1856.] A Scrap. — The Seconds of Eternity. 505 



Journal of Agriculture^ this fact is stated among tlie hindrances to 

 its introduction into Great Britain. It was first cultivated in the 

 fields of England in 1739. But, for years afterwards^ it was not 

 admitted into Scotland, from the zeal of preachers in declaring it an 

 unholy esculent, blasphemous to raise, sacrilegious to eat. " Famine 

 at last," says the historian, "gave an impulse to the innovation, 

 and, during the latter part of the eighteenth century, the excellent 

 qualities of the potato became generally understood." — Home Jour. 



A Scrap. — Summer, with its feathered choristers, its fruits and 

 flowers, its sultry heat and parched fields, is past. Autumn, with 

 withered foliage and the various hues which bespeak decay, is already 

 here; its hollow moaning winds and frosty breath are a prelude to 

 approaching winter, usually a season of gloom and melancholy to 

 those who are accustomed to view only the dark side of nature. To 

 otters it is fraught with many pleasurable associations, its long and 

 delightful evenings are enjoyed with a zest, which measurely com- 

 pensate for the toils of summer. To none is this season more wel- 

 come than the farmer ; when the labors of the day are ended he has 

 leisure to enjoy the society of his family, which the busy season 

 hardly afi"orded him. If possessed of a literary taste, he has an op- 

 portunity for its indulgence ; and should the companion of his life 

 be blest with a congenial spirit, there are many opportunities for 

 enjoyment and improvement. No man is better fitted for the true 

 enjoyment of life than the cultivator of the soil, who can contem- 

 plate nature in all her various moods, not only with a poetic, or 

 philosophic vision ; but with the eye of a Christian. 



The Seconds of Eternity. — Prof. Mitchell, in one of his recent 

 lectures, describing the gradual tendency of the earth's orbit to assume 

 a circular form, used the following magnificent illustration : — " Its 

 short diameter was gradually lengthening and would continue so to 

 expand until it should become perfectly circular, when it would 

 again contract to its original shape and dimensions. And so the 

 earth would vibrate periodically, and these periods were measured by 

 millions upon millions of years. Thus," said Prof. M., " the earth 

 will continue to swing back and forth, and to and fro in the heavens, 

 like a great pendulum beating the seconds of eternity." 



