the writer, both as to his knowledge and his judgment. Nor are the errors themselves unimportant. They are certain indications of a wrong habit of thought. He who is guilty of them shows that his object is not what it ought to be. Vanity and improvement seldom accompany each other. Nor is that all. Cherished vanity is utterly inconsistent with Christian simplicity.

You will not misunderstand me. I do not wish, by any means, to check your endeavours to do good to others by communicating to them the information you have yourself obtained. I only wish to render them more efficient.

Your affectionate friend,

BURNING OF THE AMERICAN STEAM-VESSEL, "THE MISSOURI."

[WE extract from one of the daily papers (Times, Sept. 16th) the following account of this calamitous event. We are glad, however, that no lives were lost. The description will serve to give our readers some notion of what such an occurrence is, even in the favourable circumstance of being close in shore. It is most awful to think of a vessel burning at sea, far away from human help. Now that there is so much travelling by sea, ought not prayer for the travellers to be more frequently and regularly addressed to God?—ED. Y. I.]

Gibraltar, August 28th, 1843. WE have just witnessed one of the most fearful fires I ever saw, and I cannot but give you a few words about it. We saw a large steamer, evidently a man-of-war, enter the bay on Saturday last, in the afternoon, which proved, after many conjectures, to be one of two American boats, just built to eclipse all our English ones; and a fine vessel she is pronounced as she nears us, and, to our great surprise, passes close to our bowsprit in shore, and drops her anchor as the man cries, Mark 5' (which means five fathoms, or thirty feet of water). We considered this very injudicious, as, if an easterly wind should spring up, she must go on a

lee-shore. We are so near as to hear all that is said on board, and after well examining her, and her enormous guns, and finding her draught of water to be twenty-one feet, we were the more convinced of her error, as she had only nine feet at the moment of dropping anchor, and now as she steers in shore has not more than five feet under her bottom. However, we left her to go below to tea, and had just finished, at half-past seven, when our Mate cried out, 'The steamer's on fire, Sir.' Up we were in a moment, and saw the smoke pouring out of the fore-hatch. All was confusion on board. We saw many instantly jump overboard, and this continued till the Captain and chief officers came off from shore, where they were dining with the American Consul; then the gate was shut, and it occupied some time to get the Governor's pass; but when they did come, order was restored. At about eight, the boats of "The Malabar" man-of-war, with their water-engines, and two companies of the Miners and Sappers from Gibraltar, poured in such a torrent of water, that all the ship's pumps were kept going, to keep it from accumulating too much in her hold. Then the order was given to close the hatches and smother the fire, which stopped it for some time; but about nine it broke out with such violence that all they could do seemed like spitting on it. We then heard the command to drown the fore-magazine of powder; but the answer returned was, that it was impossible to go below. Then followed the order to drown the after-magazine, and we suppose it was done. (There is always a waterpipe turned into the magazine in case of fire, and they have only to turn a tap to fill it with water, and should the fire be extinguished they can let out the water, and the casks being enclosed in copper, and water-tight, the powder is not wetted.) We now began to get anxious as to the aftermagazine, which contained upwards of twenty tons of powder, (five hundred and fifty casks,) as we knew, should it explode, even though drowned, it would have whirled our ship some miles distant, we being within one hundred yards at the time. So I spoke to Robert to heave our anchor, and we dropped out into the bay about a mile, as we could render no assistance, there being more hands than could be employed

engaged at the fire. Here, with the telescope, we could see all that passed. It was now ten, and the flames had got hold of her coals, sixty tons of which had just been taken in, and the Spanish boats were alongside with the remainder. We could see them advancing to the centre of the vessel, and although one thousand five hundred men were doing all they could, with a large number of engines, and, I need hardly say, a good supply of water, yet it was like a drop, evaporated in a moment. It continued unceasingly till eleven, when the decks fell in. Then it was awfully sublime; the flames rose to the top of the mainmast, at least seventy feet high, and enwrapped it, with its rigging and sails. All was consumed in a moment but the mast, up which we could see the flames creeping, and in about an hour it fell with a terrible crash. About the same time the enormous funnel, which was red-hot for hours before, came down : it was seven feet in diameter, and thirty-six feet high. Then, at intervals, followed the foremast and the mizenmast, till nothing was visible but one mass of vivid flame from stem to stern, a length of two hundred and fifty feet. We could see some of the officers of "The Malabar" on the paddle-boxes, till, driven to the last extremity by the heat, they jumped off into the sea, where they were picked up; and, as far as we yet know, no lives were lost. I stayed up till half-past two, and the fire was then as bright as ever. I was worn out, so went to bed; but was suddenly roused, though fast asleep, by an explosion of the few barrels in the fore-magazine; (only four;) but the shock was so dreadful that it shook me out of my berth, and struck my head against a beam, that I scarcely knew where I was. I ran on deck, and the fragments were highly raised in every direction. It shook the houses on the rock, and broke several windows: so I will leave you to guess what would have been the effect of five hundred, instead of only four. They were now anxious for the after-magazine, and endeavoured to tow the vessel into deeper water; but she had sunk to the bottom, and therefore it was impracticable. However, the tide was coming in, and soon entered between the burning bulwarks, and took away all alarm as to the remaining powder, but did not subdue

