GOD'S WAYS ARE BEST.

HEAV'N from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescribed, their present state;
From brutes' what men, from men what spirits know,
Or who could suffer being here below?

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleased to the last, he crops the flow'ry food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.
O blindness to the future! kindly giv'n,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n :
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall;

Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,

And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Hope humbly, then, with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher, Death; and God adore.
What future bliss, He gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is but always to be blest;
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, and hears Him in the wind;
His soul proud Science never sought to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky way;

4

Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, a humbler heav'n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embraced,
Some happier island in the wat'ry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, nor Christians thirst for gold.
To be contents his natural desire,

He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire,"
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
Go, wiser thou!" and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy opinion against Providence ;
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such,
Say, here He gives too little, there too much :
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,"
Yet cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust;

If man alone engross not Heav'n's high care,—
Alone made perfect here, immortal there-
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Re-judge his justice, be the God of God.

In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies ;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies:
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,
Men would be angels, angels would be Gods.
Aspiring to be Gods, the angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel :

9

And who but wishes to revert the laws
Of order, sins against th' Eternal Cause."

From brutes, etc. God hides
from brutes what men know, etc.
2 Thy riot.-Thy feasting.

3

4

Expatiates.-Ranges at large. Milky way.-A band of light in the sky caused by clusters of innumerable

next nine lines are spoken in irony: the poet is rebuking those who think themselves wiser than Providence; in doing SO he seemingly falls in with their opinions, but is really mocking them. This is an ironical or satirical mode of speaking.

Gust.-Pleasure of tasting. "Revert.-Here means reverse. 10 Eternal Cause. Almighty God, the Cause of all that exists.

THE PHYSALIA, OR PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. AMONG the many strange creatures of brilliant colour and elegant contour which swarm in the warmer parts of the ocean, none take a stronger hold on the fancy of the beholder than the Physalia; and certainly none is more familiar than the little thing he daily marks floating in the sunlit waves, as the ship glides swiftly by, which the sailors. tell him is the Portuguese man-of-war. Perhaps a dead calm has settled over the sea, and he leans over the bulwarks of the ship, scrutinising this ocean-rover at leisure, as it hastily rises and falls on the long, sluggish heavings of the glassy surface. Then he sees that the comparison of the strange creature to a ship is a felicitous' one, for at a little distance it might well be mistaken for a child's mimic boat, shining in all the gaudy painting in which it left the toyshop.

Not unfrequently, one of these tiny vessels comes so close alongside, that, by means of the ship's bucket, with the assistance of a sharp fellow who has jumped into the "chains" with a boat-hook, it is captured and brought on deck for examination. A dozen voices are, however, lifted, warning you by no means to touch it, for well the experienced sailor knows its terrible powers of defence. It does not now appear so much like a ship as when it was at a distance.

It is an oblong bladder of tough membrane, varying considerably in shape, for no two agree in this respect; varying also in size, from less than a finger to the size of a man's hat. Once, on a voyage to Mobile,2 when rounding the Florida reef, I was nearly a whole day passing through a fleet of these little Portuguese men-of-war, which studded the smooth sea as far as the eye could reach, and must have extended for many miles. They were of all sizes within the limits I have mentioned.

That wonderful river, with a well-defined course through

the midst of the Atlantic-the Gulf Stream3-brings in its warm waters many of the denizens of tropical seas, and wafts them to the shores on which its waves impinge. Hence it is that so many of the proper pelagic creatures are from time to time observed on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall. The Portuguese man-of-war is among them, sometimes paying its visit in fleets, more commonly in single stranded hulks.5 Scarcely a season passes without one or more of these lovely strangers being found in the vicinity of Torquay." Usually in these stranded examples the tentacles and suckers are much mutilated by washing on the shore. The fishermen who pick them up always endeavour to make a harvest of their capture, not by selling, but by making an exhibition of them.

If fishes have the misfortune to come in contact with one of these creatures, each tentacle, by a movement as rapid as a flash of lightning, or sudden as an electric shock, seizes and benumbs them, winding round their bodies as a serpent winds itself around its victim. A Physalia of the size of a walnut will kill a fish much stronger than a herring. The flying-fish and the cuttle-fish are the habitual prey of the Physalia. It seems that mere contact with the tentacles is not necessarily injurious; for it has been observed that the Physalia is often accompanied by small fishes which. play around and among these dreaded organs with impunity. It is therefore probable that the injection of the poison is under the control of the Physalia's will.

SPEECH BY GEORGE CANNING AT PLYMOUTH.

[MR. CANNING was Premier during most of the reign of George IV. The commercial policy which this great statesman inaugurated led in time to the repeal of the corn laws and the establishment of free trade. The following speech was delivered in 1823, four years before his death.]

MR. MAYOR AND GENTLEMEN,—I accept with thankfulness, and with greater satisfaction than I can express, this flattering testimony of your good opinion and goodwill. I must add, that the value of the gift itself has been greatly enhanced by the manner in which your worthy and honourable Recorder has developed the motives which suggested it, and the sentiments which it is intended to convey.

Gentlemen, your Recorder has said very truly that whoever, in this free and enlightened state, aims at political eminence, and discharges political duties, must expect to have his conduct scrutinised, and every action of his public life sifted with no ordinary jealousy and with no sparing criticism; and such may have been my lot, as much as that of other public men. But, gentlemen, unmerited obloquy2 seldom fails of an adequate, though perhaps tardy, compensation. I must think myself, as my honourable friend has said, eminently fortunate if such compensation as he describes has fallen to me at an earlier period than to many others if I dare flatter myself (as his partiality has flattered me), that the sentiments that you are kind enough to entertain for me are in unison with those of the country; if, in addition to the justice done me by my friends, I may, as he has assured me, rely upon a candid construction,3 even from political opponents.4

But, gentlemen, the secret of such a result does not lie deep.

It consists only in an honest and undeviating pursuit of what one conscientiously believes to be one's public dutya pursuit which, steadily continued, will-however detached and separate parts of a man's conduct may be viewed under