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THE CHRISTIAN INDEX, JESSE MERCER, Editor. ■OKaiasnsso Two Dollars per annum, if paid i:i advance, $2 50, if payment is delayed six months, $3 00, if not paid till the end of the year. Those who discontinue must pay up arrearages before their request can be attended to. Agents who forward payment, in advance, for five subscribers, are entitled to a sixth copy “TnttS. Communications addressed to tho Editor. must be post paid to recoive attention. DOCIRmM. h'rom the Religious Herald. Predet i nat ion. Dear Brother Sands, —A friend of mine said to me—“Some body is writing on Predestination in the Herald, and this ex pression is in the piece : “ Heaven with all its awful horrors!” 1 looked, and am sorrySb find it even so! It was w ritten, “Heaven with all its ineffable delights,and hell with all its awful horrors.” This tri fling blunder led me to cast my eye over the whole, and I find ‘■'■some dogmatical” for sour — presence mid agency” for pre science. I am not so much concerned about such errata as the first ; but the others, and such as those, being less ob vious, I should rather such occur as seldom as may be consistent with the attention of your compositor and reader. I cannot read the numbers: furnishing them is enough for trie. Let us attend to the inspired writers on this subject. The name of God is I AM ; he is “tho Father of Spirits, communica ting to all, and receiving from none: with out variableness or shadow of turning, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever: a God filling heaven and earth : whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain: from everlasting to everlasting he is God ; the fountain of life, he only having immortali ty: to whom belongeth power, and with him nothing is impossible : a God of knowl edge, by whom actions are weighed, whose understanding is infinite: not a word in “twr tOOgUfrlidt-ho- ktimwfUt it-altogui l 'ol: he unierstandeth our thoughts afar off:— hell is naked before him, and,destruction without a covering; how much more then the hearts ofithe children of men?” His wisdom is manifold, for he is “ the only wise God, to him belongeth power, with him is strength and wisdom, the deceived and the deceiver are his; he worketh all things according to the counsel id his own will. He ctoetli according to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the in habitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him what doest thou ? God is love, good to all, rich in mercy, gracious to whom he will be gracious, shewing mercy to thousands, abundant in goodness and truth, patient towards ail men, ready to pardon, slow to anger, of great kindness, waiting to be gracious.— His name is holy,” his nature happy, “ his works are truth, his ways judgement, with out iniquity, just and right is he.” Ho can not deceive, he cannot lie deceived ; “the perfection of beauty, the first, the last, the King of kings, higher than the highest,” before all, above all, beyond all, pervading all, upholding all; in- the most sublime of all senses, all in all. Dispute we the prescience, resist we the will, doubt we the goodness, suspect we the equity of God? Contcmprble atom, speaking great words against the most hi"h! “Get thee into the clefts of the ricks, into the tops of the ragged rocks, hide thee in the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majes ty;” or rather “stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever, who is exalted above all blessing and praise: jkjhine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the HLver, and the glory, and the victory, and jme majesty* foil* all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the king dom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all; both riches and honor come of thee and thou reignest over all, and in i Line Kand is power and might, and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all; now therefore, O our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious name.” “ What shall I say of the prescience of God?” (says Tertull’ian,) “it has as many proofs as there are prophets.” Do the prophets pretend to deny the prescience of God? What is all the Old Testament al most but a comment on this subject? Did the apostles deny prescience? Without it, all their doctrines fall to the ground ; for thev declare “none other things than those which Moses gnd the prophets did say should come.” Was prescience with them, naked prescience, a bare uninfluential in spection? They ascribe to his counsel a hand determining bejore whatsoever should be done. Did they hold this influence in jurious to the freedom of the will ? Did they extend it to a length destructive ofthe nature of virtue and vice? They said that God had foreknown, and his cnunsel determined the crucifixion of Christ, yet “ that he was by wicked hands crucified and slain;” that “ the promise was to as many as God should call; yet with many AID BAPTIST MSCELLAM. other