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were built by King Saurid, before the deluge, as a refuge for himself and the public records, from the Flood; but this opinion requires no answer. Josephus, the Jewish historian, who wrote A. D. 71, ascribes them to his countrymen, during the captivity in Egypt. As sundials, they would have failed. Shaw and Bryant, who wrote in the middle of the last century, believed them to be temples, and the stone chest a tank for holding water used for purification. Pauw, who lived at the same time with Shaw and Bryant, considers the Great Pyramid as the tomb of Osiris; and that Osiris having fourteen tombs for various parts of his dismembered body, fourteen pyramids must have been devoted to them, and the annual funeral mysteries connected with his death and resurrection. But the greater number of writers, ancient and modern, believe it to be the tomb of Cheops, the alleged builder. Improving on this notion, Maillet (1760) supposed that the chambers were built for the purpose of shutting up the friends of the deceased king with the dead body; and that the holes on each side of the central chamber of the Great Pyramid, were the means by which they were to be supplied with food, &c.; an opinion which would have appeared sufficiently ludicrous, if it had not been exceeded by that expressed by an old Moulah to Bonaparte, when in Egypt (1779) that the object was to keep the buried body undecayed, by closely sealing up all access to the outward ́air. Another ingenious theory ascribes them to the shepherd kings, a foreign pastoral nation which oppressed Egypt in the early times of the Pharaohs. However, this is after all but conjecture. The utmost uncertainty exists in all that concerns these gigantic, unwieldly, and mysterious buildings. Their builders, origin, date, and purposes, are entirely lost in the night of ages. As the sides of all the pyramids face the cardinal points, and of course give the true meridian of the places where they are situated, it would seem that their builders had made some progress in scientific knowledge; and the buildings themselves, under all circumstances, notwithstanding their plain exterior, clearly show the advanced state of the art in those very early times.

London Saturday Magazine.

NATURAL HISTORY.

THE YELLOW BEAR.

The Yellow Bear from Carolina (as the American bears in general are) is rather smaller than the European bears; it has also a more pleasant and agreeable countenance; is perfectly tame and sociable; the colour a lively bright orange, of a reddish cast; the hair thick, long, and silky. Its other properties are the same, as to the species in general.

THE BADGER.

that the fox, whose abilities for burrowing in the ground are inferior to the Badger's, frequently ejects the lawful tenant by laying his fetid excrement at the mouth of the hole: the Badger being so cleanly an animal that the calls of nature are never obeyed within the apartment.

The female brings three or four cubs in summer, which are suckled for some time, and afterwards are provided with such food as her abilities or industry can procure. Badgers are frequently eaten, and are said to make good bacon.

The hair of the Badger is very long, coarse, and rough, which gives it a very uncouth and clumsy appearance, and disguises the true shape of the limbs; each hair is tinged with three different colours: the roots a dirty white, the middle black, the extremities ash colour, or gray, which has produced the wellknown saying, As gray as a badger." The chest and belly are very dark, nearly black; a stripe of the same also extends from the eye to the ear.

Badgers are common in most northern countries, and are found in some warmer ones: the Chinese are very fond of their flesh, which is often an article in their butchers' shops; they are hunted by night for the sake of the skin; when attacked by the dogs, they defend themselves with great courage, and bite very severely. It has one single advantage over its assailants. Its skin is so thick, and especially so loose, that the teeth of the dogs can make little impression on it, and the Badger can turn himself round in it, so as to bite them in their tenderest parts.

These animals are naturally of a chilly temperament. Such as are reared in a house seem to be never more happy than when near a tire. They are likewise very subject to the mange; and, unless carefully washed, the dogs that penetrate into their burrows are seized with the same distemper.

They are about two feet long, tail about nine inches; they have staall eyes, and short round ears.

THE AMERICAN BADGER.

The American Badger has been for a long time known to naturalists, though it is but recently established as a species distinct from the Badger of Europe. By some of the European naturalists and compilers, our Badger has been considered as a mere variety of the European species, while by others it has been regarded as entirely the same; the fact was never fairly decided, until the publication of SABINE'S Appendix. SAYO had, however, arrived at the same conclusion, and applied nearly the same name to it in the Journal of Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, previous to the appearof Sabine's observations.

