exploring the banks of the Niagara above the Falls, I satisfied myself that if the river should continue to cut back the ravine still further southwards, it would leave here and there, near the verge of the precipice and its islands, strata of sand and loam, with fresh-water shells similar to those here described." For Friends' Review. CREDULITY OF INFIDELITY. It is the boast of those who reject the great truths of the Christian religion, that they are above vulgar prejudices, and will admit nothing as truth, which cannot be rendered clear to the understanding. It will, however, appear, when the subject is carefully examined, that infidelity, so far from being the result of profound and accurate reasoning, can scarcely exist without a great share of credulity. ground of his author's general correctness, would be much more likely to apply his mind to its investigation, than one who should reject as absurd whatever did not at once appear obvious to his understanding. Numerous mathematical truths, believed upon this species of evidence have most amateurs of science examined, until their certainty became perfectly clear-truths which, in all probability, they would never have understood, if credulous enough to conclude that their author was in error, whenever his declarations were difficult to comprehend. As mathematicians may, and sometimes actually do, commit errors, the careful student will only pronounce that to be erroneous which he clearly perceives to be so; and will be no more disposed to reject as a fallacy, than to defend as a truth, any proposition which eludes his comprehension. What has been said of the mathematical student, may also be predicated of the tyro in any other science. Many things will present which will not at first be comprehended; and what would we think of the youth who should pertinaciously reject as erroneous or absurd whatever his inexperienced mind could not readily understand? Would it not indicate a strange credulity, as well as arrogance, to decide that all those who had pursued such inquiries were mistaken wherever they had arrived at conclusions, the truth or falsehood of which was not obvious to the hasty and superficial observer? Of all kinds of knowledge which fall within the range of the human intellect, the mathematical sciences are usually regarded as the most clear and unquestionable. A proposition, which has been mathematically demonstrated, is justly considered as definitively and unanswerably settled. And why is this the case? Simply because the foundations of these sciences are laid upon principles, the truth and certainty of which are obvious to every rational mind; and the inferences are deduced from these principles by a process of ratiocination which leaves no room Now, may we not justly apply the same for hesitation or doubt. Every mathematician principles of belief to the great and all important has in his own mind the evidence of the truths truths of the Christian religion? Confining which he admits. The propositions of Euclid our views to the New Testament, because the are believed, not because Euclid has announced doctrines which it contains appeal more pointedthem as truths, but because the evidence of their ly and directly to the best feelings of the heart, certainty must carry conviction to every mind let us inquire whether a sincere and rational which is capable of comprehending it. In the searcher after truth, ever read, or can read, that course of his studies, the tyro may often find volume without finding in his own mind a repropositions enunciated, the truth of which he sponse to the precepts which it inculcates? cannot at first perceive. These will probably Does not such an inquirer find, in the impresbe believed on the authority of the author, in sions which are made upon his mind, evidence, case the propositions previously announced have as unquestionable as the axioms of Euclid, that been clearly established. But whenever he be- this work could not possibly be the production comes master of the reasoning on which their of any other than deeply pious writers? The truth and certainty depend, his belief will no artless simplicity which pervades the whole longer repose on the authority of his author, but volume, the uniform purity of the doctrine, and on the evidence of his own understanding. And the evident tendency of its maxims to promote if, in studying an author, whose conclusions have the virtue and happiness of man, are so conalways been found correct, whenever they were spicuous, that to suppose such a book to be the understood, some proposition should be found, production of one or more impostors, implies a the truth or falsehood of which cannot be satis-degree of credulity that almost baffles comprefactorily perceived, a judicious student would certainly not sit down in a fixed belief that the proposition must be false. The rational conclusion would be that it was probably true. But the tyro could neither defend it as a truth, nor denounce it as an error, while it continued to baffle his comprehension. In the meantime, if such proposition, supposing it true, appeared of considerable importance, the student who inclined to admit its probable truth on the simple hension. It is difficult, or rather impossible, to conceive what motive an