words testified and exhorted the peo ple, saying, save yourselves from this un toward generation.” And here we halt, as arrived at the point of thinking beyond which it is folly and profanity to proceed; to stop short of this is to rest beneath what reason can at tain, and to proceed is to insult reason by forcing her to dictate like a Delphic proph etess, distorted, dishevelled, and raving wild, on a suhjecl.beyond her comprehen sion. ihe piesciemX, tiic iove, the uni versal equity of God, and the freedom of man, are alike clearly revealed in the Scrip ture; to deny either, is to stop short of re vealed truths by unbelief; to three Scrip ture; to explain one to the injury of ano ther, is to atlront revelation by an enthusi asm bordering on blasphemy. “ Two truths,” says Farmer, “may be certain, and worthy of all acceptation, though we can neither see their connection, ijpr dis cover any way how to make them agree?” thus Scripture remarked Christ is David's son — how is he then his Lord ? The Messiah was prophesied of as the most mean and the most august, grand enougli to he called the everlasting Father ; mean enough to be called n worm and no man. Abraham was obliged to submit to the sa crifice of Isaac, and yet was persuaded he should be the father of many nations ; and he accounted for the harmony of both by the power of God operating a resurrec tion, of which lie had never seen an in stance nor heard an account. The proph et Jeremiah fold Zedekiah king of Judah, that lie should be taken by Nebuchadnez zar, and, headds, “ thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, yet rhou shalt not die by the sword, but thou shalt die in peace, and with the burning's of thy fathers, the former kings, which were be fore thee, so that they burn odours for thee, anil they will lament thee, saying, Ah Lord! for I have pronounced the word saith the Lord.” What says Ezekiel? “1 will tiring Zedekiah to Babylon, yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.— What but the events could‘explain predic tions seemingly so contradictory? Who can conciliate the supreme, ineffable good ness of God, with the-permission of sin; or comprehend how Providence influences evil, without producing or approving it? Thus stands the counsel of God and the li berty of man; God from eternity deter mining all, yet man never losing that pow er over his actions which is absolutely ne cessary to his being an accountable crea ture, the subject of praise or blame, reward or punishment. In such cases we are first to examine whether the two propositions in question, are both clearly revealed. Se condly, we should give all diligence to make them agree. If both are true, and yet we cannot harmonize them, what must we do? Must we be’ stupid, and shut our eyes, (this can never be said ofthe readers ofthe Herald, they are all most happily familiar with the Old and New Testa ments,) or lax, and abandon our principles? No! never, never! Mo will hold on to baptism and strict communion, though wo should lie obliged to commit some minor matters to the safe custody of the Metho dists. Christian reader! we will never recommend a blind faith on the one hand, or the renunciation of a well attested reli gion on the other, rather let me say, I am convinced by many examples, that two truths may be certain, though they may seem opposite: of this kind, doubtless, are the truths in question. My duty is not in all respects to comprehend and conciliate revealed truths, but to believe them, and regulate my conduct thereby*. There are hut two possible ways of be ing satisfied on this article. One islocom prehend fully and perfectly the combina tions and arrangements of God’s decrees, and by comparing them with the powers of tho human mind to perceive they do not clash: this way is inaccessible to us in this state. The other is, to examine the ora cles of God, anil sit down by their deci sions. This we have done, and have re marked the necessity of submitting our in telligence to the decision of an inlallible bein'*. Let us pause for the present; let us give God his glory, man his liberty, scripture its dignity, and let us look around us and see whether we are irj the inextri cable wilds of mystic theology, or in the realms of common sense. It is to be fear ed that some reader may be growing impa tient, and ready to exclaim —“ Come, come go ahead!” But the morel try to pene irate this profound mystery, the more I am bewildered —the reason is plain: 1 infer consequences from a subject unknown; and here my feeble reason is lost. It is not, therefore, strange that we go on slow ly, but rather that we move at all is the wonder, especially while the phrophet is saying, “the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, their strength is to sit still.” 