did butterfly; the prince, (Melita Euphrasyne, Leach;) and most of the fritillaries. Now it may be said, scoffingly, that the caterpillars of these butterflies are only destructive vermin; and so, in one point of view, are all caterpillars: but these vermin are evidently created both to check the too extensive spread of any particular plant, (such as in this case, the violet,) that might otherwise overgrow and destroy other plants, and also to afford nourishment to numerous sorts of birds. These positions appear to us too obvious not to be assented to by every observer. During winter, we have remarked a similar circumstance in the sweet violet, (viola odorata,) and illustrative, besides, of a beautiful contrivance for the protection of the insect that feeds on the plant from cold and from external enemies and injuries. The insect alluded to, which feeds on the sweet violet in winter, is the grub of a gallfly, (cynips?) similar to the bedeguar insect of the rose, and the insect which produces the oak-galls, so valuable in commerce. The fly, some time in the summer or autumn, lays its eggs on or in a growing shoot of the violet; and when these are hatched, the grubs eat their way into the soft parts of the plant, which having its juices thus interrupted, bulges out into an irregular swelling around the grubs. Here they live, secure of plenty to eat, during the coldest weather; and when the summer returns, bore their way out on acquiring the adult state of flies.

spreading the seeds of violets, or, as we may term it, a natural sowing.

The floating of the seeds of the dandelion, and various other mechanical contrivances, by which Providence has enabled plants to diffuse their seeds, are well known to the most indifferent observers. The seeds of the violet are contained in a capsule or seed-vessel of three valves, to the inner part of which the seeds are attached, and remain so for some time after the valves, in the process of ripening, have separated and stood open. By and by, by the evaporation of their moisture, the sides of each valve shrink and roll up, and in this state their sharp edges press upon the seeds, and thereby reduce their previously irregular appearance into a straight line. Each seed is not only extremely smooth, polished, and shining, but regularly oblong; and hence, when the sharp infolding edge of the valve presses upon the slope of the seed, and continues to slide down, till it comes quite behind it, the seed is by this pressure thrown out with a jerk to some distance, according to its elevation above the soil.

We must not omit to notice another part of the contrivance of Providence, both in furthering the process of ripening, and in producing a wider diffusion of the seeds. Previous to the seed becoming ripe, the capsule hangs in a drooping position, with the cup (calyx) spread over it like an umbrella, to guard it from rains and dews, which would retard the process of ripening; but no sooner is the ripening completed, than the capsule becomes upright, with the cup for its support. This upright position of the cup seems intended, by Providence, to give more effect to the spring mechanism of the valves, for scattering the seeds; for it by this means gives a higher elevation, in some cases more than one inch, from which to project them.

The sweet violet is also diffused extensively by its runners, which throw out roots somewhat like those of the strawberry. J. R.

AN EPICURE.

THE apostle Paul thus describes some men in his day: "Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things," Phil. iii. 19.

The following anecdote relates to a similar character in the last century. A gentleman of Gloucestershire had one son, whom he sent abroad to make the grand tour of the continent; upon which

journey, the young man attended to nothing but the various modes of cooking, and methods of eating and drinking luxuriously. Before his return, his father died, leaving him a very large monied fortune, and a small landed estate. He now looked over his note-book, to discover where the most exquisite dishes were to be had, and the best cooks procured. He had no other servants in his house than men cooks; his butler, footman, housekeeper, coachman, and grooms, were all cooks. He had three Italian cooks; one from Florence, another from Sienna, and a third from Viterbo, for dressing one Florentine dish. He had a messenger constantly on the road between Brittany and London, to bring him the eggs of a certain sort of plover found in the former place. He was known to eat a single dinner at the expense of fifty-eight pounds, though himself only sat down to it, and there were but two dishes. In nine years he found himself getting poor, and this made him melancholy and ill. When totally ruined, having spent nearly one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, a friend gave him a guinea to keep him from starving; and he was found in a garret soon afterwards, roasting an ortolan (an expensive bird) with his own hands. A few days afterwards this infatuated person shot himself; and thus rushed unbidden into the presence of Him whose bounties he had so wickedly wasted and perverted.

LEAD has a bluish-white colour, and a very brilliant surface when cut with a knife, though this is soon lost by exposure to the air. Lead is the softest of all metals, melts at 612° Fahrenheit, and has a specific gravity of nearly 113. The lead used in this country is chiefly procured from Scotland and the north of England, and is found combined with sulphur, forming a sulphuret of lead, sometimes called galena. It will unite with oxygen, and there are three oxides, the yellow, the red, and the brown, which are useful in dyeing, calicoprinting, and in the manufacture of glass. This metal unites with the acids, and forms many salts of lead; and by its mixture with other metals, several useful alloys are produced.

liant, and heavy metal, having a specific gravity of 13. This metal is found in Spain, and in South America. It may be made to take a solid form when reduced to a temperature of 39° below the freezing point. By long exposure to the air it oxidizes, and its surface will be covered over with a fine black powder. Its alloys are called by chemists, amalgams; but it is not very evident why they should be thus distinguished. Mercury is used to separate the precious metals from their ores, for covering the backs of looking-glass, for the manufacture of vermilion, and in many philosophical experiments. It is also used in medicine; for it forms many useful salts, the most important of which is calomel.

