little sayings and doings together in a most irregular way, and without the slightest adherence to form or order; but the fact is, I write merely from memory, and just as the thoughts occur. As to the simple facts themselves, you may rely on them; and as to the rest, if I have given you a tolerable idea of the man I have been endeavouring to sketch, it is of little consequence whether I begin with his head or his heels.

"Should it be considered that I have not entered into this man's character so much as might have been expected, considering the frequent opportunities I have of seeing him; let it be remembered that I do not understand one syllable of the Persian language, and that the Mirza's knowledge of ours extends not beyond a few familiar phrases which he learnt during his passage to England. It is true that I sometimes request Sir Gore Ouseley or Mr. Morier to tell me what the Mirza is saying, but good breeding, and indeed common decorum, brings these questions and interruptions within such narrow limits, that it is but rarely I venture to ask for an explanation of that which I am so anxious to learn.

"A circumstance has just come into my recollection, which certainly ought not to be omitted. On the third or fourth day of the Ambassador's arrival, the Turkish Ambassador paid him a visit. 'What are you about?' cries the Turk. I am writing English!' Writing English! why you have scarcely been here three days, whilst I have been in England seven years, and know not a syllable of the language, or how to form even a single letter.'

A LOVE for those pursuits in which

you have so long been eminent was my inducement to take up Polydore Vergil; and the following is, with a few additions, an abstract of his "Brief Commentary on the Lord's Prayer."

After blaming, in his Letter of Dedication to the Bishop of Rochester, the substitution of incredible legends of Saints for this Prayer, he mentions "that his present subject was made choice of, though there had been similar Commentaries by Cyprian, Augustin, and others, from a hope that, since we most readily assemble

thoughts that are our own, on future occasions of using the prayer, those most sacred truths which it contains might imbue the writer's mind.London, Nov. 5, 1524. G. Mathew."

as

The place where prayers should be usually offered," in secret," "in our closet," seems fixed in order to apprize us of the likeliest way, as well as absolute necessity, of collecting the full vigour of our souls before we address the great Discerner of the heart. Let us be mindful how many there are in every land, of every denomination, whom, in the very first words of this prayer, we own brethren; for all are God's children: all have a federal right to call him Father, who have received his Christ; to them hath he given " power to become the Sons of God." May we never forget, amid the disquietudes of this stage of wrong, that Heaven in which our treasures and our hearts should be! We were early received into his visible Church in the Name' of God. How do we dishonour it, when we break our baptismal vow! Surely, against using it heedlessly or wantonly, least of all to warrant a lie, no additional check should be wanting. That first object of seeking "the kingdom of God," begins to come in us when, through sanctification of the Holy Ghost, He lives and reigns in our souls. Be the watchword in our struggle with sin, “Inherit the kingdom prepared from the beginning of the world."

The most entirely our own, the most arduous of all sacrifices is that of the will, a principle variable, conflicting, headstrong; yet the petition, "Thy Will be done!" renounces it, unless conformed to God's will. Blessed exchange (let us exclaim), of a blind disordered leader, for an allwise guide! of bitter constraint, for cheering resignation! of earth, for heaven!

66

It is intimated that our prayer should ascend daily, by no more than our daily bread" being asked for. It is of three kinds: 1st, The word of God, that bread which came down from Heaven, and makes the partakers immortal. 2dly, Sacramental bread, the sign of union with Christ. 3dly, The food and sustenance of the body, for which we depend on our heavenly Father, and having earned which we should be content.

Ere

Ere we trust our lips with the next request, let us pause to try our hearts, for dreadful is the condemnation in which it involves the unforgiving. Let us weigh it, that we may bless the royal law that knits mankind in mutual charity; that giveth light to the simple, like the Sun of the moral System, bringing forth, fostering, and perfecting all that is good.

We next pray that God, who has placed us in this state of probation, would not suffer us to be led into temptation which we do not overcome. Fore-armed then, as well as forewarn ed, should we be against the thousand varying snares that, from every sense and every passion,continually beset our path. Greater than he that is against us, and abundantly able to “deliver from" power of our adversary the "Evil" one, is "He that is with us." To Him, therefore, in conclusion, we justly ascribe, as "the honour due unto his name," "the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever und ever;" repeating emphatically, as it were, and reinforcing the heartiness of our wishes and the sincerity of our faith, through out every petition, by the final Amen.

the

Mr. URBAN,

.

Bury St. Edmund's,
Jan. 14.
N answer to C. L. (Vol. LXXXIX.

IN answer to C. L. (Vol. LXXXIX. mode of producing germination in exotic seeds," and feeling a strong desire to know the result of chemical experiments, as connected with Botany, beg to refer your numerous readers to the following quotation from "Principles of Botany and of Vegetable Physiology," by Professor Willdenow, "Edin. 1811."

