play. Hence the great mass of flesh upon the breast, where are accumulated all the muscles needed to depress the wings, and so raise the body in the air.

Obviously, the further an organ is removed from the centre of gravity, the more inconvenient would it be to have its weight and bulk augmented. Thus the arm of a bird is reduced to what is barely necessary to sustain the great feathers of the wing, and to extend or fold the arm itself. The hand is diminished to an extreme degree, and its few rudimentary fingers are closely bound together. Yet birds have many very handy acts to perform, and have often to weave wonderfully dexterous structures in their nest building. For this the bill has to serve as a hand, and is, indeed, a most skillful and delicate organ of prehension. Yet such an organ it could not be, were it not for the great mobility of the neck which, even when the neck is short, is such as to enable the bird to turn its head round and look directly over its back.

So careful is the packing process in birds, that the parts which grind the food and act as teeth, are placed, not in the jaws, but in the centre of the body-in the gizzard. These parts consist of small stones, which most birds swallow for this purpose-all those, that is, which feed on grain and other substances that require grinding.

In man and beast the organ of voice the larynx-is situated high up, close beneath the root of the tongue; but in birds, even the vocal organ-known in them os "syrinx"is brought near the centre of gravity. Instead of being, as, in us, at the summit of the windpipe, it is situated at the lower end of that tube, just where it divides into the two bronchi.

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A very wonderful organ is the eye of the bird. To say that a man has the "eye of a hawk," is a familiar expression to denote great keenness of vision; but when we reflect that such a bird has often to observe its prey on the high ground from a great height, and to descend rapidly and seize it, keeping it all the time well in view during its descent, it becomes plain to us how delicate and extensive its powers of adjustment must be. Birds have a special mechanism for sweeping the eye, rapidly and often, by means of a third eyelid. This may be seen any day by observing for a short time the eye of some eagle in a Zoological Garden, and noting the film which seems at frequent intervals to shroud it for a moment.

Birds are the only animals, besides man, which can be taught distinctly to articulate and utter sentences, which, though not understood by the birds themselves, are none the less surprising to listen to.

The great distinctness with which birds are marked off from every other class of animals, also gives them an additional interest in the eyes of many persons who have some knowledge of natural history. They are the most easily defined of any class, since the two words, "feathered creatures," suffice to define them. Every bird possesses feathers, but no creature which is not a bird has anything of the kind.-Quarterly Review, London.

HOLY SCRIPTURES AND INERRENCY.

The holy Scriptures are from God, as abundantly proved by internal and external evidence. We see and feel that they were given by inspiration of God. We are deeply impressed with their divinity. But as the Messiah was human and divine, "very

unex

God and very man," so, these Scriptures have both the human and the divine elements, with this difference, that while the human in the Christ was without imperfection, the inspired writers of the Scriptures were still obviously imperfect men. Either from their imperfection or from the imperfection of those who followed them in the handling of the Scriptures, there are, so far as our present knowledge enables us to see, plained errancies in these writings. They are to the full orb of these Scriptures, like the spots on the sun's disk, utterly insignificant, though a cause of stumbling to the ignorantly superstitious and the undevout, yet hardly thought of by those who dwell in the warmth and sunshine of this light of God. There are two methods of dealing with these. One method is that indicated by the caption of this article, stoutly to insist that there were sixty-six writings originally given without "spot or wrinkle or any such thing," with no sign or semblance or errancy or imperfection and that whatever errancies appear, are stains from human handling of these writings since. This is a modern patent method and convenient to use for some purposes, especially as no one in the wide world can prove that it is not true. Even if we could get access to the original manuscripts, and should find any errancies in them, that would prove upon this method, that they were not the original manuscripts.

The other method is the common one among the devout and candid, to admit that there are apparent errancies which we have not the means at hand to fully explain; so many of them can be reasonably explained, that there is good reason to think all could be were the materials at hand and the whole sum of them is really as insignificant, amid the full shining

of the sacred Scriptures, as the spots on the face of the glorious orb of day.

Which of these methods is the better? The first of these invites at once the challenge to produce the original manuscripts, an impossibility except by a miracle. It seeks to defend the creation by impeaching the providence. The Scriptures were created perfect but were not preserved from imperfection when they came into practical use among men. method is utterly impracticable, even though a oonvenient basis for an anthema against some heresy.

This

The other method says, the Holy Scriptures which we have are the Word of God able to make us wise unto salvation. They shine out to us with a divine light. They show to us God and the salvation by his dear Son. They are the light of our feet, the lamp of our path. This method honors both the creation and providence as to the Scriptures. They were given by God and have been wonderfully preserved by him. They come with such credentials, and shine with such light, and with such accumulating evidence, that any errancies which we may not have the means to explain, may be numbered among the thousands of the unexplained things of our daily experience, in the same world created by the same hand which gave the Scriptures to man.-Edwin L. Hurd, D.D., in Mid-Continent.

