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and horrible brutality that are quite astounding, and exceed every thing laid to the charge of the monks of the darkest and most depraved period of the Middle Ages. So shocking indeed are they, as to be almost incredible; and yet many of the persons who have sworn to the truth of them, live near Enfield, and, from all the inquiries I could make, are respectable and trustworthy, 5 to

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The Shaker Bible, or "Christ's Second Appear ance," shows how prone the human mind is to receive any supernatural accounts; and how wisely all who relate them insist upon faith. Indeed I have heard it remarked (although of course only with reference to the Shakers), that when a man can once be persuaded, that the Great Creator of the Universe wishes him to believe what is incom prehensible and impossible, he might just as well be deprived of his reason altogether, and become a mere brute. At any rate, for my own part, although I am a friend to toleration, and do not wish to offend any person's religious principles, yet I can not but think that it is rather a disgrace to the 19th century, for a sect to exist and flourish, which not only praises the Great Spirit by dancing, but even believes, that Anne Lee, the drunken proffigate wife of an English blacksmith, is co-equal and co-eternal with the Deity

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THE road from Enfield passes through a very hilly and rough tract of country, which is however for the most part under cultivation. Salisbury is a beautiful little town, in which, as indeed in all those along the road, New England neatness and comfort are conspicuous. A little above Salisbury the Pemigewasset branch of the Merrimack, and the river Winnipiseogee meet together and form the Merrimack. It is a curious fact in natural history, that great numbers both of Shad and Salmon annually ascend the Merrimack, and that when they arrive at the junction of the two rivers abovementioned, the Shad all go up the Winnipiseogee, and the Salmon up the Pemigewasset. There is no instance on record of Shad being taken in the Pemigewasset, however near the point of junction, or a Salmon in the Winnipiseogee. The people account for this fact, by saying, that the Winnipiseogee takes its rise in a lake, the water of which is warmed by the large surface exposed to the sun, while the Pemigewasset runs, through deep glens, and is shrouded from the sun by the forests that cover its banks.

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Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, is a pretty little town, and contains many excellent and

well built houses. some building of white granite, and when I was there, presented a busy scene, as the legislature was in Session. I went into the gallery, but took no great interest in what was going on, as I could hear no speeches, the house being chiefly occupied in reading bills and acts torsiods A aft

The State House is a hand

Just at the entrance of Boston is Bunker's Hill, on which an individual has erected a small monument, to commemorate the celebrated battle fought there at the commencement of the revolutionary war.

Boston, the fourth city of the United States, in point of numbers, contains 42,536 inhabitants, and is like most of the commercial cities in the whole Republic, increasing very fast/both in wealth and population. It has a more English appearance than any other of the American cities; for the streets are irregular, instead of being laid out at right angles. Most of the houses are built of brick, but those at present erecting are of a whitish granite, a very large quarry of which has lately been discovered in the neighbourhood. This granite splits so easily into long slabs, that I was told of a piece lately placed on the top of a wall as a coping stone, which was sixteen feet long and about six inches thick. What is very remarkable too for this sort of stone, it was slightly elastic.bus oquet ni do

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I do not recollect ever having seen any modern columns of granite so finely worked as the large Ionic columns of the Hospital, at very handsome

public edifice which is built of this material, and which was nearly finished when I was there. The shafts and capitals were cut and polished by the prisoners confined in the State's prison; so that the labour of public offenders was very properly made subservient to public good.ope

The Athenæum is the establishment that attracts the chief notice of strangers. It is a large building, containing an excellent library of 16,000 volumes, as well as a public reading-room, ornamented with handsome plaster casts of the most celebrated ancient statues. In this room are files of all the chief newspapers of the United States, as well as most of the important English and Foreign journals. All the American, and the best European reviews, magazines, and other periodical publications are to be found on the table.

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The society of gentlemen, who first of all founded, and who have subsequently added to and embellished the Athenæum, was incorporated in 1807, and a fund was raised by the sale of shares at 300 dollars each. Most of the splendid books, with the casts, cameos, &c. were donations. J. Q. Adams, the second President of the United States, lately présented the Athenæum with his excellent library, collected during the course of a long public life both in Europe and America. Strangers have free admission to the rooms on being introduced by a proprietor and I may here observe, from personal experience, that an introduction to such an esta

blishment, is one of the greatest favours that can be conferred upon an individual, who finds himself alone in a great city.

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Boston is the most literary town in the United States, and may be called the head-quarters of American learning. This is partly owing to its being in the neighbourhood of Harvard University, founded in 1638, which is by much the best place of public education in America; and partly to the character of the people of the New England States, who are all tolerably educated and are remarkably fond of books. Indeed all the best English works are reprinted immediately on their arrival in Ame rica; and a Transatlantic edition of many of Scott's novels has been in circulation thirty-six hours after the arrival of a copy from England.

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Some idea may be formed of the prevailing taste for literature, from the fact that 2,000 copies of the Edinburgh and Quarterly, and 3,000 of the North American Review are printed at Boston every quarter. I should moreover be disposed to ima gine, that at least twice as many school-books are printed annually in the United States as in Eng land; and certainly a much greater number of newspapers. Books in general, and especially those published on the European continent, are much cheaper on their side of the Atlantic than on ours. I do not recollect seeing a single quarto; and indeed it is to be wished that there were fewer in Eng

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