1 will not then puzzle myself about Explaining the decrees; 1 believe they surpass my conception in. my present con fined state, and the more I consult my na ture, the plainer do I perceive the proprie ty of such a pause, and the absolute neces sity of quitting speculation and applying to WASHINGTON, (Ga.) TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 93, 1884. praotice. Isl examine my body, I perceive other qodies around exciting such and such sensations, some pleasant some painful.— Someone has fixed unutterable laws of nature, all which are as independent on mo as the motion ofthe planets. It* is not in my power to determine the sensations which fire shall produce on my body.-; nor have I suy authority over the croaking of the toad, or the melody ofthe nightingale: the fragrant hotiey-suckle, the tkrung acented tnnkuv. Hiu Uimtf Nranirmr 1* ttJC~ delicious peach, the blushing rose, the glowing sunflower; all these defy my power, all reign in absolute monarchy, in dependent on every creature; m vain I pretend to produce their effects on me.— But all confined and imprisoned as I am, by surrounding Deity, is my liberty gone ? No, surely: this is my power—l consider my own experience, 1 avail myself of other people’s, and 1 soon learn that fire at such a distance excites a pleasant,and uta near er approach a painful sensation ; my place 1 perceive is to pause at a right station. It is true, when 1 look at a meadow in Spring, 1 cannot choose whether 1 will see it green, or blue, or yellow : t very spire ofthe her bage is already painted ; an unalterable law determines the ellects which shall be produced on me; hut all environed with na ture’s laws as I am, 1 cannot tell which colors, which forms, which scents, will always produce pleasant, and which pain ful sensations in me, and 1 stock my gar den accordingly. This creative predesti nation is no way inconsistent with God’s glory or my happiness; lie has determin ed and lam pleased. Thus every object of thought, every creature, every event, circumstance, the songs of the aspiring lark, the moans of an expiring toad, the hymns of an urchangel, and the blasphe mies of evil spirits, the love of a benefac tor,the treachery ofa betrayer,the sympathy ofa protector, and the cruelty ofa murder er, alike conduct my intelligence to the Great Supreme, in whose inexpressible glories lam sublimely lost. Soothed and shocked, stilled and startled, elated and en gulphed, the certain effects of objects iu view, effects that open and none can. .shut, shut and none can open, calmly direct the mind to the Great First Cause. His acts of benevolence excite my love, his inflexi ble justice alarms my fear; I revere his grandeur, dread his anger, melt under his compassion, inflame at his love ; and, by a happy experience, find every operation of my mind capable of full play on the inex haustibk* glories of my God. The laws of Providence, like the laws of Nature, are fixed, determined, certain. Mighty is the union of temperance and health, industry and plenty, intemperance and disease, in dolence and scarcity; and though some times in these as in till things else, God counteracts, and shews his power, yet not the extraordinary appearances, but the fix ed, known, ordinary laws of Providence are our rules. If we will cultivate our lands, vve have no power to make them barren; cultivation and fruitfulness go to gether—we open the mouth of the earth, and she drinketh water of the rain from heaven. If we do but half cultivate, wc shall have but half the quantity of fruits; and if we abandon them to nature, their productions will be comparatively useless, if not hurtful; yet the law of Providence abounds with goodness; some slow growths shall spring up, God himself will be the husbandman, providing for another ation : he will rain upon the wilderness wherein is no man, and will plant in the desert, the cedcr, the myrtle, the fir tree, the pine, and the box together. By tem perance, industry,chastity, prudence, equi ty, fortitude, we find little states have be come mighty empires; but whoever saw a people rise to empire, by luxury or indo lence, effeminancy or barbarity? On the contrary, all the advantages gained by the former virtues, when abused to vicious pur poses, dissolve the community they once united, and invigorated, and, as if every thing was impregnated with a moral sense, every* thing undertakes the tuition of man kind. From the simple hoeing round a cabbage, to the solemn faith of treaties, effects flow from causes, causes from laws, or what is the same, from the nature of things. O glorious and inviolable decree! watching and warning thy sons. Thou hast not spolcen in secret, in a dark place of the earth ; thou hast not said to the seed of Jacob seek ye me in vain! —Dost thou destroy our liberty ? The Lord hears the heavens, and they hear the earth, and the earth hears the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they hear the lisping of the child Jezrccl. Perhaps I may have harboured the wish that 1 had been born a prince, and have reigned a king.