NOTES ON LITERATURE, &c. American papers are remarking on the absence of all literary effort in the Crimea, and are therein noting a characteristic difference between the surroundings of an American and of an English army. The London Athenæum says: "The contrast is fair. The selflaudation is not unjust. Our readers know that when the Yankees marched into Mexico they carried with them a printing press, and published a newspaper along the line of invasion. Across prairies, through dangerous passes, over mountain ranges, sometimes on mules, oftener on men's shoulders, occasionally in wagons-traveled press, paper, type and ink-editors, contributors, and pressmen-fighting, foraging, writing, working onward. Infinite were the uses of the press. It carried orders through the camp. Every morning the soldier read in it the story of the previous day. It anticipated the gazettes. It disseminated orders of the day; it perpetuated the gossip of the camp; reflected public opinion in the army; made known every want; supplied every information; exercised, inspired, and animated every heart. Had the Americans been in the Crimea, they would have had daily papers at Balaklava, Eupatoria, Yenikale and Constantinople; and these papers reflecting the humors, incidents and life of the camp-would have ranked among the best historical documents on the war. As it is, our soldiers in the Crimea are indebted to the London journals for authentic information of what occurs in the camp itself, and within a mile or two of their own tents. Jonathan is far ahead of us in some respects." To Mr. Bancroft and through him to American literature, the compliment has recently been paid of a Danish translation of his History of the United States, three volumes of which have already appeared in Copenhagen, the first in 1853, and the second and third in 1854. A good deal of interest in the history of our country and her institutions is felt in Denmark, which the appearance of this translation cannot fail to augment. The Danish work bears the title, "De forenede Staters Historie, fra Opdagelsen af det Americanske Fastland, af George Bancroft. Oversat af Chr. Wulff." We understand that Mr. Wulff is a man of great accomplishments and perfect knowledge of the English language; he has the highest admiration for the progress of freedom in America, and his labor in his excellent translation has been one of enthusiasm and love. am Ar a sale of autograph letters in London, recently, a characteristic note from Benjamin Franklin brought one pound and nineteen shillings. It ran: "Mr. Strahan-You are a member of Parliament, and one of that majority which has doomed my country to destruction. You have begun to burn our towns and murder our people. Look upon your hands! They are stained with the blood of your relations! You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy, and I Yours, B. FRANKLIN. THE Perth Courier says, Mr. J. N. Nevin, gardener, has succeeded in fabricating paper and rope from the common garden hollyhock, and has patented his invention under the title of "Nevin's Patent Hollyhock Paper and Rope." The paper is of the appearance and texture of that used for small bags and parcels by grocers, etc., and is very clean and firm. The rope is about half an inch thick, light and shining in color, and apparently of considerable strength. THE Boston Public Library building, of which the corner stone was laid, with appropriate ceremonies, a few days since, will be 82 feet in front, 128 feet deep, two stories in height, beside the basement. It will be built of brick, with free-stone facings. The architecture will be of the Roman school of Italian architecture, plainly fashioned, and without elaborate ornament. The first story will be 21 feet high; the second 52 feet high, containing the library room, 40 by 85 feet, with ample alcoves for books. The first story will contain the reading and conversation room, and it is here that the books will be distributed. The upper rooms will contain accommodation for 200,000 volumes, and the shelves to be erected in the lower room will give space for 40,000 more. The building will be entirely fire-proof. THE N. York Historical Society held their monthly meeting October 2nd. A document said to have been written by Geo. Washington was presented to the Society by Rev. Mr. Tweed. A painting of N. York a year after its capture from the Dutch, was also exhibited in the Societyroom, presented by Mr. John McGregor, M. M., from the city of Glasgow, through the Hon. James Buchanan. VOL. VI.-DECEMBER, 1855.