of the circle; for where there are fungi, there will be insects to devour them. Fungi are also always found more or less about them. I have seen them of so large a species that in their growth, they totally destroyed the grass beneath them, dividing the green ring into two, and leaving one of bare rich mould between them. The origin of these circles, too, which hitherto has escaped the eyes of the naturalist, but which is nothing more than a small mushroom-bed, made by the dung of cattle lying undisturbed in the grass till it becomes completely incorporated with the soil beneath, favours, more than all, the theory of the fungi. Every one knows that where this occurs, a tuft of rank grass springs up, in the centre of which a crop of fungi sometimes appears, and again perishes. There, then, is the nucleus of a fairy ring. The next year the tuft is found to have left a green spot, of perhaps a foot and a half in diameter, which has already parted in the centre. This expansion goes on from year to year; the area of the circle is occupied by common grass, and successive crops of fungi give a vivid greenness to the ring which bounds it. That only a few tufts are converted into fairy rings may be owing to their not being sufficiently enriched to become mushroom-beds; but that all fairy-rings which exist, have this origin will be found to admit of little doubt.-HOWITT.

The Death-Watch is a small insect which makes a noise resembling the beating of a watch, and this noise seems to be a call to others that are distant. There are two kinds of this insect; one of them is a small beetle nearly a quarter of an inch long, of a dark brown colour, spotted, and decorated with pellucid wings; the other is a small greyish insect, which, when viewed with the naked eye, appears like a louse. The former only beats seven or eight strokes at a time, and quicker; the latter beats for hours without intermission, and its strokes are more leisurely, and like the beat of a watch. The part with which both these insects beat is the crown of the head, which is covered with a shell or hard substance like a helmet. The grossly ignorant of some countries have long taken this ticking noise for a presage of death in the family where it is heard, and the dread which it excites can seldom be entirely eradicated by all the reason and argument.-BUFFON.

powers

of

The principal evils of these superstitions, however, is, that they call off our minds from real dangers, by engaging them with imaginary ones; and hence we may conclude that they are in fact devices of Satan himself. "Various are the kinds of delusion by which persons of various characters are tempted by their spiritual foe; he persuades some of the most ignorant and superstitious of them that evil spirits are accustomed to appear to men in frightful forms, or that they are busy about the dead corpses of wicked men, or that they haunt churchyards in the night-time, or dwell amid the fires of burning mountains, or that they may be called forth by magical incantations and charms, or that they appear to persons with the offer of conferring on them supernatural powers of witchcraft, on condition of their distinctly renouncing their baptism and making a formal surrender of their souls; and, accordingly, in the more ancient and ignorant times, (I fear the superstition is not quite out of date even now among some of the most gross-minded and illiterate,) many a harmless wretch was exposed to persecution on suspicion of thus dealing with the devil, and many a pretended cunning man and fortune-teller, for his own profit, kept his foolish neighbours in alarm by countenancing the same belief respecting his own intercourse with familiar spirits. All these foolish superstitions are doubtless contrivances and devices of the great enemy himself, to draw off men's attention from real dangers, by fixing them on imaginary ones; for next to the belief that we have no spiritual enemy at all, the most likely way to put men off their guard is to raise a false alarm and occupy them with idle and empty fears. In truth it would not be very easy to account for the fact, that men should ever have been brought to believe anything so silly and contradictory as many things which they have believed respecting this subject, unless we suppose their minds to be thus besotted by the delusions of Satan, who will naturally strive to mislead men; more especially in all that relates to himself. What would a robber or murderer give, think for the power of making himself invisible. Such persons usually skulk about in the night; not for the sake of startling people, but, on the contrary, of eluding all observation, because in the day time they would be more likely to be detected; but if they could by any kind of

you,

art render themselves invisible in the day, they would have a still greater advantage for carrying on their wicked plans; and if any of them had learned such an art, do you not think they would make use of it? Do you suppose they would ever shew themselves of their own accord, when they could compass their ends so much better unseen? And yet spirits of superior intelligence and subtlety have persuaded many a credulous and superstitious person that they are so foolish as to appear in bodily forms, and terrify by horrid shapes; well knowing that by this means they will be least dreaded when they are closest at hand and most actively employed, though unseen. Common

