ject horizontally the dotted lines (d d), till they form a point of contact with the circle of the bow, and give the perpendiculars of the windows (e e.) Our readers will readily perceive that as only three of these perpendiculars can be visible, only three need be found-though on our ground scale we marked them all.

To fill up our plate, we have marked the method of finding the apparent proportion of figures at different distances. Let (a), Fig. 2, be a man standing near the base of our picture, drawn in due proportion to other objects equally near. The visual rays (bb) will give his height at any distance as he walks in a direct line forward. But as he may go to the right or to the left, we must then determine the height, by the dotted lines (ccc) drawn to any part of the landscape in which we desire to place the figure.

GEOGRAPHICAL READINGS.

ASIA.

IN the order usually prescribed by Geographers, we pass from Europe to Asia, the opposite direction, it is true, from that which nature and Providence have taken. This, till the discovery of America, was by far the largest continent and division of the globe, and it is still in many respects the first-in wealth and population greatly so, for America is as yet comparatively a wilderness; though if the world so long subsists, and things continue to take the same course as they have done hitherto, it will probably at some time supersede the other three continents in every thing. It seems to be the system, almost universal in this world, that things should advance gradually and slowly to their highest point, and then as gradually decline, to rise not again. It has been so with Africa and so with Asia already-Europe is mid-way on the course -perhaps at this moment at its highest reach of power

and civilization-America is only now beginning to play its part in this changing scene. It is not permitted us to see beyond, except in so far as we may guess of what will be by what has been already.

The Continent of Asia, without including the Islands of the Southern Sea, extends from within one or two degrees of the Equator, to the seventy-seventh degree of North Latitude. In this vast district every variety of season and climate must of course be found-from the extreme point of Siberia, five degrees more northerly than the summit of Lapland already mentioned, subjected to more than three long months of perpetual darkness, and hardly compensated by an equal length of unintermitting day, to regions where the sun rises every morning through the year at the same hour-shines from six to six with almost perpendicular beams through their twice-returning summer, and distinguishing the two-fold winter only by a more oblique and milder ray. For our readers will understand that the sun being on the Equator in Spring and Autumn, those who dwell there must have two summers; and as it retires northward and southward, of course two winters also: but still the length of day and night remains the same; the difference of heat being occasioned by the sun being more or less nearly vertical, rising, that is, perpendicularly over those places. These tropical regions have very little twilight, but pass almost immediately from light to darkness, for as the sun in rising goes immediately upward, without circling the horizon as with us, so in setting he goes directly down, and is quickly sunk too far below to lend even the reflected glimmerings of the twilight.

Asia is bounded on the North as Europe is, being no other than the continuance of the same shore watered by the Frozen Ocean. On the East lies the great Pacific, which separates it from the Continent of America; to this it approaches so nearly at the northern extremity, as to be separated only by a very narrow straight; towards the South an immense extent of Ocean lies be

tween. Seas also bound the Southern shores of Asia, the Indian more immediately, and beyond it the Southern Oceans. On the West, the Red Sea first divides, and then the narrow pass of Suez unites it to Africa-the remaining boundary of the West, is Europe and its seas.

Asia has been supposed to contain ten millions, seven hundred and sixty eight thousand, eight hundred and twenty-three square miles of land, and to be occupied by five hundred millions of inhabitants-by which computation there are about forty-six inhabitants to each square mile. So large a population implies a country richly productive; and such Asia has at all times been. It is difficult to enumerate the treasures which are sent forth from Asia to contribute to the splendour and enjoyment of our more western world. From the cold plains of Siberia, that run along the whole northern boundary, we receive our richest furs. The Teas of China, the Coffee of Arabia, the Spices of the Islands, the splendid jewels, the ivory, and the gold, are some of the treasures nature has lavished there; while those that art has added to nature's stores, are scarcely less rich and valuable-we need but call to mind the rich and curious manufactures we import thence the Porcelain, Carpets, Silks, and Muslins, and all the variety of exquisite productions we usually call Indian. But it is remarkable, that while the earth continues in all its original vigour to produce her stores, the race of beings that inhabit it have degenerated into ignorance, superstition, and effeminacy. In Asia, where government had its beginning, all government is now oppressive, arbitrary, and lawless in the extreme— where knowledge had its origin and rise, blindness and error almost to absurdity prevail, and scarcely in the most untaught savages that have never yet risen above the state of nature, do we find a more degraded state of intellect and moral perception, than in the degenerate Asiatic. The warlike founders of the Assyrian and Persian empires, sunk in most supine indolence, have for ages past been at the mercy of every invader; and the more distant

parts of the continent have never been conquered, only, perhaps, because they could not easily be reached, through frozen desarts or meridian heats.

The religion of the Asiatics, though infinitely varying, is idolatrous throughout, and idolatry the grossest and the most absurd-the Persian worships the sun, the Gentoo pursues his murderous and horrid rites-the Chinese adores some God of his own devising, moulded into hideous and fantastic forms; the more modern inventions of Mohammedanism prevailing only in a small district. In the thick forests of Hindostan and other parts of Asia, every sort of wild animal yet lives secureand insects and reptiles the most venemous as well as the most beautiful, there defy the power of man to extirpate them while their broad rivers and richly fraught seas abound in all that is most beautiful, most rare, or most monstrous in nature.

Asia has long been possessed in part by Europeans— the Greeks claimed dominions there, but did not hold them long-Siberia is the possession of a European sovereign, and England has extensive possessions in Hindostan and the southern country. But the greater part of the continent has not been subdued, and is divided into governments distinct and independent, and in some instances differing from every other but their own.

(To be continued.)

HYMNS AND POETICAL RECREATIONS.

To thee, Lord Jesus, I look up,
My only but my certain hope.

In this strange world of death and strife,

Thou art my peace and thou my life;

My soul in thee, already blest,

Has found her everlasting rest.

IOTA.

LORD, when I lift my heart to pray,
Who shall the mystery explain?
The things I ask from day to day,
I have, yet ask them all again.

I

pray

for pardon, peace, and light,

For righteousness, and strength, and grace,
To walk as in my Father's sight,

Cheer'd with the shining of his face.

Yet all are mine, bestowed by one

Whose precious blood my pardon bought,
Whose righteousness my soul has on,
A righteousness Jehovah wrought.

Seek I the guidance of his eye,

And strength by which my soul may stand;

I know that he is ever nigh,

To lead and hold me by the hand.

Ask I the blessing of his love,

That richest gift the whole to crown,

Lord, in abundance from above,

Thy love hath shed its blessings down.

O may thy spirit still impart

Both power and grace to pray indeed,
And praise thee with a grateful heart,
Possessing all for which I plead.

THE GRUB AND THE BUTTERFLY.

A FABLE.

SAID the Grub to the Butterfly, groping one day
As fast as she might through the cold, dusty earth,
Whose bosom so lowly had never aspired

To a region more bright than the hole of her birth;

In the blythe days of summer she dragged herself forth
Just as far as the sunbeam and slept there content,
When the winter returned she crept back to her hole,
And as happily slept till the winter was spent:

IOTA.