-No. XII. PARABLES. FROM THE GERMAN BY THE EDITOR. I. THE WORLD IN A DROP OF WATER. AFTER a fearful summer shower, a father went forth with his child into the garden. Here all the flowers, hung around in drops, gave thanks and praise to God with their delightful odor. The child rejoiced with the freshness of nature, and stretched forth its hands towards a beautiful rainbow, which had arched the whole heaven. "How blessed," said the father, "is our Father in His great creations above us. How all His works praise Him: the rainbow, even as the refreshed flowers: the warming and the light-giving sun by day, the silver moon and twinkling stars by night! Who counts their hosts, and who calls them all by their names? But, my child," he added, "do not seek the great only in what seems great; for in this little rain-drop there is also a world, infinite like those worlds above." Now the father permitted his child to look at a drop of rain through a magnifying glass. "What do you see?" asked the father. "I see," said the child, "an infinite number of little worms, in a large bright globe: they all spring up and down, full of joy, and are very busy. Whence come all these creatures, O father? They are all so different in their forms, and they are countless in number." "All this," said the father, "has God made. His works are infinite-infinitely small as well as infinitely great. In a drop of water there is also a WORLD." THEO. SCHwartz. II. THE LOVE OF GOD. John, the pious John, one evening as the sun was setting, and the sky was still red from his departing light, sat and taught on a VOL, VI.-23 mountain under the shade of a tall palm-tree. His silver locks hang around his peaceful countenance, and his eye glistened with youthful freshness in the red beams of the evening sun. Close around him reclined a circle of blooming youths, all listening to the lovely words of wisdom which dropped from his lips like the dew of heaven from the cups of the field-lily. "Children," he began, "God is love, and they that dwell in love dwell in God, and God in them. Do you see the beautiful sunbeams that fall at our feet? How can these beams exist without the sun from which they come? How can man exist without God? Children, he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God in him." So spoke the gray-haired man, and a silent prayer, like a sigh, flowed tremblingly from his lips. The youths were silent with reverence. Behold! now from the west the evening wind came playing in the tops of the lofty palms, and the friendly teacher began anew: "Do you hear the breathing presence of God in the sacred branches? The spirit of the Lord comes in the soft voice over us, and the palm-leaves rustle. How deep it has struck its roots into the bosom of the loving earth! and out of the deep it draws forth the nurturing sap. sends it up into the spreading branches and the tall top, that it y become life-giving to the waving leaves, and the fragrant bossoms. Thus it grows, vigorous and lovely, forming for itself high in the air a rustling crown, and lifts its arms longingly up towards the light of heaven. "So, also, does man rest in God, and in his love, and opens for itself in God the fountain and the power of life, that his days may be full of fragrance and bloom, and that he may turn his face towards the bright beams of eternal life. See! it is the love of God which infuses fragrance and bloom into earthly life." Here the friendly teacher arose and walked with his scholars towards his dwelling in the valley below. While now they were descending from the mountain, behold! they found a palm-tree lying upon the earth, which was dead and dry. A storm from the north had cast down the power of the trunk, broken the limbs, and torn the roots out of the earth, so that it was dead. The friendly, gray-haired man stood still, and the features of love changed into the earnestness of sorrow. "Behold!" he said, "here is an emblem of men who have torn away from the love of God. The freshness and the fountain of their life is wasted, and the rich odor of its bloom-days is withered leaves." A tear trembled in his pious eye, and he said: "Children, God is love, and those that dwell in love dwell in God, and God in them." --RONNE. THE TREES OF THE BIBLE. NO. XIV.THE SYCAMORE TREB. BY THE EDITOR "Zaccheus he, Did climb the tree, His Lord to see." THE Hebrew name of this tree is Schikmim. The English name is derived from a Greek, or rather from two Greek words: Suke, a fig, and moros, a mulberry. There is a reason for this combination in the nature of the tree itself. It partakes of the nature of two distinct species, the mulberry and the fig. It has a leaf like the mulberry, and a fruit like the fig. Some have imagined that it was originally produced by engrafting the one tree upon the other. This tree is common in Palestine, in Arabia, and