he certainly erred; but who does not now acknowledge that the spirit he awoke, and the aspirations and tendencies he produced and cherished, have proved incalculably beneficial to his country? The humble peasantry of Scotland were placed on a level, in his time, with the rich and educated of the neighbouring country; and Sylvanus Urban, while he gratefully acknowledged communications from the neighbourhood of London, from Eton, and Oxford, had also to return thanks to his numerous Scottish contributors, who kept pouring in upon him contributions from all quarters of the country. The success of the Gentleman's Magazine' brought a rival into the field, the 'London,' namely, which met with an encouragement at least equal to that already bestowed on its illustrious predecessor. Both were extensively circulated in Scotland, and such progress had literature made in the year 1739, that a company of booksellers, Sands, Brymer, Murray, and Cochrane, started in that year the celebrated periodical known for so many years under the title of the Scots Magazine.' In our next notice we will trace the further progress of national literature, accompanied with notices of some of the poets who flourished at the time. MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER. Here a The hides are chiefly procured from different parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, those of the British market being quite unequal to the trade requirements. The preparation of cow and ox skins is much more tedious than may, at first sight, be supposed. When brought to the tan-yard, such skins are softened, by being placed in pits filled with water, whence, after remaining a day or two, they are transferred to other pits, filled with limewater. In the latter they remain for a fortnight. The lime opens the pores of the skin, and the hair being scraped off, with large knives, they are again subjected to the water process, and, instead of lime, a certain kind of animal manure is mixed with the water. In this state they remain from three to ten days, according to the state of the weather. On being taken from the pit, the knife is once more applied, to extract the grease, which easily yields to the chemical action of the manure, and exudes in large quantities. At this stage, the skins are tolerably clean; but they are still liable, like other animal matter, to decomposition, and require another process, and that the most tedious and troublesome of all. They are placed again in immense pits of water, to which the bark of trees (principally English oak) is added profusely. great chemical change takes place. The animal fibre becomes ligneous, and the entire skin, previously liable to decay, is made indestructible. This, however, takes eight or ten months to accomplish, and in some cases much longer. The former periods serve for the leather commonly used for the soles,' and about three months for the 'uppers' of shoes; but the stronger sorts, sometimes made for colliery pumps, are kept in the pits for two or three years. After being dried, this description of leather is sent to the merchant. The lighter qualities, such as sheep and goat skins, are another and different department. After being cleaned, in nearly the same manner as the others, the former are taken to an immense hydrostatic press, and subjected to a pressure of about a thousand tons, by which the grease is extracted. They are next sewed together, like sacks, and, being filled with shumac, are placed in large vats of warm liquors, where the tanning process is completed in about twenty-four hours. The dyeing or colouring afterwards takes place. It is done by the aid of cochineal, indigo, and other substances, and is a process of which the English tanners need never have any fear of foreign competition, as nowhere can it be done so cheaply and so well as in this country. The shaving,' or taking off the flesh, follows the dyeing; and this is done with a knife of peculiar construction. The last and finishing' process consists of rubbing the leather with a wooden ball, to impart a glossy shade and shining appearance. The only difference in dressing the goat and sheep skins is that the former require no pressing.-Newcastle Guardian. MAN'S INHUMANITY TO MAN. The true misery of the world is not so much that there are in it pain and afflictions, as that humanity, the image of God, is defaced, degraded, and trodden under foot.