As there are many branches of KNOWLEDGE, some of which are easy, and others difficult of attainment, the easier should be acquired first; by this course, the difficulty of the latter will be considerably diminished, as the faculties will become more and more capable and vigorous by their gradual exertion. If the contrary course be adopted, the mind will be embarrassed, and the attain-XENOPHONS, the LIVYs, to appear as conspicuously in the page of ment of KNOWLEDGE will be rendered no less irksome than limited. By following up the PLAN here proposed, the "ROAD to KNOWLEDGE" will be as easy, as the END will be profitable and delightful. Uneducated reason may be likened to gold hidden in the MINE, which is of no use until brought to light; when, being formed for circulation, it becomes, not only useful to its possessor, but universally beneficial.

and space beneath; and still preserve that superiority, which their facilities and opportunities afford them the means of acquiring. And surely no one will affirm, that EDUCATION among the GREAT has arrived at a ne plus ultra: they, too, must go onwards, to

110N of Youth should be watched with the most scrupulous attention. EDUCATION, in a great measure, forms the moral characters of MEN, and MORALS are the basis of GOVERNMENT. EDUCATION should, therefore, be the first care of a LEGISLATURE; not merely in the institution of SCHOOLS, but in furnishing them with the best TEACH-wards the perfection of that KNOWLEDGE which shall fit them to

ERS.

A good SYSTEM OF EDUCATION should be the first article in the CODE of all political regulations; for it is much easier to introduce an effectual SYSTEM for establishing good MORALS, than to correct, by penal statutes, the ill effects of a bad SYSTEM. We are so fully persuaded and convinced of the correctness of what we have expressed, that we shall almost adore that great man, who shall change our practice and opinions, and cause to be adopted that SYSTEM OF EDUCATION, which shall equally improve all ranks of SOCIETY, and thereby produce universal peace and harmony amongst men.

One great defect in our SCHOOLS is, the want of proper BOOKS, such as shall be adapted for the several classes of Society; but those could be readily supplied, if a proper SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION were only established.

It is said, however, by many very intelligent, benevolent, and very worthy persons, that the system of general INSTRUCTION has been already carried too far, and, that by provoking a spirit of inquiry into the moral and physical state of SOCIETY, which EDUCATION naturally induces, we open a source of discontent, that will excite among the lower ranks, envy towards their superiors, and consequent insubordination;—so that they will be more ready to examine into the rights and titles of those who possess affluence, elevation, and authority, than to recognise and obey them. This sentiment is as old as antiquity can carry us back, even into the darkest ages of the WORLD, and had it been able to stem the current of intellect, GOTHICISM and VANDALISM would still have held dominion over the sterile faculties of the human MIND; they might have sat on their ebon throne, amidst a world of darkness, on which the "SUN OF SCIENCE" had never darted a single ray; but the thing was, as it is now, quite impossible; no obstacle can prevent, or even impede that progress, which is evidently a grand design in the scheme of CREATION, and part of that ascending SERIES which rises from TERRESTRIAL to CELESTIAL INTELLIGENCE, Connecting MAN with immortality.

sway the SCEPTRE of INTELLECT, and RULE over an enlightened PEOPLE, and this will preserve the dignity and honor of their race, and ensure the respect and obedience that a discerning population will always pay to WORTH and WISDOM. Is this impossible?Let those who seek a solution of the question look to HISTORY and they will find, that improvement in KNOWLEDGE has been concomitant with the higher and lower degrees and conditions of MEN in all ages. In the feudal times, were not the NOBLES of the LAND proportionally more IGNORANT, as well as their vassals and villains, than the NOBILITY are now? Yet ignorant as those BARONS were, they preserved their rank and authority, because their subjects were in the same state of semibarbarism. But, would it have been, had one ORDER stood still, and the other advanced in refinement and KNOWLEDGE? the state of SOCIETY would have been preposterous, and must have fallen to pieces; both proceeded in a parallel course, and both preserved the same comparative distance, and have so done to the present time. Have the GREAT lost their dignity thereby, or changed place with the enlightened PEASANTRY? On the contrary, they now receive the honours that REASON awards, instead of the slavish homage that IGNORANCE mechanically paid. If, then, KNOWLEDGE has progressed without destruction to distinctions of rank, and without spoliation, why should we apprehend any thing of the kind, now that improvement goes on; and to what extent who shall say? for there is no definable limit to the power that moves the mighty MACHINE, and that replenishes the Sensorium of the

UNIVERSE.