SCHREBER was the first author who considered the American to be a distnct species, and Gmelin adopted this conclusion in his edition of Linne, though he was led to give the incorrect specific character of "palmis tetradactylis," in consequence of Buffon's statement, that the carcajou had but four toes on its anterior feet.

The Badger, though a native of England, is an animal not very well known: the shyness of his temper, Nature has destined this animal to a subterraneous and his strong propensity to sleep, which softens the call and solitary mode of life, which, together with its timid of appetite, makes his appearance in search of prey less disposition and nocturnal habits, throw great difficulties necessary and frequent. The night, also, is the sea- in our way while endeavouring to ascertain its pecuson for his search; when, whether vegetable produc- liarities. It is entirely inoffensive, and apparently tions are satisfactory is not certain. The depredations feeble, but if denied the advantages of swiftness of moin rabbit-warrens, and on young lambs, are frequently tion or great size, it has not been left entirely destitute laid to the charge of the Badger: on the other hand of the means of providing for its own safety. Thelong the Badger has little or no speed, and being much in-claws on its forefeet are admirably adapted for removclined to sleep, will certainly grow fat on less nourishing the earth, and the celerity with which it can escape ment than more active quadrupeds.

The Badger digs a habitation in the earth with considerable dexterity; the fore paws being armed with long and strong nails, which work with expedition: the passage is of a winding form, leading to several apartments, but only one entrance; a bed of soft hay and grass is provided, to induce sleep, and secure a comfortable repose. This habitation is so enviable,

from danger, by burrowing, is really surprising. It is altogether fruitless to attempt to secure the animal by digging after it, as its progress is too rapid, and the depth to which it descends too great. It is only by artifice that the badger can be brought from his retreat; this is effected by the aid of dogs, smoke, &c., and when driven to the last extremity, the strength of its jaws and the sharpness of its teeth, enable the animal to inflict

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part of the head is brown, the under jaw and the whole of the throat are white. A semicircular brown spot is seen between the ears and the light-coloured part of the cheeks. Above the eyes the white marking extends triangularly for a short distance, and below it runs in a line with the eyes towards the forepart of the mouth; yet the whole eye is within the dark colour of the upper part of the head, and this colour runs at the corner of the eye, with an acute angle into the white.

The Badger of Europe has three broad white marks, one on each side and one on the top of the head, including the eyes and ears. All the parts under the throat and jaw are black. The hairs on the upper part of the body and sides of the American Badger are fine, long, and grayish; in the European the hairs on the same parts are darker, longer, and coarser. In the American, the under are lighter than the upper parts; in the European they are darker. In our animals the legs are of a dark brown; in the European quite black. Notwithstanding the European Badger is generally the largest, its dark coloured nails are smaller than those of the American, which are of a light horn colour The tail of the American Badger is shorter than that of the European.

The American Badger weighs from fourteen to eighteen pounds.

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Cruel Sports-Olympic Games-Races-Crowning the Victors. Ancient nations-the Greeks, Romans, Persians, &c.- had a great many public amusements. Some of them were very barbarous in their nature. Such were the combats with beasts. in these combats, criminals condemned to death were exposed to fight with lions, bears, wild bulls, and other fierce animals, and the crowd that attended appeared to take pleasure in seeing their fellow creatures mangled or torn in pieces.

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How contrary to the spirit of Christianity. Even

and we do not learn that they every practised them. I am sorry to say that bull-fights, as they are called, and many other practices, which are very cruel, are tolerated, even now, in nations called Christian. But we must remember that the people in Christian nations are not all Christians indeed. Just in proportion as true Christianity does prevail, however, wicked sports disappear.

The ancients had a few amusements which were not barbarous. Doubtless you have read of the Olympic games. When they were held, people attended them from almost all parts of the world. The contests were principally either running races or wrestling. The prizes, on these occasions, were merely crowns of leaves and palm branches, but the honour of gaining them was considered very great. Even kings sometimes engaged in these sports. Indeed none were ever allowed to an for the prize but persons of good character and of respectable families.

