the powers of reasoning and to afford substantial knowledge, but also to refine the imagination, to soften the heart, and, what is infinitely desirable, save the soul ! MENDING A TREE.-We saw at Isaac Frost's, Newtown, a tolerably large apple-tree, that had the bark eaten all around by the mice, some years ago, and of course would have died without some extra pains to save it. Mr. Frost set a dozen scions in the tree, one end in the green bark and wood below, and the other above the wound. They all took at both ends and grew well, excepting one, which took only at the bottom, and is forming a little tree by itself. The scions are now about two inches in diameter, and are touching each other. The tree is in a fine flourishing condition. This method of mending a tree is attended with some trouble, but by this simple means, which can be done in a few hours, a valuable tree may be saved, as has occasionally, been the case. PCOR CHILDREN.-It is proposed to establish a society for the promotion of the emigration of poor children, of both sexes, from the city of New York to the interior of this State, and to the western states and territories, with a view to bind them out to the pursuit of agriculture and such other occupations as the children may choose-with the usual stipulations for their eduucation and protection. Thousands of the best citizens in the interior would gladly incorporate these children of tender age into their families, if conveyed to their vicinity. The ladies are the more faithful guardians of orphans and apprenticed children in their respective neighborhoods. A cruel or unjust master or mistress would rather encounter courts and juries than the anathemas of a country tea party, Com. Advertiser. A good example has been set by the Governor of Wisconsin territory, To the House of Representatives: I transmit a communication of the Hon. J.H. Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, re commending legislative action against the introduction of ardent spirits among the Indians. I most cordially concur in the necessity of some legislation on this subject, which shall arrest the evil complained of, and protect the Indians from the destructive effects of the traffic. N P. TALLMADGE. ANOTHER FLYING MACHINE.-The Cincinnati Gaxette says that a patent has been obtained, by J. H. Pennington, for a machine to navigate the air. It consists of ten section balloons, a car and a steam engine. The engine, of one and a half horse power, it is proposed to place in the upper story of the car appended to the balloons. The steering power is a rudder or oar connected with the bottom of the balloon. SPLITTING ROCKS BY LIGHTNING -A London paper mentions an instance which lately occurred in Prussia, where in order to get rid of an enormous rock, and to avoid the ordinary expense of the undertaking, a deep hole was bored into the rock, into which was fixed a bar of iron twenty-eight feet high, for the purpose of attracting lightning. After which it is stated, on the first thunder storm, the rock was shattered into fragments. GEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES.-In a lecture on the Geology of the United States, delivered by the celebrated Mr. Lyell, he stated that the Ohio coal field extends for a length of seven hundred miles, and that of Illinois is larger than the whole of England. The coal is formed in workable beds of considerable thickness: and in one instance there is a bed of coal forty-six feet thick, which comes up to the surface, and is quarried like stone. Latest from England. The ship Hibernia arrived here on Thursday, with dates to Feb 4th, but no important news. The Butler Hospital for the Insane is to be immediately organized at Providence, R. I. Of 9000 blind persons in the United States, only 400 are enjoying the benefit of instruction. Did you ever see a person pare an apple or a pear with a pair of scissors? LITERARY NOTICES "LITTEL'S LIVING AGE."-This is a most popular and valuable weekly compendium of much of the best matter in the British magazines; it has reached its 42d number, and is conducted by Mr. Littell-for twenty years the editor of a monthly magazine the " Museum," which maintained a deserved reputation. The "Living Age" has no rival of its kind-and is not likely to have one-forming 62 large octavo pages weekly, at the low price of 12 cents. We expect occasionly to avail ourselves of its capacious and interesting pages for the benefit of our readers. EXCELLENT BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. -The" Peep of day, "Line upon Line," and " Precept upon Precept, are three little books republished here by Mr.Taylor,(Brick Church Session Room, Nassau Street,) from an anonymous, but very successful English author. They are written In a style admirably adapted to young children; and experience proves that they produce favora ble impressions upou the memory and the feeling. Such works may well be regarded as treasures in the family. It is a matter of public interest to substitute them for the pernicious books now so extensively in use. POETRY. From the Christion Observer. I Wish I Were a Child. "My joys are with my child hood's years-my childhood's sunny track."- Waterman. I wish I were a child, I knew not then the pain Because their stains do still I knew not then the dread Nor was the present then 'Twixt past and future strained; And all unruffled, save Save by griefs that childhood knows; Were mimic griefs like those. I would I were a child! As in those happy years, Undimmed by cloud or stain- EL DESDICHADO. From the Western Christian Advocats. Lines Written in a Grave-yard. 