I wish I could serve
you, but I fear I can do you no good.'"

Little do we know what is for our permanent good. Had Bunyan then been
discharged and allowed to enjoy liberty, he no doubt would have returned
to his trade, filling up his intervals of leisure with field-preaching;
his name would not have survived his own generation, and he could have
done little for the religious improvement of mankind. The prison doors
were shut upon him for twelve years. Being cut off from the external
world, he communed with his own soul; and, inspired by Him who touched
Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire, he composed the noblest of allegories,
the merit of which was first discovered by the lowly, but which is now
lauded by the most refined critics, and which has done more to awaken
piety, and to enforce the precepts of Christian morality, than all the
sermons that have been published by all the prelates of the Anglican
Church.

LORD CAMPBELL'S _Lives of the Judges._

* * * * *

THE LONG-EARED AFRICAN FOX.

This singular variety of the Fox was first made known to naturalists in
1820, after the return of De Laland from South Africa. It is an
inhabitant of the mountains in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good
Hope, but it is so rare that little is known of its habits in a state of
nature. The Engraving was taken from a specimen which has been lately
placed in the Zoological Society's gardens in the Regent's Park. It is
extremely quick of hearing, and there is something in the general
expression of the head which suggests a resemblance to the long-eared
bat. Its fur is very thick, and the brush is larger than that of our
common European fox. The skin of the fox is in many species very
valuable; that of another kind of fox at the Cape of Good Hope is so
much in request among the natives as a covering for the cold season,
that many of the Bechuanas are solely employed in hunting the animal
down with dogs, or laying snares in the places to which it is known to
resort.

[Illustration]

In common with all other foxes, those of Africa are great enemies to
birds which lay their eggs upon the ground; and their movements are, in
particular, closely watched by the ostrich during the laying season.
When the fox has surmounted all obstacles in procuring eggs, he has to
encounter the difficulty of getting at their contents; but even for this
task his cunning finds an expedient, and it is that of pushing the