MEMOIR OF JOHN THOMSON.

Ir is an easy matter for individuals surrounded by titles, fame, and fortune, to find skilful biographers ready to expatiate upon their virtues, even when suspicion whispers that their characters are more indebted to the liberality of friendship, than to the dictates of impartiality, for the elegant posthume attire in which they appear. But while it will be allowed that learning, science, and genius have their real ornaments, it cannot be denied that virtue thrives with as much luxuriance in the peasant's cottage as in the bishop's palace. In the humble walks of life, indeed, the flower of moral excellence is too frequently destined,

"to blush unseen, And lose its sweetness in the desert air;"

and hence it is, that virtues, which would have been more than sufficient to send nobility to heaven, are suffered to flourish unnoticed, and to disappear without leaving any record of their existence.

This, however, is not always the case. Moral worth sometimes shines with a degree of brilliancy which neither negligence nor calumny dares to eclipse. Of this we have an instance in the case before us, in which the hand of justice is extended, to rescue from oblivion the name of a man, whose character, being worthy of imitation, deserves to be transmitted to posterity. [EDITOR.]

Some time in November, 1825, died, at Hill Cliff, near Warrington, John Thomson, aged 78; of whom it may be said, with the strictest truth, he was a man of God; and though brought up in humble life, was rich in grace, in faith, and in every good work. The society of Baptists having a meetinghouse at the above-mentioned place, he, being of that persuasion, applied for it, and officiated there for many years. His labours were great and unremitting, preaching three times on Sundays, and every night in the week, except Saturday; he also officiated at stated places in the neighbourhood,

some of them from four to six miles from Latchford, which was then his place of abode. During his ministry, he added many to the congregation, and betwixt four and five hundred were

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baptized by him. Notwithstanding this incessant labour, he supported himself entirely by keeping a school, for he never had, nor ever would take, any thing from his hearers. His invitation to them was, Come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price." He had, during his ministry, a trifling legacy left him, but this, with what he saved out of his school labours, he bestowed in acts of liberality, and gave to the poor. With good John Wesley, he got what he could, and gave what he got.

Being asked, on one occasion, for relief to buy shirts for the needy, he replied, "I laid some money by to purchase some for myself, but you are come at a good time, I am rich, take it and welcome. His late majesty, George the Third, had not a more loyal subject; during his various trials and agonizing afflictions, he supplicated a throne of grace on his account, with the most fervent and pious prayers. His self-denial and abstemious mode of living are portrayed by the manner of his journey to Snowden. This he performed on foot, tak ing the earth for his bed, and the hea vens for his covering; and though he was five days in performing it, eigh teen-pence was the whole of his expenditure, except a small loaf of bread which he took with him. He delighted in these excursions; in a garden not more than five yards square, he erected Snowden in miniature, which abounded with such rare and indigenous plants, as in his travels he had collected. The silene acaulis, saxifraga hirsuta, &c. &c. flourished under his fostering hand, and grew luxuriantly. He was supported through a scene of old age and affliction, for some time, by the contributions of his numerous friends. He departed in peace as above stated, and is gone, through Christ Jesus, to receive the fruit of his labour-a crown of glory, with many seals to his ministry. There was scarcely a dry eye, or a heart unaffected, at his funeral. His grave was bedewed with the tears of genuine affection, and every action of all present, proved the love and respect they bore to his undissembled piety, his

great usefulness, and unblemished character. MARTHA HEART.

Hill Top, Latchford.

OBSERVATIONS ON

"God saw that it was Good!" Gen. i. DR. ADAM CLARKE, in his commentary on the above-mentioned chapter, remarks:-"If the account of the second day stood originally as it does now, no satisfactory reason can be given for the omission of this expression of the Divine approbation of the work wrought by his wisdom and power on that day."

The opinion here given by so learned and talented a man as Dr. Clarke, would seem to leave no room for farther investigation; and perhaps an apology may be considered necessary by some, for undertaking to controvert his judgment. This liberty I take, from the acknowledged fallibility of all men, and from a cast of mind I possess naturally, which resists the admission of opinions without proof. Whether I am right in the present instance, my readers, with your permission, Mr. Editor, must judge.

In the account of the Creation, we have the latter part of the fourth, and the whole of the fifth verses, (containing the account of the division of light and darkness, and the designation of day and night,) as well as those alluded to by Dr. Clarke, without the expression in question. Now, it cannot but appear obvious, upon consideration, that these works, from which the approbation is withheld, are intimately connected with the creation of the fourth day. And Dr. Clarke himself appears to have considered them in this light, for he calls their connexion (in his notes on the eighth Psalm) "the fitting of space to matter, and matter to space."

