earth, which are exceeding wise The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;' an expression usually understood of their laying up stores of provisions in summer against approaching winter; and this was an opinion generally entertained by the ancients, though modern naturalists are disposed to question the fact. Nor need we be solicitous to defend the once popular notion, since neither in the passage cited, nor in ch. vi. 8. is any thing further intimated than that this industrious little insect is carefully observant of the most proper seasons to collect and prepare its food.

"Till the manners of exotic ants are more accurately explored, however, it would be rash to affirm that no ants have magazines of provisions; for, although, during the cold of our winters in this country, they remain in a state of torpidity, and have no need of food, yet in warmer regions, during the rainy reasons, when they are probably confined to their nests, a store of provisions may be neces sary for them. Even in northern climates, against wet seasons, they may provide in this way for their sustenance and that of the young brood, which, as Mr. Smeatham observes, are very voracious, and cannot bear to be long deprived of their food; else why do ants carry worms, living insects, and many other such things into their nests? Solomon's lesson to the sluggard has generally been adduced as a strong confirmation of the ancient opinion; it can, however, only relate to the species of a warm climate, the habits of which are probably different from those of a cold one; so that his words, as commonly nterpreted, may be perfectly correct and consistent with nature, and yet be not at all applicable to the species that are indigenous to Europe. But if Solomon's words are properly considered, it will be found that this interpretation has been fathered upon them, rather than fairly deduced from them. He does not affirm that the ant, which he proposes to his sluggard as an example, laid up in her magazine stores of grain: but that, with considerable prudence and foresight, she makes use of the proper season to collect a supply of provision sufficient for her purposes. There is not a word in them implying that she stores up grain or other provision. She prepares her bread, and gathers her food, namely, such food as is suited to her in summer and harvest that is, when it is most plentiful; and thus shews her wisdom and prudence by using the advantages offered to her. The words, thus interpreted, which they may be without any violence, will apply to the species among us as well as to those that are not indigenous.

"In several parts of the east there is a species of this insect which is extremely destructive to almost every kind of pro

perty, and which may perhaps help to illustrate Matt. vi. 18, 19, although the insect there spoken of is belonging to another genus. We quote the following from Forbes''Oriental Memoirs :'

"The termites, or white ants of Bombay, are so numerous and destructive at Anjengo, that it is difficult to guard against their depredations; in a few hours they will demolish a large chest of books, papers, silk, or clothes, perforating them with a thousand holes: we dare not leave a box on the floor without placing it on glass bottles, which, if kept free from dust, they cannot ascend: but this is trifling when compared with the serious mischief they sometimes occasion, by penetrating the beams of a house, or destroying the timbers in a ship.

"These destructive animals advance by myriads to their work, under an arched incrustation of fine sand, tempered with a moisture from their body, which renders the covert way as hard as burnt clay, and effectually conceals them at their insidious employment.

I could mention many curious instances of depredation by the termites; one happened to myself. I left Anjengo in the rainy season to pass a few weeks with the chief at his country house at Eddova, in a rural and sheltered situation; on my departure I locked up a room, containing books, drawings, and a few valuables; as I took the key with me the servant could not enter to clean the furniture: the walls of the rooms were whitewashed, adorned with prints and drawings, in English frames and glasses; returning home in the evening and taking a cursory view of my cottage by candle-light, I found every thing apparently in the same order as I left it; but on a nearer inspection the next morning, I observed a number of advanced works, in various directions, towards my pictures; the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered with dust: on attempting to wipe it off, I was astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wall, not suspended in frames as I left them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the white ants; who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back boards, and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses upheld by the incrustations, or covered way, which they had formed during their depredation. From the flat Dutch bottles, on which the drawers and boxes were placed, not having been wiped during my absence, the ants had ascended the bottles by means of the dust, eaten through the bottom of a chest, and made some progress in perforating the books and linen. The chief's lady, with whom I had been staying at Eddova, on returning to her apartments in the fort, found, from the same cause, a large chest, in which she had deposited shawls, muslins, and other articles, collected preparatory to her leaving India entirely de

stroyed by these voracious insects." pp. 349-351.

