was she more an angel that morning than to her father, who knew her best; not even to the poor woman to whom she gave her own bed and her most affectionate and nursing care. Well-skilled lapidaries have scientific tests by which they give us the qualities and values of precious stones. The Koh-i-noor itself is measured by these qualities, which, combined, make up its perfection. The deed of Grace Darling needs not to be submitted for estimation to any professional connoisseur of the jewellery of human actions. It has gone to the judgment of the universal heart of Christendom, and the award isuniform,-that it stands among the very first recorded in modern history, considering all the circumstances that attended it. It was an act perfectly free from the alloy of personal ambition. It was not performed to acquire fame or notoriety; to do something that no other woman ever attempted. There is not the slightest reason to believe that one of these thoughts passed through the mind of Grace Darling as she pulled at the oar that memorable morning.

We will go next to America for another seedaction of the same genus and reproductive capacity.

John Maynard was an honest, hardy pilot, who plied his occupation on the lake steamers. He was an upright, straightforward man, a good father of happy children, and his wife loved and reverenced the heart that was in him, for she knew, and many knew, that it was as tender as it was brave and manly. On Lake Erie he stood at the wheel of the great twostory steamers, and hundreds who had watched his careful eye and steady hand, and heard his calm voice when the sudden storms came down, felt that whatever any man could know or do for the safety of a ship wrestling with the waves, John Maynard knew and could do. He had made his reputation as a pilot by many years of watch and ward at the wheel. Thousands who had made the voyage with him, when the storm was on in its quick-raised fury, could tell, and did tell, how John bore himself in those hours of fear and danger.

But one summer day came after these years of sailorship, when he was to show the latent forces of his inner nature to the full. He was standing at his post that afternoon on the passage from Detroit to Buffalo, when a thin stream of smoke was seen ascending from below. "Simpson, go down and see what that smoke is," said the captain, in a quiet voice, to one of the deck-hands. He spoke in his

ordinary tone, so as not to betray a sense of danger to any of the bystanders, knowing what a panic the least suspicion of fire would cause among the passengers. The man went down, and in less than a minute reappeared with red eyes and face as pale as ashes. "Captain, the ship is on fire!"

That terrible word ran like lightning from deck to deck, and from cabin to cabin. In a breath of time five hundred men, women, and children were in agony of terror, some halfparalysed and dumb with mortal fear, others shrieking in the face of the awful death before them. "Head her to the land!" shouted the captain. "Ay, ay, sir!" came John's steady voice from the wheel. "Where away?" "Seven miles south-east by east, sir." "What is the shortest you can do it ?". "Three quarters of an hour, sir, at this rate." "Engineer, put on every ounce of steam she'll bear!"

Over

All these quick questions and commands were crowded into a minute's space. The burning steamer headed to the land. Every man and boy, and every woman too, who could lift a pail, worked as with life's last desperate chance in the effort to keep down the flames. And the bravest might well be appalled at the impending fate. There were no boats slung to the steamer's side by which a single soul might escape. Not a life-preserver was on board to aid a swimmer for life. They had not yet been heard of. The wooden vessel was as dry as tinder, from the summer sun. and above all, as if to make their destruction quick and sure, much of the lading between decks was resin and tar. This was reached in a few minutes by the lapping tongues of flame; and now the whole ship aft from the forward deck was enveloped in pitchy smoke, flapped by the long red wings of the ascending fire. Crowded at the bows the smoke-blinded multitude crouched in utter despair. Near them stood the captain, feeling how many lives must go down to death in a few minutes if they could not reach the land in that space. And at his post, invisible in the tar-smoke, stood John Maynard, with the very spokes of his wheel on fire, and the tiller chain at black heat. At this awful moment the land appeared at less than half a mile away. "John Maynard!" shouted the captain through his trumpet. “Ay, ay, sir!" came John's voice thick and choked through the roar and smoke of the towering flames.

"Can you hold on five minutes longer, John?" "By God's help I will."

