depend greatly on the presence of electricity in our bodies; and during long-continued rain, the dampness of the atmosphere absorbs a large portion of it; for this reason, he advises that a silk waistcoat be worn next the skin; silk being a non-conductor of electricity. Perhaps this precaution might diminish the number of suicides in the foggy month of November, when Englishmen are so prone to hang and drown themselves.'

Animal magnetism is connected, in some unexplained way, with electricity. All those who have tried it, are aware that there is a metallic feeling 'occasioned by the magnetic passes—a sort of attraction, as one might imagine the magnet and the steel to feel when brought near each other. The magnetizer passes his hands over the subject, without touching, and at the end of each operation shakes them, precisely as if he were conducting off electric fluid. If this is the actual effect, the drowsiness, stupor, and final insensibility, may be occasioned by a cause similar to that which produces heaviness and depression of spirits in rainy weather. Why it should be so, in either case, none can tell. The most learned have no knowledge what electricity is; they can only tell what it does, not how it does it.

That the state of the atmosphere has prodigious effect on human temperament, is sufficiently indicated by the character of nations. The Frenchman owes his sanguine hopés, his supple limbs, his untiring vivacity, to a genial climate; to this too, in a great measure, the Italian owes his pliant gracefulness and impulsive warmth. The Dutchman, on his level marshes, could never dance La Sylphide; nor the Scotch girl, on her foggy hills, become an improvisatrice. The French dance into everything, on everything, and over everything; for they live where the breezes dance among vines, and the sun

showers down gold to the piper; and dance they must, for gladsome sympathy. We call them of 'mercurial' temperament; according to Dr. Franklin's theory, they are surcharged with electricity.

In language too how plainly one perceives the influence of climate! Languages of northern origin abound in consonants, and sound like clanging metals, or the tipping up of a cartload of stones. The southern languages flow like a rill that moves to music; the liquid vowels so sweetly melt into each other. This difference is observable even in the dialect of our northern and southern tribes of Indians. At the north, we find such words as Carratunk, Scowhegan, Norridgewock, and Memphremagog; at the south, Pascagoula, Santee, and that most musical of all names, Oceola.

Climate has had its effect too on the religious ideas of nations. How strongly does the bloody Woden and the thundering Thor, of northern mythology, contrast with the beautiful Graces and gliding Nymphs of Grecian origin. As a general rule, sometimes affected by local causes,-southern nations cling to the pictured glory of the Catholic church, while the northern assimilate better with the severe plainness of the Protestant.

If I had been reared from infancy under the cloudless sky of Athens, perhaps I might have bounded over the earth, as if my 'element were air, and music but the echo of my steps; the caution that looks where it treads, might have been changed for the ardent gush of a Sappho's song; the sunbeams might have passed into my soul, and written itself on the now thoughtful countenance in perpetual smiles.

Do you complain of this, as you do of phrenology, and say that it favours fatalism too much? I answer, no matter what it favours, if it be truth. No two truths over devoured each other, or ever can. Look among the families of your acquaintance-you will see two brothers vigorous, intelligent, and enter

prising; the third was like them, till he fell on his head, had fits, and was ever after puny and stupid. There are two sunny-tempered, graceful girls-their sister might have been as cheerful as they, but their father died suddenly, before her birth, and the mother's sorrow chilled the fountains of her infant life, and she is nervous, deformed, and fretful. Is there no fatality, as you call it, in this? Assuredly, we are all, in some degree, the creatures of outward circumstance; but this in nowise disturbs the scale of moral responsibility, or prevents equality of happiness. Our responsibility consists in the use we make of our possessions, not on their extent. Salvation comes to all through obedience to the light they have, be it much or little. Happiness consists not in having much, but in wanting no more than we have. The idiot is

as happy in playing at jack straws, or blowing bubbles all the livelong day, as Newton was in watching the great choral dance of the planets. The same universe lies above and around both. 'The mouse

can drink no more than his fill at the mightiest river;' yet he enjoys his draught as well as the elephant. Thus are we all unequal, yet equal. That we are, in part, creatures of necessity, who that has tried to exert free will, can doubt? But it is a necessity which has power only over the outward, and can never change evil into good, or good into evil. It may compel us to postpone or forbear the good we would fain do, but it cannot compel us to commit the evil. If a consideration of all these outward influences teach us charity for the deficiencies of others, and a strict watch over our own weaknesses, they will perform their appropriate office.

"There is so much of good among the worst, so much of evil in the best, Such seeming partialities in Providence, so many things to lessen and

expand,

Yea, and with all man's boast, so little real freedom of his will,

That to look a little lower than the surface, garb, or dialect, or fashion, Thou shalt feebly pronounce for a saint, and faintly condemn for a sinner.'

LETTER XXXVI.

March, 1843.

I went, a few evenings ago, to the American Museum, to see fifteen Indians, fresh from the western forest. Sacs, Fox, and lowas; really important people in their respective tribes. Nan-Nouce-Fush-E-To, which means the Buffalo King, is a famous Sac chief, sixty years old, covered with scars, and grim as a Hindoo god, or pictures of the devil on a Portuguese contribution box, to help sinners through purgatory. It is said that he has killed with his own hand one hundred Osages, three Mohawks, two Kas, two Sioux, and one Pawnee; and if we may judge by his organ of destructiveness, the story is true; a more enormous bump I never saw in that region of the skull. He speaks nine Indian dialects, has visited almost every existing tribe of his race, and is altogether a remarkable personage. Mon-To-Gah, the White Bear, wears a medal from President Monroe, for certain services rendered to the whites. Wa-Con-To

Kitch-Er, is an Iowa chief, of grave and thoughtful countenance, held in much veneration as the Prophet of his tribe. He sees visions, which he communicates to them for their spiritual instruction. Among the Squaws is No-Nos-See, the She Wolf, a niece of the famous Black Hawk, and very proud of the relationship; and Do-Hum-Me, the Productive Pumpkin, a very handsome woman, with a great deal of heart and happiness in her countenance.

Smiles settled on her sun-flecked cheeks,

Like noon upon the mellow apricot.'

She was married about a fortnight ago, at Philadelphia, to Cow-Hick-He, son of the principal chief of the Iowas, and as noble a specimen of manhood as I ever looked upon. Indeed I have never seen a group of human beings so athletic, well-proportioned,

and majestic. They are a keen satire on our civilized customs, which produce such feeble forms and pallid faces. The unlimited pathway, the broad horizon, the free grandeur of the forest, has passed into their souls, and so stands revealed in their material forms.

We who have robbed the Indians of their lands, and worse still, of themselves, are very fond of proving their inferiority. We are told that the facial angle

This simply proves that the Caucasian race, through a succession of ages, has been exposed to influences eminently calculated to develop the moral and intellectual faculties. That they started, first in the race, might have been owing to a finer and more susceptible nervous organization, originating in climate, perhaps, but serving to bring the physical organization into more harmonious relation with the laws of spiritual reception. But by whatever agency it might have been produced, the nation, or race that perceived even one spiritual idea in advance of others, would necessarily go on improving in geometric ratio, through the lapse of ages. For our Past, we have the oriental fervour, gorgeous imagery, and deep reverence of the Jews, flowing from that high fountain, the perception of the oneness and invisibility of God. From the Greeks, we receive the very Spirit of Beauty, flowing into all forms of Philosophy and Art, encircled by a glorious halo of Platonism, which Far over many a land and age hath shone,

And mingles with the light that beams from God's own throne.' These have been transmitted to us in their own forms, and again reproduced through the classic strength and high cultivation of Rome, and the