BY D. A. 4,C. H. BUEHLER. VOLUME XXIII.I A Trifling Falsehood liffueriets human belief against the Bible more that gigantic truth in favor of it. xxxxx Li 1 An, English traveller (Brydone) wrote 116114taillithed a description of Mount Et a. describes her craters and extend ded,slope, covered occasionally for twenty qpilescr, more, along the Side of the..moun tate, with vines,, villages and luxuriance. Theeth srs sometimes destroyed by the river or pelted lava, which issues from the moudtain above; many feet, deep, and a 'hide (perhaps more, sometimes less,) in 'Wider, bearing all before it, until it reach tbeaen mid drives back its Wiling waves. 'After This burning stream has cooled, there is seen, instead of blooming gardens, a nalte&dreary, laws!' ierroe k Sometimes many eruptions occur in the course of a year, breaking out at different parts of the moseusin, and sometimes none for half a seniaryt,.... The traveller found a stream of We, congealed on the side of a mountain, which attracted his notice more than oth ers. lie thought it must have been thrown out by an eruption, mentioned by (perhaps) Polybius, as occurring nearly seventeen hundred years since. There was no soil on it. It was u naked as when first ar rested there. The particles of dust float althrough the air had not fallen there, so to furnish hold for vegetation, and these vegetables had not grown and decayed a gain and again, thus adding to the depth of the soil. Such a work lied not even commenced. He tells us dint on some partof that mount, near the foot, if you will sink a pit, you must pass through sev en different strata of lava, with two feet of soil between them. Upon the supposition that two thousand years are requisite for the increase of earth just named, he asks how seven different layers could he formed in less than 14,000 years. The chronology of Moses makes the world not half as old. The Englishman was jocular at this dis covery : and his admirers were delighted at what scented to them a confutation of the book of heaven. How many thou sands through Europe renounced their be lief of Hevehition with this discovery for their prop, the author of this treatise is unable even to conjecture. It seems that aunty parts of Europe almost rang at the news •of the analogical theory. True. the traveller only conjectured that he had found the lava mentioned by the ancient writer but no matter, supposition only was strong enough to rivet their unbelief. The author has conversed with those in America, and on her Western plains, who would declare they believed not a word of the Bible, because there was no soil on a stratum of lava, which, in all probability, had not been there long. Another learned Englishman, an admirer of the books of Moses, wrote to those who seemed to joy SO greatly in their new system. Ile told them that, inasmuch as they seemed fond of arguing from analogies, he would give them an additional one. Ile reminded them that the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii were buried by the eruption, in which the elder Pliny lust his life, nearly seventeen hundred years since. Those cities have lately been discovered ; and in diggingdown to search their streets, six dif ferent strata of lava are passed through, with two feet of earth between them.— And the famous WRIbOII tells them, that if six different soils near Vesuvius could be formed in seventeen hundred years, per haps seven might be made elsewhere in five thousand years. Might we not sup pose that those who had renounced their belief of Christianity, after reading some conjectures concerning Etna, would have resumed their faith as soon as these Ire suvianfacts were placed before them 1— No, it was net so. It was easy todescend, but they never re-ascended. Men love darkness rather than light. Thousands who snatched at the objection with joyful avidity, never read the confutation. They never inquired for an answer. Those who read wore afterwards silent, but remained unaltered. A lawyer who stood so high with his fellow-citizens, for worth and in telligence, that he filled many offices of trust, had hie credence of the sacred page shaken by reading the imaginary system, built on the surface of Etna's lave streams. Ile took the book to a friend, to show him what reason we have for casting oil our reverence for the Bible. This friend turn ed over a few pages of the book, where this same traveller, after telling how many eruptintis sometimes happen in the course of it