popularity. The population of Palestine in the time of David was five millions. As an evening exercise, the children might be encouraged to combine, with an English primitive, all the prefixes and affixes they can remember; to write out sentences as given above; or to form, with the aid of the derivatives, a continuous story. The "Pupil Teacher's English Grammar," contains an excellent selection of the most common roots, together with the prefixes and affixes. It is also rich in Anglo-Saxon derivations; containing, as it does, several pages devoted to this much neglected subject. In a future number we hope to be able to point out a method of combining instruction in this part of grammar with the ordinary reading lesson; or, at least, to suggest one which has been employed with considerable advantage. A. J. B. NOTES OF LESSONS. ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE. No. II. ASPECT AND FRUITFULNESS OF THE LAND. We have seen in our former lesson (page 186) that God intended by placing His people in a country so guarded, to protect them from corruption. Now are there any other general causes of corruption besides intercourse with other nations? Notice the state of our own country; which parts are comparatively most free from it? The country or scattered population. The worst portion of the population is found in towns, and generally the larger the town the greater the wickedness. Instance also the cities of the plain. Now you may observe of Palestine: I. That it is Mountainous. Hence it is not favorable for the formation of many large cities. The mountains of Palestine are more or less isolated, and were cultivated to their summits. Train out that this was done by means of terraces. Now give the chief mountains, associating with them their historical recollections or natural features. Lebanon: two ranges in the north; a valley between them; the cultivation of silk and why,-existence of mulberry tree,-remind them of the Cedar and of the stone for Solomon's temple. Carmel and Elijah; Quarantana and our Lord's Temptation and the parable of the Good Samaritan. Tabor and Deborah, and the Transfiguration. Gilboa and David's Ode on the death of Saul. Ebal and Gerizim, and the blessing and curses. II. It was fruitful but is now barren. That it was fruitful, we saw in our last lesson. 1. Now train out from several passages of Scripture that its barrenness was predicted. (1.) It was to be desolate.-Isaiah i. 7; Ezek. vi. 14. (2.) Strangers were to devour it.Ezek. vii. 24. 2. Go on to show that these predictions have been fulfilled. And they have been so fulfilled that one traveller says that the prophecies might be used as actual history. Volney describes it as looking like a dreary burial place. The present inhabitants are Nomadic or wandering tribes, with no settled habitation; and they remove from one district to another, as the necessities of their flocks or their own inclinations lead them. Hence the country is to a great extent destitute of cultivation. Palestine has been successively conquered by Romans, Arabians, Turks, Egyptians and Tartars; and now its government is so wretched that nobody travels there alone.-Jeremiah xii. 7-13. From the whole subject the lesson might be impressed that the purposes of God are always accomplished. In the THE OBJECT fact that we and other nations of the earth possess Christianity, we see the accomplishment of His purpose in selecting Palestine for the residence of His own people; and in its present condition we read the fulfilment of His threatened judgments on account of their unfaithfulness. OF LIFE. then on another; now in this garden, then in that; it is never long in one place, and never long at one thing. And thus it goes on, day after day, until it lies down to die. What is it? The I. Come with me to the sea-shore. On this hand are the high cliffs, and on the other the open sea. Now let us look around us. Observe this rock; here is something fastened to it, which looks as if it were growing there,-just-butterfly. like the articles which grow in our gardens. Then you would think it was a-vegetable. What makes vegetables grow? Sap. And sap is-water. You say water; then if we were to place the roots of a tree in water, it would grow. No, sir. Then sap is more than water: sap absorbs from the soil that which will nourish the plant. But this is on a rock, not on soil. Well, it is not a vegetable. Yet it lives and grows; then it is an animal. Still it looks more like a vegetable than an animal. It is the -anemone. Now let us leave it; and in six months or more we will return; it is in the same spot; it has not moved from its place, and the only difference in it is that it is thicker and larger than it was before. I wonder what it has been doing all this time;-nothing but eating and drinking. Now let us see who lives in this way. I go into a class, and there sits a boy with a vacant eye; he takes no interest in his lesson. I go six or twelve months after, and he is there still, in the old spot; he has made no progress. And he appears to think-if he ever thinks at all--that he was made for nothing else but to eat, drink and sleep. II. Now we will take a walk into the garden. I find here an animal which I will describe, and then you shall tell me its name. It has a beautiful coat and shining colors; here it is on one flower, Now there are two classes of boys that are mere butterflies; a boy is in this school one week, and in another the next; he goes from school to school, till he has been at every school in the town. And he is taken from every one because he does not get on; he and his parents think that it is the fault of the Masters, but you and I know better. The real reason is he will not work; he likes this vagrant life, he is a mere butterfly. Well, that is one class; now for another. A boy sees another boy drawing; he goes home and begins to draw. He sees another boy learning music; he gives up drawing and begins to learn music. That he soon gives up for something else; he first studies one a little, and then another a little ;-now a little algebra, then some grammar; but does not stop long enough over them to get any good out of them, and at the end of his days he is no better off than at the beginning; he is a mere butterfly. III. Here is another; look how slowly it crawls along; and wherever it goes it leaves a mark behind it. What is it? The-snail. Who is it like? Here is a boy,morning comes; every one in the house is up but him; he comes down the last. Nine o'clock comes; it is just on the stroke; and he's not in his place at School; he is again the last. The dinner time comes; all are around the table, but he has not yet arrived; he is again the last, always after everybody else. He has to put a letter in the Post-office, he gets there