doth; for its rapid action causeth a fever, slow but consuming, and, when it encountereth any vessel containing blood, by reason of its hatred it destroyeth it, so that the body is finally exhausted, and dies, the blood having been emptied from it.'

Next follows a disquisition upon the chemistry of the poison, seeking to explain, by means of the elective doctrines then prevalent, the rationale of the above recorded action. But, as this is by no means satisfactory, being too deeply imbued with the alchemical and metaphysical subtleties of a supposed universal principle of affinity, through all its points, I will omit it. One portion of this, which I myself have proven, is attempted to be explained by the same means; but it is to me a phenomenon of inscrutable mystery, a complete paradox. This was, that, within certain limits, the disease could be mitigated in proportion to the size of the dose. Thus, while Number One, a few drops only, would cause death in a month, bringing on what is usually known as a 'galloping Consumption,' Number Two, a much larger dose, would prolong the disease during a year, and Number Three, the largest limit, would permit life during between eighteen months and three years, according to the constitution assailed. Why this is so, it is impossible for me to say. That the fact stands, I, O Reader! who now write, am witness before you.]

TWO PIECE S.

GLAD, holy time, when little eyes,
With childhood's wonder, gaze upon the world.
The glorious vision of enchanted things,
The heavenly light o'er all the earth, the joy
That nestles only in sweet children's hearts,
Make the bright, many-tinted gate of life
A thousand rainbows; and amid their light
The wings of innocence and purity
Fold o'er the little traveller, as its clear
And silver halo o'er a star, and make

What is but earth, seem lovely as of heaven.

Bright, happy cloud that voyagest from the sun,
With crimson freight of fading kindling fires,
A splendor in the sky! The human soul
Its all of glory takes from HIM who lit
Its upward soaring flame; and so, too, thou,
With sun-lit form, bearest away such hues
As Beauty's cheek, nor all the gems of earth,
The opal's changeful light, the ruby's blush,
The rainbowed pearls, or fire-eyed diamonds, know.
Thou seem'st an angel lingering at the shrine
Of some long pilgrimage, and bearing thence
A halo of bright virtues as thy meed
From out its golden urn.

J. A. TAGGARD.

INSCRIBED TO ONE OF THE CHOSEN FEW' WHO DESERVE THE APPELLATION OF FRIENDS. MARSHALL, ESQ., PHILADELPHIA.

HUGH MILLER.

HUGH MILLER, the subject of the present brief biographical notice, was born in the village of Cromarty, on the north-east coast of Scotland, on the tenth day of October, 1802. His father, Hugh Miller, was a sea-faring man, as had been most of his ancestral line for several generations. Commanding small vessels, they usually traded with the towns of the Hanseatic League, or the southern ports of England and Ireland, although there were not wanting instances in which the more hardy and adventurous pursued their toilsome vocation on the Spanish Main, and even in the remote seas of China and the East-Indies. Such were the casualties attendant upon this mode of life, that, for more than a hundred years, not one male member of the family had been buried in the ancestral burying-ground in Cromarty.

The mother of Hugh Miller was the daughter of a tradesman of his native village, who, while his children were very young, left them orphans dependent on the cold charities of an unfeeling world for support. They (two little girls) fell into the hands of the elder Hugh Miller's mother-in-law, who was then teaching a small school. This good old lady sought to relieve the tedium of her solitude, rendered almost insupportable by the death of her daughter and the absence of her son-in-law upon the sea, by doing little acts of kindness to all with whom she came in contact. These two little girls came in for a large share of her affection and maternal care, and well did they repay her, showing most conclusively that

'Love is the loan for love.'

While the ship-master was absent on one of his long voyages, the old lady, sinking under the weight of increasing years, felt she could not survive till his return, and so, calling to her bed-side her two young friends, now stretching up into the peerless beauty of mature womanhood, she poured out her dying benisons on their heads, adding, as the weakness of dissolving nature would permit: 'As for you, Harriet, there waits for you one of the best blessings of the world, the blessing of a good husband.' The native shrewdness of the old lady had conjectured the true state of affairs, or the

'Sun-set of life gave her mystical lore;'

for within the space of a few months after her death, the younger of the two sisters became the ship-master's wife. True, there was a marked difference in their ages, the husband being forty-four, and his wife eighteen; but never was there a more blissful connection. The young wife was gentle, confiding, and affectionate, while the husband was genial, good-natured, and kind as heart could wish.

From this union sprung the subject of my notice. I know not that any thing very peculiar marked his early days, other than an

innate desire to visit the world outside the door, and to play along the water's edge, watching the gentle play of the billows in their long sweep and roll upon the sands of Cromarty. Here, too, was fostered his taste for geology. His treatment of his play-things foreshadowed an inquiring mind. Frequently, when returning from his voyages, his father would bring some choice toy for his favorite and only son. These the boy usually dispatched by taking them to pieces, in order to discover what they were made of, or what was inside.