In the second place, it must be observed, how little is to be dreaded from the ambition of an instructed PEOPLE; since so very few attain to eminence in LEARNING, considering the paucity of time (as is readily shown by the engraving), that can be spared from the duties oflife, that scarcely any surmount the difficulties that weigh them down to the level of their origin. Should, however, one or another, occasionally, soar above his class, and gain a higher station, the example may create emulation, and who would regret the excitement of a laudable feeling, or the elevation of a meritorious individual? There is yet another argument in favour of KNOWLEDGE, which is this:-KNOWLEDGE, if properly inculcated, teaches MAN to perform his duties, and as he regards his own RIGHTS, so to respect the RIGHTS of others; without these wise maxims that WISDOM suggests, a MAN may learn to be CUNNING, but truly he has no claim to legitimate KNOWLEDGE.

All HISTORY, if properly studied, contributes to sustain this conclusion. The retrospect of causes and effects evidently de

'But, it is objected, that there is danger in giving KNOWLEDGE to the labouring poor, because it will have a tendency to create a desire to live in mere ease and idleness, and an unwillingness to pursue the avocations that require bodily labour, or to fulfil the menial capacities to which they may be subjected; thus an erroneous jealousy arises, lest knowledge and numbers united should subvert the order of things, and by violence, usurp the rights and privileges of the favoured few. This fear will vanish, when we consider that MEN are more easily guided by REASON than by RESTRAINT, and that consent is a lasting tie, while coercion continues no longer to bind than till the opportunity of a release occurs. Again, as IGNORANCE is often attended by obstinacy and stu-monstrates, that IGNORANCE has been the means of producing pidity, the removal of these must necessarily qualify the operative or the servant to perform his offices much better, and more satisfactorily to his employers, than he could, were it requisite to guide and direct him like a mere animal AUTOMATON. And as to the idea of aspiring to the possession of power by pulling down the exalted in rank from their stations, and seating themselves in their places, two things will effectually interpose to prevent any such occurrence by means of popular insurrection; first, because, by the increase of KNOWLEDGE the higher ORDERS may and ought to advance in a like, or rather, duplicate ratio, with the lower, so as to leave room

most of the evils and miseries which MANKIND have suffered, ever since they have been able to record the actions and events of their own times and countries; and that, as KNOWLEDGE advanced, SHE brought in her train, not only the ARTS, that embellish LIFE, but also, all those soCIAL VIRTUES, that soften the asperities of our sublunary path, and introduce a CONCORD, and SYMPATHY among us unknown to the rude ages of Antiquity. If

in the engraving? And why should not the same privileges be * Is not this already the case as is shown in the circles 2 and 3 granted to the circle marked No. 5.

this be so, and who can deny it? why should we wish to halt, in the MARCH, or stand still in the way, every step of which has given us such proofs of its being "THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS?" Not one, surely, would wish to go back, for on what era can he fix of the past, that shall be comparable to the present, with respect to the real enjoyments of LIFE. But the "LAW OF NATURE" suffers no rest, we must advance or recede; behind us is DARKNESS, before us, the DAY, on which "THE SUN OF SCIENCE" shines: let us seek its genial RAY, and prosper by its INFLUENCE.V equals ihr 4 od sends 16.1 20 ACCOUNT OF A COLONY OF CARPENTER ANTS. BY PROFESSOR RENNIE, OF KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON.

