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THE

YOUTHS' MAGAZINE;

OR,

EVANGELICAL MISCELLANY.

NOVEMBER, 1852.

NEW ZEALAND.

OUR engraving, with its vast plains and mountain lands stretching away into the remote horizon, irresistibly impresses us with the idea that even in our "little earth," as we are accustomed to designate it, there "remains much land to be possessed." Our merchant fleets appear as mere specks in the magnificent bays and harbours of New Zealand, and so wide and expansive is the land view, that all details are lost. There can be little doubt that as God has given the earth to the children of men, we are but carrying out His purposes of love in aiming to replenish it. In what way this may best be done, is another question, which it is not, perhaps, our business to discuss. The organization of the Canterbury Settlement is a novel feature in emigration, that has much to recommend it, though its success is still doubtful; and we fear that the unhealthy excitement now attracting such immense numbers to the gold regions of Australia, may tend seriously to affect it.

The site of the colony (represented in the print) consists of 2,400,000 acres, on the east coast of Middle Island, in a favorable position, apart from older settlements, and from

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the vicinity of the natives. It comprises 1,765,000 acres of plain land; of wood land, 237,100 acres; and of mountain and hill land, 397,900 acres; the total population of the native settlements being 359.

NIGHT'S DIVINING GLASS.

Once, as I was wandering about on the twilight margin of the waking world, I came to a little river, which tinkled sweetly in my ears, like the chiming music of bells. I had nothing particular to do, so I thought I would step across it, and please myself for a few hours with the sight of the landscape and the flowers beyond. Strange flowers they were, for they changed their hues and their forms as I looked at them; the insects, too, were peculiar, for they sang like birds. The birds, however, outdid them, for they asked me, with human voice, what I wanted there; but, strange to say, I was not in the least surprised—not even when two white lilies growing in the path followed their example and requested me not to tread upon them.

There was a great dimness over the landscape; more especially it was dim under the trees This gave a mystical vagueness and want of outline to everything, and was perhaps the reason why, in walking, I came close upon a lady, who was standing there, before I saw her.

As far as I could discern, she was a beautiful woman. Her eyes were bright and sparkling. She had a tall majestic figure; and she was wrapt in a dark robe, whose trailing folds swept the ground as she turned and spoke to me.

She told me she was the Queen of that region, and bade me welcome to her dominions; "and I wish there was more light," the continued: " you must be careful where you tread, for this is at best but a twilight world.”

"Doubtless, then," I observed, "you are well read in the story of the stars ?"

"O yes," she answered; and as she spoke, she put her hand into her bosom, and drew it out with a handful of stars in it. "These," she said, " are the Pleiades: I am taking care of them here till it is time for them to rise."

"But they look extremely small," I said.

they are really stars ?"

"Are you sure

"No doubt of it," replied the Queen; and she sent them whirling from her hand so fast that I presently saw them glimmering in their places just above the horizon."

"You look incredulous," she presently observed; "this is nothing. It is true that no one can do this but myself, but it is by no means the greatest of my marvels." She then drew from the folds of her robe another star, which shone in her palm with exquisite lustre, and said, "This is Venus, she has just set.

Venus is my favorite planet-more so than the earth. like to watch the people that live upon her, for I can understand their actions better than those of you earthlings. And there-shining in his place in the heavens-is my beautiful Mars. I must take a peep at him through my divining glass."

"A divining glass ?" said I, doubtfully. "I have always understood that there really was no such thing; and that those who pretend to the possession of such glasses are impostors."

"There is no such thing in the waking world,” she answered, "and if any have been stolen from me, they will not divine excepting for me, their mistress, for I invented them, and they cannot be used out of my dominions. It is true that a long while ago I dropped one of my crystals, and some of the old philosophers picked it up, and made themselves ridiculous with it. They invented somewhat by its means, which they called astrology; but it had a flaw in it, that divining glass, so that it could never give a true image of anything it showed. At another time, having broken one of my crystals, I flung aside the fragments, and your people joining them together, thought by its aid to attain much gold; but it only led them to a quagmire, wherein they floundered, as I understood, for two hundred years."

"May I look, also, in your divining glass ?" I enquired. I should so much like to know some of the wonders it must reveal of this realm of yours, which, though dark, is fine and beautiful, and of great interest to the inhabitants of such a different world."

"You might not, perhaps, find so much difference as you think," she replied; "nevertheless I will shew you some curious

things, provided you will not be uncharitable, and draw injurious comparisons between the dwellers in my realms and your own compatriots.”

As she spoke she produced a crystal of great brightness; and the moment I looked upon it I fell into a kind of trance, and appeared to myself to be standing in a barren desert, in front of a large stone prison. I was just thinking what a cheerless place it was, when a man came out, and courteously enquired whether I had come with intent to live in it.

"Live there!" I exclaimed, "no, certainly not; who would wish to live in a prison ?"

"Who?" he repeated, and laughed, "why the prisoners, of course. Why else did they build it for themselves, and make it strong for their own keeping. Ask the Queen of the Dark if they did not? This is part of her realm. She granted the ground on which the prison stands. Look up; do you see that

man fixing stones into his window frame ?"

I did as he desired, and, to my surprise, I saw a man in the prison, industriously blocking up his window with stones. "That gentleman," said my new acquaintance, " is one of our most respected inmates. He is a man of genius and invention. It was he who took out a patent for certain weights which he had contrived for the eyelids, to prevent their being raised to the sky. He has a theory that man has light within him, and has no occasion for the light of the sun, which he is accordingly blocking out as superfluous.

"Strange," said I ; "this is indeed a different world to my own; and what is that blotch in the wall a little further on?" "That was the window belonging to the cell of a great friend of his," said my informant. "He has blocked out the light with wonderful art and care; for his theory being that there is no sun, it behoves him not to let it shine in his face. He now considers it fully proved that no such luminary exists, and says the darkness of his cell is his reason for so thinking. The Queen of the Dark has a great respect for him; she considers him so very consistent."

"Ah!" said I, "such folly as that could not exist where I came from. Pray are there many inmates of this extraordinary prison ?"

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