I have never seen Isabel since that last night; when we parted, we parted for ever.

It may be a satisfaction to my readers to know that I became acquainted with the brother of Clarice Cavendish, and that he fully forgave the one who had so wronged us both. But I never have been, and never can be, gay and worldly as I was before my girlish trouble; it stamped upon my character an impression that will never be eradicated-no, never.

I am happy in the knowledge that Clarice was

not what I was led to believe; I am sad that I accredited the words of a jealous school-girl before the testimony of a whole year's faithful friendship.

And now my simple story is at an end; and if it has led a single reader to put no faith in gossiping tales, but to apply at once to the one to whom the wrong is attributed for an explanation, it will not have been written in vain, and my object and hopes will be amply fulfilled. FANNY GLOVER MANN.

L

we shall exhibit both sorts of pictures. While writing, we shall try to present to our good and thoughtful readers bold and striking portraits of certain notable persons; and these portraits will be illustrated by excellent pictures.

(2.) Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" is a grand book, and it is brimful of capital pictures. Bunyan was a great poet, a great painter, and a great preacher. His matchless book was written in prison. For twelve long and weary years he was confined in gaol because of his intense love to Jesus Christ, and his brave resolve to preach and practise the glorious gospel.

(3.) Bunyan lived in a great age. He was born in 1628 and died in 1688. The seventeenth century was probably the most stormy and eventful period in English history. It was an age great in its virtues and vices, in its victories and defeats, in its prosperity and adversity. It was an age of great men, great poets, warriors, scholars, saints, and martyrs. But of all the great men who lived in the seventeenth century, there was none who had more

Progress.”

genius, more courage, more ability and penetration than the lonely tinker, John Bunyan.

(4.) One word of explanation. It is my intention, God willing, month by month to

give short and pithy sketches from Bunyan's work. I shall try to break his splendid allegory up into brief chapters with suitable headings. As these pictures pass before us, I want us to feel that in a very real sense they live, breathe, think, and speak. I want us to feel that beneath the pages on which the pictures lie there are beings whose hearts throb with intense life, whose lives are crowded with momentous deeds. Let no reader feel or say, "It's only a lot of pictures," rather let us feel that from these pages earnest eyes are looking into ours, that warm hands grasp ours, that big throbbing hearts beat against ours.

FIRST PICTURE.-A MISERABLE MAN CARRYING A

BIG BURDEN.

Fix your eyes upon that house as it stands in the City of Destruction. Near to the house you see a man. He is clothed in rags. There are tears in his eyes; there is a book in his hands; a lamentable cry is breaking from his lips; on his back there is a "great burden;" and in his heart there is a desperate fear. He tells his relatives

and friends about his sad condition, but they only scoff and sneer at him, or think he is deranged, or in a frenzy: they tell him to go to bed,

a man to him who said, "Wherefore dost
thou cry?" "Because I am afraid of death
and of judgment, and because of this huge
burden, which I fear will sink me down,
down to ruin." Evangelist then gave
the poor man a parchment roll, on
which was written, "Fly from the
wrath to
come." The man said,
"Whither must I fly?" "To yonder
wicket-gate." So the Pilgrim ran,
crying "Life, life, eternal life!" The
very deepest want of our nature is the
want of eternal life. How can it be
found? God has given unto us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son. Let us
all go to Him for it just now.

THIRD PICTURE.-PLIABLE AND
OBSTINATE.

Before Pilgrim got to the wicketgate he was overtaken by two men. One of them was a fickle, wavering man, called Pliable; the other was a stubborn, self-willed, stupid fellow. His name was Obstinate. Obstinate refused to accept the Pilgrim's invitation to go with him. There are obstinate people now; no entreaty, no warning, no reason, no mercy, or pity can move them. Let me entreat you, boys and girls, to start on this pilgrimage before your hearts are fully set in you to do evil. 'Tis easier work if we begin

To serve the Lord betimes,
For sinners that grow old in sin
Are hardened in their crimes.