the fire, which continued to devour all above water till midday on Sunday. As we returned from church we went round, and such a scene of destruction I never before beheld. Yesterday, a fine vessel, with all the pride and daring of an American, now all consumed but the iron paddles, thirty-two feet in diameter, and a few pines of bulwark yet burning. The heat of the water rendered it unpleasant to go too near; and the enormous engines were all red-hot still; while the funnel, resting between the two paddle-boxes, looked like a vast mortar. Two guns, just appearing above water, are all that now is visible. Her guns went off one by one, as the fire heated them; but none were loaded with ball. She carried eighteen thirty-two-pounders, the same sized guns as are at Gibraltar called carronades. There were three hundred and fifty souls on board; but all the ladies (ten) were fortunately ashore for the night. She was bound to Alexandria, and thence to China, with the American Ambassador on board for the latter place. Nothing was saved, as the order to close the hatches prevented it; so that all have lost everything, and they are being drafted on board the various American ships in the harbour, of which there are about eight, come here with tea.

SENTENCES FOR REFLECTION.

STUDY and endeavour for the best and usefullest things. If thou spendest thy time, and layest out thy pains, in the purchase of trifles, thou wilt be like the merchant that made a voyage to Mount Etna to fetch ashes, which being exposed to the wind, were all lost on his return.

Avoid being false witness against thy neighbour, as the most vile and villanous thing in the world. The injury that is done to a person's reputation by telling and publishing a scandalous lie of him, is irreparable: for, suppose the liar have the grace to recant, which seldom happens, yet some will still believe what has been said, not knowing anything of the recantation. And when once an ill report is gone far, it cannot be stopped, nor traced to its first author.

When thou givest to the necessitous, do it without a design

to get the praise of men, and do it in mercy; that is, out of a true sense of the calamity of thy brother; first feeling it in thyself, in some proportion, and then by endeavouring to ease thyself and him of the common calamity. They offend against this rule who only give out of custom, or to upbraid the poverty of another, or to make him mercenary, and in a manner to put him in thy power, or with any unhandsome selfish design.

Towards the curing of a hot, angry temper, use thyself daily to consider thy own infirmities and failings. This will cause thee to make the errors of thy brother, or of thy servant, to be thy own case; and will put thee in mind that thou daily needest God's pardon, and thy brother's lenity; and so thou wilt not be apt to rave at the levities, mischances, infirmities, and indiscretions of another, greater than which thou art very frequently, and perhaps more inexcusably, guilty of.

JUPITER, HIS BELTS AND SATELLITES.

66

[JUST as we were ready to conclude the present Number, we met with the following article, communicated to the "Times" Newspaper (Thursday, October 5th) by Sir James South, Observatory, Kensington. We cannot insert the whole in one Number, but by omitting the Obituary," and having next month a somewhat shorter "Literary Article" than usual, as well as by having it printed in the smaller type, it may be included in two Numbers. We think our readers will thank us for transferring the piece to our own pages, as containing a view of an interesting portion of astronomical lore in a form both popular and scientific, and which can scarcely fail, therefore, to be both interesting and instructive. -ED. Y. I.]

SIR JAMES prefaces his statements by saying, " The telescope of observation is supposed to be either an achromatic with an astronomical eye-piece, a Newtonian, or Cassegrainian reflector; in all which the real position of objects is inverted. All the references to right and left of planet are made with this understanding; and a good achromatic, of two inches and three quarters aperture and forty-two inches focal length, will, under favourable circumstances, show all the phenomena here noticed."

Jupiter is the largest and, except Venus, the brightest of all the planets. He is about 87,000 miles in diameter, and revolves round the sun at a mean distance from that luminary of more than 485,000,000 of miles, in little less than twelve years.

VOL. VII. Second Series. Y