The soldiers, who keep guard, are armed with spears, darts, swords, match-lock guns, but most of them with bows and arrows, which they still esteem more than any other warlike weapon. The streets are very straight, but generally narrow, and paved with flag stones. There are many pretty buildings in the city, great numbers of triumphal arches, and temples well stocked with images. The streets of Canton are so crowded, that it is difficult to walk in them; yet you will seldom see a woman of any fashion, unless by chance, when coming out of their chairs. And, were it not that curiosity in the Chinese ladies make them sometimes peep at us, we should never get a glance at them.

Though there are no magnificent houses in Canton, most of them being built only one, and none more than two stories, yet they take up a great extent of ground, many of them having square courts within their walls.

They have all such a regard to privacy, that no windows are made towards the streets, but in shops and places of public business. None of their windows look towards those of their neighbors. Within the gate or entry of each house, a screen is placed, to prevent strangers from looking in upon the opening of the gate; and you enter the house either on the right or left side of the middle screen, where there are little alleys to the right and left, from whence you pass into the several courts, which are walled on all sides.

Their entertainments are held in a sort of hall at the entrance of their houses, which have no other ornament, beisdes a single order of painted columns, which support the building. The roofs are open to the tiles, without any ceiling. In these they use no looking-glasses, hangings, or fine chairs; and their beds which are the principal ornaments of their houses, are seldom seen by strangers, who are not permitted to go farther than the first great hall. The Chinese, who keep shops, were less reserved, and would frequently invite us to their houses with great freedom. as they observed it would be agreeable to us.

The furniture of the best houses is cabinets, tables, painted screens, china, pictures, and pieces of white taffety upon the walls, upon which are written in Chinese characters, religious and moral sentences. They have

no chimneys; but in their stead, they place a shallow iron pot, filled with charcoal, in the middle of the room in winter, which is ready to suffocate people who are not accustomed to it. They have a copper built in brick-work in their kitchen for boiling, much about the height of an English stove. The inside of their houses are never wainscoted nor painted, but are covered with thin paper. The windows are made of cane or rattan. In winter they cut oyster-shells into diamond shapes, and set them in wooden frames, which afford them a very dull light.

It is reckoned, that there are in the city and suburbs of Canton 1.200,000 people; and you will scarce find a day in the whole year, but there are 5000 trading vessels lying before the city.

The temples and places of public worship are the most magnificent buildings in Canton. They are well filled with images. The people pay profound adoration to them, by falling down on their knees before them, wringing their hands, and beating their foreheads against the ground. These temples are decorated with. a great number of artificial flowers, embroidered hangings, curtains, and fringes. One of them, situated in the skirt of the north-east side of the suburbs, inakes a splendid appearance. It is four stories high, has a fine cupola, with many houses and galleries. The lower part of it is built with fine hewen stone, but the upper part is all of timber. We went first into the lower hall, where we saw images of all sizes, of different dignities, and finely gilded, and kept exceedingly clean by the priests. The lesser images were placed in corners of the wall, and one of a larger size in the middle of the hall. This large god, who is placed in the centre, sits in a lazy posture, almost naked, and leaning on a large cushion. He is ten times larger than an ordinary man, very corpulent, of a merry countenance, and gilt all over. We were next conducted up stairs, where we saw a great many images of men and women, who had been deified for their brave and virtuous actions.

Though Canton is but twenty-four degrees from the equator, and is scorching hot in summer, yet, about the months of December and January, it is subject to high winds, and very heavy rains. The sudden alteration

which the climate undergoes, is very surprising. At this time, the people of China take to their winter dress, which is lined with furs, or quilted cotton. Instead of wearing fans, which are used by men, women, and children, in hot weather, they hold a live quail in their hands to keep them warm, and have the long sleeves of their gowns drawn down, to cover their hands. Thus equip ped, they walk so stiff, and shrug up their shoulders so much, that one would think that they were freezing to death.

