THE SUPREME POWER.

center of a small island, to which he was in the habit of resorting, sunk in the interval of two of his voyages, sailed through an opening in its sides where the ocean had found its way, and moored his ship in the smoldering crater of a recently extinguished volcano.

Or, finally, let him survey the striking phenomenon which our author has described, and which has led us to this train of remark, a mineral fountain of salubrious qualities, of a temperature greatly above that of the surface of the earth in the region where it is found, compounded with numerous ingredients in a constant proportion, and known to have been flowing from its secret springs, as at the present day, at least for eight hundred years, unchanged, unexhausted. The religious of the elder world in an early stage of civilization, placed a genius of divinity by the side of every 'spring which gushed from the rocks, flowed from the bosom of the earth. Surely it would bo ne weakness for a thoughtful man, who should resort for the reno

"It has been as beautifully as truly said, that the undevout astronomer is mad." The same remark might with equal force and justice be applied to the undevout geologist. Of all the absurdities ever started, none more extravagant can be named, than the grand and far reaching researches and discoveries of geology are hostile to the spirit of religion. They seem to us, on the very contrary, to lead the enquirer, step by step, into the more immediate presence of that tremendous Power, which could alone produce and can alone account for the primitive convulsions of the globe, of which the proofs are graven in eternal characters, on the side of its bare and cloud piercing mountains, or are wrought into the very substance of the strata that compose its surface, and which are also day by day and hour by hour at work, to feed the fire of the volcano, to pour forth its molten tides, or to compound the salubrious elements of the mineral fountains, which spring in a thousand valleys. In ga-Vation of a wasted frame, to one of those salubrious mineral zing at the starry heavens, all glorious as they are, we sink un- fountains, if he drank in their healing waters as a gift from der the awe of their magnitude, the mystery of their secret and the outstretched though invisible hand, of an every where presreciprocal influences, the wildering conceptions of their distan- ent and benignant Power. [EDWARD EVErett.

The sparkling gem that glitters on the brow of night, is converted by science into a mighty orb-the source of light and heat, the center of attraction, the sun of a system like our own. The beautiful planet which lingers in the western sky, when the sun has gone down, or heralds the approach of morning-whose mild and lovely beams seem to shed a spirit of tranquility, not unmixed with sadness, nor far removed from devotion, into the heart of him who wanders forth in solitude to behold it is in the contemplation of science, a cloud-wrapt sphere; a world of rugged mountains and stormy deeps. We study, we reason, we calculate. We climb the giddy scaffold of induction up to the very stars. We borrow the wings of the boldest analysis and flee to the uttermost parts of creation, and twinkling in the vault of night, the well instructed mind sees opening before it in mental vision, the stupendous mechanism of the heavens. Its planets swell into worlds. Its crowded stars recede, expand, become central suns, and we hear the rush of the mighty orbs

that circle round them.

The bands of Orion are loosed, and the sparkling rays which cross each other on his belt, are resolved into floods of light, streaming from system to system, across the illimitable pathway of the outer heavens. The conclusions which we reach are oppressively grand and sublime; the imagination sinks under them; the truth is too vast, too remote from the premises from

which it is deducted; and man, poor frail man, sinks back to the earth, and sighs to worship again, with the innocence of a child or Chaldean shepherd, the quiet and beautiful stars, as he sees them in the simplicity of sense. But in the province of geology, there are some subjects in which the senses seem, as it were, led up in the laboratory of divine power. Let a man fix his eyes upon one of the marble columns in the Capitol at Washing

ton. He sees there a condition of the earth's surface, when the pebbles of every size, and form, and material, which compose this singular species of stone, were held suspended in the medium in which they are now imbedded into the solid, lustrous, and variegated mass before his eye, in the very substance of which he beholds a record of a convulsion of the globe.

Let him go and stand upon the sides of the crater of Vesuvius, in the ordinary state of its eruptions, and contemplate the glazy stream of molten rocks, that oozes quietly at his feet, encasing the surface of the mountains as it cools with a most black and stygian crust, or lighting up its sides at night with streaks of lurid fire. Let him consider the volcano island which arose a few years since in the neighborhood of Malta, spout flames from the bottom of the sea; or accompany one of our own navigators from Nantucket to the Antarctic ocean, who, finding the

THE ATMOSPHERE.

