From the history of the creation, as briefly related by Moses, and which the researches of philosophy are every day elucidating and confirming, we learn that light, as a distinct substance, was first formed, or separated from the chaotic mass. At the command of the Almighty it sprang into existence, and dispelled a portion of the darkness which had covered the face of the deep. How sublime the expression, and how potent the word which thus called it into being: "Let there be light, and there was light!"—"God saw that

it was good:" and truly we, to whom it is the source of so much pleasure and convenience, have abundant reason to feel and to declare its incomparable excellence and value.

Of the nature of light we are utterly ignorant; but with its properties and modes of action we are much better acquainted. Some have supposed that it is a fluid of a peculiar nature, diffused through all space, and brought into action and development by certain operations of other substances; while others, with more probability, consider it as given off or emitted by luminous bodies, and propagated in every direction, unless opposed by the intervention of opaque substances.

The following properties of light have been well ascertained :

1. It moves with inconceivable rapidity, its motion being swifter than that of any other known substance. When we see a cannon fired at a considerable distance, we perceive the flash long before we hear the report; and this gives us some idea, though a very imperfect one, of the swiftness of light. But no experiment confined to the earth's surface has enabled any one to calculate its velocity; even at a distance of seventy or eighty miles there appears to be no interval to denote the time of its flight. It is only by observing the heavenly bodies that the rate of its motion can be estimated. The eclipses of Jupiter's moons, as compared with the times given in the tables, have afforded astronomers the means of determining that light occupies about eight minutes in passing from the sun to the earth, so that, if he were annihilated at any given moment, he would be visible to us eight minutes beyond that time; and if he were re-created, we should not behold his rays till after as long an interval. The distance of the sun being about ninety-one-and-a-half millions of miles, the motion of light must be more than two hundred thousand miles in a second; and hence, it will fly from one pole of the earth to the other in the twenty-fourth part of a second-a velocity utterly inconceivable!

2. It is the rarest and most subtle of all known bodies.

This is proved by its great rapidity; for if its particles were not amazingly small, the momentum, or force, with which it strikes the substance upon which it falls, would not only injure the eye, but shake other substances by the violence of its stroke.

3. The rays of light proceed in straight lines, which is proved by causing light to pass through small holes into a dark room, filled with smoke or dust, and by the fact that bodies cannot be seen through bent tubes; and it may also le inferred from the form of the shadows of bodies. The intensity of light diminishes as the square of the distance from its source increases.

4. Light is emitted in all directions from every visible point of luminous bodies. If we hold a sheet of paper before a candle, or the sun, or a red hot body, or any other source of light, we find that the paper is illuminated in whatever position we hold it, provided that the light is not obstructed by its edge, or by another body; and that there are no black spaces or intervals devoid of light on the surface.

5. All bodies which are not luminous of themselves are rendered visible by light which originally comes from a body luminous of itself, such as the sun, a candle, &c. This is obvious from common experience.

6. Light consists of separate parts, independent of each other, and of separate rays which produce different colours. If we admit light through an opening into a dark room, we may stop a small portion of it by a piece of card, and allow the rest to pass; and if the rays of the sun pass through a prism and be thrown upon the wall, they may be seen separated from each other in all the colours of the rainbow.

7. All bodies throw off, in all directions, rays producing the same colour as the bodies have. This is the more remarkable, as the light from the sun which falls upon them, and renders them visible, is white or colourless. It may be shown by placing a box, properly darkened and having a small hole in the end, opposite to a rose bush, when, by looking in

through another small hole, the colours of the roses and the leaves will be seen on a card at the opposite end of the box. White is produced by a mixture of all the kinds of rays in a certain proportion; and black, by their absorption.

THE DESCRIPTION OF A FOP.

66
SHAKSPERE, KING HENRY IV."

HOTSPUR. My liege, I did deny no prisoners;
But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dressed,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reaped,
Showed like a stubble land at harvest home.
He was perfumed like a milliner;

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet box, which ever and anon

He gave his nose; and still he smiled and talked;
And, as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly, unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility!

With many holiday and lady terms

He questioned me: amongst the rest, demanded
My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.

I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
To be so pestered with a popinjay,

Out of my grief and my impatience,

Answer'd, neglectingly, I know not what ;—

He should or should not ;-for he made me mad,

To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,

And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman,

Of guns, and drums, and wounds (God save the mark!)
And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth

Was spermaceti for an inward bruise ;

And that it was great pity-so it was—
That villainous saltpetre should be dug
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow has destroyed
So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier!—
This bald, unjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answered indirectly, as I said;

And, I beseech you, let not this report
Come current for an accusation

Betwixt my love and your high majesty.

AN ESCAPE FROM A FRENCH PRISON.

PART I.

Lieutenant Boys, an officer in the British navy, has written an interesting account of his escape from the fortress of Valenciennes, where he was confined as a prisoner of war. In accomplishing his object, he had to encounter unheard-of miseries, and at the outset found considerable difficulty in persuading some of his comrades to accompany him. Having at length settled the preliminaries of escape, he thus proceeds to detail his adventures :

"Not an hour was lost in procuring everything needful for the occasion; but before we could fix the precise day, we resolved to obtain some information respecting the obstacles in our passage to the upper citadel, that being the only way by which we could possibly escape. It was necessary to be very cautious in this particular, and many schemes were suggested.

"At length, hearing that that part of the fortification abounded in wild rabbits, my greyhounds were offered to one of the gaolers, whenever he chose to make use of them; and the fellow mentioned it to the governor, who was equally pleased with the expectation of sport, for they verily believed that such beautiful English dogs could kill every rabbit they