Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

A MILLION OF FACTS.

nent writer, that "matter exists only for the sake of intelligent creatures, and that every blade of grass, every tender leaf, every natural fluid swarms with life;" when we

"See thro' this air, this ocean and this earth, All matter quick and bursting into birth;"

125

in every planet that courses round the Sun. We see brothers and friends and virtuous rivals in every section of unlimited space. Casting our mental eyes to Mercury, hot and sun-scorched Mercury, we may see orators fired with intellectual energy, emitting life and animation upon all surrounding objects. We may see Mars in habited by true heroes, adorned with all the honors of the most glorious ovations, who are triumphantly rejoicing over their terminated toils and ennobling exploits. We may behold Jupiter and the Georgium Sidus, and see rulers whose whole aim and greatest exertions are to ameliorate the condition of their people, and benefit the human race. We may imagine Venus peopled by a lovely race, among whom female virtues and female accomplishments hold a pro

How can we withhold our assent to this honora-
ble, this benevolent, this soul-ennobling doctrine?
How can we so far pervert our intellects as to
deny its correctness, and say this contemptible
world, probably smaller than one of Jupiter's
moons, this world utterly invisible to ninety-nine
hundredths of the system, contains all the intelli-
gence, all the wisdom, all the mind of the great
Solar system? It would be a slander on nature,
a libel on Providence; and it would likewise be
the infallible index of a weak, a childish intel-minent place.
lect.

[ocr errors]

There rage no storms; the Sun diffuses there His tempered beams through skies forever fair; Pure golden fruits, 'mid shad'wy blossoms shine, In fields immortal, and in groves divine."

CLIFTON.

A world without inhabitants! A system of planets containing nothing intellectual! Matter without mind! 'Tis an anomaly in nature! 'Tis registered in no chronicles! It has no connexion with reality, but is the delusive phantasm of a fanciful imagination. What were a vast world? And now that we have reached this point, it What were millions of worlds? What the illima- would not be difficult to imagine numerous retitable universe, without intelligence? Infinitely nues of planets, satellites and comets attendant inferior to a single mind! What motive caused on each of those 75 millions of twinkling gems, the creation of the world from chaos, interspers- that beautify and variegate the ebon locks of ed with delectable objects? Man! Which is its night. Nor must we believe them vacant and cherished flower, its priceless gem? Man! What uninhabited; let our minds make a powerful attracted the angels to the lovely bowers and struggle, and dare to imagine them peopled ambrosial groves and flowery fields of Eden? A with beings similar, if not vastly superior to ourweak and helpless mortal! For what has the selves, with beings who connect the higher orocean floated down the ocean of time and cease-ders or angels, with man and the inferior links lessly progressed through lengthened ages, but of the great chain of universal creation;-thus for man! And when man's allotted days shall rendering perfect the different gradations from have been numbered, and he is summoned from the most tiny animalcula that floats unperceived his earthly habitation to the universal congress in a drop of fluid to the sublime intelligence above, and the earth becomes vacated; then, so whose capacious soul intuitively understands all dependent is matter upon mind, so entirely use-knowledge and mysteries; beings capable of inless are its most splendid constructions and ex-finite progression, the limits of whose dilation alted forms when devoid of life and intellectual will coincide with the dimensions of infinity, and inhabitants, that the earth with all her towering the date of whose decay will be the completion mountains, her vast oceans and unnumbered of eternity. forests, all her dales, her diamonds and her glory, will be merged into the fathomless abyss of eternal oblivion.

"The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea! all which it inherit shall dissolve

And like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wreck behind!"

SHAKESPEARE Hence, we see that matter can afford no inducements for its formation but as a means of bringing into being and supporting creatures of an intellectual character. And its utility is based upon its subserviency to man and promotion of the great intentions of his Creator relative to him.

Then, if the planets are inhabited, and I think I have shown the great probability of the doctrine, what a new field at once expands to our view. This vast, this mighty globe, this better part of creation, falls into nothingness, or rather, descends to its proper level, and becomes one of a vast system, replete with wisdom and industry, with science and virtue! We see the Universe burst into activity and millions are awakening

A MILLION OF FACTS.

