derful phenomena in character, and exhibit in an imperfect view, the reasons for the various grades and conditions of society, as well as the comparative differences of nations, and thereby delineate the real causes of much of the ignorance, vice and consequent misery, which serve as thorns in the bosom of humanity, will, I trust, be viewed as, at least, approach. ing our subject; and should we, in our examinations and reflections, present truths from which a profitable lesson might be learned, we shall have the satisfaction that our labor is not in vain. Waving, for the present occasion, the influences produced by different organizations and constitutions, the development of which belongs more particularly to the physiologist and phrenologist, we would essay to show how far and in what manner, external circumstances, the various systems of external education and moral instruction, operate, in forming the human character and maturing the human faculties.

In reading the history of nations, their manners and customs, their sciences and religions, no fact is more evident than that those manners and customs; those sciences and religions, are formed, regulated and governed by the leading spirits of society. Those spirits upon which nature has lavished her choicest gifts, and pointed out the spheres of their operation, are continually working in society-whether it be in the land of the civilized or barbarous-moulding, changing and revolutionizing the customs and habits; introducing new theories and remodeling old ones; exploding ancient systems, and superseding them with those more novel, if not more true. It is through the plastic influence of such minds that the character of a nation is determined. Bonaparte made the French all warriors-Voltaire and Rosseau made them infidels. The former inspired them with a love of military glory; the latter flattered them with the idea that it was profound philosophy to deny the God that made them. Cadmus inspired his countrymen with a love of literature, and by the skill of his ge. nius, the germ of his exertions has become a tree of towering height, whose branches encircle the nations, and whose fruit is the happiness of mankind; while the mysticism of Mahomet, and the intricate meshes of the net of Zoroaster, are blinding millions on millions of the human race. In no nation and in no age of the world, has the human race been wanting in men, remarkable for their energetic and comprehensive minds. The most barbarous nations; nations upon which the arts have shed no resplendent rays, through which the bright and crystal streams of science have never run, where the heavenly breeze of Christian philanthropy was never felt; there, among the precincts of barbaric customs, where the mass are enshrouded in a veil, deep and dark as that which conceals the future, we find specimens of human genius, breaking through the shackles of custom, and rending the veil that covers the multitude; and if they do not enjoy the glorious sunlight of civilization, they at least act like Pollock's daughters of beauty, as light of the darksome world, as stars to night, shedding around them a halo of intellectual glory, which serves to light the pathway of the multitude.

The philosophy of Zoroaster and the religion of Mahomet, the military skill of a Hannibal and a Bonaparte, required as great an exertion of intellect, a mind as powerful, and a perseverance as untiring, as it does in the acquisition of the most abstruse sciences of the present day, or in the prosecution of the greatest enterprises of the modern, enlightened nations.

Did the Grecians and Romans serve their imaginary deities, because they had not minds capable of grasping truth? No. The dark mysticisms of mythology were more complicated in their nature than Christian theolo gy. Did they educate their youth in the exercise of athletic games, the excitation of the gymnasia, and teach them to fondly dream of elysian joys, as the reward of success, because intellect was deficient? No! Their poets and philosophers, their statesmen and orators, will ever remain as monuments of wonder-working intellect. They had been taught to the "summit of their faculties;" their heads were filled with lore."But their poets drank from the fountains of vice, and the poison was instilled into the minds of the populace." Taste was vitiated and corrupt ed, which turned mind into improper channels, and sunk man in the scale of being. It was a corrupt, unnatural taste that led them from the proud eminence of mental greatness, down the winding way to degrading sensuality and soul-withering vice.

Though intellect differed in different individuals, yet, from the empe ror to the plebian, the highest object of their aspiration was to excel in the sports and feats! England, France and America may now boast of their refined system of ethics, their poets and sages. England may point us to a Pitt, a Fox and a Sheridan; France, to her Masillon and Bourdaloue; and America, to her Henry, her Wirt, and her Lee, in revolutionary days; and may now boast of her Clay, Calhoun, Webster and Van Buren; but the language of the moderns is not so perfect-their orators are inferior, and their poets attempt in vain to vie with Homer, Virgil, or even Anacreon. Yet as strong and as ardent as was the Greek's love for science and belles-lettres, it was equally ardent to vie with competitors in the meanest amusements; in crimes that would "out-Herod Herod."The ancient Grecians and Romans rank highest among the nations in literary acquirements, while in horrid contrast they present us with specimens of puerile weakness; of rude, uncultivated habits, and a continual scene of crime: and these extravagant contrasts were found combined in the same character, as antagonistical and as belligerent, as the refined charity of a Howard united with the savage ferocity of a Caligula! The modern nations aspire after their literature, their fine arts, in which are exhibited superior and refined talents; while their games and sports, the glory of the ancients, are now spurned and rejected, as unfitted to another, and, as we believe, a better taste.

