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back of the adjoining pew, thus remained till the close of the services. I then found my old lodgings, and shut myself up in my room.

I attended church again in the evening. It was a singularly solemn time. Eternity seemed just at hand. The same venerable Minister was again in the pulpit. To me there seemed more than an earthly radiance in his countenance; and the solemn, persuasive tones of his voice, as he held up to view a bleeding Saviour, and urged upon the sinner an immediate acceptance of Him, seemed as the voice of one from the dead. All felt deeply the earnest appeals: many were bathed in tears.

The next morning I met my friend in the hall. His face was beaming with joy. He grasped me affectionately and firmly by the hand, saying, "O, I've found peace! I've found the Saviour precious! And now," said he, fixing his eyes earnestly upon me, "if I am not mistaken, you are in distress."

His words flew like so many barbed arrows through my soul. I knew it; I felt it. I was wretched, miserable; but that any one else should know it seemed terrible. I made no reply; but, releasing myself as soon as possible from his grasp, I hurried away, to get myself out of his sight.

On a Sabbath not long after, we sat down together at the Master's table, along with some fifty or more of the students, all of whom had been brought under conviction, and many of whom are now occupying important and influential places in the church as Ministers of the Gospel.-Presbyterian.

HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF REMEMBERED. “A VENERABLE and successful merchant," says an American Minister, "had for many years before his death left off accumulating, and made it his inflexible rule to give away the whole of his large surplus income. Now he was endowing a college-professorship; now founding an academy;

now bestowing a princely benefaction upon some judicious charity; and now another upon some noble religious enterprise. One of his favourite methods of doing good, was to purchase, and put in circulation, hundreds of copies, or perhaps whole editions, of any useful book which happened to commend itself to his taste and judgment. And after his death, a memorandum among his papers was found to contain the names of a large number of village Pastors, whose scanty stipends he had been in the habit of increasing from year to year. These are but hints and samples of his life but they may suffice to show that he was not a man to be forgotten. It is something for a private citizen so to live that, when he dies, the whole community to which he belonged, and other distant communities vying with them, shall take up his name, and breathe a blessing upon it. It is for yourselves, under Providence, to decide (I speak especially to the wealthy among you) whether your memories shall be thus embalmed, or handed over to a speedy oblivion. And in making this observation, I am far from commending it to you as a becoming object of your ambition, to purchase a posthumous fame by your charities. I have in view simply the ordinance of heaven, that the righteous shall be held in everlasting remembrance.' 'The memory of the just' (and this epithet includes the idea of benevolence) is blessed.' Whether you take the case of a secluded female who employs her leisure-hours, like Dorcas, in making coats and garments for the poor, or the faithful Missionary who wears himself out in distributing the bread of life along the lanes and alleys of a city, it is alike the ordering of Providence that their memories shall be blessed."

NEW BOOKS.

(Literary, Scientific, Educational.)

A WHIMSICAL writer had endeavoured to establish the doctrine, "that the Earth is really the largest planetary body in the solar system, its domestic hearth, and the only world in the universe." Sir David Brewster, for the honour of science, and with a reverential

regard to the considerations of religion which incidentally arise in the discussion of this subject, maintains that the other celestial bodies are, or may be, inhabited by intellectual beings. He has not employed a rigidly scientific style, and sometimes falls into a looseness of conception which he could have well avoided; but the volume contains much powerful argument, and we heartily recommend it to the perusal of all who feel interested in a speculation that has almost risen into certainty in the most enlightened minds. The title is, More Worlds than One. The Creed of the Philosopher, and the Hope of the Christian. By SIR DAVID BREWSTER. (Murray.)

Lessons on the Phenomena of Industrial Life, and the Conditions of Industrial Success, edited by the REV. RICHARD DAWES, M.A., Dean of Hereford, (Groombridge,) convey a very large amount of elementary instruction on the management of affairs of business, which would, if learned and carried into practice, prove to be of incalculable value, and save many a young beginner from mortification and failure. It is a good present for young men going into business engagements.

