limbs, but allow the whole body to assume | is a privilege to come out from the world, its natura. play; in one word, it is in the Eastern world that man appears to rise in full stature, proportion, and agility.-Rae Wilson's Travels. An edict was passed in Germany, in the time of Joseph II., prohibiting females from the use of stays, as injurious to their constitutions, which is conceived in most anxious and curious terms. DEDICATION TO GOD. EVERY true believer in Christ cheerfully yields himself unto God, as Christ's purchased possession, to be henceforth employed by God in holy services for his own glory. The scripture often declares this. "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." "Whose I am, and whom I serve." "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." "Ye are Christ's." "Yield yourselves unto God." And this surrender of ourselves to God is our bounden duty. If by serving sin, vanity, and the world, we had incurred great guilt, and were in imminent danger of eternal death; and if Christ voluntarily delivered us, at the expense of his own sacred blood; if the Father has manifested such wondrous love toward us miserable sinners; if the Holy Spirit has deigned to enter our hearts and apply this great grace; then, the least return we can make is to give ourselves up to Christ, and cheerfully to say, Here I am! Behold, Lord, the soul which thou claimest for thyself. It is indeed utterly unworthy of thy acceptance; in itself it is full of guilt, misery, and pollution. But thou who didst die for sinners, hast called, and I have come to thee to be justified through thy merits, and now to give myself to thee. Lord, I am thine, for hou art mine. Fit and prepare my soul for thy service: make me all thou wouldst have me to be; use me in what way thou wilt: command me to what services thou pleasest do with me, that is, with thy own, whatever seemeth thee good! And this our duty is also our privilege. | For, if we give not ourselves thus to God, we still serve sin, Satan, and the world; and to taste the liberty wherewith the Son of God emancipates the soul. It is a joy for the heart, after being so long enthralled, to find its proper Master, "whose service is perfect freedom." It is an honour, which humbles while it exalts, to be allowed to serve the glorious and ever-blessed God. That he will deign to employ such weak and worthless instruments; that he, who could do so well without us, will give us work to do for him; and that he makes us, who were once so ill-disposed for serving him, now quite glad to obey his will: this is a privilege indeed! For his commandments, brethren, are not grievous when we love God. Christ's yoke is easy, for it is lined with his own love. "Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart."-Hambleton. THE CROSS AT THE CONVENT OF NEAR THE CITY OF TEPIC, IN MEXICO. IT is related that a certain arriero, or muleteer, discovered the contour of a cross upon the grassy sod. To perpetuate this resemblance, a cross of raised earth was made upon the outline, and remains to this day, within a sacred enclosure, to be the object of veneration with all good catholics. A layman of the convent stated that a French astronomer, while making some celestial observations upon the flat roof of that building, discovered, by the help of his glasses, that the site of the sacred emblem was the exact altitude for receiving the image of the cross at Jerusalem, when reflected by the crystalline mirror of the bowed welkin!! The obligations between priests and laymen seem likely to prove reciprocal in Mexico; the priests for many ages duped nearly all the world, but now they are becoming, in their turn, the dupes of any one who may deem it his interest to practise upon their credulity. COVETOUSNESS.-He is too covetous, whom God cannot suffice: he hath all things who hath Him that hath all things, Rom. viii. 32. JOHN DAVIS, 56, Paternoster Row, London. we are still in bondage through fear of Price d. each, or in Monthly Parts, containing Five death; we are employed in vile work, and occupied with mean pursuits. Hence it Numbers in a Cover, 3d. W. TYLER, Printer, 4, Ivy Lane, St. Paul's. ... HALLEY'S COMET, AND COMETS GENERALLY. ALTHOUGH a great number of comets have appeared at different intervals, and those which have been astronomically observed amount to several hundreds, yet very little of their real nature is known. Remarkable as this fact is, it has not arisen from an indifference on the part of mankind to turn their attention to these singular erratic objects. The extraordinary and imposing aspects, as well as the magnitude which they often assume, their rapid motions, and the unexpected manner in which they frequently burst into view, could not fail of exciting astonishment, and eliciting a desire in the breast of inquiring man to understand their nature. It was not till very lately that the periodic time (or the period occupied in tra VOL. III. versing its orbit) of more than one comet was known, and even now three only can be numbered. To the celebrated Doctor Halley, the second astronomer royal, of whom we have given some account at p. 53 of this volume, the honour of this discovery is due. He computed the elements of the orbit of a comet which he himself had observed in the year 1682, and finding them to agree very nearly with those of the comets of 1607 and 1531, as well as that the intervals elapsed did not materially differ from each other, he considered it probable that they were but successive appearances of the same body; and upon referring