If we look to their artistic and manufacturing attainments, our ideas of their energy and industry will not diminish; nay, they will be found in advance of the Chinese, whom we have been accustomed to consider as the most civilized of modern heathen nations. Their lacquer-work is unrivalled; and the estimation in which it is held in Europe is evinced by the prices paid for, and the places assigned to, the very ordinary articles which reach these western countries; the few specimens of superior art which have escaped the vigilance of Japanese excise are deposited in the Royal Museum at the Hague. The varnish, the resinous produce of a shrub-oerosino-ki, or varnish plant -is tedious to prepare, and tedious in its application. Five different coats have to be applied, suffered to dry, and then ground down with a fine stone or reed. Although skilled in the use of mother-of-pearl figures, they do not understand the cutting of precious stones; but the want of jewellery is supplied by a beautiful metallic composition called syakfdo, resembling fine enamel, and used for girdleclasps, sword-hilts, &c. In the tempering of steel they also excel; and their sword-blades are said to be so excellent, as to be capable of cutting through a nail or a European sword without turning or notching the edge. One hundred pounds value is not thought too much to give for a very fine sword-blade, while an old one of tried temper is considered to be beyond price. Their silk-manufacture is said to bear away the palm from that of China; and their porcelain is also pronounced to be superior. If we look to the educational department, we find that Japan has long possessed the art of printing, and reading is the favourite recreation of both sexes. Their literature comprises works on science, history, biography, geography, travels, natural history, moral philosophy, poetry, &c. In astronomy especially they seem to have made extraordinary progress. They have learned the use of most European instruments, and, in imitation of them, Japanese artists are said to have succeeded in making good telescopes, barometers, and thermometers. The Japanese are of the Mongol stock, but more comely than the generality of that race. They are said to be muscular and intellectual, well-made, alert, and fresh-coloured. Their ordinary dress is a national costume used by all ranks and classes, and differing only in colour and materials. It consists of a loose wide gown worn over other garments, with sleeves enormously wide and long, and fastened round the waist by a girdle. Those of the lower orders are made of linen or calico; of the higher orders, of silk, with the family arms woven or worked into the back and breast. In the bosom and girdles are placed such articles of value or convenience as they carry about their person; while the portion of the huge sleeves which hangs below the elbow, being closed, helps out the completeness of the pocket de. partment. Amongst other articles dropped into this convenient sleeve, are clean, neat squares of white paper, being the Japanese substitutes for pocket handkerchiefs. The ladies' robes are after the same fashion, but of brighter colours, and bordered with embroidery or gold. Upon state occasions is superadded a cloak, and a singular pair of puckered trousers. They are so made as to be distinctive of the wearer's rank. The higher orders also mark their superiority by wearing two swords on the same side, one above the other; others of less dignity wear one; while to the lower orders this appendage of nobility is altogether precluded. Their shoes, if such they can be called, are most singularly inconvenient. They are soles of straw, matting, or wood, held on by an upright pin or button passing between the two principal toes. It must be very consolatory to the Japanese, that, when they enter a house, they divest themselves of these awkward appendages. The head-dress is that part of the costume which most strongly marks the distinction between the sexes. The men shave the entire front and crown of the head, and, gathering carefully together what remains on the back of the head and temples, form therewith a sort of tuft on the bald skull. The black hair of the ladies is left in its natural profusion, arranged in the form of a turban, and stuck full of pieces of fine tortoise-shell, about fifteen inches long, and the thickness of a man's finger, highly polished. Their faces are painted red and white, their lips purple, with a golden glow, their teeth are blackened, and their eyebrows extirpated. Every one, high and low, male and female, carries a fan. It may be seen in the hand or the girdle. It serves a variety of purposes. Visitors receive on their fan the dainties presented to them; the beggar the alins which are bestowed; and as the criminal of high birth stretches forth to receive a fan presented to him on a salver of a peculiar form, his head is severed from his body. Are they civilized, this people? Let us pause before we reply. Their civilization is like their lacquer-work, glossy, but superficial.