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the wounded leg; and now, mindful of this, the dog stood eyeing the superstitious multitude as though he would devour them, and baying with such a deeptoned sepulchral cry, that none dared approach its benefactor. Alas! that men should ever be less catholic and less grateful than dogs! Soon other cries were heard, louder and louder, nearer and nearer; and three other dogs of the same gigantic breed, flew rapidly along the street and joined the lame one, who appeared to be their comrade. There they remained, all of them baying fiercely, until a traveller, mounted on a white horse and accompanied by two more dogs, rode up to the crucifix. He held up his finger, and instantly they were silent, but walked around and around the old man uneasily, as though they expected something would be done for him, their master being a good Samaritan, who never turned away from suffering and distress.

"It was a piteous sight-those locks bedabbled with blood; but it was not the blood that caused the stranger's face to become pale, his knees to tremble, and a mist to rise before his eyes. That old man was his father!

"Discovering that the injury inflicted was not a dangerous one, he covered and bound up the bleeding head. Then, answering not a word to the inquiries of the crowd around him, he remounted his horse, and said to two of the bystanders, 'Lift up that old man into my arms.' They did so, wondering what it meant. And he took into his arms his aged

father, and bidding the horse 'take care,' loosened the reins, and took his way through the city. His dogs surrounded him-a body-guard more faithful than ever fell to the lot of kings and princes.

"When the old man awoke from his swoon, he found himself far from the city, cradled in the arms of his son, who ever and anon bent his manly head to kiss the pale face and hands of his father, while tears rapidly found their way down his cheeks. O, my son,' exclaimed the father, 'is it thou?'

"God bless thee, my father!' said the young man.

"God has blessed me, my son, by permitting me to see thy face before I die. Ten long years have passed since I saw thee, but at morning, noon, and night have I prayed that thy father's God would lift on thee the light of his countenance. Dost thou know him?' "I do, my father.'

"Who revealed him to thee?'

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Children and their Teachers.

SCHOOL JURISPRUDENCE. THE OLD SCHOOLMASTER'S STORY.. WHEN I taught a district school, I adopted it as a principle to give as few rules to my scholars as possible. I had, however, one standing rule, which was, "Strive under all circumstances to do right." And the text of right, under all circumstances, was the GOLDEN RULE, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."

If an offence was committed, it was my invariable practice to ask, "Was it right ?" "Was it doing as you would be done by ?" All my experience and observation have convinced me, that no act of a pupil ought to be regarded as an offence, unless it be when measured by the standard of the Golden Rule. During the last years of my teaching, the only tests I ever applied to an act of which it was necessary to judge, were those of the above questions.

By this course I gained many important advantages.

In the first place, the plea, "You have not made any rule against it," which for a long time was a terrible burden to me, lost all its power.

In the second place, by keeping constantly before the scholars, as a standard of action, the single text of right and wrong as one which they were to apply for themselves, I was enabled to cultivate in them a deep feeling of personal responsibility.

In the third place, I got a stronger hold on their feelings, and acquired a new power of cultivating and directing them.

In the fourth place, I had the satisfaction of seeing them become more truthful, honest, trustworthy, and manly in their intercourse with me, with their friends, and with each other.

Once, however, I was sadly puzzled by an application of the principle, by one of my scholars, George Jones, a large boy -who, partly through a false feeling of honour, and partly through a feeling of stubbornness, refused to give me some information. The circumstances were these:

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"Who was it?"

"I do not wish to tell."

"But you must; it is my duty to ask, and yours to answer me."

I cannot do it, sir," said George firmly. "Then you must stop with me after school."

He stopped as requested, but nothing which I could urge would induce him to reveal anything. At last, out of patience with what I believed to be obstinacy of the boy, I said—

"Well, George, I have borne with you as long as I can, and you must either tell me or be punished."

With a triumphant look, as though conscious that he had cornered me by an application of my favourite rule, he replied, "I can't tell you, because it would not be right; the boy would not like to have me tell of him, and I'll do as I'd be done by."

A few years earlier, I should have deemed a reply thus given an insult, and should have resented it accordingly; but experience and reflection had taught me the folly of this, and that one of the most important applications of my oft-quoted rule was to judge of the motives of others as I would wish to have them judge of mine. Yet, for a moment, I was staggered. His plea was plausible; he might be honest in making it; I did not see in what respect it was fallacious. I felt that it would not do to retreat from my position and suffer the offender to escape, and yet that I should do a great injustice by compelling the boy to do a thing, if he really believed it to be wrong.

After a little pause, I said, "Well, George, I do not wish you to do any thing which is wrong, or which conflicts with our golden rule. We will leave this for to-night, and perhaps you will alter your mind before to-morrow."

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I saw him privately before school, and found him more firm in the refusal than After the devotional exercises of the morning, I began to question the scholars (as was my wont) on various points of duty, and gradually led the conversation to the golden rule.