'The sun was sinking in splendor away— Sinking in waves of gold; But still threw back his mellowing ray, And more of his glories unfold." Around me were scattered the graves of the dead' Their histories brief might thus be real. And my thoughts went back to the homes once With the presence of kindred dear, And I saw the ther and mother sad, Brother and sister no comfort had, For their friend was slumbering here. And then I thought, how cold and drear If the Father of mercies refused to cheer What is Time? BY SIR WALTER SCOTT. "Know'st thou me not ?" the deep voice cried; "So long enjoyed, so oft misused: Alternate, in thy fickle pride, Desired, neglected and abused. "Before my breath, like blazing flax, Man and his marvels pass away; And changing empires wane and wax, Are founded, flourish, and decay. "Redeem my hours-the space is brief, While in my glass the sand-grains shiver; And measureless thy joy or grief When TIME and thou shalt part for ever. On hearing of a Gentleman's Pocket being Picked of his Watch. He that would wear a watch-this he must do ; Pocket his watch, and watch his pocket too. By Lady Mary Wortley Montague. Tom's coach and six! wither in such haste going? But a short journey-to his own undoing. IG The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association are about erecting a building for their accommodation, and are desirous to have it combine elegance and utility in the greatest degree, within their means, It is proposed to have the building measure 100 by 80 feet on the ground floor; the first floor to be six feet above the sidewalk; the first story divided so as to give one Hall of about half its size, and three other rooms; the second story to be devoted to one Hall, with convenient arrangements for scientific and other lectures, concerts, &c The building to be constructed of granite of the best quality--the cost not to exceed eighty thousand dollars. They advertise for contractors. THE AMERICAN PENNY MAGAZINE AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, With numerous Engravings. Edited by Theodore Dwight. 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. 6 sets for $5. Postmasters are authorized to remit money, and are requested to act as agents. Enclose a One Dollar Bil', without payment of poзtage, and the work will be sent for the year. The information contained in this work is worth more than silver"-N. Y. Observer. "It should be in every family in the country."— N. Y. Baptist Recorder. 斑 AND HINDOO ARCHITECTURE. There is nothing which more astonishes the traveller, on his arrival in India, than the magnitude and magnificence of the ancient architecture. The degradation of the people and their inertness, at the present day, seem to have left no trace of the spirit or of the power to produce such vast, symmetrical and durable edifices as those which remain as witnesses of the science, taste and skill of past generations. Many of these are still found in a state of good preservation, showing a high state of the art in its different branches, and casting silent reproach on the ignorance and want of forethought so conspicuous in the practices of many other people-and in none, perhaps, more general than in our own. It is important to us all, that we form correct ideas respecting architecture on two particular points, on which mistakes are too often made. First, we should acquaint ourselves with the true principles of taste, and, secondly, we should form just apprehensions of what is fitting and useful to a country and people like our own. A person unacquainted with the correct principles of sound archiLecture, is perpetually led astray, like a ship without a helm. Overgrown size, disproportion, tawdry decoration, and the plainest violations of any rule of science, are likely to be overlooked; and wo to those who are condemned to contemplate, and much more to those who have to inhabit a building of his erection. When we stand before one of those great masses of Gothic stone-work in Europe, and feel the impressions of unexplained mystery and unreasonable awe which they naturally excite, we are apt to imagine that we feel the legitimate influence of architectural effect. We ought rather to be reminded of the nature of the intellectual and moral systems historically connected with that style of architecture-the gloom, ignorance and error of the philosophy, religion and government which grew up, flourished and decayed with that style of building. Instead of raising mountains of gingerbread, (to which some of our white-pine and sanded American Gothic buildings may be compared,) we ought to desire edifices of chaste architecture, adapted, in situation, materials, form, divisions, and decorations, to the circumstances, exigencies, institutions and prospects of a people like ours. With respect to size also, our conceptions are often erroneous. No man can de ire to see edifices erected in America, exceeding certain magnitudes, without feelings of rebellion against our civil or our religious principles, which are inconsistent with them. We have been at a loss where to look for such a sketch as we desire of the history and peculiarities of Hindoo architecture. The reader may find hints and descriptions, more or less extended, of various edifices, ancient and modern, in several works common in the United States, particularly Sir William Jones, the Travels of Bishop Heber, Dr. Marshman, Capt. Hall, and Life in India-in which last work, though anonymous, the pictures of things are considered correct. Of some of the contents of these a short abstract will be found in Harpers' Family and School Libraries, in the History of British India, 3 vols. The wonderful subterranean temples of Elephanta and Elora, in Bengal, are described in some detail, and in terms well calculated to excite astonishment-the former by Capt. Hall, and the latter in an elegant quarto volume, chiefly devoted to them, by Capt. Seely. We there contemplate prodigies: two excavated moun tains, with halls, passages, temples, &c. cut "vivo saxo," as Virgil would say, out of the living rock-the latter for the distance of a mile and a quarter. These specimens present feaures to which resemblances have been traced in the buildings of several distant countries; but we have never seen any very satisfactory account of the peculiarities of the Hindoo style, by which we might always distinguish it from others, either in proportions, ornaments, materials, or other points. So many specimens of Mahomedan architecture exist in India, that they increase the difficulty. It is a painful fact, which prevails extensively, that the habitations of the people are poor, mean, and often filthy, so that only the powerful and the wealthy derive any advantage from the skill of the architects. In truth, the magnitude and splendor of the vast buildings so much admired, exert a baneful influence on the character and condition of the mass of the nation, not only by absorbing much of