far worse materials of nutriment,(78) and others resort to what we should most zealously reject.(79) Now we find that even DRY BONES may be made serviceable as human food.(80) But the number of new things made from vegetables only, in the last twelve months, not only amuse us as we read of them, but contribute to illustrate the utilities, both for food and conveniences, that are yet additionally derivable from them.(81) All these facts lead us to one and

(78) In New Zealand, “The fern root furnishes a principal part of the food of the common people, at some seasons of the year." Ellis, Polyn. Res. v. 1, p. 34..... At various times in Europe, when scanty harvests pressed, the poorer of the poor have made their bread of fern roots. Evelyn notices, that burrs and thistles have been used for human food. Bruised thistles have been often given to horses in France, who have fattened on them. The Laplanders, when pressed, make bread from one of their mosses..... In France, in 1817, the continued rains of the preceding summer having prevented the corn from ripening in one of the departments, the people for several weeks before the next harvest were reduced to live solely on herbaceous vegetables, as goat's beard, wild sorrel, nettles, thistles, beantops, and leaves of trees these were chopped up, boiled, and mashed: if too old to be so eaten, the juice or pulp was expressed from them. But not being accustomed to such food, the continued use of it produced in many a species of dropsy. Journ. Phys. Experem. 1822..... In the scarcity in Ireland, in 1818, nettles, and all other esculent herbs, with the coarsest bran, were resorted to for food. This also produced feverish illnesses.

(79) The natives of New Holland are estimated at three millions, yet "Agriculture is unknown among them. Their food is frequently scanty and loathsome, consisting sometimes of grubs and reptiles taken in the hollow or decayed trees of the forest." Ellis, Polyn. Res. p. 22. Here man will not help himself. Many uncivilized people will not cultivate the earth. Their deficiencies of subsistence are therefore their own willful fault. They prefer any privation to personal labor.

(30) "Dry bones may be converted to nutriment by steam, or by a cheap acid." Dorcet, Ann. d'Industrie, Feb., 1829. Hersch. p. 65. This reminds me of what I read at seventeen, of Papin's Digester dissolving bones into an animal jelly, in our worthy and ingenious Oliver Goldsmith's Animated Nature. By this and by his other works, he then gave me too much pleasure to be easily forgotten.

(81) Thus M. Du Chatellier announces that he has discovered the means of so preparing all the leaves of trees and plants as to make them excellent TOBACCO, especially the nut and vine. The powder is as sternutatory as the nicotian, but does not produce the vertigo which tobacco snuff occasions. Bull. Univ. 1830, p. 348... So another, with the aid of a little malt, makes what he terms good BEER from potatoes. Ib. 340.... A gentleman of Vienna has found that elderberries, in equal quantities, yield more BRANDY than the best wheat. Ib. p. 121...... Another disserts on the advantages of feeding CATTLE on the leaves of elm, acacia, without thorns, ash, and poplar. Ib. p. 224..... Another, by hand nets with bags, caught from his corn five bushels of GRASSHOPPERS, which he boiled. They turned red, and made a friand repas, a delicious repast to his PIGS. Ib. 1829, p.

the same conclusion, that no population that will think and labor, however numerous, can ever starve from continued want, under the present system of vegetable nature. The Great Author may choose, through his atmospherical agencies, to disappoint, by occasional vicissitudes, the expectations of his intelligent creatures, when they are forgetting the primal Cause and Giver of all they are enjoying—but these are only temporary and partial corrections. The principles of vegetable nature never alter-nor has their produce ever in any age universally failed. By commercial or benevolent intercourse, we can therefore always assist each other's needs, when these assumed or permitted interruptions occur in any particular district or country, as we have done more than once to Ireland-and also to Hindostan. Their rice at times has failed in parts in the one, and their potatoes in the other—but the rest of the world were at the same time enjoying their usual plenty. Hence in no case have mankind, at any period, been under the danger of generally perishing for want of sustenance; nor under the universal laws of vegetable nature, as established at the creation, and still continuing, can such a catastrophe at any time occur. A special miracle of annihilating displeasure can alone produce, under our present system of being, a desolation of this nature. Away, then, with all the dread and spectres of human starvation from multiplied population! Let religion improve and guide our social spirit; let wisdom characterize our laws, and integrity conduct their administration; let enlightened policy and sound moral principle superintend, and regulate, and assist the distribution 235...... Another experimenter found that sweet potatoes would form wort, ferment, and make, like malt, good beer, in flavor exactly like ale made from malt...... Another raised on light lands, that grew only 327 bushels of potatoes on the acre, 640 bushels, on the same space, of JERU SALEM ARTICHOKES, which the young calves eat with rapidity, and improved upon; so did horses and sheep, and pigs too, but not till boiled or steamed. Farm. Journ. 1829.. The seeds of GRAPES, pressed and boiled, furnish a liquid very like that of COFFEE, and much used for it in Germany. The seeds of the yellow iris, roasted, are also declared by Dr. Johnston to make excellent coffee...... The seeds of FOREST BROOM are said to have the same quality. Public papers, 1829..... Lately we have heard that the vapor from all baked bread has been collected into an ardent spirit somewhat resembling gin. Thus there seems no end to the valuable matter which vegetables may by art and labor be made to yield for hu

man use.

and individual acquisition and application, of what nature will always sufficiently produce generally for all; let reasonable diligence and care have always the means of obtaining what is fairly needed; and let nations have intercourse with each other as unrestricted as the public welfare will allow; let due recollections of the Great Benefactor of all accompany with these provisions our daily life; and no portion of mankind, by whatever multiples they may increase, will ever find that they are overpassing the productivity of nature, nor will ever be destroyed by its defective supply. Dryden exclaims of himself

"I live a rent-charge upon Providence."

