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turning to chess."* Brother Smith answered, "Often." "Well," continued the other, "did you ever know of chess turning back again to wheat?"

Brother Smith did no more boasting at that time. GEORGIA.

* Chess is the name given to a kind of worthless grass that strongly resembles wheat. Many farmers think it is the wheat itse.frun wild and become worthless.

A NEGRO ODDITY.

Mom Judy was a perfect original-that is, she had her own way of looking at things, and her own way of telling about them. And she was as good as she was odd, honest as the day is long, and transparent as a spring stream.

One day she came to her former mistress, having in company a fellow-servant, old like herself, who was interested in some confidential revelations she came to make. After having finished her story, and charged her listeners not to repeat it, she added, counting her fingers as she spoke

"Missy, listen-I one, you two, Mom Nanny tree;" then pointing reverently upwards, "God four. Now, God nebber tell nutten he bear, and I sure I nebber gwine tell on myself. If dis ting ebber git out, I know it must git out from one o' you two."

The Doctor went once to see her when

she was sick, and came back laughing. We had tried to learn her symptoms, and his success may be inferred from the following dialogue:

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Our maiden aunt is a new Minerva, she discourses to us day by day of all things under the sun. Solomon might come to take lessons of her, if he were yet in the flesh. Our aunt has her hands, head and heart full, bringing up six girls, whom she fell heir to one hot summer when cholera was raging. Every morning there is a sewing hour, and our aunt's tongue keeps time with her needle. Hawthorne wrote a very pretty thing about a needle, but we are sure our aunt could do better. It is impossible to give her homilies as she gives them; still one is not expected to do more than one's best.

Our aunt has her seat by the south window of the sitting-room. There is a large garden in the rear of the house, delivered over to grass and old apple trees. In the tree-tops blue birds, wrens, jays and robins build, and our aunt holds her station at the south window, because that commands the ancient garden, and shows her all prowl

"How do you do to-day, Mom Judy?" he ing cats alert for birds, or predatory boys, asked, on entering her hut.

"So, so, Mausser. I duh grunt, and I duh gwine." (I am grunting and I am going.) "I want you to tell me just how you feel, that I may do something for you."

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with abnormal cravings for green fruit.

Said our aunt this morning, "Falling apples are no more attracted by the centre of the earth, than the fallen boy is attracted by the green apple. If there had ever been a paradisaic boy, he might have suffered the fruit to ripen in security. I have my hopes of the millennial boy, but between paradise and millennial days stretches a great waste

'One ting; I feel a limber looseness in of boydom, doomed to perplex parents and all my jints."

the souls of fruit growers. The present boy

"Very well. That is only what I ex- is a crude, unripe man; he seizes on halfpected. Tell me more."

"A watery weakness in my back."

grown fruit as his proper diet; there is an affinity between him and his dangerous pro

vender; we may call it natural selection.
There is a deal of talk now-a-days about
natural selection; by this, grains of star-dust
have coalesced and become planets, and sys-
tems,

"That float along the tube which Herschel sways,
Like pale-rose chaplets, or like sapphire mist,
Or hang or droop along the heavenly ways
Like scarves of amethyst.'

"Ruskin tells us in his 'Ethics of the Dust,' how left to rest and natural selection, an ounce of the black slime of a manufacturing town will, after time enough has elapsed, turn into a sapphire, an opal, and a diamond, set in a star of snow.' Of course it would take a great while; longer than any of us finite creatures could wait. There has

been a great deal of foolish talk about
natural selection, as well as some sound
sense. Nobody need ever try to convince
me that that heterogeneous compound, man,
selected himself into his present state;
a moral and a physical impossibility. Here
our aunt sniffed indignantly.

it is

"Now there is a fashion of natural selection to which young ladies should pay attention in their school days, and in doing so they would greatly benefit society. I will say at once that it does not concern either ribbons or admirers; you can put that out of your minds, and prepare to listen to me.

