the commencement of his official telegrams-let us as far as we can, expand our chests and breathe freely and make for ourselves a clear stage and no favour!-yet this will not do, we are too independent, we may have a clear stage 'tis true but we cannot do without favor, the favor of those readers who may overlook our faults and deficiencies, let us if we can detatch ourselves from the floes of ice that surround us, and if we are unable to fall in with the warm current of the Gulf Stream, let us at least have unencumbered, calm water in which we may float and swim, or may be sink.

Our title 'Progress' we have said is a large one and we must content ourselves with merely sketching the subject. It involves not only advancement and improvement but a consideration of the normal condition of things whence the change proceeds-and it is not simply a change either, but a change for the better that we have to deal with. Where shall we begin, and what branch of progress shall we first tackle? The sayings and doings of the fallen Adam are remote, and the history of them as presented in these days is deficient. Yet assuredly the pristine condition of the manufacture of garments in those days is a subject which may afford a starting point-and tho' the readers of 'Myra's Journal' would doubtless congratulate themselves upon the great advance of the present day, still we cannot allow this opportunity to pass of recording our opinion that recently the draperies of female beauty have, in a considerable degree, taken a turn from

the position of improvement towards that of the normal! But are we right in our judgement! Is it wrong that it should be so, when we have such ancient precedent of perfection?

Should the present fashion continue its development can it be said to fulfil the requirements of progress or not i.e. advancement and improvement?

We think we are bound to acknowledge that however correct in the days of Eve her personal drapery may have been, yet as time wore on and population increased, the covering of the body which appears to have proceeded very gradually, was a move in the right direction, and whether we contemplate the hoops and costumes of the middle ages or more modern date the silk stockings and buckles of the period, the buckskins and tops, or the broad cloth continuations of the present era, we are constrained to call it 'progress.'

In thus alluding to the original dress of our first parents, we trust we are not irreverent, but have we not really hit upon the commencement of the Arts and Sciences? We have long since learned that necessity is the mother of invention, so when their eyes were opened and they found themselves in what we in these days should undoubtedly describe as at least a questionable plight, they turned their immediate attention to tailoring and millinery, and like our old schoolboy friend Robinson Crusoe, when on the desolate island he was left to his own resources, made themselves aprons of fig leaves sewn together, and were afterwards provided with

coats of skin and clothing suitable to the climate in which they found themselves.

To the very remotest date then, namely the creation of the world must we look back for the first indication of all those grand developements of science which are now become so numerous, and so incalculably important, and to the construction of garments by Adam and Eve, must we affix the date of our very first invention.

we

How pleased and delighted would be an old friend of ours did he happen to peruse these pages, mean our once own particular tailor, who, immersed at all times in what he termed the engineering science required in the proper fulfilment of the responsibilities of his profession, was apt to say that any one could make a ‘garment'—a garment! to make a mere garment was one thing, but to lay down the lines of a coat, cut it out and seam it up with all that delicately arranged mathematical precision necessary to its fitting each variously constructed body on which he had to operate, was a horse of

another colour!

Shall we call this "progress"?

CHAPTER II.

"The deepest mine in Europe, like the greatest depth to which avarice has ever yet penetrated, may be compared to the puncture made in the body of an elephant by the proboscis of an ant."

After Adam, let us turn our attention to the products of the earth, but first of all to the earth. itself.

It may not unnaturally be asked what progressive qualifications can the rude earth be capable of? Yet such it possesses-starting as we do from a state of nature it is clear that the soil was improved by tillage, the application of manurial deposits and the rain that fell from the clouds, and so in that sense it became active. The scriptures again and again relate the circumstances of agriculture and the means employed in the development of crops under the watchful care of the husbandman.

But how has or rather how has not the very earth itself in its crude uncultivated state been turned to the advantage of man, thus indirectly contributing to progress? Setting aside for the moment the question of productiveness, we turn to warfare-the ancient Romans, very soon discovered the use of earthworks, and like the Romans we in our day adopt the same process of military tactics, shall we say improved tactics? Perhaps the improvement, if there be any, may rest upon the auxiliary implements of warfare.

But how is the plain earth, in its inert form, otherwise turned to the advantage of recent generations and ourselves!

construction of

Who will not understand the floating docks, the formation of railway embankments and the breastworks of reservoirs, those immense puddled trenches and bars to the breaking out of vast plains of water, without whose storage and supply through conduit pipes covered and protected by the earth, a multitude of citizens would parch, manufactures stand still, and dirt and disease. reign triumphant! Thus much then of the dull soil which though passive in itself, is yet so intimately connected with progress.

If we take a step forward and consider briefly the incidental relations of matter-for instance the products of the earth, and for the present we will confine ourself to its fruits-we may feel assured that the crude form of all those delicious edibles we are privileged to enjoy, had its existence on the creation of the world, and that the varieties we now have are merely its refined developments. Doubtless the large quantities of the numerous growths placed before us in different quarters of the globe, are simply discoveries from time to time made by the enquiring mind of man, but how very extensive and effective has become the work of culture and improvement, the result indeed of the digging, the treatment, the pruning, the watchful care, and the grafting, whereby the original stock altered as it is in size, in flavour, in beauty to such a degree has become such, that placed side by side, or partaken of together, no comparison can be made between the new and the old. And again how strange is it