-The Herbenger. NOTHING. In vain I shall attempt an ode On what I nothing have to say: Of nothing, nothing can be made, And after all the trouble that We take, and turnings round about, We find ourselves precisely at The point from which we first set out. Is nothing in the boundless sea, 'Mongst coral rocks and crystal spars? Is nothing in the milky way," 'Midst myriads of clust'ring stars? Could we find nothing anywhereIn any individual place, We need not then so much despair But both are equally absurd, And foreign to the human mind; And cut it (mentally) in twain, At pleasure from the human mind, But contradiction, beyond doubt: This airy nothing' to find out. I by this sophistry have proved SINGULAR MARINE PRODUCTION. HERMIONE. A remarkable marine production was fished up lately in Lochryan, by the oyster dredgers. It has the appearance of a small tree, or rather clump of trees, rooted in sponge. It is quite perfect, notwithstanding the rude process of its discovery. Its branches are of the most deli- | cate, flexible, and beautiful structure, nearly transparent. and so light and feathery as to wave with the utmost grace on the slightest breath. We are told that, on examination with the microscope, apertures or mouths have been discovered in the branches; and we heard it keenly canvassed, whether it belongs to the animal or the vege table kingdom.-Galloway Advertiser. Printed and published by JAMES HOGG, 122 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh; to whom all communications are to be addressed. Sold also by J. JOHNSTONE, Edinburgh; J. M'LEOD, Glasgow; W. CURRY, jun. & Co., Ireland; R. GROOMBRIDGE & SONS, Lon-ion; W. M'COMB, Belfast; G. & R. KING, Aberdeen; R. WALKER, Dundee; G. PHILIP, Liverpool; FINLAY & CHARLTON, Newcastle; WRIGHTSON & WEBB, Birmingham; A. HEYWOOD and J. AINS 1 WORTH, Manchester; G. CULLINGWORTH, Leeds; and all Booksellers. C. MACKENZIE & Co., Halifax, Nova Scotia. EDINBURGH, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1846. No. 96. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. REV. DR BENNIE. IT has frequently, and with great truth, been remarked, that the lives of men devoted to study, and to the active discharge of the duties of the clerical character, do not yield very abundant materials for the pen of the biographer. The history of years passed in the retirement necessary to the pursuit of learning, or spent in the quiet discharge of the pastoral office, cannot but be deficient in those striking incidents which add so great a charm to the history of individuals. But, true as this is, yet the progress and the career of those who have distinguished themselves for any species of excellence, even when barren of incident, can never be devoid of deep and permanent interest in the view of every well-constituted mind. The great heathen moralist and philosopher has beautifully said, 'the wise are friends to the wise, even though unknown to them,' and consistently with the maxim, founded as it is on the constitution of the human mind, the biography of those distinguished for wisdom and worth can never fail to possess abundant charms for all the worthy and the wise. We feel assured that the following memoir of a distinguished clergyman recently deceased, will, although necessarily brief and imperfect, gratify our readers. PRICE 14d. of ease, Glasgow. In these scenes of his earlier labours, Dr Bennie exhibited the same industry and application in the pursuit of learning, the same zeal in the performance of his pastoral duties, the same care in preparing for his public ministrations, by which he was distinguished in his maturer career. From Glasgow he was promoted, in 1825, to the first charge in the West Church of Stirling; and on a vacancy occurring in Lady Yester's parish in the metropolis, he was, in 1835, appointed to that important charge. In all these spheres of labour, demanding, although they did, the utmost exertion, a course of prosperity and success not often equalled and rarely surpassed attended his ministrations. A few years ago he was appointed one of the deans of the Chapel Royal, Holyrood House. In Edinburgh, his career was of the most brilliant kind. The position which he was there called to occupy was such as brought his eminent talents into full activity; for, in addition to having a large congregation of hearers of almost all classes, a considerable portion of Lady Yester's church is appropriated to the accommodation of students at the University. He now justified all the high expectations his friends had indulged in regarding him, and proved himself to be in no ordinary degree endowed with those qualities of head and heart, requisite to form a successful herald of the 'glad tidings.' The power and eloquence with which he made known the 'truth as it is in Jesus' will long be remembered. His discourses were all of a high order, and many of them were very fine models of pulpit oratory, remarkable at once for logical accuracy and rhetorical embellishment; enforcing, by arguments the most cogent and unanswerable, the truths of our holy faith; and exhibiting, by means of brilliant and striking illustrations, the nature of those hopes and prospects possessed by the children of God. The Rev. Dr Archibald Bennie, minister of Lady Yester's parish, in the city of Edinburgh, was, as we believe, born in 1798, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow. By the affectionate care and industry of his immediate relatives, the great talents of which he early