"There is a grand fault in education, as I view it. Young people go to school, and seem to suppose that they have an equal aptitude for every branch of arts and sciences. One would imagine that an Admira ble Chrichton was the rule, and not the exception of humanity. Take Maria Louisa. She is sent to a seminary; she is taught every kind of fancy-work, as if she were to devote her whole existence to that, and nothing else. She takes singing lessons, without waiting to inquire whether she has been gifted with voice and ear; she takes drawing, oil-painting and water colors, not considering that each is a study worthy of individual attention, and that only those can succeed who have what is called a natural talent for art. Thus our girls run through the whole alphabet of education, half learning-no, one ten-hundredth part learning each branch. They are superficial,

dismally so. Why does not each one choose
such pursuits as she has aptitude for, and
really work at them, hammer something
out of each theme by downright hard labor?
that would be to turn one's opportunities to
account. But no; only one object is fully
in the view of our young women; the great
cry from the time they can brandish their first
rattle is amusement; they will learn every-
thing that will amuse them; they visit,
read for amusement.
walk, idle, pine-all for amusement. They

"Johanna!" (this sharply,) "what book is that on your lap?"

I humbly submitted the name of a popu lar novel.

"Yes, that is it, amusement. You had much better study English language. Try French on words, or on language; those are books for you. You will find that whole histories of nations are shut up in their daily speech. Pray, what language do you think our fathers spoke in Revolutionary times?" "The same we do now?" I suggested, with meekness.

"By no means!" said my aunt, triumphantly. "They neither phrased it, pronounced it, or wrote it, as you do. Go farther back to Shakspeare's day, you would hardly know your mother tongue; would not want to labor through a novel in it. Then make another retrogression to Don Chaucer, The Morning Star of Song;' or Tyndal's English Bible, ah! there was a different language for you. Why, what is this I have in my desk? Here it is, an inscription copied from an old tombstone up in Westminster, Vermont; I found it in the church-yard there. It is that of a private soldier of the patriots, William French, who was killed March thirteenth, seventeen seventy-five; probably the first blood shed in the Revolution:

"Here William French his Body lies,

For murder his blood for vengeance cries; King George the Third his Tory crew Tha with a bawl his head Shot Threw, For Liberty and his Country's Good, he lost his Life, his Deerest blood.' "That is something different from what we do now a-days. I mean as to spelling and phraseology. Yes, the language changes,

girls who have few domestic cares and responsibilities, ought to understand that freedom is not yours for indolence and self-seeking, but to be of use to others, to improve yourselves. People don't wear out half so fast working as they do idling; people don't grow dull in being occupied with what is honest and elevating; they get stupid dozing over that problem of self-serving, and amusement-hunting.

"Go, iny dears," says our aunt, "study yourselves, select the occupations that you are best fitted for, and enter into them heartily; make a fair mark on time; then you will not be negatively, but positively good; you will also be happy, and healthy, and handsome." J. M. N. W.

times change, we change, very greatly. When I was young, people lived to do something better than kill time. Now I find that visiting and dressing is ever the order of the day; add novel reading, operas, theatres, parties, visitors, and you have the whole round of many women's lives. This, when you consider the additional and magnificent opportunities now accorded for culture and usefulness, is shameful. Go through the city in July and August, and how many sons, brothers and fathers will you find plodding at their business all day, and going home at night to lonely, dismantled, half-shut, illserved houses! The wives, sisters and mothers are off to the watering places. Not that they have worked any harder than their abandoned relations, but the whole end of their lives is amusement, and they are gone to seek it. Don't prate to me of THE PARTISAN AND THE RELIGIOUS health, Johanna, if they are well enough to eat late suppers, and waltz until two in the morning, they are able to stay at home and make all happy for those who cannot get a holiday; and then they can take their little recreation as a whole family in some simple manner, and be better mentally, morally, and spiritually for it.

