whole body, he exclaimed, "Surely nothing but a God can have produced this frame!" Even those who have persisted in denying God to his face in the midst of his works, have been forced by the power of conscience to recant before they left the world. One of these maintained his infidelity to the last moment, when he fixed his eyes on heaven, and died exclaiming, "O God! O God!"-Dr. Valpy's Address to his Parishioners.

A stone which on land requires the strength of two men to lift it, may be lifted in water by one man. There are cases where the support of water obtained in this way is equivalent to the assistance of an additional hand.

Supposing the productive power of wheat to be only sixfold, the produce of a single acre would cover the whole surface of the globe in fourteen years.

The bread-fruit, originally found in the south-eastern parts of Asia, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, though now introduced into the West Indies, is one of the most interesting, as well as singular productions of the vegetable kingdom. The bread-fruit is a beautiful as well as a useful tree: the trunk rises to the height of about forty feet; and in full grown trees, is from a foot to fifteen inches in diameter. The tree continues productive for about eight months of the year; and such is its abundance, that two or three trees will suffice for a man's yearly supply, a store being made into a sour paste, called mahe in the islands, which is eaten during the unproductive season. When full grown, the fruit is about nine inches long, heart-shaped, and of a greenish colour. The pulp is white; and when the fruit is roasted till the outside is charred, has a consistency not very unlike wheaten bread; and the taste is between bread and roasted chesnuts. It is said to be very nourishing, and is prepared in various ways.

Two writers of considerable eminence, in a work published some years ago, have shown that plants sweeten corrupt air; but that this effect is produced by the operation of the sun, for that their effluvia in the night is noxious and even poisonous. This fact, ascertained by experiment, is valuable; and should warn those who are fond of plants

and flowers not to let them remain in their bed-chambers, as very serious illnesses may be occasioned by it.

In reflections on absent people, say nothing that you would not if they were present. "I resolve," says Bishop Beveridge, "never to speak of a man's virtues before his face, nor of his faults behind his back." This is a golden rule, the observation of which would, at one stroke, banish flattery and defamation from the earth.

Among the papers of the late Dr. Baillie, was found the following note from Dr. William Hunter to his brother John:

"Dear Brother, The bearer is very desirous of having your opinion. I don't know his case. He has no money, and you don't want any, so you are well met.-Ever yours," &c.

that

This brief and pointed address displays much Christian principle, and exhibits in a favourable light that divine truth," If ye do good to them that do good to you, what reward have ye ?"

There is an old saying, that " civility costs nothing;" and to this might be added, that it gains a great deal! A person who is civil, obliging, and affable in his manners, is universally liked for those good qualities, let him move in what station of life he may; and every one is disposed to do him some good office in return. On the contrary, when the manners of a man are forbidding and uncivil, every one turns from him with very different feelings, and in the end he is in every way a great loser.

Bees. The following easy method of taking the honey without destroying the bees, is generally practised in France :-In the dusk of the evening, when the bees are quietly lodged, approach the hive and turn it quietly over. Having steadily placed it in a small pit, previously dug to receive it, with its bottom upwards, cover it with a clean new hive, with a few sticks across the inside of it. Having carefully adjusted the mouth of each hive to the other, so that no aperture remains between them, take a small stick, and beat gently round the sides of the lower hive for about ten minutes, in which time the bees will leave their cells in the lower hive, ascend and adhere to the upper one. Then gently lift the new hive, with all its little tenants, and place it on the stand from which the other hive was taken..

THE

FAMILY MONITOR. MONITOR.

No. VII.

JULY, 1831.

VOL. I.

FEASTS AND FASTS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND EXPLAINED.

St. James.

July 25.-St. James, surnamed the Great, or the Elder, was the son of Zebedee, and brother of St. John the Evangelist. He was by profession a fisherman, and was called to the discipleship by our Saviour, as he was one day fishing in the sea of Galilee; and he immediately obeyed the summons, and followed his great Master. After our Lord's ascension, he preached the gospel in Judea and Samaria, and some say in Spain; but his active zeal for his crucified Saviour, and for the propagation of the Christian faith, provoked the fury of Herod to vex certain of the church; and thinking to please the people, he caused St. James to be apprehended at Jerusalem, and then commanded that he should be beheaded; and so he became the first Apostle that laid down his life for the testimony of the Holy Jesus.