Those who would make sure of a cheap Cyclopædia, and one that is at the same time complete in adaptation to the actual state of knowledge, may find such a work in The English Cyclopædia, a New Dictionary of Universal Knowledge, conducted by CHARLES KNIGHT. The former publication bearing this title is divided into four. The first volume of Geography, (from AA to BOGOTA,) and the first of Natural History, (from AARD-VARK to CLIONIDE,) two handsome quartos, lie before us. For copiousness, finish, and the utmost attainable accuracy, they deserve high commendation, and increase the public debt to Mr. Knight as a promoter of useful information, of the first class, on easy terms. The former work will be accompanied with an Atlas, wrought up to the latest surveys and discoveries. The latter is enriched with a large number of excellent woodcuts. They are published by Bradbury and Evans.

The Museum of Science and Art, edited by DR. LARDNER, (Walton and Maberly,) Vols. I. and II., is well suited for young men's libraries. The subjects in these two volumes are chiefly astronomical, meteorological, and mechanical.

The first volume of Orr's Circle of the Sciences (Orr and Co.) is out. The subject is "Principles of Physiology," comprehending vital phenomena, osteology, and the varieties of the human race. It is very attractive in style and illustration, and well fitted to teach first principles and leading facts; yet is by no means a mere elementary manual.

POETRY.

THE CLOUDLESS.

"Sorrow and sighing shall flee away."-ISAI. XXXV. 10. No shadows yonder!

All light and song;

Each day I wonder,

And say, How long
Shall time me sunder
From that dear throng?

No weeping yonder!
All fled away;
While here I wander
Each weary day,
And sigh as I ponder
My long, long stay.

No parting yonder!

Time and space never
Again shall sunder;

Hearts cannot sever;

Dearer and fonder

Hands clasp for ever.

None wanting yonder!
Bought by the Lamb;
All gather'd under

The evergreen palm;
Loud as night's thunder

Ascends the glad psalm.-Q. J. P.

CELESTIAL OBJECTS.

AUGUST, 1854.

"WHEN I survey the bright

Celestial sphere,

So rich with jewels hung, that night
Doth like an Ethiop bride appear:

"My soul her wings doth spread,
And heavenward flies,
The' Almighty's mysteries to read
In the large volumes of the skies.

"For the bright firmament

Shoots forth no flame,

So silent, but is eloquent

In speaking the Creator's name.

"No unregarded star

Contracts its light

Into so small a character

Removed far from our human sight;

"But, if we steadfast look,

We shall discern

In it, as in some holy book,

How man may heavenly knowledge learn."

We have had and may again have occasion to remark on the parabolic form of the orbits of Comets. To render such remarks intelligible to those who have not given any attention to the geometry of curved lines, it seems desirable to convey a correct idea of the parabola, and to define the terms connected with it, which must be used if we would avoid circumlocution.

A parabola is a plane curve, every point of which is equally distant from a fixed point and an indefinite straight line given in position, the point and line being in the plane of the curve.

Thus, if K A L represents the parabola, S the fixed point, and EF the indefinite straight line, all in the same plane, the distance of any point, P, in the curve is equal to the perpendicular distance from EF, that is, the straight line PS is equal to P G. The fixed point S, is called the focus. This is the point occupied by the centre of the Sun when the parabola is the orbit of a Comet. The indefinite straight line EF is called the directrix. The straight line AB drawn through the focus, at right angles to the directrix, and produced indefinitely, is the

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aris of the parabola. The point A, where the axis meets the curve, is the vertex. This is the point in the curve which is nearest to the focus. In the case of a parabolic orbit it is called the perihelion (wɛpɩ, near, and λoç, the sun;) the straight line AS is then called the perihelion distance. The line PS, drawn from any point to the focus, is

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