E. GRATTON.

hoping that sleep will settle his brain. But he cannot sleep: in the morning he is worse and worse. In utter perplexity and wretchedness he cries, "What shall I do to be saved?" He looks this way and that way, as if he would run; but he knows not where to run. What are the rags that clothe this poor man ? His sinful habits, thoughts, feelings, and deeds. What is the burden? The sense of guilt, of peril, and of deep unworthiness. What book is that which he holds in his hand? It is the Holy Bible, which contains words of eternal life.

SECOND PICTURE.-EVANGELIST, OR THE PREACHER OF GOOD THINGS.

While the Pilgrim stood completely bewildered, there came

WELL

"ELL, my young friends, here we are again. Let us just take a look into the great cave of Kentucky. Do you inquire, where is Kentucky? It is one of the States of North America, and you will easily find it on the map when I tell you the great river Ohio runs through it. The soil is amazingly fertile, the air is more temperate than in many other States in America, and the country in general is well-timbered, and remarkably free from marshes and swamps. In this State there is a very remarkable cavern. You enter but find it so vast as to defy you fully to explore it, for a continuous line of cavities has been traced in one direction extending to a distance of ten miles, and yet no termination discovered. Here, alsó, are spacious halls, with rounded regular walls, connected by passages or tunnels, and out of these there are many lateral (side) branches to which no outlets have been found. There are also many great chambers, or cavities, running one into another, and one of these has an area of no less than ten acres, and is 150 feet in height. Here, then, we have great spacious halls, running one into another, all connected, and extending over an area unknown in its length, but almost as large as a little county. Truly this is wonderful.

Near Aldersberg, in Carniola, Germany, there are two remarkable caves. On entering into one we find it opens out into a great number of subterranean passages, and it is said that a person may walk therein to an extent of nearly two German miles! And German miles are miles indeed, the long German mile being equal to nearly six miles English, and the short German milę being about five miles English. Here, then, my young friends, you have plenty of room for the exercise of your limbs, and plenty of beautiful objects too; for here you may see a multitude of sparry icicles on the arched roof, with numerous other formations which, by he help of your imagination, appear like dragons, horses, tigers, and various other animals, besides architectural formations like pillars ranging in colonnades.

Only two miles distant from this cavern there is another even yet more remarkable. It is called St. Magdalen's Cave. You enter

by a very narrow passage-a mere fissure in a huge rock-and at once you are plunged into midnight darkness. But, furnished with sufficient lights, you find yourself in one of Nature's grand palaces. A vast number of pillars, white as snow and of dazzling brightness, render the scene perfectly enchanting; and thousands of stalactites, hanging like lamps from the roof, make the place like a splendid, magnificent palace.

at once.

THE GOLDEN CAVE.

It

This name is given to a cavern situated a few leagues on the north-west of Mexico. is called the Golden Cave, because the interior is covered all over with a material which has the appearance of golden leaf, and this promising aspect excited the cupidity of the Spaniards, who hoped to enrich themselves But my young friends have heard the old adage, "All is not gold that glitters." It was literally so in this case, for when the eager Spaniards scraped the yellow glittering covering from the walls and roof they got nothing but lots of sand, intermingled with a spangling mineral substance, which they could never reduce into any useful metal; and thus their cupidity received a rebuke.

How this resembles the deceitfulness of riches and worldly pleasures!-very flattering, very full of promises, and very eagerly pursued; but what do they yield? Dust, dust, and disappointment. Let us get the true riches of salvation.

A REMARKABLE GROTTO IN SOUTH AFRICA.

In the Kango there is a great curiosity, which was first discovered in the year 1788. Mr. Thom, the traveller, who visited this cavern, gives a very vivid description of it. Ten young men, with two slaves as guides, explored this remarkable grotto. Descending 14 feet, and well supplied with torches and candles, they entered this dark chamber, and proceeded 900 feet, when they found themselves in a spacious hall, which filled them with wonder. The stalactites, united or disunited, formed one thousand figures, and all around them Nature seemed to have assumed the province of art, for here canopies, organs, pulpits, vast candles, immense pillars, heads -even of men—and animals, met the eye of

the astonished visitor on all sides, so that Mr. Thom says he seemed to be suddenly removed to a new part of the universe. Eye, thought, and feeling were equally overpowered, and to complete this assemblage of wonders, there are various baths, or cisterns, of water, clear as crystal, and as if divided by partitions of the most ingenious sculpture, in this subterraneous palace of Nature.

