86 ACCOUNT OF THE CAMEL. Who with unwearied ardour sing, Glory to God, who safe hath kept, Lord, I my vows to thee renew: Guard my first spring of thought and will, Direct, control, suggest, this day, That all my powers, with all their might, In thy sole glory may unite. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise him above, ye heav'nly host; ACCOUNT OF THE CAMEL. THE Camel and the Dromedary, though bearing different names, and varying in their form, and in the hunch es upon their back, are supposed to have been originally of the same race; but the dromedary, which is neither so large nor so strong as the camel, and has only one hunch on its back, whereas the camel has two, is at present found in greatest numbers. The dromedary is an inhabitant of Arabia, the southern parts of Africa, Persia, Turkey, and a great part of the East Indies; whilst the camel is seldom found but in Turkey, and the countries of the Levant. The one inhabits the sultry parts of the torrid zone, whilst the other delights in a warm but not a burning clime. In these vast deserts where the earth is everywhere dry and sandy, where there are neither birds nor beasts, insects nor vegetables, where nothing is to be seen but hills of sand and heaps ACCOUNT OF THE CAMEL. 87 of bones, there the camel is capable of travelling for several days together without the sustenance of drink or food. The Arabians consider the camel as a most sacred treasure, without whose help life could not be endured; its milk supplies them with nourishment, its flesh with food, its hair, which is regularly shed once a year, with clothing; and its strength enables them to transport their merchandise through dreary plains parched by excessive heat. This creature, equally tractable and useful, easily becomes subservient to man. The young ones, a few days after their birth, are accustomed to have their legs bent under them, and a slight weight placed upon their back, which, as their strength and size augment, is gradually and proportionally increased. The large camels are capable of carrying from ten to twelve hundreds weight: the common load is about four. But frequently they are so unmercifully laden, that they find it difficult or impossible to rise; when they sagaciously remain in a recumbent posture, and send forth piteous cries until a part of their burden is removed. In Turkey, Persia, Arabia, Barbary, and Egypt, all commerce is carried on by means of camels. Travellers and merchants form themselves into a body for the sake of securing their persons and property from banditti. This assemblage is called a caravan, and is said sometimes to muster several thousands strong. They travel slowly, never exceeding thirty-five miles a day, though when the camel is not heavily laden, it is capable of travelling at a much greater rate. Every evening when they arrive at the end of their stage, the animal is permitted to eat, if it can find supply of food; and its favourite fare is the cassia, thistles, and those coarser kinds of vegetables which other animals reject. The camel's stomach is unlike that of the generality of ruminating animals; whilst they have four distinct stomachs for their nutriment, the camel is endowed with a fifth, serving as a reservoir to contain a quantity of water, which, by a contraction of the muscles, it can throw up into the mouth, and by this means is enabled to swallow the driest food, and go for several days together without a fresh supply of drink. The feet of the ca 88 DEGREES OF GUILT DETERMINED BY CIRCUMSTANCES. mel too are well adapted to the soil on which he treads. On moist or slippery ground he cannot well support himself, and his broad and tender feet are liable to be injured by the resistance of stones; but he treads with perfect ease and security on the dry and yielding sand. And whilst, from its peculiar structure, his hoof can scarcely fasten on the ground of a steep ascent or shelving declivity, his movements on a smooth and level surface are singularly firm and safe. The camel is often referred to in Scripture. It constituted an important branch of patriarchal wealth. The patriarch Job had at first 3000 camels, and after the days of his adversity had passed away, he had 6000. Many of the Amelekite warriors, who burnt Ziklag in the time of David, were mounted on camels. Jeremiah speaks of the "swift dromedary:" and the messengers of Esther made use of camels and dromedaries to carry their dispatches to the distant provinces of the empire. John the Baptist had his raiment of camel's hair. And the prophet Isaiah, when predicting the great increase and flourishing state of the Messiah's kingdom by the accession of the Gentiles, compares the happy and glorious concourse to a vast assemblage of camels: "The multitude of camels shall cover thee," says he, "the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah." DEGREES OF GUILT DETERMINED BY CIRCUM STANCES. THE right way to fill your heart with true contrition, and a deep sense of your own sins, is this. You are not to consider, or to compare the outward form or course of your life with that of other people's; and then think yourself to be less sinful than they, because the outward course of your life is less sinful than theirs. But in order to know your own guilt, you must consider your own particular circumstances; your health, your sickness, your youth or age, your particular calling, the happiness of your education, the degrees of ODE TO THE CUCKOO. 89 light and instruction that you have received, the good men that you have conversed with, the admonitions that you have had, the good books that you have read, the numberless multitude of divine blessings, graces, and favours that you have received, the good motions of grace that you have resisted, the resolutions of amendment that you have often broken, and the checks of conscience that you have disregarded. For it is from these circumstances that every one is to state the measure and greatness of his own guilt; and as you know only these circumstances of your own sins, so you must necessarily know how to charge yourself with higher degrees of guilt than you can charge upon other people. God Almighty knows greater sinners, it may be, than you are, because he sees and knows the circumstances of all men's sins: but your own heart, if it is faithful to you, can discover no guilt so great as your own, because it can only see in you those circumstances on which great part of the guilt of sin is founded. may see sins in other people that you cannot charge, upon yourself, but then you know a number of circumstances of your own guilt that you cannot lay to their charge. And, perhaps, that person who appears at such a distance from your virtue, and so odious in your eyes, would have been much better than you are, had he been altogether in your circumstances, and received all the same grace and favour from God that you have. This is a very humbling reflection, and very proper for those people to make, who measure their virtue by comparing the outward course of their lives with that of other people's. For look at whom you will, however different from you in his way of life, yet you can never know that he has resisted so much divine grace as you have; or that, in all your circumstances, he would not have been much truer to his duty than you are. 4 You ODE TO THE CUCKOO. HAIL, beauteous stranger of the grove! Thou messenger of spring! Now Heaven repairs thy rural seat, And woods thy welcome sing. 90 HABITUAL PRAYER RECOMMENDED What time the daisy decks the green, Delightful visitant! with thee And hear the sound of music sweet The school-boy wandering through the wood Starts, thy curious voice to hear, And imitates thy lay. What time the pea puts on the bloom, An annual guest, in other lands Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green, Thy sky is ever clear; Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, No winter in thy year! O! could I fly, I'd fly with thee, 1 HABITUAL PRAYER RECOMMENDED. WHEN We observe in ourselves the least approaches towards anger, lust, envy, and discontent, we are not to put off our application to God for his grace to some prefixed distance of time. No, we should forthwith desire his assistance, and pray for the succours of his Holy Spirit. For, by immediately recollecting ourselves, |