pass their youth in serenity, their manhood in tranquillity, and their old age without remorse. There is nothing in this world fit to be compared with it; all its wishes and desires tend to celestial enjoyments, which are not liable to change. The virtuous man looks back on his past conduct without regret, because his fate cannot but be happy. His mind is the seat of cheerfulness, and his actions are the foundations of felicity; he is rich amidst poverty, and no one can deprive him of what he possesses, he is all perfection, for his life is spotless; and he has nothing to wish for, since he possesses every thing. Alexander was celebrated for his courage; Ptolemy for his learning; Trajan for his love of truth; Antoninus for his piety; Constantius for his temperance; Scipio for his continence; and Theodosius for his humility. O! glorious virtue, which, in some way or other, rewards all its admirers, and without which there can be no real happiness! Lord Chief Justice, in order to have a fine passed upon an estate offered in mortgage for security of a sum of money, there came to me upon the pavement near the office a man well dressed, and of grave behaviour, desiring to have some conversation with me, in which I could not gratify him then, being instantly engaged in the business I went about; but when I had finished it, and was come out from the office, I found him waiting; and advancing towards me, he began to discourse about George Keith, saying, “That we (meaning the body of Friends) had missed our way in contending with him as we did; for he being a man of learning and knowledge might have been very serviceable to our Society, in helping us over some mistakes we labored under." I replied that we were not under any mistake about the Christian Faith, or religion, or any part of it; and did not want instructions from George Keith or any other like unto him, we being taught of the Lord, and by such as he raises, qualifies, and sends in his own name and FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER. power; and these we know, own, and receive, in PHILADELPHIA, TWELFTH MONTH 12, 1857. the same love in which they are sent. DIED, At the residence of her mother, Elizabeth" --, In Marmington, Salem Co., N. J., on the morning of the 11th of 9th mo., BURTIS BARBER, in the 70th year of his age, a member and elder of Salem Monthly Meeting. -, Suddenly, in Friends' Meeting House, on Race street west of 15th, during the morning sitting of First day, 1st of 11th month, PETER LIPPINCOTT, of Cinnaminson, N. J. His death is a sad bereavement to his family and a large circle of friends, and his loss is deeply felt in the community in which he has been a valuable citizen for a number of years. THOMAS STORY. [Continued from page 600.] About this time, George Keith, that infamous and contentious apostate from the truth of God once made known to him, made great disturbances in and about London, as he had done before in divers parts of America; endeavoring to impose some unprofitable, hurtful and false notions of his own and others upon Friends, contending fiercely about them; and had also obtained some regard from envious and prejudiced persons of divers sects and societies. * And as I was going one day to attend the I have in several cases given the substance of the arguments and position of our author on subjects Friends in our day fully unite in. But in this instance, as the whole is not very lengthy, and the oppositions of George Keith constituted a large portion of the sufferings and troubles of Friends soon after the death of George Fox, and especially the afflictions of William Then he moved one of George Keith's notions and subjects of debate by way of question; whether we believe that Jesus Christ is now in heaven, in the same body in which he suffered on the cross on earth?" I replied that we believe all that the Holy Scriptures relate concerning the Lord and his body; that he ascended until a cloud received him out of the sight of the witnesses who saw him ascend; but as to the identity or sameness of his body, or the mode of its existence now in heaven, as I do not remember that to be revealed in the Holy Scriptures, 'tis a little too presumptuous, I think, in George Keith, or any other, to take upon him to define or meddle with it; being a mystery of which he hath no knowledge or idea, nor could he transfer the true notion of it to the understanding or apprehension of any other person, if he had any such thing himself. Therefore all he pretends to on that subject, can be no other than an unprofitable dream of his own head, on a subject strife and envy, as fully appears by his exercise undeterminable by any mortal, tending only to therein, and its evil fruits of division and sepaend of the world; and is to be declined as a ration, and if persisted in would remain so to the snare and temptation of the adversary, for mis chief and destruction. Then he urged "That the