We quote the following passage, though somewhat long, from the interesting chapter on Man, for the sake of any of our younger readers who may chance to have been puzzled by the physiological scep. ticism, unjustly called philosophy, which pervades many otherwise valuable continental works of science, and which has been familiarized to English students, particularly medical students, in extracts and translations, and in-wrought into the very staple of several works of unhappy celebrity among ourselves.

"The last thing we propose to notice, is the varieties of the human race. Such are the distinctions which separate various parts of the great family, that naturalists have found it expedient to classify them; and the five grand sections into which the globe is divided, afford a system of classification equally natural and easy. This division presents us with the human form under the five heads of the European race; Asiatic race; American race; African race; Australian race; or, as they are denominated by M. Blumenbach, in his excellent work on this subject, the Caucassian, Mongolian, American, Ethiopian, and Malay varieties.

"1.The most symmetrical, and therefore the most elegant variety of the human form is the European; and the most perfect lineaments of this variety are those of the region of Asia Minor, on the borders of Europe; the parent stock from which it has been imported. It is remarkable that in this spot of the globe man was first created: here he first received the breath of life, and arose in the image of his Maker. The die has not yet lost its divine iupress: for here we still meet, and in all ages have met (so far as relates to the exterior graces) with the most exquisite models of symmetry and beauty.

"The general colour of the European or Georgian variety is fair; that of the cheeks more or less red; the head globular; the face straight and oval, with the features moderately distinct; the forehead slightly flattened; the nose narrow, and slightly aquiline; the cheek-bones unprominent; the mouth small; the lips a little turned out, especially the under one; the chin full and rounded; the eyes and hair variable, but the former, for the most part, blue, and the latter yellow, or brown and flowing. "2. The colour of the Asiatic is a yellowish brown or olive, with scarcely ever an appearance of red in the cheeks, which seems to be confined to the European variety; the head, instead of being globular, is nearly square; the cheek-bones

wide; and the general face flat; the eyes are black and small; the chin rather prominent; the hair blackish and scanty.

"3. The American is of an obscure orange, rusty iron, or copper colour; the head is less square, the cheek-bones less expanded, and the face less flattened than in the Asiatic; the eyes are deeply seated; This variety seems to form a middle point and the hair is black, straight, and thick. between the European and the Asiatic.

"4. The colour of the African or Ethi

opian varies from a deep tawney to a pitch or perfect jet. The head is narrow; the face narrow, projecting towards the lower part; the forehead arched; the eyes projecting; the nose thick, almost intermixed with the cheeks; the lips, particuprominent; the chin retracted; the hair larly the upper one, very thick; the jaws black, frizzled, and woolly. The countenance in this variety recedes further than in any other, from the European, and approaches, much nearer than in any other, that of the monkey.

"5. The Australian or inhabitant of New South Wales, and the numerous clusters of islands that begirt that prodigious range of unexplored country, together with the South Sea islands in general, is of a blackish brown or mahogany colour: the head is somewhat narrowed at its upper part; the forehead somewhat expanded; the uper jaw slightly prominent; and the nose broad but distinct; the hair harsh, coarse, long, and curly. This variety seems to form a middle point between the European and the African; as the American does between the European and the Asiatic. So that, in a more compendious view of the human race, we might contract the five varieties into three; -the European, Asiatic, and African; and regard the other two as mere intervening shades of variety." pp. 28, 29.

"But whence have proceeded those striking characteristics? Are the different distributions of man mere varieties of one common species, or distinct species merely connected under an imaginary genus? Has the human race proceeded from one source, or from many ?' p. 30.

"The only fair and explicit interpretation that can be given to the Mosaic history is, that the whole human race has proceeded from one single pair, or, in the words of another part of the sacred writings, that God has made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth.' (Acts xviii. 26.) The book of nature is in this, as in every other respect, in union with that of revelation: it tells us that one single pair must have been adequate to all the purposes on which this class of philosophers have grounded their objections; and it should be further observed to them, that thus to multiply causes without necessity, is not more inconsistent with the operations of nature, than with the principles of genuine philosophy.

