ANIMATED LIFE.

ONE thousand millions of human beings are conjectured to exist upon this revolving planet. But who can number the quadrupeds and birds, the fishes that pass along the great waters, and the insect population that inhabit every leaf and opening flower? Examine a map of the world. There are the Alps and the Riphæn hills, and Caucasus, and the magnificent sweep of the Andes.There are the Cordilleras, and the high hills of Tartary and China. Yonder are the snow-clad mountains of the frozen regions, and beneath them rolls the Arctic sea. Lower down is Iceland, the cultivated fields of Britain, civilized Europe, and burning Africa; the vast continent of America, stretching from North to South; the smiling plains of Mexico, Peru, and Chili; turbaned India, and all the glory and luxuriance of the East. Look again, but with the mental' eye, for the visual organ can no longer follow it; dissimilar races of men are conspicuous in various portions of the globe. One part is crowded with fair men; in another are seen clear olive faces; in another, black. Some are swarthy; others of pale complexions. Their languages are various, and their modes of thinking widely different. Each continent and every large island, has also its own peculiar kind of quadrupeds, and birds, and insects. The lordly lion, the boar, the antelope, the wild bison, the tusked elephant, the reindeer, the wolf, the bear, and arctic fox, have all their boundaries assigned them. The air is filled with a winged population. The lakes and ponds, every sea and river, is stocked with fish and animated beings, of strange forms and aspects. Myriads of insects, and creeping things innumerable, are seen walking in the green savannah, to their forests of interminable length, and among the branched moss that clothes the roots and branches of high trees. And more than even these, every leaf that quivers in the sunbeam, and every flower that drinks the dew of heaven, is in itself a world of animated life. Over the mighty whole watches ONE who never slumbers, and whose ear is ever open to the prayers of his children. He is our father; his eye is perpetually upon

us; the darkness of the night cannot hide from him, he spieth out all our ways. He will not overlook us in the thronged city; nor need we fear to be forgotten in the most solitary place.-Mary Roberts.

THE RICE PLANT.

How beautifully visible is the provident hand of the Creator in the manner in which the fruits of the earth are distributed over its surface; and how well adapted to the climate in which we live, is the food provided for our use! In the sultry regions between the tropics, where the scorching rays of the sun descend in an almost perpendicular direction, we find the animals calculated for the subsistence of mankind but few, and those widely spread, while, at the same time, the quality of their flesh is much inferior to that of the same description of animals which inhabit temperate climates. The celebrated traveller, Belzoni, when crossing the desert between Egypt and the Red Sea, found that the average weight of the sheep of that country did not exceed fifteen pounds.

It is well known, that an abundance of animal food is, in hot climates, injurious to health, even to the natives themselves, but much more so to strangers; and for this reason, no doubt, the provision made by Providence has been sparingly distributed.

The distribution of the different kinds of grain with which the earth is blessed, follows the same general rule: of this, rice is an instance. It is of a drier nature, and less subject to fermentation, than wheat or barley, and therefore more fitted for the food of the inhabitants of hot countries. We may also instance maize or Indian corn, the qualities of which, in some measure, resemble those of rice. The cultivation of this grain occupies a large portion of the population of the East, particularly in China, India, and Sumatra; large quantities are also grown it Italy, Spain, and Piedmont, and in some parts of America, particularly South Carolina.

The mode of culture varies considerably, according to the climate and local circumstances. The following is the method employed among the Chinese, who cultivate it to a very great extent in the midland and southern

parts of their dominions, the low grounds of which are annually flooded by the Kiang and the Yellow rivers. These extensive inundations are occasioned by the heavy rains that fall near the sources of these rivers, which have their origin in the Himalayan chain of mountains.

When the waters have receded, the earth is covered with a thick coating of slime and mud, which fertilizes the ground as perfectly as the richest manure. The ground is then carefully harrowed, and this operation is several times repeated until it is well worked. In the meantime the rice intended for seed has been soaked in water, in which a quantity of manure has been stirred; this has forwarded its growth so much, that the young plants appear above the ground in two days after they have been deposited in the earth.