Thus do we perceive that all nations pursue that course of life which they are taught to love. It is this principle that determines the character of a nation. It is this that makes the civilized life one of refinement, of gentility and sociability; and the savage life, a theatre of sports and games, of ferocity and war.

It is this that makes the native Indian of the forest, bound like the wild deer, over the western mountains, in pursuit of the panther and the bear. In this his soul delights. To range the woodland-to submit to toil-to row his frail bark upon the bosom of the lake-to brave danger in the din of war-to rouse for fight at the war-whoop, or the clarion blast-is the elysium of a savage life. This they have been taught to love, and their taste has moulded their minds to the adaptation of such novel occupations. Yet in those very occupations which our tastes pronounce rude and uninstructed, are exhibited an ingenuity and a skill, which, if brought to ad

mire the arts of civil life, could construct an engine, draw a landscape, or paint a portrait of the fairest damsel!

It is upon this principle, which we term "taste," that the leading spirits of society act upon its members. It is the cultivation of this principle, that fashions and forms the customs and habits, morals and manners of nations; produces their indescribable contrasts, and fastens upon them, I had almost said, with the chain of destiny, a character as indelible us Egyptian hieroglyphics. This principle not only explains the vast differ ence in natural character, from the brightest sunlight of civilization, down to the darkest shade of barbarism, but true as the native magnet, it serves as an index to the character, habits and manners of individuals in civil society. A correct and discriminating moral and intellectual taste, is the fundamental principle of a useful education. In youth, its proper cultivation, leading it in right channels, teaching it to love that which is ennobling in human nature, that which exalts and purifies, to love science and gain energy by the investigation of it, is the only sure method which can be adopted, to bring the mind through dreaming childhood, up science's rugged steep, that it may thereby avoid the desert gloom of ignorance, the siroc winds of vice. If mind is inspired in juvenile days, with a genuine love of literature, of refinement and usefulness, that love is the seal of promise, that to such a mind the future will open a scene of elysian charmsof halcyon joys. The cultivation of such a taste, a thirst for knowledge, is the magic key that opens the door to the rich laboratory of nature, and instead of viewing the external, its bulk and shapeless form, the mind enters into its complicated combination, tracing phenomena to their causes, and as if propelled by some unearthly power, it seeks, even in subterranean depths and ocean's coral bed, to pry into the very secrets of Omnipotence, and trace to the Original, the whole genius of his wondrous work!

A mind inspired with such a taste, will investigate the laws of naturethose propitious laws, under which Heaven has seen fit to place us-learn the intricate relationship which exists between man and man, his duties and obligations in society, and thereby elevate himself to the best circles and best friends. Such a mind ever sails upon a placid sea. The misfortunes of life have for it no terrors-novelty, transition, or decay of things held dear, cannot disappoint or sadden it. Its home is in the society of the intelligent, the refined, the virtuous and the good; while around it cluster the holiest affections of the purest hearts.

On the other hand, a vicious and corrupt taste will indulge in low and grovelling thoughts; while the bright arcana in which stalwart reflection loves to revel, like the "sealed book," its charms are ever hid from view. However strongly duty and necessity may urge to the cultivation of mind and moral improvement, if taste be wanting, its destiny is grovelling sensuality; and when selfish ambition forgets to act, as it ultimately will, it finally relapses into its much loved state, and there remains, known only on account of its baseness, until death, the winding-sheet and coffin, shall

close the scene!

These are the results of the two principles. One leads us to the flowery fields and blooming dales of mind; the other, to desert wastes and weeds of "noxious growth." One rends the veil of ignorance, and gives the mind access to the bright regions of intellectual light; the other enshrouds it in clouds and darkness. One sees benevolence displayed in

all the works of creation, sees "Goodness employed in all the good and ill that chequer life;" the other views vengeance in every storm, and the gorgon head" of cruelty in all the reverses and afflictions of humanity. One brings our youth under the auspices of the schools, the church, and the company of the wise and good; the other carries them to the sinkholes of crime, the bar-room, the horse-race, and the gambling-house.The former points to honor, distinction, respect, and everlasting fame; the latter, to the dreary shades of infaniy, disgrace and ruin!

Then what must be our conclusion? Would we improve our race, and raise man in the scale of being? Let us cultivate this principle. Would we render ourselves what nature designed we should be, and distinguish humanity with attributes, thoughts and feelings of which brutes cannot boast? We must cultivate this principle. Then it is that

"Our peaceful lives will glide
Like some unruffled dream."

Ever remembering, in the words of Montgomery, that

"Life lies in embryo-never free
Till nature yields her breath;
Till time becomes eternity,
And man is born in death."

West Richmond, N. Y.

THE PERSECUTED BOY.

