"Battledoor" and "Reading made Easy," with which came the alphabet illustration.

In the majority of these early means of teaching children, the pictures appear to have been not only wretchedly engraved, but drawn without any regard to character or accurate form of the objects represented. In place of the uninviting Horn-book, we have our school-books filled with well-drawn engravings; and the paper and printing present a bright contrast with the small letters seen through the sheet of horn.

To estimate the gain of the present generation by the change, would be no easy inquiry; but could not fail to prompt universal gratitude for the advantages which we enjoy over our immediate predecessors in everything that aids the growth of knowledge.

THE WITCH.

THE precise idea entertained by the nation of a witch, at the time of the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English version now in use, is that of one, usually an old, ugly, and eccentric woman,

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who," says Dr. Kitto, "by the agency of satan, or rather, of a familiar spirit or gnome appointed by satan to attend on her, performs operations beyond the powers of humanity, in consequence of her compact with satan, written in her own blood, by which she resigns herself to him for ever. Among other advantages resulting to her from this engagement is the power of transforming herself into any shape she pleases; which was, however, generally that of a hare; transporting herself through the air on a broomstick, sailing' on the sea on a sieve, gliding through a a keyhole, inflicting diseases, &c., upon mankind or cattle. The belief in the existence of such persons cannot be traced higher than the middle ages, and was probably derived from the wild and

gloomy mythology of the northern nations, amongst whom the Fatal Sisters, and other impersonations of destructive agency in a female form, were prominent articles of the popular creed. A very different idea was conveyed by the Hebrew word, which probably denotes a sorceress or magician, who pretended to discover, and even to direct the effects ascribed to the operation of the elements, conjunctions of the stars, the influence of lucky and unlucky days, the power of invisible spirits, and of the inferior deities. Sir Walter Scott well observes, that the sorcery or witchcraft of the Old Testament resolves itself into a trafficking with idols and asking counsel of false deities, or, in other words, into idolatry.' Accordingly, sorcery is in Scripture uniformly associated with idolatry (Deut. xviii. 9-14; 2 Kings ix. 22; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 5, 6, &c.; Gal. v. 20; Rev. xxi. 8). The modern idea of witchcraft, as involving the assistance of satan, is inconsistent with Scripture, where, as in the instance of Job, satan is represented as powerless till God gave him a limited commission; and when 'satan desired to sift Peter as wheat,' no reference is made to the intervention of a witch. Nor do the actual references to magic in Scripture involve its reality. The mischiefs resulting from the pretension to an art which involved idolatry, justified the statute which denounced it with death; though instead of the unexampled phrase, 'thou shalt not suffer to live,' Michaelis conjectures, 'shall not be' (Exod. xxii. 18), which also better suits the parallel, 'There shall not be found among you, &c., a witch' (Deut. xviii. 10). Indeed, as we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other gods but one' (1 Cor. viii. 4), we must believe all pretensions to traffic with the one, or ask counsel of the other, to be equally vain. Upon the same principle of suppressing idolatry, however, the prophets of Baal also were destroyed, and not because Baal had any real existence, or because they could avail anything by their invocations. The witch of Endor,' as she is commonly but improperly called, belongs to another class of pretenders to supernatural powers [Divination]. She was a necromancer, or one of those persons who pretended to call up the spirits of the dead to converse with the living (see Isa. viii. 19; xxix. 4; lxv. 3). It is related as the last and crowning act of Saul's rebellion against God, that he consulted 'a woman who had a familiar spirit' (1 Sam. xxviii. 7), literally 'a mistress of the Ob,' -an act forbidden by the divine law (Lev. xx. 6), which sentenced the pretenders to such a power to death (ver. 27), and which law Saul himself had recently enforced (1 Sam. xxviii. 3-9), because,

it is supposed, they had freely predicted his approaching ruin.” Various explanations of the visit of Saul to this woman have been offered by commentators; but there is a mystery about the narrative which we may not comprehend, and need not attempt.

The belief in what are called "Witches" yet lingers in our land. The persecutions to which suspected parties were subjected in the days of our forefathers were indeed horrible. We may refer to some instances in our next.

ENDURING TREASURE.