month, goes one to narrate the fol. resting history : •60ur landlord at Nicolas'," he says. "gave us an account of the singular fate of the beautiful country near Hybla, at no greet distance from hence. It was so cel ebrated for its fertility, and particularly for its honey, that it was called Me! An si, (the Honey Land,) till it was over. whelmed by the lava of Etna ; and having then become totally barren, by a kind of putt its name was changed to Mal (the mean land.) lu a second eruption. by a shower of ashes from the mountain, it soon re-assumed its ancient beauty and fertility, and for many years was called Pauli (the beautiful land.) Last of all, the unfortunate era of 1039, it was again laid under an ocean of fire and redu ced to the most Wretched " sterility, since which time "It it-known again by its se concli:etppellation Afalrassi." T lawyet was staked if' his dißieul ties were in any way obtiated by this ra pidity of change (torn soil to nakedhessi andfliout nudity 16 sail again, narrated by . the' name original discoverer of the whole' theory/ • He snowed in the negative, and con-' tinned ,obstiestely to cast away.thellook of fiibd 1 Thousands ol cases happen con. thundly, where the individual it as,eeedity and as speedily turned into thit'patit of ins. fidelity, and white Wee there Continues to trace it with' invincible pertinaeity.;" Alen (withoutkuonintit)fitue Airline/ 'ntr/Aer than light ' .c.xtrtra. , • . • . 'Prften some travellers in •4- 5 ,4 i !CIO back that the Chinese record' made the peantl -year. olfier than I ick '• doe.' itdieit rejoiced ii It+i>iitt'bf ta. M • ilitenetti l' I '"04, t 1 1iiii• they clip- . tNeiit lisp fl I' We thodght,' tient ihiy; thet l the Bildt was A fanddifibti, thy of , belief. If any wrote' or said io those who were tithe becoming edoffers' at Revelation-410 not be too hasty itt your conclusions : how can you tell but thit na tional vanity may have saute share ht ex citing those who speak of their Celestial Empire, to claim a Spurious antiquity ?" they turned away or elosed their ears with satisfied confidence. They seemed to -wish for no-further information. After a time some additional items were publish ed from Chinese history, such as the fol lowing : They tell the name of their first king, which would sound in the ear of some as a corruption of the word Noah. The time they assign for his reign corresponds with the age of Noah. They speak of this king as being without father; of his ! mother being encircled with the rainbow ; ' of his preserving seven c!ean animals to sacrifice to the Great Spirit ; that, in his day the sky fell on the'earth, and destroy ed the race of men, die. When we re member that the waters of the sky did'this in the days of Noah ; that Noah was the first of the post diluvian age, and thus washout father; that the rainbow is inter-' estingly connected with his history ; that he did take into the ark clean animals by sevens, part of which were offered in sa. critics : we begin to discover that the Chinese account is nothing more or less then -a blotted copy of the troth. See Starkhouse's History of the Bible. We gather from Moses that, between the creation and the deluge, there were ten generations of men, surpassing us greatly in longevity. It would be no tortured in ference to suppose them vastly our supe riors, both in strengh and stature. This kind of men the heathen, in ages past, were in the habit of calling gods after their! death. The Chinese account speaks of! ' ten dynasties of superior beings, who rul ed in their country a thousand years each before the sky fell on the earth. It is not hard to see that this is only a different and a singular manner of relating the same facts. But why did (and do now) many of the seemingly learned choose to sup- ; pose that each father ended his race before the son began to live 1 It ryas for the purpose of stretching out the time, between the deluge and the creation, to ten thous and years. Moses informs us that each of these ten generations did extend near a thousand years ; but lie lets us know that a son and his lather, walked !Midi of their earthly race together. The journey oil each was long ; but it was a simultaneous travel. For the purpose (il possible) oil extending the earth's chronology beyond; die dates of Revelation, multitudes have taken partial extracts from hearsay re cords ; and then, to prevent these frag ments from agreeing with, or upholding the history they hate, have twisted