ter gives, the greater part belong to wo-thoughts to him who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities? Is there no young Christian, just starting on the heavenly way, to whom she might give counsel and encouragement; to whom must come many an hour of trial and many a blast of temptation; whose inexperience needs guidance; whose steps, as yet feeble and unsteady through the weakness of faith, she might uphold by her sympathy and example; and whose perplexities she might resolve by the light of a larger and more mature experience? Should this reference to the "Salutations" of St. Paul be the means of stirring up one to be diligent who has been slothful, or of inspiring courage in one who has been diffident, we should hail it as another evidence that even the words of Scripture, often rashly regarded as trivial and unworthy of the Spirit's inspiration, are profitable indeed for "instruction in righteousness," tending to make us perfect, "thoroughly furnished unto all good works." men. This proves, moreover, the high esteem in which their labors were held. Why should it be otherwise? Why should not that high-souled devotion which marks the female character be consecrated to the service of God? What should prevent her deep sympathy, her overflowing tenderness, being exercised on Christ's behalf to the suffering children of humanity? Why may not her powers of winning and persuasion be employed in drawing to the feet of Jesus the outcast and the wanderer? What change is there in the Church, its responsibilities or its duties, that can justify or excuse the neglect of so mighty a power for good as the earnest devotion and piety of Christian women? What should prevent them filling still a high place in the ranks of Christian laborers? It is no narrow field that lies open to them. From the circle of their own home, which, however small, is yet the chief in importance, to the widest range of Christian benevolence, opportunities abound for laboring much and in many ways for the Lord. First at home, and then abroad, how much may be done by the earnest heart and the diligent hand! So long as a child remains ignorant of Jesus Christ; so long as the needs of our youthful population demand the efforts of the Sunday-school teacher; so long as a single dwelling or cottage in our land remains unblessed by the voice of Christian kindness, and counsel, and sympathy; so long, in truth, as the Church of Christ is militant on earth, so long do the needs of the Gospel and the example of the early Church bid to the work of Christ the Christian woman. Is there no sick neighbor to whom she may minister at whose bedside she may spend half an hour, from time to time, in reading God's Holy Book, or some suitable tract? Is there no ungodly neighbor or friend whom she might allure, by kindness and persuasion, to the house of God on the Sabbath day? When she hears of affliction visiting the home of friend, or neighbor, or acquaintance-some calamity, perhaps, which touches the mind rather than the body, and though it rack not the flesh with pain, yet wrings the heart with anguish-who can tell what the voice of kindly sympathy may do for that stricken soul? how, through the clefts of the broken heart, some words of affectionste counsel may enter, and raise the THE LEGEND OF SAINT ZITA. Z VITA is the patron saint of cooks, and is as worthy of her place as any other in the Romish calendar. She was, so runs the legend, faithful to her master's diet, but more faithful to God. She had the misfortune of serving a family who were somewhat indifferent to religious matters. They were worthy people enough, however, living in a quiet way on moderate means, and not disposed to prevent her from performing her devotions, provided their kitchen did not suffer, and that their modest repasts were served at the appointed hour. They say that Zita was very skillful in her profession. . . . Now her employers were not at all scrupulous in their observance of those days when the Church orders us to abstain from flesh. Zita thought it her duty to venture some timid counsels and respectful remonstrances on this subject. Counsels and remonstrances were ill-received, and had no other result than to change the simple negligence of the family into a regular practice of eating flesh on the prohibited days, so that they might not appear to yield to the opinions of their servant. Zita asked herself whether she ought to obey and prepare prohibited dishes. After some reflection, she devised, by a miracle of her art, a means of giving to the fish and vegetables cooked in oil the taste and appearance of butcher's meat and vegetables cooked with gravies. the house. "Truly," said she," whoever made that ragout is a skillful body." And then there awoke in her a little feeling of human