emblem of courage, it would seem that they regarded great size and strength as indicating it; but they were greatly mistaken in the character they have given to this indolent, skulking animal, and have overlooked a much better example of true courage, and of other virtues also, in the bold and faithful dog.-Library of Entertaining Knowledge.

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

I WOULD not enter on my list of friends
(Though grac'd with polish'd manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility), the man

Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
An inadvertent step may crush the snail,
That crawls at evening in the public path;
But he, that hath humanity, forewarned,
Will step aside, and let the reptile live.
The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,
And charged, perhaps, with venom, that intrudes-
A visitor unwelcome-into scenes

Sacred to neatness and repose,—the alcove,
The chamber, or refectory,-may die:
A necessary act incurs no blame.

Not so, when, held within their proper bounds,
And guiltless of offence, they range the air,
Or take their pastime in the spacious field:
There they are privileged; and he that hunts
Or harms them there, is guilty of a wrong,
Disturbs the economy of nature's realm,
Who, when she form'd, designed them an abode.
The sum is this: If man's convenience, health,
Or safety, interfere, his rights and claims
Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs.
Else they are all-the meanest things that are-
As free to live, and to enjoy that life,
As God was free to form them at the first;

Who, in His sovereign wisdom, made them all.
You, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons
To love it too. The spring-time of your years
Is soon dishonour'd and defiled; in most
By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand
To check them. But, alas! none sooner shoots,
If unrestrained, into luxuriant growth,
Than cruelty, most brutish of them all.
Mercy to him that shews it, is the rule
And righteous limitation of its act,

By which Heaven moves, in pardoning guilty man;
And he that shews none-being ripe in years,
And conscious of the outrage he commits,-
Shall seek it and not find it, in his turn.-Cowper.

1

MAN.

One

MAN presents a vivid contrast to all plants and animals. While they are restricted in their range, while they are confined within certain limits, he wanders unrestrained by extreme heat or severe cold. He alone, of all Creation, is adapted to wander from Pole to Pole whenever he pleases. Alone, but not quite alone. single exception, with regard to the distribution of animals, exists; that exception is the dog. He, man's faithful companion, accompanies him in his wanderings beneath the burning sun of India or amid the snows of Lapland.

The human race is divided into a number of classes. The study of the differences, which decide to which of those classes every member of the race belongs, forms a separate science. It is called Ethnology.

The human race has been divided into five varieties. Each division is distinct from the rest by its own special character, the differences between them being either structural or facial. Structural differences are those caused by various arrangements of the bones which

form the skeleton. Facial differences are those caused by the features of the face: thus the races differ in the nature of the hair, the character of the forehead, the nature of the lips, the prominence or receding of the eyes. Facial differences are manifest to all of us. Compare an Englishman and an African, and you will see how wonderfully they differ.

These five varieties of the human race were the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the African, the American, and the Malay,

I. The Caucasian race is the most advanced and the most civilized of all the nations at present existing. They possess a white skin, varying in shade according to the districts they occupy, black or light-coloured hair generally straight, a high forehead, an oval face, and a small mouth. They occupy all the southern part of

S. VI.

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Asia, (except the Malayan Peninsula,) and the whole of Europe. Wherever located, the Caucasians have become the prominent race. They seem to be continually extending their territories.

The term "Caucasian" is rather misleading, because it makes one suppose that the model Caucasian is found among the Caucasian mountains. But this is quite wrong. The inhabitants of that part of the world belong to the Mongolian class. Dr. Latham thus speaks of the circumstances under which the name was given: "The author of the above divisions had a solitary Georgian skull, and that skull was the finest in his collection. Hence it was taken as the type of the skull of the more organized divisions of our species. More than this, it gave its name to the type, and introduced the term, Caucasian. Never has a single head done more harm to science than was done by the head of this well-shaped female from Georgia."

II. The Mongolians are easily distinguished. The Chinese belong to this class. They have straight foreheads, long straight hair, broad and flat cheek-bones, and yellow skins. A few Mongolian nations have exceeded the district they originally occupied, which consisted of northern and central Asia; the Turks, the Magyars of Austria, and the Laplanders of northern Europe are examples of this variety.

III. No one can mistake an African. His woolly hair, his prominent cheek-bones, his thick lips, and his black skin mark him as distinct from the fair-complexioned Caucasian or the sallow-faced Mongolian. The northern parts of Africa are peopled by descendants of Caucasian races, so that if we wish to see a true negro, we must ascend one of the large streams that empty themselves into the Gulf of Guinea. There the African race is seen in its purity. The Negro race has been the most unfortunate of the five. From early times its members have been enslaved. The present century saw, however, the release of the slave in all civilized countries, and England's efforts to stop the slave-trade, that wicked

traffic in the bodies of men, are now nobly assisted by the greatest nations of the earth.

IV. The American variety chiefly comprise the Indian tribes who people that continent. They possess large statures, receding foreheads, aquiline noses, and coppercoloured skins. The race is rapidly decreasing in numbers, and, ere many years have passed, will become extinct; yet they had attained a high state of civilization in Mexico and Peru, when the Spaniards, under Cortez and Pizarro, conquered those countries.

V. The Malays are so named because the variety chiefly exists in the Malayan peninsula. They have darkcoloured skins, low foreheads, and coarse black hair. The Malays proper are distinguished for their immoral habits and piratical pursuits. Some of the members of this group are the lowest in intellect of all the nations. The Australians belong to this division.

Cuvier, after much study, decided that only three varieties of the human race exist the Caucasian, the Mongolian, and the African; he held that the Americans. and Malays were only portions of the Mongolian class. His views are now held by many learned men. Change of climate and change of habits would rapidly cause the inhabitants of America or the Malay peninsula to differ from the Mongolian.

The great types of humanity continue, and the three great races always exist; but the nations, forming those races, attain to periods of prosperity, and then become extinct, as nations. The great conquering nations of the world have died out; witness the Assyrians, the Persians, and the Romans. The most ancient nation is the Jewish; they continue to increase in number, and to be as "the sand upon the seashore," but they have never regained their ancient prosperity.