the eloquent lips are silent, the eye is closed which once he raised with holy confidence to the Emperor and the country, to the Pope and the Cardinals; he is silent for ever in the church to which he had affixed thirty years before a word that was to shake the world. His body had been carried, as ordered by the Elector, in solemn procession from Eisleben to Wittenberg, that a place of rest might be prepared for it in the Electoral chapel. Next to the coffin stands his friend Melancthon, who had during twenty-eight years fought indefatigably by his side. On the morning of the 19th of February he had, deeply affected by the news of the death, pronounced in his lecture-room, with few but emphatic words, the testimony of history and of the Protestant world upon the departed: "The doctrine of the forgiveness of sins and of faith in the Son of God has not been discovered by any human understanding, but has been revealed unto us by God through this man, whom He had raised up." On the day of the funeral also, after Dr. Bugenhagen had preached, he once more bore witness to the value of the labours of the departed: "His doctrine does not consist in rebellious opinions made known with violence; it is rather an interpretation of the Divine will and of the true worship of God, an explanation of the Scriptures, a sermon of the word of God, namely, the Gospel of Christ.

... Now he is united with the Prophets, of whom he loved to talk; now they greet him as their fellow-labourer, and with him thank the Lord who collects and maintains His Church."

Three times has the centenary festival of his death been celebrated in Wittenberg; but still Germany and the German Evangelical Church await a second Luther. To many has been given the power to develop in an equal or a higher degree some one single feature of his sublime being; but where find a second time that inexhaustible depth of faith, with the same irresistible command of the popular language, united to the same strength of will and readiness for action? where this blessed absorbing in God, with the power of ruling mankind? where find once more that union of qualities, the non-existence of which as thus united has

constituted for centuries the hereditary want of Germany? Even to-day we still ask this at the grave of the German Reformer.-American National Magazine.

A YOUTHFUL HERO.

A SERGEANT-MAJOR, now in Wellington Barracks, who has recently returned from the Crimea, has sent us the following enthusiastic account of the conduct of a young soldier, only sixteen years old, named Thomas Keep, of the 3d battalion Grenadier Guards, under the command of Colonel Thomas Wood. The writer states that this boy accompanied the army to the heights of the Alma, preserving the most undaunted demeanour throughout the battle. At one time a twentyfour pounder passed on each side of him, and shot and shell fell about him like hail; but, notwithstanding the weariness of the day, present dangers, or the horrid sight, the boy's heart beat with tenderness towards the poor wounded. Instead of going into a tent to take care of himself after the battle was over, he refused to take rest, but was seen venturing his life for the good of his comrades in the battle-field. This boy was seen stepping carefully over one dead body after another, collecting all the broken muskets he could find, and making a fire in the night to procure hot water. He made tea for the poor sufferers, and saved the life of Sergeant Russell and some of the private soldiers who were lying nearly exhausted for want. Thus did this youth spend the night. At the battle of Balaklava he again assisted the wounded. The boy did his duty by day, and worked in the trenches by night, taking but little rest. At the battle of Inkermann he was surrounded by Russians about twenty minutes, and, to use his own words, he said he thought it was a "case" with him; but he escaped all right. He received one shot, which went through his coat, and out at the leg of his trousers, but Providence again preserved him unhurt. He helped with all the bravery of a man to get in the wounded, and rested not until the poor sufferers were as

comfortable as he could make them. He waited on the doctor when extracting the shot from the men, and waited on the men before and after. "Thus did this youth," says the writer, "do anything to any one who needed help. Some of the wounded say that they should not have been alive now had it not been for this boy's unwearied watchfulness and kindness in their hours of helplessness. This boy has been recommended by Colonel Robinson and Colonel Wood, and other officers in Her Majesty's service." -The Times.

ASHES OF SACRIFICES.

MR. JAMES FINN, Her Majesty's Consul at Jerusalem, to whose intelligent care of literary and antiquarian interests in the Holy Land our readers (says "the Athenæum") are indebted for much agreeable information, writes,

"Outside of this city, towards the north-west, and not far from the Nablus Road and the Tombs of the Kings (so called), are some considerable heaps of blue grey ashes, on which no grass or weeds ever grow. One of them may be forty feet in height. They are remarkable objects in themselves, especially as contrasted in colour with the dark olivegroves around them. These are commonly believed by the people of the city to be heaps of refuse from the soapboilers' works of former times. Some of our English residents here, having conceived a different idea of their origin, namely, that it was not impossible they should be ashes from the ancient sacrifices, begged of Dr. Roth, of Munich, when here in 1853, to carry away samples for analysis in Germany, which he did; and Dr. Sandreczki has now laid before the Literary Society of Jerusalem an account, in English, of a letter received from Dr. Roth on the subject. After some remarks on the beetles and mollusca which he collected in Palestine, and tendering generous offers of assistance, he proceeds thus: 'Hitherto it has been questionable whether the two ash-hills without

the Damascus Gate have been heaped up from the ashes of the burnt sacrifices, or from the residuum of the produce of potash in the soap-manufactories here. Dr. Roth, who had taken with him two samples, states that their analysis in our famous Liebig's laboratory bears evidence to the supposition that those ashes are the remnant of the burnt sacrifices, because they are chiefly of animal and not of vegetable origin; and even contain small fragments of bones and teeth burnt to coal; and yet it would be impossible to ascertain the species of the animals to which they belonged. The analysis exhibits a small per-centage of silicic acid, which is never found in the ashes of flesh or bones. Dr. Roth is of opinion that we may account for this circumstance by supposing that the ashes of the meatofferings in which silicium may be found, were likewise carried off to the hills in question. The samples were taken both from the top and the basis of the larger hill,-not just from the surface, nor from a considerable depth either. Dr. Roth intends to send the whole account of that analysis, together with a new analysis of the mineral waters near Tiberias.'

This almost unexpected result is one that leads to important

antiquarian consequences; not only exciting wonder at the confirmation of holy writ, and bringing our feelings back to immediate contact with those of the Aaronic priesthood, but as helping, among other facts, to determine the course of the ancient walls, since these ashes must have been thrown beyond the wall."

THE FOX.

THE cranium of the fox may be called a model skull. The forehead is horizontal, the skin tightly drawn over it, craft lurking in its very smoothness. The ear, sharply pointed at the extremity, projects considerably at the base, in order to catch every passing sound. It is made for obtaining the faintest trace of the booty slumbering in the trees above the slightest noise, the trembling of a leaf, the quiver of the dreaming bird, falls into the listening, distended aperture: nothing escapes him. And then the nose! How much malice and grace, how much esprit, lies in that fine, long stretched-out, supple point! Does it not seem as if a thousand invisible feelers issued thence, and that here, as its central point, sat the guile-conniving, wile-contriving spirit of the incomparable improvisator? It is such a nose as the great masters of political science, as the Richelieus and Talleyrands, may perhaps have had. But the most interesting face is nothing if we forget the eyes. It is true, the fox's eye cannot be termed beautiful. You recognise in it, at once, the nocturnal animal of prey its colour plays between a grey and green; it lies askant, half-hidden in the cavity, and by day is drawn together into a mere perpendicular chink. It has neither the green-wood freshness which appeals to us so gaily in the eye of the roe, nor the rolling sparkle which gives the gaze of the cat such a magnetic charm: yet, notwithstanding, there lies in it far more physiognomical significance. Now it is lowered in humble resignation, or gazes round in simplicity and innocence; now a derisive smile plays about the lids, and then again a look is darted forth, keen