THOUGHTS ON THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR.

To the Editor of the Family Monitor.

THE general education of the poor is an object of great, I had almost said, fearful magnitude, and cannot by any reflecting person be contemplated with indifference. In a few years,

VOL. I.

Q Q

the now rising generation will be acting their parts on the great theatre of life—their sphere of activity enlarged, their energies invigorated, their powers increased, and their means of right and wrong greatly multiplied. Unless, then, to these energies, powers, and means, a right direction be given, what is to be expected, but that greater facilities of mischief will be followed by a wider diffusion of it; and that the consequences will be the reverse of what the patrons of education, in the ardour of their praiseworthy intentions, had anticipated? Indeed, so obvious is this apprehension, that the enemies of popular instruction have grounded on it an argument for withholding it altogether, as if to separate the evil from the good were impossible, and it were better to forego the advantages, than incur the risk of the mischiefs incident to the attempt. We ought, therefore, to be particularly careful not to give our opponents a handle for their objections; but by every precaution, to secure the benefits of education as pure from alloy, as the mixed nature of every thing human will admit. In order to this, the question necessary to be asked is, What ought to be the grand object in educating the aggregate poor of a nation? because, exactly according to the object proposed will be the nature of the education bestowed; and, I scruple not to say, that the object above and beyond all others to be kept in view in such a system of education is, the moral and religious instruction of its disciples; in other words, their wellbeing both here and hereafter. In proportion as a concern for their present temporal comforts entrenches upon the regard due to their future, but more important interests, the plan of the benevolent projectors will be frustrated; and much more mischief will accrue to the public, than will be compensated by the advantages incident to individuals. I say nothing of the loss of man's heavenly hopes, which yet to the humane and considerate mind must be a source of deep commiseration. I confine myself entirely to this sublunary state of things; and I fear not being contradicted when I assert, that present felicity, both public and private, is best consulted and most effectually provided for, by a sound moral and religious education-so true is the observation, that godliness is no less favourable to the interests of the present life than of that which is to come. How far the abettors of general education stand exculpated from the charge

of acting in opposition to this doctrine, may fairly be questioned. The object at which they seem chiefly to aim is, to qualify the children for situations in life. To this is to be attributed that great zeal for making them proficients in writing and arithmetic. But the population of a country may be virtuous and happy, with a slender knowledge of these arts; and virtue and happiness in the great mass of the people are all that are necessary to be aimed at. Whatever you bestow on them at the expense of these blessings, is so much loss to them. Now the arts of writing and arithmetic, abstractedly considered, are mere worldly instruments—they have nothing in them of a moral efficacy— they contribute nothing towards the subduing of the passions, the controlling of the will, or the formation of the principles; and yet, to the want of a due regulation of these first springs and movements of human actions, is to be traced all the follies and the crimes that fill up the measure of human misery. Nay, it would not be difficult to prove, that great proficiency in the arts above mentioned, if universally prevalent, would be decidedly injurious to the interests of a nation. That the unprincipled part of the community would avail themselves of these improved powers of mischief, to prey more extensively on the simplicity of the honest and undesigning, cannot be doubted. But this is not all: the influence of these acquirements on the general habits of society is as strong an argument against their universal diffusion, as their mischievous application in particular instances. They would naturally tend to make the inferior classes, "the hewers of wood and drawers of water," discontented with their subordinate stations: to discontent would succeed desires after situations more favourable to the exercise of their newly-acquired talents; which desires not being able to be gratified, hence would result envious repinings, no less the bane of private happiness, than the incentive to every kind of public mischief. Let it not, however, be hastily or invidiously inferred, that by these remarks, I am for altogether excluding these accomplishments from a system of national education. I contend only for their being judiciously bestowed, and their ill consequences being carefully obviated; that we may have nothing but their good effects, pure and separate from the evils with which most earthly blessings are more or less intimately blended. With a view to