I have formerly described. Our ride from Rouen was over a country entirely new to us, but though another, it was for the most part still the same. In Normandy we noticed a greater number of farmhouses along the road side than in the north of France, but still the landscape to me was far from being interesting. When the diligence approached the Seine, the views were much more agreeable. On the river we saw a steam-boat passing rapidly down to Havre, which brought Fulton and America fresh into memory.

Havre is not a very ancient town, a circumstance which most travellers will not regret. Its situation at the mouth of the Seine, the safety of its harbour, and its proximity to Rouen and Paris, render it one of the most flourishing and well built places in the kingdom. Napoleon proposed to have constructed here an immense dock or basin, to contain almost a thousand ships of war at one time. The most interesting object to us all, was the American ship in which we were to embark to-morrow, and we paid her a visit this morning at as early an hour as possible. The cabin is both showy and convenient. It is ornamented with about twenty or thirty white marble columns, with as many looking glasses behind them: these are much admired, but I think they are quite out of place, and therefore in bad taste. Our own situation in the ship we are much pleased with, and every thing seems to indicate, that we shall have as tolerable a voyage as can reasonably be anticipated, as to pleasure or comfort, I know they are not to be expected.

There are some fine mansions built on a very high hill in the suburbs of Havre, said to be occupied by merchants who have retired from business. We ascended the hill by a circuitous path which leads to the summit, on which they

stand, and enjoyed a very beautiful and extensive land and water prospect. The little town of Honfleur is on the opposite side of the bay, and is rendered memorable by one of Irwin's most captivating stories. On our way to the summit of the cliff, we saw a Frenchman lying dead drunk in the street-and on our return we found two fighting near the wharf.

The church at Havre is a dirty building, without ornament or attraction of any kind. On passing through it I was followed by a woman with a plate, who begged piteously for some sous for the poor. Not far from this place there is a market, for the sale of dogs, cats, parrots, and monkeys. Such a jabbering and noise was kept up by these animals and their keepers, as to be heard at a great distance, and so much alike were many of their tones, that it was difficult to tell whether you heard-monkey, parrot, dog, or Frenchman.

At Sea, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 1828. At the appointed time our beautiful packet ship was ready to leave the wharf. The confusion, hurry, and noise, which attended our embarkation, may well be conceived, as we had about seventy Swiss emigrants in the steerage, and about twenty-one passengers in the cabin. When the ship had dropped down some distance below the town, we were boarded by a gang of custom-house officers, who brought along with them our passports.Every one was called upon deck, and each, after a slight scrutiny from one of the whiskered gentry, received his permission to depart, on his name being called. One poor fellow in the steerage who had neglected to furnish himself with one of these important documents, was carried on shore by the officers of the police, and he of course lost his passage in our ship. We soon escaped from the shoals at the mouth of the Seine, and a

favourable wind springing up, in a few hours the light-houses, and white cliffs of Albion, and the Lizard Point and Land's End, on the opposite side of the channel faded away, and the boundless and billowy ocean was spread out before us

Cœlum undique, undique pontus.

After describing so minutely my voyage from Philadelphia to Liverpool, I shall not occupy much time in detailing the incidents of my second passage across the Atlantick. The usual insupportable tedium, the same long, weary, monotonous days, and the still longer and more troublesome watchful nights, we had again to encounter. Our occupations were also the same. "To count the waves as they idly chafe along the ship's sides, or watch the bubbles as they are thrown aside by the bows, and burst and disappear forever; to mark the heave of the ship as she plunges to meet the shock of the next billow, and the next and the next, until all self consciousness is lost in reverie. To view with deep and absorbing interest a race of porpoises, or watch the light librations of mother Carey's chic kens, now hanging suspended for a moment on the top of a wave, and now pursuing their flight after the vessel in endless agitations;" in Occupations such as these does the mind take refuge.

Sept. 30.-To day the island of Terceira, one of the Azores, hove in sight, and we amused ourselves with taking sketches of the land, as its various elevations came into view. It was a sorry kind of employment, especially to such a draftsman as myself; but even this incident was eagerly caught at to fill up the vacant moments. Most of the passengers have been seasick; but my friend Dr. G. and myself, have again entirely escaped. I am almost tempted to think that a deliverance from this horrible

malady is a misfortune; for the patient, during its paroxysms at least, finds something to do.