their money and labor in the construction, but by magnifying the power of their tyranical chiefs, and giving greater sway to their degrading religions. "I went," says Heber, (vol. 2, p. 475,)" to visit the celebrated Tage Mahal, of which it is enough to say, that, after hearing its praises ever since I had been in India, its beauty rather exceeded than fell short of my expectations. The surrounding garden is kept in excellent order by government, with its marble fountains, beautiful cypresses and other trees, and a profusion of flowering shrubs contrasting finely with the white marble of which , the tomb itself is composed. "The building itself is raised by an elevated terrace of white and yellow marble, and having at its angles four tall minarets of the same material. The Tage contains, as usual, a central hall, about as large as the interior of the Ratcliffe library, in which, enclosed within a carved screen of elaborate tracery, are the tombs of the Begum Noor Jehan, Shah Jehan's beloved wife, to whom it was erected; and by her side, but a little raised above her, that of the unfortunate emperor himself. Round this hall are a number of smaller apartments, corridors, &c. and the windows are carved in lattices of the same white marble with the rest of the building and the screen. The pavement is in alternate squares of white, and what is called, in Europe, Sienna marble; the walls, screens, and tombs are covered with inscriptions, executed in beautiful mosaic of carnelians, lapis-lazuli and jasper; and yet, though everything is finished like an ornament for a drawing-room chimney-piece, the general effect is rather solemn and impressive than gaudy. "The parts which I like least are the great dome and the minarets. The bulbous swell of the former I think clumsy, and the minarets have nothing to recommend them but their height and the beauty of their materials. But the man must have more criticism than taste or feeling about him, who could allow such imperfections to weigh against the Tage Mahal. The Jumna waters one side of the garden, and there are some remains of a bridge, which was designed by Shah Jehan, with the intention, as the story goes, to build a second Tage, of equal beauty, for his own separate place of interment, on the opposite side of the river." The Tomb of Akbar, at Secundra, is thus described by Heber, vol. 1, p. 473: "It stands in a square area of about forty English acres, enclosed by an embattled wall, with octagonal towers at the angles, sur. mounted by open pavilions, and four very noble gateways of red granite, the principal of which is inlaid with white marble, and has four high marble minarets. The space within is planted with trees, and divided into green alleys, leading to the central building, which is a sort of solid pyramid, surrounded externally with cloisters, galleries, and domes, diminishing gradually on ascending it, till it ends in a square platform of white marble, surrounded by most elaborate lattice work of the same material, in the entry of which is a small altar tomb, also of white marble, covered with a delicacy and beauty which do full justice to the material, and to the graceful Arabic characters which form its chief ornament. "All the bottom of the building, in a small but very lofty vault, is the tomb of this great monarch, plain and unadorned, but also of white marble." THE YOUNG PHILOSOPHer. Children, says Professor Olmsted, of Yale College, in the preface to his Rudiments of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, are naturally fond of inquiring into the cause of things. We may even go farther, and say, that they begin from infancy to interrogate nature in the only true and successful mode that of experiment and observation. With the taper, which first fixes the gaze of the infant eye, the child commences his observations on heat and light. With throwing from him his playthings, to the great perplexity of his nurse, he begins his experiments in mechanics, and pursues them successively, as he advances in age, studying the laws of projectiles and of rotary motion in the arrow and the whoop, of hydrostatics in the dam and the water-wheel, pneumatics in the windmill and the kite. I have in my possession an amusing and well executed engraving, representing a family scene, where a young urchin had cut open the bellows to find the wind. His little brother is looking over his shoulder with innocent and intense curiosity, while the angry mother stands behind with uplifted rod, and a countenance which bespeaks the wo that impends over the young philosopher. A more judicious parent would have gently reproved the error; a more enlightened parent might have hailed the omen as indicating a Newton in disguise. ANECDOTE OF A NUT.-In Mr. Waterton's Essays, there is a remarkable statement of a nut, deposited for winter store by some nut eating animal under an old millstone which lay in a field, springing up through the central aperture; and Mr. W. goes on to say, "In order, however, that the plant might have a fair chance of success, I directed that it should be defended from accident and harm by means of a wooden paling. Year after year it increased in size and beauty; and when its expansion had entirely filled the hole in the centre of the mill-stone, it freed itself from the seat of long repose. This huge mass of stone is now eight inches above the ground, and is entirely supported by the stem of the nut-tree, which has risen to the height of twenty-five feet, and bears excellent fruit." DISTANCES OF DIFFERENT COLONIES FROM ENGLAND.-Canada 2,600 miles; West Indies 3,650; Cape of Good Hope 6,500; Algoa Bay 6,860; Swan River 11,200; South Australia 11,640; Van Dieman's 12,260; Port Essington 12,800; Sydney 13,100; New Zealand 13,340. TEXAS DEBT.-Colonel Benton, who has made himself better acquainted with the affairs of Texas than any other man, says that the debt of that couutry is at least $22,000,000, and that she has not an acre of land worth having, which is not already ceded away. In Plymouth, 60 vessels, employing 460 men, were engaged last year in the cod-fishing business. They took 41,000 quintals of fish, which were worth 92,000 dollars. NEW ISLAND.-An island has been discovered in N. lat. 21° 10' and W. lon. 168° and 54 nautical miles. |