THE POETRY OF CREATION. BY A STUDENT OF NATURE. As the stars pale before the sun, so does the poetry of man lose its brilliancy when compared with the wonderful poem of the CREATOR. GOD is the SUPREME POET; and he deals not with words-mere shadows of things that are-but with the actual embodiments of poetry themselves; for there is in every object which He has made something besides an outward mechanical form; there is a spiritual meaning, a living lesson, to be drawn from everything. This world is not merely the rugged spot on which we are to struggle for a foot-hold on life-to toil for daily bread; but a bright member of the starry brotherhood, that range the fields of space, raising from every corner of the universe the harmonious anthem of praise; a region of still waters, and cooling shades, and bright birds, and blessed things, for the comfort of God's weary children. This world is a poem written in letters of light on the azure walls of the firmament. Man is not merely a creature displaying the endowment of two legs, and the only being qualified to study grammar; not an animal browsing in the fair fields of creation, and endeavouring, with all possible grace, to gild and swallow the pill of existence; but the masterpiece in the mechanism of the universe, in whom are wedded the visible and the invisible, the material and the spiritual; before whom the waves of the ocean crouch, and on whom the winds, and lightnings, and the fire all wait to do his bidding; the great gardener in this garden of the LORD; the keeper of His great seal, for he alone is stamped with the image of GoD. Man is a glorious poem; each life a canto, each day a line. The melody plays feebly at first upon the trembling chords of his little heart, but with time gains power and beauty as it sweeps onward, until at last the final notes die away, far, far above the world, amid the melodies of heaven. Nature is not merely a senseless, arable clod, through which runs the golden vein, and o'er which waves the golden harvest; not a monster, to be bowed down by the iron fetters of railroads and telegraphs; but it is a grand old temple, whose star-lit dome and woodland aisles, and bright and happy choir, invite the soul to worship and to gratitude. Nature is a sweet poem: each downy-cheek'd floweret, each uncouth stone, and frowning mountain, and silvery river, are the bright syllables. And though the fall of man has thrown them into confusion, they shall be arranged once more in harmony; and the burden of that song shall be beauty and praise to HIM from whom all beauty radiates. How often, when the quiet night woos us forth to commune with nature in her chastened robes, is our spirit thronged almost to oppression by thoughts new and inexpressible! When the bright moon, just risen above the hill-top, or the peaceful waters, tinges the cloudy curtains that hang about the couch of the departed day, draws out the long mysterious shadows, and locks in her white arms the slumbering earth; then, as we look above, can we say with him, who knew so well to express his lofty thoughts"Ye stars which are the poetry of heaven! A beauty and a mystery, ye create In us such love and reverence from afar, That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star!" Why should we then give way to the Physical good is not the only good of earth. absurdly-named practical spirit of these days? The mind, the soul, must be fed as wellay, infinitely rather than this feeble body. blessed; and is not the bliss that comes from purifying the heart and enlightening the cation of our sensual appetites? Let us then intellect more to be desired than the gratifilearn to analyze whatever we meet in the pilgrimage of life, and read the lesson of truth and beauty that GOD has stamped upon it. Then will the desert of the world gush out in fountains to refresh our flagging spirits and to brace our sinking frames. We are in this world to make ourselves Turkey and Persian carpets were first introduced into Spain by the Moors, and some ages afterwards into Italy by the Venetians, when they were the masters of the commerce of the East. The name "Carpet" indicates its Eastern origin, from the Dutch "Karpet," the Italian "Carpetta," and the French "Cairin," a Turkey carpet, such an one as is brought from Caire (Cairo), in Egypt. The ancient carpet manuwith the carpets of Turkey and Persia, and the origin of these is lost in the dim depths of far antiquity. facture in different countries was almost identical The carpet is now the most popular of AngloSaxon luxuries, and it seems hardly possible to believe that a hundred years ago, or a little more, our middle and labouring classes managed to get along without it, and the wealthy seldom indulged in more than small squares and oblongs, spread in the centres of the best rooms. Carpets in the middle ages were made of the same fabrics as those used for hangings, and for covering They were not intended for walking on, but for beds, couches, tables, and moveable cupboards. sitting, kneeling, reclining, or wholly for ornament. In these respects their use was identical with that of the carpets of the East.