BY SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS.

Among the clever books we have recently received from London, is one with the above title, containing a vast variety of information in a small space. It will possibly be reprinted in America, but as that is yet problematical, we offer a few extracts from it, which will serve to exhibit its character, while they convey some useful information.

The sea is to the land, in round millions of square miles, as 160 to 40, or as four to one.

Fraimhofer, in his optical experiments, made a machine in which he could draw 32,900 lines in an inch breadth.

There are 7,700 veins in an inch of coloured mother of pearl. Iris ornaments of all colours are made by lines of steel from 200 to the 1,000th part of an inch.

Bodies are transparent, says Newton, when the pores are so small as to prevent reflection.

The apprehension of the failure of a supply of coals in England, is a delusion. In Yorkshire

alone there are exhaustless beds, which are sold at 4s. or 5s. per ton.

tic is with wax; and enamel, with mineral colours, on metal.

Three fourths of the books printed do not pay their expenses; and not above one in ten realises a profit.

The coal mines, which in Staffordshire have been burning for 200 years, consist of pyrites, subject to spontaneous combustion Water will not extinguish them, because when drawn off, or absorded, the pyrites burn more than before. The following song is from Dermot Mac Morrogh, or The odorous matter of flowers is inflammable, the Conquest of Ireland; an Historical Tale of the Twelfth and arises from an essential oil. When grow-Century, by J. Q. ADAMS. ing in the dark their odour is diminished, but restored in the light; and it is strongest in sunny climates.

A chesnut tree grew at Tamworth which was 52 feet round; it was planted in the year 800; and in the reign of Stephen, in 1135, was made a boundary, and called the great chesnut tree. In 1759 it bore nuts which produced young

trees.

Botanists record 56,000 species of various plants; and 38,000 are to be found in the catalogues.

The height of mountains in the moon is considerable; ten are five miles, or nearly; and eight are from 3 to 4 miles. Three of the hollows are from 3 to 4 miles; ten are from 2 to 3 miles, and as many are nearly 2 miles.

Teeth are phosphate of lime and cartilage, but the enamel is without cartilage.

The muscles of the human jaw exert a force of 534lb. and those of mastiffs, wolves, &c. far more. The force is produced by the swelling of the muscles in the middle, and dilating again.

The number of ribs vary, being twelve or thirteen on a side.

Lime combined with phosphoric acid is the basis of the bones, and found also in the fluids. Shells consist of carbonate of lime; and hence their remains have been considered as the basis of limestone mountains. Silicia and manganese are found in the hair. Iron, with phosphoric acid, constitutes part of the blood.

The fluids of animals contain alkalies, especially soda.

The sense of feeling is created by the papillæ of the skin, consisting of small white nervous fibres, which erect themselves when the sense of touch is excited.

The heart, by its muscular contraction, distributes two ounces of blood from seventy to eighty times in a minute.

There is iron enough in the blood of 42 men to make a ploughshare weighing 24 pounds.

A man is taller in the morning than at night to the extent of half an inch or more, owing to the relaxation of the cartilages.

The human brain is the 28th of the body, but in the horse but a 400th.

It has been computed that nearly two years of sickness is experienced by every person before he is 70 years old, and that therefore but ten days per annum is the average sickness of human life. Till forty it is but half, and after fifty it rapidly increases.

Albert Durer etched some of his engravings on steel. A soft steel plate will take 50,000 good impressions, and a hard steel plate a million.

Painting in oil, distemper, or water, is when the colours are mixed with oil, size, or water. Fresco is on a newly-plastered wall. Encaus

[ocr errors]

Nought shines so bright in beauty's eyes,
As the bold warrior's gallant bearing,
The proudest deems his heart a prize;
The fairest would his fate be sharing;
Let Truth, let Valor be thy guide:
And faithful love, thy priceless jewel-
Thou ne'er shalt lack a lovely bride,
Nor find a female bosom cruel.

'Tis true, the soldier's life is short:

But what is life, deprived of action?
The craven coward's base resort;

A universe without attraction.
Then urge thy courser to the field,

And thou shalt gain renown in story-
Compel the fiercest foe to yield;
Or die upon the bed of glory.