[JULY 7,

human mechanism. It cannot be the result of vision, from the
worker-out looking along the level of the plane, as one of our car-
penters would do, and thence working so as not to cut through it;
along which such a level could be taken by the eye. Hearing might
for the wall has, in,most instances, though not in all, no free edge
assist them, however, supposing workers to be engaged in chiselling
on each side of the partition; but it would appear to be more from
touch, or rather that modification of it denominated tact, which
the wall, and which consequently warns them to stop.
enables them to feel, as it were, when they have nearly penetrated

It is not a little remarkable, that all the wood which is worked
out by these ants is tinged of a black colour, giving all their streets
and lanes somewhat the appearance of having suffered from fire or
of being smoked. M. Huber, the younger, did not succeed in
bascertaining the cause of this black colour. I should conjecture it
to arise from iron contained in the saliva of the ants acting on the
gallic acid of the wood, in the same way as the same wood be-
comes black when cut with a knife. I throw this out, however,
only as a plausible conjecture, which may readily be either verified
or disproved by a very simple chemical experiment, which I had
not leisure at the time of writing this to try. The fine glossy black
of the ants themselves may originate from the same chemical prin-
liste ciple, and this is rendered more probable, from the excavations
as made by other species, such as the DUSKY ANT (Formica fusca,
LATREILLE) not being tinged of this black colour. Neither are
the excavations of the latter so regular in the form of the cells, and
the delicately thin partitions do not occur.
92 colonies of the yellow ant (F. flava, LATREILLE) established in
I have seen several
trees, though their usual habits lead them to prefer a hedge-bank,
the dry ridge of a field, or a small knoll on a common.
of these, however, had the workers much trouble in making their
In none
excavations, the trees being in every instance far gone with the dry
rot, and the chambers were consequently as easy to construct as in
a knoll of sand. In the instance of the BLACK CARPENTER ANT
(F. fuliginosa), on the other hand, the wood of the tree selected for
their colony is always hard and tough, the easiness of working it
being apparently considered a disadvantage rather than a recom-
mendation. I have usually seen these colonies, therefore, in grow-
ing trees, the oak seeming to be preferred to all others; and what
is worthy of remark, the honey comb-like work does not seem to
stop the vegetation, the tree continuing to put forth leaves and
shoots as before it was excavated for the use of the colony. In
the instance which gave rise to these remarks, the willow tree was
indeed dilapidated and shorn of its leaves and branches, yet was
it untouched with dry rot, and the wood was hard and tough,

NEST OF THE WOOD ANT, WITH THE GREATER SPOTTED
WOODPECKER.Core bus route Tight
A.sombol Baborado Congo ads rug

Dad WOOD ANTS (Formica fuliginosa)ly acron
A. Male.
e. B. Worker. C. Female.

I had brought into my garden at LEE, in the beginning of June, a large piece of a willow tree, which had been very curiously worked out by the species of ANTS usually called the Emmet (Formica fuliginosa, LATREILLE). The tree, indeed, from which it had been taken, appears to have been destroyed in a great measure from the extensive excavations of these little Carpenters. Yet the portion of the tree which I have seems to be singularly strong, when the great number of the cells and their peculiar structure is taken into con-sideration. The walls of these cells are literally as thin as writing paper, though not quite so smooth and even, and they are seldom quite parallel, but arranged, some perpendicularly, and others slanting in various directions, worked out, it would appear, upon no previous design, but begun at any given point, and only limited in extent by the worker discovering his approach to one adjacent. The tact with which they chisel away the wood with their jaws, so as to come so near the next cell without actually cutting into it, cannot well be accounted for on any of the common principles of

population-almost inconceivable by those who have not witnessed Another singularity respecting this colony was its innumerable it. I have, in several instances, seen the commencement of an pulation, except herself and some half dozen eggs, collected into a ant colony by a single female, with no appearance of a future polittle cell. The contrast between this and the colony in the willow tree was as striking as between the hut of a cottager and the crowded houses and dense population of LONDON or PEKIN. I think I am under, rather than over, the mark, in estimating the population of this colony in question at one million; and as it was impossible to see one-fourth of the ants at the same time, it might be double or treble that number.