"But the question still returns: whence then, proceed those astonishing diversities among the different nations of mankind, upon which the arrangement above offered is founded?

"The answer is, that they are the effect of a combination of causes; some of which are obvious, others of which must be conjectured, and a few of which are beyond the reach of human comprehension but all of which are common to other animals as well as to man; for, extraordinary as these diversities may appear, they are equally to be met with in the varieties of several other kinds of animals that can be proved to have been produced from a single species; and, in one or two instances, from a single pair. "The chief causes we are acquainted with, are the four following: climate, food, manner of life, and hereditary dis

eases.

"1. The influence which climate principally produces on the animal frame, is on the colour of the skin, and on the extent of the stature. All the deepest colours we are acquainted with, are those of hot climates; and all the lightest those of cold ones. The same remark will apply to plants as well as to animals; and hence, nothing more is necessary to bleach or whiten them, than to exclude them from the light of day. Hence the birds, beasts, flowers, and even fishes of the equatorial regions, are uniformly brighter, or deeper tinctured in their spots, their feathers, their petals, and their scales, than we find them in any other part of the world. And hence, one reason at least for the deep jet, which, for the most part, prevails among mankind under the equator; the dark brown and copper colours, found under the tropics; and the olive, shifting through every intermediate state to the fair and sanguine complexion, as we proceed from the tropic of cancer northwards.

"As we approach the poles, on the contrary, we find every thing progressively whiten; bears, foxes, hares, falcons, crows, and blackbirds, all assume the same common livery; while many of them change their colour with the change of the season itself. For the same reason, as also because they have a thinner mucous web, the Abyssinians are less deep in colour than the Negro race; for though their geographical climate is nearly the same, their physical climate differs essentially: the country stands much higher, and its temperature is far lower.

"A certain degree of heat, though less than that of the tropics, appears favourable to increase of stature; since the tallest tribes we are acquainted with, are situated at the back of the Cape of Good Hope, and of Cape Horn. On the contrary, the most diminutive that we are acquainted with, are those that inhabit the coldest regions, or the highest mountains in the world: such are the Laplanders and Nova

Zemb.ians in Europe; the Samoieds, Ostiacs, and Tungooses in Asia; and the Greenlanders and Esquimaux in America.

"2. The effects of different kinds of food upon the animal system, are as extensive and as wonderful as those of different climates. The fineness and coarseness of the wool or hair, the firmness and flavour of the flesh, and, in some degree, the colour of the skin, and extent of the stature, are all influenced by the nature of the diet. Oils and spirits produce a peculiar excitement of the liver; and, like the calorific rays of the sun, usually become the means of throwing an overcharge of bile into the circulation. Hence, the sallow and olive hue of many who unduly addict themselves to vinous potation, and who at the same time make use of but little exercise. And hence, also, the dark and dingy colour of the pigmy people, inhabiting high northern latitudes, and whose usual diet consists of fish and other oils, often rancid and offensive. Though it must be admitted, that this colour is in most instances aided by the clouds of smoke in which they sit constantly involved in their wretched cabins, and the filth and grease with which they often besmear their skins. And hence, also, one cause of their diminutive stature; the food they feed on, being unassimulating and innutritive. Swine, and all other animals, fed on madder-root, or that of gallium verum, or yellow-ladies-bed-straw, have the bones themselves tinged of a deep red, or a yellow; and M. Huber, of Lausanne, has proved himself able, by a difference in the food alone, as indeed Debraw had done long before him, to convert what is commonly, but improperly, called a neuter into a queen bee.

"3. It would be superfluous to dwell on the changes of body and perceptive powers produced in the animal system by a difference in the manners and customs. We have the most striking proofs of this effect in all the domesticated animals by which we are surrounded. Compare the wild horse with the disciplined; the bison with the ox, which last is usually regarded as the bison in a state of tameness; and the Siberian argali with the sheep, which is said to have sprung from it.