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Who," I asked, "are the persons to whom, as members of this school, you ought to do as you would be done by ? Your parents who support you and send you here? your schoolmates who are engaged in the same work with yourselves? the citizens of the town, who, by taxing themselves, raise money to pay the expenses of this school? the school committee, who take so great an interest in your welfare? your teacher? or the scholar who carelessly or wilfully commits some offence against good order? A hearty "Yes," was responded to every question.

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Then, addressing George, I said, "Yesterday I asked you who had committed a certain offence? You refused to tell me, because you thought it would not be doing

as you would be done by. I now wish you to reconsider the subject. On one side are your parents, your schoolmates, the citizens of this town, the school committee, and your teacher, all deeply interested in everything affecting the prosperity of this school. On the other side, is the boy who, by his act, has shown himself ready to injure all these. To which

party will you do as you would be done by ?"

After a moment's pause, he said, "To the first; it was William Brown who did it."

My triumph, or rather the triumph of the principle, was complete, and the lesson was as deeply felt by the other members of the school, as by him for whom it was designed. Rhode Island School-master.

Notes of the Month.

ASTRONOMY.

THE Sun rises on the 1st at eight minutes after eight; on the 17th at eight; and on the 31st at forty-three minutes past seven: he sets on the same days respectively at four, twenty-one minutes past four, and forty-five minutes past four. His nearest position to the earth during the year occurs on the 2nd, when he will be 93,408,300 miles distant. He enters Aquarius on the 20th. The length of the day increases one hour and ten minutes during the month.

The Moon is full on the 10th and new on the 25th. She rises on the 4th at fifteen minutes before twelve at noon, and shines two hours and a half past midnight; on the 11th she rises at nineteen minutes past five to shine all night; on the 18th she does not rise until fortyseven minutes past midnight; and on the 25th is invisible.

Mercury may be advantageously observed from the 12th to the 20th, being visible to the naked eye for a few days in the W. S. W. near the horizon.

Venus is an evening star, setting on the 1st at half-past seven, and on the 31st at two minutes before nine. She is about twenty-one degrees north of Fomalhaut on the 17th and 18th, and near the beautiful crescent of the moon on the 28th.

Mars sets before Venus, and on the 28th will be, with her, in the neighbourhood of the young moon.

Jupiter sets on the 1st at twenty-four minutes after eleven at night, and on the 31st at six minutes before ten. He is very near the moon on the 2nd, and also on the 30th.

On the 1st Saturn is on the meridian

at midnight, and occupies the same position at eight minutes before ten on the 31st. He is visible throughout the night, and is found nearly upon a line stretching from Pollux to Aldebaran, and another drawn from Alpha Orionis to Castor; Procyon lying about twentythree degrees south-easterly.

OBSERVATIONS ON NATURE.

JANUARY.

ALTHOUGH the most severe weather in the whole year generally occurs in this month, yet nature, towards the end, begins to show signs of reviving from torpidity. It is at this period of the year that all the lowest orders of plants are seen to the most advantage-and some are very remarkable; -amongst which may be mentioned particularly the red, blue, and yellow snows, which have at different periods produced so much surprise and alarm. The red snow (Protococcus nivea) excited great attention on Captain Ross's return from the North Pole in 1819. The phenomena of coloured snows appear to depend on the sudden appearance of these minute plants, each individual consisting of one small cell, filled with a crimson fluid. This Protococcus, together with the gory dew (Palmella cruenta), and rain of blood (Lepraria Kermesina), with others called reeks and earth sweats, and two very minute animalculæ, called Enchusa sanguinea, and Hydrodictyon utriculatum, will sometimes suddenly appear in such abundance as to tinge pools and rivers of water with the hue of blood. Many accounts are recorded of heavy falls of red, green, blue, or yellow snow. Blue snow is produced by Protococcus cobaltiginea; green snow by Palmella botyroides; and yellow

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snow by Lepraria chlorina and candelaris; and other tints by minute plants of a similar character. Both red, blue, and green snow and ice were seen by the expedition under Baron Wrangel to the Frozen Ocean.

Baron Humboldt describes red hail falling at Paramo de Guanacos on the road from Bogota to Popaya. Argardh mentions several instances at different periods wherein both rain and snow have fallen, and which have been considered by the inhabitants of those neighbourhoods as proofs of the anger of the Deity. The same learned professor says that red snow is common in all the Alpine districts of Europe, and is probably the same species met with by Captain Ross, which he found to cover a surface of eight miles in length, and lying to the depth of 10 or 12 feet. Saussure saw abundance of it in the Alps of Switzerland; Raymond found it in the Pyrenees, and Somerfeldt in Norway. In March, 1808, the country around Cadore, Belluno, and Felti was in a single night covered with red snow 20 centimetres deep, and a similar fall took place at the same time on the mountains of Brescia, Krain, and the Tyrol. In 1803, March 5th and April 15, large showers of red snow fell on the mountains of Toual in Italy; but the most remarkable fall of this kind took place in March,

1823, in Calabria, Abruzzo in Tuscany, at Bologna, and all along the chain of the Apennines.

A few plants of a higher order exhibit their blossoms towards the end, if the weather is open and fine; amongst which may be mentioned the Christmas rose (Helleborus niger), winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), the violet (Viola odorata), the furze (Ulex Europaus), and a few others.

