to keep his habits unsettled and irregular. The failure of the potato crop obliged government to interfere of course it would not have been decent to keep down the supply of food to the verge of starvation; there was enough; and as there was food on the spot, the Irish laborer was not obliged to go to England to seek it. The reluctance to work upon railways is to be regretted. But is it true? At what wages was the employment offered? at such rates as to secure a better scale of subsistence than that furnished by the bounty of government? If not, there is nothing to wonder at, but merely to observe as the legitimate result of circumstances; for it is a truism to say that the common herd of men do not act upon principle, but are acted upon by their circumstances; and you could not expect an Irish laborer to work on a railway for rotten potatoes when he could get maize for doing nothing, because the desired course was ""independent, or calculated to advance the enduring interests of his race. But, assuming that the reluctance to work was culpable as it could be, we cannot regard it as worse than an inevitable consequence of an inevitable resort to eleemosynary aid. Last year government had to meet the difficulty of providing food for the people when the time comes for withdrawing that aid, government will certainly have to encounter the difficulty of weaning the people from such reliance; but what then? One difficulty follows another ex necessitate rei. In countries troubled with drought, rain is apt to be attended by floods; but the foreknowledge that water will become "a drug" and " a nuisance" does not diminish the fervor of the prayers for that rain which is the prime necessity. Each day's difficulty must be met at the time. As to the future, it is crowded with further difficulties, but not with causes for despair. This second failure of the potato crop is, no doubt, a formidable visitation; yet is it most salutary. Had it not happened, we might have grown reconciled to the potato as a national food; which the root is evidently unfitted to be. The second failure ought to teach us that the use of the plant as a staple of national subsistence should be absolutely abolished. The food of Ireland must be changed. Well, we have half done it. If more help be needed, more help will undoubtedly be forthcoming. If the process of change be attended with collateral difficulties, with unsettlement to industry, it is no more than might be expected: we must anticipate such attendant evils, and mitigate them as best we can. But these smaller troubles should not distract our attention from the one enormous evil out of which we are bound to rescue the neighbor country-the "annihilation" of her food; nor from the glorious task which other circumstances combine to make possible the endowing her with a better and a more trustworthy food, and also with the habits and energies that wait upon a better-fed condition. There is no more cause for alarm in all this than there is in the fluttering of the sails when the ship is in stays; but there is every cause for persevering exertion and undaunted firmness. THE PHILOSOPHY OF A LITTLE CARPET-BAG. AMONG the most common of street sights, is that of a gentleman hurrying along towards the railway or river, bearing with him a little carpet-bag. So common it is, that it fails to attract the slightest at tention. A little carpet-bag is no more noted than an umbrella or walking-stick in a man's hand; and yet, when rightly viewed, it is, to our thinking, an object of no ordinary interest. We feel no envy for the man on whom has devolved the charge of a heap of luggage. The anxiety attending such property outweighs the pleasure of its possession. But a man with a little carpet-bag is one in ten thousand. He is perhaps the most perfect type of independence extant. He can snap his fingers in the face of Highland porter extortionate. No trotting urchin is idle enough to solicit the carrying of so slight a burden. While other passengers, by coach or railway, are looking after their trunks and trappings, he enters, and has the best seat. He and his little all never part company. On arriving at their destination, they are off with the jaunty swagger of unencumbered bachelorhood! In contemplating a gentleman with a carpet-bag, we are struck, to a certain extent, with an idea of disproportion; but the balance is all on the easy side. There is far too little to constitute a burden, and and yet there is enough to indicate wants attended to, and comforts supplied. No man with a little carpet-bag in hand has his last shirt on his back. Neither is it probable that his beard can suffer from slovenly overgrowth. When he retires at night, the presumption is, that it will be in the midst of comfortable and cozy night-gear. A little carpet-bag is almost always indicative of a short and pleasurable excursion. No painful ideas of stormy seas or dreadful accidents on far-off railway lines are suggested by it. Distance is sometimes poetically measured by "a small bird's flutter," "two smokes of a pipe," or some such shadowy, though not altogether indefinite phrase. Why may not time, in like manner, be measured by two shirts? A gentleman with a little carpet-bag may be said to contemplate about a couple of shirts' absence from home.-Glasgow Citizen. 