Chapter VI: Part 6

_15th._--All this winter we have observed great numbers of the pretty little lady-bird, or _coccinella_, clustered together in a privet-hedge; they are generally collected at the joints of the branches, and at first I imagined they were red berries. Mary never observed so many before, and she therefore supposes that the _aphis_ must have been uncommonly abundant last autumn. She tells me that the lady-bird is of great service--for in its larva state, it feeds entirely on aphides; and when these mischievous grubs are very numerous, the multitudes of their pretty little destroyers always seem to increase in proportion. In 1807, they covered the cliffs at Brighton in such swarms, that the inhabitants were almost alarmed, not being aware that they came from the neighbouring hop-grounds, where their larvæ had been usefully employed in preying on the aphis, which had committed such ravages among the hop plants, and which is there called _the fly_.--Their utility is so well known in France, that they are almost held sacred there; and, indeed, they are so pretty as to be favourites every where.

Just in the same manner as the locust-eating thrush accompanies the locusts, so the coccinellæ seem to pursue the aphides: whether the latter cross the sea is not known; but the coccinellæ certainly do, as they have often alighted upon vessels at sea.

_17th._--I have just read a passage in Kalm’s Travels in North America, which seems, in some degree, to confirm that opinion of Dr. Walker’s, about the flowering time of foreign plants, which my uncle mentioned last week.

“The crab trees opened their flowers yesterday; whereas, the cultivated apple trees which were brought from Europe, had already lost theirs. The wild cherry trees did not flower till May 12th; but the European ones had opened theirs by the 24th of April. The walnuts of this country had neither leaves nor flowers, when the European kinds had both. Hence it appears that the trees brought over from Europe, of the same kind with the wild trees of North America, flower much sooner than the latter. I cannot say the cause of this forwardness, unless it be that they bring forth their blossoms as soon as they get the degree of warmth to which they have been used in their own country: it almost seems as if the native trees of this country are directed, by _experience_, not to trust to the first warmth of spring, while the flowers of the European trees are often killed by the late frosts.”

I read this passage to my uncle, and asked him if these plants did not seem almost to have instinct?

He smiled, and said, “I can give you another remarkable fact. The wild potatoe, from Valparaiso, flowers in the garden of the Horticultural Society in October, which you know is the spring of South America. All these curious circumstances are manifest proofs of the wisdom of Providence, who has impressed on plants and animals the habits proper to the situation in which he placed them.”

I afterwards asked my uncle if the American fruits were very late in ripening, as the blossoms are so long kept back by winter.

“No,” he said, “the summer is very warm, though the winter is long and severe; and, as animals become more sensible to heat, after being previously exposed to cold,--for the same reason that your hands glow on coming into the house after having been rubbed with snow--so vegetables seem to be excited to a greater degree of energy by the previous intense cold. Vines, in grape-houses which have been exposed to the open winter air, become forwarder and more vigorous than those which have been kept shut up in the house. In the northern latitudes, after the dissolution of the snow, the rapidity of vegetation would astonish you.

“Clarke mentions, in his travels in Scandinavia, that it is by no means uncommon for barley to be reaped in six weeks after it has been sown; for in summer the sun is so long above the horizon there, that there is scarcely any intermission of the warmth of the soil during the night.”

_19th, Sunday._--“While we are engaged in considering the history of Moses,” said my uncle this morning, “I think we should dwell a little on a very striking part of his character, in order to imitate it, though, indeed, we can never be tried like him, in having the guidance of such a wayward and stiff-necked people. Bertha, guess to what quality I allude.”

“Perhaps to his meekness, which the Bible mentions as being remarkable,” I replied.

“Yes; meekness and spirit united. No man could have given more proofs of his courage than Moses. He slew the Egyptian who was killing one of his Hebrew brethren; he beat the Midianite shepherds though alone and unsupported: he boldly remonstrated with Pharaoh in his own court, and feared not all the power of Egypt; but more than all, when God commanded him to approach, he ventured amidst all the terrors of Sinai: and yet that spirit, which made and knew his heart, says ‘He was very meek above all men upon earth.’ Mildness and fortitude may well lodge together in one breast; it is not the fierce and cruel who are the most valiant.

“In the sedition of Miriam and Aaron, we see a beautiful example of his meekness, and of that true magnanimity which arises from it; and those very qualities are given as the reason why God avenged their ingratitude to Moses. Their trial must have been the more painful to him, because the enmity which he endured was from his own nearest relations. Yet he interceded for them, and God remitted the punishment which they had justly incurred. There, my children, is a pattern for you of that forbearance and generosity, which our Saviour afterwards so strongly commanded his disciples to exercise.

“If Moses himself excited the anger of the Lord at Meribah-Kadesh, by the distrust which induced him to strike the rock twice, as if doubtful of God’s omnipotence--if even he could be guilty of such weakness, or could be provoked by the people to ‘speak unadvisedly with his lips,’ how much more then do all of us require a continual watchfulness of our hearts, lest we give way to the same kind of ignorant and presumptuous scepticism!

