NOTES AND GLEANINGS. ANCIENT RECENSION OF THE FOUR GOSPELS IN SYRIAC.-The following is an account of the discovery of this wonderful volume:

In 1842 Archdeacon Tattam paid a visit to a Syrian monastery in the valley of the Natron Lakes, and obtained from the library certain quaint volumes, which, on his return to England, were placed in Mr. Cureton's hands. One of the volumes thus obtained consisted of eighty leaves of vellum of different hues and thickness, covered with Syriac writing of different dates and in different hands. The volume on examination proved to be a Syriac version of the four Gospels, incomplete, but of a very early date. The monk who had arranged these fragments seemed to "have had no idea of selecting the scattered parts of the same original volume which had fallen to pieces, but merely to have taken the first leaves that came to his hand which would serve to complete a copy of the Gospels, and then to have bound them together." Hence, the volume was a jumble of several manuscripts bound together without regard to date, and not always with regard to size. The first eight leaves were apparently of the date of the sixth or seventh century, transcribed in a large bold hand. Numeral letters in red ink on the margin marked the sections and canons of Amnonius and Eusebius. At the bottom of the page the canons were written in the same color. An inscription in a very ancient hand on the first page of the volume announced that the book" belonged to the monk Habibai, who presented it to the holy Convent of the Church of Deipara belonging to the Syrians in the desert of Scete." After a prayer for pardon and forgiveness of his deficiencies, the scribe finished his long solitary writing with this fine apostrophe: "Son of the living God, at the hour of thy judgment spare the sinner who wrote this!"

A note at the end of the book indicated the actual date of the binding. "In the year 1533 of the Greeks (A.D. 1221) the books belonging to the Convent of the Church of Deipara of the Syrians were repaired, in the days of the Presidency of the Count our lord John, and Basil, the head of the Convent, and our lord Joseph the steward. May God in his mercy grant to them and to all the brethren a good reward!" A prayer followed, which might be put up with advantage by readers in general: "Whoso readeth in this book, let him pray for the sinner who wrote this!" The leaves of this volume, which arrived in England in 1842, contained only incomplete chapters of the latter and a few earlier chapters of the four Gospels. In the binding of another volume a leaf was discovered containing a portion of St. Luke. In 1847 a further portion of that Gospel was obtained from M. Pacho, and further search among some fragments brought by that gentleman yielded part of a leaf of St. John. This increased the bulk of the MS. to eighty-two leaves and a half.

Among the new names added to the Literary Pension List in England, between June, 1857, and June, 1858, we notice the following:

Mrs. Harriet Wright Williamson, November 14, 1857, £30, in consideration of the literary merits of her son, the late Hugh Miller, and the reduced circumstances in which she is placed. Mrs. Charlotte Rowcroft, Feb. 15, 1858, £50, in consideration of the civil services of her husband, the late Charles Rowcroft, Her Majesty's Consul at Cincinnati, who died while in the discharge of his duty. Mrs. Mary A. Jerrold, February 15, £100, in consideration of the eminent acquirements of her husband, the late Douglas Jerrold, Esq. Dr. Robert Archibald Armstrong, February 15, £40, in consideration of his philological labors as Gaelic lexicographer. Stephen Henry Bradbury, February 15, £50, in

consideration of his contributions to literature.

Mrs.

Louisa Catherine Paris, Fanny Cresswell Paris, Jane Gregor Paris, Rosa Caroline Paris, and Sarah Eleanor Paris, February 15, £150, in cousideration of the scientific acquirements of their father, the late Dr. Paris, the benefits he conferred by his addition to the knowledge of geology, and their present scanty means. Rachel Catherine Andrew Montgomery, February 15, £50, in consideration of the contributions to theology and poetical literature by her husband, the late Rev. Robert Montgomery. Francis Davis, February 15, £50, in consideration of his contributions to Irish literature. Miss Jessie P. Hogg, February 15, £40, in consideration of the literary merits of her father, the late James Hogg, the Scottish poet, familiarly known as the "Ettrick Shepherd." Mrs. Elizabeth Dick, February 15, £50, in consideration of the merits of her husband, the late Dr. Dick, as a moral and theological writer, and of the straightened circumstances in which she is now placed.

