CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library AG 105 .C73 Tonaue of time, and star of the states olln 3 1924 029 685 736 Cornell University Library The original of tfiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029685736 THE TONGUE OF TIME, STAR OF THE STATES A SYSTEM OF HUMAN NATURE, WITH THE PHENOMENA OF THE HEAVENS AND EARTH. AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, REMAINS OF GIANTS, GEOLOGY, VOUGANOES, EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN MAGIC, DIET, DRESS, DRINKS, DISEASES, SLEEP, SOMNAMBULISM, TRANCES, RESUSCITATION. AN ACCOUNT OP PERSONS WITH TWO SOULS, AND OF FIVE PERSONS WHO TOLD COLORS BY THE TOUCH. BY JOSEPH COMSTOCK, M. D. NEW YORK: 1838. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, by JOSEPH COMSTOCK, M. D. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Preliminary Address, to all people who read, reflect, and reason. Varieties of style. Chaucer. Cicero. Biography. Millon. Addison. Celebrated Women. The Chinese. National Characters. Literature. Languages. Use of evil. The Crusades. The Holy Land. The refutation of atheism. Page 9— 76. CHAPTER n. Man, Matter, and Mind. Prolongation of Life. Fossils. Remains of Giants. Volcanoes, and submarine Volcanoes. Geology. Niagara Falls. Theories of the World. Falling stones. Showers of stars. Formation of solids in the air. Stumps of trees ninety feet below the surface. Rafts. Coal beds. Mounds. Skeletons. The Deluge. American Antiquities. Page 77— 121. CHAPTER III. Ancient Mounds and Fortifications. Remains of work shops, Walls, Pyra- mids, Palaces, and Cities. The Flood. Mr. Evans. Gov. Pownal. The Potatoe. Tobacco. Creation. Page 123— 189. CHAPTER IV. Superstition. Idolatry. Witchcraft. Dreams. Egyptian and Indian Magic. Somnambulism. Judicial Astrology. Phrenology. Animal Magnetism. Death of Julius Csesar. Salem Witchcraft. Cases of Nancy Hazard, Jane C. Rider, Mrs. Cass, and Miss M'Evoy, who told colors by the touch. See- ing with the fingers. Hearing with the eyes. Optics. Sir Isaac Newton. Dr. Newton, Mr. Locke. Page 190—261. CHAPTER V. Of burying, embalming, and burning the dead. Of visions, voices,' and im- pressions. Cromwejl. Lord Herbert. Pausanias. Anaxagoras. Ros- common. A premonition defeated. Prediction of snow in June, fulfilled. The Indian and his tamed snake. Page 262 — 276. CHAPTER VI. Enthusiasm. Buonaparte's Russian Campaign. French and American Revolutions. Roger Williams. William Penn. Edmund Burke. Robert Morris. Page 277-285. IV CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. Of Sleep. Dreams. Sleep watching, sleep working, and sleep talking. Hippocrates. Question of the legality of telling certain dreams. Remark- able cases. Opium and the Poppy. Page 286—301. CHAPTER VIII. Universality of deception. Fascination of serpents. Inquiry after universal opinions, and the common lot of mankind. Bishop Heber. The Veddahs. Mr. Marsden. Locke. Reid. Stuart. Brown. The Craniology of Gall. The Quaker. Evil Spirits. Socrates. Plato. Page 302— 317. CHAPTER IX. Life. Health. Death. The Soul. Sudden death of a Beauty. Page 318—326. CHAPTER X. Theology. Ethics. Diet. Dress. Drinks and Diseases. Alcohol. Exer- cise. Famine. Priestley. Johnson. Josephns. Bishop Beveridge. Trances. Resuscitation. Heat and Cold. Page 327 — 368. CHAPTER XI. Of the Senses, passions of the mind, memory, judgment, association. The Will. Mr. Alexander Alexander, and Point no Point. Page 369 — 382. , CHAPTER XII. Something of Politics. Vattel. Patrick Henry. John Randolph. Volcanic Waters. Thorlakson. Comets. Stimulus of Necessity. Uses of the . Spleen. Page 383—410. CHAPTER XIII. Some further notice of the sleeping preacher. Different opinions of her sleeping and waking soul. Herod the Great. The Gymnosophists. Case ' of William Blatchford, Jr. Women bearing children at sixty years of age. Page 411—457. CHAPTER XIV. History and anecdotes of women. Of the best method of females managing property, and preserving their estates. Of prayer. Deceit. Singular case. Hortense on optics. Conclusion. Page 458—483. REFERENCES. We wonld refer gentlemen of all professions'>-the presidents, professors, and members of the several colleges, ministers of all denominations, and people of every religious sect, to the following pages. And indeed all, who would enlarge the bounds of knowledge, respecting their own country, and its phenomena, and of Human Nature itself, and its system, are included in this reference. Whether in the shape of praise or blame, extension, contraction, or alteration, every thing is desired whiph will tend to improve the subjects 'upon which the present writer has touched, and they are many. In most things our country is still an infant Hercules, which time, and taste, and talents, is fast ripening into manhood. Most of our chapters contain so much of variety, as cannot fail to interest the professional reader, the general reader, the matron, and the miss. But to his fair readers the writer would more particularly refer : — Ladies have minds of philosophic cast. Which thrill at rainbows, Rome and ruins vast ; Which comets scan, and northern lights survey, Nor fiery clouds, nor trembling earth dismay. Pleased with the western realms, once claimed by waves. With Alleghany's heights, Kentucky's caves, — With the Atlantic shores, and sounding seas, And mighty rushing winds, that bend the trees, — Missouri's grapes, the sweetest of all kinds, Dressed with the sand, pruned by the desert winds, — The lily of the lake, — the lily's queen, — The falling flood — Niagara, is seen. The water rainbow cloud, their eye delights, As the vast lakes pour o'er the mountain heights. Around the Isle, the hasty rapids move, Pushed on by Erie, and the lakes above ; The rolling, rushing, restless torrent pours, Between the King's and freedom's firmer shores ; And hastens on with deep and dashing flow. To find the broad, the grand, Ontario. VI REFERENCES. Yet ere it ends and ocean-rest enjoys, It flows anew, and forms the Iroquois. River of thunder ! with thy thousand isles, Where cascades leap, and where the vortex boils i Poets must soar sublime, thy scenes to sing. Yet still the Mississippi is thy king ; — Great rolling remnant of the ancient sea. The world affords no parallel to thee. Such scenes will elevate the soul sublime. And open vistas to remotest time ; * Scenes that will transport female hearts on high. And brighten views that reach beyond the sky. Star or the States, display thy native land. Bid taste, imagination, truth, expand, And pay a tribute worth a lady's hand. 'Twas Solomon, of cedar trees who spake. The lofty tree, more lofty could he make ; But lofty subjects were not his alone. The humble hyssop's heard of from his throne.* The female mind must high and broad expand. To rear a race to fit this lofty land ; Sons from their mothers, most their talents talje, Mothers the first and last impressions make. He who would raise his country's glories high, Must on the fair with fervent faith rely. The Spartan matrons taught the world the truth. That martial spirits must be formed in youth ; Hence, wheiLtheir sons marched for the tented field, " Bring back, or be brought back, upon your shield" — Was the farewell, the soul, nerve-steeling speech, Which last of all their ears was wont to reach. Our country owed to hek our Washington '. — Who bore and bred and marshalled such a son. Statesmen and soldiers on the sex depend — Ah ! mother, sister, lover, female friend ! ! Whoever lays aside our volume without attentively perusing our tenth chapter, will deprive himself of much utility and entertainment. We make this remark from our knowledge that some who buy books do not read them, and designate that chapter, as containing much, as we think, that will interest the general reader, and lead him to look further into the present volume. Perhaps, however, there are others who jnay find other chapters more interest- ing to them. ' " And he discoursed of trees, from the cedar of Lebanon, to the hyssop that grows out of the wall." REFERENCES. VI) The religious inquirer, who would renew and revive bis ideas, and who woald find new food for pious aspirations, who would be a partaker of purity in doctrine, and piety in dispensation; and who would behold temples glitter with glory, coronets and crowns stadded with diamonds, and all sweetly reclining upon religion, are referred to extracts in this work, from those who had adorned the summit, the spire, the pinnacle of their profession. We would, in this connection, mention Bishop Beveridge ; and in our thirteenth chapter, what is said of the sleeping preacher. Miss Baker. THE TONGUE OF TIME. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY ADDRESS, TO ALL WHO READ, REFLECT, AND REASON. VARIETIES OP STYLE. CHAUCER. CICERO. BIOGRAPHY. MILTON. ADDISON. CELEBRATED WOMEN. THE CHINESE. NATIONAL CHARACTERS. LITERATURE. LANGUAGES. USES OF EVIL. No book was ever written by any one man exactly so as to please another, much more, all others. Dr. Goldsmith said, that the best way to please the whole world, was to try to please only one half of it. What is written in beauty, must be felt in a song. Those writers have done most good by their writings, who have combined the pleasurable with the profitable, — who have exhibited the honey and the rose, and who have left the sting and the thorn to exhibit themselves. But the empire of veracity never ought to be invaded ; when truth can be discovered, it must always be portrayed, and the extensive domain of deception, left to shift for itself. A spot which would be invisible upon the sail of a ship, would be apparent on a lady's frock. Every writer should dress himself in white satin, that if there be soils, he may discover them first himself. The delusions of duplicity, should have no place, and if the fairy flights of fancy, must be ever introduced, they should be well digested. We have heard, from philosophers, of a certain kind of light- ning, which melted the sword, but singed not the scabbard. 2 10 THE TONGUE OP TIME, A discriminating sort of heavenly fire, which should teach us to seize the strong point of every case, and to hold on to it vrith never ceasing efibrt and exertion, and never remit our embrace, till death enfeebles our grasp. In the cases of the five ladies, who told colors by the touch, and some of whom appeared to have double minds, or souls, our testimony is of such a kind as to set incredulity at defiance.* We had not admitted them unless they had been based upon indubitable testimony. Nor not at all, except with a view of throwing around them a hal6 of such philosophical and physiolo- gical light, as our present knowledge, feeble as it is, affords. The same observations apply to the Salem witchcraft, to Indian sorcery, Egyptian magic, and the tricks of mountebanks and jugglers. We have inquired with much care, into the geological part of our subject, as also into what is known of the phenomena of the heavens, and the antiquities of the earth. We were led more particularly to the latter subject, by seeing the publication of a most extraordinary opinion, that the mounds and fortifications of America were natural productions ! And this, not by any common writer, but by a professed geologist, and a professor also in one of our colleges. We never knew an opinion of greater absurdity ever promulga- ted, hor one at which we were more utterly astonished. We have in consequence, been at much pains to collect, and to con- centrate, such evidence upon the subject as we could obtain, both as relates to' the western states and to Mexico. Every person of the least pretensions to knowledge, to geogra- phy, geology, travels, or history, ought to know something of these New- World-wonders, so as not to send abroad opinions disgraceful to the very name of an American. These structures of the ancient unrecorded ages of America, are no where in the known world to be matched, except in Egypt alone. We have said something upon a variety of subjects, in a short space, and of course have not talked, when we had nothing to say. * In order to steer clear of the doctrine of Materiajisnj, it jg requisite to adopt the opinion .of doabla souls, miods, or spirits. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 11 Those writers are fatiguing in the extreme -who attempt to say every thing that can possibly be said upon a subject — who write as if they thought that their readers knew nothing, and that they themselves knew every thing. Our citizens are too well informed to need prolixity, or' to be pleased with monotony of this kind. There is another class of writers, who will pretend that they have something to tell of the most paramount, magnificent, and vital importance, and begin with a long, every day, tedious detail about winds, weather, sunshine, clouds, time of day, or time of year, and what, and where their hero ate and drank ; things that have been told over and repeated more than fife hundred thousand times. The world has too many things to be seen, and too many good writers in it to be read, and too many good speakers in it to be heard, to listen to repetitions and non-essentials. We have heard to our full satisfaction, that the sun rose in all its glory, or that it rose in silver and sat in gold — that the air was bland, balsamie and delicious, the morning beautiful, the sky serene, and the dew-drops diamonds — that there werp singing choirs, flitting from tree to tree, and grove to grove, cooing doves, and nightingales mellifluous — that the earth had a green carpet of grass, or a white coverlet of snow, or a painted cushion of violets — that there were little rills, singing and dancing over pebbles of crystal, or large rivers pouring thunder over the rocks — that there was a calm lake, which painted the stars in its placid bosom, and laid down the blue spangled sky, as a carpet in its waters. All well enough to be sure, if told but once, and stale enough if eternally repeated. And then we have other condiment dishes, into which every one dips hiS spoon ; such as Alexander's weeping for another world to conquer; of places -dark as Erebus, or frowning as a mountain thunder cloud ; of the soft tinge of tender melancholy ; of tears like stars, glittering in the eye ; of tears like rain, falling to the earth ; and of tears like rills, furrowing the cheek. Of the sea, we hear of its colors of black, of blue, of green, of purple, and of white ; of its chafing with its sandy strand, or throwing its bellowing billows upon the wavy shore, or of its 12 THE TONGUE OF TIME. mounting up in mountain heights ; and of its lying untroubled in placid repose. So we have flowery fields, beaming beauties, lovely ladies, charming creatures, And waves that wind their watery way, And blustering blasts that blow, And locks that lovely, loosely lay, And well wrought words of woe, not for poetic purpose, nor for the necessity of the narrative, but for the display of the author's alertness at alliteration. How does it add to the interest of an incident, for the wi-iter to tell that it was a dark cold night, withchill damp winds, which blew the rain against the windows, when he had to go only a few steps, in a lighted city 1 Dean Swift said of the British ministers, that he used them like dogs, because he expected that they would use him so. This dogged kind of treatment seems to be adopted by many authors, and reciprocated by their readers. § 2, With our respect for great men, we are often obliged to mingle our regret for their errors. This regret is, however, some- times misapplied. Lord Brougham has been censured for hold- ing the opinion, that belief is independent of the will. But in this respect, his lordship agrees with other great philosophers, and his censijrers must prove him in an error, or prove themselves greater philosophers, and more correct judges than he is, in order for their opinions to have much weight. But they have done neither. Some great men are only great on great occasions, but it is dangerous for a great man not to be great on small occasions ; for those who take hold of embroidery, do not expSct to find it ever to end in a web ; and if ever a great ox dwindles down to a frog, all frogs will think themselves great oxen. A philosophy which hides its head in the clouds, is as useless, as the ignorance which buries its face in a mole-hill ;, and little better than either, are those writers who flea! in skipping, short- winded, asthmatic, unpolished truisms, impossible to be applied or remembered. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 13 There are others prone to dole out matters of small conse- quence, in a strutting style, to blow up great bubbles filled with air, which burst and leave nothing behind but a drop" of impure water. There is another kind of style, which is smart and snappish, the writers of which, find out that the world andvCvery thing in it has gone amiss from Adam, till it was so lucky at last, as to find them with pens in their hands. Such writers make every thing as lucid as a cake of ice, but at the same time as frigid, hard and repulsive. They cannot be brought within the pale of General Washington's remark, that " good humor makes one dish of MEAT A FEAST." Our free constitution permits Christians to do all the good they can, and infidels all the evil they can, provided neither commit a breach of the peace. It hence becomes all-important, that the young should be educated and moralized, and that no poison be cast into the springs from which they drink, and from which the mighty rivers of freedom are to ^oyi?. Still, with education we always connect reproof, admonition, and rigid rules of discipline. But we are convinced that these are often, very often, carried too far ; for the judgment can only gain a manly and adequate strength, by its being sufiered to undergo much exercise of itself. It is from this very circumstance that the constellation of the northern bear is so often, in Congress, eclipsed by the stars of the south. Education, without good judgment, never made a Cicero. Great learning, and even great wisdom, may sometimes be found in an individual, with .very little judgment. We suspect that even Cato was deficient in the latter, from his having been impeached • by his countrymen, no less than fifty times, and the last time, at the age of eighty-six. Such men as Herod, Alexander the Great, and Napoleon, who acted upon the thunder and lightning principle, achieved every thing by fear and force, and cannot be subjected to the rules of other mortals, Cowper thought that there was somewhere in infinite space, a world that did not roll within the precincts of mercy. Those men appear to have belonged to that world. 2* 14 THE TONGUE OP TIME. Some writers, and- some preachers,, have been thoaght very great, because their readers and hearers could not understand them. Aristotle is supposed to have written with affected ob- scurity. Hence the world sought after him with respect and reverence, for an explanation ; every one thinking that he should • himself become wise, if he could but comprehend Aristotle. But it is impossible to undei-stand that which has no meaning. The air of mystery, with an occasional clear, terse, and pithy axiom, however, ever made him venerable. It is thought that if Homer could be so translated as to give the true and elegant simplicity of his meaning, that he would be. as entertaining even to children, as is Robinson Crusoe, because he wrote according to the uncontaminated principles of nature. Homer was no metaphysical writer. These write, in order to reconcile contradictions, and as they cannot do this, tliey so in- volve their sentences as not to have their failures very apparent, as they have no meaning at all. We have some modern writers, with whom every thing is deli- cate and delightful, and if honey never cloyed, their style would never tire. But as Plutarch observes, that every kind of wicked- ness produces its own particular torment, so we may say, that every kind of sweet, brings with it its own satiety. Gold may, however, be often told over without soiling the fingers, and we can hardly conceive of the period when the style of Johnson, Addison, Mr. Jefferson, and Washington Irving, will not be held in esteem. § 3. The Mahometans, call a tavern-haunter, a worshipper of fire — and to such, the language of Sir William Jones, well ap- plies, viz. that he resembles a coal, which when hot burneth the hand, and when cold blacketh it. ' § 4. Every one who visits a library, may well be surprised, if he pleases to turn over many thick and ponderous volumes, which are written upon subjects unattainable, or which if attained, would not be applicable to any useful purpose. Yet a library, as Dr. Johnson observes, is a melancholy place, when the number of writers, with their bright anticipations of fame, and their subse- quent blasted prospects, is considered. For who ever wrote a THE TONCEITB' OP TIHTE. 15 book, wluch its aiidior did not entertain a more- exalted opinion <)f, than its readers and th^ pablie? It is not always the most elegant writer that leaves the deepest impression on his reader* We sometimes find bad grammar,, obsolete terms, and ancient authors,, making deep, or pleasant, or ,striking indentations on the mind. Thus Chaucer says,. For libertie is ibing that women looks. And traly els the matter is acrooke.* The English language has varied so mucii in less than TOO years, that to understand Robert Glocester, who wrote in the reign of Henry II., we require the glossary of a dead language. Wiclif, who translated the Bible, about 200 years later, is more, intelligible, biit still very obscure. He probably wrote in all the elegance of his day, as he was professor of Divinity at Oxford. His translation of a verse or two of the Bible, follows, being the most intelligible of any that we could select. " Men schulen louynge hemsillf coucitouse ; high o berynge, proude, blasfemeris ; not obedient to fadir and modir, unkynde cursid, withouten affeccioun." (2 Tim. iii. 2.) , " And anon the damysel roos and walkide, and she was of twelve year, and thei weren abayschid with a great stoneying." (Mark V. 42.)t § 5. To study human nature in all its phases, is a curious and not a useless study. There are some persons who are ex- tremely careful of their health, who are yet ever ready to risque their lives in duels, or any romantic or dangerous enterprise. And there is another class, consistii^ of the lower order of people, who are recklessly careless of their health, and yet the most fearful of death of any mortals in the known world. Individuals of each class, will sometimes strike the beholder dumK, not with admiration, but with unaccountable surprise. There are some prosing, -jury-confounding arguers, who travel all sorts of courses excepting straight ones, and who can throw a * Richardson's Dictionary, Art. Acrook.. t Richardson's Dictionary, Art. Affection. 16 THE TONGUE OF TIME. shade of darkness upon all subjects, and never a ray of light upon a single one. Who ever saw, without a thrilling emotion of sympathy, a beautiful woman, suddenly thrown into deep, painful,- and un- feigned distress 1 Such an exhibition, beheld unmoved, would denote an inhabitant of that world which rolls without the pre- cincts of mercy. And yet you will find a jury-confounding-Iimb of the law, arrayed against her. But judges will see that justice is done, and let it be done, though the heavens be dissolved. It is a happy trait in human nature, that it leans towards the feeble and frail, and that conscience sustains the bearing. For Cicero said, that he did not consider that man the most virtuous who committed no faults, but him whose conscience accused him with the fewest. The judge on the bench, often suffers more from the load of responsibility upon his feelings, than the criminal at the bar, from the load of guilt upon his conscience. What a difference in the physiognomy of the judge and the soldier ! The face of the former, who is only about to send a convict to prison, is fowg-er than that of the latter, who is about to be killed himself. Were we to see nobody but officers of the army and navy, we should at once conclude that this world was made up of roses and honey-suckles, and nightingales, and humming birds — of suns by day, and stars by night, and milk and honey every where — and that mountains of dead bodies, and seas of blood, and bleached bones, and clotted gore, had never any place in it. The face of the dead who die suddenly, or by violence, is less changed than that of those who linger life away, by slow decline. It is those dead of consumption, who have lost all looks of life in some instances, not in all. But the careless head which was bound around with laurels, and the brave heart, which was ready to shed its blood for its country, bear the physiognomy of death, if the body falls, without a murmuring look, or frowning brow. The pen of the poet, and the pencil of the painter, brothers in allegory, have done the most justice to the minds and bodies of the human race. They have exhibited pictures to the life, and to THE TONGUE OP TIME. 17 ihe death, and both are required for a full portrait of human nature. Of all truths, theological truths are of the most consummate importance ; and the common sense, and the common people, who always finally decide right, of all nations, have, in this case, so decided. The reason is, that such truths have an intimate relation with both life and death — with here and hereafter — with time and eternity. § 6. biographers, who write of the living, dare not tell what they know, and those who write of the dead, find many para- mount facts unknown or forgotten, so that no man's life was ever fully written. What one man has been doing, during his whole life, it would take another man his whole life to find out and to tell. Dr. Johnson wrote the life of Milton, with much care and at- tention. Yet he was unapprized of one of the most extraordina- ly events of his, or of almost any other man's life. MQton, who had been- Cromwell's Latin Secretary, was con- sidered as rebelling, in that and many other respects, against the legitimate monarch. Yet to the surprise of Dr, Johnson, he went unpunished. The fact was, that when others were being arrested and tried for their treasonable practices, Milton pretended to be dead, and actually had a funeral procession in public. The facetious and merciful monarch, Charles II., did not dis- approve of his escaping death " by a seasonable show of dying,'* and still suflfered him to enjoy his liberty and life.* It is not improbable, however, that Charles might have approved of some of Milton's religious writings, or have viewed them more favorably, than he did those in which he contended for the liber- ties of the people. For it is a fact, that those who have no reli- gion themselves, sometimes hold in the liighest estimation those who have. Whilst those who have, and those who take the most * The reader can consult Cunningham's Hiatory of Great Britain, Vol. I., for more particulars of this affair. MiltOD's biding place was Bartholomew Close, near Smitbfield. 18 THE TONGUE OP TIME. unbounded liberties, disapprove of any one else enjoying or taking any at all. One of Milton's political works, was, however, seized and or- dered to be burnt, by the common hangman. It would be perhaps, difficult to find two great writers more unlike, than were Milton and Addison. For whilst the latter was ridiculed, for his endless mention of the/air sex, in the Spectator, and was himself one of the most inoffensive men in the world, with respect to the government under which he lived. Milton, in the language of Dr. Johnson, thought man only created to rebel, and woman to obey. In fact, Milton's treatment of women, puts us in mind of what old Chaucer says, that " they weren wont lightly to slaken her hunger at euin with akehomes of okes." The writings of Milton and Addison are as different as were their notions concerning women. The former, we never read except as a duty, or a study ; we speak more particularly of his Paradise Lost, which is,awork of fiction, founded on the Bible. Now, in every work of fiction, delight is constantly given to the fancy, by the plausible face of the narrative ; and by our being persuaded, as we float along the placid stream, that we are on the real cur- rent of life, or that we shall find, at the end of our voyage, stranger things than real life ever made us familiar with. But a work of fiction, founded on the Bible, we know must be false, if it disagrees with its source. And when never so true, it cannot be truer than the Bible, and hence unnecessary. The writings of Addison are pure, elegant, lively, and never deviate from the purest morality. Time obliterates hypothesis, but confirms nature. There is nothing of nature in -the personification of Sin and Death, by Milton, nor in his making Satan enter into a toad, and hiding in the reptile, his spear and shield. Besides, blank verse, in which he writes, is poetry only to the eye, and" a kind of harsh prose to the ear. To the understanding, it is a block of stumbling, and a rock of offence. There is no exception, no not a single one, except one, and that is Shakspeare. Time, common opinion, and popularity, have confirmed this decision— as thejr have AddiSon's Spectator, in public favor, al- THE TONGUE OF TIME. 19 though it SO often mentions the fair sex, as to have drawn uppni it the ridicule of Swifl. Still, we think that the different numbers of the Spectator have pretty well exhausted the subject, and that the frequent articles in our present periodicals, headed woman, are legitimate subjects of ridicule. Not because they may not be well written, but because , the subject is thread bare. § 7. The conclusion of one of Lord Byron's letters to Dr. Drury, wUl find a response by many, as a truth spoken in jest. It is as follows.: — " Remember me to yourself, when drunk: I am not worth a sober thought." Yet Byron's poetry had more of mind, more of exquisite and elevated description, more of imagination, and poetic imagery, and tenderness of feeling, than that of any one of his giant contemporaries. Sir Walter Scott not -excepted. And it is still doubtful whether he ever intended to throw the gauntlet at Christians and Christianity, considering his extreme sensibility ; for he confessed, in the plenitude of his fame, that " the depreciation of the lowest of mankind was more painful to him, than the applause of the highest was pleasing." His strength was Herculean ; but its government, use, and application, were like Napoleon's, not always directed to the right end. The arguments of the one, and the arms of the other, were like bomb-shells, which they were determined should burst their :glare of light on the world, let the destruction which they scatter- ed round, be what it might. It could not be said of Byron and Buonaparte, what the latter said of Voltaire, that " he was considered the great man of the age, because all around him were pigmies." Their era abounded with diamond geniuses, male and female, of the very first water. Among the latter. Miss Hannah Moore, Madame De Stael, and Miss Edgeworth, were such a trio as this wprld never upheld, at the same time, since it had historians to write its history. The appearance on the globe, of such a feminine genius as either of them, once in a thousand years, wouy pver h^ye b^en considered -as suf&cienf to mark the era. 30 THE TONGUE 0* TIME. ,We suspect that if Napoleon had competitors of antiquity, that could compare with him in arms, that when as a soldier, a politician, and especially as a shrewd and wise remarker upon general subjects, he is considered, that the world, in any one man, never produced his equal, in times ancient or modem, distant or near at home. The beacon set up by Madame De Stael, warning us to beware of such persons as have once proved themselves capable of com- mitting bad actions, experience daily proves to us all, the vast utility of. A fourth female of fine endowments, we must not omit to men- tion, in the person of the empress Josephine. Her words were like apples of gold in pictures of silver, for they were fitly spoken. She ranked the qualities of submission, obedience, and compli- ance, in her sex, as upon a level with political address in men. A proof of her fine qualities, was, her obtaining such a man as Buonaparte for a husband. And it is remarkable that his star did not wane till he left this excellent woman for the daughter of Austria, Maria Louisa. And to this latter alliance he imputed his ruin. He remarked of Josephine, that it was foretold of her in her infancy, that she would wear a crown. That a mind that had such a load of living things upon it, as Napoleon's, should find time to read, and taste to admire, the Iliad, is a mark of its vast powers. Of this work of Homer, he remarked, that it was like the books of Moses, the token and pledge of the age in which it was produ- ced. He observed of Homer also, that in that epic poem, he had proved himself a poet, an orator, a historian, a legislator, geogra- pher, and theologist. And he adds, that he might be called the encyclopedist of the period in which he flourished. He observed, that one thing particularly struck him ; which was, the combination of the rudeness of manners, with refinement of ideas.. Heroes were described as killing animals for their food, cooking their meat with their own hands, and yet delivering speephes distinguished for regular eloquence, and denoting a high degree of civilization. He remarks of his own policy, that it was led on by the spirit of the age, and the circumstances of the moment. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 2l He denied that the face was ai)> index of the mind. He thought that popular opinion always decided right, however obscure the subject, complicated the business, or profound the mystery.* He said that he did not ascend the throne by pushing another from it — that he found the crown fallen, that he snatched it up, and that the nation placed it on his head. He said that he could appear before the tribunal of God and await his judgment without fear. This will doubtless be considered by some, rather as a proof of the Emperor's courage, than as a mark of his piety. As a reasoner, Buonaparte was ere'ct in his positions, precise, and not extravagant in his facts, and never blundering, but gene- rally very correct in his conclusions. Observation and history had taught him, that those who had achieved great changes in the world, had not succeeded by gaining over the chiefs, but by ex- citing the common people. He carried the key which unlocked the hearts of the multitude, and this accounts for his unbounded popularity, as well as for the ardor, energy, and alacrity of his armies. But then his hundred victories could only have been obtained by a very superior degree of skill in the art of war, an intuitive promptness of discovering facts, and all their bearings and rela- tions, and a quickness in executing his plans, which even exceed- ed'that of Julius Caesar. He appears to have been a believer in God, and his providence, . as he observed, that to Him alone it must belong to pronounce upon what is no longer within the reach of the judgment of men. The remark in relation to Talleyrand, that he was a man who could fit himself for any station on the eve of his appointment to it, was, perhaps, equally applicable to himself.t Buonaparte's adage was, that it was not for a circumstance to regulate policy, but rather for policy to govern circumstances. He refused to receive the communion, because he did not think he had sufficient faith in it for it to be beneficial to him, but too much to allow him to be guilty of sacrilege. * Las Casas' Napoleon. t We believe that thiS remark was first made by Talleyrand, in relation to a certain minister of Buonaparte's. 3 23 THE TONGUE OP TIME. His views of mankind appear to have been rather favorable. He did not think men were so ungrateful as was generally sup- posed. Of women he said, that a handsome woman pleased the eye, but a good woman pleased the heart. § 8. Of national characters, not protestant, we admire that of the Chinese the most, and that of Spain the least. We have an extract from a placard, posted up on the walls of Canton, during a great drought in China, which has reminded us more of Bishop Butler's opinion, that Christianity is the universal religion, than any thing which we have ever seen, coming from a pagan country. The extracts are as follows : " There is now a great drought, calamities and misfortunes are heiaped up, and it is a time of sorrow and grief. Prayers are of no avail — all these misfortunes proceed from ourselves. Our hearts have long been hardened, and we have been discontented with our lots ; the uneradicated^ roots of error are many. Evil dispositions burst out like torrents, overthrowing mountains; therefore heaven is annoyed with our repeated supplications. I offer advice to the men of age. It is necessary they should examine themselves — and let no one think himself guiltless, and accuse others. Let all at once excite their hearts, and from their own feelings, conjecture those of others ; constantly be contented in your stations. Cherish with the greatest care filial duty and brotherly love ; then, the harmony of relations, friends, youth and manhood. In affairs do not indulge your own temper and wishes ; depend not on talent and ability ; presume not on riches, and treat peo- ple contemptuously, and on high station to insult them. Be not covetous of ill-gotten wealth. Think not on unlawful pleasures. Presume not on strength and power. Cherish not revengeful feelings. In all affairs consult your heart and hold fast by reason. Constantly correct yourselves, and be indulgent to the thoughts of others. Certainly then you will be able to repent and renovate yourselves, and draw back the favorable will of heaven. Seek and do this, all this, with real sincerity, and it cannot be but the calamities will be changed into blessings." Whoever reads the foregoing and does not find many senti- THE TONGUE OF TIME. 23 ments in agreement with those of the Gospel, will be suspected of not having paid a proper attention, to the study of his Bible. § 9. The Spaniards were the first to make slaves of the Afri- cans, They are a nation who Wear daggers, and assassination is a revolting feature in their national character. Besides, they are cruel, vindictive, and malevolent. If they have religion, it is without morahty. The barbarous treatment of Cortez, to the poor Indians of Mexico, was of the most horrid and accursed kind. If private enormities are visited on the nation to which the individual be- longs, his barbarities were sufiicient to blast the prosperity of the Spaniaj'ds for a thousand y«ars to come. The national character of the English, is of two kinds — the legitimate, or royal, and the puritanical. These divisions are very distinct, and retain their features among those, and the de- scendants of those, who emigrated long since from the Mother Isle. Those states in America, which were settled upon puritani- cal principles, are still different in their manners, customs, habits and notions, from other states. Tlie soldiers and officers of Cromwell's army, when they halt- ed, after their marches, were wont to enter the pulpits of the churches, and to hold forth in discourses and sermons, to the people, in the place of clergymen. This teasing inclination to preach, is evidenced to this day in the laymen of the puritanical states. -Nothing suits them better, than to get into a meeting house, and to deliver temperance, abolition, and education addresses — in which, all that they know about religion, is brought in also. Centennial, independence, and funeral orations, are all occasionally made to bear the style, and to introduce the subjects, of sermons. We knew one of these pseudo-orators, after he had ended, thanked by the minister in whose pulpit he had been standing, for his sermon, to his no little chagrin, or at any rate, surprise. His oration was upon the landing of the pilgrim fathers at Plymouth, in New England. It is supposed that all the seeds of no one class of plants that ever flourished on the surface of the globe, is ever entirely lost. 24 THE TONGUE OF TIME. They may be covered in the sands of the ocean, or buried by earthquakes, in the heart of the earth, to be washed on shore, or thrown out centuries of ages hence, or be found about the dust of those who died three thousand years ago. From the lead mines of Missouri, seeds, from which shrubs have sprung, have been disinhumed, in the mining operations,'''' a great many feet from below the surface. This retentive and renovating quality, of the vegetable world, is found to exist in the animal and moral, also. Ancestral customs, spring up in posterity, when congenial cir- cumstances present, and this at great distances of time, after their supposed total loss. It is true the outer, may sometimes supersede the inner man, in producing impressions. Cromwell, who was the very greatest hypocrite that the whole creation ever bore, with a heart black and corrupt as can be found in the deepest hell, had religion and morality, and mildness on his tongue, and placability in his demeanor. The character of Richard Cromwell, his son, was formed from the surface sweets of his father, and did not partake of his heart malignity at all. He was of course too good a man to occupy the Protector's place. He could not, like him, live upon poisons, and yet not swell, nor turn livid, nor look pale. Too good to be a hypocrite himself, he was too good also to suspect his father of hypocrisy, and had no conception that he was unlike him in heart, when he had his exterior. It is supposed, however, that Cromwell did something by his rebellion in favor of English Liberty. This may be true. But a remark contained in a letter to a mercantile house in London, from Gen. Washington, although applied by him to another sub- ject, may, we think, be with propriety applied to the present, so far as relates to Cromwell. That it was " Mean in quality, but NOT in price." A feminine holder forth in the pulpit, has been compared to two females boxing in the street, as to the effect that each phenome- non has upon the spectator — he being equally displeased if a gen- * Mr. Schoolcraft. ' THE TONGUE OF TIME. 25 tleman, and equally gratified if a ruffian. Dr. Johnson compared these female preachers to a dog standing up on his hind legSv We look upon one of these Cromwell-preachers as equally disgusting. They have never too much religion for themselves, and never any to dispense to the public, if they knew themselves. But O' CowneZ? has promulgated lately the clue by vrhich we are to be guided into the political labyrinth of such patriots as was •Cromwell, and as is himself — by saying, that ' consistency^ is a rascally doctrine.* It is doubtful whether the prince of the infernal regions, has held communion with a viler politician since the days of Crom- well, than this O'Connell. A wretch, who would have the slaves liberated, to murder women and children. "And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Sa- tan." Satan is said to have three forms of temptation. The roaring lion, the subtile serpent, and the angel of light. We should place Cromwell and O'Connell in the serpent class. § 10. We are taught that among all nations, savage and civilized, Christian and pagan, Jews or Gentiles, that there were certain occurrences which were mysterious, and which puzzled the best minds, and the best men, even such as Newton and Locke. That as one deception decayed, and one imposture van- ished, by time or by detection, that another and another arose. And that there always has been in the world, from the witch of Endor and the Salem witchcraft, to Swedenborg and the Animal Magnetists, persons who were susceptible of splendid, but impo- sing conceptions, and misconceptions. Persons who could first delude themselves, and then a few others, and at last the world. But look at the effects. Keep the results, the end in view. Mark the consequences, and the failure of all beneficial conse- quences. Note the permanency or the transitoriness of the issue. The permanency as to place and people, or the emigrant and migratory habits of the actors, and their evanescent conse- quences. No one would now believe, with Cotton Mather, in the reality of melted brimstone being poured down a young woman's throat * In his answer to Dr. Doyle. 3* 3(J THE TONGUE OF TIME. in the same room wherein he himself was at the same time, and of which he could discern nothing at all. The reply is, no ; and that no person in our days would for a moment credit such m(vistrous absurdity. But the continuation of the reply is, that the world is changed, and that neither the actors nor the actions are alike ; and that the animal magnetists, and the Swedenbor- giaps, and the phrenologists are men of science. So we reply, were Mr. Locke and Sir Isaac Newton. And as to the acts and doings of the parties, if we are to believe the spectators, they are equally unaccountable, in some instances, upon any known natu- ral or scientific principles, as were the pranks of the Salem witchery. We therefore must, as friends to the world, and to the good of society, and to the best interests of the community, disapprove of secret societies, and strange practices, and hidden mysteries. We spurn occult sciences, and protest against guides who are blind themselves, or who would make us blind, in order to lead us astray. The world has now stood long enough to have its eyes wide open. The progress of true knowledge, and genuine wisdom, cannot be aided by imposition or imposture. But that the general good may be injured by attempts to pry into futurity, and by gipsies, and supposed witches, and fortune telling, seems to be admitted, by nations, ancient and modern, enacting laws against them. We havei no more faith in the modern editions of these works, than in their first impressions. Wave after wave, and cataract after cataract of absurdities have passed away, and yet a mountain of them remain to be re- moved. § 11. Our view of the world is, that its continents and islands all once joined, and formed only one division of land, without any intervening seas. Can we be allowed to infer, that this state of things will again occur 1 And may these words, which we find in the Bible, be supposed to allude to the subject, and to be a confirmation of this theory 1 The words to which we have reference are these: " And there shall be no more sea."* Np ' In the time of the flood, as Joaephus observes, the dry land was turned THE TONGUE OP TIME. 27 more sea to divide the dry land into islands and continents. If they have reference to the things of earth, they are to be taken literally. § 12. JMahometanisn) has long been supposed to have bor- rowed something from Judaism, and something from Christianity. A prize question was made at Berlin upon the subject. The prize was awarded to the Rabbi Geiger, who, as it related to Judaism, proved to the satisfaction of the judges, that all those pEU'ts of the Old Testament found in the Koran, were derived from those sources from whence the Jews formed their Mishna and Talmud. The Gospel and the Koran agree in their injunctions with respect to giving alms to the poor, but make no special provision for the payment of Priests. And in this latter respect, both dis- agree with the Books of Moses, or Pentateuch, which established tithes for that special purpose. In this respect, we see the ameliorating effects of toleration, for the. modern clergy are more in number, and are probably better paid, than were the ancient Priests. It has been a query in my own mind, from whence Mahomet obtained any knowledge of the Bible; for the Arabians were pagan idolaters at the time he promulgated his new religion. He however destroyed their idols, and enjoined the worship of one, and only one, true God. It is an erroneous supposition, that the Mahometans actually worship their Prophet. This they are prohibited to do, although they make pilgrimages to Mecca, and hold the birth place of their lawgiver, as did the Jews Jerusalem, in very great veneration. It has been said, but we have not been able to trace to any com- petent authority the fact, that Mahomet forbade wine to his fol- lowers, because it was enjoined by Christianity, and used by Christians in his day to excess. But there is still a doubt upon the subject ; for it does not appear, that there were any Christians in that part, if in any part of Arabia, in the times in which he lived, except renegades. There is one passage in the Koran that is not a little curious, as in its objects of benevolence, it agrees with the Gospels, and 28 THE TONGUE OP TIME. in the amount to be given, it exactly agrees with the Pentateuch. It is as follows: "Let us not defraud the poor of a tenth of our goods." Tithes, or tenths, being the proportion allotted to the Jewish priests, and giving to the poor enjoined by the Christian religion. There certainly is something in Mahometanism superior to pa- ganism, as it enjoins frequent prayer, and fasting, and almsgiving. And indeed in many respects its rules so much resemble those given in the New Testament, as to have led to the supposition, that they must have been derived from it. But the answer to the Berlin prize question, nor the Life of Mahomet, by the Kev. Mr. Bush of New York, throws no hght upon this matter. The latter, indeed, speaks directly of the Koran's " plagiarisms from our Scriptures," but if we recollect aright, he offers no opinion as to the source from whence they were obtained, or even asserts that Mahomet ever saw a Bible in his life. We were not a little sur- prised, however, that Mr. Bush should decide that the Koran was a worthless, dishonest book, although founded, as he thinks, on the Bible ! ! But it is clear that Mahomet, from some source or other, had some knowledge of the Scriptures, as he acknowledges that both Moses and Jesus were true prophets, and that they gave correct doctrines originally, but that their original revelations are lost, and that our present Bible does not contain them. But we must leave these subject to those who make divinity their profession, to which class we have not the honor to belong — although we may again refer to them. § 13. China, ^nd Ilindostan, are highly civilized countries, but neither Jewish, Christian, nor Mahometan. "We miist rank Mr. Graham with the Hindoos, as he and his followers would dispense with all animal food, and have nothing eaten but vegetables. If they claim affinity with any class at home, they must take their stand among the skeleton makers. The Chinese eat animal food when they can get it, bul it sel- dom falls to the lot of the common people. That people, have been supposed by Europeans to be boastful of their numbers, their country, and institutions. By a late census, the inhabitants of THE TONGUE OP TIME. 1i\f the Celestial Empire amounted to three hundred and sixty-nine millions. And Mr. Gutzlaff, the Prussian missionary to China, who had a better opportunity of judging than perhaps any other European ever had, thinks the amount not over rated. And yet, as to longevity, they make four persons only of this immense number to be one hundred years old ! Whilst by our last census, (that of 1830,) out of a population of less than thirteen millions, there were in the United States, two thousand five hundred and fifty-six persons of one hundred years old, or upwards ! This is pretty sufficient proof that animal food is favorable to longevity, for there are no people in the known world who eat so much animal food as the Americans. Many of these centenarians were colored people, which shews that they are well treated in this country. § 14. The animal magnetists, the phrenologists, the Sweden- borgians, and the vegetable eaters, all agree in making strong eases out of scanty materials. Their minds appear to have been chaotic, but hissing, by which they raised a steam, which first blinded themselves, and then others. ! They could pull down a cathedral, but could not erect a wig- wam. It is they who make us think of what Cecil says of the Jacobins in England — ^that they have poisoned Watts' Hymns for children. One says, that he who thinks that all mankind are wrong, and always have been from Adam, must keep his thoughts to himself, or be prepared to die a martyr. Animal food is coe- val with man ; and it would be equally reasonable and consistent to forbid water, as to forbid meat. It is a maxim with the Jewish Rabbins, that the love that is not accompanied with reproof is not genuine. But this must have its limits, and not be extended to tliose in whom there is nothing to reprove. § 15. Some one observes, that great writers are rare, and the necessity for them very rare. There have been very few who were able to present excellent sentiments, adorned with all the fcweets and perfumes of pure, smooth, chaste, and elevated language. 30 THE TONGUE OP TIME. Some things are rejected from prejudice, and others for th6 reason that they are used by those who are dislilced. The Papist has the books of the Apocrypha in his canon, whilst the Protes- tant pays less respect to them than to works known to be the works of profane authors. Do good to your friend, that he may be more wholly yours— to your enemy, that he may become your friend, is one of the finest sentiments of antiquity.* Every man is proud, but few are, as should be the chairmen or speakers of Congress and of Parliament, prompt, patient, and proud. It is hark and steel for the mind, to take some one of the great luminaries of antiquity, and to write upon any subject, our con- jectures of what he would say upon it. Cicero composed themes upon imaginary topics, which he rehearsed every day. Such eloquence as was that of Demosthe- nes and Cicero, was learned in no school. Men of their stamp, are always self-educated ; and never, like sciolists, say that they have finished their studies, for they remain students during life. Instead of relying on the brightest torches which the world ever displayed, they lighted one of their own, of superior lustre, upon which the eyes of the world have been fixed ever since. Let the aspirant for excellence at the forum, the bar, or the senate, figure to himself a model of Ciceronean excellence — which never shall give an opponent the advantage in an argument, nor ever fail of taking it when given — which shall select the strong point of every case, and seize every object by the right handle, and so present the prominent features of every subject, as to en- force admiration, and to compel conviction, that every thing to the purpose, has been said that could be said. Let Cicero's manly piety, poetic fancy, philosophic profundity, scholastic acuteness, his selections in youth, of what was most proper to practice in mature age, his speaking well, and acting better, be models embalmed in the heart of every young American. It is a pure heart that makes the tongue im- pressive. * A sentiment derived from Cleobnlus. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 31 Such men as Demosthenes and Cicero, although buried, are not dead, for they Uve in fame forever. Edmund Burke, and Patrick Henry, perhaps came the nearest of any of the moderns, in concentrating their excellencies. With all these bright luminaries before them, we may expect to see our youthful aspirants, in the language of Milton, springing upward like a pyramid of fire. Still, those who fly too high, too far, or too fast, may find their pinions fail. The motto on Goethe's ring — ahne haste, ohne rast, haste not, REST NOT — is the proper one for every scholar, and every aspirant to adopt. Of all the German writers, no one is to be more ad- mired than Goethe. One of his views has paiticularly struck us, as evincing his candor, and self-knowledge. He thought he could promise to be upright, but not impartial. Impartiality, in his opinion, being more than could always be possible. His character is, as every ones should be, not only pure, but bright. Time only respects what it has finished. The wood of the tall tree, whose growth is rapid, rapidly decays. Every one owes obedience to the laws, but a still higher obliga- tion is due to morality ; and when it so happens that both cannot be complied with, it is better to do an illegal act, than an immoral one. In China, in one respect, morality and legality, are made to converge to a point. There, a man is directed, at a fixed period by law, to take a wife, and he obeys. Every thing there is a matter of legislation, and marriage is not excepted. Milton was of opinion, that those who made men abhor mar- riage, committed a diabolical sin. Fortune usually knocks at the door of every man once during his life, but if she does not find him at home, she does not call again. But when a man marries, he secures her an abode in his own house. Many females have rejected the first matrimonial knock at the door,- to their lasting regret in after times.* * It is said of a certain lady whose husband is, or has been in the alms honse> that she refused an offer of marriage from a gentleman who afterwards was chosen President of the United States. 32 THE TONGUE OP TIME. Let novel and romance writers say what they wUl, the greatest number of happy marriages have ensued from interest, expedien- cy, necessity, and the choice of friends. In all these cases, the creation, ripening, increase, and security of affection, are more sedulously sought, than in love matches. Marriage and money are in some respects alike. Those who do not look well to small incidents, will not be happy, and those who do not look to small sums, will not be wealthy. Nothing is so dangerous as for the parties to think that they love so much, that they never can hate, as is the case in love matches. And nothing is so sure a road to poverty, as for any one to think that he is so rich that he never can become poor. Love, like money again, is easier gotten than kept. The best garden in the world must have care and cultivation, or fine fruits and flowers will not be produced, and the most ex- cellent dispositions and sweetest tempers, must be cherished, and will certainly change for the worse, by improper management. There is no danger in our happy land, of persons entering into the married state if they are not rich, provided they have industry, good morals and economy. Let there be no amalgamation — no mixture of races — no Ethiopian changing his skin. Let this, all this, be avoided for the sake of heaven, pity, and decency, but let other matrimonial barriers be few, if not entirely broken down. It was antichrist who forbade t,o marry. § 16. There was magnanimity in the reply of lord Nelson, when requested to prosecute one for ill behavior. His blunt an- swer being, that there was no need of ruining a poor devil, who was sufficiently his own enemy to ruin himself. Those who de- spise marriage, are of this description. There are few who of choice break into that domicil whose pillars are bone, whose covering is flesh, and whose garniture is blood, let their belligerent bump be never so fully developed. We often meet with those who have acquired renown for having seen the world, and every thing in it, in their travels ; and who yet can scarce enlighten us on any thing we wish to know, or tell us what we cannot see ourselves, that their mouths have been THE TONGUE OP TIME. 33 open, and their eyes shut, when absent, just as we find them at present. They pass the world without experience, just as some judges on judicial benches, decide cases by precedent, whether it does justice or injjustice, in the case on trial. Mr. Burke said that kings were fond of low company. But this is just what most men would be if they dared to show their true inclinations. Miy/i'i'.;;'!''"'' '■■ wi!isi^i%k#fej!^-^w^ 13 C El ia SLMi — 1 Garrick stole away from high company, into a wood-yard, where he was found, aping and mocking a cock turkey, to amuse a young negro, who was laughing most boisterously. But how did Mr. Burke know that kings were fond of Iovt company 1 Had he ever seen them in it — had he ever known them manifest a predilection of the kind ? Probably not. We presume that it was only an inference drawn from a general view of mankind, from which he did not except kings. The disposition of men and women to be amused, is with few exceptions, universal. The natural bent of every child is to play rather than study. And the reason that travellers bring home so few things from abroad,- of intrinsic value, is, that they are satia- ted with amusing stories and unimportant trifles. We seldom see a person too much engaged to stoop and pick up a pin. And a strange trifle will stop any gentleman's coach on the road, and stay the proceedings of Congress and Parlia- 34 THE TONGUE OP TIME. ment. Most men manifest a pleasure at hearing high words, however low the contending parties. In the interval of courts of justice, we do not hear the judges and counsellors talking of the great and intricate points of law. The blunders or eccentricities of a witness, is ten to one more apt to engi'oss their hours of conversation. The bent brow, and the studious look of the divine and physi- cian, are not carried out of the pulpit and sick room. Babes mourn when they see other persons weep, not knowing what the cause of grief may be ; and men laugh when others laugh, though bearing loads of misery. It is an unpleasant task to talk of grief. Human pride induces every one to wish that he may be thought fortunate and lucky, and that if he has had a mountain in his way, that he has remo- ved it himself. This is one universal principle. It is a hard task to keep another life in constant view. It makes the heart beat hard, and shortens the sweets of this. Light hearts alone beat long. Those monks who have dug their own graves, by throw- ing a shovel full of earth from them every day, have soon suppli- ed the narrow house with a tenant. Respect your end, by making this life useful to yourself and others, and agreeable to all. That kind of pride is most nauseous which disdains to give pleasure to others, and that moroseness most unenviable which is never pleased itself. There is a common saying in one of the States of the Union, that it takes all kinds of people to make a world. The literary, refer to Shakspeare to prove temporal things, just as divines to the Bible, to prove spiritual. The vast and un- limited sui-vey, which that philosophic poet took of all sorts of people, and the critical acumen which he manifested in pointing to the inmost recesses of their hearts, has not less astonished than entertained the world. The king is made to say of Armado, the fantastical Spaniard, that he loved to hear liim lie. Whether Mr. Burke had this, or any other of Shakspeare's writings in view, when he said that kings loved low company, is not apparent. Minds that feast the world at the expense of the emaciation ©f their own bodies, discover many things which pamnerfi"* THE TONGUE OF TIME. 35 bodies do not discover, nor highly relish when discovered by others. Such minds had Shakspeare and Edmund Burke. Without labored volumes, we find historic scraps from such writers, which throw more light upon the world than tomes of extracts and com- pilations. § 17. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his History of the World, Dr. Grey, Decker, and Ben Johnson, must all be referred to, to com- plete the history of one man and his horse ! It is an extraordi- nary case, however, and is worth notice of itself, and as a charac- teristic of the times of 1609. Banks, an Englishman, had a horse, which he had trained to follow him wheresoever he went, even over fences, and to the roofs of buildings. At home. Banks and his horse went to the top of that immensely high building, St. Paul's church. The horse and his master then went to Rome, where they performed feats equally astonishing. But the result was, that both master and horse were burnt, by order of the Pope, for enchanters. Sir Walter Raleigh observes, that had Banks lived in olden times, he would have shamed all the enchanters of the world, for no beast ever performed such wonders as his. The burning of this poor man and his extraordinary horse, was dis- graceful to the age ; but acts, equally disgraceful, have been per- petrated long since. § 18. There are things which may be talked of, which can not be thought of. We may talk of a globe, or a flower, or a circle without any kind of color whatever, but we cannot possibly think of them. We may, however, both talk and think of a mighty wind, which is without shape or color, except in fancy. What odd fantastic things we women do, was said or fancied of women, by a woman. But the most fantastic being of which we ever heard, was a Spaniard, of the other sex, who apologi- zed to the sky, which he termed sweet welkin, for breathing in its face. The false dignity of the Spaniards, is as notorious as their cru- elty. Their national character is Arabian. They derived it from the Moors, who were in fact Arabs, and once, and long, had pos- session of Spain. The Spaniards expelled them at last, but re- 36 THE TONGUE OF TIME. tained their manners. Or at least they expelled those whom the Inquisition could not convert, or did not burn, or reduce to poverty and ruin. The amount of those expelled was six hundred thousand, the remnant of a race, once numerous and powerful.* The Jews, who at one time formed a large proportion of the population of Spain, were almost totally extirpated by the In- quisition. After this court of blood and murder, had gotten rid of the Moors and Jews, their vengeful eyes were turned upon the Christians themselves. What scenes of horror, barbarity and death, have the three na- tions of Moors, Jews, and Indians, suffered from this incarnate race of devOs, the Spaniards. The blood chills, humanity shud- ders, and mercy faints, at the recital. If the spu'its of persons unjustly and cruelly destroyed, are permitted to retaliate their in- juries upon the Spanish nation, its prosperity must be blasted for centuries to come. And it is now suffering one of the greatest of earthly calamities, that of civil war. It is agreeable to turn away from the black acts and the dia- bolical actors, to a few redeeming qualities, in the writers and poets of that nation. Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, i? one of the principal of these. He, as a writer, produced as much laughter in the world as any author who ever wrote. Shakspeare can hardly be excepted. Yet it is unpleasant to think how strongly the misfortunes of his life, contrasted with the merri- ment of his celebrated work. The first part of it was written by him at the age of 56, whilst confined in prison for debt. He lost his left hand, when young, and a common soldier, at the battle of Lepanto. He was captured on his return homeward, from thence by water, by the Algerines, and for five years kept a pris- oner, or more properly speaking, a slave, by them. He died April, 1616, aged 67 years. The romances and plays of the Spaniards, exceed those of all other nations, in giving wit and success to rogues and robbers. A striking feature of their plays is still more indicative of the national character^ It is the frequency of murder, and the infn- quency of its punishment. In one of their plays, however, the ♦M Sismondi. THE TONGUE OP TIMK. 37 devil, who is one of the dramatic persons, is punished pretty- well, by beina; compelled to become a preacher, in the city of Lucca, in order to meike some atonement for the evil he had done to the Capuchins, in that place. But there is still one ob- jectionable feature in this play, for the manner in which this is brought about ; it being by the descent of the infant Jesus to the earth, with Si. Michael, who compel the devil to clothe himself in tlie habit of St. Francis, and to become a preacher of right- eousness.* It is said of one of their dramatic writers, that he wrote no less than 2200 theatrical pieces. This was Lajpe de Vega, who must, as it is calculated, have given the world a new play, once in eight days from the beginning of his life ■ to the end of it. Besides .which, we are told that he wrote twenty-two volumes quarto, of poetry. There are some sentiments of extreme delicacy occasionally found in both the poetry and prose of the Spanish writers. The representation of the ermine, by Calderon, suffering itself to be caught by its pursuers, rather than to be wounded, for fear its beautiful fur should be soiled, is of this kind. Every one will consider the account fabulous, but it shows a delicacy of inven- tion. Whoever does not feel a tearful emotion, or a throb of sensi- bility, at reading the following pathetic lines, let him read them over again. They are from a Spanish poet, named Garcilaso. Poor lost Eliza ! of thy locks of gold, One treasured ringlet in white silk I keep Forever at my heart, which when unroll'd, Fresh grief and pity o'er my spirit creep, And my insatiate eyes, for hours untold O'er the dear pledge will like an infant weep : With sighs more warm than fire anon I dry The tears from off it, number one by one. The radiant hairs, and with a love-knot tie ; Mine eyes ; this duty done. Give over weeping, and with slight relief, I taste a short forgetfulness of grief. 'See M. Sisinondi. 