A few men have visited almost every country on the globe; but it would take a long life to become even superficially acquainted with the different tribes of men, had one the means which would be necessary. But it is not essential to travel much, to become tolerably acquainted with the people of different countries. Different men have travelled the world over, and have given faithful accounts of the people whom they saw. It is desirable to know what has been thus related. Many of my readers, I suppose, cannot obtain the books which have been written on this subject. I shall, therefore, proceed to tell them something about it.
[To be continued.]
Fresh Water.—The basin of the St. Lawrence, including the great lakes, contains, in mass, more than half the fresh water on the globe.
Candle-flies.
Light.
Before the creation of light, the world must have been involved in darkness. A state of darkness is the natural condition of the universe without light. We are very apt to think of everything as a matter of course, and we are not apt to reflect that everything has been made, created—by God. Now, let us bear in mind the fact, that darkness was the original state of the universe; then let us reflect upon the stupendous, beautiful and benignant creation of light. How wonderful must have been the first rising of the sun upon this world of ours, before involved in the shades of midnight! How wonderful must have been the first appearance of the thousand stars in the sky—and how wonderful that of the pale, but lovely moon, hung like a bow in the heavens, or bursting in its full splendor upon our world below.
And let us consider a moment what a wonderful element light is. We do not understand all its properties, but we know that it proceeds in a straight direction from its source. Now the sun produces light, and it comes to us with an inconceivable velocity. The distance of the sun is ninety-five millions of miles from us—yet the rays of light reach us in seven minutes and a half; thus showing that the rays fly at the rate of two hundred thousand miles in a second!