Name of sweetness, passing mea sure, Saving us from sin and hell. 'Tis the name for adoration, Name for songs of victory; Name for holy meditation In this vale of misery; Name for joyful veneration By the citizens on high. "Tis the Name that who so preacheth Speaks like music to the ear; Who in prayer this Name beseecheth, Sweetest comfort findeth near; Who its perfect wisdom reacheth, Heavenly joy possesseth here. THINGS TO THINK ABOUT. N idler is a watch that wants both hands, As useless when it goes as when it stands. WORK for the world is done best when work for God is done first. AN irritable man is like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way, and tormenting itself with its own prickles. IF we stop the first lie, we stop all the rest. If we do not use the first profane word, we shall never use the second. If we are not disobedient the first time, we shall never be disobedient. It is doing the first sin that does all the mischief. THE FORESTS OF BRAZIL. B RAZIL is the name of a vast empire in South America, occupying a space nearly equal to one-half of that entire continent. Its coast-line is upwards of three thousand seven hundred miles in extent. It has no mountains of very great elevation, but there is one peak, called Itambe, which is six, some say eight, thousand feet high; and there are some ranges of mountains, varying in altitude from five to six thousand feet. An extensive table-land, whose average height is from two thousand to two thousand five hundred feet, comprises half the empire. Along the Amazon-which is the largest river in the world, and into which twenty other large, navigable rivers flow— there are vast plains, or silvas, said to be equal to six times the size of all France. Another great Brazilian plain is six hundred miles long, by four hundred broad. The soil of Brazil is highly fertile, and is well adapted for wheat, rye, oats, and barley, of myrtle-trees which scent the the Old World. air with their perfume. These, however, are not of much use for commercial purposes. More valuable are the Brazil-wood tree, the rosewood tree, the fustic (used by dyers to produce a yellow colour,) mahogany, and a variety of others well adapted for the purposes of ship-building. The beauty, variety, and abundance of the flowers of Brazil, are no less remarkable But it is in the boundless forests of Brazil that nature displays vegetation in its most imposing aspects. No language, travellers tells us, can describe their glory; the endless variety of form, the contrast of colour and size, the largest trees bearing brilliant blossoms of every hue, and clothed with a drapery of climbing plants. Thousands of trees, not less than from eight to twelve feet thick, some-than any other of its vegetatimes placed so close together that it is impossible to clear a passage between them, through the dense undergrowth of shrubs and creepers. Among these giants of the forest stand graceful palms, delicate acacias and bamboos, and grasses forty feet high. Nor is it in the plains alone that this gigantic vegetation is met with; the sides of the mountains are also clothed with trees of enormous size, including beautiful specimens of the palm and the fern-tree. Cocoa-nut palms attain a great size on the sea-shores; and the curious monkey-pot" tree, the kernels of which are known by the name of Brazil-nuts, is met with in many localities. A peculiar feature of Brazilian vegetation is the host of ble productions. "The whole country," writes one traveller, "through which we passed for nearly two days, was one vast flower-garden. Like a child at a feast, I knew not which object to grasp first: everything was not only new to me, but each flower or shrub seemed more beautiful or more curious than the last I had seen." As might be expected, the dense woods of Brazil swarm with rapacious animals. Tigercats, hyenas, the saratus, (a ferocious creature about the size of a fox,) and jaguars abound. Sloths and porcupines are met with, and wild hogs are common. There is also an animal called the water-hog, resembling a hog in form, but of the size of a heifer; it lives partly on the land and partly in morasses and water. Monkeys are likewise numerous, and the vampyre, a large species of bat, also abounds in some districts. Among the feathered tribes of this wonderful country, though of course not confined to its forests, are the smallest, the humming-bird, and some of the largest, the emu and vulture. Waterfowl, especially geese and ducks, are seen in great abundance in certain seasons on the southern lakes and lagoons. The reptiles consist of the boa-constrictor, the coral snake, the sorrocuco, and the jararaca. Some of these are highly venomous, and are much dreaded by the natives. The jararaca, when fully grown, is usually about six feet long, and is nearly allied to the rattlesnake. Its bite is attended with much suffering, and with the most serious consequences, even where death does not ensue. In the marshy countries of the south, the boa or python is said to attain a length of forty-eight feet; but according to Humboldt, a naturalist who spent a long time in Brazil, the largest skins which have been as yet sent to Europe do not exceed twenty-three feet. The insects of Brazil are, many of them, remarkable for their colours and their size, especially the butterflies. Other descriptions are so numerous in the woods, that their noise is heard in a ship at anchor some distance from the shore. The white ants are so common and destructive, that Humboldt says there is not a manuscript in South America a hundred years old. The scorpions attain a length of six inches. Most of the bees of the country, of which there are no less than thirty species, are stingless. After all, strange and full of interest as the scenery of many parts of the Brazilian Empire must be to a visiter, we should not be willing to exchange it for that of our own land. If nature here puts on a more sober dress, she brings no dangers of wild beasts that lurk in the jungle, and no venomous snakes to make our rural walks dangerous. We are content with our country. If we have no boundless forests of gorgeous trees, we have hills and vales, the woodland and the plain, in an endless variety that never tires. "Here waving groves a chequer'd scene display, And part admit, and part exclude the day. 66 Twenty-five years ago, my teacher made me study surveying," said a man who had lost his property, "and now I am glad of it. It is just the thing for me. I can get a good situation and a high salary." To our young friends who want to know what good it will do them to learn "the rule of three," or grammar, or geography; or to learn the catechism or portions of the Bible, we would say,-you will some time or other, perhaps, need |