4* 38 THE TONGUE OF TIME. It is related of one of the Idngs of Spain, that he wished to marry a certain beautiful lady, and that after his overtures were made, that he was rejected. Much surprise at her conduct was manifested, and it was not until after much solicitation, that she could be induced to tell, what she called, the hidden and fatal reason, why she could never become the king's wife. It was, that in coming down a certain stair-case, in company with the king's brother, his lips and her's came in contact. The fact was that she liked the king's brother better than she did the king, and him at last she married. And creditable it is, though strange it sounds of a Spaniard, the king had magnanimity enough to forgive them both. § 19. Melancholy sensibility is a more common mark of the poetry of the north, than of the south of Europe. The pleasant, the beautiful, and praiseworthy things of Spain, are fitful in their appearance, and evanescent in their stay. The ferocity of the soldiers, and the vindictive spirit of the citizens, were probably produced by the revolting spectacle of seeing persons burned to death by the Inquisition. The Mexican national character is Spanish. The ancient national character of the country, in the time of the Romans, does not appear to have had the bloody stains upon it which are apparent in modem times. But the Visigoths, who were the conquerors of Spain, the popes, and the autos da fe, were all then unknown. There never was a character which more disgraced a crown, except Nero, than Philip II., of Spain. He had, as we are told by M. Sismondi, a savage disregard of the miseries of war and famine. His perfidy was most shameful and fiendhke, and his ambition to do evil, unbounded. As an expiation for such mon- strous crimes, he introduced a new one, still more monstrous. This was the Inquisition, a cruel, unjust court, which was first invented in the twelfth century. As he had shut the gates of mercy on mankind, in civil matters, he made the mild religion of Christians, a sanguinary engine of torture in religious ones. He calculated to expiate his own crimes, by exquisitely punishing those who were innocent of any crime whatever. We feel dis- gusted, and a contempt beyond all the powers of expression, at fi kingly wretch, who could so transform a religion of mildness, THE TONGUE OF TIME. 39" purity and benevolence, as to make it the engine of bonds, im- prisonment, chains, torture, and the faggot. We are told that some of the ruthless ancients, not very justly called Fathers, struck out of the Bible that passage, Jesus wept ; they thinking, as appears by the testimony of Epiphanius, that his weeping was a degradation of his character. But it was the very text that ought to have been noticed by such persons as Philip II. ; as denoting for his imitation, a disposition touched vrith human infirmities, merciful, benevolent and forbearing, mild and placable. In all things the very antipodes of PhUip II., that monster of iniquity, is that character which this text designates. It seems doubtful whether the Spaniards derived , from the Moors, the true characteristics of Arabic poetry. The aim of the Arab, was to make a bold and brilliant use of the most gigantic images. Their poetry never aims to express the tender emotions of the heart, but the most ardent passion, emotion, and hyperbole of the soul. Hence the very best poets that Europe ever produced, from Homer to Byron, would not be esteemed worth translating by them. They are all too tame — too smooth, and in their view, quite insipid and timid. By what a Tartarian monster such cruelty ought to be punish- ed, as was that of Nero and Philip II., we will introduce a few couplets, of what may be deemed the Arabic description. THE SERPENT OP HELL. A fiery serpent with a red hot tongue, And blue-flame breath, his boiling poison flung, A thousand feet his leng^, twice two his tails. Like red-hot pitchforks sharp ; his teeth red nails ; Brimstone bis food, of boiling pitch he drank. He darts aloft, or coils into a bank; His flaming breath, blows white the red-hot coals, And whirlwind sparks, fly high, when he unrolls : All his delight to torture damned souls. On Nero now his flaming breath is spent. Through Philip's head his red-hot tongue is sent, While with his tails, all hell with wonder sees. Their bodies thrown, high as the highest trees. A Spanish lady of fashion, was surprised by her lover, with another lover ; and to his furious reproaches, shje calmly answer- 40 THE TONGUE OP TIME. ed, that she was persuaded that he did not love her, since he beheved his own eyes in preference to her word. It would seem that the Roman Catholic laity, although they so highly reverence their priests, are not entirely blind to their luxu"- ry, laziness, and sensuality. One of the Spanish writers says of them, that to live pleasantly, to buy good fish, the whitest bread', and the finest wine, is their object, the whole year round. And he adds, God willing, I would be of this order, if I could pur- chase my salvation at this price. Another says of them, that he held Saint Peter, and Saint An- drew, to have been egregious fools, for suifering so many torments for the sake of God, since all these people also are to be saved, meaning the clergy of the Romanists, of his time. Love, and a nice sense of honor were the leading characteris- tics of Arabian manners, which the Moors introduced into Spain. They regarded the habitation of their wives as a sanctuary, and any reflection cast upon their females, as blasphemy. O ! I must write to you my dear upon asbestos : my sighs, and tears, and flaming breath of love, would destroy paper, like a blaze of the hottest fire. Mr. Burke said, that there could be no virtue where there was no wisdom. Were this rule applied to love-letters, they would be condemned as without the limits of wisdom and virtue ; they generally being most insufferably nonsensical, in the opinion of all, except those for whom they are designed. The romances, and poetry, and novels of Europeans and Amer- icans, must keep within the limits of some kind of probability, although they are pictures of what might have been true, rather than truth itself. But Arabian stories, as in the Arabian Nights, keep not within any such bounds. A tale, which does not astonish, surprise and confound, and which does not set at defiance all sober calculation, and rational theory, is with that imaginative people, dull, lifeless, and unwor- thy of notice. A kill-sky salutation, a thunder-tongued speech, and an Ossa on Pelion description, alone have charms for them. All the east partakes of this inflated taste. A Turkish paper tells that, " a soul-animating rose-bush, bud and blossom yielding, THE TONGUE OP TIME. 41 in the happy imperial rose-garden, has exhibited, signs of vegeta- tion ;" by which it is understood that the Sultan is expecting an addition to his family. They loved to hear of flying against tornadoes, of breasting floods, fires, furies and fears, and of scaling the towering Ararat. The Turkish Sultan, when the French under Buonaparte, in- vaded Egypt, called upon all true believers, to take arms against those swinish infidels, the French, that they might' deliver their blessed habitations from their accursed hands. § 20. The Sultan holds a feast upon a curious occasion every year. It is on the 17th of May, and is celebrated at the Sweet Springs. It is on account of the cattle being turned to green pasture at that time of year. A pleasant feast, at a pleasant place, and for a pleasant cause. The beginning of a letter lies before me' to the Grand Sultan, which is a fair sample of eastern style ; it is thus : — My Sublime, Magnanimous, Awe-inspiring Mighty Great Sovereign, our bene- factor and the benefactor of all mankind ; may God grant to your sublimity a life without end.* An Arab- describing a giant. — ^A giant stood behind the highest pyramid of Egypt, looking over its top, towards the river. He had been to the city of Alexander, and came from- the almost springs of the river Nile. His shoes were of wood ; they had formerly been two large canoes ; he had one of them on each foot, which it completely fitted and filled. His walking cane was the mast of a seventy-four gun ship, which he had hauled on shore from the harbor of Alexandria, and th«n pulled out. His course from the pyramid, was towards the Kile, which he seemed inclined to cross. I doubted whether he would wade, or swim, or sail the river; but he did neither; he jumped over from the eastern to the western shore, at a single bound, but split his shoes by the leap. A blazing fire, made of human bodies, of dried, well seasoned mummies, from the catacombs of Egypt, warms the Arab by night, and the milk of his mare, sustains him by day. * From Ibrahim Bey, Pasha of Egypt. 42 THE TONGUE OF TIME. § 21. Mr. Warburton,* speaks of the Egyptians as having animalized the asterisms. But the aborigines of America, had clone the same before the continent was discovered. The con- stellation of the Great Bear, bore the same name in the Indian language, as that of great hear in English. " The very silliest things in life, Create the most material strife." The world is, in this respect, in modern, as it was in ancient times. Mr. Hume observes, " what can be imagined more trivial than the difference between one color of livery and another, in horse races ? yet this difference begat two most inveterate factions in the Greek empire, the Pkasina and Veneti, who never sus- pended their animosities till they ruined that unhappy govern- ment."f Lope de Vega, would confine all rules of art under six locks and keys, when he was about to write a play, before he began a line of it. But poets, and authorities, and judges, and all sorts of people, may, like the Spaniard, defy and deny all rules occa- sionally, and thus gain more credit from those who pay, that is, the vulgar, than by observing them ; and more applause from those who applaud, that is, fools. One of Lope de Vega's characters, Tello, says that his father, when he died, gave particular directions for one of his hands to be left out of the grave, that he might be able to receive, what any one was disposed to give him. The horse of the Arab knows his master as well as the dog of the Frank, and is attached to him as affectionately. We keep in view the Arab and Spaniard, as having many things in common, as to customs and literature. We were told not many years ago, and for aught that we know, it may be the case now, that the Spanish popular preachers, adorned their ser- mons, or rather speeches, with images drawn from the ancient mythqlogy. And that they would not have thought that they had much success in their vocation, unless they had been qheered with repeated bursts of laughter. Jests, a play on words, and * Divine Legation, b. iv. s. 4. tSeept. ! Ess. 8. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 43 scandalizing episodes, with a romantic sporting style, were char- acteristics of the pulpit, as well as of the play-house. And even blasphemous expressions were sometimes used, and afterwards explained away by their clergy. We have been present at religious assemblies, in which violent bursts of grief, instead of laughter, were considered by the speaker, as a token of his success. This excessive anxiety to rarify the passions, is of Arabic origin. It was most apparent in Spain, and there it was directly derived from the Moors. But it had spread into other kingdoms, and was arrested in England, by the Puritans and Presbyterians ; who with a view to check the abuses apparent in external religion, endeavored to deprive it of all worldly colors and colorings, and to fix its basis on the heart and understanding alone. A sober, sad, unyielding demeanor, which was not altered by either joy or grief, blessings or judg- ments, mercies or afflictions, luck good or bad, jests or dirges, was a mark of puritanism. A Chinese, who knew nothing of Christians, should he visit Europe, and have a Bible put into his hands, which had been translated into his own language, would have no idea that the Spanish priests were Christian ministers, by their sermons, nor the Puritans a Christian people, by their looks. The extremity of puritanism was reached by the Quakers, who abjured all external religipn, except as evidenced by a religious life and conduct. Hence they seldom preached ; they prayed in secret, or mentally, and never sang at all. The pure principles of equality, were advocated by them : (hence they had neither bishops, priests, ministers, elders, nor .deacons. In civil government, they would have no governors. They even carried these principles of equal rights, so far as to extend them to inanimate objects, and would, at one time, have none of their books printed, with any capital letters in them !* To the house of Bourbon, M. Sismondi awards the credit of abolishing the burning of heretics in Spain. The last Auto de fe, was in the time of Charles II. * London daarterly Review. 44 THE TONGUE OP TIME. A rich imagination, with a whimsical style, is a mark of Span- ish writers, and this, one of their own poets might have had in view, when he wrote the following lines : " Let every candidate for fame, Rely upon this wholesome rule, Your work is bad, if wise men blame, But worse, if lauded by a fool !" 'After all, it cannot be denied but that the style of many parts of the Bible is highly figurative, and that all the eastern nations retain to this day, some resemblance in their style, to that which is found in the sacred writings. It has been thought strange, that the most western nations of Europe, should have had more resemblance to the Asiatics, than any other part of it. But the solution is to be found in the con- sideration, that this part of Europe, lies nearest to Africa, the northern coasts of which derived its inhabitants from Asia — to the Moors once having been in possession of Spain, and to the Por- tuguese having first doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and visited India in their voyages. The East Indies were first visited by the Portuguese, as were the West Indies by the Spaniards. . To the inhabitants of the Peninsula, we must therefore award the credit of having discovered new countries, or countries before unknown to Europe, and of having invented new and noble ideas in their writings. To the English, and to their descendants, the palm must, however, be awarded, for their immense improvements in each — improvements which would have never been made by their original discoverers. Much that is done in all Roman Catholic countries, is rather to be gazed at than admired. § 22. Alfonso I. of Portugal, is supposed to haye been the founder of that kingdom. He had for his arms, five escutcheons ranged in form of a cross, on which were represented the thirty pieces of silver, the price for which Jesus was betrayed. The city of Lisbon, if the Portuguese are to be believed, was founded by Ulysses, THB TONGUE OF TIME. 45 A trait of the Poituguese literature is the bringing of rehgious pl^ys tipon the stage. At one period they made St Anthony, their patron-saint, Genera] issiijio of their armies, but the church, in his-name, received the pay for his miUtary services. The warring world, has presented the road to heaven, black with clotted, and red with gushing blood, and never were specta- cles of horror more apparent than in those wars undertaken pure- ly for tlie sake of religion. Whoever casts his eyes upon the pages of history, as they relate to the wars of the Saracens, which were undertaken to establish Mahometanism, and to the crusades, cannot fail to find out this. § 23. The crusades, when their objects are considered, can- not but strike the mind, and thrill the heart, and accelerate the pulse, and raise the soul, to sublime emotions. They were holy wars, whose aim was to rescue a holy land, a holy city, a holy sepulchre, from the hands of infidels — a region where the holy prophets had dwelt and had prophesied : where the holy people had fought the Philistine, the Assyrian, and the Jebusite^a city where the throne of the Lord had been established on earth — a city of our Go.d below-^a. city to which the child Jesus had been carried, in order to be presented to the Lord — a city where Isaiah had prophesied ; where David had reigned and written, and where Solomon had recorded the never ending words of wisdom, and had erected a temple for the residence of the Divinity. How.rich the recollections — how redolent the rehearsal; — how fruitful of food to the feelings of eveiy thing connected with our religion ! A region in its associations most lovely — the loveliest of the love- ly ; and yet in its reversal of events, most austere and terrible : fi)r in this same city, one milUon, one hundred thousand of the chosen people perished, by the Roman armies, under Vespasian and Titus, or rather by their own suicidal superstition ; those humane Emperors, not wishing to destroy either the city or the citizens, had they" not been compelled by the wicked obstinacy of the Jewish leaders. The inhabitants were reduced to such extremity by famine, that the young nursing npiother's breasts aiforded nothing but 46 THE TONGUE OP TIME. blood for her infant's support ; which offspring of her own, she was at last constrained by hunger to kill and to eat. It is not wonderful that a land producing such vast and varied events, should have a language of interjections. When Asia is visited, the garden of Eden is approached : when at Jerusalem, the river Jordan, and Galilee, and the lake Genneseret, Caperna- um, Chorazin, Bethsaida, the mount of Olives, and mount Cal- vary are approximated — names of places which preach sermons by their bare mention, as the mention of Egypt, and Babylon, and Jericho, place historical volumes before our eyes. The Saracens considered the voice of heaven, through its prophet Mahomet, and its word in the Koran, to have pointed out the only pathway of salvation for their souls, in the subjugation of the world to the tenets of Islamism ; and that every one who fell fighting in a cause so glorious, was sure of eternal glory ; whilst the Crusaders believed that the honor of the only true reli- gion was sullied, by the theatre upon which its founder was bom and crucified, baptized, preached, and wrought miracles, being in the possession of unbelievers. Each party believed itself the worshippers of the true God; and each party had many prodigies to adduce, as having been performed by heaven's hand in its own favor. That the king of heaven was on their own side, each party was fully persuaded ; and that He did not give them the entire and total victory, was imputed to the agency of demons and evil spirits, who opposed the will of heaven, and caused success to sometimes lean towards their enemies. The Crusaders imagined that they were combatting the powers of hell in incarnate forms, when they fought the Saracens ; and both parties, at that period of time, supposed that a war was waged between spirits, good and bad, just as on earth betvrixt armies and nations. The dark and dreadful powers of enchantment, had much to do against the knights, and Godfrey and Baldwin, the leaders of the Christians, in the crusades. § 24. The manners and customs of eastern nations never change. Modern travellers discover features of character among xaiu ruxMuuiii \jr xuniii. 47 the present inhabitants, which serve to throw light upon some things mentioned in the Bible. The inhabitants of Spain, and Portugal, having their national characters based upon eastern models, likewise retsiin their enduring propensities. The reformation altered the religious nationality of those countries which adopted it ; but prior to that period, Europe jn her other kingdoms, was much as is the Peninsula now. We have referred to the burlesque, introduced into the sermons of the Spanish priests ; but Dr. Robertson, in his Life of Charles V., mentions the same thing in regard to Luther himself; of whose cotemporEiries he says, " nor were they offended at the gross scurrility with which his polemical writings are filled, or at the low buifoonery which he sometimes introduces into his gravest discourses." And he adds, that " no dispute was managed in those rude times without a large portion of the former ; and that the latter was common even on the most solemn occasions, and in treating the most sacred subjects."* Nothing is more probable than that Mahomet, when he affirm- ed that Moses and Jesus gave true revelations at first, but that they were lost, founded this opinion upon the conduct, and mode of worship, which he had learned that the Christians had adopted in his day. It is not on the whole, very probable, that he ever learned any thing directly from the Bible, or ever saw one at all. Printing was then unknown, and copies of the Scriptures very scarce, and very dear. The whole Christian world was then Papistical, for even the Greek church, which was the earliest seceder from the Roman, did not leave the holy mother until about two hundred years after Mahomet. With the greatest reason imaginable, might he then conclude, that true and genuine revelation was unknown, when he beheld, or heard of the enormities of that world denominated Christian, in the dark ages of the Romish church ; a period when monkish superstition was combined with heathenish idolatry. The Visi- goths had overrun Spain. There was, or had lately been a civil war in France. The Jews at Antioch, had revolted and murdered the Christians. The Sclavonians and Avari, had lately ravaged * See Vol. II. p. 159. 48 THE TONGITE OP TIME. Italy ; and the Persians had taken Jerusalem, and carried off the cross of Christ. The Jews, whom foreign nations confounded with the Chris- tians, were about the same period, banished from both France and Spain. The barbarians at Rome, had done away the ver- nacular use of the Latin language ; and the power of the Popes had lately begun or been increased in the same city. There is no proof that Mahomet understood either Greek or Hebrew, and therefore, if he could have obtained a copy of the Bible, he could not have read it ; for it never was translated into Arabic, till more than eight hundred years after Mahomet. Had the prophet of Mecca lived in the time of Luther, and had he understood the Bible as well, he might have embraced ' Christianity, and been an able promulgator of the true faith ; the moral precepts which he has given in the Koran, being many of them very similar to those contained in the 'New Testament, as before observed. But the greatest wonder, enigma, and problem, is from whence the Koran was derived ; it being superior in the fplendor of its composition, and sublimity of its ideas, to any thing known to have been composed in the seventh century, in any part of the world. Christian, Pagan, or Mahomedan. This no one will deny. We find the same elevated sentiments respecting the Deity, which Cicero, Plato, and even which the Bible itself ex- presses, in the Psalms ; and the same moral rules respecting an- ger, the forgiveness of injuries, and giving to the poor, which are found in that greatest of all sermons, the sermon on the mount. But after noticing these things, and examining the evidence respecting Mahomet's ever having had the Bible, or ever having received any oral assistance, the external evidence is lacking, and the internal evidence strongly against it ; for in the first place, let it bp considered, that the Bible, in those days, what few volumes of it was in the world, was not in the hands of the common peo- ple, but that, it was sedulously kept from them by the Popes. Secondly, that there were no Arabic Bibles, in the world at all. Thirdly, those parts of the Bible to which the Koran bears so near a resemblance, are such parts of it as have been approached to, the nearest, by a few wise Greeks and Romans, by Seneca, THE TONGUE OF TIME. 49 and the Chinese ; and are just such parts of the sacred writings as vagabond Jews and monks, would be least likely to retain, and to communicate. They are passages too sublime for the vulgar, or the vagabond, and no others, who had any knowledge of the Scriptures, are even pretended to have conveyed any oral know- ledge of them to Mahomet. Sergius, a monk, is mentioned as an assistant in the composi- tion of the Koran. There is no kind of authority for so saying, and if there was, the internal marks of Xbe Koran would go to prove that he could have been nothing more than an amanuensis, a, thing not very probable for a foreigner. There is nothing of monkish superstition in the Koran. § 25. The Great Author of the Christian system, said of him- self, that he was the light thablighteth the world. That the light that he introduced into the world, should have 'shone into Arabia — that it should have illuminated parts of the world wh6re the written word had not been sent, nor Gospel preachers ever reach- ed, is the position, in regard to the ttiatter, which we assume, in this sui g'ereem instance. Consonant is~this,to the cessation of oracles in the world, since his advent, and the miracles of healing performed by Vespasian, as related by Josephus. From the Rev. Mr. Buck's Theological Dictionary, we will in- troduce some extracts from the Koran, in proof of what we have said. " God ! there is no God but he ; the living, the self-subsisting ; neither slumber nor sleep seizeth him ; to him belongeth whatso- ever is in heaven and on earth. Who is he that can intercede with him but through his good pleasure 1 He knoweth that which is past, and that which is to come. His throne is extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation of both is to him no burden. He is the hi^, the mighty."* This passage of the Koran is said to be engraved on the orna- ments, recited in the prayers, and much admired by the Mussul- men. Relating to moral duties, we have the following precepts : — " show mercy, do good to all, and dispute not with the ignorant." * Sale's Koran, Vol. II. p. 30— Theological Dictionary. 5* 50 THE TONGUE OF TIME. " Seek him who turns thee out ; give to him who takes from thee; pardon him who injures thee ; for God will h^ve you plant in your souls the roots of his chief perfections."* ^s an instance of their precepts, reduced to practice, and as evincive of the knowledge of the Koran, even among Mahome- tan slaves, we give the following anecdote. HH^^HHpJSv' mi /^ lis ' IHWLt ^H : hI ^^H^^KT A\A' ■• it ■l^^m,^ £9^ Bp^^Bw^Tr'iriiiWMBBsgs c |^8fc-'^ai=j^j — '^ m The caliph Hassan, son of Hali, being at table, a slave let fall a dish of meat, reeking hot, which scalded him severely. The slave fell on his knees, rehearsing these words of the AUsoran ; " Paradise is for those who restrain their anger." " I am not angry with thee," answered the caliph. " And for those who for- give offences against them," continues the slave. " I forgive thee thine," replies the caliph. " But above all, for those who return good for evil," adds the slave. " I set thee at liberty," rejoined the caliph ; " and I give thee ten dinars."t Could it be proved that sentiments and deeds such as these, were actually derived from our Scriptures, many would hold them in higher estimation ; but as these Mahometans give all the glory to one only true God, the reference is to the same ultimate source to which it belongs. * Buck's Dictionary, Art. Kuran. t Theological Dictionary, by the Rev. Charles Buck. TBE TONOUE OF TIME. 51 We have already uoticed, that the passages of the Koran, ■which bear the greatest analogy to the Bible descriptioH of the Deity, and to its moral precepts, were such as were not exclu- sively found in it. And in proof of this, we will introduce, in- stead of giving our own words, a passage found in the works of an eminent divine. It contains, it is true, admissions which we did not expect to have seen ; but still, they are, in part, undeniably correct. He says, " In reality the necessity of forgiving injuries, though frequently inculcated in the Alkoran, is of later date among the Mahometans than among the Christians ; among those later than among the heathens ; and to be traced originally among the Jews. (See Exodus xxxiii, 4, 5.)" What is incorrect in the above quotation, is, that the Rev. writer sends us to. a part of the Bible for proof that the forgiveness of injuries is a Jewish doctrine, when the place to which he sends us, says not a single word, nor gives a remote hint of any thing of the kind, or any way connected with the subject at all ! We felt but little disap- pointment on this occasion however, when we recollected that it was not a new thing for the Rev. author to treat his readers in this way. His volume abounds with such deceitful references. Indeed, on the present occasion, before examining that part of the Bible to which reference ■ is made, ' we felt a kind of indefinite surprise ; for it came to mind, that the Jewish doctrine was an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, and that this rule was re- ferred to in the Sermon on the Mount, in order to be corrected. As a matter of curiosity, we will here give one of this Rev. author's references. It is in relation to the subject of baptism ; and he says, " That infants are to be received into the church, and as such baptized, is also inferred from the following passages of Scripture." We ate then referred to sundry ■ chapters and verses, none of which mention the s.ubject of infant baptism, and one, which may stand as an example for the remainder, is as fol- lows : "And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multi- tude about them, and the scribes questioning them."* * Mark, ix, 14. Had we not examined other passages, aiid foand them equally irrelevant, we abould have thought that here was some mistake, in the Rev. author's ttereotypt tdition. 52 THE TONGUE OP TIME. § 26. It was a remark of Sir George Lyttleton, that the greatest mischief which can be done to reUgion is to pervert it to the purposes of faction. But we think that equal injury has been suffered by the overdoings of its friends ; especially when they have dared to use dissimulation. The consequences have been direful and extensive from this source, and are apt to so alienate the mind, as to produce in it an incurable malady. We view the Scriptures as of divine origin, and that they will stand the test of scrutiny, and that any attempt to obviate their intricacies, by subterfuge, will do more injury than all that pro- fessed infidels can accomplish. They cheated a man and killed him, said a littl« boy to his father. The father was about to remonstrate, and to inform the child that cheating was not killing. But the child continued his story — that one of his schoolfellows informed him, that several men had combined to make another man believe that they were •drinking gin, when in fact it was only water ; and that the man fell a victim to the imposture,' by continuing to drink as much gin as his companions did of water, till he killed himself. Thus cheating turned out to be killing the body, and we fear has some- times killed the soul. There is no way of obtaining a correct view of things, but by ascending to an eminence, to a height, so high that objects may be viewed and reviewed in their true attitudes; We are sometimes bedazzled, and sometimes bewildered, by comments and commentators. Chateaubriand tells of his sleeping upon the banks of the river Eurotas, with his saddle for a pillow, where the light of the milky way was so great that he could see to read by it. But what was his star-light ? To what did the illumination of these common people of the skies amount, when their king, the sun, appeared among them ? There is much of this night-light in the world, which depends upon darkness for its existence, and vanishes when day-light appears. It is not the number, but the magnitude of things which is glorious and admirable. One star may differ from another star in glory, but no star can compare with the sun. But here, how- ever, the moral and physical worlds are at variance. For although THE TONGUE OP TIME. 53 all the stars of heaven combined cannot make one great Inmina- ry, yet all the people of the earth combined can make a great man. Great men, and great authors, owe their celebrity to great com- binations of the common people in their favor. It is the commu- nity, the majority, which makes, or unmakes a man. The tongue OF TIME decides correctly, but is slow of utterance, so that a man is often laid low in his grave, before his reputation is raised high among the living. Dr. Harvey, and Mr. Milton, and even Shaks- peare himself, may be noticed as instances. Dr. Harvey who made thp greatest anatomical, physiological, and medical discove- ry which the world has ever known, by demonstrating the circu- lation of the blood, instead of being benefited, was injured in his practice by it, so long as he lived. And Milton's Paradise Lost, afforded him neither fame nor money during his life. Shaks- peare, the great poet of nature, whose works seem likely to endure as long as the English language lasts, had some dawn- ings of royal patronage from Queen Elizabeth, but they were evanescent and illiberal. Those rapturous acclamations, which England, France, Ger- many, with the other kingdoms of Europe, and America, have awarded to his productions, have only been uttered since death had put him past hearing them, or of them. On the subject of reputation, a quaint old author speaks to this effect : — That the good or bad repute of men, in a great measure depends on mean people, who carry their stories from family to family, and propagate them very fast. And he then goes on to illustrate his subject, by a reference to little insects, which the smaller they be, the faster they multiply. Perhaps upon a thorough examination, it will turn out to be a fact, that those who have risen the very highest in reputation, have paid the least attention to those whose tongues have been employed to deprive them of any credit at all. Who have follow- ed the advice of Epictetus, which was, that when any one was told that another had spoken ill of him, to make no apology, but only to answer, that if he had not been ignorant of many other faults, which you had committed, he might have increased the catalogue. We know that this passes with many for apathy and 54 THE TONGUE OF TIME. meanness of spirit ; but old Chaucer says, Think not on smart, and thou shalt fele none, § 27, We are told in the Spectator, of a lady who never missed one constant hour of prayer, but yet who spent six or eight hours of the twenty-four at cards. When her hour of prayer arrived, she gave her cards to another person to hold, during her absence. And when her devotions were over, she returned to her game, as the writer expresses it, with no little anxiousness* Such an anecdote sounds much worse than it in reality ought perhaps to do, there being no passage in the Bible prohibiting the amusement of cards. And experience seems to have established the fact, that light hearts beat the longest. Human nature is so constituted, that it requires, and will have, some hours of recrea- tion. This lady's spending so much of her time at cards, we < would not attempt to justify. But one thing at least was com- mendable — ^which was, that she did not suffer any thing to inter- fere with her hours of prayer. That puritanical principle, which would annihilate the bright orb of day, and blot out the stars from the firmament, and make all creation one incessant period of gloomy darkness, is not authorised by the Great Author of nature. He made the feathered songsters with an appetency to spend a gre9,t part of their time in leisure and singing. And so far as the sources of heavenly bliss are revealed, they are to consist in carol- ing unceasing praises, in a place fitted for exquisite and rapturous enjoyment. If then the joys of heaven are to be begun on earth, they can- not be made to consist of gloomy misanthropy, nor in a sullen renunciation of every pleasure and amusement. Besides, the example of him, whose example was of para- mount authority, whilst on earth, did not sanction the creed of gloomy worshippers, who disfigure their faces. And we find him giving directions to one of the chief Pharisees, at whose house he was at meat, who were the proper persons to be invited to his feasts — and to the company generally, how they were to behave, when bidden to a wedding. And it was, when he himself wa* * Sper>>itor, No. 7 THE TONGUE OP TIME. 65 one of the guests at the latter, tliat his first miracle was wrought. There is a most unlicensed latitude taken in the intenpretation and application of the Scriptures. Sectarians explain away, and in reality render null and void, such texts as do not happen to suit their own particuletr creeds. We have been horror-struck at the latitude of some of thdr per- versions of Scripture. Indeed, we can produce the books of Christian writers, and of Christian ministers, in which express and explicit passages of the Bible are denied to mean what they assert and purport, even when there is no pretension that they were spoken as parables — whilst other texts are made to mean what they do not say, nor even give any intimation of whatever. Obscure and difficult scrip- tures are plain to such writers, whilst those that are plain, are made dark, or of no meaning at all. And in one instance, at least, we could point to a certain text, which the sectarian writer finding so much in his way that he could not remove it, has treated with sneers and downright ridicule. Every part of Scripture is not equally plain, and it is our method, to regard the literal expressions as conveying the true meaning, where no metaphor, hyperbole, similitude, nor parable is used. But there are certain sects who incline to make a Bible for themselves, and to unmake that which is made for them. Those acquainted with the matter need not be told, that some parts of the Gospel itself, are never quoted by some sectarians, nor any weight given to them, whilst others seem to regard such neglected texts, as containing all that is necessary to be known, taught, or studied, and as a substitute for the whole of divine revelation. But Milton tells of those who will do almost any thing, if they do not smell within themselves the brimstone of hell. § 28. We find now and then, in scattered and detached frag- ments, and at great distances apart, those things which most we wish to know. Ministers are men, and like other men, reluctantly speak of knotty points ; and when we come to one of them who is eminent 56 THE TONGUE OF TIME. in his profession, and who speaks npon intricate sul^ects, we Hs- ten to him with much interest. We will notice some of these. " It is well worth remarking upon this place, that the promise, ye shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israd, was made to the Apostles, at that time when Judas was yet one of the number ; and consequently, the promise was as much made to him as to any of the rest : fropa whence if follows unde- niably, that he was not predestinated to be a traitor, but fell from his apostleship, and from his right to this promise, by his after voluntary transgression."* This writer appears to us to have spoken as sensibly in senti- ment, and as soundly in doctrine, as any one that we have read, upon this point. The apocryphal books, so deemed by protest- ants, are considered canonical by papists. Mr. Burke, speaking upon the book of Ecclesiasticus, says that he does not determine whether it be canonical, but of this he is sure, that " it contains a great deal of sound sense and truth."t " The Mosaic law was intended for a single people only, who were to be shut in as it were, from the rest of the world, by a fence of legal rites and typical ceremonies ; and to be kept by that means separate and unmixed, until the great antitype, the Messiah, should appear, and break down this fence, and lay open this inclosure."! Of the resurrection, it has been said, that Job believed that the soul slept with the body until the resurrection. This was the ^ Egyptian opinion. The mention of any resurrection at all, is no where so explicitly made in the Old Testament, as by Job. The New Testament teaches that a general day of judgment is to be held, at the end of the world, when the solemn decision is to he iriade, where, and to which region, every individual is to be as- signed. But in the interval, the space between death, and the period when this ultimate determination and final award is to take place, the state and location of the soul, seems to stand without any ei- * Clarke, Vol. 11. Ser. 138. Richardson's Dictionary, Art, Apostle, + Burjceptj the French Revolution. X Atterbury, Vol. I. Ser. 4. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 57 plicit mention. Nor do we know the general opinion of divines upon this point. In our commpn-place book, we notice the following extract, in which the eminent writer refers or tells what others believed ; but without at last giving any very definite opinion, that we discover, of his own. He tells us, that " the fathers believed that they who die in the Lord, rest from their labors, and are in blessed places, and have antepasts of joy and comforts ; yet in those places they are reserved unto the judgment of the great day."* Tyndal, in his Worke, tells of " sophisters with an anthemi of half an inch, out of which some of them draw a thread of nine days long." We do not wish quite so protracted a discourse upon the present subject, but should have been better satisfied, if Bish- op Taylor had given us his own ideas, instead of those of the fathers only. A divine with whom we was lately in company, expressed his own view, which was, that the soul remained in the same state, as it is, when during life, a person sleeps. He was of the Baptist denomination. There have been some very sensible men, who believed in im- pressions, and premonitions of future events ; and the great wit of England, would appear to have been one of those. ' He says, " why hath not my soul these apprehensions, these presages, these changes, those antedates, those jealousies, those suspicions of a sin, as well as my body of a sickness."! Angels, which were called in Saxon, God's errand ghosts, the heathen philosophers are supposed by Bishop Bull, to have ac- knowledged the existence of, although they called them by other names, such as demons, genii, or the like.f We'learn that the ancient Hebrews styled the resurrection of the body, the angelical clothing of the soul.§ We read, in one and the same chapter, of an angel having smote Peter on the side, and liberated him from prison ; and of an angel having smote Herod so that he died. ^ Bishop Taylor. Dissuasive from Popery, p. iv. part ii, sec. 2. ^ + Dr. Donne. Devotions, t Bishop Bull, Vol. I. ser. 2. § See Cudworth's Intellectual System, p. 797. 6 58 THE TONGUE OP TIME. It seems to have been the idea entertained by the people, who lived in those times, that every person had his guardian angel, which not only represented him in person, but also in voice ; for when Peter, after his release from prison, knocked at the gate, the damsel inside, knew him by his voice, and instead of opening it, ran in and told the people of the house. These disbelieved her. And when she constantly affirmed that it was Peter, al- though she had not, as it appears, seen him, and only knew that it was he by his voice, they said it is his angel. It would seem that Peter's knocking was accompanied with his hailing or hallooing ; as we are told, that Rhoda, the damsel, came to hearken. This hearkening must have been for the pur- pose of learning who the person was th?it wished admittance. To Aear, and not to wait to hearken, is usually thought sufficient, when any one knocks ; sufficient, we mean, for those within to open the door, or to bid the person to walk in, and thus to give him 'the liberty to open the door for himself. • But the custom of the times when the Acts were written, appears to have been for the person wishing admittance, to announce himself at the ^ate or door, or door of the gate, before it was opened. Angelic agency, good and evil, seem distinctly portrayed, by the liberation of Peter from prison, and the knocking off of his chains, arid by the killing of Herod. A German divine, to whom Adam Clarke refers, would ascribe the deliverance of Peter, to the friendship of the jailer, or prefect of the prison, and thus deny any supernatural interposition. German infidelity has become almost proverbial, and Dr. Clarke thinks this poor divine, an ob- ject of pity. § 28. It would seem, that the Persian Magi, in their Arima- nius, and the Egyptians, in their Typhon, personated evil, or evil angels only. And it is said of the Greeks, that they did, at one period of their history, like the Indians of America, sacrifice to evil demons. Typhon, was the son of Tartarus and Terra, or of earth and hell ; a giant, with a hundred heads, resembhng those of a dragon, or serpent. Flames of devouring fire, are said to have darted from his mouth and eyes. He was no sooner born than he waged THE TONGUE OF TIME. 59 war against heaven and its gods, and so frightened them, that they assumed the shapes of various brute animals, in order to conceal themselves from his fury. Typhon was regarded by the Egyptians, as the source of every evil, and in consequence, repre- sented as a wolf, or a crocodile. He was at last put past doing harm by the father of the gods, who crushed him under mount ^tna. If any monster more anomalous, can be produced from the re- cords of antiquity, it must be that of a serpent, with a head at each extreme. The dragon or winged serpent, comes next, who when called the fiery dragon, stands for satan himself. Last of all comes the atheist, who has got ahead of the whole in ab- surdity. § 29. The iron gate, having opened to Peter of its own accord, is, we believe, an anomaly. We must call to mind the ideas of the Jews, and the notions of the ancients, upou Tiifis point. They supposed that spirits occasionally located themselves in particular inanimate objects. No doubt the writer meant to be understood, and was understood by those of his day, as conveying nothing but what was well comprehended and acknowledged ; that is, that a spirit or angelic essence, was for the time, and for the pur- pose, the inhabitant of the iron gate, and that it was opened by his potency. The aocount given of the death of Herod in Josephus, has been supposed by commentators, to differ very essentially froin that given in the Acts. § 30. Josephus gives several particulars, which are not con- tained in the book of the Acts. But perhaps a person sufficient- ly well informed respecting the Customs and opinions of the an- cients, and who had sufficient talents and ingenuity of his own, might be able to reconcile the seeming discrepancies. It appears from both accounts, that the death of Herod Agrip- pa, took place at Cesarea, whither he went as Josephus relates, and exhibited shows and games, in honor of Claudius, making vows for his health. Oti the second day of these games, Herod appeared in the theatre, arrayed in a garment made wholly of 60 THE TONGUE OF TIME. silver, and of a contexture truly "wonderful. The rays of the morning sun, falling upon this splendid garment, shone out in a surprising manner, which struck the beholders with awe and horror. He was then saluted as a god by his flatterers, and his mercy implored by them. This impious flattery was not rebuked by the king ; at which time, happening to look upwards, Herod saw an owl perched on a certain rope, over his head. This bird of ill omen, he conceived to be a messenger of evil tidings to himself. This produced in him, as the historian expresses it, the deepest sorrow ; and he adds, that a severe pain arose in his bowels, and that he died after five, days severe illfless.* That violent mental agitation will affect the bodily organs, is known to every physician. Despondency, depression of spirits, grief and sorrow, sometimes amount to that most aflSicting dis- ease, hypochondriacism, accompanied with melancholy anddys- pepsy, and sometimes despair. We think that we have known th'.? -Stdte Cf niindjo^auectthe^ioweli^ unfavorably, and—perhaps in a few instances, fatally. The sight of the owl, therefore, which seems to have been the immediate exciting cause of Her- od's sorrow and perturbation, might have been considered as. an evil angel itself, or the habitation of one ; as the opening of one of the iron gates of the city, of its own accord, was no doubt meant to convey the meaning of a benevolent invisible agent. The Jews had the most technical religion that ever existed in the known world. It was made up of ceremonies, and.rites, and ordinances, of which they w«re extremely tenacious. Most events were by them referred to special and particular providences, to the immediate interposition of the Divinity himself, or to the agency of his messengers or angels. Angel, in the original, meaning nothing but a messenger. The inquiry naturally arises in the mind, by what power a general providence was carried on, whilst a special providence was counteracting it ? This religion of ceremonies, of circumcision, of feasts, fasts, of years of Jubilee, and of days set apart for special purposes, was succeeded by one, which as Paley observes, contains le^ * See Whiston's Josephua. Ant. lib. xix. cap, 8. sec. 2, We have abridg- ed his account. THE TONGUE OF TIME, 61 of ritual, than any other that ever prevailed amongst man- kind. ^ That the efforts of inanimate matter made itself a worm, and that this worm by its own striving, made itself limbs, and thus, that matter itself, without any agency, divine or intelligent, be- came animals, with all their various functions, symmetry and ability, is an atheistical notion, as unconsonant with facts as vrtth philosophy and experience. For how, it may be asked, should this struggle after utility and usefulness, ever have ended in such a multiplicity of rites as had the Jews, or such a conlplicated my- thology as had the heathen, both of which had usages not in- stinctive nor pleasurable, but on the contrary, extremely burden- some. Besides, how should this striving of a worm after useful limbs, and pleasurable sensations, ever have ended in the structure of a human body, which is visited with pain and sickness, and mental maladies, and liable to death 1 Yes, why should, anima) organization be deranged by pain, and dissolved by death, when matter itself, by man, cannot be annihilated at all 1 If man was formed from the appetency of matter, and from the "covetings, desirings, and longings of the worm, to become a more perfectly organized creature, why did not this perpetual en- deavor, this imperceptible exertion, this effort of incalculable ages, render his organized existence, Equally durable, if not eter- nal ? for surely, the aversion to death is the greatest of all aver- sions, known either to man or beast. If matter had the plastic power of forming itself into man, it surely would have had the ability to have continued him in exist- ence, so long as he pleased to live. And we are surprised to find that this idea has not struck the minds of those who have dared to promulgate atheistical absurdities, as well as of those who have written in order to refute them. A writer of this stamp even goes so far with his materialism, as to maintain the opinion that ideas are material things ; whilst Bishop B'^rkeley, dissents to materialism so entirely, as to assert that there is no such thing as matter in the universe ! If both opinions are not equally heretical, which we believe, they are equally preposterous ; although the Bishop's notion is the easiest 6* 62 THE TONGUE OF TIME. to confute, it being such an absurdity as every dog can bark away. Archbishop Tillotson observed, thatthe gravest and wisest per- son in the world, might be abused by being put into a fool's coat. Berkeley, appears to us to have arrayed himself in such a gar- ment of his own accord. It is one thing to make an idea clear, and another to make it pathetic, elevaited or us,eful ; but a notion that is apparently absurd, and neither sublime, nor beautiful, nor beneficial, is not worth preserving, nor scarce confuting. It is worse than useless to ad- duce Bishop Berkeley's theory against the materialists, because it is immensely more absurd than any thing they ever advanced. § 31. We view our own religion to be of such an elevated and pure character, its principles so immeasurably transcending all others, as to need none of those little evasions and artifices which little commentators and sermonizers are prone to use. The only way to insure justice to ourselves, is to do it to others. Let not Roman Catholics, nor even Mahometans, be deprived of all that their systems can honestly claim ; and when this is allow- ed them, they will look with more complacency, upon that pure and glorious stream which is ultimately ordained to water the be- nighted regions, and sterile portions of the universe. There is nothing which disgusts so much as to see statements, which we know to be false, made in relation to science and re- ligion. The most excellent and learned commentary upon the Bible, which we ever knew, a friend and acquaintance of ours, dropped and dismissed, and would not read another line of, from finding an uncandid and evasive exposition of the first verse that he looked at. We regretted this, for the reason that we wished our friend and professional brother, to read this excellent work. Still, we must not blame him over much, nor censure him at all, for he holds to the Scriptures, but not to the glasses ; and we have our- selves just thrown down a newspaper, for the reason that we found a misstatement in it. The elevation, the victory of one Christian sect over another, is at most but a partial good, for a universal evil. It is like the TH6 TONGUE OP TIME. 63 elevation of one edge of a falling platform. The occupant of the raised spot, stands higher than his fellows, but the whole platform is falling. Union is the bond, and the only bond of safety. If the world beholds two denominations disagreeing, one party only, may at first stand for a fools, but the final result will invariably be, that the same epithet is bestowed upon both ; and a worse conse- quence wiU in time ensue ; the religion which they diflfered about will suifer. We do not mean to insinuate that it will ever be un- dermined ; but that its spread and progress will be inipeded ; infidels and infidelity will be increased, and the whole system will suffer from the feebleness, or cariosity, or gangre'nous. state of a limb of it. § 32. We seldom hear people ridicule what they call religion, it is some singularity, or supposed heterodoxy, which is always made the pretext. Piety wUl become a subject of raillery when it greatly affects singularity. It is oneof the marks of prudence, not to render itself remarkable. A celebrated writer thought that it was better to be superficial than gloomy. But a lady to whom I read the passage, replied, that it was best to be neither superficial nor gloomy. We sometimes sink info melancholy, without any very evident cause, that even ourselves can discover ; the reason of which is, that the state of the mind depends upon a body, which is subject to vary, and to lose its equilibrium. The clearest sky is liable to be obscured, and the soul like the body has its fogs; The moral world, like the natural, has its April days, in which sunshine and showers quickly alternate. It should be remember- ed, that the Jewish law was founded on fear, but that the new system, is one of glad tidings and love. Those who give their alms, with more humility than the receiv- er accepts them, sow their pathway of life with pearls, which will continue to shine when they have ceased to tread it. Indiscriminate charity does' little good. It is better to make a few families comfortable, than a great number unthankful. Such is our lot in life, that if we have friends, they are liable to be scattered to remote regions, and sad is the hour when we are compelled to bid a dear friend adieu. 64 THE TONGUE OP TIME. Those, books have made most noise in the TCorld, which con- tained more paradoxies than solutions, more conjectures than truths, more raillery than sobriety, more theories than proofs, and more heat than light. Men of sense, have thought those works least meritorious, which have suddenly become most popular. But time corrects the error, and compels the m^ority to think with the wise, and not with the popular. It is sinners who cause joy in heaven, when they repent. It was the brother of the prodigal son, who was condemned in the eyes of religion, for not being properly affected at the return of the prodigal. We ought to be careful to pardon those who are pardoned in heaven. People avoid those who are perpetually preaching. The ser- mons of the Great Head of the church were short, and we find that he was at one time absent from his disciples for the space of eight days, and whither, we have no account. § 33. It is as dangerous to receive indiscriminate advice from doctors for the soul, as from doctors for the body. System, regu- larity and judgment, are requisite in both cases, by inattention to which, sinners may pass their lives in sinning and repenting, and patients in recovering and relapsing. Violent and harsh reme- dies, are equally to be avoided in the one case as in the other ; as are irregularity and sudden vicissitudes. Both must be strict without being severe, and patient without desponding. Obstinate attachments, and blind prejudices, want of confi- dence, looking for efl^cts without causes, breaking rules, and not strictly adhering to .directions, without disclosing the aberration, are equally to be avoided, by the catechumen and the patient. There is no evil that such are not capablie of committing, even with the best intentions, who follow a blind devotion ; or who swallow drugs by their own wayward^ fancies. The physician and the divine, must each of them be cautious in interfering in testaments and marriages ; and neither must show much signs of life, except in: matters relating to his own profession. Only the half learned and half wise, make themselves noted, by their obstinacy, vanity, intermeddling, taciturnity, or garrulity. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 65 Was it to set an example of forbearance towards infidels, that the Saducees, who held that they had no souls, and who neither believed in angels nor spirits, went unreproved, unspoken to, whilst the Pharisees were addressed in a voice of thunder 1 Such was the fact, but the reason is not obvious, and must be left to the reader's own conjecture. We refer the reader to the New- Testament, where he wiU find a woe against Scribes and Pharisees, but none against the Saducees. It has been said, and the saying emanated from high authority, that a sick man who has lived a life of adversity, supports pain and disease immeasurably better than the rich man who has lived in affluence. But our own experience has led us to doubt this. Poor people are not educated so well as the rich. And that for- titude and deference, that resignation and heroism, which result from a thorough education, are conspicuous in sickness, as well as in war, and the other trials of Ufe. Besides this, those who' are favored with but ffew^ersonal comlbxiw, hold on to Trhat they have, with a firm grasp. A mind at ease, fearless of the event, and with confidence in remedies, leads to unexpected recoveries. It has been remarked, that when patients wish for death, that they commonly recover ; and the reason may be, that their minds are not in an anxious state about futurity. The divine and the physician have to sufier the discouraging neglect of the great, the impetuous contradiction of the obstinate and ignorant, as well as the undeserved reproaches of the un- reasonable. Those who despise science and education, are such as are too idle to cultivate them, or whose abilities are too mean to reach them, or whose self-conceit pufis them up above them. § 34. Popularity is not so apt to be acquired by an acquaint- ance with dead languages, as with living manners. The popu- larity of some men rises, in proportion as the contents of their beer barrels sink. And some work themselves out of obscurity, as the frogs crawleddnto Pharaoh's palace, without any one being able to tell how they got there. WJ THE TONGUE OF TIME. There are some men, if they can live in notoriety, are contented to live in turmoil, like the vexed spirits of the deep, which as they emerge from the sediment of the sea, -delight to whirl in the foam which they raise on its surface. There are some rough-hewn beings, who spend a long life in accumulating riches, by ways and means, and modes of living, and habits of acting, that men of feeling would not endure a single hour for all that they are worth. But what some one said of a certain lady, that she was of no particular age, will apply, a little modified, to a vast majority of men, who have no particular characters- — who are the humble servants of the great — unambitious, and unoffending, and un- aspiring in themselves, and who aim at no higher objects than the approbation of the dignified, and a banquet upon their superflui- ties. Like the bees of Sampson, they aspire at no higher object than to make honey in the bowels of a lion.* Nine houses out of ten, are filled with this kind of population, in every city. They are the listeners and applauders of self- consequential characters, who could receive no applause else- where. The laughers at their stale and good-for-nothing jokes — the, swearers that they are always right, always courageous, always just, always wise. , Whoever would study human nature systematically, will find this class to fill one great niche in its fabric. The great star of these little asterisms, hke Alexander, Julius, and Napoleon, find it easier to rule millions of men through the medium of their passions, than to control or rule the passions of a single man. We find men without eloquence, without the power of decla- mation, sufficient to captivate a mob^ without much sense, com- mon or uncommon— without wit, and very meanly furnished with either talents or virtue, who have become vastly popular, from this one intuitive, instinctive tact of bowing to boobies. Rivalries in wit and humor, anxiety for literary preeminence, strife relating to distant wonders, the latest news, and matters of fact, which have occasioned so much sensibility and solicitude, so many sallies, and so much suUenness, have no place in com- * Mr. Cumberland. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 67 panies where neither wit, humor, nor literature exist. That familiarity of a low-bred, slovenly fellow, so dreadful to be en- dured, is not felt where all are seekers for distinction in the school of vulgarity. The fawning of a water spaniel, which a neat and well dressed man would so much shudder at, would scarce be regarded by an ostler or a fisherman. Matter of fact men, who would debate all day and a part of the night, or all night and a part of the day, about the name of a person, or the date of an occurrence, may pass for geniuses among themselves. A matter of fact, and its precise day and date, may sometimes be of vital importance in the trial of a case, before a court of law or equity ; whilst its investigation, in a con- vivial company, would be entirely worthless. It might spoil a good story, and become a nuisance to the ears of every hearer. Dr. Johnson would not hear nor heed such a missplaced interpre- . ter, nor could Sir Joshua Reynolds bear an interloper of the kind. But in studying to avoid particular defects, we may sometimes incur general ones. By too closely barricading against the cold and storm, we may shut out the light of the sun. There are some men of good sense, who have not had any great experience in the world, who have a very interesting and important story to tell, who yet cannot tell it, without entering into all the details of place, season, peculiarities of the weather, persons, sexes, the relations and friends of the parties, and a conclusion of anecdotes about some of the latter. Like old Pilpay, the fabler, -yho would make the end of his story about the dog, a proper introduction to one about a crow, and the end of the latter, a step towards an- other about a goat. The world is made up of all sorts of people, and although it may be interesting to luiow this fact, it may be very disgusting to come into contact with more than one half of them. Still, in order to benefit the community, or to be benefited by it, we must endure its follies. It is one of the best ways in the world to persuade men to be right, to put right opinions into their minds, and then to convince them that they had them in their previous possession. To make them right, by assuming that they are so already. Such a method 68 THE TONGUE OP TIME. with children, is adopted by some excellent mothers, and the pro- gress and proficiency of their little ones, is a proof of its ex- cellence. Great men, great bodies of men, and little children, must all be instructed in a way that best pleases them to receive instruction. Even flattery may in this respect be found not to have been made for nothing. Admonition finds a more sure conductor in praise, than in any other vehicle, and is often repelled by any other, whatever. There are some things which ought to incur the uni- versal resentment of humanity ; and which to avoid, ought to form a part of the moral education of every child, and to influ- ence the moral conduct of every patriotic and benevolent heart. One of these is cruelty of any kind, and especially the torturing, or putting to unnecessary pain, a brute animal. Dr. Johnson, supposes in his Idler, that there are among the inferior professors of medicine, as he expresses it, a set of wretch- es, who nail dogs to tables and open them alive, as a favorite amusement. We believe that the celebrated writer labored under some error of statement, from misinformation. And we venture to assert, that no such detestable cruelty ever was practised for amusement, by any one professing the noble art of healing. If such scenes as he portrays ever had an existence, which we very much doubt, they had ends in view, very difi"erent from amuse- ment ; and must have been designed for the discovery of those hidden springs of life which throw light upon the human anatomy, and of course upon the mitigation of maladies, the relief of pain, and the cure of diseases. The physician, if such an one could be found, guilty of wan- ton cruelty of any kind, ought to be held in abhorrence by his professional brethren, and to be, as Dr. Johnson says, more dread- ed than the gout or stone. Want of knowledge, and an overstock of malice, with the aid of exaggeration, have often raised a thunder-black cloud to over- shadow the purest designs, and most benevolent motives. It is a maxim, or ought to be, that he that does not govern himself, must be governed. In a repubhc, the majority must govern themselves, or else they will soon lose the name, the nature, and form of a republic, and decline into a monarchy. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 69 § 35. War, and the small-pox, ought, if possible to be exter- minated from the world ; for mth both, a lying spirit always did, and always will prevail. Lying scribblers, and trotting gossips, are the companions of each. Could we credit the Gazettes, in time of war, the enemy will have invaded the country at a hundred diiferent places all at once. And when the small-pox breaks out in a town, report will say that it is in every family, or that every body has been exposed. Gen. Washington observed, that there existed in the economy of nature, an inseparable connection between duty and ad- vantage. But w'hat duty really is, must be learned by a strict, and careful, and systematic attention to the sound principles of moral science. The French, who served a short apprenticeship to liberty in America, during the revolutionary war, went home and set up the trade for themselves, but soon brote, and became the most poverty-struck bankrupts, in that commodity, which the world had ever beheld. Tfaey lacked the indispensable requisites of duty, self-government, subordination, and truth. With them, the liberty of the press was a torch of sedition, and wo- worth were their principles. Every thing proved that they had not learned their trade. We had a few prominent characters of the French school, but they were overruled by a vast majority, who had sound religion and morality, with the most fervent patriotism. We had great men, and not a few of them, who were not great wits, great scholars, nor great orators. And on the other hand, we had some who had, like Gen. Charles Lee, and Col. Aaron Burr, these, all these accomphshments, who were not great men. In Gen. Hamilton, we had a great man, a great soldier, and ora- tor, with all the blandishments of his inferiors. But he failed fo follow the good rule of Epictetus, which we have mentioned, and in consequence, he fell in a duel. We had some other patriots who fell in the same way, from a disregard of the same admo- nition. The observation of the rules of Epictetus and Cleobulus, would forever prevent dueling. We have already noticed both 7 70 THE TONGUE OF TIME. the rules of these wise ancients, of whom one was one of the seven wise men of Greece. The overdoings of the aspirations of liberty, maddened the majority in France ; but here, only a few were its deluded devo- tees. And these few were easily quelled, and made to pay their just debts, and to quit their possession of other people's land, and to pay the small gnat of excise, rather than to be choked to death, with the attempt at swallowing the infernal camel of rebellion. Gen. Arnold, to be sure, ruined himself by swallowing the camel, like 'a rebel, but he could not ruin his country. He fell, but he had only Satan's will, not his power, of dragging other fallen angels with him down to hell. We had no other traitor, whose name is not too ignoble to be mentioned, except that of Arnold. He was the only Coriolanus of his country. The generals of any other part of the world, of any other era, since the time that Moses speaks of in the first book, verse, line, and chapter of the Bible, fail in the comparison with those of America. They of all other periods and places, had more of ambition, or waywardness — more of self, and less of country — more of rivalry, like Csesar and Pompey, or more of family love, like Buonaparte — more of the unfeeling barbarism, like Charles XII. of Sweden — more of sordid avarice, like Marlborough,. and more love for parade than for tactics, like Mack, who could not move without five loaded coaches of useless equipage. Our generals, and our contests, have been marked with great and important events, springing from small causes, and maintain- ed by seemingly inadequate means — whilst those of other coun- tries have been eminently conspicuous, for having been founded upon causes more notorious, for having been carried on with means immensely superior, and for having ended after all, in consequences far, immensely far, inferior to ours. When Augustus Caesar died, he had a pack of selected specta- tors, who gave a shout of applause as the emperor breathed his last, jn token of his brilliant and successful career, and well spent life. There was never any need of any thing of this kind for our American generals. The people paid them a spontaneous hom- THE TONGUE OF TIME. 71 age, and retain their memories in the highest heartfelt veneration. The ingratitude of the republicans of antiquity, was proverbial. And in reading Grecian history and biography, we are forcibly impressed with instances of it, towards their most meritorious characters. Directly the reverse is the fact in our republic. There never was a government more lavish of its finances, in rewarding its officers and common soldiers. The remnant of our revolutionary armies are distinguished, in their old age, for the benevolence of their country. Foreigners never have been able to reproach us with any lack of generosity in this respect. • The London literati think, however, that notwithstanding our boasted freedom, that there are few countries in the ^orld, that in reality enjoy less freedom of thought and action than ours. That what we call freedom, will not permit an individual to leave the stream, on the course of which all are swimming, and swim any other way.