the harbor, in the latter part of the previous year, had been destroyed in a most gallant manner by Decatur and his intrepid band, whose names, had they lived in the glorious days of Sparta, would have been traced upon the portals of the temple of fame, and whose statues would have been raised beside the heroes of Thermopyla, in the brazen temple of Mars. The fame of Morris, whose foot first trod the crowded deck of the Philadelphia, and of many others who acquired the title of heroes in that war, may well be cherished by every true-hearted American; but alas! "the days of chivalry are over," the brave men, now high in rank, who bearded the Turk in his den and set the captive free, who beat about the shores of cruelty and bloody despotism, and spilled their own blood like water, in the defence of the honor of their native country, are begrudged the miserable pensions at last allowed them by the talking Solons of the land.

Even the old Constitution herself is considered by many of the present day to be unfashionable; and the good old arrangements of former days are made to give way to hurricane houses, water sails, heavy masts, forecastle guns, raised decks, and spritsail yards; her white streak runs in a bow, and isingglass windows mark her quarter galleries, through which those only can see whose gimbleteyed vision would penetrate a millstone.

The destruction of the Philadelphia amid the gloom of night had taught the Tripolitans to fear the navy of the young republic. The yell of the drowning Mussulmen-the thunder of the Philadelphia's cannon as they were exploded by the wreathing flames-the crackling of the old hull as it belched forth its gathered torrents of fire and smoke, and the hell-like explosion as the magazine ignited and sent the countless masses of that unfortunate wreck high amid the murky heavens, still rang upon their ears, and filled their breasts with terror.

Tripoli, however, was a city well walled, protected by batteries judiciously constructed, mounting one hundred and fifteen pieces of heavy cannon, and defended by twenty-five thousand Arabs and Turks. The harbor was protected by nineteen gun-boats, two galleys, two schooners of eight guns, and a brig mounting ten guns, which were ranged in order of battle, at secure moorings, inside of a long range of rocks and shoals, extending more than two miles to the eastward of the town. These shoals protected the enemy from the northern gales, and rendered it impossible for a frigate to approach near enough to destroy them. Each gun-boat mounted a heavy eighteen, or twenty-six pounder in the bow, and two brass howitzers on the quarters, and carried from thirty-six to fifty men. The galleys had each one hundred men, and the schooners and brigs were manned by the same number.

The weather continued unfavorable until the 28th, when the fleet stood in; but just as the Constitution anchored, a sudden change made it necessary for them to retire, and swiftly they dashed along that rocky shore before the breath of a terrific gale. This gale continued until the 31st, when it blew away the Constitution's foresail and close-reefed maintopsail, and had the sea risen in proportion to the wind, the gunboats and bombs would have been carried down to the charnel house of the mariner.

On the 3d of August, at noon, the commodore, having formed his plan of attack, made signal for the different commanders to come within hail. After communicating his orders to them, he wore ship, and stood in for the batteries. At half-past two, he made the general signal for battle. In an instant, the enemy's shipping and batteries opened a tremendous fire, which was promptly returned within grape shot distance. Several times the Constitution was within two cables' length of the rocks, and within three of their batteries. Every battery was silenced so long as the frigate's broadside bore upon them, but as often as she passed by, they were reanimated, and a constant heavy fire kept up upon her. At this time, in sheering and tacking, the gallant commodore felt most sensibly the want of another frigate.

At half past four, the wind inclining to the northward, signal was made to retire from the batteries, which was done under cover of the Constitution's heavy cannon. For two hours this noble frigate stood the close fire of the batteries, and the only damages received by her were a wound from a twenty-four pound shot in her mainmast, thirty feet from the deck, the loss of her mainroyal sail and yard, which were shot away, and the dismounting of a quarter-deck gun by a thirty-two pound shot, which at the same time shattered a marine's arm.

Thus came out, under the protecting wing of our favorite, the gallant squadron, at the hour of sunset, from before Tripoli, and, in the words of the brave commander, we must impute their getting off so well to their having kept so near the batteries of the enemy, and to their having annoyed them so excessively with their grape shot.

On the 5th August, the squadron was at anchor about two leagues north from the city of Tripoli, while the Argus was in chase of a small vessel to the westward, which she soon came up with, and brought within hail. She proved to be a French privateer, of four guns, which put into Tripoli a few days previous for water, and had left it that morning. Commodore Preble prevailed upon the captain, for a con-sid-cr-a-tion, to return to Tripoli, for the purpose of landing fourteen very badly wounded Tripolitans, whom he put on board his vessel, with a letter to the prime minister, leaving. it at the option of the bashaw to reciprocate so generous a mode of conducting the war. On the 7th of August, the Frenchman returned to the Constitution, and brought commodore Preble a letter from the French consul, in which he observed that the attack of the 3d instant had disposed the

VOL. V.NO. II.

bashaw to accept of reasonable terms, and invited him to send a boat to the rocks with a flag of truce, which the commodore declined, as the white flag was not hoisted at the bashaw's castle.

