THE mountain tops are glancing With ice all silvery sheen, And autumn from the valley Strips the wreaths of leafy green. The slopes around the village Still verdant meadows show, But all the meadow flow'rets Are wither'd long ago. Sennerin-The young girl who has the care of the herds sent to the higher region of the Alps in summer. As the pasturage is good only a few weeks on those heights, and the distance great, it is customary for the herdsmen and some of their families, to take with them domestic provisions, and not descend till the pasture time is over. They dwell in temporary cottages. Grun describes the return with much simple beauty and a delicate touch of romance. Hark! Hark! What from the mountain What through the dale resoundeth Bears tinkling bells with pride, As such a chief should be, Before the nearest dwelling Three times the maiden cries; Far, far, the glad sounds rise. "A thousand welcomes, fair and fresh, "For all the long, long summer I sat there quite alone With the herd and with the blossoms, As sunlight-moonlight shone." With look serene her greeting She gives to the young men, To one alone, the bravest, She gives no greeting then. He never seems to heed it, Lets it pass with smiling mien ;Can it be true that fair one So long he hath not seen? He wears a hat all garlanded With Alpine roses round;Ne'er blooming in the valley Are such Alpine roses found. SIMPLE QUESTIONS SCIENTIFICALLY ANSWERED. FROM DR. BREWER'S "GUIDE TO SCIENCE." WHY WHY does smoke ascend the chimney? -Because the air of the room, when it passes over the fire, becomes lighter for being heated; and, being thus made lighter, ascends the chimney, carrying the smoke with it. What is smoke ?-Small particles of carbon, separated by combustion from the fuel, but not consumed. Why do smoke and steam curl, as they ascend? Because they are pushed round and round by the ascending and descending currents of air. Why do some chimneys smoke?-Because fresh air is not admitted into a room so fast as it is consumed by the fire; in consequence of which, a current of air rushes down the chimney to supply the deficiency, driving the smoke along with it. Why are some parts of the ceiling blacker and more filthy than others?-Because the air, being unable to penetrate the thick joints of the ceiling, passes by those parts, and deposits its soot and dust on others more penetrable. Why is water purified by being filtered through charcoal ?-Because charcoal absorbs the impurities of the water, and removes all disagreeable tastes and smells, whether they arise from animal or vegetable matter. Why does charcoal remove the taint of meat? Because it absorbs all putrescent effluvia, whether arising from animal or vegetable matter. What is charcoal?-Wood which has been exposed to a red heat, till it has been deprived of all its gases and volatile parts. Why are water and wine casks charred inside?-Because charring the inside of a cask reduces it to a kind of charcoal; and charcoal, by absorbing animal and vegetable impurities, keeps the liquor sweet and good. Why does a piece of burnt bread make impure water fit to drink?-Because the surface of the bread, which has been reduced to charcoal by being burnt, absorbs the impurities of the water, and makes it palatable. Why should toast and water, placed by the side of the sick, be made of burnt bread? Because the charcoal surface of burnt bread prevents the water from being affected by the impurities of the sick room. Why should sick persons eat dry toast, rather than bread and butter?-Because the charcoal surface of the dry toast helps to absorb the acids and impurities of a sick stomach. Why are timbers, which are to be exposed to damp, charred ?-Because charcoal undergoes no change by exposure to air and water; in consequence of which, timber will resist weather much longer, after it has been charred. Why does water simmer before it boils? Because the particles of water near the bottom of the kettle, being formed into steam sooner than the rest, shoot upward; but are condensed again, as they rise, by the cold water, and produce what is called "simmering." Why will a pot filled with water never boil, when immersed in another vessel full of water also ?-Because water can never be heated above the boiling point: all the heat absorbed by water after it boils, is employed in generating steam. Why does a kettle sing, when the water simmers ?-Because the air, entangled in the water, escapes by fits and starts through the spout of the kettle; which makes a noise like a wind instrument. Editor's Table. WE give an accurate portrait of Neander in our present number-the only real likeness which we remember to have seen in this country. The sketch of him, by Dr. M'Clintock, will be found full of interest. Dr. M'Clintock visited the veteran historian but a few months before his decease, and describes him from personal impressions as also from the suggestions of a correspondent who was Neander's colleague for years at Berlin. A new feature in our magazine will hereafter be found in the department of Scientific Reports and Notitia. We shall endeavor to supply, in this department, regularly, brief reports of the proceedings of learned institutions, foreign and domestic. These reports must of course be very limited, but they shall give the most important results of such societies. We have heretofore proposed to insert in each number a leading article on some public interest or