66 or "I PRYTHEE deliver them like a man of this world," says Falstaff to Pistol, when the latter was charged with the "happy news of price" of the king's death; and this delivery is not only a touchstone of style, but of the cast of genius. The style may vary from the loftiest flight of Shakspeare to the humblest writer of sensible prose, and the mind exhibit extremes as wide apart; but a writer who observes a due proportion between his thoughts and his expressions, who allows his ideas to color his diction, instead of swelling his diction with the view of exalting his ideas, is a man of this world." He may not be true in his exhibitions"For what is truth?" But he reflects things such as he sees or thinks them; and according to their character and his own will be the durability of his work. On the other hand, the rhetorician looks more to his words than his matter; and even his matter is less selected for its own qualities than its capabilities for writing. Many men of talent belong to this school; which produces works of great power and success, from the "King Cambyses vein" upwards; but one characteristic pervades them all-effect is substituted for reality; and that and exceptions of nature, or by endeavoring through effect is sought either by selecting the peculiarities the means of style to produce a something greater, not always than the nature itself contains, but than the writer can see in it.-Spctator. The Use of the Body in From Jerrold's Newspaper. capable of desiring its own gratification. Desire is never felt without an excitation of organism, but then the individual being, that is conscious of impression, not the instrument, is the subject of desire We are not among the class that the author of and gratification. Will is not the action of an orpresent volume thinks will bring against him gan, but of the soul, and although the habitual inthe imputation of assuming the clerical character. dulgence of a passion promotes the development of On the contrary, we deem his chosen subject one it that part of the nervous system called into action, well becomes every man to consider; though not it does not follow that a full development shall lead free from apprehension that such a complicated to its full exercise-far otherwise-mind has a mass of matter as the question involves holds much restraining as well as an exciting power. Even acuncertainly in the absence of positive demonstra-cording to phrenologists, the large destructiveness tion, so that in minds not disposed to take a good of Spurzheim, for instance, was controlled by his deal for granted, the laudable desire of the author moral habits or associations, and yet many a man may not be productive of the benefit he anticipates. with larger moral organs, (to speak phrenologically,) There is a difficulty in dealing too with opposite What does this prove? Certainly not that a man's and less destructiveness, has been a murderer. qualities, blended together in the way spirit and materiality exist in the human frame. There is so moral character is decided by the balance of his much of each attached to separate ends, those of the brains, but by the state of his soul as regards body for bodily use alone, and of the mind or spirit knowledge and affection." subservient only to a spiritual end, that discrimination becomes a task of difficulty. Yet if we are to be daunted by obstacles of seeming moment in our undertakings, we shall scarcely achieve the labors necessary to existence. No such considerations, however, predominate where the object is to interest man in what appertains to his own nature, and to excite attention and promote investigation, rather, under the means proffered, than by the rejection of anything because doubt intervenes. Life, irritability, and sensibility, are considered, and their mental control, of some observations under which heads we doubt the soundness. It is the misfortune, in handling subjects so complex as the present, that a vast deal must be taken on credit. Our author, we observe, is somewhat indulgent to mesmerism. Excessive mental cultivation had, it seems, been reported to cause an increase of dropsy of the brain in children, which Dr. Moore, apparently with justice, controverts. The following remarks are truly just and highly valuable. TREATMENT OF CHILDREN. "If we would avoid injuring a soul, we must With most of the physical phenomena introduced by Dr. Moore, well-read persons are at present familiar. Dr. Moore's object is most praiseworthy; it is, in fact, to direct through nature up to nature's God. He accordingly begins his work by showing treat the body with tenderness and wisdom. A how the blood is produced, and how the germ becomes a living thing, the dwelling of a distinct spirit. Thus opening the relation of body with mind. LAW OF BEING. young child is a newly created spirit, introduced into this amazing world for the purpose of obtaining a knowledge of material things, and of sentient beings, by contact and sympathy, It is utterly ignorant; but, unless the brain and senses be defective, it possesses, and by degrees can exercise, all "But we must not confound the blind law, by the mental qualities of a philosopher, gradually bewhich atoms take their places to form organisms, a coming acquainted with the properties of objects. law which is probably chemical, with the operation both of thought and sense, by observation and exof a power consciously at work. Yet chemical ac- periment. All the faculties of