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teacher (Boardman) arrived, and came into the jungle, and preached the words of God. We gave attention, and remembered that the elders had said the white foreigners had obtained the words of God, and they were our younger brethren. Again the elders said, 'All things in heaven and on earth, O children and grandchildren, God created them. Never forget God; pray to Him every day and every night.' And, before the arrival of the white foreigners, a prophet, singing, said,—

"Great mother comes by sea,

Comes with purifying water;
The teacher comes from the horizon,
He comes to teach the little ones.'

"Therefore, O great ruler! God having given thee great goodness and kindness, we are very happy. Now the Karens, whether they be maidens, mothers, or children, may come and dwell in the city, and dress as they wish, and adorn themselves as they wish. It was not so in the days of the Burmans. How numerous are the reasons, through the providence of God, we have to praise thy beneficence !

Through thy acts, the
May God, whom thou

"May God establish thy towns and thy cities! Karens, the children of poverty, breathe with ease. worshippest, do good unto thee, and watch over thee, thy children and grandchildren, for ever!

"The white foreign teachers have preached the words of God, and some of us have become disciples. Great ruler! it is of thy goodness and beneficence. We rejoice till we can rejoice no more."

The Karen traditions respecting the fall accord, in substance, with the Mosaic account. Many of them also speak of the Karen nation as having once enjoyed the favour of God, who had now cast them off for their sins; but express the persuasion that He would return and restore them to their former state. So the following concluding extracts will show. And when these facts and traditions are taken into account, with many others equally striking, it is hardly surprising that some individuals should have laboured to identify the Karens as the descendants of the lost tribes of the house of Israel.

"O children and grandchildren," say the elders, " formerly God loved the Karen nation above all others; but they transgressed His commands, and in consequence we suffer as at present. Because God cursed us, we are in our present afflicted state, and have no books. But God will again have mercy on us; and again He will love us above others. God will yet save us again. It is on account of our listening to the language of Satan that we thus suffer.

"God is not far off. He is among us. He has only separated Himself from us by a single thickness of white. Children, it is because men are

VOL. XI.-FIFTH SERIES.

F

not upright, that they do not see God. O children and grandchildren, the Karens will yet dwell in the city with the golden palace, if we do well. The Karen King will yet appear; and, when He arrives, there will be happiness."

Rangoon.

C. H.

FRENCH METHODIST LITERATURE.

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1. La Langue de Feu.-This is an elegant and faithful rendering of a valuable treatise, well known among ourselves. Such testimonials as those of M. Guizot and Professor Monod, of Montauban, in favour of the French translation of Mr. Arthur's work, must be considered a sufficient recommendation as to the purity of the idiom.

2. Cantiques Chrétiens.-This selection was first made from the best, authors by Dr. Cook and the Rev. H. de Jersey, for the benefit of Methodist congregations in France; and it has passed through nine editions. To the present edition the music of the hymns has been added.

This volume is as beautiful in typography as can be desired, and is sold at a price which seems to us very low indeed.

3. Vie de Charles Cook.-This small volume speaks for itself. It is the record of a man of whom Dr. Merle d'Aubigné once said, “What Wesley was for Methodism in England, Dr. Cook has been for Methodism in France." A portrait of Dr. Cook accompanies the volume.

4. La Voie du Salut.-This is a selection of the doctrinal Sermons of Wesley, beginning with the one on

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Original Sin," and ending with that on "Christian Perfection." The translation is a faithful and idiomatic rendering of some of the most valuable discourses of the venerated author.

5. Le Magasin Méthodiste des Iles de la Manche.-A serial, which has already a good circulation in England. Principally intended for our French Society in the Channel Islands, its contents must render it acceptable wherever French is read, and especially in Methodist schools and families, where it might be advantageously used as a reading-book for French classes.

Any of the above publications may be obtained of the Rev. Matthew Gallienne, Jersey.

SELECT LITERARY NOTICES, and GLANCE AT PUBLIC OCCURRENCES, are unavoidably deferred.