question of the day. The editorial on the Christianity Required by the Times, in this number, begins the series of these discussions. In order that they may not be trammeled and stinted by unnecessary precautions, we must claim the indulgence of our readers whatever may be their personal opinions. We do not deem it necessary in a work of the peculiar character of this, to offend those opinions, and apprehend no such danger within the range of our discussions, but there is a minor sort of constructive criticism which can find objections to anything; we wish, once for all, to rid these pages of all such petty embarrassments, and bespeak the fullest liberality in this respect. Allow us to say our say frankly and peremptorily, without overlaying it with minute qualifications, even should it not tally precisely with minor opinions. On this condition alone can a publication like the present have an effective and manly character. We have now in preparation, by a competent hand, a series of popular articles on the Life and Times of Johnson, to be abundantly illustrated. There is no really popular life of the "Great Moralist" extant. Boswell's can never be excelled in interest, it is in the hands of literary men and cannot be superseded with them, but it is too voluminous for popular use. The articles preparing for our columns will have a specially popular adaptation. They will also present with special prominence the religious aspects of his life and charactera respect in which Boswell's volumes are defective. Our selected articles which are not credited in the text are acknowledged in the list of contents, except such as are found floating anonymously in the periodicals of the day, and cannot therefore be rightly attributed. The Acta Sanctorum of the Roman Church contains many a heart-touching example of suffering and fidelity in the cause of religion, but scarcely any more so than that which has lately been enacted at Florence, under the influence of the Romish Church itself. Signor Madiai and his wife of that city, became Protestants while residing in England, and, if we may judge from their conduct during their painful trial, very devout ones. They were arrested in Florence for the crime of impiety-that is, alienation from Popery. After nine months preliminary imprisonment and separation, the devoted husband and wife were brought together before the tribunal, only to receive an ignominious sentence of further separation and suffering—the husband to fiftysix months imprisonment with hard labor, and the wife to forty-five months seclusion at Ergastoto, also with hard labor; the nine months imprisonment they have already experienced are to be deducted. When they have suffered this punishment they are to be placed for three years under the surveillance of the police. When the sentence was pronounced, the doors being opened, and the hall full of people, the husband and wife rose up spontaneously, and shook hands with each other, smiling sorrowfully. An emotion of deep feeling was manifested in the auditory, which the President cut short by dissolving the sitting precipitately. In the night of the seventh to the eighth of June, between the end of the trial and the pronouncing of the sentence, the following simple and affecting letter, which one hardly read without tears, was addressed by Signora Madiai to her husband: can My dear, dear Madiai,-Thou knowest if I have always loved thee, and how much more now, when we have been engaged together in the battle of the great King! "We have been cast down but not overcome! I trust that through the sacred merits of Christ, the Father will accept our testimony, and grant us grace to drink with thankfulness, to the last drop, our part of the bitter cup which he has prepared for us. "My good Madiai, life is but a day, a day of sorrow; yesterday young, to-day old! But we know that we can say, with Simeon, 'Now let thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for our eyes have seen thy salvation.' Courage, my beloved, the Holy Ghost has, through grace, given us to know that this Christ, loaded with opprobrium, trodden under foot, and ill-treated, is our King, our Saviour. And we, by his holy light and power, have defended the holy cross which bears the expiring Christ; we bear his reproach, to partake, one day, of his glory. "Fear not: though the sentence may be severe, God, who caused the chains of Peter to fall off, and who opened his prison, will not forget us any more than him. I have good courage. Let us put ourselves entirely into the hands of God. Let me find thee happy, as I hope to do, and by God's grace I shall be so too. I embrace thee heartily. Your loving wife. ROSA MADIAI." A beautiful example this, of womanly courage and love, as also of saintly resignation. The Acta Sanctorum of Italy is not yet completed. Christian Rome is to add its list to that of Heathen Rome. The last number of the Christian Remembrancer, a substantial London Quarterly, conducted by Church-of-England men, contains an elaborate article on "Open Seats in Churches." It devotes no less than fifty pages to the subject; and contends, with genuine democratic liberality and Christian earnestness, "for the freedom of public worship." We are surprised to learn, by this article, how extensive an interest prevails on the subject in the Anglican Church. For some years past the controversy has agitated portions of it, engaging even high prelatical and other authorities, on