sal.

In uttering it, our Lord undoubtedly selected language which would meet the condition, and fall soothingly on the ear of every man. He had surveyed, on the morning of creation, the vast and disordered abyss of chaos; and he had silenced its tumults, and reduced every element to order. He had sailed with his disciples in a storm, which threatened them with destruction, and had calmed it to rest; but when he surveyed the condition of man, he beheld a storm more furious and deadly than that which raged on the sea of Tiberias, and a scene of confusion more appalling than that which chaos presented on the morning of creation. His eye travelled over scenes and wastes of human woe; scenes in which he saw the chains of captivity; the pains of superstition ; the struggles of poverty; the disappointments of ambition; the misgivings of the self-righteous, and the exhausted efforts of the sinner, lashed by the reproaches of an angry conscience, and aiming to escape from a load of guilt. He heard the thickening cries of misery; his ear caught a sigh, or a sound of woe, from every habitation, every breast of man; a never-ebbing tide of the sounds of anguish, strife, and death. His omniscience penetrated every heart, and saw the tooth of care corroding the peace, not merely of the poor and the afflicted, but preying alike on the learned, the wealthy, and the mighty of the earth. He beheld a storm, in which every one was seeking for shelter, without knowing where to obtain it; and, voluntarily exposing himself to all its horrors, he pressed forth into the midst of it, and exclaimed, with a heart which felt and bled for them all, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest."

This is an invitation from which no peculiarity in our character or condition can possibly exclude us. If any such exception could be named, it must be the peculiar accumulation of our guilt, or the amount of our misery; but this, so far from excluding, brings us more completely within the scope of its grace. Were it possible for a man to unite, in his own individual person, all the wants, and guilt, and capacities of the whole human race, the invitations would only address him in a more personal manner, and with a deeper emphasis of compassion. And shall all this benevolence be lost on us? In the name of all that is

come. He addresses us as if we had never offended him, nor had rendered it necessary that he should suffer on our account; as if, in contemplating our wants, he had actually forgotten our depravity and guilt. Indeed, had he himself been the offending party, and had entailed on us all the evils we suffer, he could not have employed language more affectionate, nor have manifested greater solicitude to relieve us. Had he descended from heaven to announce only this single invitation to our guilty race, it is so graciously adapted to our condition, that it would have fully justified the important mission, and ought to have endeared him to every human heart.-Dr. Harris.

INDIGO.

INDIGO is a substance so valuable for the production of a blue dye, and its manufacture and uses are so worthy of being known, that a few remarks upon it will be likely to interest the reader. Of all the vegetable colours employed in dyeing, it is by far the most important; and no substitute has been obtained, although many attempts have been made to find one. Unlike most other vegetable dyes, it is extracted in foreign countries, and imported into Europe, in a state fit for use. Of the plants from which it is obtained, we shall presently speak; but we shall first give a brief sketch of its history.

Indigo was certainly known to those nations which we are accustomed to call the ancients; but its early history is wrapped in obscurity. It is generally supposed that the substance called indicon by Dioscorides, and indicum by Pliny and Vitruvius, was the indigo of modern times. Vitruvius mentions it in a very casual manner, after having treated of the preparation of vermilion.

"Chrysocolla," he says, comes from Macedonia, and is found in the vicinity of copper mines. Minium and indicum, by their names, indicate the places from which they are obtained." The substance here spoken of as indicum, was therefore brought from India; and when we consider the difficulty there was at that time in importing any substance from that country into Europe, it is not surprizing, that we know but little of its early history. The only communication was overland to Babylon, or through Arabia, up

the Red Sea to Egypt. This, however, we know, from ancient authors, that the indicum, when reduced to a powder, was black; but when mixed with water, gave a tint which was intermediate between purple and blue, and that it was used for colours and dyeing.

In several of the ancient records, as early as the twelfth century, we find the mention of indigo; and Marco Polo, who lived in the thirteenth century, and spent a large portion of his life in travelling, states, that it was used by dyers in the kingdom of Concan, and even described the method in which it was prepared. Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, an author who lived in the fourteenth century, gives in his works, many curious particulars concerning the trade in his day, and the various kinds of indigo employed by the dyers.

There is much reason to think, that it was one of the substances brought from India by the earliest Portuguese traders. The first ship returned to Europe in 1499, and Barbosa, who accompanied Magellan in his voyage round the world, gives the current price in 1516; and the same substance is mentioned by Corsali, in his letters from India, written the following year. All these circumstances tend to prove the early use of indigo, and the estimation in which it was held as a dye. Upon the discovery of America, an attempt was made to manufacture indigo from an indigenous plant, to which the early settlers were in all probability prompted, by observing, that some of the native Indians dyed their bodies with a vegetable blue. Whether the plant, from which the American indigo was obtained, belonged to the same genus as that found in Asia, has not been ascertained; but it is well known, that the indigo brought from India, was so superior to all others, that the dyers refused to use any other. "At first," says Mr. Barlow, 66 only a small quantity of indigo was added to the woad, by which the latter was much improved; more was afterwards gradually used, and at last the quantity became so large, that the small admixture of the woad served only to revive the fermentation of the indigo. Germany thus lost a production by which farmers, merchants, carriers, and others, acquired great riches. In consequence of the sale of woad being so much diminished, a prohibition was issued against the use of indigo by Saxony, in the year In the year 1652, duke Ernest

1650.

the pious caused a proposal to be made to the Diet by his envoy, Dr. Hænnen, that indigo should be entirely banished from the empire, and that an exclusive privilege should be granted to those who dyed with woad. This was followed by an imperial prohibition of indigo, on the 21st of April, 1654, which was enforced with the greatest severity in his dominions. What was done in Germany, with regard to Thuringia, was done in France with regard to Languedoc. In consequence of an urgent representation of the states of that province, the use of indigo was forbidden in 1598; and this prohibition was afterwards repeated several times. But in the well-known edict of 1669, in which Colbert separated the fine from the common dyers, it was stated, that indigo should be used without woad; and in 1737, dyers were left at liberty to use indigo alone, or to employ a mixture of indigo and woad."