childhood are busily tion is never accidental or fortuitous, it is always at work as fast as they are developed, and every acting to an end; but we must distinguish the propensity is ardently seeking for indulgence. Proforces employed in developing a body for the ac- pensity, in short, is a bodily provocation to action; commodation of a soul, from the soul itself. In the and the soul must yield to it, if it knows not any body many forces are at work together, under a better means of pleasure; for the soul always does, common law, but the conscious being is not mani- and always must, aim at enjoyment. But that is fested in it till the end of that law is in some properly found only in a suitable use of the bodymeasure fulfilled; for the purpose is to prepare a a use for spiritual ends--Almighty benevolence has body for a conscious being. But the soul resides formed the body for happiness when rightly emin it without interfering with the creative and for- ployed; and the means of that employment must mative forces, and is not conscious of their existence be provided, or activity becomes a constant perveruntil it finds that they have been ordered to their sion of power, and therefore a constant source of offices, and have built up an abode which it may uneasiness. But as human individualism is a type enjoy, without knowing how it is formed, or by of deity, its perfection, its full capacity for happiwhat means it continues subservient to its will and ness, is only found in goodness and love; therepleasure." fore it never can rest satisfied with its knowledge Our author then proceeds to the fourfold nervous till all creation is completely harmonious and hapsystem, that system of vibrations or electric action py. The pure enjoyment of a human being is perhaps, by which mind and body communicate now derived through the senses, by which alone it with each other, the intercourse being carried on obtains proof that it is in its proper place, with rethrough the senses. The nervous system of four gard to others and its own convenience; therefore sets of fibres is well known, and their connection its senses must be cultivated, that it may find, with the brain; these are explained in relation to will and sensation. Here, in regard to phrenology, Dr. Moore shows up an absurdity. through a bodily correspondence, the fellowship it needs with other human beings and with nature. A child, with all its senses perfect, requires only instruction and sympathy to complete its education. But what a fulness of meaning lies in the word, Phrenologists write as if they deemed an organ education; the leading out of an immortal being to BRAINS AND MORAL CHARACTER. the fulfilment of its proper desires; the directing, hopeless involuntarily sympathize. Hence the by moral governance, all the faculties, affections, benefit to the mind of excursions amidst green and propensities to right objects, including, of fields, gardens, woods, hills, and dales, or by the course, the due exercise of the organization sub- great sea, with its living waves and vastness, sparkservient to them." ling with sunbeams.” All happiness derived through the senses of sight and sound, is dependent on the vibration of light and air. cite." SENSE OF SIGHT. Mental action in the use of sight is one of the most pleasing of Dr. Moore's chapters, and we have read it with very agreeable associations. The following is an extract under this head. The following extract is singular, though its contents do not prove anything, except that there could have been no cessation of existence in the cases related. With it we must conclude a work evidently well-intentioned, showing a highly cultivated mind, sound professional knowledge, and a deep sense of religion. SINGULAR CASES OF SUSPENDED LIFE. "We possess proof of the astounding fact, that solar light causes a regular succession of movements in the medium through which it passes, to the amount of five hundred millions of millions in a second; and it is because this vibration acts "Perhaps the clearest and most positive testiupon something in our brain capable of vibrating mony to the fact is that given by Dr. Adam Clarke, in a corresponding ratio, that our souls are put in the learned Wesleyan, who, when relating his resuch relation to light that we can enjoy vision.covery from drowning, stated to Dr. Lettsom, that The time of different colors, however, is not the during the period of his apparent unconsciousness he same; our sense of sight is affected by red 458 felt a new kind of life. These are his words :- All millions of millions of times in a second; by violet my views and ideas seemed instantly and entirely 727 millions of times; and by yellow, 542 changed, and I had sensations of the most perfect millions of millions of times in a second. Of felicity that it is possible, independently of rapture, course, therefore, different colors differently affect for the human mind to feel. I had no pain from our souls. Throughout nature, these undulations the moment I was submerged; a kind of green of light are so modified as to be productive of a vast color became visible to me; a multitude of objects variety of enjoyments to various creatures, and to were seen, not one of which, however, bore the operate in such a manner upon their nerves and fac- least analogy to anything I had ever beheld before.' ulties as to guide them to the fulfilment of those