"The fear of the Lord is his treasure."-Isa. xxxiii. 6.
WHAT is man's treasure? Hoarded gold,
Begirt with fears and cares?
Houses and merchandise and lands?—
They pass to stranger heirs.

Ships? With their snowy pinions spread
They proudly leave the shore;
But smitten by the wrecking gale,
They sink to rise no more.

Fashion? The butterfly was gay,

Ere in the frost it fell.

Beauty and strength? The fever's breath
Their straw-like trust can tell,

Fame? On the fickle lip it dies.

Friendship? Alas, the cheat!

Love? Like the dove's soft wing it comes,
And glides away as fleet..

Power? Of the crownless kings inquire,
Who died with none to weep.

A name in history? Who shall read,
Or who the memory keep?

Yet when the strong archangel's voice

Time's funeral shall proclaim,

And earth and skies, liked blackened scroll,

Parch in the doomsday flame.

With the true soul to Heaven allied,

One treasure shall endure,

For God's most holy fear hath made

That priceless treasure sure.

Mrs. Sigourney.

THIS splendid but terrific animal was not an inhabitant of Bible lands, and hence it is not mentioned in the histories or prophecies of scripture. It is not found even in Africa, and in no country does it attain to such size and strength as in Bengal, in India.

The Tiger has the appellation of Royal for the same reason, we presume, as the lion is honoured with the title of Majesty; namely, his amazing strength and rapacity, by which he spreads terror and desolation among the inhabitants of the forest. But, surely, it is no compliment to royalty to apply the term to such ravenous and savage beasts.

The tiger, though somewhat less than the lion, is scarcely inferior in strength; whilst in the splendour of his clothing, and in the general beauty of his form and appearance, he is greatly superior. There is no other quadruped, perhaps, that is so gaudily attired as the tiger; but what savage and blood-thirsty dispositions lie concealed under that gay clothing! The beauty of the tiger's form and marking is lost in the terror that his unmeasured power and insatiable thirst of blood, with his surprising craft in seeking it, awaken in the breast! The hair of the tiger is of a bright yellow ground, with transverse streaks of extreme blackness; the whole coat is exceedingly smooth and glossy; while the elegance of his

form, with the beauty of his adorning, are deeply calculated to awaken the admiration of the beholder. If all within were as fair as all without, the tiger would be the most favourite quadruped in the world. But clothing, as his lovely skin does, the most savage dispositions in the world, his beauties are permitted to waste themselves in the trackless wilds he is doomed to inhabit, shunned and dreaded by all; but especially by man, who alone has the disposition to admire and appreciate the beauty of the tiger's form and colours.

Tigers are not found on the African continent; but they abound in India, and are found in some parts of China; whilst in the island of Sumatra they exist in so great numbers, that whole villages have been depopulated by their ravages, and all their cattle destroyed. They are said to be the largest and most ferocious in the jungles and forests of Bengal, where, as well as in Sumatra, they are worshipped by the superstitious inhabitants through fear; though some account it an honour, rather than otherwise, to be devoured by such a creature as a tiger, whose powers are considered as those of a divinity.

Sir S. Raffles gives several accounts of these superstitious fears of the Sumatrans in regard to the tiger. He says, "One of the villagers, in the vicinity of Bencoleen, told me that his father and grandfather were carried off by tigers; and there is scarcely a family that has not lost some of its members by them. In many places the inhabitants appear to have resigned the dominion to the tigers, and take few precautions against them; regarding them as sacred. The natives hold the transmigration of souls, and call the tiger their nene, or grandfather; upon the supposition that the souls of their ancestors are dwelling in the tigers. On the banks of one of the rivers above a hundred persons were devoured by the tigers in a single year. When the tiger visits a village, the people prepare rice and fruits, and place them at the entrance; supposing that the tiger will be pleased with this hospitable reception, and pass on without doing them any harm."

Lady Raffles also says, "The Coolies, in passing through a forest, came upon a tiger that was crouched upon the path. They immediately stopped and addressed him in terms of supplication, assuring him they were poor people, carrying the tuan basar, or great man's luggage, who would be very angry with them if they did not arrive in time, and, therefore, they implored permission to pass quietly and without molestation. The tiger, being startled at their appearance, got up and walked quietly into the depths of