The engraving represents very imperfectly one of these ancient races. The runner's laid aside their gar

ments, and, at an appointed signal, rushed forward, in the midst of many thousand spectators. The rewards were held up where they could see them, throughout the whole course of the race.

A CUTTER is much like a schooner, though there is some slight difference.

There are also many other names for smaller vessels; and different countries often have different names for the same thing. Vessels used in war have a greater variety of names than those used merely in commerce. The following are some of them:-Ships of the line, frigates, brigs, sloops, corvettes, schooners, transports, feluccas, gunboats, galleys, and revenue cutters.

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19

A SAXON VESSEL.

SHORT ACCOUNT OF VESSELS. History appears to regard the Saxons, who came from Germany and began to settle in Great Britain about the year 449, as at first a kind of marauders or pirates. Their piratical excursions are said to have become so troublesome at one period, that the Roman government, who still held, or attempted to hold the country in subjection, sent out a fleet against them. The engraving represents one of the rude vessels used by the Saxons at the period of which we have been speaking.

In the Bible, a small boat, not larger than a common row-boat, is sometimes called a ship; as when it is said of the Saviour, in the time of a storm, in the little sea or lake of Galilee, that "he was in the hinder part or stern of the ship, asleep, on a pillow ;"-and of Peter, that, "when he was come out of the ship, he walked on the water," &c.

BURYING ALIVE.

We have been furnished by a French gentlemen, with whom we happened to converse a few days ago on the subject to which it refers, with the following facts collected from medical history. They are painfully interesting, yet proper to be known, in order to prevent, if possible, their recurrence.-N. Y. Com. Adv.

The diseases in which a partial and momentary suspension of life most often manifest itself, are Asphyxia, Hysterics, Lethargy, Hypochondria, Convulsions, Syncope, Catalepsis, excessive loss of blood, Tetanus, Apoplexy, Epilepsy, and Ecstacy. 27

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Among many cases which have been recorded, the following are particularly striking :

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"Chancellor Bacon relates that Dr. Scott, nicknamed the subtle, was buried alive at Cologne, and that recovering from his apparent death, he gnawed his hands and broke his head in his tomb.

"At Toulouse, a lady having been buried in the church of the Capuchin Friars with a diamond ring on her finger, a servant entered the vault to steal the ring, and, as the finger was swelled and the ring could not come off, he began cutting the finger; on hearing a loud shriek from the deceased, the thief fell senseless. At the time of morning prayers, the monks, having heard some groans, found the lady alive and the servant dead. Thus death had his prey; there was but a change of victims.

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A street porter in Paris, having died at the Hotel Dieu, was carried with the other dead into the same grave: recovering his senses towards 11 at night, he tore open his windingsheet, made his way to his house, knocked at the door, which was not opened to him without some difficulty, and took a new possession of his lodgings.

"In 1756, a woman in Paris was thought to be dead, and the body put on some straw with a taper at the feet; some young men who sat round the corpse, in a frolic overturned the taper. This set the straw or fire. The deceased, whose body the flames now reached, uttered a piercing shriek. Timely assistance was rendered, and she so well recovered that, after her resurrection, she became the mother of several children.

Even at the present day, people occasionally call all sorts of vessels, by the general name of ships. But it is not entirely correct, for all ships have three masts. We cannot, at present, go into a particular description of all sorts of vessels that traverse the "great deep;" but as most of our readers are landsmen, a very brief account of the more common kinds, will, we think, be useful. When you see a vessel on the sea, at a great dis- "On the 21st of November, 1763, Abbe Prevot, well Fustance, the three principal things which meet your eye, known for his literary productions, was taken with an helare the hull or body of the ship; the masts, which are apoplectic fit as he was travelling through the forest long poles that stand upright like the body of a tree; of Chantilly. Being supposed dead, he was carried to and the rigging, consisting of cloth sails, with yards, the house of the mayor of the village, and the magisTropes, braces, &c. It is the number of masts, and trate directed a post-mortem examination to be comshape of the rigging, which in general, give the differ-menced. A piercing shriek uttered by the unfortunate rent names to vessels. man proved that he was alive. He expired under the scalpel.

