great numbers on the banks of the River Nile. In Egypt, the people were formerly foolish enough to worship this poor animal. Crocodiles are seen lying, in some places, for whole hours, motionless in the sun.

3. A person not used to them might mistake them for trunks of trees, covered with bark; but the mistake would be fatal, if he touched one of them, for the torpid animal would dart upon him in an instant, and destroy him. There have been instances of their taking a man out of a canoe, and dragging him under the water, before the poor fellow could know who had seized upon him.

4. A sailor named Campbell was once bathing in the River Congo, in Africa. He had left his vessel in a state of in toxication, and plunged into the water. When he had swam some distance, one of the sailors on board saw a crocodile making towards him. His escape seemed impossible. Guns were fired at the fearful monster, but they did not hit him.

5. The noise of the guns, and the exclamations of his companions, made Campbell aware of his perilous condition; and, turning, he saw his enemy advancing with open jaws, which urged him to make the greatest haste towards the shore. On approaching some canes and shrubs which covered the bank, closely pursued by the crocodile, a ferocious tiger sprang towards him, at the instant the jaws of his first enemy were extended to seize him.

6. At this awful moment, Campbell was preserved. The tiger had leaped over him, and been seized upon by the crocodile. A fight ensued between the tiger and the crocodile, and the water was soon colored with their blood. At last they both sank to the bottom.

7. Campbell was conveyed on board the vessel. His danger had made him sober; and, the moment he reached the ship, he fell on the deck, and returned thanks to the Creator, for his wonderful preservation. From that moment, Campbell became a reformed man He left off his vile habit of getting drunk, and was never afterwards heard to utter a profane word.

8. In Africa, the natives have a curious way of destroying the crocodile. A negro, with no other weapon than a knife in his hand, and his left arm wrapped round with a cow's hide, ventures boldly into the water, to attack the crocodile. As soon as he approaches the animal, he presents his left arm, which the crocodile attempts to swallow; but it sticks

in his throat, and the negro immediately stabs him with his knife.

9. The alligator is common in South America, and the southern parts of the United States. It has a loud voice, and a strong, musky smell. Along the shores of the great Mississippi, the alligators may be seen in great numbers, lying asleep on the large, floating logs, or crossing the stream in search of food. They may be easily caught by throwing ropes over their heads.

10. The alligator's chief means of defence is his large tail, with which he lashes the water, and destroys every thing within its reach. Sometimes the alligators get into deep holes, where they are often shot for the sake of their oil, which is used for greasing the machinery of steam-engines, and for other purposes. One man often kills a dozen or more alligators in an evening, makes his fire in the woods, and by morning has a good quantity of oil prepared.

11. Captain Waterton once had a singular adventure with an alligator, in South America. It was first caught with a long, iron hook, which was fastened to a rope. The Indians were pulling the animal towards the shore, when Waterton sprang on the alligator's back, seized his legs, and, twisting them over his shoulders, rode him safely up the bank, amidst the shouts and laughter of the savages.

Questions-To what length does the crocodile sometimes grow? What is its usual length? The people of what country formerly worshipped this animal? What is the meaning of torpid, in the 3d par.? In what countries is the alligator found?

LESSON XXVI.

The Puritan.*

1. WHEN an author invites the attention of the reader, his first duty seems to be, to afford some proof that he is competent to the subject. I have styled myself a Puritan ; and my readers may fairly ask me what title I have to that venerable name. Had I called myself a Greek, it had been sufficient, perhaps, to bring some document that I was born

* Puritan ; a name given to the early settlers of New England, on account of the great purity and strictness of their principles and conduct;-first given in ridicule.

in sight of Hymettus,* and had tinctured my lips with the honey of its classical bees; but to be born in New England, will hardly be allowed sufficient to entitle one to the appellation of a full-blooded Puritan.

2. Such is the influx of foreigners on our native soil; such the innovations of time, that our primitive manners are fast fading away. I will give some account of my descent, by which it will appear that my name is not a usurpation. I am a Puritan of the straitest sect.

3. I was born of a line of ancestors who came over from England in 1640, and were immediately made freemen of the country. Whether my grandfather, or great grandfather, prefixed to his name a good-mant or a Mr., I am not able to say; but I have often heard my father boast that none of our race ever got into the General Court or the workhouse, which he considers as the Scylla and Charybdis of modern society. If they escaped the laurels of political life, they sunk to no inexpiable disgrace.

4. We all trod the middle path-that very condition which all wise men, since the days of Horace, have considered as the golden mean. Two of my progenitors, I ✓ believe, were selectmen; one was a deacon, and one a ruling elder in the church. I do not mention this to boast of my high family, for I abhor vanity; but it seems necessary, to give weight to my speculations.

