me meet the man as did that; I'll make surer next time." Here was a hopeless case. "Do you know, James?" said the curate more sternly," that it is not at all certain whether you will live; and if you die, what do you expect is to become of you? Have you never thought that there is a world beyond this, and a judgment to come?" A stifled groan was the only answer. "Drink, give me something to drink, master. My mouth is so hot." Loftus administered the draught with his own hand, then bent over the maimed wretch, and whispered to him"Repent now; it may not be too late. Shall I pray for you?" "Best leave me as I am," murmured Black Jim. "No one cares whether I live or die. But before I die I should like to see the man as struck me. I might be able to forgive him and have a chance. Would there be any chance sir, do you think?" was the eager question. "Repent of your sins, and there is salvation for you," said the curate, solemnly. "I will grant your wish, and find the man who struck you if I can." Straight to the Hall went Smyly, and asked to see Grantley. "There is a man they call Black Jim, one of the fellows engaged in the poaching affray the other night, lying dangerously ill down in Pullen Croft. He is very desirous of seeing the man who struck him. "Good God!" said Grantley. "Dying, do you say? Why it was I who struck him, and saved little Robson's life by it. I'll come at once." Together they returned to the poacher's house, and Grantley at once rushed up to the bedside with a face of the utmost concern, for he certainly did not wish to burden his already laden conscience with another's blood. "I am the man who struck you," said he. A look of deadly hate came over the prostrate man's face, but he glanced towards the curate, and then his face softened. "Ay," he groaned. "I am afraid you have done for me this time, sir. Better that than that I should have murdered the other gentleman." 66 "Oh, cheer up," said Grantley. "You will get over it, I know; and then I'll make the squire take you as under-keeper if you can't keep away from the birds. There is lots of life in you yet." "If I only thought so!" murmured the poacher. "If I could but get well again, I'd lead a different life. Mary, my lass, where art thou? Ah, I have been a cruel bad husband to thee. Better for thee if I do go." "Oh, James !" pleaded the wife, through her tears, "don't say that. I have often tormented thee for bread, mayhap, and angered thee, and drove thee to drink; but if thou wilt only get well, and work, Jimmy, me and the children will be happy enough then. Oh, tell me, is there any hope?" she entreated in an agonised voice of the doctor: "is there any hope?" "It's worse almost for me than for anyone," groaned the captain. "I do not want to have the man's blood on my soul, though it was done to save another's life." "It's just this," said the doctor. "If he gets over the night he will do very well; if not, he will die at once. "Tis just a mere chance; I can do nothing more, Captain Grantley, but leave Nature to her work. The brain is considerably injured, and if he recovers he will be weak all his life." "And if he recovers I'll be a good friend to him," exclaimed Grantley, impulsively. "I'll be of some use in the world, at any rate, and see whether I cannot do a good action if I try." When the affair was represented to the old squire, he declared in his kind-hearted way, which none knew so well as his dependents, that he had long given over his intention of persecuting the man who had poached his pheasants, and said that if the rest of the fellows agreed, he would take him as under-keeper; but prejudice was very strong among them, and they all agreed to leave if Black Jim was enrolled among their number. Here Grantley stepped in, and as soon as the man was convalescent he set him up in a decent little shop in a place where he was far removed from his old haunts and associates, and where he has been often heard since to praise that downright honest crack from Grantley's bludgeon, seeing that it was the making of him. As for Mary his wife, no one a twelvemonth after would recognise in the round-cheeked pleasant little woman the careworn, poverty-stricken wretch she had been at Pullens Croft. And, to Loftus Smyly's intense pleasure, her honest face, and not seldom that of her husband, were to be seen at the parish church where he officiated. And when service was over, the grateful woman would never rest till she had been noticed by the curate, and without fail to affirm that she hoped God would bless him for his kindness to them when in misery and despair. KIND WORDS. They never blister the tongue or lips. And we have never heard of one mental trouble arising from this quarter. Though they do not cost much, yet they accomplish much. They help one's own good nature and good will. Soft words soften our own soul. Angry words are fuel to the flame of wrath, and make the blaze more fierce. Kind words make other people good-natured. Cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful. There is such a rush of all other kinds of words in our days, that it seems desirable to give kind words a chance among them. There are vain words, and idle words, and hasty fane words, and warlike words. Kind words also prowords, and spiteful words, and empty words, and produce their own image on men's souls-and a beautiful image it is. They