RICHARD MELLEN was the son of parents whose circumstances in life chained them down to the intercourse of ordinary society. From mere childhood he had been victimized as the butt of ridicule for the whole neighborhood. In schools, there is always some pupil singled out, on whom the leers, and jibes, and taunts of every malapert scholar are heaped. In the one to which our little hero belonged, he had to submit to such imposition, and pass through the fiery ordeal of such persecution. But it was remarked that he invariably bore all this mirth with becoming coolness, insomuch that it seldom provoked a retort. In fact, he was so keen and cutting when he did deign a reply, that there was an instinctive dread of condign punishment, when his persecutors beheld an unusual fixedness of his eye, and a bitter, contemptuous scorn gathering on his half-upturned lip, which ever preceded one of his most galling and biting notices of their raillery. This may seem strange in a boy, simply, but it was, nevertheless, as strangely true. Careless in his manner of dress, and absolutely droll and slovenly in his mien, it was no wonder that he was set apart by his schoolmates for their sole, exclusive and peculiar amusement. His preceptor engendered an antipathy to him, as, by accident, he discovered something repulsive in his address. Even his parents, imbibing the popular opinion, at length began to look down upon him as the boy devoid of genius; and concluded that it was preposterous to continue him at school, 'where he not only failed to make any proficiency, but had to stem a torrent of abusive epithets, dire vituperation, and contumely, profusely lavished upon him by his cotemporary school-fellows.

But Richard was a philosophic little soul; and maugre all that he had to contend with, wrapt up in the knowledge of his own prowess, he never allowed the smoothness of his temper to be lashed into a foam by the storms of passion; consoling himself with this thought-"there shall be a change some day." Society he never courted, nor courted the smiles of any one. For hours after Morpheus had sealed the eyelids of all oth

ers, he pored tirelessly over his books; and as the earliest lark began its matin orison, he placed himself at his window, and studied by the light of breaking morn. Mellowed by the solemn quiet of midnight, and inspired by the balmy influence of Aurora, the spirit of poesy soon became incorporated with his juvenile mind. Tender thoughts and sublime sentiments sprang up, spontaneously, from the prolific soil. The light of heaven shed its radiant beams in his expanding heart. The iris of his own peace spanned the world of his imaginative day-dreams. The ideal blendid with reality. The cold world laughed at his seeming stupidity, but he heeded them not. His parents chided their son for his sedentary life, but he replied in a mild, filial way, and said to himself, "there shall be a change some day."

And there was, too, a new era in the life-time of the young Miller.In proportion to the growth and strength of his physical system, did his mental enlarge and improve. As the lineaments of boyhood slowly disappeared, genius and manhood were portrayed, in bold relief, in their stead. Intellect nestled in the dark chambers of his piercing eye, and the flash of poetic fire that shot forth from that place, irresistibly made you wonder and admire. Thus, by intense application to wisdom's lore, did he fling back the scorn of foes into their own path, mounted the slippery ladder of eminence, and looked down from a lofty height on his former despisers, but now invidious but unwilling admirers.

Poetic talent will discover itself sooner or later. Miller commenced his publications over a fictitious signature-" Cincinnatus"-and ere long heard high eulogiums on his productions from the lips of his veriest enemies, when they little dreamed who was the author. Every tongue lauded their beauty, and every heart melted under their pathetic strain.

About this time, the wily god, Cupid, aimed a shot at his heart; and well it told in that uncorrupted reservoir of life! And well did the sly archer do his devoir in this instance. Oh! how tenderly Richard fostered the passion! The ideal angel, before whose shrine his youthful soul had bowed in ecstatic devotion, seemed personified in the object of his affection. The torch of love inflamed every sentiment, bursting forth in song; and every whispered thought was linked, in hallowed sweetness, with her name. But an insuperable barrier was thrown out before him, The girl of his choice was of wealthy and honorable parentage-he of poor and obscure. Yet she returned his ardent love. To her he communicated the name of the anonymous writer, who received the applause of all. Oh! how sweet to confide the secrets of his inmost heart to so sweet, gentle and smiling a maid! A promise was made to defer a nuptial connexion till the world should place him, in honor, on a level with her pa

rents.

Years went by: Richard Mellen stood first and foremost as a jurist, at the most renowned bar. "Cincinnatus" was known in "propria persona." The being of his first love was his honored bride. The dull, ignorant boy was forgotten in the eloquent, patriotic, erudite statesman. The boy whom we first introduced to you is now an Hon. in the House of Representatives of the United States. Take up almost any periodical of the day, read the boundless encomiums bestowed upon him, and you may learn that, although genuine talent be subdued and crushed for a while, like a smothered fire, it only recoils to issue forth in another place, more furious and magnificently brilliant. West. Lit. Cask.