“The punishment of Moses, by prohibiting him from leading his people into the promised land, was peculiarly mortifying; and afforded an exemplary lesson to all Israel of the necessity of obedience, faith, and humility, to secure the favour of God. How severely Moses felt this infliction, and how meekly he bore it, appears from his humble, and it would seem repeated supplications to the Lord to reverse the sentence; but it was reserved for a greater than Moses to teach His disciples how to pray on such an occasion: ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.’

“I think I have noticed to you, on a former Sunday, the perfect candour of Moses; in the present case it is again conspicuous. His offence, his punishment, and his entreaties are frequently alluded to in the Pentateuch, but are totally omitted by Josephus. In the original narrative they are mentioned as if necessary to explain the whole truth--they are expressed in sorrow and humiliation;--and the ingenuousness with which both the crime and the disgrace are recorded by himself, form a striking contrast with the suppression of those facts by that cautious historian in describing the character of the great legislator, to whom he looked up with so much reverence.”

_20th._--Several insects of different kinds appear now on the fruit trees, and are already beginning to do mischief to the little buds--some to those containing the leaf, and some to those of the blossom. When I heard this, I said, that if they could be picked off the blossoms, it would not signify much if some of the leaves were destroyed; but my uncle reminded me that the leaves are necessary to the nourishment of the fruit; for unless there are leaves to prepare the sap for that purpose, the fruit withers away.

It has been found, he says, by his friend Mr. Knight, that where a peach branch had only flower-buds on it, the grafting a leaf-bearing twig to its extremity, so as to produce leaves, was of great benefit to the young fruit. Mr. K. having also observed that a melon plant began to decline, which apparently had sufficient foliage for the nourishment of its fruit, he examined the plant more carefully, and discovered that a runner had grown out of the frame at one end, with an additional melon on it. He took this one off, and the rest of the fruit again flourished.

My uncle is going to try a new wash, which can do no injury, and which has been much recommended to him, for destroying the various grubs and insects that are so mischievous to the fruit-trees. He sent yesterday to Gloucester, for some of the water through which coal gas had been passed; and he had three gallons of it mixed up to-day with one pound of flower of brimstone--to this was added soft soap, enough to make it adhere when laid on with a painter’s brush. It was mixed over the fire, and it may be done so with perfect safety, he says, as it is not inflammable.

Many insects deposit their eggs in the bark, or in the young buds; and it is their larvæ or caterpillars that do the greatest mischief. The _aphides_ injure all the varieties of plum; and there is a _coccus_ sometimes in such quantities on those trees, that in summer every twig is thickly beaded with little red, half-round specks. In spring, the larvæ exhaust the trees by sucking out the rising sap. The grub of a little brown beetle destroys the blossom of the pear-trees; and a saw-fly injures the fruit so as to cause it to drop prematurely. In short, almost every kind of fruit tree has its peculiar family of grubs, which, in their larva state, prey on the sap, the leaves, or the flower-buds; and it is to prevent this that my uncle is going to destroy them by that gas wash.

Among various enemies of the apple-tree, he shewed me in particular the apple aphis, or American blight, which was not known in this country till the year 1787. It is a very minute insect, covered with a long, cotton-like wool; and fixes itself in the chinks and rough parts of the bark. It has spread throughout the kingdom, and about fifteen years ago destroyed such numbers of apple-trees in this country, that it was feared the making of cyder would be quite at an end, if some mode of banishing those insects was not discovered. Spirit of turpentine, or smearing the branches with oil, were found to be useful remedies: but Sir Joseph Banks has succeeded completely by the more simple process of taking off all the rugged old bark, and then scrubbing the trunk and branches with a hard brush. My uncle has found this insect infesting two of his apple-trees; so he will try each of those methods as a fair experiment.

_21st._--Caroline and I took advantage of a walk with my uncle this morning, to remind him of his promise to teach us something of geology.

“Are you prepared,” said he, “to learn the general classification? Though uninteresting till you know more, it is the necessary foundation to any knowledge of that science.”

“Oh yes, we are anxious to learn it, or any thing that you will be so good as to teach us.”

“Very well,” said my uncle; “we will begin at once. In examining the surface of the earth, a person would at first imagine that the confused variety of mineral substances he saw, was the result of mere chance; but if in different places he should find the same substances constantly linked together--if, for instance, in traversing the different coal districts, he were to find sand, clay, chalk, freestone, coal, limestone, sandstone, slate, and granite, succeed each other with tolerable uniformity, he would soon perceive that there was something like system in their arrangement. And on further examination, he would discover that this general _series_ may be subdivided into several lesser series or _formations_, in which, also, considerable regularity may be observed. The order, then, in which these series are classed by geologists, is what I am now going to explain to my little girls.

“The first or upper series comprehends the mixed beds of sand, gravel, pebbles, and clay, which are frequently found covering the great chalk formation.

“The second class includes several different series more or less connected with each other: the most important of them are--1st, the chalk formation; 2dly, a series of sands and clays beneath the chalk; 3dly, a series of calcareous freestones, such as Portland and Bath stone; and, 4thly, beds of red marl and sandstone, sometimes containing alabaster and rock salt.

