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sents himself as having been an arbitrator, and succeeded by his prudent management in composing a difference; in making those friends who were at variance. A second had been paying obedience to his parents' commands. A third had made some discovery by his own application, or learned something by another's instruction. The rest gave an account of themselves in the same way. He who has done nothing to deserve a dinner, is turned out of doors without one, and obliged to work while the others enjoy the fruits of their application."

How beautifully simple, yet forcible, is the following account of the futility of those merely sensual pursuits, which have occupied the time and attention of those we have been accustomed to call the Great! In the book of the Maccabees, we read, that "Alexander, son of Philip the Macedonian, made many wars, took many strong holds, went through the ends of the earth, took spoils of many nations: the earth was quiet before him. After these things he fell sick, and perceived that he should die."

THE PHYSICIAN OF MOHAMMED.

ONE of the kings of Persia sent a very eminent physician to Mohammed; who remaining a long time in Arabia himself before the Prophet, he thus addressed him: "Those who had a right to command me, sent me here to practice physic, but since I came I have had no opportunity of showing my eminence in this profession, as no one seems to have any occasion for me. Mohammed replied, We never eat but when we are hungry; and we always leave off while we have an appetite for more." The physician answered, "That is the way to render my services useless;" and so saying, he took his leave and returned to Persia.

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Mohammed's favorite wife appears to have been a very sensible and virtuous woman. Among many excellent maxims she left her children, is the following.My sons, never despise any person, Consider your superior as your father; Your equal as your brother;

VOL. I.

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And your inferior as your son."
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NATURAL CURIOSITY.

PRINTS OF HUMAN FEET IN ROCKS.

IN" Schoolcrafts' Travels in the central portions of the Mississippi valley," page 173, we find the following interesting description of two apparent prints or impressions of the human foot in a tabular mass of limestone at New Harmony, Indiana. The stone had been previously conveyed from the banks of the Mississippi, at St. Louis, and carefully preserved in an open area. "Being aware of the conclusions which must result to geology from a fact of this nature, and that all former notices of the organic impressions of our species in well-consolidated strata, have been deemed apocryphal, we were induced to examine the subject with particular attention. To obtain an exact drawing of these interesting prints, we moistened a sheet of paper to a degree that permitted its being pressed by the palm of the hand into the most minute indentations. While thus pressed in, we drew the outlines in pencil. From this drawing the accompanying plate, by Mr. Inman, is a faithful transcript, on a reduced scale. We present it to the public as being more minutely accurate than our own figure of the subject, published in the American Journal of Science.

"The impressions are, to all appearance, those of a man, standing in an erect posture, with the left foot a little advanced and the heels drawn in. The distance between the heels, by accurate measurement, is six and a quarter inches, and between the extremities of the toes, thirteen and a half. But, by a close inspection, it will be perceived, that these are not the impressions of feet accustomed to the European shoe; the toes being much spread, and the foot flattened, in the manner that is observed in persons unaccustomed to the close shoe. The probability, therefore, of their having been imparted by some individual of a race of men who were strangers to the art of tanning skins, and at a period much anterior to that to which any traditions of the present race of Indians reaches, derives additional weight from this peculiar shape of the feet.

"In other respects, the impressions are strikingly natural, exhibiting the muscular marks of the foot with great precision and faithfulness to nature. This circumstance weakens, very much, the supposition that they may, possibly, be specimens of antique sculpture, executed by any former race of men inhabiting this continent. Neither history nor tradition has preserved the slightest traces of such a people. For it must be recollected, that, as yet, we have no evidence that the people who erected our stupendous western tumuli possessed any knowledge of masonry, far less of sculpture,* or that they had even invented a chisel, a knife, or an axe, other than those of porphyry, hornstone, or obsidian.

*

"The average length of the human foot in the male subject may, perhaps, be assumed at ten inches. The length of each foot, in our subject, is ten and a quarter inches: the breadth, taken across the toes, at right angles to the former line, four inches; but the greatest spread of the toes is four and a half inches, which diminishes to two and a half at the heel. Directly before the prints, and approaching within a few inches of the left foot, is a well-impressed and deep mark, having some resemblance to a scroll, whose greatest length is two feet seven inches, and greatest breadth twelve and a half inches.

"The rock containing these interesting impressions is a compact limestone of a grayish-blue colour. It was originally quarried on the left bank of the Mississippi at St. Louis, and is a part of the extensive range of calcareous rocks upon which that town is built. Foundations of private dwellings at St. Louis, and the military works erected by the French and Spaniards,

*The carvings of pipe bowls out of stratíte, indurated clay, and other soft materials, executed by the Indians of the present day, do not, perhaps, merit the name of sculpture: but even of these, there is, we believe, no evidence that this simple art was practised before we had made them acquainted with the use of iron.

+ Geologists teach us that the character and relative age of rocks may be determined with considerable certainty, from the fossil organic remains which they disclose in the most solid parts. They infer from the shells, plants, and other traces of organic structure,

from this material, sixty years ago, are still as solid and unbroken as when first laid.

now found in solid strata, that these rocks were once soft and pliable, so as to be capable of admitting these bodies. They point also to these substances, some of which are derived from the land and others from the ocean, as evidences of the dominion which the latter has formerly exercised over the surface of extensive portions of the earth, which are now dry and elevated; and as the most indubitable proofs of the physical revolutions which have, at remote periods, devastated its surface, involving these genera of shells, plants, &c. in the general catastrophe. The bones of several large quadrupeds, some of which are of extinct or non-descript species, and the osseous and enduring remains of birds, fishes, and reptiles, which are often found, not only in alluvial deposite, but also in well consolidated strata, sufficiently indicate these changes, and point to several distinct submersions; some of which were manifestly produced by salt, and others by fresh water. Most of these disturbances and reproductions of strata, have, we believe, been attributed to causes operating in a very remote period of the world. We wish only to discover the osseous or petrified remains of man, in situations similar to those in which we find the brute tribes of the creation, to bring the revolutions, to which we have adverted, down to a much later period of history. If we suppose the present marks to be genuine, we here perceive some evidences of this nature. And they are found, as we should naturally expect, not upon those elevated mountains of granites and mica slates, which may be supposed to be sufficiently firm and well-based to have resisted the elemental shock; but in the central portions of a low and kindly valley, on the surface of one of those strata which are confessedly reproductions or resolutions from pre-existing species.

It is not our design to pursue this speculation into those details which it is calculated to invite. But we are naturally led to inquire; -are these marks natural or factitious? If genuine, at what period of the world were they impressed? Whether by the present race of Indians, or by any other nations who have inhabited this continent during its primeval age! Have the calcareous rocks of the Mississippi Valley been in a state sufficiently soft to receive such impressions, since their original formation! Were these rocks deposited during the Noachian deluge, or at any subsequent time? If deposited at that period, is there any reason to conclude that this continent was then inhabited? Finally, were these tracks not impressed at a comparatively modern period, probably by that race of men who erected our larger mounds? May we not suppose a barrier to have existed across the lower part of the Mississippi, converting its immense valley into an interior sea, whose action was adequate to the production and deposition of calcareous strata? do not consider such a supposition incompatible with the existence of transition rocks in this valley, the position of the latter being beneath the secondary. Are not the great northern lakes the remains of such an ocean? And did not the sudden demolition of this ancient barrier, enable this powerful stream to carry its banks, as it has manifestly done, a hundred miles into the Gulf of Mexico?

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