THE EDITOR'S PORTFOLIO.

INSECT LIFE.-Professor Agassiz says that more than a life-time would be necessary to enumerate the various species of insects and describe their appearance. Melger, a German, collected and described 6000 species of flies which he found in a district ten miles in circumference. There have been collected in Europe 27,000 species of insects preying on wheat. In Berlin, two Professors are engaged in collecting, observing, and describing insects and their habits, and they have already published five large volumes upon insects that attack forest trees.

CURIOUS POSITION OF A WREN'S NEST.-Two sawyers were cutting a log of Stettin oak, 26 inches square, at Sunderland. About the centre of the log a large hole was discovered, 104 inches in length by 72 inches in breadth, filled with moss, feathers, hair, &c., and containing seven birds' eggs, which, from the diminutive size, are considered to be wren's eggs. The tree, from its immense size, is supposed to be of about 150 years' growth. The moss forming the wren's nest was as fresh as if it had only been pulled yesterday.

BE JUST IN TRIFLES.-Nouschirvan, king of Persia, being hunting one day, became desirous of eating some of the venison in the field. Some of his attendants went to a neighbouring village, and took away a quantity of salt to season it; but the king, suspecting how they acted, ordered that they should immediately go and pay for it. Then, turning to his attendants, he said: "This is a small matter in itself, but a great one as regards me; for a king ought ever to be just, because he is an example to his subjects, and if he swerve in trifles, they will become dissolute. If I cannot make all my people just in the small things, I can at least show them that it is possible to be so."

A SCEPTICAL young man, one day conversing with the celebrated Dr. Parr, observed that he would believe nothing that he did not understand. Dr. Parr replied, "Then, young man, your creed will be the shortest of any man's I know."

PARENTAGE OF HORNE TOOKE.-Horne Tooke was the son of a poulterer, which he alluded to when called upon by some proud striplings of Eton to describe himself. “I am,” said young Horne, "the son of an eminent Turkey merchant."

COMPASSION.-If a man be compassionate towards the affliction of others, it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm.-Bacon.

NOTHING WITHOUT ITS RESULT.-Each sin, it has been said, carries its knife; and it may be said with equal justice that each sin has its pencil, in which it is engaged in painting its own picture on the tablet of the human memory. The work is one which we may not see; for the artist is one who labours under cover, and leaves the result to be discovered by the future. It is not until the acid of the daguerreotypist is applied to the clouded plate that the picture which lies underneath is uncovered.

HEROD THE GREAT AND HIS TIMES.

CHAP. IV.-MARIAMNE.

It is impossible to approach this part of our narrative without being touched with a feeling of sadness, which makes us reluctant to proceed with its details. The name of Mariamne in Jewish history awakens a romantic interest, more deep, in those who know her story, than even attaches to the fate of Mary of Scotland. Alike celebrated for her unrivalled beauty, and a loveliness which won all hearts, descended from a royal and illustrious race, the name of the Jewish princess is enshrined in innocence; while that of the Scottish queen is, unhappily, not unconnected with associations which interfere with the pity called forth by her bitter fate. In the case of the former, also, the cruel stroke which cut short her days, while yet in the bloom of youth and beauty, came from the hand of a husband who loved her with a passion bordering on frenzy, and not from the sentence of a haughty and incensed sovereign. In one respect alone, perhaps, the fate of the queen of Herod may be regarded as less unhappy than that of Mary of Scotland-that by her early death she was spared those sufferings which embittered the prolonged life of the Scottish queen-in imprisonment and in constant dread and anxiety, and which made death at last to her, when it came, a welcome deliverance.

We have already, in preceding chapters, touched on the circumstances which led to the early betrothal of Mariamne to the son of Antipater. When Herod gained a prospect of succeeding to the throne of Judea, in exclusion of the legitimate heirs of the Asmonean family, he deemed it a circumstance of rare good fortune for himself, that the claims of that family terminated in a young princess, whom it might not be impossible to win as his own bride. She was the elder of the two children of Alexander and Alexandra, in whom both the lines of descent from John Hyrcanus, son of Simon the Maccabean, were united. The dazzling beauty and innocence of the young daughter of Alexander drew upon her the fond regard of the nation, over whom she seemed born to rule; and the old and young doubtless breathed vows that she might one day

become, in her own right, a star of peace to Judah. But the growing power of the Idumean usurper checked these patriotic hopes. If the Asmonean maiden is to ascend the throne of her fathers, it must be as the bride of the warrior, whose rigorous measures and cruelties have cut open his way to the sovereignty of Palestine. In despair of seeing her family rise to power by any other means, Alexandra, the mother of Mariamne, an ambitious and intriguing woman, no doubt eagerly listened to the proposals of Herod to ally himself to her daughter. Nor are we informed that the young princess herself was averse to the match. She would be naturally influenced in her judgment of Herod by the representations of her mother, who would be at pains to soften all the harsher circumstances of his career as a young chief, and to commend the lofty courage and magnanimity for which he had already become celebrated. These, or such considerations as these, surmounted the reluctance of Mariamne to ally herself to the enemy of her house; and the sincere and ardent admiration of Herod, joined to his noble appearance and bearing, probably won the heart of the beautiful girl to a sincere affection for her lover. Accordingly, at the age of seventeen or little more. she consented to become the bride of Herod, who was now (B.C. 37) in his thirty-fourth year, and had already been married to Doris, whom he had repudiated with a view to this new alliance. The nuptials were celebrated with great splendour at Samaria, immediately on Herod's return from Rome, after having attained the gift of the Jewish monarchy from Mark Antony and Augustus.

The subsequent events of Herod's career, up to the time of the tragic sequel of this ill-omened union, have already been placed before the reader. We have seen how cruelly he wreaked his vengeance on the Sanhedrim, as soon as he gained possession of Jerusalem; how ruthlessly he caused Aristobulus, Mariamne's brother, to be removed out of his way by his agents in the bath at Jericho; and how, after involving himself thereby in new perils, he boldly ventured to Egypt, and obtained the renewed support of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. After the defeat of the former by Octavius Cæsar, it will be remembered with what magnanimity Herod presented himself before the victor, avowing his friendship for Antony, and offering the same faithful loyalty to Cæsar, and thus gained a firmer position