We are justified, then, in considering them as parts necessary and preparatory to the completion of one great whole, and also that, until their union in it, they could not be considered fully perfect, and, therefore, not till | then worthy of the approbation in question;-for though the firmament was formed on the second day, yet it could not appear in all its glory till the fourth; when having created the celestial bodies, we read, "He set them in the firmament of the heaven,

to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the dark

ness."

And on the fourth day, we find the approbation, which was withheld from their unconnected, and, if we may so speak, imperfect state, fully expressed, on contemplating all the stupendous fabric perfected in that whole, so beautifully described in the eighth and nineteenth Psalms, where the firmament and the celestial bodies are considered collectively, as constituting that glorious system, the starry heavens.

Here then we have " a satisfactory reason" for the omission of the divine approbation, and another proof, in addition to the many, of the accuracy of the Sacred Writings. Z. Z. A.

W. RENNICK, Jun. "Easter Sunday, 1818, 12 at Night. WE have just witnessed one of the most brilliant spectacles in the world, -the illumination of St. Peter's, and the girandola, or fire-works, from the Castle St. Angelo. In general, they are now only given at the anniversary of the festival of St. Peter, which falls in the middle of summer, when Rome is deserted by every stranger, and by all the inhabitants who can escape; but this year, the old custom of exhibiting them on the evening of Easter Sunday, has been revived, in compliment to the prince royal of Bavaria, who has been here several months; and it is only one of the many pleasures his residence at Rome has yielded to those who have enjoyed the advantage of his acquaintance.

"At Ave Maria we drove to the Piazza of St. Peter's. The lighting of the lanternoni, or large paper lanterns, each of which looks like a globe of ethereal fire, had been going on for an hour, and, by the time we arrived there, was nearly completed. As we

passed the Ponte San Angelo, the appearance of this magnificent church, glowing in its own brightness, the millions of lights reflecting in the calm waters of the Tiber, and mingling with | the last golden glow of evening, so as to make the whole building seem covered with burnished gold, had a most striking and magical effect.

"Our progress was slow, being much impeded by the long line of carriages before us; but at length we arrived at the Piazza of St. Peter's, and took our station on the right of its farther extremity, so as to lose the deformity of the dark, dingy Vatican palace. The gathering shades of night rendered the illumination every moment more brilliant. The whole of this immense church, its columns, capitals, cornices, and pediments-the beautiful swell of the lofty dome, towering into heaven, the ribs converging into one point at top, surmounted by the lantern of the church, and crowned by the cross-all were designed in lines of fire; and the vast sweep of the circling colonnades in every rib, line, mould, cornice, and column, were resplendent with the same beautiful light.

"While we were gazing upon it, suddenly a bell chimed. On the cross of fire, at the top, waved a brilliant light, as if wielded by some celestial hand, and instantly ten thousand globes and stars of vivid fire seemed to roll spontaneously along the building, as if by magic; and self-kindled, it blazed in a moment into one dazzling flood of glory. Fancy herself, in her most sportive mood, could scarcely have conceived so wonderful a spectacle as the instantaneous illumination of this magnificent fabric. The agents by whom it was effected were unseen, and it seemed the work of enchantment. In the first instance, the illuminations had appeared to be complete, and one could not dream that thousands and tens of thousands of lamps were still to be illumined. Their vivid blaze harmonized beautifully with the softer, milder light of the lanternoni. The brilliant glow of the whole illumination shed a rosy light upon the fountains, whose silver fali, and ever-playing showers, accorded well with the magic of the scene.

"Viewed from the Trinitá de Monti, its effect was unspeakably beautiful: it seemed to be an enchanted palace

hung in the air, and called up by the wand of some invisible spirit. We did not, however, drive to the Trinitá de Monti till after the exhibition of the girandola, or great fire-works, from the castle of St. Angelo, which commenced by a tremendous explosion, that represented the raging eruption of a volcano. Red sheets of fire seemed to blaze upwards into the glowing heavens, and then to pour down their liquid streams upon the earth. This was followed by an incessant and complicated display of every varied device that imagination could figure, one changing into another, and the beauty of the first effaced by that of the last. Hundreds of immense wheels turned round with a velocity that almost seemed as if demons were whirling them, letting fall thousands of hissing dragons, scorpions, and fiery snakes, whose long convolutions darting forward as far as the eye could reach in every direction, at length vanished into air. Fountains and jets of fire threw up their blazing cascades into the skies. The whole vault of heaven shone with the vivid fires, and seemed to receive into itself innumerable stars and suns, which, shooting up into it in brightness almost insufferable, vanished like earth-born hopes.