— But why should I have preferred this to another station? Because through inat tention 1 have associated ideas which in deed have no relation at all. I have ima gined greatness as the prejudices of some estimate it, to be in union with happiness; whereas God who seelh not as man seeth, who knows that—not greatness and hap piness, but goodness and happiness are as sociates, has providentially cast me in a retired station. My dominion extends ov- eiflhree acres, and I am happier than a prince, no neighboring monarch disputes, my title, nor harrasses my frontiers. My frugal and industrious subjects form regu lar Swell into colonies, are quietly governed by their own laws, yet neither -jejpH against God’s nor mine; they, hadjfv in superior protection, the crown rich yv!i their productions “ Wlrdiitniog ill. in their waxen cells, ” r ■*■*•-!%!i'7m7public ertres.” Thompson's Autumn. Do princes taste what I taste when sea ted on a stump, my domestics bask in my presence? When my gentle cow, my willing horse, my faithful dog, my flut tering prating poultry surround my throq watch my emotions, and by a thmjsarnP acts of unsuspected loyalty, telfinejAt I am in league with the stones of the. ; and the beasts of the field are at peace with me. —Without Raphael’s or Angel’s visitation, supremely delighted with grand displays ofa great master. “Infinite numbers, delicacies, smells, “With hues on hues, expression cannot paint, “The breath us nature & her endless bloom.” Thompson's Spring. Not Handel, with all his concords, ■'Pita, furnish such a symphony as musicians, heavenly pensioners, twitref on the house-top, thrill in the hushes, echo in the grove —melody, harmony all the day long. We go out with joy, f we arc led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands. O! how infinitely preferable to the world, its pomp, its pleasure, is the unpolluted joy of that still, small voice, that walkcth in the garden in the cool of the day; that wraps the face in a mantle, expands the soul in attention, and whispers “there is none like tho God ofJeshjurun, who lideth upon the heaven in thy help, and iu his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are everlasting arms. Israel shall dwell in safety alone, tho fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; nlso his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy Tm-ttnrorrt&*ranr,’ wU n-Wre iirni itiet;, O the Lord!” Proviuential Predestination, unal terable as the fixed stars, displays the Al mighty God, deprives me ol no real good, but fills my heart with food and gladness ; nor do vve scruple to affirm, that Provi dence distributes happiness much more equally than many people, intombed in prejudices, imagine. So wisely did tho Stoics judge, that they have left this re markable character of their Summe sapi ens: “That he can never be disappointed, because whoever he secs necessary for him, he makes it his choice.” Religion, like creation and providence, lias unalter able laws, |and though these laws, as well as the? laws of creation and provi dence, may lie obscured by our prejudices, or may be, in many cases, beyond our capacities, yet. they never can ho inconsis tent with the/glorious perfections of Deity- I>et us proceed to consider the third branch of Election, or the choice cif men to eternal happiness. Whether; God, by an eternal appoint ment, has ordained some men to be holy here, and happy hereafter, is the proper question ? We shall bo ready for it in proper time, if you think what has been said has been read beyond the printing office. If it he proper to proceed, we shall not only ask, whether God foresaw the holiness and happiness jaf some men, but also whether he predetermined, it should come to pass? Scripture answersin the affirmative! This is our position, Mr. Herald. May God save you! readers from Arminianism. E ITER A R A. I.:;Tk i;n I KtU! GERMANY. The letter which follows is another of the se ries written by Prof. Sears to the Editor of the Aciv-York Baptist Register. The read er will find it highly descriptive. A Sea Voyage. We sailed from New York on the 13th of July, after sailing the whole day leis urely surveying the scenery of New York Bay, we came about sunset to tho narrow passage which leads to the ocean. Here I confess I felt some emotion in- sighing farewell to my native land, and in commit ting myself to anew and untried clement. Tho next morning I awoke, I found my self encompassed with dark waters, and upon a rolling sea. In order to avoid the islands of ice ‘from the Gulf of St. Law rence which in the months of May and June destroyed so many English vessels, our course was directed due east until we had passed the banks of Newfoundland. We were soon in the Gulf Stream, where the water was of a deeper hue, the air warm’ and misty, and the Gulf weed floating all around us. A thunder Storm on the Ocean. On the evening of the 18th, l witnessed the grandeur of a thunderstorm at sea. — The mists had been gathering during the day, and gentle showers had frequently sprinkled our deck. But now every thing wore a gloomy and even terrific aspect. The clouds had condensed into blackness ; the sea was awfully dark, save here and there the white appearance of a breaking surge; and a faint circle of light marked the boundaries ofthe heavensand theocean. The wind gradually rose until it seemed to le the ruling power. The waves were dashing, the ship plunging, and a tempest was upon üb. -Tt-was between the hours of eight and nine in thewnirtg.’ On'PacTf side of the ship the foaming waves rolled back glittering with phosphoric light and presenting the appearance of a magnificent case of jewelry. We had for a long time been hearing the distant thunder, and see ding the lightning gleam like the faint flash es ofa summer’s evening. But now “heav en’s loudest artillery” began to play around us. Instantly the ocean was covered with a mantle of liquid fire, and then we heard again the powerful voice of God upon the waters. Now the blackness of darkness held a momentary sway, and again the waters were overspread with a brightness which the eye could not endure. Never before did I so deeply and sensibly feel the emotions of sublimity. ’ A Water Spout. Early the next morning we passed very near a large water-spout described by the mate tlien;on watch as a foaming eddy nbotrt 100 feet in diameter, and as being lostat the height of a few feet in the mist of the over hanging cloud. Afterwards I frequently had the pleasure of seeing this phenome non. When at a considerable distance from it we could see only its upper part and the spray upon the surface of the wa ter ; farther still, only the part near the cloud. We saw o#e form and break. At first a black elould sent down from its lower edge a small projection, which was gradually lowered till at last it resembled an inverted trunk of an immense forest tree. In clear weather it hus frequently the ap pearance of those large, pencils of light which we so often see piercing through a c(oud. The Nautilus, fyc. Our minds were sometimes egrecably diverted with the innumerable animated be ings that sport on “this groat wide sea”—tho nautilus, or Portuguese man of war, adroit ly trimming his sail to every breeze, and the dolphin, which for beauty may be call ed the pride of the ocean, The latter fre quently carne along the side of our ship, showing their elegant slender form, and their ocean robe of beautiful green. An on's entrance into Corinth on the back of a dolphin, according to the grave account ofthe father of history, could not, I think, have been very disagreeable. We prepar ed same hooks with a bait, which these beautiful creatures foolishly took to be “in usum delphini,” and the consequence was that they were somewhat suddenly torn from their element and put into the frying pan. Every change of the aspect of things at sea, presents some new object of interest. When all .is calm and still, we seem to be in (airy regions Now the moon stands like an angel of mercy and looks softly and divinely upon the face ofthe waters; now all “the starry host” of heaven paint their beautious images on the sea ; again the ro sy hues of the morning blush with unwon ted charm upon the silvery wave beneath them. The Setting Sun at. Sea. But a sunset at sea, when the sky is cloud less, is a scene which yields to none in point of touching beauty. A firey orb descends to the horizon with increasing magnitude and splendor, dips his lower limb in Ihe blue wave, gazes upon the wide expanse upon which beseems to stand, and upon the still wider one above him, and then cov ering the whole scene with his own radi ant glory, lavs him down to rest in his ocean bed. If the sweet bard of Israel had been contemplating the sea between the Azores and the European const at the time we were there, instead ofthe Mediteranean, he could not have used language more ap propriate and descriptive than the words, “there go the ships ; there is that leviathan whom thou hast made to plav therein.” These “monsters of the deep,” of which we saw an unusual number, sometimes show ed their huge backs near our vessel, and sometimes several were seen at a distance, tit rowing up immense columns of water. The first we saw was white. Here wc had contrary winds for about three weeks and consequently navigated this part of the ocean quite as much as we wished. Du ring this period we often heard the stento rian cry trumpeted in our ears, “Where are you from? Where are you bound to? What is your latitude? What is your lon gitude? How many days are you out ?” The practice of speaking vessels, is not only a matter of naval courtesy, but of public utility, inasmuch as it contributes not a little to the stock of ship news. We frequently crossed the wake of the great lines of emigration fronrLiverpool to Que bec, from Bremen to Baltimore, and from Hamburg to New York, and how greedily would these freights of starvelings gaze at a vessel that chanced to fall in their way ! Yol. a. No. 38. English Channel. On the 16th of Aug. every thing betoken ed our near approach to the English Chan nel. The