tions upon the castles or cities, the left hand characters of each are generally, if not in every case the same. The extent of the

records found in these ruins and their rela tions to the bas-reliefs is such, that there can be no doubt that they will one day be deciphered, and that thus the history of ancient times will have been transmitted down to us without the possibility of any forgery.

That their solution will confirm and throw light upon Holy Writ we must also hope; and especially as there was in Scripture times much intercourse between Assyria and the Holy Land. In order to ensure the greatest accuracy in the preservation of these. records, Mons. Botta has not only copied them with extreme care, but he has had impressions of them taken on paper, by means of which the originals can at any time be reproduced by a casting of wax or plaster of Paris.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM.

From President Dwight's Travels. In Brooklyn, (Con.) lived the Hon. Israel Putnam, for some years before his death, the oldest Major General in the army of the United States. As General Hum-` phreys has given the public a particular and interesting account of the life of this gentleman, I shall pass over it with a few summary observations.

General Putnam was born at Salem, Massachusetts, January 27th, 1718. With only the advantages of a domestic education, in a plain farmer's family, and the usual instruction of a common parish school, he raised himself from the management of a farm, to the command of a regiment, in the last Canadian war; and in the Revolutionary war, to the second command in the armies of the United States. To these stations he rose solely by his own efforts, directed steadily to the benefit of his country, and with the cheerful, as well as united, suffrages of his country.

Every employment in which he engaged, he filled with reputation. In the private circles of life, as a husband, father, friend, and companion, he was alike respected and beloved. In his manners, though somewhat more direct and blunt, than most persons,

who have received an early polished education, he was gentlemanly, and very agreeable; in his disposition he was sincere, tender-hearted, generous, noble. It is not known, that the passion of fear ever found a place in his breast. His word was regarded as an ample security for any thing for which it was pledged; and his uprightness commanded absolute confidence. His intellect was vigorous; and his wit pungent, yet pleasant and sportive. The principal part of his improvements was, however, derived from his own observation, and his correspondence with the affairs of men. During the gayest and most thoughtless period of his life, he still regarded Religion with profound reverence, and read the scriptures with the deepest veneration. On the public worship of God he was a regular and very respectful attendant. In the decline of life he publicly professed the religion of the Gospel, and in the opinion of the respectable clergyman of Brooklyn, the Rev. Dr. Whitney, from whom I received the information, died hopefully a Christian.

It is not so extensively known as it ought to be, that General Putnam commanded the American forces at the battle of Breed's hill, and that, to his courage and conduct the United States are particularly indebted for the advantages of that day; one of the most brilliant in the annals of the country.

From President Dwight's Travels.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR COLDEN WAS distinguished for great personal worth, and eminent attainments in science; particularly in Natural Philosophy and Natural History. His Botanical knowledge was probably unrivalled at that time on this side of the Atlantic. He seems also, to have been well versed in the science of Medicine. Nor was he less distinguished for his usefulness in active pursuits as a magistrate. He filled the chair of Lieutenant Governor of the Province for fifteen years; and during much of that period was at the head of the Government. In this situation he maintained an honorable character for wisdom and equity. He projected the plan, on which afterwards

the American Philosophical Society was established at Philadelphia; and seems also to have entertained the first ideas of stereotype printing.

HIS EXCELLENCY WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, Governor of New Jersey, was a native, and throughout most of his life, an inhabitant of New York. This gentleman was distinguished by an unusual combination of superior talents, and great personal worth. He was born about the year 1723; was educated at Yale College; and received the degree of A. B. in 1741. His professional busines was Law; in which he rose to eminence. For a long period few men had more influence on the public affairs of this country. After he removed to New Jersey, he was a representative from that state to the old congress. When the citizens of New Jersey had formed their present constitution, he was chosen their first Governor, and was annually re-elected till his death. In the year 1787, he was appointed a member of the General Convention, which formed the Constitution of the United States. He died July 25th, 1790, at his seat in Elizabethtown, in the 68th year of his age.

The talents of Governor Livingston were very various. His imagination was brilliant; his wit sprightly and pungent; his understanding powerful; his taste refined; and his conceptions bold and masterly. His views of political subjects were expansive, clear, and just. Of freedom, both civil and religious, he was a distinguished champion. To his other cxcellencies, Governor Livingston added that of piety.

thing about, as they are given to produce vomiting, and naturally are not favorite drinks.

