escape detection? Would any reasonable being appeal to those who had been his enemies for the truth of the miracles wrought by him, if no miracles whatsoever had been performed, or, at least, if nothing had been performed which was believed to be miraculous? Yet did Christ fearlessly appeal to the Jews themselves, as to the reality of his preternatural works; and Paul, in writing to the Gentile churches of Rome and Corinth and Galatia, reminds them, in letters still extant, of the miracles, which had effected the conversion of many of their members, though once bigoted and prejudiced heathens. That such appeals should be confidently made on the one hand, and freely admitted on the other, when, all the while, both parties knew full well that no miracles had been wrought: a circumstance, like this, beggars the utmost profuseness of credibility. As these appeals were fearlessly made, so not a single instance can be produced either of the denial or the detection of any one of the miracles recorded in the New Testament. Some of the persons, that wrote the histories, had conversed with Christ; and others of them were the immediate disciples of the apostles. Hence the histories were composed and published so short a time after the alleged occurrences, that numerous individuals must have been alive, who could easily have contradicted them if they were mere fabrications; and, when we consider the bitter hostility of the Jews, we cannot doubt, that their interested diligence would readily have adduced witnesses to silence, and put to merited shame such scandalous attempts to impose upon the world. Thus Matthew records, that, at two several times, near the sea of Tiberias, Christ miraculously fed five thousand men and four thousand men, besides women and children, with only a few loaves and small fishes: and thus John gives a very circumstantial account of the resuscitation of Lazarus, after he had been dead and buried four days; stating, that it took place at Bethany, which was only two miles from Jerusalem, and that many of the Jews were eye-witnesses of the fact. Now, if these matters had never occurred, what could have been more easy than their confutation? Numerous witnesses might have been brought from the neighbourhood of the lake of Tiberias, who would readily have declared, that the alleged facts of twice miraculously feeding large multitudes were wholly unknown to them: and the whole town of Bethany would have attested, that the marvellous tale of the resurrection of Lazarus was, from beginning to end, a barefaced fabrication. Yet we hear not, that these facts were ever controverted, though the Jewish rulers were, from the very first, decidedly hostile to the cause of Christianity, and though the falsification of the miracles would above all other things have promoted their object. Hence the obvious presumption is, that such facts were too notorious to be safely contradicted.-G. S. Faber. SECTION II. LESSON I.-MONDAY. JAMES WATT. Mr. James Watt, the great improver of the steam-engine, died on the 25th of August, 1819, at his seat of Heathfield, near Birmingham, in the 84th year of his age. This name fortunately needs no commemoration of ours; for he that bore it survived to see it crowned with undisputed and unenvied honours; and many generations will probably pass away before it shall have gathered "all its fame." We have said that Mr. Watt was the great Improver of the steamengine; but, in truth, as to all that is admirable in its structure, or vast in its utility, he should rather be described as its Inventor. It was by his inventions that its action was so regulated as to make it capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate manufactures, and its power so increased as to set weight and solidity at defiance. By his admirable contrivance, it has become a thing stupendous alike for its force and its flexibility-for the prodigious power which it can exert, and the ease, and precision, and ductility with which that power can be varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that can pick up pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it-draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin and forge anchors-cut steel into ribands, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves. It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits which these inventions have conferred upon this country. There is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them; and, in all the most material, they have not only widened most magnificently the field of its exertions, but multiplied a thousandfold the amount of its productions. It was our improved steam-engine, in short, that fought the battles of Europe, and exalted and sustained, through the late tremendous contest, the political greatness of our land. It is the same great power which now enables us to pay the interest of our debt, and to maintain the arduous struggle with the skill and capital of countries less oppressed with taxation. But these are poor and narrow views of its importance. It has increased indefinitely the mass of human comforts and enjoyments; and rendered cheap and accessible, all over the world, the materials of wealth and prosperity. It has armed the feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which no limits can be assigned; completed the dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of matter; and laid a sure foundation for all those future miracles of mechanic power which are to aid and reward the labours of after generations. It is to the genius of one man, too, that all this is mainly owing! And, certainly, no man ever bestowed such a gift on his kind. The blessing is not only universal but unbounded; and the fabled inventors of the plough and the loom, who were deified by the erring gratitude of their rude contemporaries, conferred less important benefits on mankind than the inventor of our present steam-engine.