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A SHIP, as we have already told you, has three masts. It is also square rigged; which means that the sails are so set as to have a square appearance. This is done by having the yards (long poles to which the rigging is fastened) suspended on the masts, exactly crosswise, in such a way that the ends of each yard extend an equal distance from the mast.

A BRIG has only two masts; but, like a ship, is square rigged. There are several sorts of brigs, among which is the hermaphrodite brig.

SCHOONERS, also, have two masts, but they are not square rigged. Their principal sails have a slanting

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"Dr. Devaux, a surgeon of St. Come hospital in als Paris, had a maidservant who had three times been carried to burial. She did not recover her senses the last time, till they were lowering the coffin into the grave. That woman having died anew, the body was kept six days, lest they should have to bring her back a fourth time.

"A Mr. Rousseau of Rouen, had married a young lady of fourteen, whom he left in perfect health at his starting on a short journey. After a few days, he heard that, unless he returned immediately, he would find his wife buried. On reaching home he saw the funeral ready. In an agony of grief, he had the cothn

removed to his room and unscrewed. He placed the body on a bed, and ordered twenty-five incisions to be made on it. At the twenty-sixth, probably deeper than the others, the deceased exclaimed, "How severely you hurt me!" Medical assistance was immediately given. The lady had afterwards twenty-six children.

"The wife of Mr. Duhamel, a celebrated lawyer, having been supposed dead twenty-four hours, the body was placed on a table for the purpose of preparing it for burial. Her husband strongly opposed it, not believing her dead, but in a state of suspended animation. To ascertain it, and knowing that she was very fond of the cymbal, and the tunes which cymbal players sing, he called one. Upon hearing the instrument and the voice, the deceased recovered motion and speech. She survived her apparent death forty years.

"Andre Vesale, first physician to Charles V. and Philip II., after attending a Spanish grandee, thought him dead. Having obtained leave to examine the body, he had scarcely thrust the bistoury into it and opened the chest, when he perceived that the heart palpitated. The relatives of the deceased prosecuted him as guilty of murder, the inquisitor as guilty of profaneness. Through the intercession of the king he obtained to be merely condemned to a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

"In the sitting of the Royal Academy of Medicine, on the 10th of May, 1827, M. Chantournelle read a paper on the danger of hasty inhumations. This led to a discussion, in which M. Desgenettes stated that he had heard from N. Thouret, who had superintended the removal of the human remains of the cemetery and the charnel house des innocens, that many skeletons had been found in positions showing that the individuals had moved after their inhumation. Mr. Thouret had been so much struck with this, that he had inserted in his will an article relating to his own interment."

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR ANDRE.

to carry him, because she had, during the day, shifted her station, in consequence of a gun having been moved to the shore and brought to bear upon her. This embarrassing circumstance reduced him to the necessity of endeavouring to reach New York by land. Yielding with reluctance to the urgent representations of Arnold, he laid aside his regimentals, which he had hitherto worn under his surtout, and put on a plain suit of clothes, and receiving a pass from the American general, authorizing him, under the feigned name of John Anderson, to proceed on the public service to the White Plains, or lower, if he thought proper, he set out on his return.

He had passed all the guards and posts on the road without suspicion, and was proceeding to New York in perfect security, when, on the twenty-third of September, one of the three militia men who were employed with others in scouting parties between the lines of the two armies, springing suddenly from his covert in the road, seized the reins of his bridle and stopped his horse.

Instead of producing his pass, Andre, with a want of self-possession, which can be attributed only to a kind of providence, asked the man hastily where he belonged; and being answered, "to below," replied immediately, "and so do I." He then declared himself to be a British officer, on urgent business, and begged that he might not be detained. The other two militia men coming up at this moment, he discovered his mistake; but it was too late to repair it.

He offered a purse of gold and a valuable watch, to which he added the most tempting promises of ample reward and permanent provision from the government, if they would permit him to escape; but his offers were rejected without hesitation. The names of the militia men who apprehended Andre, were John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Vanwert, who, immediately after searching, carried him before the commander, Colonel Jamieson.

On the 29th of September, 1780, General Washington appointed a board of fourteen general officers, part of whom were General Green, the Marquis de la Fayette, and Baron de Steuben, with the assistance of the judge advocate, John Lavrence.

