him, and anxious to get through with her confession as soon as possible, exclaimed, "Oh, father, can't you stop one minute; I have something to tell you."

"I should be very glad to stay and hear it, but a gentleman is waiting for me in the library, and I cannot ;-I will send for you, however, when he is gone, if you would like to have me."

Mr. S. guessed, from Fanny's looks, the nature of what she had to tell him, and had proposed the very thing which she most wished. In less than half an hour, Fanny was sent for. She did not return to the parlor until tea time, when her mother had the pleasure of seeing, by her happy look, that her interview with her father had not been a very painful one.

On the afternoon of the 31st of December, as Fanny, Lucy, and their mother were sitting comfortably by a bright coal fire, Fanny, after putting the last stitch to her cousin's apron, triumphantly held it up to view, exclaiming, "Is it not pretty?" Lucy expressed quite as much admiration as Fanny expected, and Mrs. Selby added a few words, expressive of her pleasure that Fanny had finished it so neatly, with so little impatience, and the important intelligence that, as they were all going to uncle Henry's to dine, Fanny would have the pleasure of presenting it in person.

The next morning, Fanny came into the breakfast room, with "Happy New Year" upon her lips, and her father, as he returned the wish, said, "You have done much Fanny, by striving to conquer your own faults, to make this a happy new year for all of us, as well as for yourself. How much happier you look and feel now, than you did the afternoon when I found you in the parlor crying, because you could not do a sum in compound division.”

A WARNING.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE YOUTHS' MAGAZINE.

SIR-The following fact came under my own observation, and may perhaps serve as a beacon to warn other young people. Your's, &c. A CONSTANT READER.

"They that seek me early shall find me," is one of the promises sweetly and condescendingly tendered to the young. And did you, my dear young friends, know how delightful and pleasant it

is to seek God in the days of youth, how bitterly would you grieve that you had deferred it so long. Alas! that any should procrastinate until it is too late. Annette was a girl of a lively disposition, and the child of pious parents, who endeavored to train her up in the fear of God, but she thought as many do, that religion was not for the young-that it would be many years before she would be called from the world, and that when she had drunk her fill of pleasure, and life was wearisome, she could then become religious, and prepare for her latter end. Such, no doubt, among many others, were the thoughts that possessed her mind. But death had marked her as his prey; the commission was given, the summons had gone forth, and in a few short hours, the blooming, sprightly girl lay cold in the embraces of the great last enemy!And so rapidly was she hurried from time into eternity, and so brief was the notice given, that she lay in the stupor of her last moments before her anxious, and sorrowing friends deemed that they were her last. Thus, her short life terminated in haste, and the afflicted mourning survivors sorrowed for her, "as those who had no hope."

And now, my beloved young friends, apply this to yourselves. Annette's case might have been yours-and the tombstone which records her name, might have been engraved with your own. Oh! forget not that you too must die. You are highly favored, my young friends, by dwelling in a land illuminated by gospel truth. Above all, you are in possession of God's holy word—the precious Bible, which testifies of Jesus, shews you his unspeakable love, in dying for guilty sinners; points you to him for pardon, and assures you, that those who come to him, he "will in no wise cast out." Think not, my dear young friends, that you will drink the cup of pleasure a little longer. Call it not by a specious name; it is the cup of misery, and bitter, truly bitter, will be the dregs. Perhaps though some of you may be blessed with pious parents, as Annette was, yet you may have joined with irreligious companions, who scoff at any impression your anxious friends may wish to make on you. Heed not such companions, for if you do, the day is coming when you along with them will be covered with confusion of face: even the last great and solemn day of judgment, when all assembled nations, great and small, shall individually receive their final sentence from their Creator and their Judge.

of clouds; at least when their forms are well defined: yet it must be acknowledged that clouds often assume forms to which it is often difficult to give a name."

Clouds are said to contain electric fluid in prodigious quantities, and many terrible and destructive phenomena have been occasioned by clouds highly electrified. An extraordinary instance of this happened at Java. On the 11th of August, 1772, at midnight, a bright cloud was observed covering the mountain in the district called Cheribon, and at the same time several reports were heard like those of a gun. The people who dwelt upon the upper parts of the mountain, not being able to fly fast enough, a great part of the cloud, almost three leagues in circumference, detached itself under them, and was seen at a distance, rising and falling like the waves of the sea, and emitting globes of fire so luminous, that the night became as clear as day. The effects of it were astonishing; every thing was destroyed for seven leagues round: the houses were demolished; plantations were buried in the earth; and 2140 people lost their lives, besides 1500 head of cattle, and a vast number of horses, goats, &c.