sense will teach any one who will but listen to it, when, and where, and how, evil spirits are most actively employed; they are not occupied about the dead corpses of bad men; with these Satan's work is already done; it is not with the carcase of the dead sinner, but with the mind of the living one, that they are engaged; nor can a man be secured from being made their prey by committing his mouldering clay to consecrated ground after his death, but by having during his lifetime a consecrated soul, a clean heart, and a right spirit within him; not by sheltering his lifeless body after this time of trial is past within a place of worship which he respects as the temple of God; but by offering himself a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, and making his body while alive a living stone of the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Let no one either hope or fear that the devil is to be raised in bodily shape in the loneliness and darkness of midnight, by fantastic conjurations and mystical words designed for that purpose; he is easily raised indeed, but not in that way; he and his agents are ever at hand indeed, when called upon, and continually are called upon by those who are least thinking of them, but they do not assume a revolting and frightful form. Satan himself, says St. Paul, is transformed into an angel of light. He is ready in the shape of any tempting and alluring disguise, and as soon as one is suspected, or seen through, will take shelter under another. It is not in darkness, and solitude, and silence, that he is oftener at work than in the bustle and business of cheerful light: in the crowded market, and the revelling fair, not less than in the secret resorts of the thief, the adulterer, or the assassin. The incantations

which invoke him most effectually are the songs and light talk of drunkards, the oaths, and curses, and revilings, and slanders of the quarrelsome and malicious; the flattering and corrupting talk of the seducer; the lies and false professions of the fraudulent and crafty; these and such as these come out of the evil treasure of an evil heart, corrupted by the devices of Satan, and they give proof to him that his wiles are in some degree successful, and that he may advance further and more boldly in his attacks, till he has gained complete dominion over the miserable heart which admits him, and which will become more and more enslaved to the unclean spirit within, the longer that dominion continues.

PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.

FATHER of all, eternal Mind,
In uncreated light enshrined,
Immensely good and great;
Thy children formed and blest by thee,
With filial love and homage, we
Fall prostrate at thy feet.

Thy name in hallowed strains be sung,
Let every heart, and every tongue
Thy solemn concert join;
In loving, serving, praising thee,
We find our chief felicity,

But cannot add to thine.

Thy righteous, mild, and sov'reign reign
Throughout creation's ample plain
Let ev'ry being own;

Lord in our hearts where passions rude,
With fierce, tumultuous rage, intrude,
Erect thy peaceful throne.

As angels round thy seat above,
With joyful haste, and ardent love,
Thy blest commands fulfil,
So let thy creatures here below,
As far as thou hast given to know,
Perform thy sacred will.

On thee we day by day depend,
Our being's Author, and its end,
Our daily wants supply,

With healthful food our bodies feed,
Our souls sustain with living bread,
Our souls that never die.

Extend thy grace to every fault;
Each sinful action, word, or thought,
Oh! let thy love forgive;

For thou hast taught our hearts to shew
Divine forgiveness to our foe,

Nor let resentment live.

Where tempting snares bestrew the way,
To lead unwary minds astray,
Permit us not to tread,

Unless thy gracious aid appear,
T'avert the threat'ning evil near,
From our unguarded head.

Thy sacred name we thus adore,
And thus thy choicest gifts implore
With joyful, humble mind,
Because thy power and glory prove,
Thy kingdom built on wisdom, love,
Unceasing, unconfined.-Anon.

DUTIES OF A HOUSEMAID.

A HOUSEMAID should be active, clean, and neat in her person; an early riser; of a respectful and steady deportment, and possessed of a temper that will not be easily ruffled. She must be able to see, without much appearance of discomposure, her labours often increased by the carelessness and thoughtlessness of others. Many a dirty foot will obtrude itself upon her clean floors; and the wellpolished furniture will demand her strength and patience, when spotted or soiled by some reckless hand. These trials her temper should be equal to encounter, for they cannot always be averted.