After the most ma

John Andre, aiddecamp to Sir Henry Clinton, and adjutant-general of the British army in America during the revolution, was born in England, in 1741. He was, in early life, a merchant's clerk, but obtained a com-ture deliberation, they pronounced Major Andre a spy mission in the army at the age of seventeen. Possess- from the enemy, and that, agreeably to the laws of naing an active and enterprising disposition, and the most tions, he ought to suffer death. amiable and accomplished manners, he soon conciliated the esteem and friendship of his superior officers, and rose to the rank of major.

When his sentence was announced to him, he remarked, that since it was his lot to die, as there was a choice in the mode, which would make a material difference in his feelings, he would be happy if it were possible, to be indulged with a professional death; but the indulgence of being shot rather than hung, was not granted, because it was considered contrary to the cus

After Arnold had intimated to the British, in 1780, his intention of delivering up West Point to them, Major Andre was elected as the person to whom the maturing of Arnold's treason and the arrangement for its execution, should be committed. A correspondencetom of war. was for some time carried on between them, under a When he was led out to the place of execution, he mercantile disguise, and the feigned names of Gustavus bowed familiarly to all those with whom he had been and Anderson; and at length, to facilitate their com- acquainted during his confinement; a smile of complamunications, the Vulture sloop of war moved up the cency expressed the serene fortitude of his mind. Upon North river, and took a station convenient for the pur-seeing the preparations at the spot, he asked, with some pose, but not so near as to excite suspicion.

An interview was agreed on, and, in the night of September 21, 1780, he was taken in a boat, which was despatched for the purpose, and carried to the beach without the posts of both armies, under a pass for John Anderson. He met General Arnold at the house of a Mr. Smith. While the conference was yet unfinished, daylight approached; and, to avoid the danger of discovery, it was proposed that he should remain concealed till the succeeding night.

He desired that he might not be carried within the American posts; but the promise, made to him by Arnold, to respect this objection, was not observed. He was carried within them contrary to his wishes and against his knowledge. He continued with Arnold the succeeding day, and when, on the following night, he proposed to return to the Vulture the boatmen refused

emotion, "Must I die in this manner ?" He was told it was unavoidable. "I am reconciled to my fate," said he, "but not to the mode." Soon after, however, recollecting himself, he added, "It will be but a momentary pang ;" and, springing upon the cart, performed the last office to himself, with a composure that excited the admiration and melted the hearts of all the spectators.

Being told that the fatal moment was at hand, and asked if he had any thing to say, he answered, "Nothing, but to request that you will witness to the world that I die like a brave man,"

Those days are lost in which we do no good: those worse than lost, in which we do evil.

We lessen our wants by lessening our desires.

SUNDAY IN PARIS.

the south part of Ireland. Others were early formed in the north of Ireland and in Scotland.

In the north of England, where the earliest efforts were made, there are in Lancashire and Yorkshire alone, more than 30,000 members.

Above four hundred temperance societies and associations have been formed in England, including the interesting islands of Guernsey, Jersey, and Man; the whole comprising, according to the latest returns, more than eighty thousand members.

Scotland, under the direction of the vigorous committee of the Scottish Society, numbers about 400 societies, and 54,000 members.

In Ireland, notwithstanding numerous disadvantages and difficulties, about 20,000 persons have joined the standard of temperance societies.

The Canadas and other distant colonies are known to comprise several thousand members, making a total of more than 150,000 British subjects, voluntarily engaged to abstain from distilled spirits, except as a medicine, and to discourage intemperance in general. Temperance societies are formed in Newfoundland, at Calcutta, and in Van Dieman's Land.

