his hat a thrilling pause succeeds-a vivid flash envelopes his ship and the roar of a thousand pieces of artillery succeeds.

*

*

When the sun was gilding the western hills and the shadows of evening deepening in the vallies, it was a glorious and resplendent sight from the bombarding squadron to see the Algerine frigates, cut loose from their moorings, drifting out into the harbor in a blaze of liquid flame, their yards and masts making the sign of the fiery cross. The hemisphere was one lurid mass of fire and smoke, broken at intervals by a tremendous explosion at the batteries, and a redder glare for a moment. The smoky outline of the city was stained with the flame of a thousand houses. The darkness came on the adjacent land and sea, but Algiers and the bay were bright with the fires of destruction. The shells from the fleet were projected into the city with a fearful precision, and the Congreve rockets described their rainbow arches of fire like passing meteors glaring athwart the dull eye of night.

But it was with no mock enemy that the British lion had to contend. The Impregnable, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Milne, suffered so severely that it became necessary to apprise Lord Exmouth of the state of the ship. More than two hundred officers and seamen, dead, dying and wounded encumbered her decks. The Granicus, sloop of war, took position almost between the Hebrus and the batteries, and, at every broadside of iron hail from the Hebrus, shuddered with the tremendous roar, and the concussion of the tortured air, until in mortal terror the captain sent on board begging that the Hebrus might stop her tremendous discharges and suffer the Granicus to face the battery singlehanded. The Queen Charlotte battered the Molehead into a vast heap of ruins. The thunder of the battle was terrible beyond conception. The voice of the cloud or the deep bellowings of the tempest would have been whispers in comparison. An explosion vessel, charged with one hundred and fifty barrels of powder, was sent close under the batteries and fired, and yet its earthquake voice was not even noticed by many on board the fleet. At ten o'clock at night the

enemies' fire seemed to die away all along the Mole batteries. The ammunition of the fleet was getting low-the men were falling asleep at their guns and all were so deaf that it was necessary to scream in their ears to make them comprehend an order-the Hebrus had fired away one hundred and ten barrels of powder and more than three thousand round shot-the city was as light as noonday with its own flames—and, as the work seemed pretty well accomplished, Lord Exmouth gave the glad order to cease firing and the ships drew off to refit.

A treaty of peace was the result of this tremendous half-day's work, by which Christian slavery was forever abolished in the Dey's dominions, and fifteen hundred miserable slaves, from nearly every christian country on earth, were restored to freedom at a cost of more than eight hundred killed and wounded in the bombarding fleet. Two transports were filled with those who were liberated from the cruel bondage of the Algerines. As they passed along the line of the British fleet their cheers were those of heart-rending gratitude. Tears flowed like rain down the cheeks of officers and seamen alike, when they saw those who had been rescued only by the thunder and the cloud and the flame of a terrible battle.

CABINET OF NATURE.

IMMENSE QUANTITY OF MATTER IN THE UNIVERSE; Or, Mustrations of the Omnipotence of the Deity.

Omnipotence is that attribute of the Divine Being, by which he can accomplish every thing that does not imply a contradiction-however far it may transcend the comprehension of finite minds. By his power the vast system of universal nature was called from nothing into existence, and is continually supported, in all its movements, from age to age. In elucidating this perfection of God, we might derive some striking illustrations from the records of his dispensations towards man, in the early ages of the world-when he overwhelmed the earth with the deluge, which covered the tops of the highest mountains, and swept the crowded population

