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the language of the wise man-" Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging."

Among the solids to be taken, but a small place seems to be designed by Providence for animal food. It is found that life is endangered in fourteen days by the use of meat alone, while man may be, and in many places, actually is, sustained in health and strength on farinaceous food.

It is probable that the great mass of mankind consume twice as much as is required to invigorate the system and prolong life. Indeed, it is not improbable that two thirds of God's bounty is lavished on artificial wants, or wasted to the destruction of human life.

Nor are Christians of somewhat high attainment, wholly exempt from this unhallowed destruction of themselves, and of God's blessings. There is scarcely one who lives for God, in the cultivation of his physical powers; while some seem to live as if their "God was their belly." It may even be sometimes seen that the sensual minister dare not preach the self-condemning doctrines which require to "crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts." And it may be still more observed how frequently the word of truth falls without influence upon hearts made stupid from indulgence. The Holy Spirit will not take his abode with luxury nor dwell with sensuality. When that low standard of temperance which the world adopts is the only rule of life, disorder and disease soon pervade the system. Dyspepsia in its protean forms-or fever in its varied types-nervous affections in all their varieties—or chronic diseases with their wasting influences or acute diseases with their swift destruction-or premature and sudden death, may find an easy access to a frame crowded with frequent surfeit, or wasted by long indulgence. The hurried action of the heart and vessels-the unequal circulation pressing on vital organs-the deranged function of the most important organs and the slow or rapid failure of the whole system-these are the inevitable consequences of the adoption of no higher rule than custom, or any transgression of the laws of Christian temperance. The gospel rule of temperance is a holy standard-it makes no provision for artificial wants, and no compromise with indulgence. It stoops not to licentious custom, and bends not to created appetite. As God has formed the human constitution in accordance with these pure and holy principles, man cannot gratify his sensual appetite, by the variety,

quantity, or quality of his food, without violating the implied command of his Creator, and the clear principles of the human economy. The inevitable consequence of which must be early sickness and premature decay.

Such are a few of the leading principles on which the culture of the body is founded, as drawn from revelation, and, consequently, establishing man's moral duty. To apply these principles to particular practical duty, even under the three general heads of physical culture, which have been noticed, would be to extend the subject much beyond the present purpose; and to enter upon other topics connected with health and longevity, would elicit a volume. I shall therefore close, by making from these moral duties, a few general aphorisms for Christian direction in the culture of the body.

Let the day begin with God-that the peaceful influence of communion with him, may calm the hurried and tumultuous action of the body, in the performance of its daily

avocations.

Let the early fast be broken by no more food than will defend the body from severe exhaustion, in the labor or pursuit which is to follow.

Let the exercise or labor which is performed, be in faithful accordance with the injunction, that the food should be earned by the sweat of the brow.

Let the principal food taken, be at a time when it shall repair the parts and powers which have been consumed by previous exertion of body, or of mind, rather than in anticipation of such decay or waste. So that the body shall not suffer from the increased effort of severe digestion, while it is pushed to labor; and that the mind may not be cramped in its energies, by a crowded system.

Let the sleep be regularly taken, and religiously observed to such extent as shall restore the nervous energy of the frame; but let not the bed rob God or man, of the service of one hour which belongs to them. To this end, seek rather to ascertain by experience how little will fully suffice. the requirements of the system, than how much it can safely bear.

Let the clothing be designed to cover, rather than to adorn the person; and let it be only so much in quantity, as will defend the body from inclemency, and not to such

extent as will enfeeble its powers. Seek rather to inure the body to climate, than to defend it entirely from the influence of cold or heat.

Let the person be kept sacredly clean, lest the body become infected from the want of ablution, or the mind. become defiled by the consciousness of an impure temple: for

"Even from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a secret, sympathetic aid.”

Let a holy chastity mark the conduct and the conversation in every relation of life-lest the frame should become enervated, from undue bodily or mental excitement.

ARTICLE V.

ENGLISH TRAVELLERS.

Travels in North America, in the years 1827 and 1828, by Captain Basil Hall. Edinburgh, 1829. 3 vols. 8vo. Domestic Manners of the Americans, by Mrs. Trollope. New York, 1832. 1 vol. 8vo.

