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an abstinence from food as to give rise to the fable of its living on air.

Its eyes are very remarkable; not only from their being large and projecting, but from their being covered with skin, except a little circle in the centre, and from their motions being quite independent of each other. The animal, when in search of prey, hangs from the branch of a tree by its flexible tail, its colour being green, or brown, according as it is nearest the leaves, or the bark; and it rolls its strange-looking eyes, one backward and the other forward, watching in two opposite directions at the same time. As soon as an insect appears, both the extraordinary eyeballs are rolled round so as to bring them to bear on the devoted victim; and as soon as it arrives within reach, the tongue is projected with unerring precision, and returns to the mouth with the prey adhering to it, the tongue being covered with a sticky juice. This tongue is fleshy and cylindrical, except at the tip, and the animal, by a curious mechanism, can project it above six inches. It is, indeed, the only part of the chameleon's body that it can move with swiftness; all its other movements being languid and sluggish in the extreme.

It was accurately described by Aristotle under the name of the little lion. The most common species is a native of Egypt, Barbary, and the south of Spain, and it has also been found in the East Indies.-Mrs. Loudon.

LESSON XIII. THE CARE OF GOD.

Lo, the lilies of the field,

How their leaves instruction yield!
Hark to Nature's lesson, given
By the blessed birds of heaven!

Every bush and tufted tree
Warbles sweet philosophy:-

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Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow :
God provideth for the morrow!

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Say, with richer crimson glows
The kingly mantle, than the rose?
Say, have kings more wholesome fare
Than we poor citizens of air?
Barns nor hoarded grain have we,
Yet we carol merrily;

Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow :
God provideth for the morrow!

"One there lives, whose guardian eye
Guides our humble destiny;

One there lives, who, Lord of all,
Keeps our feathers, lest they fall.
Pass we blithely, then, the time,
Fearless of the snare and lime,
Free from doubt and faithless sorrow;
God provideth for the morrow!”—Heber.

LESSON XIV.-ISLANDS.

Besides the continents, many smaller tracts of land are scattered amidst the waters of the ocean: these are termed Islands. They number several thousands, and are of dimensions so various, that, whilst the largestAustralia-is little inferior in extent to the continent of Europe, multitudes of others are mere specks upon the surface of the sea, consisting but of a few acres of rugged rock or barren sand. Islands also differ in their position and origin. A large number stretch away from the

shores of some continent, from which the nearest seem but slightly detached, appearing to have been separated from it originally by some great convulsion of nature. Among these are the British Isles, Newfoundland, and several of the islands on the Asiatic coast.

Some rise solitary or in clusters amidst the ocean, from whose depths they appear to have been upheaved by volcanic agency. St. Helena is an example of a single island, and the Marquesas and Society Isles, of groups, thus situated far from any other land.

Many of the islands of the Pacific are of coralline formation. Captain Basil Hall gives an interesting account of the way in which these formations take place, and of the method in which the coral insect works.

The

“The examination of a coral reef, during the different stages of one tide, is particularly interesting. When the tide has left it for some time, it becomes dry, and appears to be a compact rock, exceedingly hard and rugged; but as the tide rises, and the waves begin to wash over it, the coral worms protrude themselves from holes which were before invisible. These animals are of a great variety of shapes and sizes, and in ́such prodigious numbers, that in a short time the whole surface of the rock appears to be alive and in motion. most common of the worms at Loo-Choo is in the form of a star, with arms from four to six inches long, which are moved about with a rapid motion, in all directions, probably to catch food. Others are so sluggish, that they may be mistaken for pieces of the rock, and are generally of a dark colour, and from four to five inches long, and two or three round. When the coral is broken, about high-water, it is a solid hard stone; but if any part of it be detached at a spot which the tide reaches

every day, it is found to be full of worms of different lengths and colours; some are as fine as a thread, and several feet long, of a bright yellow, and sometimes of a blue colour: others resemble snails, and some are not unlike lobsters in shape, but soft, and not above two inches long. The growth of the coral appears to cease when the worm is no longer exposed to the washing of the sea. Thus, a reef rises in the form of a cauliflower, till its top has gained the level of the highest tides, above which the worm has no power to advance; and the reef, of course, no longer extends itself upwards. The other parts, in succession, reach the surface, and there stop, forming, in time, a level field, with steep sides all round. The reef, however, continually increases, and, being prevented from going higher, extends itself laterally in all directions. But this growth being as rapid at the upper edge as it is lower down, the steepness of the face of the reef is still preserved."

Another voyager describes the manner in which the coral rock, when it has arrived at the surface of the water, becomes covered with soil and vegetation, and prepared for human habitation :-- "To be constantly covered with water seems necessary to the existence of the animalcules, for they do not work beyond low-water mark; but the coral, sand, and other broken remnants thrown up by the sea, adhere to the rock, and form a solid mass with it, as high as the common tides reach. The new bank is not long in being visited by sea birds; salt plants take root upon it, and a soil begins to be formed; a cocoa-nut, or the drupe of a pandanus, is thrown on shore; land birds visit it and deposit the seeds of shrubs and trees; every high tide, and still more every gale, adds something to the bank; the form

of an island is gradually assumed; and, last of all, comes man to take possession."

LESSON XV. THE SOUL NOT MATERIAL.

Mother. Tell me, Robert, is your soul anything like a pebble, a rose, or a watch?

Robert. No, mother, but my body is; because my body has weight, hardness, form, colour, and parts; and so has a pebble, a rose, or a watch.

Mother. How many things can you see, Robert?

Robert. Mother, I cannot tell you how many things I can see. I can see almost everything.

Mother. Can you see my soul, Robert?

Robert. No, mother, and you cannot see mine. I cannot see my own soul; but I can think how it thinks.

Mother. When you see things, what do you see?

Robert. I see how they look, mother. I see whether they are round or square; or long or short; or large or small; or red or white.

Mother. Then you see their form and their colour.

Robert. Yes, mother, and I can see how far off they are. Mother. You can hear a great many different things, making a great many different kinds of sound.

Robert. Yes, mother, I can hear the bell when it rings; and the stage-horn when the driver blows it; and the flute when uncle John plays on it; and the chickens, and the ducks, and the cow, and the sheep, and Eliza when she cries. Oh! how many things I can hear! Mother. Can you hear my soul, Robert ?

Robert. I can hear you, when you speak, mother. Mother. Yes, I think what I am going to say to you, and then I think to have my tongue and my lips move:

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