ADVENTURES OF A BALLOON. thick mist, wherein was no vision of any kind. They knew that they were being swept onwards, but they had no means of measuring their pace or of ascertaining their destination. Emerging from the mist, they saw the open sea beneath them, dotted with ships. They counted seventeen, among them a French corvette, and they made signals to her, but she did not understand them, or at least she did not answer them. They thought they would descend and float until the corvette came up and took them off; but the ubiquitous Uhlan was there, as everywhere else—that is to say, a vessel, no doubt German, fired at them, and they had once more to exchange the perils of the water for the perils of the air. Rising again, they were hurled along with a speed that dizzied the eye and bewildered the brain. They were being swept away toward the frozen sea, but for them the mysteries of the Arctic Pole, the problem of the North-west passage, would remain unsolved, for long ere they reached that wonderful but desolate region they would be stiffened corpses, congealed to death. So they gave themselves up for lost, and they sent out one of their carrier pigeons, not as Noah sent forth his dove to return with the token of deliverance, but to convey to Paris the tidings of their destination. Yet "Hope springs eternal in the human breast," and even in the hour of despair the travellers would not neglect one last chance of salvation. They let down a rope, which dragging through the sea, somewhat retarded their terrific pace. At last there was land again. They threw out one of their bags of letters, and, lightened, the balloon shot upwards. They had no desire to continue their voyage towards the North Pole, so they opened the valve, let out some of their gas, descended to the tops of the trees, and at last, after much difficulty, succeeded in making the balloon fast, and alighting almost unhurt on the solid earth. Where are they? They had not the faintest conception. They were ravenously hungry, cruelly cold; the escaping gas nearly suffocated them, and they both fainted. There was not a house near, not a sign of humanity. All around was snow and the pine forest. Presently they caught sight of some creatures moving about; they were wolves. If the wolves had been as hungry as the aëronauts, it would have gone badly with MM. Rolier and Deschamps, especially as there were only two men to three beasts. But perhaps because messieurs les loups had dined quite recently, they did not attack the new comers. These continued their toilsome journey, and after plunging through the snowdrifts, came THE SCOTTISH MARTYRS. upon a cabin where a fire was burning. It was empty, but soon two wood-cutters entered, and then began one of those pantomimes to which since Babledom poor mankind has, for want of a common language, been reduced whenever it goes a few miles beyond its own home. The Frenchmen naturally enough wished to know where in the world they were. But though they tried the purest Parisian accent, their hosts could not understand a word. One of them had a box of matches in his hand, and a happy thought seized M. Rolier; he took the box and read on it, "Christiana." So they were in Norway, and they had made the journey of 600 miles or more in thirteen hours, thus handsomely beating the Scotch limited mail to Inverness by five hours. Presently the pastor, and the engineer of the mines, appeared. The latter was, of course, called Nillssen-everybody is called Nillssen in Norway, just as everybody is called Smith in England. The engineer not being English, was of course a good linguist, and understood the story of the aëronauts, and put them in the way to Christiana. At Drammen they found their balloon had been caught, and they received in safety their letters, instruments, and carrier-pigeons. The balloon they presented to the University of Christiana, where it will be one of the most remarkable articles of the very miscellaneous museum. THE SCOTTISH MARTYRS. a THEIR "life was hid with Christ in God." They habitually "saw Him who is invisible." They fed on the "hidden manna' heavenly and immortal food." Like the steeds of Achilles, no pabulum less than celestial touched their spiritual palates. It was this which supported them in the moors, and gave them, in solitudes and on scaffolds, meat to eat of which their enemies knew not. In a manner we can hardly even now conceive, they seemed to have realized God in all their ways, and to have felt that His word was nigh them. His awe was a shadow along their path. His love was felt like another mantle around their chilled and cowering frames. They renewed, in many points, the Hebrew's feelings of his Maker. No need of demonstrating a God to them or demonstrating Him to others. This process-a process in itself impossible-they never even attempted to perform. They lived, moved, and had their being in God. Every shadow or sunbeam which fell on them was that of the Great Whole. He THE SCOTTISH MARTYRS. watched over their slumber; He was the real guard on the mountain top: He delivered them out of the hand of their enemies; and sometimes He delivered their enemies into their hands. It is curious how the religion of the Jews has rooted itself more deeply in Scotland than in any other quarter of the globe; how this fiery exotic of a torrid clime has flourished best in the land of mist and snow. Many reasons might be assigned for this. Both countries, amid their diversities of climate, or mountain-lands, full of bold, rocky scenery, of ravines and of rivers, and with lakes reposing in the midst of barren mountains, and with rich vales alternating with gloomy