and triumphed, or were vanquished. What dangers have been escaped, or disappointments borne; what sicknesses have come and gone, and been improved, or otherwise. A birth-day is not only an admirable season for review, by the help of judicious parents assisting the child's memory, but no time is better fitted for planning for the future year. The passing of a whole year is like turning a new leaf in the book of one's life and history. Now is the period for fixing a new object of pursuit for the next year; a new stage in study to be commenced, or new profession to be chosen. Now, it will be proper to settle what new or more useful and solid book is to be begun, as suited to a more advanced age; what new lesson in self-denial must be practised; stronger proofs of love and obedience to parents and friends to be given; and it may be, in some instances, labours requiring greater exertion of bodily strength to be attempted. Such looking after, as well as before, might make the day one of use as well as of enjoyment. And if true piety and the fear of God be inmates of the family, it will not be forgotten who prospereth the labour of the hand, or who giveth strength sufficient, nor will that Spirit be unasked who worketh in man to will and to do.-Anon. THE SISTER'S BIRTH-DAY, AND BROTHER'S GIFT. YOUR birth-day, my sweet sister, Here's the red grape from the vineyard, But these are both too passing Fruit and flowers soon decay; And the gift must be more lasting 'Tis a joyful day, thy birth-day, Yet thy sweet eyes will be saddened Alas! my orphan sister, You'll not recall the face, It is your mother's picture; Oh, be like her my own sister! Oh, weep that angel mother! And keep this gentle monitor, I'll believe that she rejoices O'er her darling child to-day: 'Tis all that I can say.-Miss Landon. DETACHED PIECES.. WATER teems with life. The multitudinous creatures of the sea, from not experiencing the same extremes of heat and cold with terrestrial beings, are as prolific under the pole as under the equator. For land animals, if their situation be too hot or too cold, cannot quickly pass to one of a more convenient temperature, because their course is interrupted by rivers, mountains, and seas. On the contrary, the inhabitants of the ocean can instantly plunge fathoms deeper, when they find the degree of heat or cold insupportable near the surface, and quickly migrate from one place to another. The quantity of beings upon the earth is proportioned to the degree of heat connected with that of moisture; but the watery tribes are universally disseminated: and hence, the land, when compared with the ocean, is a mere desert. Man himself is the greatly abounding animal upon the earth. WHEN fruits, and herbs, and flowers are decayed and perished, they are continually succeeded by new productions, and this governing power of the Deity is only his creating power constantly repeated. So it is with respect to the races of animated beings. What an amazing structure of parts, fitted to strain the various particles that are imbibed; which can admit and percolate molecules of such various figures and sizes! Out of the same common earth what variety of beings!-a variety of which no human capacity can venture the calculation; and each differing from the rest in taste, colour, smell, and every other property! How powerful must that art be which makes the flesh of the various species of animals differ in all sensible qualities, and yet be formed by the separation of parts of the same common food! In all this is the Creator everywhere present, and everywhere active: it is he who clothes the fields with green, and raises the trees of the forest; who brings up the lowing herds and bleating flocks; who guides the fish of the sea, wings the inhabitants of the air, and directs the meanest insect and reptile of the earth. He forms their bodies incomparable in their kind, and furnishes them with instincts still more admirable. Here is eternally living force, and omnipotent intelligence. Baxter. DISCRETION. Of all the qualities of the mind, none is more useful than discretion. It is this, indeed, which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Cunning is the mimic of discretion, and sometimes passes on weak men in the same manner as vivacity does for wit, and gravity for wisdom. Discretion points out the noblest ends to us, and pursues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them; it is the perfection of reason, and is only found in men of strong sense and good understandings; whereas cunning is only an accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. The discreet man carries his thoughts to the end of every action, and considers the most distant as well as the most immediate effects of it; his schemes are large and glorious, and his conduct suitable to one who knows his true interest, and how to pursue it by proper methods.-Addison. WHAT greater measure can we have, than that we should bring joy to our brother, who, with his dreary eyes, looks to heaven, and round about, and cannot find so much rest as to lay his eyelids close together; than that thy tongue should be tuned with heavenly accents, and make the very soul to listen for ease and light, and when he perceives there is such a thing in the world, and in the order of things, as comfort and joy, to begin to break out from the prison of his sorrows, at the door of sighs and tears, and by little and little melt into showers and refreshment? This is glory to thy voice, and employment fit for the brightest angel. But so have I seen the sun kiss the frozen earth, which was bound up with the images of death, and the colder breath of the north; and then the waters break from their enclosures, and melt with joy, and run in useful channels; and the flies do rise again from their little graves in walls, and dance a while in the air, to tell that their joy is within, and that the great mother of creatures will open the stock of her new refreshment, become useful to mankind, and sing praises to her Redeemer so is the heart of a sorrowful man under the discourses of a wise comforter; he breaks from the despairs of the grave, and the fetters and chains of sorrow: he blesses God, and he blesses thee; and he feels his life returning; for, to be miserable is death; but, nothing is life but to be comforted; and God is pleased with no music from below, so much as in the thanksgiving songs of relieved widows, of supported orphans, of rejoicing, and comforted, and thankful persons.-Jeremy Taylor. ADVANTAGES OF EXERCISE TO HEALTH. AH! what avail the largest gifts of heaven, Health is the vital principle of bliss, And exercise of health :-in proof of this, Behold the wretch who flings his life away, Soon swallowed in disease's sad abyss; While he whom toil has braced, or manly play, Has light as air each limb, each thought as clear as day. Oh! who can speak the vigorous joys of health, Unclogged the body, unobscured the mind; The morning rises gay; with pleasing stealth The temperate evening falls serene and kind. In health the wiser brutes true gladness find: See how the young lambs frisk along the meads As May comes on, and wakes the balmy wind; Rampant with joy, their joy all joy exceeds; Yet what but high-strung health this dancing pleasure breeds? I care not, Fortune, what you me deny; You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace, Through which Aurora shows her brightening face; The woods and lawns by living stream at eve: And I their toys to the rich children leave; Thomson. BREAD. THE miller grinds the corn delivered to him, and sorts the flour into three qualities, called firsts, seconds, and thirds. The first is employed for French bread, and for the finest and whitest sort of wheaten bread, consumed in large towns. Household bread is made from a mixture of firsts and seconds, with, occasionally, some proportion of thirds. Brown bread is made from a mixture of the better boulted flour, with the meal as it leaves the millstones; the portion of bran contained in this kind of bread gives the colour, and being of a resinous nature, imparts medicinal properties to the bread, which renders it wholesome to some, and the reverse to other constitutions. Salt is a necessary ingredient in bread, improving its |