formed, without an acquaintance with that Sacred Oracle, which emanated from God himself; which is the record of his power, and the token of his mercy; which displays him to us as the father, the protector, and saviour of his people; which gives us lessons for ur conduct through life, and holds out to us the hope of eternal happiness after death? Surely, then, to deprive men of the knowledge of this inestimable volume, would be to degrade them from the rank of rational beings, to throw them back into the darkest night of superstition and ignorance, to destroy the noblest incentives to virtue, and to give them up as the prey of every evil disposition inherent in human nature: "The mind untaught Is a dark waste, where fiends and tempests howl, Nor can I think that a moderate acquaintance with what is usually termed politics, can be at all prejudicial to the morals or the intellects of the mechanic or the labourer. Here again I must revert to my former position, that ignorance is more liable than knowledge, to error. No man, with the smallest pretensions to literature, would give credit to the wild absurdities and impossible plans of the Spencean politicians; no man, with the smallest portion of refined taste, would place the height of felicity in being able to procure 76 gin at a penny a quart:" such theories and such bliss can attract none but the most ignorant and the most depraved. The man who has made the laws and the constitution of his country the objects of his rational study, will perceive that the fault lies not in the enactment, but in the administration of them; he will therefore wish to preserve rather than destroy the laws, and the objects of his just resentment will be those who, by perverting them, have in fact rendered them worse than nugatory. With respect to emigration, indeed, as Sir Roger de Coverley observes, "much may be said on both sides." I intend not to enter here into a discussion of its expediency or inexpediency. I shall only just remark, that when, by the tyranny of the rulers, or the rapacity of the rich, the labourer is unable to procure, in his native land, subsistence for himself and his family, in return for his labour, I know not by what law of nature or reason he can be censured for seeking it elsewhere. The occurrence is undoubtedly to be deplored, but the fault cannot, surely, rest upon him. He has a sacred duty to perform, a duty above all others, that of providing food for the children of his love, and the partner of his cares and joys. I do not, indeed, imagine, with D******, that one age lives merely for the advantage of the succeeding ones; but certain it is that we reap the fruits of the industry, and the genius of our predecessors; and it is as certainly the duty of every one to contribute his share (small though it may be) to the general fund of knowledge and happiness. What we have received from our fathers we should not be contented to transmit to our children, without an attempt, at least, at improvement. It should be the object of every man to leave behind him some memorial of his existence, some proof that he once lived, and that he wasted not his life in indolent uselessness. Cold is the heart, chill is the philosophy, that would confine the exertions of talent and benevolence to the narrow sphere of the present generation. A few short years will indeed close our mortal career, but shall we not endeavour to merit immortality by acts of kindness and beneficence? Shall we not endeavour to raise for ourselves a monument in the hearts of our offspring? Shall we not strive to obtain a wreath of laurel for our brows, which will be cherished by the love, and bedewed with the tears, of posterity? I am conscious that he who attempts to discover faults in others, should be very cautious lest he betray his own, and thus turn the censure which he has prepared for them, upon himself. I know that there must be many imperfections in this hasty sketch, the product of an hour snatched from almost ceaseless occupation; but as I have endeavoured to remark with candour upon what I consider to be erroneous, as I wish rather to act the friend than play the critic, I hope that this effort may be regarded not as the off spring of captious and ignorant petulance, but as the calm remonstrance of one who feels himself interested on the subject. June 1st, 1819. J. R. NATURAL PHENOMENA. No. 18.-THE CAMELEON. "THE Cameleon," says Mr. Corry, in his observations on the windward coast of Africa, "is a native of the Torrid Zone, and is a genus of the lizard: the faculty of assuming the colour of every object which it approaches is ascribed to it, and other singular properties; but there are rare phenomena not so well understood, such as its absorption and expulsion of air at pleasure, its property of living a considerable time without any kind of nourishment, and its extraordinary visual advantages, which are perhaps not to be found in any other of the wonderful works of the creation. "I have made various experiments to ascertain these extraordinary properties in this little animal; and I brought home one in a preserved state. "The first object which struck my attention, was the variation of colour; and I am persuaded that it does not assume these from the surrounding objects, but that they proceed from an internal sensation