When preaching in aid of the Humane Society, at desires which color and shape contribute to ex- the City-road Chapel, in London, he said, 'I was submerged a sufficiently long time, according to my apprehensions and the knowledge I now have of physiology, for me to have been so completely dead as never more to exist in this world, had it not been for that Providence which, as it were, once more breathed into me the breath of this life.' Mr. Green, in his Diary, mentions a person who had been hung, and cut down on a reprieve, who, being asked what were his sensations, stated, that the preparations were dreadful beyond expression, but that on being dropped he instantly found himself amidst fields and rivers of blood, which graduhe could reach a certain spot he should be ally acquired a greenish tinge. Imagining that if easy, he seemed to himself to struggle forcibly to attain it, Here we find a green and then he felt no more. color again mentioned as the last impression on the mind, which perhaps may be explained on the principle mentioned in the chapter on light. The first effect of strangulation is a retardation of blood, which causes a red color to appear before the eye; but green always succeeds to red, unless the eye be directed to some other color. It is interesting to observe how, in the midst of the most violent struggle to which a human being can be subjected, the soul dissociates itself from the past and the present, and interprets impression in keeping with its desire, which seems ever to be capable of conferring a new world of thought according to its kind." VISUAL PERCEPTION. "A certain degree of attention to the use of the eye is essential to visual perception; for if we are profoundly engaged in contemplating ideas, or even in listening to fine sounds, more especially if they awaken our passions, we lose sight of ocular objects, or behold only such as fancy conjures up: When several objects are presented to the eye at the same time, as in complicated figures with undefined or intricate outlines, a pleasing confusion is the result; and unless we look attentively into the pattern, imagination and memory will supply resemblances and ideas to occupy the place of that which is really before us. This fact was referred to in connection with the vagaries of reverie, but it is one of very extensive application in the arts, and assists us to understand the influence of many natural objects on our minds, since we perceive that a variety of angles and curvilinear figures may be so artfully distributed for ornamental effect, as to afford incessant occupation and enjoyment to all persons whose habits and mental development will allow them properly to observe what is before their eyes. But this, indeed, is far from being quite a common endowment, for the power of observation under correct ideal associations characterizes minds of the highest genius, either for experiment, description, or design. It is, however, on the play of imagination amidst many undefined objects that much of our pleasure depends; and on this principle the infinite diversity of forms and colors, interfering with each other, and yet harmonizing, tends to divert the soul from the visions of care, so apt to haunt the thoughtful, and, by withdrawing the attention from self, to fill it to overflowing with indefinite delights, by suggesting a thousand ideas of life, action, and happiness, with which all but the USE OF THE BODY. THE eloquent and amiable author of the power of the "Soul over the Body," has issued another volume on a kindred subject, The Use of the Body, in relation to the Mind. In this work Dr. Moore first considers the peculiar organization of the human body, to show its beautiful adaptation to the ends of existence; and then passes on to a minute and philosophical examination of the manner in which the mind is affected by external circumstances. This subject has not been handled in the same way before. Always remembering that man is chiefly important as a spiritual being, Dr. Moore | owns him, not only as his creature, but as his shows how want of light, of air, of water, of food, offspring. Therefore, let us not say, with the mismay affect the mind, and how its very constitution taken bard, in whom passion and impulse so strongmay be altered by severe labor in early life, by pri- ly warred against knowledge : vation, and by want of intellectual culture. Thus "A tadpole confined in darkness would never become a frog, and an infant, being deprived of heaven's free light, will only grow into a shapeless idiot, instead of a beauteous and reasonable human being. Hence, in the deep damp gorges and ravines of the Swiss Valais, where the direct sunshine scarcely reaches, the hideous prevalence of cretinism startles the traveller. It is a strange melancholy idiocy. Many cretins are incapable of any articulate speech; some are deaf, some blind, some labor under all these privations, and all are misshapen in almost every part of the body." Dearly bought the hidden treasure Finer feelings can bestow, Thrill the deepest notes of woe!'