pride, which she suppressed in This secret died with her. As for Zita, on those days she fasted, stantly. "I thought I was the best, but or at best ate nothing but bread. One day the family gave out invitations for a dinner-a rare thing, a marked event in that country, and Zita received on the occasion numerous instructions from la Signora. She arose before daylight, went to the market, and returned with two porters laden with provisions. Then she went to the church. But there she became so profoundly absorbed in prayer and meditation that she fell into a sort of ecstasy, and did not observe when the mass was ended, and everybody left the church. She remained alone, sunk in contemplation, and did not perceive the flight of hours. Suddenly awakening from her trance and returning to earth, she was surprised to find the church so still and dark. She hurried out, supposing that the day was cloudy. The sky was of the purest blue, but the sun was setting. Zita was struck with terror; she thought of her dinner, which had begun to be prepared at an hour when it ought to be ready to be served up. She directed her steps homeward in all haste, although believing that she would be turned away, and that she deserved to be, for she had failed in her duty toward them, and caused them a great embarrassment. there is some one here who is at least as good as I." And Zita entered the kitchen. Just as she entered, she heard a sound like the whirring of wings. She saw nobody, and thought it was the rustling of the new cook's gown, who had probably just passed rapidly into the next room. The range was lighted, the stew-pans were all on, and each one sent forth an exquisite flavor. Zita lifted the covers and tasted. "I was wrong," she thought to herself, “in saying that she who made these ragouts was equal to me; I am not worthy to untie her apron-strings; I did not know that my art could go so far. But where can she be ?" Zita waited; no one came. "But," said she, "how can such a skillful cook run such a risk of letting her dishes burn?" She drew the stew-pans a little off from the fire, and saw that the fire was blue. She looked for the cook in vain. In the dining-room, where she found the table set with the utmost care and neatness, she met her mistress, who said: "Well. Zita, are you ready?" Signoria," replied Zita, “the dinner is ready, but I cannot find the person." 66 "What person? The guests are on the terrace with my husband, and there is no one here but you and I." ner. Zita thought she was dreaming or had been dreaming. She served up the dinIt was exquisite. It is talked of to this day in certain families where tradition has preserved the memory of this banquet that took place two hundred years ago. There was no heavenly patron of cooks then; for it is Zita who was destined to become one. So she knew not to what saint to turn, and addressed herself to virgin Mary, and prayed fervently that she would give her strength to support the bitterness of the trial to which her inexcusable negligence had exposed her. When she had said her prayer she went into the house, humbly but resolutely. | Suddenly she stopped in the entry-way; a grateful odor of stewed meats assailed her nostrils. "What can this mean?" she thought to herself. "A ragout, as I am alive. My mistress discovered my absence, and has sent for another cook. I shall be turned away all the same, but there will be dinner, and no one will suffer for my fault but myself." Zita had only to return thanks. Angels, they say, came to get her dinner ready during the ecstasy in which she was absorbed at the church. It must have been a charming scene; all those pretty little angels, like those, no doubt, which we see in the pictures of Murillo! Imagine them with their little aprons and little white caps, fluttering from one pan to another, stirring the sauces and tasting them with the end of their little rosy fingers. Zita went a few steps further, then stopped again, and snuffed up a whiff of that savory odor which exhaled through And that is the legend of Saint Zita, as it was told me at Nerri by my cook there, who, alas! did my cooking herself. H [For the National Magazine.] HONG-KONG. 