“The third general class comprises beds of coal and the limestones and sandstones on which they repose.

“The fourth or argillaceous class of rocks is characterised by their disposition to split into thin _laminæ_; such, for example, as the common roofing slate.

“The fifth, and lowest, contains all the varieties of granite and gneiss.

“These five series, or orders, have been named by one of our best geological writers, superior, super-medial, medial, submedial, and inferior. But the most general relation under which all these minerals present themselves, is that from which they have been named _primitive_ and _secondary_. The primitive comprehend the lowest series of rocks, which serve as the bases upon which the others rest. They never contain any traces of former animals or vegetables, and may be supposed to have constituted the materials of the earth’s original surface.

“On the other hand, the different series which cover them, sometimes contain the remains of vegetables and animals imbedded in them; or sometimes they are made up of broken fragments of the primitive rocks, cemented together in a new form; and these are therefore considered to be of a subsequent and secondary origin. Geologists, however, having observed that between the primitive rocks, and those which exhibit most distinctly the characters of the secondary class, there are others partaking of the nature of both, and containing comparatively but few organic remains, have distinguished them by the title of _transition rocks_. And the rocks which are above this transition series, they call _floetz_ rocks; a German term, implying their having been deposited in horizontal beds, or _strata_; while the strata of the older rocks were generally inclined at considerable angles. These floetz rocks were again subdivided into old floetz and new floetz; and to the new floetz other writers have given the name _tertiary_.

“Though the distribution into the five series or orders, which I gave you, is, I think, the arrangement best suited to the science, yet it is necessary that you should recollect these other terms, because they are alluded to in almost every work to which you will have to refer. But I have given you quite enough for your first lesson.”

As soon as I came back from our walk, I wrote down all I could recollect of what my uncle had told us; and I have transcribed it here, in hopes that it may interest dear Marianne: this, at all events, will fix it more firmly in my own head.

_22nd._--My aunt has just had some small plants of the rosa Banksiæ put in the stove.--This rose tree grows in the most rapid manner out of doors, and is a great ornament to the conservatory, one end of which it covers entirely with its bunches of small white flowers tinged with pink. It produced some shoots last autumn, of nine or ten feet in length, which the gardener bent downwards, and laying them in the ground, he conducted them towards the adjoining wall, to which he nailed up the ends. They now look healthy and have fine swelling buds, as if they would soon be in a very flourishing state. He has found that the way to manage this rose is to plant it in a sandy loam, and to keep it very closely nailed to the wall, just like the Morella cherry.

I take great pleasure in watching the progress of the garden. The peach blossoms are really opening, and are lovely. The gardener has been very busy protecting them from the harsh winds, and from rain and hail, by woollen nettings stretched completely over them. But my uncle is always trying some pretty experiments; and one small tree is covered, or at least its blossoms are covered, by wool attached to the branches. Another is covered by small branches of birch, about two feet long, which were collected as soon as the leaves were full grown, in the end of June, and preserved under cover. There are studs in the wall, which project eight or ten inches, and to these the birchen branches are nailed with shreds. In order to try these experiments fairly, the trees which he has selected for them are on the same wall and in the same aspect.

We have been watching the tomtits, and find that they really do eat up the insects and larvæ that would be destructive to the blossoms; but I cannot say so much for the pretty, but mischievous bulfinch, which too often amuses itself in picking off the flower-buds.

What endless entertainment, mamma, there is in observing the operations of the birds! For some days we had heard a bird in the low wet grounds, for ever going on with two notes, like the whetting of a saw; and at last we traced it to a place by the river side, where there are some willow trees, and the remains of an orchard. We found it nestling in the decayed stems. Mary pronounced it to be the little black-capped marsh titmouse. We went two or three times to the old orchard, where we saw it very busy picking off little chips, in order to deepen a hole in a decayed willow tree for its nest; and I am told, that it makes the bottom much larger than the entrance.

The birds of passage which came here for winter are now all taking their departure; and others will, I suppose, soon replace them. Frederick often points out large flocks of them at a great height; but it is the charming singing birds that interest me: the blackbird, for instance, with his sweet whistle; and the thrush, who constantly varies his song. But still more, the missel thrush, the largest of the species, who, perched on a lofty tree, warbles a loud carol to the coming Spring, with a very strong note. This bird is eleven inches long, and Frederick shewed me that it is distinguished by its having the three outer tail-feathers tipped with white.--It goes as far north, he says, as Norway; and is common in Russia. It is welcomed here as the harbinger of spring, and yet the country people call it the storm cock, because it is sometimes heard in stormy weather, drowning the voice of the other birds. It is particularly fond of building in old ash trees overgrown with lichens.

