If we were

arrived at a great degree of excellence." If we to suppose that Joseph's vestments bore any approach to the fabrics discovered in Thebes, it would be curious to speculate on a state of society which could so soon demand and reward the exercise of such ingenuity, while the other inhabitants of the world were little advanced beyond the simplicity of wandering shepherd tribes. At all events, the use of flax, as an article of manufacture, in so early a stage in the history of the world, is a fact of importance.

The hardy nature of the flax-plant is a beneficent provision of Providence, which we must not omit to mention. "There is scarcely any plant," says the writer whom I at present chiefly follow," which is found to be so little affected by difference of soil and climate as the flax plant; and, accordingly, one species, with all its characteristics unaltered, flourishes in the cold as well as the temperate regions of Europe, in North and South America, in Africa, and in Asia." "This plant will grow on almost any land, but it impoverishes the soil, and therefore it is deemed prudent to sow it on rich rank ground, and never two years consecutively on the same spot."

The common flax is an annual plant, which shoots forth in slender upright stalks, about the thickness of a crow-quill. These stalks are hollow pipes, surrounded by a fibrous bark or rind, the filaments of which, divested of all extraneous matter, and carefully prepared, are the material of cambric, linen, and other similar manufactures. The leaves, placed alternately on the stem, are long, narrow, and of a grayish color. When the plant has attained the height of about two and a half or three feet, the stem then divides itself into slender footstalks, which are terminated by small blue indented flowers. These produce large globular seed-vessels, divided within into two cells, each containing a bright slippery elongated seed.*

*[The genus to which the flax-plant belongs, is called, by botanists, Linum; and the common and valuable flax-plant, itself, is called Linum usitatissimum. It is nearly related to the wood-sorrel, and to those beautiful flowering plants, the geraniums.-AM. ED.]

Although flax is easy of growth, its quality depends very much on fitness of soil and situation. Low grounds, and those which have received deposits left by the occasional overflowing of rivers, or where water is found not far from the surface, are deemed the most favorable situations for its culture. It is attributed to this last circumstance, that Zealand produces the finest flax raised in Holland. The alluvial soil of Egypt may, in like manner, account for the early and successful cultivation of the plant in that country. In the Crimea, too, and in the Russian territories near the Black Sea, on the rivers Dniester, Bog, Don, Dnieper, and in Kirban, where the soil is at once moist and rich, the flax is of a peculiarly excellent quality. [Owing to this circumstance, and to the tendency of flax to impoverish the soil, the greater part of this material used in England and the United States is brought from those countries.]

Preparatory to the cultivation of this plant, it is not necessary that the ground should be very deeply furrowed by the plough; but it should be reduced to a fine friable mould by the repeated use of the harrow. Two or three bushels of seed are required for each acre of ground, if scattered broadcast; but half the quantity will yield the same produce if sown in drills. When flax is raised to be manufactured into cambric and fine lawns, double the quantity of seed is sown on the same space of ground; the plants, growing nearer to each other, have a greater tendency to shoot up in long slender stalks, and, as the same number of fibres are usually found in each plant, these will, of course, be finer in proportion as the stalks are slender.

The seed is usually sown in March and April. The plant blooms in the end of June, or beginning or middle of July, and is considered ripe, and fit for pulling, towards the latter end of August. It has been found by experience, that the seeds of flax, like those of most other plants, may be pulled without injury, and even with advantage, before they are quite ripe, provided they are not detached until dry, from the parent plant; and it has also been found, that the period which precedes maturity, when the

stalks begin to turn yellow, but before the leaves fall, is the most advantageous time of removing them from the soil, for giving softness and strength to the fibre. The Dutch avail themselves of these facts, while they are either unknown or neglected, especially as relates to the seed, by their less intelligent and careful neighbors. After pulling the plants, they stack them. The seed, by this means, becomes ripe, while the fibres are collected at the most favorable period of their growth, and both the valuable products of the plants are secured in their perfection.

It would be inconsistent with our plan to detail the various laborious processes by which the flax is prepared for manufacture; and I shall only add, that not only is the fibre of this valuable plant converted into cloth, but from its seed an oil is extracted, called linseed oil, which is extensively used in the arts.