of pain, or otherwise. "From the moment that the liberty of my captive was infringed upon, or when interrupted in its pursuits, it became less sensible of external objects, the vivacity of its colour, and the plumpness of its form underwent a visible change. Its natural colour is a beautiful green; and when in a state of liberty it is to be found on the grass, or lodged on the branches of some tree, ornamented with the gayest foliage; and it would appear that its liberty, and the privilege of living in the grass, are indispensible towards the preservation of its qualities. The colour of its skin, in a perfect state of health, is scarcely discernible from the trees and grass, in which it delights to conceal itself, and is not to be discovered at all without a very minute scrutiny. It remains immoveable for a length of time, and its motions are all cautious and slow, continuing to loll out its tongue,.which is long and glutinous, in order to C secure the little insects that are necessary to its nourishment; and I doubt not but that it has an attractive influence over its prey, for I have observed them continually floating round the Cameleon, when scarcely discernible in any other space. When the tongue is covered with a sufficient quantity it draws it in instantaneously, and by incessantly repeating the operation, all the insects within its reach are taken in the snare. That its health and existence depend upon being in the grass, I am persuaded, from the change occasioned by placing it in gravel or sand, when it immediately assumes a yellow tinge, its form is reduced considerably, and the air expelled, with which the body of this animal is inflated, so as visibly to reduce the size. If they are irritated in this situation, they expel the air so strong as even to be heard, gradually decreasing in size, and becoming more dull in colour, until at length they are almost black; but upon being carried into the grass, or placed on the branches of a tree, they quickly assume their wonted solidity and appearance. "The victims of my observation I have frequently wrapped in cloth of various colours, and have left them for a considerable time, but when I visited them I did not find that they partook of any of the colours, but uniformly were of a tarnished yellow, or greyish black, the colours they always assume when in a state of suffering and distress; and I never could succeed in making them take any other when in a situation of constraint. "The skin of the Cameleon is of a very soft and delicate texture, and appears to the observer similar to a shagreen skin, elastic and pliable; and it may be owing to this extraordinary construction that it changes its colour and size with that facility which astonishes us; but what may be considered as a more wonderful faculty is, its expanding and contracting itself at pleasure, and, as it were, retaining the fluid in an uniform manner, when in health, but exhaling it when in a state of suffering, so as to reduce its dimensions to a more contracted size. Its peculiar organization is such, that the atmospheric air which it inhales so generally throughout every part of its body, distends and projects even its eyes and extremities. I have frequently seen it after many days fasting become suddenly plump, and continue so for a fortnight, when immediately it became nothing but a skeleton of skin and bone. "The tenuity of its body is at these seasons astonishing; the spine of its back becomes pointed, the flesh of its sides adheres to each other, and apparently form one united substance, when it will, in a few hours, at pleasure, resume its round state; and this appears to me to be a most extraordinary circumstance in the construction of this animal, which invites the minutest research of the naturalist. "To convince myself how far the assertion might be admitted that the Cameleon can exist upon air, I have placed them in a cage, so constructed as to exclude any thing else, even the minutest insect: when I have visited my captives, they have opened their mouths and expelled the air towards me so as to be felt and heard. In the first stage of their privation and imprisonment, which has continued for more than a month, I have found them in continual motion around their prison, but afterwards their excursions became more circumscribed, and they have sunk to the bottom, when their powers of distension and contraction became languid and decreased, and were never again capable of performing their accustomed transformation. The one which I brought to England preserved in spirits, after undergoing upwards of two months of famine, when I carried it among the grass, or placed it in the thick foliage of a trec, in little more than a week regained its green colour, and power of expansion; but not contented with my experiment, and determined to ascertain it to the utmost, I redoubled my precautions to exclude every thing but air, and my devoted victim was doomed to another series of trial, and continued to exist upwards of a month, when it fell a sacrifice to my curiosity. "The eyes of the Cameleon may also be considered a remarkable singularity; they are covered with a thin membrane, which nature has given it to supply the want of eye-lids, and this membrane is sunk in the centre by a lengthened hole, which forms an orifice, |