THE MAN OF INTEGRITY. It will not take much time to delineate the character of the man of integrity, as by its nature it is a plain one, and easily understood. He is one, who makes it his constant rule to follow the road duty, according as the word of God, and the voice of his conscience, point it out to him. He is not guided merely by affections, which may sometimes give the colour of virtue to a loose and unstable character. The upright man is guided by a fixed principle of mind, which determines him to esteem nothing but what is honourable, and to abhor whatever is base or unworthy, in moral conduct. Hence we find him ever the same; at all times, the trusty friend, the affectionate relation, the conscientious man of business, the pious worshipper, the public-spirited citizen. He assumes no borrowed appearance. He seeks no mask to cover him; for he acts no stupid part; but he is indeed what he appears to be, full of truth, candour, and humanity. In all his pursuits, he knows no path, but the fair and direct one; and would much rather fail of success, than attain it by reproachful means. He never shows us a smiling countenance, while he meditates evil against us in his heart. He never praises us among our friends, and then joins in traducing us among our enemies. We shall never find one part of his character at variance with another. In his manners, he is simple and unaffected; in all his proceedings, open and consistent. SUNDAY THOUGHT. TIPP'D by the sun's emerging beams, Contrasted with yon cloud, it seems A lamp of living fire. So shines thy sun of mercy, Lord, Reflected from Thy Holy Word, When all beside is gloom.-Townsend. CRATER OF MOUNT VESUVIUS. The Journal de Physique contains an interesting narrative of some travellers, who had the hardihood to descend the crater of Vesuvius, and examine its burning focus. Though the relation of their adventure is not charged with many facts, it is upon the whole interesting. The party was composed of several persons, assisted by the usual Neapolitan guides, called Lazaroni. They availed themselves of their carriages to the base of the mountain, where they arrived about midnight, when they proceeded to ascend its sides, mounted on mules, pursuing the usual track, one by one. Amid the thick darkness, the numerous guides, bearing lighted torches, gave to the whole cortege an air that would have been sufficiently solemn and mysterious, but for the gaiety and mirth which the buoyant spirits of the company otherwise remarkably contrasted with it. At about midway, the ascent becomes so steep and difficult, that travellers are obliged to alight, and make the rest of the journey on foot. All this upper balf of the mountain being composed of lava, cinders, and ashes, this portion of the adventure is a work of real toil and fatigue. Accordingly, when they gained the edge of the volcano, at about half past two in the morning, they found themselves overwhelmed with perspiration, and perfectly exhausted; insuperable difficulties seemed now to present themselves tó all attempts to make any nearer approach to the awful mysteries of the mountain, than the edge of the immense crater; the inside abyss extending by computation somewhat more than 5700 feet in circumference, has a perpendicular depth of about 200 more, forming a crater or cup, in the centre of which lie strewed masses of recently glowing scoria and heated ashes, all diversely variegated, from among which the ignited vapours find a passage upward through numberless rents and little orifices. While the travellers were deliberating on the means of descending further, scme stones that came rolling down from the higher edge of the crater occa sioning a general agitation of the masses over which they passed, one of the party, Adjutant Dampiere, feeling at the same time the earth shake under him, was led to exchange his ground. He had scarce called to a companion, named Wicar to follow him, when the entire portion of this part of the crater sunk down and disappeared. Soon after, still greater masses underwent the same change, the whole of the small eminences thereabout crumbling down successively; so that, in the course of half an hour, what had been the summit of the volcano, was precipitated with an awful noise into the bottom of the crater. Dejected by difficulties that seemed an effectual barrier to their accomplishing the object of their journey, they had proceeded to satisfy their curiosity by making the circuit of the crater, when fortunately they discovered a long declivity, or rather a portion of the shelving sides of the crater, much less precipitous than the other parts though deep, it was seemingly smooth, and conducted immediately to the focus, or burning issue of the volcano. Without waiting to examine whether there were any other difficulties, such as rents and precipices, which interposed between their curiosity and the innermost mysteries of the mountain, the ambassador's secretary, Mr. Debeer, taking a Lazaroni with him, set out first to traverse the passage; they had reached half of the descent, gliding down in a torrent of ashes, which their feet displaced as they moved on, when they found themselves at the edge of a precipice, about twelve feet deep, down the face of which it was necessary to descend to reach a lower declivity. The. Lazaroni here stood aghast, and refused to proceed. A speedy recourse, however to the sign of the cross, and invocations to the Madonna and St. Anthony of Padua, giving him fresh courage, he threw himself, with the secretary, to the bottom of the precipice. Another cliff of less height interposed, but it was overcome with more ease and less reluctance. At length, amid torrents of rushing lava, ashes, and stones, that incessantly broke away from the declivity, they arrived at the bottom of the crater. Here, with outstretched arms and shouts of joy, that were answered by their more timid companions with satisfaction and enthusiasm, they cheered on the others to follow them. M. Houdonart, an engineer, was the next adventurer after M. Debeer. He encountered the same difficulties and dangers. Mr. Wickers, another of the party, hesitated when he came to the cliffs, but seeing that no assistance could be rendered him, he grew impatient and rushed down, amid similar floods of ashes, stones, and volcanic scoria, as his predecessor. Adjutant Dampiere, M. Bagnins, Physician to the Army, Messrs. Tassinct, and Andres, two French travellers, and M. Moulin, Inspector of Ports, next followed: these all arrived at the crater, after overcoming the same difficulties, and incurring the same dangers as the others. The bottom of the crater, of which no correct conclusions can be formed, when examined from above, is a vast field of rugged inequalities, made up of piles of porous lava, sometimes hard and firm, and sometimes extremely yielding and insecure; particularly just when the travellers reached the focus. The most interesting sight, however, of the whole, was the number of small orifices or vents very properly denominated spiracles, which, both at the bottom of the crater and on the interior face of the mountain, suffered the ignited vapours to escape. Their observation being finished, it was a business of some thought to get back again--the descent is far less laborious than the ascent. It is not easy to climb eminences where the supports for the feet are moving with every step; besides, ascending but by one at a time, it is necessary that persons should succeed each other at long intervals, for fear of burying under torrents of volcanic matter those that followed them. Every tread displaces a mass of ashes through a circuit of thirty feet of the aclivity. On arriving at the two precipices, it was necessary to adopt the expedient of mounting on the shoulders of a man stationed at the bottom, to give necessary aid, |