in London is more generally visited than the British Museum; and it might be difficult to find a place that has been more frequently described. It possesses

has much within it deserving attention; the other, that it may be seen for nothing.

As viewed from the spot where I am now standing, it has little in appearance to recommend it. Neither its guarded gateways, its square turrets, its front of dirty red brick, nor its old crazy cupola, is of an alluring character. Even in the short time it has occupied me to note down this remark, twenty-three persons have passed by the two sentinels, who are on duty with their bayonets fixed at the end of their muskets; and now a carriage has driven up to the gate. It is time for me to trudge across the street, and to enter the place myself.

most encouraging. To show the truth of this remark, it will be enough to state, that since the death of Pius VII., in July, 1823, a period less than fifteen ears, there have been three popes-two very great attractions: one, that it Leo XII., Pius VIII., and Gregory xvI., the present Roman pontiff. In a body composed of about fifty, never exceeding seventy persons, there is held out the strong probability, that at least three of this number, every fifteen years may occupy a throne. Are there no stimulants to unsanctified ambition here? And then the Pope is not a tool, subject to the dictation of his ministers. He is an absolute monarch. No government can be more despotic_than_that_established over the papal states. I might refer to the case of Torlonia, a distinguished banker in Rome, in illustration of the position that the Romish church is upheld and strengthened in these states, from worldly and political considerations. Torlonia was the son of a poor pedlar, but by his tact and industry, he accumulated a large fortune. He desired to ennoble his family, and therefore purchased a dukedom, and acquired the title belonging to it. He must of course live in a style which comports with his acquired nobility. He has therefore purchased one of the old palaces on the Corso, and is fitting it up with an elegance that will throw the mansions of the wealthiest princes of Rome into the shade. But observe, no one can lift up his head here among the magnates of the land, upon whom the pope and church do not smile; and, therefore, Torlonia has purchased, for the sum of eighteen thousand dollars, the privilege of putting up and adorning a chapel in one of the unoccupied recesses of the church of St. John Lateran. It is said, that already contracts have been made for sculpture and paintings,ject, which is a little curious. for the adornment of this chapel, to the amount of more than a hundred thousand dollars. What political men in our country are willing to scatter among the people to buy golden opinions, Torlonia is willing to lavish on the church, to obtain the good opinion of him whose thunders issue from the Vatican.-Clarke's Glimpses of the Old World.

THE PERAMBULATOR.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

WITH the exception of St. Paul's Cathedral, perhaps no public building

Ay! This spacious quadrangle gives a different aspect to the building, and the fine flight of steps adds much to its general appearance. The French architect, Peter Puget, who designed the edifice, now rises in the estimation of the spectator. But the sarcophagus, covered with hieroglyphics, near the gateway, and the ancient canoe, formed apparently from a large tree, hollowed out by the chisel or by fire, draw the visitors aside, and claim for a season their attention.

At the foot of the flight of steps, surrounded by a slight enclosure, the gigantic head bones of two enormous creatures arrest the eye of the spectator. They are of a most astonishing size and form; and a stranger, until he reads the inscription beside them, wonders to what kind of animal they could belong. I have something to say on this sub

A few years ago, on passing over London Bridge, my attention was attracted by half a dozen bright yellow placard papers, pasted against a wall near the bridge. On these papers, was printed the following wonderful announcement: "Wonderful Remains of an Enormous Head, eighteen feet in length, seven feet in breadth, and weighing seventeen hundred pounds. The complete bones of which were discovered, in excavating a passage for the purpose of a railway, at the depth of seventy-five feet from the surface of the ground in Louisiania, and at a distance of one hundred and sixty miles from the sea. This great

John, a treacherous and false-hearted | and dangerous rock on the farm, to deking, made, as it were, the land "deso-stroy the nest of a glede, (kite.) Great late because of the fierceness of the op- was his amazement, when the first arpressor, and because of his fierce anger,' ticle taken out of the nest, was the missJer. xxv. 38. But his tyranny prevailed ing yellow silk handkerchief; then the not. What a fine burst of language is broad blue bonnet, with three eggs most that, in which the prophet Isaiah rebukes comfortably ensconced in it; next apthose who are fearful of the oppression peared an old tartan waistcoat, with toof man, and yet forgetful of the good- bacco in one pocket, and Orr's Almaness of God! "Who art thou, that nac, for 1839, in the other, the almanac thou shouldest be afraid of a man that having the words, scarcely legible, 'J. shall die, and of the son of man which Fraser,' written upon it; then came shall be made as grass; and forgettest a flannel nightcap, marked with red the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched worsted, 'D. C. J.;' a pair of old forth the heavens, and laid the found- white mittens, a piece of a letter with ations of the earth; and hast feared green wax, and the Inverness postcontinually every day because of the mark, an old red and white cravat, and fury of the oppressor, as if he were a miscellaneous assortment of remains ready to destroy? and where is the of cotton, paper, and other things. This fury of the oppressor ?" Isaiah li. 12, 13. bird had, indeed, been a daring robber, The painted ceilings by Charles de la and had carried on his extensive larFoss, and the splendid groupes of flow- cenies for a long time with impunity." ers, by James Rousseau, are admirable productions. They remind me of the vivid pencillings of Le Brun, in the palace of Versailles. The more I look on them, the more I like them.

To describe the animals, birds, reptiles, fishes, and insects, the shells, minerals, fossils, petrifactions, and antiquities of this place, would be impossible; for there is not one department that would not furnish amusement for a week. They are all classed in a scientific manner; the carnivorous animals are separated from those that are granivorous; and the birds of prey from the aquatic and those that sing. From the diminutive humming bird to the stately ostrich; the feathered creation may here be seen in all their varied forms and gaudy plumage. The kite in the glass case there, reminds me of an anecdote that has just been related to

me.