"It is in reality from long and deeply rooted habit alone, that the black, red, and olive colours of the Æthiopian, American, and Moguls, are continued in the future lineage for so many generations after their removal into other parts of the world; and that nothing will, in general, restore the skin to its original fairness, but a long succession of intermixtures with the European variety. It is a sin gular circumstance, that the black variety appears to form a less permanent habit than the red or olive; or, in other words, the colour chiefly produced by the action of the sun's colorific rays: for the children of olive and copper coloured parents, ex

hibit the parental hue from the moment of birth; but in those of blacks it is usually six, eight, or ten months, before the black pigment is fully secreted. We also find this sometimes not secreted at all, whence the anomaly of white Negroes: and sometimes only in interrupted lines or patches, whence the anomaly of spotted Negroes; and we have even a few rare cases of Negroes in America, who, in consequence of very severe illness, have had the whole of the black pigment absorbed and carried off, and a white pigment diffused in its stead. In other words, we have instances of a black man being suddenly bleached into a white man. These instances are, indeed, of rare occurrence; but they are sufficient to shew the absurdity of the argument for a plurality of human stocks or species, from a mere difference in the colour of the skin; an argument thus proved to be superficial, and which we may gravely assert to be not more than skin deep.

4. But it is probable, that a very great part of the more striking distinctions we have noticed, and almost all the subordinate variations occasionally to be met with, are the result of a morbid and hereditary affection. The vast influence which this recondite but active cause possesses over both the body and the mind, are known in some degree to every one, from facts that are presenting themselves to us daily. We see gout, consumption, scrofula, leprosy, propagated on various occasions; and madness, and fatuity, and hypochondriacal affections, as frequently. Hence, the unhappy race of Albinoes; and whole pedigrees of white Negroes; hence the pigmy stature of some families, and the gigantic size of others.

"But man is not the only animal in which such variations of form and feature occur; nor the animal in which they occur either most frequently, or in the most extraordinary and extravagant manner.

"The whole difference between the cranium of a Negro and that of an European, is in no respect greater than that which exists between the cranium of the wild boar and that of the domestic swine. Those who are in possession of Daubenton's drawings of the two, must be sensible of this the first moment they compare them together. The peculiarity among the Hindus of having the bone of the leg remarkably long, meets a precise parallel in the swine of Normandy, which stand so high on their hind quarters, that the back forms an inclined plane to the head; and as the head itself partakes of the same direction, the snout is but a little removed from the ground.

"In some countries, indeed, the swine have degenerated into races, that in singularity far exceed the most extravagant variations that have been found among the human species. What can differ more widely than a cloven foot and a solid hoof?

yet swine are found with both the variety with a solid hoof was known to the ancients, and still exists in Hungary and Sweden: and even the common sort that were carried by the Spaniards to the isle of Cuba, in 1509, have since degenerated into a variety with a hoof of the same solid kind, and of the enormous size of not less than half a span in diameter.

"How absurd, then, to contend that the distinctions in the different varieties of the human race must have proceeded from a plurality of species, while we are compelled to admit, that distinctions of a similar kind, but more numerous and more extravagant, have proceeded from a single species in other animals!" pp. 34-37.

We quote another passage from the chapter on the Camel, to shew the bearing of Mr. Carpenter's work illustration:on points of Biblical crticism and

"To pass a camel through the eye of a needle, was a proverbial expression among the nations of high antiquity, denoting a difficulty which neither the art nor the power of man can surmount. Our Lord condescends to employ it in his discourse to the disciples, to shew how extremely difficult it is for a rich man to forsake all for the cause of God and truth, and obtain the blessings of salvation: "1 say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom,' Matt. xix, 24. Many expositors, however, are of opinion, that the allusion is not to the animal of that name, but to the cable by which an anchor is made fast to the ship; and for camel read camil, from which our word cable is supposed to be descended. It is not, perhaps, easy to determine, which of these ought to be preferred; and some interpreters of considerable note, have accordingly adopted both views. The more common signification of the term, however, seems to countenance the first view. The Talmudical writers had a similar proverb concerning him who proposed to accomplish an impossibility, which they couched in the following terms:

Thou art perchance from the city of Pomboditha, where they send an elephant through the eye of a needle.' Another Hebrew adage, mentioned by the learned Buxtorf, bears a striking resemblance to this: They neither shew one a golden palm, nor an elephant which enters through the eye of a needle.' But these proverbial expressions were intended to express either a thing extremely difficult, or altogether impracticable to human power; but our Lord, instead of the elephant, took the camel, as being an animal better known to the Jews.

