The for which these buildings were intended are not yet known with certainty: they are only varieties of what men have been erecting at all times and places since the dry land appeared in the days of Noah. His great-grandsons set up a tower, the building of which was interrupted by their dispersion. When Jacob awoke after his cheering dream on his lonely journey to Haran, he set up a stone to mark the propitious spot. mighty masses of the pyramids were raised at the expense of a million lives; for what purpose is uncertain, if not for the reception of the dead bodies of the founders. Cleopatra's Needle is enigmatical as the Round Tower on Devenish Island. What were the long avenues of standing stones set up for at Carnac, in Brittany? They might have marked the approach to some openair temple, or some receptacle for the dead. as We still find the many-sided slender towers soaring aloft in India, and the useless though ornamental porce lain towers of China, some of them upwards of two hundred feet high,-that at Nankin for instance. Reasonable guesses have been made at the destination of the Dallans of our own country. Some were set up as boundaries of lands; some, as monumental stones, scored with Ogham characters, marked the restingplaces of heroes. More cr less of the religious feeling had its influence in the setting up of all these towers and pillarstones. Our Round Towers were objects of religious veneration in some sense; for the ruins of small Christian churches have been found near most of them. The early churchmen, when they found themselves unable to prevent their flocks from giving idolatrous reverence to this Cromlech, this Grove, this Spring, this upright Dallan or Menhir, dedicated it to St. John or St. Bridget; and by degrees the people lost the memory of the pagan divinity or semi-divinity, once the object of a blind reverence.-Dublin University Magazine. POETRY. JOY AND HAPPINESS.* How sweet those transient pleasures are, which prove Reaches to earthly things, as well as things above; And yet with heaven's light glow! These things come not from our own garner'd treasure That we can measure; They come to us by "chance," and chance means God's good pleasure: "Happiness," says a modern writer, "according to the original use of the term, is that which happens, or comes to one by a hap. But joy differs from this, as being of the soul itself. It is not the bliss of condition, but of character." VOL. XI.-FIFTH SERIES. 30 ITALY, INDIA, AND CHINA. THE following extract from the "Missionary Notices" will command the earnest attention, and, we trust, enlist the sympathy, of every thoughtful reader: SOME of our friends have already acted on the intimations given to them, and have doubled their contributions, or more than doubled them, on behalf of the Mission to Italy. But much remains to be done; and we commend the good example to the imitation of all our friends, both in London and in the provinces. The Anniversary meetings which are about to be held, will afford a suitable opportunity for doing good on a large scale, and to the best possible effect; an opportunity which we hope both speakers and hearers will improve to the utmost. Mr. Piggott has been informed by the Committee that the Mission in Italy must be reduced in the year 1866, and that he must make his arrangements with that view. The Committee will be glad to countermand that reduction, if their friends will enable them to do so, by supplying the necessary funds. At any time such a reduction can only be regarded as a deplorable calamity. It implies the dismissal of agents; the giving up of places where the Gospel has been preached; and the withdrawal of the ordinary means of grace from little companies of earnest inquirers in remote villages and small towns. Much vantage-ground will be lost, and much discouragement will be felt, if the reduction takes place. This prospect is the more to be deplored, because in the year 1866 there is to be a great effort for the revival of Popery in Italy. The Pope, it is said, has invited the whole world to come to Rome in the year 1866, in honour of the eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of the holy Apostle St. Peter. Romish bishops of every country in the world will accept the invitation, and will bring with them large offerings and gifts to the Papal treasury. The various orders of ecclesiastics, and the whole Popish party in Italy, will be stimulated into new activity during the year; and it may be expected that every effort will be put forth to counteract the diffusion of evangelical truth. At such a time the hands of our brethren should be strengthened, and the number of labourers should be increased. It is with no ordinary anxiety we wait for the response from individual friends, and from the meetings now about to be held. "Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon" this "garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my Beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits." The Missions in India and in Ceylon require reinforcement. Death and other causes have occasioned nine or ten vacancies. The loss and inconvenience of so many removals from a field so wide and difficult, and where the labourers are so few, may be better It was in imagined than described. the face of such contingencies that these Missions were enlarged a few years ago. Experience told us that the climate is exhausting; that the health of some men will fail; and that labourers who have acquired the indispensable qualification of a knowledge of the native tongues, will be disabled by sickness or removed by death. The Committee, and the friends of the Society, counted the cost, and came to the conclusion that the Lord's work in India must be done, at whatever sacrifice. They are of the same mind still. They do not regret the past. They rejoice in the consecration of property, of eminent talent, and of valuable life, to the overthrow of the debasing idolatries of the East, and to the advancement of the glory of God in the diffusion of the Gospel of His Son; but the anticipated crisis has arrived. Means are required, not merely for the ordinary support of the Missions, but also to meet the cost of supplying the vacancies which Divine Providence has permitted to occur. Is it necessary to remind the friends of Missions that the office of the Committee is administrative? To some extent the