【EANG-KEANG (Fragrant Streams) is the easternmost of an archipelago of rocky islets lying at the mouth of the estuary leading to Pearl River and Canton. From the moment of its cession to the British crown in 1841, this hitherto insignificant retreat of a few thousands of small agriculturists, quarrymen, pirates, and fishermen, acquired singular importance on the map of the Eastern hemisphere. HongKong, though by no means impregnable, became to China what Quebec is to upper America and Gibraltar to the Mediterranean, the rocky throne of local dominion to the "mistress of the seas." "Twelve millions" to reimburse the expenses of the war; "six," to replace the commercial value of an abated nuisance; "five ports" open to trade and residence; and "HongKong," were the terms on which China purchased the cessation of the "opium conflict." Great Britain still vindicates her conquest by the possession of this key to the entrance of one of the principal ports of the empire, and the dispensation from this point to the five open marts, of an authority which the "Celestials" may diplomatize to evade, but dare not disobey. In Hong-Kong, a British island, tenanted by an Anglo-Chinese colony, one is not surprised at the presence of the wholesome stringency of British rule: yet nothing more sensibly strikes the stranger, from the moment he sets foot on the continent adjacent, than the ascendency of British influence within the borders of the empire itself. Their magnificent consular establishments, under the supervision of the titled representative of the throne, palaced in Hong-Kong, are really, like the East India Company's government, imperium in imperio; though here, it is Britain within China, and not Britain within Britain, as is the case in subjected India. Hong-Kong is the seat of the Oriental power of "Victoria, regina Dei gratia,” as well as the site of the Victoria founded by her authority, and commemorative of the style of her reign. Ten years ago, four-fifths of the dwellers in this newly-founded, free commercial mart, acknowledged, like devout Romanists, two allegiances, one to the "Son of Heaven," the other to the far-off queen of a nation of despised and hated "outside barbarians." The recent troubles at Canton have greatly increased this ratio. In Hong-Kong, as in Singapore and the open ports of China, the “foreign population" is a mere sprinkling. Out of the thousand and thirty-eight "foreign residents" in China, at the commencement of the present year, three hundred and nineteen, according to the Anglo-Chinese calendar, sojourned in Hong-Kong, and only fifty-nine of this number are reported as having families. The great mass of the buildings that line the narrow streets are mere bungalows, interspersed with the habitations of the more opulent West. Spacious "go-downs" monopolize the quays, and palatial residences perch upon all the lofty and more eligible situations. But we anticipate. We commenced with the design of recording the personal impressions of a stay of ten or twelve days in the city of Victoria, a name that seems almost a feeble sobriquet beside the sonorous, world-wide-known and world-wideused "Hong-Kong." We anchored in this celebrated harbor, the well-remembered transition point of nearly all the missionaries to the far East, at two o'clock in the morning, on the twenty-fourth of May last, one hundred and thirty-five days, including a stay of eighteen at Singapore, from New-York. The night was cloudy, warm, and almost breezeless. What little wind there was, came in irregular puffs, loaded with vapor, and dashed with occasional sprinklings of rain. We got out of our berths at a signal from the captain, to make out, through the darkness, as our bark drifted wearily to her anchorage, the character of the place toward which our expectations had been so long and anxiously directed. Nothing was visible, save a gloomy range of mountains, towering high up among the clouds of the dusky night sky, and the low range of misty lights which dimly outlined the place before which we lay. The morning opened bright and beautiful. The hills were clothed in mossy green to their very summits; the white and green houses of the far-reaching town nestled in the straitened intervals at their bases, while the land-locked harbor, sparkling in the coming sunlight, spread loving protection about myriads of native sanpans, and a glorious fleet of the ships of all nations. Boats of all descriptions flocked to the newly-arrived vessel. Here were clerks of foreign establishments in faultless white, The sanpan is by the restless waters. from hat and umbrella to bootees inclu- Hong-Kong is one of the up-hill places Your Chinese sanpan is no cockle-shell. | Our host is seven years a resident here, and general missionary consignee as aforesaid. The reason for this is, that he is the only American missionary in the place; and that, toward those who are expected to take "neither purse nor scrip for their journey," public hotels are no better substitutes for private Christian hospitality in Hong-Kong than in New-York. He meets us on shipboard, and when the sanpan ejects us, bag and baggage, upon the granite quay, directs the officious coolies in their own gibberish, while halfa-dozen trunks and as many band-boxes and carpet-bags, slung on bamboo poles, trot off in Indian file, threatening fearful inundation to any house with narrow accommodations. Fortunately, the