* If this is true, there is not, nor can there be, any charge of bonds, imprisonment, or death, to compel a man to swim with the tide. When a man, or a minority, deviates from the majority, it is inseperable from the nature of liberty itself, for the latter not to express opinions of censure, and to manifest tokens of disappro- bation. § 36. It is the order of Providence, that no institution suc- ceeds of itself, nor is any exception made in favor of those most liberal and excellent. Were we to judge of mankind by the reports of their opponents, there would be no patriots in politics, no heroes in war, no learn- ed lawyers, nor sldlful physicians, nor sound divines. Monarchists judge unfavorably of republics, and savages of all organized institutions whatever. Those more acquainted with the face of the rock, than with the face of man, are apt to attach hard features to all human affairs. The definition of friendship, by Aristotle, may have been instan- *.See London Quarterly. Review, 1831. 72 THE TONGUE OF TIME. ced in some cases betwixt man and wife, and a few pairs of other friends. • But rarely are we permitted to observe it in private, and never in public bodies. That philosopher, as Diogenes Laertius relates, being asked, what is a friend 1 answered, one souldwell- ingin two bodies. § 37. Lbvf feels no load, and as it is universally needed, it is wisely ordained to be of easy attainment. It is the connecting chain between heaven and earth. A principle felt by the dwell- ers in heaven above and earth below, in common. What are the causes of joy above, at repentance of sin — what of blelsings dis- pensed to mortal man, but love ? It. has been said, and may be said again, that love overcanlte the gods, or else they would not have noticed man. Self-love has been denominated the spring of action. But it sometimes shews itself by not acting, but by forbearing to act. As when a man denies the loan of money to a friend, for fear' that it may mar their friendship, by his having to enforce its payment. Self-love, again, may deter a man from attempting to grow rich, for fear of those casualties and disasters which produce poverty. And which^ when it is contrasted with former riches, make it doubly insupportable. It is those who chmb high trees, who break their necks if they fall. And it is those thai are highly praised, who are liable to be most vociferous- ly censured. § 38. But the decay of reputation, may be owing to its never having been deserved at all. Wit, genius, and judgment, are seldom found to exist in the same person at the same time. As the last becomes more matur- ed, the former decay. And as these may have been the sole causes of a man's ever having had popularity, he is liable to lose his reputation, when he most deserves it. When a general has acquired fame by his valor, he may lose it by his discretion, its better part, as Falstaff said. Few men are apt to confess that they have achieved but little, because they belong to a race to whom but little power is given. They are much more willing to adduce their want of diligence, or the superiority of their feelings to the subject in question, tlian to appeal to the imbecility of their natures. THE TONGUE OF TIUE. 73 Some men talk as tliough they could enter into competition with Providence itself, were they only to exert themselves. § 39. When we view a new and unheard of custom, which has antiquity to boast in its favor, many are apt to conclude that it must originally have been founded in wisdom, although they can discern neither wisdom nor utility in it now. But when the su- perabundance of folly, and the scarcity of wisdom are consider- ed, it is ten to one, that such a conclusion is not a mistake. Who in reading his Bible, will be able to find many of the rites and practices of the Roman Catholics ? And who would sur- mise that dancing was one mode of worship "i And yet it is a principal one among the Shakers. And long were we in doubt from what part of the Bible it could possibly be, or have been derived. But we have since learned, that they refer to David, as having danced before the ark, and that the child leaped in the womb of Elizabeth at the salutation of Mary. § 40. It is not a little remarkable, that among the American savages, superstition was originally engrafted upon medicine, and not upon religion. For some of them had nothing at all of the latter, nor no ideas of the Divinity, nor no anxiety about a future state. But they all had an extreme anxiety about their bodily health, and the removal of their diseases by remedies. Dancing and gaming were among the latter. The exercise incurred in the former, may sometimes no doubt, in cases such as rheumatism, and in colds, be useful. But the superstition consisted in the physician's dancing, in such cases as his patient was not able to endure the exercise himself. As to gaming it serves to amuse the mind, to keep the spirits from sinking, and to. take off in a measure the fear of death, which is always prejudicial in sickness. In fevers, both dancing and gaming ar6 bad, but in hypochon- drical complaints and madness, they are of utility. And we learn from the excellent and observing Dr. Rush, that a case of insanity was cured by playing at cards. Those savages who had an idea of gods, supposed that their wrath was manifested in sickness. Hence, their physicians, or 7* 74 THE TONGUE OP TIME. medical conjurers, prescribed gaming as a means of appeasing their anger, and of restoring health. ^41. From the mouth of the St. Lawrence, to the confines of Florida, were the least traces of civilization, and the most striking marks of. barbarism. In Florida, itself, contrary to the regions north, there was some- thing like the semblance of a government. The authority of their sachems being not only permanent, but hereditary. In the former vast region, they had no tamed animals, not even dogs. The Arab had his camel, the Tartar his mare, the Laplander his rein-deer, and even in Kamschatka, the savage had trained his dog to labor. That part of America in -^hich Canada and the United States are situated, with the exception of Florida and the Natches, was the most barbarous part of the New World. New Holland, how- ever, is equally destitute of every thing but a similar state of bar- barism, and even more so. For in that vast-region there are no traces of cultivation.* Whilst in the former the Indians did plant and cultivate a little corn. The two greatest means of power, comfort, and civilization, were entirely lacking : — The use of metals, and dominion over animals. West of the Mississippi, and south of its mouth, there may have been more m^rks of civilization. But in no part of the New World was either milk or iron known. And among some tribes, contrary it is thought, to all other savages, they did not even know the use of the bow and arrow. The country was thinly inhabited, the aged were sometimes put to death when provisions were scarce, and they unable to assist in procuring game. Infants sometimes shared th§ same •fate. Pity and thankfulness were unknown. As the savage never gave away what he wanted himself, he did not thank any one for a giftj^ thinking that it would not have been given, if its owner wanted it himself. Like wild brute beasts, they had neither ten- derness nor sympathy. These, even our domestic animals, and * A late account, howei^er, controverts this. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 75 neat stock, do manifest some tokens of. They were therefore inferior to tamed and tutored animals, to the dog and horse, in these respects. The Spaniards viewed and treated the Indians, hke other ani- mals, enslaving, plundering, or killing them, as they saw fit. It required a papal buU, to teach them that they were not an inferi- or race. Until this was issued, they appear to have viewed them as the* Hebrews did the native inhabitants of Canaan, doomed to destruction, and only made to be extirpated. The savage character is that of harshness m all respects. Their women were their abject, ill-treated, over-worked slaves. They had no lap-dogs, no favorite cats, no pet squirrels, birds nor monkeys. The impulses of .moroseness, the feelings of barbar- ous independence, revenge, and the absolute necessity of provi- ding food, were their incitements to action. No excursions for amusement, no conversation for improvement, no place of tuition or instruction for youth, was known among them.' They were only talkative when drunken. When they had sufficient food, they would sit whole days without moving or speeiking, singing or dancing. If they had any system of education, it was the incul- cation of fortitude. Schools, in which the art of suffering was taught to be endured, without wincing or complaining. But even this kind of learning, was private and voluntary, and learned by the young barbarians without a teacher. We are told by Dr. Robertson, that a girl and a boy would bind their naked arms together, and put a coal of live fire so as to he on both. They would then watch each other, and suffering stand and endure the pain, and vie, one with the other, which should first complain, or attempt to shake it off. As the savages made no excursions except for war or food, they supposed when the Spaniards invaded them, that they did it to procure food for themselves, and that their own country had fail- ed to support them. It has been said, that the Mexicans had forebodings of an in- vasion of their territory ; and that when the Spaniards landed, it threw Montezuma and his subjects into a terrible consternation. Our understandings, our systems, our knowledge, are tried with mysterious events, in the occurrences of national, foreign and 76 THE TONGUE OP TIME. domestic phenomena. But this is no more wonderful, than that we are tried by mysterious doctrines, and unaccountable ordinan-. ces. The Israelites were commanded to extirpate, with fire and sword, the natives of Palestine, both male and female, old and young. But we see just such indiscriminate destruction take place in wars, famines, inundations, and earthquakes, and ship- wrecks ; so that the mysteries of command and of dispensation, are alike inscrutable. From what we have learned of the savages- of the northern parts of the New World, they were the most savage of all the savage races ; so that other savages were, when compared with ■ them, comparatively civilized. That our country, our heroes of the revolution, our independ- ence, owe something to the aboriginals, by making the first set- tlers wary, acute, watchful and hardy, is obvious. Washington's first cimpaigns, were against this monstrous race. It is thus that physical evil, produces moral good. That most elevated of all the virtues. Charity, could not be exercised, was there no want in the world. Were none poor, there would be no chance to give ; there would be none to receive ; there would be nothing culpable in withholding ; there would be no fault in breaking the command, for it could not be kept. And what were reason, judgment, imagination, memory, and the all pervading passion of self preservation, bestowed for, except to qualify the human race, the better to avoid, the better to resist, the better to overcome evil 1 If then there was no evil, the powers of man would be useless ; his arts, his arms, his skill, his pro- fessional knowledge, would have been made in vain. He would not dig in mines, and in mountains for gold, had it not the power of removing the evils of poverty. He would not build the forge, melt the ore, and laboriously produce iron, and steel, was there not the evils before him, of busheS, and thorns, and forests, to clear, and of a stubborn soil to break. The distaff and the loom owe their invention to the evils of cold, damp, and nakedness. One part of our own country owes its inhabitants to the persecution of the Puritans, another part of' it to that of the Catholics, and a third to that of the Quakers. Persecution is an evil, but it has had good effects in these few instances. CHAPTER II. MAN, MATTEK AND MIND. PROLONGATION OT LIFE. FOSSILS. RE- MAINS OF GIANTS. SUBMARINE VOLCANOES. GEOLOGY. NIAGARA FALLS. VULCAN JURILLO. THEORIES OF THE WORLD. FALLING STONES. SHOOTING STARS. FORMATION OF SOLIDS IN THE AIR. STUMPS OF TREES NINETY FEET BELOW THE SURFACE. RAFTS. COAL BEDS. MOUNDS. SKELETONS. THE DELUGE. AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES. § 1. The knowledge of truth, in ancient times, was a pre- rogative of priests, or princes, or prophets. And in times more modern, it was held in chains, by popes and prelates. Ancjent history consists in a great deal said about a few men at most. Often one man is the hero of a long detail. Distinc- tion not being confined to worth or talent, if flew in the air, like the sea-gull over the golden mines of Peru, to alight on sand or water. The Jewish nation, to the time of the introduction of Chris- tianity, had the records of their race, for a little more than four thousand years. And still how few the names of their eminent men ! Those who were men of genius, however, stood on the very summit of elevation. And will so forever stand in relation to religion* But that nation had made little progress in the arts and sciences. Ever since the advent of the new dispensation, the number of noted names has rapidly increased. The system in itself in all its features, religious and civil, is strikingly republican, and ought to be held in the highest estimation by every lover of liberty and religion. But to become the sun of a system, little or great, has charms for the moderns, as it had for the ancients. And ambi- tion has now a glorious career marked out. For nations to whom 78 THE TONGUE OF TIME. the riches and honors of this world are denied, may like the Scots, believe that they can boast of spiritual treasures, more pure, more genuine, and more overflowing, than any nation under the whole heaven. Or like- the Romanists, they may think that the head of their church, is the head of all the churches on earth. Or like the Episcopalian, they may deem their king the defender of the faith, and above the pope himself. Whilst the meek and unas- piring Quaker, has a full assurance, that by his abjuring war, and following peace with all men, he alone imitates the founder of true religion. Men's views of things are the result of their knowledge and understanding. But time and chance happen to all men. Pas- sions are the gales of the moral world, and like a gale at sea, may drive the most correct and accurate mariner from his course. Love and aversion, avarice and ambition, bigotry and supersti- tion, courage and cowardice, riches and poverty, luck, good or bad, friends sincere or treacherous, make men act differently, who may be upon an exact level as to talents. Nay, they make the same man's course very discrepant at different times, although to others his situation may seem identical. Office-seeking, and seeking for golden opinions from all sorts of people, will turn a man into a monkey, and spaniel his course of conduct. A man never elevates himself by levity or servility. The road through the mighty main, and through the moral world, must be in part at least, laid out by our own soundings. Old remarks, like old charts, may only mislead the navigator. If we lean on others, we fall when they fall. But if they stand, wt ■ may not stand, for th,e reason that it is in their power at any time to push us down. Old charts, like old landmarks, should however, never be touched when correct. Nor can devious paths, which lead from that which is strait and narrow, be even entered into with safety. It is true that for such deviations we have great examples, but still not the greatest of all. Julius Caesar, would admit no deviation from the line of recti- tude in common men, or on common occasions. Yet, when an aspiring, ambitious man, had a crown in view, he would allow of his breaking this salutary rule. And all great commanders of THE TONGUE OP TIME. 79 armies, in times remote and modern, would deceive and tell false- hoods, or employ others to tell them to an enemy. But under the new dispensation, the exceptions to integrity cannot have any place at all. As he that would be great, is to be the minister, which word in the original signifies a servant. Those men who have been the greatest of all, or whotti the world has so esteemed to be, have, like comets, appeared at great distances apart, and like those portentous messengers, have ever moved in eccentric orbits. Their course, their exit, and their , entrance, has been incalculable. Not Wellington himself could calculate the rapidity of Napoleon, as he approached for the battle of Waterloo, else had not the British general been at a ball at the time. They neithel: love nor hate, nor reward nor punish, after the manner of common men. Their violence aijd their gentleness, their seriousness and their merriment, their business and their diversions, are all peculiar. Their orbits are indefinite and indefinable. Their perihelion and aphelion, like that of the comet, cannot be computed. Their cast of character, their mode of expression, the ideas which they receive, and the expressions which -they convey, all vary from those of other mortals. Mas- tering great events, great on great occasions, they are too much feared to be hated, and too powerfiil to be despised. Such na- tures are only natural when they command and the world obeys . Whilst they are in the world, let their distance be never so great, the timid and contemplative feel serious and nervous, and in their presence, even the bold and courageous, breathe with difficulty. The thunder that rolls over head, the lightning that flashes, the flame that consumes, the bellowing volcano, and the bursting earthquake, and the devastating hurricane, are their only com- .petitors in causing perturbation, unless we add the roaring lion, and the coiling rattlesnake. Their souls are like the flash that descends from the cloud ; their nerves like the rod of iron which conducts it to the earth. The apportioning of equal misery to all, is the full amount of their justice ; the fire and the sword, the meed of their mercy. These things argue strongly and powerfully against wars un- dertaken from ambitious motives, and for conquest, or from any motives except those of self defence. And there is another 80 THE TONGUE OP TIME. source of a nature still higher, and of an authority more para- mount and decisive, to which we might refer, were this the place to enlarge upon the subject. The word world is a contraction of wear-eld. Still this world, this old world* is always new : for its face is always presentmg new appearances. Seasons change, and nature is inconstant, and does not always change them alike. In this respect the worlds physical and moral agree. Both are continually presenting new features. Lord Bacon thought, that were it not for the fixed stars, all creation would be in a state of chaos. These keep the system of the universe from running wild. Those simple and beautiful principles, gravitation and attraction, keep the rolling globe from rolling out of its place. And compel the pleiades, and northern bear, to maintain their constant course. § 2. The anatomical structure of the human race, is surpri- singly regular, and has been in all ages. The Egyptian mummy, perhaps of antediluvian age, presents the same bony structure, as that of the savage of the new world. The bones of the head, the vertebrse of the back, with their irregular shape and spinous processes, the atlas of the neck, the little anvil and stirrup and mallet of the ear,, the lightning shaped sutures of the skull, the eight little bones of the wrist, and the whole number, two hundred and forty-eight bones of the whole body, have ever been found, when examined, in surprising uniformity. No little foramina or hole, and holes are numerous, and irregular in shape and size, is omitted, with its little irregularities, through the bones of the whole body. This regularity is also extended to the soft pajts. To the viscera, to the number of nerves, to the principal arteries, and to the color of the blood and bile, which in health, never fail of being the same, whether the subject be black or white. Reason would have taught us, that as the structure of man is as uniform as that of the heavenly bodies, that he might have en- dured as long. And that it would have been easier for nature to have kept the same being in life and motion, than to have stop- ped his course, and ended his career by death, and replenished the world with new and infant forms of the same mould and or- ganization. But experience and observation teach the reverse of THE TONGUE OP TIME. 81 this theory. It is these, therefore, that teach the great lesson of mortality, especially to those to whom revelation is unknown. The infant and the animal have no idea of their own liability to die. The bones are the fixtures of the animal frame. The soft parts turn to dust in about four years after burial, in common soils. Some soils, from extreme aridity, however, may preserve the flesh for an indefinite period. The traveller in the desert sands of Egypt, Arabia, and Lybia, who meets Ijiis death and burial in a sand flood, may remain for centuries with his frame shrivelled, but not turned to dust. Ice will preserve bodies forever, if it does not thaw. Animal petrifactions are as enduring as the mountain of Ararat. Life is motion, and total rest, the rest of the heart and lungs, is death. Could art ensure flexibihty, it might prolong motion, and modern men might breathe as long as did Adam and Methuselah. Keeping the joints of a petrified man limber, as well as petrifying him by art, are modern discoveries, by an Italian. Can it ever be extended to the heart, cartilages of the ribs and breast ? And if so, the next step in keeping man alive, and rendering his life long as that of a tree, would be to discover some means of keeping his blood from coagulating, and of keeping his heart irritable, so as to be sensible of the stimulus of the blood. Paracelsus entertain- ed the notion that he could render man immortal, but he did not himself arrive to old age. His elixir of immortality failed, but he was the inventor of calomel, which has removed more of hu- man maladies than any other remedy except opium. What the Jews say about a certain bone in the body which they call the luz, is fictitious. At any rate what they say about its lo- cation is incorrect. This bone they tell us is incorruptible and imperishable. And that at the last day, God will make use of it as a renewal to life, and a means of restoration at the resurrec- tion. In fact they pretend that the body will grow from it, as a plant grows from a seed. This bone they place between the last vertebrae of the loins, and the os sacrum. But it so happens that these two bones join,* and that no intervening bone is found be- * Except a thin cartilage between Ihem. 8 82 THE TONGUE OP TIME. twixt them. Every tyro in anatomy knows this, and the Jews now pretend that this miraculous relic, is another bone, which is the last of all in the vertebral column, and which is called the os coxygis. But there is no bone of the spine but what is as per- ishable as many other bones. The teeth are the most durable of all the bony structures. They are bony in their interior, but their outward surface is covered with an enamel which prevents their decay. These survive all other parts of the body, and remain when all the fleshy and bony parts are crumbled to fragments and dust. Fleshy parts sometimes become bony. The present wri- ter has opened the body of a gentleman who died with dropsy of the lungs, and found the great artery, or aorta, turned to bone at its root, where it springs from the heart. There were nine pints of water in the cavity of his thorax, which is that cavity which contains the heart and lungs. The lower part of the right lobe of this gentleman's lungs was turned to liver, or in technical lan- guage, Tiepatized. He died suddenly. The day before his death he came after medicine to me at my own house, a distance of a mile and a half, alone in his carriage. This turning of fleshy parts to bone, occurs in other cases, and in other parts of the body, and sometimes without any disease or detriment. Little bones sometimes form, called sesamoid bones, because they resemble seeds, and some have supposed that one of these was the luz of the Jews. § 3. In the secondary strata of rocks, three thousand species of fossil animals have been found, not one of which is now known to exist upon the globe. Consequently, man is not one of them. A fossil or petrified human skeleton has been extremely rare. Geology, therefore, teaches that other animals preceded man in the creation. However this may be, geologically, we find it so scripturalJy. The fossil and petrified remains of man, have not been entirely lacking, however ; one having been found in Guadaloupe. And the body of a petrified Indian was found in digging to lay the foundations of the city of Quebec. We read in the Bible that there were giants in the earth, and some late geological facts confirm this truth, by the discovery of their remains. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 83 The Journal of Madrid, the Athenee, conlains a letter descri- bing an enormous petrifaction, which was discovered by the work- men in digging the canal of Sopena. A rock was found about eight feet below the surface of the earth. And at the distance of eighteen feet below this rock, and twenty-six beneath the earth's surface, amidst argillaceous earth, was found a body in a state of petrifaction, the bones of which resembled whitish stone. This body was upwards of eighteen feet long, the head two feet broad, and the breadth of the chest three feet !* A physician and surgeon examined this body, and found it to be a genuine petrified man, or rather giant. § 4. M. CuviER, of Paris, was the greatest practical geologist which the world has ever produced. From him we learn that there are occasionally found in the earth, to the greatest depth to which it has been penetrated, the remains of marine animals. And they are also found upon the highest rnountains. To ac- count for the latter, he supposes that the bottom of the sea must have been suddenly elevated, nay, to use his own expression, in- stantaneously so. But what he thinks more astonishing, and quite certain is, that living creatures have not always existed on the earth, which is agreeable to sacred history. Some of the summits of the highest mountains are raised however, above the shells which lie scattered high up upon them. But these summits, he supposes to have been thrown up out of water. We must conjecture then, that this was done by volcanic fire, which when it had thrown upthe sea bottom thus high, destroyed all animal or- ganization, and that the mass was calcined, or crystalized, so that no organic exuvice can be traced. Different strata, some inclined, and some horizontal, with animal remains in each, but of differ- ent kinds, go to prove that such sudden and tremendous catastro- phes, have occurred at periods distant, different and distinct. That they were very far apart, is evident from the animal remains being unlike each other, and also from the dissimilarity of the strata themselves. A new stratum was thrown up above an old * History sacred and profane, agree that there were giants in the earth. And we are told of Scipio Africanus the younger, that in Spain he slew a man of gigantic statute who was a Spaniard ! 84 THE TONGUE OP TIME. one, and settled down upon it, and became inhabited by animals. How often this was done, geology, which is a science compara- tively new, has not yet taught us. Nor from what depths these strata were forced up, can the geologist decide. But M. Cuvier thinks it probable, that the whole crust of the globe has been moved and overturned, to a great depth, and that the earli/ com- motions extended deeper and more extensively, than the later ones. That the fossil remains which are now found at immense depths in the earth, must, if they be of land animals, once have lived on the earth's surface, and if of sea animals, must have in- habited the sea-bottom, is abundantly evident. The remains of what is called the Inguadon, are found at the depth of a thousand feet from the earth's surface. Seventy feet is its length, ten feet its height, and fifteen feet its girth. It is found in a sand-stone rock, and this rock is composed of, or incorporated with, vegeta- ble matters, shells and fish. And as Professor Silliman observes, the man who is capable of believing that this creature was form- ed there, is capable of believing any thing, with or without proof. It must have once lived and breathed, and moved its hulk like carcass upon this our rolling globe.* It is supposed to have been an animal of the lizard kind, its shape being like that species of animal. The giant, of eighteen feet in height, would have been but a single mouthful for this seventy feet monster. Which, however, the mammoth might have destroyed, by a single thrust of its tusks, with his giant din- ner within its capacious maw. But should we inquire how such monsters lived, and upon what they fed, and how and why they became extinct, we should find no one to answer us. Nor as to why they were created at all. We have seen that the surface of the world has frequently changed, and that its different surfaces produced different races of animals, or at least supported them. Geologists have not been able to form any plausible theory, to account for the phenomena * The head of the moat colossal creature of which any indications have ever been found, was lately dug up at Rhenish Hesse, in Germany. It measureil six fept in length, by three feet and a half in breadth. A humeral bone six feel long was found near it, weighing two hundred pounds. They were twenty- eight feet below the surface. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 85 of the earth, either by water, by fire, or by hurricanes, nor by all combined. Nor will any known chemical agency help them out of their dilemma. We must help them a little ourselves, by supposing these immense lacertee, in droves as numerous as ants, helped to raise the crust of the earth, to throw up hills, and to elevate mountains, by their operations in the sea. Amphibious by nature, when they found no land, or an insufficient quantity of it, we may conjecture, that they raised the sea-bottom into emi- nences, reaching above the surface of the waters. And that the sands thus elevated were in a course of time immens ', some of it crystalized into granite rocks. And then we may call in the aid of moles, and of ants, large in proportion, as is the inguadon to the little lizard, to assist in accounting for the earth's other in- equalities. And thus go on, and attribute mountains, and valleys, and caves, whose phenomena cannot be imputed to fire and water, to the agency of animals and insects, of inguadon and mammoth, dimensions at least comparatively. § 5. Conclusions have been too hastily drawn upon some geological subjects. We must wait for more facts. Inductive philosophy should descend from generals to particulars, instead of reversing this method, and still continuing the name. Man has been supposed to be of modern origin. But we read that there were giants in the earth, of whose antiquity we have no precise account. And that the remains of Goliah's, and of the sons of Anak, or the similitudes of their race, are occasionally found in a fossil state, must be admitted. Of one instance of this kind, we have the best testimonials before us, even the statement under oath, of a respectable and credible eye witness, Capt. James Allen. In the spring of 1807, Capt. Allen was master of the ship Ju- piter, of Philadelphia, on a voyage up the Mediterranean. In the month of May of that year, he lay a considerable time at the port of Girgenti, the ancient Agrigentum, in the island of Sicily. Its situation is about twenty leagues from Palermo, and sixty leagues south-west of Mount iEtna. Whilst there, he was in- formed that some human skeletons, of vast size, had been dug from the ground about three miles distant. 8* 86 THE TONOUE OP TIME. Digging into the earth to obtain sulphur, is a common emploj- ment of the people of the island of Sicily, and they had here dug to the depth of one hundred and seventy feet ! when they came to a marble wall, adorned with hieroglyphics. When they were attempting to remove a part of this wall, it fell into a hollow place or cell, upon two marble coffins, which contained the gigantic bones. The falling of the wall so deranged the place, that it could not be told whether it was erected for a place of sepulture, or whether it was a part of some building of another kind. And although one of the skeletons was much broken by the accident, very happily the other was entire, except the loss of a small part of one of the bones of the leg. Capt. Allen placed the bones of the most perfect skeleton in their proper position, and found the skeleton to be eleven feet and four inches in length, Italian measure, which is equal to about ten and a half feet English ! Capt. Allen descended to the bottom of this deep excavation, and carefully examined the hieroglyphics, which he says were engraved in the most curious manner, on the wall. The boxes or coffins, were also ornamented with hierogly- phics. A friend of Capt. Allen, Mr. Backus, was induced tore- quest Capt. Allen to make oath to these facts, for the satisfaction of those who might see the account, and who were strangers to his character. His character and credibility being such, that THE TONGUB OP TIME. 87 where he is known, that his naked certificate or assertion would be received as soon as his affidavit. Mr. Backus thought this ac- count important, as a confirmation of Scripture history.* What we have to regret is, that Capt. Allen did not take a copy of the hieroglyphics. A regret which we deem will meet with many responses. Capt. Allen tells us that the head of the skele- ton, including the skull and jaws, were about the dimensions of a two gallon pail or bucket. The diameter of the thigh bone, he supposed to be about four English inches. The marble blocks and slabs of this subterranean wall, so curiously ornamented with hieroglyphics, might probably now be obtained for the inspection of the scientific and the curious, by a vessel visiting Girgenti. The earth through which the workmen descended to these bones, was all made earth. It appeared to be composed of sea- mud, filled with the shells of oysters, scollops, and other sea shell-fish, all of which were of uncommon size. It is worthy of notice, that the Cyclops, a race of men of gigantic stature, were referred, by the ancients, to the very region where these bones were found : — ^the western parts of Sicily. But whence was the origin of one hundred and seventy feet of earth over these bones, their coffins, their tomb and the hierogly- phics 1 Surely there are no causes now in operation, unless they be the occasional eruption of volcanoes, which can be brought to bear upon the subject. Unless, indeed, we make the world as many millions of years old, as we now make it centuries. And that the superincumbent deposit was not of the usual volcanic origin, is evident, for it was not lava, but earth and shells. And again, it was thirty leagues from Mount jEtna, which was the nearest volcano. And were we to bring in for aid, a transient eruption at the spot, why were not the marble walls, the coffins and the bones thrown out of their places, and ruined % The subject is certainly one which has its difficulties, but are they in- surmountable % I think not. We have only to suppose that a submarine volcano broke out near this part of Sicily, at some remote period, which threw on to the island this immense superstratum of mud and shells, of one * See Med. Rep. Hex. iii. Vol. 3, pa. 14. 88 THE TONGUE OF TIME. hundred and seventy feet in thickness. Vesuvius sometimes throws out mud in modern times, without vitrifying it, or turning it into proper lava, or even soil. And of the fact that volcanos may break out beneath the sea, however mysterious, we have abundant proof, and shall presently give an instance. But we have, in this case, to infer that if an- other island was thrown up near to Sicily, or if an addition to the latter was made, that it afterwards sunk, but left the strata over (his ancient tomb, as a memorial of the catastrophe. § 6. In the instance in which we are about to give, the island or shoal that was thrown up, afterwards sank, and disappeared. It was about half a league, or two miles from the shore. Had it been nearer, some of the volcanic matter might have been thrown on to the island of St. Michaels, near which it happened, and thus have remained as a memorial of the event. The occurrence of this submarine volcano, took place in 1811, in the month of January. It was preceded by earthquakes, and on the 31st of that month, smoke and flames were seen issuing from the sea, and as one of the witnesses and writers expresses it, a most awful and tremendous explosion of sihoke and flame issued fi'om the watery element. Along with the smoke, and fire, and flame, the same writer says, issued cinders, ashes, and stones of immense size. Large quan- THE TONGUE OF TIME. 89 titles of dead fish, and some of them nearly roasted, and others as if boiled, floated on the surface, towards the shore. The wind was blowing a gale from the southward a part of the time, which carried the smoke over the land ; the sea was ex- ceedingly agitated, and the surf broke on shore with frightful violence, oven to the 22d of February. All the terrors of the phenomenon, which excessively terrified and dismayed the inhabitants, did not last the whole time, but smoke and flames were seen to issue from the spot, the 17th of the succeeding June. Vessels, when they first discovered it, at sea, supposed that a naval combat between two belligerent vessels was going on, and then, from the immensity of the smoke, that two fleets were engaged. It is wonderful indeed, that the part of the ocean in which this volcanic eruption took place, was from seventy to eighty fathoms deep. This was asserted by fishermen, and at first hard- ly credited, but afterwards, Capt. Thomas, of the ship Otis, from Lisbon to New- York, spoke an English armed brig, that had for a considerable time been stationed at St. Michaels, the comman- der of which had sounded, not a great while before, the very spot whence the eruption proceeded, and found the true depths, from seventy to eighty fathoms. Inflammable air, when it issues from water, and comes in con- tact with the atmosphere, will take fire and burn spontaneously. But the smoke, the boiling of the sea, and the throwing up of large stones, together with cinders and ashes, must be referred to a fire of bitumen, sulphur, and other combustibles beneath the sea bottom, which produced steam. This can only account for the first stages of the phenomena, which occurred in January and February, and which are related in the letter of Mr. Hickling, to J. B. Dabney, Esq., the American Consul, and by Mr. Andrew Adam, of St. Michaels, in a letter to his brother in London. Afterwards, when this submarine volcano was seen in June, by Capt. Thomas, and by Mr. Henry Neil, who came to New- York in the same vessel, the throwing up of stones, ashes and cinders, appears to have subsided. And the flame, and hissing or roaring noise, which were described by Mr. Neil, to Dr. Mitchell, were 90 THE TONGUE OF TIME. caused by the burning of inflammable gas, when the gas arrived at the surface of the water. This process is imitated upon a small scale, artificially, by chemists, as we have witnessed ourselves. Capt. Farwell, who arrived at Boston, from St. Ubes, witnessed the phenomenon of snioke and the throwing up of large columns of water, the 18th of June, five months after the eruption first began. St. Michaels is one of the Azores, which are situated in lati- tude between thirty-six and forty, N. The Azores are also called the Western Isles. It is to be noticed that the throwing up of the inflammable air and carbonic matters, when seen in June, by Capt. Thomas and Mr. Neil, were not constant, but in intermitting pulses, of from five to twenty minutes apart. Capt. Thomas was in sight of the eruption for nearly twenty-four hours, and described the smoke, which was black, and the flames, as rising some hundreds of feet into the air.* § 7. But in relation to giants and gigantic animals, we must not forget the bird whose claws, or toes, were eighteen inches long, as ascertained by the tracks, lately discovered by professor Hitchcock, on the banks of Connecticut river. Birds of the size which such feet would indicate, might fly to mountain heights, with tigers, and bears, and lions in their claws ! And thus we may account for petrifaction of animal bones, upon mountain crags, which quadrupeds could not reach, and in crevices which neither they, nor the bird itself, could enter.. It being well known that when birds of prey feed, that they choose, the highest objects to perch upon, from whence the bones of their victim may drop into holes and fissures below, or be found in piles where the highest trees stood, although these trees may have long since disappeared by the desolating hand of time. That there were clefts in some rocks, before they were rent at the crucifixion, we learn from Moses having been placed in one of them, to hide him from the divine presence, as the Lord pass- ed by.t * See Med. Rep. Hex. iii. Vol, 3, p. 96. t Gen. xxxiii, 23. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 91 In relation to the bones of men and animals, we cannot but admire the height and depth of creating wisdom. Every little eminence, or depression, process, apophysis, bump, cavity, aceta- bulum, or foramen, or fissure, having in different classes of ani- mals, a different shape, and in the same class of animals, the same shape. So that the class of animals, to which even the fragment of a bone belonged, could be determined by M. Cuvier. And he could thus determine whether that class of animals was in exist- ence now, or had disappeared from the face of the earth. Such a minute knowledge of comparative anatomy, was never known in the world before. And to it, the world is much indebt- ed ; for as M. Cuvier observes, skeletons are rarely found in a complete state. The bones being detached and distant, owing to different birds or beasts having fed upon the same carcass, and each one carrying off a different limb or bone to pick. Besides, the bones of some animals were broken by the powerful jaws and grinders of hyenas, in order to extract the marrow from them, and are only found in fragments ; whilst the decomposing hand of time, has detached the softer appendages of the same bone from itself. § 8. But we need not resort to animals of monstrous growth, to the mammoth, which we have seen the skeleton of, and within the inclosure of whose ribs, thirteen men sat and dined. Or to the inguadon, of which we are told, by professor Silliman, as being seventy feet in length. We say that we need not resort entirely to these, and to other immense animals, for immense geological changes and structures. Although, they undoubtedly had a share in these changes, proportioned to the immensity of their size. We know that animals of sizes minute, have existed, and still exist, in such myriads as to give rise to structures immense. Coral islands and coral reefs are formed by little worms, or vermicles, vermes zoophyta. These creatures, each secreting the size of a sand or two of coral, and uniting the portions of their labor together, form new islands in the sea, and increase the •dimensions of those islands already formed. 92 THE TONGUE OF TIME. The mariner has found, by the Joss of his ship, the pernicious efforts of these little creatures. Ships strike and bilge, and are lost upon coral islands, on the way of the coral formation upwards out of the ocean, but not so far up as to be visible. And perhaps so far down, when the preceding navigator made his soundings, as not to have been reached — such an instance having been late- ly ascertained. And thus vessels are wrecked, where charts indi- cated no danger. Shallows, and shoals, and reefs exist, where none were formerly known, nor could have been known ; because they were not there, they did not exist. It seems to be the habit of these coral insects to vermiculate upwards, with their structures, from the ocean depths. But when they reach the surface they do not advance much, if any, above high water. Coral islands, therefore, if they have a soil, owe it to other causes — to the ordure of birds, roosting and feed- ing upon them — to sea weed, growing and being cast upon their shores and surface — and to the stranding of whales, sharks, and other monsters of the deep. And sometimes soil is carried in boats from one place where it can be procured, to rocky islands where it is lacking. Of this last process, the late Commodore Oliver H. Perry, a family relative of ours, referred the writer to examples in the Medi- terranean, which had fallen under his own immediate observation. § 9. That the sea ojQce covered all the land which is now dry, is very generally admitted by scientific men, and is universally admitted by geologists. It is agreeable to sacred history, that before the flood of Noah, water covered over the face of the whole earth. Moses, in the first chapter of the Bible, tells us, that God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry appear. The word land, after dry, in our translation of the Bible, is put there by translators, and is known to every philologist, not tp have any word answering to it, or synony- mous with it, in the original. There was, therefore, nothing dry in the universe, until the waters were gathered together, and then the debility, or decay, or loss of spirits, took no food. Her teeth would be set if food was offered her, and as to the liquids got down in that period, a spoonful of rum was the most considerable. She had by her invisible tormentors, however, something pour- ed down her throat in this period, which her utmost efforts to spit out could not clear her mouth of; and which she said was scald- THE TONGUE OP TIME. 201 ing brimstone. This, the Divine tells us, was commonly invisi- bk, although the act of deglutition was apparent. He does not tell us that he ever saw any of that odd liquor, of which she cried out as 6f Scalding brimstone poured down her neck. But of the scent of brimstone burning, throughout the house, which he and other people in the house were scarce able to endure, himself and scores of witnesses cdiild testify. He also tells of some of this liquor, as well as some of a white powder, having once been seen, actually visihk, as he states, the former on her neck, and the latter on her cheek. This white powder was used by Margaret's invisible tormentors, as it seems, " to extremely incommode her eyes." We are told, besides the melted brimstone and this eye powde*, of scalds, pin-pricks, black and blue pinches, upon this girl. And we are told that the scalded sjiots required medical applications. Still, it does not appear that any injury which she, or any one else received, was any thing more than very superficial, and trifling ; and of such a kind as pei;sons who were malevolent and wicked, and designing, might for the purpose of carrying on im- posture, inflict upon themselves. Nor does it appear that any physician was called to examine this liquor, or powder, or scalds. Mr. Mather was pastor of the North Church in Boston, a Doc- tor of Divinity, a Fellow of the Eoyal Society, and considered eminent for his learning and piety, and as the most eminent di- vine of his day. He died in 1727.* He relates of this Margaret Rule, that on one occasion, she was raised up to the ceiling of her room, where she was held so fast that it required several persons to pull her down. Many other particulars, equally maryejlous, are stated by this Doctor of Divinity. We may conclude by his summary reflec- tions, that he was very well satisfied with this Salem witchcraft and its results — for he says, " In the whole, the devil got nothing, but God got praises, Christ got subjects, the Holy Spirit got tem- ples, the church got additions, and the souls of men got everlasting benefits." * The Salem witehcraft happened whilst Sir Edward Andross, and Sir William Phipps, were Governors of Massachusetts. 18 202 THE TONGUE OF TIME. We are of opinioif, however, that all these things may have happened, and that they do happen, without witchcraft. And that the hanging of nineteen innocent persons, is certain, but that the devil got nothing, as he say?, is uncertain. Upon a kind of crass examination of aifairs in the room of this girl, in the presence of a Boston merchant, Robert Calef, we do not find Dr. Mather.'s statements fully verified. To the question, what does she eat ! it was answered, she does not eat at all, but drinks rum. Mr. Calef also states that whilst he was in her room, she desired the women to be goncv saying that the company of the men was not offensive to her. And that having hold of the hand of a young man, said, to have been her sweetheart formerly, who was withdrawing, she pulled him again into Kis seat, saying he should not go that night. She had occasional fits, and when she came out of them, she was in a merry, talking mood. This witness did not smell the brimstone, which was said to have been melted whilst he was in the room. He writes, for he has left an account of the Salem witchcraft, that he was told by her attendants, that when the Rev. Mr. Mather visited her, that their conferences were sometimes so private, that even the girl's mother was not admitted into the room. But this statement was denied by Dr. Mather. Indeed, Mr. Ctilef's representations were so different from- those of the Doctor, that he was arrested, both by him and his father, for slander. The father of Cotton Mathcjr, was Increase Mather, D. D. then President of the only college then in the United States, that of Harvard. There was an arrest, or action brought, however, and nothing more. Mr. Calef not being met before the court of ses- sions by his accusers, either of them, was discharged of course. §^ 7. There are, so far as we know, in every country, under diiferent appellations, some pretenders to magical art. Egypt had its sorcerers and magicians ; Greece and Rome had their diviners and soothsayers ; the Scotch have their men of second sight, and in Spain they have a sort of persons called Zahars, THE TONGUE OF TIME. 203 who pretend that they can see what is going on in the bowels of the earth. It will not do to deny every thing for which we cannot account^ or give a reason. Why grass is green, and not red, like the rose, ' and why the violet is blue, and not green like the grass, we may not be able to comprehend, and yet we cannot deny. It has been supposed, that what is called casting out devils, was nothing more than the healing of persons who had fits of epilepsy, or falling sickness. This hypothesis receives some countenance, from what is said in one or more places, of the sub- jects falling oft into the fire, and water, and foaming at the mouth. Those who have epilepsy, fall suddenly down, let them be in never so much danger of fire or of water. They also foam at the mouth, which foam is sometimes bloody. They likewise have their head drawn on one side. The present writer had a: patient so badly burned by falling info the fire, in one of these kind of fits, that she died. In some respects, therefore, this hypothesis holds good. But the account given by St. Luke, of the demons in the per- son, requesting to have the liberty of entering a herd of swine, and of their being permitted, and of their hurrying the einimals into the sea, cannot be identified with any known disease. In the Salem trials, one of the witnesses attested, that a drove of fourteen oxen, turned out upon a beach, ran away from those who attempted to drive them up, took to the sea, and with the ex- ception of a single ox, were drowned. The witness supposed these oxen to have been bewitched, and that the witch was one Susannah Martin, then on trial for her life. In those times of delusion, any accident that could be laid hold of, that could be compared to any thing in the Bible, in which demons or devils had a hand, was eagerly applied to the passing transactions. The case of the swine, and the case of these oxen, were simi- lar, so far as related to the drowning. And hence, in a trial for life, such testimony was admitted by the court, that the jury might apply the mischief to the accused, of drowning the oxen ! 204 THE TONGUE OF TIME. The trial, examination, and imprisonment of persons for witch- craft, was preceded by prayer. § 8. It was in the latter part of February, 1691, that several young persons, in Salem, were observed to act strangely, by creeping into holes, under chairs and other household furniture. Among these were the daughter and niece of Mr. Parris, the min- ister of Salem. They at the same time made nonsensical speech- es, used odd gestures,, and put themselves into strange postures. This was the denouement of the maniacal delusion which spread into Boston, and into fourteen or fifteen other towns. It began in the family of the minister, and to add wormwood to his gall as he expressed it, there were in his own family both accusers and accused. Elizabeth Parris, his daughter, Abigail Williams, his niece, and Ann Putnam, were the chief accusers, in the first stage. On the 11th of March, a day of fasting and prayer was held at this minister's house. These girls were all young, one of them not more than eleven or twelve years old. Several of Mr. Parris' professional brethren, neighboring ministers, met at his house on oecasion of the fast. A few days previous to this, it appeared that Mr. Parris' Indian woman Tibuta, made a cake of rye-meal, wet up with the chil- dren's water, which she baked in the ashes, and gave to a dog. This was done in order to discover who the,witches were that tor- mented these girls, one of whom had fits. Poor Tibuta's manoju- vre was attended with adverse effects to herself, for she was the first whom these girls accused of bewitching them. She was imprison- ed, and confessed sufiScient knowledge of witchcraft, and converse with the devil, to save her lifsi For, by a strange, and perfectly ab- surd course of judicial proceedings, any one who was accused, and who confessed guilt, at the first examination, was permitted to go away without being imprisoned, prest; or hung ; whilst those who asserted their own innocence were almost certainly convicted, and punished with death. It seems a sufficiently marvellous mark of the times, that before the Superior Court of Massachusetts, a criminal pleading guilty, should by it be deemed innocent. But such being the case, as THE TONGUE OF TIME. 205 the delusion spread, persons perfectly innocent, who were accu- sed, were implored by their families, and even taothprs, by their children on their knees, to confess guilt, as the only possible way of saving their lives. Some conscientious and innocent women complied, and after- wards, when the storm had subsided, published the truth of the matter. The Indian woman, and two old women, one of ■whom was bed- ridden, were the three first persons implicated. But accusations were not confined to squaws and old women. They soon spread to respectable men and women, to officers, church members, and to one minister of the gospel. And to be accused, where spectral evidence was admitted, involved impris- •onment, confiscation of property, ruin of character, trial for life, and death by hanging. Nor were accusations confined to adults ; for an infant of be- tween four and five years of age was accused, and — and what 1 Is it possible that there could on earth have been, even in those mad times, a judge or a justice, who would have noticed such an accusation 1 Yet such was the fact, and the poor little innocent was committed to prison ! And what was the evidence against it? Why the prints of its spectral teeth — (teeth which- it had never shed,) were exhibited on the arms of its accusers ! Next came the brute creation. 'Two dogs 'were put to death, one for being a witch, and the other poor fellow, for being be- witched. And it is worth notice thiat the latter dog was the only creature that was put to death by authority, for being afflicted, as it was termed. The strange acting girls, who crept into holes, and took brimstone, were not the witches, but the bewitched ; and yet these bewitched persons were suffered to testify in cases of life and death, against persons of the first respectability ! In the case of the dog, he having been noticed to have some- thing the matter with him, those persons who had the spectral sight, were sent for. They accused a respectable man, Mr. John Bradstreet, of afflicting the dog, and of riding Upon him ! To save himself, Mr. Bradstreet made his escape out of the state. It was dangerous for civil officers to ofiend the accusers, or lo favor the accused. The former, including those of the minister's 18* 306 THE TONGUE OP TIME. family, had now increased to eight or ten. Their screeches, and yells, were on one occasion appalling, in and about the court house, when the Superior court was in session. The reason was, that the jury had brought in a verdict of not guilty, in behalf of one whom these malevolent maniacs had accused. This verdict dissatisfied the court, as well as the bewitched. They were sent out again, and returned with a verdict of guilty. Dudley Bradstreet, Esq. a justice of the peace in Andover, having granted out warrants, and committed to prison thirty or forty persons, began to relent, and refused to issue any further processes. Upon this he was himself accused of having killed nine persons by witchcraft, and was obliged to fly to the District of Maine, for his life. There was, in the persons who declared themselves bewitched, an evident depravity, and destitution of moral principle, but owing to their having been, for the time, a privileged order, it was diffi- cult to detect them. Persons \yho were permitted to swear to what was done in the court room, which neither judges, nor jurors, nor spectators, nor other witnesses, could see any thing of, were indeed an order of witnesses, sui generis. , No doubt the court itself stood in awe of these incarnate de- mons, else it would not have sufiered itself to have been insulted by their screams and noise when a verdict of the jury did not happen to suit them. In the selection of the persons whom they accused, it is probable that they were actuated by principles of revenge, either on their own account, or on account of some of their friends or confederates. They frequently accused persons of murder, from the spectral information, which, as they were suffered to say, the murdered person, after his death, disclosed to them. At the trial of Sarah Good, who with four others, was tried on the 30th day of June, and ^11 executed on the 19th day of the - following July, one of the accusers fell into a fit. Upon her coming out of it, she cried out that the prisoner had stabbed her with a knife, in the breast, and had broken the knife ; a piece of the blade was then produced. But in this instance, a young man was called, who proved that this accusing bewitched witness had THE TONGUE OF TIME. 207 sifTorn falsely. He produced the haft, and part of the blade of a' knife, which the court having compared and viewed with the piece broken off, which the girl produced, found that the latter belong- ed to the former. The young man then testified, that the day before, he happened to break his knife, in the presence of this accuser of the prisoner, and that he threw away the part broken off. She was then admonished by the court not td tell lies ; and this was all the notice taken of a plain case of perjury, committed in presence of the court. And still worse, she was after this suf- fered to testify against the persons on trial. There were women appointed to search the female prisoners for extra teats, it being affirmed that such were on the bodies of witches for his Satanic majesty to suck. Upon the trial of Bridget Bishop, a jury of women found, as they asserted, a preternatural teat upon her body ; but upon a re- examination, a few hours afterwards, there was no such thing to be seen. It was this Bridget Bishop, who it was said, by looking at the great and spacious meeting house, as she passed by it under guard, demolished a part of it. It does not seem to have occurred to those sage judges, that if these witches had the power of stabbing a person in the court room, without its being seen by themselves, and of demolishing buildings by looking at them,, that they might have demolished the court itself, and despatched the witnesses. It is stated that a physician first intimated that the girls in Mr. Parris' family were bewitched. But we have some doubt of any respectable man of the medical profession, having made any such assertion, as his name is not given. Nor does it appear that a single medical man was ever called to any one of these girls, who had fits, or as a witness on any of the trials. This goes very fM to prove that the professors of the healing art, set their faces against the whole proceedings, as in duty bound. And by which, we consider that they did an everlasting honor to their noble art. Of the liberal professions, it appears that divities and lawyers may claim the whole glory among their own brotherhoods, of what related to the Salem witchcraft. 208 THE TONGUE OF TIME. Nineteen persons had now been hung for witchcraft ; and one man by the name of Giles Cory, pressed to death, because he would not plead. A. late president of Yale College, the excellent Dr. Dwight, paid a visit to Salem, a few years before his death, as it would seem, with special reference to inquiry into the history of a delu- sion unparallelled in the New World. From his account we learn, that more than one third of the persons executed were members of the Christian church. One of the number, Mr. Burroughs, had been a settled minister in the town of Wells ; and that one hundred and fifty were imprisoned, and two hundred others accused. At this period spectral evidence was discontinued,. and no more were found guilty by the jury. Most of those in prison, were dismissed without bringing them to trial ; and Sir William Phipps, the governor of the colony, being at this time recalled, before his departure for Englan'd, pardoned those under sentence of death. Such a gaol delivery America had never seen, and it is hoped and bfelieved, will never have oc- casion to see again.* In the early accounts of this witchcraft, there is no distinction made in titles, both men and women being called witches. Even the learned Cotton Mather, calls his professional brother, the Rev. Mr. Burroughs, a witch, instead of a wizzard. He was for having him hung, and was gratified. In- the trials, the witnesses were sufiered to testify to what ghosts, spectres, appearances, and the shapes of persons, had said and done, as well as to what the dead had told them. Seve- ral penitent witches, were used as witnesses, and on one occasion, several of them swore that the prisoner then on trial, together with themselves, wa^ baptized in the river at Newbury Falls, by the devil himself ! and that they all, then and there, did worship his infernal highness, on the bank of the river, kneeling ! Before the breaking out of the Salem witchcraft, as an epidem- ic madness, there had been some sporadic, or scattering cases ; and one person had been previously tried. This goes far to de- velope its history, and the suddenness and extensiveness of its * April, 1693. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 209 spread. The people were prepared for it hy predisposition. Nothing glows faster than ill weeds, or is more contagious than bad example, or has such allurements for vulgar minds, as strange stories, which collect a crowd.. The delusion swept away all reason, all correct law, and all other diseases. Accidents, the death of animajs, the loss of children, and even sickness by fevers, and the oversetting of carts, were all imputed to witchcraft. Had the minister at Salem, in whose house the mischief began, dismissed his squaw, and given his children each of them a sound whipping, it might have saved the lives of twenty persons, and the imprisonment of one hundred, and fifty more. AVe believe in days of fasting and prayer, but we do not believe that they will answer in the room of family government. Nor did they in this instance. The notice which these young persons, and the Indian woman, saw taken of their eccentricities, encour- aged them to go on. Insanity is a state of mind in which all its principles are lost or obscured, with the exception of fear, alone. And we shall see, that it was the fear of pecuniary damages which gave the first check to the madness of witchcraft. The clergy, who have ever had unboundecl sway over the minds of the people of New England, with the exception of those of Rhode Island, were all on the side of the reality of witchcraft. Cotton Mather's account, entitled Wonders of the Invisible World, was written by order of the Government of the State. And as may have been expected, sanctions the proceedings of the Superior Court, in condemning and executing the miserable ob- jects of false accusers, false witnesses, and partial judges. Increase Mather, his father, president of Harvard College, was • a believer in the reality of witchcraft, and an influential supporter of his son's views, and of the Court's proceedings. Had it not been that some spirited laymen beheld the whole delusion with different eyes, and especially that Mr. Calef, a merchant in Boston, boldly controverted the views of Cotton Mather, inch by inch, it is impossible to tell to what unbounded heights of horror, this devastating madness might have arisen. Lieut Governor Danfo^th, was at this period chief justice of the Superior Court, for Suffolk county. The court convened for 210 THE TONGUE OF TIME. the trial of persons accused of witchcraft in Boston ; and the Chief Justiae expressed his determination to take such decisive measures with the supposed criminals, as woiild put a stop to its progress. When news arrived of the reprieve, by Gov. Phipps, of those previously condemned in Salem, so chagrined was his hon- or, at the tidings, that he abruptly left the bench, and vacated his seat for that session. Susanna Martin, a widow woman, was one of those persons who was tried, condemned, and executed at Salem. She is de- scribed by Cotton Mather, in his " Wonders," as an imprudent, scurrilous, and wicked creature. But the writer was evidently a man of ardent passions, and of violent prejudices, especially against supposed witches ; and approbated the proceedings of the court which tried, condemned, and had her hung. This poor widow gave answers to the questions of the court, upon her trial, which would not seem to corroborate that reverend writer's account of her. Upon being asked by the judge, respect- ing her accusers, who feigned fits, at her presence, how her ap- pearance hurt them, meaning her spectral appearance, which they asserted had also thrown them into fits, she replied, " How do I know 1 he that appeared in the shape of Samuel, a glorified saint, may appear in any one's shape." This answer intimates that she knew nothing of her spectral appearance, although, we think that she was so far under the influence of the prevailing opinion, that she believed that her o^vn appearance was assumed, without her knowing it ; and that if she did, in a spectral form, appear to her accusers, that it might be owing to the same won- derful being who appeared to Saul, in the shape of the prophet Samuel — that if the witch of Endor, could assume, or could pro- duce that prophet, or his appearance, when he had been long dead and buried, and was, as she supposed, a glorified saint, that the same power, the same witch of Endor, or any other witch, might assume her form, or produce her appearance, without her consent, or her knowing any thing about it ; the raising of Samu- el, at the command of Saul, being an involuntary act on the part of the prophet, and for which he reproved the king of Israel, al- though he did appear at the instance of the witch of Endor. THE. TONGUE OI* TIME. 2iit We do not see how a Coke, a Blackstone, or a Webster, could hare taken ground in her favor more tenable, more orthodox, or more elevated. She had previously denied, and no doubt truly, her knowing what ailed her accusers, or of her ever having done any thing to hurt them ; and when told by the sitting magistrate, that it was her a'ppearance., she replied that she could not help it. At this period of infatuation, the belief was almost universal, that spectres did appear to persons and hurt them, and she was probably of the common opinion. She was asked whether she did not think that her accusers were bewitched ; she answered, No, she did not think they were. The magistrate then told her to tell her thoughts about them. She replied no, her thoughts were her own when they were in, but when they were out they were another's. Those who have had that most distressing disease of sleep, called incuhus, or night-mare, will at once recpgnize it in the ac- count given by one of the witnesses upon the trial of the said Susanna. One Robert Downer, testified that this prisoner having been some years before prosecuted ait court for a witch, he then said unto her, he believed she was a witch ; whereat she being dissat- isfied said, that some she devil would sTiortly fetch him away, which words were heard by others as well as himself. 