was a continuous Arctic Sea, or anything like an Antarctic Continent.

But if so much has been done in the more difficult and inaccessible parts of our globe, how much more has been achieved in the parts accessible to settlement and cultivation. The American continent, the interior map of which was almost a blank at the close of the Revolution, is now profusely dotted with towns, cities, forts, post-office and rail stations, until the most diligent compiler of a Gazetteer is obliged to pause in despair at the manifest defects of his latest edition.

our acquaintance its hundred thousand specific forms, and these are but the vanguard of a still greater multitude believed to cover the surface of countries yet unexplored, and to fill the mysterious recesses not yet penetrated by the microscope. And so far as we know, every one of these organisms, great or small, carries with it its parasites, to which it affords habitation and food, and which may be supposed not only to double but to multiply in an unknown ratio its original numbers. Again, when we reflect that every one of these species has its own anatomy, its physiology, its peculiar chemGeology may be considered as almost a erea-istry, its habits, its sensations, its modes of retion of the present age. When Werner visited production, its nutrition, its duration, its metaParis, in 1802, it could hardly be said to con- morphoses, its diseases and its final mode of sist of more than insulated observations with a destruction, we may well despair of knowing few crude and unsettled theories. But now it much of the whole, when a single species has become a great, organized, and overshadow- might furnish materials of study for a human ing department of science. In every language lifetime. of Europe it has its voluminous systems and its unfailing periodicals. Societies of special organization carry forward its labors, and every country of the globe is traversed by its observers and collectors. The shelves of museums are weighed down by its accumulations, and in its palæontology alone the Greek lan-study them. The relations of number and figguage is exhausted to furnish factitious names for the continually developed species of antecedent creations.

Chemistry in a limited degree appears to have attracted the attention of the ancients, but of their proficiency in this pursuit we know more from their preserved relics and results than from their contemporaneous records. In modern times the chemists constitute a philosophical community, having a language of their own, a history of their own, methods, pursuits and controversies of their own, and a domain which is co-extensive with the materials of which our globe is made. Many men of gifted minds and high intellectual attainments have devoted their lives to the prosecution of this science. Chemistry has unravelled the early mysteries of our planet, and has had a leading agency in changing the arts and the economy of human life. It now fills the civilized world with its libraries, laboratories and lecture-rooms. No individual can expect to study even its accessible books, still less to become familiar with its recorded facts. Yet chemistry is probably in its infancy, and opens one of the largest future fields for scientific cultivation.

Natural history, in its common acceptation, implies the investigation, arrangement and description of all natural bodies, including the whole organized creation. If no other science existed but this, there would be labor enough and more than enough to employ for life the students and observers of the world. Each kingdom of organic nature already offers to

The foregoing are examples of the claim on our attention and study, advanced by a portion only of the progressive sciences. They serve to develop truths and laws appertaining to the material earth, which truths and laws must have existed had there never been minds to

ure, the laws of motion and rest, of gravity and affinity, of animal and vegetable life, must have been the same had the dominant race of man never appeared on earth. But there is another extensive class of scientific pursuits, the subjects of which are drawn from his own nature. He has devised metaphysics to illustrate the operations of his own mind. He has introduced ethical and political science to promote order and happiness, and military science to assist for a time at least in destroying both. He has built up history with "her volumes vast," which volumes are as yet a small thing compared with those that are to come. Under the name of news, the press daily inundates the world with a million sheets of contemporaneous history, for history and news, under small qualifications, are identical. The annals of the last four years may deserve as large a place in the attention of mankind as was due when the poet informed the Egyptian mummy that since his decease, "a Roman empire had begun and ended." The greatest part of what should have been history is unwritten, and of what has been written, the greatest part is of little general value. If all that has actually been committed to papyrus, parchment or paper had by chance been preserved from the effects of time and barbarism, the aggregate would be so vast and the interest so little, that the busy world could hardly turn aside for its examination from more absorbing and necessary pursuits.