The atmosphere rises above us with its cathedral dome arching towards the heaven, of which it is the most familiar synonyme and symbol. It floats around us like that grand object which the Apostle John saw in his vision; a sea of glass like unto crystal." So massive is it that when it begins to stir it tosses about great ships like playthings, and sweeps cities and forests like snow flakes to destruction before it. And yet it is so mobile that we have lived years in it before we can be persuaded it exists at all, and the great bulk of mankind never realize the truth that they are bathed in an ocean of air. Its weight is so enormous that iron shivers before it like glass yet a soap-ball sails through it with impunity, and the tiniest insect waves it with its wings. It ministers lavishly to all the senses. We touch it not, but it touches us; its warm south wind brings back color to the pale face of the invalid: its cool west winds refresh the fevered brow, and make the blood mantle in our cheeks; even in north blasts brace into new vigor the hardened children of our rugged clime. The eye is indebted to it for all the magnificence of sunthe clouds that cradle near the setting sun. But for it the rainbow rise, the full brightness of mid-day, the chastened radiance of would want its triumphal arch, and the winds would not send their fleecy messengers or errands round the heavens. The cold ether would not shed its snow feathers on the earth, nor would

drops of dew gather on the flowers. The kindly rain would never fall-bail, storm, nor fog diversify the face of the sky. the sun, and one dreary monotonous blaze of light and heat Our naked globe would turn its tamed unshadowed forehead to dazzle and burn up all things. Were there no atmosphere, the evening sun would in a moment set, and without warning plunge the earth in darkness. But the air keeps in her hand a sheaf of his rays, and lets them slip but slowly through her have to bow their heads, and each creature spare time to find a fingers; so that the shows of evening gather by degrees, and place of rest and nestle to repose. In the morning the garish sun would, at one bound, burst from the bosom of night and blaze above the horizon; but the air watches for his approach, and then another, and by-and-by a handful-and so gently draws aside the curtain of night, and slowly lets the light fall on the face of the sleeping earth, till her eye-lids open, and like man, she goeth forth again to her labor until the evening. [LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW.

ONE reason why we meet with so few people who are reasonable and agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely anybody who does not think more of what he has to say, than of answering what is said to him.

CURIOUS FACTS IN NATURE.

ALMOST all animals come into the world with clothing adapted

to their condition. Man is an exception, because he can clothe himself. He is not however the only exception; nor is he the only animal that clothes itself. The Larvæ or grub of that,

HEALTH OF CHILDREN.

Rising early is a habit of high importance to fix in children and, in forming it, there is far greater facility than in other cases. There is a natural propensity in children generally to early rising, which needs only to be gratified and encouraged. species of moth which is called the clothes moth," manufac- They usually retire to bed some time before their parents, and tures as soon as it comes into the world, a coat for itself of hair at daylight, or at least sunrise, are generally awake and anxious or wool, and for the protection of its tender skin lines it with to rise. Many of them are actually bred up with difficulty to silk. This is a curious and singular fact. If this coat were na- the habit of taking morning naps, which when once formed, tural it would increase with the insect's growth; but it is artigenerally prevail through life. Let his father deny himself ficial, and some provision, therefore, must be made for its enso far as to retire early, and become an early riser also. His largement, as the grub increases in size. If additional length health, enjoyment, and usefulness, he may depend upon it, will only were required, the task would be easy; the covering be- be perceptibly benefited. And this may be connected with ing cylindrical, all that would be necessary, would indeed very another preventive of disease-active employment. The morneasily be effected, by adding a ring or two at the top or bottoming is the season for activity; the frame, invigorated by repose, But the coat must be widened, and this is an operation which is is prepared for exertion, and motion gives pleasure. The pure not easily performed; but the little insect, as if it had learnt the atmosphere, so much more bracing than at other hours, so much art of tailoring, accomplishes its object with equal ease and suc- sweeter and more exhilirating than the air of a confined chamcess. It begins as an experienced workman would do, by mak-ber, has been prepared to be breathed, and, like all nature's meding two slits one on each side, and then introduces two slips of icines, it is superior to any which science can produce. Early the same material to fill up the same space; but it foresees-or rising and early exercise might more properly be called food acts at least as if it foresaw-that if the slits were made on each than medicine, as they are designed for daily use, and to protect side from one end to the other at once, the coat would fall offi us from disease rather than to remove it. Every thing, except it proceeds therefore, with caution, and at first slits its garments mere sloth, invites us, nay, requires us, to train up our children on each side only half way down, and when it has completed the to use them. The morning is the most favorable season for enlargement of that half, proceeds in like manner to enlarge the exercising the frame, as well as for making useful impression on other. What more could be done by a tailor? And be it ob- the mind and heart; and whoever tries to conduct the education served that this operation is performed, not by imitation, for it of his child independently of this practice, will lose some of the never saw the thing done; nor by practice, for it is its first at- most favorable opportunities. [DWIGHT'S FATHER'S BOOK. tempt. The facts are curious and worthy of attention.