"The striking analogy, however, between a cable, and a thread which is wont to be passed through the eye of a needle,

would incline us, says the ingenious Professor Paxton, in his Illustrations, to embrace the second view. By the Hebrew term, and the Greek word xaμnzos, the Syrians, the Hellenistic Jews, and the Arabians, all understood a ship's cable: and hence the Assyrians and the Arabians contended that the word must be so interpreted in the proverb under consideration. The Talmudical writers, also, have a similar adage which is quoted by the learned Buxtorf: The departure of the soul from the body is difficult, as the passing of a cable through a small aper

ture.'

"In Matthew xxiii. 24, is another proverbial expression: Ye strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.' Dr. Adam Clarke has proved that here is an error of the press, in printing the English translation, in which at has been substituted for out. The passage as it now stands conveys no sense: it should be, Ye strain out the gnat, and swallow down the camel.' The allusion is to the custom which prevailed among both Gentiles and Jews, of straining the liquor which they drank, for the purpose of ejecting those insects which so swarm in some southern countries, and hence easily fall into wine-vessels." pp.

59, 60.

The word Hyæna no where occurs in our translation; but some learned biblical critics think that animal is alluded to in 1 Sam. xiii. 18, "the valley of Zeboim ;" and Jer. xii. 9, "a speckled bird;" the word in the original being in both places the same. The former passage is translated by Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodosian, "the valley of hyænas;" and the latter is translated by the Seventy, "the cave of the hyæna." We see no reason to object to this rendering, especially as the animal was evidently known in those times, and in those countries, and is alluded to in the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, v. 18: What agreement is there between the hyæna and the dog?' two animals well known to have the greatest antipathy towards each other. It seems, however, more certain that another animal, not mentioned in our translation, is often alluded to; and our juvenile readers, if such we have, will be happy in finding their favourite gazelle, or antelope, under the name of the roe. The roe is rare in Palestine and the adjoining countries, and the antelope common;

besides which, the animal called the food, and the descriptions given of roe (Deut. xii. 15) was allowed for it in Scripture refer to the antelope rather than the roe. Its beauty, swiftness, and gregarious habits, are all particularly noticed. It seems doubtful, again, whether the animal called by our translators the "coney," or rabbit, is the animal known in this country by that name; and equal doubts apply to others. Bochart, for example, thinks that the animal called the mole is the camelion, and that the word translated "the weasel" is the mole. The behemoth, the leviathan, and the unicorn, are allowed on all hands to be doubtful. The first of these has found advocates for the elephant and the hippopotamus; but some recent critics think it was the mammoth, now extinct, but perhaps existing at the time of Job. This enormous animal would well answer the sublime description given of the behemoth; for Dr. Adam Clarke, quoted by Mr. Carpenter, tells us, in a note on the passage, that he measured some bones of one, "which, from computation, must have been not less than twenty-five feet high, and sixty in length; the bones of one toe which I measured being three feet." The leviathan was probably the crocodile; and possibly the unicorn, or reem, was the rhinoceros ; but both are conjectural; and much more so must be the designations of some of the smaller animals. Our translators speak of the swallow, the sparrow, the owl, the partridge, the quail, the crane, the cuckoo, and the swan, among birds; but it is very unlikely that these British names point out the real animals; and the doubt is even greater in the appellations of various insects, and numerous vegetable productions. table productions. All this, however, detracts nothing from the authenticity or value of the Bible: it even forms one of those items of proof of its antiquity which enter into the general argument for its Divine origin. No doctrine or precept is rendered obscure by this