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to its healthy movements. When this natural thirst occurs, no drink tastes so good, and in truth none is so good as water; none possesses adaptations so exact to the vital necessities of the organs. So long as a fresh supply of liquid is not needed, so long there is not the least relish for water; it offers no temptation, while its addition to the circulating fluids would be useless, or hurtful.

It is a striking remark of the celebrated Hoffman, that "if there be in nature a universal remedy, that remedy is water."

Under a more perfect acquaintance with the functions of life, and with the influences exerted upon it by remedial agents, may it not be hoped that the period will arrive when not only ardent spirit, but all intoxicating liquors, will be regarded as not absolutely necessary in the practice of physic or surgery? It may, perhaps, be worth remarking, that throughout the wide-spread kingdoms of animal and vegetable nature, not a particle of alcohol in any form or combination whatever has been found as the effect of a single living process, but that it arises only out of the decay, the dissolution, and the wreck of organized matter, or of its ever-varied and wonderful productions; and is it probable that the beneficent author of such a countless multitude of medicinal agents as exist in the products of vital action, would have left, to be generated among the results of destructive chemistry, an article essential to the successful treatment even of a single disease?

The profession of medicine has an extensive scope. It looks into the structure of animal machinery, it investigates the laws of its vital movements, both in health and disease, and contemplates a variety of influences, by which its complicated processes are accelerated, retarded, suspended, or destroyed. It learns, that to the functions of life belongs a standard rate of action, beyond which they cannot be safely. excited or driven; that alcoholic and narcotic stimulants derange and confuse the healthy movements, exhaust the vital power more than nature intended, and induce prema

ture decay, and dissolution. This profession claims the strictest alliance with the cause of humanity; it cherishes good-will, and proffers substantial blessings to men. It extends its hand not only to the exhausted, bed-ridden patient, and to the tottering and dejected invalid, but even to the healthy man, to save him from the pain and suffering which ignorance, or custom, or recklessness might bring upon him.

Let physicians, then, be true to their profession. Let them study the duties they owe to the communities with whom they live and labor. Let them teach the means of preserving health, as well as of combating disease; let them show, as it is in their power to do, that the taking of medicine in health in order to prevent disease is most absurd and mischievous; that the surest guaranty of health is a correct regimen, and that the best treatment of acute disease is often very simple.

Let them explain as far as practicable to those around them, the mechanism of their physical organization, and when it can be done, "knife in hand," the work will be easy. Let them expound, so far as known, the beautiful and harmonious laws enstamped upon this organization, by which its complicated movements and diversified phenomena are sustained; laws as immutable in their nature, and inflexible in their operation, as those that hold the planetary system together; and like them originating in the same incomprehensible and mighty mind, which, acting in the strength of its own philanthropy and unchangeableness, gave to man a moral code from amidst the smoke and and thunders of Sinai. No law coming from this high source can be violated with impunity; and he who infringes a law of the vital economy, receives, in an injury done to the machinery of life, the penalty of his transgression with no less certainty than he who leaps from a tower, heedless of gravitation. With all its given power of accommodation to circumstances, no possible training or education of this machinery can change the nature of its

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primitive adaptations, and make an article congenial and healthful, which was originally repulsive and noxious. No human ingenuity or perseverance can render impure air as wholesome as that which is pure, or any form of intoxicating liquor as healthful as water.

So long as alcohol retains a place among sick patients, so long there will be drunkards; and who would undertake to estimate the amount of responsibility assumed by that physician who prescribes to the enfeebled, dyspeptic patient the daily internal use of spirit, while at the same time he knows that this simple prescription may ultimately ruin his health, make him a vagabond, shorten his life, and cut him off from the hope of heaven? Time was when it was used only as a medicine, and who will dare to offer a guaranty that it shall not again overspread the world with disease and death?

Ardent spirit already under sentence of public condemnation, and with the prospect of undergoing an entire exclusion from the social circle, and the domestic fireside - still lingers in the sick chamber, the companion and pretended friend of its suffering inmates. It rests with medical men to say how long this unalterable, unrelenting foe of the human race shall remain secure in this sacred, but usurped retreat. They have the power, and theirs is the duty to perform the mighty exorcism. Let the united effort soon be made, and the fiend be thrust forth from this strong but unnatural alliance and companionship with men, and cast into that "outer darkness" which lies beyond the precincts of human suffering and human enjoyment.

AWAY! away!- our fires stream bright
Along the frozen river,

And their arrowy sparkles of brilliant light
On the forest branches quiver.
Away, away, for the stars are forth,

And on the pure snows of the valley,
In a giddy trance the moonbeams dance;
Come let us our comrades rally.

Away, away, o'er the sheeted ice,
Away, away, we go;

On our steel-bound feet we move as fleet
As deer o'er the Lapland snow.

What though the sharp north winds are out,

The skater heeds them not;

Midst the laugh and shout of the joyous rout
Gray winter is forgot.

'Tis a pleasant sight, the joyous throng
In the light of the reddening flame,

While with many a wheel on the ringing steel
They wage their riotous game:

And though the night-air cutteth keen,

And the white moon shineth coldly,

Their homes, I ween, on the hills have been;

They should breast the strong blast boldly.

Let others choose more gentle sports,

By the side of the winter's hearth,

Or at the ball or the festival,

Seek for their share of mirth;

But as for me, away, away,

Where the merry skaters be;

Where the fresh wind blows and the smooth ice glows, There is the place for me.

THE ABORIGINES OF NEW ENGLAND.

BY JEREMY BELKNAP, D. D.

WHILST the British nation had been distracted with internal convulsions, and had endured the horrors of a civil war, produced by the same causes which forced the planters of New England to quit the land of their nativity; this wilderness had been to them a quiet habitation. They had struggled with many hardships; but Providence had smiled upon their undertaking; their settlements were extended and their churches multiplied. There had been no remarkable quarrel with the savages, except the short war with the Pequods, who dwelt in the south-east part of Connecticut. They being totally subdued in 1637, the dread and terror of the English kept the other nations quiet for near forty years. During this time, the New-England colonies being confederated for their mutual defence, and for maintaining the public peace, took great pains to propagate the gospel among the natives, and bring them to a civilized way of living, which, with respect to some, proved effectual; others refused to receive the missionaries, and remained obstinately prejudiced against the English. Yet the object of their hatred was at the same time the object of their fear; which led them to forbear acts of hostility, and to preserve an outward show of friendship, to their mutual interest.

Our historians have generally represented the Indians in a most odious light, especially when recounting the effects of their ferocity. Dogs, caitiffs, miscreants and hell-hounds, are the politest names which have been given them by some writers, who seem to be in a passion at the mention of their cruelties, and at other times speak of them with contempt.