was a subject on which he might give information to others of the poorer class, saying that "it was neither political economy, nor rural, nor domestic economy to which he alluded, but that sort of economy which he had himself practised, and which might enable a greater number of people to live independently on their own earnings than had, as yet, thought of doing so." He considered, says his brother," that we had ourselves frequently attempted to relieve beggars, and others in distress, to the very uttermost of our limited abilities, without producing any apparent effect; and if we could succeed in teaching only a few persons how to live better, it would be even more patriotic than trying to relieve them after they had become the victims of poverty and misery." With no better guide in their difficult task, than the article on "Accumulation" in the Penny Cyclopædia, the brothers began the task of writing lectures, which they, at first, hoped to deliver in the neighbouring towns and villages. Careful always of the expense of writing-paper, these lectures were first written upon brown paper bags torn open, which had contained the purchases of the house, or on any paper which would bear the ink. But when the lectures were finished, and had been copied upon good paper in a fair hand, it was found that it would be endless labour to commit them to memory. They had not the courage to attempt to address a general audience. The lectures were, however, despatched to a friend in Edinburgh, who had previously taken charge of a volume called "Tales and Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry," the greater part of which had been written by Alexander Bethune, but contained a few contributions by John. But a different kind of work was again to take its turn. The brothers found that they should be compelled to quit the cottage in which their parents had lived so long; and though they might have cared but little for the change, they thought it would be so painful for their parents to leave the neighbourhood, that they resolved on building them a habitation. The work was begun on the 26th of July, 1837, with the aid of a mason whom the brothers had engaged to assist; but, in less than a week, the mason was called away, and the brothers were left to be the only workmen. £30 was all that they possessed in money. "On the 9th of September, the walls were finished; and, before the 30th of the same month, the roof was on, an earthen floor laid, the lower flat plastered, part of the partitions built, and doors and windows provided, with very little assistance from tradesmen. With the exception of three cart-loads of lime, everything had been paid for by ready money." But, by that time, the resources of the family were completely exhausted, and the brothers were glad of work of any kind. (To be continued.) THE COUCH BY FRIENDSHIP SPREAD. WRITTEN BY JOHN BETHUNE. "How sweet the couch by friendship spread, Though heap'd with down, and hung with gold, As that where he hath lain so oft? And oh when on a distant coast, Our steps are stayed by dire disease, Though kind, can have the power to please Where is the heart's soft silver chain Supplies the wants we cannot speak- But dear to us are those who wait Around our couch, with kindred pain The long familiar friend or mate, Whose softness woos us to complain; O may I have, in life and death, A bed where I may lay me down; May blend and mingle with my own; And when at last the hour is come Which bids my joy and sorrow cease, The recollection of an illness during his apprenticeship suggested these lines, which were written five or six years afterwards. MOSES IN MIDIA N. (Continued from page 190.) MOSES took his way towards the south-east, and made for the wilderness that lies beyond the waters of the Red Sea. The Desert, of course, was always, the natural refuge for a fugitive from the land of Egypt. Escape was then easy,-pursuit almost impossible. No passing traveller was there to tell which way the wanderer had fled. The next breath of wind covered all traces of his footsteps with the ever-shifting sand that it blew over them. thousand caves along the mountain sides offered a ready hiding place. The scanty food furnished by these barren regions might support one, but would afford no adequate supply for many. It was the land of freedom and of solitude; and the proscribed, banished, and persecuted exile found here a welcome and a home. Thither, then, did Moses take his way, as he fled from the wrath of Pharaoh. He left the green pastures and rich marsh lands of Goshen, where, unlike the rest of Egypt, the cattle and sheep were roaming freely over the wide plains, and where the natural herbage was almost the only growth of the rich alluvial soil. He crossed the eastern branch of the Nile, and entered again upon the cultivated fields of the native Egyptians, where the whole country on every side was green with the fresh springing wheat—or the still greener rice-and where gourds and melons, and water plants, were offering their rich and welcome fruits to the thirsty wayfarer. Soon he reached the confines of civilisation. The last village was pastand a quarter of a mile farther he found himself at once in the Desert. No farther sign of cultivation could be seen. Nothing but dry tufts of rank grass, and a few prickly shrubs growing out of the sandy soil with here and there one of the low thick-stemmed Doum palms, which are so characteristic of Egyptian and desert scenery. On he went, thinking only of safety and of Pharaoh; and still as he pursued his way, the more wild, savage, and desolate did the scene become. One wide, trackless, boundless plain. No hill or valley, or rock, or river, to diversify the view. No city, no village, no solitary dwelling to speak of the habitation of man. No sound but the sighing of the desert wind as it now and then swept over the dreary waste. Above, the