of the ancient world into a watery grave-when he demolished Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, with fire from heaven-when he slew all the firstborn of Egypt, and turned their rivers into blood-when he divided the Red Sea, and the waters of Jordan before the tribes of Israel-when he made the earth open its jaws and swallow up Korah and all his company—and when he caused mount Sinai to smoke and tremble at his presence. But, these and similar events, however awful, astonishing, and worthy of remembrance, were only transitory exertions of divine power, and are not calculated, and were never intended, to impress the mind in so powerful a manner as those displays of Omnipotence which are exhibited in the ordinary movements of the material universe. We have no hesitation. in asserting, that, with regard to this attribute of the Divinity, there is a more grand and impressive display in the Works of Nature, than in all the events recorded in the Sacred History. Nor ought this remark to be considered as throwing the least reflection on the ful ness and sufficiency of the Scripture Revelation; for that revelation, as having a special reference to a moral economy, has for its object, to give a more particular display of the moral than of the natural perfections of God. The miracles to which we have now referred, and every other supernatural fact recorded in the Bible, were not intended so much to display the plenitude of the power of Deity, as to bear testimony to the Divine mission of particular messengers, and to confirm the truths they declared. It was not, for example, merely to display the energies of Almighty power, that the waters of the Red Sea were dried up before the thousands of Israel, but to give a solemn and striking attestation to all concerned, that the Most High God had taken this people under his peculiar protection-that he had appointed Moses as their leader and legislator-and that they were bound to receive and obey the statutes he delivered. The most appropriate and impressive illustrations of Omnipotence, are those which are taken from the permanent operations of Deity, which are visible every moment in the universe around us; or, in other words, those which are derived from a detail of the facts

which have been observed in the material world, respecting magnitude and motion.

In the first place, the immense quantity of matter contained in the universe, presents a most striking display of Almighty power.

In endeavoring to form a definite notion on this subject, the mind is bewildered in its conceptions, and is at a loss where to begin or to end its excursions. In or der to form something approximating to a well-defined idea, we must pursue a train of thought commencing with those magnitudes which the mind can easily grasp, proceeding through all the intermediate gradations of magnitude, and fixing the attention on every portion of the chain till we arrive at the object or magnitude of which we wish to form a conception. We must endeavor, in the first place, to form a conception of the bulk of the world in which we dwell, which, though only a point in comparison of the whole material universe, is, in reality, a most astonishing magnitude, which the mind cannot grasp, without a laborious effort. We can form some definite idea of those protuberant masses we denominate hills, which rise above the surface of our plains; but were we transported to the mountainous scenery of Switzerland, to the stupendous range of the Andes in South America, or to the Himalayan mountains of India, where masses of earth and rocks, in every variety of shape, extend several hundreds of miles in different directions, and rear their projecting summits beyond the region of the clouds-we should find some difficulty in forming an adequate conception of the objects of our contemplation. For, (to use the words of one who had been a spectator of such scenes,) "Amidst the trackless regions of intense silence and solitude, we cannot contemplate, but with feelings of awe and admiration, the enormous masses of variegated matter which lie around, beneath, and above us. The mind labors, as it were, to form a definite idea of those objects of oppressive grandeur, and feels unable to grasp the august objects which compose the surrounding scene." But what are all these mountainous masses, however variegated and sublime, when compared with the bulk of the whole earth? Were they hurled from their bases, and preci

pitated into the vast Pacific Ocean, they would all dis appear in a moment, except perhaps a few projecting tops, which, like a number of small islands, might be seen rising a few fathoms above the surface of the

waters.

The earth is a globe, whose diameter is nearly 8,000 miles, and its circumference about 25,000, and, consequently its surface contains nearly two hundred millions of square miles-a magnitude too great for the mind to take in at one conception. In order to form a tolerable conception of the whole, we must endeavor to take a leisurely survey of its different parts. Were we to take our station on the top of a mountain, of a moderate size, and survey the surrounding landscape, we should perceive an extent of view stretching 40 miles in every direction, forming a circle 80 miles in diameter, and 250 in circumference, and comprehending an area of 5,000 square miles. In such a situation, the terrestrial scene around and beneath us, consisting of hills and plains, towns and villages, rivers and lakes-would form one of the largest objects which the eye, or even the imagination, can steadily grasp at one time. But such an object, grand and extensive as it is, forms no more than the forty thousandth part of the terraqueous globe; so that before we can acquire an adequate conception of the magnitude of our own world, we must conceive 40,000 landscapes of a similar extent, to pass in review before us: and, were a scene, of the magnitude now stated, to pass before us every hour, till all the diversified scenery of the earth were brought under our view, and were twelve hours a-day allotted for the observation, it would require nine years and forty-eight days before the whole surface of the globe could be contemplated, even in this general and rapid manner. But, such a variety of successive landscapes passing before the eye, even although it were possible to be realized, would convey only a very vague and imperfect conception of the scenery of our world; for objects at the distance of forty miles cannot be distinctly perceived; the only view which would be satisfactory would be, that which is comprehended within the range of three or four miles from the spectator. (To be continued.)