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in their native town. Suffice it to say, that two years after the destruction of this place, a government ship was sent to Quebec by Gov. Dudley, by which fifty-seven of the captives were obtained and conveyed to Boston, and ultimately to Deerfield, among whom were Mr. Williams and his remaining children, except Eunice, who married the Indian, who assumed the name of Williams. Mr. Williams at this time commenced preaching at Deerfield, and continued his useful labors here till the year 1729, when he died.

[TO BE CONCLUDED IN OUR NEXT.]

LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

The following is from Daniel J. Brown, formerly editor of the Naturalist, the Etymological Dictionary, a valuable work on Forest Trees, &c., now on his travels, OKOTAVA, TENERIFFE, 25th August, 1833.

My Friend S.

BEFORE I enter into the details of my situation, I beg leave to express my gratitude for the friendly interest which you have ever taken in my behalf, and to assure you that I shall cherish the remembrance of it as long as I live. Such acts of kindness, so flattering to one's self-love, create the deepest and the most lasting impressions on the heart, and cling to it when other things have long passed away.

Well, to begin. I am arrived, at length, at the spot so long and so eagerly desired. How different is it from what the most cool and temperate imagination had figured it to be. Instead of a high-peaked promontory, jutting out of the sea, with a few trees and vines about it, and a small town at its bottom, I behold a majestic mountain, whose sides are covered with extensive forests, and whose top towers above the clouds. Around its base are lesser mountains and hills, intersected by deep narrow ravines, which are lined with fruit and forest trees, and are clothed with eternal verdure. Orotava comprises a large, elevated champaign, some leagues in extent, interspersed

with compact villas and detached dwellings, which are encompassed by delightful vineyards and cornfields, that yield, at once, the choicest and the most varied fruits. If I were to describe it in a few words, I would say that it is a vast garden, decked out in aromatic groves, which realize the beau ideal of Paradise. The sea-shores, constantly dashed with snow-white surf, are bold and precipitous at all points. In short, there is no region, perhaps, on the globe, that presents a spectacle more beautifully romantic and wildly picturesque than the one which I at present enjoy.

As it is next to impossible for me to relate all the occurrences of my travels, may I ask your acceptance of a paper in which will be published a faithful abstract of my Journal, which was invariably written on the spot at the close of each day. I expect to remain a few weeks on this Island and then embark for Spain and proceed directly to Italy. It will afford me pleasure to receive a line from you at Messina, informing me how you prosper, and whatever new has occurred.

To the Editor of the Tracts and Lyceum.

In the Lyceum for 1st of March, I observed my answer to the call made on a Mr. Thompson by 'S.' relative to the discovery of the Quadrature of the Circle. And in a Nota Bene, quere is made whether A. Y. might not have mistaken, in setting down his formula; as from the researches upon the subject, no such characters were to be found; and hence, requiring farther explanation.

I acknowledge the article was written in extreme haste, and without the care that should have been bestowed on so important an article, but cannot admit that the formula was not as correct as it was intended to have been; nor will I allege that it is not all that it purports to be.

Perhaps the editor did not observe whence it was taken, viz. from the book of Rational Analysis, which I have never seen except in manuscript. If farther extracts

shall be made from time to time from the same book for the Lyceum, or for some other periodical, with appropriate explanations and comments, it is hoped that too much. time will not be spent in searching for similitudes in works already in print. But I perceive that my want of care in writing has caused some few typographical errors, only one or two of which I shall name; and those seem rather too immaterial to notice.

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The groves of ancient colleges and halls,' might give a more pleasing sensation than their graves. But what more particularly affects me, is, that there appears to be no force in the material lines contained in the article as printed. There certainly was in the poetry as written, if I recollect right; but the compositor has wholly abstracted the force, and has put form only in lieu of it. Now, as poetry cannot be truly sublime without force, I' will suggest to the reader (if any) to dispense with form in the metric lines, and supply its place with force, and he will thereby much improve the poetry.

