IMMEDIATELY after the declaration of the last war with England, Elbert Anderson, of New York, then a contractor, visited Troy, on the Hudson, where was concentrated, and where he purchased, a large quantity of provisions, beef, pork, &c. The inspector of these articles, at that FROM the Home and Foreign Record of December, under the head of the Board of Pub-place, were— Messrs. Ebenezer and Samuel lication, the editor, referring to his valuable writings and their extent, remarks: "By far the greater portion of what Dr. Alexander has published has been issued through this Board. The first book we ever published was his Way of Salvation Familiarly Explained, a work written for children, and of which thirteen thousand copies have been circulated. His work on Religious Experience, has been closet companion to Christians of every name. It has reached a circulation of 15,500 copies. The Evidences of Christianity, regarded as the best work of the size extant on that subject, has been adopted as a text-book in literary institutions, under the care of other denominations, and still has an undiminished sale; 11,000 copies have been printed. The Practical Sermons, a larger and more expensive work, has attained a circulation of 4,000, in the short time that has elapsed since it came from the press. Wilson. The latter gentleman - invariably known as "Uncle Sam" - generally superintended in person a large number of workmen, who, on this occasion, were employed in overhauling the provisions purchased by the contractor for the army. The casks were marked "E. A., U. S.” This work fell to the lot of a facetious fellow, in the employ of the Messrs. Wilson, who, on being asked by some of his fellow-workmen the meaning of the mark (for the letters U. S., for United States, were then almost entirely new to them), said "he did not know, unless it meant Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam, alluding exclusively then to the said "Uncle Sam" Wilson. The joke took among the workmen, and passed currently; and "Uncle Sam" himself, being present, was occasionally rallied by them on the increasing extent of his possessions. and be Many of these workmen being of a character denominated "food for powder," were "The remaining books and tracts from the found shortly after following the recruiting same gifted pen, and the number of copies drum, and pushing towards the frontier lines, printed by the Board, are as follow: Di- for the double purpose of meeting the enemy, vine Guidance, 6,000 copies; A Brief Com- and of eating the provisions they had lately pend of Bible Truth, 6,600 copies; The Canon labored to put in good order. Their old of the Old and New Testaments (recently jokes, of course, accompanied them; published), 1,000; Universalism False and fore the first campaign ended, this identical Unscriptural (recently published), 2,000; one appeared in print. It gained favor rapidThe Log College (in press.) Tracts. The ly, till it penetrated and was recognized in Duty of Catechetical Instruction, 3,000; A every part of our country, and will, no doubt, Treatise on Justification by Faith, 3,000; continue to be, while the United States reChrist's Gracious Invitation to the Laboring main a nation. It originated precisely as and Heavy Laden, 15,000; The Immediate above stated; and the writer of this article Choice, 6,000; The Refuge of Lies, 5,000; distinctly recollects remarking, at a time Ruth, the Moabitess, or the Nature of True when it first appeared in print, to a person On a certain occasion a physician was called to visit a sick boy, about twelve years of age. As he entered the house, the mother took him aside, and told him she could not get her boy to take any medicine unless she deceived him. "Well, then," said the doctor, "I shall not give him any. He is old enough to be reasoned with. I will have nothing to do with deceiving a child, lest I help him become a man that will deceive his fellow-men, and finally deceive himself, and be lost forever." He went to the boy, and, after examining his condition, said to him: “My little man, you are very sick, and you must take some medicine. It will taste badly, and will make you feel badly for awhile, and then I expect it will make you feel better." The doctor prepared the medicine, and the boy took it at once, and without the least resistance. He said, also, he would take anything from his mother which the physician prescribed, but would not take anything else from her; for she had so often deceived him, and told him "it was good," when she had given him medicines, that he would not trust to anything that she said. But he saw at once that the doctor was telling him the truth; and when he took the bitter draught, he knew just what to expect. Is not honesty with children, as well as with others, and in all circumstances, the best policy? How can parents hope to gain anything in the long run by deceiving their children? HABITS OF AUTHORS. ROUSSEAU AND POPE. Rousseau, who was full of enthusiasm, devoted to the subject of his thoughts the long, sleepless intervals of his nights; and meditating in bed, with his eyes closed, he turned over his periods, in a tumult of ideas; but when he rose and had dressed, all was vanished, and when he sat