-Jeffrey. LESSON II.- TUESDAY. THE MECHANICAL POWERS-THE LEVER, AND WHEEL The Mechanical Powers are the Lever, the Wheel and Axle, the Pulley, the Inclined Plane, the Wedge, and the Screw. These are certain contrivances for lifting or otherwise moving large weights by the application of smaller ones. The body to be moved is termed the weight, and the force employed to move it, is termed the power. The power bears the same proportion to the weight as the space moved through by the weight does to the space moved through by the power. Workmen express this by saying, what is gained in power is lost in speed. The lever is a rigid rod, generally made of wood or iron, and working on a pivot which may be placed either at one end, or at any intermediate point. The pivot is called the fulcrum. The parts of the lever between the fulcrum and the points where the power and weight are applied, are called the arms; the one being the arm of the power, and the other the arm of the weight. Levers are of three kinds, according to the relative situations of the power, weight, and fulcrum. In a lever of the first kind, the fulcrum is situated between the power and the weight. A see-saw is a lever of this kind, the persons swinging on it acting as the power and the weight. The beam of a pair of scales is another example; also, the poker used in stirring the fire, and a crow-bar when it is pressed downwards in lifting a weight. Scissors and pincers are examples of double levers of the first kind,—the resistance being the cloth to be cut in one case, and the nail to be drawn in the other. In levers of the first kind, the arm of the power is generally, but not necessarily, greater than that of the weight. In a lever of the second kind, the weight is situated between the power and the fulcrum. The following are examples: the chipping knife used by last-makers; a wheel-barrow, where the axle of the wheel is the fulcrum, the contents of the barrow the weight, and the force exerted by the man wheeling it the power. A crow-bar, when it is pressed upwards in lifting a weight. Nut-crackers are double levers of this kind, the joint at the end being the fulcrum, the nut the weight, and the pressure of the hand the power. The arm of the power in a lever of the second kind is the whole length of the lever, and, therefore, longer than the arm of the weight, which is only a part of it. Levers of the third kind have the power situated between the weight and the fulcrum. These are chiefly used for lifting small weights through large spaces, by the application of greater weights or forces moving in smaller spaces. A fishing-rod is a lever of this kind, the hand nearest the body being the fulcrum, the other hand the power, and the bait, or fish, the weight. Fire-tongs are double levers of this kind. The mechanism of the human frame consists chiefly of such combinations. Thus, in the fore-arm, the elbow is the fulcrum, a muscle attached to the bone near the elbow acts as the power, and the hand, with anything it may contain, forms the weight. A lever of the first kind is in equilibrium when the power is to the weight as the arm of the weight is to the arm of the power:-a lever of the second kind when the power is to the weight as the arm of the weight is to the length of the lever-and a lever of the third kind when the power is to the weight as the length of the lever is to the arm of the weight. The general condition of equilibrium for all kinds of levers is thus expressed :-A lever is in equilibrium when the power and weight are inversely as the arms on which they act. The weighing machines used at toll bars and railway stations are combinations of levers chiefly of the second kind. Other combinations are often used in mills and manufactories, the weight of the first lever becoming the power of the second, and so on until an enormous pressure is exerted by that which is most remote from the primary power. The wheel and axle, though generally regarded as a distinct mechanical power, is only a modified form of the first kind of lever. The radius of the wheel or the length of the handle is the arm of the power, the radius of the axle the arm of the weight, and the centre on which the whole turns serving as the fulcrum. The wheel and axle differs also from the common form of the lever in having a rotatory motion. The power and weight are sometimes both made to act vertically by means of ropes; but more generally the power is applied to a handle, and rotates with it. A common form of this machine is used in raising water from deep wells. LESSON III.-WEDNESDAY THE MILLENNIUM. O scenes surpassing fable and yet true, |