far the larger portion of the manufacturing population in every country, will cease to seek employment and a home in the west; and we shall, every year, become more dependent upon the east for the ordinary appliances of comfort.

If a people, highly intelligent, jealous of their political rights, enterprising and ardent in the pursuit of wealth and, withal, patriotic and proud of their country, permit themselves to be drawn into habits and customs which tend to exhaust the region they occupy of all that can make it desirable, it is strong proof that notwithstanding the discoveries and improvements of the age there are yet defects in our modern system of civilization, which will in time, if not corrected, prove fatal to its progress.

The danger would seem to lie in placing too high an estimate upon new and extraordinary facilities of producing and exchanging useful commodities; while we neglect to guard against the centralizing tendency of Capital and Commerce.

A system of civilization, to be enduring, must be diffused: its burthens should be borne and its benefits enjoyed in an equal degree by all its constituents; else while one portion progresses, the other will retrograde, until revolution becomes necessary for the purpose. of severing their relations or of placing the parties upon a more equal footing.

Objects necessary to the enjoyment of a high state of civilization, which cannot be transported from place to place should be located or produced at convenient and proper places throughout the land; or a portion of the people can never enjoy the benefits which they are calculated to impart. Architecture and horticulture may be regarded as essential elements of a refined civilization. Architecture elevates man's estimate of his own dignity in the scale of beings: Horticulture harmonizes his feelings with external nature; enlarges and refines his social qualities, and brings him into communion with the author of the universe. The two combined inspire man with self-respect, social love, patriotism and

devotion.

The ancients comprehended the value and influence of a refined architecture and other embellishments; and it was the policy of their more distinguished rulers to signalize their government and perpetuate their names by embellishing their principal cities with works of art.

In a republican government like ours such works must be left

chiefly to the taste and enterprise of the citizens, for the legislature possesses no power over the subject. The civic governments however may do much to adorn their respective cities. Their constituents are inmediately interested in checking the current of traveling to the east, and the system of absenteeism that is gradually developing itself in the west; and they should do every thing in their power to make the residence of the citizen and the sojourn of the stranger agreeable.

We verily believe that a reasonable amount appropriated to the purchase and embellishment of grounds, for public resort, and other improvements which are obviously needed, would be more beneficial to the city of St. Louis, than if subscribed for the construction of railways, either to the east or west. For these railways, when completed, will serve but to facilitate the escape of.our citizens from a place that possesses few attractions as a residence, at least during the summer season.

How can one, whose feelings and interests are identified with the west, contemplate our present relations with the east, and the consequences to which they must lead, without experiencing a sense of profound humiliation, which should induce him to do everything in his power to produce a change. But how is this change to be effected?

It were easy to prescribe a remedy which would save to individuals all the expense of travelling, and to the community the inconvenience arising from a scarcity of money, if our people could be persuaded to forego the enjoyment of their accustomed indulgences for a season with a view to the attainment of objects far more excellent. But this is an old argument which has been urged upon mankind, since the period of the deluge, with but little effect. The manners and habits of a people are interwoven with their most cherished reminiscences, and constitute a part of their nature; and hence it is scarcely practicable to abolish or change them by arguments addressed to their reason. One who would reform the follies and vices of a community should begin by sowing the seeds of wisdom and virtue; and rely upon the skilfull cultivation and vigorous growth of these to root out and destroy the poisonous plants that incumber and exhaust the moral field.

We must counteract and supplant the propensity and general desire to travel abroad by encouraging, at home, the production of objects similar to those which attract our people to distant lands.

Let our wealthy citizens build residences in the neighborhood of the city, and beautify their grounds by the cultivation of gardens, fruit and ornamental trees; and, unless they resist the refining influence of such objects, it will not be long before they and their families will enjoy a higher degree of pleasure at home than can be found by traveling in search of it upon any other part of the earth. Here is the proper place to begin the work of reform and refinement; for here the skill, and all the appliances, necessary for the commencement, can be more readily obtained than at any other point on the banks of the Mississippi.

If the cities and towns will enter upon this work in earnest, and prosecute it in a proper spirit of liberality, the rural districts will soon follow their example; and this broad valley will become the garden as well as the granary of the nation. Shall we continue. to strip the land of the beautiful vestments by which it was clothed and adorned by nature; vex the soil with the plow until it ceases to yield bread to him that toils; and, having in the mean time exchanged its surplus products for the handiworks of other and less favored lands abandon it, thus despoiled of nature's grace? Or, shall we 'subdue and replenish' it by the aid of science, and adorn it with whatever is beautiful, by the assistance of art?