Antimony is a bluish grey metal, and looks something like iron; but, being larminated and brittle, is of no use in making tools, or the many other things which we see made of iron. Neither is it so abundant in the earth. It is used for some purposes in the arts, but chiefly in medicine, and especially for curing sick horses.

The most common ore of Antimony is the sulphuret, which in appearance resembles the granular sulphuret of lead, and certain oxides of iron. It forms acids by uniting with oxygen, and these form various substances.

LEARN ARITHMETIC.-A newsboy in Albany wishing to buy thirty papers very cheap, agreed to pay one mill for the first, two for the second, four for the third, and so on for the thirty, but when he reckoned up the cost, be found it to be one million seventy-three thousand seven hundred and forty-one dollars eighty-two cents and three mills, and gave up his bargain.— Selected.

BOY KILLED BY A DOG.-A boy about seven years old, son of a Mr. Eslinger of Greenfield, W. T. was going on an errand with his brother, a little older, when they met a neighboring young lad accompanied by a dog. The boys shook hands with each other, at which the dog, seemingly taking offence, sprang toward the younger of the Eslingers, and tore his head, throat and arms in a shocking manner. The boys attempted beating off the dog, but failing in this, they immediately ran for aid to some friends, who on arriving, found the boy had expired.

Revolution in the Georgetown Roman Catholic Seminary.—A Jesuit named Vanhagen, has been sent from Rome as president, and has changed all the professors, much to the displeasure of its friends.

One of the ladies of the Sacred Heart lately eloped from their convent, near this city

EXPENSE OF MOBISM.-The anti-rent disturbances in New York have cost over fifty thousand dollars, nearly twenty of which will be assessed upon the counties in which the disturbances occurred, and the residue comes out of the State Treasury.

POETRY.

SARATOGA,

Sand banks and swamps, and dwarf pine trees,

And streets with dust be-clouded,–

A score of shingle palaces

With squalid splendor crowded!—
Old Connoisseurs of ball and route
The young with envy eyeing,
Old gormonds crippled with the gout,
Their latest measure trying

Grey Politicians at their tricks
Of batgain Satan-aided

The Tattersals of Politics,

Where men for mules are trained. Old maids at loggerheads with Time, Their girlhood wiles essaying, And dandy amateurs of rhyme, Their album gifts displaying.

A daily draught of water, such
As that of ancient Marah,
Which the parched Arab would not touch
Upon his hot Sahara.

Wild Rob Roy's rule at dinner-hour,
Around the crowded table,-
That he shall take who has the power,
And he shall keep who's able!

Yet here Disease, with trembling limb,
And cheek without its roses,
And faded lip and eye grown dim,
A mournful tale discloses.
Woe for these stricken ones of earth!
Why come they here to borrow
From giddy crowds and heartless mirth,
An added weight of sorrow?

The Devout Communicant.-Extracts from Rev. E. Bickersteth's Treatise on the Lord's Supper. 24 mo.

Family prayers for every day in the week, &c. by Dr. Wainwright. 12 mo.

"Flowers from the Garden of Lawrie Todd," a collection of the amusing reminiscencies of Grant Thorburn, published by Fanshaw, and for sale at the office of this Magazine.

Prof. Lieber is on the point of making arrangements for the publication of an Appendix and Complement to his Encyclopedia Americana. He will have command of the ample materials for such a work furnished by Germany, (where two supplements or continuations to the Conversations-Lexicon have appeared) and will also be able to avail himself of the assistance of the best literary and scientific telent of the country.-Boston Paper.

NEW BOOKS IN PARIS--Victor Hugo has published an enlarged edition of the letters from the Rhyne. We have also a work from Carnot, a deputy, on Colonial and American Slavery-Letters of Louis 18th, to the Count De Saint Priest by Baranto-a work on Egypt, by Prince Puckler Muskau-and a clever ac count by Eugene Flandin, of the recent discoveries made at Nineveh.-Correspondent of the National Intelligenccr.

THE AMERICAN PENNY MAGAZINE

AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, Edited by Theodore Dwight, Jr. Is published weekly, at the office of the New York Express, No. 112 Broadway, at 3 cents a number, (16 pages large octavo,) or, to subscribers receiving it by mail, and paying in advance, $1 a year. The postage is now Free for this city, Brooklyn, Harlem, Newark, and all other places within 30 miles; only one cent a copy for other parts of the State, and other places within 100 miles; and 1 1-2 cents for other parts of the Union. Persons forwarding the money for five copies, will receive a sixth gratis. Editors known to have published this advertisement, with an editorial notice of the work, will be supplied with it for one year. The work will form a volume of 832 pages annually. Enclose a One Dollar Bil', without payment of postage, and the work will be sent for the year.