So do we all-we are all at a rent-charge upon our Maker's care-but if we duly feel this truth, and conduct ourselves conformably to the impression, we shall find that it is such a rent-charge as will never be left in arrear, but be always punctually and munificently discharged. Such has been my personal experience, without any native, peculiar, or other advantages, beyond those which are common to us all. Such, I hope, will be yours; and such your verdict, at the same mature age, on that benign administration of earthly affairs, under which we are both living, and by which we are all hourly benefited.(82)

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(82) Since I wrote these letters, I have seen Mons. de Luc's letters to Blumenbach, on the physical history of the earth, with introductory remarks by the editor, the Rev. H. de la Fite. Both parts contain very important illustrations and confirmations of the Mosaic cosmogony; but I will only notice here, M. de Luc's conclusion from his reasonings, as to the agency of light commencing with the beginning of creation, which a former letter pointed out to your attention. Nothing of all that we see on the globe could begin to be operated, without the union of a certain quantity of LIGHT to all the other elements of which it was composed; elements which, without it, would have exercised no chemical action on each other. Accordingly, all the known_geological phenomena date their origin from the time of this union." De Luc's Lett. p. 79, Lond. 1831. This is a principle deserving the most scientific consideration and investigation. It will probably become more obvious as our chemical knowledge enlarges. He also adds the important truth, which presents such a verification of the Mosaic account: "The light first introduced into the mass of the earth, did not proceed from any luminous body like the sun." p. 86. This grand physical truth could not have originated 4,000 years ago from any human mind. It is in opposition to all ordinary sensation.

LETTER V.

INFERENCES FROM THE PRECEDING FACTS-NO SPONTANEOUS PRODUCTION OF PLANTS-THEIR REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM.

My object in the preceding LETTER has been, as it will be in the continuation of the subject in this, to select and notice those phenomena of the vegetable kingdom which will give you a just and enlarged- idea of the principles on which it has been formed, and of the peculiar nature which has been purposely assigned to it. It is necessary that we should have right notions of the system on which our earth has been framed, and of the plan and purposes of all its departments, in order to perceive what the Divine Mind has intended by our terrestrial creation, and thereby to judge more soundly on the great component whole. This knowledge will assist us to appreciate his ends and operations in the course of nature which he has established, and in the direction and application of his providential economy to ourselves, as well as to our inferior fellow-creatures. The more fully we know and the more justly we think on the vegetable and animal kingdoms, we shall be the better prepared to comprehend the principles and the history of his dealings with the human race. This world is manifestly not our world only. We are linked in it with innumerable fellow beings, of very varying kinds and qualities. They are co-tenants with us in our common earth. We cannot live in it without their association and services. Relations therefore subsist unceasingly between us, which cannot be destroyed without destruction to ourselves; and from this view of the real state of things, it is an object of great intellectual interest and importance to become acquainted with the most material phenomena of these classes of animated nature, however dissimilar and subordinate

they seem to be to our more gifted order. Do not therefore think me tedious if I particularize a few more facts on this curious subject, with such reflections as have arisen on a mature consideration of them.

From all the circumstances thus far enumerated, we may infer

That the vegetable classes have been created upon a system of progressive improvability-and also of an indefinite productiveness, which can be increased to the utmost extent of any probable human demands upon it.

That the application of human skill, care, and diligence, to educe these beneficial results, has been made the condition of their appearing; but that these valuable qualities will never be exerted in vain on this interesting order of beings.

That human welfare and comfort have been a principal object of the Creator in designing and producing his vegetable world, though it has been also made subservient to animal subsistence; and that these are peculiarly connected with the cultivation of it. Animal food leads to the animal habits of hunting and pasturage; both of which, though pleasing as occasional employments, yet when made the character and chief pursuits of a tribe or nation, tend to animalize our nature and arrest our social progress. Ancient Scythia, and the modern Tartars and Arabs and North American Indians, are commentaries on this principle. Agriculture and gardening, and their consequential occupations, accustom the human mind to the quiet, patient, contented, domestic, social, and civilized habits, on which human happiness and improvement mainly depend.

The vegetable kingdom, in its varied flowers, foliage, stems, and graceful and delicate expansions; in its playful branches and gentle movements, and in its multiplied fruits and useful products of numerous sorts and of universal application, display a peculiar goodness, liberality, and kindness in the Divine Mind towards his human race- -a desire to please, to interest, and to amuse us with the most innocent, continual, accessible, and gratifying enjoyments. For, plants peculiarly address themselves to three of our most used senses—the taste, the smell, and the sight; while the