impostor could find for writing or compiling a book that inculcates truth and sincerity, and denounces deception and falsehood in the most emphatic terms. A writer of falsehood is not the one who would be likely to declare that every liar must have his portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. But if we could be credulous enough to suppose that any man, or set of men, regardless of truth and sincerity, could find a motive, or act | become a happy and flourishing community. without one, to produce and offer to the world Christianity, wherever its principles are diffused such a book as the New Testament, what credulity is sufficiently capacious to admit the supposition, that this book could be imposed upon the community as true, if its contents were false? The leading historical facts recorded in the New Testament are attested by cotemporary historians, who were not Christians. Thus Josephus, though no convert to Christianity, states several circumstances recorded by the Evangelists; and Tacitus, though an avowed enemy to this religion, furnishes evidence of the truths contained in the scriptural history. If the narratives of the evangelists were published during the lives of those who were witnesses of the ministry and miracles of our Saviour, they would not have been received by the Christian church if their contents had not been true; for these things were not done in a corner. And if they did not appear until that generation had passed away, who can be credulous enough to suppose that they would then have been brought out and imposed on the Christian world as the writings of the immediate followers of the Saviour, though never heard of before? (To be continued.) For Friends' Review. THE CHEROKEES AND RUM. A late number of the Cherokee Advocate states that Tatnall H. Post, Deputy Sheriff, having understood that a small boat-load of whiskey was on its way from Fort Smith, in Arkansas, to Fort Gibson, in the Indian territory, and intended for the Indian trade, went promptly in pursuit of it, and having found it, knocked in the heads of twelve barrels, and poured their contents into the Arkansas river. If the officers of our government would faithfully carry out the provisions of the laws, and prevent the introduction of this mischievous article among the Indians, what a vast amount of wretchedness would be spared, which the cupidity of the whites seems too often so willingly to heap upon them. Rum is the great bane of the red man--the love of it may almost be said to be born with him. How shall he be excused, who entices, for gain, his neighbour into that which he knows to be his destroyer? Perhaps it may be interesting to a portion of the readers of the Review to be informed that the Cherokee Advocate is published weekly, at Tahlequah, partly in the English and partly in the Cherokee language; it is owned by the nation, and is edited with considerable ability by Wm. P. Ross. The editor is elected periodically. The Cherokees are more advanced in civilization than any other of our Indian tribes; and were it not for the dreadful evils of intemperance, and the war spirit, they might yet rise above the injustice of their removal from Georgia, and and acted upon, will civilize man, and introduce him into the full enjoyment of all the privileges and capabilities of his race. Among the Cherokees, and ainong the Shawnees also, as we learn from statements recently made in the Review, are found many good houses and farms, well taken care of and cultivated. Men of intelligence, too, are common among them, and could we banish from them a long catalogue of our own vices, the day might not be very distant, when the state of society among them would be little, if any inferior to our own. Z. For Friends' Review. THE SEASONS AN EMBLEM OF HUMAN LIFE. the seasons of the year and the several periods A striking resemblance is observable between of human life-infancy, youth, manhood, and old age. As in spring the germs of future crops are nourished, so in infancy the energies and the passions of mature life, lie in embryo. The genial warmth of parental kindness is needed to sustain their vitality, or check their growth. The change from childhood to youth is almost imperceptible, except in the more ample developement of the faculties. The tender plants which were fostered with so much care in infancy, now shoot forth with a luxuriance that often "Asks a prudent hand to check them." Now comes the important task of forming the mind and establishing the principles for the active duties of life. Summer is shedding its rays upon our heads. All the frivolity and gayety of our dispositions are in full action. Without constant attention on the part of parents and caretakers, giddy thoughtlessness may take possession of the mind, and like weeds in a garden destroy all that is solid and useful. But as this season passes away, and manhood approaches, the countenance assumes a more sober aspect; those qualities which were nourished in the incipient stages of life, begin to show signs of maturity, and to give evidences of approaching harvest, and happy is he whose wheat is free from tares. But such as we sow, we must reap, The autumn of life is now at hand; the bright foliage of summer is departing, and we are fast approaching