"It has long been known that every plant affects its own particular soil, and that on this account seeds do not germinate in all kinds of soil; at least they soon decay in a disadvantageous one. Various trials have been made to make seeds germinate in various matters, different from

the usual earths. Sukkow made plants grow in pounded fluar of lime and barytes. Bonnet made plants grow in saw dust, slips of paper, cotton, and even an old book. That cress (lepidium sativum) germinates upon a piece of woollen cloth, is a well-known fact. M. Humboldt's experiments to make seeds germinate in metallic oxyds, especially the red oxyd of lead, red massicot, &c, are more instruct

In

ive. In powder of coal and sulphur, seeds germinated likewise very well. He found that oxygen proved an extreme stimulus to plants, and that without it they never can be brought to germinate. On this account germination went on quickly in meoil, on the contrary, carbon, hydrogen, tallic oxyds, especially in minium. in the filings of lead, iron and copper, as well as in powdered molybdene and in alkalis, no one seed germinated. It soon occurred to him, that with oxygen as a stimulant, he might forcibly make seeds germinate faster; and he actually found, that at the temperature of 20° Reaum. all seeds vegetated most rapidly when steeped in oxymuriatic acid. One instance alone will suffice. The seeds of Lepidium sativum germinated after six or seven hours, when put into oxymuriatic acid; whereas, when lying in common water, they required from 36 to 38 hours. In a letter, dated Feb. 1801, he writes to me, that in Vienna they derived much benefit from the discovery of this fact, and that seeds, 20 or 30 years old, brought from the Bahama Islands, Madagascar, &c. which constantly refused to germinate, very readily in this way vegetated and produced plants which grew up very successthe oxymuriatic acid, Mr. Humboldt profully. As every gardener cannot obtain poses a very easy method to procure it without difficulty. He took a cubic inch of water, a tea-spoonful of common muriatic acid, two tea-spoonfuls of oxyd' of manganese; mixed it, and placed the seeds in them. The whole was how allowed to digest with a heat of 18-30 In this the seeds germinated excellently; but it is necessary to take the seeds out as soon as the corkle appears. That the seeds are not injured by the acid, is proved by the many plants which have been treated in this way, under the inspection of Mr. Jacquin, and in which vegetation went on extremely well.

"It is the oxygen of the atmosphere which stimulates the seeds to germination; and this explains at once the experiment of Mr. Achard, why plants vegetate faster in very compressed air, than in air in its

common state.

"Besides oxygen, ammonia favours the germination of seeds: hence, they germidung, which, therefore, serves as manure. nate almost immediately, when placed in Cow-dung, we know, consists of muriatic

acid and ammonia. In fluids which contain no oxygen, seeds will not germinate. Thus, they never germinate in oil, which consists of hydrogen and carbon."

The preceding observations may induce some of your correspondents to exercise their patience and ability towards effecting the germination of foreign seeds; in which case, should

Success

timent is the observation of the poet Milton, in the passage subjoined:

"Evil into the mind of God or man "May come and go, so unapprov'd, and [leave "No spot or blame behind."

Paradise Lost, Book V. Lines 117, 118, 119.

Admitting the maxim, so far as relates to man, (for as far as it relates to the sovereign mind, it is not strictly correct, and appears somewhat derogatory from the idea of the divine perfection); admitting it, then, with this limitation, some allowance may be made for the assertion. Yet is there probably no part in the whole system of practical and moral duty of higher importance than the proper regulation of the thoughts. In this, perhaps we may truly say, consists a main branch of self-government. Thoughts may indeed be generally considered as the master-springs of human action. No one who has paid due attention to the operation of the mental faculties, can fail to have observed the tendency of the human mind to expatiate on the wings of imagination, in a manner independent on external circumstances. Many a thought, which, at its first rise, wears the appearance of a slight suggestion, depends for its confirmation on the reception it meets with at the moment of its origin. The question may be fairly said to turn on the single point of assent or dissent, of indul gence or dismissal, whether it shall assume the more decided character of a principle of conduct, and thereby produce that course of action, towards which it is calculated to excite our inclination.

Here it is to be lamented, that the influential tendency of every such mental suggestion, if it be of an evil nature, is often not a little strengthened by its assailing us in some point already weakened by our predominant disposition, confirmed as that often is by the force of habitual indulgence. Thus, the voluptuary is led (without guarding what may be justly consi

dered as the first avenue to action) to entertain the contemplation of some licentious aud forbidden pleasure; the ambitious man to engage in some scheme for the attainment of worldly greatness; the avaricious one in some plan of exorbitant gain; the envious in some unlawful endeavour to supplant his imagined rival; the malicious and revengeful, in some pur. pose of hostility to the subject of his displeasure.

Shakspeare, that exquisite master of the science of human nature, in the able delineation he has afforded us of the workings of guilty ambition, has greatly heightened the effect of his noblest drama, by exhibiting in the character of Banquo the feelings of a well-principled mind: while Macbeth, the guilty hero of his piece, according to the confession put into his mouth by the poet, yields

"to that suggestion, "Whose horrid image should unfix his hair, "And make his seated heart knock at his "Against the use of nature." [ribs

While Lady Macbeth, too, is represented as invoking "all the murderous Ministers that wait on Nature's

mischief, to unsex her, and fill her from the crown to the toe, top full of direst cruelty, &c. to enable her to execute ber lawless scheme of violence, how forcible is the impression made on the mind of the reader or spectator, in favour of the amiable character above referred to, who is exhibited to us, as resolved" to lose" no honour in seeking to augment it, but still to "keep his" bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear! And how highly is the portrait finished, by our Author's exhibition of him, when about to retire to rest, as offering up the pious ejaculation,

"Merciful Powers! "Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, which "Gives way to in repose." [Nature

Thus, we find him not trusting in his own strength, but seeking help from above, to assist him in the government of his mind.

On the same principle that, as Christians, we are taught to deprecate evil suggestions, we should make it the object of our supplication to the great Father of Spirits, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, that he may inspire us with the contrary dispositions, and make us ready to every good work.