the liberal side. The Remembrancer notices three works on the question; two of them by barristers, and one by a clergyman-the latter is entitled "The Pew System the Chief Hindrance of the Church's Work in Towns." The Reviewer says: "The normal idea of a church is, that of free and open ground for the use of the Christian community within each parish...With all the difficulties and obstructions that cloud the pure free ideal of a Christian church, that primeval element has yet, providentially, escaped far more than might have been feared. The fearful unchristian effects of the pew sys sided, a young preacher was charged with indulging to great excess in the use of exaggeration. He was not said to be guilty of positive falsehood; but superlatives flowed so freely from his tongue, that truth had all the semblance, and frequently did all the mischief, of a lie. The young man was sentenced to be publicly admonished by the chair. He stood up in the presence of his brethren, and the bishop, with great kindness, pointed out the evils resulting from the habit. After hearing him through, the accused, bathed in tears, requested permission to say a few words. He commenced, by a candid acknowledgment of his fault, and thanked the bishop for his admonition. Turning to his brethren in the ministry, he assured them of his determination to conquer his be setting propensity. "I regret it," said he, as much as any of you. I have struggled against it. I have wept over it. Yes, brethren, by night and by day I have wept on account of it, and I can truly say it has already caused me to shed barrels of tears." Huc and Gabet's Travels, noticed elsewhere in this number, present the best appreciation of Tatar, Thibetian and Chinese character yet tem have at all times stood in such bold congiven to the world. It is a work of surpassing trast to the gospel blessings on the poor, that interest. The good "Fathers" describe the advocates have never been wanting to maintain Tatar as nobly patriarchal in his nomad life, the true principle; and now that the Church is and very devout withal; the Thibetian as restriving to be active in her work, it is marvelmarkable tolerant, respectful and intelligent; ous to witness how abuses, which had hitherto the Chinaman, however, is the character of the been so long established as to form legal pre-east-the genuine yankee of Asia, invariably cedents, seem to crumble into dust before the obvious and clear light of justice and Christian truth. Yet this is but partial, and the freedom of Christian worship is sadly overlooked in many quarters where we might have hoped that this development of their other professed principles would have forced itself upon their notice." He shows that pews are a modern innovation unknown in the early ages-unknown during the middle ages-unknown, even now, to the Roman Church-except in Protestant countries. He insists that they trammel the freedom and effectiveness of the gospel in large communities. There is, undeniably, much truth in all this. The essential spirit of the gospel is, to say the least, unfavorable to the exclusiveness, the privileged conveniences of the pewed system. And it is a good indication for the simplicity and liberality of the Church, that it shows, somewhat generally at present, a disposition to question that system. Sir Roger de Coverley's philosophy, however, applies here as in most other matters" Much can be said on both sides." Pews and family sittings are doubtless admissible under certain circumstances and these circumstances exist, to some extent, in almost every community-but, unquestionably, such cases should be the exceptions to the rule, not the rule itself. The Methodists in this country may have erred in the one extreme, while other sects have equally, if not more egregiously, erred in the other. The American Church generally needs to review this whole subject. The late Bishop Hedding used to tell an incident in his episcopal career, strikingly illustrating the despotic power of long-indulged habit. At one of the Conferences where he pre shrewd, given to trade, monopolizing the commerce of neighboring countries, proverbially sagacious in bargaining, not overscrupulous, not too devout, and jumping, impromptu, at the cunningest expedients when "snagged." M. Huc gives a ludicrous example of Chinese cunning a good illustration of the real character of the nation. Speaking of the Mongol Khalkhas (to whom, by the way, Genghis Khan belonged) putation for strength and active vigor which is he says:-"These Tatars fully maintain the regenerally attributed to the men of their nation. They are considered the most powerful wrestlers in Southern Mongolia. From their infancy, they are trained to gymnastic exercises, and at the public wrestling matches, celebrated every year at Peking, a great number of these men attend to compete for the prizes, and to sustain the reputation of their country. Yet, though far superior in strength to the Chinese, they are sometimes thrown by the latter, generally more active, and especially more tricky. In the great match of 1843, a wrestler of the kingdom of Efe had overthrown all competitors, Tatars and Chinese. His body, of gigantic proportions, was fixed upon legs which seemed immovable columns; his hands, like great grappling-irons, seized his antagonists, raised them, and then hurled them to the ground, almost without effort. No person had been at all able to stand before his