a word is said in repeal of the Mos. ic denunciation. It was under both, that the Americans first visited China fifty-four years ago, and still visit it. They came, they still come, as Christians to pagans. They knew the connection between the gospel and happiness; between opium-smoking and misery. The darker colors of the picture are now before us. We will lay them all on the offense, as we have used the softer, more lenient shades to delineate the offender. They came the men who could take in the compass of immortal being, and weigh good and evil in the balance of eternity and gave the defenseless Chinese, not the Bible, not the Bible and the drug together, but only opium. To present temptation at all was a fearful daring; it would have been temerity to give the fascinating drug along with the faith, which enabled the giver, but might not enable the recipient, to smile at the seduction. But the bane was given without the antidote, for years together. In our day, as the tide of corruption swells, some better influence is beginning to be mingled with it. But what we have said before, as to the comparative forces still working on the Chinese, must not be forgotten. The directors of public sentiment in the United States must bear it in mind, and арply their engine in all its mildness, but in all its power, to lessen the disparity between them. It is not a hopeless thing to seek to infuse a higher sense of commercial responsibility into the American community at Canton; and to make them abhor the traffic, in which they now engage so freely. It is not beyond a reasonable belief that the Chinese have in themselves all the elements of a correct sentiment on this point, if it could be timely elicited and strengthened, instead of being corrupted and overborne. By the extension of such a sentiment to these classes, two great advantages will be gained. The intelligent and very influential body of American residents, will be redeemed from their present unhappy connection with the enemies of eastern regeneration, and become the allies of temperance and every desirable reform. It is true, there is no necessity that the opium-agent be a resident at Canton. He may carry the drug direct from India or Turkey, to the harbors of the northern coast. It is also to be admitted that public opinion, however powerful, to check and restrain error, is hardly to be relied on to exterminate a popular vice. A late traveler in the worst parts of Arabia tells us that, 'it is a strange, and not uninteresting feature in their social compact, that what we call public opinion should be as powerful among them, as among civilized people. The wild and lawless Bedowin, who may fight and rob and kill with impunity, cannot live under the contempt

of his tribe.' But corruptio optimi pessima; and we are prepared to see the strongest expressions of public sentiment braved by some, and the traffic in question carried on at least to some extent, in its face. But the instrument will then be on a level with its work. No false respectability, no factitious countenance will then be lent to it. Sympathy with the agent will no longer check the application of further correctives, on the part of foreigners or the Chinese. This change in the conduct of the trade in question, operating along with statements and memorials addressed directly to them, will convince the Chinese, that there is a class—a whole and great class - among us, worthy of access to their country, and of a welcome to their homes; a class safely admissible to all the political rights and private confidence and affection, they now withhold.

While these checks are applied to the baleful influences at work on this injured people, it is no less necessary to put in requisition, every positive means for the production of the opposite good. These means we find, in the political, commercial, and benevolent agency, before proposed. The two first forms have been adverted to already; in reference to the third, it is not necessary to say more than a few words. The acquisition of oriental languages-the Chinese especially is the first great step. That taken, numerous, correct, and idiomatic translations will follow; the means of oral and written instruction in the holy Scriptures, and in all the text-books of universal knowledge, will be possessed, and used. The great benevolent associations of the west will of course be the chief directors of these means; but if, at any time, a doubt arise, whether a certain object, in itself desirable a school or a hospital for instance -can be properly embraced within their support, they will have the candor to tell their patrons this. It is due to the democracy of piety, to leave it under no uncertainty, as to the support any object is to receive from their representatives, or as to the channels, into which their offerings are made to flow.

east.

Modern benevolence has become familiar with the ways of doing good. It does not need to be guided and kept in leading strings in the We will make only one suggestion more; it is this. The field of missions is so vast; the numbers required for its culture are so great; that it may be questioned, if it can be worked by an agency, no part of which is self-sustained. It is true, the workman is worthy of his hire, and a set of salaried instruments is indispensable. The question is, can such be - should it be the sole reliance of the churches of the west? We are constrained to say, that we fear the

progress of American benevolence in the east will be slow and faultering, until a sentiment, now dwelling in the regions of poetry, be brought down to the active world; until Christian men

Prepare for endless time, their plan of life;

And make the universe itself their home.

The narrow pursuit of local and selfish interests, must be exchanged for purer and higher attachments. The love of Jesus must overcome the love of money, and the love of home. American youth must choose their plan of life-the merchant, planter, physician, and artisan, their field of usefulness, with some reference to higher interests, than their own. They must come to the east, self-moved, self-directed, self-sustained. Or those who come in gainful professions, as the representatives of their country's enterprise, must bring with them the representatives of her benevolence, taken from the same homes and firesides, and circles of relatives and friends. The positive means of blessing Eastern Asia will then, WITH THE DIVINE BLESSING, be complete.