From the Journal of Health.

MY UNCLE'S EXPERIENCE. "Pooh! Pooh! all nonsense, perfect nonsense! exclaimed my uncle the other evening, after having read through attentively, one of the most celebrated papers on hygiene; "Behold me now sixty years of age, hale and hearty-To attain to this condition at a period when other men sink beneath their years, did I diet and starve, and worry, and fuss? no, no-I drained my bottle of wine daily, besides, on occasions, an additional one or two, to keep my friends in conntenance; I have eaten hot suppers and cold suppers without number; I have gone to bed at twelve o'clock, night after night, and did'nt rise next morning, as you may suppose, much before nine o'clock; and I can assure you, all this never caused me a moment of uneasy feelings, much less of sickness!"

So spake my uncle, and in the honesty of his heart he verily believed that he was uttering the actual result of his own experience. The truth of his declarations he would have maintained before Emperors and Councils, Judges and Juries. And yet a very slight retrospect of his own life, could he have divested himself for a moment of certain prejudices, the result of opinions and habits to which he had for so many years been addicted, would have shown him that, in nearly every particular, the real facts of the case were the very reverse of what his statements would lead us to suppose. That he was himself a living commentary on the reality and importance of hygienic rules.

My uncle was by birth a Saxon. At an early age he left his native land, and arrived in Philadelphia with no other capital than a light heart, an intimate acquaintance with every thing relating to the practical details of commerce, and ample certificates of his industry, his sobriety, and his probity. With these slender means, and in the midst of strangers, he succeeded so well

MY UNCLE'S EXPERIENCE.

in "getting on in the world" that his thirtieth year found him a flourishing wholesale and retail merchant, with a capital of ten thousand dollars. With the exception of the ordinary ailments of childhood, and a cold upon the chest, that had nearly consigned him to his final abode, and which he had caught while serenading the lady who subsequently became his wife, one stormy night in the fall of the year, he had lived to the age just mentioned in a state of uninterrupted health. Full of spirits, with just that much devotion to business which prudence dictates as necessary to ensure success, plain and simple in bis diet, contented in his mind, his only amusements were a walk, of length sufficient, however, to cripple a modern dandy, an occasional excursion on horseback, and once a week a private concert, and a game at nine pins or at tennis.

At thirty, my uncle married, and soon after, he exchanged his store for a counting house-confining business entirely to that of a shipping merchant.-For some time, no alteration whatever took place in his ordinary habits.-He of course had a greater amount of leisure than when he was tied down to the counter for the greater part of the day, and this leisure was chiefly spent in domestic cares or in the houses of his own friends, or in those of his wife's numerous relatives. His manner of living was still as plain, regular and simple, as heretofore. His health too was as good, and his mind as cheerful.

127

troubled with certain uneasy but scarcely definable sensations in his head, stomach and limbs--For these the doctor was often consulted, though his prescriptions were seldom followed for more than a day. My uncle had very little faith in the virtues of medicines.