proved himself the possessor were fostered and directed; and while a student at the university of Glasgow, his great industry and rapid improvement not only gratified and delighted his friends, but convinced them that in any profession to which he should direct his energies he could scarcely fail of attaining emi-mand for discourses of a very high order must impede the nence. The result has verified this sanguine expectation. Few men have been more distinguished in the quiet sphere in which the clergyman is called to labour in his Master's service, than the lamented subject of this sketch, and few have left behind them a sweeter memorial. Having directed his views to the ministry, Dr Bennie received license from his presbytery as a preacher of the gospel, soon after attaining the age required by the laws of the church. It was impossible that, with his superior fitness for the sacred office, he could long remain without a cure. Accordingly, after a shorter probation than usual, in 1823 he was ordained as assistant and successor to the Rev. Henry Muschat in the chapel of ease at Shettleston, and in the following year was chosen as assistant and successor to the Rev. John McLeod, in Cannon Street chapel It may naturally be expected that the perpetual de regular discharge of the other duties of the sacred office. This is very frequently proved to be the case. But to the astonishment of all, save those who best knew the indomitable energy of Dr Bennie's mind, he was to the last as constantly engaged in domiciliary visitation as if it had been the sole business of his ministry. Nothing could exceed the rigid punctuality and affectionate zeal with which he went in and out among his flock, unless it were his remarkable fitness for the duty. He was instant 'in season and out of season;' while his genuine and vital piety, which was within him as a perpetual spring-his ready sagacity-his cheerful disposition-his kindness and benevolence-peculiarly adapted him to the work. He identified himself in a great measure with the hopes, and sympathies, and aspirations of his people, and left no thing undone that might promote their growth in divine wisdom. The life of an active Christian has been beautifully compared with that of a bee which all day long is occupied in flying from the hive to the flower, or from the flower to the hive, in order to promote the interests of the community to which it belongs. The idea is pressed upon our minds in contemplating the career of the subject of our sketch. While no clergyman could be more exemplary in the performance of his clerical duties, no man was more anxious or made more exertion to promote the best interests of his fellow-citizens. The addresses which he delivered to the students of the Edinburgh School of Arts in his character of President of that institution, were a proof| of his enlightened zeal in the sacred cause of education; and the parental solicitude with which he regarded the progress and welfare of the youth under training in Heriot's Hospital, of which he was a governor, proved his anxiety to strain every nerve in order to promote, as far as his influence enabled him, the best interests, whether secular or spiritual, of the community. In a word, in every relation in which he was placed, his life formed a beautiful illustration of those blessed truths which he so sincerely believed and so eloquently expounded. The name of Dr Bennie will long remain a household word among the members of his sorrowing flock; but a far nobler memorial of his work and labour of love is inscribed in that book of remembrance, that record on high, which is written for the faithful servants of the King of Zion. Dr Bennie possessed a most acute and vigorous intellect, a warm and vivid imagination, and a ready and quick apprehension; and his natural gifts' were enriched by very considerable learning. He was an excellent classical scholar, a learned theologian, and possessed a large share of scientific and general knowledge. His extreme readiness in reply, and the acuteness and point of his observations when engaged in any controversy, would have enabled him to rise to distinction as a barrister, had he turned his talents in that direction. It is matter of regret that, with the exception of his sermons (some of which are shortly to be given to the public), and some literary pieces, written during his few periods of leisure, he has left nothing really worthy of his talents. A working clergyman, however high his talents and great his learning, has little time to devote to literary pursuits. It is to be deplored that a man of whom it may be truly said that he touched nothing without adorning it,' had not leisure enough to prepare any important publication. But he was occupied in what he felt to be more important-in preaching to his flock the unsearchable riches of Christ, and leading them to exemplify in their lives the faith delivered to them, and so enabling them To read