Oct. 10.-Head winds have prevailed for many days past, and have driven us very far to the south of our course. The other day we were all effectually roused from our lethargy, by the information that one of the ropes which fastens the rudder to the wheel, was broken. The sea was very high, and the wind blew a gale, but fortunately our sails were not close hauled, as they had been for many days past, otherwise we might have received serious injury. A tiller was soon attached to the rudder, and after some time, new ropes were rigged to the wheel. It required five or six men to steer the ship with the tiller, and then it was a dangerous business, from the jerking and tossing of the ship.

The other day we were in rather a critical situation: we encountered a violent wind, blowing directly in an opposite direction to the one which was bearing us along. The instant they met the sails were all dexterously set by order of the captain, in the opposite direction, as the contrary wind was much the most violent. The sky presented a curious aspect at the moment the gales met; the clouds were then heaped upon each other in many fantastic forms, much in a manner resembling the contact of two opposite currents of foam.

We have a very good barometer on board, and I have convinced myself of what I have frequently observed, that the variations in the height of the mercury in this instrument, indicate nothing with certainty as to falling weather. We have had rain when this instrument, for a long time, prognosticated fair weather; and so on the other hand, we had rain when it should have been sunshine. "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." I noticed that the direction and violence of

the wind had a great influence on the altitude of the quicksilver. It is generally believed that a south wind causes it to fall, and a north wind to rise, and my limited observations confirm this result.

The weather has been exceed ingly variable; often the atmosphere was filled in certain portions with moisture, while the sun shone brilliantly in others: this has given me an opportunity of seeing a great variety of rainbows, and sections of bows, which I could not account for by any of the principles of optics; sometimes but a single colour could be seen, and in one instance we had segments of an inverted arch. Many of these phenomena were, no doubt, produced by the reflection of the sun from the surface of the sea; but the horrible languor of my mind would

not allow me to trace these remark

able and beautiful effects to any philosophical cause. Day after day, and night after night, drag wearily along, and still there is nothing but the light blue concave above, and the dark blue convex below. The equinoctial storms, so much dreaded by landsmen, we have not yet encountered.

Oct. 15.-A violent cold has confined me to my state-room for a day or two past, where I think I get along quite as comfortably as if upon deck. I have read Irving's Columbus through, a fact at sea worth recording. I have enjoyed uniform high health ever since I left home up to this time-not a day of sickness has interrupted my pleasures or pursuits-a kind Providence has preserved me from every accident throughout my whole journey. With humble confidence I commit myself to Thee! O, Thou, who makest the clouds thy chariot

and the dark waters thy pavilion! Thou wilt still preserve me, and bring me in peace and safety to my friends.

Conclusion.

The slight indisposition which I have mentioned in my diary at

sea, was but the commencement of a long and troublesome illness. On the 19th of October we entered the Narrows of New York harbour, and so prostrate were my mind and body by disease, that I felt but few emotions of gratitude or of pleasure, at my return to my native land. The idea that some of my friends had sunk into the grave, since my departure, crossed my mind without producing a tumult of sorrow, and the thoughts of meeting the warm embraces and greetings of those who might still survive, occasioned no throbbing expectations of delight.

The two following short papers, from the Christian Observer for

Feb. last, will, we think, gratify those who love to investigate the statements of Holy Scripture, with a view to ascertain their genuine import.

ON THE PARABLE OF THE LORD OF THE VINEYARD.

"It has been objected to the Parable of the Lord of the Vineyard, that the conduct of the householder offends against our instinctive who worked the whole day might sense of justice; that the labourer naturally feel discontented that he had only the same reward as the one who worked an hour; and that, though legally speaking, a with his own, yet, morally speaking, man has a right to do what he will he has not; for that an arbitrary distribution of property, a distribution without reference to the respective claims of the parties, is to be so in any actual case which virtual injustice, and would be felt father capriciously giving all his might occur as, for example, a child, and leaving the rest destiproperty to his second or third tute, their claims being equal.

"To this it is replied, either, first, that the narrative is only parabolick, and that therefore we are not to

press every minute feature; or, secondly, that there might be good reasons for the proceeding-such as the necessity of the labourers last hired, thus resolving the case into charity; or their great diligence and good conduct during the short time they were employed, thus resolving it into a claim of merit; or, thirdly, that no difficulty really exists, for that the alleged instinctive feeling of injustice is only factitious, and that the employer was no more morally than legally accountable for his conduct.

"To the first of these solutions it is rejoined, that the circumstance alluded to is not a mere casual incident, but the very gist of the narrative; so that its being a parable does not render an explanation of so material a point unnecessary. To the second it is replied, that, though a plea of want, or a claim of merit, would amply justify the householder, it would contravene the express object of the parable, which was to make the conduct of the householder depend, not upon the services or necessities of the claimants, but upon his own volition: he had a right to do what he would with his own. In reference to the third solution it is argued, that it is in vain to reason against those instincts of our nature which God has implanted in us; that every child who reads the parable feels, till he learns the solution, his moral sense offended, and wishes that the householder had given a reason for his conduct, in order that the complainants might have seen that he did not act capriciously.