For

The river Ta, at Canton, is somewhat broader than the Thames at London. But the crowds of small vessels that ply the Ta, are vastly more numerous. the space of four or five miles, opposite the city of Canton, you have an extensive wooden town of large vessels and boats, stowed so closely, that there is scarcely room for a large boat to pass. They are generally drawn up in ranks, with a narrow passage left for vessels to pass and repass. Some of them are large vessels of eight or nine tons burden, called jonks, with which they perform their foreign voyages. Here are also an incredible number of small boats, in which poor families live all their life long, without ever putting a foot on shore. In these they keep dogs, cats, hogs, geese, and other domestic animals, both for subsistence and sale. There is nothing similar to this in Europe; for the people in this country are so exceedingly numerous, that vast numbers of families are obliged to betake themselves to boats on the river, for want of room, or the means of subsistence on land, where almost every inhabitable spot is occupied; these boats are very conveniently built, with arched covers and tilts, made of solid wood, or bamboo or cajan leaves, so high that the people can walk upright under them.

If we are willing to perform our duty, God is ready to assist us; if we are truly sincere, he is willing to accept us.

Frequently review your conduct and not your fail

THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIFFICULTIES:

ILLUSTRATED BY ÀNECTDOTES.

Belf-educated men.-Rennie; Linnens; Vernet; Caravaggio; Chatterton; Harrison; Edwards; Villars; Jourdan; Baudinelli; Palissy.-Influence of accident in. directing pursuit.

(Concluded from page 56.)

The late eminent engineer, John Rennic, used to trace his first notions in regard to the powers of machinery, to his having been obliged, when a boy, in consequence of the breaking down of a bridge, to go one win. ter every morning to school by a circuitous road, which carried him past a place where a thrashing machine was generally at work. Perhaps, had it not been for this casualty, he might have adopted another profession than the one in which he so much distinguished himself. It was the appearance of the celebrated comnet of 1744 which first attracted the imagination of Lalande, then a boy of twelve years of age, to astronomy. The great Linnæus was probably made a botanist, by the circumstance of his father having a few rather uncommon plants in his garden. Harrison is said to have been originally inspired with the idea of devoting himself to the constructing of marine time-pieces, by his residence in view of the sea. It was a voyage in the Mediterranean which first gave to Vernet his enthusiasm for marine painting. Other great painters have probably been indebted to still slighter circumstances, for their first introduction to the art. Claude Lorraine derived his taste for design from frequenting the workshop of his brother, who was a wood engraver. The elder Caravaggio, Polidoro Caldara, was born of poor parents, at the town in the north of Italy from which he takes his common designation; and having when a young man, wandered as far as Rome in search of work, was at last engaged to car ry mortar for the fresco painters, who were then employed in decorating the Vatican, which humble occupation giving him the opportunity of observing the operations of these artists, first inspired him with the ambition of becoming himself a painter. The commencement of the history of Michael Angelo Caravaggio is not very differnt. He, as his name denotes, was a native of the

same place as Polidoro, though he flourished more than half a century later, and he is recorded to have had his love of the art first awakened by being, when a boy, employed by his father, who was a mason, to mix plaster for some fresco painters at Milan. Another Italian paintter, Cavedone, owed his introduction to his profession to the accident of having been received, after he had been turned out of doors by his father, into the service of a gentleman who happened to possess a good collection of pictures, which he began by copying in ink with a

pen.

The youthful Chatterton's taste for the study of Eng lish antiquities is said to have been first excited by the accidental circumstance of a quantity of ancient parchment manuscripts having fallen into his hands, which had been taken by his father, who kept a school, from and old chest in the church of St. Mary Redcliffe, at Bristol, to make covers for the writing-books used by his scholars. If he had never seen these parchments, how different might have been the history of that gifted but ill-fated boy! George Edwards, the naturalist, and author of the splendid book entitled the "History of Birds," was in the first instance apprenticed to a London merchant; but the accident of a bed-room being assigned to him which contained a collection of books that had been left by a former lodger of his master's, gradually formed in him so strong an attachment to study, and especially to natural history, to which many of the volumes related (their original possessor having been a medical gentleman,) that he resolved to give up commerce, and to dedicate his life to literature and science. The late eminent French botanist, Villars, in like manner, after having set out in life as a farmer, suddenly became enamoured of natural science, from looking into an old work on medicine which he chanced to find at a house where he was staying.

The late French orientalist, Jourdain, was originally intended for the law, and had been placed with a notary. when, in the year 1805, the admiration he heard bestowed upon Anquetil Du Perron, then newly dead, who had in his youth enlisted as a private soldier in a corps going to India, in order that he might enjoy an opportunity of studying the eastern languages, kindled