But the world is not contented with history which states, or professes to state, the progress,

arts, dates, successes and failures of distin- Jaccumulation, a terra incognita, which from its
guished men and nations. It requires further, very magnitude is inaccessible to the inquiring
the supplementary aid of fiction, which finds world. Hence the economy of the age has in-
facts, not in testimony, but in probability; not troduced the labor-saving machinery of period-
as they are recorded to have happened, but as ical literature, which, by substituting compen-
they ought to have happened under the cir-diums and reviews for the more bulky origi-
cumstances and with the actors. Fiction, nals, has seemed to smooth the up-hill track of
moreover, not being restrained by the limits of knowledge, and lighten the Sisyphean load of
circumstantial truth, is at liberty to seek em- its travellers. But periodical literature, useful
bellishment from exaggeration, from ornament, or frivolous as it may be, and indispensable as
from poetry, from dramatic utterance and pas- it undoubtedly is, has become by its very suc-
sionate expression. Hence it has taken the cess inflated to an enormous growth, and bids
lead in modern literature, and it is not proba- fair in its turn to transcend the overtaxed pow-
ble that at this day the most accomplished bib-ers of attention of those for whose use it is
liographer or bookseller could point the way to
one-half of its multiplied and perishable pro-
ductions.

There is neither time nor inducement to re-
fer to the pseudo-sciences, which in all ages
have made serious drafts upon the limited life-
time of man, nor to the ephemeral and unprof-
itable issues which consume his time and labor,
and wear out his strength. At the present
day we have not much to fear from alchemy,
palmistry or astrology, nor yet from spiritual
ism, homoeopathy or mormonism. But it is not
easy to prevent men from wasting their time in
the pursuit of shadows, from substituting ex-
ceptions for general laws, from believing things,
not because they are probable, but because they
are wonderful and entertaining. Still less can
we divert them from yielding to the guidance
of an excited will, from following prejudices or
creating them, from adopting one side of a
controversy or party strife for no better reason
than that some other party has adopted the
opposite.

It

It would be unnecessary to add to what has
already been said, even an inventory of other
studies, which present seducing but intermina
ble claims on the life and labor of man.
would be vain to open the flood gates of philol-
ogy, and to follow the thousand rills of lan-
guage which have intersected and troubled
each other ever since they left their fountains
at Babel. And we pause in humility before
the very portals of astronomy, which has re-
vealed to us that we roll and revolve, and per-
haps again revolve, around we know not what.
And helpless as animalcules on the surface of a
floating globule, we are ever striving to see, to ex-
plore, and to mark our way through the "starry
dust" of infinite space. Strong and devoted
minds have piled up unreadable tomes, the re-
sult of their life-long studies and observations,
yet few, save the professional and the initiated,
attempt to invade the recondite sanctuary of
their deposit.

Thus, the immense amount of knowledge,
general and special, true and fictitious, salutary
and detrimental, the record of which is already
in existence, has grown into an insurmountable

prepared. Like our street cars, while it helps
forward to their destination a multitude of
struggling pedestrians, it substitutes pressure
for exercise, and does not save the fatigue of
those who are still obliged to stand that they
may go. In looking forward to another cen-
tury, it is curious to consider who will then re-
view the reviews, and condense, redact and di-
gest the compends of compendiums from which
the life has already been pressed out by previ-
ous condensation.

Since these things are so, since in the dy-
ing words of Laplace, "The known is little,
but the unknown is immense," and

"Since life can little more supply

Than just to look about us and to die,"
it is a question of paramount importance, how
in this short period education can be made to
conduce most to the progress, the efficiency,
the virtue, and the welfare of man.

The transfer of the counties of Berkley and
Jefferson from Virginia to West Virginia was agreed
to by both branches of Congress. The following
were among the subjects that engaged their atten
tion the past week.

SENATE.-A message was received from the Presi-

dent, transmitting copies of his correspondence with
the provisional governors, and other important pa-
pers in relation to reconstruction, which was re-
ferred to the committee on that subject. A resolu-
tion empowering the Secretaries of War and the
Navy to establish sanitary cordons, to prevent the
introduction and spread of cholera, was referred to
the Committee on Commerce; one was adopted in-
structing the Committee on Foreign Affairs to re-
port a bill for the appointment of a commission of

two medical officers-one from the army and one
from civil life-to examine the subject of cholera |
preventives, and to attend the cholera congress in
Europe. A petition to grant the widow of our late
President the amount of salary for the whole term
for which he was elected was reported from the Com-
mittee on Finance. The joint resolution to amend
the Constitution on the subject of representatives
was several times under discussion.

BJournal of John Comly, (600 pages)...
OOKS FOR SALE:-Journal of Hugh Judge, price.....