dwelling of our host, like his heart, is large. His present elegant and accomplished lady is Dutch, who, in addition to her native tongue and considerable acquisitions in Chinese, writes and speaks English, French, 66 and German, with equal ease and fluency. Under her guidance we sought the most commanding heights, in our evening walks, for sunset prospects of the glorious panorama of town and harbor, with mountain and sky spread out before us; called on the courteous directors of the Anglo-Chinese training of the children, which constitute the "college" of the London mission; visited" St. Paul's College," also an AngloChinese boys' school, presided over by the Bishop of Victoria," the spiritual supervisor of "St. John's Cathedral," representative of the " Church" in Victoria, and overseer of the Church missions in China. His lordship is thin, spare, gray, with a full gray eye, feminine voice pleasantly modulated, and slender fingers, which doubtless contribute their full share to his skill as an organist. He is a traveler and an author, sanguine of the Christian character of the insurrectionists, and of the downfall of Sebastopol. His lady is as practical, plain, common sense, and American-like, as any European woman we ever met with, who alone, of all the world, retained the republican privilege of calling her husband" Mr. Smith," when, at the Church and State marriage altar, he sacrificed his individuality, and merged the man in the official. The American official deems it ridiculous affectation to subscribe his own titles; in aristocracies, the titled dignitary cannot superscribe even his visiting cards with his rightful name. With the civic and military establishments of Hong-Kong we had no opportunity for personal acquaintance. The barracks are extensive, solidly constructed, and we suppose healthy, though the deaths among the military have averaged a hundred and ninety a year for the last ten years. The "queen's band" entertains the public with occasional performances at evening on the public square, about which gather, as elsewhere, groups of noisy nurses and riotous children, willowwagons, and sedan-chairs, sentimental pedestrians, and amateur equestrians. His excellency, Sir John Bowring, LL. D., has the reputation of being a learned man; and his son, to whom we were introduced in Singapore, is one of the finest naturalists in the East. He has, in his private cabinet, twenty-five thousand specimens of the coleoptera alone. We saw him in one of our evening rambles, in the out | skirts of Hong-Kong, with a cigar in his mouth and a scoop-net in his hand, foraging among the bushes in pursuit of his favorite prey. Half a dozen newspapers, some gratis, others six to sixteen dollars a year; a well-filled library, and a well-stocked reading-room, attest the literary as well as commercial propensities of the bachelor population of Victoria. Race-grounds and billiard - room rooms are objectionable resources for amusement. A jail and burialground were among the earliest necessities of the new colony. The "Happy Valley," a beautiful level between the mountains, two miles or more from the center of the town, is the locality of the cemeteries; and here repose the relics of numerous Americans, missionaries, merchants, mariners, and common sailors. Hither, at the close of a beautiful day, with the band harmonies of the "Dead March in Saul" ringing in our ears, we accompanied the remains of a young man from the United States war steamer, Powhattan; and thence, under a glorious moonlight, in company with Lieutenants Whitings and Pegram, made the circuit of the valley for a walk, and then measured the whole of the fatiguing distance back to town again. The novelties of a walk through a Chinese thoroughfare always repay the labor. In the morning we entered the temple to behold the crowds of the devout at their orisons; and in the evening paused before the flashing and gaudy lanterns of the theater, to listen for a moment to the wild strains of vocal or instrumental music, so strikingly peculiar and different from that of the nations of the West. At midday we dared the furnace-like heat of a nearly vertical sun, to visit the shops of tradesmen and artisans. Painters' establishments are attractive. Dozens are employed in copying pictures, in shops opening directly upon the crowded streets. It is all imitative and mechanical; and you look in vain for any signs of thought, or imagination, or design, in the uninterested countenances of the workmen. The Chinese paint pictures as they make coats and shoes--after a pattern. But we wander. The Chinese, multitudinous as they are, are merely incidental to Hong-Kong. They are not present objects of description; and on our main topic we have probably said enough for a single paper. |