_23rd._--Franklin is going to have several hives of bees, and is preparing an enclosure for them, in which there will be some of their favourite flowers; it is placed near a rivulet, as they use a great deal of water. They are particularly fond of mignonette, thyme, mustard when left to go to seed, turnips, white clover, and beans of all kinds. These are their principal favourites; and it is said they afford the purest honey. Rosemary too is a favourite, but seldom produces much honey in this country, unless the season be warm and dry. It is worth cultivating, however, my aunt says, being one of the principal plants which gives the flavour to the famous Narbonne honey. She has had some planted in the warmest part of the bee enclosure, or Franklin’s apiary, as Frederick calls it. There are several lime, poplar, and berberry trees, planted round it; and a broom hedge is sown outside.

In a new swarm, their first care is to build cells to serve as cradles; and very little honey is collected, until an ample store of _bee-bread_ has been laid up for their food. This is composed of the pollen or dust of the anthers of flowers, which the _workers_ are constantly employed in gathering. They fly from flower to flower, to collect it in the little baskets formed of hair, with which their hind legs are provided; and having deposited their booty in the hive, they return for a new load. This bee-bread, after it has been received into the bees’ second stomach, is brought up again, changed into a whitish jelly; and with that substance, the young brood are diligently fed by other bees, till they change into _nymphs_.

Bees do not solely confine themselves to flowers; in collecting honey they are fond of the juices of fruits also, and for this reason my aunt recommended this bee enclosure to be placed very near the orchard which Franklin planted. With their tongue, which my aunt says is not a tube, as some people have supposed, but a real tongue, they lap or lick the honey, and convey it into the first stomach, which is called the honey-bag, and which, when full, is much swelled--it is never found in the second stomach. How the wax is secreted from the honey, or what vessels are employed for that purpose, is not yet ascertained. But my aunt shewed me the wax-pockets of the bee; by gently pressing the body, we could perceive on each of its four segments, two whitish flaps, of a soft membranaceous texture, in which the wax is placed.

There is another substance made by the bees, and called _propolis_; it is collected from poplar, birch, fir, and gummy trees like the taccamahaca. Bees have been observed to open the buds with their mandibles, so as to draw from them a thread of viscid matter; and then, with one of their second pair of legs, they take it from the mouth, and place it in the baskets on their hind legs. It is used in stopping every chink of the hive, by which cold, or wet, or insects, can enter; it gives a finish to the combs, and the sticks which support these combs are covered with it as well as the interior surface of the hive.

In collecting the pollen from plants, it has been observed that bees never mix the farina of different flowers; each is made use of in separate little pellets, and it is said that skilful botanists have been able to distinguish by the farina what flowers the bee had visited.

My aunt told me that she had read of a lady who had so constantly attended to her bees, and was so beloved by them, that they seemed to delight in flying round her and listening to her voice; they had no sting for their kind mistress, and when, after a storm, she gathered them up, wiped, and tried to revive them by the warmth of her hand, they gently buzzed their gratitude as they recovered. When she visited the hive, she caused no alarm; and if, on seeing them less diligent than usual, or ill or languid, she poured a little wine at the outside of the hives, they always expressed their thanks in the same manner.

Franklin’s new apiary, you see, has been of great benefit to me, for it led to a long conversation with my good aunt, who told me all those circumstances and many others in her usual clear way; and when we came home, she put into my hands a little book called _Dialogues on Entomology_, in which she says I shall find much useful information about bees and other insects.

_24th._--At breakfast this morning my uncle received a letter from a brother of Colonel Travers, who you know is at Madras. It was written while he also was at breakfast, and Mr. T. mentions that there were then on the table eatables of different kinds, which had come from the four quarters of the globe.

This set us to consider from whence all the articles that were on our own table had been collected. Every one named something. The tea from China, the coffee from Arabia, West Indian sugar, Narbonne honey, the salt from Cheshire, and our home-made bread, butter, and cream. Then there were Coalbrook-dale cups and saucers, an urn from Birmingham, tea-pots and spoons of Mexican silver, a butter-vessel of Bristol glass, knives of Swedish steel, and an Irish table-cloth and napkins.

Frederick proposed that we should calculate the number of people that must have been employed in producing all these various articles. He began with salt, as one of the simplest things on the table, and he easily ran through the operations of digging it out of the mine, making the little baskets in which it is sold, and conveying them by land or by water carriage to Gloucester; nor did he forget the wholesale and retail dealers, through whose hands they passed before they were deposited with my aunt’s housekeeper. But my uncle reminded him that making fine salt was not only a far more complicated process than he seemed to imagine, but also that, unless he took into account the machines employed in every one of the operations, and even the tools requisite for making those machines, he would not be able to give a satisfactory answer to his own proposition. “The same remark,” he continued, “will apply to the production of everything else on the table: this roll, for instance, must not only include the labour of the baker, but that of the bolter, the miller, the reaper, the sower, and the ploughman, besides the manufacturers of all the implements they used. Or, take coffee, which, however simple the mere gathering of the berries and drying them in the sun may appear, can only be brought to this country through the complex operations of commerce, and by means of a ship, which of itself includes the combined efforts of a hundred different trades before she can proceed a single mile on her voyage.”

“How rich, uncle,” said I, “must any country become, where the people are employed both in agriculture and manufactures!”