Observations on Professions, Literature, Manners, and Emigration in the United States and Canada, made during a residence there in 1832, by the Rev. Isaac Fidler. New York, 1833. 1 vol. 8vo.

Three Years in North America, by James Stuart, Esq. New York, 1833. 2 vols. 8vo.

THE English press has lately given birth to numerous books of travels in the United States. The general peace, which leaves many active spirits without employ, and the state of England and the continent, convulsed by a fearful struggle between new opinions and old institutions, which have become more and more odious with the spread of

knowledge, wealth, and the consciousness of power among the people, have naturally drawn many visitors from Europe, and particularly from England, to our shores, curious to study the phenomenon of a popular government on a large scale. We propose now to say a few words on some of the accounts of us, which have been published by our English visitors. These accounts have naturally varied with the character and circumstances of the writers. Captain Hall, the high tory, has given full swing to his abhorrence of free institutions, and all their consequences. Mrs. Trollope and Mr. Fidler, disappointed in their hopes of reaping a golden harvest in this country, have described it with the spleen of unsuccessful adventurers. Mr. Stuart, a gentleman of liberal principles and good feelings, finds much to praise and little to condemn. The works of captain Hall and Mrs. Trollope, have excited a good deal of irritation among us. Mr. Fidler is of too small a calibre, to call forth much of any feeling but contempt.

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Our sensitiveness to the remarks of English travellers, has given occasion to much ridicule in England, but it is not surprising that we should be peculiarly alive to what is said of us in the country whence we drew our birth, and in a very considerable measure our political and social institutions and habits of thought, and whose press furnishes by far the greatest part of the books read in this country. A book printed in England, which contains matter interesting to us, is instantly reprinted here, so that our whole population receives the accounts given of us by British travellers, piping hot. No country of Europe is similarly situated. The English people, for instance, have neither the same inducements nor the same facilities to read what is said of them in France, Italy, or Germany. When, however, the censures of an intelligent foreigner are brought fairly before the eyes of the English, they wince as much as the Amerieans do under similar circumstances. Witness the excitement of the English journals against prince Puckler Muscau's work, and at an earlier period, against that of general Pillet, respecting which the Edinburgh Review observes, in an article on Stuart's Three Years in North America, "It is singular that those who put their faith in Mrs. Trollope's accounts of American manners, should be so much disposed to censure general Pillet's equally veracious descriptions of English ladies and English dinner parties." The American

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sensitiveness to English strictures, is a strong proof of the falsity of the statements industriously propagated by our defamers in England of the hostile feeling entertained towards England by the people of this country. Censure wounds deeply in proportion to the esteem felt for the source whence it proceeds. The Americans do feel, and cannot but feel, a strong attachment to England. English history, is the history of our forefathers. The soil of England is classic ground to us, hallowed by a thousand historical events, and a thousand creations of poetry and romance. The great men of English history are our heroes. Our minds have been fed, our imaginations kindled, our best feelings awakened by the literature of England. The greatest part of our knowledge of ancient and modern times, is derived from English books. Before we were old enough to form opinions for ourselves, we were imbued with English prejudices by English writers, were taught to laugh at German heaviness and French frivolity, to shudder at Spanish bigotry and Italian profligacy, and to believe that England was facile princeps among the nations of Europe.

The most intelligent of our English visitors, such men as Mr. Stuart and colonel Hamilton, directly contradict the absurd stories of our hostility towards England and Englishmen, which are circulated by such writers as captain Hall, Mrs. Trollope, and Mr. Fidler.

The first of these three, as our countrymen well know, is a captain in the English navy. His profession would hardly lead us to expect from him a very fair judgment of a nation whom England may justly look upon with jealousy as a formidable naval and commercial rival, and the captain being withal a tory, we need not be surprised that the tone of his book corresponds to his manners while in this country, which were such as to render him very generally disagreeable. His misrepresentations have been sufficiently exposed. We do not intend, therefore, formally to review his book, but to give a few illustrations of its spirit, and to compare his statements with those of his successors.

If he goes into a school, he finds that the master or mistress takes fire at the slightest criticism.-He goes to a cattleshow on a rainy day, and finding few women present, concludes that women are not allowed their due place in American society, although he admits that the most respectful attention is paid to them, and in another place observes, that

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