A liberal education gives to its possessor incalculable advantages, and is of inestimable worth. By enlarging and invigorating the mind, it qualifies for doing great good or great mischief; and no one can calculate the amount of influence which you may exert or of good which you may perform. Aspire then to distinguished usefulness. Suffer not your present attainments to be lost and your talents to become enfeebled by sloth; but fit yourselves for acting a high, dignified and useful part in life.

To qualify yourselves for thus acting, you must be willing to undergo that labor and previous preparation, without which no superior excellence was ever obtained. No talents, however splendid, nor wealth, nor worldly connexions and influence, can ever compensate for the absence of these; and with these you may accomplish almost every thing.

The amount of influence to which you may attain, and of good which you will accomplish, will greatly depend on the cultivation which you bestow upon your mind, and the amount of knowledge you acquire.

We hope that none of you will think that you have now completed your studies. You have just begun them. All that hitherto we have been able to accomplish; indeed, all that we have aimed at, is, to teach you how to study, and to spread out before you the wide extent of the field of science on which you have just entered. The amount of your future attainments will

depend upon yourselves. You can make yourselves almost what you please. Moderate talents, with unremitting, well directed effort, will effect astonishing improvement.

It will soon be necessary for you to select a profession for life. Whatever that profession may be, choose it with deliberation, with the advice of your parents, and with prayer to the Father of lights for his direction; and when you have once chosen it, enter on it with a fixed determination to excel; with ardent attachment to itwith pure motives and with elevated views. I trust that each of you will aim at distinction and eminence in his profession, and be assured that nothing will conduce more to this than a thorough acquaintance with it in all its departments, and with every branch of science that belongs to it. Let me advise you not to enter on it too early and without suitable preparation. A too great eagerness to enter on public life is perhaps characteristic of our youth. They do not sufficiently appreciate the importance of rich intellectual furniture; and hence instead of appearing with the majesty and vigor of intellectual giants, too many pass through life puny and feeble dwarfs. No stable and magnificent edifice can be erected on a scanty and weak foundation, and no great eminence can be attained without those thorough acquirements which result from close study. In aiming to arrive at eminence you must expect difficulties and discouragements. The indolent will be displeased at your industry, and as they are unwilling to submit to the labor which is necessary to place them on an equality with you, they will endeavor by misrepresentation to draw you down to a level with them; they will attempt to excuse their own indolence by representing you as ambitious, proud, and aspiring. Rivals will oppose and thwart you, and envy and jealousy will often detract from your merits. Expect these things and disregard them. Pursue your way straight onward in the path of duty, and you will overcome every obstacle that envy, and jealousy, and malice, and misrepresentation, may oppose to you.

But, besides a thorough acquaintance with your profession in all its departments, endeavor to acquire a

rich store of various knowledge. Knowledge is now so generally diffused among all classes of society, and the field of science which modern discoveries and improvements have opened, are so very extensive, that a man must possess high attainments to rise to distinction. But where this distinction is possessed, it greatly in creases respectability and influence, and consequently the ability to benefit others. A truly learned man can never be contemptible without his own fault: either through vicious habits and indulgences, or through the adoption of bad principles.-Learning elevates to greater dignity than wealth: it softens, refines and adorns the character it gives liberal, generous and elevated views and feelings, and is a source of pure and lasting pleasure.

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL HISTORY. STRUCTURES FOR PROTECTING EGGS.-MASON-WASPS.

Most persons have more or less acquaintance with the hives of the social species of bees and wasps : but little is generally known of the nests constructed by the solitary species, though in many respects these are not inferior to the others in displays of ingenuity and skill. We admire the social bees, laboring together for one common end, in the same way that we look with delight upon the great division of labor in a well-ordered manufactory. As in a cotton-mill, some attend to the carding of the raw material, some to its formation into single threads, some to the gathering these threads upon spindles, others to the union of many threads into one,

all laboring with invariable precision because they attend to a single object;-so do we view with delight and wonder the successive steps by which the hive-bees bring their beautiful work to its completion, striving, by individual efforts, to accomplish their general task, never impeding each other by useless assistance, each taking a particular department, and each knowing its own duties. We may, however, not the less admire the solitary wasp or bee, who begins and finishes every part of its destined work; just as we admire the ingenious mechanic who perfects something useful or ornamental entirely by the labor of his own hands,-whether he