As soon as the young plants have reached the height of six or seven inches, they are pulled up, the tops are cut off, the roots carefully washed, and the whole planted out in rows, about a foot asunder. The first crop, for they obtain two in the course of the year, is harvested about May or June, and the second in October or November. The sickle employed for the purpose of reaping the rice is, like the European instrument, bent into the form of a hook; but the edge, instead of being smooth, is notched like that of a saw.

The chief food of the Chinese consists of this useful grain, prepared in various ways. They use no spoons at their meals, and it is curious to notice the dexterity with which two small skewers called chopsticks are employed to jerk the rice into their mouths; a kind of wine is also prepared from the grain by fermentation.

Formerly, rice used to be brought into England with the husk removed; but, of late years, a manufactory for the purpose of cleaning the grain has been established in London, and it is found that, by being imported in the husk, it retains its flavour much better. In this state, it is sometimes called by the Sumatran name, paddee. The value of rice, as an article of food, can hardly be too highly estimated. In the East it is the chief dish of all orders of people, from the Sultan to the beggar.

Saturday Magazine.

HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY.

HISTORY is the record of public events that have occurred in different ages and nations. Chronology treats of the precise dates at which these events took place. Our knowledge of historical events is derived chiefly from the writings of individuals; but these are aided by public records, inscriptions, coins, and other documents of a similar nature. Our knowledge of the chronology of these events is drawn from similar sources. History and Chronology, therefore, are intimately connected; yet they are so distinct as to suggest very different trains of investigation. History treats of the characters of persons engaged in the events which it records, the motives which influenced these persons, the circumstances which led to the events, the incidents which accompanied them, the effects which resulted from them, involving considerations of the state of the nations that were engaged in them, their advancement in civilization and useful arts, and their relative position with respect to one another. The study of chronology, on the other hand, leads to the examination of the divisions of time that have prevailed in different nations; their modes of reckoning hours, days, weeks, months, years; different epochs that have been used in different ages and nations; cycles and other periodical revolutions of years; the deciphering of the devices and legends of coins and medals, the calculating of the eclipses that are mentioned in connexion with historical events; and, in short, the investigating and estimating of notices of time that may be discovered either in natural objects, or in any record kept by men of the transactions in which they have been engaged.

The history of the world naturally divides itself into two great periods, namely, that which elapsed before the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ into the world; and that which has elapsed since that event. We shall regard the birth of our Saviour as the great turning, or hingeing point of the world's history, and view the chronology of all other events with reference to it. Our attention, therefore, is, in the first place, to be directed to those events which took place before the birth of Jesus Christ.

The various dates and periods noted in the Hebrew Scriptures, as examined and compared by many learned men, make the duration of the world, from the creation recorded in the book of Genesis, till the birth of Christ, 4004 years. For aiding the memory, this period may be conveniently divided as follows: At the middle of this period, or two thousand years before Christ, and two thousand after the creation of the world, Abraham was born: and the call of Abraham was the commencement of that important dispensation of Providence, by which one family were separated from the rest of the world, increased to a nation, planted in a central place of the earth, that they might preserve among them the knowledge of the name, and character, and law of the true God, and ultimately diffuse it among the rest of mankind. In the middle of the period between the creation of the world and the birth of Abraham, or about the year B.C. 3017, Enoch was translated to heaven, as a token of the favour and approbation with which God regarded his devout and holy character. In the middle of the period between the birth of Abraham and the birth of Christ, or about the year B.C. 1004, Solomon's temple was finished. This period marked the fulfilment of the promises made to Abraham in their literal sense; for then, and not till then, did his seed reign in peace and prosperity, from the great river Euphrates, to the shores of the Mediterranean sea. Thus the whole period of four thousand years is divided into four parts of a thousand each, every successive period commencing with a remarkable event, namely, the creation-the translation of Enoch-the birth of Abraham-and the completing of Solomon's temple.

These four periods may be further conveniently divided into eight, of five hundred years each. The first thousand years, from the creation of the world to Enoch, is divided nearly equally by the birth of Jared, the fifth descendant from Adam, which was, according to the common chronology, in the year B.C. 3544. The second thousand, from Enoch to Abraham, is divided nearly equally, by the denunciation of the deluge and the commencenent of the building of the ark.

The divisions of the latter two periods of a thousand