with awe in the long-resounding glens, and beneath the savage scowl of the angry sky. It was such a storm as becomes an era among the mountains; and it was felt that before next morning there would be a loss of lives, not only among the beasts that perish, but among human beings overtaken by the wrath of that irresistible tempest.

PROFESSOR WILSON.

THE WORK OF TIME.

I. TIME'S glory is to calm contending kings,
To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light,
To stamp the seal of time in aged things,
To wake the morn, and sentinel1 the night,
To wrong the wronger till he render right,

To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours,
And smear with dust their glittering golden towers;
To fill with worm-holes stately monuments,
To feed oblivion with decay of things,
To blot old books, and alter their contents,
To pluck the quills from ancient ravens' wings,
To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish springs,
To spoil antiquities of hammer'd steel,

And turn the giddy round of Fortune's wheel;

2. To show the beldam 2 daughters of her daughter,
To make the child a man, the man a child,
To slay the tiger that doth live by slaughter,
To tame the unicorn and lion wild,

To mock the subtle, in themselves beguil'd;

2

6

'Sentinel, a verb signifying to keep watch through.'
Beldam, grandmother.

[TO RUINATE PROUD BUILDINGS.]

To cheer the ploughman with increaseful crops,
And waste huge stones with little water-drops.

3. Why work'st thou mischief in thy pilgrimage,
Unless thou couldst return to make amends?
One poor retiring minute in an age

Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends, Lending him wit that to bad debtors lends:

O, this dread night, wouldst thou one hour come

back,

I could prevent this storm and shun thy wrack!!

SHAKESPEARE.

'Shun thy wrack, avoid the calamity that has befallen me this night.

CRABS.

I. THE crab is a very interesting creature to examine at leisure. If you look at his back, you will see that it is beautifully arched, and it is well for the crab that it is so, for no other form is so capable of resisting force applied to the outside. You will also notice that the shell itself is very strong, and that its borders are indented like a pie-crust. The little arches thus formed serve to give it still greater strength.

You

2. The eyes of the crab also deserve notice. will see that they are placed upon the ends of movable stalks, and can be put back into their sockets. These sockets also project, and thus prevent the eyes from being easily injured by a knock.

3. You may then, perhaps, notice the two pairs of feelers. Of these, one pair fold side by side, and can be put under a sort of roof, where they are quite safe from injury. The other pair are still more carefully guarded, perhaps because they are more necessary to the creature; they fold in the middle, and can be put away into grooves, much in the same way that we put away a pair of spectacles into their case.

4. Then if you look at the legs of the crab, you will see how beautifully they all fold up close against the body. You may also look at the creature's mouth, and you will see a very singular thing. At the outside of all there are two pieces like double doors; these fold over and cover the inner parts quite close. Then the great claws, if put where they would naturally be when the creature is at rest,

securely bar the doors of the mouth, and keep everything fast.

5. If now you consider where the crab lives, you will see how desirable it is that these things should be as you have found them. The crab lives in the

sea, where there is a stony bottom, and within reach of the rough weather; he is therefore liable to be much tossed about in a very rough place. It thus becomes very important that he should be able to pack himself up in the way we have been describing, for then he may be rolled over and over, and be beaten about among the stones, and yet sustain but little harm. We thus see how well the crab is fitted for the life he has to lead.

6. And it would almost seem that the crab is conscious of the strength of his armour, for he goes about, like one of the knights of the Middle Ages, seeking some one to attack. But the crab is much better protected than any knights ever were in their

armour. Besides this, the crab is his own army surgeon, and he needs no splints, bandages, nor lint.' If he has the misfortune to have one of his limbs snapped off in an encounter, he just gives that limb a shake, and off it comes at a spot almost close to the body, the bleeding stops, and the crab is at once ready to go again into the fight.

7. One day I found a crab that had lost both its claws and all its legs but two, yet, for all that, it had not lost its courage. I picked it up, and, at the same time, selected a perfect crab of about the same size and put them together in a dish filled with sea-water. It was pretty to see how the brave little fellow, without any means whatever of attack, stood resolutely on his defence; for the other crab at once picked a quarrel with his unfortunate brother, and attacked him savagely. The injured one stood bravely up, and defended himself as well as he could.

8. Now how did it happen that a crab in this miserable state should never think of giving in? It may be that the crab still feels that, although for the present he is so defenceless, he has the capabilities of a warrior left in him. He feels, perhaps, that his fresh legs and claws are already sprouting where the old ones were, and that if he could only be let alone for a time he would have new claws and new legs, and be able to renew the battle on more equal terms. 9. In the conflict too the crab can afford to be very reckless, for, although he is not invulnerable,2 he need not concern himself much about the loss of a

'Splints, bandages, and lint are the materials used in binding up wounds and broken limbs.

2

Invulnerable, that cannot be wounded.