BOA-CON

ADVENTURE WITH A STRICTOR. I had sprung forward immediately after firing, (says Captain Speke,) in order to obtain a fair shot at a huge elephant that I wanted to bring down on account of his immense tusks. I got the desired aim, and pulled the trigger of the second barrel. At the moment of my doing so, a wild cry of alarm, uttered by one of the blacks, called my attention. Glancing round, my eye chanced to range up into the foliage of the tree beneath which Captain Grant and myself had lain for several hours previous. My feelings may possibly be imagined, as I beheld an enormous boa-constrictor, whose hideous head and neck, projected some distance into view, showed that he was about to make a fatal spring. His direction was certainly toward me; and, as he flashed from his position like a thunder-bolt, I gave myself up for dead: ere aid could reach me, fold after fold of the monster would have crushed my frame into a quivering pulp. I fell, seemingly caught in a whirlwind of dust; and an indescribable scuffle ensued. In the midst of this terrible strife, I suddenly became conscious of the presence of a second victim; and, even after the time that has elapsed, I still recollect with what vividness the thought shot across my mind, that the second victim was Captain Grant, my noble companion. At last, after being thus whirled about for several seconds, each second seeming to be interminable, there ensued a lull, a stillness of death; and I opened my eyes, expecting to look upon those unexplored landscapes which are seen only in the country beyond the tomb. Instead of that, I saw Captain Grant levelling his rifle toward me, while standing beside and behind him were the blacks, in every conceivable attitude of the most intense suspense.

the immense pressure of the serpent's body, which was like iron in hardness. As I saw Grant about to shoot, a terror took possession of me: for, it he refrained, I might possibly escape, after the boa released his folds from the dead cow. But if he should fire and strike the reptile, it would, in its convulsions, crush or drag me to pieces. Even as the idea came to me, I beheld Grant pause. He appeared to comprehend all. He could see how I was situated still living, and that my delivery depended on the will of the constrictor. We could see every line on each other's faces, so close were we; and I would have shouted or spoken, or even whispered at him, had I dared. But the boa's head was reared within a few inches of mine, and the wink of an eyelid would perhaps settle my doom.

Presently the serpent began very gradually to relax his folds; and, retightening them several times as the crushed buffalo quivered, he unwound one fold entirely. Then he paused. The next iron-like band was the one which held me prisoner; and, as I felt it little by little unclasping, my heart stood still with hope and fear. Perhaps, upon being freed, the benumbed arm, uncontrolled by my will, might fall from the cushion-like bed in which it lay. And such a mishap might bring the spare fold around my neck or chest, and then farewell to the sources of the Nile. O, how hardly, how desperately, I struggled to command myself! I glanced at Grant, and saw him handling his rifle anxiously; I glanced at the Negroes, and saw them still gazing as though petrified with astonishment. I glanced at the serpent's loathsome head, and saw its bright, deadly eyes, watching for the least sign of life in its prey. Now, the reptile loosened its hold on my arm a hair's breadth, and now a little more, until half an inch of space separated my arm and its mottled skin. I could have whipped out my hand, but dared not take the risk. Atoms of time dragged themselves into ages. The second fold was removed entirely, and the next one was easing. Should I dash away now, or wait a more favourable moment? I decided upon the former; and with lightning speed I bounded away towards Grant, the crack of whose piece I heard at the same instant. For the first time in my life I was thoroughly overcome; and, sinking down, I remained in a semiconscious state for several minutes.