His hair was scorched from the scalp. His eyelashes were burnt away, and his face began to blister against the waves of flame beating against him. One hand was burnt to crisp. He had a home too, and wife and children he loved with a love as pure and strong as the richest man in the crowd at the bows felt for his. But with that one hand left him he held to the wheel. 'One minute

'Two minutes more, John!" more, God bless you, John!”

At the end of that minute the blazing steamer struck its forefoot upon the beach, and the whole multitude the next minute stood upon it praising God and rejoicing with joy they could not utter at such deliverance from a most terrible death. But before their feet alighted upon the beach, the burning wheelhouse, with the blackened and blistered form of John Maynard, fell with a crash through the charred decks into the hold of the red ruin.

If the unwritten history of the rich thoughts of poor men, and their deeds of heroic philanthropy could be gathered up from different countries, they would fill a thousand precious volumes. Considering their reproductive capacity, they are among the very choicest contributions to the dignity and well-being of humanity. They are seed-actions, bearing their kind in quick and wide germination among the great masses of the people.

It is one of the most hopeful aspects of this present day of hope, that those sections of the community called the labouring classes, and frequently the lower classes, show that the germination of these seed-actions in their lives is becoming more and more prolific of beautiful sympathies, delicate sensibilities, unselfish interest, self-sacrificing devotion, and noble heroism for the good of their fellow-men. The last twenty years have been peculiarly marked by this moral education among the common people, or this training of the heart to generous impulses and acts towards their kind in danger, distress, or want.

It was a bluff and common sailor that arose in the London's last boat, and shouted from the trough of the sea,

"There's room for one more; fetch a lady!" That was the first thought of his heart, as the boat sailed away from the sinking ship into the boiling yeast of the wrathful waves, which threatened to dash the little wooden shell to pieces in a moment. Read the story of the terrible catastrophe at the Hartley Colliery, of the struggle, days and nights long,

of the brave miners to reach and rescue their companions, sepulchered alive in the bowels of the earth; of the almost superhuman efforts of men who laboured with bent backs for twenty hours without a break, under a cataract of black and grimy water, to make a pass-way down the almost endless fathoms of darkness to their fellows breathing their lives out in the mephitic vapours of their horrible prison. Read the few words pencilled by one of the victims and found in his pocket, telling a little of the last hours of their lives, of the psalms they sang, of the prayers they uttered, and the words of farewell that passed one from the other, as they lay side by side waiting for death. Read how a widowed mother bore up under the blow, when they brought her whole family back to her cottage in seven coffins; and notice how the whole population of the fatherless, childless, and husbandless, steadied their souls, and possessed them in patience under the sudden and sweeping calamity.

If the examples already given were not sufficient for the illustration we need, hundreds of others of the same kind of teaching might be superadded. There was the case of the English ship of war, the Birkenhead, which went down with nearly a whole regiment of British soldiers and sailors on board. This little army of veterans was drawn up on deck in well-dressed ranks, as if to parade and present arms to death. There they stood, erect and unmoved as at a muster, and saw all the women and children rowed away in the last, boat, and not a soldier broke line to save his life by a plunge after the little receding craft. But there they stood, and went down together to the bottom of the sea in military order, with their colour-sergeant in his place!

At the foundering of the American steam. ship, San Francisco, there was a noble illus tration of the same moral heroism, self-repression, and self-sacrifice to help a few to life who would otherwise have perished with the rest. The mission of this class of sufferings is palpable and precious to human society. It enters into the moral training and heart-cul ture of the people. It not only puts the beauty of human sympathy and generous deeds of self-sacrifice for others' weal in most affecting illustration, but it inspires in the hearts of thousands an admiration and love for such deeds and dispositions, thus contributing one of the most valuable forces to the agencies Providence has provided for the higher educa. tion of mankind.

