ANNA. What are Sea Urchins, Papa?

PAPA.-The Echini, or Sea Urchins, my dear, are known by two or three other names: they are also called Sea-hedgehogs and Sea-eggs.

ANNA.-Sea-eggs! O now I know what you mean; I have two or three of them.

PAPA. Then I need not describe them.

ANNA.-No, Papa. Those I have are round, somewhat like a flattened ball: they are of a pale reddish brown; and the shell is marked into ten divisions, not unlike those of an orange.

HENRY. And the outside of the shell is covered, is it not, with a great number of sharp, moveable spines. ANNA. That of one of them is.

HENRY.-I suppose the others have lost theirs; they often fall off after the animal is dead; though the little pearly protuberances on which they are fixed, still remain. These spines are the instruments by which the animal conveys itself at pleasure from one place to another; and when any thing alarms it, it arrays them and waits an attack, as an army of pikemen would with their weapons.

PAPA.-The Sea-egg has a very curious mouth. It is situated in the under part of the body, and has been compared, I believe, by Aristotle, to a lantern, with six divisions. Through the central one the food enters; and the other five contain as many strong, sharpened teeth for masticating it.

HENRY.-These animals are remarkably tenacious of life. I have read that it is no uncommon thing, on opening one of them, to observe the several parts of the broken shell move off in different directions.

PAPA. The ancients, according to Oppian, gave credence to a circumstance much more wonderful than this:

"Sea-urchins, who their native armour boast,
All stuck with spines, prefer the sandy coast.
Should you with knives their prickly bodies wound,
'Till the crude morsels pant upon the ground;

You may e'en then, when motion seems no more,
Departing sense and fleeting life restore.
If in the sea the mangled parts you cast,
The conscious pieces to their fellows haste;
Again they aptly join, their whole compose,
Move as before, nor life nor vigour lose."

HENRY.-These creatures are eaten, I believe, in some parts of the Continent.

PAPA.-Yes; at Marseilles, aud some other towns, Sea-urchins are exposed for sale in the markets as oysters are with us. They are eaten boiled like an egg. They form also an article of food among the lower class of people on the sea-coasts of many parts of this country. The Romans ate them dressed with vinegar, mead, parsley, and mint. Now, Anna, can you enumerate the orders which compose the class of Zoophytes?

ANNA. Yes, Papa, Echino-dermata, Entozoa, Acalephæ, and Polypi.

PAPA. And Infusoria, or the Animalcules of Infusion. We have taken no notice of them, but they are placed by Cuvier in the class of Zoophytes. You will remember that all Zoophytes are inhabitants of water or some liquid; that their simple organs of motion and sensation have a circular arrangement round a common centre; that their respiratory organs are generally upon the surface of the body; and that the lowest of them exhibit nothing but a kind of homogeneous pulp, possessed of motion and sensibility. Z. Z.

HYMNS AND POETICAL RECREATIONS.

A BORROWED THOUGHT.

SISTER of Faith and Charity,

Where there are only three;

Fit habitant of heaven, yet content,
On pity's errand bent,

To ply upon the earth, and steer
The bark of every helpless passenger:

Whether in lofty and well laden keel,
With gilded prow and purple sail,
Fame in the breeze and honour in the gale;
Or on the raft of poverty, unknown
He stem the tide, unfreighted and alone;
There is a Power-celestial, yet begot

Of earth-in heaven they need her not.
Our joy's companion and our sorrow's friend,
Her errand is to tend

Our earthly voyage, and amid the storm
Whene'er it come,

To show the beacon of our distant home.
Sometimes within her gentle hand she'll bring
The youngest blossoms of the unblown Spring;
So beautiful in promise as they grow,
Desire scarce consents that they should blow.
And sometimes, sparkling clear

Her hand will bear

In amber cup a draught that scarce may seem
Other than those that ancient fablers dream;
Of which the first small sip

That wets the lip,

Wins the enchanted spirit to forego

The sense of present or remember'd woe;
And see, instead of things that are, or were,

Or may be, foul or fair,

Nought save the rainbow colours of the drop,
That hangs upon the margin of that cup.
Wrapt in a veil opaque that seems to hide
The secrets of futurity-denied

To read the things that lie

In fate's obscurity;

She bears withal behind that veil an eye

So piercing, so intent on what may be,

That more and brighter things than truth has told,

Or love may pledge, or faith itself behold,

Of shape indefinite she seems to see

More fair for their obscurity:

And seeing them, she smiles; and with those smiles

Man's fearful, dark uncertainty beguiles;

And bids him, on the half-told secret, wait

The nameless promise of his coming fate.

Yon brilliant lamps of heaven, that love to pour
Their brightest stream at their meridian hour,
As towards the dull horizon they decline,

More dimly shine;

Deaden'd and dull, the waning light decreases;
Grown weary of their task before it ceases.
But truer far than they, the Power divine,
Coldly and darkly as our days decline,
Trims to a chaster and a purer gleam
The lustre of her lamp's expiring beam;
Brighter and brighter as the shadows fall;
The latest beam the brightest of them all.
While Charity and Faith their Sister claim,
Will grateful mortals question of her name?

Peace I leave with you-my peace I give unto you.-JOHN xiv. 27.JESUS, and if that peace indeed

Were thy departing gift,
The latest boon thy pity gave
To those it loved and left.

Ah! tell me where, upon a way
So rude, so hard bestead,
Safe from the world's base robbery,
Thou'st left that treasure hid.

In tented field, or battled tower,
Methinks it better were
To look for it, than in the heart:
Of one that sojourns here.

For oh! how little boots it there
The treasur'd heap to lay,

Where grief may come, and sin may come,
And steal it all away-

And the world—that world that gives it not;

Yet all too well doth know,

To ravish the ill-guarded gift

It has not to bestow.

Deep laid, and safe, and sheltered close;
Secure, though unpossest;
Thyself the guardian treasury
Of mercy's best behest.

While tempest tost, and seeking rest,
And haply finding none;
I'll see my treasured peace in thee,
And call it all my own.

I AM WITH THEE.

ALONE! ah, no—I can with holy fear,
With joy reflect my God is present here—
Here in his glory, though now veiled to sense-
Here in the mystery of his providence—
Here, O my soul, in wisdom to direct-
Here, with his mighty power, to protect-
Here in the riches of his grace to bless,
And to surround thee with his faithfulness→→→
Here in the depth of his unfathomed love,
And truth, the pillar of his throne above-
Here in his majesty, while Mercy's wings
Temper the splendour of the King of kings.
JESUS is here-and thou mayest freely claim
All that is wrapped in that most hallowed name ;.
JEHOVAH SAVIOUR! and delighted trace
Thy Father's kindness in thy Saviour's face.
It is in Him God's truth and mercy meet;
His righteousness, in which thou art complete;
He is the sun that beams upon thy head-
He is the shield, above, around thee spread;
The Spirit of his holiness is thine;
And in thy heart his rays of glory shine.
God with thy heart must ever present be,
If thou in Christ art dwelling, Christ in thee.
O solemn, sacred, sweet assurance this!
O blessed earnest of eternal bliss!
Alone I never am, for God is here;
My praise, my confidence, my joy, my fear.
Alone I cannot be, for thou, O Lord,
My glorious portion and my high reward,
Art ever with me; and by day, by night
Alone, or in society, thy light,
Thy love, I see, I feel within my breast,
And if my God is with me, I am blest..

IOTA.