18. "In many of them the sick are attended, and the ignorant instructed, by persons who devote themselves voluntarily to that disgusting and laborious task, and perform it with a tenderness and a delicacy, which personal attachment, or the still more active and disinterested principle of Christian charity, is alone capable of inspiring.

19. "The Italian nobility have always distinguished themselves by cultivating and encouraging the arts and sciences. Many, or rather most of the Italian academies, were founded by gentlemen, and are still composed principally of members of that class. The Italian nobility has produced more authors, even in our own days, than the same class has ever yet done in any country.

20. " Moreover, a taste for the fine arts, sculpture, painting, architecture, music, is almost innate in the Italian gentry-a taste scarcely separable from an acquaintance with the two great sources of information, antiquities and history. To accuse the Italians of cowardice, is to belie their whole history. Even in the late invasion, the peasantry themselves, in some parts of the Neapolitan, and particularly of the Roman State, made a bold, and generous, though ineffectual, resistance.

21. "Not courage, therefore, but the motives which call it forth, and the means which give it effect, that is, discipline, hope, interest, &c. are wanting to the Italians. In many of the great towns, due respect is not paid to the matrimonial contract, especially in Venice and Naples.

22. "The industry also of the Italian peasantry may be traced over every plain, and discovered on almost every mountain, from the Alps to the straits of Messina. They obey the call of nature in reposing during the sultry hours, when labour is dangerous and the heat is intolerable; but to compensate for this suspension, they begin their labours with the dawn, and prolong them till the close of the evening, so that the Italian sleeps less and labours more in the twenty-four hours than the English peasant.

23. "The Italian is neither vindictive nor cruel; he is hasty and passionate. An unexpected insult, a hasty word, occasions a quarrel; both parties lose their temper; daggers are drawn, and a mortal blow is given: the whole transaction is so soon over, that the by-standers have scarce time to notice it, much less to prevent it.

24. "The deed is considered, not as the effect of deli

berate malice, but of an involuntary and irresistible impulse; and the perpetrator, generally repentant and horrorstruck at his own madness, is pitied, and allowed to fly to some forest or fastness. Yet the remedy is easy and obvious; a prohibition, under the severest penalty, to carry arms of any description.

25. "This remedy has been applied with full success by the French, while masters of the south; and by the Austrians, while in possession of the north of Italy. But actual murder and deliberate assassination are very uncommon among them; and even robberies are rarely met with at present.

Note. Leghorn, a strong and large city of Italy, in Tuscany, is situated on the Mediterranean, in 44° north latitude. Naples is in the south of Italy, east of the island of Sardinia, in 41° north latitude.-The straits of Messina divide Sicily from the south of Italy.

THE RIVER JORDAN.

1. THE Jordan, the celebrated river of Palestine, the only considerable one in the country, rises in Mount Hermon, passes through lakes Merom and Genesareth; then flowing almost due south, through an extensive plain, till passing to the east of Jericho, it flows into the Dead Sea. It is deep and very rapid, wider than the Tiber at Rome. 2. Its length is about 150 miles. The banks are steep, about fifteen feet high; so that it is difficult to bathe in it; which, however, curiosity or superstition impels almost every pilgrim to do; some vainly imagining that it cleanses from all, sin.

3. "I had surveyed," says an eminent traveller, “the great rivers of America, with that pleasure which solitude and nature impart; I had visited the Tiber with enthusiasm, and sought with the same interest the Eurotas; but I cannot express what I felt at the sight of the Jordan.

4. "Not only did this river remind me of a renowned antiquity, and of the most celebrated names that the most exquisite poetry ever confided to the memory of man; but

its shores likewise presented to my view the theatre of the miracles of my religion."

5. Judea is the only country in the world that revives in the traveller the memory of human affairs and of celestial things; and which, by this combination, produces in the soul a feeling which no other region is capable of exciting.

Note. The Dead Sea, or Lake Asphaltites, was anciently called the Sea of Sodom. It lies in the south of Palestine, and is supposed to cover the ground of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. Jericho was formerly the first city of Canaan, but at present consists of a few huts only. It is 20 miles east of Jordan.

THE LION.

1. THE lion abounds most in the interior parts of Africa, where he exercises his reign over the inferior animals : he is also a native of the hottest parts of Asia. A lion of the largest size is four or five feet in height, and eight or nine feet in length. The form and gait of this striking quadruped are bold and majestic.