HROUGHOUT Captain Hall's narrative many deeply interesting incidents are recorded, calculated to arrest the attention of the Christian philanthropist to the claims upon sympathy of this remarkable people. His own opinion of the steps which might and should be taken is thus expressed :

"Plant among them a colony of men and women having right-minded principles, and, after some patient toil, glorious fruits must follow. I cannot realise the fact that here is a people, having much of nobleness and even greatness in their composition, yet unvisited and apparently uncared for by the missionary world. Nothing, however, could be done towards their good until a course is adopted similar to that pursued by the King of Denmark with Greenland. It is a painful, but too evident fact, that the Esquimaux on the west of Davis's Straits are woefully debased, and fallen from their original virtues-though possessing many still-owing to the visits of reckless white men on their coasts. In Greenland the case is different. There, under the Danish king's control, Christian

colonies, churches, schools, storehouses, and stores of every needful variety, are to be found interspersed from Cape Farewell to Upernavik, and the inhabitants comfortable and happy. Clergy and catechists, schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, are educated to their several posts, and are well paid for their services from His Majesty's coffers. Danes emigrate to the land, marry and intermarry with the Esquimaux. Knowledge and virtue, industry and prosperity, are the results. And, notwithstanding the expenses for the support of all this, including the salaries of inspectors, governors, and several scores of employés, yet the net proceeds of this apparently desolate land exceed ten thousand dollars, federal money, per annum! This is well for Greenland. Paying for all her imports; paying the expenses of some ten ships annually from and to Copenhagen; paying all the other expenses named, including missionaries, and yet realising an annual return of net profit for the King of Denmark of ten thousand dollars! How many nations of this modern day do better? And, with this fact before us, why shall not the same occur (adopting the same plan) in the

land of the Esquimaux on the west side of Davis's Straits? Let my countrymen look to it whenever the first opportunity arrives."

Captain Hall states that there are reckoned to be 1,700 Esquimaux sealers in Greenland, 400 fishers, and one Esquimaux officer (a clerk), whose father was a Dane and the Governor of Lieveley-Goodhavn. In addition, there are of Esquimaux 17 foremen and boatsmen; 22 coopers and blacksmiths; 87 sailors; 15 pensioners, whose business is to look after goats, and who get half-rations of beer, pork, meat, and butter, &c., but full rations of peas, barley, &c.

There are also 20 native catechists or missionaries.

The European missionaries number 13 German and 11 Danish.

Of first and second governors there are 31. Three doctors visit each place one year. There are 36 European clerks; 7 boat-steerers; 28 coopers, carpenters, and blacksmiths; 19 sailors and cooks; and 8 pensioners.

The whole body of missionaries are paid per annum, in Danish money, 16,360 dollars; of which amount Government House gives 14,650 dollars, and the East India Missions, at the outside, 2,000 dollars. For schools and schoolbooks the sum of 6,500 dollars is appropriated.

He

One Sunday morning, Captain Hall tells us, he visited the church at Holsteinborg. thus refers to this visit, introducing other information bearing upon the educational prospects of the Esquimaux :

The school-teacher-a native Esquimauxpreached exceedingly well; and I must say that the general attention given would do credit to people anywhere. The preacher played an organ, and went through the whole service in a most praiseworthy manner. deed, I was much struck with the great advance made by the native inhabitants of Holsteinborg in Christian and general educational knowledge. Their school is well attended, and reading and writing are carried on admirably.

In

"Very few persons here at home have any true conception of the great advance made in education by these Greenland Esquimaux. It has often astonished me when listening to the apt and ready way in which even children would pronounce some of their extraordinarily long words, some of those words consisting of no less than fifty letters!

"The following is one of their long words, but not the longest :

"Piniagagssakardluarungnaerângat.

"In all the trials made on one occasion in the cabin, by both male and female-by old and young-by all, I found none but could read, and read well.

"I was surprised to see the rapidity-the full, clear enunciation of every syllable-with which they read; and one little Esquimaux boy seemed to exceed the rest, though all did well.

"Perhaps I cannot give my readers a better idea of this than by reprinting a small portion of a child's First Primer, beginning at the alphabet, and giving the sound of each letter.