body of Christ in heaven must be a real body; and if so, then material, and circumscribed, as all such bodies are, like Satan disputing about the body of Moses: yet wonderfully glorified." I replied, this is (Jude 9.) These words "wonderfully glorified,' Penn, I propose giving it entire, as it shows the danger of unwarrantable speculations on subjects wisely vailed from human wisdom. exhibit nothing to the understanding; though I do not intend to enter into a disquisition concerning bodies material or immaterial; glorified or not glorified; circumscriptive or not so. But I remember what the Apostle Paul hath written concerning the Lord Jesus on this point, viz: In that he ascended, what is that but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things: (Eph. iv. 9-10.) If then he filleth all things, how and by what is he circumscribed? To this he answered, "That his filling all things was spoken of him as he is God omnipresent, and not as man; who is, as such, not omnipresent, that being an attribute of the divine nature only." I returned to this, That it would not be spoken of Christ as he is God, because he who is omnipresent is so from all eternity, and at all times, and cannot properly be said to ascend or descend into any place; for that would imply his absence from those places to which he was said to ascend or descend; which in the notion of it would oppose the essential and necessary attribute of his divinity, and confound the rational consideration of it, so that the apostle's assertion here, I think, must refer to Christ in some other way than as he is the Word of God. it "Then (said he) these are secret and intricate things, hard to be understood or defined; so that may be proper to decline any farther procedure thereon at this time." That I grant, (said I,) and it was not of my moving; nor did I engage in this discourse with any other view, but to demonstrate to thee how little good can be reaped or expected by contests on the subject, or by any of George Keith's notions, or of any others about it. And so we parted in a friendly manner, after he had made himself known to me under the character of Doctor English; a Scotchman by nation, and a physician by profession. In this same year (1696) I was concerned in the love of Truth to visit the meetings in a general way in the north of England, and likewise in Scotland, and in discharge of that duty, set forward from London, on the 6th or 7th of the Fifth month, accompanied by Henry Atkinson; who was at that time a very tender and hopeful young man, but had not appeared in a public ministry, though Truth was working in him towards it. We went by Waterford, where I made a visit to the Countess of Carlisle, (intending to have seen the Earl, but he was gone to London,) and she received me in her closet with respect, none being present but Helen Fairly, who had been her gentlewoman; but having been lately convinced, another was then in her place. The Countess asked me divers questions concerning the way of Truth as professed by us; of the sacraments, commonly so called; of women's preaching; of our marriages; and of the grace of God, &c., to all which I answered in much plainness, and I believe to her satisfaction, viz. As to the two sacraments; the National Church owns that a sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; and if it is a sign, it cannot be the thing itself. That grace, of which those symbols are called signs, hath appeared, and doth appear, unto all men, as well where those signs are used, as where they are not used or heard of; so that there can be no advantage in the use of such things, but in that grace, which through Christ, is given of the Father unto all men, being a divine, active principle and power, illuminating, instructing and guiding the minds of all that believe therein, into all Truth necessary for the salvation of the soul, &c. [Thus he proceeded, establishing the doctrine. that Friends were called to turn all from a dependance on shadows, signs and symbols, to the substance; to call all away from the shadow to the substance, and from the mere name of a thing to the thing itself. In relation to women's preaching, his last paragraph runs thus:] : And though the Apostle Paul takes some exceptions, and that with sharpness, against some women as to that exercise in the church, yet not against all; for himself declares how women, using the exercise, ought to be circumstanced; and recommends Phebe as a minister of the Church which was at Cenchrea: and Philip had four daughters, all preachers and Priscilla, as well as Aquila her husband, was a preacher in the days of the apostles; and she, as well as he, instructed Apollo, further in the way of Christ, though he had been a preacher before. clude, therefore, with truth, that women both may and ought to preach, under the gospel dispensation, when the spirit of the Lord is upon them, and thereunto called, and qualified