tree, that the ants could be seen at work; yet the younger Huber, I imagine it might be possible so to glaze a section of this who was anxious to accomplish this, did not succeed in any device he could contrive. In consequence, he remarks, of the labourers always working in the interior of trees, they dislike the light, and are desirous of being screened from observation; and hence they could not be induced to work when the light was admitted; in the same manner as I found another ant (Ponera contracta, LATREILLE), mistakenly supposed by M. Latreille to be blind, would only work when exposed to the light, till the intrusion of a single ray was entirely prevented. Accordingly, when M. work under his eye, they always abandoned the spot to seek some Huber exposed them to the light, under the notion of making them new asylum, and spurned the honey and sugar which he offered them for nourishment.

sity to the inspection only of their excavations; by carefully de-
"I was, therefore," continues M. Huber, "limited by neces-

composing portions of which I hope to acquire some knowledge of |
their organization. In this examination, I found on one side
horizontal galleries, hidden in great part by their walls, which fol-
low the circular direction of the layers of the wood, while on an-
other side I found parallel galleries, separated by extremely thin
partitions, having no communication except by a few oval aper-
tures, lightness and delicacy being the characteristic of the whole
workmanship.

“I found, in other portions, avenues opening laterally, which in-
cluded parts of walls and cross partitions, chiselled out here and
there within the galleries, so as to separate the several chambers.
In a further advanced stage of the work, round holes are always ob-
served, encased in some measure between two pillars cut out in the
same wall. In the course of time, these holes become square, and
the pillars, originally arched at both ends, are worked into regular
columns by the chisels of the little carpenters. This, which is the
second specimen of their artisanship, will probably remain in
this state as a portion of the edifice.

lisardes, and other suche. And all that the Pellycane eateth, he
plungeth in water with his fote, and when he hath so plunged in
water he putteth it in his mouth with his own fote, as it were with
an honde. Onely the pellycane and the popyniay among foules
vse the fote in stede of an honde.

#

辔

# **

Also of the pellycane the glose speaketh super spalmum; and the
same PLYNYUS sayth in this maner. The pellycane loveth to mocke
her chyldren. For whan the chyldren ben haughte, and begyn to
wexe hoore they smyte the father and the mother in the face, where-
fore the mother smiteth them againe and fleeth them. And the thyrde
daye, that the bloudde renneth out, and shedeth that hotte bloudde
upon the bodyes of her chyldren. And by vertue of the bloudde
the byrdes that were before deed quycken ayen. And in the glaze
uppon that place of the psalme. Factus sum sicut Pellicanus. It
is sayde that the pellicane fleeth her byrdes with her bylle and
maketh sorowe three dayes, and then shedeth her hotte bloudde
upon them; and maketh them alyve agayn in that maner. Magister
Jacobus de Ditriaco in li. de mirabilibus orientalium regionum,
"In another quarter, however, are fragments differently wrought, telleth a nother cause of the death of pelicanes byrdes. He saythe,
in which these same partitions, now perforated in every part and that in EGYPTE is a byrde that hyght PELLYCANUS, a byrde with
skilfully hewn, are transformed into colonnades to support the upper greate wynges and mooste leane. For all that he swaloweth
stories, and leave a free communication throughout the whole ex-
And therefore he maye not
tent. We may readily conceive, in what manner parallel galleries, holde meate tylle it be incorporate. And the serpente hateth
hollowed out upon the same plan and the sides taken down, leaving kyndelye this byrde. Wherefore whan the mother passeth oute of
only from space to space what is necessary to sustain their ceilings, the neste to gette meate, the serpente clymeth on the tree and
may form an entire story; but as each has been separately perforated, styngeth or infecteth the byrdes. And whan the mother commethe
the flooring cannot be very level; but this the ants turn to their ad-agayne, she maketh sorowe three days for her byrdes, as it is sayde.
vantage, since these furrows are better adapted to retain the young Than (he saythe) she smyteth herself in the breste and springeth
which may be placed there.
bloudde upon them, and rereth theym fro deathe to lyfe, and then
for greate bledynge the mother wexeth feble, and the byrdes bene
compelled to passe out of the neste to gette themself meate. And
some of them for kynde loue fede the mother that is feble; and
some ben vnkyde and care not for the mother, and the mother
taketh good hede therto, and whan she commeth to her strengthe
she nourysheth, and loueth those byrdes that fedde in her a her
nede, and putteth away her other birdes, as vnworthy and vnkynde,
and suffreth them not to dwelle, nor lyve with her.
Lee, Kent, June 18th.
J. RENNIE.