212 THE T0NGX7E OP TIME. The witness stated, that the night following as he* lay iil his bed, there came in at his window, the likeness bf a cat, which flew upon him, and took fast hold of his throat, lay on him a considerable time, and almost killed him ; at length he remem- bered what Susanna Martin had threatened hini the day before, and with much striving he cried out. Avoid thou she-devil, in the name ef the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost, avoid ; where- upon it left him, leaped on the floor, and flew out at the window. ' This was a decided case of nightmare. Upon the whole it appears that those persons who pretended that they were bewitched, were either young, credulous, ignoVant, or malicious, or all these combined ; and that some of them, as did Cotton Mather, impute to witchcraft, some of the well known symptoms of hysterics. We know that they affect the jaws and the throat as he relates ; and. that the jaws will sometimes remain long closely shut, so that nothing can be got down. Indeed, we think that from our own patients, we might give a narrative equally marvellous, of things that took place, as those which he himself saw, in Margaret Rule ; for it is to be observed', that he did not see her ja.ws pulled, oTpen, nor see her burned, nor see pins stuck into her, nor see brimstone, melted and poured down ,her throat. All these things he relates upon her own veracity, about her invisible tormentors. And we do know, and every physician knows, that women. after having come out of hysteric fits, are very commonly in a merry te^lking fit or mood, as Mr. Calef re- lates, was the case with, the said Margaret. And as to the num- bei* affected, we can call to mind its parallel in our own practice. Hysterical diseases, like most othe£s, do sometimes appear as a kind of eridepiic, though rarely. We had in one season, four «ases of young women, all of whom had fits, in one vicinity. Another case hot far off we heard of and did not attend; and was cotisblted, about the same period, in another case, in the same town. These cases occurred during a religious yevival ; and at the same period, a young man in the same place, and who attended the same meeting, with the five girls first mentioned, be- came insane, so thdt we were obliged to chain him. All this might have happened from any other cause, that violently excited iihe mind. And they all recovered. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 213' As to Margaret Rule's not eating and yet not emaciating, we know that girls will long have hysterise, and eat very little, with- out apparently falling away- And as Dr. Mather was not all the time with Margaret, she might have eaten more than was told him. The globus hystericus, which seems like a ball rising up into the throat, and choking hysterical women, very satisfactorily ac- counts for the swallowing motion which he observed in the said Margaret, and which she said was the swallowing of brimstone poured down her throat. Of this being actually the case, no one now a days will believe a single word. As to the prints of teeth which were exhibited, they appear to have been on the arms, where the bewitched could inflict them on themselves, which we believe that they did.* And it is not to be overlooked, that these persons, after all the miseries which they caused others, never one of them received any serious injury themselves. We are not told that the girl who perjured herself, by saying that she was stabbed in the breast by Sarah Good, ever exhibited any wound ; or if she did, it was only a slight scratch, which she had given herself. The malevolence of these persons, their aim at notoriety, their lust of power, and their contempt of authority, were evinced by > their screams and yells, in and about the court-house, when the jury had pronounced a person innocent, whom they were deter- mined to destroy. A court which had any respect for its own dignity, and who did not stand in some degree of fear of these malevolent demons, would have sent them every one to prison. But a court which could admit spectral evidence, and which could send out a com- mittee to search for extra teats to nurse the devil with, and could believe that a witness had been baptized by him, could believe any thing, and hang any body. A court too that could send an infant of four years old to prison, for being a witch, and biting with spectral teeth ! was a most powerful aid in keeping up and spreading the delusion of witchcraft. * We very well know, and every physician knows, that women in hyEteric fits will bite themselves, or any thing that they can lay hold of. It is common to hold a stick between their teeth to keep them from biting their own tongues. 19 214 THE TONGUE OP TIME. The way in which this awful delusion was at length arrested, was not by prosecutions, imprisonment, pressing to death with weights put on the breast, as was Giles Corey, or hanging. So long as these continued, this demoniacal madness also continued and increased. The low rabble, aided by Cotton Mather, waged a kind of servile war, through the courts, against people of reli- gion, reputation and resources. Like Jack Cade, they were willing to away to the prison, or to the gallows, with every one who spoke Latin. Notwithstanding the aid afforded. by the Mathers, and by Judge Danforth, yet we must award to Boston and its citizens, the credit of having first struck a decisive blow to the progress of its course. A gentleman in Boston, was accused by a person in Andover, of being a witch.* He prosecuted his accuser for slander, and laid the damage at a thousand pounds. This had not only the happy effect of saving himself, but of ruining the cause of de- mentia, witchcraft and sorcery, in the town where the accuser lived. The final discomfiture of the malicious malady in Salem, and other towns, was, as we have seen, by the reprieve of the condemned, and the discharge of the imprisoned, and the non- prosecution of the accused. These things go far, very far, in proving that the whole was the work of deluded, designing, or revengeful flesh and blood. All was over now, and we hear no more of girls crawling into holes, and under chairs, and of their having spectres bite them, and appearances stab them, and pour brimstone melted, down their necks ; or of men having cats take them by the throat. What is cured by natural causes, is pretty certainly caused by them. We now hear no more of these preternatural fits and afflictions. Distress for the loss of those unjustly cut off by false * We have asked ouraelves why men and women were alike called witches, when the term is only applicable to the latter ? Cotton Mather, who knew better, uses this improper language, as well as the rest. The probability is, that they did not find in tjie Bible, any command that wizards should not be suffered to live, so fully and plainly expressed, as that respecting witches ; and as they were determined to hang men, as well as women, by ecclesiastical, or the Mo- saic law, they gave them the name of witches, as well as women, and then the words of Moses' law, "thou shall not suffer a witch to live," would apply to all. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 215 accusation, stains on the reputation of courts and character, and the harrowing sensations of jurors, that they had pronounced guilty, those whom themselves and others now believed innocent, were sensations not to be easily obliterated. The distress of the Rev. Samuel Parris, in whose family the mania first manifested itself, was however of another kind. His parishioners demanded his dismissal. The good man held his place as long as was possible ; and the neighboring clergy, who had with him upheld the delusion in its reign, now supported the cause of their brother for his place. All would not avail ; he was dismissed. One would have thought that after the horrid scenes and sufferings which Salem had endured, that his retire- ment would have been spontaneous ; especially as they probably might have been prevented by himself, had he, in his own family, punished the first symptoms of the aggressors, as he ought. He had formerly been a merchant in the town of Salem, but having in worldly prosperity, succeeded better in the pulpit, than behind the counter, he clung to his station with a pertinacity truly aston- ishing. Those judges who hung the witches, ostensibly pretended to take the Bible for their guide, especially that clause of it, in which Moses says, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Now they ought to have considered that there is no definition given how the criminal or the crime is to be discovered. We can easily account for this indefinitude of the Bible. The Jews were under a Theocracy. They had likewise an inspired lawgiver. There could, therefore, have been no ambiguity in defining the crime, or of discovering the criminal. Under the new dispensation, these things are not so ; nor is there any command given to pun- ish a witch. The mistake of these judges, consisted in applying to one people, a rale which was designed locally, and solely for another. They ought, in order to have been consistent with themselves, to have abstained from eating pork, to have observed the seventh day as a Sabbath, and to have punished the people for any breach of these laws ; and they ought also to have reflect- ed, that there was no instance in the Bible, of a witch having been pumshed with death. 216 THE TONGUE OP TIME. § 9. There have been men whose countenances were marked by benevolence and humanity, the perusal of whose actions would lead us to suppose that we had fallen in with the records of the infernals ; and there have been others, whose actions, at one period, were marked by every virtue, and at other times black- ened with every crime. We would refer such heads, together with those of the Salem judges, to the examination of the plflre- nologists. And we wish them to consider well, that these judges, with Cotton Mather, appear to have had their tender sensibilities most wonderfully excited, in favor of girls who had pin-pricks, and the prints of teeth upon their arms, and who at the same time, cut off by death the most disgraceful, innocent men and women ; and this without any seeming remorse or feeling ; leav- ing families bereaved of a parent or member, with a legacy of never ending disgrace in their stead. Nay, they subjected some of their victims to more than death to bodies tender, and minds refined. Delicate and wdll educated women, were compelled to stand with their arms extended, till exhausted nature gave way under the load of pain ; they were then put into prison, and heavily ironed. Is there a bump for superstitious practices, of the most revolting kind, which gradually diminishes, as light, and equality, and toleration, diffuse themselves, till it is lost entirely 1 Is there another bump which rules, and which led those bewitched persons to refer tp their neighbors every disaster, and accident, and aiBic- tion, with which providence saw fit to visit them T If this bump should not be found, we incline to think that there is in the world a tendency still, in some people, similar to that which influenced those persons ; that is, to impute sometimes to their neighbors, what happens by the hand of heaven. We want the bump pointed out for sinning and for repenting. A man lately sent to the treasury of the United States, ten dol- lars, which he, or as he said his partner, defrauded the govern- ment of some twenty years before, in the admeasurement of sonje cloth. The phrenologists, in order for them to be consistent with themselves, must be able to display a change in the bump, when a man is cruel, and when he is merciful, when he is stealing, and THE TONGUE OF TIME. 2J7 when he is restoring, when he is pugnacious, and yrljen he is pla- cable. § 10. Something in the shape of witchcraft, or of certain magical practices or pretensions, existed in all the jijLa|:ions of an- tiquity ; but we do not recollect any tragical events recorded, as flowing from it, until the iptroduetion of Christianity ; a system which exceeds all others in every thing, and which gives no sanc- tion, either positive or implied, for punishing a witch. This shows the tendency of superstition to pervert the best systems to unhallowed purposes. It is true that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, threatened to slay his astrologers, for not interpreting and revealing to him his dream, which Daniel afterwards did ; but this threat does not appear to have been executed. That ancient nation the Egyptians, exceeded all others in all kinds of knowledge, in which that of magic was included. The rods of their sorcerers, we are told, became serpents, as did that of Aaron, and that blood and frogs were produced by them, as by him. A modern English writer, Dr. Ferriar, has written a theory of apparitions, which he endeavors to prove to have been imagin- ary beings, and that those who supposed that they saw them, were laboring under certain bodily 4iseases, which affected their minds with a peculiar kind of false vision, bordering on delirium and insanity. This writer has given an account of a magical performance, which is taken from Lucian. Lucian was an elegant scholar, and a philosopher of Samosata, in Syria, and was made, by the Roman Emperor, Register to the governor of Egypt. This was in the second century, after the Christian era. He vis- ited many different countries, and Athens, among others. His account is as follows : Eucrates says that he became acquainted with Pancrates, who had resided twenty years in the subterrane- ous recesses, where he had learned magic from Isis herself. At length he states, he persuaded me to leave my servants at Mem- phis, and to follow him alone, telling me that we should not ,be at a loss for attendants. When he came to any inn, he took a pin of wood, a latch, or bolt, and wrapping it in some clothes, when he had repeated a verse over it, he made it walk and appear a 19* 218 THE TONGUE OP TIME. man to every one. This creature went about, prepared supper, laid the cloth, and waited upon us very dexterously. Then when we had no further occasion for it, by repeating another verse, he turned it into a pin, latch, or bolt, again. He refused to impart the secret of this incantation to me, though very obliging in every thing else ; but having hid myself one day in a dark corner, I caught the first verse, which consisted of three syllables. After he had given his orders to the pin, he went to the market place. Next day, in his absence, I took the pin, dressed it up, and repeat- ing the syllables, ordered it to fetch some water. When it had brought a full jar, I cried, " Stop, draw no more water, but be a pin again." It was in vain, however, that I reiterated the com- mand of as you were ; the perverse pin continued his employ- ment till he had nearly filled the house. I not able to endure this obstinacy, (continues Eucrates,) and fearing the return of my companion, lest he should be displeased, seized a hatchet and split the pin in two pieces. But each part, taking up a jar, ran to draw more water ; so that I had now two servants in place of one. In the mean time Pancrates returned, and understanding the matter, changed them into wood again, as they were before the incantation. This pin story, teaches us that it is dangerous to raise stronger spirits than we can lay. It reminds us of the Egyptian rods, turned into serpents. It coincides with sacred history, in one point, that of confirming the strange faculty of the magicians of Egypt, and in this respect it is not unworthy of notice. Any sketch from profane history, which throws light upon sacred, we always read with the greatest avidity. We have besides, another object in view, in adducing from credible historians, examples of this kind, which will appear hereafter. We shall only remark here, that we received from a creditable and respectable eye witness, Capt. B. the relation of a phenome- non very similar, except the part relating to the water, and split- ting the piii, to this story of Eucrates. Every nation, at every epoch, have had and still have some- thing to relate upon what they deem veracious testimony, which sets at defiance the limits of common sense and general know- ledge, which shows, either that there is in nature certain obscuri- THE TONGUE OF TIME. 219 ties and marvels, which she does not choose to reveal all at once, but to deal them out at scores or centuries of years apart. Or that there is by search, and study, and attention, and initiation, occult mysteries, which may be fofimd out. We see that it cost Pancrates twenty years study, in the subterranean cells of Egypt, under Isis herself, to produce his water bearer. Magic, magical practices, and sorcery, are however, in all their relations, the quackery of philosophy ; which has its quackery as well as the medical art. Both, when the truth in all its purity and lustre is known, turn out to be imposture and empiricism. Very different are those phenomena of the human frame when afflicted with nervous and some other diseases. § 11. Why the eye sees, and the ear hears, we cannot tell, except by experience ; and yet there is no empiricism in seeing with the ears, and hearing with the eyes ; nor no imposture, but only a change produced by disease. And the same is the fact re- specting those who could tell colors by the touch ; but these things being so extremely rare, pass with the multitude for magic and witchcraft ; or rather did formerly, for there is at the present peri- od, so general a diffusion of literature, and books, and informa- tion, that it is likely to ruin the cause of witchcraft and magic, and to restore the present and rising generation to correct modes of coming at the truth, and of explaining singular, and strange, and far apart phenomena. § 12. We have ourselves seen a young woman of about fif- teen, who whilst in fits, could accurately tell the color of any kind of cloth, by feeling it with her fingers. Her name was Nancy Hazard; and she could tell woollen, silk, and cotton, when woven into small stripes, in the same garment, and the colors which they bore, although each kind of material had a different color. This she did of a vest whichnve happened to have on when we first visited her. The main fabric of this vest was woollen, with a very narrow perpendicular stripe of four fine threads of cotton, and the whole crossed off with an equally fine stripe of silk. We had not then noticed all the materials of this garment, nor did we at first think that she was correct, till upon getting some per- 220 THE TONGUE OF TIME. son, skilled in fabrics of the Idnd, to look at it, it proved true, and our own eyes bore witness, upon inspection of it afterwards. We have preserved a piece of this vest, for more than thirty years, and it is now stitched to the margin of the volume in which an account of this singular case was first published, drawn up by myself. These things she told by feeling alone, and that she ha4 never seen it, we knew, for she was in a fit \vith her eyes cloaely drawn together, and the vest was a new one, and never had been worn in her presence, if worn at aU, before. Our surprise to be sure, was excited, notwithstanding what Dr. Perry, whose copartner in medical business I then was, had related to me of her being able to distinguish her father, when she was in a fit, merely by touch- ing his hand, with the ends of her fingers, and with her eyes closed. Many other instances of the surprising results of her ex- treme, but diseased sensibility, had also been told me. But to prevent all deception, and to ascertain that she told colors by the sense of feeling alone, we had a pillow put before her face and eyes, and held around her head by a person standing behind her. We did this for the satisfaction of others, to whom we might afterwards happen to mention her case, for as to our- selves, we just as well knew that she could not see before the pil- low was put there, as after it was ; for the reason, that her eyes were shut, and shut by the spasm of her fit, which she had no control of — no power over ; and therefore, she could not have opened her eyes if she had been so minded. We varied the ex- periment, and repeated the same, by presenting her, whilst the pillow was closely held before her eyes, with substances of differ- ent colors, but she as accurately, and usually as quickly, told their various, and even mixed hues, as other persons could do with their eyes open. But it was all the effect of disease ; as soon as her fit was .entirely gone off, she had no more power of telling colors by the touch, than any other person ; ,and when her fits were severe, so as to produce convulsions, she could not qf course, tell any thing. The next time I visited her, ,1 witnessed something almost as extraordinary in relation to her acuteness of smell. She had given proofs of this before we saw her the second time. One of her attendants, whilst she was in a fit, took a small THE TONGUE OF TIME. 221 vial of oil of lemons, and held towards her. She drew in the fragrance with an incessant, convulsivie kind of snuffing, she being extremeljr partial to the odor of that substance. It was then carried „out of the room, and she, with her eyes shut,, direct- ed her face, as she lay on the bed, towarda the passage the per- son went out at. Before it was carried out, her musician rubbed the end of his finger around the mouth of the vial. He did not turn the vial up, and there was not the least particle of the oil, or essence in a fluid state, upon that part — there was nothing but the remains of the concreted oil. After the vial was carried out, he put his finger under the bed upon which she was lying, about half way between it and the floor. She instantly turned over on her face, and snuffed with the most eager intenseness, in order to m- hale the small remains of her beloved odor. This girl, Nancy Hazard by name, had as we have before inti- mated, the extraordinary faculty of distinguishing her father's hand by the touch, in her fits, soon after their commencement. It was discovered in this way. She had a propensity to beat her breast with the ends of her fingers, in imitation of dancing, and as if after a tune ; and when she seemed to strike so hard as to be in danger of hurting herself, one of her attendants would place his or her hand, where she struck. She seemed best pleased when her fathe'r's hand was thus placed, and would refuse to beat upon a strange hand. It was also discovered, that the hand of any one of her relations was preferred to that of a person not akin. This propensity lasted for some weeks, when it suddenly changed, and strange to tell, the touch of even a distant relation, would increase her cruel spasms to a horrible height. She had been bitten by a large black spider, upon the back of her hand. I had recommended music, at a former visit, and it was now made by an excellent performer on the violin. She did not now dance with her fingers alone, but on her feet, long and laboriously. But it was altogether spasmodic and involuntary. The music regulated the spasms, moderated their violence, and reduced them to regulaF order, instead of the irregular motions of convulsions. But it did not cure them ; she got well by the discharge of a thick green matter, resembling the juice of green vegetables, strongly pressed out. It was discharged from the back of her hand, «copi- 222 THE TONGUE OF TIME. ously, this being the spot where the spider had bitten her. It was compared to the juice of corn leaves and sage, with which dairy- women, in the part of the country where she lived, sometimes color their cheese. But it is singular, that it was discharged with a sloughing of the skin only, without the formation of an ab- scess. I have since been informed, by a respectable physician, residing in the town where this gjrl belonged, that he lanced an abscess upon a man's heel, which was occasioned by the bite of a spider, and that the matter discharged was of a green color. The man was a laborer, and went barefoot. At one of my visits to Miss Hazard, I found her in rather a severe fit, lying on the bed, and witnessed her extraordinary tact, or the instinct of diseased nervous sensibility, with respect to her relations, who had now all become utterly obnoxious to her touch. At this time, her intelligent musician, supposed from her moving her feet, that she wished to be helped up to dance. She was speechless. At that instant a distant relation happened to come in to see her. Her eyes were closed, and it was impossible for her to have known of his presence. But hearing her musician speak of her being helped up, he immediately attempted to assist her. The effect was such an instantaneous increase of her con- vulsions, (they being before ionic,) that for a moment I felt alarm- ed at her immediate death. He was peremptorily desired to desist. Not being, one of her relations myself, I helped her on to her feet, and stood near her, for about an hour and a half, during which time she continued dancing, but with such violent and exhausting energy, that she would have fallen several times, had I not sup- ported her. But after resting a minute, not more, she would re- sume the exercise, unless the music stopped, in which case her spasms, or convulsions, would resume their irregular action, either of the tonic, or clonic kind. As none of her relations could assist her, the family were obliged, at this time, to procure those not akin, to take care of her. It was even said, that when in her fits, her father's presence in the room, aggravated their violence. When out of them, all this aversion, as well as all the other marks of her morbid sensibility, vanished at once. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 223 Her hearing was afterwards said to have been so acutely in- creased, that %ae had been known to haTO^fheard what was said in a wMsper, \a another room. Of this the present writer cannot testify from his own knowledge, however. But he received his infqrmation from a matron lady of the iirst respectability, to whose hospitable dweUing Pfancy was for a while removed, with the hope that change of place and scenery, might benefit her strange disorder, which continued from December until the next August, with some remissions before, and with some invasions after, that period. She finally recovered, and gol married. It occurred iu Rhode Island, whilst the present writer practised in that state. An account of it, with some further particulars, was published in the New York Medical Repository, Hex. 2, Vol. I. Art. 1. It was remarked to the writer, by the late Dr. Todd, Principal of the Retreat for the Insane, at Hartford, that it was the most extraordinary case, that he had ever heard, or read of. But this cannot now be said. § 13. The case of Jane C. Rider, reported by Dr. BeLden, of Springfield, and that of Mrs. Cass, by Drs. Bernard and Colby, of Samstead, Lower Canada, exceed it in the marvellous. And that of Miss M'Evoy, of Liverpool, is still more surprising than the whole. All these are of a much later date. And. they are all so well and so respectably authenticated, as to be entirely beyond the surmise of exageration. ' And perhaps that of Rachel Baker, of New York, which also occurred since, was in some of its fea- tures, as extraordinary as any thing that we have related. A case is also mentioned by Dr. Rush, of which the present writer took a note from his manuscript Lectures, and which is a parallel to any one of the precpding. In the cases of Nancy Hazard, Jane C. Rider, and Mrs. Cass, there were some things common to' all of them, and others, peeu- liar to each. One thing common to all, was, that they would walk the room in their paroxysms, and avoid running against furniture, or obstacles of any kind, with their eyes shut, or rather drawn to- gether with the spasms, just as accurately as well persons with their eyes open could do. 224 TH^ TONGUE OP TIME. Another thing common to the three, was, that all that magic sensibility, which formed so prominent a feature in, each of their cases, depended entii-ely upon their bemg in their, fits^ This last circumstance alone, does away the probability, or even the possibility, of there having been any deception, or aim at deception, in either of their cas^ — they not having the com- mand of themselves, or of their disorder, any more than a person who is struck down with .the palsy, or has the pain of pleurisy in the side, or hermicrania in the head, or of adontalgia, or tooth- ache. It was also common, for all of them to be fatigued with the exertion of their extreme sensibility. Jane C. Rider, in her fits of Somnambulism, could read, in a room made totally dark. She could also read, and did read, in the presence of hundreds of respectable persons, with her eyes covered, and their sockets filled with cotton, and then a thick black silk handkerchief tied over the whole. And this, although her eyes were already shut. The same experiment was tried, by putting pieces of black velvet over her eyes, and tying them in their place, with a bandage before her eyes. She even sat the table, brought out the coffee cups on a salver, which she turned sideways to get through the door, cut the bread into slices, which slices she afterwards cut into two pieces each, by dividing the pile in the middle — went into the pantry when the window blinds were closed, and the door shut after her, and skimmed the milk, pouring the milk into one vessel, and the cream into another, without spilling a drop. All this w^s done in the darkness of night, without her haying a light, and whilst she was in a fit, so severe as to keep her eyes shut. She even threaded a needle in the night with her eyes closed. But that she saw;, through her closed eyelids, as people do when it lightens in the night, is evident, for in the d^ time, the light hurt her eyes so, that when she was in her fits, with her eyes shut, yet she would not , suffer the bandage from before them to be re- moved for a single moment. Thus the increased sensibility of the optic nerve was so marvellously acute, that the visual rays would penetrate through her shut eyes, even with black velvet, and a h9.i;icllj:erchief tied before them, THE TONGUE OP TIME. 235 § 14. This fact, as well as others which we shall adduce, strengthens our theory of optics, that seeing consists in rays, emanating from the eye, and meeting other rays, emanating from the object seen. Hence different objects can be seen at different distances, according as the eye abounds with a multitude of rays, or only with a few of them ; or as the object towards which the eye is directed, emits more or less rays, which depends on the light, the clearness of the atmosphere, and the height of the winds ; it never being very dark in the night when the wind blows very high ; and always being very light in the day time when the weather is cold and the winds boisterous. The rays, or feelers of the eye, are secreted by that part of the brain from which the optic nerves arise, and these rays are con- veyed outside of the optic nerve, to its expansion into the retina, when they become visual rays, and are emitted and become sight by the medium of light. When a certain portion of them are ex- pended, the eye feels their loss, by the fatigue of sight and light, and requires the organ's quiesence, and finally its complete re- pose in slumber and darkness. Hence sleep ensues. High winds affect the right line of rays, from the eye to the object, and from the object to the eye ; so that, although it may be lighter in the day time, during clear cold weather, when the winds are high, yet vision cannot be extended to very distant objects so accurately as when it is calm. A copious secretion of visual rays, enables a person to see with less light, than when the secretion is sparing. In the case of Dr. Belden's patient, Miss Rider, this secretion was so profuse as to enable her to thread a needle with her eyes shut, in a dark room. And as the air pump can never exhaust every particle of air, so no place can be commonly made so utter- ly dark, but that some light remains, or finds admittance.* Enough indeed for Miss Rider to see to read in her fits, but not when out of them. But perhaps her reading in the dark, was not the most extraor- dinary trait of her disease ; for like Mrs. Cass, and Rachel Baker, * It is evident that the eye does not see until the secretion, transmission, and emission of these visual rays, because it cannot see itself! No eye ever saw it- •self^ in a glass it sees its image by reflection, but not iiself. 2ft 226 THE TONGUE OP TIME. she appeared to have a double soul, or a division of her soul, into two distinct parts. Rachel Baker, of New York, would preach excellent sermons, and make prayers, one of which we have read, and never read nor heard a better, or more appropriate one. But it was only whilst she was in a state of sleep, reverie, or somnambuUsm. When she was awake, she had no faculty or gift of the kind. This was repeatedly ascertained by Dk. Mitchell, and her nu- merous other visitors. Her waking soul could remember the things of time and sense, and the occurrences and business of the day ; but the soul of her reverie, could only recollect things serious, sacred and divine. It could connect one discourse with another, upon those important subjects. But being awake, and clothed and in her right mind, the chain was broken, the connec- tion lost, and nothing but a secular soul remained, until another paroxysm bid it give place to an essence, or entity, or spirituality, more etherial. So Miss Rider could only sing in her fits, and knew nothing of that art, out of them. She could repeat poetry, which she had heard, or read over, but had not committed or re- tained in her waking memory, but which was retained in her sleeping or reverie one. When in her fits, she could repeat a piece of poetry called the Pilgrim Fathers, and another called the Snow Storm, with precision of style, correctness of taste, and elegance of manner. But even after having recited these pieces, both spontaneously, and at the request of her visitors for weeks, her physician ascertained that when out of her fits and in her normal state, that she could not repeat even one single stanza of either of them. Her sleeping or reverie fits at first attacked her only in the night, but they afterwards invaded her in the day time, and for the first time, as she was obtaining water from the pump, out of doors ; and that then her vision became so keen that she could see the sun through the clouds, was proved by her remarks, which were — What a beautiful day it is — how bright the sun sAiwes, when in fact it was quite cloudy. She was afterwards carried to the Insane Hospital, at Worces- ter under the care of Dr. Woodward ; and it became evident there as it had done to Dr. Belden, before she went there, that her reverie or somnambulism mind, was distinct from her waking THE TONGUE OF TIME. 227 one, by her hiding things which she could not find herself when out of her fits, but which she found without diflSculty , when anoth- er paroxysm occurred. At the hospital, she was seen to read with her eyes closely bandaged, with pieces of black velvet over them, under the bandage. And in this situation, she learned the game of back-gammon, and so rapid was her progress, that she won the sixth game of Dr. Butler, an experienced player, but whose hints, respecting her movements, she would not follow, but took her own course, and the result shewed the accuracy of her reverie-judgment. But when after this she awoke, or came out of her fit, it was proposed to her to play a game of back-gammon, she professed her entire ignorance of the game, and that she never saw it played. On trial it was found that she could not even set the men.* She learned it however, whilst awake, but her waking mind proved far inferior to her sleeping one, in the man- agement and success of her movements in the little-battle of back-gammon. That Miss Rider actually saw when her eyes were shut and bandaged, was justly inferred from her holding up things before the bandage, as other people do before their eyes, and by her then telling what they were, and reading a book correctly. In the case which occurred at Sanstead, Lower Canada, to Drs. Bernard and Colby, the patient, Mrs. Cass, made very good poetry of a religious kind, and exhorted, and sung, when in her fits. Her aptitude for rhyming, was the effect of her illness, as she had never shewn any taste of the kind in health. This woman's sight, or at any rate her faculty of perceiving what was done in her room, had been transferred to other nerves than those of her eye ; and in this respect her case resembled that of Miss M'Evoy, hereafter to be noticed ; both of whom were furnished with substitutes to their organs of vision ; Mrs. Cass, when in her fits, and Miss M'Evoy, when blind, by defect of her ^yes, when in her right mind. * The reader who wishes to see a more full account of this interesting case, can consult the Boston Medical and Sorgical Journal, Vol. xi. Nos. 4 and 5, where he will find a well written account of it by L. W. Belden, M. D. of Springfield, Mass. We introduce our own physiological and pathological views, of which others will judge, upon this and other cases. 228 THE TONGUE OP TIME. In relation to all these cases, as well as to that which we shall hereafter notice, derived from the venerable Dr. Rush, a remark of Dr. Colby is very appropriate, viz. that hy those who disre- gard all testimony he does not expect to be heard; and that, lY facts are to he rejected, the inductive principles of Bacon will no longer give certainty to science, and they of course, will he rejected hy all who refuse to he convinced hy the weakness of human testi- mony. Those who deny that Miss Rider could see in a dark room, are desired to find a place so dark that a cat cannot see in 1 And those who deny that the office of the optic nerves may not be transferred to other nerves, or that by means of the nerves, that there may he perception without contact, otherwise than by the eyes, are referred to the experiments made upon the bat, by Spal- lanzanni ; which creature when blinded, and even after its eyes had been extirpated, or to use the words of the late Dr. Pardon BowEN, had been all dug out, would fly about a room, in which cords and lines had been made to cross each other in every possi- ble direction, without flying against, coming in contact with, or touching one of them. These remarks he made to the present writer, in relation to the case of Nancy Hazard.* § 15. We think upon the subject of optics, that the nervous rays are secreted by that part of the brain from which the second pair, or optic nerves arise ; and that in some cases, that it may be so conducted by other nerves, to other parts, besides the eye, as to answer the purposes of vision. But we do not think, that when that part of the brain which secretes the optical rays, becomes so diseased as to lose its ofiice, that this can ever possibly be done. We once attended the post-mortem inspection of a man who had died with a lingering disease of the brain ; who during his illness, and it was long, had a variety of anomalous symptoms, and for about the space of three weeks, had been totally blind, before his death. There was in this case, a softening of that parj of the brain from which the optic nerves arise, so as that the nerve of one side was , entirely detached from the main part of * Dr. Colby refers to Dr. Good, as having noticed this peculiarity of the bat's avoiding obstriictions that are neither seen, smelt, heard, touclied or tasted. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 229 the cerebrum or brain, with a piece of the latter, however, hang- ing or attached to it, of about the size of a walnut. The other optic nerve, or that branch of it which went to the other eye, was much in the same state, though not entirely detached. Around the detached portions of the brain, and in the cavity from which they had been separated, there was a semi-fluid substance, re- sembling the matter of scrophulous abscesses. In this case, or in any case having any similarity to it, we should not expect that the same phenomena which occurred in the cases of Mrs. Cass, and Miss M'Evoy, could possibly occur ; and nothing of the kind had occurred in this man. § 16. Upon the subject of metastasis, to which De. Colbv refers, we have seen the history of a case, arising from the me- tastasis of small pox, in which all the phenomena of extreme sensibility were the consequences which we have related to have occurred in the case of Nancy Hazard, and with some manifesta- tions still more striking. § 17. Mrs. Cass for a while was entirely blind, which goes to prove that the visual rays which usually go from the brain to the eye, had a transfer or metastasis to other nerves, for when blind, and with her face turned towards the other part of the room, she could still perceive, and tell every person who came into her room, and every thing that was done in it, even to the moving a vial, and all correctly ! She appears also to have kept the hour of the day and ^ight by her own feelings, without the aid of a time piece. And one of her physicians says, that " guided by her internal sensation she directed means for her recovery." These means were cupping four times on her stomach, and the use of the warm bath. The latter had not been suggested before, but it was resorted to, and Mrs. Cass ultimately recovered, after a degree and length of sufifering seemingly too much for human nature to endure. For four weeks at one time, she was in her fits of reverie, without any other sleep than somnambulism. And when she was entirely blind with her eyes, she was still so dis- tressed at the approach of light, that her attendants were obliged to keep the room in darkness. This is certainly as strong a proof 20* ■*"" THE TONGUE OP TIME. of the transfer, or metastasis of visual perception, as can possibly be adduced or desired. The wit and sarcasm, sometimes manifested by Mrs. Cass shews that some part of her sufferings was owing to that hydra- headed disturber of female comfort, hysterics, a disorder which is regular in nothing but irregularity. This transfer of the senses is not entirely a new thing, although its being so extremely rare, has caused it to be denied, and that from a source from which we should have little expected. * § 18. Dr. Rush, who seldom omitted to notice any well au- thenticated fact, however strange, which could throw light upon his profession, has left a case of the kind upon record. It was that of a woman who lived near Lyons, who bad a confusion of all the, senses. She tasted with her touch, and heard with her eyes^ when her ears were closely stopped. When the present writer's account of Nancy Hazard's case was first published, he feared with some of his friends, that he had laid his own veracity, and the belief of his readers, under too heavy a load ; whilst those who were much with her, and espe- cially a gentleman who was an amateur on the violin, and who attended day and night at her abode, in order to mitigate her ter- rible fits by music, thought that I had passed too lightly over the wonderful features of her case. It is true that there were some things told by others, which he did not see himself, which were omitted : he was then young, and the case new. But up to the present time, cases of a similar kind, (except their not having arisen from the bite of a spider,) have so much multiplied, that Miss Hazard's case is somewhat thrown into the shade. Such cases are wonderful because few and far apart. Still, there does not appear to be any thing in any one of them, absolutely incon- sistent with philosophical and physiological principles. § 19. But after all, a gentleman of another profession, that of Divinity, has given a case from his own examination, which ex- ceeds all that the physicians who have related the foregoing cases, have told ; and it differs from them all, in this, that the young THE TONGUE OF TIME. 231 lady who was the subject of his experiments, was not in fits, and never appears to have been afflicted with them. The Rev. T. Glover, is the clergyman alluded to, and Miss M'Evoy, of Liverpool, the patient, who became blind in 1816, in the month of June. The cause of her blindness, as supposed, was water on the brain, Kydrocephalus internus. Of this head- dropsy, she was reUeved by the discharge of water from the ears and nostrils, but this did not remove her blindness. The October following, she accidentally discovered that she could read, by touching the letters of a book. The Reverend gentleman visited her, and found this to be the case, and he tells us that she read a Une or two of fine print by feeling the letters. Her age was then about seventeen. But he did not fail of testing her powers, in such a way as to satisfy himself, that her eyes had no agency in her extraordinary faculty. He had her blindfolded, so that he was certain that not a ray of light could penetrate to her eyes. And he put her sight by feeling, to a test far more delicate than that of reading. .He first inclosed six wafers of different colors, between two plates of common window glass, and as he tells us, 'by touching the glass, " she accurately told the color of each." Here then was something more than telling colors by the touch, for she could not touch the colors. It absolutely appears that she had sight at her _/?n^er-eM^s. Still, we will not dfecide this point too hastily. But we must decide, that this was the fact, or that her exquisite sensibility, could feel a reflection, a shadow, a shade. And from what is next told us, by the Reverend Experimenter, this rather appears to have been the true explanation. He says, that " all objects appeared to her as if painted on the glass." She was obliged to touch the glass in order to discover and de- scribe the color, whereas, if she could have seen with her fingers, what need would there have been for her touching the glass? This and what follows, confirms our theory of optics better than any experiment which we have known. It is that the rays of the eye touch, or meet the rays from the object which is seen. By touching the glass of the window, which looked into the street, she could describe the passers by, and what was going on, and what was lying there. But it does not appear that very dis- tant objects were to be discovered by her. 232 THE TONGUE OF TIME. In one of the experiments to which Mr. Glover subjected her, he tells us that, on applying her fingers to the window, she per- ceived two newly cut stones, of a yellow color, lying.the one on the other, at the distance of twelve yards. And in the same way she described a workman in the street ; two children passing by ; a cart loaded with American flour ; another cart with loaves of sugar, and a third cart empty, and a girl with a small child in her arms. It did not appear that she had in her fingers, the sense of taste, like the woman mentioned by Dr. Rush ; for she could not tell the difference between pure water, and water mixed with salt, by touching them. Nor was there the power of distinguishing colors by touching colored articles with the tip of her tongue ; but by putting the petals of flowers between her lips, she could tell their color, and the difference of color, in differently colored petals, exactly. She could accurately describe persons whom she had never seen before, by holding a piece of glass in her fingers betwixt them and herself, they seeming to be painted on the glass. But without a piece of glass this she could not tell. She could tell gold and silver from steel. She said that gold and silver felt finer than other metals. Her feeling itself, therefore, must have been extremely delicate ; but did it enable her to describe the carts, and persons, and other objects in the streets of Liverpool, or was there actual vision in her fingers 1 We were at first incli- ned to the latter opinion. But from her being obliged to touch the glass, we incline to the opinion that the whole must be refer- red to the sense of feeling exquisitely sublimed. If she could actually have seen, she could have described what was passing in the streets, without touching the glass of the window. But this she could not do. As persons can, with the eye distinguish a shadow, a shade, and a reflection, her sense of touch could do the same. The nearer an object is to us, the plainer appears its shadow. Nor are shadows and shades discernaWe at any great distance. And agreeably to this theory, Mr. Glover tells us, that she said, that a man at the distance of only twelve yards, did not appear to her more than two feet high. And that an ornament, in imitation of an orange, she mistook for a real orange, but said, that at the distance of 30 inches, that it did not appear larger than a pea. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 233 By touching a mirror with her fingers, she could perceive no- thing but her fingers. But by holding a piece of plain glass three or four inches from the looking glass, she could discover the image of her own person. Yet, if the mirror was removed fur- ther off, she said that her face was diminished in size. Ml-. Glover says, that her power of telling colors, was more perfect at some times than at other times, and that at some peri- ods it entirely failed, every thing appearing black to her. The Reverend gentleman appears to have been a very accurate, scientific, and philosophic investigator. And he carried his ex- periments and trials of her surprising faculty, to the number of twenty ; and with such a degree of scrutanizing accuracy, that there was no possibility of deception, had she had any intention to have deceived — ^but this she appears not to have had. And the results were full and satisfactory. She could not perceive colors in the dark, which is one of the strongest proofs of a metastasis, or transfer, of the visual rays to her fingers. And that her power of feeling so nearly resembled sight, that light was necessary. In this respect she was unlike Nancy Hazard, Jane C. Rider, and Mrs. Cass, all of whom had a morbid, or sickly sensibility. A sensibility which existed only in fits, somnambuhsm, or reverie. It was, therefore, more acute whilst it lasted, than the sensibility of Miss M'Evoy, but it was less permanent. And the sensibility of the latter was more consonant with health. It seems that upon this point, that repeated trials were made, and that she failed in them all. Objects differently colored, were put under a pillow, and when she touched them, they all appeared alike dark. A green card she once said was yellow. This is a proof that no deception was attempted, and that light was necessary. But there was one similar trait in Miss M'Evoy, to the three patients mentioned above, which is yet to be more partictilarly noticed. She had intervals in which she had not the faculty of telUng colors, even when it was light, and when she also had that necessary appendage, a pane, or piece of window glass, in her hand. We refer this deprivation to the brain and optic nerves ; and to their not secreting a suflicient quantity of the rays of vision, to reach such distant parts as the ends of the fingers, unimpaired in quality, or deficient in quantity, or both — nature having prima- 234 THE TONGUE OF TIME. rily designed that these rays should reach only an inch and a half, or a little more than two inches at farthest, to act on the eye ; whilst in being transferred to the ends of the fingers, they had to travel to the distance of at least three feet, in a person of less than middle height. And we ought not to omit to notice also, that when the rays of visual perception, had reached thus far, that they met a very dif- ferent and deficient apparatus, from the eye itself — wt mean the finger ends. We view the brain as a vast secreting sui generis, gland ; des- tined to secrete the senses, and we view the 'nerves as destined to transmit them to their appropriate organs. And we view the pineal gland, as a moving substance, designed to transmit on the outside of the nerves, the nervous spirit or juice, and as being the heart of the brain, in its circulating the sensual fluids, as the heart of the body does the blood ; and that when diseased na- ture errs, and sends the visual producing power to the fingers, or to the nerves of other parts, besides the eye, that something like vision may be produced, wherever it is sent. Hence, when the woman mentioned by Dr. Rush, could hear with her eyes, with her ears closely stopped, the auditory liquid was sent to the eyes. This also developes the reason why persons have been known to hear, whose tympanum, or drum of the ear, was destroyed. The extremities of the nervous fibrils, answering as a substitute to the drum of the ear, and receiving the auditory spirit of the brain, or liquid of hearing ; which, as related to sight, was in the case of Mrs. Cass, transmitted to the surface of the body. Miss M'Evoy could not only read by touching the letters, but by the aid of a convex lens, she could read, and did read, in the presence of Mr. Glover, with her fingers nine inches from the book. He observes, that when reading, she gently rubs the up- per surface of the lens with the tips of her fingers. She said that the letters appeared larger through the lens than without it. The feader must stiU remember, that she in this experiment, as in all the rest, was so completely blindfolded, that not a ray of light could reach her eyes, even if she could have seen — ^which she could not, she being totally blind. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 235 We have seen it noticed by another visitor to this young wo- man, that she could tell, and did accurately tell, the time of day, by feeling the glass, or crystal of a watch. Mr. Glover tried her sense of feeling as to the seven prismatic colors, painted on a card. To these she gave the names of scar- let, buff, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue or purple, and lilac. Mr. G. says, that as the orange paint was much faded, the term buff was correctly applied to it. "When she was reading through the glass lens, by feeling it, a penknife was laid upon the line, and she immediately perceived it, and told what it was. Why Miss M'Evoy was unable to discern objects which she did not touch, only by the medium of a glass, Mr. Glover could offer no conjecture. Upon this point we would remark, that the eye is able to dis- tinguish colors, shadows, and shades ; and that the reflection, or shadow of any object is strongest when a transparent medium, such as glass, water, or polished steel, refracts the rays of light. As her delicacy of touch had acquired the acme of sight, the problem has its solution by a reference to this fact. And in the case of Miss Hazard, something of a parallel delica- cy we ourselves witnessed. For after feeling the hand of any of the spectators, (with a pillow before her eyes,) she would after- wards tell, by feeling of a piece of money, to whom it belonged. That is, if she had before felt the hand of its owner, and he handed it to her. We tried this experiment personally ourselves. But if a piece of money belonging to another person, was handed to her by me, it appeared to puzzle her to tell to whom it belonged, and if she decided, she decided doubtingly, as to the two, i. e. as to myself and the other person who had handled it. The objects which Miss M'Evoy could distinguish and describe, made a shadowy alteration on the surface of the glass, which her fingers could distinguish, just as do the eyes of other persons. Without entering at the present time upon a discussion of that doubtful question, whether the images of things seen, are painted in an inverted position upon the eye, or upon any part of it, we will mention some things which do appear more evident. 236 THE TONGUE OP TIME. 1. Sight, is an emanation from the eye, of rays, which meet another kind of rays, coming from the object, or objects, which are seen, or the object itself. That the rays of vision must go out from the eye, in order for it to see, is evident, because the eye cannot see itself. No person ever saw his own eye, no eye ever saw itself, although by means of a mirror it has seen its image. Now if seeing be the inverted painting of the object seen, upon the eye, why cannot the eye see itself, and describe its different parts ? Why not see its own pupil, and crystalin lens, and vitre- ous humour, and cornea, and retina, and be able to point them out 1 This no person can do, let his anatomical knowledge be never so accurate, or his eyesight never so acute. 2. The rays going out from the eye, must meet the rays com- ing from the object seen, or else vision will not ensue. And un- less refraction takes place, both kinds of rays travel in direct lines, and must of necessity so travel, in order to insure vision. Seeing, is therefore one kind of feeling. And in Miss Hazard, Miss M'Evoy, Miss Rider, and Mrs. Cass, feehng was one kind of seeing. 3. We should place the rays of vision sent out by the eye, to the account of the aqueous humour. This humour being a real sj)irit, which will not freeze in the coldest weather ; it being also secretable and renewable. For in cases where it has been let out, as in extracting the cataract, it is again reproduced. The con- stant expenditure of this humour, whilst the eye acts, calls for a continued supply of it, and this nature has provided, for if it is all pressed out, its natural cavity is again filled with it, and that so soon as ten, twelve, or at farthest, twenty hours. This is well known to operators who extract cataracts. 4. The rays coming from the paper upon which we are writing, feel differently upon the retina of the eye, from the letters which we make. And so of all other colors and objects. A metastasis, or transfer, of the aqueous humour of the eye, to the ends of the fingers, or to the other cutaneous nerves, would enable a person's touch to perform the offices of the eye. This we think is proved by the cases of the four women above mentioned. THE TONGUE OP* TIME, 237 5. In the case of Dr. Belden's patient, there Vras an ability to discern objects in a dark room. This facuhy has been acquired by prisoners who have been long confined in dark dungeons. And in the case of Miss Rider, the patient referred to, disease produ- ced the same power at once. Whilst bats have the same pecu- liarity, naturally. We learn, therefore, that one set of nerves are endued vrith the ability of sometimes performing the offices of another set This is paralleled by one set of organs doing the duties of others which are lost, or which nature never bestowed. We have seen a boy in Peal's Museum, write legibly with his pen between his toes, he having been born without arms or hands. And we have seen very striking pictures which were drawn by a girl, with the pen or pencil held by the mouth, she having been ;born without fingers or toes. And Dr. Good gives instances of persons having been able to talk intelligibly, after their tongues had been entirely cut out. And in relation to hearing, it has been known still to have re- mained, after the loss of the tympanum, and the eight little bones of the ears ; the extremities of the auditory nerves, supplying the loss of the whole -complicated machinery. When the teeth are lost, in aged people, the dissolving quality of a certain very important liquor in the stomach, is so increased, that the food is nearly or quite as well digested, as it was whilst the teeth remained. This liquor is called the gastric juice. It dissolves the food, and even corrodes and destroys metals, as was proved in the instance of a foolish fellow, who swallowed in imita- tion of a mountebank, a number of clasp-knives. The experi- ment however cost him his life, by one of the springs of the back of a knife penetrating his bowels. 6. The rays of vision, the rays of light, and the rays proceeding from an object in view, all agree in penetrating a transparent medium, such as glass, diamonds, crystal, mica, &c. And they all agree, also,, in not penetrating any opaque substance. Whilst the more dense substance, water, will be absorbed, or pass into wood, but cannot make its way into glass. We saw an instance of this to day. A door, which had panes of glass fixed into it, exhibited no signs of moisture upon its surface, whilst on the 21 238 THE TONGUE OP TIME. glass, the exhalations of steam from a stove in the room, stood in drops, and even ran down in little rills upon the wood from the glass.* 7. There was one experiment to which the Rev. Mr. Glover subjected Miss M'Evoy, which shewed the faculty of perception in her fingers in a manner as exquisite as any one which we have already noticed, and perhaps more so. It would indeed of itself be sufficient to prove that she had the quality of sight, or its congener in her touch. And had it been seen by Sir Isaac Newton, would, as we think, have staggered that philosopher in his theory, of that part of his optics, in which he supposes that sight is the result of the object seen, being paint- ed in an inverted position upon the retina of the eye. The ex- periment was as follows : Two polished pieces of glass pressed togther, exhibited betwixt them rings and circles ; and Miss M'Evoy, by touching the sur- face of one of these plates, was able to perceive and to describe them. They seemed to her, as she said, to be flying before her fingers. Had this, and the other manifestations of transferred sensibility, which shfe, and the other ladies which we have mentioned display- ed, been seen by Cotton Mather, he would undoubtedly have referred them to witchcraft. We cannot but here award the meed of praise to Mr. Glover, for his perseverance, and patience, and ingenuity. He was three days in making his experiments and observations. He had others with him to witiiess the extraordinary phenomena exhibited, and he frequently repeated them. The young woman received no compensation from her visitors, and had no motive to have de- ceived them, even if deception had been possible. • We have full confidence in the narrative of the Rev. clergyman, and with increased confidence in ourselves, we can assure the * The rays emanating from objects, are rays of light, colored with the par- ticular coloV of the object seen. Those from a red apple are red, those from a green apple green, and those from an orange yellow. In order for vision to take place, these rays must meet those secreted by the optic nerves, whether they are retained in the eye, or whether they be transferred to the fingers, or to some other part of the })ody. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 239 reader that what we have related with respect to Nancy Hazard, in our younger years, is fully in our remembrance, and entirely correct. 8. We would refer to the rings and circles exhibited by pressing together two plates of polished glass, as the visible concentration of the rays sent out from the eye, the rays of light, and the rays emanating from the glass itself, in visible combination, or mixture. We may here inquire how the Newtonian theory of light, which consists in its being formed of the prismatic colors, as emitted by the sun, applies to the light given by the lamp, by which we are at present writing 1 § 20. We are told of Margaret Rule, Cotton Mather's be- witched girl, that she was lifted up to the ceiling of her room, and held so firmly that several persons were required to pull her down. This the Rev. Doctor relates, as having himself been an eye witness of. A phenomenon exhibited by the house-fly, had he looked over head in the room, might have been equally mysterious. We every day see this insect crawling and sleepingwith its back downwards. A sight which is so common that we think little of its being, as it is, very wonderful. And we are told in the Life of Columbus, that the discoverer of the New World, discovered a new mode of fishing among the Indians of some of the Carribee Islands. It consisted in fasten- ing a certain kind of live fish to the line, which by suction would adhere so fast to the Ash in the sea, that both were pulled out of water together. This fishing-fish would sometimes hold on so fast to a rock, as to suffer itself to be pulled apart, rather than quit its hold. Man, in health and in disease, both together, is a microcosm of almost every phenomenon. And if we are to believe Mr. Mather, we must suppose that the girl's hysterical disease, fur- nished her with the power of the house-fly, and of this fish, in overcoming the power of gravity. But it is more than probable, that this Margaret Rule held on to a nail, or hook, or some other substance, with a convulsive or hysterical grasp, which is even in weak women, sometimes ama- 240 THE TONGUE OP TIME. zingly powerful — as we have seen a girl, in hysteric fits, who re- quired five men to hold her on to the bed, and who would manage a man at arm's end, just as she pleased, or rather as her convul- sions tended. We certainly ought to be cantious how we cry out witchcraft, until we have ascertained what diseases, deprivations, idiosyncra- sy, and training, will do.- Had Cotton Mather possessed the same knowledge, the same tact of discrimination, and the same independent spirit, as the Rev. Mr. Glover, we should have heard little, perhaps nothing at all, of the Salem witchcraft. The human frame is a structure of no ordinary wonder and amazement, when in health. But when subjected to disease, like the sea agitated by a storm, its appearances become still more in- teresting. §21. Theuniversality of deception is worthy of notice. There are in the vegetable world, certain plants which resemble each other, and in most of their sensible qualities appear alike, and yet one of them is a wholesome nutritious food, whilst the other is a noxious poison- There are minerals which bear a near affinity in appearance, such as yellow arsenic and sulphur, and yet the former is deleteri- ous even unto death, whilst the latter is a mild and useful medi- cine. There are serpents whose figure, color, violence, and spirit, are commensurate with the most harmful of their race, and yet they can only frighten, for they have no fangs, nor no poison. In the heavens, clouds which send forth the hurricane, and pour down the hail, have their exact patterns in other clouds which do neither, but pass away to the east, and leave the western sun more delightful, without moving a leaf or moistening a blade. The fogbank, and the iceberg, delude the anxious mariner with the hope of his near approach to land, but he finds himself de- ceived, disappointed, and sometimes ruined. Like the fig-tree, other trees and plants present the appearan- ces of fruit fine and fair, and yet when approached, we find nothing but leaves. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 241 The mirage of the desert, which is a refraction of the rays of light by the atmosphere, tantalizes the thirsty traveller with the appearance of water, but he finds himself mocked, and that the appearance is all, and that no .water is to be felt or tasted. Not a drop to cool his tongue, or to quench his burning thirst is to be found, although to his eye, the coveted beverage, like a flowing flood, or running river, seemed almost within his reach. Thus the universality of deception, is very surprising indeed. What we find so abundantly displayed in minerals, vegetables, animals, and serials, we shall most assuredly find in the bodies, souls, and minds of men. There is a propensity in many people to refer their diseases and disasters to the wrong source — to the negligence, or malice, or avarice, or ambition, of some individual, who is entirely uncon- scious of harm. The politician, and soldier, refer their maladies to what they did and sufiered for the cause of the people — ^the student, to his intense study — ^the valetudinarian, to the ignorance or quackery of his medical man, or to the mistakes of his nurse. The man of business accuses the captain of the steam boat, or the conductor on the rail-road, of delay, or precipitation or mis- management. ■ Tlfe lady-patient, in one chamber, had the foundation of her illness laid, whilst a girl at a boarding school, by food too scanty 21* 242 THE TONGUE OF TIME. or bad, or both together. In the next chamber is another lady, ill from having stopped at the wrong inn, where was a poor fire, bad tea, and damp sheets. The man in one ward of the hospital imputes his lameness to his master, whilst he was an apprentice, overloading him. In another ward is a coachman, who sat so long in the cold, whilst his mistress was making calls, that his feet wer« frozen. In a third ward is a boy with an aneurism, which he imputes to a blow from another boy. In that house lives a lady who is nervous, and has every kind of bad health, caused, as she supposes, by her very hypochondrical father, enjoining upon her to sit by his bed-side, when she was a girl, and hold his two hands betwixt hers.* If through extreme fatigue and monotony she loosened her hold, her father would immediately cry out, " Lizzy, you dont hold my hands." His fits of low spirits occurred in the winter, when cold was added to the fatigue of her sitting for hours, in one position, at the bed-side of her -father. Thus the disorders of all the sick, are referred to accidental causes, and no one is ill from the fragility of his frame, the fiat of fate, or constitutional decay or decline. All have, at least just now, a bad cold, caught whilst visiting a sick neighbor, or from having been exposed in performing some official duty. This kind of erroneous principle, when fostered by parents, and friends, and nurses, and as in the Salem hysterical girls, by min- isters, and officers, and courts, goes far, in our minds, towafds developing the mysterious mania, which led to the horrors of what is called the Salem witchcraft. We are by no means certain that similar scenes might not be conjured up in our day, were there a sufficient number of unprin- cipled abettors to begin the business, and were our ministers, and deacons, and judges, and the community, possessed with the same erroneous feelings, and disposed to let them go into action. Hap- pily, this is not the case. * This case is founded on fact; both the father and daughter were patients of the present writer. She was his favorite child. The man was Lieut. Governor of the state in which he lived. THE TONCUl!: UF XIiaE. 