ZINC is not a very malleable or ductile metal; its specific gravity is nearly 7; it melts at 680° Fahrenheit, and is so combustible, that if beaten into thin leaves, it will take fire from the flame of a common taper. When zinc is broken into pieces, it has a shining blueish-white colour; but after it has been exposed to the air for a short time, it is covered with a pellicle or thin film, that has a beautifully varied appearance. Its two principal ores are calamine and blende. Several useful alloys are produced by the combination of this metal with copper, and it is the base of several salts.

PLATINUM is 21 times heavier than water, and is the heaviest of the metals. It is chiefly obtained in South America, where it is found in small white grains. From its scarcity, and consequent high price, it has not been extensively used, though it possesses many properties that would render it very serviceable in the manufactures. It is nearly as hard as the purest iron, is not very malleable, but is so ductile, that it may be drawn out into a wire having a diameter of not more than 1-18000th part of an inch. It cannot be melted in any furnace, but is capable of welding, a property which almost compensates for its want of fusibility. It is not tarnished by either the air, heat, or moisture.

The remaining metals are not found in so great abundance, and are not so useful to man as those we have described; we shall therefore very briefly refer to those that have been employed for useful purposes, and simply mention the names of the others.

is brittle. It is employed in painting and enamels. Manganese is brittle and hard, has a greyish colour, and is used in bleaching, in purifying glass, and in glazing black earthenware. Bismuth is very fusible, and imparts the same property to other metals when they are combined with it. It is used in the manufacture of printer's types. Antimony is used for the same purpose; it is a brittle metal, has a bright white colour, and is not ductile. Its oxides are used as medicines. Arsenic is a greyish-white metal, and forms, by combination with oxygen, the deadly poison known by the same name.

It has been already stated, that Sir Humphrey Davy undertook a thorough examination, by means of a powerful voltaic battery, of the earths and alkalies, to determine whether they were simple or compound bodies. His labour resulted in the decomposition of nearly all the earths and fixed alkalies; and the remaining earths have been since decomposed. The following are the bases of the earths:-aluminum is the base of alumina; zirconium of zirconia; glucinum of glucina; yttrium of yttria; calcium of lime; barium of barytes; strontium of strontites. Silicon has been already mentioned as the base of silica; but it is not a metallic substance. The base of potash is called potassium, a white metal that melts at 150° of Fahrenheit, and is distinguished for its extraordinary affinity for oxygen. If a piece of potassium be thrown upon a vessel of water, it will combine with a portion of oxygen and inflame. Sodium, the base of soda, the other fixed alkali, possesses properties very similar to those of potassium, though it has not so great an affinity for oxygen. Lithium is the base of the newly-discovered earth called lithia. Chromium is employed in painting glass and porcelain, but is too expensive to be much used. The other metals are thorium, cerium, uranium, molybdenum, titanium, tungsten, columbium, sometimes called tantalum, tellurium, cadmium, vanadium, palladium, rhodium, iridium, and osmium.

THE PLAINNESS OF THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION.

THE christian religion, according to my creed, is a very simple thing, intelligible to the meanest capacity; and what, if we are at pains to join practice to knowledge, we may make ourselves acquainted with, without turning over many books. It is the distinguished excellence of this religion that

it is entirely popular, and fitted, both in its doctrines and its evidences, to all conditions and capacities of reasonable creatures; a character which does not belong to any other religious or philosophical system that ever appeared in the world. I wonder to see so many men, eminent for both their piety and their capacity, labouring to make a mystery of this Divine institution. If God vouchsafe to reveal himself to mankind, can we suppose that he chooses to do it in such a manner that none but the learned and contemplative can understand him? The generality of mankind can never, in any possible circumstances, have leisure or capacity for learning or profound contemplation. If, therefore, we make christianity a mystery, we exclude the greater part of mankind from the knowledge of it, which is directly contrary to the will of its Author, as is plain from his explicit and reiterated declarations. In a word, I am perfectly convinced that an intimate acquaintance with the scripture, particularly the Gospels, is all that is necessary to our accomplishment in true christian knowledge. I have looked into some systems of theology, but I never read one of them to an end, because I found I could never reap any instruction from them. To darken what is clear, by wrapping it up in a veil of system and science, was all the purpose that the best of them seems to me to answer.- -Beattie's Evidences of the Christian Religion.

VISIT TO THE BOSTON INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND.

IN the room into which we first entered, there was a sort of railing, connecting two adjoining sides and enclosing a corner, and nearly one-third of the room. Within this, sat a man upon a bundle of willow twigs, making willow baskets. We looked at this man at work a little time, and then ascended a flight of stairs, which were in the corner of the room, to the chamber above. We had before, when we first entered the yard, heard music, and on going into this chamber, we saw three blind men playing on a piano, bass-viol, and violin; they were also singing, and each one seemed to engage in it with his whole soul, and I had almost said body, for there was a great deal of action. A group of visitors stood about them, with smiling countenances, pleased with witnessing the pleasure that the blind seemed to feel.

After looking at the group a few minutes, I cast my eyes about the room, to see what