1 The only vegetables which now flourish are the numerous tribes of mosses, and the lichens, or liver-worts. Lichens cover the ditch-banks and other neglected spots, with a leather-like substance, which in some countries serves as food both to men and cattle. The rein-deer lichen is the greatest treasure of the poor Laplanders, who depend upon it for the support of their only species of domestic cattle during their tedious winters. On the 21st of December happens the shortest day; when the sun is not quite eight hours above the horizon in these islands. About 15 degrees to the northward the sun does not rise at all, and a continued night lasts weeks or months, according to the distance from the north pole. Thus the old year steals away; and a new one begins with lengthening days and brighter skies, inspiring fresh hopes and expectations. The advantages of Winter. LET us reflect on the blessings God grants us at this season, which appears to us so severe. The frost and cold prevent many hurtful vapours in the higher regions of the atmosphere from falling upon us, and even purifies the air. Far from being always bad for our health, it often strengthens it, and preserves the humours from putrefaction, which a constant heat would certainly occasion. If the vapours which collect in the atmosphere were always to fall in rain, the earth would be too soft and wet, our bodies would be too full of humours, and too much relaxed; whereas the cold braces and promotes the circulation of blood. We are told by travellers, that in Greenland, where the ground is covered with mountains of ice, and where in winter the days are only four or five hours long, the he air is very wholesome, clear and light: and, except a ew complaints in the chest and eyes, (occasioned partly by he quality of the food), they have seldom there the disorders so common in Europe. As man, though active by choice, and though labour is necessary to him, is still glad to interrupt his employments to taste the sweets of sleep; so also our nature yields to the change of seasons, and takes a pleasure in it, because in reality it contributes towards our welfare and happiness. Behold our fields and gardens! They are indeed buried in snow; but this is necessary, in order to preserve them from the cold, as well as to prevent the grain from corrupting. The ground requires rest, after having yielded in the summer all that we want for the winter. If our present support had not been provided for, if in this severe season we were obliged to cultivate the earth, there might be some foundation for our complaints. But all our wants are supplied, and we enjoy a repose suitable to the season. 1 How tender are the mercies of Providence during these winter-months! God has given industry to mankind, which is necessary to keep them from cold or frost. Their inventive mind has afforded them means of procuring an artificial warmth, from which they enjoy in their apartments some of the comforts of summer. We have also at this season multitudes of creatures at our command, to make it tolerable to us. The colder the countries are, the more of those useful animals are found, whose furs are designed to keep us warm. Is it not evident that Divine Wisdom foresaw the several wants of the different countries, and designed to relieve them by placing animals in them which could not live any where else? Man is now at leisure in his calm retreat to cultivate his mind, to examine his own heart, to correct his faults, and to lay up treasures of good works. Happy they who make so good AN EXHORTATION TO REMEMBER THE POOR AT THIS SEASON. THOSE who are quietly sitting in convenient cheerful houses, and who hear the whistling of the sharp north wind, let them reflect on their unhappy fellow-creatures, many of whom are suffering the utmost severity of poverty and cold. Winter renders benevolence to the poor the more necessary, because it increases their wants. Is it not the time in which nature itself is poor? and is it not adding double value to our benefactions, to bestow them seasonably? If we have been enriched with the summer and autumn fruits, was it not with the intention that we should share them with our fellow-creatures, now when nature is at rest! The more the cold increases, the more disposed we should be to relieve the necessitous; to pour into the bosom of poverty all we can spare.-What other end could providence propose in the unequal division of earthly riches, were it not to excite beneficence in the wealthy, by the affecting scenes of the miseries of the poor. Let us then give of our superfluity, or share our little with them. Let us enjoy the sweetest satisfaction that a noble mind can feel; the God-like pleasure of relieving the wants of others; of softening and lessening their weight of adversity. How fit an offering would it be to virtue, were our benevolence to be attended by a conquest over our passions, in retrenching the indulgence of luxury and vanity, in order to bestow our charity on the poor! THE INQUISITION. (Concluded from page 502.) FURTHER PARTICULARS RESPECTING THIS HORRID TRIBUNAL. THE last act in this infernal tragedy, more fit to be performed by devils than men, is the Auto da fe, or, Act of Faith, as it is most improperly styled, as if it were possible to evidence the belief in any one doctrine, by the most solemn mockery of its precepts. Strange absurdity! to pretend to venerate the God of MERCY, by inflicting the most cruel and unmerited tortures on his creatures!-To think to glorify HIM who wept over Jerusalem, by immolating, at the altar of a wretched superstition, the helpless victims of their own conscious sincerity. The following passages from the narrative of Mr DELLON*, who had been thrown into the Inquisition at Goa†, and confined in a dungeon of ten feet square, upwards of two years, without seeing any person but the gaoler who brought him his victuals, except when he was brought to trial, for the alleged crime of charging this merciful tribunal with cruelty, afford a pretty tolerable idea how far such a charge might have been made with justice, and is truly descriptive of that dread sacrifice, "which had with horror shock'd The darkest pagans, offer'd to their Gods." "During the months of November and December, I heard, every morning, the shrieks of the unfortunate victims, who were undergoing the question. I remembered to have heard, before I was cast into prison, that the Auto da Fè was generally celebrated on the first Sunday in Advent, because on that day is read in the churches that part of the Gospel in which mention is made of the LAST JUDGMENT; and the Inquisitors pretend by this ceremony to exhibit a lively emblem of that awful event. I was like wise *See BUCHANAN'S Christian Researches. Our readers will rejoice to learn, that by a letter from a clergyman in India, it appears the Inquisition at Goa was abolished in October last year; and is now thrown open to public inspection, with all its cells, secret chambers, &c." wise convinced that there were a great number of prisoners, besides myself; the profound silence, which reigned ⚫ within the walls of the building, having enabled me to count the number of doors which were opened at the hours of meals -However, the first and second Sundays of Advent passed by, without my hearing of any thing, and I prepared to undergo another year of melancholy captivity, when I was aroused from my despair on the 11th of January, by the noise of the guards removing the bars from the door of my prison. The Alcaide presented me with a habit, which he ordered me to put on, and to make myself ready to attend him, when he should come again. Thus saying, he left a lighted lamp in my dungeon.-The guards returned about two o'clock in the morning, and led me out into a long gallery, where I found a number of the companions of my fate, drawn up in a rank against a wall: I placed myself among the rest, and several more soon joined the melancholy band. The profound silence and stillness caused them to resemble statues more than the animated bodies of human creatures. The women, who were clothed in a similar manner, were placed in a neighbouring gallery, where we could not see them; but I remarked that a number of persons stood by themselves at some distance, attended by others who wore long black dresses, and who walked backwards and forwards occasionally. I did not then know who these were: but I was afterwards informed that the former were the victims who were condemned to be burned, and the others were their confessors. "After we were all ranged against the wall of this gallery, we received each a large wax taper. They then brought us a number of dresses made of yellow cloth, with the cross of St. Andrew painted before and behind. This is called the San Benito. The relapsed heretics wear another species of robe, called the Samarra, the ground of |