In a moment I comprehended all. The huge serpent had struck a young buffalo cow, between which and him I had unluckily placed myself at the moment of firing upon the elephant. A most singular good fortune had attended me, however; for, instead of being crushed into a mangled mass with the unfortunate cow, my left forearm had been caught in between the buffalo's body and a single fold of the constrictor. The limb lay just in front of the shoulder at the root of the neck, and thus had a soft bed of flesh, into which it was jammed, as it were, by

When I fully recovered, Grant and the overjoyed Negroes held me up, and pointed out the boa, still writhing in his death-agonies. I shuddered as I looked upon the effects of his tremendous dying strength. For yards around where he lay, grass, and bushes, and saplings, and in fact everything except the more fully grown trees, were cut clean off, as though they had been trimmed with an immense scythe. This monster, when measured, was fifty-one feet two inches and a half in extreme length, while round the thick est portion of his body the girth was nearly three feet; thus proving, I believe, to be the largest serpent that was ever authentically heard of.

ocean....

GEOLOGY OF THE SOUTH-WEST OF ENGLAND.-Mr. C. Moore pointed out certain portions of the district which led him to the conclusion that the Mendip hills were originally a kind of barrier to the sea, although he thought it doubtful that the whole of the low land in the west had been entirely submerged in the ....He had discovered a new kind of clay, or rather a clay that had not been previously found, in the district or neighbourhood of Frome; and out of a cartload of it he had been able to obtain more than a million of organisms, in addition to twenty-nine types of mammalia and various kinds of reptilia. He had discovered in these beds many genera that had never been previously recognised; and he had obtained over seventy thousand teeth of one kind of fish alone in the Rhetic bed. Mr. Moore then made some observations with regard to the ironstone that is to be found in the neighbourhood. One landed proprietor held forty thousand acres of land, which for agricultural purposes was useless, but which contained ironstone throughout its whole extent. Multiplying forty thousand acres by thirty thousand, the quantity of ironstone, converted into iron and sold at the present market-price, would more than pay off the national debt. He was therefore surprised that there were not smelting furnaces in this district as in other iron districts. Mr. Moore produced specimen stones from the neighbourhood of Bath; they were about five inches in diameter and six or seven long; each contained a specimen of some kind of fish. He said he could tell by the appearance of the stones what they would contain, and he broke some to show this, and in each case the fish Mr. Moore previously indicated was found. But the most interesting specimen was the one which contained the cuttle-fish. When the stone was broken

open, not only was the cuttle-fish discovered, but the inky fluid-the sepia was found just as in a fish of the same kind that might be taken out of the sea at the present day. There was as much of it as would fill an ordinary-sized ink-bottle; and Mr. Moore smeared a portion of it over a piece of white paper, making it as black as ink. He then produced some very perfect specimens of ichthyosauri, found in the neighbourhood of Bath, and a specimen of a fish about the size of a salmon, of six or seven pounds' weight. So perfect was it in shape, that but for its colour it might have been handed by mistake to the cook to dress. In the mammal drift which entirely surrounds Bath, Mr. Moore said, remains of the mammal tribe were very abundant; and he exhibited many interesting specimens. -British Association, 1864.

PENMANSHIP, AND THE RISING GENERATION.-A cry has come up to us from the city and the great commercial centres. We hear a chorus of complaints from mercantile men in regard to the handwriting of young men leaving college, and lads who have done with school. Good penmanship would seem to be almost a forgotten art. If a merchant advertises for a junior clerk, he is deluged with applications from boys who have left school, three-fourths or fivesixths of whose letters he throws aside for bad handwriting. Most of these lads have been educated with a view to a commercial career; yet their penmanship is so defective, and wanting in neatness, to say nothing of elegance, that it is unfit to figure in a ledger.

The

If any foolish lad, or still more silly teacher, should imagine that it is the sign of a vulgar and menial education to write a good hand, the sooner schoolboy and pedagogue disabuse themselves of this mistaken idea the better. The highest circles of English society cultivate penmanship with care and success. Queen's handwriting is beautiful,-flowing, and elegant, and feminine. Prince Albert's biographer compares the Prince to Goethe, who "would take inordinate pains, even in writing a short note, that it should be admirably written. He did not understand the merit of second best, but everything that was to be done must be done perfectly." The Prince-Consort took the greatest interest in the caligraphy of his children; and few young people, we are assured, write more elegantly, and at the same time more distinctly, than the Princes and the Princesses of England. Our highest statesmen have not thought

