BE CHEERFUL. E cheerful, like the cheerful birds Be cheerful, like the summer morn, So pure, and fresh, and sweet, When sunlight smiles on field and stream, And gentle breezes greet. Be cheerful, like the lambs that play And in unmurmuring quietness Among the herbage feed. The cuckoo and the grasshopper Teach us with cheerful voice; And e'en the little buzzing fly Calls on us to rejoice. The gnats that circle round and round, The cock that crows so lustily To warn us of the hour; The active flitting butterfly, The bee that sips the flower; All say be cheerful, while the glow Be cheerful, 'tis a debt you owe Be cheerful, each one in your lot, For duty should be happiness E'en if a troubled path we tread, A cheerful heart be found. All is not wrong that seemeth wrong; Be cheerful: 'tis the wisest plan For well we know His sleepless eye TELESCOPES AND MICROSCOPES. YRIADS of the small beauties of God's works would have been hidden from our sight and knowledge had it not been for the wonderful invention of these two marvellous instruments. What should we have known about the surpassing beauty and curious construction of the insect tribe, vegetable cells, human blood and hair, and hairs of plants, or those lovely things of creation which fringe the margin of the mighty ocean, which clothe the banks of our lakes and ponds, and flourish in our hedge-sides and ditches, but for the invention of the microscope? The stars, again, and other heavenly bodies-what should we have known of them without the mighty telescope? Where, but for it, would have been those magnificent discoveries which, during the last two centuries have burst upon the human mind, and given so much fame and honour to the astronomers? Where the researches of Herschel, or the observations of Halley? the computations of Leverrier? They would have been unknown. Not till the telescope had lent its magic eye to man did the real tide of discovery set in. Thus do both the telescope and microscope raise their voices in a hymn of praise to Him, who alike guides our planet in its wanderings through the realms of infinite space, and the little animalculæ in its short sojourn on our globe, and tells us to "Awake, ye mortals, raise your eyes To these eternal starry spheres ; Look on those glories of the skies, And see how poor thy world appears, With all its hopes and fears." Then, surely it would not be waste of time to know something of the history connected with the invention of these important instruments, and to whom we are indebted for them. The telescope was a discovery made by Galileo. At the time when this mastepiece of human invention emerged from out of the dark abyss of ignorance, a mighty struggle was going on between the followers of Ptolemy and Copernicus, the former maintaining that the earth was the grand centre of the solar system, whereas the latter gave preference to the sun; and, on the 8th of January, 1610, the telescope was for the first time directed towards Jupiter, not far from the disc or face of the planet. Galileo noticed three bright stars, which had never before been observed by the naked eye, and noted their position merely to point out the change in Jupiter's place. What was his astonishment on directing the instrument next night to that planet, to find that they had changed their position in such a manner that no motion in Jupiter could in any way account for it! Night after night did the same scene greet the eyes of Galileo through his magic tube, till rising above the superstition of the dark age he lived in, he |