In this manner he went on until his forty-eighth year, when he was suddenly attacked one day, immediately after dinner, with a severe fit of apoplexy; from which, however, he was happily recovered by the prompt and efficient treatment of his medical attendants. Sorely against his will, however, he was restricted for upwards of three months to a very spare diet, was debarred the use of wine and forced to exercise daily in various ways. At the end of this period he was pronounced entirely well. Never in fact, as he himself confessed, had he felt himself in better health.---Gradually, however, he fell into his former mode of living, and in his fiftieth year he was confined to his bed with a severe attack of gout; the first he had experienced. His physician now very plainly explained to him his danger and pointed out to him the only conditions upon which he could hope to enjoy life without intense suffering, and postpone for many months a fatal inroad upon his stomach or his brain. After much persuasion, he was induced to adopt, to a certain extent, the plan of living which had been laid down for him. That is to say; his wife succeeded in reducing his daily bottle of wine, At length, however, my uncle's habits did un- to one or two small glasses, and in confining him dergo a change-but by degrees only. He be- to food of a lighter, and more simple character came less active-day after day passed without than he quite relished. Frequent walks in her any longer walk being taken by him, than from company, or occasional excursions with his chilthe dwelling to his counting house and home dren, into the surrounding country, when the again. He indulged himself more in the morn-season was favorable, together with many a call ing, than he had been wont to do; the state-house of duty and charity, supplied him with that conclock often sounded eight, or even nine, before he was abroad; at the same time, the pleasures of the table began to be a matter of more serious importance than he had considered them formerly--he became more difficult to please than formerly both in the nature and preparation of his food, and often, worst change of all, he would consume the greater part of the afternoon in discussing, by himself, a bottle of rare wine, and I know not, and doubt whether he did himself, how many cigars.---Very quickly, he became so much the slave to his stomach that besides his domestic meal, rich in variety, and indulged in to satiety, the night also, was spent in feasting.--Little parties of his friends and countrymen were formed, to meet at some favourite eating house, for the only apparent purpose of devouring platefull after plate-full of fried oysters, stewed terrapins or boiled lobsters, with their etceteras, and to drink large draughts of wine or whiskey punch. Although my uncle was never known to drink to such an excess as to produce a state of absolute intoxication, yet the mode of life we have just described produced a very marked change in his appearance. At his forty-fifth year, his body had nearly doubled in bulk---he lost nearly all the vivacity he displayed in former years---his eyes exhibited a dull, sleepy look, and his nights were sleepless or disturbed.---Although from his portly exterior and dark rosy complexion, he was often complimented upon his robust health, yet he frequently complained of being

stant exercise of which he stood so much in need. He was taught too, by the same kind spirit, to seek his bed at a regular and early period of the evening, and to forego his accustomed heavy suppers, while she contrived to wile him from his couch, each morn, at an hour, which he peevishly declared to be unusually early. This life of privations, as he termed it, was at first irksome enough, but a short time sufficed to reconcile him to it,-in the end, it became even pleasant, and up to the present period he has persisted in following it-rather becoming, in fact, more rigid in his habits than in any degree relaxing.

My uncle has now numbered upwards of sixty summers, and never did there exist a more hale, robust and active old gentleman. A little notional and selfopinionated, it is true, in regard to many things, but nevertheless always sufficiently cheerful, goodnatured and desirous of pleasing to attract around him the company of the young. His own children, his grand-children, his nephews and his nieces, in particular seldom enjoy an hour so much as when it is spent in his company. He has useful suggestions, practical hints and stores of information for those who have already entered upon the active duties of life-he has sound advice and sage council, always delivered in an amiable and unpretending manner, for such as are in their minority; and for the still more youthful, some playful story-some plaintive ballad, or many a pretty toy.

From this short sketch of my uncle's life, we

128 SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE-ANECDOTE-SUBLIMITY.

perceive how completely his own experience contradicts the declaration with which this narrative commences. So long as he lived a life of temperance and active industry, so long as his habits were simple and regular, so long he enjoyed their invariable fruits, health, cheerfulness and comfort. The moment he deviated from this plan of living, and fell into habits of luxury and indolence, he experienced a corresponding decline in the health of his body and the cheerfulness of his mind, until, by a continuance in error, serious disease was finally induced-and it was only by his returning to his former sobriety and activity that his life was preserved-the health and vigour of his frame were repaired, and the cheerfulness and serenity of his mind regained.