their title clear To mansions in the skies.' There are circumstances of a very striking character connected with the close of the useful life of this faithful servant. How frequently does it happen that the most gifted clergymen outlive their influence and popularity! How often does it occur that, after a bright career in the season of youth and maturity, a minister, even before he is rendered unfit for duty by the advances of old age, is cruelly forsaken and left with a mere handful of his former flock! This must be a very painful trial. Very different was the experience of the lamented subject of this sketch. As his course began so it ended. From year to year, his vigorous mind enabled him to present ever new and ever varying views of the truth to his people, and there was no period when he exercised a greater influence than at that of his decease. He was called to put off his armour and lay down his weapons, not at evening when the labour of the day was over, but at noon-in comparative youth—and in the midst of a most active and useful ministry. There was no farewell from the pulpit; his last discourse possessed all the usual marks of his peculiar style, the same earnestness, the same animation. He felt indeed indisposed; but it seemed as if but a few weeks of rest were required, when, after a sojourn amid the refreshing breezes of the western coast, he would again return to his beloved flock, and his severe but delightful labours. But they were to behold no more the zealous pastor whose friendly smile, and kindly greeting, and ready advice, and cheerful aid, rendered him so justly dear; the voice that encouraged and taught, animated and cheered them, was suddenly silenced for ever. His death took place at Dunoon, Argyllshire, on the 21st of September, 1846. He died as he lived, an active servant of his Lord and Master; the course begun in brilliancy ended in splendour, like that star, to use the beautiful figure of a sacred poet, which, instead of setting at evening among clouds and in the darkening west, is seen at morning to melt,' in all its glory, into the light of heaven.' We shall conclude cur remarks with the following eloquent passage in reference to the subject of this brief memoir, from the pen of one of his brother clergymen :— Though dead he yet speaketh; and that not by his pulpit ministrations alone-his life was a living sermon. Let the memory of his example be to you a solemn, hearttouching sermon from the dead. He held forth the word of life to you, not only from the pulpit but in his habitual walk and conversation, proving himself a humble follower as well as a faithful preacher of the Lamb. But his life was not only pure and blameless, it was laborious—I had almost said intensely laborious; and it is only now that we are filling up the various gaps occasioned by his death, in our ecclesiastical machinery, that we are fully aware of the extent of his self-denying toil. You knew in some measure his anxious and faithful preparation for pulpit duty, and the unwearied diligence of his pastoral care in private; but you did not, you could not know, his daily and (alas, too much!) his nightly toil spent in promoting the education of the young, the spread of scientific knowledge, and the advancement of the interests of the Church toils he persevered in despite of failing strength, almost to the close. He was no monkish sluggard—he was none of those who 'refuse and pull away the shoulder' from the yoke-he had given himself to Jesus and to the Church for Jesus' sake, and he shrunk from no burden his Lord imposed, from no toil the Church required. And were I now permitted to invite you to enter with me the sanctuary of his home, were I permitted to lift the sacred veil which hid his domestic life, were I permitted to speak as freely of the father in the midst of his family as I have done of the pastor in the midst of his peoplebut this I may not do-there are sorrows too sacred to be even breathed upon-there are wounds that must not be touched even by the tenderest hand-May the Holy Spirit the Comforter breathe there a holy peace! may the hand of the Great Physician apply a healing balm! But if his life was thus a living sermon, and if by it he yet speaks, what shall we say of his death? The message was sudden -the dark messenger utterly unexpected until within a very short time of his arrival. As soon as his approach was made known to others it was made known to him. He received the tidings as one who had served the Lord of life too long to dread the approach of death. And the Lord dealt mercifully with his dying servant; no pain disturbed the serenity of his mind; no terrors shook the firmness of his soul; life ebbed peacefully away. I have fought the battle,' he gently murmured-I have fought the battle-Lord give me more grace!