243 § 22. The magical practices of our Indian aborigines, appear to have been rather of a harmless kind, and were sometimes con- nected with their religion, sometimes wilh their medicine, and sometimes with their politics, and at others with their amusements and dances. / Lieut. Pike, of the U. S. army, afterwards General Pike, relates his having been present at one of their religious, or tuedicinal dances, composed of both sexes, all dressed in their gayest attire, .every dancer holding a small skin of some animal in his or her hand. This skin appeared to be the wand of their magic. They ran up to each other with these skins, one would point his skin at another, and puff with his breath. The one thus blown upon, of which ever sex, would instantly fall and appear almost lifeless, or in great agony, and after a slow recovery, join in the dance. But these blowers, who have the pretended power of blowino' others down, are of a particular class of initiated persons, and the secret costs them forty or fifty dollars, besides giving the society a feast. Mr. Frazer, who was with Lieut. Pike, on the upper Mississip- pi, was in one of the Indian lodges, when one of these blowers came in. The young men immediately threw their blankets over him and forced him out. Upon their seeing Mr. Frazer laugh at 244 THE TONGUE OP TIME. them, they called him a fool, and told him he did not know what the dancer could blow into his body.* It appears by the account of a missionary to the North West coast, that the Indians there held to something like the metemp- sychosis of the Greeks. Le Koote, the Chief of the Tmn Garse, told him, that of those who died, some were not well received above, and were in consequence but sparingly supplied with food and drink. These, he added, came back, and assumed another body. He gave an instance of this kind. It was of a certain chief who was killed on board of an American ship. After his death, he appeared to his wife and told her that he was the iden- tical child which was about to be born of her ; and that after the child's birth, the scars of the wounded chief, were found on the infant. It would appear by the story that the child was a male, and the circumstance of the scars, was considered as a proof of the truth of this doctrine. But we may remark, that there are many infants born with marks upon them among us. These marks are imputed to fright, or to some strong impression made upon the mother's feelings or imagination. We well recollect a certain young lady, who had what resembled a piece of the skin of a nicely roasted pig upon her arm. Her mother attributed this mark, or navi matemi, to her having been disappointed of a certain piece of a roasted pig, at a wedding, whilst pregnant with this daughter. But medical histories abound with instances still more striking; one of which is that of a woman in Holland, who attended the execution of a criminal who was beheaded, when she was preg- nant ; and who was in process of time delivered of a dead infant, with the head entirely detached from the body. Many years past we had a very respectable clergyman who was foi" several years an inmate of our family, and who had five fingers beside the thumb, on each hand ; and he had an only son and child, whom we saw, who had the same peculiarity. The clergyman also informed us, that his father had the same number of fingers ; and that it was produced by his grandfather having spUt his thumb into two parts accidentally with an axe, in sight of his wife. * Med. Rep. Hex, ii. Vol. iv. p. 378, 379. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 245 We think that instances of this kind are too well authenticated to be denied, and that they sufficiently account for the fact related by Le Koote, to the missionary. In order to get at the true Indian character, we must consult those travellers, or their works, who remarked upon it before they had much connection with the whites. Alexander Henry, Esq. travelled among the Canadian tribes as early as from 1760 to 1776. He gives an account of one of their juggling physicians, and his patient, who was a girl of about twelve years of age, and who appeared to Mr. Henry, to have had a fever, and to be in the last stage of consumption. The Indian's mode of practice was that of sueking away the disease through small hollow tubes, applied to her breast, or tho- rax. His tubes appeared to be the wing bones of a swan. But he accompanied his practice with a song and a rattle, and swal- lowed the tubes himself, after the application of sucking was over. Or at least two out of three of them were swallowed by himself. The swallowing, or apparent swallowing of the tubes, put the doctor into terrible agony, which he evidenced by throwing his body about in horrid contoi'tions. And the bringing them up was equally distressing. Upon bringing up the second tube, which appeared to have a small grbove outside of it, a substance was found by him which Mr. Henry says, resembled a small part of the quill of a feather. This was handed about as a trophy, and declared to be the cause of the girl's disease. His practice was however, unsuccessful, for his patient died the next day. Mr. Henry tells us, that their jouers, or jugglers, believe that by drawing the figure of a person in sand, ashes, or clay, qr by considering a tree, stump, or hUIock, as his substitute, that any injury inflicted upon it, will be felt by the person himself, whose figure the hillock or stump represents. This Wt^^jf^^ mind again of the Salem witchcraft. Persons accuse^^nj^^ witch- es, were complained of by their accusers, in c^^^B^inching ^ad pricking them there, when they were out o^rcach of each other. And those sage Salem judges, had such persons' hands tied, when the accusers declared themselves relieved of their tor- ments ! This circumstance alone, is sufficient proof of the whole being the work of imagiaation and malice. The Indian man 24^ THE TONGUE OP TIME. and woman in the family of Mr. Parris, probably taught these notions to his children. Mr. Henry tells us, that these Jouers are supposed to be able to inflict death upon an absent person, by mu- tilating his imagined image ; and he saw one of them ripped up and killed by an Indian man, who accused him of having killed his brother by his magic arts, exercised in this very way. § 23. Some persons, more competent to judge than ourselves, have supposed a most striking similarity between the account given by Mr. Henry, of the Indians at the Sault of St. Mary, con- sulting the Great Turtle, and that of the ancient Greeks, con- sulting their oracles. It took place in 1764. That such coincidences should have existence in a matter of such a strange, ambiguous, and eccentric character as the present, is much more wonderful than that they should occur in the con- struction of buildings, the systems of government, or the similar- ity of ornaments and decorations. Mr. l^^^Hficcount is to the following effect : for invoking and consultw^he Great Turtle, the first thing to be done was, the erection of a large house or wigwam, of such dimensions as to contain the whole tribe. Within this large structure was a tent erected for the use of the priest, and the reception of the spirit. This tent, its construction, and what took place within it, THE TONGUE OP TIME. 247 form the grand arcana of the whole performance. It was con- structed with five poles, or rather pillars, of eight inches diameter, and ten feet in height. These pillars were set about two feet into the earth, into holes dug for the purpose, and then the earth thrown out, put back around them. At the top, these pillars were bound together with a circular hoop or girder. They were set in a circular form, and at bottom inclosed a space of about four feet in diameter. They were of wood, of five different spe- cies, and covered over with skins of the moose, which were made fast with thongs of the same. A part however, of one side, was left unfastened, to admit of the entrance of the grand dramatist, the priest. The ceremonies did not commence but with the ap- proach of night. To give light within the great wigwam, several fires were kindled within it, around this tent. Nearly the whole village assembled within the first inclosure, and Mr. Henry among the rest. It was not long before the priest appeared. He had very few clothes on, and was almost indeed in a state of nudity. As he approached the tent the skins were lifted up, as much as was necessary to allow of his creeping under them on his hands and knees. His head was scarcely within side, when the edifice, massy as it has been described, began to shake, and the skins were no sooner let fall, than the sounds of numerous voices were heard within, and beneath them. Some yelling, some barking like dogs, some howling as wolves ; and in this horrible concert were mingled screams and sobs, as of despair, anguish and the sharpest pain. Articulate speech was also uttered, as if from hu- man lips, but in a tongue unknown to any of the audience. After some time, these confused and frightful noises, were suc- ceeded by a perfect silence. And now a voice not before heard, seemed to manifest the arrival of a new character in the tent. This was a low and feeble voice, resembling the cry of a young puppy. The sound was no sooner distinguished, than all the Indians clapped their hands for joy, exclaiming that this was the Chief Spirit, the Turtle, the spirit that never lied ! Other voices, which they had discriminated from time to time previous- ly, they had hissed, as recognizing them to belong to evil and lying spirits, which deceive mankind. New sounds came afresh 348 THE TONGUE OF TIME. from the tent. During the space of half an hour, a succession of songs were heard, in which a diversity of voices met the ear. From his first entrance, till these songs were finished, we heard nothing in the proper voice of the priest, but he now addressed the multitude, declaring the presence of the Great Turtle, and the spirit's readiness to answer such questions as should be pro- posld. The questions were to come from the chief of the village, who was silent however, till after he had put a large quantity of tobacco into the tent, introducing it«t the aperture. This was a sacrifice offered to the spirit ; for spirits are supposed by the In- dians to be as fond of tobacco as themselves. The tobacco ac- cepted, he desired the priest to inquire, whether or not the Eng- lish were preparing to make war upon the Indians 1 and whether or not there were at fort Niagara, a large number of Eoglish troops 1 These questions having been put by the priest, the tent instantly shook ; and for some seconds after, it continued to rock so violently, that Mr. Henry expected to see it levelled with the ground. All this was a prelude, as he supposed, to answers to be given. But a terrific cry, announced with sufficient intelligi- bility, the departure of the Turtle. A quarter of an hour elapsed in silence, and Mr. Henry waited impatiently to discover what was to be the next incident in this scene of imposture. It consisted in the return of the spirit, whose voice was heard again, and who was now delivering a continued speech. But the lan- guage of the Great Turtle now, like that which had been heard before, was wholly unintelligible to every ear, that of the priest excepted. And it was not, therefore, till the latter gave an inter- pretation, that the audience learned the purport of this extraordi- nary communication; which did not commence before the spirit had finished. They were then informed by the priest, that the spirit, during this short absence, had crossed lake Huron, and even proceeded as far as fort Niagara, which is at the head of lake Ontario, and thence to Montreal ; a distance, this, of more than a thousand miles out, making more than two thousand miles, going and re- turning, all in fifteen minutes. At fort Niagara, he had seen no great number of soldiers ; but on descending the Saint Lawrence, as low as Montreal, he had THE TONGUE OP I'IME. 249 found the river covered with boats, and the boats filled with sol- diers, in number like the leaves upon the trees. He had met them on the river, coming to make war upon the Indians. The chief had a third question to propose, and the spirit, with- out a fresh journey to fort Niagara, was able to give an instant and favorable answer. " If," said the chief, " the Indians visit Sir William Johnson, will they be received as friends." " Sir William Johnson," said the spirit, (and after the spirit the priest,) " Sir William Johnson, will fill their canoes with presents, with blankets, kettles, guns, gun-powder and shot, and large bar- rels of rum, such as the stoutest Indians will not be able to lift ; and every man will return in safety to his family. At this the transport and clapping of hands were universal. The questions of public interest having been resolved, individu- als were permitted to inquire into the condition of their absent friends, and the fate of such as were sick. Mr. Henry, among the rest, made an offering of tobacco, and inquired whether he should ever revisit his native country. His question being put, the tent shook as usual, after which he received answer, that he should take courage, and fear no danger, for that nothing would happen to hurt him, and that in the end he should reach his friends and country in safety. These assurances wrought so strongly upon his gratitude, that he presented an additional and extra offering of tobacco. These consultations of the priest and spirit, continued till near midnight, when all the crowd dispersed to their respective lodges. Mr. Henry tells us that he was on the' watch through the scene, to detect the particular contrivances by which the fraud was car- ried on ; but although he appears to have been a very intelligent and penetrating man, and is certainly a veiy good writer, yet he says that he came away as he went. The shaking of the tent, when it is considered that it was con- structed of such massy materials, was not the least extraordinary part of the performance ; and it was one that it does not appear that any legerdemain was possible to produce. The number and variety of voices, form another mysterious feature. Capt. Carver witnessed in another tribe, a similar and equally unaccountable display, as did M. de Champlain, as long ago as 22 250 THE TONGUE OF TIME. 1609, who supposes that the joueur or priest shook the tent him- self. But this seems impossible, unless he was a Sampson of a fellow. Besides, it does not account for the concert of discord- ant and simultaneous voices, when no one was seen to enter the tent except a single priest. We strongly suspect that there was more art and labor, in pre- paring this tent than travellers and the uninitiated were suffered to see ; and that there was a subterranean cell below, and a subter- ranean passage to it, in which other joueurs were concealed. § 24. Mysteries, when once found out, are mysteries no longer; and all surprise- ceases, except at their simplicity. We are apt to imagine, that had we been present ourselves, that our senses would have been more acute, and that we might have detect- ed this Indian imposture, but do we not see performances equal- ly inexplicable, by mountebanks in all our principal cities 1 The Hon. Mr. B. an eminent attorney, and afterwards a Senator in the U. S. Congress, ' gave an account to a company, of which the present writer was one, of some of the legerdemain of Seignior IPalconi, an Italian performer, which he witnessed, and which excited much surprise ; and although Mr. B. was a man of very superior talents, he was unable to unravel the mysteries which he saw. Among other things Falconi told his audience to propose to him any question they pleased. One of them asked what was the difference between lightning and electricity ? He instantly threw down a candle on to the table, and told the querist, or any one else, to cut it open and he would find an answer. The can- dle was cut open to the wick, which was found to be a piece of paper rolled up, and upon which was written, " the one is natural, and the other artificial." He gave another instance. The actor requested the gentlemen present to lend him their watches. They did so. These he put into a bag, or it so appeared. He then laid the bag on a table and told them, or any one of them, to take a whip and whip the bag as much and as long as they pleased. This was also done. He then poured forth the contents of broken crystals, broken dials, and broken wheels, and the whole machinery, in complete THE TONGUE OP TIME. 251 rupture and ruin. Somefthing must be done, he then said, for these gentlemen who have delivered me their watches. We must do our best to malie good their losses. The fragments were then returned into the bag. Some manoeuvering then took place, such as concentrating the fragments into one end of the bag, and rub- bing it with his hands. The contents were then carefully emptied out on to the table. The watches appeared as they were when he received them, and he handed then* to their respective owners. A lady, Mrs. C. ^hen a girl, was present at one of his exhibi- tions, and gave us the following account of one of his sleights. He requested any lady present to hand him her ring. One was handed him. He. gave one of his auditors this ring, or so it ap- peared ; told him to charge the pistol with powder, and put the ring in place of a ball, and then fire it out of the window. All this was done. He then expressedgreat anxiety for the recove'rf of the ring ; and looking round he pointed out a young lady, of one of the first families, and said that the ring might be found in her slipper. She in much astonishment and perturbation, replied in a tremulous voice, Oh ! no — it is not in my slipper. Flease Miss, said he, be so kind as to slip your slipper from your foot ; she did so, and behold there was the ring. We at first conjectured that the young lady was in concert with the actor ; but this was not the case. Still, some other lady who sat near her might have been, and who probably slipped the ring, unknown to its wearer, into her shoe. It must have been another ring that was put into the pistol.* In the case given respeciing the watches, thejuggler's bag must have been double, and the part of it into which the watches were put made of some material so fii-m as to bear the strokes of the whip without injury to the contents. The bi'oken matters poured out must have been the fragments of other watches fitted for the purpose. The Hon. Mr. B. observed that nothing was ever detected of Falconi's tricks, except that he made use of very strong magnets, and that one of the watches was injured in that way. * It might have been a double barrelled pistol, and the ridg pnt into the bar- rel which was not fired off. 252 THE TONGUE OP TIME. We are not sufficiently adept in legerdemain to venture many surmises of our own. A certain German prince was so utterly confounded at the pranks of a performer, that he sent for him to his palace, and bargained with him for a large sum of money, to unfold to him his many mysteries. He found them when once explained, easy of comprehension, and entirely reconcileable with natural and known principles, ^ § 25. Gen. Hamilton, was in his day^ once travelling in the interior of New York, and putting up at a village for the night, he was informed by his landlord that there was .to be a sleight of hand exhibition that evening, by an itinerant. This the general for want of better entertainment, saw fit to attend. The actor had not commenced when he entered, and closely inspecting a countenance of superior intelligencCj made bold to approach the general with a dollar in his hand, which he asked him to be so good as to hold during his performance. Gen. Hamilton took the money, and held it as desired, but not without some suspicion that it might have some coimection with some part of the actor's legerdemain, or that some attempt might be made to abstract it from him without his knowledge. Nothing of the kind however happened, and after all was over, the show- man came to him and received back the deposit, thanking him for the trouble he had given him, telling bim at the. same time, that his only motive was to divert his attention from too close an in' spection of what was transacting before him ; and intimating that although his performances might pass very well with the multitude, yet that he was not quite certain, that a man of his physiognomy, might not discover more than he wished to have known. A counterpart to this anecdote, occurs in relation to Sir Dugald Stewart. It may also throw some light upon the stoiy of the ring hemg found in the young lady's shoe. Sir Dugald, who was present at some legerdemain exhibition, had a shilling piece handed him which he was requested to keep ; he however handed it to his next neighbor. During the play, a similar piece was handed around to the audience, for their inspection. Afterwards THE TONGUE OF TIME. 3^ it was loaded into a pistol and fired out at a window. The jug- gler then said that the piece might be found in that gentleman's side pocket, pointing to Sir Dugald. Perhaps, replied Mr. Stew- art, if it is not found on me, it may be found on my next neighbor, who forthwith exhibited the piece. It is thus that pranks so seemingly profound, vanish into thin air, as soon as they are once detected ; and justiiy Ijie remark of Cato, that it is wonderful how one soothsayer could look another in the face without a burst of laughter. § 26. The effects of imagination are immensely diversified, and sometimes so strong as to confound falsehood with truth, and disease with health. Things imagined to be true, are told for truths, when void of all foundation ; and yet such imaginative persons, do not know that they are uttering falsehoods. What they imagine, they cannot discriminate fi'om what they see, and consequently they pass for persons of no veracity. Such persons are, however, commonly good natured. If society sometimes suffers from their tergiversations, they themselves are exempts. Very different is the condition of those who have fancied diseas- es. They are greater sufferers than those who have real ones. This is proved, as Dr. Rush observes, by the most painful mala- dies being borne, such as gout and stone, without their ever driving the sufferer to commit suicide ; whereas, this JLS committed, and not unfrequently, by those who labor under hypochondriac and other nervous diseases. Many years ago, Elisha Ba^-ns, of Bucks county, Pennsylva- nia, was in time of wheat harvest reaping wheat, with his son, a stripling, and his hired men. In the course of the day they killed a rattlesnake. The father and son had outside jackets of the same kind of cloth, which they had thrown off in the heat of th6 day. At night the father in attempting to put on his outside gar- ment, as he supposed, found it much too small. He looked and found the color right, and was much astonished at his increase of bulk. Immediately, he supposed that he had been irnpercejjtibly bitten by the rattlesnake, and had swollen from the effect of the poison. He became very ill, and was about to send for a physi- cian, when his son came in with the old gentleman's coat,, dang- 22* ^54 THE TONGUE OP TIME. ling like a bag about him, when poor EUsha Barns was well in an instant. We had a patient, Col. G. a man of superior natural abilities, who was a victim to all kinds of imaginary maladies. It was eren dangerous for his physician to detail the symptoms of dis- eases, for his patient would surely have the whole of them. At one of our visits, he told us diat his disorder was an ulcer on his kidneys, although he had no symptom indicating any such affec- tion. We told him that he had had no sickness at stomach, which was one of the symptoms of an affection of the kidneys. He soon, in consequence of this information, began to retch, as though he had taken tartar emetic. Nothing more of this kmd ever occurred. At the next visit, we found the Colonel sitting with his feet in a chair, covered with flannel. What is the matter now. Colonel, was our inquiry. Doctor, said he, I have got the gout. How can that be, have you had any pain in your feet, your «ncl«s, or great toe 1 No, he replied, but I do not doubt but that I shaU have. Nothing more was heard of the gout after that day. But the very next conceit,, would be as firmly rooted in his mind, as though his fancy bad never erred. It was only by a course of steel, and other strengthening remedies, that his nerves gained their wonted vigor, and then his mind responded, and lost its troublesome vagaries. The Hon. G. H. Esq. then mayor of the city in which he lived, walked out into the street, one morning in the month of March, dressed as usual at that period, with small clothes reaching, no further than the knee. He had on two pair of stockings, as was his custom. Feeling an unusual coldness in one of his legs, he cast down his eye, and lo, and alas, he beheld one leg smaller than the other ! He hastened into the house, told his wife that one of his legs was perishing, that it was cold and fallen away, desiring her to send for Dr. S. immediately. She however, sent for Capt. C, a friend and near neighbor, who came in directly. The story was repeated with much agitation. Friend H. said Capt. C. pull down your stockings, let us see both legs together, and then we can judge better. Mr. H. complied, when all the terror ceased at once, he had drawn three stockings on to one leg. THE TONGDE OP TIME. 355 and left the cold and shrunk limb with only one. No physician was needed for curing so plain a domestic case. A case of a young farmer, mentioned by Dr. Darwin, had a more tragic issue. He found his hedge fence nightly diminishing, and unable to detect the depredator, determined one night to watch the premises himself. In the dead of night, he perceived a poor old withered woman making up a bundle of faggots from his fence. He let her proceed till she had shouldered her load, when he rushed from his concealment, and deprived her of fier booty, with bitter reproaches. In a moment of horror, she fell on her knees, not to pray to him, but to heaven, that he might never, so long as l^e lived, be warm again. Such a request, from such a miserable looking supplicant, in the dead of night, and ut- tered with much fervency, struck him to the quick. He felt cold, and returned home shivering.- He increased his bed-clothes by night, and his body clothes by day, but fancied himself forever cold, and neither apparel, nor wine, nor medicine, ever made him warm. He even had a seive put over his face when he was in bed, and increased his fires. It was all in vain. He declared that never had he felt warm since the fatal orison of the old wo- man. His chills finally ended in the chill of death. He fell, a sad victim to the chilJls of his imagination, and ended his days by the effects of an irrepressible hallucination. The same author mentions the case of a clergyman, of rather a weak mind, who was 'drinking with some lively companions, when with his wine he swallowed a part of a wafer. One of the company humorously remarked, that it would seal up his bowels. The clergyman felt the force of the remark, and his imagination did the rest. He became indisposed, and although the medicines given him, had the same operative effect as his attendants desired, still his fancy could never be relieved. He could not be made to realize, or believe, what his own eyes witnessed. His bowels were relieved, but his fancy was not. He pined and died, ever asserting that nothing had passed them since he swallowed the wafer. Had the Salem judges known a few such well authenticated facts, it seems hardly possible that the pages of New England 256 THE TONGUE OF TIME. history should ever have been darkened by such scenes as the Sa- lem witchcraft. As education becomes more diffused, and the sciences more profoundly understood, the mind of man acquires expansion. The palace, the play-house, the parlor, the hut and the hovel, feel the influence of Newton and Kepler, and Copernicus, though all their inmates may have never heard of even their names. Eclipses were once thought to have proceeded from miraculous or magical power. § 27. Sidereal, or planetary influence over men, diseases, and cattle, and trees, once held unbounded belief. This is not of Saxon origin, but is derived from the native Britons and Italians. The Druids of Gaul, and of Britain, held both the professions of physic and priestcraft conjoined. One of their rules was, to cut the misletoe with a golden knife, but only when the moon was six days old. It then underwent the formality of consecration, when it was considered as an antidote for poisons, and a preventive of sterility. The Vervain, (verbena officinalis,) after libations of honey, was to be gathered at the rising of the dog-star, but with the left hand only, and when neither the sun nor the moon shone. It then be- came the vanquisher of fevers, an antidpte to the bite of serpents, and a chain to fasten friendship.* Sir Theodore Mayerne, the Doctor Caius, of Shakspeare, was physician to three English Sovereigns ; yet some of his remedies betray superstition in a most disgusting form. One was, the bowels of a mole, cut out whilst the creature was alive. Another was mummy, made of the lungs of a man who had been executed, or otherwise died a violent death. In this class of great vulgar, must be placed also Sir Kenelm Digby, Knight of Montpellier. He pretended to have a sympa- thetic powder, which came from Persia, or sometimes from America. This powder was to be applied to any tool with which a person was wounded, such as an axe, an adze, or chissel ; after this, the edge of it was to be covered over with ointment, and * Hee Pliny Lib. xvi. c. 44— and Lib, xxv, c, 9. Also Dr. Paris' Phaf. v. 1. 27, 28 pages. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 257 dressed two or three times a day. Had the knight suffered hia treatment to rest alone in putting powders and ointments on axes and adzes, we might have supposed that he had some confidence in it himself; but he was careful not to do this, but to make suit- able applications to the wound itself; although he gave the credit of his cures, to the instrument having been under treatment, which caused the injury. Such wonderful effects have secrecy and mystery, that even crowned heads were turned about to view these extraordinary cures of Sir Kenelm Digby. He delivered a discourse upon them himself before an assembly of notables and nobles in France. King James I. at length prevailed on him to divulge his mighty mystery to him. It proved to be nothing more than burnt copperas, (Calcined Sulphate of Iron.)* It was found to 'be concealment that caused all the wpnders of the witchery. Once known and all its virtues fled, . Though it before had raised the dead. § 28. We are not so much surprised when strange things are heard of at a great distance, and among a pagan people. But we like to trace the turnings and windings of human nature into all its recesses. When we find Asia respond to Europe, and Eutope to Asia, we become more certified of the common origin of man. Every one knows that the ancient GreeUs and Romans had gods for every thing. And at this time this appears to be the case in some parts of India. A communication from Mr. Dubois, a missionary to the Eng- lish National vaccine establishment, is a curious proof of this ; and at the same time, displays as curious a proof of national superstition. The matter in view, related to the introduction of the cow-pox, which they opposed upon the ground that one of their goddesses, called Mah-ry Umma, hecaxae. incarnate in sriiall- pox. She was a terrible deity, entering into the infected, and causing head ache, back ache, cold chills, and fever; and filially breaking forth upon the skin in little angry suppurating boils, called small-pox. But although she saw fit thus to afflict them, * Vide Paris' Pharmacology. 258 THE TONGUK OP TIME. they believed that she might render them still greater evils if they offended her. They therefore refused to substitute her rival in her room, for fear of her anger ! No reasoning could overcome their prejudices. They feared hergoddesshipfor themselves, and for the whole nation. Their scruples were finally overcome, by raising up a new superstition in room of the old one. They were therefore told, that the god- dess had chosen of late, to exhibit herself in a more mild and placable form ; and that they might still adore her in her new shape, and praise her for her beaevolence, because her substance was the same as it ever was. It was thus that the great blessing of vaccination was intro- duced into India. § 29. The story of Dr. Faustus, and the devil, had its origin from Jolin Faust, the first printer of books. He was a German, and kept his art a secret. TJie books being printed in imitation of manuscript, were at first supposed to have been written with a pen. At that time Bibles were charged at five hundred crowns, by the scribes of Paris, apiece. Thither Faust went and sold his for sixty crowns. The uniformity of his printed writing, and the low price of the volume, excited the amazement of the Parisians. But when he reduced the price to thirty crowns, and besides fur- nished copies as fast as they were wanted, all Paris was in, a state of agitation. He was informed against at the police as a magi- cian. His apartments were searched and a great number of copies discovered. Part of the printing was done in red. This passed for his blood ; and blood and witchcraft having a supposed mystical con- nection, he was deemed by the award of the magistrates to be leagued with the devil. He was obliged to fly, or he might have shared the fate of other sorcerers, witches, and wizards of the times — that is, have been burnt. Such is a concise history of the first printed copies of the Bible in the world. The wonder subsided when the types were discovered. Al- though, those with which Faust first printed the Bible, were of wood, and not like those of later times, moveable. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 259 The interesting and sacred volume was multiplied, till every' body possessed a Bible. After which, a new superstition arose. It was that of opening the book at hazard, and the person's for- tune, fate, or present object of inquiry, was supposed to depend, or to be indicated, by the first passage upon which he cast his eye. This was an early mode of appealing to the Bible. So far was this custom carried, and so mischievous were its eifects, that ecclesi- astical history informs us that it was prohibited by law. The Bible was not, however, the only book that was thus con- sulted. Virgil was opened at random for the same purpose, of which the great Dr. Johnson gives jus some account, in his Lives of the Poets. In his life of Cowley, who was secretary to Lord Jermyn, and the latter Ambassador from England to France, a treaty with the Scotch was negotiating, for the success of which Cowley was much interested. In a letter to a friend he gives his reasons for expecting a favorable issue to this treaty. And to add weight to his opinion, he writes to him as follows, by which it ap- pears that he had been consulting the Virgilian lots, that is, open- ing Virgil : " And to tell you the truth, (which I take to be an argument above all the rest,) Virgil has told the same thing to that purpose." This method of divination was used by King Charles I., and by Lord Falkland, both of whom happened together in the Bodleian library — or more probably went there for the express purpose of consulting Virgil. As a matter of coincident curiosity. When it is considered that Charles was beheaded by his subjects, and that Lord Falkland, his secretary, was killed, fighting for his king, we notice this royal piece of superstition, and its striking results. The passage upon which the royal eye- of Charles fell, is as follows : " Yet let a race nntam'd, and haughty foes, His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose, Oppressed with numbers in th' unequal field, His men discbnrag'd and himself expell'd ; Let him for succour sue from place to place, Torn from his subjects and his son's embrace. 260 THE TONGUE OP TIME. First let him see bis friends in battle slain, And their untimely fate lament in vain : , And when at length, the cruel wars shall cease, On hard conditions may he buy bis peace ; Nor let him then enjoy supreme command, But fall untimely by some hostile hand. And lie unburied on the barren sand.* It is presumed that there is not in Virgil, or any other book, a passage more appropriate to the final fate of that monarch, than the one to which chance directed his eye. He did not lie unburi- ed, but he fled from place to place for succour. His armies were defeated, he was separated from his son, afterwards Charles II., and from his Queen, and finally beheaded by the sentence of Cromwell. Lord Falkland's eye met the following lines. " O Pallas, thou hast fail'd thy plighted word. To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword ; I warn'd thee, butiu vain, for well I knew What perils youthful ardor would pursue ; That boiling blood would carry thee too far. Young as thou wert to dangers, raw to war. O curst essay of arms, disastrous doom. Prelude of bloody fields, and fights to come ! Hard elements of unauspicious war, Vain vows to heaven, and unavailing care ! + Lord Falkland was the most learned man of his age. He was killed at the early age of thirty-four, at the battle of Newbury. Charles survived his secretary eight years, being bfeheaded in 1649. Chance, in these two instances, paid tribute to superstition. But there is no record of the ten thousand instances of the failures which occurred in consulting Virgil. And it is by generals, and not hy particulars, that wise men form their opinions. We cannot be censured for using the word chance, because we have the very highest authority for it in the parable of the good Samaritan. « yEniad Lib. IV, 615, Dryden's translation. i ^niad Lib. XL 152, Dryden's translation. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 261 We have often been surprised at the downright contradictions of Christian writers oF some parts of the Bible. And it occurs so frequently, either direcdy or indirectly, that we hardly read or hear a sermon without some degree of perturbation at witnessing it. We here particularly have in view, the flat denied of some, who say that there is no such thing as chance, when Jesus Christ says that there was. 23 CHAPTER V. OP BURYING, EMBALMING, AND BURNING THH DEAD. OP VISIONS, VOICES, AND SUPERNATURAL IMPRESSIONS. CROMWELL. LORD HERBERT. PAUSANIAS. ANAXAGORAS. ROSCOMMON. A PREMO- NITION DEPEATED. PREDICTION OP SNOW IN JUNE, FULFILLED. THE INDIAN AND HIS TAMED SNAKE. § 1. The burial of the dead was a religious duty among the ancient Greeks. And indeed throughout the heathen world, the embalming, burial or burning, of deceased persons, was a matter of great importance. Nicias, an Athenian general, and a pious pagan, chose rather to lose the honors of victory, than not to reclaim the bodies of hia soldiers slain. The ghost of an unburied person was not allowed to pass flie river Styx. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 263 Six Athenian generals were put to death as criminals, for not interring the bodies of the soldiers slain in the battle of Argi- nusee.* It was the opinion of the ancients, that the ghosts of drowned persons were doomed to wander about for a hundred years, before they found a resting place. And the cause assign-* ed was, that the rites of sepuhure had not been bestowed upon their bodies. This notion is alluded to in Shakspeare. Puck. My fairy lord, this muat be done in haste ; For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast. And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger; At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there. Troop home to church-yards ; damned spirits all, That in cross ways and floods have burial. Already to their wormy beds are gone, t This care for the bodies of the dead was founded on an opinion which is connected with, and affords a reason why, the Egyptians embalmed their deceased friends. They held the opinion, that the soul was dependant for its preservation upon that of the body. In one sense, therefore, they held to the soul's immortality ; but that it had no separate existence from the body. That it would be renewed, and raised, and -resuscitated, when the body was, was their firm opinion. But that if the body was lost, or suffered de- cay, that the soul would be lost, or suffer decay along with it, they firmly believed. That some of the Jews held to a similar doctrine, would ap- pear to be true, when their notion respecting the luz is considered.|: The Greeks derived it from the Egyptians. And Job, after some variation in his ideas and expressions upon the subject, finally places future knowledge, consciousness, and existence, upon the resurrection of the body. The Grecian fable of Charon and his boat, ferrying the dead over the river Styx, was derived from the Egyptians. His fee was an obolus, about two cents, placed under the tongue of the deceas- * Vide Plutarch. Life of Nicias. t Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. t The luz was the bone of immortality— a part that did not die in the grave, nor before burial — the seed of resurrection. 264 THE TONGUE OP TIME. ed. Such as had not been honored with a funeral were not suf' fered to enter the boat for- the space of one hundred years, during which time they were condemned to wander on the shore. Chai-on is represented as an old man, of robust form, piercing eres, long white beard, and hideous countenance. There are many notions probably common to all nations. Others appear to be derived from tradition, and some from the Bible, even where it is unknown. We should have been surprised yesterday, had any one informed us, that there was in the Bible, any bint of the custom of our Indians, burying with their dead the arms and ornaments of" their deceased warriors, to be found in it. But to day we were convinced that we did not know all its contents, as we read the following verse : " And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war ; and they have laid their swords under their heads ; but their iniquities shall be u|)on their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living." It seems that an uncircumcised race, and a barbarous custom, are here pointed at, not for imitation, but for derogation. Going down to hell with their weapons of war, and having swords laid under their heads, mean no more than our Indian customs present to view now. § 2. As are the times, so are the treasons. As are the de- terminations, so are the pretended revelations. Any one bent upon violent measures, if he has visions, or hears voices, they are in aid of his purpose. Even when sanctity is made the cloak for enormities, its ardor increases in proportion to the violence in- tended. When the execution of King Charles I. was under discussion in Parliament, Cromwell said, that should any one have volunta- rily proprosed to bring the Ring to punishment, that he should have regarded him as a traitor. But as alFairs were then circum- stanced, that he should pray to God for a blessing on their coun- sels. He added, that when he himself was lately offering up petitions for his majesty's restoration, that he felt his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth ; and th^t he considered that supernatu- THE TONGUE OP TIME. 265 ral movement, as an answer from heaven of its having rejected the King. We regard Cromwell as the high-priest of all hypocrites ; and as having infused into his followers, both male and female, some- thing of his own deceitful spirit.* A woman, at the same period, desired admission to the military council ; she having been illuminated by visions of a prophetical nature, which gave the joyful tidings that their proposed measures of violence and bloodshed were sanctioned from on high. When it is considered that any one, however unprincipled, may assert that he has had a vision, a voice, or a supernatural impression, such assertions ought ever to be viewed with suspi- cion, or scepticism. When we hear of any thing of the kind, we ought to call to mind the case of Lord Herbert, of Cherbury. This elegant and polished infidel had the daring idea, of having heaven on his side ; and that the powers above should make known to him their approbation of his deistical principles. He therefore supplicated a special manifestation to be afforded him. And if his lordship is to be believed, he had it. He had, as is asserted by himself, an answer from on high, which could not have been uttered by any human agent, and which was distinctly heard in the air, in confiimation of his opinions, and the query proposed ! § 3. The horrors of the imagination, are sometimes the pun- ishment of enormities which evade or defy all other modes. Pausanias, being at Byzantium, cast his eyes on a beautiful young lady, of a noble family, whose name was Cleonice. Her parents, aware of the power of the Spartan general, dared not to deny his request, of having the young virgin, their daughter, for a mistress. The only terms on her part, were, that the lights in the 'room should be extinguished. This being complied with, she was under the cruel necessity of entering his apartment after he * Cromwell is thus described by his confidential physician, George Bate : — " A perfect master of all the arts of simulatioo, and dissimalation ; who, turn- ing up the whites of his eyes, and seeking the Lord with pious gestures, will weep and pray, and cant most devoutly, till an opportunity offers of dealing his dupe a knock-down blow under the short ribs." See Lacon, p. 43. 23* 266 THE TONGUE OP TIME. had retired to rest. It happened that she; in approaching his bed, stumbled on a candlestick. The noise awakened Pausanias, who had fallen asleep, and who did not, at the instant, recollect the assignation. Apprehensive, like all other tyrants, of assasina- tion, his dagger lay by his side. He caught it and plunged it into her breast, and it reached her heart. Rest, quiet, and peace, de- parted from that moment. Every night, the image of the young woman haunted him ; and in a voice of menace, repeated this verse : Go to the fate which pride and lust prepare* At Heraclea, was a temple where the shades of the dead were consulted. Thither he resorted, and there Cleonice, as it is said appeared, when Pausanias entreated her pardon. She told him that soon after his return to Sparta, he would be delivered of all his troubles. His death was supposed to have thus been enigmatically fore- told — ^which proved true. ; for being accused of an attempt to be- tray his country to the Persians, he fled for refuge to the temple of Minerva. This edifice the people walled up, surrounding the , Plutarch, in the Life of Citnoii. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 267 whole building with stones, so that he could not get out ; and he was there starved to death. His own mother laid the first stone. But as to the necromancy, and the raising of Cleonice, it is probable that the priest or priestess substituted some other young woman in her place. Jemima Wdkins once attempted to raise the dead. The daugh- ter of one of her followers having died, she endeavored to palm upon the gazing multitude another young woman, having some resemblance to the deceased, and dressed like her. It would appear that the art of ancient divination, was reduced to certain rules, which even the priests themselves could only act in conformity to, but could not vary their predictions so as to fit all possible contingencies and catastrophes. When Nicias, and Alcibiades, two Athenian generals, were sent with a vast fleet against Sicily, it was foretold that they should take all the Syracusans. It so happened that a vessel of the enemy was captured by the Athenian fleet, having on board the register or roll of the Syracusans. It contained, of conse- quence, an immense number of the names of their enemies. This very much disconcerted the diviners. They feared that the prophecy that had been made, that they should take all the Syra- cusans, was now accomplished, by this capture of all their names. And such in the end proved to be the event. For instead of taking all the Syracusans, Nicias lost an army of forty thousand men, and his own life also. Thus the predictions of the diviners ended in the capture of the names of the citizens and soldiers, instead of their bodies ! Piety, principle, or superstition, sometimes led the pagans to act up to the principles of true religion. But such instances took place among the few of first rate talents, and highly endowed minds. And that they were rare may be inferred from their hav- ing been thought worthy of record. Nicias refused to suffer his army to plunder the temple of Jupiter Olympias, when it was in his power, because he deemed it to be a sacred place. And Juliu s Caesar, being shewn a sword of his, which had been taken from him, refused to take it, for the reason that it hung in a temple, and had been dedicated to the gods. Sacrilege was considered a crime of no ordinary magnitude. 268 THE TONGUE OP TIME. Those traces of piety and principle, remind us of the opinion of Bishop Butler, in his Analogy between Religion, Natural and Revealed. § 4. This pious but philosophic writer, expresses an opinion that at first struck us with much surprise. It is, that Christianity is " Natural Religion." Our first impressions were, that such a view of Revelation, had a tendency to weaken its sanctity, and to diminish its sublimity ; and to place it too much on a level with the Koran, and other human systems ; for if the religion of the gospel is but a natural religion, the query naturally arises, why unassisted human nature might not have discovered it] We cannot admit, therefore, that this analogy can be extended any further than to the morality of religion, revealed and natural ; and on the whole, we rather incline to the view taken by Hooker, upon the subject — " that the reason why some of God's laws were given, is neither opened nor possible to be gathered by the wit of man." And to the same effect. Bishop Horsley maintains that there are certain points " upon which reason is dumb, and reve- lation is explicit." Vol. I. Ser. 1. We recognize the revealed doctrine of the agency of angels, in the instance of Socrates, who asserted that he was attended, aided and guided, by an invisible being, which kept him from the eommission of evil, and led him in the paths of duty. It is cred- itable to human nature, and to natural religion, when we find a pagan character so entirely unexceptionable as was his. § 5. Eclipses, especially of the moon, were a source of great disquiet, and even of terror, to the Athenians, in the time of So- crates, Alcibiades, and Nicias, who were cotemporaries. The Athenians, at this period, about four hundred years before our present era, disapproved of those philosophers, of whom Anaxa- goras was one, who imputed to natural causes any unusual phe- nomena in the heavens or earth. They thought the Divinity in- jured, and his power and providence profaned, by ascribing them to insensate, unintelligent causes, or to inevitable necessity.* Protagoras, was obliged to fly his country for a system of this • Plutarch. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 2m kind ; and Anaxagoras was thrown into prison, and with much difficulty liberated by Pericles. Socrates, who was put to death, lost his life in the opinion of Plutarch, for his philosophy ; but hia religion, as it appears, was one of his imputed crimes. Both were too elevated for the times in which he lived. The account given by himself is, that he was accused of the criminal curiosi- ty of prying into the heavens, and into the abysses of the earth. Natural philosophers were esteemed but a sorry set of beings, by the community of his times. It was owing to Plato, that thia darkness and delusion was expelled from the world. He made it' appear that the Divine power was heightened, instead of being degraded, by natural causes ; and that they operated in obedience to his will. Plutarch himself, had a correct idea of eclipses, referring those of the moon to the eartlf's shadow. As every almanac foretels them now, they have long lost their power of terrifying even the superstitious ; but spots on the sun, not having yet been subjected to mathematical calculation, have still a portentous appearance to many eyes. Such spots were particularly noticed in 1816, both here Eind in Europe. Here the summer was cold, and the harvest scanty, frost occurring in New England every month in the year. There, the season was irregular, and the spring succeeding was noticed for the sudden melting of the snows upon the ifaountains of Tyrol and Jura. Barometers were strangely irregular, and the variations of the needle equally surprising. But the early melting of the snows, was succeeded by the early appearancp of verdure and nightingales. It was at this period that news from Italy for the first time since the world began, announced the ap- pearance of tides in the Adriatic ! These facts as they relate to Europe, were collected at Paris,in 1817 ; at which time northern lights blazed over that metropolis for a whole fortnight together, accompanied with peculiarities before unknown. After such a variety of portents, had wars, famines and pestilence been preva- lent, the banners of superstition might have flopped the skies. Happily, peace, plenty, and unusual prosperity succeeded. Su- perstition gained just nothing at all, but sunk in reputation. Of premonitions and predictions, if one happens to be justified by the event, it is noised the world over ; but of their failures, in ten thousand instances, we hear nothing. 270 THE TONGUE OF TIME. Dr. Johnson, the great moralist and lexicographer, in his life of Lord Roscommon, gives an instance of a prediction of his lord- ship, when a boy of ten years old, which is sufficiently singular. The lad was at Caen, in Normandy, his father at the same time was in Ireland. He was usually rather a sober lad, but one day he became very noisy and antic, playing, leaping, getting over ta- bles, boards, &c. &c. In the midst of this extravagant mirth, he suddenly stopped and cried out. My father is dead ! A fortnight after, news arrived of his father's death. This account was con- firmed by the governor of the boy, and by Lord Roscommon himself in more mature age. An honorable member of Congress, whose family I was attend- ing, received the news of the death of his brother, who lived at a distance in another state. He assured me that the news was fully expected, from his having heard some person in the night ride briskly up to his house and stop, when no one came in, and as it appeared, no person was there. He considered it as a warning, or prelude to his receiving the inteUigence that he did. He was a gentleman of a nervous temperament, and subject to low spirits ; his talents were of the first order, but his imagination unbounded. He related to me that on one occasion, when going on to Con- gress, that a number of the St. Domingo sufferers were on board the same packet ; persons who had lost their houses, their friends by murder, and their property by fire, and were driven from their native soil by the negro insurrection there. Yet, he observed that they were cheerful and talkative ; whilst he was so depressed in spirits, at leaving his home, and parting with his friends and fam- ily, that he could not say a word. It is thus that those who are always imagining evil, (and strange indeed, would it be were it otherwise,) may find a single instance in the course of their lives, in which their imaginings prove true. But that these works of imagination are not fixed by any irrevocable decree, a proof is afforded by the next instance which we shall adduce. A young man, member of college, received an impression, or as he fancied, heard a voice, which told him he should die in three days. It was as he was passing the stairs of the college building. Towards the approaching end of the period,, he fancied himself so ill, that a physician was called, and made acquainted with the THE TONGUK OP TIME. 271 particiilars. He bled and blistered him, which did no good. He grew worse, and the medical gentleman thought that he should lose his patient. He changed his practice, and gave a full dose of opium. This had the desired effect, of putting him into a sound sleep, from which he did not awake till the three days had expired. Immediately upon his awaking he inquired the time of day. He found that the limited period had passed and that he was still alive. The hallucination vanished from that mo- ment, and no more was heard of his illness or dying. As ima- gination can kill as well as cure, little doubt was entertained that he would have died had not this mode of treatment been adopted. A Cambridge student coming into the room of one of his fel- lows, observed a glass of wine standing on the table, which he immediately drank. Presently the owner coming in, and missing his liquor, observed that it was antimonial wine. The other be- gan to retch, and soon after to vomit. Such was the power of imagination, that it had all the powers of an emetic, for the wine was not antimonial nor medicated. § 6. Second-sight, is the pretended faculty of seeing into fu- turity, and of discovering what is going on in distant places. It is claimed as an inherent gift by some of the Scotch Highlanders. Sir Walter Scott seems to have hftd some confidence in this magic ait. But wise men have their follies, and brave men their fears. Dr. Beattie, an elegant writer on Moral Science, and a beauti- ful poet, himself a Scotchman, said that those who pretend to if, are of the lower class, ignorant apd uninformed ; and that he did not know the instance of a sensible well informed man, having a case of the kind to relate. In balancing accounts between these two great writers, let it be considered, that if we admit the existence of such a faculty, that all the instances given relate to matters of minor importance. We have never heard of any great and important occurrence, relating to nations, their warfare, revolutions, or- changes of dy- nasty, being predicted. Now as we esteem the gift of prophecy upon a level with th^ gift of miracles, and both as being derived from a high, and pure, and infinite source, we are not ready to accede to its eadstence, " ' " THE TONGUE OP TIME. unless the object to which it points, in some measure corresponds with the source from whence it is derived. Inherent talents or tacts, are not to be put upon a level with miraculous gifts. We admit, however, that it may be sometimes difficult to distinguish them, for the reason that both may exceed the limits of most minds. A person who could tell what the square root of 106,929 was, sooner than a penman could write down the figures, as Zerah Colburn did, is one of this description. It is probable that the world itself never aiforded a parallel in- stance. The square which he gave, viz. 327, multiplied by itself, proves the correctness of his answer. Yet he was but a youth, and his education but indifferent. His mathematical acumen, was the wonder of London, to which he was carried from Amer- ica. A British peer wrote a volume, in which he endeavored to unfold the rapid and mysterious movements which his mental powers underwent, in producing such stupendous results'. There is nothing related of Nancy Hazard, Jane C. Rider, Mrs, Cass, or Miss M'Evoy, more astonishing, or more surprising, taking into view the rapidity of Zerah Colburn's results, common minds and means. § 7. Almanac-makers, predict something of the weather with much Mncertainty, but which may prove strikingly correct ; but that this part of their art, cannot be reduced to any regular sys- tem, is evident from its rarity. One of the most singular instan- ces which has come to our knowledge was a mere blunder. An almanac-maker of the last century, by the name of Ames, an ancestor of the celebrated statesman of Massachusetts, Fisher Ames, had not quite fitted his almanac for the press, when busi- ness called him from home, and he left the work to be finished by his wife. The good woman foun/i a blank sufficient for the word snoie, opposite the 13th of June, which she filled with that chilly word. Before Mr. Ames' return, his almanacs for the comijig year were in print, and some of them in circulation, and very much to his chagrin, when he observed the prediction of his wife. It so happened, however, that it did snow oh the very day pre- dicted, whi«h gave immense celebrity to his future astronomic^ productions' THE TONGUE OF TIME. 273 Some sage reviewer.^, have lately asserted that there is nothing in this world but luck, good or bad. Others allow nothing to luck or chance, but refer every thing to a particular predestina- tion ; but this latter doctrine, which is held by many in the ab- stract, we never knew admitted by a single person in the detail. Wonderful recoveries from sickness, hair-breadth escapes from accidents, plentiful harvests, great riches, bright talents, and suc- cessful warfare, are referred to the special beneficence of provi- dence ; but when laborers are indolent, servants dishonest, agents treacherous, battles disastrous, and children thankless, and friends traitorous, they never have the benefit of such reference. All is then imputed to the incompetency, or turpitude of the actors. We are inclined for ourselves, to think that the practical decision is more correct than the theoretical one, and more con- sonant with the Bible. The human mind when directed to a definite and particular science, art or object, stands the greatest chance of success ; and in minor affairs, such as the management of animals, in garden- ing, the study of the instinct of bees, and even of reptiles, \ve often witness what excites our admiration. § S. An Indian had tamed a black snake, which he kept about him during the summer months. In autumn he let the creature go whither it chose to crawl, but told it to come to hi .) ■^ ' ■* THE TONGtJE OP TIME. again upon a certain day, which he named, in the spring. A white man who was present, and saw what was done, and heard the Indian affirm that the serpent would return to him the very day he had appointed, had no faith in the truth of his prediction. The next spring, retaining the day in his memory, curiosity led him to the place, where he found the Indian in waiting, and after remaining with him about two hours, the serpent came crawling back, and put himself under the care of his old master. In this case, the Indian had probably observed that black snakes usually return to their old haunts at the same vernal season ; and as he had tamed, fed and kept this snake in a par- ticular place, experience taught him that it would return on a certain day. The ferreting out of rogues is achieved by officers who have studied into their vices and places of resort. High constable Hays, of New York, has been conspicuously successful in this branch of his official duties. In detecting and arresting Stevens, Holdgate, and other extensive forgers of bank checks, how he came by his knowledge was quite unaccountable ; and he refused to reveal the mystery, when cross examined by the prisoner's counsel. He probably disguised himself, found out their haunts, and pretended to be one of their number, or this might have been done by some one else in his employ. A celebrated attorney in Connecticut, was employed in behalf of a certain sailor, about to be tried for the murder of another sailor. The principal witness was a third sailor. The attorney found that his client must be convicted by the testimony of the latter, unless some method could be devised to do it away. The night before the trial was to come on, he dressed himself in a sailor's habit, and went to the tavern where this witness, with others of his fi-aternity were. Conversation ran upon the subject of the approaching trial, and speculations as to the event. The attorney pretended to be of a decided opinion that the accused "would be acquitted. This was strongly contested by the principal witness, who said that he was guilty of l,he murder, and would be found so ; and the dispute finally ended in a bet between him and the attorney, and the money was staked, when the latter retired. Next day, when the sailor was produced before the court to THE TONGUE OP TIME. 275 testify, he was objected to as being interested in the event of the suit, and there was ample proof present, of the bet. He was of course rejected, and the prisoner acquitted. § 9. It was said by Malbranch, that our senses were not given us to discover the essence of things, but to acquaint us with the means of preserving our existence. But there have been persons in the world, whose only errand in it seemed to be, to deal in essentials, to develope mysteries, and to feed the curious with curiosities, whilst others were destined to find the means of sus- taining the lives of these inquirers. It was a saying of Cato, that wise men learn more of fools, than fools learn of the wise ; a truth that we every day see veri- fied, for fools will follow no counsel nor example of the wise, whilst the latter, from the follies or eccentricities of fools, may sometimes be taught something of human nature which is amu- sing and important. It was the grand design of Mr. Locke, to point out what objects our understandings were not fitted to deal with ; and it is equally important to define what the human mind is capable of achieving, as well as what it is not — to know what the bounds of human na- ture are, and to ascertain the limits which it can reach, and which it cannot transcend. It has been laid down as a principle, that what a human mind contemplates, a human agent can perform. But we deem this view too limitless ; for the human mind can contemplate visiting the moon, and of rolling the wheels of time backwards to the antediluvian ages, and of living to the age of Methuselah, neither which any human agent can achieve. But if a man thinks of excavating a passage through the globe, and thus reaching his antipodes, there is no known physical impossibility of its being accomplished. It has been truly said, that a man's mind is sometimes wont to tell him more than seven watchmen. The few truths best established, find opponents, and the most veritable narrative has its sceptic. Incredulity is the wit, genius and judgment of fools. And here perhaps, fools and some men 276 THE TONGUE OF TIME. of great wisdom, approach each other nearer than upon any other point whatever. Buonaparte was incredulous as to the truth of history, and more especially as to the history of the Saracens, and the won- ders achieved by Mahomet. The causes of the French revolution puzzled the greatest phi- losophers, although its scenery parsed before their eyes. The secret springs, and murky movements of party, never can be known ; since no party, nor indeed no mortal man, from Adam to Talleyrand, could ever be made to confess the secrets of his own soul, in full. Let us inquire no further than America. The origin of her inhabitants, and all their movements, are far better known than those of any other nation in the known world, ancient or modern ; and yet the historic page refers her revolution to a tax of half a cent, (about one farthing,) upon the articles of tea and paper ; neither of them articles of first rate necessity, nor the basis of our revolution, although so imputed to be. The secret springs of immense events are sometimes too fine for mortal vision to discern ; as the source of all rivers is the fine particles of moisture in the clouds. Let the clouds cease to obscure the sky, and the rain cease to fall from heaven to earth, and the rills, and brooks, and springs, would dry up, and the Mississippi cease to flow. That such immense consequences' as a seven years war, and the independence of the United States, arose from such slight causes as a half cent tax upon non-essentials, will be a political and philosophical problem to posterity. CHAPTER VI. ENTHUSIASM. BUONAPARTE S RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. ALEXANDER. FRENCH AND AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS. ROGER WILLIAMS. WIL- LIAM PENN. EDMUND BURKE. ROBERT MORRIS. § 1. Enthusiasm and fanaticism are the allies of superstition. They are contagious principles of the mind — wild thoughts, re- duced to still wilder acts. Mahometanism owes its rapid spread, the Saracenic empire its speedy erection, to these stimulants of the mind. Imperial Rome was founded upon this basis. Julius Ccesar laid the corner stone, and his name burnished the turret on the cupola of the temple. Men acting under these stimulants, are reduced to their element- ary principles, and rush forward as do gales, hurricanes, torrents, and earthquakes. 24* 278 THE TONGUE OP TIME. Perverted religion is the first food of fanaticism, but politics have learned to tread in its steps, and war to waste what both had erected. The face of the world owes its magnificent changes, as well as its blackened and bloody fields, to these mental impulses. The madman of Macedonia, left the name of Alexander so deep- ly imprinted on the globe, that it can never be efiaced. He died at the age of thirty-three, but his imitators in devastation never die. The impress of imitation is as lasting as the pages of history. The lives of Julius Csesar, and Napoleon Buonaparte, will bring to mind their grea!t exemplar, Alexander the Great. The never ceasing visions of glory, make the most unbounded tyranny pass for liberty and law, and the most cruel tyrant for a minister of mercy and justice. Equality of misery is hailed as equality of rights, and the food of vanity as the bread of life. The prefects of France in Napoleon's reign, rendered to the emperor that homage alone due to heaven. The students of ser- vility may profit by studying the times of the victorious Corsican. A mayor of one of the cities of France, affirmed in his ecstacy of loyal adoration, that the Deity after making Napoleon, must have rested as he did after having created the universe. § 2. In 1817, Alexander, the Czar of the Russias, issued an ukase, forbidding his subjects to pay himself divine honors, as they did, and as they had been accustomed to do to his predeceior human lungs with their gases. We well recollect that there was one of them in sight during the extreme cold winter of 1812. It was to be sure a sickly season in some places ; but if the sickness had been owing to cometary influence, why, we may query, was not the sickness commensu- rate in extent, with so general, so continental a cause % Comets do not appear to alter the state of the seasons, so as to affect the crops, or the vintage. They are, as to the productions of the earth, messengers of neither good nor evil. Time and chance, happen alike to all men, whether comets are visible or in- visible. A Mr. Forster, has referred plague and pestilence to comets ; but we are told that his pretended facts are contradicted by Littrow, most conclusively. And it is said that in 717, that there was three years' plague in the East, and that there was three hundred thousand deaths at Constantinople, but yet there- was no comet at all.