“Yes,” he replied, “as long as they are well paid, or, in other words, as long as there is a demand for as much as they can produce. But you know, Bertha, the inhabitants of any country can only consume a certain quantity of food, or a certain quantity of clothes; and if the hands employed raise more corn, or make more goods than are wanted, they must be thrown out of work until the overplus has been called for, as no one will pay for what they do not want. Something else, you see, is necessary to enrich a nation besides agriculture and manufactures.”

“Oh yes! I know what you mean, uncle; I am sure--commerce--by which that overplus is sent to other countries, and exchanged there for things which we do want.”

“You are right, Bertha. The agricultural and manufacturing classes may furnish each other with the necessaries, and with many of the comforts of life; but, without the aid of commerce, they can never raise a nation to any great degree of wealth. Foreign commerce is the great spur to their industry; it opens a thousand channels to their activity, and mutually enriches both themselves and the countries to which they trade. But it does much more--it brings distant nations into contact with each other--it makes up for the partial distribution of soil and climate--it may be said to equalize the bounties of Providence, and it is the grand means of spreading knowledge and civilization to the most remote corners of the world.”

_25th._--In consequence of our breakfast conversation yesterday on the productions of various countries, we invented a very amusing play in the evening, and I assure you that it was conducted with great precision.

Each person wrote on a bit of paper the name of some town, country, or province; these tickets were then shuffled together in a little basket, and whoever drew one out was obliged to give an account of some production, either natural or manufactured, for which that place was remarkable. This new-fashioned game was highly entertaining, for it brought out a number of curious bits of information which we had picked up, and which we might never have mentioned to each other, only from some such motive.

One of these was, that in Persia they have the art of carving spoons out of pear wood, which are so delicate and so thin, that the bowl of the spoon can be folded up like paper, and opened again. The handles too are so slender, that it is a particular accomplishment to carry them when full to the mouth in such a dexterous manner as to prevent their breaking. These delicate utensils are one of the accompaniments of men of rank, being only used by princes and noblemen when sipping their sherbet.

My aunt having drawn Siberia, said she had a nice match for Frederick’s wonderful spoons. In the province of Wiatka bowls and cups are made of the knobs which grow on the birch trees; they are yellow, marbled with brown veins, and when varnished are very pretty. But some of them are turned so extremely thin, as to be semi-transparent; and when put into hot water they become so pliant that they may be spread out quite flat without injury, as they return to their original shape in drying.

The ticket for Constantinople was next drawn, and produced a description of the rose beads which are so much prized by the Sultan’s wives, that they are usually called “Beads of the Haram.” Those poor ladies have so little employment, that they sit for hours passing these beads, when strung, through their fingers. They are composed of the petals of the rose carefully picked, and pounded into a smooth paste in an iron vessel; which makes them quite black, on the same principle, you know, mamma, that ink is made by mixing a preparation of iron with _gallic acid_, of which the rose petals contain a small quantity. When the paste is quite smooth it is made up into little balls, which are perforated for stringing, and then slowly dried in the shade. When they have become hard they are rubbed in the palms of the hands along with a little attar of rose, till quite smooth; and they always preserve their sweet smell.

Paraguay was on the next ticket, and Wentworth, who remembers all he reads, gave us a description of the famous tea of that country, large quantities of which are used in Chili and the states of Buenos Ayres. It is called Maté; and is made by boiling the leaves in an oval-shaped metal pot, about twice as large as an egg, on the hot embers in a brasier which stands at all seasons of the year in the middle of the room. When the water boils, a lump of burnt sugar is added, and the pot, being placed in a filagree silver stand is handed round; each person drawing the maté into his mouth through a silver or glass tube which is furnished at the lower extremity with a bulb pierced with small holes. The natives drink it almost boiling hot; and they have always some of this tea ready prepared, whether employed at home or in the fields. No one even departs on a journey without being provided with a quantity of the dried herb, as well as with a maté-pot, which is either carried in the hand, or suspended round the neck by a small chain if the person is on horseback. I was rather ashamed to confess that all these circumstances were new to me, as well as that the tree is a species of holly, the _Ilex Paraguayensis_; but you will tell me if they are correct.

Then came Kamtschatka, which produced an account of the _Sarana_, a species of lily that is universal in the eastern parts of Siberia, and almost covers the ground with its blossoms. The bulbs are gathered in August, and laid by for use; after being baked they are reduced to flour, and are not only used in soups and other dishes, but make the best bread of the country. Sometimes they are boiled and eaten like potatoes; and besides their own exertions in collecting them, the Kamtschatkans have a provident little mouse, which not only hoards them in its magazines, but has the sagacity to bring them out in sunny weather to dry. The natives search for and seize on these hoards, but they always leave some of the contents for their poor little purveyors. There are several species of this lily, from one of which the Russians produce a sort of wine.

We had afterwards the _Apatea_, or Hottentot bread, made from a parasite which grows on the roots of a _Euphorbia_ at the Cape of Good Hope, and which has neither stem nor leaf--only a flower that produces a large round and excellent fruit; but I really have not time to describe any more of these interesting little scraps, for my aunt says I must go out and walk.