Committee proceeds with the work before the means are actually in hand. But in the supply of so many vacancies, in the large outlay required for that purpose, they wait for the security of contributions received. This case is stated as matter of prudence and duty; not as implying any doubt as to the ability and ready mind of our friends to meet the exigency. The Mission in Canton is placed in most trying circumstances from the same causes which have operated so disastrously in India. The six Missionaries on that most promising station are now reduced to two. The work will necessarily languish until the arrival of reinforcements. Many services are, of necessity, temporarily discontinued, and much pastoral work is suspended. This distressing feebleness is not confined to the Wesleyan Mission in Canton. All the other Missions, whether British or American, are similarly tried. The chastening hand of the Lord is on the China Mission. Shall we, on that account, withdraw our sympathy, or withhold the needed support? On the contrary, shall not our prayers be more frequent and more ardent in the day of calamity; and shall we not hasten to comfort Zion, and to build up her waste places? Mr. Piercy is preparing to return to Canton by an early opportunity. He and his companions are commended to the Divine care and blessing. They will not be forgotten in the liberalities and devotions of the friends of Missions. In the memory of some members of the Committee, who have watched the proceedings of the Society, and the opportunities it has enjoyed for the last half-century, there has never been a time more favourable for the Lord's work among the heathen than the present. A wide and an effectual door is opened to nations not long ago inaccessible. The Holy Scriptures are translated and prepared for distribution. Zealous and able young men present themselves for the work, eager to go forth in the name of the Lord, to proclaim His saving truth to men of every tribe and every tongue. Temporal prosperity has been given to our land, in which the friends of Missions have had their share. Under these circum stances it is not difficult to divine "what Israel ought to do." May God in His mercy give the needed grace, and the blessing that maketh rich in good works! SOUTH AFRICA. I HAVE just returned from a five weeks' journey to some of our stations beyond the Kie river. The farthest point visited was beyond the Umtati; the chief object of my journey having been to introduce Mr. Hunter to the chief Damas, with whom and his people he was to reside, and to get a good understanding with that chief as to his relationship in future with the Buntingville station. Damas has been some time anxious for a Missionary he could look upon as his own. He visited Buntingville, and the Missionary there occasionally held service at the chief's great place. Still no Missionary had been formally sent to him; and Buntingville, although in what was now become his territory, was not his in that sense in which he wished to possess a Mission-station. I have already informed the Secretaries of the desirableness of removing the Buntingville station for the same local reasons which obliged us to seek a new site for the Morley station. Added to this, the desirableness of taking advantage of the favourable disposition of the chief's mind in the Mission cause; and the convenience of a favourable spot within a few hours' ride of the chief's residence; and one, too, so capable of bearing a large population, having an abundance of arable land, as well as approved of by Damas,-all conduced to lead us in this direction. Thus stood the case when the District in December last appointed Mr. Hunter to this important Mission. Having requested Mr. Hunter to go to Clarkebury, and wait my arrival, as I could not leave for a fortnight, on the 30th of March I left home, and Queen'sTown on the 31st. On the 1st of April I reached and crossed the White Kie; and, the following day being the Sabbath, rested, and rode down to St. Mark's, the Church-Missionary station of Rev. W. Waters, who received me most cordially. I remained to service, and returned to the waggon. It was very hot for the time of the year; but the night was piercingly cold, enough so for an English winter. Such are the changes we are sometimes subject to in South Africa. On the 4th we crossed the Tsomo river, a fine stream. Here is a police station. We reached Clarkebury on the 6th, and found Mr. and Mrs. Hargreaves well, and happy in their Mission-work. This is indeed a large, important station. Here are three European shops or stores, as they are called in this country, for the sale of English manufactures. A change has certainly come over the country since the first Missionary waggons opened up the road. Previously there were no waggon tracks to be seen. We had first to line the country with roads for vehicles; and many were the adventures of no very pleasing character which it entailed. These tracks are now the main arteries of the country; and now well traversed waggon-tracks are to be found diverging to the right and left in all directions; so many are they, that we twice took a wrong road in this journey :-this is the result of the colonial trade. From Clarkebury I sent forward two messengers to Damas, to say I had arrived there, that his Missionary was with me, and that I wished to know when he would meet me: that in the mean time I should proceed to Morley, to which place my messengers would return. I then proceeded to Morley, where I arrived on the 14th. Here I was truly delighted to see the progress that had been made in little more than ten months. I found a native village of huts laid out in regular order of street line; also a very neat Missionary cottage, sixty feet by fifteen feet, built, and neatly furnished, containing four rooms, pantry, and kitchen. As it is plastered and whitewashed outside, and in a com. manding situation, it is seen for many miles round. When we build substantially, the natives know we are in earnest. Sunday, April 9th.