cloudless, burning sky, with the tyrant sun shining in his strength, to whom power seemed given to smite and to destroy. It appeared to Moses as if he had passed the confines of life, and had entered the realm of silence, solitude, and death. His heart almost sank within him, as he thought of the home in Goshen, and became the acknowledged son of Pharaoh's daughter, in Pharaoh's own palace. He here entered upon another scene of life. Everything around him was Egyptian, and he was now to become Egyptian likewise. He was gradually instructed in all the learning of that most learned people then existing in the world. His instructors were the priests, who were the predominant class among the nation, and who monopolised both the power and the learning of the country. All the knowledge at that time possessed by the human race these priests were familiar with. And we must remember, that all the arts of civilised life, as it was then known, and indeed as it was known for ages after, were cultivated at this time in Egypt with eminent success. Commerce, and agriculture, and architecture were prosecuted with extraordinary diligence. Philosophy was cultivated with ardour. Something of the geography of the adjacent coasts and of the countries they traded with, as well as those touching on their own borders, was known and described. The history of their own country-the conquests of their monarchs-the internal improvements of the empire-the foundation of their cities-the erection of their consecrated temples and gigantic sepulchres, and every successful encroachment on the domain of the surrounding Desert, were remembered and recorded. They had not indeed the advantage of printed books, or scarcely eff written documents; but their knowledge was engraved upon the granite of their mountain monuments, and though often carved in characters that were unintelligible to the common eye, told their own story plainly and significantly to those who were initiated in the secrets both of the writing and the subject written of. language of the heavens, too, they had sought to read. - The Those southern skies revealed the heavenly bodies to the eye of the night-watcher with a light softer, more lustrous, more mysterious than shines through our frosty firmament. It seemed to bring them nearer to the earth- to link them in closer relation with our lower world. Any one who has looked upon the face of the full, round moon as it hangs from an Egyptian sky, knows how different is the aspect that it wears from that which meets our eye as we gaze upon its light. We see it as a bright flat disk set upon the dark groundwork of the sky. There you look upon a wandering orb of lightfloating in the immensity of space-solid, and massy, and globular, -another world-an independent planet-queen of the night, solitary and peerless," walking in brightness through the firmament." And the sultry climate, which made the night so grateful to the wearied, dazzled eye, and brought so many forth from their dwellings during the hours of darkness to enjoy the cool hours while the tyrant of their day had left them, naturally gave them a familiarity with the leaves of that sublime book, which only high thought or the strong thirst for knowledge, or the wonderful revelations of science, have impressed upon the cold children of the north. The Chaldean shepherds on their boundless plains, and the Egyptian priests, from the watch-towers of their lofty temples, gazed upon the leaves of this heavenly volume for century after century, watching the rising and the setting of the stars, and the never-ending changes of the moon, and explained after their fashion the reasons and the manner of what they saw. They read, indeed, the letters of the page, without reading their meaning. They read, and we interpret their meaning. But though they erred in their explanations of the wonders of the universe, they were by no means careless observers of them. What they observed, too, they recorded, and these observations have often assisted the inquiries and confirmed the conclusions of our more mature philosophy. Thus whatever was at this time known among the Egyptians of science, history, or the practical arts of life, Moses was carefully instructed in; and, as he probably was originally gifted with great mental powers, he would doubtless do full justice to his instructors. But his studies would probably be chiefly directed to the religious observances and the religious faith of the Egyptians. Two circumstances would naturally attract him to the deep study of this subject, -the sense of its importance entertained by his teachers-and the desire, on his own part, to compare it with the faith of his people, and to see whether the gods of the Egyptians were like the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What, exactly, the religion of this people was during the life of Moses, and for a period long before and after his residence among them, I believe we do not positively know. We know indeed the names of the gods the people were taught to worship, and what qualities and attributes were attributed to each. But we know also that the religion taught to the people was by nơ means, in all its parts, the same religion that was believed by those who taught them; and there is reason for supposing that these men -the priests-admitted into their own faith much more of the spiritual element of religion than they taught to others. The people were taught to worship and obey. The priests allowed themselves to enquire and speculate; and many dark questions, whether always answered, we do not know, were mooted among them, which they considered it unsafe, and in many ways undesirable, to suggest to the ignorant multitude they ruled over. Into these questions Moses would be initiated, for as he was now one of the royal house, he would necessarily, according to the Egyptian law, be of the caste |