Ecology.

"OF all the studies which relate to the material universe, there is none, perhaps, which appeals so powerfully to our senses, or which comes into such close and immediate contact with our wants and enjoyments, as that of Geology. In our hourly walks, whether on business or for pleasure, we tread with heedless step upon the apparently uninteresting objects which it embraces but could we rightly interrogate the rounded pebble at our feet, it would read us an exciting chapter on the history of primeval times, and would tell us of the convulsions by which it was wrenched from its parent rock, and of the floods by which it was abraded, and transported to its present humble locality. In our visit to the picturesque and the sublime in nature, we are brought into close proximity to the more interesting phenomena of geology. In the precipices which protect our rock-girt shores, which flank our mountain glens, or which variegate our lowland valleys, and in the shapeless fragments at their base, which the lichen colours, and round which the ivy twines, we see the remnants of uplifted and shattered beds, which once reposed in peace at the bottom of the ocean. Nor does the rounded bowlder which would have defied the lapidary's wheel of the Giant Age, give forth a less oracular response from its grave of clay, or from its lair of sand. Floated by ice from some Alpine summit, or hurried along in torrents of mud, and floods of water, it may have traversed a quarter of the globe, amid the crash of falling forests, and the death shrieks of the noble animals which they sheltered. The mountain range, too, with its catacombs below, along which the earthquake transmits its terrific sounds, reminds us of the mighty power by which it was upheaved,— while the lofty peak with its cap of ice, or its nostrils of fire, places in our view the tremendous agencies which have been at work beneath us.

But it is not merely amid the powers of external nature, that the once hidden things of the earth are presented to our view. Our temples and our palaces are formed from the rocks of a primeval age: bearing the very ripple-marks of a Pre-Adamite ocean-grooved by the passage of the once moving bowlder, and embosoming the relics of an ancient life, and the plants by which it was sustained. Our dwellings, too, are ornamented with the variegated limestones-the indurated tombs of molluscous lifeand our apartments heated with the carbon of primeval forests, and lighted with the gaseous element which it confines. From the green bed of the ocean has been raised the pure and spotless marble, to mould the divine lineaments of beauty, and perpetuate the expressions of intellectual power. From a remoter age, and a still greater depth, the primary and secondary rocks have yielded a rich tribute to the chaplet of rank, and to the processes of art. The diamond and the sapphire, while they shine in the royal diadem, and in the imperial sceptre, are invaluable instruments in the hands of the artisan: and the ruby and the topaz, and the emerald and the chrysoberyl, have been scattered from the jewel caskets of our mother Earth, to please the eye, and to gratify the vanity of her children."

SIR DAVID BREWSTER.

IF there be sermons in stones, what think ye of the hymns and psalms, matin and vesper, of the lark, who, at heaven's gate sings of the wren, who pipes his thanksgivings, as the slant sunbeam shoots athwart the massy portal of the cave, in whose fretted roof she builds her nest above the waterfall?

Charity.

-TEACH us true self-denial-we who seek
To pluck the mote out of our brother's creed,
Till Charity's forgotten plant doth ask

The water-drop and die. With zeal we watch
And weigh the doctrine-while the spirit 'scapes;
And in the carving of our cummin-seeds,
Our metaphysical hair-splittings, fail

To note the orbit of that star of love,
Which never sets.

Yes, even the heathen tribes,
Who from our lips amid their chaos dark,
First heard the "fiat lux," and joyous came,
Like Lazarus from his tomb, do wildered ask
What guide to follow: for they see the men
They took for angels, warring in their paths,
For Paul and for Apollos, till they lose

The certainty that they are one in Christ:

That simple clue, which, through life's labyrinth, leads
To Heaven's gate.

Each differing sect, whose base
Is on the same pure word, doth strictly scan
Its neighbour's superstructure-point and arch-
Buttress and turret, till the hymn of praise,
That from each temple should go up to God,
Sinks in the critic's tone. All Christendom,
Is one continued burnishing of shields,
And putting on of armour. So the heat
Of border warfare checks salvation's way.
The free complexion of another's thought,
Doth militate against him and those shades
Of varying opinion and belief,

Which, sweetly blended with the skill of love,
Would make the picture beautiful, are blamed
As features of deformity.

We toil,

To controvert, to argue, to defend,
Camping amidst imaginary foes,

And visioned heresies. E'en brethren deem
A name of doctrine or a form of words,

A dense partition wall,-though Christ hath said
"See that ye love each other."

So come forth,

Ye who have safest kept that Saviour's law
Green, as a living germ, within your souls,
Followers of the Lamb! stand meekly forth,
And with the gentle panoply of love
Persuade the Christian Churches to recal
Their wasted energies, and consecrate,

In one bright focal point, their quenchless zeal :
Till, from each region of the darkened globe,
The everlasting Gospel's glorious wing,
Shall wake the nations to Jehovah's praise!

L. H. S.

IN the nice adjustment of part with part, of sentiment with sentiment, of practice with practice,-in the unbroken harmony which pervades the great whole-I cannot but perceive a strong confirming evidence that the religious system of "Friends" results from the operations of the Divine Spirit, and is based on the unvarying principles of the law of God.

J. J. G.

The Two Urns.

"SOCIETY is composed of two urns: one of good and one of evil. I will suppose that every individual of the human species receives from his natal genius a little phial containing one drop of a fluid which shall be evil if poured into the urn of evil, and good, if into that of good. If you were proceeding to the station of the urns, with ten thousand persons, every one of them, predetermined to empty his phial into the urn of evil, (which I fear is too true a picture of the practice of society,) should you consider their example, if you were hemmed in, in the centre of them, a sufficient excuse for not breaking from them, and approaching the neglected urn? Would you say “ the urn will derive little increase from my solitary drop, and one more or less will make very little difference in the urn of ill; I will spare myself trouble, do as the world does, and let the urn of good take its chance from those who can approach it with less difficulty." No: you would rather say-" That neglected urn contains the hopes of the human species: little, indeed, is the addition I can make to it, but it will be good so far as it goes: and if, on approaching the urn, you should find it not so empty as you had anticipated, if the genius appointed to guard it, should say to you, "There is enough in this urn already to allow a reasonable expectation that it will one day be full, and yet it has only accumulated drop by drop through the efforts of individuals who broke through the pale and pressure of the multitude, and did not despair of human virtue ;" would you not feel ten-fold repaid for the difficulties you had overcome, by the single reflection that would then rush upon your mind—I am one of these ?"

GOD is better lodged in the heart than in great edifices.

2H

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