CREATION CONTEMPLATED WITH REVERENCE. 201 God's art; but this produces solid worship. We laugh perhaps at an old woman, who says to her grandchild, "Don't throw your bread on the ground; it is a sin to waste bread!" Yet this is an oracular saying, fit for the largest mortal understanding. Why!-will a pert objector say, what is, then, the mighty purchase of a bit of bread? Poor novice! thou supposest the value is only the few pence that it commonly costs. But there is another manner of calculating. Bread is a creature of God, prepared by his sun and rain, blessed by him for human use, and has something so peculiar and immediately divine in it, that should it fail, man could never create any succeeding one that should be like it in its kind. And so it is with many other things.-Nothing keeps man more justly in a perpetual awe than the inscrutability of his own soul, in its nature, capacities, and manner of acting. A tame and feeble bird, that accidentally has hatched an eagle's egg, and is afterwards affrighted at the strength and impetuous tendency of what has been fostered under its own wings, cannot find itself in a more critical case than a man, when holding dialogue, like Adrian, with his own soul. He perhaps hath been an indolent unmeaning thing; but that immortal part within him, carries a keener edge than has ever yet been unsheathed: And how this edge is likely to be employed hereafter, either he has but bad omens of, or at least must be in a trembling suspense, till grace gives a competent deter mination. But why do we talk of the soul? We cannot call our very body our own; we cannot add one cubit unto our stature, or make one hair white or black. Besides this wondrous system of nerves and muscles which each of us bears about him, there is another body which is also "fearfully and wonderfully made," and that is the body-politic. This is likewise God's structure, wisely framed and put together; and we may justly apply to it what is said of a still more peculiar economy; "Not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken." How should, therefore, every new guest that treads the stage of human life wish that he may weaken, displace, ruffle, nothing-no way hurt 202 WISE AND USEFUL SAYINGS. the wholesome order and coherence of society; but by his services and good example in his generation, rather promote its welfare! For looks he at the whole ? It is God's benign scheme. Looks he at an individual? Let it be even some poor and contemptible one, whom in an hour of passion he might be tempted to injure and trample upon. Such a one is, as well as himself, the workmanship of God; has a body alike noble, a conscious soul alike tender and sensible of all treatment that happens to it, and at least alike, perhaps much more, entitled to fair and honourable treatment. These are some of the sentiments which creation inspires us with. WISE AND USEFUL SAYINGS. To be wise in our own eyes, to be wise in the opinion of the world, and to be wise in the sight of our Creator, are three things so very different, as rarely to coincide. Hypocrisy is folly. It is much easier, safer, and pleasanter, to be the thing which a man aims to appear, than to keep up the appearance of what he is not When a Christian is truly such, he acts from a nature -a new nature-and all the actings of that naturė have the ease and pleasantness of nature in them. What a smiling aspect does the love of parents and children, of brothers and sisters, of friends and relations, give to every surrounding object, and every re turning day! With what a lustre does it gild even the small and lowly habitation where this placid intercourse dwells! And how happy are they who reside constantly in such scenes of heartfelt affection and domestic peace! Moral and religious instruction derives its efficacy, not so much from what men are taught to know, as from what they are taught to feel. If we would judge whether a man is really happy, it is not solely to his houses and lands, to his equipage and his retinue, we are to look. Unless we could see ACCOUNT OF THE HOODED SNAKE. 203 farther, and discern what joy or what bitterness his heart feels, we can pronounce little concerning him. • There is scarcely any thing which a sincere endea vour, directed by the hearty conviction of real duty, will not in time accomplish; since an endeavour so di rected, will be accompanied by persevering, humble prayer; and to persevering prayer, joined with sincere endeavours, success is infallibly promised. The hope of future happiness is a perpetual source of consolation to true Christians. Under trouble it soothes their minds; amidst temptation, it supports their virtue; and in their dying moments, it enables them to say, "O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?" ACCOUNT OF THE HOODED SNAKE. THE Cobra de Capello, or hooded snake, called by the Indians the naag, or nagao, is a large and beautiful serpent; but one of the most venomous of all the coluber class; its bite generally proves mortal in less than an hour. It is called the hoodedsnake, from having a curious hood near the head, which it contracts or enlarges at pleasure. The centre of this hood is marked in black and white like a pair of spectacles, whence it is also named the spectacle snake. Of this genus are the dancing-snakes, which are carried in baskets throughout Hindostan, and procure a maintenance for a set of people, who play a few simple notes on the flute, with which the snakes seem much delighted, and keep time by a graceful motion of the head, erecting about half their length from the ground, and following the music with gentle curves, like the undulating lines of a swan's neck. It is a well attested fact, that when a house is infested with these snakes, and some others of the coluber genus, which destroy poultry and small domestic animals, as also by the larger serpents of the boa tribe, the musicians are sent for; who, by playing on a flageolet, find out their hid 204 FABLE OF THE CAMELEON. ing places, and charm them to destruction: for nò sooner do the snakes hear the music, than they come softly from their retreat, and are easily taken. I imagine these musical snakes were known in Palestine, from the Psalmist comparing the ungodly to the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ears, and refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely." When the music ceases, the snakes appear motionless; but if not immediately covered up in the basket, the spectators are liable to fatal accidents. Among my drawings is that of a Cobra de Capello, which danced for an hour on the table while I painted it; during which I frequent ly handled it, to observe the beauty of the spots, and especially the spectacles on the hood, not doubting but that its venomous fangs had been previously extracted. But the next morning my upper servant, who was a zealous Mussulman, came to me in great haste, and desired I would instantly retire, and praise the Almighty for my good fortune. Not understanding his meaning, I told him that I had already performed my devotions, and had not so many stated prayers as the followers of his prophet. Mahomed then informed me, that while purchasing some fruit in the bazar, he observed the man who had been with me on the preceding evening, entertaining the country people with his dancing snakes. They, according to their usual custom, sat on the ground around him; when, either from the music stopping too suddenly, or from some other cause irritating the vicious reptile which I had so often handled, it darted at the throat of a young woman, and inflicted a wound, of which she died in about half an hour. Mahomed once more repeated his advice for praise and thanksgiving to Alla, and recorded me in his calendar as a lucky man. FABLE OF THE CAMELEON. With eyes that hardly serv'd at most The travell'd fool your mouth will stop. "Hold there!" the other quick replies, |