than to see the woman steering, poling, hauling the ropes, or employed on some other duties of the craft.-Family Tour.

WHOLESOME QUALITIES OF GOOD ALE.

THE following extracts, from the works of Dr. Paris, may tend to remove the prejudice entertained by some persons against that excellent beverage of an Englishman-beer; and may also convince the unscientific brewer, that no substitute which ingenuity can devise, can serve the purpose of hops, as a valuable ingredient in malt liquor. Extract from Dr. Paris's work on Malt Liquor:

"Malt liquors differ from wines in several essential points: they contain a much larger proportion of nutritive matter, and a less proportion of spirit; while they contain a peculiar bitter and narcotic principle derived from the hop. It would appear that the extractive matter furnished by the malt is highly nutritive; and we accordingly find those persons addicted to such potations are in general fat. The addition of the hop increases the value of ale, by the grateful stimulus which it imparts, and in some measure redeems it from those vices with which it might otherwise be charged. To those, therefore, whose diet is not very nutritive, ale may be considered not only as an innocent, but as a salubrious article; and happy is that country whose labouring classes prefer such a beverage to the mischievous potations of ardent spirit!

These remarks, however, cannot apply to those classes of the community who "fare sumptuously every day." They will not require a nutritive potation of such a character and light wines have, accordingly, in these days of luxury, very properly superseded its use but I am not disposed to extend this remark to its more humble companion, table beer. I regard its dismissal from the tables of the great as a matter of regret; its slight but invigorating bitter is much better adapted to promote digestion than its more costly substitutes. Sydenham always took a glass of small beer at his meals, and he considered it a preservative against gravel. There existed, for a long time, a strong prejudice against hops, which were considered "pernicious

as

weeds;" but it is now generally admitted that they constitute the most valuable ingredient in malt liquors. Independent of the flavour and tonic virtues which they communicate, they precipitate, by means of their astringent principle, the vegetable mucilage, and thus remove from the beer the 2D. SERIES, NO. 26.-VOL. III.

The following is extracted from the "Pharmacologia," by the same physician :

"The great superiority of the hop, as an ingredient in our malt liquors, depends upon the fact of its containing within itself several distinct and independent elements of activity, which the other bitter herbs that have at different times been employed as its substitute, do not possess. The philosophy of its operation may be adduced as a striking illustration of the present subject: first, then, it contains a bitter principle, which imparts to the beverage a tonic quality and an agreeable flavour; while at the same time an aromatic ingredient adds a warm and stimulant property, and modifies the bitterness. The hop, moreover, contains an astringent ingredient (tannin and gallic acid,) the effects of which are to precipitate the vegetable mucilage, and thus to remove from the beer the active principle of its fermentation; every attempt therefore to substitute an ordinary bitter for that of the hop, must necessarily fail, unless a compound can be so artfully constructed as to contain, in due proportions, the principles of bitterness, astringency, and aroma. Quassia must therefore necessarily prove but a sorry substitute; it will impart bitterness enough, but it will not modify by agreeable aroma; and, as it contains no astringent principle, it will fail in precipitating the vegetable mucilage or gluten; in consequence of which, the beer so manufactured will be in a perpetual state of fermentation until it is entirely spoiled."

RELIGIOUS SPUNGING.

(From an American Paper.) THERE is a practice prevalent in our country, and, if we have been rightly informed, it is not altogether unknown in England, which appears both unjust and disgraceful; I allude to a species of religious mendicity, which many well-meaning persons adopt, who, on leaving their homes for the promotion of their private business, spunge their living out of their acquaintances, or no acquaintances, among the members of the church to which they belong. This is more particularly the case with persons who travel for the purpose of obtaining subscribers for religious works, or for peddling religious books. These persons, it is believed, would not go out, were it not for the hope of personal gain. Their business then is for their own profit, just as much as

if they were engaged as tin pedlars, or in any other honest employment. Now, I have said that this spunging is both disgraceful and unjust. That it is disgraceful, I need no farther proof than to quote Webster's definition of the verb to Spunge: "To gain by mean arts, by intrusion or hanging_on;" "a hanger on." That it is unjust, I think is equally clear; for it is taking advantage of the hospitality of mankind, to get a living, while pursuing business for their own private gain. I do not hesitate to pronounce the money saved in this way unjust gain. Families do not wish to be intruded upon in this way by strangers. I have heard many remarks on this subject, which I forbear to mention, in hopes that what has been said will be sufficient to put a stop to this disgraceful practice.

"LOVE, THAT WORKETH NO ILL TO HIS NEIGHBOUR."

United States, Oct. 10, 1831.

GOOD WIVES AND GOOD HUSBANDS.

GooD wives and good husbands are essential to social happiness and public morals. From them infancy derives its first impressions, youth its morals and society the character of his members. On them rest in a very high degree the pillars of human happiness. Moral or social delinquencies in them invariably exert, to a greater or less extent, a pernicious influence upon others, and not unfrequently give the hue of impiety to the moral complexion of succeeding generations. But if our views are bounded by present considerations alone, as there is no relation so intimate as that of husband and wife, so there is none on which the best interests of mankind are so much depending. The following characteristics of a good wife and a good husband are extracted from the Rev. James Moore-(Christian Guardian.)