soothe, and quiet, and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used. METEORS AND METEORIC STONE S. It is amusing to watch the course of public interest, and observe how for a time some one subject engages the attention of a certain class of people, pervades their correspondence and conversation, perhaps rules their actions, and then dies out of notice, giving place to some other of an equally absorbing character. Through such a period of excitement we have just passed, and I hasten to record a few of the incidents that have peopled it before they fade away from the memory, "And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, With one solitary exception, an exception which caused much surprise in my mind, I have not received one letter since about a week before the celebrated" 13th and 14th of November," in which the glorious display of aerolites which we had notice to expect on those days was not in some degree the subject; and since the display really took place, scarcely a visitor has entered my house who has not with more or less energy discussed those wonderful appearances, their causes and effects. We have many of us, too, been led to a class of reading and thought that previously never occupied our minds, but which may possibly tell on our future studies. For myself, I would gladly sit up two nights in a week for a month to come if I could but once again witness the sight which I saw on the night of the 13th and 14th November, with the degree of knowledge as to what to observe, and how to calculate the distances, &c., which I have since obtained. It seems, however, a wonderful thing that so many well-informed people who knew all about what was expected, and the fitting time to look out, preferred an hour's "beauty sleep" to a sight of the heavens when they were so signally and unusually "declaring the glory of God," and showing to human eyes a part of His works that most of those sleep-lovers will never again have an opportunity of beholding; for how comparatively few amongst us will see the golden showers of 1899, even should clear skies permit those who may be alive at the time to do so? It is a noticeable circumstance that many invalids and delicate people, who rarely, if ever, for years had been out of their beds, at the coming in of "the small hours," made arrangements to enable them to see the wonderful sights, whilst intelligent men and women in the full vigour of health, and a readiness to be up late into the night for other purposes, were content on this great occasion to go to bed and to sleep! At twelve o'clock on the night of the 13th and 14th of November I settled myself alone at a window commanding that portion of the sky which extends from Orion on the right, to Ursa Major on the left, and with a fairly unbroken view from a little above the horizon to the zenith. The sky was clear, and before me lay Leo, just risen in the east, Procyon flashing his red light in great splendour, Auriga, Perseus, Gemini, Aries. There were also in view Taurus, with its brilliant cluster of stars, the Pleiades, and many other constellations; and, "though last not least," beautiful Mars. I sat behind a green baize curtain, so that the light of fire and candle might not distract me, and with writing materials and my watch close at hand, I entered on my vigil. My intention was to count the number of meteors I saw to fifty, and then note how long a period had passed whilst I did so. Soon, however, the increase of numbers was so great, and the scene became so exciting, that I was obliged to set my limit at one hundred, and even occasionally to exceed that before I could venture to turn from the window and make my minutes of number and time. I doubt not that at such moments I missed seeing many, and also I am aware that I did not count all the meteorites that passed over my little portion of sky, which it must be remembered was not more than about fifty degrees; but I was desirous of getting some definite ideas concerning the real numbers that I saw, and not to trust chiefly to "that forward and delusive faculty," imagination, which is so apt to mislead in any matter that concerns time and quantity. My observations extended over only two the sky was entirely covered with clouds, and hours, and about twenty minutes of the time neither stars nor meteors visible. This time of obscuration was, so far as I gathered from the at the time, the richest of all, and the fall of accounts of other places where it was not cloudy meteors more abundant than that during any other period of the night. The result of my observations was as follows: one, such was not the case. Before one I thought the largest proportion that I saw were of the description that I shall distinguish by the name of "the rocket kind," those which dashed right up towards the zenith, or from north to east, with exceedingly rapid motion, and looking as if a star had started on a race. These seemed to be of more compact formation, to be more energetic and perfect in their course, and to leave a longer train of light behind them. The other kind were apparently of looser construction, more like fire - balls. These flew shorter distances, and their trains were shorter and formed the arc of a much smaller circle than those of the rocket kind. The colour of the trains was also more usually of a blue or greenish tint, whilst those of