-Familiar Things. EXTRAORDINARY EASTERN CARPET. At the time of the defeat of the Persians at Cadesia, and at the pillage of the white palace of Khosroes, in it was found, by the naked lizardeaters of the desert, an extraordinary carpet of silk and gold, sixty cubits in length, and as many in breadth; a paradise or garden depicted on the ground, imitated by the figures of gold embroidery, and the colours by precious stones, the ruby, the emerald, the sapphire, the beryl, topaz, and pearl, being arranged with such consummate skill as to represent, in beautiful mosaic, trees, fruits, and flowers, rivulets and fountains; roses and shrubs of every description seemed to combine their fragrance and their foliage to charm the senses of the beholders. This piece of exquisite luxury and illusion, to which the Persians gave the name of Baharistan, or the mansion of perpetual spring, was an invention employed by their monarchs as an artificial substitute for that loveliest of seasons. During the gloom of winter they were accustomed to regale the nobles of their court on this magnificent embroidery, where art had supplied the absence of nature, and wherein the guests might trace a brilliant imitation of her faded beauties in the variegated colours of the jewelled and pictured floor. electric telegraph: yet all these things have been brought into successful operation. One or two of the principal railway companies have lately entered into an arrangement with Mr. Shepard, who has patented an invention for the decomposition of water, and negociations are pending with some steam-boat and gas companies for the application of this patent to propel steam-boats, locomotives, and other engines, by which the cost of working machinery and generating gas is likely to be greatly reduced. PRINTING SEA-WEEDS. Dr. Branson, of Sheffield, has communicated to the Athenæum the following new method of producing plates for printing ferns, sea-weeds, &c.:-"A piece of gutta percha, free from blemish, and the size of the plate required, is placed in boiling water;-when thoroughly softened it is to be taken out and laid flat upon a smooth metal plate, and immediately dusted over with the finest bronze powder used for printing gold letters. The object of this is threefold;—to dry the surface, to render the surface more smooth, and to prevent adhesion. The plant is then to be neatly laid out upon the bronze surface, and covered with a polished metal plate, either of copper or of German silver. The whole is then to be subjected to an amount of pressure sufficient to imbed the upper plate in the gutta percha. When the gutta percha is cold, the metal plate may be removed, and the fern gently withdrawn from its bed. From the beautiful impression of the fern left in the gutta percha, a cast in brass may be readily taken. As soon as the surface of the brass cast has been burnished, of course carefully avoiding the impression, it is ready for the copperplate printer. If the printer skilfully mixes the ink to the tint of the fern, a print is obtained scarcely to be distinguished The Arabian general persuaded his soldiers to relinquish their claim to it, in the reasonable hope that the eyes of the Caliph would be delighted with this splendid workmanship of united nature and industry. Regardless, however, of the merit of art and the pomp of royalty, the rigid Omar divided the prize among his brethren of Medina; the picture, like the library collected by the Ptolemies, was destroyed; but such was the intrinsic value of the materials, that the share of Ali alone was computed at twenty thousand drachms of gold (£9,250).—from the plant itself. The novelty of the proGibbon, B. 51; Crichton's Hist. Arabia. COAL. "When coal was first introduced into England, the prejudice against it was so strong, that the Commons petitioned the Crown to prohibit the "noxious" fuel. A royal proclamation having failed to abate the growing nuisance, a commission was issued to ascertain who burned sea-coal within the city and its neighbourhood, and to punish them by fine for the first offence, and by demolition of their furnaces if they persisted in transgression. A law was passed making it a capital offence to burn sea-coal within the City of London, and only permitting it to be used in forges in the neighbourhood. Among the records in the Tower, Mr. Astle found a document importing that in the time of Edward I., a man had been tried, convicted, and executed for the crime of burning sea-coal in London. It took three centuries to efface this prejudice." STEAM AND GAS WITHOUT COAL. cess consists in causing the plant, so to speak, to engrave itself, and also in the substitution of a cheap casting in brass for an expensive copperplate engraving. Electrotype plates may be deposited on the bronzed gutta percha, and a similar result obtained; but I have found the brass casting to answer equally well, and it has the advantage of being more durable, cheaper, and more expeditious." INFORMATION FOR SMOKERS. fuller's earth called Keff-kil (literally foam earth), The Meerschaum Pipes are made of a kind of formerly dug in pits in the Crimea, but now in Anatolia. The keff-kil is pressed into moulds on the spot, dried in the sun, and baked in an oven; the pipes are then boiled in milk and polished with a soft leather, and then carried to Constantinople. They are there bought up by German merchants, who transport them to Pesth, in Hungary; when, as yet large and rude, they are soaked in water for twenty-four hours, and then turned in a lathe. The sound ones are, for the most part, sent to Vienna, where they are finished and afterwards expensively mounted in silver.-Holtzapfel. "It is scarcely thirty years since a committee of the House of Commons doubted the possibility of travelling at the rate of even fifteen miles an hour. Winsor, too, was laughed at when he proposed to light street lamps with coal gas; Dr. Lardner endeavoured to prove the impossibility TRUTH.-Who, under pressing temptations to of a steam-ship ever crossing to America; Pro- lie, adheres to truth, nor to the profane betrays fessor Wheatstone was treated as a clever enthu-aught of a sacred trust, is near the summit of siast when he first promulgated his ideas of the wisdom and virtue. |