and soon be under your feet. Instability and vicissitude are the destiny of mortals, and perpetual revolution is the law of nature itself.

That distinction which is founded on genius or on learning, seems to promise more permanency and security. The changes and shocks of matter, we think, cannot reach the mind. The mines of Potosi may be exhausted while the treasures of a Newton's understanding remain undiminished. Ah! would it were so! But if you live long enough, you will perceive tha memory can lose its power of retaining, as the senses decay. and the eye of fancy can be quenched in the rheums of age. Nay, a sudden attack of disease may derange the finest structure of mind, and fatuity may occupy the seat, where genius was enthroned. The mind which seemed to govern the world may be come the plaything of a child.

It is with reluctance that I speak of the instability of friendship and the uncertainty of social pleasures. But it is the condition on which we are allow. ed to make friends, that we should be willing to part with them. Sometimes the arm on which we have leaned is withered, and we are obliged to become supporters in our turn; sometimes we are thwarted in the full ardor of our attachments by some untoward prejudice or passion; and the love of many years quenched by some misunderstanding, which ingenuity finds it impossible to explain, or our meekness to reconcile. And even if we have the happiness to travel on with the friends of our youth, or the children of our hopes, yet the grave will surely part us at last; and we find after all that affliction to be the most heavy to be borne, which we have been the longest preparing

to bear.

B.*

THE Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society have great satisfaction in presenting their Report of proceedings in furtherance of the object of the Society during the tenth year of its establishment. The European Continent, as nearest in connexion with the Society, and cooperating with it on the grandest scale, claims the first consideration in that

recital which it is the duty of your Committee to furnish.

In Germany several Bible Societies and Bible Committees are established; and their proceedings exhibit, notwith. standing the interruption and impover ishment occasioned by war, solid proofs of a deep and growing interest in the object of the British and For eign Bible Society.

The Bible Society at Berlin, under the patronage of his Majesty the king of Prussia, has completed a second edition of the Bohemian Bible, amounting to 5,000 copies, which are to be sold at very reduced prices, and a portion to be distributed gratuitously. This intelligence was accompanied with the agreeable information, that there is at this time in Berlin a more frequent inquiry among the poor after the German scriptures, than has hitherto been known to exist.

In consequence of some pecuniary difficulties arising from unforeseen cir cumstances, your Committee have been induced to accommodate the society at Berlin with a loan of 1500 dollars in order to enable them to make good thei. engagement with their printer. In the mean time the Wirtemberg Bi. ble Institution has been happily established and organized under the patronage of the King of Wirtemberg; and with a direct appointment to provide for the protestant population of the kingdom.

Your Committee, anxious to encourage an Institution from which such good effects may be anticipated, added to the sum of 200 assigned by your foreign secretary a further donation of £300, which has been thankfully acknowledged. The Institution has already commenced active opera. tions, and an edition of 10,000 Bibles, and 2,000 extra Testaments is in the course of printing. Other Associations for a similar purpose, not yet arrived at sufficient maturity to take the name, and occupy the sphere of Bible Societies, have received aid from the funds of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Though your Committee do not stand officially connected with the Catholic Bible Society at Ratisbon, they consider it both a duty and a pleasure to state, that this zealous and benevolent Society proceeds with great spirit in printing the German Testament, which meets with so rapid a sale that the Society can scarcely keep pace with the eager and constantly increasing demands.

In Switzerland the German Bible
Vol. III.

7

Society at Râsle has not hitherto fur nished any account of its operations daring the past year; but there is good reason for believing that the exertions of that zealous and judicious Society have not in any degree relaxed. The Bible Institution at Zurich, formed under the encouragement of your Foreign Secretary, has proceed. ed in the execution of its duties with diligence and success. Your Committee in consequence of a represen tation that the members of this Society by the purchase of Bibles, and printing an edition of a New Testament, had exhausted their resources, and that they earnestly desired to proceed to the printing of an impression of the whole Bible, granted them the additional sum of £250 in order to promote the accomplishment of so important a work.

With great pleasure your Committee state, that in addition to the Zurich Bible Institution and the Bible Committees at Schaffhausen and at Chur, a similar Committee has recently been formed at St. Gall for the purpose of supplying the Holy Scrip tures, through the Canton of which that city is the capital The estab lishment of this Committee, which unites both clergy and laity, was greatly promoted by the exertions of a merchant, venerable both by age and piety; and his expressions in the letter which announced its formation are so congenial with the feeling, which it is the object of the Bible Society to excite and encourage, that your Committee consider it their duty to give them a place in the body of their Report"I wish," says this venerable correspondent, "to work while it is called today, being now in my 74th year, and feeling desirous to render myself useful in my day and generation. Our Lord well deserves that all the powers of our body and soul be entirely consecrated to him Blessed be his name, he drew me at an early period to himself: and the nearer I approach the grave, the more I rejoice in having chosen so good a Master, and in having been privileged by Him