70
$2.00

5.00

Friends' Miscellany, (originally 12 vols.,) 4th vol. out of print, 8.00
History of Delaware County, Penna., containing interesting
accounts of early Friends, with engravings: 580 pages... 8.00
The Works of Isaac Pennington, 4 vols., making 2100 pp,
Conversations, Discussions, and Anecdotes, by Thomas Story 1.00
The New Testament, Marot's edition, fine clear type. 1.00
Comly's Reader,....50 cents. Central School Reader....
Memoir of Priscilla Cadwallader, 50. Bellangee's Journal,
Janney s Life of Fox, $1.25.
Do. Penn, $1.25 and $2.00
...... 1.15

66 History of Friends, vol. 1st,
Education in the Society of Friends...

Foulke's Friends' Almanacs for 1866..
610

EMMOR COMLY,

131 N. Seventh St.

75
75

60
10

WM. HEACOCK, General Furnishing Undertaker, No. 18 North
and every requisite for Funerals furnished.
Ninth Street. A general assortment of ready-made Coffins,

Being entrusted with the oversight of "Fair Hill" Burial
Ground,-Funerals, and all other business connected with the
311. ly. wasmp.
ground, will be promptly attended to.

HOUSE.-A letter was received from the Governor
of North Carolina, accepting lands donated by the
EMMOR COMLY, No. 131 North 7th St., Phila.
United States Congress in 1862, for founding agri-
cultural colleges, but it was refused on the ground Winstruct in the usual English branches, having several
situation, by a Female Teacher, qualified to
that they did not recognize the Government of North years' experience. Friends' School preferred. Good recommend-
Carolina. A partial report was made from the Com-ations if required. Address or apply to
310xt pmfn510.
mittee on Reconstruction, relating to Arkansas, Mis-
sissippi, Alabama and Georgia. A bill to amend
and continue in force the freedmen's bureau law,
was introduced and referred. A bill for the trans-
fer of the Smithsonian library was referred to the
Committee on the Library. The Senate bill to pro-
tect all persons in their civil rights, &c., after much NEW ARTICLES- The Graduated Measure and Funnel com
debate, was recommitted to the Judiciary Committee. Machines, the Clutch Brace, which does not require the bitts to
bined, Russ' Scissor Sharpeners, Spring Scissors for Sewing
INDIAN AFFAIRS.-An important treaty between be fitted or notched, the Vegetable Slicer, for beets, cucumbers,
the Creek Nation and the United States was signed &c. For sale at the Hardware Store of
TRUMAN & SHAW,
on the 3d inst., at the office of Indian Affairs. The 310tf. No. 835 (Eight Thirty Five) Market St., below Ninth.
Creeks, among other stipulations, cede the west half
of their large domain, admit their emancipated ne-
HESTER ACADEMY.-A Boarding and Day School for both
Sexes, Broad St., Chester, Pa. Every branch of a solid Eng-
groes to equal and civil rights, convey the right of lish Education is taught in this Academy, together with Latin,
French and Drawing, in all its varieties. Thoroughness in all
way to construct a railroad through their country, the studies is insisted upon, and especial care will be taken to
and also agree to such legislation on the part of Con- educate the morals as well as the intellect of the pupils. A Pri-
gress as may be necessary to establish a judicial sys-mary Department is connected with the School. Pupils can enter
at any time.
tem in the Indian territory, and a general council,
with defined legislative powers, composed of dele-
gates from each nation.

A new treaty was consummated between the
United States and the Shawnee nation of Kansas,
their principal chief, Charles Bluejacket, heading
the delegation. Treaties are also being prepared
and will soon be completed with the Cherokees,
Choctaws and Chickasaws, the Seminoles, and two
bands of the Chippewas, of Lake Superior, the
Borsfoot band and those of the Lac du Flambeau.

THE FREEDMEN.-The superintendent of the freed-
men's village has been instructed by General Howard
to divide the Arlington estate, lying east of the road,
into five-acre lots, to be rented on written agree.
ments to the freedmen; the rent to be paid at each
harvesting of the crop. Fifteen acres on the west
side of the road are assigned to be divided and
rented in the same manner; about twenty acres to
be cultivated as a garden by the dependents of
freedmen's village. This estate is not confiscated
property, and therefore cannot revert to the heirs at
the death of the owner, but it was sold for taxes,

and purchased by the Government for the purpose to

which it is now being applied.