to the winter of death. How necessary it is that we should endeavour, in the summer of our days, to prepare for eternity, For in the grave there is no repentance; as death leaves us, so judgment finds us, and how awful the consequences, should we not be prepared to hear the words sounded in our ears," Steward, give up thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward." We know not at what time we shall be called upon to render an account of the deeds done while here in this probationary state. As this state of existence is only given us to prepare for a more glorious one, what will be our disappointment, if, in the end, we are doomed to everlasting misery? But we have a merciful and all wise Creator, who is ever ready, for the sake of his dear Son, to forgive those that seek to be forgiven with humble and contrited hearts. Thus we should duly appreciate our privileges while we have time and opportunity afforded to prepare for our final change, so that when we are called upon to resign our lives, we may do so with joy-the dust to dust as it was, and the spirit to God who it. gave FRIENDS' REVIEW. A. PHILADELPHIA, FIRST MONTH 8, 1848. The review of William Allen's life is suspended until next week, but will probably be afterwards continued to its close. A few more numbers are expected to include what we have farther to ay respecting that extraordinary man. We insert in the present number the first part of the testimony respecting Maria Fox. It is designed to introduce, at a time not far distant, a more extended notice of her valuable and exemplary life. Her memoirs were published within the past year by Henry Longstreth, No. 347 Market street, Philadelphia. The opening of the Girard College is certainly an interesting event; and the question whether this seminary will be a benefit or an injury to the rising generation, will greatly depend upon the character of those to whom the trust is confided. It is ardently to be hoped that the anxiety of the testator to exclude sectarianism from this institution, may not lead the conductors to the belief that the means of religious instruction must be withheld. Certainly no books can be placed in the hands of the pupils which more clearly and forcibly inculcate the duties of morality and benevolence than the Holy Scriptures. In a former number we inserted a brief notice of reported discovery, which to some of our readers may possibly suggest an apprehension that there are occasionally some things occurring of which it may be said, lo! this is new. Whether malleable glass, supposing its discovery real, is one of them, may be rendered questionable from a story which Murphy, in his translation of Tacitus, introduces with manifest doubt and hesitation, from some ancient authorities. The tale, in substance, is, that an artist, whose name is not given, presented to the Emperor Tiberius a glass vase of very curious workmanship; and after the emperor had viewed it, he returned it to the maker, who immediately let it fall on the ground. To the amazement of the stead of being broken to pieces, was only bruised spectators, it was perceived that the vessel, inby the fall. The artist then taking out his hammer, reduced the vase to its original form. The emperor then inquired whether the art had been communicated to any other person, and being assured that it had not, he ordered the maker to be immediately put to death, asserting that this art would diminish the value of the metals, and therefore ought not to be retained.-See Annals, Book V. The numerous letters received at this office, approving of the Review, and of the course pursued by the Editor, are highly gratifying and encouraging. From among them, the following is extracted from a letter recently received from a valued friend in Canada. "I am very much pleased with the Review; and, so far as I can judge, it will be likely to obtain the confidence of Friends here. I have no desire to support any party, or to take part with anything out of the truth, but wish the ancient doctrines and testimonies of the society to be maintained in their primitive purity. I believe if this was the living not be so much of a disposition to judge and conconcern more generally in the society, there would demn others. I hope all may yet turn for the best, and that it may have a tendency to humble us before the Lord, and to know for ourselves what foundation we are building upon. It is the work of the grand enemy to scatter and divide, and he careth not how sound or correct we may be in profession, if he can only lead us out of the right spirit. I much desire that all may escape his snare, and turn to that which first convinced us; and as this comes to be our united concern, believe harmony would prevail, and we should which enabled our worthy predecessors to endure witness an establishment in that blessed principle, all the persecutions that were inflicted upon them. very We have introduced in page 255 a small portion from an article of considerable interest recently published in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, in relation to a compound, which affords a hope that some of the inconveniences and dangers to which the inhabitants of crowded cities are exposed, may be easily and cheaply avoided. The article in question