prodigious strength, and they were about to assign him the prize, when a Chinese stepped into the ring. He was short, small, meagre, and appeared calculated for no other purpose than to augment the number of the Efeian's victims. He advanced, however, with an air of firm confidence; the Goliath of Efe stretched out his brawny arms to grasp him, when the Chinese, who had his mouth full of water, suddenly discharged the liquid in the hath ears to hear let him hear." The sen- with trembling, and bawled out with such dis- Our old schoolmaster had a large stock of quaint sayings, some metaphorical, some very deep, and others the meaning of which lay on the surface. One of them, the force and propriety of which we heard beautifully illustrated at a Fourth of July celebration, was this, "Never creep into a hole without seeing your way out." It was illustrated on this wise: the orator of the day, in a pleasant little village where we were then rusticating, was eloquently depicting the glorious results of the War of Independence, the unmatched valor of the men of Bunker Hill, and those other grandiloquent themes by which Fourth of July orators are accustomed and expected to excite our patriotism and confirm us in the faith that we are the greatest people in all creation. Thundering like the cataract of Niagara," said the speaker, waxing warm as he described the battle of New-Orleans-" thundering like the cataract of Niagara, like the tornado in the tropics, like the terrible avalanche of the everlasting Alps, came on the red-coats of King George. The gallant Jackson-(cheers)—the gallant Jackson and his invincible sons of Columbia met the foe and routed them like-like" (we felt for the orator-he had evidently crept into a hole without seeing his way out; he began again :) "the gallant Jackson-(cheers)—the gallant Jackson, with the invincible sons of Columbia, met the foe and routed them like-like-any-membrancer, has the following frank utterthing." The last No. of the North American Review contains an article on Wesley and Methodism which will agreeably surprise "evangelical" readers by its warm, earnest tone, and its apparent sympathy with the character of the great movement under Whitefield and Wesley. It speaks in the strongest language of Charles Wesley, and of both the excellence and usefulness of his poetry, ascribing much of the popular power of Methodism to his hymns, "which can hardly be read unmusically, and almost sing themselves." The early writers of Methodism abound in illustrations of the power of its wonderful psalmody. The hardened populace often melted under it, and ferocious persecutors yielded to its charm. Many who abhorred the preaching, resorted to the chapels only to hear the singing. An anecdote is told of an old, inexorable sinner-an innkeeper who, unable to stand the fire of the pulpit, (which, by the way, is described as tremendously vollied in that day,) could not resist the temptation of the singing. He had not a qualmish conscience, but was afflicted with a musical ear. It was his custom to go to the meetings only to hear the hymns; and that he might not be disturbed by the preaching, he usually sat with his head inclined, and his fingers in his ears. But one day a fly lit upon his nose, and at the moment he attempted to brush it away with one of his hands, the preacher uttered with stentorian emphasis, "He that The last No. of the London Christian Specta tor, in an article on the Unity of the Races, belabors mercilessly the work of Dr. Smyth, of tor agrees with the doctor in its ultimate view, South Carolina, on that subject. The Spectabut denounces his logic. The question of slavery is brought into the discussion, as it is now-a-days into almost all English literary and ecclesiastical references to this country. There are many evidences that an evangeli cally liberal reaction from the rigor of Puseyism is taking place in the Anglican Church. One of its leading Quarterlies, the Christian Re ance:"It has been the fault of the English Church that it has been over-jealous of its own standard, and looked with too much suspicion on zeal and energy wherever they have at all deviated from it. This is an old topic. There is the case of Wesley and the Methodists in the last century. This jealousy does, indeed, lie very deep in the main body of our people. They will allow no interval between the substantial squire's, the reputable tradesman's model, and fatuity. And yet there is a cry on all sides for workers. We hear how much is wanted to be done, how the people are perishing for want of knowledge, and vice reigning in our crowded cities. But the worker comes, and because he does not do his work exactly in the way we want, he is dismissed. But if we wait for the convenient and accommodating workmen, who will have all the trouble and have none of the choice, we shall wait long enough. How idle is such a course; how unworthy of serious minds, who want good to be done, know there must be workmen to do it, and know the laws of work! See the necessities of the case then, and submit to them. Keep your workman, with his peculiarities, and use his large zeal, his unwearied activity, his noble devotion and selfdenial. In a word, be liberal." That's to the point-and as full of good sense as of good sen timent. The leading article in the last No. of Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature-one of the most elaborate and valuable of English periodicals |