A. Y.

Certainly our correspondent is a very ingenious one. No person can write in this way, without being an original thinker. We foresee his future elevation and influence, though now young and inexperienced, if he constantly bears in mind that industry is the power that keeps the intellectual world in motion.

ATOMIC CONSTRUCTION OF MATTER.

It seems highly probable that matter is composed of primitive particles or atoms. Not indivisible atoms, or destitute of parts and finite magnitude, but which never are divided, nor can be by human agency, or without altering the constitution of matter itself.

The chymist has in his science acknowledged the existence of such atoms, and the little we know of philosophy seems to require such a hypothesis on which to found explanations of circumstances which admit, on no other principles, of any clear exposition.

The form of these particles, as I should prefer to style them, instead of atoms, may be conceived to be spherical.

This coincides best with the fact of the easiness with which the component parts of fluid matter move among themselves. But possibly in different species of matter, the form as well as size may vary. To these two circumstances in part, we may attribute the cause of the existence of different species of matter.

To these particles we attribute magnetic polarity. In the composition of matter all the particles are arranged with reference to their poles, and in consequence of this, when undisturbed, regular forms or crystals are produced, It seems proper that it should be explained why, on this principle, all bodies are not equally. magnetic.

In the first place we state that the particles of every mass of matter are not regularly arranged. Numerous may be, and are, the accidents sufficient to disarrange them. The particles of fluids are moved by the slightest agitation. Violent shocks break and dismember the hardest mineral substances.

Secondly, that a body may be magnetical, it is necessary that its particles be so arranged that all the poles of one class shall unite their energies in one point, which will be the pole of the whole portion of matter. This may not always be the case, or rather it happens in such a way that the effect is destroyed. In regular crystals, the determinate point of polarity is most probably in the centre, which will cause the magnetic influence of that body to be in equilibrium.

But why do not the particles arrange themselves in conformity to the magnetic influence of the earth itself, and thus become themselves magnets? In answer to this, we say that those of some substances do thus. Probably all bodies are not equally susceptible of this influence, on account of their magnetic force not being equally active or powerful. And it reqnires, probably, that a greater portion of the particles should be already in some magnetic plane of the earth, in order that the whole should arrange themselves with reference to that plane. Thus iron bars, when placed in particular situations, and in no others, acquire polarity without the application of any other means.

[Furnished for the Tracts and Lyceum.]

POPULAR BOTANY.-No. I.

WHAT IS THE RIGHT NAME OF IT? This question, when asked concerning a plant, is frequently very difficult to answer in a satisfactory manner.

The confusion of names of plants in various districts, is almost without parallel. Every township in our country, perhaps, has its peculiar botanical dialect. Whilst one plant receives four or five distinct names, as often, one and the same name is appropriated to as great a number of distinct plants. Although there are many names of plants common to this country and England, it is unfrequent that these names are appropriated to the same plants, except some well known culinary vegetables. This is a fruitful source of error and misapprehension. A reader on this side of the Atlantic, perusing European works, unless he be well informed on this subject, will be often led to mistakes, on account of attaching false ideas to the names of plants on which the writer converses.

A few instances will suffice, to show how far we have deviated in our popular nomenclature from our English

brethren.

In England, the term primrose is applied to a plant which is not a native of our climate.* Here, in some places, it is applied to a species of rose, otherwise called cinnamon rose. The term 'cowslip,' which in England denotes a species of their primrose, is here applied to a meadow plant, which the English term 'Marsh Marygold.' The name of Saffron' is applied to two plants which have but a single property in common, which is, that of producing a yellow dye.

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Equally intricate and ambiguous is the system of local terms, even if we confine our observations within the limits of our own State. Whilst but a small part of American plants are known by any popular name, many of those which have names, have them only as local appellations. Not unfrequently the name of a plant conveys altogether a

*Some species of primrose, differing from the English, are found in our Western States,

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