At 9, A. M., with a very light breeze from the eastward, and a strong current, which obliged the Constitution to remain at anchor, the commodore made the signal for the light vessels to weigh, and the gun and bomb-boats to cast off and stand in shore, towards the western batteries, the prize boats having been completely fitted for service, and the command of them given to lieutenants Crane, of the Vixen, Thorn, of the Enterprize, and Caldwell, of the Syren. The whole advanced with sails and oars.

At half past one, with a breeze from north north-east. Old Ironsides (for she received her sobriquet in this bombardment) weighed and stood in for the town, but the wind being on shore, made it imprudent to engage the batteries with the ship, as, in case of a mast being shot away, the loss of the vessel would probably ensue, unless a change of wind should favor her retreat.

On the 28th, the Constitution approached the harbor. Fort English, the bashaw's castle, and the Crown and Mole batteries, kept up a heavy fire upon her as she advanced. At half-past five, she was within two cables' lengths of the rocks, and commenced a heavy fire of round and grape on thirteen of the enemy's gunboats and galleys, which were in pretty close action with the gunboats of the squadron. She sank one of the enemy's gunboats; at the same time, two more, that had been disabled, ran on shore to avoid sinking; the remainder immediately retreated.

The old ship still continued running in until within musket shot of the Crown and Mole batteries, when she brought to, and fired upwards of three hundred round shot, besides grape and cannister, into the town, the bashaw's castle and batteries, silencing the castle and two of the batteries for some time. In all this unprecedented exposure to the deadly aim of a land battery, the frigate was only injured in her sails and rigging-her hull being but slightly peppered with grape shot.

On the 3d, the Constitution, to draw off the enemy's attention from the gunboats, ran within them. She brought to within reach of grape, and fired eleven broadsides into the bashaw's castle, town and batteries, in a situation where more than seventy guns could bear upon her.

She did not get out scatheless from this fight; her maintopsail was totally disabled by a shell from the batteries which cut away the leach rope, and several cloths of the sail. Another shell went through the foretopsail, and one through the jib. All her sails were considerably cut and her running rigging very much injured, but still no shot was received in the hull.

Thus ended the Constitution's services before Tripoli for the season; and, if ever a vessel earned a name, she earned the one which we have used in our title-page.

“During this attack, a thirty-two pound ball from the Constitution passed through the wall in the apartment of the prison where captain Bainbridge was sleeping, struck against the opposite wall, rebounded, and in its fall took part of the bed-clothes from him, and passed within a few inches of his body. In its passage through the first wall it knocked out a cart-load of stone and mortar, under which captain Bainbridge was buried until the officers relieved him. He was considerably bruised by the rubbish, and received a cut in the right ankle which occasioned a lameness for months."* What must have been the feelings of Bainbridge, Porter, Jones, etc., as they lay within their gloomy prison-house and heard the thunder of their country's cannon dying amid the fastnesses of Barbary, and felt the rubbish rattling upon their heads, as the iron messengers of vengeance came sweeping through the massive walls with the swiftness of the lightning's flash!

This series of bombardments caused the haughty bashaw to come to terms, and the next year a treaty was signed on board the frigate-the first instance where a peace was concluded with any of the Barbary states on board a ship of war.

In giving an account of the Constitution's warfare with the Tripolitans, I have followed commodore Preble's letter to the Secretary of the Navy, and avoided, as much as possible, the manoeuvres and actions of other vessels and other crews. My subject is simply the life of one gallant shipand those who wish for more may look for it in Goldsborough's Naval Chronicle.

Naval Chronicle.

AN OPINION ON DREAMS.

VARIOUS Opinions have been hazarded concerning dreams-whether they have any connection with the invisible and eternal world or not; and, it appears to me, the reason why nothing like a definite conclusion has yet been arrived at, is from the circumstance of the arguers never making any distinction between Mind and Soul; always speaking of them as one and the same. I believe man to be in himself a Trinity, viz. Mind, Body, and Soul; and thus with dreams, some induced by the mind, and some by the soul. Those connected with the mind, I think proceed partly from supernatural, and partly from natural causes; those of the soul I believe are of the immaterial world alone. In order to support this position, it becomes necessary to show how the soul's dream and that of the mind are distinguishable; and whether sometimes, or indeed often, they are not both at the same mement bearing their part in the nocturnal vision.