thereby; and many such we have now among us, very acceptable in their ministry, so that we know by experience that they are sent of God according to the various degrees of their gifts, as well as the men, and receive them accordingly in the Lord. I con She heard what I said with candor and patience, and I took leave of her with great satisfaction in my mind. And this visit being over, I returned to the house of our friend Alice Hays; where I related the passage, with other circumstances here omitted, to several Friends there at that time, which well affected them; and we were all favored with the divine presence on the occasion, and had a very comfortable time together in prayer, after which we departed thence towards Albans, where we had appointed a meeting that afternoon, after which we went to Hartford. The next day we had a meeting there (at Hartford) which was at first very hard and shut up, but ended well, in a weighty sense of the divine presence. [Thus he travelled on to about twenty six meetings, and giving an account of an "act of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland," and writing a long but interesting letter to an unknown friend, occupying together, with an account of the meetings, about thirty pages, he states on page 121] After this, the same summer, I had an interview and conference with the same person, who was convinced of the way of Truth; but being engaged in election of marriage, would not decline that, nor embrace the cross of Christ, and despise the shame; and so fell back, and never made any profession with us. On First-day, about this time, came Thomas Kent, preacher to the separate meeting at Harp Lane, London, and Arthur Ismay, another separate preacher out of the country, to our meeting in Whitehart Court, in Grace-Church street, and many of the separates of Harp Lane meeting with them, with intent (as appeared by their management) to impose themselves and preachment upon our said meeting, which was very large. And Ismay, being of a large body, and a bold and unmortified soul, with a loud, strong voice, began early, before the meeting was half gathered; and went on with abundance of ranting matter, such as he used to vent, and held it till near the time to break up the meeting; and then Thomas Kent snatched an opportunity to pray; in which he made many protestations to the Almighty of his innocence, in things of which several persons there present knew him to be guilty. But as his own disciples, and several other weak and inadvertent persons, together with some strangers, not of our communion, moved their hats in posture of prayer at the same time; though Friends generally kept their hats on, and some reproved Thomas Kent in the mean time for his imposition on the meeting; and I being there and under a very great concern, by reason of this attempt and usurpation, as soon as the meeting was broken up over his head, I called to the people to stay, and hear me a few words, which generally they did. And then I said, "That considering the disturbance and confusion which had then happened; where when one goes to prayer, or pretends to pray to the Almighty, as if he were the mouth of the assembly in that exercise, some seem to join with him, some reprove and forbid him in the meantime, and the greater part reject him and his performance, as not having any unity with him therein; (which might perplex many, and be offensive to several sober persons there present, who could not know the reason of such conduct,) I therefore put them in mind of the direction of our Lord Jesus Christ, where he saith, If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.'" (Mat. v. 23-24.) (To be continued.) IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURE. The improvements in manufacturing textile fabrics, especially those made of cotton, have been so great during the last century, that progress in other directions has been almost overlooked. The attention which has been concentrated on one branch by the productive arts, has withdrawn observation from all others. Yet the changes which a hundred years have wrought in agriculture, are scarcely less wonderful than those which have been brought about in manufactures during the same period. If the spinning jenny has supplanted the household wheel; if one power loom now does the work of fifty family ones; if ingenious machines have emancipated woman from the drudgery of the distaff and shuttle, not the less have the steamreaper, the steam-thresher, and the steam plow lightened the severe labors of the farmer, trebled the capacity of mother-earth, and produced an entire revolution in husbandry. In these improvements, England, in the main, has led the United States. When Arthur Young wrote, eighty years ago, whole counties of Great Britain, which are now among the richest corn-producing regions in the world, were comparatively barren heaths. The introduction of roots, the practice of drilling, the