-I am ready:' and so he fell asleep.' THE TEA-PLANT. THE merchants, shipowners, and other members of the City Chambers in Liverpool, have lately formed an association, which professes to have for its exclusive object s reduction of the duties at present levied on tea. The design appears, from the tone of the public papers, to be producing almost universal satisfaction; and no wonder. For a social and refreshing beverage, the shrub in question possesses virtues which, from Cowper's day downwards, are allowed to be peerless. For a long time it was a luxury which few but the rich enjoyed; now, however, it has become even to the poor a species of necessary. While efforts are making on the one hand to provide the labouring classes with comfortable and healthy abodes, it becomes equally on the other a duty, by cheapening an article so much calculated to promote social comfort, to put the means of procuring it within the reach of all. Now this is at once accomplished when you reduce the tax on tea. Its original price is very moderate-a pound of bolica when purchased in China scarcely amounts to 10d. To this, however, before it can be sold in Britain, a duty of 2s. 1d. is superadded. It is proposed, therefore, to get up throughout the country as many associations similar to the Liverpool one as possible, for the purpose of applying to parliament for a reduction of this impost to the rate of at least a shilling per pound. The only objection which our legislative assembly can urge, is the injury, of course, which may possibly accrue to the revenue were such petitions granted. It is questionable, however, whether the revenue would suffer or not. A considerable number of those who would be disposed to drink tea, cannot afford to do so at the price to which it is raised by the tax. Now were this duty reduced, the amount lost on each separate pound of tea would be made up by the aggregate impost on a much larger quantity consumed. British tea-drinkers, were the article cheapened, would probably be multiplied 50 per cent. This enlarged consumption of tea supposes also an equally extended use of another exciseable and similarly taxed article-namely, sugar. It is proper also to consider the question in a purely commercial light. China might, under a different system, become a market for British goods to a far greater extent than it is at present. No European nation stands on such a friendly footing with China as our own. This friendship has, ever since the peace, gone on ripening, and becomes yearly more and more evident. But it does appear somewhat hard that while, without any serious fiscal restriction, they are at last receiving goods of British manufacture, we still continue to impose upon their staple produce a tax by which its exportation and consumpt are equally impeded. London, was the surprisingly small quantity of two pounds, of which, as in duty bound, they made an immediate present to his most gracious Majesty, Charles II. Its price was in those days enormous; for a single pound no less than three guineas was charged-a sum not much inferior to £12 of our present money. At that time the company had not entered upon the direct importation of tea from the country in which it is grown, England being then supplied from the Continent. At last, however, an importation from China was announced. Two canisters, each containing 75 pounds, making 150 lbs. in all, arrived by the Gladiator, Captain J. Somers. The order which occasioned this superb arrival is couched in language so singular, that, for the reader's amusement, we shall stay to quote it: In regard tea is grown to be a commodity here, and we have occasion to make presents thereof to our great friends at court, we would have you send us two canisters of the very freshest and best. That which colours the water in which it is infused most of a greenish complexion is most esteemed.' Many of our large London shops will sell more tea in a single day than was imported into Britain during the year 1678, the whole quantity falling under 5000 pounds. Even this limited importation appears to have completely overstocked the market, as the whole that arrived in Britain for the six subsequent years amounted only to 510 pounds. Gradually, however, a considerable number of the English people began to discover that, as a healthy and social beverage, tea was decidedly preferable to the heady nutbrown' which their ancestors had for so many generations set the example of quaffing; and in the year 1699, 20,000 pounds of tea were demanded for the supply of England alone. In 1720, the demand for Britain amounted to above a million of pounds; and from that time, almost without fluctuation, the consumption of tea has increased to its present enormous amount-the quantity imported into Britain during the last twelve months exceeding, we are told, forty millions of pounds. The French are not by any means remarkable for their tea-drinking propensities, coffee being mostly preferred; and in the whole of that vast and populous region, not more than 230,000 pounds are requisite to supply the annual demand. The largest