in Egypt. It is a spreading tree, which may furnish the reason why Zaccheus climbed upon it; from one of its branches extending over the way he could look down on the Saviour as he passed. It is often so thick that three men joining hands can hardly reach round the trunk. Hasselgriest says the stem is often fifty feet thick. Its wood is much used in building, and is said to be very durable. Dr. Shaw says, in his travels in Egypt, "The mummy chests, and whatever figures and instruments of wood are found in the catacombs, are all of them of sycamore, which, though spongy and porous to appearance has, notwithstanding, continued entire and uncorrupted for at least three thousand years." On account of this virtue of its wood, as well as for the grateful shade afforded by its wide-spreading branches, and its useful fruit, it was held in the highest estimation by the Egyptians. Mr. Norden, in his travels into Egypt and Nubia, gives us a particular description of this interesting tree. "The sycamore is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in a manner quite different from other trees; it has them on the trunk itself, which shoots out little sprigs in the form of grape-stalks, at the end of which grow the fruit, close to one another, almost like clusters of grapes. The tree is always green, and bears fruit several times in the year, without observing certain seasons; for I have seen some sycamores that have given fruit two months after others. The fruit has the figure and smell of real figs, but is inferior to them in the taste, having a disgustful sweetness. Its color is a yellow inclining to an ochre, shadowed by a flesh color. In the inside it resembles the common figs, excepting that it has a blackish coloring with yellow spots. This sort of tree is pretty common in Egypt; the people, for the greater part, live upon its fruit, and think themselves well regaled when they have a piece of bread, a couple of sycamore figs, and a pitcher of water.' Paxton says that the sycamore tree produces fruit as high as seven times a year, though it bears only one crop annually that can be called perfectly formed and perfectly ripened fruit; the rest is of inferior quality. We find the sacred writers several times referring to sycamores and cedars in contrast. 1 Kings 27; 2 Chron. 1: 15-27; Is. 9: 40. Though the sycamore was a magificent tree and durable in its wood, the cedar was regarded still more so. The latter, however, was a more rare tree than the cedar. To "make cedar as a sycamore," or to "change cedar into sycamore," denotes a promise of blessing, of increased favor. The sycamore figs are very easily gathered. They seem to have such little hold upon the tree, that, as one says, "if they be shaken they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater." Even before they are ripe they are easily cast. This explains that solemn passage in the Revelation of John: "And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind." This also explains why a particular officer was appointed, in the reign of David, whose sole duty it was to watch over the sycamore and olive groves. 1 Chron. 27: 28. The prophet Amos, before his call to the sacred office, was "a gatherer of sycamore fruit." Amos 7: 14. On this passage Paxton makes the following instructive remarks: "Pliny and other natural historians allege, that it continues immature till it is rubbed with iron combs, after which it ripens in four days. It is not an operation of this kind to which the prophet Amos refers, in the text which we translate, 'I was a gatherer of sycamore fruit?' The Septuagint seems to refer it to something done to the fruit, to hasten its maturity; probably to the action of the iron comb, without an application of which the figs cannot be eaten, because of their intolerable bitterness. Parkhurst renders the phrase, a scraper of sycamore fruit; which he contends, from the united testimony of natural historians, is the true meaning of the original term. The business of Amos, then, before his appointment to the prophetical office, was to scrape or wound the fruit of the sycamore tree, to hasten its maturity and prepare it for use. Simon renders it a cultivator of sycamore fruit, which is perhaps the preferable meaning; for it appears that the cultivation of this fig required a variety of operations, all of which it is reasonable to suppose, were performed by the same persons. To render the tree fruitful, they scarified the bark, through which a kind of milky liquor continually distilled. This, it is said, causes a little bough to be formed without leaves, having upon it sometimes six or seven figs. The are hollow, without grains, and contain a little yellow |