them with labor and ingenuily falling even then to construct a passable cavil agaiitt the truth ! What is the reason of this strange hungering and thirsting after mean talsehood, rather than the wonders of a glo- I rions truth T It is because men love dark ness rather than light. Those who cast i away all reverence for Holy writ, as soon as some one said in their hearing that the Chinese Record contradicted jHoses, ne ver seemed to inquire further. They ask- 1 ed not after any additional account ; or if they were shown that all these heathen tra ditions were simply the truth, preserved in a dress more or less awkward, they were silent ; but they did not return to the place where they once stood. They con tinued scoffers at Christianity.—Action's Cause and Curefor lqfidelity." FiCT TO BE ELOQUENT UPON.—An in telligent gentleman of fortune, says the Bangor Whig. visited a country village in Maine, not far Irons Bangor, and was hos pitably entertained and lodged by a gentle man having three daughters—two of whom, in rich dresses, entertained the distinguish ed stanger in the parlour, while one kept herself in the kitchen, assisting her moth. er in preparing loud and setting the table fox tea, and after supper, in doing the work till it was finally completed, when she also joined her sisters in the parlour for the remainder of the evening. The next morning the same daughter was again early in the kitchen, while the other two were in the parlour. The gentleman.; like Franklin, possessed a discriminating mind—was a close observer of the habits of the young ladies—watched the oppor tunity and whispered something in the ' ear of the industrious one, and then left for a time, but revisited the same family; and in about one year the' young lady of the kitchen was conveyed to Boston the wife of the same gentleman visitor, where she now presides at an elegant mansion. The gentleman whose fortune site Shares,' sae won by a judicious deportment and! well-directed industry. So much for an industrious young lady. A Dutch widower, out west, whose bet ter half departed on the long journey to the spirit land some twelve months ago, determined, the other day, to consult the "Rappers," and endeavored to obtain a spiritual communication, feeling anxious respecting the future state of his wife.— These .rappers," be irknown, ;worn not the genuine "mediums," but of bogus kind - --4dventurers . endeavoring ,resp harvest out of the late . thysieriehallevel• opetnents. fter the usual ceremonies, the spirit of "Mrs:l-falai." mantfeeted rapt Its wlllingnets to cohiaree'Wth her dideattiOlate spouse. dat'you, We. Haunt; 1`" imittired the Detchfitim, • flares, deareet, it is your own wife; whO "You lie, you until ii,ghuat,7 ed flaunt's, Harting from his seat,!.mine frau "speak notting. but Deitch, and the never said A teartsti! in her, life. It was always ullaunta, you tier "Haunts, you tirtyq, iihkamp and the Data man hobbled horn ihn prin that *lin, ..srapplu4 ain't:jut" were all titunbuit, ancrthai lie Watsafe Oniu m,y„turoer gum., trkt , tion *tilt AIPI# II4 0 1 4 f Howe stithittr to.dts writhrthinergoool 4 ' tuted)blendsv Who nikke cprits.dc#,Oth* ling you kßow•ill'lhis evd *hichibetifr* hoar itrioitill'ibotii GETTYSI,IOI6, I , EVENING; APAI,L,IS I , 18,5;h: fils•smoff..:oo,Mtistig. Ten oriwelier years ago, there was in I t he prison 'at Elrest,'S man Sentenced for I life et the Okra. Tdo norktioW the act nature dr his came, but it Was some thing very atrocious. I never heard eith er, what his former condition of life had been; foreven his name had passed into oblivion; and he was recognized only by a number. Although his features were naturally well formed their expression was horrible ; every dark and evil passion seemed to have left its impress there ; and his character fully responded to its outward indications.' Metinous, gloomy and re vengeful, he often hazarded his fife in des. perate attempts In escape, which hitherto had proved abortiie. Once, during win ter, he succeeded in gaining the fields, and supported, for several diys, the extremity of cold and bungee. flu was found, at length, half frozen and insendible under a tree, and brought back to prison;• where, with difficulty, he was restored to life.