That dreams, or, as they were then generally called, visions, were a means of supernatural instruction, if we believe the bible at all, is proved by Jacob's dream, the several visions of Ezekiel and other prophets, as also of later date, the Revelations to Saint John; and there appears no reason why this mode of divine communication should be discontinued in the present day

We thus come to the difference between dreams of the mind and visions of the soul-making this distinction of terms, not only on account of convenience, but also, as I consider, of applicability. Upon retiring to rest after a fatiguing day of either corporeal or mental exertion, should a dream present itself either as recapitulatory of, or connected with, the past events, this I should say was produced by the immaterial mind, which, unlike the body, was still in a state of vigor and activity; and reflecting or re-enacting at night the scenes which had occupied its attention and energies during the day. But when slumbering, should a vision be induced either concerning Heaven or Hell, or any mystical and apparently prophetical forewarning of a coming event, and in connection with which the awakened visionist can trace no analogy to his thoughts or actions, this, I say, must proceed from the soul; as the mind cannot have any thing to do with that it has not been engaged upon, as we all know that the mind only expands, and is active in proportion to its various degrees of employment. Not so the soul; that of the infant is as ripe as the man's; it is as immortal and as ready for Heaven; and I have known children have nightly visions which were as evidently superior to the general tenor of their youthful ideas as possible, and which, had they not for the time being appeared to have had their mental powers raised above their usual level, they would have been totally unable to narrate.

It is a question, in my humble opinion, whether the soul ever slumbers at all; whilst the mind evidently does, or else we could always give upon waking some relation of our thought's employment during sleep. Besides which, it not unfrequently happens that when broad awake, a temporary absence of mind as it is called, takes place, and the person so affected cannot with all his endeavors discover upon what his meditations have been employed, or whether they have been so at all. Thus three portions of the one man seem to be most essentially different, in this way; that the body often sleeps, the mind occasionally, the soul never; and now I am expected to explain how, if the soul never sleeps, we have not always some vision to employ our waking consideration. I imagine that here in order to remember the vision of our soul, it is necessary for the connecting link between it and the body, viz. the mind, to be in full activity, although possessing its powers of memory from the eternal nature of its superior, and companion, the soul; thus rendering it no difficulty to the mind to retain the reminiscence of its own dream, as the soul never sleeps; which assertion may receive additional confirmation from the following argument; that were it only for one single moment to be unconscious of its existence, this would at once break in upon its eternal principle, as being a suspension of its own powers, and which cannot happen to eternity. It is the slumber of the mind and not the soul, therefore, which causes forgetfulness.

A CHAPTER

ON

FIELD SPORTS AND MANLY PASTIMES.

BY AN EXPERIENCED PRACTITIONER.

ARCHERY.

SOME WORDS CONCERNING ITS ANTIQUITY—AN ACCOUNT OF ITS IMPORTANCE, AND HIGH ESTIMATION AMONG OUR BRITISH PROGENITORS-ITS MODERN REGULATIONS AS A PASTIME—ITS VARIOUS IMPLEMENTS, AND THEIR USE.

In our own country, the practice of archery as a pastime has met with a very trivial encouragement. We are, beyond doubt, too much a nation of matter-of-fact to indulge very largely in amusements of any kind; and archery, and most other of the manly pastimes (with perhaps the single exception of the race) have succumbed beneath the saturnine dominion of the genius of dollars and cents. Better times, however, may supervene, and for our own parts we shall welcome them with a hearty good will. We proceed to give, briefly, some general regulations touching the practice of modern archery-with a description of the implements and the method of their use, as well as the precautions to be used in their selection.

THE BOW.

The chief of them are

The woods of which bows are now generally made are very numerous. rose-wood, lance-wood, and yew, the last being by far the best of the three, but from the difficulty of obtaining a bough of sufficient size, and possessing the necessary qualities, yew bows are by far the most expensive.

Several foreign woods, used for the purposes of dyeing and cabinet-making are very suitable for bows, such as fustic, rose-wood, etc.; that of the cocoa tree answers very well for making strong bows. Formerly bows were made of both steel and iron, as well as of the horns of animals so fastened together as to secure their curved form and their elasticity. The woods above noticed have now altogether superseded these plans, the last of which was chiefly adopted among the Persians and Turks.