the rockets exhibited none of the red side of the prism. Soon after one the clouds down low in the north-east cleared away, and the sight I then saw was most beautiful and most suggestive. A faint auroral light of a yellowish tint lit up the whole of that portion of the sky that had cleared, flickering upwards, but its rays were not visible from the obstruction made by a dense mass of black cloud that lay above it. All over the cleared part of the sky played fireballs of various sizes, crossing each other at different angles, and tossed hither and thither as if by a multitude of giant hands. Many of the bails were very large; some seemed to fall back as if spent before their time, whilst others rose upwards and were lost behind the bank of cloud, which was, however, now rising higher and higher, and in a few minutes had quite vanished, leaving the sky bright and clear as before. The sight was glorious as the clouds scattered away, and the splendour of stars and meteors illumined the dark deep vault of Heaven "Till the place Became religious, and the heart ran o'er The solitude in which I sat, the deep silence of the night, and the infinite beauty and glory of the firmament, with its countless fixed and shifting lights, seemed almost too exciting, and it was long before I could sleep without having the visions repeated in my dreams with all sorts of fantastic additions. How many at that moment in different parts of the world were watching the skies, and sharing in the wonder and delight with which my own mind was filled! Mariners on the ocean, the wild Indian on the prairie, learned men in the east and in the west, the shepherd on the hill-sides, and the belated traveller alarmed and startled by the fiery vision,-all would be gazing at the same wonderful and beautiful sight. Again, how many in past ages have seen and wondered at and spoken of the strange sights they had seen! The Druid watching through the night amidst the Dartmoor wilds; the holy prophet of God gone forth to pray and meet his God in the temple, or on the mountains; the warrior rushing to meet his foe in the coming morning; men in all ages and of all classes, and of all degrees have seen such a vision and trembled. It may have met the amazed view of Abraham in his Chaldean home, or of Jacob in his flight to Padan-Aran. It may have been seen by his sons in their Egyptian bondage, or in the mighty desert through which they wandered for forty years: for though not then, as now, foretold and expected, these wondrous periodic flights of aerolites must have had existence in all past times, they must probably have been seen by many, and whenever seen, they must have excited somewhat the same feelings in hearts of ancient mould as they now do in our hearts; though possibly awe and terror and superstitious feelings had more place in their minds than in those of men to whom science has made much familiar that formerly was too sudden and too inexplicable to give to the beholders the delight which we of later years and more advanced knowledge can derive from such sights. But what are these aërolites, and whence do they come? This is a question as yet unsolved, and although the attention of astronomers is now fully at work on it, and facts are being collected on all hands, and classed and arranged, and calculations as to the exact time of their periodical appearance are proved correct, we as yet know but little about them. Guesses are made, and some of them probably include the truth, or at any rate a part of it; but much remains as yet to be discovered. Mr. Olmstead in America was the first who undertook to deal with the subject of these meteoric showers, their nature, periods, and the radiant from which they appeared to start, which he fixed at a point near the star y in Leo. The decision which he and other astronomers have at present attained is, according to Olmstead, that the meteors "emanated from a nebulous body which was then pursuing its way along with the earth around the sun; that this body continues to revolve around the sun in an elliptical orbit, but little inclined to the plane of the ecliptic, and having its aphelion near to the orbit of the earth; and finally, that this body has a period of nearly six months." This "nebulous body" is supposed to "constitute a sort of ring diffused over the whole orbit like a great highway of rolling or flying stones, though not always of equal density. The breadth of this highway or stream is compared to the moon's orbit, and it takes two or three successive years, or rather successive Novembers, for the earth to enter and clear it. These stones enter our atmosphere with a velocity of forty miles in a second. They are supposed to become ignited by the intense rapidity of their flight, and extinguished by coming in contact with our grosser air." The meteorite, so long as it is in moving through the highest regions of the air, may be called a "shooting star," or a "fire-ball," according to the apparent magnitude and brilliancy of its mass. An enormous development of heat and light is consequent on the retardations of the velocity with which it is moving, and the heat so communicated to its mass is sufficient at once to melt the outer portion of it. This matter is whirled off from the solid, and doubtless rapidly revolving body, and is dissipated around and in its path as a fine, and at first