— The ward-master watched him more close ly, and punished him more severely by far, than the other prisoners, while a double chain was added to his heavy fet- I ters. Several times he attempted suicide, but failed, through the vigilance of his I guards. The only resultirof his experi ments in this line were an asthma, caused by a nail which he hammered into his cheat, and the loss of an arm, which he fractered in leaping eff wall. A- 1 ter suffering amputation, and a six months' sojourn in the hospital, he returned to his hopeless life-long task-work. One day, this man's fierce humor seem ed softened. After the hours of labor, he seated himself, with the companion in misery to whom he was chained, in a cor- 1 ner of the court ; and his repulsive "coun tenance assumed a mild expression.— Words of tenderness were uttered by the lips Which - heretofore had opened only to, blaspheme ; and with his head bent down I he watched some object concealed in his bosom. The guards looked at him with disquiet ude, believing that ho had some weapon hidden within his clothes ; and two of them approaching him stealthily from be hind, seized !inn roughly, and began to search him, before he could make any re sistance. Finding himself completely in their power, the convict exclaimed : "Oh, don't kill him ! Pray don't kill hint !" As he spoke, one of the guards had gain ed possession of a large rat, which the fel lon had kept next his bosom. "Don't kill him'" he repeated. "Beat toe ; chain me ; do what you like with me ; but dont hurt my pour rat ! Don't squeeze him so betwpco ) out lingers ! It you will not give him back to me let him go free !" And while he spoke for the first time, probably, since his chilhood, tears filled his eyes and ran down his cheecks. Rough and hardened men as were the guards, they could not listen to the convict, and see his tears without some feeling of compassion. He who was about to strangle the rat, opened his tiugcrs and let it it fall to the ground. The terrified ani mal fled with the speed peculiar to its spe cies, and disappeared behind a pile of beams and rubbish. The felon wiped away his tears, looked anxiously alter the rat, and scarcely breath ed until ho had seen it out of danger.— Then lie rose, and silently, with the old savage look, followed his companion in bonds, and luy downon their iron headatead, where a ring and chain fastened them to a massive bar of the same metal. Next morning on his way to work, the convict, whose pale face showed that he had passed a sleepless night, cast an anxious glance towards the pile of wood, and gave a low peculiar call to which nothing re- plied. One of hfs comrades uttered some harmless jest on the less of his favorite; am: the reply was a furious blow which felled the speaker, and drew down on the offen der severe chastisement from the task master. Arrived at the place of labor, he worked with a sort of leeverish ardour, as thong h trying to give vent to his pent-up-emotion ; and, while stooping over a large beam, which he and some others were trying to raise, he felt something gently tickle his cheeck. He turned round, and gave a shout of joy. There, on his shoulder, was the on ly friend he had in the world—his rat ! who, with marvellous instinct, had found him out, and crept gently up to his face.— He took the animal in Ida hands, covered it with kisses, placed it within his nest, and then addressing the head goaler, who hap pened to pass by at the moment, be said : "Sir, if you will allow inn to keep this rat, I will solemnly promise to submit to you in,every thing, and never again to in cur:punishment." The ruler gave a sign of acquiesence, and passed on. Thd convict opened hib shirt, and gave one more lond look at faithful pet, and then contentedly resumed his labor. That which neither threats nor impris onment, the scourge nor the chain, could effect, was accomplished, and rapidly, by the inflitence of love, though int' objectWaa one of the most despised amongst anirnals. From they moment when the formidable convict,was permitted to cherish his pet eight and day in his bosom, he became the most tractable and well , oendeeted man in the prison. Hie' Herculean strength, and his moral energy were both' employed to assist the imernors ip 3naintai?