down to his paper he had nothing to write. Thus genius has its vespers and its vigils, as well as its matins, which we have been so often told are the true hours of its inspiration; but every hour may be full of inspiration to him who knows how to meditate. No man was more practiced in this art of the mind than Pope, and even the night was not an unregarded portion of his poetical existence. JOHNSON'S MANNER OF COMPOSING. "Johnson's manner of composing," says Bishop Percy, "has not been rightly understood. He was so extremely short-sighted, from a defect in his eyes, that writing was inconvenient to him; for whenever he wrote he was obliged to hold the paper close to his face. He, therefore, never composed what we call a foul draft upon paper of any thing he published, but used to revolve the subject in his mind, and turn and form every period, till he had brought the whole to the highest them to his satisfaction, he entered them in correctness and, most perfect arrangement. a book, which, in its turn, underwent considThen his uncommonly retentive memory en-erable revision. Burke had all his principal abled him to deliver a whole essay properly works printed two or three times at a private finished, whenever it was called for. I have press, before submitting them to his puboften heard him humming and forming peri-lisher. ods in low whispers to himself, when shal- Johnson and Gibbon were the least labolow observers thought he was muttering rious in arranging their copy for the press. prayers, &c. But Johnson is well known to have represented his own practice in the following passage in his Life of Pope:-" Of composition there are different methods. Some employ at once memory and invention, and, with little intermediate use of the pen, form and polish large masses by continued meditation, and write their productions only, when, in their own opinion, they have completed them." HUME, ROBERTSON, BURKE, JOHNSON AND GIBBON. — The craft of authorship is by no means so easy of practice as is generally imagined by the thousands who aspire to its practice. Almost all our works, whether of knowledge or of fancy, have been the result of much intellectual exertion and study; or, as is better expressed by the poet — "The well-ripened fruits of wise decay." Hume wrote his History of England on a sofa, but he went quietly on correcting every edition till his death. Every edition varies from the preceding. Robertson used to write out his sentences on small slips of paper; and, after rounding them and polishing Gibbon sent the first and only manuscript of his stupendous work (the Decline and Fall) to his printer; and Johnson's high-sounding sentences were written almost without an effort. Both, however, lived and moved, as it were, in the world of letters, thinking or caring of little else—one in the heart of busy London, which he dearly loved, and the other in his silent retreat at Lausanne. ST. PIERRE AND ROUSSEAU. - St. Pierre copied his Paul and Virginia nine times, that he might render it the more perfect. Rousseau was a very coxcomb in these matters: the amatory epistles in his New Heloise, he wrote on fine gilt-edged card paper, and having folded, addressed and sealed them, he opened and read them in the solitary woods at Clairens, with the mingled enthusiasm of the author and lover. Sheridan watched long and anxiously for bright thoughts, as the manuscript of his School for Scandal, in its various stages, proves. THE DOUBLE SABBATH. PERHAPS the following statement may tend to settle the controversy about the double Sabbath: "When the first English missionaries went to Tahiti, they passed round the Cape of Good Hope, to the east; and the American missionaries to Hawaii passed round Cape Horn, to the west. As a necessary consequence, there is between them the difference of one day and one night, in the reckoning of time. And hence, for thirty years there has existed, and still exists, in the Pacific Ocean, this singular fact:- Two groups of islands, lying on nearly the same degree of longitude, and not further apart than New York and London, and yet their inhabitants, who are Christianized, observing the Sabbath on different days of the week. This singular fact may be explained, even to the comprehension of children. The most of our young readers are sufficiently acquainted with astronomical geography, to know that the succession of day and night is caused by the apparent revolution of the sun from east to west, or the actual revolution of the earth on its own axis, from west to east. If, then, a person should set out and travel entirely around the world, in the same direction with the earth's motion, he would gain one apparent revolution of the sun, or exactly one day and night. Or, if he should go in the opposite direction, or with the sun, he would lose one apparent revolution of the sun, or one day and night. Therefore, if two persons should travel around the earth in opposite directions, when they met at the point they started from, they would differ exactly two days in their reckoning of time; the one being one day ahead, and the other one day behind the reckoning of those who had remained stationary in the place. Or if they had met on the other side of the globe, and