"Of these solutions, the second, notwithstanding the objection, is simple and solid-namely, that the householder had good reasons for his conduct. What those reasons were does not appear; the only point necessary to the argument being to show that he was not bound to produce them. Legally, he might act without either

reason or explanation; morally, he could not act without reason, but, under certain circumstances, he might without explanation: as, for instance, if the complainants assumed an undue attitude towards him, or violated justice by requiring an account of his actions, which even where it might be right for him to give it, they would not be entitled to demand. The objections proceed upon the supposition that the householder acted capriciously, or without any better reason than his mere will; but the real point of the narrative is, not that he had not a good reason, but that he was not obliged to explain his reason to insolent complainants. To have yielded to their clamour would have been a virtual acknowledgment of their right to interfere with his actions; and that right he was not obliged to concede. A man is bound to do what he believes to be right and just; to explain his motives may or may not be proper. If they are likely to be misconstrued, so as to prove a stumbling-block to his neighbour, and to cast an apparently just reproach upon his character, to withhold an explanation would often be an immoral act: but not always, for there may be stronger reasons why he should allow himself to be misunderstood, than that he should disclose all he knows. God himself Ideals thus with us: all he does is right, and he often condescends to tell us his reasons for his conduct; but he is not bound in any case to do so: it is enough for us to know that the Judge of all the earth will do right. And this the parable supposes on the part of the householder: it does not intimate caprice, but only that he had wise reasons for not telling the reasons on which he had acted. This statement would assuredly satisfy the alleged "moral sense" of the most captious objector; for even a little child may understand, that, though it seems hard upon the first work

men to have no more than the others, there might be sufficient motives for the householder's conduct, but that he was not bound to tell them to the repining claimants; and that even had they not thus complained, there might still be reasons why he should withhold explanation, and refer them to their knowledge of his character to conclude that he acted rightly.

"But the chief object of the present remarks was to suggest one single point, which has been overlooked in the parable, and the notice of which obviates the only real difficulty. That difficulty is in reasoning from man to God, and from God to man. Man is in a degree accountable to his fellow-creatures, as a member of the human family, for the moral aspect of his actions: he cannot even appear to act capriciously without feeling that his neighbours, in proportion as they respect his character, naturally seek an explanation of his conduct; apparent moral incongruity would be a blot upon his public fame. But God is not accountable, either, so to speak, morally or legally; and the parable, if examined carefully, leads us to this very distinction, for it speaks of the householder' and of his steward,' and what is said of the one does not apply to the other. Had the steward acted as his master acted, he would have been bound to explain to his master the cause of his seeming caprice, because he was dispensing the property of another; but the householder was dispensing his own. Now the above-mentioned objections tacitly substitute the steward for the householder. When the objector, speaking of the parable as a literal history, finds fault with the lord of the vineyard, it is from a feeling that he was morally, though not legally, accountable for his actions; that not only ought an act to be right, but that it ought also to justify itself to the popular sense; and this idea of accountability in

·

volves the notion of stewardship in the individual, and also that no man lives or dies to himself. But when we refer to the parable of the Almighty, this idea does not apply, for he is not accountable: he is not a steward, but the householder: he has only to do what he himself wills, for his will is not only the highest law, but the perfection of reason. The parable, therefore, so far fails; but it only fails as all finite similitudes must fail of setting forth the properties of the Infinite. We cannot think literally of a householder' dispensing his property, without remembering that he is spiritually a steward to a Higher Power, and also a member of the human family; but God has over him no master. The parable is thus only a proximate resemblance, for analogy cannot go further. The householder was not legally responsible: the inference is, that God is not morally so."

O. S.

ON THE MOSAICK ACCOUNT OF THE

CREATION.

"In considering the first chapter of Genesis, an idea occurred to me, which, if found to be reasonable, might remove some of the difficulties which are said to have arisen in attempting to reconcile the discoveries in modern geology with the Mosaick account of the creation. Not that I attach much importance to the objection; for the Mosaick account is much too brief and general to be subject to the proof either of positive consistency or inconsistency with any system which may be inferred from geological discoveries; but I am not aware that sufficient attention has been given to it, and particularly to the second verse, where it is said, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.' The Septuagint may be translated, the earth was invisible