_26th, Sunday._--My uncle read to us this morning the history of Balaam’s expedition with Balak, in order to curse Israel. This produced a long conversation; and I shall endeavour to give you an outline of what my uncle said.

“It appears from Scripture that there were two countries called Midian. That to which Moses had fled from the Egyptians was on the Red Sea; the other was on the River Arnon, near Moab; and as it was peopled by the descendants of Abraham and Keturah, we may suppose that the knowledge of the true God had been preserved there, though mixed with idolatrous corruptions. We know that in the days of Abraham, and long afterwards, there was a priesthood amongst the Canaanites, who preserved in great part the true worship.

“In the age of Joseph, there was a priest of On, and in the time of Moses, Jethro, a priest of Midian, whose daughters they married; and it cannot be supposed that either Moses or Joseph would have been allowed to connect themselves with idolaters.

“It is not surprising, therefore, that Balaam should address the Lord as his God, though his worship was probably debased by superstition. It appears, indeed, from several concurring circumstances, that he was a real priest and prophet of the ancient patriarchal religion; but he was the last: for it had at that time become so corrupt, that it was necessary to separate the Israelites from the rest of the world, in order to preserve their religion.

“We have other instances to prove that this mixture of idolatry with the true worship did not hinder God from revealing himself to a few individuals who followed that mixed religion, as Abimelech, and also Nebuchadnezzar. Another proof that the patriarchal religion had not been sufficiently forgotten for its language to have become obsolete, is, that Balaam’s expressions bear a strong resemblance to those used by the other prophets; and that the epithets which he applies to the Supreme Being are the same as those employed by Moses, Job, and other inspired writers.

“But Balaam, though a true priest and prophet, was unsound in heart, worldly, and mercenary. His selfish disposition and degenerate character were probably as well known to Balak as his high qualifications as a prophet were to the people; and both well fitted him for a tool in the hands of that artful monarch. It was customary among the heathen in those ages, at the beginning of a war, to devote their enemies to destruction with all the solemnities of religion; and, terrified by the recent victories of the Israelites, lest they should “lick up all, as the ox licketh up the grass,” he applied to the venal prophet in his distress. He knew Balaam’s eminence in the church, and his influence over the people; he knew that his interference might be purchased, and he bribed him to come and curse the invaders.

“Though Balaam was eager to obtain the proffered reward, and though he was flattered by the high opinion in which his blessings and curses were held, he well knew that they would be of no avail without the sanction of God. He, therefore, deferred giving any answer till he should have consulted the divine will; and when that will was made known to him, he at once refused Balak’s request, alleging that God had said to him, ‘Thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.’ This refers to the blessing given to Abraham, Genesis xii., and which was afterwards renewed to Jacob, Genesis xxvii. Balak, however, was not discouraged by the first refusal. He repeated his invitation along with promises of an unlimited recompense; and Balaam, having this time obtained the Divine permission, departed with the princes of Moab.”

I asked my uncle why he was now permitted to go, since his proposal to do so before had excited God’s displeasure?

“God often graciously stays the wicked in their sins,” said my uncle, “or warns us when our inclinations are evil; but if we obstinately persist in indulging them, he then leaves us to our own free-will, and abandons us to our foolish imaginations. Balaam had set his heart on the promised honours and rewards, and was unwilling to forego them, notwithstanding God’s distinct prohibition; so the foolish man was allowed to follow his inclination, to proceed in his own way, and to complete his own destruction. Just in the same manner, when the Israelites afterwards demanded a king to reign over them, God graciously condescended to expostulate with them, and to warn them of the consequences; but they persisted--and, therefore, ‘in his anger, he gave them a king.’

“But the fatal influence of covetousness and ambition, which made Balaam persist in desiring to go, soon led to his wishing to comply with Balak’s desire to curse Israel. That he went with this secret design, clearly appears from the angel’s saying, ‘Thy way is perverse before me.’ So you see that God’s anger was now kindled, not at his going, but because he went with a wicked intention. He was, however, suffered to proceed on his journey, in order to convince the surrounding nations that Balak’s cunning devices were useless in retarding the progress of the Israelites, or in defeating the purposes of the ‘Most High who ruleth in the kingdoms of men.’

“Balaam was afterwards also very blameable in offering sacrifice on heathen altars, in the high places of Baal, which he must have been aware was strictly prohibited.”

My uncle promised to take up this interesting subject again next Sunday; but on our way to church he told me that these events happened in the year 1451 B. C., and about two centuries and a half before the Trojan war.

_27th._--Frederick asked several questions this morning about the worship of Baal, on which he had been pondering since our conversation yesterday.