“l4 pencP and'atibordinatiori. Vitte-tar, so he'called his rat, was the object 'of his .unceasjug .tedderneas. lie fed it :before', be *led, . each meal, and'weuld 'rather rao . entirely than it te'be hungry. He' Sieut his brief hours of Veniiiie 'from tinl ittakitit venouslllo eitielee; itrerder'to dein het ihiah Fine= , gar liked f - v gitlerbitind v,a.u g ir, for ex ample. Often, tinting .Ahe perield ,of toil, the convict would amildWith:delight when hts I:9thbilrilmit, ors*/ Coin J4lO place, would rub ittrolV.Piur satinet his `dbobalr;, itut*banie ed . ) Jena iikinshidi 'dey,iihe en thi 'ground. smoothed his aosspeolabeilhie.loat In tne lf t i". ll"l l V in l i gri ti 'M '0 I;; , ; 4 llfifi ed • If idea"; lite',titificiet IE2E2 AND light, awl' exclitage tender entices with the blaCk, ragnish eves of nuister'Fine- Ear. _ The,litteinolfelding in hit patron's care and 'p'n3teetion, 'sabot, came, sported or stood still, cern& that no one' week!' in jure him ; for ickouch a hair of the rat's whiskers would be to incur a• terrible pen alty. One day,for having thrown a peb. We attlnt,n - prtioner was forced to !peril] a week in hatpin), ere he recovered from the effects of a blow bestowed on him by Fine-Ear's mast*. The animal eOOn learned the found of the dinner bell, lied jumped with delight on the convict witen he heard the welcome summons Four years passed rut in this manner, when one day poor Fine-Ear was attack ed by a cat, which had found her way in to the workshorkind received several deep wounds, before master flying to the rescue, seized thefeline fob, and actually tote her to pieces:' The repvery Of the rat was tedious, 'During the next month the 'convict was Occupied in dressing his wounds. It was strange the intermit which every one con nected with the prison took in Fide-Ear's misfortune. Not only did the guards and turnkeys speak ofit as the topic of the day, but the hospital nurses furnished plas ters and bandagerfor the wounds ; and o - en the surgeon condescended to prescribe for him. At length the animal recovered his strength and gayety, save that one of his hind paws dragged a little. and the eicatrice still disfigured the shin. He was more tame and affectionate than ever, but the sight of a cat was sufficient to throw his master into a paroxysm of rage, and, running lif ter the unlucky puss, he would, if possiblei catch and destroy her. A great pleasure was iii store for the convict. Thanks to his good conduct during the past four years, his sentence of imprisonment for life had been committed into twenty years in which were to be in cluded the fatei n already spent in prison. "Thank GI !" he cried, "under His mercy it is thane-Ear I Owe this happi ness !" and he kissed the animal with. transport. Five years still remained to be passed in toilsome imprisonment, but they were cut short in an unlooked-for manner. Otie day a mutinous party of felons suc ceeded in seizing a turnkey, and having shut him up with themselves in oneof the dormitories, they threatenetrto ptit-ttim to death it all. their demands were not instantly complied with, and a full an nesty granted for this revolt. Fine-Ear's master, who had taken no pnrt in the uproar, ,Mood silently behind the otripials ,and stgalph wltut were.. ready to fire on the insurgents. Just as the at tack was about to commence, he approach ed the chief superintendent, and said a few words to him in a low voice. "I accept your offer." replied the goo ermr. "Remember. you risk your life; but if you succeed, I pledge my word that. Sou shall be strongly recommended to the government for unconditional pardon, this very night." The , unviet drew forth Fine• Ear from his bosom, kissed him several tines, and placing him within the -.Tat of a young fellow-prisoner with whom, the rat was alread familiar, he said in a broken voice: "11 1 do not return, be kind to him, and love him as I have loved him.!' Then, having armed Moloch with an enormous bar of iron, he marched with a determined step to the dormitory, without regarding the missiles which the rebels hurled at hie head. With a few hlowa ol the bar he made the door fly open. and darting into the room, he overturned those who opposed hie entrance, threw down his weapon, and seizing the turnkey, put him,or rather flung him, out safe and sound into the passage. While in the act of covering the man's escape from the infuriated convicts, he suddenly fell to the ground,batlied in blood. One of the wretches had lifted the iron bar and struck down with it his heroic comrade. lie was carried dying to the hospital, and, ere he breathed his last, he uttered one word--it was "Fine• Ear !" Must 1 tell it? The rat appeared restless and unhappy for a few days, but he soon forgot his master, and began to testify the' same affection for his new owner that ho had formerly shown to him who was dead. Fine-Ear still lives, fat, and sleek; and strong : indeed, ho no '