In England the woad was never cultivated, and there was not, therefore, the same inducement to place a restriction on the use of indigo. But, on the other hand, numerous advantages were to be gained by its introduction. Consequently we find, from the days of Elizabeth, that all the laws passed in this country, having any relation to indigo, have tended to increase its consumption; and it is well known to be, in the present day, a very important article of commerce.

Indigo is obtained from a species of plant belonging to the genera, Indigofera, Isatis, and Nerium. The Indigofera tinctoria is found in the East and West Indies, and in China, and yields a dye of tolerably good quality, and in large quantities. The Indigofera anil is an American plant, and produces a more excellent dye. The Guatimala indigo, or Indigofera disperma, is a more woody plant than the others, and furnishes a superior colour: it is obtained in the East Indies and in America. The quality of the indigo obtained from the Indigofera argentea is good, but that from the pseudotinctoria is the best. The Isatiis tinctoria is the woad of Europe. Much of the East Indian indigo brought into the European market is from the Nerium tinctorium. The best indigo is obtained from that portion of Bengal lying between the river Hoogly and the main stream of the Ganges.

The cultivation of indigo is in India a matter of considerable importance. It succeeds best in a light but rich soil,

twenty to thirty feet high. The leaves are from six to ten inches long, and about three inches wide; and the method of obtaining indigo from them, is similar to that already described, except that heat is employed.

Merchants are accustomed to speak of several kinds of indigo, such as the copper-coloured, the purple, and the blue. These varieties may probably be traced to the character of the plant from which they are extracted, the time of cutting, the method of manufacture, and many other circumstances, which, although apparently unimportant, may have a great influence upon the product.

We might here mention a variety of interesting chemical experiments, which may be made with indigo; but our space will compel us to confine our attention to a few facts relative to the use of this substance in the arts.

Indigo is not soluble in water, and yet can only be employed as a dye when in a liquid state. The blue vats of the dyer contain a solution of indigo, formed by dissolving it in sulphuric acid, and with the action of heat. The cloth is first impregnated with a mordant, and is then immersed in the vat. After having undergone the various mechanical manipulations of the dyer, it is washed, either in a running stream, or in large quantities of water. When the superfluous dye has been thus removed, the cloth retains a blue colour, more or less intense, aecording to the strength of the solution of indigo in which it was dyed.

Indigo is but little tised in any other art than that of dyeing. The starchmaker employs it, to give a blue colour to his manufacture, and from it, also, two colours are made for artists. One of these, sold in cakes under the name of indigo blue, is formed simply by mixing the powdered indigo with gum or isinglass, a small quantity of sugar being sometimes added. The other colour, known in commerce under the name of intense blue, and by chemists, as indigotine, is a most remarkable and curious preparation. If indigo be powdered and subjected to a high temperature, a vapour will be given off, which, on cooling, will crystallize in the upper parts of the vessel. The crystals are of a prismatic or needle form, and have externally a lustrous copper hue; but they are also transparent, and when viewed against the light, have an intense and pure blue colour. They are ground, and made into

cakes by artists' colourmen, and possess a vastly superior tint, and are more easily used, especially by those who paint in water colours, than the indigo blue made from the raw produce of the fermented

leaf.-H.

THE FIRST FRUITS OF REASON.

THE situation of man on the globe he inhabits, and over which he has obtained the control, is in many respects exceedingly remarkable. Compared with its other denizens, he seems, if we regard only his physical constitution, in almost every respect their inferior, and equally unprovided for the supply of his natural wants, and his defence against the innumerable enemies which surround him. No other animal passes so large a portion of his existence in a state of absolute helplessness, or falls in old age, into such protracted and lamentable imbecility. To no other warm-blooded animal has nature denied that indispensable covering, without which the vicissitudes of a temperate, and the rigours of a cold climate, are equally insupportable; and to scarcely any has she been so sparing in external weapons, whether for attack or defence. Destitute alike of speed to avoid, and of arms to repel, the aggressions of his voracious foes; tenderly susceptible of atmospheric influences, and unfitted for the coarse aliments which the earth affords spontaneously, during at least two-thirds of the year, even in temperate climates, man, if abandoned to mere instinct, would be of all creatures the most destitute and miserable. Distracted by terror, and goaded by famine, driven to the most abject expedients for concealment from his enemies, and to the most cowardly devices for the seizure and destruction of his nobler prey, his existence would be one continued subterfuge or stratagem; his dwelling would be in dens of the earth, in clefts of rocks, or in the hollows of trees; his food, worms and the lower reptiles, or such few and crude productions of the soil as his organs could be brought to assimilate, varied with occasional relics, mangled by more powerful beasts of prey, or contemned by their more pampered choice. Remarkable only for the absence of those powers and qualities which obtain for other animals a degree of security and respect, he would be disregarded by some and hunted down by others; till, after a