THE PROPS OF THE FIRMAMENT. Two signs I have had lately. I was looking out of my window at midnight, and I saw the stars,—the whole majestic vault of God supporting itself, without my being able to see the columns on which the Master rested it; but it fell not. There are men nowadays who insist upon finding out these invisible columns,-nay, who insist upon touching them with their own hands; and because they cannot achieve this, they tremble, and lament, and beat their breasts, fearing the firmament is about to rush down upon them. The heavens will not stir any the more for their groping. In the morning, I saw huge, heavy-laden clouds floating over my head like an ocean. I saw no pillars supporting the enormous masses: yet they fell not, but, saluting me gloomily, passed on; and as they passed, I perceived beneath the curve which had sustained them—a delicious rainbow. It was very slender and very delicate, and some might have trembled lest the heavy clouds should destroy it, yet its slight aërial line was strong enough to bear all that weight, and protect us from danger. We have among us too many who fear the clouds and distrust the rainbow: they would fain ascertain, by some experiment of their own, the exact force of the rainbow; and as they cannot do this, they are all alarmed lest the clouds should break, and overwhelm them in their fierce waves. The clouds are very heavy, they say, and your rainbow is very slight. Time will try its strength. THE ASS AND THE LION. The young Lion was rightful king; but, suborned by disaffected councillors, and for purposes of his own, the Fox took means to secure the election of the Ass. A parliament was convened, and when the usual preliminaries were over the Fox stood up. He coughed and called silence. He THE ASS AND THE LION. 105 expatiated on the present necessities of the empire, and dwelt at great length on the miseries which they had suffered under the Lion kings. And when he saw that the assembly was fairly weaned from its race of hereditary sovereigns, he "ventured to propose, as a fit and proper person," their friend the Ass. He spent a whole hour in his praise. He was not at all proud or tyrannical; he was singularly patient; would allow another animal to pass for something, and was always frank and accessible; he could do a deal of work, and would be content with small honour and few taxes. "Besides," he added, observing the yielding mood of his audience,-"besides, dear sirs, we have to consider that he has been divinely appointed to this very end. You may see his designation in the fact that he always carries on his shoulders a cross.” When the Fox mentioned the cross, all the Estates of the empire were full of astonishment, and shouted loud approbation: "Now we have found the proper king, who, both temporally and spiritually, can rightly administer the government." Then every one had something to commend in the Ass: one praised his fine long ears, so good for hearing confession; another said he had quite a remarkable voice, which would do charmingly for preaching or for singing in the church. Nothing, in fact, about the whole Ass, that was not worthy of royal or of papal honour. But excellent above all other virtues shone the cross on the back. And so the Ass was chosen to be king among the beasts. But the poor young Lion went about dejected, like an orphan despoiled of his hereditary empire, till some old, pious councillors took pity on him. And they spake among themselves, "What a scandal it would be to let the young king be thus shamefully driven away; his ancestors have never deserved that at our hands." So they called the Estates again together, and the oldest of them stood up - an aged Dog, who had been a faithful councillor of the former king, and a fine speech he made, setting forth that their election of the Ass had been too rash and hasty. It was not all gold that glittered. The Ass might, after all, in spite of the cross on his back be but a sham. The Lion had shown his bravery in action, but the Ass had never done one worthy exploit. And if a war should arise, it was a serious question of what avail the mere cross could be to them, if there were nothing brave behind it. The Ass The Dog's earnest speech was not without effect. The Fox and the unfaithful councillors began to fear, and said, "What had once been resolved by the Estates must remain so." And at last, when the Dog pressed the assembly hard by the consideration of the superiority of the Lion over the Ass in action, it was agreed that, though there could be no new election, the two candidates should contend for the empire, and he who should win should be king. The day of trial was appointed, and all the beasts met; the Fox clave to the Ass, the Dog held by the Lion. let the Lion choose the form of combat. Lion spake, “Let it be he who shall spring over this brook without wetting his feet he shall have gained." And the brook was large, The Lion made a leap, and sprang clean across, easily as a bird might have flown. The Ass and the Fox thought, Well, we were not kings before either; we must venture now, lose or win. So the poor Ass leapt, and-plash there he lay, like a log, in the middle of the stream. Then the Lion came to the bank, and said, "Methinks the feet are not quite dry." But see now what luck and craft may do. When the Ass had fallen into the water, a poor little fish, crazy with affright, had run, without knowing where, into the Ass's ear. And when he had stepped out, and the beasts had laughed well at this adventure, the Fox sees him shake the fish out of his ear. "Attend," he cries. "Where are THE RISE OF THE DONKEY DYNASTY. 107 those now who despise the cross, as if there were no virtue in it? My lord and king the Ass might have cleared the brook as well as another, but that would have been but a poor act to prove the excellence of the cross, seeing that without the cross the Lion and other animals can do it just as well as he: but as he leapt, seeing a fish in the stream, he sprang after it, and that the miracle of the cross might be the greater, he would not catch it with his feet, or in his mouth, but in his ear. Let the Lion do the same, and then let him be king." With such talk the Fox again made great commotion, and the cross was about to win. But the Dog was sore annoyed with this mischance, and the more to see Reynard, with his fox-tail, so befooling the multitude, and began to bark out vehemently that it had just so happened, and was no miracle. But that there might be no disturbance through the biting of the Dog and the Fox, it was seen good that the Ass and the Lion should go alone to a certain place, and settle the quarrel there by themselves. So they went to the foot of a hill together. The Lion said, "On yonder side the mountain lies a mill; he who comes thither first shall have gained: wilt thou run here below, or over the hill?" The Ass says, "Run thou over the hill!" The Lion, knowing this to be the last trial, ran as fast as his bodily powers could carry him; the Ass stood still where he was, saying, "I should only be made a laughing-stock: I have no fancy for such labour-in-vain." When the Lion gets over the hill, behold! there is an ass standing beside the mill. "Eh, what?" he exclaims, thinking it to be the same: "has the foul fiend brought thee here already? Well, let us try back again to our old place." And when he comes over again, he finds the Ass on the spot where he had left him, and must now own beaten, and confess that the cross is not to be trifled with. So the Ass remained king, and his race have held dominion in the animal world unto this day. LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS. No. I. (continued.) INFUSORIA. THIS brief sketch of the history of the Vorticella will serve to illustrate that of the whole class of Infusoria; as the facts, with slight modifications, are common to all. The round bodies resembling beads, which we mentioned as scattered in the interior of the bell, are characteristic of the whole of these animals. Professor Ehrenberg considers them to be so many stomachs, connected either with the common mouth, or with an intestinal canal which runs through the body. To this conclusion he came by prosecuting a series of curious and ingenious experiments. By mixing coloured substances, such as carmine or indigo, with the water in which the animalcules were living, he found that they readily imbibed them, and that the colouring matter was presently accumulated in these internal vesicles, which then appeared crimson or blue, according to the pigment employed. Hence he applied the name Polygastrica to the class, a term which would be as appropriate as it is significant were it quite certain that his conclusions legitimately follow from his premises. But later naturalists have doubted that these vesicles are stomachs at all, nor have they been able to discover any such common tube as the learned Professor describes. It seems more probable that the true stomach is a large cavity irregularly hollowed out of the centre of the body. There is another curious organ found in a large number of these animals, the office of which is even more puzzling. It is commonly known as the contractile bladder. If we are |