ELECTRICITY OF A TEAR.

WE tremble when the thunder-clouds burst in fury above our heads-the poet seizes on the terrors of the storm to add to the interest of his verse. Fancy paints a storm-king, and the genius of romance clothes his demons in lightnings and they are heralded by thunders. These wild imaginings have been the delight of mankind:-there is subject for wonder in them :— but is there anything less wonderful in the well authenticated fact, that the dew-drop which glistens on the flower, that the tear which trembles on the eyelid, holds locked in its transparent cells an amount of electric fire, equal to that which is discharged during a storm from a thunder-cloud?

Faraday has shown by the most conclusive experiments, "that the electricity which decomposes, and that which is developed by the decomposition of a certain quantity of matter are alike What an enormous quantity of electricity, therefore, is required for the decomposition of a single grain of water? We have already seen that it must be in quantity sufficient to sustain a platinum wire 1-104 of an inch in thickness, red hot in contact with the air, for three minutes and three-quarters. It would appear that eight hundred thousand charges of a Leyden battery, charged by thirty turns of a very large and powerful plate machine, in full action-a quantity sufficient, if passed at once through the head of a rat or cat to have killed it, as by a flash of lightning-are necessary to supply electricity sufficient to decompose a single grain of water; or if I am right to equal the quantity of electricity which is naturally associated with the elements of that grain of water endowing them with their mutual chemical affinity.

[SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

THE man of genius and the virtuous man always suggest to our fancy a larger portion of talent and a still more perfect line of conduct than they display to our observation; indeed it may be pronounced, that if there are any who can not imagine something beyond the excellence which they see exemplified in practice, such persons are wholly unable to appreciate its real worth

CORRECT SPEAKING.

We advise all young people to acquire in early life the habit of using good language, both in speaking and writing, and to abandon as early as possible the use of slang words and phrases. The longer they live the more difficult the acquisition of such language will be; and if the golden age of youth-the proper season for the acquisition of such language-be passed in its abuse, the unfortunate victim of neglected education is very Money is not necesprobably doomed to talk slang for life. sary to procure this education. Every man has it in his power. He has merely to use the language he reads instead of the slang which he hears; to form his taste from the best speakers and writers of the country; to treasure up choice phrases in his memory, and habituate himself to their use-avoiding at the same time that pedantic precision and bombast which bespeak rather the weakness of the vain ambition than the polish of an educated mind. There is no man, however low in rank, who may not materially benefit his financial condition by following this advice, and cultivating at the same time such morals and manners as correspond in character with good words.

BE COURTEOUS. It will never do you any harm. Even if you are dealing with those who are unworthy of respect, or who cannot appreciate it, it is altogether best that you should maintain self-respect. Be courteous at all times, in all places, on all occasions, and with all persons. If you are writing a review, a critique, a reply or rejoinder, or whatever else, you will be the gainer by courtesy. If you are a mechanic or merchant, you will do well to be courteous to your customers. If you are a teacher or a physician, be courteous towards your pupils or patients. If you are an office seeker you willprobably try tobe courteous. If you are a lawyer, or a politician, you will lose nothing by being courteous to your opponents. If you are a minister, it will do you no harm to be courteous in the pulpit and out of it. If you are the head of a family you will be the more respected and loved, and all the more worthy of it.