to contribute in any small degree to the building of his spiritual temple."* In Denmark the Fuennen Society continues to exert itself in procuring contributions and in circulating, according to its means, the Holy Scriptures. It has made a judicious distribution of the Danish Bibles and Testaments purchased with the £120, presented for that purpose through your Foreign Secretary, by sending copies into Norway, Holstein and Jutland, as well as by disposing of some copies gratuitously, or at reduced prices in Fuehnen. The Rev. E. Henderson, who obtained permission from his Danish Majesty to reside at Copenhagen to superintend the printing of the Icelandic Bibles, has completed that work; and is now preparing to take his departure for Iceland, with a view to superintend its distribution, and form suitable connexions for carrying on the plans of the Society in future.

Your Committee, anxious that nothing should be omitted on their part which might tend to promote the circulation of the Scriptures among the poor in Denmark, authorized their indefatigable correspondent, Mr. Henderson, to expend the sum of £50 in the purchase of Bibles and Testaments for distribution. They also instructed him to purchase a supply of the Scriptures, for the use of the Greenlan lers. In consequence of these directions Mr. Henderson procured 300 copies of the Greenlandish New Testament, and also proceeded to encourage the circulation of the Scriptures in Bornholm and Norway, in certain parts of which copies had become exceedingly scarce.

Sweden has in the course of the last year made considerable progress in the important work of providing for the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures. For this rapid advancement, both Sweden and the British and Foreign Bible Society are chiefly indebted to the zealous and prudent exertions of the Rev. Dr. Brunnmark, who

kindly charged himself with full powers from your Committee to encourage the formation of Bible Societies by immediate grants, and promises of still further and more effectual aid. The report of Dr. Brunnmark, the resolution of thanks from your Committee, and the testimonies to his conduct received from persons of the first distinction in Sweden, render it unnecessary to say more in this place, than that Dr. Brunnmark amply justified the confidence which they had been led to repose in him. Three new Bible Societies have been established in Sweden, in consequence of his exertions during the past year, under the designations of the Gothenburg, the Westeras and the Gothland Bible Societies: they are severally patronized by the Bishops of those dioceses within which they are included, and the second comprehends the two provinces of Westmania and Dalecarlia. each of these new Societies your Committee granted a donation in proportion to its extent and importance.

To

The Evangelical Society in Stockholm has also proceeded with its usual diligence and activity in printing and distributing the Holy Scriptures. In the course of the last year it has printed 5,000 copies of the New Testament, and 2,000 Bibles; of these 843 Bibles and 2,047 Testaments have been distributed gratis. The joy of the poor on receiving these copies was very great The sum of £200 has been granted by your Committee in further aid of the funds of this Society, which arrived most opportunely, and was immediately applied to the purchase of paper for printing an additional number of copies of the Scrip

tures.

Your Committee, to encourage attention to the object of the British and Foreign Bible Society, presented through the Rev.Dr. Brunnmark copies of its annual Reports, and also of certain of the society's editions of the Holy Scriptures, to the public Libraries at Go

thenburg, Wisby, and Westeras. The acknowledgements of the several consistories for this mark of attention will appear in the Appendix.

Your Committee cannot take leave of their Swedish fellow-laborers in words better suited to their feelings, than those in which the Bishops and the other patrons and officers of the Gothenburg Bible Society have expressed theirs:-"We are at a distance from each other, as to the earthly spot we inhabit, but our joys, our views, our hopes in this blessed work are the same."

RUSSIAN EMPIRE, &C.

In entering upon the Russian Empire, the first object which demands the attention of your Committee is the Bible Society established at Abo for the province of Finland. This Society is pursuing its useful labors with a steady and zealous activity. The Finnish New Testament on standing types is in a course of printing, and will, it is hoped, be ready for distribution in the summer. The joy of the Finlanders in the prospect of being furnished with the Holy Scriptures in their own language is very great: and their deep poverty hath abounded unto the riches of their liberality, to such a degree that their subscriptions to the funds of the Finnish Society have more than tripled what had been expected by the most sanguine of its friends. In the mean time the £200 voted by your Committee to enable the Society in Abo to supply the poor Swedes in Finland with copies of the Scriptures in their own language, have been employed for that purpose: the distribution has already commenced, and lias rejoiced the hearts of many.

Early in last June, the Rev. J. Paterson, undertook a journey at the express desire of your Committee and with the approbation of the Petersburg Bible Society through the Russian provinces of Courland, Livonia and Esthonia for the purpose of investigating the want of the Holy Scriptures in those parts, and taking such measures as might seem advisable, with a view to an adequate and efficient supply. Among the discoveries to which Mr.

