Natural History. 9 NATURAL HISTORY. THE WASP, A PAPER MAKER. THE manners of wasps are truly curious; but we are not about to enter upon a particular description of them. It is one quality only that we would at present mention the power of the wasp to make paper. The substance of which the wasp's nest is made is actually paper; and the wasp knew how to make paper long before man did. And it is particularly worth notice, that at this very time, a new method of making paper is said to have been discovered-namely, to make the paste (or pulp) for the paper with the fibres of rotten wood. A French gentleman, M. Brad, says, "he was determined to try whether he could not devote to some useful purpose a substance which seemed useless. He took a large quantity of rotten wood, and removed the knots and hard parts from it. This was then put into an oil-mill and ground. It was watered, and afterwards put into sacks to drain off. The paste, thus formed, was taken to a paper manufactory, and after going through the usual process, about 500 sheets of greyish paper were produced fit to be written on, although no glue had been applied to it. By pasting a number of sheets together, he formed a pasteboard sufficiently solid and light for ordinary use." There is a particularly interesting account of the wasp in the "Library of entertaining Knowledge," in the volume on "Insect Architecture," where we find the following statement: "The wasp is a paper maker, and a most perfect and intelligent one. Whilst mankind were arriving by slow degrees at the art of forming this valuable substance, the wasp was making it before their eyes, by very much the same process as that by which human hands now manufacture it, with the best aid of che mistry and machinery. While some nations carved their records on wood, and stone, and brass, and leaden tablets, others more advanced wrote with a pointed instrument on wax, others employed the inner bark of trees, and others the skins of animals rudely prepared, the wasp was manufacturing a firm and durable paper. Even when the papyrus, the flag growing on the banks of the river Nile in Egypt, was, by a process of art, made to serve for paper, the wasp was a better artisan than the Egyptians; for the early attempts at paper making were so rude that the substance produced was almost useless, having no firmness of texture. The paper of the papyrus was formed of the leaves of the plant, dried, pressed, and polished. The wasp alone knew how to reduce vegetable fibres to a pulp, and then unite them by a size, or glue, spreading the substance out into a smooth and delicate leaf. This is exactly the process of paper making. "It would seem that the wasp knows, as the modern paper makers know, that the fibres of rags are not the only materials that can be used in the formation of paper; she employs other vegetable matters, converting them into a proper consistency by her laborious exertions. In some respects she is more skilful even than our paper makers; for she takes care to keep her fibres of a sufficient length, by which she renders her paper as strong as she requires. Many manufacturers of the present day cut their material into small bits, and thus produce a rotten article. One great distinction between good and bad paper is its toughness; and this difference is produced by the fibre being long, and therefore tough; or short, and therefore easily pulled to pieces." Prayer. PRAYER. 11 SIR, To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor. Every one must be struck with the prevalence of an error of the present day, that the House of God is considered, by many, more as the House of preaching than what God himself, by the mouth of his holy Prophet Isaiah, called it, "the House of Prayer." That this name was applied to the Church by our Saviour, three of the Evangelists have recorded t. Now as some of your readers may have fallen into this error, and may go to church more with the idea of deriving benefit to their souls from what the preacher says, than from the spiritual blessings which God has promised to all who "ask in prayer, believing," I have taken the liberty of transcribing a passage which I lately met with. I am, Sir, One of your constant readers, "Resort to sermons, but to prayers most: HERBERT. "The service of preaching was intended to instruct Christian professors in their duty; the service of prayer, to procure for them that Divine assistance which can alone enable them to discharge it. Now if the whole of the public performance of religion be in a manner swallowed up in preaching, it is easy to conceive how the attendants upon it may be hearers of the word, and not doers of it; possessing a form of godliness, without knowing any thing of the power of it. For it is as possible for a man to be a diligent attendant upon sermons, and yet manifest nothing of the * Chapter lvi. verse 7. Matthew xxi. 13. Mark xi. 17. Luke xix. 46. spirit of Christianity in his life and conversation, as it is impossible for him to be a devout and constant suppliant at the throne of grace, and long remain an unsanctified person. For God, we are told, will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him; but he has no where promised that he will grant it to those whose religious service consists in hearing only. "It is a remark that has long since been made, that no man who prays can long continue a wilful sinner; for either his praying will make him leave off sinning, or his sinning will certainly oblige him to leave off praying. To which we will add, that a man may hear sermons all his lifetime, and yet be as far from heaven at the end of his stage as when he set out." M. P. H. The above remarks are certainly true, and the advice excellent and important. At the same time, "Preach the Word" is a solemn charge given to the ministers of religion. And in point of fact many persons have had their consciences awakened by an appeal from the preacher, who have for many years attended prayers with but little apparent benefit. We are not to use one means of grace to the neglect of another. Prayer certainly is the most important; but how often are we present at the public prayers of the Church, without ever having offered up our prayers in earnest! The preacher may be the instrument of convincing such a worshipper of his danger, and shewing him what real prayer means. When a person is thus brought before his God thus taught to commune with him, the preacher's office has answered its best purpose. The true worshipper, he who sees the value of prayer, is in a far better state than he who delights in only hearing the Word. Still it is a happy privilege to be a hearer of the Word; a dreadful state to be a hearer only. "Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." ED. On the Epistle for the second Sunday in Lent. 13 LINES WRITTEN AFTER A SLIGHT Smit with the langour of disease, And never from thy law to swerve. A waste, where few green spots are seen, Striving to gain the appointed goal, As only by thy bounty given, That she may be prepared for heaven. Laicus. ON THE EPISTLE FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 1 THESS. iv. 1. (Continued from page 366 of our last volume.) FROM the epistle before us, we learn the great duties of Christian sobriety, Christian purity, and Christian honesty ;-I say Christian, because there is a decided difference between Christian motives and worldly motives. A man may be sober and temperate in his life, and just in his dealings, from a wish to gain the praise of men, or to procure some advantage to his fortune or family. But this will not avail him in the sight of God. The apostle speaks to us as to Christians, and exhorts us by a far higher motive, by "the name of |