At a place called Panther Gap, in Virginia, there is what is called the Blowing Cave, which is a 100 feet in diameter, and there constantly arises from it a rushing wind with considerable force, and is always the strongest in frosty weather, and the weakest in long-continued rains. There is another blowing cave found in the Cumberland Mountains, and along with the wind there issues also a fountain of water.

In the road from Grenoble to Lyons in France there is a large cavern or grotto very wide at the entrance, but becoming narrower by degrees, till it come to a great lake, which is reckoned another of Nature's wonders. Francis I., who loved to inquire into such things, went in a flat-bottomed boat on this subterranean lake with a number of lighted torches, but after rowing about 7 miles they heard a great noise which became more and more terrible as they advanced, and, the water running with prodigious swiftness, they were being carried away with rapidity; and fearing their boat would be drawn in by the rushing current, they suddenly turned, and hastened back with great dismay, and thus just escaped with their lives.

There is the cavern of Dunnore Park, in Kilkenny, Ireland, which is worthy of notice. The entrance leads into a passage descending about 90 feet perpendicularly, the opening being about 40 yards wide. The sides are composed of white limestone, and when the visitor has descended to the bottom he sees one side of the cavern supported by a natural arch about 25 yards wide, and at the same time he perceives two subterranean openings to the right and to the left; and now he makes his way over rugged rocks, which are encrusted with spar in the most whimsica shapes, and variegated with the most fantastic colours. Many icicled-shaped cones hang from the roof, and these meet similar formations rising from the floor, and thus united they form pillars like a - Gothic cathedral, with the appearance of organs, crosses, and other marvellous things.

These caverns, and hundreds of other sub. terranean hollows in various parts of the world, must have been formed at differen periods by great convulsions in nature, such as earthquakes or volcanic disturbances leaving immense hollows wherein often rivers flow, and seas enter, and lakes discharge their superfluous waters; and these, intermingling with gases and sometimes with internal fires, generate convulsions. We know not how deep they descend nor how far they flow, nor with what heterogeneous materials they mingle in their course, but the effects are often seen in extraordinary manifestations.

you write.

N the days of Jehoram, king of Israel, the Syrians were a very strong and warlike nation; they were constantly sending hordes of soldiers to devastate the country of the Israelites, and carrying away the inhabitants into captivity. The great favourite of the king of Syria was a

man's house and appointed to wait on his wife. Observing the sorrow throughout the household, which was caused by her master's illness, and sympathising with him, she one day simply remarked that she wished her master was with a prophet whom she knew lived in Samaria, for she was sure that he would be cured. The courtiers on hearing this, went straight to their

famous warrior, called Naaman, favoured not only on account of his valour, but because he had been the means of delivering Syria from her enemies. His rank in the army would be about that of a commander-in-chief of the present time. Although so wealthy, and high in rank, his greatness could not protect him from a loathsome disease called leprosy, then very prevalent in the East. This disease is characterised by white scurfy scales over the body; it reveals itself in a rising of the skin, or a reddish spot, and gradually spreads over the body, while the hair turns white. By the inhabitants of those countries it was regarded as incurable, and supposed by them to be inflicted by the Divine hand, and by that hand only could be removed. In one of the incursions into the land of Israel, a little Hebrew maid was taken captive. This little maiden was taken to Naa

royal master, the king, and related to him all that they knew. The king on hearing this, wrote a letter to Jehoram, king of Israel, desiring him to cure Naaman of his leprosy. He then summoned his faithful servant Naaman, and bade him take the letter with a large present, which was composed of gold, silver, and changes of raiment, in all worth about fourteen thousand. pounds of our present money. When the king of Israel read the letter written to him, he was greatly alarmed, and he exclaimed, "Am I God, that I can kill and make alive again, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? I fear he seeketh a quarrel with me." When Elisha the prophet heard of the king's alarm, he sent a messenger to say that he would cure Naaman, if he was sent to him. Naaman, in his anxiety to be cured, shows some condescen