202 (;laciers, 



war to employ ihe restless and ambitious, but the mass of the people 

 were left in a tranquility highly favorable to the propagation of the 

 truth. Had there been less war, the new Religion would have suffered 

 more from the interference of those in power. Had there been much 

 more a theme might have been furnished to the popular mind, too absorb- 

 ing to render easy the introduction of any other. The peace was con- 

 sidered a remarkable one. The very tradition, though a false one, that 

 the temple of Janus Quirinus, closed only in times of entire peace, 

 was shut at the Redeemer's Birth, is a proof of the general impression 

 of its peaceful character. Augustus indeed had closed its gates about 

 ten years before Christ, but they were opened the following year. It is 

 said they had been closed but once before. 



We have fewer historical facts in regard to nations that lay with- 

 out the Roman Empire — a loss not so great as it sounds, for that Em- 

 pire embraced almost all that possessed interest. The Eastern nations 

 were crushed by tyranny, but indolent and voluptuous, with softened 

 bodies and enervated minds, sufferance was to them more endurable than 

 labor. The slavery, by which they could purchase ease, was more con- 

 genial than the liberty, whose price is perpetual watchfulness and un- 

 ceasing toil. 



The nations of the North were comparatively free. Their nerves 

 were strung by the bracing air of a colder clime. Their mode of liv- 

 ing gave them more vigorous constitutions, and their religions fostered 

 a fierceness, which was sometimes a most effectual protection against 

 subjugation. The nations under the yoke were almost all the inhabi- 

 tants of the softer climates. In the colder countries, says Seneca, lying 

 to the North, their minds are savage and severe, like their own clime. 



To be continued. 



GLACIERS. 



Vcrrons-nous un glacier au jourd hui ? " Shall we see a glacier to- 

 (]ay ? " — said 1 to my guide, whilst clambering the Alps on the 20th of last 

 June. Oui, Mons. nous verrons dans deux heures le grand glacier du 

 Rhone. " Yes sir, in two hours we shall see the great glacier of the 

 Rhone." 1, for a moment, hastened my steps, fearing that the eternal 

 ice might be melted before I got there, but I was soon bi ought to a halt, 

 for I was exhausted. It is no holy-day work, pedestrianizing over those 

 " Alps peeping o'er Alps and hills whose heads touch heaven." The 

 hardest work I ever performed was footing it over those regions of ev- 

 erlasting snow, but a man, capable of appreciating the grandest scenery 