A good Wife.-The good wife is one who, ever mindful of the solemn contract she has entered into, is strictly and conscientiously virtuous, constant, and faithful to her husband; chaste, pure, and unblemished in every thought, word, and deed: she is humble and modest from reason and conviction, submissive from choice, and obedient from inclination; what she acquires by love and tenderness, she preserves by prudence and discretion: she makes it her business to serve, and her pleasure to oblige her husband, as conscious that every thing which promotes his happiness must in the end contribute to her own: her tenderness relieves his cares; her affection softens his distress; her good humour and compla

cency lessen and subdue his afflictions: "She openeth her mouth," as Solomon says, "with wisdom, and her tongue is the law of kindness: she looketh well to the ways of of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness: her children rise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." Lastly, as a good pious Christian, she looks up with an eye of gratitude to the great Dispenser and Disposer of all things, to the Husband of the widow, and Father of the fatherless, entreating his divine favour and assistance in this and every other moral and religious duty; well satisfied that, if she duly and punctually discharges her several offices and relations in this life, she shall be blessed and rewarded for it in another.

To conclude, therefore, in the language of Solomon, addressed to the good and virtuous wife : "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised." "Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded; for thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name."

A good Husband.-The good husband is one who, wedded not by interest but by choice, is constant as well from inclination as from principle: he treats his wife with delicacy as a woman, with tenderness as a friend he attributes her folly to her weakness, her imprudence to her inadvertency; he passes them over therefore with good nature, and pardons them with indulgence: all his care and industry are employed for her welfare; all his strength and power are exerted for her support and protection; he is more anxious to preserve his own character and reputation, because her's is blended with it: lastly, the good husband is pious and religious, that he may animate her faith by practice, and enforce the precepts of Christianity by his own example; that, as they join to promote each others happiness in this world, they may unite to insure eternal joy and felicity in that which

is to come.

HISTORY OF A PHILOSOPHER.

A GENTLEMAN of a liberal education had, according to the fashion of the times, indulged himself, some years ago, in speculations on the improvement of the human race, and the perfectibility of man. By long, deep, and solitary meditations on these subjects, his mind became unsettled, and his reason gave way. He seemed to himself to want nothing but power, to make mankind happy; and at length he became convinced that he had a right to that power. The

consequence of this rendered it necessary to confine him; and about two years afterwards he was removed by his friends from the situation in which he was originally fixed, and placed under my care. At the time of which I speak, he was become perfectly calm he was on general subjects rational, and on every subject acute; but the original hallucinations were as fixed as ever. In occasional discussions of his visionary projects, I had urged, of my own suggestion, the objection, that when men became so happy as he proposed to make them, they would increase too fast for the limits of the earth. He felt the force of this; and after much meditation, proposed a scheme for enlarging the surface of the globe, and a project for an act of parliament for this purpose, in a letter addressed to Mr. Pitt, very well expressed and seriously meant, but which, if published, would appear satirical and ludicrous in a highdegree.

Having had occasion to mention his situation to his brother, a man of letters, he proposed that an experiment should be made of putting the quarto edition of Malthus's essay into his hands; to which I assented. It was given him last autumn, and he read it with the utmost avidity and seeming attention. In my visits, I did not mention the subject to him, but desired the keeper to watch him narrowly. After finishing the persual, he got pen, ink, and paper, and sat down, seemingly with an intention to answer it, or to write notes upon it; but he did not finish a single sentence, though he began many. He then sat down to read the book again aloud, and finished his second persual in a few days, not omitting a single word, but stopping at times, and apparently bewildered. I now spoke to him, and introduced the subject; but he was sullen and impatient. He became very thoughtful, walked at a great pace in his airing ground, and stopped occasionally to write, if I may so speak, words, but more frequently numbers, with a switch in the sand. These he obliterated as I approached him. This continued some days, and he appeared to grow less thoughtful; but his mind had taken a melancholy turn. One afternoon he retired into his room, on the pretence of drowsiness. The keeper called him in a few hours, but he did not answer. He entered, and found the sleep he had fallen into was the sleep of death. He had "shuffled off his mortal coil." *

*

I have no doubt that he perceived sufficiently the force of Malthus's argument, to see the wreck of all his castle-building, and that this produced the melancholy catastrophe.-Memoirs of Dr. Currie.

INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A RASCAL.

"His name is never heard."

LATE one evening a packet of letters just arrived by the English mail, was handed to Mynheer Von Kapell, a merchant of Hamburgh.--His head clerk awaited, as usual, for any orders which might arise from their contents; and was not a little surprised to observe the brow of his wealthy employer suddenly clouded; again and again he perused the letter he held, at last audibly giving vent to his feelings:

"Donder and blitzen!" he burst forth, "but this is a shock-who would have thought it? The house of Bennett and Ford to be shaken thus! What is to be done?"

"Bennett and Ford failed!" cried the astonished clerk.

"Failed! not so bad as that; but they are in deep distress, and have suffered a heavy loss; but read, good Yansen! and let me have your advice!"

The clerk read as follows;

London, August 21.

"Most respected Friend.

"Yours of the 5th instant came safe to hand, and will meet prompt attention. We have to inform you, with deep regret, that a son of a trust-worthy cashier of this long-established house has absconded, taking with him bills accepted by our firm to a large amount, as per margin; and a considerable sum in cash. We have been able to trace the misguided young man to a ship bound for Holland, and we think it probable he may visit Hamburgh, (where our name is so well known, and, we trust, so highly respected,) for the purpose of converting these bills into cash. He is a tall, handsome youth, about five feet eleven inches, with dark hair and eyes; speaks French and German well; and was dressed in deep mourning, in consequence of the recent death of his mother. If you should be able to find him, we have to request you will use your utmost endeavours to regain possession of the bills named in the margin; but, as we have a high respect for the father of the unfortunate young man, we will further thank you to procure for him a passage on board the first vessel sailing for Batavia, paying the expense of his voyage, and giving him the sum of two hundred louis d'or, which you will place to our account current, on condition that he does not attempt to revisit England until he receives permission so to do.

"We are, most respected friend, your obedient servants,

“ BENNETT, FORD, & Co. "Mynheer Von Kapell."