"The reflection in the depth of the calm, clear waters of the Tiber, was scarcely less beautiful than the spectacle itself; and the whole ended in a tremendous burst of fire, that, while it lasted, almost seemed to threaten conflagration to the world.

"But this great agent of destruction was here wholly innoxious. Man, who walks the earth, ruling not only the whole order of beings, but the very elements themselves, has turned that seemingly uncontrollable power, which might annihilate the very globe itself, into a plaything for his amusement, and compelled it to assume every whimsical and fantastical form that his fancy dictates. It alone, of all things in existence, reversing the order of nature, rises from earth towards the skies; yet, even this he has bowed to his will. Wonderful as these fireworks were, and let not that name lead you to imagine they bore any resemblance to those puny exhibitions of squibs and crackers, which we denominate fire-works in England; for nothing could be more different.Wonderful as they were, the illumi

where the passive handkerchief was a warning memento to the elected one to snatch a kiss from his laughing maid. It was not the vain salute that made all seem so delightful; it was their lively voices, and the sport they had chosen, in conjunction with the spot, a grass-plot overshadowed by a circular extension of golden laburnums and purple lilac-trees. Reflection was not there, nor had melancholy intruded on the mirth of the young Hebes and their happy companions. We bent our footsteps towards home, as Sol was hastily bidding us good by," and retraced our verdant path of the morning. The hum of passing crowds did not prevent us from indulging those recurrences of thought, in which the heart will oft indulge.

Evening, season of the soul!-in thy shadowy reign, how oft have I reflected, repented, and resolved!-reflected on acts of inadvertency,-and resolved on reformation. The stars that glistened in the blue of heaven, with all the darkly shrouded woods beneath, brought to our recollection the poet of night, (Young) and we arrived at home with ideas elevated by his dazzling coruscations of wisdom, convinced more than ever of "the mutability of human affairs." June 9th, 1825. G. Y. HARRISON.

2.-The axes of the eyes are not parallel,-for both eyes are directed to one object, from which a central ray proceeds to each; the axes of the eyes therefore meet on the object: but "parallel lines produced ever so far both ways, do never meet." Hence it follows, that the axes of the eyes are not parallel, but inclined to each other.

3.-Glasses should not be in the same plane with one another, or, in other words, their axes should not be parallel, -for the axis of the eye will adapt itself to that of the lens. But the axes of the eyes are NATURALLY inclined to each other; therefore the axes of the glasses should incline to each other.

The quadrature of the circle and the trisection of an angle have never been fully accomplished; yet both are resolved sufficiently to answer general purposes. And though the Optician cannot adapt his glasses to the variable inclination of the axes of the eyes, he can and does give a slight curvature to the frame, which makes the axes of the eye and lens, in every instance, approximate very nearly to a straight line.

The focal distance of the glasses, to the wearer, is the radius of the circle, whereof the curvature of the frame should be an arc. Jan. 13, 1826.

Yours, &c. ZELIM.

ON THE USE OF SPECTACLES.
MR. EDITOR.

SIR,-IN your Gleanings for January, col. 107, I observed an admonitory bint to persons wearing spectacles, which has induced me to lay this paper before you :

Glasses that are not properly adapted to the eye, certainly tend to injure that organ, and to bring on complete loss of sight; but the "Advice" to which I refer, will not prevent the bad effects of ill-adjusted glasses, it being in itself philosophically wrong.

1.-The axis of the eye will adapt itself to that of the lens,-for the axis of the glass is the central ray, perpendicular to its plane, which, passing through the least density of medium, must be the strongest. Now, by the same reason that the eye is drawn insensibly to the strongest lights in a painting, the axis of the eye will fall into a straight line with that of the lens.

GLEANINGS.

A severe Blow to the Slave-trade. We learn, with much pleasure, that the Sherbro Bulloms, a people on the coast of Africa, in by their savage neighbours, have placed themthe vicinity of Sierra Leone, being harassed

crown, as the only way by which they could selves under the protection of the British avoid death or slavery. The negociation was ratified between the chiefs of the Sherbro Bullom tribe, and His Excellency Major-General Charles Turner on behalf of his Britannic Matreaty, the particulars may be seen at large in jesty, on the first of October, 1825. Of this the Missionary Register for December last.

The importance of this acquisition to the cause of humanity, to say nothing of commerce, which appeared in the Sierra Leone Gazette of may be gathered from the following paragraphs October 15th.

"On Tuesday afternoon, His Majesty's Colonial Brig Susan returned to this harbour, from the Shebar and Sherbro River, after an absence of three weeks. His Excellency the Governor

and suite landed under a salute from the batte ries. We are truly happy to find that the grand objects, for which these expeditions

have been undertaken at this inclement season