-Church Missionary Gleaner. THE SABBATH SCHOOL. Ar a large meeting lately of the Glasgow Sabbath School Association in connexion with the Church of Scotland-at which a most satisfactory report was given of the great success of the society in its most useful labours, and some excellent addresses were delivered-one of the speakers said,— "Am I going too far when I say that our Sabbath School Association is one of the best instruments for vindicating Scottish Rights? Scottish Rights! Listen and I will tell you what some of these are. I look upon it as a Scottish Right that no Scottish river be polluted by a Sunday steamer, and no Scottish railway by a Sunday train. I look upon it as a Scottish Right that our parish schools be made adequate for the training of Scotland's youth, that now, as formerly, they may all receive the benefits of a Bible education. I look upon it as a Scottish Right, and I implore of you to help me in its vindication, that we endeavour to roll back that tide of ignorance and irreligion which is threatening, with giant sweep, to overspread the length and breadth of our land. Am I wrong when I say that Sabbath schools are an agency which, directly and indirectly, will help to accomplish all this? I have great faith in Sabbath schools, and my faith is grounded on God's Word, and on all experience. I cannot believe that a child who has received a religious education, who has been instructed by a pious father, or a pious mother, or a pious Sabbath school teacher, who has been taught a knowledge of His Bible, or a knowledge of God, and the way to heaven, and taught to pray, and to love his Saviour,-I cannot believe that such a child can live and die as if no such influence had been brought to bear upon him. While I look upon the Sabbath school as the great counteractive to irreligion and infidelity on the one hand, I look upon it as the great antidote to Romanism on the other. I rejoice in the efforts that are being made for the overthrow of that system of iniquity. I rejoice that the ministers of the Gospel are directing more of their attention to the subject; that the organs of the press are multiplying in defence of our Protestant truth; and I trust that ere long our statesmen will wipe off the foul reproach that now hangs so heavily upon us. But a sight more alarming to Popery than all this, a sight to the Roman pontiff more formidable than pulpit and press, and platform and parliament, all arrayed against him-a sight that carries terror and consternation to the heart of the Eternal City itself, and causes Rome to reel upon its seven hills, is a class of Sabbath school children, each with its Bible in its little hand, with their humble but devoted teacher at their head, and that teacher saying to them: 'Search the Scriptures, for in them are contained the words of everlasting life.' "My fellow-teachers, if these are to be the results of your teaching, surely it is a great and noble work in which you are engaged. Ay, more noble truly than many of those enterprises which the world thinks most glorious. And yet some of these are abundantly worthy of our admiration. It is a noble and spirit-stirring sight to see our brave armies and our gallant fleets go forth in the cause of freedom, to resist oppression, and stem the progress of a lawless and ambitious despotism. But our admiration is mingled with much that is sorrowful and sad, when we think of the many brave hearts that in the battle-field cease to beat, and the thousands slain by disease and pestilence, and fatigue and famine, and all the indescribable horrors of war, and the tears of the widow and orphan, and the wail of bereaved friends; but a sight truly noble, truly glorious, and truly triumphant, and with no saddening feeling intermingling with it, is an army of Sabbath school teachers, such as I now see before me, going forth not to the subjugation of empire, not to the conquest of kingdoms, not to the overthrow of fortresses, but, in God's name, and with God's help, to the moral regeneration of their fellow-men. But, my friends, if your work is glorious, your responsibility is great. I once read a traveller's conversation with the keeper of one of the lighthouses in the Frith. The watchman was boasting of the brilliancy of his lantern, which could be seen many leagues off at sea in the darkest night. The visitor said to him, What if one of the lights should chance to go out ?'-'Never-impossible!' he cried, with a sort of consternation at the bare hypothesis. 'Sir,' said he, pointing to the ocean, 'yonder there are ships going by to every port in the world. If, tonight, one of my burners were out, within six months would come a letter-perhaps from India, perhaps from Australia, perhaps from America, perhaps from some place I never heard of-saying, such a night, at such an hour, the lighthouse burned dim; the watchman neglected his post, and vessels were in danger. Ah! sir, sometimes in the dark nights in the stormy weather I look out to sea, and I feel as if the eye of the whole world were looking at my light. Go out!-burn dim! No, never!' The children under your charge are just entering the world. It is indeed a stormy sea they have to cross; there are rocks and breakers on every side, and the nights are often dark and dreary. You are placed as lighthouses to warn them of the dangers they have to avoid, and of the paths of safety they ought to follow. Let your light, then, brightly shine, that by your negligence no shipwreck may be caused. A shipwreck is indeed a fearful thing. To see the gallant bark fast settling down amidst the deep, deep waters-to hear the cries and shrieks of dying, drowning men rising high above the raging of the storm. "But sadder sight the eye can know Than proud bark's loss, or seaman's woe, Or prey-bird's shriek, or ocean shroud- |