To whatever cause it is owing, nothing can be more certain, than that infidelity again reigns lord of the ascendant in Paris. It is impossible to be a week in the metropolis without being sensible of this. It is computed that from 60,000 to 80,000 individuals, chiefly women, or persons of the poorest classes, believe in the Christian religion. The remainder, amounting to 800,000, make no pretension to such a faith. It is impossible, by any external appearance, to distinguish Sunday from Saturday, excepting that any species of amusement and dissipation goes on with more spirit on that day than any other. In Paris the shops are all open, the carts all going, the workmen all employed, on the early part of Sunday; and although a part of them are closed after two o'clock in the afternoon, it is not with the slightest intention of joining in any, even the smallest religious duty, that this is done. It is "pour s'amuser" to forget the fatigues of the week in the excitement with which it terminates, that the change takes place. At two o'clock, all who can disengage themselves from their daily toil, rush away in crowds to drink the intoxicating cup of pleasure. Then the omnibuses (public coaches) roll with ceaseless din The Hottentots in the vicinity of the Cape of Good in every direction out of the crowded capital, carrying Hope, who were thought to be "beyond the reach of the delighted citizens to St. Cloud, St. Germain, or to good example." take a lively interest in this reformaVersailles, ginguettes of Belleville, or the gardens of tion; and the inhabitants of the Society Islands of the Vincennes; then the boulevards teem with volatile Pacific, have formed themselves into numerous and and happy crowds, delighted by the enjoyments of see-zealous societies, to deliver their nations from the ing and being seen; then the gardens of the Tuileries curse of spirit-drinking. and the Luxembourg, the Jardin des Plantes, and the Champs Elysees, are enlivened with the young, the gay, and the hand some of both sexes, both rich and poor; then the splendid drive to the triumphal arch of Neuville, which is filled with the comparatively few equipages which the two revolutions have left to the impoverished hotels of the capital. While these scenes of gaiety and amusement are going on, the priests in each of the principal chapels are devoutly performing mass before a few hundred old women, tottering ecclesiastics, or young children; and ten or fifteen Protestant churches are assembling as many thousands to the duties of the reformed faith. Such is a Parisian Sunday, in what they ambitiously call the metropolis of European civilization. As evening draws on, the total disregard of religious observance, by all classes, is, if possible, still more conspicuous. Never, perhaps, is the opera filled with enthusiastic crowds as on Sunday evening; never are the theatres of the Port St. Martin, the Boulevards, the opera comique, the vaudeville, and the varieties, so full as on that occasion; never are the balls beyond the barriers so crowded; never is Tivoli so enlivened, or the open air concerts in the Champs Elysees thronged by so many thousands. On Sunday evening in Paris, there seems to be but one wish, one feeling, one desire, and that is, to amuse themselves; and, by incessantly labouring at that one object, they certainly succeed in it to an extent that could hardly be credited in colder or more austere latitudes.-Blackwood's Edinburgh Mag.

TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES.

The Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for May, 1834, an English publication, contains an interesting article on Temperance Societies. We gather the following:

The means which they employ-persuasion, combined with associated example-were first brought to bear upon this enormous evil in North America. However simple these means appear, they have effected in that country a change of public opinion and custom, which has awakened the attention of the most distant civilized nations.

The first temperance society formed in Europe was by the exertions of Mr Carr, in 1829, at New Ross, in

The king of Sweden, though surrounded by noble distillers, has officially expressed his distinct approbation of temperance societies; and the Crown Prince takes an active interest in their proceedings.

The government of Prussia has applied to the New York State Committee for a complete history of the temperance reformation, and "a sketch of the machinery necessary to be set in motion to enable government to establish temperance societies throughout the kingdom of Prussia.

POETRY.

THE SLAVE MOTHER.
saw the burning tear,
Run down her dark brown cheek,
It told of wo and care-
Her tongue refused to speak.

I heard the stifled sigh
Burst from her throbbing breast-
To heaven she rais'd her eye,

As there her only rest.

Ah! why these tears and sighs?
Ah! why this bitter life?
"My babe! my babe!" she cries,
"O stranger, bring relief.

"They tore him rude away,
"As pillow'd on my breast,
"I, at the close of day,
"Had hush'd him there to rest.

"I saw the clanking chains
"My husband's limbs secure;
"I saw the purple stains,
"And the dark crimson gore.
"I saw the tear of wo
"Gather in his dark eye;
"I heard the lash's blow
"Extort the parting sigh.

"O God!" she frantic cries,
"The sword of justice take;
"And bounding from the skies,
"Bid sympathy awake.

"O! let a mother's prayer
"A God of justice move;

"She asks a refuge where "He dwells himself-above."

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Zion's Adv

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