2. His head is large, his ears rounded, his eye-brows ample, his eye-balls round and fiery, and glowing, on the least irritation, with peculiar lustre. His chest is shaggy, his tail bushy at the extremity, and a yellowish brown mane, nearly two feet long, flows on the side of his head and neck.

3. His predominant colour is pale tawny, with a lighter shade, approaching to white, on the flanks. The structure of his frame, and his astonishing movements, bespeak a singular combination of bones, nerves, and muscles, destined to act with a wonderful effect in pursuing and destroying the animals on which he feeds.

4. Notwithstanding his portly dimensions, he is so far from appearing clumsy or unwieldy, that he may justly be regarded as a model of strength and activity. When provoked, he erects his mane, darts fire from his eye-balls, contracts the muscles of his cheeks and forehead into hi

deous wrinkles, shows his formidable teeth, and exhibits a spectacle of savage grandeur, which beggars description.

5. As he puts his mouth to the ground when he roars, the sound is equally propagated to a considerable distance on all sides, so that it is impossible to discover the precise spot whence it issues. This circumstance increasing the alarm, the intimidated animals fly backwards and forwards; and, in the dark, they often run to the very place from which the noise proceeds, and which they are so anxious to avoid.

6. The habitation of the lion is usually in the thickest part of the forest; and he is seldom seen by day, as too much light is apt to incommode him; but, on the approach of night, he quits his den, and prowls about for prey, roaring hideously, and terrifying most of the animals within his hearing.

7. A single stroke of his paw will break a horse's neck; the sweep of his tail will throw a strong man on the ground; and he can carry off, with apparent ease, an ox or a buffalo, when lightened of its entrails. He does not openly attack any animal, unless provoked, or oppressed with hunger: but, in the latter case, he is said to fear no danger, and to be repelled by no resistance.

8. A single lion in the desert has been known to attack a whole caravan; and if, after a violent and obstinate conflict, he finds himself weakened, he would retreat fighting, and still presenting his front to the enemy. But when acquainted with man, and the power of his resources, he loses his natural fortitude, and is so conscious of his inferiority, that, in populous districts, he has been seen to fly before women and children.

9. His usual method of taking his prey is to spring or throw himself on it, with one vast bound, from the place of his concealment: if, however, he misses his aim, he seldom attempts another spring at the same object, but deliberately returns to the thicket in which he lay in ambush..

10. When he seizes his victim, he knocks it down, and seldom bites till he inflicts the mortal blow, which he generally accompanies with a tremendous roar. He seems to prefer the flesh of a Hottentot to that of an European, probably because the former is not encumbered with clothes.

11. The horse, next to the Hottentot, is reputed his fa

vourite prey; and the elephant and camel are both highly relished. The flesh of this animal is often eaten by the negroes. His skin, which was formerly a robe of distinction for heroes, is now used by the Africans as a mantle or a bed.

12. Many anecdotes have been related indicative of the noble, generous, and grateful dispositions of this king of beasts. When in a state of confinement, many lions have manifested much docility, affection, and mildness; but the utmost care and attention of the keepers have failed in subduing the natural fierceness of others.

HORRORS OF WAR.

1. THE following extract, which refers to the sufferings of the French army, during its campaign in Russia, exhibits a graphic description of one of the most appalling scenes in military history :

2. The winter now overtook us; and by filling up the measure of each individual's sufferings, put an end to that mutual support which had hitherto sustained us.-Henceforward the scene presented only a multitude of isolated and individual struggles.

3. "The best conducted no longer respected themselves. All fraternity of arms was forgotten, all the bonds of society were torn asunder-excess of misery had brutalized them. A devouring hunger had reduced these unfortunate wretches to the mere brutal instinct of self-preservation, to which they were ready to sacrifice every other consideration.

4." The rude and barbarous climate seemed to have communicated its fury to them. Like the worst of savages, the strong fell upon the weak, and despoiled them; they eagerly surrounded the dying, and often even waited not for their last sigh before they stripped them.

5. "When a horse fell, they rushed upon it, tore it in pieces, and snatched the morsel from each other's mouth, like a troop of famished wolves. However, a considerable number still preserved enough of moral feeling not to seek their safety in the ruin of others, but this was the last effort of their virtue.

6. "If an officer or a comrade fell along side them, or under the wheels of the cannon, it was in vain that he im