5. They all devoutly believed the Assembly's Catechism; and were acquainted with painting and the fine arts, enough to have contemplated, with devout admiration, the burning of Mr. John Rogers in the New England Primer; and they abhorred the tyranny that brought that good man to the stake.

6. They were perfectly initiated into the mysteries of Hoder's Arithmetic; and had passed regularly through the then prevalent grades of learning; that is, they had gone from the Primer to the Psalter, and from the Psalter to the Testament, and from the Testament to the book where all this elementary wisdom was combined-The Bible.

7. My great grandfather had an income of about four hundred pounds a year, old tenor. My ancestors were

A mountain near the ancient city of Athens, famous for its fragrant flowers and excellent honey.

Good-man, a title implying some degree of distinction, either of office or age, given in former times in New England; as, Goodman Jones.

chiefly ploughmen, cultivating their own freehold; and in certain legal instruments which I have seen, some were called cordwainers, some yeomen, and one of them bore the title of gentleman. I remember, in looking over some old leases between my grandfather and his elder brother, my boyish indignation was greatly moved, on finding my grandfather called a yeoman, and my great uncle a gentleman.

8. I set myself to inquire what made this distinction in the family. I found that the elder brother had received a commission from Governor Hutchinson to command a militia company; had actually spoken to that great man, as he passed by his house, in his gubernatorial chariot, most respectfully taking off his hat and bowing to the ground; and was consequently entitled to be considered as a born gentleman ever after. But I must confess the captain was not my grandfather; he was only my great uncle; and, as the Scripture says, I would not exercise myself in great matters, or things too high for me.

9. I was educated in the house of my grandfather.Dear, dear spot, how art thou imprinted on my memory! how closely is every weed around that old cellar entwined around my heart! I see the place, the dear, sacred abode ; it rises in vision; it rolls back the flood of years; it re builds the dilapidated edifice, and recalls to life the departed dead; it places before me, in the eye of imagination, the scenes in which I sported so freely, and which I loved so well.

10. There is the old mansion, with every story jutting out, contrary to all the rules of modern architecture, wider at the top than at the foundation; there is the tall well-pole, rising towards the sky, with a good quantity of old iron on the farther end, to balance the bucket when full of water; there is the pear tree, with the huge grindstone under it; there is the meadow, with its maple grove, from whose recesses, on some summer evening, I used to hear the Whippoorwill; the sun-dial, the pasture, the great rock, the barberry bushes, the lilacs, the sprigs of mullen and elecampane, all, all are present to the mental eye, and are seen through the mist of years with a deeper interest than ever.

11. If the reader will step with me into the house, 1 will show him the best room, with its homemade carpet, carefully woven with strips of cloth, in which the red, blue, and yellow, are nicely adjusted to produce the best effect.

I will show him the kitchen, with its vast fireplace, an apartment in itself, collected in which the family was wont to huddle in a cold winter evening, to hear stories of olden time.

12. I can show him the red dresser, with its well-scoured platters, made of pewter, but bright as silver, lessening in rows one above the other. I can present him with a family Bible, bound in buff leather, and printed at Oxford by his Majesty's special command. I can show him the old, worn hour-glass, standing in two leather loops on a shelf above the fireplace, which my grandfather used to turn exactly at eight o'clock in the evening, that we might be sure to go to bed duly at nine.

13. I can show him-but, alas! the winds of heaven have long since swept away the last mouldering beam of that sacred abode, and before its domestic altar, the whiteheaded saint will never pray again.

14. My grandfather had a little library; but it was a Puritan library. Shakspeare and Ben Jonson found no place among his books. I doubt whether, reader as he was, and immortal as are their works, he had ever heard of their names. There were no Homers nor Horaces among his volumes; for he knew no language but his mother tongue. His library consisted of Mr. Flavel's works, Bunyan's Grace abounding, Alleine's Alarm, and Baxter's Call to the Unconverted. Nor was poetry wholly left out. He had Sternhold's and Hopkins's Psalms, and Dr. Watts's Lyric Poems, two books not to be named in the same day.

15. But there was one volume sweeter than all the rest, which stole many a weary hour from my life, and banished all care from my heart. I read it, and was happy; I remembered it, and was happy; I dreamt of it, and was happy; and to this hour, delight and improvement seem stamped on every page. My grandfather always said it was the next book to the Bible; but I must own I was wicked enough to think it somewhat better.

16. It was the Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come, delivered under the similitude of a dream. By JOHN BUNYAN. I should have no doubt of my final sal vation, if I could tread the real path to Zion, in faith and abedience, as often, and with as much delight, as I have trodden the allegorical one, in fancy and imagination.

17. Such were the scenes in which I grew up; so the