to the past history of comets, he found that one had been seen similarly passing retrograde, or from east to west, (which, being contrary to the general motions of planetary bodies, or from west to east, is called retrograde,) between the earth and the sun in the summer of 1456, and also that another had been seen in 1305: this interval of 75 and double interval of 151 years, together with the retrograde motion, convinced him of their identity; and, accordingly, he ventured to predict its return again in 1758. Upon nicer calculations, which the improved state of astronomical science afterwards afforded, its return to its perihelion was predicted by Clairaut, a French astronomer, to take place on the 15th of April, 1759, and it actually arrived at that point of its orbit on March 13, within thirtythree days of the time computed.* Another period of its revolution is now nearly completed, and the best computations predict that it will shortly become visible in our hemisphere, and pass its perihelion on November 7th next. (See the Christian Almanack for the present year, published by the Religious Tract Society.) It appears likely, for the only time in the life of the present generation, to become an object of our astonished gaze and admiration, and to occupy a large portion of the conversation of our families and friends. We therefore consider that a few particulars of this interesting wanderer, as well as of comets generally, may at this time not be unacceptable to our readers. We have explained at page 427 of our last volume that the orbits of the planets are ellipses or ovals with the sun, about which they revolve, situated in one of the foci which is common to all the orbits. In like manner the orbits of the comets are also ovals, but of very different dimensions; those of the former differing very little from circles, whilst those of the latter are long and flat, or what is technically termed of great eccentricity. It may not be amiss to explain the astronomical meaning of the latter term. In the annexed diagram, we have represented two ovals of very different eccentri F C cities. The points marked C in the one and O in the other, represent their true centres respectively, as is shown by the inter ✦ For an explanation of the terms "perihelion," " aphelion," &c., see Weekly Visitor, for 1834, p. 47, | section of their longer and shorter axis; but the point marked F is the common focus of the two ovals; therefore in the lesser oval the distance F C is its eccentricity, and in the larger one F O is its eccentricity; that is, the eccentricity of an elliptical orbit of a planet or comet is the distance of the sun from its centre. The engraving at the head of this article represents the orbit of Halley's comet, and also of some of the planets forming the solar system, drawn upon an accurate scale, by which their relative magnitudes may be seen by inspection. The sun is represented in the common focus of all the orbits; and the following table will at once show the amount of eccentricity of each, as well as the periodic times of the respective bodies traversing their trackless paths, by which it may be seen how great is the eccentricity of the orbit of Halley's comet compared with that of the planets; and as the orbits of all comets are similar, it must at once appear to our readers that when at their perihelion they are so near the sun, compared with their distance from that luminary when at their aphelion, or greatest distance, the extremes of heat and cold to which they are necessarily exposed must be such as to render the existence of either animal or vegetable life with which we are acquainted impossible. One of the most remarkable circumstances connected with our knowledge of comets is, that their head or nucleus is not, as is commonly supposed, a solid body, but the whole object is a mass of highly transparènt vapour; so transparent indeed, that "the stars dim twinkle through their shadowy form," those of lesser magnitude remaining distinctly visible at the time they are covered by the densest portion of a comet's substance, although the same stars would have been obliterated from our view by an ordinary fog on the surface of the earth; and since it is not doubted that comets shine, like the planets, by reflected than great masses of thin vapour, susceptilight only, they can be regarded as no other ble of being penetrated by the solar rays, and reflecting them alike from their interior | ances. part of the light of the full moon, but in- EXECUTION AT GOTTENBURG. FLAGRANT crimes rarely occur in Sweden, and an execution had not occurred for twenty-four years previous to my visit. An affair, however, attended with marked atrocity, had taken place a few days previous to my arrival. A Danish vessel was boarded and plundered by some ruffians who had been long notorious for bad conduct. They also murdered two men and a boy, who formed the crew. On the crime being discovered, the whole country turned out to hunt them from their lurking place. They When comets first make their appear- were apprehended and brought to trial. ance, they generally resemble a round film And here, it may be observed, it is laid of vapour, with little or no pretensions to a down as a fundamental principle in the critail, but they increase in brilliancy and the minal code, that in cases of murder, no acquisition of a tail as they draw near to proof of a circumstantial nature is admitted the sun; but it is after they have passed as sufficient for inflicting capital punishtheir perihelion, when emerging from