desolation. Owing partly to their scenery, and partly to their poverty and insulation, both the Hebrews and the Scotch have been a thoughtful people, inclined to religion, awe-struck by the visible phenomena of the universe, and fond of looking at things in their great masses. More of the analytic element has gradually, indeed, been developed from the Scottish mind, but the fragments of Celtic and border poetry which are extant, serve to prove a striking original resemblance in genius between the two nations, which in both was bold, figurative, lyrical, and fonder of the rude sublime than of the delicate and the beautiful. Hence one reason of the ready and warm reception with which Christianity was welcomed in Scotland, the tenacity with which it has been retained, and the deep and solemn colouring with which it has tinged the popular mind. Hence, too, the reason why the spirit of the Old Testament has met with a profounder response than that of the New; the cosmopolitan aspect, the loving spirit, the gentle and child-like tone of which were less congenial than the severer purpose, the sterner fire, the more condensed and darker zeal, and the poetic ardours of the prophets, and have been less. diligently and successfully transplanted into the Scottish soil. The apostles of the Lamb are less suggested to us by the Camerons, Renwicks, and Rutherfords, than are the Elijahs, Ezekiels, and Malachis of the old dispensation, in their "deep-furrowed garments of trembling," their metaphorical speech, the hurrying movement of their thought and style, which seems to fling itself, like an impatient eagle, from crag to crag, and the anger which surrounds them, as with flames of devouring fire, and renders the place where they stand dreadful and insulated, like the top of Sinai on that morning when it was "all of a smoke," as the feet of Jehovah burned upon it.-Gilfillan. ABOUT THE SUN. ABOUT THE SUN. WHEN the sun is rising in the early morning he does not shine so brightly that one's eyes are blinded by the light. We may look at him then as steadily and as carefully as we please. It is a curious fact that few persons can agree about his size as they see him there. One will see that the bright disk is about as large around as a tea-saucer, another will compare it to a dinner-plate, a third will say that, to him, it seems to be about two feet in diameter, while now and then a person will be found who declares it to look to him as large as a cart wheel. But even if all could agree as to the size which the sun appears to be, it would teach them nothing of the size which it really is. A tall man, if a mile away, looks no larger than a boy, and a little bush near to us may hide a mountain in the distance. If we remember that the sun is more than ninety-one millions of miles away, we can easily see that to appear to be even as large as a tea saucer his real size must be immense. It has been very carefully measured, and found to be eight hundred and fifty-two thousand five hundred and eighty-four miles from one side to the other through the centre. One hundred and eight worlds the size of ours, lying side by side, would scarcely reach once across the sun! How little we know, even from this description, of the vast size of the sun! Why, if its centre could be put where the centre of the earth is, the sun would reach to the moon and almost two hundred thousand miles beyond. We think that the earth is very large. It is so large that, with all his travelling, a man can never see more than a small fraction of its surface, even though he spend years in going from place to place. But there are other planets much larger than the earth. Jupiter is more than 1,200 times larger; Saturn is more than 600, and Neptune more than 80 times larger than our earth. But what is even the size of Jupiter when compared with that of the sun, which is about 600 times larger than all the planets together! Astronomers have measured the size of the sun with very great care. You will some day, if you study astronomy, learn just how they have done it, In the meantime I will tell you how it can be done, if you are content to do it roughly, and get results which are only somewhere near the truth. Take a piece of cardboard and cut out a circle a few inches in diameter-just large enough to exactly hide the surface of the sun, when held in front of the eye POETRY. as far as your hand can reach. While you hold the card before you, just so that it covers the disk of the sun, let a friend measure carefully the distance from your eye to the card. Now the sun will be just as many times larger than the card, as the distance is times greater than the distance of the card from your eye, so that if you divide the sun's distance say 92,000,000 miles, by the distance of the card, and multiply the diameter of the card by the quotient, you will get the diameter of the sun. Is not this an easy way to measure the size of a body which can never be reached by any human traveller? Poetry. TWO SONGS. Two songs go up together from the earth; The low, sad wail of mortal grief and sadness. Because her darling son has come to honour; Whose darling son has brought disgrace upon her. Hark! the glad music on the morning air When the sweet summer day is just awaking; And hark, afar, those accents of despair, On the wild shores where stormy waves are breaking; Here rings aloud some merry marriage bell, And some fair bride goes with her maids attended; And here is tolling the sad, funereal knell, As some young happy mother's life is ended. And so moves on the pilgrimage of earth, Our pathway now in light, now dark and dreary; In that fair land beyond the gloomy river, |