demand upon the Chinese for the luxury in question is, next to Britain, that made by the United States of America, whose inhabitants appear to consume annually the amount of eight millions of pounds. In Russia, tea is in considerable demand. It is carried overland from Kiatska to Tomsk, and thence to Novogorod, partly by land and partly by the rivers. The quantity imported annually is said to exceed five millions of pounds, double that which Holland demands as her supply, which last year amounted only to 2,700,000. The amount of importation to Hamburgh, which may be termed the German demand, seldom exceeds two million pounds, and two hundredweight is sufficient to supply all Italy with the delightful beverage. That the tea trade is capable of vast extension is rendered obvious by the increased exportation which has of late years taken place both to America and Britain; and were still greater demands to pour in upon the Chinese, thus giving encouragement to the cultivation of their valuable shrub, there can be no doubt that this would occasion an instant reciprocal demand for our manufactures. As it is, something should immediately be done. The advocates of temperance are urging the poor man to eschew the use of ale; now, if this is to be left off, surely it is proper to provide at as cheap a rate as may be a preferable substitute. The increase of population obviously requires a cheap and abundant supply of the beverage which shall prove itself the most economical and wholesome; and a regard for the practical civilisation of the people suggests that every encouragement should be afforded to the use of such refreshments as are conducive to the cultivation of social habits and the promotion of domestic enjoyment. As the entire population of Britain are interested in the present movement, it may not be uninteresting, for the information of the reader, to give a short account of the history, preparation, and qualities of the shrub in question which supplies the demands of America and Europe, tion. In the transportation of tea from Canton in China to Europe alone, no less than fifty thousand tons of shipping are said to be annually employed; and yet, strange as it may sound, the article itself was unheard of in that quarter of the globe before the middle of the seventeenth century. About the year 1636, tea was for the first time tasted as a luxury in the court of the first Charles. After this we hear no more mention of it till the year 1660, when there was passed an act of parliament, charging it with a duty of 1s. 6d. per gallon when drunk in publichouses. In the following year, Pepys, in his diary, alludes to it in this manner: Sept. 25. I sent for a cup of tea (a Chinese drink), of which I had never drunk before.' In 1664, after the strictest and most diligent search, all the tea that the East India Company could procure in The thea or tea-tree is a very beautiful shrub, attaining usually the height of five or six feet. It is an evergreen, and has wide spreading branches. The colour of its leaves is a dark, glossy green. By the Japanese, as well as the na the tea-plant has been cultivated from a very remote antiquity. The author of Hochelaga tells us, that, though St Johns, the capital of Newfoundland, is the fishiest town in existence, its inhabitants never eat cod themselves. Not so, however, the Chinese. They set a good example, and are to a man hearty tea-drinkers. So extensively, indeed, is the article used in China, that, it is confidently affirmed, even were Europe altogether to discontinue its use, the price would not be greatly diminished. In all parts of China the tea-plant is in cultivation. Even at Pekin, whose climate is little dissimilar to that of Philadelphia, and lies in the same degree of latitude, it is seen to thrive. It succeeds best in southern exposures, and in the neighbourhood of running waters. 'As the seeds,' says an eminent botanist, are very apt to spoil, and scarcely one in five will germinate, it is usual to plant several in the same hole, at 6 the depth of four or five inches. The plants require little further care than that of removing the buds till the third year, when the leaves may be gathered. In seven years the plants have usually attained the height of six feet; but as they bear few leaves they are trimmed down, which produces a great number of new ones. The leaves are plucked off one by one with many precautions, and only from four to fifteen pounds are collected in a day.' The finest kind of tea is never imported into Europe, being reserved almost exclusively for the use of the nobility, who pay an enormous price to obtain it. The blacker teas are named bohea, congou, campou, souchong, pouchong, pekoe. The green ones are termed twankay, hyson skin, young hyson, hyson, imperial, and gunpowder. The Chinese province most renowned for the excellence of its teas is the very beautiful and very luxuriant and fertile one called Kiangnan, of which Nankin