sea was no longer of a deep glossy blue, but appeared more green and brown ; the waves rose high under light winds, thereby indicating that we had reach ed soundings; an abundance of sea-grass was floating around us; multitudes of ships from sea were converging to this point, some hoisting their colors to speak irere near, in o;’3Br Ktr ton .pa i tr reckonings, others throwing the lead to as certain their position by the depth of the water and by the quality of the earth bro’t up. On the evening of the 17th, about 10 o’clock, the lights were seen shining from Ushant; and the next morning we were floating on the smooth waters of’ the chan nel. Nothing can exceed the tranquil beauty of that Sabbath morning. We seemed to be sailing in the mouth ofa broad river, whose banks the eve could not reach. The waterry plain smiled like a lake; the horizi n which boun led our vision, was dis tinctly marked, and the air sweet and re freshing. A thin veil of white net-work cloud was drawn over the deep blue sky ; and around us the canvass of every clime was catching the gentle breeze. The noise of business was hushed ; the sailors were taking their repose, and nothing was to be heard but the rippling of the waves. Upon this lovely scene the sun looked be nignantly down, asthough'he were a deity pleased with his works. How firmly did this harmonize with the moral features of the Christian Sabbath ! It seemed as if nature had not yet forgotten that this was the morning when her Lord arose. As the Northern const of France is lined with roofs of rocks all the way from Ushant to Guernsey and Jersey Islands, navigators, when passing through the channel, com monly sail directly under the English coast. The various points of land be tween the island of Scicily and the Straits of Dover, though of some scare! y the names are known to the general reader, are very familiar to the sailor. As every one may not be favored with geographical instruc tions from the lips of a seaman, 1 will here hi.-i rt somb oT the notes which I took down. As we color the channel from the Atlan tic, wc first pass Land's End, from which it is 20 geographical miles to Lizard’s Point; 65 farther to Slant Point; 50 to Portland Bill; 17 to St. Alban’s Head ;18 to the Needles; 17 to Duiraose, (the Isle of Wight lying principally between the two last, is 20 geographical miles) ; 20 to the Owens ; 37 to Beachy Head ; 28 to Dungc Ness ; and 18 to Dover, making in all 310 miles, though the direct course is but 270. The western part of the channel is much the deepest. The soundings ex tend into the Atlantic about 170 miles west of Scicily. At first the average depth of the water is about 90 fathoms ; at the rnouth of the channel from 50 to 60 ; be tween Lizard’s Point and Stant Point, from (IQ to 50 l tiP.i uuaaxx .SiuxxAi Point n.ni iia'JTC, generally from 30 to 40 ; between Havre and the Straits of Dover, from 20 to 30. So also in all the North Sea, especially to wards the coasts, the water is very shal low. In sailing through the channel one would not easily suppose with the ancients that Scicily was the centre ( umbilicus ) of the earth. On the contrary ho would be lieve that he was not far from that spot. — He would see this na#ow strait crowded with the shipping of Europe, and his bo som would swell with emotion as bethought of the physical and intellectual power that encompassed him. Iu Portsmouth, Dover and the Downs, in Havre, Cherburg and Brest, he would recognize indications of the strength of two great nations, “dives opum sludiisque as[trriina belli ;” the one the teacher of the world in moral silence, the other in natural ; his mind would re vert to London, to Paris, the two lobes of the heart by which the world is animated, whose political throbbings send a pulsation into every artery of the social system.— Before him is all the north of continental Europe, whose ordinary path to the ocean is through tins cVmnuct. I envy not the man whose soul could slumber asiie j.—ised through this high-way ol nations. Most of the southern coast of England consists of limestone cliffs, from which beautiful fields of a terrace form frequently extend back into the country. These have the most picturesque appearance on the Isle of Wight nnd of Dover. Dover and its Cliffs. The cliffs of Dover extend several miles in both directions from the town, nnd rise in perfect regularity 500 or 600 feet al most perpendicularly from the water, thus forming a border to the smooth table land which extends quite to the water’s edge.— The town itself stands back on a small bay. Here the limestone wall (for so we may call the cliffs) recedes, making a regular curvature from the cast and from the west ; and in this recess the cliffs gradually di mmish in height, till they sink into a beau tiful vale, the site of the town. On the eastern height stands the formidable cas tle of Dover. We had but little opportuni ty to see the French coast. The first point of land that we saw on it was eape Grisnoz,