* This is most unfortunate for those who refer all plagues to comets ; and such instances are too numerous not to set the matter entirely at rest. We hear of no comet in 1793, when the yellow fever carried off upwards of five thousand persons, in the city of Philadelphia, nor in its various and de- structive visits to the city of New York. Nor do we learn that the cholera, so destructive in most parts of the world, from 1817 to 1837, had any such precursor, or accomplice, as a comet. The stimulus of necessity, prompts the animal to seek for food, and drink and shelter. This stimulus of necessity arouses to ac- tion in thousands of ways. Maternal affection, and the sparrow, which for her young seeks her nest, although pleasurable sensa- tions may accompany them, may still be considered as acting under the stimulus of necessity. Did not the mother feed, dress, warm, and take care of her infant, such horrid agonies would wrench her breast, as would render attention to those duties im- * See a decisive anicle upon this sabject in the Penny Magazine, for 1832; page 291. Decisive, we mean in proof of comets having no earthly influ- ence. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 389 perative. Hence, necessity compels her to do these duties in order to avoid the pain which would attend upon their omission, as well as to enjoy the pleasure of their performance. This stim- ulus of necessity acts upon the Indian, who finds it necessary for his peace and comfort, to arise, tomahawk and scalping knife in hand, and revenge an injury by inflicting desolation, destruction, and death, upon an enemy. This stimulus of necessity seems to be instinct, or the same kind of principle which is so called. It is as manifest in the vegetable as in the animal. But when we first heard such a kind of statement, we were incredulous, and felt a shock at its seeming absurdity. What we are now compelled to admit, to acknow- ledge as fact, seemed at first the greatest and most absurd of all falsehoods. But behold the grass in the low meadow, in time of drought, suffering just as much as the blade upon high hills ; and the reason is, upon dissection, or the examination of the roots of grasses and plants, that the roots in wet ground, run superficially, horizontally, whilst those in dry ground, run deep and perpen- dicular. Behold the young chicken, pecking the shell in which it is in- closed, and was hatched, in order to get out of prison. And be- hold the potatoe, which has sprouted and grown in the cellar, leaning, and always leaning its top towards the nearest window, or nearest door, in search of light, air and libei'ty. The turnip top, the onion top, and other vegetables, which send forth stems, shoots and sprouts, in cellars, do the same. They all incline to- wards light, air, warmth, and liberation. They always incline from the walls of their prison, they never embrace the cellar walls. This stimulus of necessity is, as John Hunter explains it, such an alternation, or motion, or change of posture, as a system, or part of a system, is uneasy without, and requires. Thus we gasp for breath, we faint, we walk, stand, sit, talk, or are silent, all from this stimulus of necessity. We expire the air inhaled, and for the space of a clock tick or two, we rest, without breath- ing, and then this stimulus of necessity, rises over rest and repose, and we breathe again ; and upon our breathing again, de- pends our Ufe, for we die without it. Hence, this stimulus of necessity, acts whilst we sleep ; it keeps up breathing, for a person 390 THE TONGUE OF TIME. asleep, who does not breathe, is dead. It keeps up the beating of the heart, and the beating of the pulse, for a pulseless person is a corpse. We do not act by will whilst we sleep, but the breathing, the pulse, the motion of the ribs, in respiration, the motion of the lungs, inhaling and expiring the air, the receiving of the blood into the ventricles, or hollows of the heart, and the propulsion of it into the arteries, all arise from this stimulus of necessity, and life depends upon it. § 4. There is in all living beings a wish to live, and a propen- sity to sustain life. As to the mind, will, or thinking part, this propensity manifests itself in voluntary acts of self preservation. But the intimate connection betwixt mind and matter, between the corporeal and mental systems, is here strikingly portrayed, for the motions of the frame, the movements of the body which are involuntary, have the same self preserving tendency. Hence parts corporeal, over which the mind has no control, carry on ac- tions calculated to sustain and to preserve ; such as producing an appetite for food, digesting it when taken, turning it into chyle when digested, and conveying that chyle, which is the milk of life, into the blood ; sending the blood, by means of the motion of the heart, into thousands of little canals, called arteries, to every part of the body, to nourish it, to promote its growth, and to sup- ply the defects, caused by decay, and disease, and disaster ; for even a broken bone grows together, by means of the finer parts of the blood, sent by little hair-like, or capillary channels, which even enter, pervade, and sustain, the hardest bones. But. this sanative tendency, is in one respect extremely curious, for it sends fluids to certain parts without any traceable pathway, or any kind of canal whatever ; and sometimes in this way, rids the system of purulent, and other hurtful matters. The roots of the first set of teeth in children, are absorbed and cast off, and the jaws thus fitted to receive a new set ; whereas, if nature sent forward a new set without removing the old roots, the most painful and disastrous consequences would ensue. Some- times nature does halt and fail in doing her duty and accustomed work, however ; as we once drew a painful tooth from the lower THE TONGTTE OP TIME. 391 jaw of a boy, which was so firmly rooted that another physician had given it up, after having tried in vain to extract it. To the solid roots of this tooth, the soft rudiments of a new tooth were attached ; the new comer having determined to move in, before the old occupant had removed out, or made any preparation so to do. The sympathetic aittributes of the mind, are inherited by the body. Pain is endured by seeing a child, or an animal suffer, and by the news of piracy, shipwreck, or other disaster. So the teeth are set on edge by hearing sounds of a certain kind, and the mouth made to water at the sight of some delicious viand or fruit. And the stomach is made sick by tartar emetic, although not ap- plied directly to it, but at a remote point. The effects of this medicine, in sickening the stomach, for which it has an intrinsic propensity, is worthy of notice, as it may remove disease and even save life, as it did in the following instance. A woman in London, was choked by a large piece of potatoe, which lodged in the sesophagus, or passage from the mouth to the stomach. Nothing therefore could be «wallowed. An emetic so urgently needed, could not be got down. Three hours had elaps- ed, and no means of relief iad been found, when a vein was opened in the arm, the ulnar vein. A solution of tartar emetic was made by dissolving three grains of it in an ounce of water. Of this solution one fourth part was injected into the vein, which by producing vomiting relieved the suffocating patient immedi- ately. This affinity of a medicine for a particular part, is exemplified in mercury ; for if a mercurial ointment be rubbed into the soles of the feet it will be carried to the mouth, render it tender, and increase the saliva, and is smelt in the breath. The blood is found to contain not only iron but sulphur also ; the latter existing in that part of the blood which resembles the white of an egg, and hence is called albumen. The peculiar effects of some medicines, and the phenomena of some diseases, may be referred to the existence of iron and sulphur in the blood. It also contains a very small proportion of soda. The strength of animals which have red blood, may be referred to the iron which it contains. And to increase the strength of 392 THE TONGUE OP TIME. weakly persons, there is no better medicines than chalybeates, or those which contain some preparation of iron or steel. Food sus- tains the blood, and blood sustains the body. In the blood is life, and the blood itself is alive, and is the only known living fluid, except we include some secreted matters, which emanate from the blood. It is a curious fact in the history of animal nature, that some , things, or at least one ingredient which supports the blood, poisons the air, so that if it is largely breathed, it is noxious, or fatal. We here alude to azote, septon, or mephitic air, which is so uni- versal in alimentary substances, that no animal is capable of liv- ing long upon articles of food from which it is entirely absent. This was proved by a French chemist and physician, M. Magen- die, who fed animals upon substances containing no azote, which after a while pined away, had an ulcer in their eye, and died. He gave them distilled water for drink,* and fed them upon sugar, gum, butter, and olive oil, which articles contain no azote. Azote, therefore, seems to be a natural condiment, but a condiment only ; like salt, which animals cannot live without, and cannot live upon. Some animals take in seeds, and the kernels of fruits for food, from which the powers of digestion extract the nutritive oil, but the kernel is evacuated whole, so that it will grow afterward. It is thus that the wild olive is produced in France by means of birds. Turkies, about Marseilles, have been fed upon ripe olives, and the evacuated seed, or kernels, with the manure, collected and placed in layers of earth, from which young olive trees sprang. It is found that the ketnel in passing through the bird,, is deprived of its oil, and thus receives the vegetating moisture of the earth the more readily, and becomes more vigorous ; whilst the animal is nourished by the oil it extracts. A similar effect may however be probably obtained, by placing the kernel in the lye of wood ashes, or a solution of potash. The plants found on coral islands, are propagated by seeds, brought in the bodies of birds. For every bird has no internal ' * As water contains little animals in abundance, the distilling it kills them. JHence Meigendie's whole mischief. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 393 mill, in which to grind the corn and kernels which they swallow, to which, in others, the gizzard answers. Were this the case, and did not the gizzard sometimes fail of destroying the texture of grain and of seeds, the propagation of plants could not be achieved by birds, as the germinating principle would be de- stroyed. § 5. It is remarkable, and perhaps there is hardly a more striking disparity in man, that some nations and tribes, as the ■Chinese, the hordes of gipsies, and the inhabitants of that part of Africa about the mouth of Orange river, regard the smell of putre- fying meat as a perfume, and relish it more highly as it ap- proaches putrefaction ; whilst other nations, and the greater part -of mankind, are disgusted with food having any tendency towards a taint. And that the latter have appetites the most congenial to nature, and nature's laws, would seem proved by the stomach •restoring such nauseous and fetid articles, to an entire state of sweetness. This is done by a juice formed and found in the stomach. It is a liquid, and which liquid is the principal agent in dissolving and digesting the food. The stomach of a dog, as was ascertained by the repeated ex- periments of Dr. Fordyce, would sweeten in a short time, the most putrid meat, which the dog could be made to swallow. This experiment may be tried by fastening the meat to be swal- lowed, with a string, and after a certain time withdrawing it from the dog's stomach. This remarkable stomach liquor, called the gastric juice, has therefore the power of arresting mortification. And by making certain carnivorous birds swallow sponge, and then by means of a string withdrawing it, and then squeezing out this juice, a suffi- cient quantity of it has been obtained to be applied to bad sores and ulcers upon the human body. It may be considered a power- ful remedy in arresting the progress of mortification ; especially if aided by bark and opium internally exhibited, at the same time. As it is the principal agent in digestion, it has been sometimes .administered internally in cases of weak stomach, and dyspepsia. The solvent powers of the gastric juice, were remarkably ex- emplified in the fellow, who out of hardihood swallowed seventeen 34 394 THE tONGUE OP TIME. clasp-knives ; the handles being found partly dissolved, and the edges of the knives blunted, after his death ; for he died in conse- quence. That such a poYi^erful solvent should not dissolve the stomach itself, is a startling query. And that such is sometimes the case when the stomach suddenly loses its energy, whilst the gastric juice retains its full vigor, cannot be controverted. But it is wisely ordained that it does not act upon living, as it does upon dead matters ; which is proved by leeches and snakes having been accidentally swallowed in water, and having lived and rapidly grown, in the stomach ; and also by the generation and growth of intestinal worms, which the gastric juice does not aifect until they are dead. Still, it is to be considered, that when a part of the stomach loses its vitality, that it may be eroded and ulcerated. And we hence account for the appearances discovered in the stomach of Buonaparte, which were imputed to cancer. Depression of mind, and loss of spirits, have a great effect upon the stomach, in under- mining its digestive powers. Buonaparte, after having been precipitated from the throne of Europe on to a secluded island, and from an Emperor becoming a prisoner, we may well suppose, labored under the depressing passions, in a high degree ; espe- cially, as he was separated from a young wife and infant son ; from the most brilliant city and fascinating society in the world ; that of Paris. But let the cause be what it may, it is only when the solvent powers of the gastric juice are diminished, that we can expect to ever hear of cherry-stones, or plumb-stones, sprouting in the stomach or bowels. Such instances have rarely, and but rarely, ever happened ; the intestinal canal being then reduced to a state similar to that of othej cavities of the body, in which there never was any gastric juice. And we may mention that we have our- selves extracted a bean from a child's nose, which had begun to germinate, it having been lodged there for the space of a fortnight. We had another patient, a poor fellow who often had fits, and who was seized with an incessant puking, which nothing could stop or control, till he threw up the cause. This proved to be a tadpole^ an inch and a quarter long, which in di'inking at a muddy spring the day before, he iad swallowed. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 395 The saliva of the mouth, sufficiently resembles the gastric juice, and appears, when swallowed, to have the like effect, and to assist in dissolving the food. It is from this circumstance that those who chew tobacco freely, and who spit lavishly, are liable to indi- gestion and dyspepsia. And it may be owing to something having been noticed of the resolvent powers of the sahva, that a popular remedy for carrying away and discussing tumors, consists in wetting them with fasting spittle. The bile in men and mammals,* is yellow when heakhy, and is a powerful assistant in digestion. After the gastric juice has dissolved the food, the bile precipitates the offal, or fecal matters, or those parts which cannot with propriety and salubrity enter the blood vessels, and mix with the blood. These, with itself, are thrown out together as useless to the body, but retain the color of the bile. That the bile does not enter the lacteals, is owing to their closing their delicate and irritable mouths, when touched by its acrimony. But intemperance may destroy this delicate touch of the lacteals, and absorbents, so that they may admit the bile, and turn the wine-bibber yellow. This we have often known. Diseases may produce the like effect ; hence the yellowness of the skin and eyes in jaundice. In some diseased states of the system, the bile may become black. And in a man who had an ulcer in his side, in the region of the liver, from which the bile discharged outwardly, it was yellow when he was good natured, but if he suddenly became angry, the bile as suddenly became green. As he was of a passionate temperament, his friends had frequent opportunities of witnessing this curious phenomenon. The bile of the cuttle-fish, is suppose* by Dr. Monro, to be naturally black. For this fish, when it is pursued by an enemy, discharges a black liquor, which so darkens the water, that under the shades of its own night, it escapes its pursuers. We have an opinion, however, that this black color is the result of terror, or of anger, and that the bile of the fish is not naturally black. At any rate there is no disagreement upon one point, which is, that it is the means which nature has afforded it, of self preservation, and that it voluntarily ejects this black liquor, to protect itsel^ and escape destruction, by darkening the waters. * Animab which nurse their young by milk, are called mammals. 396 THE TONGUE OP TIME. The bile may act as natural physic. By its antiseptic qualities, it may prevent gangrene in the bowels and fermentation in the food ; and it may convert the mucus, or refuse matter of the chyle, which is not good enough to be mixed whh the blood, and yet too good to be cast away, into fat ! This last effect may be performed in that part of the alimentary canal which is situated transversely, and which is called the colon. And the use of the omentum, and its action, are thus placed in the neighborhood of light, where they are considered as absorbing and retaining this fatty matter, thus formed ; whereas, darkness has long reigned over this whole region of the human body. It is thus that systems have their minute subdivisions, so nicely, so minutely constructed, that their uses have puzzled many men of science. The spleen, is especially one of those parts, which having no duct, or outlet, has much been an object of speculation and inquiry. Let it be considered that nature formed it as one of her exuberant benefices, which is of less every day use than many other parts. But in sickness, in those raging and sweeping epidemics, which like plague, yellow fever, and cholera, carry off their thousands, and scores of thousands, it may, by being a reservoir for bad blood, contribute to preserve some lives from the general wreck and ruin. The impure, black, and if we may be allowed the term, menstruous, or uncoagulable parts of the blood, being secreted from the general mass, by the spleen, and retained in it, which if suffered to pervade the whole volume of blood, or if suffered to annoy the more noble viscera, would, in such sickly seasons, be still more destructive of human life. And agreeably to this theory, the spleen is actually found to contain a dark livid colored blood, which will not coagulate readily, if at all. Blood which coagulates, it may be remarked, is the only healthy blood. It is thus that providence provides for the security of a part, at least, of the human family, amidst the greatest, the most immense devastations. But let it be considered further, in relation to the spleen, that it is connected by immediate coaptation with the stomach ; and that the stomach is the centre of universal sympa- thy to the whole body, and its appetites, aversions, and senses— a sickness of that organ being produced by loathsome sights and fetid smells ; a puking, from a blow on the head ; a faintness from THE"TTONGUB U*' Timh. 397 pain, even of a part so distant as a finger or a toe ; and indiges- tion and loss of appetite, from a piece of fiad news, or the sight of a house on fire. A part which has such universal sympathies, ought to have an adjunct at hand, to sustain it, and to contain every drop of bad blood, which its substance, or its vessels, might contain. And such it has in the spleen. Such is the spleen to the stomach. § 6. The most mysterious part of physiology, as it relates to the human voice, is the art of the ventriloquist, who utters sounds without moving the lips or cheeks, or breathing through the mouth.* This is almost as strange as a statement lately made, of an unborn infant having been heard to make a whining noise ; and is another kind of ventriloquism ! That curious part of animal machinery, the glottis, must here be studied in order to develope this intricacy of ventriloquism. And after all, the voice of the ventriloquist, seeming to emanate from another body besides his own, is not void of mystery, and would seem to demand some other explanation than the usual one, that sound consists aionje in the vibrations of the air. A stone thrown into water, several fathoms deep, may be heard to emit a sound, when it strikes another stone at the bottom. How then can sound be made to depend upon the agitation of air, when it travels through water? Again, as in borborygm, or a rumbling in the bowels of animals, it would seem impossible for the air to be put into vibration exter- nally, by so obscure and confined a motion. And the beating of the heart, which is secured and covered by the walls of the thorax, and strictly inclosed in an air-tight sac, called the pericardium, may still be distinctly in some, and even in a great many instan- ces, heard to beat plainly. § 7. We once had a patient, and her case was a very singular and obscure complaint in the head, who upon moving it in a cer- tain manner, could produce a snap beneath the scalp, probably occasioned by the motion of some bone of the cranium having been ' Dr. Good. See his Physiological Proem to Class 11. 34* 398 THE TONGUE OF TIME. loosened by her long disease. And yet she had no dropsy internal nor external of the part. And that any bone could possibly have been loosened, considering their security by sutures, and not by joints, is not easy to comprehend. It gave her some uneasiness to do it, but I convinced myself by repeated examinations, of this sin- gular fact, which I can account for in no other way than by suppo- sing that the sutures around a piece of one of the parietal bones had become loosened ; and that it still adhered to the dura-mattr internally, and to the scalp externally, and that the motion of the head so moved the bone, as to make the noise. She died after an illness of more than twenty years, aged fifty. No examination was made after death, which is very much to be regretted. But in relation to the subject of sounds, the query still recurs, how, upon the Newtonian theory, it could put the air in motion, externally, so as to reach the drum of the ear, when the cause may have been beneath the bones of the skull, and was, at any rate, within the thick scalp or skin of the head, well covered with a fine, head of hair. If we are not entirely in the dark, and at sea, upon this subject, our theory is hardly sufiiciently matured to be entered upon just now. We will only just hint, that sound appears to be a pecuhar volatile substance, thrown off by concussion, and that this sub- stance meets another, which is constantly formed and emitted by the internal ears of those who can hear. Whilst in those that are deaf, the ear has lost the power of secreting and emitting the audi- tory rays of hearing, and therefore does not hear. If sound be not substance, why should thunder shake the house, several seconds after the lightning has been seen, and which has disappeared without making our domicil tremble % And if the ear does not secrete and emit auditory rays, how should deaf per- sons hear, by holding a pipe or wire in their mouths, one end of which rests upon a harpsichord ; which wire answers as a substi- tute to the auditory rays, or lines, which are not formed by the ears of deaf persons. If sound was alone a concussion of the air, why should a pipe, or a wire, or a stick, or a log, conduct it ? It is easy to see that the Newtonian theory cannot be maintainedj whatever substitute it may eventually have. THE TONGUE OT? TIME. 399 § 8. We are ready and willing to admit, that Sir "Walter Scott has settled all the points in novel writing. All love stories, and romance matters, have, therefore, no need of any new en- chanfer to try to settle what is settled already. We have wonder- ed to see attempts, upon a mean scale, which have already been exhausted upon a magnificent one. Yet so the world and its matters stand, that he who loves now, thinks that no one ever knew of love before. As he who prognosticates evil, seldom proves to be a false prophet, so he that talks of love, can always gain hearers. But of science no prophet prophecies, because it is a thing of profound investigation and practical experiment ; and he who talks of it, will often find the bare walls his only auditors ; and walls not like those of Paris, which are said to have ears — he will have no listeners under the windows, nor behind the arras. As we have mentioned the subject of sound, the query arises, how, if sound only arises from a concussion in the air, why it happens, that a muslin night cap, if it happens to be tied over the ear, or a silk cravat, when tied round the neck, if tied so high as to touch the ear, causes a disagreeable teasing sound, which in- duces the person to alter the situation of those articles of dress, before he can either sleep or study. This we have often experi- enced in our own person. A bug, which flew into a lady's ear in the evening, caused a sound, as she described it, more terrific than the loudest thunder. She painted the sensations which it caused as intolerable, but more from the noise than from any absolute p'ain. A candle being raised near the ear, in order to examine it, the bug, attract- ed by the light, flew out, to her great relief. In such, or similar cases, a feather dipped in honey and introduced into the ear, will stop the buzzing, and may extract the insect, or any other extrane- ous substance, such as a shot, pea, or kernel of grain, which children sometimes introduce. Where the substance does not adhere to thin honey, that which is thickened by age, or candy may be used in stead. Oils, that are tenacious, or balsams, may be tried where honey is not at hand. This lady thought she should have gone crazy, had she not been soon relieved, by the removal of the bug. 400 THE TONGUE OP TIME. Apoplexy is the disease of great men. It is very prone to at- tack people as they are about to get into a vehicle of conveyance, or to mount a horse. Sheriff Abbe died suddenly in this way, in Connecticut ; so did Mr. Jonathan Little, of the city of New York ; so did his Hon. Judge Bristol of New Haven ; and so did Mr. Kirk Boot, at Lowell, Massachusetts. Mr. Boot was the founder of Lowell. § 9. Wherever we find Christianity, we find mercy, except where we find Christians arrayed in hostility against each other. We have now before us an account from Mexico, of the Monks having arrested the arm aimed at murdering all foreigners. We are pleased to hear, that those who show any signs of life so sel- dom as these lazy monks, show it in a good cause. Good thoughts are like good land, unplanted, unseeded, un- tilled. The land may be good, but it is, when it produces nothing, good for nothing. These Monks had the good soil of the Christian religion about them, and when it bore fruit, it yielded an hundred fold, although it long before had lain fallow. Seneca said, that he should rather be sick and confined to his bed, than unemployed. But either confinement or pain is to be preferred to employment in vexatious, and perplexing, and uncer- tain lawsuits. When justice costs more than it is worth, it is best not to buy it. This, however, relates to legal justice. Moral justice is of another kind, and must be had at all events, even if ever so dearly bought. § 10. There is not a better commentary upon worldly wisdom than this, that Rehoboam was the son of Solomon, and that the wise man himself .died an idolator. Voltaire tells us, that he that is beloved by a beautiful woman, has nothing to fear. He ought, notwithstanding, to have remem- bered Solomon, and to have feared of becoming an idolator, or a bundle of eccentricities, by female influence. Adam Clarke, speaks of an old author, who says " knowledge that is not applying, is only like a candle which a man holds to light himself to hell." THE TONGUE OF TIME. 401 Worldly wisdom, however great, cannot be trusted to construct a candle for itself, which shall light the road to heaven ; and it is a curious fact in human history, that those who enjoy the extreme of prosperity, or suffer the extremity of adversity, are seldom found in that road. The former fly, and the latter sink, into for- bidden paths. An Irish woman said of her pretty little daughter, that it was not for the want of hating, she was so bad ; and this might be true, and much beating may have been the very reason why she was so bad. Harsh and cruel punishments, degrade both old and young, below the paths of duty. The Quakers, who dispense with all punishments, are a very moral people. They are very careful not to do the devil's drudgery for him, that of punishing. This they leave him to do for himself. There are some persons who spend so much time in talking about reforming the world, that they never do any thing at all towards reforming it, or them- selves. If every one takes care to reform one, the world will be reformed. There are some persons in the world who pray without devo- tion, and sin without sensibility. The man who exhibited his knees callous, by the time and times which he had spent on them in prayer, displayed the same desire for notoriety, as did the Phar- isee, who prayed standing at the corner of the streets. Those who pray in secret, do not tell of it in public, nor show their cal- lous knees as a sign of devotion, in private. When men run after new things, their prejudices do not always run with them ; and when they find that one new thing does not comport with their old prejudices, they throw it aside, and away they fly after another, which they hope to find better suiting them. It is thus that prejudice, like Scotch grapes, is seldom quite ripe ; and if ever ripe, it is ripe out of season, and only ripe in error and sourness. The man of prejudice and gloom, is for violence in politics, and intolerance in religion. Such think little of the fragility of the human frame. That half a bushel of bullets may be shot into the left side of an enemy, without killing him, he is willing to admit_, but as to himself, he will believe that the flash of an unloaded pistol has endangered his life. Like Herod, illiberal prejudice will poison the air of an infant's cradle ; and for fear of 402 THE TONGUE OF TIME. being poisoned himself, he will murder the infant, and the whole Holy Land of infants. One of the very greatest of all modern writers,* says of the theory of Gall and Spurzheim, that it is too ridiculous even to be laughed at. We merely speak here, to give our opinion of one of the greatest of writers, and of two of the greatest of fools ; and yet the latter are ten times as popular as the former, and twenty times as often mentioned. § 1 1. It is a curious fact that in lately opening a British tumuli of antiquity, that some small seeds were discovered in the region of the stomach of a skeleton, which must have been eaten and lain two thousand years. Some of these seeds were planted by Professor Lindley, which germinated, produced briers, and -this briery shrub, produced fruit, which proved to be the common raspberry. A painful industry is necessary, in order to lay before a reader what it is important for him to see. An author must, therefore, lean against a pyramid, if he would not fall, and be regular as the gun, if he would shine at all. A great city is a place for notoriety, display, and a luminous evolution of such talents as a man possesses, let them be of what- ever kind they may ; or, on the other hand, it may be a cover for individual obscurity, and a retreat, uninterrupted, and dark as a dungeon, for such as do not wish to be known, sought, or heard of. The reckless, the idle, and the profligate, like the Italian no- bleman, who turned gambler, and became murderer, when con- fined in prison, and a halter awaited him, refer their misery to the withholding of their friends— friends who have assisted them with their substance, advised them, prayed, wept, and suffered all but death and destitution for them. When Napoleon was dealing out crowns, mitres, and batons, his heart was wrung, his sensibiUties aroused, his life endangered, and he called a monster, because he would not deal out more of the same materials. * See Lacon, page 74. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 403 The honesty of policy — the departure from principles profess- ed — of creeds once admitted, and of dogmas once firmly embra- ced, may be defended, as Mustapha defended his departure from Christianity, to Mahomedanism, to save his life. He thought it better to trust a merciful God with his soul, than unmerciful wretches with his body. This was his defence to his friends for turning Mahometan. No man ever started as a teacher of truth, without informing his pupils that he himself was stUl an inquirer after it. § 12. Has the soul changed its seat 1 We have spoken of persons with two souls. Rachel Baker had a waking soul of no extraordinary powers. There was nothing in the young woman of any striking import. She was rather retiring in her manners, unsociable, unobtrusive, unaspiring, unassuming. But in her sleep, her sleeping soul had a wonderful, a marvellous, a prepon- derating, an overwhelming, pre-eminence — a pre-eminence which towered over all her living cotemporaries, in prayer and praise, and over her waking self, in all things relating to Christ, Chris- tians, and Christianity.* There is no form of prayer, no formula of exhortation, no forjns of expression, relating to the Christian system, so exalted as hers, since St, Paul the apostle. But has the soul changed its seat, and does it alternate between the head and heart 1 The Bible — the law, prophets, evangelists, apostles, and epistles, all refer the soul to the heart. The thoughts of his heeirt were evil continually, is in the first book of the Bible, and St. Paul has told us that out of the heart proceed murmur- ings ; whilst all the modern creation. Christian, Jewish, Pagan, Mahomedan, and Papistical, refer the thoughts of man, not to the heart, but to the head ; and with them join all men of medicine, physicians, physiologists, surgeons, practitioners, prescribers, anatomists, and even apothecaries. Such being the case, the startling proposition of a person with two souls, is to be met and matched, with the paramount authori- ty of the soul being seated in two places ; or according to the re- ligious ancients, inhabiting the heart, and according to the Chris- * We should transcribe, but we observe that the copy right is secured. 404 THE TONGUE OP TIME. tian moderns, inhabiting the head. If, therefore, the science of double souls is new, the double seat of the soul may be alleged as a doctrine of very great antiquity. The antiques on one side, re- ferring the soul to the heart, and on the other to the head. § 13. To be neither believed, rewarded, nor praised here, is often the fate of him who does a disinterested act of virtue ; and what of futurity ? what of an hereafter 1 Why, he who boasts of his benevolence, is to lose, in a coming vrorld, all recompence there also. Alms-giving, and deeds of charity, must, therefore, be only published to the world by the receiver, not at all by the donor. § 14. A man may have physical courage, judicial courage, and lion-hearted courage, without knowing any thing of that moral courage, which fortifies the soul, and especially the female soul, against adversity. § 15. It is one of the astonishing things of the world, to see and to hear the aspirations of pride and ambition — ambition of great debts — pride of being bound for great houses — liabilities for contracts, more than the surety or principal is able to pay — talk- ing of tens of thousands as mere trifles, such are some of the displays of pride ; and it may be added that such kind of fame, as that derived from being bound for great houses, will establish a man's financial credit. § 16. There are those who sail the crystal seas in search, pre- tendedly, for heaven, who are yet very careful not to lose their sight of land. Spiritual things are always in their mouths, but temporal things forever present in their acts, and apparently up- permost in their hearts. Saints on Sunday, and demons on Monday. § 17. Notwithstanding the variety of anecdotes which have been given of Buonaparte, and the great number of commenta- tors who have written of Shakspeare, every emanation from either source, comes freighted with wisdom. They were charac- THE TONGUE OF TIME, 405 ters who banished folly from their personal atmosphere. Wise men have their follies, and brave men their fears. The excep- tions are so few, that Shakspeare and Napoleon are the more worthy of notice. And in this connection, it is worth considera- tion, that the greatest writer in the English language, knew no other language than the English. § 18. The most enchanting, the most fascinating beauties, change in the features and modes of their charms, but are still forever charming. There are other beauties, like April days. They have bright suns, but clouds and showers of rain, range so near in their neighbourhood, that a change of the weather for the worse, is ever to be apprehended. How wrung and how twisted has been the heart of him, who has left one of these fairy forms, in angel smiles, with cherub eyes, and an elysian atmosphere around her, to meet her the very next time, looking like a fallen angel — sullen and pouting, nobody could guess for what, and her- self unable to tell. Such are the disasters of love. Red earth, of which man was made, and which, according to Josephus, is the purest of all, irrigated with blood, breezed with blushes, variegated with lily white, moving like the gazelle, shining like the beams of the morning, in all the glory of the East, such is a beautiful woman. Still, it is the spirit alone, which enlivens the female countenance divine, with beams of heavenly bliss. It is the spirit that keeps this beautiful mansion of blushes, swept and garnished. It is a spirit, a mind, a soul, controlled, cultivated, expanded, but always adapted to the varie- gated varieties of times, seasons, and ciroiumstances, that consti^ tutes the summit of excellence, the acme of perfection in woman. Where such a spirit reigns, its fair possessoj is sure to gain, and sure to keep, the world in admiration. If such an one pelts, she does not pout, and her peltings are with guineas ; the golden surfaces of which, cures all the wounds which their edges had made. Relations and lovers take the most liberties, but render the best assistance. The eye of a relation is never shut closely, and the eye of a lover is never shut at all ; and the hands of both are j>rone to be opened according to their ability. 35 406 THE TONGUE OP TIME. Lacon, thinks that women with reason somewhat weaker than men, have passions somewhat stronger.. We think that it must be a special pleader with a great fee, to so contend, and a preju- diced judge, with a brilliant bribe, to so decide. There never lived a woman who was not inclined to virtue once, nor never did she deviate, when the fault existed wholly in herself. There is a vulgar, uneducated, inexperienced, reckless set of boobies in the world, who always talk of women contrary to all, that mothers, wives, sisters, or lovers, or daughters, ever justified, or that can be sanctioned by those who have studied with fidelity the female character. It is true that when women fall, they fall like Lucifer ; and it is for that very reason, that there are comparatively few that fall. A great many women become the objects of slander, by the viru- lence of the few who trip, of their own sex, and by the large number of the other sex who are foiled. There are to be sure, women in the world, who have no virtue now, but they can only be considered as the relics of virtue that once existed. We can hardly contemplate Christianity without contemplating women in its connection. " Each conquest owing to some loose advance," was a line written by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, of her own sex. But we do not believe her ladyship, for, indeed, we know better, as does every one who has had much experience with the sex. § 19. Envy and love, and delight and despair, Are passions that ever are hankering — where ? A very dark cloud now happens to blind, Quite shutting the light from what we would find. Distinctness of vision is lost by the eyes, That keep not their ken on the sex and the size. There are millions of eyes, for thousands of years. Which have took in the light, and paid out the tears. Who has not seen air, as 'tis flitting away. O'er a heated stove, on a' cold winter's dty ? He who has seen air, which is not to be seen. May now without doubt, discern what we mean. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 407 And that indefinable thing he may find, Which no one e'er knew, but is called woman's mind ! Distinguished is not, all that is in sight, The eye not itself ana discern by the light. Sick persona who pick at their bed-clothes, suppose Intruders are there, to blast their repose. There are some so corrupt in sin and in lies, The devil can scarce make worse if he tries. A melodious voice is ever on wing, As sunshine and flowers develope the spring. $ 30. A lantern composed of little brass wire, Will take up the heat of its candle on fire, And so nullify fiaine, that fire-damp and gas, Will not be ignited though round it they pass. He who has a mind, may liken this scene, To her who is sitting at home as a queen, But sends not her fiames abroad like a gale. To conquer, or flutter, or wreck the heart's sail. Tho' in are the flames, the full glare of light, Is out, and abroad, dispelling the night. The light of the lamp enlightens the mine, Yet heats not, nor burns not, contented to shine.* § 21. The thorns of our lives are ten to the roses, Then less the regret when death interposes. Yet Km wkilst you live — was the preacher's award, And who that is wise, will this disregard ? § 22. Join not with yonr friend, when he censures his wife. Unless they 're about to be parted for life. Nor question his watch for the true time of day, Nor dispraise his horse, unless bargained away. Unsafe is the conquest that conquers a friend, More safe are the boons which to ingrates extend. ^ 33. In the annals of time we hear of ripe grain. Descending from heaven lilte copious rain,t ' The safety lamp of the miners, was the invention of Sir Humphrey Davy, and is by them called a Davy. The fire damp was sometimes exploded with terrible violence and destruction of life, by carrying a naked candle into mines. This is now prevented by a wire-gauze cage, or lantern, inclosing a lamp. A very great discovery, is thus simple. Some of the gas will enter the brass wire lamp, or gauze-cage, and be,consumed therein ; but the flame is go cooled by the cage that it will not explode the fire-damp without. t Chinese fable. 408 THE TONGUE OF TIME. And what was the cause of joy thus displayed. That corn was sent down without culture or blade ? 'T was not that the laws below were complete, 'T was not that for praise, many mortals might meet, Nor yet for that splendid and glorious cause, That wrested the world from barbarous laws; 'T was not that cities wer& built and supplied, That marshes were drained ; stat^ and empires allied ; But this was the cause, this truth was presented. That WRITING and printing were now first invented ! 'Twas at this, that heaven and earth were elated, And mortals towards gods became elevated. The joy of the heavens to earth was expanded, Tu rain dawn the wheat, the clouds were commanded. Mankind, before rough, unpolished, and rude, Were now with the means of improvement endued, A winged intercourse, by paper and letter, Made knowledge and news, and science its debtor; Polite intercourse, and business and lover, How great was the gift ! they all soon discover. Now reason and justice, were taught and were spread, In regions from which their semblance had fled. The laws became fixed ; uncertain before. They floated like wrecks on the ocean's wide roar. The judge had his rules, by which to decide. The scholar his grammar, by which to abide ; Historians ground, on which they might stand, Astronomers stars, Which came at command ; Logicians formed rules to reason aright, Which rhetoric ranged in a silver-tongued light ; Mathematics were fixed by figures and rules, And scholars had books, and masters had schools ; The first map was formed, and on paper the grounds. Of him who held land, might be known with its bounds ; All painted and gilded, on platters and vases. Were provinces traced, with lines in their places ; Next rules were devised, for the tongue and the throat, The^amuJ was formed, with the bar and the note ; At music sublime, pathetic and sweet, CoNFocius was charmed to forgetting to eat. When music was known, soon painting had place. With the colors, and lines, and looks of the face ;* * The Chinese legends refer to the ancient monarch Yu, as having drained the waters of the deluge, and divided his empire into nine grand divisions, and one hundred and seventy-three kingdoms. All lying beyond these, were re- THE TONGUE OP TIME. • 409 The alt colored art, drew frowns, fears and smiles, Showing all but the heart, with its freaks and its wileSi The kingdom of Hades screamed out in affright, At sight of a world that could read and could lorile, All jangle and jargon, at once it was thought, With murder and theft, would now come to nought ; The prisons no more would groan with their loads, Of wretches all fit for infernal abodes ; The gambler, the quack, and the swearer who lied, Would now be no better thhn dogs that had died ; The dwellers infernal, exclaimed one and all, None ! none ! will come here, and our empire must fall ; Bat Satan undaunted, observed with a sneer. That writers would wrangle, and writs would appear. Had writing been not, the facts of the flood. Might be but a tale of a deluge 0f blood ;- Of forty days rain of purple and gore, Which floated the ark, and the earth covered o'er ; Of mountains which saw above them the dead, Afloat on a sea of carnation and red ; And when the winds blew, and when roared the flood, The dash of the waves and the spray, were of blood ; A roaring red sea, of unnatural sound, Like coffins let down into graves in the ground. Those clouds which hang over Nile's shores to this day, Had writing been then, had been banished away ; garded as outside nations. The nine grand departments had each a grand vase, upon which was painted, by the imperial mandate, the boundaries, subdivis- ions, and statistical details, of the grand department to which it related. By this process, the boundaries of the kingdoms and nations of the empire became fixed and permanent. Astronomy was early cultivated in China, and made the basis oi staterigUs and ceremonies, as the celestial empire was designed to be as fixSd and orderly in its government, as were the heavenly bodies in their motions. The philoso- pher Confucius was so ravished with the charms of music, that for three months he did not perceive the relish of food, declaring that he could have no conception of such perfection in sounds. It is a very curious fact in the na- tional character of the Chinese, that the knowledge of sounds, and the science of music, is supposed to be closely connected with the science of government. The modern dynasties are considered degenerate, because they de not, in this respect, come up to the ancients. This matter is even carried so far, that those are thought unfitfor rulers who do not understand music. Geography is of very ancient date among the Chinese, and printing, gunpowder, and paper, more ancient than in any other part of the known world. 35* 4 410 THE TONGUE OF TIME. Those mountains so grand, that they darken the air With glorious gloom, — who erected them there 1 Not Moses has told; nor the use nor the space ; All still are unknown, to history's disgrace. Ere writing was taught, or ere fell the flood. We ken that those wonderful pyramids stood ; When oxen were known as mammoths for size. And giants for men, to lift rocks to the skies. Fire hundred feet high, such stones are there found. That modern men fail to more on the ground ;* And tho' round them now, vast deserts are seen, Before the flood washed on the sands, all was green ; Those mountains of art, the world's greatest wonder. The deluge withstood, and earthquake and thunder, No element crash can engulphor derange, Or time's blasting band, or barbarians change ; Defeated the power which avarice sent, Dismayed all the aid that the curious lent. Whilst Athens and Rome, have felt the fell crash, And low lie their columns by earthquake and flash. » Sir Robert Wilson. CHAPTER XIII. SOME FURTHER NOTICE OP THE SLEEPING PREACHER. ' DIFFERENT OPINIONS OP HER SLEEPING AND WAKING SOUL, AS EXHIBITED BY HERSELF. THE GYMNOSOPHISTS. HEROD THE GREAT. CASE OP WILLIAM BLATCHFORD, JR. WOMEN BEARING CHILDREN AT SIXTY YEARS OF AGE. § 1. The case of Rachel Baker, whose sleeping soul preach- ed excellent sermon^, and. made excellent prayers, but whose waking soul could do nothing of the kind, nor remember nothing that her sleeping soul had said or done, merits a further reference. It is one of thpse cases in which what is floating upon the mind, becomes concentrated, vivid and luminous, although whilst afloat, aU was unsettled, and bore a nearer relation to darkness than to Jight. Every person has hadidfas and sometimes very valuable ones, which have been in the clouds, until some accident, sugges- tion, or intense appUcation, had brought them into a fixed and available position, state or situation. Reading, friends, fear, wine, joy, diseases, and sleep, may be adduced, as the most prominent agents in these developements of man, matter and mind. It is discreditable to our taste in this country, that works of fancy and fiction, should supplant such au extraordinary case as that of Miss Baker. There are perhaps, few persons among us of mature years, who would not think it derogatory to them, to have it supposed that they were unacquainted with the novels of Sir Walter Scott; yet here is a veritable account of a young woman, whose performances were more extraordinaiy than any thing that Sir Walter Scott relates, and which is attested by some 412 > THE TONGUE OF TIME. of the first characters* in the city of New York, and yet the case is known to but few. The cases of Nancy Hazard, Miss M'Evoy, Jane C. Rider, and Mrs. Cass, are if possible still more astonishing and curious. And they ought to be known to all, as opening a wide vista to the inmost recesses^ of the human mind. Nor can animal magnetism supersede them. Miss Baker was about twenty years old, when her extraordina- ry faculty of sleep-preaching, was displayed in New York. Al- though she denied that it was sleep, but insisted that she was wide awake, yet when awake, she remembered nothing that had passed. Dr. Mitchell says, that in confirmation of her being awake, she on one occasion, described in vivid and glowing strains, the spec- tacle then bright in her view. This consisted of angels, saints, and the souls of just men made perfect. They were ministering before the throne of the Almighty, clothed in robes, white as snow. Another remarkable particular, and strikingly indicative of the disparity between her two souls, was, that in the sermons of her sleep, she acted under the persuasion that it was the duty of those who are renewed by all merciful grace, to direct poor wanderers to the straight and narrow path ; and this doctrine she held in her sleeping conversation ; whilst at the same time, her waking belief was, that it was not apostolical for a woman to be a public preacher, or teacher in holy things. She had at about the age of fourteen, joined the Presbyterian churck in Onondaga county, N. Y. ; but becoming uneasy in her mind, she about two years afterward, submitted to submersion, and became a member of the Baptist church. * When she insisted that she was wide awake, her eyes were accurately closed, and there was no signs of winking, which * The account was drawn np by ihe Hon. Samuel L. Mitchell, M. D. Sena- tor in the Congress of the United States, and is attested by the following pro- fessional gentlemen, whose names and celebrity are sufficient to fix the stamp of truth and merit upon any publication or statement to which they are affixed. They are Doctors John H. Dooglas, Joshua E, R. Birch, Valentine Mott, and Archibald Buuce. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 413 there frequently is, when persons in fits have their eyes shut, by a motion of the eye-lids, and a rolling of the eye-ball. It is a duty to relate facts which are involved in mystery, and for which we may not be able to account ourselves, because others may be more penetrating, experiencbd or gifted, or successful than we; and every one is interested in knowing the^ limits to which human nature extends, and the bounds beyond which it cannot pass, and the circle within which it is inclosed. Every one, therefore, ought to endeavour to make a mark on the world which shall last, and be remembered, and noticed for its useful- ness, of some sort or other, after the world is no longer of any use to him. A memento or a monument may be lasting, if it is not large. There are few men who ought not to have written a sentence, and there are few men who ought ever to have written a book. O ! that mine enemy would write a book, was a sentiment uttered by one of the old patriarchs, who wished that his enemy would do something which would place him in such an attitude, that he could not injure the world, nor himself. That the seeds of ideas may be planted in the human mind, and at first be as much out of sight as seeds covered with earth, and planted in the ground, but that they may afterwards spring up as the seed does, into a visible, and beautiful, and organized sub- stance, is what we must admit. It is reported that the house of Rachel Baker's father was opened, and that frequently, to itinerant preachers. And that she might have caught those expressioris which, floated on her sleep- ing mind, until they ripened, and were sent forth, in such strains of eloquence, system, and pathos, as are not exceeded by the writings of the greatest divines, is the conclusion which we have arrived at, after maturely considering this curious case. Most ex- traordinary it surely is, that' she, when awake, retained nothing of them, and that when asleep, or in a state of somnambulism, that the peculiar arrangement, beauty, and spirit, of her religious out- pourings, probably' exceeded every thing which she had, as a whole, ever heard in her life. As to her ever having derived any thing from her reading, which could have in the least assisted her in her superior sermons, 414 THE TONGUE OP TIME. exhortations, and prayers, it is out of the question ; for althougli she could read, when that is saidj all is said. She could barely read, but it appears that she could not read even the most easy lessons with ease or freedom. Whoever, therefore, reads her pathetic, classical, and excellent Christian eifusions, which are not exceeded by the prayers and meditations of him who stands at the head of English literature, we mean Dr. Johnson, will have the more reason for profound astonishment. Yes, when he considers too, that he is reading the outpourings of a young, uneducated country girl, and she fast asleep ! We are told, and so it appears to us, that her inventive powers were such, in her sleep, as to be almost as remarkable as any part of her history. She combined her ideas in new ways, and from this power, modified and diversified her discourses, so as to form, an immense variety, uttering phrases, and metaphors, as Dr. Mitchell observes, peculiar to herself. Her sleeping soul was a storehouse of piety and devotion, from which issued copious streams, differing from what she had been accustomed to hear, as a glowing imagination, and more ardent temperament, will make the same old story appear like a new, brilliant, and interesting one. Still, the greatest wonder must be kept in view, which was, that none of these exalted strains, ever presented themselves to her waking mind. But even when asleep, and when exhorting, or preaching, or praying, she readily answered such questions as were put to her, in a prompt, pertinent, and obliging manner, but evincing at the same time a profound submission in every thing to the will of the Most' High, a deep and feeling sense of religion, in all its glory, and a most pertinent view of all the pious bearings which it could possibly prompt. We have been more impressed with the introductory and con- cluding prayers of Rachel Baker, her exhortations, and answers to the questions proposed to her, than with any religious writings, and speakings, whatever ; always meaning to except the Sermon on the Mount, some of the writings of St. Paul, and some other parts of the Bible. Still, in these sleeping effusions of hers, there is the most complete summary of the Sermon on the Mouat, THE TONGUE OP TIMEi 415 and of all the practical duties, and doctrines, and precepts, of the apostles, epistles, and prophets, that we have ever seen. And even when she quotes the Bible, and deviates slightly from our present English translation, we are inclined to think that the best Greek scholar will justify such deviation. Indeed, as one of her visitors observed, she appeared to be in- tuitively prepared to meet questions the most dark and abstruse ; and to answer them with promptness, and with multifarious re- mark, right onward, without repetition ; so as to exhaust her sub- ject entirely, and almost, before she got through, herself also. The colors of the duties of a parson, presbyter, elder, or preacher, were painted by her so vividly, as to almost merit the title given, of delirious testacy, by one who heard her. Still, there was no rant, cant, nor raving ; nothing but what might be justified, paral- leled, and referred to the Bible, either in the English translation, the marginal notes, or in the original languages, from which it was translated. The pleasures of a life to come, for a life well spent here, and the awfuUy solemn denunciations, and shuddering terrors, of eter- nal damnation, the slumbering sentinel, who was drowsy at his post, or winked on the watch tower, were perhaps never better in- terlarded with scriptural allusions, or with copiousness of human language, or with aptness of illustration, or with potency of ap- plication. This oracular corpse amazed the clergymen, as well as the doctors of medicine, correctly, who visited her. For her sleep was deep and dead, and for the time, she was to all external things, an inhabitant of another world, except as to hearing, and answering questions. One of her visitors, who upon a stormy night visited her, and heard her holdings forth, described the deep attention of the auditors, the sighs of the women, the howling of the tempest, united with the speaking corpse, when uttering its awful warnings, as calculated to make the soul shuddter, and shiver in sublimity. She was pale during her paroxysms, and as one described her, colorless as dead. Indeed she might be, as she was on one occa- sion, reduced to an alarming state of debility, by the multiplicity of questions propounded to her ; she never refusing to answer 416 THE TONGUE OP TIME. them pertinently, so long as they were asked, and her friends had to interfere, in order to keep her from being quite exhausted. She was in the city of New York in the autumn of the year 1814 ; and when in her sleeping fits, questions by different clergy- men were at different times proposed to her. ; Some of these did not relate to religious matters, but her answers always savored of religion. She was once asked this question : What is to become of the poor of this city, during the inclemency of the ensuing winter 'i She sighed and said, " That is a question too difficult for me to answer. I have not the eye of God, to discern the wants of the poor in this great city ; nor the understanding of the Almighty, to devise means fortheir relief. But one thing I know, that God will provide for his own. He has said, bread shall be given thera, and water shall be made sure. And in regard to others, his general providence will supply them, for he is good and kind even to the evil and unthankful. He maketh his sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and the unjust. He openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing." This country was at that period at war with Great Britain, and she was questioned as to what ought to be the conduct of Chris- tians during the war ; to which her answer responded in senti- ments which every Christian would admire, the conclusion of which was as follows : " But I would warn you all, that there is another war, and a captain who is never defeated, even Jesus Christ, who makes war upon sin from generation to generation. He is always victorious. All his enemies shall be defeated and scattered. For lo ! thine enemies, O Lord, thine enemies shall perish. O ye sons and daughters of men, I entreat you to enlist under the banners of the Captain of salvation, that you may be saved." The Rev. Dr. Mason was at that period the most popular preacher in the United States ; and it was said to her. You have been to Dr. Mason's church this evening, and heard him preach ; he is come to See you. She answered, " I did not observe any of ■the ambassadors of Christ in the assembly, but I know the ^.preacher has been with rny God, and that my God has been with THE TONGUE OF TIME. 417 liim, for I heard the truth. The grand theme of a minister should ever be Christ and him crucified. Ministers should be examples to the flock in every good word and work, and keep low in the valley of humiliation. They should warft unbelievers who are blind to the things oi God, for it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.'* The question was asked her. By what means can the heart of an obdurate, rebellious sinner be changed, so as to yield a cheerful obedience to the will of God 1 Her answer was, " Nothing, my friend, short «f the almighty power of God, can change the heart of a sinner. For such is the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the heart of man by nature, that he would forever remain an enemy to God in his mind, by wicked- ness, unless God should make his word like a fire and a hammer, to melt and break his rocky heart in pieces. To take away the heart of stone is the work of God, and the new heart is the gift of his sovereign grace. Thus saith the Lord, a new heart also will I give you, and a: new spirit will I put within you ; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. O my fellow sinners, un- less you experience this divine change, you are undone, and must perish forever. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Are you aston- ished at this declaration 1 Do you ask, how can these things be ? Marvel not that I say unto you, ye must be born again." In one particular she agreed when asleep and when awake. It was, in lamenting the peculiarity of her state ; and which she spoke of when questioned, and when awake, with reluctance, betraying a deep sensibility, and regarding it as a misfortune. When in one of her fits, her views may be gathered from her an- swer to the following question : Q. What is your greatest grief? A. My greatest grief is, that the hand of the Lord is lying heavy upon me, and that he has made me to differ from my brethren and sisters in a strange and unaccountable manner ; also, that I am not sufficiently resigned to the will of my heavenly father in this my aflSiction ; and I also grieve, because I do not live so near to God as I should. 36 418 THE TONGUE OP TIME. Except in this one point, she appears to have been as diiferent from herself in her waking and in her preaching states, as two distinct persons. In her normal, natural, or waking state, her speech was heavy, languid, and drawling ; so much so, as to be painful to the hearer ; whilst in her fits of preaching, her articular tion was distinct^ and occasionally earnest and impressive, some- times ornamental and figurative, fluent and rapid. The fits invaded her with regularity, at about nine o'clock in the evening, and lasted from forty-five minutes, to one hour and a quarter. A few minutes after going to sleep, or becoming som- nolent, her exercises commenced, beginning with prayer, which was succeeded by a sermon, or rather an exhortation, as she did not take any text, and were concluded by another prayer. During these exercises, she did not move a limb, except the tongue, but lay as motionless as a person entirely dead, her eyes being con- stantly closed. She would, as already observed, answer ques- tions, but could not, by any means, be aroused from her sleep, or somnolent state. She was, therefore, evidently in a fit, and the whole of her religious exercises were unstudied, unpremeditated, and like the dancing of Nancy Hazard, whose case we have be- fore related, involuntary. Physicians must regard her as having periodical paroxysms of disease, of a peculiar kind. And this seems to have been her own view of her case, when she regarded it as a misfortune, both when in her fits and out of them. Like other nervous diseases, hers did not alter her pulse, nor the heat of her skin, except when her exercises fatigued her, and then her pulse showed signs of debility. Her moral character, as Dr. Mitchell observes, was fair and exemplary. The length of time, she had been thus affected was about three years, nor were her physicians in New York, by bleeding, opiates, or any other reme- dies, able to produce any change ; she having been brought thither for medical advice, and sea air, but departed as she came, without benefit from either. There Were some slight hysterical symptoms at the close of her discourses, with sighing and moan- ing, when she appeared to fall into a natural slumber, but did not awake.* * Those who may wish to be made Airther acauainted with this case, are re- ferred to a pamphlet, by Mr, Charles Mais, stenographer, of the city of New THE TONGUE OP TIME. 419 § 2. This case of sleep-preaching, although quite remarkable, is not, however, the only one that has occurred. We have the case of a man, a layman, before us, vrho did not suppose that he had ever experienced conversion, who yet was in the habit of rising from his bed, and praying and preaching in his sleep. The distinction betwixt his waking and his sleeping mind and memory, was sufficiently extraordinary to support the doctrine of two distinct souls or spirits. After he had finished his sermon, he dismissed his supposed audience, or pronounced a dismissal ; but before this, he regularly appointed another time when he would hold forth again. And strange to tell, he did not have another fit of somniloquism, until the time of adjournment arrived, when regular to the appointment of his sleeping mind, he never missed, but with the utmost punctuality went to an upper window of his house, his usual place of location, when he preached in his steep, and commenced exercises, after the manner of the minister whom he had been accustomed to hear. This man was moderate, steady, and respectable, and for years had been under the influence of this singular affection. His health was good, and he was in other respects like other people who are sound in mind and body. Yet of this nightly sleep preaching, when he was awake, he was unconscious ; he knew nothing, re- membered nothing at all of it. His soul of night remembered the things of night, his soul of day, the incidents of day. He that should say, that the differefnt states of the bodily Organs, in the time of sleep, caused the different states of the mind and memory, would he not be teaching materialism ? We then have no resort except to the plurality of souls or spirits. And that more than -one spirit may inhabit the same body, we have testimony higher than human. No one who ad- Inits that seven devils were cast -out of one'woman, supposes, or can suppose, that these devils were any thing more or less than evil spirits. No one ever did, or ever will maintain, that they were material, corporeal, visible, or tangible bodies. They were, York, who took down literally, the exercises of Miss Baker. In this pamphlet, the two prayers and the exhorlaiinn prononnceiJ in ont' o-rhernightly exercises, are given at length. They are well worthy ol' the notice of the curious and the pious. 