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accomplished and distinguished of all those bold voyagers, announced to the world his discovery of the province of Guiana, and its magnificent capital, the far-famed city of El Dorado. We smile now at his account of the "great and golden city," and "the mighty, rich, and beautiful empire." We can hardly imagine that any one could have believed, for a moment, in their existence. At that day, however, the whole matter was received with the most implicit faith.

The pilgrims were urged, in leaving Holland, to seek this charming country, and plant their colony among its Arcadian bowers. Well might the poor wanderers cast a longing glance towards its happy val leys, which seemed to invite to pious contemplation and peaceful labor. Well might the green grass, the pleasant groves, the tame deer, and the singing birds allure them to that smiling land beneath the equinoctial line. But while they doubted not the existence of this wondrous region, they resisted its tempting charms. They had resolved to vindicate, at the same time, their patriotism and their principles-to add dominion to their native land, and to demonstrate to the world the practicability of civil and religious liberty. After full discussion and mature deliberation, they determined that their great objects could be best accomplished by a settlement on some portion of the northern continent, which would hold out no temptation to cupidity-no inducement to persecution. Putting aside, then, all considerations of wealth and ease, they addressed themselves with high resolution to the accomplishment of their noble purpose. In the language of the historian, "trusting to God and themselves," they embarked upon their perilous enterprise.

From "Address at New Orleans."

THE VALUE OF THE UNION.

S. S. PRENTISS.

We cannot do with less than the whole Union; to us it admits of no division. In the veins of our children flows northern and southern blood; how shall it be separated; who shall put asunder the best affections of the heart, the noblest instincts of our nature? We love the land of our adoption, so do we that of our birth. Let us ever be true to both; and always exert ourselves in maintaining the unity of our country, the integrity of the Republic.

Accursed, then. be the hand put forth to loosen the golden cord of Union; thrice accursed the traitorous lips, whether of northern fanatic or southern demagogue, which shall propose its severance. But no! the Union cannot be dissolved; its fortunes are too brilliant to be marred; its destinies too powerful to be resisted. Here will be their greatest triumph, their most mighty development. And when, a cen

tury hence, this Crescent City shall have filled her golden horns, when, within her broad-armed port, shall be gathered the products of the industry of a hundred millions of freemen; when galleries of art and halls of learning shall have made classic this mart of trade; then may the sons of the Pilgrims, still wandering from the bleak hills of the north, stand upon the banks of the great river, and exclaim with mingled pride and wonder, Lo! this is our country: when did the world ever witness so rich and magnificent a city-so great and glorious a Republic! From "Address at New Orleans."

ENGLISH OPINIONS OF FRANCE.

DR. DURBIN.

IN forming an opinion of the moral state of France, we should first endeavor to divest ourselves of any unreasonable prejudice imbibed from English statements. Knowing, as we do, how steadily and systematically the character and institutions of America are misrepresented by English travellers, and how readily their extravagant statements are credited by their countrymen, we should be the more inclined to distrust their observations in regard to France, their ancient rival and hereditary enemy. English travellers, in general, can do justice to no country; least of all to France. For ages the English feeling towards France has fluctuated between fear and contempt; but for the last half century her politics have been regarded with dread and her irreligion with horror by the islanders. Accordingly, their pictures of the moral condition of France are, in general, deeply shaded. True, the violence and crime of the Revolution warranted the darkest coloring; but France under the Revolution and France under Louis Philippe are two different states of society. The demoralizing effects of the Revolution are, to be sure, yet visible; the society of France may be said as yet to be only in its forming state; but yet he must be blind indeed who cannot see in the vast increase of trade and manufactures, in the increased attention to agriculture and the arts of peace, new elements at work to purify the moral atmosphere. Within a certain limit, such will be their tendency; and that tendency is already perceptible.

From "Observations in Europe."

NAPOLEON'S TOMB.

DR. DURBIN,

THE Crowning interest of this magnificent establishment (The Invalides) is the tomb of NAPOLEON, in the chapel of St. Jerome. In reaching the chapel, we had to cross the body of the church, under the dome.

Some of us forgot to take off our hats on entering the rotunda, until two of the old warriors, standing as sentinels at the tomb, a hundred and fifty feet off, reminded us of our negligence in a quick, loud tone. Of course, we obeyed. Hastening across to the chapel, we approached the iron grating that cuts off access to the sarcophagus, and stood within a few feet of the ashes of the hero. I felt a sensation of awe such as I had never before experienced in presence of the living, or among the remains of the dead. Upon the marble lay his crown, his sword, and the hat which had pressed his manly brows at Eylau. On the top of a marble pyramid, at the head of the tomb, some fifteen feet in height, is the majestic eagle of France, with wings outspread, as if looking for the resurrection of the mighty man beneath. The chapel of the tomb is richly hung in velvet, and a dim, cold light comes through the ground-glass windows above. We held our voices in the great man's resting-place. Many came while we were there, but none who did not gaze with reverence on the tomb of him who had broken up the despotic institutions of a thousand years, and changed the face of Europe and the world.

From "Observations in Europe."

MAN'S IMMORTALITY.

WILLIAM PROUT.