“Baal,” said my uncle, “was the same as Bel or Belus. The name signifies Lord, and was originally applied to the Supreme Deity; but in after-times, when idolatry became intermixed with the true religion, several of the heathen gods, and particularly the sun, were worshipped under that name. It was not only the general appellation of the sun throughout the east, but it extended from thence over great part of the western world; and many remnants of the worship of Baal, both names and customs, are to be found at this day in the Hebrides and Western Highlands. _Baal-tine_, for instance, as Hertford mentioned in one of his letters, is an expression still in use--it means the fire of the sun; and several other vestiges of solar worship may be also observed there. The name given in Scripture to the temples of Baal signifies those high places inclosed within walls in which a perpetual fire was kept.”

Frederick asked why groves and high places were so positively forbidden in the Bible as places of worship? To this my uncle replied: “Because it was usual for those idolatrous nations to place their temples and altars in commanding situations, and to worship their false gods in the groves which were formed on those consecrated hills. Such places were well adapted to their mysterious rites, and the Israelites were enjoined to break their images and cut down their groves; and were farther commanded never to plant a grove near an altar dedicated to Jehovah. Peor, to which Balak took Balaam, was the most famous high place in Moab; and it was called Baalpeor, because there was a temple there dedicated to the worship of Baal.”

I asked my uncle why they selected hills for places of worship?

“Some learned men,” said he, “have fancied that it was in commemoration of the resting of the ark on the mountain of Ararat, where Noah himself, immediately after the deluge, erected an altar and offered burnt offerings as testimonies of praise and gratitude. Thus, as every sanctified high place was supposed to represent Mount Ararat, so the sacred groves were symbols of Paradise; gloomy caves became the representatives of the floating ark of Noah; and even islands acquired a sacred character, because the top of Mount Ararat had once been surrounded by the sea.”

_28th._--Caroline and I have had a delightful walk to-day with my uncle, to a wild rocky valley, where the hill on one side appears as if a part had been violently torn away, and shews several layers, or _strata_, of different substances in the cliff. He pointed it out as a good example of stratification; and made us observe that the strata, though parallel to each other, were not parallel to the horizon, but more or less inclined to it. The angle of inclination between these strata and the horizon is called their _dip_.

“Now,” said my uncle, “if the strata _dip_ in one direction, they must _rise_ in the opposite direction; and if they continue to rise, that is, if their course is not interrupted or bent down, they must gradually approach the surface, and in some place or other they must shew themselves there. Look at that well marked stratum of reddish stone in the opposite cliff; though it is partially covered here and there by vegetation, yet you can easily trace it as it slopes upwards, till you see it actually arrive at the upper edge of the cliff. It is the same with all the strata, which lie either above or below it: you see they rise successively towards the surface; and if there be numerous other strata under the valley, and which therefore we cannot see, still they also will reach the surface further off. The place where any stratum makes its appearance on the surface is called its _out-crop_; and as they range themselves there in regular succession, you must at once perceive that in examining the surface, in a direction crossing the strata, you would find as complete a section of them as you now see in the face of the cliff, or as you could obtain by boring perpendicularly through them.”

He said a great deal more on this subject, and helped us to follow with our eyes several other strata to their out-crop. “This circumstance,” he added, “is of immense importance to the geologist; for if the strata were all horizontal, we should be ignorant of everything below the mere external crust of the earth. Sometimes, indeed, a deep well, or the workings of a mine, might reveal the nature of the interior for a few hundreds of feet or yards; whereas by examining the out-crop of the inclined strata, we can ascertain not only their succession, but their composition, for many miles in thickness. Another important consequence of this inclined distribution of the strata, is the variety of minerals which it enables mankind to obtain. If they were all horizontal, one country would be all marble, another all coal; but by this beautiful irregularity of nature, everything that is useful approaches the surface some where or other, and puts itself within reach of the industry of man.”

“Are all the strata, then, sloped at this useful angle of which you speak?”

“Oh no, Bertha,” my uncle replied; “they are inclined at every conceivable angle, from perfect horizontality in some places, to a vertical face in others.”

Caroline observed that even the strata at which we were looking did not all appear to have the same dip, and wondered what could be the cause of the difference. My uncle said she was quite right in the fact; the strata at the eastern end of the valley had evidently a more sudden dip than the rest. “But,” he continued, “it is to facts, my little geologists, that we must at first confine ourselves: though causes and theories are highly interesting, at present they would only bewilder you. Those numerous strata, however, will afford some illustration of what I told you a few days ago about _formations_. You see by the frequent repetitions of the same substances in the cliff, that the same strata are frequently repeated, and in the same order. When this order is once known, the geologist is no longer perplexed by the number of strata; each throws light upon the other, and the whole combination receives the name of a _series_ or _formation_. By comparing several of these series together, a resemblance in relation and position will be observed between many of them, which will lead to a still greater simplification of the different classes.”

My uncle then changed the conversation; we begged of him to go on with his geology; but we could not persuade him; he said if we attempted to remember too much, we should lose the whole. “Will you then give us a little lecture on it every day?”

“I will with great pleasure occasionally converse on the subject with both of you, my dear children,” said he; “and in our walks, or whenever a proper opportunity occurs, I will endeavour to give you a few general ideas of the structure of the globe. Hereafter we may perhaps enter more minutely into the details of the science, and then it will be time enough to talk of daily lectures.”