just as the box is shut. He has to go by the railway train, he is there just in time to see the train start off. If you ask him to meet you at a certain time, he is sure not to be there. If you ask him to do anything for you, he will be so long over it, that when it is done it will be of no use. No one can depend on him. He is nothing but a snail. He was never in time in his whole life, and never will be unless he greatly alters. I would rather by far have a pig, for the pig by eating and sleeping fattens and its flesh is of use after it is dead; but he is of no use at all. IV. Now for another; we will go to Japan. Look, here are some high rocks; on their tops are some small shrubs; down here at the foot of the rocks are some men who wish very much to get the small branches of those shrubs for the sake of the leaves upon them. But the rocks are so steep they cannot climb 'them. Now up there among the shrubs are some strange looking animals, who are taking a great deal of notice of these men; they watch them and do whatever the men do. Now the men break a branch and throw it up; and they break the branches and throw them down; they just do what they see others do. of trying himself, he copies from his neighbours; he does what others do. He goes to a shop, perhaps to buy a book to write in. One is shown him, which will do very well for what he wants. But he has a companion with him who has already bought one; and he asks if this is like his. And if it is not, he will not take it; he can never do anything unless some one has done it before. He is a mere imitator; nothing more than a monkey. V. Let us take another walk in the garden. Look here at this curious little house-a house without windows. I see a door but no windows. As we approach we hear a hum. Now, then, we shall find what we have not found before; some real workers. What are they? The bees, and this house is their hive. But, stop; let us peep in; here are some in the house who do not work; so that the hive contains two classes, the workers and the eaters. It is so with our Gallery. Here is a boy listening to all his neighbour says, and saying it. His neighbour thinks out a point; he only repeats it. The one is a worker; the other, poor fellow, only an eater. VI. Now we will take a voyage. Our ship moves nobly along over the waves of the great Pacific Ocean. As we move along, we pass many groups of islands abounding with cocoa-nuts and bread fruit trees; and they have many inhabitants. How did these islands get there? Let us stop our ship, descend into a boat, and look into the water. See, here are myriads of little creatures all busily at work. They are the coral insects; they are working for others. And the people who live in these islands are indebted for all they have to the little insect. Or, here is a man travelling with a pack on his back; he is tired and goes to lie under a tree to sleep. But first he takes a nightcap out of a bundle of them; when he awakes he finds his night caps gone, and on looking up he sees a number of these strange animals, each with one of his nightcaps on. The man-coral takes his nightcap off and throws it at them; and they take off theirs and throw them at him; they just do what they see others do. Now, look at this lad. I have given out a sum; and instead of doing it himself, he looks over his neighbour's slate. and does just what he sees him do. ́Or, I give a word to write, and instead An old man was one day planting some trees, when one said to him,— "Why do you work thus, for you will never live to eat the fruit?" "Oh," said he, "I am working not for myself, but for others." Which of all these characters do you like the best? The last. We had first the Anemone; then the Butterfly; then Moderato. the Snail; then the Monkey; then the Bee; and then the Coral Insect. And of all these you would rather be the coral insect. The Coral insect leaves the world better than he found it. And I hope that many of you will leave the world better than you found it; but if you would you must work. You must be at it with all your might, and at it all your days. Let this be the object of your life, to leave the world better than you found it. G. ON SEALING-WAX. The material is called Sealing-wax (improperly, for there is not a particle of wax in it) because it is applied to the same purpose for which wax was formerly used, namely, to seal letters and documents. Sealing-wax was formerly made of 4 parts of Bees'-wax and 1 part of Venice Turpentine, with sometimes the addition of a little Cinnabar to colour it. It is now made of Shell-lac (4 parts), Cinnabar (3 parts), aud Venice Turpentine (1 part). 1. Shell-lac is a kind of gum which exudes from East Indian forest trees of the fir tribe (in a similar manner to the gum which flows from our own plum trees) through small holes in the bark, made by insects for depositing their eggs. 2. Cinnabar is a bi-sulphurate of the metal Mercury or Quicksilver, consisting of 2 parts of Sulphur and 2 part of Mercury; and is obtained in large quantities from the Quicksilver mines of Spain (Almaden) and America. To this substance we are indebted for the beautiful paint called Vermillion. 3. Venice Turpentine is a highly purified turpentine obtained principally from the Norwegian forests of larch. 4. The Shell-lac gives to the Sealingwax the hardness and brittleness which it possesses. The Venice Turpentine is added to soften the Shell-lac, in order that the wax may be easily moulded or stamped when warm. And the Cinnabar gives to it its beautiful carmine red colour. For black wax, instead of Cinnabar, ivory-black is used, which is made by heating bones in an iron cylinder, until phosphate of lime and charcoal (carbon) are formed. 5. After mixing the three substances together, large pieces of it are taken whilst warm, and rolled upon a steel plate to be cut into lengths to form the round sticks; other shapes are formed in moulds. 6. Picture out the manner in which various nations and people are employed for our use and convenience. The swarthy Indian, sinking under the burning sun of a tropical climate, - the hardy Norwegian, shivering with cold while with chilled fingers he strips his native firs, the Mexican, labouring in the rocky mines, and our own countrymen, mixing the materials obtained from each.-all contribute to supply us with one stick of Sealing-wax." *The above mixture forms the best Sealing-wax. The inferior kind is made from turpentine and rosin, and coloured with lamp-black or red lead, as the case may be. Lord by Thy blest nativity, A CHAPTER ON FLOWERS. bloom so freely for the admiring gaze of all, both rich and poor, are well calculated to draw forth all our finer feelings, and almost unconsciously to inspire within us a love for what is pure and natural and beautiful. |