intensely incandescent dust like volcanic ash. At Sienna, in 1794, some of this ash fell with some of the stones of a meteoric shower. The "cloud" so often observed as the concomitant of an aerolitic fall, and from which indeed the aerolite is often seen to emerge, is obviously the mass of dispersed meteoric dust resulting from the ignition and fusion of outer portions of the stone. The long and often gorgeously coloured "train" of a meteor is "vapour-like matter that lies as it were on the sky, till wafted away by a wind, or till it may fall unperceived, and unperceivable lightly sown over a large area of country." The facts then which are known and generally admitted, seem to sum themselves up into the following: That a ring of nebulous matter, some say composed of stones, that once formed portions of planets that have been destroyed, and others of materials designed for the production of new worlds, revolves with the earth round the sun. That on every 13th of November and August, or some day thereabouts in each of those months, the earth It is only of comparatively late years that the is so placed in juxtaposition with the sun that idea of stones falling from the sky has been this body becomes visible to us, and the por-treated otherwise than as an old superstition; tions thrown off from it enter our atmosphere, and becoming ignited, are seen by us in the form of brilliant balls and lines of light leaving trains behind them in the sky, which are supposed to be the dust or ash from their surface in a state of ignition; and that these aërolites, often becoming visible to us for a few seconds, are expanded by the density of the atmosphere into which they have intruded, and sometimes explode, exhibiting a beautiful cluster of brilliant falling fire-balls like those from a rocket, occasionally accompanied by sound; but more frequently they vanish, as if suddenly extinguished, the trains of light usually remaining during some seconds, and even sometimes for some minutes after the ball of fire has disappeared. These aerolites are calculated to range from a distance of from 15 to 140 miles from our earth. Some enter our atmosphere, and some do not. For ages past these showers have been noted. There is a record extant of one occurring in the year 902, and from that time to this chroniclers have from time to time given notice of them. Of late years it has been decided that 33 years and about a quarter is the period between these more abundant showers, so that they occur and may be seen three times in a century, provided that the sky be not too cloudy, also that the belt of meteors is so wide that it takes two or three nights for us to pass through it, and that consequently on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of November they will be more or less visible. ancy those of the past month, occurred on the 13th November, 1799. Humboldt and others witnessed it in South America, and Mr. Elliott at sea, near Florida, and the description given is that it continued from three in the morning until after daybreak, "the meteors falling towards the earth as thick as hail." Others occurred on the same day of the month in 1814 and 1819, in Canada, also in 1831 and 1832. But "the most astonishing and awful spectacle of this class " occurred in 1833, visible on the Atlantic and in North America, but not seen in Europe on account of cloudy skies. The radiant in Leo was then determined, the stars, according to the description and plate, falling as from a fixed centre in showers like the fall of water from a fountain. But it seems to me the proof is wanting that this belt is of stones. It may be so, but although the fact that meteorites have fallen to earth is undoubted, yet in all the lists of meteoric stones in the British Museum or elsewhere, I do not find one noted as falling nearer to the 13th of November than on the 7th, and most of those whose fall is known seem to have descended in other months, leading to the supposition that although of meteoric origin, they had not formed a part of that "nebulous body" that revolves with our earth, and comes within our ken at these known periods. One of these "resplendent showers of stars," apparently far exceeding in numbers and brilli but it seems now to be fully admitted that masses of a combination of iron, nickel, silver, magnesia, sulphur and zinc, all constituent parts of the substance of our earth, though in a different state of combination from any stones found on our planet, have from the earliest times at intervals fallen to earth from some higher regions. Masses varying from a few ounces to many hundred pounds in weight, have so fallen in divers parts of the known world. They come sometimes in showers; such have occurred in several instances in France and elsewhere. In one instance a shower of near 3,000 stones fell in France, some of them weighing 17 lbs. This was in 1803. In others the fall has been confined to a single mass. Mr. Sowerby, the great English botanist, possessed one of these meteorites that fell at Wold Newton in Yorkshire on the 13th December, 1795, which weighed 56 lbs. "While this stone was in motion through the air several persons perceived a body passing along the clouds, although they were unable to ascertain what it was. It passed over several different villages, and was also accurately and distinctly heard. The day was foggy, and