-BURNS. Rather let us rejoice that the soul of man is trained by trials. He must suffer, to be great; he must conquer himself and the world, in order to be forever mighty. For this end the reasonable spirit of man is instructed by truth, the mind of God revealed within him, that he may rise in faith above instincts, passions, and opinions, and come forth an eternal hero, who, through submission in weakness, arms himself with omnipotence." Many beautiful passages of a like kind are dispersed through the work. No author has more ably traced the connection between mind and body, or has more finely and conclusively established the relation between man and his Creator.-Britannia. NOVEL IMPORTATIONS. SOME ten or twelve years ago, people were amazed when fresh eggs and butter, live poultry and cattle, were steamed from Ireland and the north of Scotland for the consumption of the great metropolis; now what shall they say to arrivals of live turtle and pine-apples from the West Indies, early potatoes from the Bermudas, and potatoes, "I believe there is, in all places, a marked dif- green-peas, and young onions from Portugal, and ference in the healthiness of houses, according to cucumbers from Holland? Yet such is the case. their aspect with regard to the sun, and that those Turtle, if we can credit the newspapers, will are decidedly the healthiest, cæteris paribus, in shortly be as common as veal, and pine-apples be which all the rooms are, during some part of the placed on every respectable table, not, as formerly, day, fully exposed to the direct light. It is a well-on loan from the fruiterers, but the bona fide to-beknown fact, that epidemics frequently attack the inhabitants of the shady side of a street, and totally exempt those of the other side; and even in endemics, such as ague, the morbid influence is often thus partial in its action. Sunshine is also essential to the perfection of vegetation, and the water that lies in darkness is hard, and comparatively unfit for drink; while the stream that bears its bosom to the day deposits its mineral ingredients, and becomes the most suitable insolvent of our food." The same train of investigation is pursued in reference to sound, color, food, bodily action, employment, &c. The whole work is marked by pure benevolence and sincere piety, as well as by learning, sagacity, and eloquence. It is a valuable addition to our stock of Christian philosophy-the author's conclusions being all drawn from authenticated facts, and illustrated by a great number of curious cases and anecdotes. Dr. Moore seems favorable to Dr. Wigan's theory of the Duality of the Mind, conceiving that the double organs act in the same harmony as the two eyes and two ears. The spirit in which Dr. Moore writes is fairly exhibited in the following extract: enjoyed property of the host. Last summer we had several arrivals of pine apples, and this season we see four already announced, so that ordinarysized pines, of delicious flavor, may be calculated upon at scarcely one tenth of what they would have cost under the uncertain and scanty supply of the home grower. Early potatoes from the Bermudas and Portugal, anticipating our own supply by a month, is certainly a novelty; and we see no reason why, instead of "two hundred and fifty-five barrels," there may not be fifty times that amount, and yet the importer meet with a fair remunerating profit. In our northern latitude, we need never hope to compete in earliness with the more favored climates of Portugal, Madeira, and the West Indies; but by our steam navigation, which makes these countries, as it were, part and parcel of our own island, we may enjoy, at a reasonable expenditure, all the delicacies of the tropics, and yet secure the healthful invigorating advantages of our own temperate clime. Nor, under the cultivation of peace and the extension of steam navigation and railways, do we see any limit to this gratifying interchange of commodities. We have now American ice, as well as American cotton and corn; West India turtle and pine-apples, as well as West India rum and sugar: early potatoes, green-peas, and grapes from Portugal, as well as Portuguese oranges, raisins, and wines-nor is there any cause why we may not have every other foreign delicacy, however rare and evanescent.-Chambers' Journal. CENTRAL EUROPE: THE BROKEN TREATY. THE result of the debates in both houses of parliament on the occupation of Cracow is, that Russia, Austria, and Prussia have manifestly broken the letter of the treaty of Vienna, and that they lie under a heavy suspicion of having violated its spirit also. In other words, they have committed an offence against the commonwealth of Europe; and there is great reason to think that they have done this wilfully and maliciously. The treaty of Vienna is the basis on which the present status quo reposes; and its integrity must be guarded at every point, for on no other terms can the peace of the continent be preserved. The provisions of the treaty may or may not be the best that could be desired; some of them are unwillingly submitted to by certain of the contracting parties; but this affords only so much the stronger reason for insisting on the scrupulous fulfilment of all the conditions by au parties. If the treaty is faulty, then let it be remedied by a general congress; but, meanwhile, no power can presume to violate it without virtually becoming the common enemy of confederated Europe, and provoking retaliations of the most formidable nature. In a word, the strenuous interposition of the governments of France and England on behalf of the independence of Cracow is called for not only on the grounds of generous sympathy for the weak and oppressed remnant of an