"Perhaps you girls think I am old. Sixty years looks to you a long while to have lived; it seems short to me, very short to do any good in, but altogether too long to be spent aimlessly, indolently. Every one of you girls shonld blush to have the world no better for your living in it. People waste their opportunities, and then grumble because the Lord takes them away. There is your Cousin Fannie. She pines and frets, and says she is so tied up; her four little children keep her from study, from churchwork, from reading, from teaching in the Sunday-school, from so many things she wants to do. Your Cousin Fannie was twenty-five the day she was married. Until that time she had done nothing but amuse herself. She had never done one of the things she now mentions as desiring. She had ample leisure, and spent it all-amusing herself. Now the Lord has given her other work to do, and fortunately, her affections are engaged on the side of her doing it well. What I want to suggest is, that you

PRESS.

An editor is often in a position fairly to contrast the spirit of the partisan and religious press, and such contrasts are instructive. Nor are editors alone so happily situated that they may "look on this picture and then on that," with a wholesome moral at the conclusion of their review. So much is said or insinuated by secular writers against what is called the "jarring of the sects," that it is well, when opportunity of fers, to examine into the truth of the charge. The result of our observation is, that there is at the present time no such evil among the denominations as that so incessantly harped upon by semi-infidel writers and newspaper scribblers, under the name of religious acrimony, or the odium theologicum. Nearly every religious newspaper we take up shows zeal in denominational work, with a friendly attitude towards neighbors. This is preeminently true of the evangelical journals. We are proud of our Christianity.

A presidential contest, from present indications likely to be a heated one, is fairly commenced, and as we look from the religious to the partisan papers, and note the difference, we see enough to show that the spirit of the world and the spirit of Christianity are not from one and the same source. We shall not particularize, but we have two sugges tions to make; first, let those who are given

to philosophize keep their eyes open during the fall season now before us, with special reference to the two classes of newspapers in their accordancy with the Golden Rule; and, secondly, let all professing Christians be on their guard against the temptation to

participate in the words and deeds of partisan extravagance and violence. Honor your sacred calling. We are about to be visited by a moral cyclone of considerable power and virulence; take your bearings, spread all sail, and steer clear of the centre.

OUR SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY.

MORE NEW ASTEROIDS.-Two new aste- | immediately above the snow, 13° below roids, the 122d and 123d, were discovered zero; immediately beneath, 19° above zero; by Dr. Peters, of the Litchfield Observatory, under a drift two feet deep, 27° above zero. Hamilton College, on the night of July 31st. The first was in right ascension, 21 h. 48′ 51; and south declination, 11° 40'; and its magnitude, eleven minutes and eight seconds. The second was in 21 h. 58', right

ascension; and south declination, 10° 4′; and its magnitude, twelve minutes. Quite a number of the asteroids have first been seen at this Observatory, and by Dr. Peters.

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS-Some idea of the amount of labor involved in astronomical observations may be formed from a statement of the British Astronomer Royal, that in reducing the Greenwich observations of the moon, no less than 21,000 forms, as large as grave-stones, at a cost of $15,000, were filled with figures, before the numerical value of an important co-efficient for eclipse calculations could be determined.

MARVELS OF THE MICROSCOPE.-A beautiful and easily produced exhibition of crystal formation may be seen under the microscope as follows:-Upon a slip of glass place a drop of liquid chloride of gold or nitrate of silver, with a particle of zinc in the gold, and copper in the silver. A growth of exquisite gold or silver ferns will vegetate under the observer's delighted eye.

PROTECTION BY SNOW.-A Mr. Prindle, of Vermont, has made an experiment designed to ascertain how far soil is protected from cold by snow. For four successive winter days, there being four inches of snow on a level, he found the average temperature,

AMMONIA AND COTTON. Air drawn through cotton or wool will be found to be deprived of its ammonia. Cotton will retain 115 times its own weight of ammonia.

A NEW GREEN.-A new green has been discovered, which is said to be brilliant enough to replace the poisonous color produced by arsenic. It is composed of twenty parts of oxide of zinc and one of the sulphate of cobalt, mixed into a paste with water, and exposed to a red heat.

COAL EXPOSED TO THE WEATHER.—A German, who has made some careful experiments to ascertain the amount of loss that

coal undergoes when exposed to the weather, finds that ordinary bituminous coal loses nearly one-third in weight and nearly onehalf in gas making quality. Anthracite and cannel coal suffer less. But all coal should be kept dry and under cover.