420 THE TONGUE OF TIME. therefore, seven evil spirits, called devils. Now this man appears to have had one additional spirit, or extra soul, which was a good one, we may suppose a converted one, which led him to pray and to preach in his sleep ; whilst his waking soul was deented by himself to be in an unconverted state, and did nothing of the kind. After all, however, the state of this man, and that of Rachel Baker, did not materially diifer from the common occurrence erf dreaming, except that they had the power of giving speech and system to their imaginations, which common dreamers do not possess. They dreamed sermons and spoke them. The man had somnambulism with his dreams; Rachel Baker had only somniloquism with hers, as she did only talk and did not walk. Age, owes most of its acts to impressions received in infancy, or adolescence, which have long been forgotten, and every trace of them banished from the recollection. Sickness, senility, or the approach of death, may sometimes resuscitate the recollections of youth which have long lain dormant. And dreams sometimes do it, when every vestige of a past occurrence has passed from the waking mind. The Rev. Mr. Muhlenburg, who was minister of the I^utheran ckurch in Philadelphia, his- auditors, many of them being from Sweden, was surprised to hear the aged Swedes, on their death beds, praying in the Swedish language ; a language which he was sure they had not spoken for fifty or sixty years ; and which it is probable, as Dr. R.ush supposed, that they had forgotten en- tirely, until the effects of the fever on the brain, revived its recol- lection. The same thing has happened to native Welch, and Germans, in this country. § 3. There is no religious sect in the known world, either Christian, Mahomedan, or Pagan, who sacrifice so totally, all the joys, comforts, and necessaries of the present life, for the sake of tVie future, as the Gymnosophists, a religious sect among the Hindoos. Gymnosophist, signifies naked philosopher. The forsaking of all acts that are desirable, is one of their tenets, which carried to THE TONGUE OP TIME. 421 its full extent, introduces the performer, or sufferer, immediately into the abodes of bliss, and has the power to unbar the gates of paradise. As wearing clothes, is one of those desirable things, nakedness is endured, almost totally, by the most fanatical of these devotees, and naked feet by all of them. They abandon the society of men, and pass their lives amid the deserts and jungles, totally absorbed in contemplating things spiritual, heavenly, and divine. It is thus that they think to fortify and fit the imprisoned soul, for the moment of its liberation from its fleshly prison, and for its entrance into those abodes prepared for the sanctified, who by such austere sanctity, merit admittance. The penances to which they subject their spare, naked, and ema- ciated bodies, in order to vanquish the unholy solicitations of their passions, are beyond description excruciating and terrible. The severest tortures which human ingenuity can inflict, are borne with unshrinking fortitude ; nor do they, seek consolation in human society, or compassion from human sympathy, or pity from any mortal eye. It is theirs unflinchingly to bear torments the most cruel, untouched to tear ties the most t^der, undisturbed to undergo tortures the most terrible. Upon a man becoming one of the fourth, or highest order of this religious sect, and which is termed Suniassi, the wife of his 36* 422 THE TONGUE OF TIME. bosom is neglected, and the child of his affections abandoned. Daily penalties of the body are endured for the purification of the spirit ; but a day, a week, a month, or a year, does not end, or mitigate the intensity of the suflferings, or lighten the load of the suiferer. The privation^, the patienpe, the peiiallies, the pains, are to be perpetual to the penitent. His home is abandon- ed ; his haggard frame and starved stomach, are taken where food, fuel, or shelter, are not found. His naked body is exposed to the stinging and the biting of insects — ^to the fangs and to the poison of serpents — to famine, and to the ferocity of wild beasts. Every misery is endured in meditation and silence, for the sake of his soTil. No companion accompanies him^no human voice is heard but his own, and this «nly escapes his lips in the utter- ance of one single mystic word, at intervals. This word is awan, and isi uttered sacredly, because it is the first word of the Vedas, or Hindoo scriptures; Like the moping owl, which to the moon complained, and not like the beautiful bird of night, which melo- dious sung its anthems to returning day. Day and night, the sun serene, or scowling sky, found him alike miserable, alike crying awan. But what is his food, what keeps his soul from premature- ly flying from its exhausted, emaciated, miserable tenement 1 It is the food of the brute, the herbage that spontaneously springs in the desert. But if the grass of the desert is dried up, and the berries fallen and exhausted, his severe order permits him to visit the nearest, village, and to beg a handful of boiled rice ; which if thrown on the ground, he takes up with his mouth, swallowing as much, and no more, than will prevent absolute starvation. This done, he flies to his sole, sore, solitary business, that of incessant mental prayer, intense contemplation, painful fasting, and the endurance of damp, drought, dearth, and nakedness. They consider these abstemious sufferings as uniting them in- timately with the Deity, and as enduing them with a portion of his power. Hence it is supposed that their energy is unbounded, that they can cast out devils of all kinds, and bring up demons from the lowest bobun of naralca, or that Hindoo hell, which is the region of serpents. They evea themselves hold, that the united prayers and powers of their order, can call down the stars from heaven, remove mountains, and disembody the THE TONGUE OF TIME. 423 soul ; and then again restore it to its breathless clod of a habi- tation. " These devotees are frequently seen in the jungles, and in the neighbourhood of the deserts, in a state of dreadful emaciation. They are held in the highest veneration by all pious Hindoos." And no one who reads their history, can deny the power, the vast, the intense, the concentrated, the mighty, the unbounded power of religion on the mind. The present writer can say, that nothing has ever struck him more forcibly, as evincing this point, than the account of these Gymnosophists, and of the Essenes, as given by Flavius Josephus. If then, false religions have such super- human influence, what ought the true, religion of the Bible to have 1 § 4. Account of the funeral ceremonies of the ancient kings of Scythia, from Herodotus : — " The body having been trans- ported through the different provinces, of the" kingdom, they come at last to the Gerrhi, who live in the remotest parts of Scythia, and among whom the sepulchres are. Here the corpse is placed upon a couch, round which, at different distances, daggers are fixed ; upon the whole are disposed pieces of wood covered with branches of willow. In some other parts of the trench they bury one of the deceased's concubines, whom they previously strangle, together with the baker, the cook, the groom, his most confiden- tial servant, his horses, the choicest of his effects, and finally, some golden goblets, for they possess neither silver nor brass. To conclude all, they fill up the trench with earth, and seem to be emulous in their endeavours to raise as high a mound as pos- sible." Let the moderns consider themselves as the descendants of whatever nation they may, they can hardly come to any other conclusion than that their remote ancestors were barbarians. Here was no less than five persons murdered, in order that they might be buried in the same trench with their master the king. When we view the enormities of the Scythians, and the Druids, we may learn how highly we ought to prize the religion of Chris- tians. 424 THE TONGUE OP TIME. § 5. We had supposed that ahhough the pyramids of Egypt, and of Spanish America, together with the mounds of the west- ern and southern states, were of unknown eras, yet that th€ anti- quities of England could be better traced to their authors, and authenticated as to their origin. But we find that Silsbury-Hill, so called, is an immense barrow of one hundred and seventy feet in height, of which history gives no account. This immense barrow, covers a surface of no less than five acres, and thirty- four perches of land, and is something more than five hundred feet in diameter at its base, and one hundred and five feet diame- ter at its top. The tradition is, that an unknown king named Sil, or Zel, " as the country folk pronounce it," was buried there on horseback. It is supposed to have had some connection with the idolatrous worship of the Druids. But the tradition of its having been a place of sepulture for a king, is most probably true, although the Druids, or ancient Britons, might have wept or worshipped there. The Druid barrow is circular, and of no very great elevation elsewhere. This Silsbury-Hill is the largest bar- row in England. The next in size is Marlborough-Mount, in the garden of an inn at Marlborough.* There is another kind of barrow found in England, of a long oval shape. It is not then Egypt alone which has its monuments of antiqui- ty, reaching beyond the reach of history ; both England and America, are rivals to the land of the Pharaohs and Ptolemies, in this respect. The two most ancient sepulchral monuments, was the harrow, or heap of earth, and the eairn, or pile of stones, raised over the dead. The former, in process of time, arose to the mound, or mount, and the latter to the pyramid ; in order, by distinguished monuments, to distinguish the remains of those who had distinc- tion whilst living. The book of Joshua, Homer, Horace, and Virgil, may be referred to for such structures. Burying the body in a sitting posture, with the arms about the lower limbs, was one of the earliest methods of disposing of the dead. To this burning succeeded. The latest adoption, that of burying the body extended, entire, and at full length, continues to the present time. * See Saturday Magazine, for November, 1836. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 425 § 6. A recently related case of somnambulism, from the peft of Benjamin Haskell, M. D. of South Boston, is published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. In some of its features, this case is equally curious and surpri- sing, as those which we have already given. It occurred in a young man of about twenty years of age, by the name of William Blatchford, Jr., of Gloucester, Massachusetts, one of those towns which suflFered under the epidemic mania, called the Salem witchcraft. He was first seized January ■Sd, 1834, with a severe pain in his head, which was followed by something reseinbling intermittent fever, which was succeeded by fits. In these fits, he performed all the feats of a rope-dancer, and balance-master, balancing himself with one foot on the back of a chair, leaping on and walking the mantel piece, with other similar acts of agili- ty. His senses partook of a morbid degree of acuteness which was astonishing : faint sounds to him were unpleasantly loud, and sUghtly touching his skin, as painful as a blow, to well per- sons. But his eyes displayed this increase of sensibility in a most marvellous degree ; so that animal magnetism and witch- craft, were called in to account for the otherwise, to the beholders, unaccountable phenomena. The first discovery of this magical acuteness of vision, was accidental. The light happened to be carried out of the room, in the night, just as he was coming out of one of his fits-, and his mother, who remained with him, happen- ed to come against a chair ; he asked her why she did so. She answered that it was so dark she could not see. He seemed sur- prised, and disposed to deny that it was dark, observing that he could see the letters on the back of a Bible, which lay ou a table the opposite side of the room. His father coming in with a light, the experiment was tried, of putting a handkerchief folded a number of times over his eyes, as he complained that the light dazzled them. But whilst thus blindfolded. Watts' Psalms and Hymns being presented to him, he read out of the book^ a num- ber of stanzas, whilst thus blindfolded. And we are told that this experiment was often repeated during his illness. Dr. Has- kell informs us that it was witnessed by himself, and by numbers who were incredulous, until obliged to submit to the testimony of their own eyes. 426 tBe tongue op time. • The patient's residence was by the sea-§ide, overlooking a bay, the entrance into a harbor. And by this surprising acuteness of vision, he was able to tell, and did repeatedly tell, what vessels at a distance, had on deck, when even the hull itself, to other per- sons, was scarcely visible, if visible at all. And upon the arrival of the craft, he was always found to have told correctly. With his eyes, over which two closely folded silk handkerchiefs were placed, and so held that he seemed' to look through the hand of his father who held them, he accurately told the number, and the names of ten or twelve persons in the room. It was between twilight and dark, and he named the several persons as his father pointed at them, which proves that there could have been no col- lusion. We incline, however, to the opinion which we have in the similar instances, of Jane C. Rider, Mrs. Cass, Nancy Haz- ard, and the case mentioned by Dr. Rush, expressed, that there was a transfer of the visual rays, from the eyes to the fingers, or other parts of the body. We should feel inclined, if we now had a similar case, to try the experiment of enveloping the whole body in a number of .blankets, in order the better to test this theory of transfer and metastasis. What we are next told of the case of this young man, strengthens our hypothesis, or rather it may be said, gives room for another, which is, that the eye itself was endued with micro- scopic powers, and had all the properties of a magnifying glass. For we are informed, and the authority is of such credibility, that we are not permitted to doubt, that he read fine print through ten thicknesses of diaper, and which was held by a lady, who if not unwilling to believe the evidence of her own senses, was incredu- lous until thus convinced by them ; letters, at that time, as he ex- pressed to Mr. Gott, appearing as large as the ends of the fingers. Men, he said, were magnified into giants. This exaltation of vision, did not last the whole time of the young man's illness, and as in the case of Nancy Hazard, which we saw ourselves, came on at the close of a fit ; the patients at the time, having been neither in a fit, nor entirely free from the eflTects of one. Some of Blatchford's fits resembled epilepsy, others ecstacy or trance. Others were like those fits popularly called still ki/sterics, THE TONGUE OP TIME. 427 in which he would lie, from half an hour to an hour, void of sense, and entirely tnotionless. There is in this case, and in others of the same kind, abundant food for metaphysical speculation. And there are now enough of them upon record, to speculate upon. We have advanced the doctrine of a transfer, or metastasis of the senses. Others may suppose, that the ganglions of the nerves are elevated, so as to as- sume the properties imputed by physicians to the brain, and by the Bible to the heart ; so as in fact to assume the powers of the senses. But these two theories are so nearly alike, that he who can feel the weight of an argument, will feel no great disposition to contend for the one to the exclusion of the other. We incline, from the cases of Miss M'Evoy, and Mrs. Cass, to consider the doctrine of a transfer, or metastasis of the senses, to be complete- ly proved. But that in other cases, and even in theirs, that there may have been an elevation of the powers and sympathies of the ganglions, it would be wise to admit, and not inconsistent with any rational theory to deny. But in the case of this young man, sleep talking was a promi- nent and entertaining feature, to his attendants and visitors. He had the summer previous to his illness, been employed in the coasting trade, between the port of Gloucester and New York ; and his visions of the night related to the seas, to the purchasing of a cargo, to the lading and stowing away the materials, to hauling'off the vessel from the wharf into the stream, to obtain- ing his papers, and clearing at,the custom house ; to the hunting up of the crew, from the grog-shops and boarding houses. He considered himself as the captain, and it was noticed that his cargoes were always well adapted to the port to which he sailed, and that his return cargoes, were such as are usually brought from tbe places to which he went, and from which he came. But his sleeping, somnambulist soul, carried him sometimes ashore, cast him away, or dashed his ship on the rocks ; in all which emergencies, he evinced as much presence of mind, nauti- cal skill, correctness of judgment, and tact of managing and or- dering his crew, and every thing connected with his perils, and the safety of the ship, cargo, and hands, as the most adroit, and experienced old sea-captain could possibly manifest. This wag 428 THE TONGUE OP TIME. repeatedly verified by experienced ship-masters having been present at his reveries, and who listened to his imaginary dangers, and to his remedies, and the methods and means prescribed, and pursugd by himself, and ordered for his crew. When his imagination conjured u-p a storm, every disposition was immediately made, such as furling the small sails, reefing the large ones, sending down the topmast spars, and all the other means of resort, of the most skilful mariner, and far exceeding any thing ever experienced by himself, in the short time that he had been employed as a hand, m the coasting business. He was fertile in expedients, and showed an acquaintance with facts, and availed himself of his knowledge in this respect, in his paroxysms. But his waking mind had no retention of these same facts, nor no remembrance that his Sleeping mind had ever referred to them. Yet, when the next night his sleeping mind resumed its empire, the whole train of thought approached it, and business began just where his sleeping mind had left it the night preceding. The excitement of disease upon the nerves, rendered luminous those readings and relations, which he might have heard in health, but which he did not retain, owing to the slightness and transitori- ness of their impressions. At least, this is one view which may be taken of the subject ; and as an instance of which, in a.fancied voyage to Liverpool, his vessel was incommoded by a bank at the Mersey's mouth, the river leading to that city. Yet upon being questioned next day, he knew of no such obstruction. Thus his sleeping mind was the best geographer ; there being a bar at the mouth of that river, which he might at some time or other in his life, have heard mentioned. His sleeping soul, in his voyages, was careful to take a pilot on board at the proper time and place, and to discharge him when no longer needed. His anchor was unbent and secured, the cable stowed away. He kept a reckon- ing, threw the log periodically, and took the altitude of the sun, to find out the latitude. Every visitor was struck with the extent and accuracy of that knowledge which was evinced, and only evinced, in sleep — a knowledge which he had never had any ade- quate opportunity to acquire, and of which awake, he scarcelj possessed a single particle. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 429 An incident which took plape when his imagined voyage was to Sumatra, where he was procuring pepper, strikingly illustrates his knowledge of facts, and tact at- expedients. He supposed himself on shore, purchasing pepper, which was only brought to him in small quantities at a time ; and being thus delayed he was obliged to have his dinner sent from the ship to the shore, in which transit it passed through the hands of the Malays, who abstracted a part of it. When he found this out, he advised his cook, when be sent it again on shore by them, to say that it was hog. These followers of Mahomet, truer to religion than honesty, respected the prophet's injunction of " good Mussulmen abstain from pork," and it was brought to him unmolested. His conduct is mentioned as having been always consistent with itself, and true to his imaginary character, in situation and circumstances. His supposed voyages when short, occupied 'his sleeping mind but one night, but if long, two nights were spent in thedetaiL His vessel was always a temperance vessel, no spirit- ous liquors being allowed on board. Yet he was sometimes freighted with wooden pumpkins and squashes, which he sold to the inhabitants of Salem ; and he sometimes cast his vessel away to defraud the underwriters. Where his last sleeping story left his vessel, there his next reverie found it, whether lying in port, or in the midst of the Atlantic ocean. " In several successive voy- ages, his black cook turned white through terror." His final cure of voyaging in his sleep, was owing to his vessel having been stranded on the pig-rocks, so called, at the entrance of Sa- lem harbor ; on which occasion, himself and his crew had to take to the boats. He came home to -Gloucester, affirming that he was sick of the sea, and would never wet his jacket with salt watefr again. His sleeping soul, true to itself, and regarding its pro;mises, never was known to travel the deep afterwards. From that time he has not been known to talk in his sleep ! The sequel of this part of the case is certainly as worthy of notice as any part of it. Here then was the soul of sleep, accomplishing all its convic- tions, pursuing all its determinations, systematizing all its pro- jects, and concluding all its acts, by resolve and resolution, to which it has firmly adhered. 37 430 THE TONGUE OP TIME. What are we to think of the essence of the soul 1 What shall we conclude about it, when we find its capabilities capable of division, controlling the flesh, and yet that flesh when tortured and pricked, and even when the biles upon this man, of which he had several, were pinched, could elicit no signs of suffering, no turn of thought from that current which somnambulism or his sleeping soul was pursuing 1 We are sometimes taught the intimate dependance of the soul upon the body, as when we see the. latter sleeping, when th^ spirit would willingly remain awake. But here the soul seemed transported away from its pained tenement, and acting as though it had no such companion as a body with biles upon it, which were pinched ; or blistered surfaces, which were irritated ; or nerves, which were lacerated. AH these things were done to this man, and yet he remained dead to his companions, — dead to his house and home, and to all affairs on land, and alive only to the ship and the sea. But before the soul of night assumed this all- controlling, this paramount sway, the body seemed to assume a short ascendant, a tyrannical, a barbarous reign. It had four or five convulsive fits. At an early hour he would then express a desire to retire to rest. When his bed was prepared, he went to it and undressed himself. He would then leap from the floor on to it, and then in the instant, his waking soul resigned its empire. His body became senseless, motionless, unsusceptible, as one en- tirely dead, as the most pale and lifeless corpse, to stimulants ; and from that moment, of a kind of half voluntary sleep-talking, a farewell was bidden to his waking soul, and all its thoughts, to his suffering, blistered body, and all its pains. He would repose on his back, and nothing would arouse him but the rays of the morning sun, which as they sprang from the chambers of the East, the next morning, would call his earthly mansion to resume its social soul of day, and animate his limbs, and sound his voice, in accents of mortals, aided by the scenes of earthly vision. There are some things whitfh ought to be, and to remain un- known ; but nothing relating to this patient is of that descrip- tion. Every thing related of him, and his singular case, merits attention ; and attention we have given to this, and sundry other THE TONGUE OF TIME. 431 cases of the kind ; so that our readers may be led into the intricate mazes of man, matter, and mind. Independence ouglit to have its proper pride, mendicity its proper shame, mendacity its proper punishment, and veracity, and accurate analysis and observation their proper praise. But nequid nimisf was the Latin adage, which means in English, nothing to excess. It is best,, if possible, to deceive no one ; for whoso, like Mahomet and Cromwell, be- gins by deceiving others, will end like them, in deceiving him- self; and like Swift, die without a proper sense of death, from insanity ; or from a loss of friends be deprived of the glory of gold, and the lustre of living. His soul of sleep did not sanction fraud and imposture, without retributive justice. In one of his fancied voyages, as we have noticed, he sold to the inhabitants of Saleip, a cargo of woOden squashes and pumpkins ; but the matter coming to light before he got away from the wharf, he was obliged to fly by land, and leave the old hulk of his schooner to remunerate the inhabitants for the imposture. There have been a few persons who have had the sharpness of sight to discover vessels and fleets at sea, by their reflection in the clouds, or the regions of the clouds, or atmosphere. Long before the sight of either the sails or the hull of ships could be discerned by themselves or any one else, this aerial vision, this painting in the skies, of vessels under sail, has been so express-- ive, as that distant fleets and single vessels approaching the coast, has been averred, and their arrival has confirmed the seeming prediction. Young Blatchford, among his other displays of dis- eased sensibility, appears to have had this peculiarity. We would refer to this, his announcing the approach of two vessels, the one an hermaphrodite brig, the other a topsail schooner, as passing a ledge of rocks in the vicinity, when he was lying on his back on the floor, out of sight of the water, and with a long range of buildings betwixt himself and the harbor. The reflection in the clouds, might be seen, as Dr. Haskell ascertained, from whence his patient lay, through an opposite window. That this man's diseases were not wholly of the mind, but of a serious corporeal nature, his having pain m the head, intermit- tent fever, vomiting, bleeding from the mouth and stomach, and 432 THE TONGUE OP TIME. the discharge of a fetid matter from his mouth, abundantly de- monstrates. As to his perceiving the approach of vessels by the clouds, although it may be considered supernatui-al by some, it is not destitute of precedept. There has indeed, if we mistake not, an attempt been made to reduce the art of discovering vessels at sea, by their reflection in the atmosphere, long before they could be discerned from the shore, to something like a system. But the foreign periodical in which we noticed this curious subject, a considerable time past, we are not now able to refer to. We however, highly approve of the course pursued by Dr. Haskell, in relating the facts as they occurred, in the case of Blatchford, although he appears to have had ^ome apprehensions of throwing discredit upon his statements, by giving them to the public ; and we fully agree with him, that no writer can do justice to science, by only detailing plausible occurrences, and suppressing facts equally true, but for which he is unable to account, or render a reason. The progress of science, the accurate study of man, matter and mind, the phenomena daily developing of diseases, derange- ment, fits, and somnambulism, bid fair to clear up many recondite points in physiology and animal life ; the ultimate results of which will, we trust, in time, reduce the mysteries of animal magnetism, magic, and supposed witchcraft, to matters of sober science. The subject of the bar at the mouth of the river Mersey, which obstructed his navigation in one of his sleeping voyages, and of which his waking memojy retained no traces of ever having heard, was probably derived from his father, who had been to Liverpool when young. § 7. Dreams may somfetimes restore facts which have long been forgotten, and which even cannot be recollected when the dream in hours of wakefulness, is remembered. An instance of this kind occurred to Dr. Rush himself, of which I took a note when hearing his lectures. In 1766, Dr. Rush sailed for Edin- burgh, from one of the wharves in Philadelphia. In 1802, thirty-six years afterwards, the Doctor dreamed that he ember ied for. Edinburgh, and that his brother and Mr. Jonathan Smith, THE TONGUE OF TIME. ioS accompanied him to the wharf. When he was awake, he could not recollect that Mr. Smith accompanied him to the wharf in 1766, and to satisfy his mind upon the subject, he took the oppor- tunity to inquire of him, whether he had dreamed correctly or not. Mr. Smith assured him that he had; and perfectly recollect- ed the circumstance. Thus the truth presented itself to the soul of sleep, which the waking soul could not remember. Dr. Rush, upon the general subject of dreams, did not think them necessarily connected with sleep ; which is to be under- stood, by some persons never dreaming, although all persons sleep. Thus Cleon slept as other persons sleep, but never dream- ed at all. In Cleon's whole life, therefore, a dream never had any connection with his sleep. His singularity in this respect, attracted the notice of that excellent ancient writer, Plutarch, who mentions the case of Ckon ; and Dr. Riish also rhentions it, as a proof of dreams not being necessarily connected with sleep. We must however, njaintain, that although sleep may be without dreams, yet that dreaming cannot occur without sleep. There is no such thing in nature as a dream without a drowse. Waking-dreams, so called, are only called so for the purpose of a misnomer, and in ridicule. They are like counterfeit money, plentiful, but spurious. They are worse than the dreams of night, which only mislead and impose upon the individual who has them, whilst the day dreams of visionaries, and enthusiasts, and speculators, impose upon and mislead hundreds of others, often to their ruin. Dreams are excited by too much food on the one hand, whilst inanition, hunger, thirst, night sweats, and' hemorhage, may like- wise occasion them on the other. Too many clothes, and a retention of what ought to be evacuated, either from the bowefe, the bladder, or brain, are prolific of dreams. By the brain's be- ing evacuated, we mean, that when too much blood is retained, that it is apt to flow upon that organ, and that bloodletting may prevent unpleasant dreams, and even apoplexy, and palsy, night- mare and epilepsy. Dreams may be compared to the delirium of fever, in both of which, there is an incoherence of ideas. And yet, in both there are sane, and sound, and vivid, and bright images, conceptions, 37* 434 THE TONGUE OP TIME. and models of things in the ttiind, but unconnected and incohe- rent. Hence, the notions, conceptions, and thoughts, and opin- ions deducible from dreams, cannot be made to cohere by man, and are therefore referred to the Divinity. Without divine interposition, the want of cohesion, the loss of connection, and the absolute absence of memory, place the dreams of the Old Testament, like those of the New, and like those of past, present, and passing times, in the same light that they have ever stood ; that is^ that they cannot be interpreted without divine aid. Somnambulism, and its congeners, sleep talking and sleep preaching, are the madness of sleep, and resemble some cases of waking derangement. Eloquence, music, preaching, and a talent for poetry, have all been elicited by mania, in persons who had nothing of these talents in health. A gentleman in the Pennsylvania hospital, both astonished and delighted the patients, by his displays of oratory, as he preached from a table in the hospital yard every Sunday, in a state of in- sanity. A female in the same hospital, composed hymns, and sang them so sweetly, so soft and pleasant, as to cause the hearer to hang with delight upon her performance. And yet, she never had the talent of poetry, or music, when in health. , The talent of wit and cunning, as connected with mental de- rangement, is common in all countries. But uncommon ingenui- ty in the mechanical arts, and in painting, have occasionally been evolved, and displayed. The combinations of things which madness exhibits, are incom- prehensible to reasonable men. For those things which are done without reason, it is hard, and often impossible, for reason to as- sign any motive for. John Allen, of Connecticut, the present writer has seen, after he had cut off his own nose. He frequently mutilated himself, or made the attempt, but before proceeding to the revolting opera- tion, he made a very long, and very excellent prayer. Our ancestors, the early Britons, would appear crazy, to all modern eyes. They dressed themselves in the skins of slain beasts. They put the hide of skinned brutes upon their shoulders, and all about their bodies. The horns of the hide were seen THE TONGUE OF TIME. 435 about the forehead of a human being, which had, before skinning, grown from the forehead of a cow, a bull, or buffalo. It is, however, hardly correct to say, that the skins of brutes were put all about their bodies, for the greatest part of their bodies were naked. They, like all- other savages, delighted in orna- menting a part of the body, rather than in covering the whole of it. Their festivals were without curb or restriction. Their liber- ty, was a license to riotj and to break all the rules of morality, and decency, and propriety, without compunction, and without pun- ishment. ' Mental vigor cannot be preserved without bodily exercise. But bodily exercise can be elicited, without any kind of mental vigor whatever. § 8. There are some things detailed upon veritable authority, which are so improbable as scarcely to admit of serious belief. We may notice them, whilst we wait for further evidence. Among these, is the detail of the discovery of a people highly civilized in the interior of New Hollandj^ under the editorship of Lady Mary Fox. Such a work seems calculated to excite the greatest atten- tion. But our credulity is pretty severely put to the test, when we are told in addition, that this people are descended from the Eng- lish nation. It is a late London production. If this people are more ancient than the discovery of New Hol- land by the modern British nation,* the question would naturally arise, how they got there at all, and especially how they became located in the interior, and were not found on the coasts of that vast country, or continent, of two thousand four hundred miles in length, by two thousand three hundred in breadth. There have been two well authenticated instances of women, sixty years of age, in the United States, havin'g given birth to children. The first instance occurred in Pawtucket, four miles from the city of Providence, m Rhode laiand. The mother died, but the child hved. The second instance occurred in Missouri, in Jefferson county, the southern part of that state. The St. Louis Repubhcan states, that a gentleman vouches for the fact, * New Holland was firat discovered by the Datch, in 1616. 43& THE TONGUE OP TIME. that the wife of a respectable citizen, of the age above mentioned, presented her husband with twins. The husband himself was eighty years of age. If these instances are not unparalleled in the Old World, we do not know where to find their parallel, except in Sarah, the wife of Abraham. To these we may add the case of a woman in Connecticut, but a native of Rhode Island, who had a child at the age of fifty-four, lacking about three months. This woman the present writer knew, and attended at a privious birth of one of her children. That infants have been born pregnant, is a strange affair, but well substantiated by certain writers of the Old World, and we have one instance of it in the New World. § 9. We learn from Haller, the celebrated Professer at Got- tengen that Rzasynski's Natural History of Poland, contains an example of a female child, pregnant, when born. We may refer to Otto, to Thomas Bartholine Aristotle, and others, as authorities in proof of instances of the like kind. And the present writer had a case related to him by a matron of the very first respectability, of an infant giving birth to another infant, which, whether ever published or not, is to him unknown. We should feel no disposition, however, to rank mankind with the aphis, an insect which is hatched in a pregnant state. The few instances in the human species which have occurred, are so few and far apart, as to be considered monstrous productions. They are, in my own view, tioin cases, so designed by nature, but aberrating, so as that the progeny, instead of being separate, are combined, coalesced, adherent, or the one within the other. A great many facts relating to the animal economy, have been already discovered, but they have been unfolded singly, slowly, and at periods very distant. We have no reason to conclude that the volume of nature' will ever be laid all open at once to our view. We must he contented to notice single facts, which have occurred at remote periods, and in remote climes, and when we get enough of them, we must put them together, and from generals descend to particulars, and thus form systems. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 437 That we are correct in our views with respect to nature having designed for twiixs those cases oi fetal impregnation, so called, is proved by this, that there is at least one instance upon record, in which the human pregnant body was not a female, but a male. This instance occurred in France, in a boy named Amidee Bissieu, who had complained, from that period of infancy in which he could make himself understood, of pain in the left side. And this side was thus early found enlarged into the form of a tumpur. He died in his thirteenth year, of fever and pulmonary consump- tion, having passed during his illness, puriform matters, and a ball of hairs. After death, the body was opened by Messrs. Guerin and Bertin, and the facts were ascertained and stated by the authority of a commission from the Medical School of Paris. A sac was found attached to the arch of the colon, in which balls of hair, and an organized mass were found. The dissection of this mass, performed with extraordinary care, discovered traces of some of the organs of sense, a brain, a spinal marrow, and large nerves ; muscles, also, which were degenerated into a kind of fibrous matter ; a skeleton, composed of a spine, a head, a pelvis, and the rudiments of the limbs ; and lastly, an umbilical cord, which was very short, and which was inserted into the mesocolon ; an artery and a vein, which were ramified at both extremities, that belonging to the fetus, and that belonging to the body of the boy in whom it was found. The existence of the preceding organs, were sufficient proof, as the French Medical School, and physicians, determined, to demonstrate the individuality of this organized mass. That is, that it formed, nor was designed to form, no part of the. body of the individual in which it was contained, but that the primary ob- ject of nature was, the formation of two bodies, separate and dis- tinct. As its location was without the alimentary canal, it could not have been swallowed ; as the body containing it was a male, • it could not have been the result of self, or extrinsic impregnation. It remains, therefore, as a proof of our theory, that instances of the kind, are nature's abortive attempts to form twins, the one of which is contained within the other. It ought to be noticed that this organized mass was contained within the mesocolon, but at- 438 THE TONGUE OP TIME. tached to the colon, and that besides the parts already enume- rated, this monstrous relic of humanity had teeth. § 10. We now proceed to notice a case of the kind, which occurred in the New World. This was in Washington county, Kentucky, and is from the pen of Dr. Edward B. Gaither, of Springfield, in that state, whose patient, an infant of two years and nine months old, in whose body, after death, was found a fetus, or the monstrous remains of another infant. The little pa- tient was a feniale, who died about three hours after the arrival of the doctor. It was supposed to have been aifected with ascites, or dropsy of the belly, but upon hearing a detail of the symptoms, it was concluded that the disease had been mistaken, and liberty was therefore obtained to examine the body. Upon doing which, a cavity was opened occupying a part of the umbilical and epi- gastric regions, containing yellow fetid water, and an imperfect child, and also an animal substance of a whitish color, from which grew a small teat, and hair, the latter being about an inch and a quarter in length. There was no visible connection of the imperfect fetus, or child, with the cavity in which it was found ; the cord, which must have existed, having been probably destroyed by putrescency ; and this the smell of the fluid denoted, as well as the appearance of the thigh, the bones of which had perforated the flesh at each knee. On one foot there were three toes, on the other the indistinct ap- pearance of two. The indications of sex were feminine. The left arm was but a stump, at the end of which was a nail, but no hand. The right arm was large and long, with three fingers and a thumb. The head was imperfect, and without eyes or ears. It had no mouth, nor proper face, but in that region of the head which the face should have seemingly occupied, there was a small protuberance, which contained, or in which were inserted, three teeth, which were of the size of the teeth of a child of about the age of the parent infant ;* which is a. further confirmation of our position, that nature had designed, abortively, the production of twins — the size of these teeth denoting that nature went forward * These teeth were two iiicisores, or front teeth, and one canine, or eye tooth. THE TONGUE OF TIME, 439 with a part of the organs, without interruption, whilst others were hindered, frustrated, ruined, and no seeming efforts made to pro- duce them ; this substitute for a mouth having no opening at all. " On the back part of the head was hair eight or nine inches long, ;" which again shows that nature was not delayed in the growth of this integument. The whole length of the body was seven inches, its circumference ten inches. The length of the arm was five inches, that of the stump not quite four. ■ Something hard in the abdomen of the little girl who had died, was discovered by the parents when she was only one month old, which continued to increase. She was healthy until nine months old, and her appetite appears always to have been good. It is quite remarkable that like some pregnant women, she had long- ings for ardent spirits, which were very great. It took a con- siderable quantity to affect her, and she would, if permitted, become intoxicated. Of these she drank freely only one hour before her death. Her size was that of ordinary children of her age ; she had dark hair and eyes, and as we are told, would have been called handsome, had it not been for a melancholy gloom on her counte- nance. " Her countenance exhibited evidences of a good under- standing, and her little tongue confirmed it." But her general appearance denoted that she was the child of grief. The weight of the infant's infant was two pounds fourteen ounces. The animal substance which had a teat, and hair, but was not connected with the fetus, was two ounces. It was con- nected, however, to the child by a cord, and was no doubt a monstrous placenta. The quantity of liquor evacuated, was " be- tween three quarts and a gallon." It was yellow water, having the smell of bad eggs. So that the abdominal contents, of a kind purely and solely ezfra, in this child of two years and nine months old, must have amounted to at least nine pounds, which is the average weight of a full grown and healthy infant, or rather more ; it being considered rather a large new-born infant, that weighs nine pounds. § 11. As many evils may be referred to the effects of poverty, we think that these evils must be referred mostly to the vegetable 440 THE TONGUE OP TIME. creation ; and that, as respects animals, the Substitution of twins, for single births, is one of afiimal nature's prolifics. It is one of her attempts at supernumeraries, of sailors, citizens, and soldiers, and of increasing the happiness of dust here, and which may end in the happiness and eternal felicity of souis berelhfter. Such appears to be a provision of providence, supremely wise, but which is frustrated by accidental causes, which special providen- ces do not prevent. For, says a celebrated divine, whose work is lying before us, " The miraculous and ordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost are very distinguishable."* § 12. We should ever be cautious how we give way to the figments of unbridled fancy. John Redman Coxe, M. D. who was Professor of Chemistry, in the University of Pennsylvania, when we attended that institution, has lately published a work " On a Genus of Acephalous People in Ethiopia, as described by St. Augustine." That there ever existed a people without heads, we should hardly credit, although it was asserted by Augustine, a saint. We presume, however, from the respectability of Dr. Coxe, that he believed it, or else that he would not have given his name to an account so marvellous. But what we are next to mention, savours almost as strongly of the wonderful, and yet it comes so well authenticated, that as it has the name of the place where it happened, and the names of the witnesses who saw it, we could not fail of noticing. It is an account of a man who submitted to be buried alive for a MONTH, and at the expiration of that period, was taken out AtlVE ! § 13. The case occurred in a part of British India, and is published in the '■'■'India Journal of Medical and Physical Sci- ence." It was communicated by H. M. Tweedell, Esq. ; and it is substantiated by referring to Capt. Trevelyan, of the Bom- bay Artillery, to Lieut. A. M. Boileau, of the Engineers, and to Lieut. Macnaughten, of the fifth regiment of light cavalry,- as- sistant to the Governor General in Rajpootanah. * Rev. WiiLLiAM Jay, on the "Character and Narrative of the Kev, John Clark," p. 53. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 441 The fellow was about thirty years of age, his native village not far from Kurnaul. He told Major Spiers, of Ajmeer, of his powers, and was laughed at as an impostor. Lieut. Macnaugh- ten, however, who was then a cornet, put his abstinence to the test, by suspending him for thirteen days, shut up in a wooden chest, without food, and he came out alive ! The writer appears to suppose that the buried performer was breathless during bis incarceration,'for he says that the man by long practice, had ac- quired the art of holding his breath, by shutting his mouth, and stopping the interior opening of the nostrils with his tongue. This opinion, however, is to be rejected at once ; for during his four weeks burial, it appears that the grave was covered over with two stone slabs, and it is not proved to have been air tight, although the writer supposes that it was so. In many respects, the experiment appears to have been conducted with much care ; for in addition to the two stone slabs, which were each five or six feet long, and several inches thick, and wide enough to cover the mouth of the grave, there was also a watch placed outside, to see that there was no deception practised. He was buried on the bank of a tank, near the camp where the writer was. The pro- cess of burying, and of disinterring, was conducted in the pres- ence of Esur Lai, a minister of one "of the native princes or governors, called the Muharawul. The guard, or watch which was set round the grave, were Chuprasees, in the employ of the native prince. The person, when he has a sufficient offer, for he requires to be liberally paid, prepares himself to be buried, by abstaining from solid food, for several days. This is done that no incon- venience may arise from the contents of his stomach, whilst he remains in his narrow house. His shroud, is a bag of cloth, in which he is sewed up, and the grave is lined with masonry, and floored with cloth. This last is done, iri order to prevent the in- cursion of white ants, which it seems, is the poor fellow's greatest fear. His feet, it is said, are turned inwards towards his stomach, and his hands pointed in the same direction, or towards his chest. His grave was about three feet long, two and a half feet wide, and about a yard deep. It was made through the floor of a small building of masonry twelve feet by eight feet. He was placed in 443 THE TONGUE OF TIME. a sitting posture. The door of the building was securely walled up. It was at his disinterment, at the end of a full month, that the English visitors saw him. He was taken out in a perfectly senseless state, his eyes closed, his hands cramped and powerless, his stomach shrunk very much, and his teeth jammed so fast to- gether that they were forced to open his mouth with an iron in- strument, to pour a little water down his throat. He gradually recovered his senses, and the use of his limbs, and when we went to see him, was sitting up, supported by two men, and conversed with us in a low gentle tone of voice, saying, " that we might bury him again for a twelvemonth if we pleased." A man in England, being sentenced to three years' imprison- ment, swallowed seven half crowns, lest they should be taken from him. No bad effects followed, but at the end of twenty- seven months, he complained of a slight pain and tenderness of his abdomen, and a dose of medicine brought away the whole number. Flavius Josephus mentions, that it was a frequent practice of the Jews, during the seige of Jerusalem, by Titus, for them to swallow pieces of gold, and then to desert to the Romans. These pieces were evacuated, after their desertion, and sufficed to pro- cure them the necessaries of life, which on account of the terrible famine reigning in the city, could not be procured at any price therein. § 14. A case was communicated to the Calcutta Medical Society, of a man, his wife and children, having been poisoned by the milk of a goat. This poisonous quality of the milk, was occasioned by the goat having been bitten by a snake. We have had something of this kind of malady in America, from persons having eaten of the flesh of animals which had been bitten by a mad dog. § 15. A text of Scripture, read or recollected at a particular crisis, has determined a person as to the path of his duty, and as to acts of propriety, and even as to the state of his soul. Now, although all Scripture be in itself true, still its application, com- bination, and the deductions therefrom, may be erroneous. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 443 When it is said that Judas went and hanged himself, and when it is said, go thou and do likewise, whoever would combine the latter phrase with the former, would make a most unsanctified combination, authorizing the commission of self-murder, and undermining all the original sense and meaning of these two distant and different passages of the Bible. Preachers, or those who would become preachers, have relied much upon opening the Bible, or by being directed by passages of Holy Writ falling upon their minds. A man engaged in threshing wheat, feels an inclination to leave that kind of business for preaching. The case of Gideon comes to his mind, in which the angel of the Lord commissioned Gideon to go and deliver Israel, as he was threshing wheat. All his doubts, if any remain, are dispelled by these words next coming to his eyes, ears, or mind, and which he applies to himself — " Arise, for the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." A religious lady who is unmarried, has an eligible offer, but her suitor is not pious. Her doubts are all dissipated, her decis- ion is fixed by opening the Bible, and casting her eyes on these words ; — " Arise, therefore, and get thee down with the men, doubting nothing ; for I have sent them." " What thou doest do quickly," was an admonition upon a particular occasion, addressed to a particular person, and for a specific purpose, by Jesus himself. But how often and how er- roneously has this been applied to matters entirely different, and ill timed 1 Precipitancy and ruin may have been the consequence of these words misdirected, and sometimes applied to inexpedi- ent, mischievous and wicked purposes. § 16. Mr. Jay tells us of his having read of a good old man, who used to exhort people to live by the ten commandments, and not by impulses ; and from this delusion of impulses, he used to tell how he got free himself, by reverting to the decalogue. When he was a lad, he was poor and pious, and thought all sug- gestions in scripture style came from heaven. Walking^ in a field, and being in want of firing, a neighbour's hedge presented itself, and he wished for some of it to burn. Instantly these words came — In all this Joh sinned not:, and in faith of this, he 444 THE TONGUE OP TIME. began to make free with his neighbour's wood. But happily, he tried this text by the command, — Thou shalt not steal, which brought his error to light ; or, as the ingenious relator remarks, the word of God might have led him out of the church into the jail. § 17. Some people have wisdom without being wise in its application. Some have much scripture knowledge, but fail in receiving its practical benefits. § 18. Without sunshine, rain and air, no husbandman can have corn. His crop, therefore, depends upon what he cannot himself bestow. Still, it remains within his own power, to do much ; for if he sows flints, he will have no corn ; and even if he sows corn, upon fields unploughed, and lands untilled, his labour will be lost, although sunshine, warmth and rain, be liberally bestowed. It has been very prettily observed, that a Christian should be like the sun, which does good, not by noise, but by shining. § 19. In Sweden, at a wedding, the priest who marries the, couple, sits at supper on one side the bride, whilst the bride- groom sits on the other. The priest then, after the ancient custom of that country, delivers an oration, in which he invites THE TONGUE OF TIME. 445 the Saviour to be present, as he was at the marriage feast of Cana, in Galilee. At a Swedish wedding, all kinds of wine are not present, but they make up the deficiency by having all kinds of cheese. They have egg-cheese, toasted-cheese, sweet-cheese, and sour- cheese. § 20. After the great earthquake which destroyed thirty thou- sand persons in Judea, in the time of Herod the first, and who, for his great many murders, is called Herod the great, he said to his soldiers, disturb not yourselves at the quaking of inanimate things. But Herod could not dissipate a sure proverb ; that afflictions are seldom forgotten, and mercies seldom remem- bered. This earthquake happened the same year that the battle of Actium was fought. Herod, who had been an unwavering and efficient friend of Antony, came to Csesar after that battle, and desired him to remember how faithful a friend he had been, and not whose friend. The conqueror of Cleopatra and her para- mour, still continued Herod a king, and enlarged his dominions. This was Augustus Csesar. Herod, who was capable of all sorts of the extremest wicked- ness, had still a noble soul, and a talent for great and splendid and magnificent undertakings. It was he who built the temple at Jerusalem, which was standing in the time of Christ, and his apostles, and which was destroyed by the Romans, under Titus. This was the last of the temples ; it being the third of those su- perb and costly structures ; the first of which was built by Solo- mon, which having felt the destructive ravages of time, fire and war, was rebuilt after the Babylonish captivity, by Zerubbabel ; and the third by Herod the Great, which is as yet the last ; al- though another and a fourth is looked for by the Jews, as foretold by the prophets, and which they mistakenly call the third. This building of the second temple, when Zerubbabel was gov- ernor of .the Jews, merits a passing but particular notice. It was done by leave of Cyrus, king of the Persians, and the possessor of Babylon, by conquest ; for it was king Nebuchadnezzar, who carried the Jews into captivity, and who pillaged the temple, and 38* 446 THE TONGUE OP TIME. carried the holy vessels and sacred furniture away to Babylon, together with the inhabitants of Jerusalem itself. § 21. Human nature must be viewed in various ways, in order to complete its system, and the history of Cyrus affords a curious picture, in its connections with history, both sacred and profane. It had been foretold by Jeremiah, before this Babylonish destruc- tion of Jerusalem, and the captivity of its inhabitants, that after the Jews had served Nebuchadnezzar and his posterity, for sev- enty years, that they should be restored to the land of their fathers, and to the city of David and Solomon. The first year of king Cyrus, was the seventieth year from the day that the Jews were removed out of their own land into Babylon ; and in this year, the first year of the reign of Cyrus, who had access to the Jewish prophecies, and to the Bible, brought by the Jews to Babylon, he wrote as follows : — " Thus saith Cyrus the king, since God Almighty hath appointed me to be king of the habita- ble earth, I believe that he is that God which the nation of the Israelites worship, for indeed he foretold my name by the prophets, and that I should build him a house in Jerusalem, in the country of Judea." The foretelling the length of time that the Jews were to remain in the Babylonish captivity, was by Jeremiah, but this mention made of Cyrus, and of his own name having been foretold by God, is by Isaiah. " That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure ; even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple, thy foundation shalt be laid." Isaiah xliv. 28. " This Cyrus is called God's shepherd by Xenophon, as well as by Isaiah." And the credibility of the historian is supported by those, and by these words of the prophet — " I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." Isaiah xiii. 12. How Cyrus becanjie acquainted with his duty, and of the will of God, in this matter, we are informed by Josephus, who says, " This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left behind him of the prophecies ; for this prophet said, that God had spoken thus to him in a secret vision : " My will is, that THE TONGUE OP TIME. 447 Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send back my people to their own land, and build my temple."* Thus was Cyrus led to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah, by having read the prophecy itself, and by having therein found himself pointed out as destined for the purpose. But Mr. Whiston, the editor of the works of Josephus, thinks that the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, as a distinct work from that of rebuilding the temple, agreeably to this famous prophecy of Isaiah, cannot be found to have been accomplished, by, or in our Bibles. Nor indeed, can this prophecy be proved to have been fulfilled at all, from any other source except from Jose- phus alone.t Cyrus did not himself live to the period that this work was ac- complished, and upon his death, the Jews were interrupted by the neighbouring nations. These nations and their governors repre- sented Jerusalem as a bad city, and those who were rebuilding it as rebels, and a seditious people against kings. And by reason of these representations, it appears from the book of Ezra, in our Bibles, that the Jews were interrupted, and a decree issued pro- hibiting further proceedings. This decree was made by Artaxerxes, the immediate successor of Cyrus the great. But after Artaxerxes came Darius, who upon being desired to have the records of his house and court examined, found a decree of Cyrus, permitting the Jews to re- build their city and temple, and he accordingly did permit the work to proceed. And the temple was finished, as we read in Ezra, vi. 15, in the sixth year of Darius. One of the greatest accusations against Jerusalem was, that it had always been an enemy to kings. This is found both in Ezra * Josephua' Antiquities of the Jews, Book xi. Chap. 1, sec. 2. JosephRs tells us that this prediction of Isaiah, was one heiDdred and forty years before the temple was demolished. Both he and Ezra, (Chap. I, v. 1,) refer to Jere- miah, as having foretold this captivity of the Jews, and that it should last seven- ty years. But in our present copies of the Bible, I have not found any such prediction by Jeremiah. It is probable, therefore, that both Ezra and Josephus had copies of the sacred writings more perfect than those which have come down to ua. t See Note on the Antiquities of the Jews, Book xi. Chap. 1, sec. 1, p. 360. 448 THE TONfiUE OP TIME. and in Josephjis. Hence Artaxerxes suspended the work. But Darius, finding that the work had been decreed by Cyrus, reversed the order of Artaxerxes, and the Jews were suffered to proceed. § 22. So eminent a person as was Cyrus, who was called! God's shepherd, both by Xenophon and by Isaiah, merits a further notice. His death varies with the various historians of antiquity. By those who show his tomb at Persepolis, he is sup- posed to have died quietly, and to have been buried by his friends, decently, if not superbly, in his own dominions. By Josephus, we learn nothing but the death of Cyrus. But from other histo- rians, such as Diodorus, Herodotus, and Justin, we learn that Cyrus marched against a Scythian nation, called the Massagetse, and that he was defeated in a bloody battle, B. C. 530, by Tamy- ris, the victorious queen of the Massagetse ; and that this victori- ous queen, incensed at the loss of her son, slain in a previous . battle, cut off the head of Cyrus the Great, and threw it into a vessel filled with human blood. The destruction of the temple of Solomon, which is to be found in II. Chronicles xxxvi. 19, is recorded in the following words : — " And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof." But this second temple, built where that of Solomon had stood, by the permission, and at the expense of Cyrus and Darius, was sixty cubits lower than the first temple, which was built by Solo- mon. It was Herod the Great, who erected the third temple, and who restored its altitude and dimensions to those of the temple of Solomon. § 23. Herod, in addressing the multitude of the Jews, upon this subject, observes that, " Our fathers, indeed, when they were returned from Babylon, built this temple to God Almighty ; yet does it want sixty cubits of its largeness in altitude, for so much did that first temple which Solomon built exceed this temple ; nor let any one condemn our fathers for their negligence or want of piety therein, for it was not their fault that the temple was no higher ; for they were Cyrus and Darius the son of Hystaspes, THE TONGUE OF TIME. 449 who determined the measure for its rebuilding ; and it hath been by reason of the subjection of those fathers of ours to them and to their posterity, and after them to the Macedonians, th^t they had not the opportunity to follow the original model of this.pioxis. edifice, nor could raise it to its ancient altitude ; but since I am now by God's will your governor, and I have had peace a long time, and have gained great riches and large revenues, and what is the principal thing of all, I am in amity with and well regarded by the Romans, who, if I may so say, are the rulers of the whole world, I will do my endeavour to correct that imperfection, which hath arisen from the necessity of our affairs, and the slavery we have been under formerly ; and to make a thankful return after the most pious manner, to God, for what blessings I have re- ceived from him, by giving me this kingdom, and that by render- ing his temple as complete as I am able."* \yhat a pious, what ,a submissive, what an unexceptionable speech, to fall from the mouth of a Herod ! But we call the read- er's attention to it most particularly, as illustrating the national character of the Jews ; a people who were wont to display the acts of the greatest piety to God, and of the greatest barbarity to men. For this same Herod put his beautiful wife Mariamne to death, who was a most excellent woman, and as Josephus remarks, the shrewdest woman in the world ; and for the love of whom, he, after her death, went mad. He also put to death his two sons, Aristobulus and Alexander. And his other murders were innu- merable. He was the Nero of the Holy Land. But of the temple, which Herod built, Josephus says that it was tlie most prodigious work ever heard of by man. It was this temple which the disciples came to Jesus to shew him the buildings of, and of which he prophesied that not one stone should be left upon another.t Herod, as Josephus tells us, took away the foun- dations of the old temple, and laid others in the days of Nero ; and that it was built of stones that were white and strong, each of the length of twenty-five cubits, their height eight cubits, and their breadth about twelve cubits. The whole length of the tem- ple, built by Herod, was one hundred cubits. Its strength, its * Antiquities of the Jews, Book xv. Chap. xi. § 1. t Matthew xxiv. 1, 2. 