compared notes, they would have differed one day; the one having gained, and the other having lost, just half a revolution of the earth on its axis. This consideration fully explains the above remarkable fact, now existing in the evangelized islands of the Pacific Ocean. If you should go west to the Sandwich Islands, you find them keeping the Sabbath on the same day with yourselves. If, then, you should pass almost directly south, to the Society Islands, you would find that their Sabbath had occurred the day before yours. Or, if you go from here east, and stop first at the Society Islands, you would find them keeping Sabbath on the same day with yourselves. Then pass north to the Sandwich Islands, their Sabbath would occur the day after yours. You see, then, both are right and both wrong. How shall they be brought together? If the inhabitants of either group shall sail entirely around the world, in a direction opposite to that in which the first missionaries came, they would both agree in the days of the week. The same thing can be effected only by dropping or adding one day of the week in their respective calendars. which shall do it, is the point of difficulty to be determined. -[Family Treasury. But NEVER neglect to do a small kindness because you cannot do more. Soothing words and kind looks make the fractions in many a large amount of public benevolence. For the Casket. NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME. Not when manhood's lamp is dim, Not when hours of peace are flying; That, whose struggle needs the strength When the heart in childhood's hour, And thy robes are beams of morning, ARIEL. From the Western Christian Gazette. MINISTERS' WIVES. in college, and the servant who has escaped from the blessings of the patriarchal institution.' 5. Like the prophetess Anna, she should 'not depart from the temple day or night,' for the multiplied meetings of the church and benevolent societies require an almost constant attendance in the sanctuary, and 'it is the duty of the minister's wife to attend to them all.' 6. Like the widow of Sarepta, she must have the art of using meal out of one barrel, and oil out of one cruise, the year round, without diminishing the quantity. Lastly, she must be apt to please every body- becoming all things to all men,' SINGULAR MODE OF COURTSHIP. MR. EDITOR: You know that a minister's wife is willing to do her duty, when she knows what it is. To obtain this knowledge is often very perplexing. I have "searched the Scriptures" for it, but in vain. The women and children, grave or gay, refined or strange silence of the sacred writers increas- rude, intelligent or ignorant, affable or reed my perplexity, until my husband very served, as suits the company in which she kindly explained it in the following manner: may chance to fall.” "The Scriptures," said he, "do not descend to particulars. They lay down general rules, leaving the responsibility of amplifying, specifying and applying them with the world. Therefore, public sentiment is to be our guide where the Scriptures fail; and one principal thing for which ministers are set apart is to expound and enforce its precepts. Still, to clothe our teaching with authority, we observe the good old custom of taking a text from the Bible in all cases. In a moment my difficulties vanish; I open my Bible and read: A bishop must be the husband of one wife.' 1 Tim. iii. 2. 2. Like Martha, she should do all the serving, yet without being cumbered by it. 3. She should be a little more prompt than Sarah of old, and have refreshments always ready for those traveling angels whose visits at the minister's house are not 'few and far between.' 4. Like Dorcas, she should 'keep constantly on hand a supply of ready-made clothing,' to bestow upon all the poor saints and sinners in the community where she resides, with a spare box for the beneficiaries THE Rev. Dr. L-n, an eminent Scotch divine, and professor of theology, was remarkable for absence of mind and indifference to worldly affairs. His mind wrapped up in lofty contemplations, could seldom stoop to the ordinary business of life; and when at any time he did attend to secular affairs, he generally went about them in a way unlike anybody else, as the history of his courtship will show. He was greatly beloved by his elders and congregation; was full of simplicity and sincerity, and entirely unacquainted with the etiquette of the world. Living the solitary, comfortless life of a bachelor, his elders gave him frequent hints that his domestic happiness would be much increased by his taking to himself a wife, and pointed out several young ladies in his congregation, any one of whom might be a fit match or companion for him. The elders, finding all the hints had no effect in rousing the Doctor to the using of the means preliminary to entering a matrimonial alliance, at last concluded to wait upon him, and stir him up to the performance of his duty. They urged on him the advantages of marriage, its happiness; spoke of it as a divine institution, and as affording all the enjoyments of sense and reason; and, in short, all the sweets of domestic life. The Doctor approved all they said, and apologized for his past neglect of duty, on account of many dif |