BECHUANA NEWSPAPER.-The Cape Town Advertiser has the following:

By the northern post of Wednesday was received a very interesting publication from Kuruman, the well-known station of Rev. Messrs. Moffat and Ashton. It consists of the first three numbers of the first newspaper published in the Bechuana language. It is issued monthly, is got up and printed by Mr. Ashton, at the mission press on the station, in the first style of typographic art, and, if not very intelligible to the English reader, promises in its large type to be both legible enough and intelligible enough to its Bechuana subscribers. The motto under which it appears is Kico Kinonoco." and the title of the publication is Mokaeri oa Bechuana, le Muleri oa Mahuku," the meaning of which is, of course, obvious to the educated reader, and therefore needs no translation here.

substantial work, the History of Russia, in fifty volumes, for example. We hear whispers, too, that all this is gammon, pure and unadulterated, and that he comes to the capital merely to make a fortune by undertaking the direction or management of the French Theater; entirely relinquishing literature to the younger hands of his son, Alexander, Jr., the gentleman who has so greatly elevated (!) the character of French fiction in the "Dame aux Camelias," "La Vie a Vingt Ans," "Le Demi-Monde," and kindred moral romances and dramas, "founded upon fact." M. Dumas is sojourning here with a Russian nobleman, whom he accompanied from Paris.

A PETRIFIED FOREST.-The sandstone rocks Adersbach, in Bohemia, have been visited by persons from all parts of the globe, on account of their grotesque and fantastic forms. Ten years ago another defile of sandstone rocks was discovered near Weckelsdorf. To this is now to be added the discovery of a grand layer of petrified trees. It stretches to the extent of two and a half miles in length, and half a mile in breadth, and there is one point where twenty or thirty thousand stems of petrified wood may be seen at one glance. All the museums in the world could be supplied from them with splendid specimens. They appertain all to the family of Conifers Araucarias.

THE thirtieth annual fair of the Ameri

can Institute will be held at the Crystal Palace, in this city, commencing on Wednesday, the 15th of September, and ending on Friday, October 29th. This noble institution, so long the nursery of the monuments of American genius and labor, requires its annual fairs to give life to its members, as well as a new and lasting stimulus to inventors and exhibitors. It is understood that the coming exhibition will present increased facilities to the agriculturist, pomologist, and florist, as well as to the mechanic and the inventor.

BOOK PUFFING.-The book-puffing advertisers in Paris have tried a fall with an independent paper, and have got grievously bruised. It appears that Lebigre & Co. recently published Les Conspirateurs en Angleterre," by C. de Bussy, and committed the care of advertising the same to the house of Bigot & Co., which undertakes this species of work. The book was advertised in several papers, and these papers also inserted a reclaime, or puff, in another column, of which the following, printed in the Constitutionnel, is a very nice specimen:

a strange and mysterious work, the singular revelations in which are now producing the most lively sensation throughout Europe." This, of course, was perfectly untrue, and the Presse refused to insert a similar, and even a modified paragraph. Thereupon Lebigre & Co., deeming that they had a right, on payment, to compel the insertion of the puff in question, and declaring that the work was injured by the refusal, brought the Presse into court and claimed ten thousand francs damages! The award, however, was adverse to the puffers, who were also condemned in costs of suit.

HUMBOLDT.-The Spener'sche Zeitung contains the following communication from the pen of Alexander von Humboldt:

The friendship of many years' standing, with which I am honored by Sir Woodbine Parish, (the excellent author of the description of the provinces of Rio de la Plata) has just transmitted to me the sad news of the death of my dear American fellow-traveler. Aimé Bonpland, ac

cording to the newspapers of Buenos Ayres, died on the 4th of May, in the province of Corrientes. The inhabitants of that province, as well as the British community of Buenos Ayres, announce their intention to erect a monument to the gifted, industrious, and bold naturalist.