In this short account, the reader must have seen occasion, in various particulars, to admire the Creative intelligence and bounty, which has made a plant of such general utility so extensively available for cultivation. In the constitution of the flax-plant, as of many others, two intentions of the Creator are particularly conspicuous, the one is to bestow upon man a useful gift, and the other to call forth his inventive faculties, to stimulate his activity, and to reward his industry and skill.

TWELFTH WEEK-SUNDAY.

TRUE SCIENCE, THE HANDMAID OF RELIGION.

THERE are few mistakes less reasonable than that which leads believers to entertain a jealousy of the investigations of science, as if there were a risk that the bulwarks of our holy faith might be undermined by the progress of philosophical discovery. Science, properly so called, is noth

ing else than the knowledge of truths. Scripture, rightly interpreted, is emphatically the word of truth; and, though the subjects treated of by each may have no immediate relation to one another, still it is impossible that there should be any contradiction between them. Truth cannot be opposed to truth.

But it will be said that this reasoning is refuted by facts, since those who have entered most deeply into scientific investigations have been often tainted with infidelity. This, however, is an assertion to which we cannot subscribe. It is true, that much, which has been falsely termed philosophy, has been from time to time quoted in opposition to the authenticity of the Bible, and that many, who have been dignified with the title of scientific men, have lent to the same cause the credit of their names. But there was nothing approaching to infallibility in either; and, I need not say, that the invariable result of more patient research, and more mature consideration, has been to establish the Bible's Divine authority more firmly and satisfactorily than

ever.

The particular subjects upon which philosophy has been employed by infidel writers, to aid them in their attacks upon Scripture, are those upon which the sacred volume was never intended to afford us any specific information; such subjects, for example, as the structure of the earth and the planetary system. It has already been shown, that to look for a formal treatise on cosmogony or astronomy in a book intended to reveal the method of man's recovery to the favor of God, and to instruct him in his duties, would be altogether to mistake the nature and character of such a publication. Scripture, if it enter on these subjects at all, speaks not in the language of scientific truth, because it is not addressing philosophers, as such, but in the simple language of plain men, for whose use it was intended. And yet, in the first chapter of Genesis, and in various incidental notices scattered through its pages, we find enough said in this spirit, at once to bring Revelation to the test of genuine science, and to afford short-sighted, presumptuous, and shallow smatterers in science falsely so called, not the shadow of an

apology for subjecting it to their skepticism. This test has been applied, this criticism has been exercised, by persons of every variety of intellect, and temper, and disposition. And what has been the result? It is instructive to glance at the history of this controversy from the first dawn of philosophy, after the night of the dark ages.

A gloomy superstition, only relieved here and there by the genuine piety of such men as A Kempis, brooded over Europe; and when a spirit of inquiry was first evoked from the moral darkness of the world, the jealousy of religionists who, in the excess of their bigotry, had been at no pains to inquire into the foundations of their faith, and knew not how strong are the pillars of the Christian temple, induced them to wage, against those who manifested any disposition to question the truth of ancient opinions, a war of unrelenting persecution. Although we may deeply lament that the name of religion should ever have been prostituted to such a service, and although we may well sympathize with the sufferings of such martyrs as Galileo, we have reason to rejoice that the spirit of investigation was not thus to be quenched.

It proceeded in its luminous way, till it gained the position and the power which it deserved; and, in place of being looked on as the foe, became the handmaid and the friend of the faith of Jesus. During this process, however, if professed Christians were to blame for their folly in thus adhering to a system, and defending it with the weapons of a carnal policy, when they had not the moral courage to examine its authority, the disposition of many who assumed the air and the garb of philosophical inquirers, was as little to be admired. Pleased with their own fancied discoveries, or led away by an enthusiastic admiration of those of others, or perhaps, in many cases, glad of an excuse for casting off the restraints of religion, such individuals, during a long series of ages, were perpetually to be found thrusting forward the crudest speculations, which they dignified with the name of truths, and to which they demanded the unqualified assent of all who pretended to the character of scientific men. These notions often