General C. H. Howard has issued a special
order restoring to Joseph Forrest his prop-
erty, held by the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen,
etc., in St. Mary's county, Maryland, except the
"Sand-gates farm," so-called, of 1,100 acres, being
nine separate tracts of land containing 1,915 acres,
more or less, subject to the provisions of Circulars
Nos. 3, 15 and 20. of the freedmen's bureau.

The assistant commissioner of the freedmen's
bureau for the State of Georgia informs the bureau
that "the condition of the freedmen is commendable.
They are all at work under Government contracts."
The assistant commissioner of the freedmen's
bureau for the State of Texas reports that "the
freedmen are self-supporting, and that they have al-
ready shown a disposition to equal, if not surpass,
the laboring class of white men."

C'

Please send for a Circular.

2 ws 13t 5wm wnfnd.

GEORGE GILBERT, Principal.
THOMAS GILBERT,
M. LOUISE CLANCY,

Assistants.

J. H. RIDGWAY & CO. COMMISSION DEALERS in Berries,
Butter, Poultry, Eggs, Dried Fruits, and every description of
Peaches, Apples Onions, Sweet Potatoes, Round Potatoes,
Country Produce. Office No. 125. Delaware Avenue Market,
Philadelphia. Consignments solicited, and orders for shipping
promptly attended to.
21013tvlvnzp.

WA Street, (one square from Germantown Depot,) Philadelphia

ALL PAPERS-WINDOW SHADES-902 Spring Garden
Business in any part of the Country attended to promptly, and at
City rates.
S. F. BALDERSTON & SON.
Ksion of this institution will commence on the last Third day
ENNETT SQUARE SEMINARY-FOR GIRLS.-The next ses
of Second month, 1866. Inquire for Circular of

2m03 xmnp.

2 3 3m. 430. vmo.

EVAN T. SWAYNE, Principal.

WA
7ALL PAPER! WALL PAPER! Reduced to 124, 18 and 20
cents. Gold and Glazed Paper Hangings reduced. Linen
Window Shades and Fixtures, of neat designs and all sizes.
My prices are moderate. Work done in Country. Call at
E. S. JOHNSTON'S
UNION SQUARE DEPOT,

wm 9t fafn.

No. 1033 Spring Garden St. below 11th, Phila.
THE PROVIDENT LIFE AND TRUST COMPANY OF

T PHILADELPHIA.-Incorporated by the State of Pennsyl

vania, 3d mo. 22, 1865. Insures lives, allows interest on deposits,
and grants annuities. Capital, $150,000.
Directors-Samuel R. Shipley, Jeremiah Hacker,
Joshua H. Morris, Richard Wood,
Richard Cadbury, Henry Haines,
T. Wistar Brown, Wm. C. Longstreth.
Charles F. Coffin.

ROWLAND PARRY, Actuary. SAMUEL R. SHIPLEY, President.
Office-No. 111 South Fourth Street.
W. WILBERFORCE WISTAR, General Agent, at the office of the
Company.
826 6m 110 aw
BOARDING-SCHOOL

ELLEVUE FEMALE INSTITUTE.-A
BE
and beautifully located Institution, will commence 10th mo. 21,
FOR GIRLS. The Fall and Winter Term of this healthfully
1865, and continue in session twenty-eight weeks.
For details see Circular, to obtain which, address the Principals,
Attleboro' P. O., Bucks county, Pa.

85 tf.axnaw.

ISRAEL J. GRAHAME,
JANE P. GRAHAME,

Principals.

PRINTED BY MERRIHEW & SON,
BOOK, PAMPHLET AND GENERAL JOB PRINTERS, 243 Arch 8t.

FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER.

"TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO; KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE,"

PHILADELPHIA, THIRD MONTH 24, 1866.

COMMUNICATIONS MUST BE ADDRESSED AND PAYMENTS The Revelation of the Spirit...

