only expect the divine blessing whilst you are studying to walk in the right way.

of

I now come to the other part your letter, and I must say that I am glad to find you expressing a desire to seek your amusement in improving your mind, and acquainting yourself with useful know.. ledge. A little knowledge of history may be of great service to you; and, instead of a hindrance in the way of religion, may serve to throw much light upon the subject. I see, from your letter, that there is a good deal of confusion in your mind on these subjects; and it is not to be wondered at, as you have not yet had an opportunity of attending much to these matters. Your education at school has chiefly been of a religious kind,-and very properly; and I hope you will ever find the benefit and the blessing of it. But now, as you have a desire to learn a little of other matters, I shall, in my letters, give you an account of such things as I think may be amusing or instructive to you.

You speak of History. History teaches us what things have been done in the world. But to have a clear knowledge of these things, we should learn when they were done; this is called Chronology. Then, if you could get a map, you might see the places, where they were done; this is called Geography. If we make mistakes about times and places, our History becomes sadly dark and confused; so that Chronology and Geography are sometimes called the Eyes of History. We reckon our time from the birth of our Saviour. We write A. D. which means Anno Domini, two Latin words, which in English signify In the year of our Lord. I write this letter to you in the year 1820, which means so long since the time our blessed Saviour came into the world. The world itself was made 4004 years before Christ came upon earth. You have read in the Bible that all the people in the world, but righteous Noah and his family, were de

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stroyed by a flood on account of their wickedness: this happened 2348 years before Christ. You remember, too, that after this, the wicked inhabitants of the world, contrary to the will of God, attempted to build the Tower of Babel. The Lord confused their languages, stopped their presumptuous work, and dispersed them through different parts of the world: this happened 2247 years before Christ. You will be greatly assisted by fixing some of these principal dates in your mind.

I shall now go on to mention a few plain things; and in my next letter send you a few more.

The world, you are to understand, is divided in four parts; Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. In reading the Bible, or any ancient book, we never find any thing about America; because it was not known in those days. It was found out only a little more than 300 years ago. So that it is sometimes called the New World; whilst by the Old World we mean Europe, Asia, and Africa. Asia was the part of the world that was first inhabited: but, after the confusion of languages at Babel, men were dispersed into different countries, and so other parts of the world were peopled.

You ask about the Romans. You may see, in a map, that Rome is a city in Italy; and that Italy is a country in Europe. In ancient times the Romans had very great power. By their successful wars they got a great part of the then known world into their own hands. At the time when our Saviour was upon earth, the Jewish nation was under the power of the Romans, so that you read of the Jews paying their tribute, or taxes, to Cesar, who was the Roman Emperor. And, when St. Paul was accused by the Jews, he appealed unto Cæsar, and was carried to Rome to be tried there. Cæsar was a sort of general name for the Emperors of Rome about that time. So that we hear of Augustus Cæsar, and Tiberius Cæsar, and Claudius Cæsar,

and several more of them. It was when St. Paul was a prisoner at Rome, that he wrote several of his Letters, or Epistles, to other Christian churches and people. And you know he likewise wrote an Epistle to the Romans themselves. You must not confuse the Roman people of those days with what we call the Roman Catholics now. This is quite a different matter. The Roman Catholics are the same people that we sometimes call Papists. They are a religious sect. They consider the Pope of Rome as the head of the Church, and all that he says and does they believe must be right. There are some people of this religion in nearly all parts of the world; but they are called Roman Catholics; because the Pope, whom they consider the head of the Church, resides at Rome, and keeps his court there. There is a great deal of pomp and ceremony in the Roman Catholic religion, and the danger of this is, that it leads its followers to rest in outward forms instead of seeking after that purity of heart and conduct which the Gospel requires. Their prayers are all in the Latin language, so that few people can understand what they are about. This was once the religion of the greater part of professing Christians. About 300 years ago this religion was thoroughly examined into, and it was found, that, though it was the Christian religion, yet so many corruptions and abuses had crept in, that there was need of a Reformation. What was wrong was then laid aside. Those who brought about this improvement protested against the Roman Catholic religion, and are therefore called Protestants. The Protestant religion is what we now profess; and we cannot be too thankful that our Bibles and PrayerBooks are now in our own language, so that we can "search the Scriptures, which are able to make us wise unto Salvation," and we can pray with the spirit and with the understanding" too. This change of religion from the Roman Catholic to the Protes

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tant is called The Reformation. I may perhaps take another opportunity of entering more fully into this subject. There are likewise a few other things in your letter, which I may hint at some other time. In the mean while

I am your affectionate Father,

J. S.

NATURAL HISTORY.

Natural History is that part of knowledge which gives us an account of animals, or of any of the works of nature, or, more properly speaking, of Providence. It is a very amusing, as well as useful, study, and teaches us the great power, as well as the great goodness of Him who made all these things. We see them daily around us without thinking as we ought to do of the great Creator of them; without considering what wonderful workmanship there is in them all, and how beautifully contrived they are, for the purposes for which they were made. We overlook these considerations sometimes for want of thought, and sometimes for want of knowledge. It may then, perhaps, not be wholly without its use, if we occasionally lay before our readers a little sketch of Natural History. And first of

THE HORSE.

To

The horse is a most noble and useful animal. judge properly of a horse we should see him in a state of nature, in those wild forests where, perfectly at liberty, untouched by man, he shews all his native courage and beauty; a very different animal from what we see him when he is tamed and humbled by the art of man. The horse is now to be seen in his wild state in the large deserts of Africa and Arabia, and in America. They live together in large herds. There is a method of catching them

by throwing ropes round their legs: they are then brought home, and shut up, and kept on little food; and thus, in a few days, they are tamed, and seem to lose all their natural fierceness. We all know what a useful animal a horse is. Though other countries are noted for fine horses, yet there is, perhaps, no country where, altogether, they are brought to greater perfection than in our own. Great pains are taken in the breeding of them, so that we have them of all sorts and descriptions. Some are noted for swiftness, and some for strength, and in some we seek for a mixture of both these perfections. What a great deal of convenience and accommodation we get from a horse! If we have a dear friend a hundred miles off, and he should be taken ill, we can hear about him the next morning; and for this we have to thank the horses of the mail-coach. And, as to business, scarcely any can be carried on without horses.

Pray, then, my good friend, be kind to your horses. I often see a poor blind horse drawing a cart: and, if he does not go straight, his driver will give him a blow on the head with the thick end of his stick. If you were old and blind yourself, you would think it very hard to be beaten because you could not see theroad before you. Then, sometimes, a poor old horse stumbles, and trips, from weariness and weakness,—and he is to be beaten for that. When you are old and weak yourself, you will not walk with a very firm foot, but you would think it a cruel thing to be punished for it. Don't beat your horse then, poor fellow, for what he cannot help. I have, in my time, seen many very civil stagecoachmen, who have been very merciful and kind to their horses. But I have seen some who appeared to take a pleasure in cutting and whipping their horses, just for the sake of showing how hard they they could hit them. If I know of such a coachman, make it a rule not to travel by bis coach, if I can