GRAPES IN THE WILDERNESS.-In Hosea ix. 10, the Lord says, "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness." He is telling of his gladness in finding these lost sheep, his delight in taking them up when they were wayward, sinful, wandering souls. It gave him great joy to save them. It was as refreshing to him as is a cluster of grapes to a traveler in the weary wilderness, whose lips are parched, and whose eyes have long rested on barrenness, and who hails with satisfaction and

delight the sight of a vine and its juicy grapes. Dr. Livingstone gives an instance of this feeling: "In latitude 18 deg. we were rewarded with a sight which we had not enjoyed for a year before, large patches of grape-bearing vines. There they stood before my eyes." The traveler thus gives utterance to his delight: "The sight was so entirely unexpected that I stood for some time gazing at the clusters of grapes with which they were loaded, with no more thought of plucking than if I had been be holding them in a dream." Be sure, young reader, that the Lord Jesus will welcome your return to him. No fear of his casting you out. No: your coming will be to him as pleasant as are grapes in the wilderness to a traveler; the very sight of your first arising to go will be as when the eye of the

traveler is gladdened by the green leaves and hanging branches of the vine. And surely you cannot do anything more really satisfying to the Lord than bringing others, as Philip brought Nathaniel to Jesus. You are bringing, as it were, grapes to the lips; you are giving joy to God, who waiteth to be gracious. He has infinite pleasure in souls that return to him and live.

COLOR OF WINE. We learn from the "Housewife's Reason Why," that the color of wine is owing to the following causes:

If the skins of the grape, or marc, are entirely excluded from the fermenting vat, a white wine is always obtained, the juice of almost all grapes, black and red, as well as green, being colorless. Champagne is made from a red grape, so deep in color as to approach to black; and sherry is made from a mixture of white and colored grapes. The color of red wine is derived from permitting the wine to ferment in contact with some of the marc, the coloring matter of the grape residing altogether in the skin, with the exception of the grape called tintilla, from which tent-wine is made, in which the juice is colored. This coloring principle is soluble in alcohol; therefore, when the alcohol is developed by the fermentative process, the must becomes colored in consequence of the action of the spirit upon the marc. The wine is also more deeply colored from a higher degree of pressure given to the husks of the grapes. The color of red wine varies from a light pink to a deep purple tint, approaching to black; the claret holds the intermediate rank

between these two extremes. Dr. Henderson

observes that "on exposing red wine in bottles to the action of the sun's rays, the coloring matter is separated in large flakes without altering the flavor of the wine. The color derived from the skins of the grapes alone is not generally very deep; the high-colored wines of France and Portugal are often rendered so by coloring ingredients, particularly by mixture with an intensely deep red wine, called vino tinto, and sometimes by elderberries and coloring drugs."

REFORM CONVENTION.-The convention recently held at Utica seems to have been more discordant in its views than any that has been held for a long time. All the leading delegates admitted that the world was in a very bad state. Mrs. Branch thought it was owing to marriage; Mr. S. S. Foster that it was owing to slavery; Mr. Parker Pillsbury that it was owing to the press and the pulpit; Mr. H. C. Wright that it was owing to the Bible; and Mr. A. J. Davis that it was owing to "that mysterious essence which locks the innermost to the outermost." Each one had his or her remedy. Mrs. Branch's remedy was divorce and Free Love; Mr. Foster's abolition; Mr. Pillsbury's the

overthrow of press and pulpit; Mr. Wright's infidelity; and Mr. Davis's a key to unlock the innermost from the outermost; or the soul from the body. The last would be a decided and efficient remedy for individual cases, without doubt. But no one seemed disposed to adopt it practically, and the convention adjourned without settling on a remedy for the evils of the world.

SLAVERY IN ETHIOPIA.-A letter from a Roman Catholic missionary in Abyssinia

says:

The number of slaves carried off from Ethiopia annually is seven thousand; three-fourths of them are young girls, aged from seven to twelve, and are of Christian parents. The principal ports from whence they are sent are Souakim, from which about two thousand depart; Massonah, two thousand five hundred; Adules, five hundred; and Toujovra and Zella, two thousand. The children are conveyed to Arabia, where they are sold for about one thousand francs each; and from Arabia they are despatched to all parts of the Mussulman empire, for the great men's harems.