Will our people continue the unnatural habit of severing, for months in succession, their most intimate and tender relations, and throng the highways and hotels of distant lands amidst a crowd of strangers of whose moral qualities they are ignorant, and for whom they have no sympathy? Or, remaining at home amidst their families and friends, surrounded by all that the wise and good can desire, cultivate the arts which refine their natures and strengthen the bonds of those relations which were ordained to compensate the loss of paradise?

Those who have contracted the habit of looking abroad for pleasure, and travel in pursuit of it, can possess no strong attachment for home; and their conduct, in this respect, raises the presumption that they derive but little happiness from their domestic and social relations.

We would not restrain people from travelling for recreation and amusement; it is profitable: it prevents the mind from being narrowed down and confined to the particular pursuit in which the individual may be engaged; it liberalizes and enlarges his views of society; and if he travels in search of well chosen objects he gene

rally returns to his avocations refreshed and better satisfied with himself, and with the world.

But in travelling, as in commerce, the intercourse should be mutual; or the balance of trade will always be in favor of those who remain at home. No people travel more perhaps than those of New England; but they travel among themselves. They enjoy all the benefits without incurring the evils arising from the southern and western custom of travelling east. Who ever saw or heard of a New Englander on the banks of the Mississippi, unless he came in search of a home, or to traffic in some commodity, out of the profits of which he expected to pay his way, and return with more money than he brought from home? We do not refer to this fact as a subject of reproach to the eastern people: so far from it we commend their policy, in part at least, to the people of the west. The valley of the Mississippi would afford room enough, one might suppose, to satisfy the travelling propensities of its inhabitants; and if they would travel more among themselves they would become better acquainted with the resources and interests of the different parts of the country; their social relations would be improved, and their political influence in the national councils strengthened.

It is with no unkind feelings towards the people of the east that we urge the consideration of this subject upon our western readers. Our eastern brethern are justly entitled to all they gain by our folly; but we should be unfaithful to the great interests which we have undertaken to promote, did we, with folded arms, remain silent in respect to the evils which we have attempted to portray.

The condition of the west in respect to this subject results from the circumstances in which the country has been settled. The early settlers were compelled to look to the east for many commodities necessary to their comfort; many of their friends and immediate relations remained there; it was necessary that they should go thither upon business, and natural that many should return to see their friends; but it would be unwise and unnatural that they should remain in this condition throughout an indefinite period.

The arts which enrich, and those which embellish a country, are of slow growth; they impart strength to each other and flourish most when cultivated together. If widely separated both decay; but in that case it is the nature of the latter to survive the former. Hence we hold that the encouragement of architecture, horticulture

and other arts calculated to embellish the country, is scarcely less important than the building of manufactories and construction of railways.

ARTICLE II.

Aliments.

The satisfaction which we received from reading the "Familiar Letters on Chemistry," by Professor Liebig, published some years ago, induced us to publish the 6th and 7th of the series in the May Number, 1851, of the Western Journal. And having learned that these were regarded with decided approbation by many of our intelligent readers, we have concluded to publish several others in the order in which they were published by the author.

In our opinion, these letters afford more valuable information upon the subject of physiology and agriculture, than can anywhere else be found in so small a compass.

ALIMENT.

CONSTITUENTS OF THE BLOOD. FIBRINE, ALBUMEN. INORGANIC SUBSTANCES. ISOMERISM OF FIBRINE, ALBUMEN, AND ELEMENTS OF NUTRITION. RELATION OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE ORGANISM.

MY DEAR SIR: Having attempted in my last letter to explain to you the simple and admirable office subserved by the oxygen of the atmosphere in its combination with carbon in the animal body, I will now proceed to present you with some remarks upon those materials which sustain its mechanism in motion, and keep up their various functions-namely, the Aliments.

If the increase of mass in an animal body, the development and reproduction of its organs depend upon the blood, then those substances only which are capable of being converted into blood can be properly regarded as nourishment. In order, then, to ascertain what parts of our food are nutritious, we must compare the composition of the blood with the composition of the various articles taken as food.

Two substances require especial consideration as the chief ingredients of the blood; one of these separates immediately from the blood when it is withdrawn from the circulation.

It is well known that in this case blood coagulates, and separ