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The Greenland Esquimaux alphabet consists of twenty-four letters, as follows:

-

"A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, K', L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, Y, Æ, O.

The sound of each letter only varies from what we give to the same in the following:"G is ke; H, ho; I, e; J, yoge; K, qu; K', qu; R, er; U, 00; Y, oe-i.

"The following is the Lord's Prayer in Esquimaux :

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'Atâtarput k'illangmêtottina! Ak'kit usfornarfille! Nâlægâvêt tikkiudle! Pekkosfæt k'illangmifut nunnamisāak taimāikille! Tunnisfigut udlome pikfavtinnik! Pisfaräunatta akkêtforavta, pisfængillavuttäak akkêtfortivut! Usfernartomut pisfitfaraunatta, ajortomidle annäutigut! Nâlægaunerogavit pirfarfōunerudluttidlo usfornarnerudluttidlo isfok'angittomut. Amen.'

"The minister Kjer had been at work translating Robinson Crusoe' into Esquimaux, that copies might be printed and distributed among his people in Greenland. In his library there is an Esquimaux Bible, and everything is done to make the natives of Holsteinborg good and happy. Dr. Rink, so well known by repute among scientific men, has also issued some useful story-books in Esquimaux, one of which books, and also a copy of the doctor's famous work, the governor kindly gave me."

In another part of Captain Hall's work, we meet with a passage, which we quote on account of the practical testimony it yields to the success of missionary labours, and also because at the same time it conveys a reproof which can scarcely fail to reach the conscience and touch the heart of every English reader :

"By the bye, Tookoolito said to me during the entertainment just described, 'I feel very sorry to say that many of the whaling people are very bad, making the Innuits bad too; they swear very much, and make our people swear. I wish they would not do so. Ameri

It

cans swear a great deal-more and worse than the English. I wish no one would swear. is a very bad practice, I believe.'

"How think you, beloved Americans, I felt with these hot coals on my head? Oh that every swearing man, and every saint, could have seen and heard that Esquimaux woman as she spoke thus! I had just returned from a hard encounter with deep snow-falling snow, driven by almost a hurricane; but, O God, give me a thousand storms-worse, if they could be rather than have the like thundering in my ears again! Her words, her looks, her voice, her tears, are in my very soul still. Here, one of the iron daughters of the rocky, ice-ribbed North, standing like an angel,

bounds of civilization, planting philanthropic and Christian institutions where darkness and ignorance had before reigned universal."

We can only express the earnest hope that such men may be multiplied; and that Christian missionary enterprise may be stimulated to increased and increasing efforts for the evangelization of the Esquimaux.

ARCTIC SCENES.

The following account of the pursuit of Musk Oxen in the Arctic Regions is from the journal of "The Resolute Expedition":

"During the forenoon, no fewer than thirtyfive musk-oxen, in different herds, were observed at one time. At noon, a party, making

pleading the cause of the true God, weeping for the sad havoc made and making among her people by those of my countrymen who should have been, and ever should be, the glorious representatives of freedom, civilization, and Christianity! It was too much; I was a child. I confess I blushed for this stain upon my country's honour-not only this, but for the wickedness diffused almost throughout the unenlightened world by the instrumentality of whalers hailing from civilized lands.

"This I am ready to admit, that some commanders, some officers, and some crews of whaling ships are as they should be, exemplary men-men who take pleasure in doing good wherever they are-who seek to extend the

in all twelve barrels, landed in the cutter to go in pursuit of the nearest herd of seven oxen, quietly grazing abreast of the ship.

"On landing, word was given to the boat's crew to follow, but to keep well in the rear, to avoid frightening the animals. On our ap proach, the herd congregated closely together in line, with their heads towards us, the calves being in the centre. We now spread out our little force into the form of a crescent, and advanced in open order to within about twenty yards of our prey. A little shuffling was the only movement we observed on closing, but, with heads lowered, they awaited the attack in silence.

"They really appeared very formidable,

B B