their commands to the keeper of the royal wardrobe, where these habits of distinction are always kept in readiness, who immediately sends one according to order, to the person about to be distinguished by the royal notice, and with such scrupulous ceremony are these always adapted to the degree of estimation in which the wearers are held by the prince, or the eminence of their station, that, in an assemblage of the officers and grandees of an Eastern court, the rank and quality of each may be easily discovered by his dress. The principle, however, on which it is distributed to those whom the king intends to honour, varies in different countries of the East, for while in the Indies, and several other countries, it consists of different degrees of fineness and richness, according to the rank or merit of the person to whom it is given, in Persia and Turkey, as seems to have been the case also in ancient Egypt, the difference of quality in the garments is not attended to. The dress of all who are admitted to court is very much alike, and the honour lies in the number that is given. In the year 1765, the King of Persia having granted pardon to an exiled prince, Teimuras-Khan, and also permission to return to court, sent messengers to meet and welcome him as soon as he reached the frontiers. One of the officers appointed to conduct him, was charged with the task of defraying all the prince's expenses in his progress, and of carrying a very rich present, in which, among other things, and with a view of preparing him to appear at court, were five complete suits of clothes. It must consequently happen, that in all countries where such customs prevail, dress will be regarded as a matter of the greatest importance, and that he who is distinguished by the superior fineness, or the greatest variety of clothes in which he can attire himself, will command that deference and respect, which, on better and more rational principles, we pay to the possessors of rank and honour. To have no other decorations for the person than what is supplied from the resources of one's private fortune, is the indication of an individual who belongs to a humble and obscure condition; whereas, to be capable of appearing in a rich robe of purple or scarlet, embroidered with gold, is the high and enviable distinction of one who is basking in the sunshine of royal favour, and who at once receives the homage and respect of the multitude. This importance of dress in the East, Niebuhr, the celebrated traveller, discovered

when he received from the Imâm of Dowlah a present of a complete suit of clothes; and Mr. Bruce also, when on his return from Abyssinia, received from Osman, one of the Beys of Egypt, a rich robe of honour. His appearance in that distinguished garb produced an immediate and extraordinary change in the feelings and views of those to whose care he was entrusted. The haughty Mussulmans no sooner beheld him retiring from the presencechamber with that token of their master's regard, than, laying aside the brutality and rudeness they had shewn towards him at first, they treated, with the most marked civility and obsequiousness, a stranger, whom, notwithstanding, they hated and despised. Since it appears that the same ideas of respectability, connected with dress, prevailed in ancient Egypt that we find still common in all countries of the East, we at once discover the reason why Joseph took the precaution of providing his brethren with a variety of the most sumptuous dresses worn in that country, out of the royal wardrobe, of which, like every thing else, he had the entire command. That amiable and prudent minister was well aware of the inveterate prejudices which the Egyptians entertained against the whole pastoral race, and that as his family had for ages followed the occupation of shepherds, not even his great influence, and the debt of obligation which the nation owed him, would be able to secure for the house of Israel a hospitable and welcome reception, if they appeared, in what was universally deemed, the mean character and garb of keepers of sheep. Knowing that first impressions are generally the strongest, and judging that if, at their earliest appearance in Egypt, they could overcome the powerful jealousies of the subjects of Pharaoh, the future respectability and comfort of his family would be secured, he determined to employ his influence to have them introduced to the notice of the Egyptian people in a manner suitable to the high rank of their brother; and while there can be no doubt that the gracious reception they met with at court, was owing to the favour in which Joseph was held by the king, there can be as little doubt that the respectable footing they acquired among the people arose, among other causes, from the "changes of raiment," which, as favourites of Pharaoh, these Hebrew shepherds had received.

SELECT SENTENCES.

By six qualities may a fool be known :-anger without a cause; speech without profit; change without motive; injury without an object; putting trust in a stranger; and wanting capacity to discriminate between a friend and foe.

Unclean desires and furious passions are the enemies of the soul, which deface her beauty and devour all the productions of grace, in that lesser vineyard of God (the church.)

INTELLIGENCE.

THE WAY TO DESTRUCTION.

ON Sunday evening, says a writer in the Temperance Penny Magazine, 1 passed through Ratcliffe Highway at half-past six o'clock, went into a place of worship, and returned at half-past eight. In the section between Old Gravel-lane and Shadwell New Church, within the space of two hundred and thirty paces, I counted seven splendid gin-shops, all of them appearing as if they had recently been fitted up in the modern gin-palace style, highly decorated with paint and gilding, and exhibiting in front gigantic lamps, with magnificent gas-lights.