though there were some thunders and lightnings at a distance, it was not until the stone fell that an explosion took place, which alarmed all the adjacent country, and created distinctly a sensation that something very extraordinary had happened." One man was within 150 yards of the place when it fell; another within 60 yards; and a third was so near as to be forcibly struck by some of the mud and dirt that were raised by the stone as it struck into the earth. "In its fall the stone excavated a place 19 inches in depth (seven inches of which were in a solid rock of limestone), and somewhat more than three feet in diameter, fixing itself so firmly that some labour was required to dig it out." In some instances these stones were reported as "intensely hot "if examined immediately after their fall. Traditions have been handed down of stones falling "from heaven," "from Jupiter," or "from the sun," and these have in many instances been made objects of worship. Of such as that penned in Acts xix., 35, as "the image that fell down from Jupiter." The stone at Emessa in Syria, worshipped as a symbol of the sun, and the Caaba stone at Mecca, are supposed to have the same origin. But if indeed, as seems assuredly to be the case, these mighty masses are meteorites, and have been projected on to our earth from other spheres, and consequently are extraneous to it, and not a portion of its original material, it a little disturbs the theory which has always so delighted me, and which in the main is nevertheless true-I mean that of the indestructibleness of those things which God has created and made. It is held, and with apparent justice, unless the introduction of these meteorites may in a small degree affect the matter, that if the earth had been "weighed in the balance" on the days of its creation, and again once in every century, or more frequently, since that time up to the present hour, it would be found in these latter days to be not an ounce lighter or heavier than it was in the day when God pronounced all things that he had made to be "good." If we consider this theory in detail we shall at once see it to be a true one. Let us look back at the primeval forest. The mighty trees which then grew rose from the earth as trees do now from seeds and little germs. These seeds and germs drew up their food from the earth, sucking up the fluid nourishment that impregnated it, and offered itself to their tiny roots, until in the end they attained the mighty proportions of which we find beneath the earth relics which astonish us. Then decay set in, and they perished_as trees; but their substance perished not. It became coal. This coal we burn, and its smoke settling into soot and ashes returns to the earth to reappear in due time in the form of grass or herb or cereal, which in the course of time when ripened and consumed by man or beast, again returns to earth, to be distributed into the growth of future vegetation. And during all the period occupied in these changes the original matter is somewhere, either lying dormant in the earth in the form of silica or lime or other mineral substance, or forming a part in the bones or tissues of man or beast: or springing up into vegetable life: or it may be rushing along in the form of waters: or soaring aloft in the sky in cloud and vapour. But it is somewhere, always at work, always doing its Maker's bidding, always in some way or other benefiting God's creature-man. I have chosen the ancient forests as my starting-point, but take any form of matter that you will, and you will find that when it seems lost it is only changed, and still exists in another form. Shakspeare recognizes this idea on more than one occasion "Imperial Cæsar, dead and turned to clay, Now stops a hole to keep the wind away." And in the "Tempest " Ariel sings of the supposed drowned King of Naples "Of his bones are coral made: Into something rich and strange." But there will come a time when "bone" shall be gathered "to his bone," and sinew to his sinew, and even the materials of which our human bodies are now constructed, shall be gathered together and built up once more into their original proportions, and "that which was tion," "that which was sown in weakness shall sown in corruption shall be raised in incorrupbe raised in power," and our "humiliated body" being then "fashioned like to His glorious body," shall, preserved in its integrity, yet without sin, ascend to be once more joined with its spirit, and be "for ever with the Lord.” But if, as is no doubt the case, these meteoric stones have fallen from other spheres, and been added to the aggregate of the matter of which our earth is formed, it is so far as we know the only exception to the rule, and but little interferes with the interesting fact that all which God has ever created and made in some form or other still exists; and that nothing has since the seven days of the creation been added to the weight and "compass of the earth and all that it contains." MANNERS. "Manners," says Burke, "are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in a great measure, the laws depend. The law touches us but here and there, now and then; manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation like that of the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and colour to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them." |