tion and attachment of the Welsh people, while the interest taken in it beyond the borders of the Principality grows, year by year, stronger and more sympathetic. It is not very long ago since it was the fashion of English newspapers, and of the leading journal especially, to scoff at the Eisteddfod and its quaint old-world ceremonies, and to condemn its revival as an objectionable and inconvenient attempt to arrest the natural decay of the Welsh tongue and the Anglicisation of Wales. But this outcome of English Philistinism has of late years given place to a juster and more friendly spirit, and a sincere desire to judge and appreciate the Eisteddfod upon its merits, so that today we have a great English journal declaring that "it would be an evil "day both for Wales and all Britain "if the interest of the Welsh in their "national festival should ever wane. The weather at Rhyl upon the first two days of last week's Eisteddfod was not at all inviting, but it does not seem to have had much effect upon the attendance, for nearly ten thousand persons were present at the evening concert on the first day, and two or three thousand more at the chief choral competition on Wednesday. Fortunately the Eisteddfod was not held under canvas, but in a weather-tight pavillion of magnificent proportions in the Rhyl Summer Gardens. A unique feature of this year's national festival was the presidency of the Lord Mayor over the first meeting. We have to go very far back to find another instance of a really Welsh Lord Mayor of London, and Sir David Evans is not only a Welshman by birth and extraction, but has shown himself during his term of office a genuine lover of his native land, its people, language, traditions, and institutions. He has been received at Khyl and in other towns

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in North Wales which he has visited with honors and enthusiasm such as would tend to confirm the notion supposed to be universal among Frenchmen, that "my Lord Mayor" is, next to the Sovereign, the most exalted person in the realm. At a special Gorsedd, bardic honors were conferred upon the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of St. Asaph. The PrincipalElect of Lampeter College, Dean Owen, has also been admitted to the bardic circle. The Marquis of Bute, who presided on Wednesday, paid what he himself remarked was the highest possible compliment to the National Eisteddfod. "There seems to me to rest upon it a gleam of that Aryan sun whose elliptic passes through Hellas, and whose meridian blazed upon her sea-girt shores." The same idea has been expressed in less erudite language by Matthew Arnold, whose affection for Wales was true and discriminating:-"Wales, where the poet still lives; where every place has its traditions, every name its poetry, and where the people-the genuine people-still knows this past, this tradition, this poetry, and lives with it and clings to it." "An Eisteddfod," he said, "is a kind of Olympic meeting, and that the common people of Wales should care for such a thing, shows something Greek in them, something spiritual, something humane, something which in the English common people is not to be found." Lord Bute prefaced his interesting sketch of Welsh history by pointing out that the History of Wales remains to be written. That this should be so. is certainly not because there are no Welshmen competent to undertake the task. Many valuable contributions have been made of late years towards a History of Wales, not the least valuable among them being Professor J. E. Lloyd's lectures de

livered at Oswestry, in 1889, on "The making of the Welsh nation." The collection of material will be greatly facilitated by the publication of Welsh Historical Records, of which there is a vast store in the Record Office, and a great number in private hands. The Cymmrodorion Society which held, as usual, its meetings in connection with the Eisteddfod, has undertaken to continue the series begun by Mr. Henry Owen, of Whitebush, Pembrokeshire, and appeals for funds, which we trust will be forthcoming, to enable them to carry on this important work, in which they ought to receive substantial assistance from the Government as well as from private sources. Sir Theodore Martin, who is always delighted to listen to except when he is talking politics, filled up an interval in Wednesday's proceedings by some appreciative observations upon Welsh choral sing ing. Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, who presided on Thursday, the "Chair Day," happily remarked on the practical side of the Eisteddfod in encouraging Welsh talent and making it known to the world, and mentioned the interesting circumstance that it was an Eistoddfod essay that placed on "the first rung of the ladder," a distinguished Welshman, Professor Rhys, who to-day "stands in the foremost ranks "not only of English, but of European Philologists. Lord Mostyn, who was president on the last day of the Eisteddfod, spoke with true Welsh feeling of the duty of all patriotic Welshmen to do their best to preserve their national language and institutions. The victorious choir in the great choral competition on Wednesday, for a prize of £200, came from Birkenhead, and the winner on Thursday of the great chair prize was a Baptist minister from Glamorganshire, the Rev. E. Gurnos Jones. Amongst the

most interesting literary adjudications was one upon unpublished works of literary research, and the prize was awarded to Mr. Charles Ashton, police constable of Dinas Mawddwy, for a treatise on Welsh Bibliograph from 1801 to 1890. Mr. John Thomas, the Welsh harpist, who was one of the musical adjudicators, took occasion to complain of the comparative indifference of the Welsh people to orchestral music, in spite of efforts made of late years to encourage it. The London contemporary we have before quoted suggests that this may be because "the Welsh choral renderings, without "the accompaniment, are almost too temptingly "beautiful." On Thursday, Dr. Joseph D. Parry's new dramatic oratorio, "Saul of Tarsus," was performed for the first time, and the popular verdict was distinctly in its favor. Next year the National Eistedfod will be held at Pontypridd, and in 1894 in Carnarvon.

(Oswestry Advertiser.)

CELEBRATION OF COLUMBUS DAY.

THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION. Whereas, by a joint resolution approved June 29, 1892, it was resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, "That the President of the United States be authorized and directed to issue a proclamation recommending to the people the observance in all their localities of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, on October 21, 1892, by public demonstration and by suitable exercises in their schools and other places of Assembly":

Now therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, in pursuance of the afore