Birds. The missel thrush (Turdus viscivorus) begins its monotonous song. This is the earliest songster we have. The red-breast (Sylvia rubecula) and the house sparrow frequently begin to build their nests at the end of the month. The golden-crested wren (Sylvia regulus), the smallest of our European birds, may now be seen in thick hedges near our dwellings. In summer it is seldom seen, as it then retires to more unfrequented places, and rarely approaches human habitations except in severe weather. It is wonderful how so small and delicately formed a bird can endure the rigours of winter; yet it seems to brave the cold quite as well as those apparently more hardy; perhaps the constant exercise which it uses in seeking for its food may account for it.

Insects. Not many insects now appear. One or two species of moths and a few gnats constitute the chief.

Notices of Books.

An Exposition of the Parables and Express Similitudes of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherein also many things are doctrinally handled and improved by way of Application. By Benjamin Keach, Author of "Tropologia: a Key to open Scripture Metaphors." London: W. H. Collingridge. By those who know how much the laborious treatises of the old Puritan and Nonconformist divines have been sought after for many years, and how eagerly good copies have been purchased by divinity students and collectors of rare theological works, the publication at a cheap rate of any which for their sterling excellence, sound orthodoxy, and practical usefulness, have stood their ground in the

estimation of the general Christian community for one and a half or two centuries, will be received as a boon to the present generation of preachers.

This edition of Keach on the Parables is uniform with that author's "Key to Scripture Metaphors," and is issued at a very moderate price, twelve shillings and sixpence, in a large thick imperial octavo volume. As a laborious, minute, and careful exposition of all things in scripture that can be classed as parables, or parabolic, it has not its equal in the language, while its orthodoxy and its great value as an almost inexhaustible repertory of useful practical observation and evangelical sentiment are unquestioned,

The author was a Calvinistic divine, and does not fail to embody his peculiar opinions, thus detracting in some measure from the intrinsic value of the whole treatise; but it may nevertheless be consulted with advantage and profit by the adherents of other schools of theology than his

own.

We should not perform our duty, however, if we did not point out one serious defect in this edition. It is with real sorrow that we observe on almost every page of this otherwise desirable and handsome book, numerous errors of the press; and these not merely wrong letters and misspelled words, but whole words substituted for the original words of the author, evidently the fault of the compositor in the first instance, and left undetected by the corrector of the press through want of careful reading and revision. We are aware that much allowance must be made on the score of the really interesting fact that this book is produced at the Bonmahon Industrial School, by raw Irish lads who have been but recently raised from utter ignorance and destitution to the positions of compositors and pressmen; but it is surely possible for the intelligent, enterprising minister who is at the head of that deeply interesting movement to secure or apply more careful and conscientious pains-taking editorship than is manifestly bestowed on this work. It detracts so much from the practical value of the work that we sincerely hope a second edition will be more correctly printed.

An Outline of the Discipline of the Wesleyan Methodists. By Thomas Shaw, Wesleyan Minister; and William Cooper, Solicitor. London: Partridge and Co.

A BRIEF, cheap, and comprehensive manual of Wesleyan discipline has long been a desideratum in the body, and the hope has often been expressed that such a manual would be prepared under proper sanction, that the societies might have an authentic code of regulations for guidance and reference. So certainly has this been felt to be a real want that the Conference has more than once resolved to supply it, and appointed a Committee to carry out the resolution. To the present time, however, the work

remains undone. The Connexion possesses no book of discipline or collection of laws but the bulky volumes of "Minutes of Conference," with no guide to the actual state of the law but its desultory amendment or augmentation year by year, or its practical application as cases of discipline arise.

The existence of a book like Grindrod's "Compendium" abates in no degree the force of this observation. Comprehensive and valuable as that digest of Methodist law undoubtedly is for general purposes, it possesses no authority, for Wesleyan usage admits of no appeal to authority less than that of the Conference itself: and the present publication, though brought down to the present time, and containing the latest enactments, must be placed in the same category.

The work is very appropriately "dedicated to the Local Preachers, Leaders, Trustees, and Stewards of the Wesleyan Societies, for whose use it is especially designed." We have looked carefully through it, and gladly bear our testimony to the fact of its being a fair summary of Methodist law and usage, and one that may be used with facility and advantage by all persons interested in the official business of the Connexion. But let none suppose it is a book to be quoted against the presiding minister in any official meeting; for in the Wesleyan Connexion, singularly enough, the expounder of the law has often proved to be more than a match for the law itself.

There is one great defect in this compendium which we hope will be remedied in a succeeding edition. There are no references to the original minutes in which the various portions of the discipline, &c. may be found-a point of considerable importance when their verification becomes necessary. We perceive the compilers have not deemed it requisite to adhere uniformly to the verbiage of the minutes in their statement of administrative details; and are the more surprised therefore that they should have allowed some specimens of bad grammar and composition to appear, even though they may have the sanction (by no means certain to us) of antique wording and long usage.

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