POWER OF MACHINERY.-By the invention of machinery, one man can now spin more than 400 men could have done in the same time in 1769, when Arkwright, the best cotton spinner, took out his first patent. One man can make as much flour in a day now, as 150 men could a century ago. One woman can make now as much lace in a day as 100 women could a hundred years ago. It now requires only as many days to refine sugar as it did months thirty years ago. It once required six months to put quicksilver on a glass, now it needs only 40 minutes.

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POLLUTED ATMOSPHERE.-It is said by eminent scientific men, that the decomposition of a single potato or wilted turnip will breed disease if the vapors of the decaying substance are confined to the walls of a house." The same is said of decaying substances in alleys, streets and yards. The vapors arising from manure and rubbish piles, will so impregnate the atmosphere as to make it unhealthy, and thereby spread disease and death. This is the cause of so many diseases breaking out that baffle the skill of physicians. Filthiness causes de

struction wherever it exists.

THE RAYS OF THE SUN.-The rays of the sun are now generally believed to exhibit three forces; light, or luminous power; heat, or calorific power; and actinism, or chemical power. Whether these are regarded as distinct forces, or only as modified forms of one, the three are essentially dissimilar, representing respectively the heat-giving, the light-giving, and the chemical rays of the sun. The chemical principle of the sun's rays is relatively most active during the spring; as summer advances, this power diminishes, and the luminous force increases; while in autumn the calorific radiations are relatively increased. Thus the conditions of the sun's light are varied with the varying seasons, to suit the necessities of vegeable life.

It was

run with them; and what was most extraordinary, they were of every color from black to yellow, and some tortoise-shell."

A NEW INK PLANT.-A plant growing in New Granada, and known there under the name of chanchi, yields a juice said to possess superior qualities as a writing ink. Letters made with it are at first of a reddish

color, but turn to a deep black in a few
hours. It is also represented as less injuri-
ous to steel pens than common ink, and
much more durable. In the case of some
papers, part of which were written with
this vegetable juice and the remainder with
ordinary ink, after being long exposed to
the action or sea-water, the letters made
with the juice came out clear and apparently
unimpaired, while those traced with the
common ink were almost illegible. The bo-
tanical name of this remarakle plant is
Coryaria thymifolia.
Attempts have been
made to grow it in other countries, but thus
far have signally failed.

GERMINATION-ITS RELATION TO LIGHT.—

The theory of the germination of plants, which has been heretofore admitted, requires that the germinating seed be excluded from direct sunlight. Late experiments appear to establish the fact that, while exclusion from the luminous rays of the solar spectrum is necessary to the healthy germination of seeds, yet the chemical or actinic rays are indispensable to that process. These penetrate much deeper into the soil than do the luminous rays. The exclusion of the chemical rays, and not the absence of oxygen alone, is assumed to be the cause of seeds failing to grow when buried too deeply in the earth. Will our agricultural colleges settle this question by careful experiments? Let us have all that can be known of the mysteries of plant life.

A WALKING FISH.-Mr. Foord, of the Australian Eclipse Expedition, tells a wonderful story, attested by several witnesses, of a fish found on the north of that great continent, which had four hands. found crawling on a piece of coral, dredged up from the bottom of the sea. The body was like that of a fish; but wonderful to relate, in the place of fins it had four legs, terminated with what might be called hands, by which it made its way rapidly over the coral reef. When placed on the INFLUENCE OF VARIOUSLY COLORED LIGHT skylight of the steamer, it stood up on its oN VEGETATION.-As the result of a sefour legs, a sight curious to behold, looking ries of experiments upon the influence of something like a small lizard, with the body variously colored light upon vegetation, Dr. of a fish. Mr. White, of the same expedi- Bert has arrived at the following conclution, tells equally strange tales about the sions: 1. That green light is almost as fatal rats they saw. "A small island," he says, to vegetation as darkness. 2. That red "on which we pitched our tents, was over-light is very detrimental to plants, though

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