cultivation of finer breeds of cattle, the study of scientific manures, and a general reform in agricultural implements of all descriptions, had wrought miracles in English farming, even before steam began to be applied to husbandry. It has only been within the last fifteen years that this mighty motive power has come into use in farming, even in Great Britain; but in that period it has spread with great rapidity. The single town of Lincoln turns out annually five hundred agricultural steam engines. In all the purely rural counties there are one or more firms wholly devoted to this business. The reform, too, is only in its infancy. Long before the century is out, steam will be employed in farming, to an extent which few, except the most sanguine, dream of even now. And these United States will be the theatre on which its greatest victories will be achieved. The vast plains of the West seem as if created for this very purpose. Over their level surface the steam plow will move, in a few years, as unnoticed as the locomotive does at present; for it will have become a fixture in every neighborhood, if not on every farm. It was but a few months ago that a spectator, standing on a swell of land in Illinois, counted more than a hundred reaping machines cutting grain all around the horizon. In less than another generation, the steam-plow will be as ordinary a sight. Already, in England, experiment has demonstrated the practicability of a machine of this description. An engine and apparatus, costing about four thousand dollars, has there ploughed its ten acres daily, working well over all soils except rocky ones, but especially on clays. The steam-plow, however, is only in its infancy. It is destined to be greatly simplified and cheapened, as has been the case with all other similar inventions; and when thus made more practically available, who can doubt that it will come into almost uni versal use? THE INVENTION OF SPECTACLES. Familiar as we are with spectacles, they were not invented immediately upon the invention of transparent glass. A writer of old Rome, Seneca, has indeed remarked, that through a glass-ball, filled with water the letters of a book were seen in a magnified form; and an Arabian writer of the eleventh century, named Alhazen, states, that by means of a glass ball, all kinds of small objects may be seen enlarged. There was a long interval, however, between the knowledge of this fact, and the representation of such flat These improvements in agriculture, it is worthy of note, make their appearance precisely when most needed. The tendency of modern civilization is to aggregate masses into cities, to the neglect of the country and the disturbance of the true equilibrium of society. This ten-tened, round (convex) ground glasses, as render dency has its origin, in part, in the less la- the same service in a much better and more conla-venient way. The use of such glasses, raisedborious character of handicraft occupations. But the introduction of machinery into agri- on both sides, for eye-glasses or spectacles, was culture removes much of the drudgery of farm-taught to modern nations by the Italians. The first inventor of spectacles was a nobleman of ing, and so far forth obviates a principal objection to that pursuit. The period of time is Tuscany, named in the inscription on his graverapidly approaching, indeed, in consequence of stone in the Church of Maria Maggiore at Florthese reforms, when agriculture will be regarded According to others, to the Dominican monk, ence: Salvino degli Armati. He died in 1317. as a pursuit peculiarly fitted for intelligent men. Alexander de Spina, who died in 1313, belongs In fact, it has already become so, and needs, only time to have it acknowledged. Happy will a part of the glory of the invention, or at least of its more common application. For when Spina had seen and admired a pair of spectacles and he in vain inquired of the man, in whose possession they were, how they were made, he betook himself to work, and without further delay, fell upon the plan of giving a convex sursaucer-like concave cup, and by rubbing or grindface to a round disk of glass by placing it in a ing it down for a long time with a fine powder description, were at first placed in a frame, at a Two glasses of this distance from each other corresponding to the distance between the eyes, and fastened to a cap tacles were to be used, and afterwards pushed which was drawn over the brows when the specback. Soon the bows or arms of the spectacles were bent in front so as to rest upon the nose. were added, made of horn, and the spectacles it be for the world, when the cultivation of the soil occupies, once more, a just proportion of mankind.