to us. Moreover, he believed, that though our sun, and all its attendant planets, occupied an extent of space which baffled his faculties rightly to comprehend, our solar system was yet but an atom in that MILKY WAY, which stretches all across the sky, above us, below us, and around us, crowded with tens of thousands of stars, each of them probably the centre of a solar system, and many of them visibly in motion around one another. And, furthermore, did he believe that the MILKY WAY, though a universe in itself, and fit, as a finite being might fancy, for the sufficient habitation of an all-embracing Deity, was yet but as an atom in the universe, even as our solar system was but as an atom in the Milky Way. For the human intellect, and the human eye, aided by the telescope, have discovered thousands of these galaxies, each of them crowded with myriads of stars; and all analogy leads us to suppose, that beyond these there are others more manifold. So that if it would take a seeming eternity for man to traverse over our own MILKY WAY, there are three thousand more already detected by us; and, after all, these may be but to us as the outlying fields of the universe beyond! Ah! muttered Peter Jones, I have often heard that facts are stubborn things: but these facts, in their utterly unearthly grandeur, surpass all the poetry that was ever said or sung about the stars!

Give me facts! he cried; and to a Mechanics' Institute he went to gather them. Here he heard lectures on the laws of motion, and the powers of the lever and the screw; the atmosphere was analysed, and shown to be a mixture, but not a compound, of oxygen, nitrogen, with floating carbonic acid, an d water, in the shape of vapour; water had its wondrous uses, now fresh, now salt, now condensed into

ice, or expanded into steam; not alone had fire, with water, become the servant of man, but electricity had been seized, and was compelled to run along wires, and carry thoughts from one extremity of the kingdom to another. Marvellous was Light, which human ingenuity had split into different coloured rays, and yet had shown to be uniform through the universe, as far distant stars testified, by their different colours. The eye was a telescope, a microscope, and a camera obscura; the ear, not a cave for echo to startle with vaulting and stunning noises, but the appropriator of distinct sounds, while the heart and the lungs each played their part in the circulation of the blood; and the carbonic acid rejected by animals, was absorbed by plants. Facts crowded on the mind of Peter Jones: and all he saw, all he heard, all he did, became a theme for meditation. And when the microscope showed him that a single drop of water contained myriads of organized creatures, rushing about, and running a regular round of life, he could have screamed with ecstasy. The Infinite in greatness, and the Infinite in littleness, were the two poles of his wondrous existence. The telescope revealed to him "a system in every star!" the microscope a world in every atom." Earth, air, and skies, were built up of marvels; and yet they all invited Peter Jones to survey them, and discover in them Harmony and Design. "Lord! I believe !" he cried, "help mine unbelief! give me INTELLECTUAL power to grasp and comprehend the wonders of creation!"

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Peter Jones was no longer the dull-looking lad he had hitherto seemed. The excitement of his intellect was working on his outward appearance; he became animated, sprightly, and carried his head

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with an air almost of pride. Knowledge is power," he would say to himself; "and poor, insignificant, Peter Jones shall acquire the power which knowledge confers." He arrived at a conviction that what man had done, that man could do; and if the blood that ran in his veins was of the same kind as that which animated a Newton or a Watts, might it not be his lot to do something which should be as remarkable as the discovery of gravitation, or the invention of the steam engine? To an IMMORTAL race he belonged; and the best proof of his immortality was his mental progression. The Peter Jones that dabbled in the puddle was a very different being from the Peter Jones that knew a little about astronomy, mechanics, chemistry, and the steam engine; and why might not the Peter Jones that is to come far surpass the Peter Jones that now is? ONWARDS," he cried, "onwards! Peter Jones shall yet, in his own person, assert the majesty of mind!" And though Shakspere was to him a sealed book, he listened with delight to a quotation, not without congratulatory self-application:-"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties ! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a God! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!"

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CHAP. III.

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.

"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof? When the morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy."-Book of Job.

Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, undoubtedly ranks, in the scale of the sciences, next to Astronomy."-SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.

PETER JONES, even in the days of his utter igno rance, had become familiar with the contents of the Bible; and from it, and from the sermons he had heard, he had stored his mind with a Cosmogony and a Chronology-the world had a beginning, a middle, and an end-Time was epic in the soul of Peter Jones, and carried within it all the essentials of a progressive story, which had a definite commencement, and was to have a definite conclusion. From the Creation to the Day of Judgment there was to elapse a period of some seven thousand years. For a short time previous to the opening of the first chapter of Genesis, the CREATOR lived alone, happy in the midst of His own perfections. Angels were then called into existence; and by rebellious pride, the Devil and his associates fell. Then came the six days during which the Almighty laboured; and on the seventh day He rested, after "the heavens and earth were finished, and all the host of them."

Adam and Eve walked in Paradise, innocent and happy; the Serpent commenced its temptations, and succeeded, by its wiles, in introducing “Death into 'the world, and all our woe ;" and the Curse was the fatal consequence. The "world before the Flood" became a gigantic mass of crime; Noah built the Ark, saving himself and family, along with types of the existing animal creation; the Rainbow was hung in the sky, as a token that the earth would never more be drowned by a universal deluge; the children of Israel became the chosen people, to whom were confided the "oracles of God;" the Mosaic dispensation disappeared before the better Covenant, and the true propitiatory Sacrifice; and when God's purposes are accomplished, the High Priest shall step forth as the Judge; the earth shall perish under a conflagration, in which the very "elements shall melt with fervent heat;" and when the awful Audit is over, Time shall melt into Eternity.

This definite scheme was associated with much that linked the Past, the Present, and the Future, as if by a golden chain. The Bible had steeped the soul of Peter Jones in the marvellous and the pathetic. The undying story of Joseph and his brethren; the miracles which compelled Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go; the passages of the Red Sea and of the Jordan; the forty years in the "waste howling wilderness," with the many incidents of the law written on two tables of stone, the construction of the tabernacle, the manna that fell from heaven, the rock that sent its refreshing stream after the murmuring wanderers, the ass that opened its mouth and rebuked its master, the earth that gaped, and swallowed Korah and his rebellious crew. Then there were Joshua, the conqueror of Canaan ;