-I rode with Mr. Rayner to the out-station of Umqandulei, five miles from Morley. Here is a little village of natives living chiefly in square cottages of English form. They have a native teacher living amongst them, also a schoolmaster. John Bulawo, the native teacher, is one of those men with "religion in earnest," and is doing much good amongst his countrymen. Here is a population of about two hundred souls, great and small,-with more than one-fourth of that number either enjoying the favour of God in the Gospel sense, or sincerely seeking it: such a proportion is not always found in an English community. How much I wished that we had one hundred such scattered up and down in Kaffir land! We should then, by God's grace, soon see a great change in the mass. Mr. Rayner preached twice. A cold prevented me from taking an active part in the service. I was much delighted; and in the evening we returned to Morley. On the 18th the messengers sent to Damas returned with the message, that Damas would meet us at the site chosen for the new station, and to which I found the greater part of the Buntingville people had already removed; and that as soon as we left Morley, a messenger was to be sent to him, that he might be in time to meet us. This was pleasing promptness on the chief's part, and looked well. On the 20th instant, Mr. Hunter left with the waggons, and the following day I and Mr. Rayner left on horseback by a more direct route, across the Umtati. We arrived at the place appointed, and found the people had quite established themselves. It was about five P.M., and Damas came in soon after sunset, and, of course, rode to the cattlefold; but waited for no stiff formality of former times, but sought us out immediately in our Kaffir hut where we had taken up our abode. After the usual salutations, I remarked, it was many years since we last met His reply showed the associations of his mind: he said, "Where is Boyce?" (There are no "Misters" amongst natives.) He was told. He left, after sitting some time with us, saying, "We shall meet to-morrow." Mr. Hunter did not arrive, as oxen had to be sent to the Umtati drift. Our oxen were not allowed to enter for fear of the lung-sickness; hitherto this disease of cattle has not visited this part of the tribe. The waggons not arriving, we had to sleep in the Kaffir hut,-no great hardship beyond the hardness of the floor, and the hut being minus a door. It was, however, a very cold night, and we were without the sheepskin kaross we used to depend upon in early days. I looked to see how my young brother, Mr. Rayner, would thus rough it; but he bore it well, in a true Missionary spirit. 21st. Mr. Hunter arrived in the morning with the waggons, soon after sunrise; and parties of mounted natives continued to arrive all the morning. We were told they came from every part of Damas' tribe, and by mid-day it was said from a hundred and fifty to two hundred were present. About two P.M., two messengers arrived from the chief to say that he was ready to receive us, if we could come down to the cattle-fold, or kraal, as it was named there. Of course, as we knew everything of importance must be settled in or near the kraal,-the Exchange of every chief's town, we readily complied. Myself, Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Rayner walked down. There sat the chief, surrounded with some hundred and fifty, or two hundred, of his subjects,-heads, it was said, and representatives, as he told us, of his tribe; and with whom he had been in close consultation for some hours. Damas is a fine portly man of about six feet, exhibiting more openness in his countenance than is generally seen in native chiefs, and more candour in his manner. I opened the business, by saying I had come with his Missionary, and there he was before him,-one who had been some years in the native work, and one who could speak the Kaffir language. I then addressed a few words to him on the power, influence, and duties of a chief. He expressed his pleasure that the Missionary had arrived for this part of the Faku tribe; and, speaking as his father's representative, said, "I have one Missionary at the other end of the tribe, but he is so far away,-Jenkins. I want a Missionary to be to me what Jenkins has been to Faku." Was he then, he asked, to keep that Missionary now before him? My reply was, that so far as I was concerned he might keep him. He said, he did not like changes, and reckoned up the Missionaries, from Mr. Boyce downwards, for the last thirty-five years. I admitted that, so far as my observation went, I had come to the conclusion that on our Kaffir Missions changes should be avoided as much as possible. A shrewd-looking young man, a councillor of about thirty years of age, here took up the case. It was easy to see he was fulfilling an appointed work. Damas is evidently a man of few words. He demanded again if Mr. Hunter was to remain for ever; and using a figure of speech, he exclaimed, "We take a wife to-day; and if she runs away, am I at liberty to stop her? Certainly. If he runs away, am I at liberty to stop him, the same as a man would turn back a wife who seeks to run away from her husband? Yes." The next thing to be discussed was the cattle to be given for the erection of the Mission-premises; viz., the Missionary's house and the chapel: and, after some discussion, Damas settled all differences about numbers by first lifting up his left hand, and, scanning it very carefully, as though he would be quite sure there were five fingers on it, and no more. He then raised it open, while he kept his eye on the right hand; then, carefully dropping the first and second fingers, he lifted the right hand also. We we saw our number was to be eighty head. "The people here," he said, pointing to those who surrounded him, "shall give fifty head, and the people of the Mission-station shall give thirty head of cattle." I returned thanks; and thus far the business was settled. Mr. Hunter then addressed a few words to the chief, saying, "Damas, I am your Missionary. I shall not always sit on this spot. I shall ride round amongst your people, to teach and preach God's word. I wish you to give your people a word to-day, as they are here together, and tell them that whenever I come they must assemble to hear." The chief promptly replied, "Whenever you go amongst them to teach, they are to listen." And Mr. Hunter added: "And now, Damas, be you to me what Faku has been to Jenkins, and I will be to you what Jenkins has been to Faku." The chief's giving the word for the people to listen to the Gospel was important, as none can now plead ignorance of the compact; and although we do not wish the people to be made professors of Christianity by the dictation of the chief, |