_March 1st._--My dear mamma has often laughed at me for my love of little coincidences; and I have now a new one to tell her. I very lately mentioned in my journal some remarks, made by Dr. Walker of Edinburgh, on the seasons of the flowering of foreign plants; and this morning my uncle happened to see in the newspaper the following extract from an address to the Agricultural Society of St. Helena by General Walker, who is the son of that ingenious doctor. My uncle desired me to read it, and said that these speculations are very useful to inquiring minds; they furnish hints, and they naturally lead to new experiments, which elicit new facts.

“The functions of plants, as well as animals, depend on the air in which they live. I have observed that those of St. Helena which have been brought from another hemisphere, are very irregular in their annual progress; many of them, in the developement of their foliage, have adopted the law of nature peculiar to the country into which they have been transplanted--others, more obstinate, remain faithful to their former habits, and continue to follow the stated changes to which they had been accustomed. They all appear to maintain a struggle either before they adopt the habits which belong to the seasons of their new country, or decide on retaining their relations with the old. In yielding to external circumstances, they appear to have different tempers.

“This is often observed in plants of the same species appearing to hesitate before they adopt the mode of performing their functions. And when their decision is made, we are at a loss to discover an adequate cause. For instance, an oak raised from English seed, loses its leaves in a St. Helena winter of 68°; yet it experiences nothing like the difference of temperature, which, by analogy, might be supposed to cause that change.

“It would add to the natural history of vegetation, and improve our knowledge of the geography of plants, were the facts concerning their habits and changes, under different temperatures, carefully collected.”

_2nd._--Miss Perceval, with whom I recollect you used to wish me to be acquainted, has come to spend a few weeks here; and I shall now not only have the pleasure of knowing a person you like, but of taking many a botanising walk with her as the Spring advances. She seems very gentle, and so unwilling to put herself forward, that my uncle is obliged to reproach her for withholding the stores of knowledge which she possesses; and he generally leads the conversation to such subjects as will make her display them a little, in spite of her diffidence.

She disclaims all over-modesty, but says that such has been the progress of knowledge within the last ten years, and so greatly has it become diffused through all classes, and particularly amongst females, that she feels that almost everybody knows as much as she does; besides, she added, “I have lived so completely out of the world of late, that I have really much more to learn than to teach.”

She speaks of you, dear mamma, as of an old and valued friend; and I think she will be kind to me for your sake.

_4th._--Miss Perceval has been so much interested by a letter which my aunt received yesterday from her friend in Upper Canada, that she petitioned for some of her former letters; and my aunt has permitted me also to see them, and to make some extracts for you, dear mamma.

During their progress in open boats up the St. Lawrence, Mrs. * * * soon began to feel the hardships of a Canada life; she and her family generally preferred sleeping on fresh hay, the beds at the inns were so full of vermin. Sometimes they even slept on the ground, sheltered from the night air only by an awning;--and more than once in their open boat under a heavy dew. She speaks of the farmers with great gratitude; whenever she stopped at their houses she was received with the kindest hospitality, and her children plentifully supplied with milk and good bread. Throughout her journal, which I wish you could read, and in all her letters, there is the most amiable disposition to make the best of everything, and to enjoy whatever little comfort she could find in her situation, without looking back on her former very different life. In October they settled at the town of Cobourg, near Lake Ontario, as a temporary residence while a house was building for them on the land they had obtained. She describes her house thus:--

“_Cobourg, Oct 30._

“There are three rooms on the ground floor, and four above, but
they are so small they are like little closets; we contrive,
however, to squeeze into them, and though we shall be here two
months, we can easily reconcile ourselves to these little
inconveniences.

“There is a nice grassy place in front of the house, it is paled
in, and the children can play in it with safety: that is one great
comfort. We found some boards in the barn, and Mr. * * *, whose old
tastes as an amateur mechanic are now very useful, has made
temporary shelves and tables of them. We have at present neither
table, chair, nor bedstead, the carriage of these articles was too
expensive for us; but we have screws and all things ready, to make
them when we are settled in our loghouse, for which I long as
ardently as if it was a palace.

“Our bed-rooms have no doors, but we hang up blankets, which answer
the purpose. Fortunately we have plenty of these, and the air is so
dry that we do not suffer from the cold, though the nights are
frosty, and not a fire-place in the house, except that in the
kitchen. The frost has given the woods a grey look, instead of the
beautiful orange autumnal tints they had before.

“Four years ago there were but two houses here; now it is a nice
thriving town, with a neat church, a large school-house, and some
very good shops, or _stores_, as they are called; and the houses
are in general very neat.

“We have been visited by several respectable families. There is a
gentleman here who was for twenty-five years engaged in the
North-west, or fur trade, and during that time he never once
returned to his family. He had left home at the age of thirteen,
and underwent all kinds of adventures and hardships.--One winter,
when their provisions fell short, he and his companions were
obliged to eat their leather aprons, and even the leather of their
shoes!”