is the capital, but Fokien is the district from which the majority of the black teas exported into Europe actually come. The Russians, whose trade in tea is exclusively overland, derive the commodity from an entirely opposite province. Attempts have been made in a variety of foreign parts to cultivate the tea-plant, but comparatively no success has hitherto rewarded the effort. The Dutch government, however, having recently employed a few Chinese cultivators to rear the plant for them in the island of Java, speak favourably of the success which has recompensed their toils; and with the aid, too, of Chinese labourers, the experiment of propagating the shrub is said to have proved successful in Brazil. It has been said that the use of tea among the Chinese is not of ancient date, from the character representing tea not being found in any ancient Chinese work. If this be true it is but negative evidence, and it would require vast research, and a close acquaintance with Chinese literature to prove that it is really so. We have, however, positive evidence of its being used as early as the eighth and ninth centuries. A tax on tea is mentioned in the annals of the dynasty of Tang; and in the journal of an Arabian merchant who traded with the Chinese at that early period, mention is made of the infusion of an herb named Sah, much drunk by the inhabitants. This herb is evidently tea; and its name sah is as near an approximation to the Chinese name chah as the Arabic alphabet is capable of expressing. Tea, as a plant, was, until the last few years, regarded as being exclusively indigenous to China and Japan. We need not inform the reader that the discoveries of Captain Jenkins, Lieutenant Charlton, and especially of W. C. Bruce, have completely dissipated this erroneous impression. Assam, a magnificent valley stretching between Bengal and Thibet, seven hundred miles long by seventy in breadth, has been found to produce in abundance in many of its districts the plant in question. This, a few years ago, was hailed all over Britain with great enthusiasm, as an almost invaluable discovery, from its appearing that, in the event of the war on which we were then entering with China not terminating in our favour, we could supply ourselves with the article in question independently altogether of the Chinese tea. It is as well, however, that matters took the turn they did. The Assam tea may be wholesome enough as a beverage, but, although stronger, it is generally allowed to be coarser and more unpalatable than that which we continue to import from twenty small furnaces, about three feet high, each having DR KIDD'S BRIDGEWATER TREATISE. SECOND ARTICLE. IN our former article, an attempt was made to answer the question-What is the physical condition of man? His corporeal organisation was compared and contrasted with that of other animals, and even in this so 'fearfully and wonderfully made' structure, his vast superiority over them is clearly and firmly established. He is indisputably the lord of this world. Two members of the body were chiefly con sidered-the hand, which Aristotle declared to be the organ of organs, and the brain, as the organ of the intellectual faculties, the medium of communication between the material world and the spiritual. These, however, are merely the instruments of intelligence-the adaptations of the body to the will of the mind within. And with these, how much does man subject all things to his sway! See dead matter acting under his influence, and in civilised life becoming every year more obedient to his commands. ComThe effects of tea,' says a good medical authority, pare a simple canoe with that superb monument of scien 'on the human system are those of a very mild narcotic, tific genius a ship of war-compare the wigwam of an and like those of any other narcotic taken in small quanti-Indian with the cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, ties exhilarating. The green varieties of the plant possess this quality in a much higher degree than the black, and a strong infusion of the former will in most constitutions produce considerable excitement and wakefulness. Of all narcotics, however, tea is the least pernicious-if, indeed, it be so in any degree. It acts, likewise, as a diuretic and diaphoretic, and assists digestion.' The following is the account, then, of the mode of preparing the leaves of the tea-plant for general use :-The tea-leaves being gathered, are cured in houses which contain from five to ten or China itself. and solemn temples' that have been constructed in ancient and modern times-compare the spindle and distaff of our mothers with the spinning machines of Glasgow and of Manchester-compare the slow process by which this ma nuscript is written with the rapid movements of the steampress, which prints thousands of copies in an hour, and we are struck with wonder at the achievements of human power and skill. The same train of thought may be pur 1 |