Another instance of a very destructive cloud, is related by Mr. Brydone, in his tour through Malta. On the 29th October, 1757, about three quarters of an hour after midnight, there was seen to the S. W. of Melita, a great black cloud, which, as it approached, changed its colour, till at last, it became like a flame of fire, mixed with black smoke. A dreadful noise was heard on its approach, which alarmed the whole city. It passed over the port, and came first on an English ship, which, in an instant, was torn in pieces, and nothing left but the hulk; part of the masts, sails, and cordage were carried to a considerable distance along with the cloud. The small boats and felloques that fell in its way, were all broken to pieces and sunk. The noise increased and became more frightful. A sentinel, terrified at its approach, ran into his box; but both he and it were lifted up, and carried into the sea, where he perished. It then traversed a considerable part of the city, and laid in ruins almost every thing that stood in its way. Several houses were levelled with the ground, and it did not leave one steeple in its passage. The bells of some of them, together with the spires, were carried to a considerable distance; the roofs of the churches demolished

and beat down, &c. It went off at the N. E. point of the city, and destroying the light-house, is said to have mounted up into the air with a frightful noise; and passed over the sea to Sicily, where it tore up some trees, and did other damage; but nothing considerable, as its fury had been mostly spent at Malta. The number of killed and wounded amounted to near 200; and the loss of shipping, &c. was very considerable.

How wonderful is God in all His works, and how greatly is His power displayed in directing and controlling natural agencies. He saith to the sea, hitherto shalt thou go and no further, and holdeth the wind in his fists. The most awful devastations of the storm, are but the hiding of His power. How important to have so powerful a Being for our friend, and to know Him as our God in Christ; then may we sing,

"The God that rules on high,

And thunders when He please;
That rides upon the stormy sky,
And manages the seas;

This awful God is ours,

Our Father and our Love,

He will send down His heavenly powers
To carry us above."

THE OLD CHILD.

IGDALIA.

"Shall I tell you a story?" said my uncle Thomas.

"O yes, if you please," cried more than half a dozen voices, as the children left the table, and bustled to his favourite corner, where I had often before seen him with William on one knee, and little Mary on the other, whilst the rest, each anxious to be the nearest, grouped themselves on all sides.

"The Old Child," said my uncle; "will that do?"

"What a droll name for a story," said William.

"An old child!" said Robert; "why, I never heard of one." "But is it true?" said Charles.

"Oh, go on, father," said Charlotte, laying hold of his hand, and settling into a posture of attention.

"There have been old children," said my uncle, "in all ages and in every station, and it is the peculiar character of their infirmity

What will then be your state? There will be then only two classes-they who have despised and slighted God on earth, and they who have honored and loved him. Listen then while in your "Remember now thy

power, to his all-important exhortation,

Creator in the days of thy youth;" and to his unchangeable promise, "They that seek me early shall find me."

CLOUDS.

Can any understand the spreading of the Clouds, Job, xxxvi. 29. "CLOUDS," says Dr. Prout,* "6: Iare in reality, nothing more or less than masses of visible vapour, precisely similar to that composing fogs, but existing at a distance above the earth's surface. Clouds differ principally from mists and fogs in their mode of formation. Thus mists, like dew, are the result of the cooling of the lower strata of the atmosphere by radiation. Fogs are so far the result of radiation, that they usually arise from the influence which air cooled by radiation, exerts on warmer air; while clouds probably depend altogether on convection, and result from the intermixture of strata of air of different temperatures, and in different states of saturation in the higher regions of the atmosphere.

"Within the tropics, the clouds are most frequently higher than in the temperate zones, and in the temperate zones the clouds appear to be higher in summer than they are in winter. In the temperate zones, Gay Lussac thinks that clouds in general are upheld at an average distance from the earth's surface of between 1500 and 2000 yards. Occasionally, however, clouds have a much greater altitude; and the Cirrus, a form of cloud to be presently described, has been observed far above the greatest elevation hitherto attained by man.

"In some parts of the world, clouds are rarely seen while in other parts, the sky is seldom cloudless. Such extremes are usually confined to extreme climates, or depend upon local causes.

"In the temperate zones, from the irregularity of the atmospheric currents, and from the other innumerable circumstances calculated to disturb the equilibrium of the atmosphere, the general character of clouds varies much even under the same parallel of latitude.

* Bridgewater Treatise on Chemistry.