The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-07 00:00:00

SELECT EXTRACTS.

A Durcu FERRY.—Of all the different kinds of ferrying
that by means of what is called a flying bridge is considerably
the best and most convenient, where it can be adopted,
which is only where the river has a considerable current.
An anchor is fixed at a certain distance up the stream, al-
ways greater than the breadth of the river. from which a
cable of rope or chain passes to the platform of the ferry-boat,
which is usually supported on two large barges. This cable
is buoyed up by passing over such a number of boats as may
be found necessary. If the rudder of the large platform be
moved so as to turn the heads of the supporting barges about
a point of the compass towards the stream, so as to let it act
against the sides of their bows, they will, of course, sheer
across, or oscillate like a pendulum, with a slow and uniform
motion to the opposite side, the cable and its supporting boats
edging over in the direction of the platform. By having the
platform the same height as that of the two p►ers or landing-
places on the sides of the river, carriages of any size, carts,
or waggons, without unyoking_the horsesmay_drive..upon it,
and pass over without disturbing passengers or baggage with-
in them.—Family ToUr through South Holland.

INVENTION OF THE MICROSCOPE AND THE TELESCOPE.—
It has been well observed, that about the same time when
the invention of the telescope showed us that there might be
myriads of other worlds claiming the Creator's care, the in-
vention of the microscope proved to us that there were in our
own world myriads of creatures, before unknown, which this
care was preserving. While one discovery seemed to re-
move the Divine Providence further from us, the other gave
us most striking examples that it was far more active in our
neighbourhood than we had supposed; while the first ex-
tended the boundaries rofGod's known kingdom, the second
made its known administration more minute and careful. It
appeared that in the leaf and in the bud, in solids and in
fluids, animals existed hitherto unsuspected; the apparently
dead masses and blank spaces of the world were found to
swarm with life. And yet, of the animals thus revealed, all,
though unknown to us before, had never been forgotten by
Providence. Their structure, their vessels and limbs, their
adaptation to their situation, their food and habitations, were
regulated in as beautiful and complete a manner as those of
the largest and apparently most favoured animals. The
smallest insects are as exactly finished, often as gaily orna-
mented, as the most graceful beasts, or the birds of brightest
plumage. And when we seem to go out of the domain of the
complex animal structure with which we are familiar, and
come to animals of apparently more scanty faculties, and
less developed powers of enjoyment and action, we still find
that their faculties and their senses are in exact harmony
with their situation and circumstances; that the wants which
they have are provided for, and the powers which they pos--
sess called into action. So that Miller, the patient and accu-
rate observer of the smallest and most obscure microscopical
animalcule, declares that all classes alike, those which have
manifest organs, and those which have not, offer a vast quan-
tity of new and striking views of the animal economy, every
step of our discoveries leading us to admire the design and
care of the Creator. We find, therefore, that the Divine
Providence is, iii fact, capable of extending itself adequately
to an immense succession of tribes of beings, surpassing what
we can imagine or could previously have anticipated; and
thus we may feel secure, so far as analogy can secure us,
thr.t the mere multitude of created objects cannot remove us
from the government and superintendence of the Creator.—
Rev. W. Whewell.