The best bows are made of two pieces, the flat and outward part, which is called the back, and the round and inward part, termed the belly. When these bows are manufactured they are put into a reflex frame in order to make them turn a little backward, a form which gives them a greater velocity in shooting. This circumstance has frequently occasioned some very unpleasant mistakes, for the strength of the round piece, which is the very means of giving the bow its power, naturally compels the flat piece to fall back, and thus bows have been strung the wrong way, and consequently been injured; for, when so bent, the slightest stress will break them. When being strung the bow should always be bent with the flat part outwards. Old Roger Ascham's advice upon the choice of a bow is not bad. He says, "If you come into a shoppe, and find a bowe that is small, longe, heavye, and strong, lying streighte, not windinge, not marred with knotte, gaule, winde shake, wem, freat, or pinch, bye that bowe of my warrante. The best color of a bowe that I finde, is when the back and the belleye in workinge be much after one maner, for such often times in wearing do prove like virgin wax or golde, having fine longe graine, even from one end of the bowe to the other. The short graine, although such prove well sometimes, are for the most part very brittle." Such was old Roger's advice, and the counsel holds good to the present day.

It is especially necessary that the bow be well seasoned. Among the foreign woods the Ruby, as it is called, is considered by far the best. It is found in the East, difficult to be obtained, and highly prized by the bow makers. The tulip wood, cocoa-wood, thern acacia, the purple wood, and the rosewood, when backed with fine white hickory, or horn-beam, make excellent bows. Next to yew, lancewood is the best, and perhaps more elegant. Foreign yew, however, incontestably forms by far the best bow, especially when backed by hickory.

Nor is the form of the bow of much less consequence. Its curve, when the arrow is pulled to the head, ought to be a perfect semicircle. This has of necessity been much the same among all nations, and in all ages. The Persian bow is short, being scarcely longer than the arm of a man, and is frequently made of the horns of the antelope. The Chinese-Tartarian bows vary from three to five feet in length when bent; the largest possess prodigious power, and are said to be capable of casting an arrow full five hundred yards, and will allow arrows of thirty-three or thirty-four inches in length to be drawn quite up to the head.

The length of the bow should be for a gentleman five feet eight to five feet ten inches, but six feet is even better than either of these two sizes-a lady's bow should be from five feet, to five feet six inches; the former varying from forty-five pounds to seventy pounds, and upwards, and the latter seldom exceeding thirty-four pounds. Every bow has a mark upon it to indicate the weight requisite to draw it home to the head; and if it be recollected that just twice as much power is required as is marked on the bow, every one may easily ascertain his own strength.

PROVING THE BOW.

Having selected your bow, the next object is to ascertain that your judgment of it is correct. This is done by what is termed proving. Every bow, as we have stated, is of some particular strength; what that is, is learned by attaching weights to the string, when the bow is strung, until the bow is brought to such a curve as would draw the arrow to its head. Having done this, shoot for a little time with arrows in it twice the weight of those usually required, and then observe if it gives at all, and if it does, have that part strengthened, or change the bow.

THE STRING.

This is a very material part of the bowman's apparatus, as the safety of the bow in great part depends on its firmness. The concussion which the fracture of the string causes in the bow never fails either at the moment to shatter it in pieces, or to raise splinters, which, becoming deeper as the bow is used, speedily destroy the instrument.

The strings used by the ancients seem to have been made of thongs of leather, cut chiefly from the fresh hides of bulls and other animals, as also from the intestines. Many strings now used are made of the latter, and are composed of numerous small cords extending the whole length, and bound here and there with silk to keep them together, and these have been found by practical archers to possess more strength than a single string of the same external dimensions.

The material, however, of which the string is now usually made in England is hemp; and the Italian species is best for the purpose. Catgut is considered too much under the influence of heat and moisture to retain at all times a proper tension; while the former has not this disadvantageous quality in so great a degree.

Care should be taken in selecting strings, to observe that the substance of the string diminishes gradually from the thick part to the ordinary line, and that there are no knobs or unevenness in that part used for shooting. The choice of the string will depend upon the strength of the bow. A thick string will shoot with most certainty, but a thin string will cast farther. The choice, however, is a matter of indifference, provided the string selected be not decidedly too thin for the strength of the bow, particularly if the bow be a backed one, and much reflexed, for many a good bow has been broken in consequence of the sudden jerk occasioned by the breaking of the string.

The string should always be whipped with silk or fine twine at the nocking point, and also about the breadth of three fingers both above and below that point. The whipping as well as the string should be well waxed with bees'-wax; and that will not only secure the string from being fretted but will tend to fill the nock of the arrow, which ought always to sit rather tightly on the string. It would be also advisable to whip the eye, and if after trial the string be found worthy, it would be all the better for doing so, but attention to this particular is not so necessary as at the nocking point, where there is more wear. But to the noose it is a matter of far greater importance, for that is much more likely to fret than the eye. As soon as the silk or twine wears off, the string should be rewhipped.

STRINGING.

The next thing is to acquire a proper mode of bending the bow, for otherwise in the very first attempt it will probably be strained if not broken. We should again observe that the round part of the bow it is which should be bent inwards; that is called the belly of the bow; the flat part, or back,