What is to become of man? Is the being who, surveying nature, recognises to a certain extent, the great scheme of the universe; but who sees infinitely more which he does not comprehend, and which he ardently desires to know;-is he to perish like a mere brute-all his knowledge useless; all his most earnest wishes ungratified? How are we to reconcile such a fate with the wisdom-the goodness-the impartial justice-so strikingly displayed throughout the world by its Creator? Is it consistent with any one of these attributes, thus to raise hopes in a dependent being, which are never to be realized? thus to lift, as it were, a corner of the veil-to show this being a glimpse of the splendor beyond-and after all to annihilate him? With the character and attributes of the benevolent Author of the universe, as deduced from His works, such conceptions are absolutely incompatible. The question then recurs-What is to become of man? That he is mortal, like his fellow-creatures, sad experience teaches him; but does he, like them, die entirely? Is there no part of him, that, surviving the general wreck, is reserved for a higher destiny? Can that, within man, which reasons like his immortal Creator-which sees and acknowledges His wisdom, and approves of His designs, be mortal like the rest? Is it probable, nay, is it possible, that what can thus comprehend the operations of an immortal Agent, Is not itself immortal?

F

Thus has reasoned man in all ages; and his desires and his feelings, his hopes and his fears, have all conspired with his reason, to strengthen the conviction, that there is something within him which cannot die: that he is destined, in short, for a future state of existence, where his nature will be exalted, and his knowledge perfected; and where the GREAT DESIGN of his Creator, commenced and left imperfect here below, From "Bridgewater Treatises."

WILL BE COMPLETED.

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THE STONE AGE.

WALTER SCOTT.

THE most important memorials of the stone age are the graves, called Cromlechs and Giants' Chambers. The former vary much in size and shape, the long cromlechs being generally from sixty to a hundred, but sometimes reaching even four hundred feet in length, by from sixteen to forty feet in breadth, while the circular cromlechs are much smaller. All, however, have the same character, as they appear to have had the same destination. Each cromlech consists of several large flat stones arranged edgewise on a mound of earth, and capped by a huge fragment of rock, often from thirty to forty feet in circumference, thus forming a sepulchral chamber, wherein the bodies of the dead were placed, mostly in a sitting posture, with their backs to the wall.

The giants' chamber differs from the cromlech in being somewhat larger, in having a long passage of stone leading to the interior, and from the whole being covered with a mound of earth forming a tumulus. Some of these tumuli also contain two chambers with separate entrances.

Skeletons of unburnt bodies, implements of stone and flint, amber beads, various ornaments, and earthenware vases, have been found in all these tombs; which are not only interesting, as showing the degree of civilization attained by the people, but from indicating that they possessed ideas of a future state, as they buried by the warrior's side weapons and various articles thought necessary to him in another existence. This custom is general amongst savage tribes even at the present day, while in all parts of the world nations in an unenlightened and barbarous condition have been found to sacrifice the friends or servants of their deceased chiefs, in order that they might be properly attended on their entrance into the next world. Such might have been the case in Scandinavia, and would at once account satisfactorily for the fact of the cromlechs and giants' chambers containing several skeletons.

The ornaments of the stone period, seen in the museum, are of the

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simplest kind; the most precious amongst them consisting of pieces of amber pierced, and doubtless worn as beads; some of these are rough, others formed like hammer-heads or axes.

The people of the "stone age" were not confined to Southern Scandinavia, for cromlechs are found along the north-west and west coasts of Europe, the southern shores of the Baltic, in Ireland and Britain, all having similar contents to those of Denmark. But in Norway and the north of Sweden, this kind of tomb does not exist, although implements and weapons of stone are found in those countries, as well as in Southern Europe, and even in the tumuli of the Mississippi valley in North America. Some of the implements discovered in the latter, especially the flint knives, bear an exact resemblance to those of Denmark; but we cannot infer from this circumstance alone, that the same race inhabited these widely-separated countries; for nations the farthest removed from each other, with the same wants, and their faculties in a like state of development, arrive at similar results in their first feeble essays at art, of which the close similarity between the Scandinavian and New Zealand productions in stone afford another striking example. It may, however, be reasonably presumed that the southern coast of the Baltic, Hanover, the north of Holland, England, and Ireland, where the cromlechs are found, were inhabited by the same race as that of the stone age in Denmark.

PENN AND LYCURGUS.

G. C. VER PLANCK. As he was wont,

PENN arrived in Pennsylvania, in October, 1682. according to the taste of the age and of his sect, to allegorize natural occurrences, he might have found in the soft serenity of the season in which he landed, an apt emblem of those happy and useful days he was to pass in America. The rest of his life, like the other parts of the year in this climate, was vexed with many fierce and sudden varieties of change, but the period of his administration in America, was destined to be, like the American autumn, mild, calm, bright, and abounding in rich fruits.

Here, his genius seemed to expand, as if to fit itself for a grander scene of action; while his benevolence grew warmer amid "the sweet quiet of these parts," to use his own beautiful language, "freed from the troublesome and anxious solicitations, hurries, and perplexities of woful Europe." In all outward things he was well satisfied, and he had no desire left, but that of doing good. "The land," said he, "is rich, the air clear and sweet, the springs plentiful, and provisions good

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