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS.-A collection of autograph letters, and some important manuscripts, were recently sold in England. The Literary Gazette says:

The first offered for sale was a letter of John

Dryden to his cousin, Mrs. Stewart, 1698, printed in his Prose Works, £10. Another, not printed, containing a remonstrance to Dr. Busby respecting his conduct to Dryden's son, £7. Oliver Goldsmith's letter to Sir Joshua Reynolds, £8 58. Dr. Johnson's letter of condolence to Lady Southwell, £5 158. Mary Queen of Scots to the Cardinal of Loraine and the Duke of Guise, 1559, £11 158. A Conveyance from John Milton of the City of Westminster of a bond for £400 from the Commissioners of Excise to Cyriack Skinner of Lincoln's Inn, with the autogragh signature of the poet, and his seal attached, £19 198. A most interesting, and probably unique letter, from "Pretty Nelly Gwynne" to Mr. Laurence Hyde, the second son of Lord Chancellor Clarendon. Nelly was no scribe, and could with difficulty scrawl her initials; she, therefore, here employs the pen of one of her merry companions, but evidently insists upon her very words being written down, although she cannot make her write all she

wishes. It sold for £13. POPIANA: Notes and Collections respecting Pope and his Works, consisting of Remarks on Ruff head's Life; notes of Reid, and others, £7 2s. 6d. CHAUCER, Troilus various inquiries made by Warton, Malone, Isaac and Creseid, written in five Books by the most famous Prince of Poets, Geofrey Chaucer, done into Lattine, with ye Comments by Sir Fra. Kynaston, knt., fol. 1639. This MS. formerly belonged to Dean Aldrich; £27 108. Prompto

rium Parvulorum, on vellum, a MS. of the 14th century, £12. Speculum Vitae: the Mirrour of Life, a translation from the Latin of John of

BEARDS.-Titcomb gives the following advice in relation to beards:

I should be unjust to the age were I to omit

ture" which has been long neglected. You find, as you come into man's estate, that hair has a tendency to grow upon your face. It is the mark by which God meant that men and women should be distinguished from each other in the crowd. The hair was placed there in infinite wisdom, but your fathers have been cutting it off from off their chins in small crops from thirty to fifty years, thus impugning nature's policy, wasting precious time, drawing a great deal of good blood, creating a great deal of bad, and trying to erase from their faces the difference which was intended to be maintained between them and those of women. If you are a man, and have beard, wear it. You know it was made to wear. It is enough to make a man with a decent complement of information and a common degree of sensibility (and a handsome beard) deny his kind, to see these smoothfaced men around the streets, and actually showing themselves in female society! Let us have one generation of beards.

ARTS AND SCIENCES. WOMAN'S BEST FRIEND.-The sewing machine has proved itself a most valuable aid to the wife and mother having the care and education of sons and daughters, and is too important a subject to be lightly dismissed, without its real value to the sex being fully set forth. There has heretofore been considerable said on the subject in these pages, and it is quite possible that we might have felt satisfied with what has been said, had the GROVER & BAKER Sewing Machine Company been content with their previous achievements in manufacturing a very excellent machine. They have recently, however, introduced a new machine for family sewing, which excels anything previously brought to public notice. Its merits are too great to be slightly overlooked, and we think that no lady will censure us for setting forth the claims of the new Grover & Baker machine to the favorable consideration of the

sex.

The Grover & Baker machine makes a new and entirely distinct stitch from any other made by machine-a patented stitch-which is much preferred for family sewing, on account of its great beauty, strength, and elasticity. It is without a rival in these particulars, because fabrics that are sewed by it can be washed and ironed without injury to the seam. If a thread should break from any cause, the seam cannot rip, for each

Figure 1.

through the fabric, and that the lower thread is passed both through and around the loop of the upper. Figure 2 exhibits the threads more tightly drawn, and will enable the reader to judge of the strength of the seam, Figure 2.

when told that each stitch is twice tied. Figure 3 shows a small winding thread, lying flat and close on the under surface of the cloth. The whole duty of this under thread is to securely fasten the upper, and Figure 3.

give elasticity to the seam. In stretching it the strain is divided between all the stitches, and as each stitch gives or yields to the strain, there can be little danger of breaking the threads from washing or ironing. Figure 4 shows the seam as it appears when drawn up and finished. The machine itself finishes the seam, without any recourse to the hand-needle to fasten the ends; and if, as above represented, there be an atFigure 4.

tempt to pull the two pieces of fabric apart, it will be found impossible to do it, without breaking either the threads or the fabric. Another great merit of this machine is that it will sew either silk, linen, or cotton thread, direct from the spools, as purchased from the stores, without any re-winding. In other words the two spools may be put upon the machine, and sewed from them direct, and a lady may readily learn to make an entire garment without unthreading either needle. We do not see why she might not exhaust the threads from both spools without rethreading the needles.