-P. Ledger. HOW RAIN IS FORMED. of rotten stone or emery. AN EASY METHOD FOR KNOWING THE PRINCIPAL STARS. To understand the philosophy of this phenomena, essential to the very existence of plants and animals, a few facts, derived from observation and a long train of experiments, must be remembered. Were the atmosphere everywhere. at all times, at a uniform temperature, we should never have rain, hail or snow. The water absorbed by it in evaporation from the sea and the earth's surface would descend in an imperceptible vapor, or cease to be absorbed by the air, when it was once fully saturated. The absorbing power of the atmosphere, and consequently its capability to retain humidity, is proportionably greater in warm than in cold air. The air near the surface of the earth is warmer than it is in the region of the clouds. The higher we When the almanac shews the rising, setting, ascend from the earth, the colder we find the atmosphere. Hence the perpetual snow on very magnitude is so posited at the given time; and, or southing of a star, observe which of the first high mountains, in the hottest climates. Now when, from continued evaporation, the air is by then noting its arrangement with other stars highly saturated with vapor-though it be in- or constellations, it may be known ever after, if visible if its temperature is suddenly reduced a fixed star; or for the present season of the by cold currents descending from above, or rush-current year, if one of the planets. Thus, even ing from a higher to a lower latitude, its capacity to retain moisture is diminished, clouds are formed, and the result is rain. Air condenses as it cools, and, like a sponge filled with water and compressed, pours out the water which its diminished capacity cannot hold. How singular, yet how simple, is such an arrangement for watering the earth.-Scientific American. their friends and one another, by pointing out children may innocently and instructively amuse several of the most conspicuous, by name, and finding the time of night by them with the al manac. Flowers are the alphabet of angels, wherewith they write on hills and plains mysterious truth. "Be still and know that I am God."--PSALM 46: When anguish chills the wildered heart, And seals the eyes that long for tears; When words no comfort can impart; When through the storm of doubts and fears, Comes a still voice-a voice from Heaven, That bids us humbly bear the rod : Be still, and know that I am God Thus came the word in days of old, To men who paths of suffering trod; And now, though myriad days have rolled, To melt the iciness of woe, EXTRACT. Boston Courier. There's not a heath, however rude, But hath some little flower To brighten up its solitude, And scent the evening hour. There's not a heart however cast By grief and sorrow down, But hath some memory of the past To love and call its own. MY SISTER. Up many flights of crazy stairs, Dwells my sister. There is no carpet upon the floor, The wind whistles in through the cracks of the door; She once was blooming and young and fair, When at early morning, to rest her head, But the bright sun shines on her and on me, Still she's our sister, Household Words. From the New York American. "They made a funeral oration at the grave, after which they prayed, then turning the face of the deceased towards Heaven, they said "Go in peace." HEBREW ANTIQUITIES. Go thou in peace-we may not bid thee linger Amid the sunlight and the gloom of earth, Go thou in peace-thy home on earth now leaving Go thou in peace-why are the loved ones weeping Its light and glory on thy dwelling throws. Go thou in peace-temptation cannot sever M. J. W. THE MOUNTAIN IN THE MAIN. Lord Dufferin sailed from Iceland in his schooner-yacht, the Foam, a little vessel of about eighty tons burden, being accompanied in his expedition by a French steamer of 1100 tons, the Reine Hortense, on board of which was his Imperial highness Prince Napoleon. The prince suggested that the Reine Hortense should take the Foam in tow; and in this way over 300 miles of the voyage to Jan Mayen was performed. At this point, however, the French vessel, falling short of coal, was obliged to return, leaving Lord Dufferin, who was unwilling to go back, to buffet his way forward amidst fog and ice, as well as the skill and hardihood of himself and crew, and the sailing powers of his little schooner, might enable him. I confess,' says he, 'our situation, too, was not altogether without causing me a little anxiety. We had not seen the sun for two days; it was very thick, with a heavy sea, and dodging about as we had been among the ice, at the heels of the steamer, our dead reckoning was not very much to be depended upon. The best plan, I thought, would be to stretch away at once clear of the ice, then run up into the latitude of Jan Mayen, and, as soon as we should have reached the parallel of its northern extremity, bear down on the land.' The ship's course was shaped in accordance with this view, and as about mid-day the weather began to moderate, there appeared a prospect of getting on for some time favorably. By four o'clock in the afternoon, they were skimming |