Michael de Molinos, who was chief of the sect of the Quietists, and whose "Spiritual Guide" was printed at Venice in 1685, speaks This power of the soul is owing to its conthus: "There are three kinds of silence the stitution or nature. "It follows," says the first is of words, the second of desires, and the learned Howe, in his "Living Temple," that third of thoughts. The first is perfect; the second is more perfect; and the third is most perfect. In the first, that is, of words, virtue

prayer, which wants not to be clothed in words, that God may better know our desires. He regards not the service of our lips, but the inward disposition of our hearts."

his living image; given it a nature suitable to his own, and thereby made it capable of rational and intelligent converse with him, he hath it even in his power to maintain a continual converse with this creature, by agreeable communications, by letting in upon it the vital beams and influences of his own light and love, and receiving back the return of its grate-collected soul are not noise or clamor. The ful acknowledgments and praises: wherein it is manifest he should do no greater thing than he hath done. For who sees not that it is a matter of no greater difficulty to converse with, than to make a reasonable creature? Or who would not be ashamed to deny, that he who hath been the only author of the soul of man, and of the excellent powers and faculties belonging to it, can more easily sustain that which he hath made, and converse with his creature suitably to the way, wherein he hath made it capable of his converse?

That worship may exist without the intervention of words, on account of this constitution of the soul, is a sentiment which has been espoused by many pious persons who were not Quakers. Thus the ever memorable John Hales, in his Golden Remains, expresses himself: "Nay, one thing I know more, that the prayer which is the most forcible, transcends, and far exceeds, all power of words. For St. Paul, speaking unto us of the most effectual kind of prayer, calls it sighs and groans, that cannot be expressed. Nothing cries so loud in the ears of God, as the sighing of a contrite and earnest heart."

"It requires not the voice, but the mind; not the stretching of the hand, but the intention of the heart; not any outward shape or carriage of the body, but the inward behavior of the understanding. How then can it slacken your worldly business and occasions, to mix them with sighs and groans, which are the most effectual prayer?"

Dr. Gell, before quoted, says-" Words conceived only in an earthly mind, and uttered out of the memory by man's voice, which make a noise in the ears of flesh and blood, are not, nor can be accounted a prayer, before our father which is in Heaven."

Dr. Smaldridge, bishop of Bristol, has the following expressions in his sermons: Prayer doth not consist either in the bending of our knees, or the service of our lips, or the lifting up of our hands or eyes to heaven, but in the elevation of our souls towards God. These outward expressions of our inward thoughts are necessary in our public, and often expedient in our private devotions; but they do not make up the essence of prayer, which may truly and acceptably be performed, where these are want ing."

And he says afterwards, in other parts of his work-" Devotion of mind is itself a silent

Monro, before quoted, speaks to the same effect, in his Just Measures of the Pious Institutions of Youth. "The breathings of a relanguage in which devotion loves to vent itself, is that of the inward man, which is secret and silent, but yet God hears it, and makes gracious returns unto it. Sometimes the pious ardors and sensations of good souls are such as they cannot clothe with words. They feel what they cannot express. I would not, however, be thought to insinuate, that the voice and words are not to be used at all. It is certain that public and common devotions cannot be performed without them; and that even in private, they are not only very profitable, but sometimes necessary. What I here aim at is, that the youth should be made sensible, that words are not otherwise valuable than as they are images and copies of what passes in the hidden man of the heart; especially considering that a great many, who appear very angelical in their devotions, if we take our measures of them from their voice and tone, do soon, after these intervals of seeming seriousness are over, return with the dog to the vomit, and give palpable evidences of their earthliness and sensuality; their passion and their pride."

Again-"I am persuaded, says he, that it would be vastly advantageous for the youth, if care were taken to train them up to this method of prayer; that is, if they were taught frequently to place themselves in the divine presence, and there silently to adore their Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. For hereby they would become habitually recollected. Devotion would be their element; and they would know, by experience, what our blessed Savour and his great Apostle meant, when they enjoin us to pray without ceasing. It was, I suppose, by some such method of devotion as I am now speaking of, that Enoch walked with God; that Moses saw him that is invisible; that the royal Psalmist set the Lord always before him; and that our Lord Jesus himself continued whole nights in prayer to God. No man, I believe, will imagine that his prayer, during all the space in which it is said to have continued, was altogether vocal. When he was in his agony in the garden, he used but a few words. His vocal prayer then consisted only of one petition, and an act of pure resignation thrice repeated. But I hope all will allow, that his devotion lasted longer than while he was employed in the uttering a few sentences."

These meetings then, which are usually denominated silent, and in which, though not a word be spoken, it appears from the testimony