gathered on my mind. I hope that I have not been injudicious in the selection. With a painful impression of the evils that are rife among the juvenile portion of our species, and with a deep conviction of the importance and responsibility of the parental relation, how could I forbear to suggest what I believe to be remedies of those evils? Oh! that every female in our widely extended Union may feel her accountability, not for individual character only, but for public security, that this great nation-great in its dimensionsgreater far, in population, even than in moral power-may become neither the prey of a demagogue, nor of a licentious populace, which might re-enact the ensanguined drama of infidel France! Morals, Christian morals alone, can be our conservators. The female bosom must be their ark of safety -their centre of irradiation.

THE HEAVENLY VISITANT

BY JOHN WATERS.

BEHOLD, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me."

WELCOME, bright Guest of Heaven!
Lo! at the outward threshold of my door
I kneel to thee, with grace unknown before;
Thy knock my heart hath riven!

I know Thee, who thou art!
Spirit of my ascended Lord and King!
Enter, possess, and rule!-Let me Thee bring
Within my heart of heart!

Take all I have to give :

My soul, redeemed, forever be Thine own!
Forever, at the footstool of Thy throne,
Thus let me gaze and live!

And art thou here, at last?

Wilt Thou convert, accept, with me abide?
May I to Thee, each grief, each hope confide?
Could'st thou forgive the past?

This heart of guilt, of stone?

This wayward, fickle, contumacious soul?
And of my secret sins, the long, long Roll-
Could'st Thou for these atone?—

All power of Heaven is Thine!

REVELATIONS. III. 20.

Long have I known Thy glorious Works, oh Lord!
But them, not Thee, have worshipp'd and adored!
Now Thou, Thyself, art mine!

Spirit of GOD! bright Guest!
GOD of the Bible! of my inmost heart!
GOD of my pardoned soul !-In every part
My Comforter, my Rest!

Exceeding great Reward

Of Thine atoning Sacrificial Love

How dost Thou raise my thoughts this world above,
Saviour, Deliverer, Guard

Such, such Thou art to me!

Lo here, e'en here, within my inmost breast,
Reign thou o'er all, and let me be Thy Guest,
And let me sup with Thee!

Assist Thy servant, Lord,

In holy converse bland to sup with Thee!
As face doth answer face, set each doubt free
By Thine own precious word.

Sublime each thought: the soul,

As leaven leaveneth the whole, restore
To Life, till Love no compass hath for more,
And Heaven imbue the whole!

The whole, the whole be Thine.

Vain Earth with all thy blandishments adieu!
Bright Guest! blest Host! I feel thy promise true
And taste THE LIFE DIVINE!

THE ERRORS OF THE TRUE CHRISTIAN.

BY M. J. J.

BLAME not the spirit, blame the shrine !
The frail, the human heart of sin,

Where oft religion's light divine,

Is sullied by the gloom within.

Then ere thou blame the faithful few,
For speech unwise, or zeal undue,
Bid the quenched dew-drops of the morn
Glitter as when they gemm'd the thorn,
The trampled snow upon the earth
Be pure as at its heavenly birth;
Expect thy roses in the storm,
Fadeless in hue, and fair of form,
And bid the limpid streamlet swell,

Bright through the city, as the dell.

"Twere vain;-yet ev'n the sullied snow,

Dimm'd flowers, fall'n dew, and darken'd rill,

Despite the earthly taint they show,

Beauty and blessing scatter still.

Original.

THE RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN

NO. IV.

INDIANS.

BY SEBA SMITH.

THE belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, says the learned Dr. Jarvis, has been kept alive among all heathen nations, by its connection with the sensible employment and sufferings, and the consequent hopes and terrors of men. Its origin must have been in divine revelation: for it is impossible to conceive that the mind could have attained to it by its own unassisted powers. But the thought, when once communicated, would, in the shipwreck of dissolving nature, be clung to, with the grasp of expiring hope. Hence no nations have yet been found, however rude and barbarous, who have not agreed in the great and general principle of retributive immortality. When, however, we descend to detail, and inquire into their peculiar notions with regard to this expected state, we find that their traditions are colored by the nature of their earthly occupations, and the opinions they thence entertain on the subject of good and evil.

This remark is fully verified by the history of the American Indians. Charlevoix, whose opportunities were very great for aquiring a knowledge of the Indian character, says: "the belief most firmly established among the American savages is that of the immortality of the soul. They suppose that when separated from the body, it preserves the same inclinations it had when both were united. For this reason they bury with the dead all that they had in use when alive. When the time has arrived for the departure of those spirits which leave the body, they pass into a region which is destined to be their eternal abode, and which is therefore called the country of souls. This country is at a great distance toward the west, and to go thither costs them a journey of many months. They have many difficulties to surmount, and many perils to encounter. They speak of a stream in which they suffer shipwreck; of a dog from which they with great difficulty defend themselves; of a place of suffering where they expiate their faults; of another, in which the souls of those prisoners who have been tortured are again tormented, and who therefore linger on their course to delay as long as possible the moment of their arrival. From this idea it proceeds, that, after the death of these unhappy

victims, for fear their souls may remain around the huts of their tormentors from the thirst of vengeance, the latter are careful to strike every place around them with a staff, and to utter such terrible cries as may oblige them to depart."