THEATRICAL ANECDOTE.-Goethe was for some time manager of an amateur theatre at Wiemar. Once, when the Jealous Husband was to be performed, the gentleman who was to act the lover was suddenly taken ill. A Saxon captain good naturedly offered to undertake the part, although he confessed he had but little experience in such matters. He went through the rehearsals very decently, and there was little doubt but that, with the help of a good prompter, all would go on well. But when the poor captain actually appeared before the audience, he seemed to lose all memory; still he contrived to halt on till the jealous husband was to rush in and stab him. At this unlucky moment he forgot the catch word, and continued hemming for several minutes, while the furious husband was standing These facts, however, my uncle cannot be between the side scenes with the uplifted dagger brought to acknowledge.-It is true he had ex-ready to strike. The captain was about to begin perienced an attack of apoplexy and gout, but his part afresh, catchword and all, when, on the these, he insists, were merely accidental, and advice of Goethe, the husband rushed in, and by might have happened to any man of his particu- one desperate lunge, thought to silence himlar form of body, whatever were his habits. Not so-the captain stood like a wall. It was to Eating and drinking had nothing to do with them! no purpose that his adversary entreated him, in And then, as to his renewed health and vigour, a low voice, to fall and die."I have not got the when his habits became more regular, active, catch word," was the invariable reply. At length and temperate-why, what connexion he will Goethe, quite out of patience, called from behind ask, has the one with the other? Was it not the the scene," stab him in the back if he won't fall same with all his ancestors? It is a family pe--we must get rid of him at all events." Upon culiarity, this return of youth in the evening of this, the husband who had also lost all presence life! of mind, cried, with a voice of thunder, " Die, villain!" and gave him, at the same time such a blow in the side, that the captain, unprepared for this attack in his flank, actually fell down from the shock; upon which Goethe, fearing his resuscitation, instantly sent in four stout servants with orders to carry him off, dead or alive by main force.

So does my uncle-so do thousands of mankind obstinately shut their eyes upon the evidence of their own experience and overlook the useful lesson that it teaches.

One of the most remarkable circumstances at tending the fortunes of the signers of the declaration of independence, says the New York Evening Post, was the tranquillity in which their after lives were passed, and the late period to which they were protracted. Most of them lived to a good old age, crowned with civil honors, bestowed by the gratitude of the republic, and some of them perished by mere decay of the powers of nature. Of the fifty-six who affixed their signatures to that document, twenty-seven lived to an age exceeding seventy, and forty-one to an age exceeding sixty. Only two of the whole number, Gwinnet, of Georgia, who fell in a duel in his 45th year, and Lynch, of South Carolina, who was shipwrecked in his 60th-died a violent death. Twenty-one lived to the beginning of the present century, and three were permitted to see the great experiment of a representative confederacy confirmed by the events of fifty years. Of all the delegates from New York and New England, only one, Whipple, of New Hampshire, died at an earlier age than sixty. Never in the world had the leaders in any bold and grand political movement more reason to congratulate themselves and their country on its issue. The exertions and perils of their manhood were succeeded by a peaceful, honored, and ripe old age, in which they witnessed the happy result of the institutions they had aided in devising, and they were gathered to their graves amid the regrets of the generation which was in its cradle when they laid the foundations of the republic.

SUBLIMITY. I have often reflected on the brief, simple, unostentatious account given in the Bible of the creation of man, and have as often wondered that critics, from Longinus down, have manifested such an undue partiality to the phrase-"Let there be light, and there was light," when there are others equally sublime to be met with constantly in Scripture. This single passage,-"Man became a living soul"— seems to me as well calculated to call up ideas truly sublime as any other known. It requires, in fact, a much greater power of conception to grasp it in its immensity, and to follow it out into all its grand combinations. The very circumstance of a soul, a soul that thinks, wills and animates worlds, a soul that wanders unfettered through heaven, earth, and hell, and holds converse with angels, men and devils,—of a soul being called into existence by a breath, is of itself, independent of all association, one of the sublimest of ideas. But when, with the pure abstraction, we combine all the connecting circumstances, the Spirit of GOD moving upon the face of the waters, the gradual development of the once inert matter, the systematic application of dust to dust, the growing symmetry, and the beautiful form breathing in its perfection beneath His handy work, conception fails us, and we gaze toward the horizon that limits our view, with intense, but bewildered admiration.-Detroit Courier.

THE RESTORED DAUGHTER-THE CONDEMNED.

Written for the Casket.

THE RESTORED DAUGHTER.

ST. MARK, V.

She ceased to breathe, and o'er her brow
The clouded dews of death were spread,
And her sweet voice, so bland and low,
Murmured its last; and prayers were said,
And holy vesper hymns were sung,
And trembling lips the dirge prolonged,
And wailing through the wide hal s rung,
And mourners to the death-room thronged-
For she who lay so cold and still,
Within the snow-white linen there,
Had been the light of vale and hill-
The star of all Judea's fair.