"There is much greater irregularity in the stories excavated out
of the great roots, than in those in the body of the tree itself, by
consequence either of the hardness and interlacing of the fibres,
which renders the labour more difficult, and obliges the worker-ants
to vary from their usual manner of proceeding, or of their not fol-
lowing up in the extremities of their edifice the same arrangement
as in the centre. Be this as it may, there are still found horizontal
stories and numerous partitions.

"In the instances in which the work occurs less regularly, it.
is found to be more delicate; because the ants, profiting by the
hardness and solidity of the materials, impart a singular degree of
lightness to the whole building. I have observed fragments of
from eight to ten inches in length, and of equal height, formed of
wood as thin as paper, containing a number of apartments, and
presenting the most singular appearance. Very considerable open-
ings are besides observable at the entrance of these apartments,
worked out with much care; but, instead of chambers and exten-
sive galleries, the layers of the wood are hewn into arcades, allowing
a free passage in every direction for the inhabitants. We may con-
sider these as the doors or entrances leading to the several apart-

ments."

From these circumstantial details of M. Huber, it will be ap-
parent, that the colony at Lee, which gave rise to my previous
remarks, may be considered precisely alike.

Quarantine Station, near Rotterdam, 23d June, 1832.
ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY OF THE PELICAN.

ANCIENT HISTORY.

The first engraving represents a Pelican feeding her young
with blood from her own bosom; being a fac-simile, from Aldrov-
and's great work, on Ornithology, 3 vols., folio, Frankfurti, 1610. The
draughtsman to this immortal work, as will be seen from the above
specimen, was well fitted for his profession, adding to his accom-
plishments in the arts of "design," the much greater "art and
mystery" of "bird-fancying."

CURIOUS OLD ACCOUNT OF THE PELICAN.

A pellycane is a byrde that is called Porphiris, LEUIT xi. and
DEUT. xiii. And is a byrde of EGYPTE and dwelleth in deserte
besyde the ryver Nylus; and is acounted amonge unclene byrdes
by the Lawe in LEUIT. And there ben two maner of Pellycanes;
one dwelleth in water and eateth fyshe, and the other dwelleth on
londe; and loueth wyldernes and eateth venemous beastes, as

*

MODERN HISTORY.

THE PELICAN (Pelecanus Onocrotalus).—The Pelican is a sin-.
gular and interesting bird, and is equally at ease on the water, or in
the air; she is much larger than the swan, measuring five or six feet
from the point of the bill to the end of the tail, and ten to twelve
feet from tip to tip of the wings. With these proportions, and her
melancholy aspect when shut up in a menagerie, it might be ima-
gined that she was a dull and inactive bird, but on the contrary,
she is extremely vivacious and agile, and when seen floating upon
well-spread wings, with a parallel motion, over the undulating
waves few objects in nature present a more lively or even grace-
ful appearance. The beauty of her motions is also agreeable
heightened by her colour, which, with the exception of the black
quill feathers of the wings, is of a delicate salmon, or blush colour.

The Pelican feeds upon living fish; and to enable her to catch
them with facility, Nature has not only provided her for that pur-
pose with an admirable fishing spear, but also with an elastic bag
to hoard up supplies for future wants. This apparatus consists of
an upper bill of great length, straight, broad, flattened above, and
terminated by a slight hook; and a lower bill of a forked shape,
the two converging branches of which meet, and form the point of
the bill. From the lower edges of these hangs a membranous bag,
capable of being so greatly distended, as to contain fifteen quarts
of water, or a proportionate bulk of fish. When not in use, this
bag, by an admirable contrivance, is wrinkled up in such a man-
ner, as to lie completely hidden in the angular hollow of the under

bill.

Thus accoutred, the Pelican sallics forth; majestically committing
herself to the winds, which she almost seems to emulate in swift-