is too scientific for the general reader, and therefore is not copied at length into the Review. If some of our skilful chemists could discover a compound which would absorb the fumes of tobacco, they would promote the comfort of many of our citizens; or, which would do as well, if they could induce the lovers of tobacco smoke to reflect upon the annoyance to which they are subjecting all but themselves by mingling these sickening effluvia with the atmosphere of the streets. If gentlemen were fully aware how great a nuisance the smoke of tobacco is to the fairer half of our race, and to four-fifths of the other half, it is reasonable to believe that some place of seclusion would be sought for this artificial indulgence. We have been permitted to make the following extract from a letter written by a friend in England to his correspondent in this city, and received by the last steamer. It breathes a truly Christian spirit, and we are induced to insert it, not only by the pertinency of its counsel, but also as the expression of the feelings which have influenced us in the establishment and conducting of this journal. "During the trial which the Society had to pass through here a few years ago in connexion with the Beacon controversy, there was no exhortation or watchword which we more needed to bear in mind than that of the Saviour, 'In your patience possess ye your souls;' and perhaps it may not be a word out of season to our friends elsewhere. I observed particularly, that on the occasion referred to, our strength was in patience and forbearance; and that when we allowed ourselves to get into anxious turmoils about how and when and by whom, help should arise, we became weaker-as indeed all will do, who in the affairs of the church have not their minds really stayed on its Almighty Head and Helper. His way in his dealings with his people, is often as 'in the sea, and his path in deep waters, and his footsteps are not known.' Do we not want awakening, purifying, deepening? And who can say that the trials which are permitted to attend us are not designed to drive us closer to Him who is ever ready, when we ask in a right posture of mind, to do for us more than we can either ask or think??" also concerned to watch over the flock. He was a man of hospitality, and felt for the afflicted and destitute. When the infirmities of age gathered sensibilities survived the decay of his mental around him, his spiritual perceptions and religious powers in a remarkable manner; which was instructive and consoling to his friends in the interviews they had with him during the three years he was confined at home. He said "he was going to the grave; but death had no sting, and the grave would have no victory." His wife, AMY SMEDLEY, died on the 20th of Fourth month, 1847, in the 81st year of her age; they having lived together in much harmony for sixty years.--The Friend. At the residence of her daughter-in-law Delilah Mosher, in Stanford, N. Y., on the 24th ult., ANNA, widow of Zachariah Mosher, in the 84th year of her age. She had been for many years an exemplary member of Stanford Monthly Meeting. On the 26th ult. at New Bedford, Mass., in the 71st year of his age, ABRAHAM SHEARMAN, a valuable elder, long known as the Clerk of New England Yearly Meeting. DIVISIBILITY OF MATTER. At the first step we take in geological inquiry (says Dr. BUCKLAND) we are struck with the immense period of time which the phenomena presented to our view must have required for their production, and the incessant changes which appear to have been going on in the natural world; but we must remember that time and change are great only in reference to the faculties of the being who notes them. The insect of an hour, contrasting its own ephemeral existence with the flowers on which it rests, would attribute an unchanging durability to the most evanescent of vegetable forms, whilst the flowers, the trees, and the forest would ascribe an endless duration to the soil on which they grow; and thus uninstructed man, comparing his own brief earthly existence with the solid frame-work he inhabits, deems the hills and mountains around him coeval with the globe itself. But, with the enlargement and cultivation of his mental powers, he takes a more just, comprehensive, and enlightened view of the wonderful schemes of creation; and while in his ignorance he imagined that the duration of the globe was to be measured by his own brief span, and arrogantly deemed himself alone the object of the Almighty's care, and that all things were created for his pleasure and necessities, he now feels his dependence; entertains more correct ideas of the mercy, wisdom and goodness of his Creator; and, while exercising his high privilege of being alone capable of contemplating and understanding the wonders of the natural world, he learns the most important lessons-to doubt the evidence DIED,-On the 28th of Tenth month, 1847, in the 87th year of his age, JEFFERY SMEDLEY, an elder and member of Goshen monthly and Willistown preparative meeting Having through submission to the visitation of Divine Grace in early life, become qualified for service in the church, the cause of Truth was precious to him, and his sympathies were with those who were rightly called to advoacte it, being concerned