At one place I saw a revolving light, with many burners, playing most beautifully over the door of the painted charnel house; at another about fifty or sixty jets, in one lantern, were throwing out their capricious and fitful, but brilliant gleams, as if from the branches of a shrub. And over the doors of a third house were no less than three enormous lamps, with corresponding lights, illuminating the whole street to a considerable distance. They were in full glare on this Sunday evening; and through the doors of these dens of drunkenness and mischief, crowds of miserable wretches were pouring in, that they might drink and DIE. My heart was pained within me, and prompted the inquiry, What can be done to stop this havoc of human life and comfort?

I looked into several of these caverns of iniquity,-these cages of every unclean and hateful thing; the keepers being, perhaps, the most ugly monsters of the whole. There I stood for short periods; I looked in, and examined around me; about the doors were half-famished girls, of tender age, thinly and poorly clad, waiting for they knew not what. Within all was clamour and intoxication. There were mothers! with infants in their arms, and older children hanging on their clothes, as if they would say, "Mother, come home." There were young girls and boys,

carmen and coal-whippers, tottering old women, and hoary-headed sinners of the other sex. The halt and diseased were there, for drunkenness "hath cast down many wounded: yea many strong men have been slain by her; her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death!" (Prov. vii. 26, 27.)

THE YOUNG PEACE-MAKER.

A VERY important and blessed effect of the teaching imparted by the Sunday School Society for Ireland is, that it leads the children to hate sin and to avoid temptation. A correspondent gives us an instance in point, he tells us, that a very fine little boy, in a low class, was challenged by another lately to fight; he refused repeatedly, and the other as often repeated his challenge, and endeavoured to provoke him by calling his courage into question. "Well," said the little boy," if you don't mind me, may be you will mind Mr.

and if you don't mind him, may be you will mind the 5th chapter of Matthew, where it says, 'Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God." The effect I assure you was great; and the unruly member was instantly quieted, and he has never challenged the little boy since.

A WORD IN SEASON.

Observe the happy effects produced amongst the ignorant relatives of one scholar in the following report from another correspondent:

"A little girl of nine or ten years of age, was instrumental in the conversion of her father and mother, both Roman Catholics, and living at the time, like others, without God and without hope in the world. The child lived with her grandfather, a nominal Protestant, occasionally visited her parents, and upon one occasion found her father under the greatest excitement of mind-she said, father, if you knew how but to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, every thing else would be added to you ;' he immediately stopped in the midst of anger and passion, and asked his child where she had learnt those words. From the Bible,' was her reply; he expressed a wish to see it, and immediately the child went off to get the precious book, which she soon placed in his hands. He commenced reading, and from that time there was a change in the man, and ultimately the word of our God was savingly blest to his soul, and to that of his wife. He attended constantly the Sunday School with his child, and met at the same time with many trials for the testimony of our Lord Jesus. He removed with his family from the neighbourhood, and is an ornament to the truth, and esteemed by the christian friends in the place where he is now residing." (Eighth Address of the Sunday School Society for Ireland.)

"BE YE ALSO READY."

Thoughts on the Death of the Rev. Isaac Saunders, who died suddenly in his pulpit, while preaching on New Year's Day, 1836.

SHOULD a bright angel go the world around,
Addressing every trembling human heart,

"Tell me frail creature, where wouldst THOU be found?
What thinking, or what saying, or what part

In busy life wouldst thou be acting, when

Thou'rt summon'd from the haunts of living men ?"
How would the people be perplexed with fear,
And shrink beneath that awful startling voice,
Tolling a knell of death in every ear;

And asking such a strange and solemn choice.
Dismay would wrap the world in general gloom,
And hush it in the silence of the tomb.

How would the sons of reason lower their crest;
Rack'd by tumultuous doubts, and shivering dread;
But he whose heart had found whereon to rest

His hopes immortal, then could lift his head;
Heedless how soon he heard the solemn cry,
"Behold the Bridegroom comes !"—and calmly die.
For ever dying, ever on the brink

Of unseen graves, and yet how little we
Dispose of our evanishing time to think

Of what concerns us most-eternity!
We live, as if our short and fleeting share
Of time were all that needed thought and care.
How many deaths on mortal man await!

The violent stroke, war's decimating sweep,
The stalking pestilence, the swift sharp fate,
The lingering sickness, and the gentle sleep
Of those who die away, and drop to rest,
Calm as a child upon its mother's breast.

Some in the midst of gaiety and noise;

Some all engross'd in earth's low sordid cares;

Some in the bloom of youth and all its joys;

Some heedless still, though crown'd with hoary hairs.

O solemn thought! their Maker calls, and they

At once are summon'd from the light of day!