nature are necessarily imperfect. All minds, whether in barbarous or civilized races, that are not, consciously or unconsciously, imbued with this sense of the relation of nature to the human soul, are unscientific. Between them and the open day of nature, there is a veil of fears, aspirations, and imaginations, centering in self. It is necessary to distinguish between a scientific mind, and a merely intellectually disciplined mind. An open, candid, self renouncing man, taking nature as a great fact through which he looks upon God, and finding nothing in himself greater than this wonderful God given, and more than magical capacity of spiritual vision, possesses the true scientific mind in a greater degree than many men of science.† However advanced a national faith may be, its existence as a reality never ceases to be dependent on this scientific spirit. Whenever it is, or becomes, feeble, the religion is degenerated. Thus as the Hindu race lost this spirit, the simplicity

"Christ and the Prophets always send us back to nature. In the Bible and especially in the words of Christ, the deepest truths of nature are not merely recognized, but earnestly inculcated as the very basis of religion or spiritual knowledge."

† In the exclusive prosecution of particular sciences or culture of particular intellectual powers, there is as much danger as in any other one-sided habit of the mind, that it will become inordinately attached to its own acquisitions and views, and lose the susceptibility of receiving impressions from nature as a whole. In periods when men pride themselves on an eager and incessant devotion to the methodising of one class of natural facts, it is only by getting below our superadded nature, to the pure human perceptions and sensations that lie at the bottom of it, that we can understand our true position in relation to nature. We must go back in the history of the mind, till we have reached the time when she was not yet habited by things external, if we would see all that material nature is to the soul. This needs neither the analysis of the philosopher nor the imagination of the poet. The mind, from early receiving a true direction or from the natural strength of its sensibility, will, and sincerity, may escape the ossifying influence of a narrow culture, and much of the prejudice which necessarily results from an implicit surrender of itself to the ethnic mould of its time and tribe. The man, however unlearned, whose mind has retained its own independence of feeling and vision, may see in any weed miraculously unfolded from dead earth into a perfect Ilving creature, clothed with beauty and grace, and yet devoid of all consciousness or faculty, all self-assertion or self action, a spirit which is in the weed, of which the weed is, but which is not the weed, and as in one creature, and that creature in it, so in all material things or nature and all in it, and yet not nature but invisible, spiritual substance, self existing, eternal, whereof nature is but the mystic, evanescent, spirit-woven garment. The unconscious lily, which all may see can neither toil nor spin, a creature entirely mute, motionless, powerless, helpless,-whence that magical growth of it? Whence that beauty far transcending all human glory? Yesterday there was nothing seen here but the bare earth. To day we are startled by this wondrous apparition. To morrow it is not. What and whence was it? How came it? Whither has it vanished? The ignorant man who has kept his intellect pure and open, can well understand that the flower so beautiful, so perfect, so harmonious in itself, and in such harmony with all nature, was an object of deepest sacredness, was God revealing his being, his eternal power and godhead to sense. The lily was a word written before his eyes by the Invisible Spirit, and whereby the invisible attributes of the Spirit were shewn to him.

and truth which distinguished their faith to a great extent 3,000 years ago, were lost also.

From the most elevated Monotheism to the rudest fear of natural powers, there are numberless varieties of supernaturalism, all tinged by the character, culture, habits, and locality of the race in which it is manifested. The tribes which we are investigating present many of these varieties, but they belong far more to the lower than to the higher kinds of faith, and it is therefore necessary to examine the former more closely. (To be Continued.)

EXTRACTS OF LETTERS, RESPECTING THE ADVANTAGES OF THE SCREW STEAMERS IN THE ICE.

FROM Lieut. Sherard Osborne, commanding the Pioneer, to Mr. Bar

row.

"The Pioneer cuts through ice six or seven inches thick, with the greatest facility, and we worked a lane in the land floe yesterday: although it was nearly two feet thick. Our bows are just the things no check, no thumping, the screws do not catch the ice, whether it be loose or fast, so long as we go ahead. With stern way, a little caution is necessary. I have now on board more than forty days fuel, and expect to bring some back to England. The next expedition should be all screws.

From Lieut. Sherard Osborne:

"Arctic voyagers seem to have had an extraordinary fancy for a Bow formed thus and the one I daily tow astern is according to rule. We of the new school, screws, &c., have the Bows thus and you would smile could you see us slip through the ice without a shock, whilst our big friend astern ploughs all up before her, and bumps as if to try wood against ice. Our commodore shakes his head, and says the screws are only an experiment, nevertheless, in the same breath, assures me that we are his right arm."

From Lieut. Bertie Cator, of the Interpid, to Mr. Barrow.

"Osborne's vessel is the only one that has been regularly beset. She was ordered to try and make a way through about 400 yards of stuff, but could not get through more than 150. The ice closed in on her, I tried to tow him out, but could not. A more powerful screw would have gone through like a knife. Any more expeditions must be done by steam. Had we not been tied to the ships we should have been in Lancaster Sound almost by this."

Extract of a letter from Captain Austin, dated 5th July.

"It affords me much pleasure to state that the performance of the ten ders has been very satisfactory, they have now remaining on board coals equal to full thirty days steaming.'

PAT

THE AMERICAN NAUTICAL LIFE CAR.

In our number of this month, we have a lithograph of "The American Life Car," a sort of life boat, which has been used with signal success in the United States, particularly in the case of the emigrant ship, Ayrshire, when upwards of 200 souls, were safely landed by its agency, through a surf where no open boat could have lived.

Where a communication can be opened between a stranded vessel, and the shore, it is evident that such a life car, is invaluable, and the inventor, Mr. Francis, of New York, considers that for landing valuable goods, specie, and despatches, through surfs, when no other means of communication can be had, these life cars will come into common use.

In our advertising columns, will be found various testimonials from officers of the United States Navy, and others, of the advantages of the Patent Metallic Life Boat, and we would wish to draw the attention of our professional brethren, particularly to the letters from that accomplished officer Lieut. Lynch, who surveyed the Dead Sea in two of these boats.

To all first lieutenants, the fact that a twenty-five foot metallic cutter, weighs under 10 cwt., that she is not affected by the sun or the rain, and is always ready for service, is a sufficient recommendation.

The United States government has stationed two life cars with the needful apparatus of mortars, lines, &c., together with metallic life surf boats, on all the dangerous parts of their coast, from Nantucket to Texas; and the secretary of the treasury, we perceive alludes to them in his last report to Congress.

"Measures have been taken promptly to execute the design of Congress, in providing for the security of life and property on the sea coast. Metallic life boats, with the usual fixtures, designed for five points, on the coast of Florida, and three for the coast of Texas, have been contracted for. Like facilities, with the addition of mortars, shot rockets, and station houses, have been authorised along the shores of Long Island, including a station at Watch Hill, in Rhode Island."

From private information we may state, that the revenue department of the United States, (corresponding to our coast guard here), have decided to adopt metallic life boats, in place of their present wooden ones, and that all the ships commissioned in the United States Navy, are now supplied with at least one copper life cutter.

It is curious that metallic life boats, should originate in the country that levies a duty of 15 per cent. on the raw material (Morewood and Rogers' Galvanized Iron,) of which they are constructed. Still more extraordinary, that the beautiful adaptation of the principle of corrugation, in the construction of these boats, should not have been applied by some of our steam-boat builders to river steamers, where lightness and draught of water are so essential. In our next number, we hope to be able to give the stations upon the coast of the United States, where metallic life cars, and surf boats, are placed and supported by the American Government.