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then existed, with very similar effects, throughout the greater part of Europe. Add to the uncomfortable nature of those abodes, the frequent alarms and actual sufferings of petty wars, and the gross ignorance and deep degradation of the people, and how little do we find that seems even tolerable, in comparison with the superior advantages which we enjoy in these and other respects! Yet, so ready are we to be misled by the pleasing dreams of romance-writers, that probably many of us entertain such false notions respecting those days of semi-barbarism, that we greatly undervalue and neglect the bles sings which actually surround us. Experience and observation may well warn us, to inculcate on the young, sound views of things both past and present. We now present a print of Roslin Chapel, an edifice of much more recent date in the same neighborhood, for the purpose of introducing a few remarks on another kind of false taste, which is often associated with the former, and has had no less influence in misguiding the minds of many of us through life. We mean false taste in the architecture of religious buildings-a topic on which we have already more than once expressed a passing opinion.

We will first, however, give a brief description of the building represented on the preceding page, in the words of one who was a great admirer of the style: Pennant.

After crossing the river, and clambering up a steep hill, we discovered on the summit a work of art, not less admirable than those of nature, which we had so lately quitted, I mean the chapel of Roslyn, Roskelyn, or the hill in the glen; a curious piece of Gothic architecture, founded in 1446, by William St. Clare, prince of Orkney, for a provost, six prebendaries, and two singing boys.

'The outside is ornamented with a multitude of pinnacles, and a variety of ludicrous sculpture. The inside is sixty-nine feet long, the breadth thirty-four, supported by two rows of sculptured pillars, between seven and eight feet high, with an aisle on each side. The arches are obtusely Gothic. These arches are continued across the side aisles, but the centre of the church is one continued arch, elegantly divided into compartments, and finely sculptured. capitals of the pillars are enriched with foliage, and a variety of figures; and amidst a heavenly concert, appears a cherub blowing the ancient Highland bagpipe. In short, in all parts is a profusion so exquisite, as seem, even to have affected with respect Knox's manual reformers, so as to induce them to share this beautiful and venerable pile.

The

'In a deep den far beneath, amidst wooden eminences, are the ruins of the castle,* fixed on a peninsula rock, accessible by a bridge of stupendous height. This had been the seat

Represented and described on page 449, No. 29, of this Magazine.

A writer may begin with an eulogy of any object he pleases, and go on for an hour or a week with expressions or his admiration, and all he utters may pass for sense, until he condescends to inform us what are the principles on which his opinions are founded, and applies those principles to the subject in hand. Is such a style of building and ornament accordant with the principles of sound taste? If so, our traveller has not said too much; and we are bound to approve. But what are those principles? We often find reason to regret that they are so little regarded, and apparently so wholly overlooked by many of our architects and writers, as well as our gazers and talkers at the present day. "That house is the largest, this hall is the most ornamented, your church has the most stained glass, ours the highest steeple in the town, or perhaps in the world!" How often do we hear the decisions of persons, sensible on some subjects, made up on grounds like .these!

Yet there are principles, settled by the general consent of reflecting minds, and undeniable by any one who will take the trouble to consider them; and at the same time easy of application in every case, to every specimen of architecture, so that each person may form an independent opinion, and safely rely upon it as correct.

No one needs to be told twice, for ex ample, that a building should never be so planned or constructed, as to defeat any of the main objects of its erection.

If, then, he enters the University or the Theol gical Seminaries of this city, and finds a great part of the daylight excluded from the students' rooms, he need not walk a step to inquire what opinion he is to form. So when he sees churches built at such cost, that seats cannot be occupied by the poor, what should prevent his mind from coming at once to the only just and rational conclusion? And no less clear are the other grounds on which we are to form our opinions of architectural propriety. We have at present but little farther space to devote to the interesting topic, and therefore will speak of but one point more.

There is such a thing in the mind as a natural perception between proportion and disproportion. A man or a column necessarily strikes us more agreeably when about five or six times longer than broad, than it twenty times, or only twice. And there is a