:

Sits by his little head in silence hung;
His limbs cramp'd up; his body weakly bent;
Toiling obedient, till long hours so spent
Produce exhaustion's slumber, dull and deep.
The Watcher's stroke-bold-sudden-violent-
Urges him from that lethargy of sleep,
And bids him wake to life-to labour and to weep!

"But the day hath its end. Forth then he hies With jaded, faltering step, and brow of pain; Creeps to that shed, his home,-where happy lies The sleeping babe that cannot toil for Gain; Where his remorseful Mother tempts in vain With the best portion of her frugal fare : Too sick to eat too weary to complainHe turns him idly from the untasted share, Slumbering sinks down unfed, and mocks her useless care.

head

"Weeping she lifts, and lays his weary
(With all a woman's grieving tenderness)
On the hard surface of his narrow bed;
Bends down to give a sad unfelt caress,
And turns away; willing her God to bless,
That, weary as he is. he need not fight
Against that long-enduring bitterness,
The Voluntary Labour of the Night.
But sweetly slumber on till day's returning light.

"Vain hope; alas! unable to forget
The anxious task's long, heavy agonies,
In broken sleep the victim labours yet;
Waiting the boding stroke that bids him rise,
He marks in restless fear each hour that flies-
Anticipates the unwelcome morning prime-
And murmuring feebly, with unwakened eyes,
'Mother! Oh mother! is it yet the time?"

Starts at the moon's pale ray-or clock's far distant chime."

THE INVALID.

A Parody on the well known air,

"Rich and rare were the gems she wore."

[From the Colloquist.]

LIFE's last ebb was the pang she bore,
And that languid eye must soon beam no more;
But Death had no sting to pierce her breast,
And anxious sorrow was lulled to rest.

Lady! dost thou not dread the throe,
Which soon shall finish thy mortal woe?
Has hope not a cloud, and death no gloom,
To sadden thy exit, or shadow thy tomb?

Stranger! I feel not the least alarm:
'Tis a shadowy vale, but safe from harm;
For He is with me, who graciously said,
That his rod and his staff should lend me aid.

Now sleeps that form beneath the sod,
And fled is that spirit to join its God;
And blest for ever is she who relied
Upon Jesus's word, and in Jesus died!

JUNIUS.

SHORT PAPERS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE.

No. I.

It has been correctly stated that Science is the knowledge of facts. All true knowledge which we possess of the creation around us, and the conviction which arises in

our minds (when we contemplate its wonders) of the power, wisdom, and mercy of God, the Creator, is Science. Beside Science and the uses which can be made of it, there is but one other division of human study, and that is Religion. This is a light set up by the Divine Maker himself, to guide his erring creatures through the moral darknesses and difficulties of this life. Both these divisions of study are so fully adapted to their respective purposes, that it is almost impossible for a mind possessing a wholesome conviction of the divine origin of the one, to fail assigning both to the same wisdom and goodness. And it is often, very often, that the student of physical science, or natural philosophy, has his attention directed "from nature up to nature's God," and is led to exclaim, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy works."

It is a somewhat widely received opinion that the attainment of scientific knowledge can only be accomplished by a fortunate few, who possess a peculiar constitution of mind, or fitness of intellectual organs seldom found in the mass of mankind. Doubtless we are not all endowed with the same faculties for gathering knowledge, or whence arises the difference which we do find in men equally studious? Yet there are few men who cannot acquire some degree of scientific knowledge, although they may not be able to range themselves by the side of those great minds that have astonished us by their power and brilliancy. The man who would disregard scientific pursuits because he despaired of reaching the eminence of a Davy, a Herschel, a Fariday, or a Buckland, is little better than him who, in despair of obtaining as much wealth as the richest of his neighbours possesses, ceases all endeavours to raise himself from a state of the most abject poverty.

Happily the days are fast receding, in which the study of natural philosophy was condemned by some as opposed to religion; "Nothing (says Sir J. Herschel) can be more unfounded than the objection which has been taken by per

sons well meaning perhaps, certainly narrow minded, against the study of natural philosophy, and indeed against all science, that it fosters in its cultivators an undue and overweening self-conceit, leads them to doubt the immortality of the soul, and to scoff at revealed religion. Its natural effect we may confidently assert, on every well constituted mind, is and must be the direct contrary. No doubt the testimony of natural reason, on whatever exercised, must of necessity stop short of those truths which it is the object of revelation to make known; but while it places the existence and principal attributes of a Deity on such grounds as to render doubt absurd and atheism ridiculous, it unquestionably opposes no natural or necessary obstacle to its further progress on the contrary, by cherishing as a vital principle an unbounded spirit of enquiry and ardency of expectation, it unfetters the mind from prejudices of every kind, and leaves it open and free to every impression of a higher nature, which it is susceptible of receiving, guarding only against enthusiasm and self-deception by a habit of strict investigation, but encouraging rather than suppressing every thing that can offer a prospect or a hope beyond the present obscure and unsatisfactory state. The character of the true philosopher is to hope all things not impossible and to believe all things not unreasonable. He who has seen obscurities which appeared impenetrable in physical and mathematical science suddenly dispelled, and the most barren and unpromising fields of enquiry converted, as if by inspiration, into rich and inexhaustible springs of knowledge and power, on a simple change of our point of view, or by merely bringing to bear on them some principle which it never occurred to try, will surely be the very last to acquiesce in any disspiriting prospects of either the present or future destinies of mankind; while, on the other hand, the boundless views of intellectual and moral, as well as material relations which open on him on all hands in the course of these pursuits; the knowledge of the trivial place he occu

pies in the scale of creation, and the sense continually pressed upon him of his own weakness and incapacity to suspend or modify the slightest movement of the vast machinery he sees in action around him, must effectually convince him that humility of pretensions, no less than confidence of hope, is what best becomes his character."

Having thus endeavoured to introduce my subject to the Readers of the Miscellany, I may state that it is my intention to lay before them (as time and opportunity may permit) short papers on some of the subjects included in the study of physics. The papers will be chiefly extracts from the best authors, therefore the writer disclaims all merit for originality. The subject of our next enquiry will be Pneumatics, (air phenomena) that part of it only which relates to the pressure of the atmosphere.

S.

HYMNS,

For the use of the Baptist Sunday School, Luton.

By the Rev. H. Burgess.

I.

I learn of God in yonder sky.
Where suns to light us glow;
I read His name where'er my eye
Can rove on earth below.

No blade of grass, or pretty flower
But makes His skill appear;

The sun-beam warm, the cooling shower,
All tell me He is near.