to hold up the hands that of his own senses until confirmed by patient inwere ready to hang down, and to speak a word investigations. season to those who were tried or weary. He was "Where is the dust that has not been alive ?" THE CAMEL. The remains of organic existence, found in the | power is displayed not only in great things, but median and other tertiaries, conduct us from the still more so in those which are minute, and colossal and imposing, to the minute and micro- furnishes additional data for the well-known moscopic; for beds occur entirely composed of the ral argument of the theologian, derived from a fossil relics of animalculites-those infinitesimal comparison of the telescope and microscope:forms now present in our lakes, rivers, and "The one led me to see a system in every star; streams, invisible to the unassisted sight, whose the other leads me to see a world in every atom. perfect organization places them among the The one taught me that this almighty globe, with wonders of the creation. They were formerly the whole burden of its people and of its counsupposed to be little more than the mere particles tries, is but a grain of sand on the field of imof matter, endowed with vitality; but Ehrenberg mensity; the other teaches me that every grain has discovered in them an apparatus of muscles, of sand may harbor within it the tribes and famiintestines, teeth, different kinds of glands, eyes, lies of a busy population. The one told me of nerves, and organs of reproduction. Yet some the insignificance of the world I tread upon; of the smallest are not more than the twenty- the other redeems it from all insignificance.' four thousandth of an inch in diameter, the thickness of the skin of their stomachs not more than the fifty millionth part of an inch, a single drop of water having been estimated actually to contain 50,000,000 individuals. Not less astonishing is their power of multiplication, an individual of one species increasing in ten days to 1,000,000, on the eleventh day to 4,000,000, and on the twelfth day to 16,000,000; while of another kind, Ehrenberg states that one individual is capable of becoming, in four days, 170,000,000,000! To this distinguished naturalist we are indebted for the developement of the fact that ages ago our world was rife with these minute organisms, belonging to a great number of species, whose mineralized But their home is the desert; and they were skeletons actually constitute nearly the whole mass of the same tertiary soils and rocks several made in the wisdom of the Creator, to be the The coarse and prickly feet in thickness, and extending over areas of carriers of the desert. many acres. shrubs of the wastes, are to them the most deliSuch is the Polirschiefer, or polishing slate of Bilin, in Bohemia, which occu- cious food; and even of these they eat but little. pies a surface of great extent, probably the site So few are the wants of their nature, that their of an ancient lake, and forms slaty strata of four-power of going without food, as well as without teen feet in thickness, almost wholly composed of the silicified shields of animalcules. The size of a single one, forming the polishing slate, amounts upon an average, and in the greatest part, to one two hundred and eighty-eighth of a human hair, reckoning its average size at one fortyeighth of a line. The globule of the human blood, considered at one three-hundredth, is not much smaller. The blood globules of a frog are twice as large as one of these animalcules. As the Polirschiefer of Birlin is slaty but without cavities, these animalcules lie closely compressed. In round numbers, about 23,000,000 would make up a cubic line, and would, in fact, be contained in it. There are 1,728 cubic lines in a cubic inch, and therefore a cubic inch would contain, on an average, about 51,000,000,000 of these animals. On weighing a cubic inch of this mass, I found it to be two hundred and twenty grains. Of the 51,000,000,000 of animals, 178,000,000 go to a grain, or the siliceous shield of each animalcule weighs about one-hundred-and-seventy-eight millionth part of a grain. Such is the statement of Ehrenberg, which naturally suggests to the reflection of the French philosopher that Almighty We had now done with camels; and I cannot say otherwise, than that I rejoiced at the circumstance. Admirably adapted to the desert regions which are their home, they yet constitute one of the evils which travelling in the desert brings with it. Their long, slow, rolling or racking gait, although not at first very unpleasant, becomes exceedingly fatiguing; so that I have often been more exhausted in riding five and twenty miles upon a camel, than in travelling fifty on horseback. Yet, without them, how could such journeys be performed at all? water, is wonderful. They never appear to tire, Their well-known habit of lying down upon the breast to receive their burdens, is not, as is often supposed, merely the result of training; it is an admirable adaptation of their nature to their destiny as carriers. This is their natural position of repose, as is shown, too, by the callosities upon the joints of the legs, and especially by that upon the breast, which serves as a pedestal beneath the huge body. Hardly less wonderful is the |