the ment; of course, hearsay must be of less brilliancy of the solar light in which they authority. This can only proceed on two have been for a short time obscured, that grounds; namely, the full confession of the they assume their greatest splendour: the criminal, or on positive evidence of the tail, which during the approach to the peri- crime being actually seen as committed. helion had followed the comet, now pre- Should this not happen, he is confined to cedes it, generally with a small degree of jail, where it often occurs that the horror curvature, probably arising from the resist- of a guilty conscience, prompts him to conance of the ether (an extremely thin vapour) fess his crime, and thus satisfy the ends of which is supposed to pervade all space. justice. The ring-leader here first admitThe tails are of enormous lengths; the ted the full extent of his guilt, and showed comet of 1811 had a tail no less than the greatest marks of contrition. He was thirty-four millions of leagues in length: permitted to address the people on Sunday, the comet of 1744 had its tail divided from the window of his prison, in a kind of into six different branches, separated by sermon, which, it is said, was delivered dark intervals, each of them about four with great sincerity and devotion. At the degrees broad, and forty long. Many have distance of three months, the others confessno tails at all, as for example Encke's and ed, and were all led out for execution. The Biela's comets; but these are small and in-mode of punishment was as follows: their significant objects compared with those we have been speaking of; the chief thing that causes them to be more particularly noticed is the circumstance, that they are the only two besides Halley's comet, that are known to belong to the solar system, and whose periodic times have been determined. In general the light of comets is dull; that of 1811 was only equal to the tenth right hands were first cut off, and immediately after, their heads; when their bodies, with the clothes, were stretched horizontally on the top of three different wheels, attached each to the top of a pole about twelve fee high. The heads were nailed on separate poles, of a similar height. This execution took place two English miles to the south of Gottenburg, at the side of the road, though somewhat old-fashioned, extremely apt and impressive. It is easy to guess, without the help of a dictionary of etymologies, that sorrel comes from sour, a term more familiarly applied to a species of dock, well known for its acid properties. The terms wood-sorrel point out the nature and situation of the plant, and are of themselves its best description. We have heard some people say, when advised to take exercise for the preservation or improvement of their health, that they do not relish a walk because they have no object. Surely if we stray into a wood, and mark with what care the Almighty provides for the defence and welfare of a little plant, that seems to flourish when all its neighbours have long since been stripped of their leafy honours, we cannot be said to walk without an object. While nearly all vegetable nature sleeps to recruit her strength, as if in unmarked preparation for the beautiful displays of the ensuing spring, a few herbs are still fresh and thriving, as if to teach desponding man, that the Divine goodness even in the wintry season of adversity does not sleep, but ever scatters here and there some patches of pleasant green, as pledges of returning spring. The plants of this order have ten stamens, with awl-shaped filaments. These filaments, if examined with a little attention, will be found to be connected together at their base. A flower of the wood-sorrel will serve for examination, and may be found so early as April. In our engraving the germen, or unripe seed-vessel c, resembles a five-cornered pillar or pyramid. If we inspect the sides of this seed-vessel, they seem to be each one composed of a single leaf, as represented in d, which has its edges folded together and fastened by muIF the title given to this assemblage of tual adhesion. In the plants of this order plants seem hard, that hardness is compen- we have a variety of fives. For we have sated by the facility with which the wood-five divisions in the calyx, five petals, twice sorrel, the pattern and representative of all the rest, is found and distinguished. In every plantation, wood, or shrubbery, this pretty little weed may be found. If any person to whom it is a stranger should take a walk into a wood, especially where the stumps of trees are ready to afford a hiding place, he will soon find a pale green leaf, like the trefoil or shamrock, with an agreeable acid taste. These marks will denote the wood-sorrel with no less certainty than the most laboured descriptions. Older naturalists of this country, who sometimes wrote in latin, called the wood-sorrel trifolium acetosum, or sour trefoil, a name, five stamens, five cells in the germen or fruit, and five styles. Pythagoras was accustomed to ascribe extraordinary properties to certain numbers. Now it appears that the philosopher was a very close observer of nature, from whence he fetched the knowledge of these apparently mystical properties. The pentad, or number five, was called the number of the world, inasmuch as there are five zones in the great world, and five senses in the little world, or microcosm of a man. We see by this example, which is only one among many, that the number five is of no less account among botanists, than it was among the |