450 THE TONGnE OP TIME. cloisters, and adornings, were all upon a most magnificent and liberal scale, and cost more money than any one that preceded it. And this was only one of a great number of expensive structures erected by Herod, so that we are astonished at the immensity of their cost, and puzzled to guess how the little kingdom of Judea could supply revenues for their erection. § 24. His works at Cesarea,' alone, which was a sea port of the Mediterranean, formerly called Strato^s Tower, would seem to have been sufficient to have exhausted the revenues of a large country. For he there not only built sumptuous palaces, and large edifices, for containing the people, but he built also an artificial basin for ships, to guard them against the impetuous south winds, so that a fleet of large ships might lie in safety there. This he did by letting down stones of about fifty feet in length, not less than eighteen in breadth, and nine feet in depth, or thickness, into watef of twenty fathoms, (one hundred and twenty feet,) deep ! And as some were lesser, so were others bigger than those dimensions. This mole was two hundred feet wide ; its entrance was on the north side, because the winds from that quarter were the stillest of all. It had a quay, or landing place, which ran round the entire haven, and which was a most agreeable walk. There was also a great number of arches, where the mariners dwelt. One half of this marine wall was adorned with several towers, one of which, and the largest, was named Drusus, after a son in law of CoBsar, who died young, and was a work of very great ex- cellence ; Herod always keeping an eye upon Rome and its great men, whom he found it his interest to honor, and occasionally to bi-ibci Upon this principle he erected a most costly and superb structure in Jerusalem, called the tower of Antonia, in honor of Mark Antony ; who, when in Egypt, and in possession of Cleopa- tra, had a paramount influence in the affairs of Jerusalem, and Judea. But it is not a little remarkable, that although Herod was much given to the sex, that Cleopatra, who visited him at Jericho, and offered him her own seduction, was refused by him. The old fox, feeling more ambition for the queen of Egypt's dominions, than love for her person, so that he had a serious intention of put- THE TONGUE OF TIME. 451 ting her to death, in order to become the possessor of her country ; or rather, perhaps, to break up her possession of a part of his own ; for she derived a part of her revenues from the country about Jericho, which bore a certain balsam, the most precious of all drugs. From this design, however, Herod's friends dissuaded him, as tending to embroil him with Antony^ who was then in Egypt. He therefore instead of killing her, treated her kindly, gave her presents, and conducted her on her way towards Egypt. But in reality, he bore now, nor never, any high estimation of Cleopatra ; but ever considered her inimical to himself personally, although to some branches of his family she shewed her friend- ship in very important respects. § 25. And this leads us to mention among the numerous murders committed by the orders of Herod, some of them, as serving to throw light upon the system of human nature itself, upon human tyranny in particular, and upon the ruling passion, even in death. Mariamne, the beautiful and beloved wife of Herod the Great, had an only brother, named Aristobulus. They were grand children of Hyrcanus the high priest. Their father, Aristobulus, was also high priest, and was the first of that order who assumed the title of king. Herod was the son of Antipater, an Iduraean, and became connected with the Voyal lineage of the Jews, by marrying Mariamne, he having no royal blood by birth. Both Mariamne, and her brother Aristobulus, were extremely beautiful ; insomuch that Dellius, a friend of Mark Antony, who came into Judea, when he saw them, exclaimed that they could not be mortals, but must have originated from some god. Their mother's name was Alexandra, a woman who made a great figure in the court of her son in law, Herod. As young Aristobulus was the son and grand son of high priests, Mariamne urged Herod to confer the same honor upon him, her brother, and make him high priest also. This Herod did, but took care to have him murdered soon afterwards ; being jealous of the popularity which he found him to possess, and which the people of Jerusalem manifested for their young high priest, who was very tall and handsome, and not yet eighteen years old. A most 452 THE TONGUE 6P TIME. open display of admiration having been made for him upon his first offieiating as high priest, at the feast of tabernacles, determin- ed Herod not to delay his destruction. Upon a certain very hot day, some of Herod's servants and acquaintance went into the fish ponds, of which fhere were large ones about his house at Jericho, to bathe. Herod, and the young high priest, Aristobulus, were at first spectators of their swimming, but at the approach of the dark of the evening, the young man, at the instigation of Herod, went into the water among them; when such of Herod's creatures as he had appointed for the pur- pose, dipped him as he was swimming, and plunged him under water, as if it had bden done in sport only. Nor did they desist, till he was entirely suffocated. And thus was Aristobulus mur- dered, being only in his eighteenth year, and having held the high priesthood one year only. Herod took care that none abroad should believe thatthe child's death took place by any design of his, or at least he so endeavored. And to carry on the deception he shed many tears himself, and made for the deceased a magni- ficent funeral, providing a great quantity of spices, and burying many ornaments together with him. Every family in Jerusalem considered the calamity not as if it belonged to another, but as if one of themselves was slain. Alex- andra, the young man's mother, was more deeply aifected upon her knowledge that he was destroyed on purpose. Accordingly, she wrote to Cleopatra, how her son was murdered, who excited Antony to punish the young man's murder ; telling him that it was an unworthy thing that Herod, who had been made king by him, and that of a kingdom that no way belonged to him, should be guilty of such horrid crinves, against those who were of the blood royal, in reality. Antony was persuaded by these argu- ments, and when he came to Laodicea, he sent and commanded Herod to come and make his' defence. Herod was in fear, both of the accusation and of Cleopatra's ill will, who was ever trying to make Antony hate him. But he determined to obey the sum- mons, having no plausible excuse, nor expedient way to avoid it. He therefore went, leaving his uncle Joseph, procurator of his government, to whom before his departure, he gave a private charge, that if Antony should kill him, that he should kill his THE TONGUE OF TIME. 453 ieautiftil and beloved wife Mariamne, immediately; he having an affection for her, that the thought of her being another's, even after his death, was intolerable ; and probably thinking that An- tony himself would seek to possess her, as the fame of her beauty had reached his ears. § 26. Herod, however, by the rich presents which he carried to Antony, overcame his resentment, and he was suffered to re- turn to his kingdom, alive and well. It happened, however, that during his absence, that Joseph, who had frequent matters of business with the queen, in order to demonstrate the great affec- tion of Herod for her, mentioned his orders, to put her to death, in case he was put to death himself, as he could not endure a separation even after he was dead. Herod had a sister Salome, who was a woman of an intriguing and resentful disposition, and who felt no good will to Mariamne, because she had reproached her with the meanness of her birth. This woman informed Herod that Joseph had had frequent criminal conversation with his queen during his absence ; which was a base calumny, but sufficient to disturb the jealous disposition of Herod, whose affection for her was vehement. He therefore questioned her about it by herself, but she denied it upon her oath, and said all that an innocent woman could possibly say, in defence of her innocence ; so that Herod was prevailed upon to drop the suspicion, and returned a great many acknowledgements of her pure and virtuous conduct ; «D that, lover-like, they both fell into tears, and embraced each other with a most tender affection. But as the king gave more and more assurances of his belief in her fidelity, and endeavored to draw her to a like confidence in himself, Mariamne said, " Yet was not that command thou gavest, that if any harm came to thee from Antony, I, who had been no occasion of it, should perish with thee, a sign of thy love to me." At these words king Herod was very much shocked, and presently let her go out of his arms, and cried out, and tore his hair with his own hands ; exclaiming, that he had now an evident demonstration that Joseph had had criminal conversation with his wife ; for that otherwise he would never have uttered what he had told him by himself alone, unless there had been such a familiarity, and firm confidence betwee* 39 454 THE TONGUE OP TIME. them. And whilst he was in this passion he had like to have killed Mariamne ; but being still overborne by his love for her, he refrained from murder, but a lasting grief and disquietness of mind was the consequence. As to Joseph, he ordered him to be slain without permitting him to come into his sight. This Joseph was the husband of Herod's sister Salome, who was his niece as well as wife. Herod next murdered Hyreanus, the grandfather of his wife Mariamne, a man eighty years old, and upwai'ds ; and who had been king and high priest. He had seen various turns of fortune, had been a prisoner to the Parthians, and to Antigonus, the latter of whom cut off his ears, that he might never be high priest again ; it being contrary to the law of Moses, (Lev. xxi. 17 — 24,) that any one should hold the priesthood who was not without blemish. § 27. After the battle of Actium, and the death of Mark An- tony and Cleopatra, and the elevation of Augustus Caesar to the empire, Herod sailed away to Rhodes, to pay his respects' to the conqueror. Upon this occasion he left Mariamne, and her mother Alexandra, in the care of his treasurer Joseph, and Sohe- mus of Iturea ; and with a charge that if they should hear that any mischief had befallen him, that they should kill them both. For he had some suspicion of Augustus, from his having been the friend of Antony. But the ladies were much dissatisfied with Herod's arrange- ment ; for instead of being left in a palace, they were put into a fortress, and they considered Joseph and Sohemus rather as their keepers than servants. To the latter, therefore, they used kind words, and made liberal presents, and he considering that if Herod should not return, that these women would probably sus- tain prominent situations in the succeeding government, at length made known to them the secret orders of Herod for their own destruction, in case he should not come back. Mariamne now thought Herod's affection to her hypocritical, when she called to mind the former orders of the same kind ; and she began to see that there was no end to the dangers which she was exposed to from Herod, so that she wished that he might obtain no favors from Caesar. She found her future prospects of happiness blasted, THE TONGUE OP TIME. 455 SO long as he lived ; and as to any thing after his death, in case she survived him, she found that he was determined that she should be put to death as soon as he himself was dead. These things she openly declared, without concealing her resentment. And now Herod returned home with joy, for he had made Caesar his friend, who established the crown upon his head more firmly than ever ; and to whom the king of the little kingdom of Judea had presented eight hundred talents, as well as provisions and wine for his army, as it was marching from Syria to invade Egypt. But Caesar greatly increased Herod's dominions, and restored to him those parts which Cleopatra had possessed in her lifetime. He also added to his kingdom Gadara, Hippos, .and Samaria ; and besides these, the maratime cities, Gaza, Anthe- don, Joppa, and Strato's Tower, afterwards Cesarea. But as Herod's affairs prospered with Caesar, they declined in his own family. His mother and sister Salome, were in irrecon- teileable hatred" to Mariamne ; the latter having often reproached them with the meanness of their birth ; and who lately, to Hero4 Mtnself, had behaved in an imperious and saucy manner, taking advantage of his extreme affection for her, and resenting the or- ders which he had twice left behind him, when he went abroad, to have her put to death in case he did not return. She finally sealed her own fate, by refusing him her embraces, and by re- proaching him with the murder of her relations. § 28. That Sohemus had divulged to Mariamne his secret orders, was discovered by Herod's ordering a eunuch, belonging to her to be put to the torture. He therefore ordered Sohemus to be slain immediately ; but as to Mariamne he had a kind of mock trial of her case, which ended by her being condemned to death. She met her fate with a diginity becoming her royal descent, her excellent character, and greatness of soul. But Herod was severely punished, by an inflammation of the brain, a pain in the back of his head, and downright madness ; so that he would call for Mariamne, and order his servants to call her, as though she were still alive. Aad when she did not come, his lamentations would hteak forth in a most boisterous and vio- lent manner. 456 THE TONGUE OF • TIME. A pestilential disease also broke out about the same period, which carried off the greater part of the friends whom Herod most of all esteemed ; so that all men suspected that this distem- perwas brought upon them from the anger of God, for the injus- tice that had been done 'to Mariamne. This circumstance afflicted the king still more ; so that at length despair seized him, and he went into desert places and bitterly afflicted himself. But notwithstanding, he did not leave off murdering, for he soon had Alexandra, the mother of his late wife slain, as also Costobarus, the husband, after her first husband's death, of his sister Salome. This he did not do, however, until Salome had quarrelled with her husband, Costobarus, and dissolved their marriage by sending him a bill of divorce. Thus it appears that women did sometimes divorce their husbands, among the Jews, although the laws of Moses only gave permission for a husband to divorce his wife.* With his sister's husband, Herod slew five other persons, three of whom were his own most intimate friends. Nor did his distress for Mariamne, nor his affection for her, prevent his again falling in love. The obligations he was under to Csesar, and the respect which he had for him, induced him to imitate the customs of Rome, to the scandal of the Jewish customs, and to the grief of the strict and religious Jews ; for he built a theatre at Jerusalem, and an amphitheatre on the plain, where chariot races, musicians, wrest- lers, and games, were encouraged by liberal prizes to the victors. He made also a great collection of lions, and of such other wild beasts as were of uncommon strength, or rarely seen. Some of the exercises for which great rewards were offered to the victors, were performed by men entirely naked. Inscriptions of the great actions of Csesar, and trophies of those nations which he had conquered in his wars, and all made of the purest gold and silverj encompassed the theatre itself. Men were exhibited contending with ferocious wild beasts, either to please the multitude, or for hire, or as criminals, which were thrown to them to be torn in pieces. Herod soon after married a young lady, having the reputation of the most beautiful woman in the world. She was the daughter * Antiquities of the Jews, B. 15, C. 7, p. 533. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 457 t of Simon, a citizen of Jerusalem. And to elevate her and her family to a dignity becoming royalty, Herod displaced the high priest then in office, and elevated his vrife's father to the high priesthood. 39* CHAPTER XIV. HISTORY AND ANECDOTES OP WOMEN. OP THE BEST METHOD OF FEMALES MANAGING PROPERTY, AND PRESERVING THEIR ESTATES. OP PRAYER. DECEIT. SINGULAR CASE. HORTENSE ON OPTICS. CONCLUSION. § 1. Woman was not made of the dust of the earth like man and all other creatures ; but she was made of a part of man. That part did not contain his heart, brain nor soul, however. Adam said she was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, but he did not say she was mind of his mind. She had a mind of her own. It has often been said that Mahomet taught that women had no souls. This point was thought of so much consequence to determine, that the divines of Berlin made a prize question of it. A thorough examination of the Koran was made, and the prize obtained. But the result was, that it contained no such assertion. It was entirely silent upon the subject. This matter then, may be considered as decided, and at rest. In savage nations, women are the servile slaves of the men, and the more barbarous the tribe, the more degraded the females. § 2. It is Christianity that has elevated the female sex to their present eminent station in society. Amoijg the Jews, a wife was a wife, just as long as her husband pleased to consider her so. When he had a mind to put her away, all he had to do was to give her a writing of divorcement. This writing merely stated that he would not any longer live with her as a wife. She had then liberty to marry another man. It was entirely foreign from the ideas of a Jew, when he married, or when he formed the marriage contract, that it was for life. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 459 \The disparity of power and privilege between the sexes, was verV striking in the Jewish nation. A man might have his son put jto death for being a glutton, a wine-bibber, or for disobedi- eno3. A woman had no such power. In time of mourning, a man might shave his head and rend his clothes, a woman might do neither. A man might subject his son to the vow of a Naza- rite, a woman could not do it. A man might betroth his daugh- ter, or even sell her, neither of which his wife could do. The women were not permitted to assemble in the body of the syna- gogue with the men. They were consigned to the galleries, where they, on account of the lattices and want of light, could not be seen, nor scarcely see. They were in many respects, treated more like children than like persons of mature age. A Jew had no notion of confining himself to one woman for life, nor even for a part of his life. Hence polygamy and concu- binage were universal in the patriarchal age, and amongst the patriarchs themselves. And what would seem very foreign from the ideas of Christians, concubines were assigned by wives to their husbands. Rachel assigned to Jacob, her handmaid Bil- hah, and Leah, her maid Zilpah. § 3. Coiicubines even seem to have taken the precedence of wives. When -David, in the rebellion of Absalom, fled beyond Jordan, he left the care of his royal house to his ten concubines. And this, so far as we recollect, is the only instance of any thing Uke a female regency among the Jews. After this rebellion was quelled, David did not, as we are told, go in to these women any more. This was owing to the conduct of Absalom, by the advice of Ahithophel, when he had fled towards these his concu- bines. He maintained them, however, in the royal residence after the rebellion was quelled, so long as they lived. But what struck us as a matter of curiosity, in this afiair, was that they are said to have lived in a state of widowhood. (II. Samuel xx. 3.) § 4. Polygamy was not only allowed and practised among the Hebrews, but in a certain case ordained. When a brother died without children, and left a widow, the surviving brother was directed to take her and raise up seed unto his brother ; and 460 THE TONGUE OP TIME. there was no exception made as to his having one or more wives already. In ancient Greece, polygamy did not prevail. If it was per- mitted it was not practised. Women were deified in Greece. Rhea, Proserpine, Juno, Venus, and Minerva, were instances of the elevation of women to goddesses. The social state of the sex, therefore, was there, far above what it was in Judea. In this respect, the English and Americans, more partake of Gre- cian than of Jewish customs. England has been called the heaven of women, and the hell of horses. The cataracts, the lakes, the caves, the mountains, the sea-shore, the city, the country, and the springs, tempt the ladies, and jaunt the horses. § 5. At the highest point of civilization and splendor in Ju- dea, which was in the time of Solomon, the women were the family spinners, and weavers, and clothiers ; the girdle-sellers abroad, and the body-linen makers at home. This was true, likewise, in the Augustan age at Rome. The queen and daugh- ter of Augustus, manufactured the clothes of that emperor, with their own hands, assisted by their servants. The oracle of religion was Judea, the cradle of arts and intel- lect, Greece, and the cradle of arms, Rome. Infanticide was practised in Greece, when the infant did not appear to be worth raising, from deformity, idiocy, or imbecility. It was there, also, that the wanton prevailed over the statesman, the soldier, and the philosopher. Beautiful women were far less common in Greece, than in Judea, but they had more mind; and when a beautiful woman became a courtezan, and was endowed with superior mental powers, she bore a sway unbounded, and entirely unknown in modern times. And what is not a little curious, if not unparalleled, they appear to have elevated the minds of their paramours, instead of debasing them. It has even been supposed, that the great and good, and philo- sophic Socrates, owed something of his superior talents to As- pasia ; and that Pericles, that superior soldier, statesman and citizen, had his mind magnetized from the same source. He made Aspasia his mistress, and afterwards his wife. Even Plato THE TONGUE OF TIME. 461 attests to the excellency of her accomplishments. She was a teacher of eloquence at Athens. And he does not hesitate, in awarding to her instructions, the formation of some of the most eloquent orators of the age. A very high encomium from such a source surely. Still, that the morals of the Athenians suffered from the conduct of Pericles, towards Aspasia, there can be no doubt. With personal charms of the very first order, she possess- ed a superior elevation, we can hardly call it excellence of mind. § 6. There was another woman of the same name, and almost equally pre-eminent, both for her personal charms, and under- _ standing. She was born in Ionia, a country of Asia Minor, in the town of Phocoe. She was priestess to the Sun, and mistress to three kings, to Cyrus first, afterwards to Artaxerxes, and then to Darius. Without such stimuli, such over excitement, philosophers might not have philosophized, nor generals fought, nor orators have been heard, nor kings have conquered. But what then % Perhaps the world, and especially its brightest gem, morality, had been better off without than with towering talents, from mch a source. In the time of Lycurgus, female influence showed itself in another form. It was not in single cases of exalted beauty, but in the united efforts of the feminine community in general ; and their influence was directed, and their talents exerted, in rousing the whole arm-bearing population to deeds of valour, heroic and chivalrous. To individuals of the sex, we might refer for much of heathen glory ; but alas for that precious gem, virtue ! Lais was a courtezan of Corinth, who sold her favors for ten thousand drachma. Poets, philosophers, and even cynics, throng- ed around her, and he would have been disgraced, who had ■possessed so little of taste, that he did not admire her, or at least pretend so to do. That Alcibiades, was her paramour, is not surprising, but that Diogenes, who lived in a tub, and who told Alexander the Great, when he came to see him, that he wanted nothing of him, except that he would stand out of his sunshine, lived by her smiles, is truly marvellous. Lais was finally put to 462 THE TONGUE OP TIME. death, by a combination of married women, for fear that she would corrupt their husbands ; an act not to be justified most certainly, to commit murder for fear that adultery might be com- mitted. It helps, however, to form a part of the history of women. The accumulation of wealth, by some of the ancient courte- zans was truly surprising. § 7. One of this description, Phryne by name, had amassed such vast treasures by her profession, that she offered to rebuild the whole city of Thebes, at her own expense. She flourished at Athens, about 238 years before the Christian era, and was mis- tress to Praxitilles, the famous sculptor. He drew her picture, which was such a master piece of art, and delineated so beautiful an original, that it was placed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Solomon, who was so well acquainted with all sorts of women,^ awards the meed of excellence to the truly virtuous and industri- ous — to her who despises the baubles and glitter of life ; the paths of the vicious, and who putteth her hand to the distaff, and who makes the domestic circle her home, her palace. The frail- ties of great men form the comfort and delight of fools, and he who fixes his eye on deformity, is himself deformed. This re- mark forcibly applies to the character of Solomon, and to the use that some persons make of his failings. § 8. Some of the most striking events which the world has known, have had their origin from women. The chastity of the virtuous Lucretia was violated by the son of Tarquin the proud. But Rome adequately revienged her cause. Mortified, past the endurance of life, she perished by a dagger, wielded by her own hand. And the consequences were, that the Tarquins were ex- pelled from Rome, the monarchy was abolished, and a republi- can government established in its stead. Another Roman lady, Virginia, was taken captive by Appius Claudius, one of the Decemvirs ; but before his vile purposes were consummated, her father arrived from the camp and desired to see his captive daughter. His request was granted ; when he snatched a knife and plunged it into Virginia's breast, exclaim- THE TONGUE OF TIME. 463 ing, " This is all my dearest daughter, I can give thee, to pre- serve thy chastity from the lust and violence of a tyrant." The bloody knife was shown to the soldiers by Virginia's father, who were so incensed that they immediately marched to Rome. Ap- pius was seized and committed to prison, where he destroyed himself to prevent the execution of the law. A revolution was the consequence, and the government of the Decemvirs abol- ished. Volumnia, the mother of Coriolanus, preserved Rome from its impending destruction. Coriolanus, from the ingratitude of Rome, had joined its enemies, the Valsci, and would have de- stroyed his native city, had it not been for the intercessions of his mother and wife. The readers of Shakspeare, are already in- formed of these particulars, in the tragedy of Coriolanus. The Roman senate decreed to Volumnia, whatever reward she should ask ; and pleasing to relate, her request extended to her whole sex. It was thg,t a tempje should be erected to female fortune. Such a temple was erected, and situated upon the identical spot, where she had arrested the career of her son. We delight to trace the feelings, and even some of the faults of females, when they are feminine ; for when faults are found, as they are the common lot of humanity, we expect to find them less glaring than ia the other sex. But when women desert their standard and assume the masculine character, we find them off their ground. They are out of place, although they may not act out of character. In feats of horsemanship, in the circus, with bows and arrows, or pistols or muskets, and more especially in fencing and wrest- ling, a woman is like a dog or a bear walking on his hind legs. They may excite the mirth of the mob and the shouts of the vulgar ; but the pity or the derision of the refined and well-bred man, surely awaits them. § 9. No polished man, of modern times, ever viewed the Spartan female character with any great complacency, although he might be compelled to admit that martial deeds may have sprung from it. There was not that display of tenderness and feeling which is the brightest ornament of beauty. The stern 464 THE TONGUE OP TIME. i' heart of man, requires delicacy in woman. The Spartan mother, when her son was about to depart for the field of blood and battle, delivered him his shield herself, exhorting him to conquer or die, telling him to bring back his shield, or dead or wounded, to be brought back upon it. " Either this or upon this," were her words. .They were martial but not maternal. We have seen in our short travels, women laboring in the corn- fields of western New York. In time of peace, if men do their duty, it is seldom necessary for women to do this. Let the Solo- mon and Augustine ages be the standard. Exclude all from the field, and none from the distaff. But all antiquity was made up of extremes. It is Christianity which has levelled the asperities of Paganism and Judaism, and given women a station in society but little lower than the angels. The ancient Germans took their wives with them into the field of battle ; but the ancient Romans took not their women with them even to their social parties. Among the Jews, women and children, and slaves and concu- bines, were very much on a level. We are to account for the frequent scenes of blood and murder, assassination and treache- ry, among the ancients, from their social circles having been wholly composed of males. JMatters of this kind are seldom perpetrated without previous CDncert ; and in circles where the softer sex are -excluded, such concerts are held. It is female, society that has tempered the mortar of modern times ; and it is modern times that have produced such females as Hannah More, Miss Edgeworth, Madame de Stael, and Jose- phine. Surely Buonaparte could not say as did Solomon, that he had not found one good woman in a thousand. (Eccles. vii. 28.) § 10. It is Christianity, let the sect be what it may, that has elevated the female character to its proper dignity. And it has surprised me, that as it has removed female happiness and com- fort to the farthest extreme from the savage state, that the women of our savage tribes, have not discovered it, and been more ready to embrace its precepts. How immensely superior are the com- forts of the slaves of the South, to those of the Indians of the West ! There is no comparison betwixt them as it relates to the females. THE TONGUE, OP TIME. 465 It is an interesting matter of inquiry why' women of barbarous countries, so readily received the. Gospel -in ancient times, and are so backward in that respect now. It was however, true, that all classes seem to have been more easy to convert , in the early ages ■ of our era than at .present. Convents afforded women a home, a shelter, a safe abode, from violation and hardship ; and this is undoubtedly one reason. Still, it does not solve the whole difficulty, for the Roman Catholics of Mexico, have convents now, but female savages do not resort to them. Indeed, we can- not learn that the Romanists of the South, have made any great- er progress in converting the Indians, than the Protestants of the North. Monastic institutions appear to have been formed for the purpose, at least in part, for* sheltering the defenceless, in the world's dark and barbarous ages. And it would seem that some- thing of the kind would ever have an admirable effect in coun- tries which had no laws, but those which suffered the strong to trample on the weak ; the ruthless to despoil the innocent. Are modern barbarians made of " sterner stuff," than ancient ones? or is there a physical difference of constitution 1 I suspect that the latter' may be true as relates to the American aborigines, and that the sexual appetite is . less imperative. Our Indians frequently take female white prisoners, but we never hear of cases of violation. Not so in the case where negroes have white women in their power. § 11. The Jews were a nation, the male part of it, very much given to libidinous passions ; and this is one reason why I cannot agree with Mr. Boudinot, tbat our Indians are descended from the lost ten tribes, as he supposes. Some impute the cause of the ancient heathen more readily embracing the Gospel, to the greater purify in the lives of Chris- tians. In ancient Rome, at its first settlement, the inhabitants were wholly men, who had to go among another nation to pro- cure themselves wives. Thus courtship was short, and carried on by companies of men, who went by dozens and scores among the Sabines. So scarce and so dear was the sex, that he who could procure a woman, immediately made her his wife. But courtship proceeded upon a larger scale at last ; and a small 40 466 THE TONGUE OF TIME. army of men carriied to Rome an array of women. This is called the rape of the Sabine women. The Romans were prosperous without the" othet sex, but they were not happy. The Sabine men resented the affront, and declared war ; but we hear t)f no complaint whatever from the women. Wives became mothers, and in process of time grand- mothers. All the endeartnents of social life, and family attach- ment, followed on in course. They became domesticated to the homes of their husbands, and as a natural consequence, to the city of Rome. Romulus, with his twia-brother Remus, had been thrown into the river Tiber, when infants, by the orders of an uncle of theirs; for they had royal blood in their veins. They seem, however, to have floated on shore, and were suckled by a she wolf, until some shepherds found them, carried them home, and brought them up as their own children. Romulus was the founder and builder of Rome ; for when the twins grew up, they'put their uncle, who had treated them so barbarously, and who had usurped the throne, to death. It is not surprising that he who had sucked a wolf, should have highly esteemed women, and that his subjects should have done "- likewise. The high admiration of the human face divine, when that face adorned the female form, the high estimation of female virtues and graces, and the superior privileges of the sex, may be referred to their first king having been nursed by a wild beast, and to the scarcity of wives, at the first settlement of Rome. To praise women in the tribune, to eulogise them at their funerals, and to erect monuments to their memory, when dead, were things done by the most noble men of that noble nation;- and they were acts which reverberated back upon the actors, the meed of gallantry and gratitude. The women were made priest- esses ; the vestal virgins had the care of the sacred fire, and the custody of those shrines which required keepers of spotless purity. Still, it must not be forgotten, that some could be found, even in those early and vestal times, who degraded the dignity of their sex, and disgraced their origin. A Catiline and a Clodius, could be admitted into the private apartments of the first married ladies in Rome. THE TONGUE OP TIME. 461^ Julia Augusta, was the only daughter of Augustus Caesar. She was remarkable for her .beauty and genius, and more re- markable for her unbounded licentiousness. A disgrace to the royal line, the luckless girl was stoned to death by Tiberias, the successor of Augustus. However ill deserving Julia might have been, she fell a victim to a cruel and barbarous tyrant. Another Julia, the daughter of Germanicus, was still more in- famous for her debaucheries. She was the sister of Caligula, who is accused of being her first seducer. He finally banished her upon suspicion of conspiracy. She was after a while recall- ed by the emperor Claudius, whose murder she brought about by the intrigues of Agripina, his wife, by means of poison. Julia, at the time of being guilty of such monstrous crimes, was scarce- ly twenty-four years of age. Agripina, was accessory to the death of her husband, that her son might succeed to the crown. Women sometimes love their sons better than they do their hus- bands. A third Julia, was the daughter of the excellent emperor Titus. She prostituted herself to her brother, the emperor Domitian. The first Julia, we have not mentioned yet. She was a model of virtue and excellence, the daughter of Julius Ceesar. She was well married, but her father compelled her to divorce her husband, in order to her marrying Pompey the great. She died suddenly in childbed. The history of Roman women, abounds with virtue the most splendid, and vices the most abominable. The contrast was greater at Rome than at Jerusalem. There was no country in which widows mourned their husbands so long as in Jewry, how- ever ; a trait of character in the Jewesses, which proved their connubial attachment, however rare such examples were get them by the men. § 12. Judith had been a '^fidow three years and four months, when the Assyrians besieged her place of residence. This was Bethulia, a city situated between Jerusalem and Jericho. And all this time — this three years and four months— she had fasted, except upon the Sabbaths, and Sabbath evenings, upon the eves of the new moons, and other festivals of her nation. With re- 468 THE TONCfUE OF TIME. gard to the Jewish fasts, however, it is said, that tbey* were ob- served generally only in the day thne, and that the faster ate at night. From the great length of time that Judith is said to have fasted, this is probably the case; For as we learn, she was still extremely beautiful ; whereas, she must have been extremely emaciated, if not dead, bad it been otherwise. She had also all this time worn sackcloth, and' dwelt in a tent on the top of her flat roofed house. Her husband, Manasses, had died in barley harvest, by a coup de' solid, or stroke of the sun ;■ a disease which kills suddenly, and is sometimes mistaken for apoplexy. Gen. Greene, a major general in the American Revolution, is said to have died with a like stroke of the sun, in Georgia, in 1786. ' In Jewish history we find no heroine comparable with Judith. Nebuchadnezzar had made war upon the Jews. He was kinc of Assyria, and had his capital at Nineveh. His general was Holb- fornes, who invaded the hill country of Judea, besieged Betbulia, and caused exquisite distress, by cutting off the aqueducts that supplied the city with water. In this state, the rulers of the place, Ozias being at their head, made an oath to the citizens, that they would surrender the city in five days to the enemy, unless some relief could be afibrded before the end of that time. It was in this exigence that Judith, the rich, handsome young widow, stepped forward, and with a degree of firmness and Teso- lution which denoted a very high order of intellect and self-posses- sion, proffered her services to save the city. These are words she used. " Then said Judith unto them, Hear me, and I will do a thing which shall go throughout all generations to the children of our nation."' After uttering an impressive, urgent, and excellent prayer, she entered on her hazardous enterprise. Her prayer was as follows-: " Smite by the deceit of my lips, the servant with the prince, and the prince With the servant ; break down their stateliness by the hand of a woman. For thy power standeth not in multitude, nor thy might in Strong men ; for thou art a God of the afflicted, an helper of the oppressed, an upholder of the weak, a protector of the forlorn, a saviour of them that are without hope. I pray thee, THE TONGUE OF TIME. 469 I pray thee, O God of my fathers, and God of the inheritance of Israel, Lord of the heavens and earth. Creator of the waters>King of every creature, hear thou my prayer ; and make my speech and deceit to be their wound and stripe, who have purposed, cruel things against the top of Sion, and against the house of the pos- session of thy children. And make every nation and tribe to acknowledge that thou art the God of all power and might, and that there is none other that protecteth the people bf Israel but thou." Judith then throwing off the weeds of her widowhood, decked herself in splendid apparel, and braided her hair, and anointed herself with precious ointment, and. put on herself bracelets, and chains, and rings, and ear-rings, and a tire upon her head. When thus bedecked, she was a splendid paragon of female beauty ; the admiration of every beholder. Giving her maid a bottle of wine, a cruse of oil, and a bag filled with parched corn, lumps of figs, and fine bread, she proceeded towards the camp of Holofor- nes. When she came to the first watch, or sentinel, of the hostile army, he examined her strictly, as to who and what she was, and what she wanted. She answered promptly. She said that she was a woman of the Hebrews, from whom she was flying ; and whom she represented as about to be consumed, and that she was going to Holofornes, to show him a way by which he could take the besieged city, without the loss of a single man. Struck with - her dignity and beaaty, and the purport of her errand, a hundieJ men were selected to conduct her to their lord, the commander in chief A high opinion of the Jews was immediately formed, from the dignity and fascinating appearance of a single woman of their nation. And an expression worthy of notice was made on the orasasioB, by the Assyrian general. It was, that not a single man of the Jews ought to be left alive, because he might deceive the whole earth. And it proved in the sequel, that if Judith was to pass as a sample of Jewish deception, that he judged correctly. She was introduced into the tent of Holofornes, whom she found lying under a canopy of purple adorned with gold, and emerald, and precious stones. And she fell down on her face before him, and his servants took her up. He received her kindly, promising 40* 470 THE TONGUE OF TIME. her protection ; assuring her that he would give comfort to all who were friends to his lord the Idng of all the earth. In return, Judith in the name of God, promised him success against the Jews, if he would follow her counsel ; and that all, both man and beast, should come under the dominion of his lord and king ; and that they, as well as the fowls of the air, should live by him and his vicegerent, Holofornes. She also assured him that his wisdom, and policy were known and admired by all the earth ; and that he was known to be the most excellent and valiant in feats of war,of all his nation. Here was consummate falsehood mingled with the deepest hypocrisy. Thus did Judith fatten her victim with flattery, before she sacri- ficed him.. Further, she represented h^r people as having broken the laws of their God, in making use of consecrated things for forbidden uses. This they had done during the straitness- of the siege, but still it was unlawful; and for this crime they were abandoned by God; and would fall an easy and 'certain prey to man. She told him of hereelf, that she was religious, and served God day and night. And thus raising a high opinion in the mind of HoloforneSj of her sanctity, veracity, and fidelity, he felt no sus- picion of her integrity. And this was not all. She likewise firmly assured him of her knowledge. of future- events, by which she knew that he would not only capture Bethulia, but that she would lead him through all Judea, tjll he came to Jerusalem ; and that then, and there, by her means^ she should see him seated on the Jewish throne. And that not so much as a dog should open his mouth at him. Holofornes replied, that she was both beautiful in her counte- nanceraad witty in her words ; and that if she did as she had said, and that which she had prophesied came to. pass, her God should be his God, and that she should dwell in the presence of his lord the king of Assyria. To keep up. the appearance of the utmost piety, she arose at midnight, and sent a request to Holofornes for permission to go forth to p.rayer ; which was granted.^ To pay her the utmost respect he brought her into' the apartment where his plate was set, and ordered a splendid feast to be prepared, inviting her to partake of his own meat and wine. But at this THE TONGUE OF TIME. 471 first entertainmentj Judith refused to eat or drink ; choosing to make use only of those provisions which she brought with her, according to the rules of her nation. But she found it convenient to deviate in this respect, upon another feast having been made for her; upon which occasion she assumed submission to every thing that her host should desire, and- liberally partook of the viands and the winef ; so that both Judith and Holofornes drank more wine that day than upon any other day since either of them was born. When the feast was ended, the servants were dismissed, the tent closed,, and in it Holofornes was left alone with Judith. He was well filled with wine, and lay along upon his bed. Be- fore the tent was closed, Judith had given orders to her maid, to stand without, and to wait for hei" coming forth to early prayers ; and to secure a safe passage, she had spoken to the same purpose to Bogoas, the eunuch of Holofornes. . Those who are frank, sincere, open, and unsuspecting, may ponder here to some advantage, upon the ' profound dissimulation of Judith. Unsuspecting and innocent persons are prone to be- heve that all others are like themselves ;; which is a mistake — sometimes a fatal one. > '"' ■ Judith began her , enterprise with prayer ; she closed it by cuttingoff the head of Holofornes — which as she was about to -execute, she oflTered another prayer, in her heart, to the Lord God, to strengthen her in the undertaking. She then approached the post of the bed and took down from thence the falchion of Holofornes, which was hanging there. Then taking hold of the haipof his head, she smote twice upon his. neck with all her might. His head was dissevered, and she took it away from hjm. And tumbling down the canopy, or tester, from the bed post, she took that, with the head, and went forth. And she gave the head of Holofornes to her maid, who put it into the bag in which she had brought meat, and without any accident or inter- ruption, she and her maid reached Bethulia. The joy of the citizens, and the applauses bestowed upon Judith, need no description ; for the imagiiiation of every one will paint them better than pen or pencil. Among the nations of the East, the loss of the commander in chief, was the loss of the army. 472 THE TONGDE OF TIME. But Judith, in the sequel, proved her abilities to be great, by the arrangements which she desired~the army to make of an at- tack upon the Assyrians, in the morning ; rightly judging, that if the sentinels saw an army in battle array, that they would tell their officers, and that the latter would fly with the news to the tentofHolofornes, and finding him dead, everything would be put into confusion. She also told them to hang up the head of Holofornes upon the highest part of the city walls. All this was d^ne, and the event justified the shrewd calculations of Judith. For when Bogoas knocked at the tent of his master, and received no answer, he ventured to go in^ and found that he was dead, and his body without a head, tumbled on the floor, and that Judith, whom he supposed that Holofornes had slept with, was gone. He then gave the alarm, that the slaves had dealt treacherously, and that one woman of the Hebrews had brought shame upon the house of king Nebuchadnezzar. The captains of the Assyrian army were in great distress, and rent their clothes. The array fled away, their camp was taken, and the Jews chased the flying: columns beyond Damascus, a dis- tance of siixty or seventy miles. To Judith was given all the plate, and beds and vessels of Holofornes. , We cannot but be struck with admiration at the daring enter- prise, the signal 'skill, and wonderful success, of Judith. Her prayer, and her whole management evince great powers of mind. But to a Christian, a prayer to God to smile on deceit, and to strengthen a hand uplifted to assassinate, even an enemy, sounds not a little singular. Still, the stratagems of war, have in all ages been aided by deception and falsehood. The best men who have commanded armies, have approved of deceiving an enemy to their destruction ; as they have rewarded treason, although they must have in their hearts despised the traitor. In the whole Records of antiquity, we know not where to find a piece of deception so deeply conceived, so glaringlyj so deceitfully executed, and at the same time carried on under so thick a cloak of piety and religion. Judith, when she cut off the head of an enemy to her country, destroyed a man who had shown her the greatest respect, protection, favor, and friendship. Nor had he, as it appears by what she told her countrymen after her return. THE TONGUE OF TIME. 473 offered, or at any rate effected, any improper intercourse with her. If she had any pangs of conscience on the OQcasion, she probably consoled herself by the reflection, that by cutting off one man, she had saved a perishing city of thousands of men, women, and children, tormented with hunger, dying of thirst. § 13. As to prayer, that alone does not sanctify, nor legalize, nor prove the equity and justice of any thing that is prayed for. The Mahomedan religion is a religion of prayer, in which they are more uniform and exact than even the christian ; but that does not prove the truth of the Moslem creed. And the Roman Catholic prays for the destruction of heretics, in which they in- clude all protestants ; but this does not prove that millions and milhons of the human race ought to be hurled from existence by the hand of heaven, merely because they are not papists. No protestant would deem that prayer meritorious, which contain- ed a petition for his own perdition, for' which the papist prays in every prayer. Nor is the success of a measure, when prayed for, any absolute criterion of its justice, or even of its benefit to the petitioner. To this point is the following case : A minister was praying for a child in a sick room with its mother ; and he said, as he was addressing himself to the Deity, " If thou wilt spare," — when he was interrupted by her, as she exclaimed, " It must be his will, I cannot bear ifs." The child unexpectedly recovered, and proved a very bad son indeed. The inother, after suffering almost martyrdom by him, had the ago- nizing horror of seeing him hanged at the age of twenty-two ! Better had it been to have said, " Thy will be done," if it had been the divine will to have taken him from his mother in his infancy. , The strongest passions and affections of women are sometime? elscited, for which themselves nor no one else can rendetr a reason. Lacon says, that women have stronger passions, and less judg- ment, than men. It may be so ; but I have strong reasons to suspect, that as the statement stands,-that it may convey errone- ous ideas. The desire to have children is a strong desire, and Strongest in women. Still, there is no doubt, that in cases pf seduction and illegitimacy, the blame lies at the door of the man, iaten cases, to one of that of the woman. 474 . THE TONGUE OP TIME. ^s the diamond is polished by rubbing, so woman is prompted by difficultiesii. Every woman wishes to be married, and if that wish sometimes carries her too far,, it is still with a prospect in her view of its achievement. Men teach women to view with compla- cency, that which they naturally view with horror. We have said, that every woman wishes to be married ; yet I am fully con- vinced, that in a very great majority of cases, it is not from a like reason that a man wishes to be married. AVe have remarked that Women were not like eagles ; for these birds soar highest in calms, sunshine, and fair Weather; whilst woman shows her most exalted, amiable, and noble efforts, around the bed of sickness, and in the mansion of distress ; in the allevia- tion of misery, and the healing of broken hearts, alienated minds, family broils, and domestic discords. After all that may be said respecting the fondness of women for getting married, it was the opinion of the celebrated Dr. South, the divine, that there were ten wpmen who were driven to matrimony, to one that was led to it. Families usually wish to see their daughters disposed of ; and an expedient match, rather than a happy one, is most thought of, except by the parties them- selves. Dr. Watts said, " Loose the fierce tiger from the deer," — ^but it is better not to unite them. In the world's vast variety, we find some females, who are pleased with being eternally courted, and care little about being ever married. They seem to have a premonition that courtship is the happiest state ; and a correct one it is. This puts us in mind of the remarks of S. Pierre, who held that,all contracts pro- duce harmonies ; which is true. But the execution of a harmoni- ous contract, sometimes breaks the harmony itself. The manners of women vary with the clime they inhabit, with the morality estajilished, and with the fashion of the place. The piety of the most pious is not always at summer heat by the moral ther- mometer. § 14. It is an ancient observation, which we find on record, that the air of Baijs, a city on the sea coast of Campania, was most pernicious for rnodest virgins, This was now bl"ought to THE TONGUE OF TIME. 475 mind, by an account which we lately noticed in the " Christian Spectator," respecting the manners, and especially the conver- sation of the ladies at Naples; which would put to the blush the most debauched, and indelicate, and degraded classes of females in England and America. It is as follows : "The plato speaking of the Neapolitan ladies is truly surprising ; they call every thing by its right name, without any circumlocu- tion ; and in the resility of a story, whatever be the character of the incidents, there is nothing left to be collected by inference but the facts are broadly and plainly told, with the most circum- stantial details."* In connection with Italy and women, we must not omit to mention a certain Don-descript animal, of whose origin we should like to have some naturalist give an account. He is called a ceeisbeo, which may be Englished, a cavalier-servant. 'Every lady has an attendant beau of this kind, who attends her at all parties and public places, at which she cannot even appear with- out such a companion. Her being a married woman makes no difference. He supersedes the husband in such cases, and even attends his lady to church. He does more ; he enters her apart- ment at any hoar, by day or by night, whenever he pleases, let it be never so private and secluded. It is hardly possible to credit all that we are told upon this subject, and y^et the sourpe from which it issues is so respectable that it commands belief. The Christian Spectator says, that " Even the private chamber is not closed to him at any hour ;" and that " liberties are allowed him which the husband would not dream of taking." What these liberties are we cannot dream of thinking, nor think of dreaming. The licentiousness of Roman Catholic countries, is truly sur- prising. " I am afraid to believe all that I hear of the licentious- ness of Naples, but I see enough to make me think nothing is impossibIe."t A celebrated lord, trho was visiting Spain, writing home to his mother, relates the beauty aad elegance of the Spanish ladies, in * This aecount appears to have been tahem frmn Dr. James Jdbflson, who speaks &om his own personal obseivatioa. See Christian Spectator for Sepr tember,1836,p. 42. t Dr. James Johnson^as quotepl by the Christian Spectator, 476 THE TONGUE OP TIME. high and exalted terms ; and tells how he made a certain licen-' tious request to one of them. Her answer was, " wait till I am married and you will make me too happy." But in Papistical countries, the words, plenary indulgence, are labelled on their churches. The Neapolitan ladies would think rather meanly of our free country, called the land op lib- erty, when they should find themselves choked in their freedom- of speech, and frowned out of all sorts of society, good, and bad, and indifferent, for their vulgarity of expression. § 15. Were all the world lighted with white light, without any rays of red, yellow, or purple, the faces of the fair, would be all of one colour, all pale, and equally pale. The rosy red of beau- ty, the kindling flush of love, the dancing pink of delicacy, the placid genial flow of content, and the retiring blush of modesty, could not be distinguished apart. The red cheek reflects no rays of light, with which the sun enlightens the apartment, except those of rose, carnation, pink and peach-bloom. The shades and shadows of red, and of white ; of the lily of the lake and the lily of the field, commingled. The green leaf, and the yellow orange, are seen in their true colours, only by their capabilities of refracting a green, or an orange colour from the : rays of the sun ; and so of the violet's blue, of bufi^, of lilac, of purple and scarlet and indigo. Yes, said Hortense, that is the Newtonian theory, to be sure, but Ara- bella looks red-cheeked by lamp-light, and by moon-light, and' by star-light, and by snow-light, as well as by sun-light. Have all these kinds of light, and every ray of them, the seven prismat- ic colours 1 My ideas upon the subject, said she, may be simple, but they are short. It appears to me, she continued, that when Sir Isaac Newton made light alone to constitute the colour, that he did not fully consider, that a green leaf may become a red leaf, as does that of the maple ; or of a cinnamon hue, as does that of the oak. That a ros» is actually red of itself, she inferred from its looking red when the sun did not shine, as hy moan-light in the night ; and also by the light of the taper, when neither sun, nor moon, nor stars, afforded it any Ught. Seeing, appeared to ^er, to be one kind of feeling. The rays of the red roge, were of THE TONGUE OF TIME. 477 a red colour, and met.the rays of vision emanating from the eye, and when these different sorts of rays met, the delicate optic nerves, felt a red colour touching them. Different colours, there- fore, gave to the eye a different feeling. Black is distinguished from white, at once, because it feels differently to the nerves of the eye, which are called the optic nerves. The delicacy of the nerves of the- fingers, has been such in some diseases, and in some blind persons, that they could readily distinguish and describe colours by the touch. Here feeling and seeing became identified. Roses, dahlias, green fields, and calm seas, gave to the eye a feeling that was pleasant and agreeable. A blackxioud, an ocean tossed with a tempest, a full glare of sun- light, or even the penetrating scarlet of eye-bright, (euphrasia,) when in bloom, are all somewhat disagreeable, and distressing to the sight. Hortense concluded by saying, that those who wielded the theory of Newton, and who had powers of their own to en- force his gigantic abilities, would probably turn her's or any other girl's red and white to a leaden complexion, and silence her attempts at philosophizing. But we remarked to her, that silencing was not always confuting, and that her hypothesis ap- peared as probable as any one's else. § 16. The most beautiful woman of all antiquity, was Mari- amne. In saying this, we do not forget Sarah, the wife of Abra- ham, nor Bathsheba, nor Abishag, nor queen Esther, nor Cleopa- tra, queen of Egypt. Mariamne was the wife of the first of the Herods, and who is called Herod the Great. And the beauty of queen Mariamne, is proved by Cleopatra's having gone to Jerusa- lem, and there having offered Herod her own seduction, which that monarch refused ; although she was the mother of Julius Caesar's son, and the enslaver and idol of Mark Antony ; and that Herod's rejection of the advances of Cleopatra, was not owing to his matrimonial fidelity, is abundantly proved. He was a curious barbarian, however ; for once, on being summoned be- fore Mark Antony, he was suspicious that he should be put to death. He therefore, left the care of Mariamne with his sister's husband, Joseph, with strict orders that if he was put to death by Antony, that he should put Mariamne to death, so that she might 41 478 THE TONGUE OP TIME. be with him after death ! • The Jews, seem, therefore, to have held the opinion, that in another world, the spirits or souls of the deceased, should recognize each other, and still be man and wife. But Herod returned safe, and having discovered from Ma- riamne, that Joseph had revealed the secret to her, he caused him to be put to death without even suffering him to come into his presence. Many years afterwards, Herod went to Cyprus, to meet Augustus Csesar, after that emperor had defeated Mark An- tony ; and as Herod had been a great friend to Antony, he feared that Augustus would resent it, and take a fatal revenge, by putting him to death. He for the same reason which had before influ- ejaced him, commanded Sohemus, whom he left in the care of his household, to put Mariamne to death in case that Augustus destroyed him. Sohemus was equally imprudent as Joseph had been, and Mariamne having discovered the orders given him by her husband, treated Herod very coolly on his return, and even refused his embraces. Herod, unable to find out the cause, and Mariamne refusing to tell it to him, he had one of her eunuchs put to the torture, who had been much about her in his absence. The eunuch confessed that he saw a great change in the queen after something that Sohemus had told her ; upon which Herod inferred that he had made his secret orders to destroy her, in case of his own death, known to her ; and he ordered Sohemus to be slain. § 17. Women are fairies within their ring, but out of it nothing at all. In achieving stupendous works, they are the file com- pared with the axe, the scissors compared with the hammer. They cannot raise the stone, and'erect the pyramid, but still they can give a polish peculiar and delightful. A woman never shines in talking politics, and appears to most advantage when she does not say one single word upon the subject. And as to her religion, she always appears most elevated in action, and not in discussidn. The precipitate curiosity of mother Eve, may stand as an exam- ple of feminine religious disquisition. Capt. Marryatt says that'll is of no use to have the best of an argument when opposed to women. A supposition, a circum- stance, a prejudice, or a custom, is just as weighty in the nursery, THE TONGUE OP TIME. 479 qr at a tea-party, as is proof positive before the Supreme Court. There is no such thing as disproving a supposition. When all kinds of probabilities, little and great, strong and i weak, are reared up as evidence, and arrayed as proof, the Case is decided by assumption. Two or three witnesses may establish a fact, but a thousand and one, cannot abolish a prejudice. When a woman's opinion is once made up, by authority never so flimsy, it is impossible to change it by all the arguments and demonstrations in the world. Hence, under the old dispensation, we read of her thus, — " If she go as thou wouldest not have her, cut her off from thy flesh, and ^ive her a bill of divorce, and let her go." The position here displayed, is, that from a single act of waywardness in a woman, there was no hope ; and that the sooner a man was rid of her, the better for him. But as is her p.erverseness, so is her affection, her confidence, her implicit reliance. She is smitten down by a single mental blow, by a single act of perfidy, and never rises again. She loses all, if her one ship be wrecked, because her all was on board of ojie vessel. Still, the French maxim of contraiiety here comes into play again ; for if a severe . stroke do not kill her quite, and if she recovers from it, she may live forever. Although. a woman has less of force, she has more of fortitude than man. § 18. Where ignominy is incurred, and character lost, and the forfeiture of life is in danger, she will attend her friend, her husband, her brother, to the court, to the prison, and even to the gallows; and this when his male relations will. all desert him. We have an instance of this fortitude and afi"ection in a remarka- ble degree, in the case of Rizpah, the concubine of Saul. When David had hung her two sons by Saul, together with the five sons of his wife Michal, Saul's daughter, Rizpah took sackcloth and spread it on a rock, and watched their bqdies ; nor suffered the beasts of the field by night, nor the birds of the air by day, to rest on or molest them. And this dismal occupation she perse- vered in, from harvest time until water dropped on them out of heaven. (II. Samuel, xxi. 10.) That is, from harvest ,time until the autumnal rains. 480 THE TONUUE OF TIME. Jealousy, is a prevalent passion in the sex. A man visiting' a house in- which the famil-y occupants are a woman of seventy, and a young lady of twenty, will be able to discern this all perva- ding feature ; and of which he would not have dared to surmise the existence, had he not seen it. § 19. In the management of business, women are sometimes found to be misers, but never men. When acting miserly, they are most apt to show it hf saving their salt, and losing their bacon. But on the other hand, women who have money, are apt to make a free use of it, so long as it lasts — ^to expend it on ob- jects, not of primary importance, without having the forecast to save it for future emergencies of indispensable necessity. An accurate lawyer, and intimate friend of the present writer, observed that it was best for women to have their property left in lands ; for that they always had a repugnance to writing their names, and conveying away their inheritance. This view of the matter is correct, and those who have an interest in the manage- ment of female finances, ought to consider it well. If any im- provement can be made upon this suggestion, it appears to be that of placing their funds in bank, or some other stock, where the interest can be received at stated periods, and punctually paid. A woman who has an idea that any merchant, mechanic, artist, or retailer, owes her husband, will show no mercy in calling foi every thing in their line of business. She will consume her hus- band for gridirons at a blacksmith's-, and have four coats of paper hangings, one on the top of another, on the walls of the same room, and yet not be comfortable. As said an early settler, and wealthy farmer, in our own America. He told his wife at their beginning of life, that he wanted to be rich. She replied that she wanted only enough to be comfortable. He got rich, but riches are nothing to a woman, unless in the expenditure. He got rich ; but she, alas, if her own account is to be taken for an affidavit, never got comfortable. Josephus says of women, that they were prohibited by the laws of Moses, from being witnesses in courts, on account of the for- wardness and boldness of their sex. ' THE TONGUE OF TIME. 481 But after alJ, a censure or a satire upon the sex, belongs rather to a Herod, or a Swift, than to a Solomon, or an Addison. After casting about for a conclusion, from some celebrated author, we concluded to conclude in our own words, which convey our own sentiments. Life, what art thou 1 thy sunny days, Thy calms, thy cheers, thy Christian rays, Thy spice, thy balm, thy sweets, alone By woman can be truly shown. Away, the censures of thy sex. Let sickness come , let false friends vex, Thy cheerful mien, thy angel smiles, Deprive the demon of his wiles ; The surest solace man can know. The mother, sister, wife, bestow. 41* INDEX. Adams, President Address, preliminary Adicipore, or Adipocere, Alexander of Russia, Allen on gi::nt remains, Alexander Alexander, Almanac making, Alluvial laws. Ambition, Amalgamation, Page. 375 9 119 278 85 374 272 182 343 32 America, why colder than the East, 158 Anahuac, 37 Anatomy, comparative 91 Anaxagoras, 269 Animal food, 28, 353 Animal magnetism, 193 Animal origin of mountains, 183 Antiquities at Aix, France, 153 in Cattaraugus, 153 in the Cumberlandmountains, 160 of Genesee, 131 of Georgia, 132 of Jefferson county, N. Y. 134 of Kanhawa river, Va. 122 of Kentucky, 171 Mexican, 139, 149 in Miami, 126 on the Oakmulgee . 135 of Ohio, 117, 120 of Oreston, Eng. 153 of Ouisconsin, 138 , of Pennsylvania, 148 on the Rivanua, 128 on the Scioto, 170 in Tennessee, 160 of Teotchuacan, 150 Arabians, 27, 35, 145, 177 Ararat, 186 Aristotle, 71, 315 Association of ideas, 163, 374 Atterbury, Bishop 56 Atticus, 363 Atheism, 59, 61, 306, 316 Attraction, 155 Aurora borealif, 158 Pa>gk. Babel builders. 151, 163 Bacon, Francis 80 Bacon, Roger 199 Baker, Rachel 226, 420 Baron Humboldt, 164, 167 Banks and his horse, 35 Baptism, 342 Bat, the sixth sense of, 228 Bath, cold 360 Bed of shells, ninety miles long, 133 Berkeley, Bishop 62 Bernard, St. ]94 Beveridge, Bishop, 338 Bible, 258 Bite of a spider, 222 Blood, 396 Bones in rock seventy feet deep, 153 Bramins, 369 Bump, phrenological 216 Buonaparte, 20, 394 Burke, Edmund 31, 33, 56 Burman Empire, 308 Burying and burning the dead. 262' Burying arms with the warrior, 264 Butter's Analogy, 268 Byron, Lord 19' CsBsar, Julius 196 Campbell, Hon. Mr. of Ohia, 126 Cancer from kissing. 366 Cards, 54 Cases extraordinary of. Baker, Rachel 226 Cass, Mrs. 229 Hazard, Nancy 219 McEvoy, Miss 231 Rider, Jane C. 223 Cervantes. 36 Change of climate. 361 Chamber horse. 359 Chaos chronology. 189 Charms, 303 Chatham, Lord 377 Chaucer, 15 484 INDEX. Page Chronology, 189 Childers, Dr. of Georgia 133 Child, imprisoned 205 China, 22, 28, 31 Churchyards, origin of 127 Choking, 391 Cicero, 30 Clergyman's case. •255 Climate, 111, 156, 348 Clouds, 188 Cold winds, Virgil on 110 Coins fifty feet in rook, 152 Comets, 388 Common sense, 310 Confusion of languages, 162 Congress, 377 Congress, speaker of 30 Consumption, 361 Conscience, 376 Corpse revived, 368 Covenant of salt, 139 Countries, 347 Craniology, 193 Creation. 92, 188 Cromwell, 265 Crusades, 23, 161 Crusades Mahometan, 161 Custine, JVI. beheaded, 379 D. Dancing, involuntary 221 sayes life, 375 Dark ages. 152, 168 Death, 318 of a beauty, 325 of Julius Ctesar, 197 Deity, 313 Deluge, 182 Denon, M. 333 Diet, 361 Divorce, 173 Divination, 267 Doctors, 64 Donne, Dr. 57 Dreams, 287, 388 Dre^, 354 Drinks, 35S Drowned persons, 368 Druids, 334 Epictetus, Epicureans, Essenes, Europa, Europe, its name, Evans, Mr. Evil, its uses. Pare. 53 313 175 165 165 116 76 E. - Earthquake, effects on the mind, 373 Earthen ware, ancient 136 Eclipses, 268 Effects of a gale, 143 Egyptian magic, 217 English national character, 23 Enthusiasm, 277 Epitaph on Joshua Barnes, 372 Falling stones, 99, Famine, 357 Fascination of serpents, 303: Fasting, 352,358,36* Fate. 19(i- Fates, J99 Faust's Bibles, 25g Fever Flowers, 333 First settlers in America, 137 Five hundred deaths ftom one man, 351 Flood of Noah, ]86 Foot of bird, eighteen inches long, 90 Fortifications, ]25 Fossil remains, g3 gg Eriendship, 72 French Revolution, 69 J'uture state, 371 G. Galen, 359 Gales of 1685, and 1815;. 144 Gastric juice, 393 Genius, 347,377 Georgia, antiquities of 132 Geology, 116, 130, 152, 153 Germany, 329 fossil head dug up in 84 Giants, 41,83,119 Glennie, on antiquities, 150 Glover, Rev. Mr. 231 Goethe, 31 Gov. Pownal, 116, 181 Green Christmas, 347 Guardian Angels, 58 Gulf Stream, 142 H. Hamilton, Gen. 252 Hannibal, 168 Harvey, Dr. 53 Hazard, Nancy 219 Health, 318 Heaps of ashes, 136 Heat and cold, 110, 1.56 Heathen atheist, 306 Henry's account of the Indians, 245 Herbert, Lord 265 Herculaneum, 154, 155 Herod, 59 Hesiad, on chaos, 169 INDEX. 485 PiGE. PAGE. Hippocrates, Holy Land, 289 M. 45 Madison, Bishop 109 Hooker, 268 Magic. Egyptian 217 Horsley, 268 Materialism, 61 Howling of dogs, 364 M'Evoy, Miss 231 Humboldt, Baton 164, 166 Magnetists, 193 Hume, Mr. 42 Mahometans, 354 Hunting laws, Indian 176 Mahometanism, 27 Man, his nature. 130, 378 I, where most honored. 347 Ice, mountains of 113 Martin, Susannah, executed, 210 Idolatry, 191 Marriage, 32 Imagination, 372, 380 Memory, 371, 372 Imaginary diseases, 253,254 Metenjpsychosis, 244 Indians, divorce of 173 Mexico, 96, 149 Indian doctor, 245 Mexicans, modern 38 method of memory. J 76 Milk, 74 magical practices, 243, 246 Milton, 18,53 morality. 172 Missouri Indians, - 174 of Missouri, 172 Milla, palace of 166, 167 physiognomy. 373 Moloch, 334 polygamy, 173 Morris, Robert 284 remedies. 73 Moses, 21,335 and his snake. 273 Mosaic work. 167 Inguadon, 84 Mount Ararat, 186 Insanity, 363 Mountains, in, 142, 183, 185 Instinct, 371, 389 animal origin of 185 Instruction, 68 ofice. 113 Italy, 329 Mounds on Fox River, 128 Mounds on the Kanhawa, 123 J. of the Ohio, 120, 125 Jerusalem, 45 of the Scioto, 170 Job, 319 of Virginia, 122, 124 Josephus, 336, 337 Johnson, Samuel 68,331 N. Jouers, or jugglers. 245 Napoleon, 20 Judges of courts. 33,34 National characters. 35 Judgment, 374, 377 Arabian, 35 Jumsheed Jum, 151 English, 23 Italian, 329 K. Spanish, 35 Kanbawa, antiquities of 123 New England, 356 Kempis, Thomas a' 331 Newton, Sir Isaac 108, 162, 190 Koran, 49,50 Niagara Falls, 95 Number of centenarians. 29 L. of the Chinese, 29 Languages, 141; 145 of people in the U. S. 29 Laughing to cure fever, 340 Le Blond, 112 O. Legerdemain, 250 Old age, 357, 378 Life, 318 Olmsted, on the needle. 159 Linnaeus, 141 Opening a dead body. 82 Locke, Mr. 192, 193 Opinion of Linnseus, 141 Longevity, 29, 346 Opium, 300 Lost ten tribes, 140 146, 173 Origin of man, 130 Lot's wife. 336 Love, 72 361, 405 P. Luthet, 47 Palace of Mitla, 167 Luz, 263 Patsy, 382 4HB INDEX. Page. Page. Pantheism, 315 Second-sight, 271 Palmistry, 195 Seeing with the fingers, 231 Partridges poisonous, 353 Serpents, 304 Peun, William 280 Sex of fevers, 351 Petrifactions, 155 Shakspeare, 34,53 Ptiilosophic idolaters, 315 Shower of stones, 100 Philosophy, 268, 376 Sickness, 396 Physiognomy, 216 Shakers, 73 Phrenology, 195, 216, 31 1 1 Silliman, Professor 153 Pigeons poisonous. 354 Sismondi, M. 145 Point of congelation. 310 Smoking, death by 181 Poles. 158 Skeletons, fossil 153 Pompey the great. 196 Skeleton with arrow head in neck, 120 Pompeii, 154 with knife in side, 121 Politics, 339, 345 Sleep, 285, 318, 380 Polygamy, Indian 173 preaching. 223, 411 Popularity, 65 working. 293 Potatoes, 354 Smoking. 179 in France, 178 Socrates, 269 in Austria, 179 Somnambulism, 223,229,380 Pownal, Gov. 116, 181 Soul, 319,321.403 Progeny, 356 of infant unborn, 321 Prolonging life. 339 double. 226, 381 Professional longevity, 356 of animals, 321 Puritans, 23,43 Spanish nation. 35 Pyramids, 147 preaching, 42 Spinosa, 316 a. Splnozim, refutation of |316 Quakers, 43 Spirit of the eye, 236 Quarrel settled by a dream, 196 Spleen, use of 396 " Stars, shooting 105, 187 R. Stewart. Dugald 252 Rain, 187 Stimulants, 378 Reading by touch, 231 Stimulus of necessity. 389 Reason, 377 Stomach of Baonaparte, 394 Refutation of atheism and materi- Stones falling. 98 alism, 61 on board a vessel at sea, 106 Remains of giants. 120 stationary in the air, 187 Remedies natural. 324 Style, kinds of 13 superstitious, 257 Stumps of treesninety feet( leep, 1 18 Religious writers. 330 Sudden death of a beauty. 325 Resemblances, geological, 130 Superstition, 90 Resuscitation, 368 Swallowing a halfpenny, 355 Revenge. 174 Systems of the world. 97 Revolutionary characters, 69,71 Roman dream, 196 T. Ruins, 166 Tartars, 146 Rush, Dr. 163 Taylor, fishop 57 Russian campaign, 279 Terminus, a Roman god, 192 Theatres, 344 S. Theological truths. 17 Sabbath, 381 Theory of the deluge. 186 Sacrifices, 335 of optics, 235 Salt. 139 The Fates, 198 Saul, 360 The stomach. 393,396 Savages, 73 Tobacco, 178, 179 treatment of. 141 King James on 180 Say, Mr. in a trance. 367 Tohu Bohu, 169 Sea-bed, 184 Tropical plants in polar regions, 155 INDEX. 487 Touch without contaet, PAGE. 228 Washington, death of PAGE. 364 Weather, 272, 346 U. Wedding, 444 Universal principles, 34, 164, 333 Wedges, with rock formed over Universality of hostility, 120 them, 152 of deception, 240, 302 White Indians, 176 Will, 378 V. Williams, Roger 281 Vaccination in India, 257 Williamson, Hugh, Dr. 304 Vegetable digt, 353 Williams' Hist. Vermont, 172 Ventriloquism, 397 Winds, 110 Victory, 347 serving as river banks 143 Virgilian lots, 259 Wit, 369 Virgil on northwesters, 110 Woman, who heard with her eyes, 234 Volcanoes, 96 Women 405, 406 World, theories of, 26, 97, 116 W. attracted north. 156 War, 69 Worship of All Nature, 315 Washington, 13,24,69