it beneath them to cultivate a clear and distinct penmanship. Lord Palmerston's handwriting is free, firm, and, considering his great age, by no means obscure. Lord Derby writes a capital hand, at once elegant and legible,-an aristocratic hand, if there be such a thing. Earl Russell's is a smaller and more feminine hand, yet clear as his expositions of constitutional law, and incisive in its style as some of his dispatches are biting. The Lord Chancellor writes a beautiful hand, -firm, solid, and legal,—such a hand as should have drawn up the Bill of Rights. ... Every one remembers how plain and distinct were the notes beginning, “F. M. the Duke of Wellington presents his compliments," although every one may not be aware that many of the communications so highly prized by autographcollectors were written by the Duke's secretary, Mr. Greville, who learned to imitate his hand.

Commercial men hazard various theories to account for the degeneracy of penmanship. One is, that our young gentlemen entering life upon a mercantile career are unwilling to be considered as mere clerks, and therefore scorn to cultivate a clerkly hand. They appear to think that it does not matter how a gentleman writes, so that his writing can be made out; and that a neat, precise, and legible hand is a mark of social inferiority. Such a notion would display so pitiful a conceit and ambition in the rising generation, that we are unwilling to accept this theory. It is, indeed, to some extent, disproved by the readiness of young men of good family and social position to adopt commercial pursuits. Parents who, a quarter of a century ago, would have thought everything but a profession "ungenteel," now bring up their sons to any businesspursuit that promises to pay well. The lads have the good sense to avoid the over-stocked learned professions; and never before, in the city, and in the great arts of manufactures and commerce, were so many young men of family and education to be found competing for an introduction to the higher kind of commercial avocations. Youths who will ingly adopt a mercantile career cannot in fairness be supposed to be above qualifying themselves for the sufficient discharge of their duties.

Another class of employers lay the mischief at the door of steel pens. The modern curriculum of study in schools and colleges is, however, mainly chargeable with the bad handwriting of our youths. Mathematics, modern languages, modern history, chemistry, botany, and

geology, more or less share with the classics the time and attention of the scholar. Caligraphy has been elbowed out of is place by this jostling and competing crowd of accomplishments. The schoolmaster deems it of more importance to develop the intelligence and exercise the memory of his pupils, than to see that they are well grounded and practised in the humble mechanical art of writing. Penmanship goes to the wall; and thus it happens that the junior clerk, who has studied logic and chemistry, and has a passable knowledge of moral and natural philosophy, is unable to copy a letter decently, and disfigures every book in the counting-house with his sprawling and indistinct entries.-London Review.

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DER THE CITY.-One afternoon during my stay in Jerusalem, I formed one of a small party to explore the subterranean excavations; the entrance to which is through a slight aperture in the wall, a little way outside the Damascus gate. The opening was found to be so narrow, that we had literally to crawl along, the ground to get through it. With the exception of one of our number, we were the same party that two days before had explored together the tombs of the Judges. These we had to survey by means of lighted candles; but here we required them even more than at the tombs. These remarkable excavations evidently extend a long way under the city, in the direction of that part of it called Bezetha; and, as may be supposed, they become very gloomy immediately after entering them. The ground descends gradually after we pass the entrance; and there was ample room to walk erect after we had proceeded some distance into these dark abodes. They form an immense cavern, which probably furnished the stone for the building of the city walls, if not of the city itself. I penetrated sufficiently far into the dismal recesses to convince myself of their great extent, though I did not ramble so far as did others of our party. I was glad to get back again into the daylight and the air, while I left them to pursue their researches ad libitum. They found great numbers of bats in the parts they visited. On their return, this was the principal report our spies brought back with them, after searching this terra obscura. In most topographical descriptions of the Holy City, no account has been taken of these marvellous excavations. Two or three days afterwards, one member of our party, accompanied by the surgeon of the Jews'

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