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Yes, papa, she thought of Christ all the time.” "Yes, and looking to Him will make everything easy." The next evening, when Maria again took her seat by her father, he resumed the conversation of the previous day.

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'Maria, there is probably another reason why you imagine it would be easier to do what Dorothea did, than what is required of you. You think of her as loved and admired by all who read this story, and this makes the self-denial appear less difficult. But, remember, she did not suppose her conduct would ever be known; she laboured on meekly and patiently, from day to day, with no other reward than the approbation of God and her own conscience. Do you think you could do this?" Maria was not sure.-Payson's Conversations.

LESSON LXVI. EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW.

The two largest and most celebrated cities in Scotland are situated in the valleys of two rivers, the Forth and the Clyde. They are Edinburgh and Glasgow. Edinburgh is on the Forth, though situated at some little distance from its banks. Glasgow is on the Clyde. There is a railway extending across from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and also a canal, connecting the waters of the Forth with the Clyde. The region of these cities, and of the canal and railroad connecting them, is altogether the busiest, the most densely peopled, and the most important portion of Scotland.

The cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, though both greatly celebrated, are celebrated in very different ways. Edinburgh is the city of science, of literature, and of the arts.

Here are many learned institutions, the fame and

influence of which extend to every part of the world. Here are great book-publishing establishments, which send forth millions of volumes every year-from ponderous encyclopædias of science, and elegantly illustrated and costly works of art, down to tracts for Sabbath schools, and picture-books for children. The situation of Edinburgh is very romantic and beautiful; the town being built among hills and ravines of the most picturesque and striking character. When Scotland was an independent kingdom, Edinburgh was the capital of it, and thus the old palace of the kings, and the royal castle, are there; and the town has been the scene of some of the most remarkable events in Scottish history.

Glasgow, on the other hand, which is on the Clyde, towards the western side of the island, together with all the country for many miles round it, forms the scene of the mechanical and manufacturing industry of Scotland. The whole district, in fact, is one vast workshop, being full of mines, mills, forges, furnaces, machine shops, shipyards, and iron works, with pipes puffing out steam, and tall chimneys rising everywhere all round the horizon, and sending up volumes of dense black smoke, which come pouring incessantly from their summits, and thence floating majestically away, mingle with the clouds of the sky.

The reason of this is, that the strata of rocks which lie beneath the ground in all this region, consist in great measure of beds of coal and of iron ore. The miners dig down in almost any spot, and find iron ore; and very near it, and sometimes in the same pit, they find plenty of coal. These pits are like monstrous wells: very wide at the mouth, and extending down four or five times as far as the height of the tallest steeples, into the bowels

of the earth. Over the mouth of the pit the workmen build a machine, with ropes and a monstrous wheel, to hoist up the iron and coal by, and all round they set up furnaces to smelt the ore and turn it into iron. Then at suitable places, in various parts of the country, they construct great rolling mills and foundries. The rolling mills are to turn the pig iron into wrought iron, and to manufacture it into bars, and sheets, and rails for the railroads; and the foundries are to cast it into the form of great wheels, and cylinders, and beams for machinery, or for any other purpose that may be required.

The Clyde is the river on which steam-boats were first built in Great Britain. The first man in England or Scotland that found a way of making a steam-engine that could be put in a boat and made to turn paddle-wheels so as to drive the boat along, was James Watt, who was born on the Clyde, which, of course, very naturally became the centre of steam-boat and steam-ship building. The iron for the engines was found close at hand, as well as abundant supplies of coal for the fires. The timber they brought from the Baltic. At length, however, they found that they could build ships of iron instead of wood, using iron beams for the framing, and covering them with plates of iron riveted together, instead of planks. These ships were found superior, in almost all respects, to those built of timber; and as iron in great abundance was found all along the banks of the Clyde, and as the workmen in the region were extremely skilful in working it, the business of building ships and steamers of this material increased wonderfully, until, at length, the banks of the river for miles below Glasgow became lined with ship-yards, where countless steamers, of monstrous length and graceful forms, in all stages of construction,

lie; now sloping towards the water and down the stream, ready at the appointed time to glide majestically into the river, and thence to plough their way to every portion of the habitable globe.-Abbott.

LESSON LXVII.-CROWS.

Of all the Ceylon birds of this order, the most familiar and notorious are the small glossy crows, whose shining black plumage, shot with blue, has suggested the title of Corons Splendens. They frequent the towns in companies, and domesticate themselves in the close vicinity of every house; and it may possibly serve to account for the familiarity and audacity which they exhibit in their intercourse with men, that the Dutch during their sovereignty in Ceylon enforced severe penalties against any one killing a crow, under the belief that they were instrumental in extending the growth of cinnamon, by feeding on the fruit, and thus disseminating the undigested seed.

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All day long these birds are engaged in watching either the offal of the offices, or the preparation for meals in the dining rooms; and as doors and windows are necessarily opened to relieve the heat, nothing is common than the passage of a crow across the room, lifting on the wing some ill-guarded morsel from the dinner table. No article, however unpromising its quality, provided only it be portable, can with safety be left unguarded in any apartment accessible to them. The contents of ladies' work-boxes, kid gloves, and pocket handkerchiefs, vanish instantly if exposed near a window or open door. They open paper parcels to ascertain the contents; they will undo the knot on a napkin if it encloses anything eatable; and I have known

a crow to extract the peg which fastened the lid of a basket in order to plunder the provender within.

One of these ingenious marauders, after vainly attitudinising in front of a chained watch-dog, that was lazily gnawing a bone, and after fruitlessly endeavouring to divert his attention by dancing before him, with head awry, and eye askance, at length flew away for a moment, and returned bringing a companion, which perched itself on a branch a few yards in the rear. The crow's grimaces were now actively renewed, but with no better success till its confederate, poising itself on its wings, descended with the utmost velocity, striking the dog upon the spine with all the force of its strong beak. The ruse was successful; the dog started with surprise and pain, but not quickly enough to seize his assailant, whilst the bone he had been gnawing was snatched away by the first crow the instant his head was turned. Two well-authenticated instances of the recurrence of this device came within my knowledge at Colombo, and attest the sagacity and powers of communication and combination possessed by these astute and courageous birds. Tennent's "Ceylon."

LESSON LXVIII.-LUCY GRAY.

No mate, no comrade, Lucy knew;
She dwelt on a wide moor;
The sweetest thing that ever grew

Beside a cottage door!

You yet may spy the fawn at play,
The hare upon the green;
But the sweet face of Lucy Gray
Will never more be seen.

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