illustrious nation, but likewise as necessary to the quiet and security of themselves and their allies. The sum and substance of the matter was most cogently expressed by Lord Palmerston in the following memorable words: "I must say, that if there are any powers, parties to that treaty, who have the strongest interest that the settlement of Europe which was effected by the treaty of Vienna should be maintained, those powers undoubtedly are the powers of Germany; and it cannot have escaped, I am sure, the sagacity of those who govern those countries, that if the treaty of Vienna be not good on the Vistula, it may be equally bad on the Rhine and on the Po." Italy, the King of Sardinia, the Archduke of Tuscany, the pope, and the King of Naples are all heading those commercial and administrative reforms which will soon give Italy the power as well as the will to assert her independence. The condition of Prussia is not less critical. Her subjects are deeply disaffected, and have probably been hitherto restrained from breaking out into open insurrection only by their want of mutual confidence and of a common national spirit. The eastern Sclavonic provinces are animated with an intense antipathy to the government, both because it is German and because it is the timid and obsequious ally of the czar; the Rhenish provinces are discontented with their present rulers, and look back with gratitude to France for the laws she bestowed on them; while part of the centre, unwillingly calling itself Prussian, would gladly revert to Saxony, from which it was severed. It is easy to see what would be the fate of Prussia if matched against France on the banks of the Rhine. It is mere foolhardiness to assume that we are safe for our day from such a contingency. We have happily escaped it for thirty-one years, not because it was of itself unlikely to occur, but because prudent statesmen have taken assiduous pains to prevent it. The event would have happened with the consent and coöperation of Nicholas had Charles the Tenth remained on the throne of France. There will be peace, we trust, as long as Louis Philippe lives; and his successors will probably endeavor to continue his pacific policy; but they may possibly not be able to do so. However convinced the French may be of the expediency of resting content just now with their present limits, there is scarcely a man among them who does not believe in his heart that the Rhine is the natural boundary of France, and that to this limit her territory must and shall be extended. At present the policy of the French middle classes accords with that of their sovereign; they feel it is their interest to repress the national ardor for military glory; but there comes a time with men and nations when passion outruns reason, and present interests are sacrificed to speculative advantages. The French are perhaps the most prone of all civilized beings to such aberrations.-Spectator, Aug. 22d. IRELAND'S WEAKNESS ENGLAND'S OPPORTU NITY. Have Prussia and Austria nothing to apprehend from these two quarters? Are they so perfectly secure against all danger from without and from within that they can afford to tamper with the common bond of peace? The facts are directly the reverse. The internal condition of both those states is in the highest degree uneasy and precarious. Their heterogeneous elements are farther than ever from coalescing; and nothing seems now more VAST and startling conclusions were hinted at in likely than that the outbreak of any general com- the discussion on the government measures for the motion would be speedily followed by the dissolution relief of Ireland under the second failure of the of the two ill-compacted masses. Their very ex- potato crop. Indeed, the facts are bad enough. istence is bound up with that of the treaty of For a second season the disease in the potato plant Vienna. Austria has but five or six millions of manifests itself with greater virulence than before; German subjects to match against its thirty-one and a second time is the government of England millions of restless and discontented Italians, Magy- called upon to rescue the Irish people from starvaars, and Sclavonians, who are severally plotting its tion. Is this intervention going to be habitual? In overthrow, and waiting only a favorable conjuncture sooth, that question is in the hands of Fortune: it of circumstances to effect their purpose. Their seems to depend upon the restoration of the potato zeal, their hopes, and their, resources are augment- plant to a healthy state; and there is no guessing ing day by day; while those of their imperial foe when that may be. are dwindling as rapidly away. The moral force But strange things were said. There was a of the Austrian government is almost gone; and general concurrence in recognizing some sort of were it left to fight its own battles single-handed, permanence as pertaining to the present juncture three fourths of the bayonets it now commands in Ireland-a permanence either in its causes or in would perhaps be turned at once against it. How its results. Some speakers, indeed, expressly quallong could it make head against Italy, with the ified both the emergency and the measures as temMagyars, the Poles, and other Sclavonians, as-porary," but the idea of continuousness was the saulting it on flank and rear? The sovereigns of prevailing one. Especially did the advantages of |