Paterson's inquiries led, was the affecting information, that in the dis trict of Dorpat in Livonia, including a population of 106,000 souls, not 200 New Testaments were to be found. The event of Mr. Paterson's journey through these provinces was the establishment of four Bible Societies: viz. at Dorpat, Reval, Mittau, and Riga. These societies were all formed under the authority and in the spirit of the 9th article of the St. Petersburg Bible Society, which empowers the Committee of that Society, "to ap. point Sub-Committees in various parts of the Empire, which are to be dependent upon the general Committee, and actively engaged in the promotion of its views." Mr. Paterson was greatly assisted in effecting the estab lishment of these Auxiliary Societies, by the personal influence and exertion of Count Lieven and Baron Vietinghoff, two of the Directors of the St. Petersburg Society; and the several Institutions are patronized and conducted by some of the first characters for station, learning and piety, in the districts to which they respectively belong. The Rev. Robert Pinkerton was in the mean time not less zealously employing himself in promoting the formation of a Bible Society at Moscow.

This important event took place on the 4th of July O. S. On that day the Bishop of Dimitrieff, and Arch Bishop Vicarius of Moscow, Augustine, accompanied by five of the first clergy, together with a number of the most respectable nobility, met in the Hall of the College for Foreign affairs, and unanimously formed the Auxiliary Bible Society of Moscow.

Connecting the formation of the Moscow Bible Society with the awful visitations which that ancient capital had so lately experienced, your Committee are utterly at a loss to express their mingled emotions of astonishment and gratitude. They can only exclaim, "It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes!"

It would be an act of injustice to omit specifying in this place the very distinguished services which Mr. Pinkerton has rendered the British

and Foreign Bible Society, not only in assisting at the formation of the St. Petersburg Bible Society, but also in contributing so essentially by his judgment and perseverance to the establishment of a similar Society at Moscow. The Bishop publickly thanked Mr. Pinkerton for the part he had taken in the business.

To the above enumeration of New Auxiliary Societies in Russia, must be added one recently formed at Yaraslaff in the interior of the country, under the patronage of the Bishop and other persons of distinction The Committee of the St. Petersburg Bible Society, under whose immediate direction all the operations of these Auxiliary Societies are conducted, have displayed and continue to display an extraordinary degree of energy, liberality, and wisdom. Under their superintendance the Moscow Bible Society has begun its labors most auspiciously, by opening a cor respondence with the most respectable Bishops. Governors and men of character, and by proceeding to distribute the Scriptures in the Slavonian language for the benefit of the native Russians The Dorpat, Reval, Mittau, and Riga Bible Societies are proceeding to print the New Testament in the dialects of these respective countries: while the St. Petersburg Committee are printing at their own charge the Bible in the Finnish, German, and French languages, and the New Testament in the Armenian and Plish. They have also resolved to appropriate a considerable part of their funds towards enabling the Holy Synod to furnish a supply of the Scriptures in the Slavonian language, in proportion to the existing Wants And, finally, they have undertaken the charge of printing the New Testament in the Calmuc, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Much might be said of an interesting nature on each of these measures; but your Committee will confine them. selves to what concerns the Armenian Testament. The printing of this has awakened great attention among

the Armenians; and a fervent desire has been manifested, on their part, to possess that invaluable treasure. They have subscribed liberally to the funds of the St. Petersburgh Bible Society. Their Archbishop, who resides at Astrachan, has taken upon himself to revise the sheets as they leave the press; and there is good reason to hope, that the distribution of the Scriptures among that widely scattered people will, under the blessing of God, be attended with the most beneficial effects.

The Committee of the St. Petersburg Society, in compliance with the request of your Committee, have attended to the wants of those whom the casualties of war, or of national intercourse, have brought within their jurisdiction. To the prisoners of war they have distributed the Scriptures in various languages, furnished by your Society, as noticed in the Ninth Report of your Committee. They have also distributed the English Bibles and Testaments, with equal activity and judgment, to the poor British; particularly to the sufferers in Moscow, and various parts of the interior of Russia, and to the British seamen at Cronstadt, and other stations in the Baltic.

In the mean time, their active President, Prince Galitzin, aided by the other Members of the Committee, has, with extraordinary zeal and industry, notified, through various parts of the Empire, the plan of the St. Petersburg Bible Society, and the nature of its operations: the result has been, the opening of numerous channels for the distribution of the Holy Scriptures, and pledges of cooperation from persons of the first consideration, both lay and ecclesiastical; among the latter of whom are the Armenian, Russian, and Catholic Prelates.

Your Committee, rejoicing in that unanimity which the operations of the British and Foreign Bible Society have been instrumental in producing, cannot refuse themselves the pleasure of introducing the following extract, from a circular address of the Cath olic Bishop of Podolsk