"A respectable farmer in Scotland, after a walk over his farm, at the beginning of this year's lambing season, and on a very warm morning, fell asleep on a high hill. On awaking, he found that his broad blue bonnet, and a yellow silk handkerchief, which he had placed beside him, were both missing. At first, he suspected they had been taken away in sport by some person on the farm; but, on inquiry, every individual on the farm and neighbourhood, who could possibly have approached the spot, denied all knowledge of the missing articles. Some weeks after, our correspondent and a party were ascending a very steep

Herculaneum and Pompeii have sent of their long buried stores to add to the costliness of this extended treasure house. Greek and Roman antiquities are here, and numerous idols of metal, stone and wood; terracottas, sculptures, vases, jars, and urns; with busts and figures, coins and medals, rings and curious seals. There are also beautiful specimens of precious stones, of all the kinds that are known, so that almost every shade of disposition may find something that will add to its gratification.

One of the most costly curiosities of the place, is the Portland Vase; for two hundred years, it was the principal ornament of a palace: it was found in the road between Rome and Frascati. By far the greater number of visitors pass this by, as a thing of little value, yet thousands of pounds would not purchase it.

What a number of mummies are here, and ornamented mummy cases! and yet this is London, and not Egypt. They set one thinking of the pyramids, of the statue of Memnon, and Thebes with her hundred gates, of the idols, Orus, Apis, Isis, and Osiris. Here is a splendid mummy case, half opened, and the embalmed mummy half unswathed.

"And thou hast walked about, how strange a story!

In Thebes' streets, three thousand years ago, When the Memnonium was in all its glory,

And time had not begun to overthrow Those temples, palaces, and piles stupendous, Of which the very ruins are tremendous."

416

CHRIST'S COMMISSION TO THE APOSTLES-BLISSFUL ANTICIPATION.

It may not be so with all, but it is | fond of engravings, is a treat absolutely with many, that the very sight of these inexhaustible. Historical subjects, landremnants of former ages, drives away scapes, seascapes, architectural designs, much of doubt, and brings much of portraits, animals, birds, fishes, insects, certainty to the mind. We do, in ge- trees, shells, fossils, fruit, flowers, and neral, but half credit the annals of an- ornaments by the most eminent artists, tiquity we are, in a degree, sceptics, English and foreign, are kept in the while professing to believe the records nicest order. The connoisseur and amaof holy Writ; but these mummy cases teur may here revel in boundless vareprove us, and seem to say to us, "See riety. The library is, perhaps, after all, and believe." While our sight and still more generally valuable than any senses are, beyond a doubt, convinced other part of the Museum, containing as it that these are the remains of ancient does, almost every book from which pleaEgypt, our faith is confirmed in the sure and information can be derived. The recorded verities of Scripture. Yes, it manuscripts are very numerous, and the is a truth, and we feel it as such, that persons in the reading room, where I "Joseph was brought down to Egypt; am making my closing remarks, sufficiand Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, ently testify by their numbers and busy captain of the guard, an Egyptian, attention, how highly they estimate the bought him of the hands of the Ish- advantages of the institution. melites," Gen. xxxix. 1. It is a truth that Joseph sent for his father Jacob to dwell with him in the land of Egypt, and that "when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob revived." "It is enough," said he; "Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die," Gen. xlv. 27, 28. The miracles that God performed for his people, rise to our remembrance, and the plagues that were spread over the land, When Moses stretched his wonder-working rod,

And brought the locust on the foes of God;

When countless myriads with despoiling wing,
Scourged the hard heart of the Egyptian king.
I have wandered from one piece of
sculpture to another. Here the chisel
of Phidias, and there that of Praxiteles

has been at work giving an inestimable
value to stone. The Elgin marbles;
the relics of the Athenian temples; the
statues of Theseus, Illyssus, and the
Fates; the frieze of the Parthenon; the
alto-relievo representations of the strifes
of the Centaurs and the Lapithæ; the
Townley marbles, and the Egyptian
collection of sculpture, have all been
visited, and I could now sit me down
opposite this huge hieroglyphical sar-
cophagus, and muse and moralize. The
temples of olden time; the artists of
genius and talent, whose works are be-
fore us, and those to whose fame they
have vainly sought to give immortality
"Where are they?" The mutilated
marbles and time-worn inscriptions of
the most splendid works of art seem to
press on the reflective mind the lesson,
Gratefully enjoy the things of time,
but forget not those of eternity.'

The print room, to those who are

CHRIST'S COMMISSION TO THE APOSTLES.

OUR Lord's commission to the apostles for preaching the gospel, was extensive as the human species. The middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles being demolished, those first ministers of Christ were not only permitted, but required, as Providence gave opportunity, to proclaim the glad tidings wherever they came, without any exception of nations, of rank, or of character. The prerogatives connected with carnal descent from Abraham, the covenant made at Sinai, and the Mosaic economy, being all abolished, those ambassadors of Heaven were commanded through Jesus Christ, by faith in his to publish pardon, and proclaim peace, blood, among all nations, beginning at

Jerusalem.-Booth.

BLISSFUL ANTICIPATION.

How divinely full of glory and pleasure shall that hour be, when all the millions of mankind, that have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, shall meet together and stand around him, with every tongue and every heart full of joy and praise! How astonishing will be the glory and the joy of that day, when all the saints shall join together in one common song of gratitude and love, and of everlasting thankfulness to this Redeemer? With what unknown delight, and inexpressible satisfaction, shall all that are saved from the ruins of sin and hell, address the Lamb that was slain, and rejoice in his presence !-Dr. Watts.