No newly gathered 'spring-flowers threw
Their rich and balmy freshness round-

No funeral wreath of heavenly hue

That pale young sleeper's temples bound:

For autumn's leprosy had been,

With withering breath, through Heshbon's groves,
And lone Elealeh's bowers were seen
Relinquishing their summer loves;

And the small fingering vines which crept
Along Engeddi's terraced walls,
Drooped wearily; and cold dews slept,
Mid leaves, like glittering coronals.

Oh, 'tis a saddening thing to stend
Beside the beautiful--the dead-
And mark the still, small, lifeless hand,
Out o'er the heaveless bosom spread;
To gaze upon the half-closed eye,
The lips compressed, the close-bound hair.
Where dwelt the spark of mystery,
Which flies at death through upper air.
*Tis a subduing thing-we turn
With our dissolving hearts, and treasure
Low in the depths of memory's urn,
Our sorrows in their utmost measure.

But, soft! a stranger's foot hath cross'd
The threshold of yon darkened room-
A stranger bends above that lost,
Frail blossom of untimely doom.

f

What doth he there? The wailings cease-
The broken hearted parents rise,

What are his words? They breathe of peace-
Thinks he that death will yield his prize?

"She is not dead, she only sleeps." They answered him with bitter scorn; Again, despairing Jairus weeps,

All comfortless, his only born.

He heeds them not the stranger guest
His mild blue eye turns mournfully
From their blasphemous taunts, to rest
Upon the unconscious form of clay.
And oh, can aught of earth pourtray
The holy heaven of that dear glance-
Silent the scoffers turned away,
Their hearts grew still as in a trance-
Their hands waxed nerveless, for they knew
By that one look their eyes had seen
The far-famed dread of priestly Jew-
The persecuted Nazarene.

He took the maiden's hand, and said.

129

[blocks in formation]

THE CONDEMNED.

THE assizes approached. Clifford's friends were numerous and influential, but in his case influence could be of no avail as a safeguard against the penalty of crime. He knew that if he were found guilty he must suffer. His sole chance therefore was to silence that only evidence which could convict him. Against the oath of Esther Lutterel nothing could prevail. Immense sums were consequently offered to purchase her silence, but she despised such sordid temptation. Every effort made to win her from her resolved and just purpose was unavailing. She turned with scornful indignation from the offered bribe. "No," said she," he has ruined me; that I could forgive, because Heaven might pardon that; but he has murdered my child-that Heaven will never pardon, and I dare not. I will not, therefore, interpose betwixt the delinquent and his judge, when that delinquent deserves to die, and that judge is the delegate of One who is eternal. He has braved the penalty; why then should he not suffer it? Let him die."

The day of trial arrived. Clifford was brought into the dock-alas! how changed! Terror had wrought fearful ravages upon a countenance which the most fastidious could not deny to be handsome. The blood seemed to have receded from every vein, while the blanched features told a fearful tale of sleepless nights and daily heartburnings. A yellow tinge had usurped the usually transparent skin, while the whole countenance, gathered into one unvarying expression of subdued agony, appeared like an ivory head that had yielded up its primitive whiteness to the gradual spoliation of time. The change which a few short weeks had wrought was truly astonishing. He was scarcely to be recognised as the once robust, lively, thoughtless Clifford. Days seemed to have been converted into years. His hair had become thin, and hung in straggling tresses on his pallid temples, which were deeply indented with the lines of acute suffering. His nose was sharp and shrunk; his eyes were sunk and hollow; his cheeks rigid; his jaws fallen; and his lips so attenuated that, when closed, the mouth was only indicated by a strong curved line. He sighed deeply, and the hurried glance which he every now and then threw around the court, showed how busy were the enemies of his peace within him. A tear of sympathy gathered in the eyes of many of the spectators, when they beheld the altered aspect of the man whose person but a few weeks before had been the envy of many and the admiration of all. What a tyrant is guilt when her slaves crouch beneath her scourge!

The trial commenced. Clifford was near fainting several times during the opening address of the opposing counsel, and when he heard the

« ПредишнаНапред »