The Hurons and the Iroquois have a custom, once in ten years, of collecting the remains of their dead, who have died within that time, and depositing them all in one common burial. This ceremony is called the feast of the dead, or the feast of souls. Some other nations observe the same solemn rite once in eight years. But the remains of such as have died a violent death are not included in this ceremony, as their souls are supposed not to have any intercourse in the future world with other souls.

Usually, the title to the Indian paradise, or future abode of happiness, consists in having been a good hunter, a brave warrior, victorious over enemies, and successful in all enterprises. The happiness of this future abode of bliss, according to Charlevoix, "consists in the never-failing supply of game and fish, an eternal spring, and an abundance of everything which can delight the senses, without the labor of procuring it."

To the tribes living far north, in the regions of snow and ice, where the ground for the most of the year is frozen and barren, the idea of perpetual verdure, fertile vales, and flowing streams, would be the most delightful that could be presented to their imagination. Their future abode of bliss is modeled accordingly. "They imagine that after death they shall inhabit a most beautiful island in the center of an extensive lake. On the surface of this lake they will embark in a stone canoe, and if their actions have been generally good, they will be borne by a gentle current to their delightful and eternal abode. But if, on the contrary, their bad actions predominate, the stone canoe sinks and leaves them up to their chins in water, to behold and regret the reward enjoyed by the good, and eternally struggling, but with unavailing endeavors, to reach the blissful island from which they are excluded forever." On the other hand, tribes living far south, or under tropical climates, would expect and desire a paradise of an opposite description. The natives of some of the West India Islands, when the Europeans first came among them, described their future abode of happiness after this sort: "They supposed that the spirits of good men were conveyed to a pleasant valley, a place of indolent tranquillity, abounding with guavas and other delicious fruits, cool shades and murmuring streams; in a country where drought never rages, and the hurricane is never felt."

"Thus the ideas of the savage," says Dr. Jarvis, "with regard to the peculiar nature of future bliss or woe, are always modified by associations arising from his peculiar situation, his peculiar turn of thought, and the pains and pleasures of the senses. With regard to the question, in what their happiness or misery will consist,

they differ; but with regard to the existence of a future state, and that it will be a state of retribution for the deeds done in the body, they agree without exception; and their faith is bright and cloudless."

In accordance with this statement, a most beautiful instance is recorded of an address from an old native of Cuba to Columbus on his arrival at that island. "We know not," said the venerable old man, "whether you are divinities or mortal men; but if you are men, subject to mortality like ourselves, you cannot be unapprised that after this life there is another, wherein a very different portion is allotted to good and bad men. If, therefore, you expect to die, and believe with us that every one is to be rewarded in a future state according to his conduct in the present, you will do no hurt to those who do none to you.'

"This man," says Dr. Jarvis, "was a savage, but he spoke the language of the purest revelation."

Of the universal practice among the North American Indians of offering sacrifices and oblations to the Great Spirit, and to the multitude of inferior spirits, which they either fear or reverence, we have before spoken. Some of them deny that they really make these sacrifices to the inferior spirits, but say that their offerings are made to the Great Spirit through them. They think the Great Spirit appoints a tutelary spirit, or manitto, to superintend each person, and indicates to each person, in dreams, what shape his tutelary spirit assumes.

When a boy dreams that he sees a large bird of prey, of the size of a man, flying towards him from the north, and saying to him, "roast some meat for me," the boy is then bound to sacrifice the first deer or bear he shoots to this bird. The sacrifice is appointed by an old man, who fixes on the day and the place in which it is to be performed. Three days previous to it, messengers are sent to invite the guests. These assemble in some lonely place, in a house large enough to contain three fires. At the middle fire the old man performs the sacrifice. Having sent for twelve straight and supple sticks, he fastens them into the ground, so as to enclose a circular spot, covering them with blankets.

He then rolls twelve red-hot stones into the enclosure, each of which is dedicated to one god in particular. The largest belongs, as they say, to the Great God in Heaven; the second to the sun, or the god of the day; the third to the night-sun, or the moon; the fourth to the earth; the fifth to the fire; the sixth to the water; the seventh to the dwelling, or house of God; the eighth to Indian corn; the ninth to the west; the tenth to the south; the eleventh to the east; and the twelfth to the north.

The old man then takes a rattle containing some grains of Indian corn, and leading the boy, for whom the sacrifice is made, into the enclosure. throws a handful of tobacco upon the red-hot