Thus passed our hero's youthful days, till November tenth, 1807, when, by the loss of his father's vessel on a voyage from the Hebrides through the Pentland and Murray Friths, he was deprived of the care and instruction of the best of parents. The support of the family, the wife and three children, thus devolved upon the mother, who, having during the day, watched the wayward foot-steps of her darling children, would toil, toil as seamstress through the silent watches of the night, her heart swelling the while with grief almost to bursting. But with all her anxiety and industry, she could scarcely have been able to rear her little family, had she not been assisted by her two brothers, stalwart, hard-working, two-fisted, brawny men, who advanced her means as her necessities demanded.

Before the death of his father, little Hugh had been sent to a female school, where he had learned to read a little, and to accompany the good old dame through the Catechism, the Proverbs, and the New Testament, but it was ever a task the most disagreeable. Presently, however, he arrived at the dignity of reading the Old Testament stories of Joseph and his brethren, of Samson, of David and Goliah, and of Elisha and Elijah. These attracted his attention amazingly, opening to him a new world, the world of information contained in books, and deeply, faithfully did he read, treasuring up the true and beautiful with which to adorn his future writings. Often, at night, after the dismissal of his school, would he creep away into some quiet corner, to con again and again, the same world-renowned incidents.

His maternal uncles, James and Alexander, of whom we have heretofore spoken, and with whom his mother lived, were men of sterling honesty and varied information. James was a harnessmaker, and encouraged his nephew to bring his books to his bench, and read, explaining to the young student all such hard words and abstruse terms as he could not readily comprehend. Alexander was of a different turn of mind. A wheelwright by occupation, he was pressed into the service of the government, and placed on board of a man-of-war at the commencement of the war with France. He was present in several engagements, doing credit to himself, and valuable service to his country. Drafted as an artilleryman in the army of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, in Egypt, he assisted in dragging over the sterile sands the first gun, which, thereafter, was to deal such effectual destruction to Napoleon at the battle of the Pyramids. Having thus seen something of the

world, 'Uncle Sandy' was well qualified to interest a boy of Hugh's mental characteristics. Egotism, however, was not his fault, for he never spoke of what he had done, but of what he had

seen.

In such society did little Hugh's life pass, till he had acquired his tenth year, when he was transferred to the grammar-school situated near, and overlooking the shifting tide of Cromarty. Here, he grew into a knowledge of the world in general, and of parish schools in particular, not unmixed, I ween, with observations made upon the vessels as they appeared in the offing. Cromarty, as you are aware, has been noted from time immemorial for the fishing propensity of its inhabitants, nearly the whole population being engaged at certain seasons of the year in piscatory enterprises. About thirty yards from the school door was a slaughter-house, where the salted pork for which Cromarty was famous, was packed. This establishment, together with the fisheries, enabled our youthful inquirer to gain many items of knowledge in comparative anatomy and physiology. While attending school, his inquisitive mind frequently carried him along the shores of Cromarty, where among the water-rolled fragments of the primary rocks, he found numerous subjects for investigation. He made a collection, and pronounced some small, shining pebbles which he had discovered, to be of the same quality as those found in his mother's broach; but the neighbors derided the idea, saying that 'the stones in her possession were precious stones, whereas Hugh's minerals were only stones from the shore.' Hugh, however, maintained his theory, and was gratified in the end, in making a convert of Uncle Sandy, who was considerably versed in such matters. Should a storm come on, and the dashing tide pile the abraded pebbles upon the beach, it was a perfect GOD-send for the little boy, who, as his fingers passed through the glittering sands, bethought him of the piles of gems in Aladdin's cavern, or of Sinbad's valley of diamonds.

Although frequently interrogated by the teamsters who came to load their wagons with sea-weed, as to his success in 'getting siller from the stanes,' he was never so fortunate as to be able to answer them affirmatively. In company with Uncle Sandy, who was skilful in catching crabs and lobsters, he took many lessons in the changing tides of the Frith of Cromarty. The tract of land laid bare at ebb, formed an admirable school-book for our young naturalist. To-day lingering amid the forest-covered Silurians, tomorrow ranging the lime-stone hills; at one moment vexing his unco pate with the thousand water-spiders which hold their revels on the surface of the pools, and anon chasing

'THE beautiful blue damsel fly

That fluttered round the jessamine stems,
Like winged flowers or flying gems;

now crawling along the rocky ledge to the hazard of his life, and then hemmed in by the rising tide, sleeping undisturbed within the