9. This closing paragragh on the benevolent agency, we must employ in guarding against being misunderstood. Our views of a combined agency, are not based on any doubt of the ability of Christianity to go alone. Our preference that the first move be made, in many parts of the east, by the political branch, is not the result of more dependence on human strength, than on Divine. Our meaning is where commerce or politics have raised barriers against Christianity, let the same agents, each for itself or for the other, take them away. When either of these powerful instruments can reasonably be expected to soften opposition, facilitate the ingress of the philanthropist, or prevent the effusion of blood; let then coöperation be used. Collected as Christians now are into social communities, and having resigned the management of foreign relations to civil governments, it is right to look to these appointed negotiators, to take the first place abroad and make the first moves. But if they decline to come forward, or fail to succeed, the cause is not lost. Christianity has energies beyond those of any human government; not to be resisted by any despot on his 'dragon-throne.' If the exclusive pretensions of colonial rulers, or the alarmed precautions of the Chinese authorities; or the bitter hatred of the Japanese monarchs; cannot be softened by public mediation; let the missionary go forward undaunted, though alone. The long lines of Asiatic coasts cannot be guarded so effectually, that good seed may not be sown ; and what if in some spots, its growth can be ensured only by being

watered by the sower's blood! Did Christianity triumph at first, without a persecution? Certainly not: and strong as is our hope, that a less costly victory awaits it in the east, under the instrumentality we have asked, it may not be so. For this, all should be prepared. The missionary especially should come prepared. Hardship hitherto unfelt, may await him, when the corps is sufficiently recruited to take the field. Disappointment in his own powers and attainments; disappointment in the characters and abilities of his associates, he is sure to feel. But these affect not the might or truth of Him, on whose part he appears. 'Without me, ye can do nothing,' explains all weakness. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth,' should dispel all fear.

It

In closing this long article, we are free to confess that, it contains little that may not have suggested itself often to other minds. has however seemed to us, that the value of union-of concert-of national coöperation-in Eastern Asia, has never been sufficiently pressed. To supply this deficiency, has been our principal aim. If the reader go with us to our conclusion, we shall see the fruits of his convictions in years to come. Meantime, we venture to commend the same statements to our countrymen around us; and to say to them - let us keep the influence yet to be exerted by America on the east, steadily in mind. From no other division of the earth, can the same expenditure bring an equal harvest of honor or reward, into the garners of the republic. As for ourselves, this great object, if worthily pursued, like il gran pensiero' which cheered Paoli in his exile, will dispel the ennui and ennoble the term of our remote and lonely residences. When the time comes for us to return to our native homes and our connection with the east is severed forever, the recollection that we have borne some part here in our country's and our Redeemer's cause, will rise to affect and gladden us. It will do more than afford a delightful retrospect; it will cheer and impel us to that 'patient continuance in well-doing,' which 'leads to honor, glory, and immortality.'

ART. III. Notices of natural history; 1, the peën fuh, or flying

rat; and 2, the luy shoo, or flying squirrel: taken from Chinese authors.

THE peen fuh, (under which name is included all kinds of bats,) has several names. It is in the Pun Tsaou, called fuh yìh, or 'embracing wings,' referring to the manner in which it spreads out and hangs by its wings. This name in the Urh Ya is written with other characters so as to mean belly wings,' a name, it is said, given to the animal on account of the manner in which it folds its wings close to the side. Other names are teën shoo 'heavenly rat,' seën shoo fairy rat,' and fe shoo flying rat, the designation by which it is commonly known in this region. It has also been called yay yen, or night swallow,' from a similarity in the flitting motion, when on the wing, between the bat and swallow.

The bat is found in mountains, vallies, hills, and even in the habitations of man; and in Kingchow, in the province of Keängnan, there are caverns in the hills in which are found bats of a thousand years old, and white as silver. The bat, says Le Shechin, is in form like a mouse; its body of an ashy, black color; and it has thin fleshy wings, which join the four legs and tail into one. In the summer it appears, but in the winter it becomes torpid, on which account, as it eats nothing during that season, and because it has the habit of swallowing its breath, it attains a great age. It has the character of a night-rover, during which time it appears; not on account of any inability to fly in the day, but it dares not go abroad at that time, because it fears the che bird (a kind of hawk). It subsists on musketoes and gnats. It flies with its head downwards because the brain is very heavy. It is recommended, in the Pun Tsaou, that those which are not white and fly with their heads upward be discarded, and that for medical uses the white species and those which have a crown on the head be selected. This kind if eaten will make a man live a thousand years; but Dr. Le Shechin overthrows his opinion, and to prove that it is erroneous, quotes accounts given in two histories. One Chin, he says, who lived in the Tang dynasty, obtained one of these white bats as large as a crow, which he ate, and the next day he died of a flux. And in the Sung dynasty Lew Leäng found one nearly as large as a