destroyed. "After much ill usage," says Mr. Tilloch, "Ged, who appears to have been a person of great honesty and simplicity, returned to Edinburgh. His friends were anxious that a specimen of his art should be published, which was done by subscription. His son James, who had been apprenticed to a printer, with the consent of his master, set up the forms in the night-time, when the other compositors were gone home, for his father to cast the plates from; by which means his edition of Sallust was finished in 1739. This is the first known essay in stereotype-printing. Another work was also printed from plates manufactured by Ged. This was the well-known book entitled "The Life of God in the Soul of Man," which

has the following imprint: "Newcastle printed and sold by J. White, from plates made by Wm. Ged, goldsmith in Edinburgh, 1742."

Ged's knowledge of the art may be said to have died with his son, whose proposals for reviving it (published in 1751) not having met with encouragement, he went to Jamaica, where he died.

Surely the man who, though unsuccessful in his career, invented the art which has since been carried on with so much success both in Britain and France, deserves to be ranked among the worthies of his class, and should not be forgotten, nor the merit of his invention ascribed to others. How many more examples of genius struggling against difficulties and unbefriended by patronage might be added; but for the present these must suffice.

It has already been said that diligent occupation in the pursuit of business and trade is no obstruction to the development of intellectual life, as is apparent from the fact that many who have attained to high distinction in physical and literary science have sprung from the class of working men. The history of these men does not properly come within the compass of this little book, yet it is hardly to be doubted that the incidents of their lives would offer much of interest to the reader.

BEZALEEL-HIRAM-PAUL.

It seems to me that I cannot more appropriately close this little book than by devoting a few pages to the three illustrious workmen of the Bible whose names you read above.

The first was the principal artisan employed about the furniture of the Tabernacle; the second King Solomon's chosen superintendent for the work of the Temple, and the third the great prototype of all Christian workmen.

If we would know the true excellence of labour and the high value which God sets upon it, we must search the pages of Scripture, which are indeed a record, from their commencement to their close, of work, divine and human, spiritual, moral, and manual.

Who that reads the "Book of the Law" but must at once be struck with the precise details given of the workmanship of the Ark and furniture of the Tabernacle. When God saw fit to have "ordinances of divine things and a worldly sanctuary," He made known to His servant Moses His will respecting all things, down to the minutest particular, and the work was to be done after a given pattern, which was shown him in the Mount.

Then Moses brought his message to the Israelites, and said, "This is the thing which the Lord hath

commanded." There was work to be done, and it must be wrought "with a willing heart." And the people were favourably disposed, and contributed materials for the construction of the Tabernacle and its furniture.

The men brought abundance of stores, nor were the women behind with their gifts. Such of them as were "wise-hearted" spun with their hands, and all things were soon ready. Then Moses came forward and said, "See, the Lord hath called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and He hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship."

The skilful artificer thus divinely indicated was immediately constituted superintendent of the work, and he was endowed with wisdom to teach others; beside which, an assistant was appointed to him, named Aholiab.

Bezaleel means "in the shadow of God;" and this appellation seems to indicate piety in his parents. He was probably the son of a devout Jew, whose name, as well as that of his father, has been preserved to us in consequence of the superior skill and high distinction attained by his illustrious offspring.

What an eventful life must Bezaleel have led from his youth upwards! He probably had practised his craft in Egypt; and may, perchance, have had a hand in carving some of these marvellous monuments of art that yet survive, in ruins, there. One can fancy his chisel working upon the capitals of a grand temple or

tomb, whose vestiges lie buried now beneath the sands of that wonderful land. But he was not always to work in Egypt; the summons came for the Israelites to leave the house of bondage, and Uri and Bezaleel, and all their household, fled before the wrath of Pharaoh ; their eyes saw the wonders wrought at the Red Sea, and their feet trod the mysterious pathway opened by the waves. But a few months had elapsed since that glorious Exodus, and now, in the wilderness of Sinai, the chosen people awaited the commands of Heaven.

How must Bezaleel have felt when he heard his name uttered by the great leader of his nation! How, conscious of a power hitherto unknown, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he stood erect, and advancing at the summons, waited to receive from Moses the requisite instructions for the work he had to do.

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In the 36th, 37th, 38th, and 39th chapters of Exodus the details are given of the making of the Tabernacle and its furniture, and at the close it is said, Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses, and with him Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and a cunning workman; an embroiderer in blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen."

Bezaleel then rested from his work, and we hear no more of him; but of the things he wrought much more is recorded, both in sacred and secular history. The candlestick, the table, the golden censer, and the ark