Are these twelves articles of his creed, the fundamental points of religion? In particular, that men and brutes are devils incarnate and are to be in purgatory after death? And are they all so "impressed on the heart of every man, as never to be effaced?" Why they never were impressed on my heart yet: Several of them I no more believe than I do the Koran. I never have met with an American Indian who believed one half of them: Nor with an uninstructed African who believed one of them: unless, perhaps, the being of a God. And is the belief of all these (fundamental points, indeed!) "necessary to man's salvation ?" I cannot but repeat the observation, wherein experience confirms me more and more, That they who disbelieve the Bible, will believe any thing. They may believe Voltaire! They may believe the Shastah! They may believe a man can put himself into a quart bottle! JOHN WESLEY.

EXTRACT FROM DR. STAUGHTON'S ADDRESS,

Delivered at the opening of the Columbian College in the District of Columbia, Jan. 9, 1822.

"Or the excitement in favour of literature, produced when colleges began to be erected, some idea may be formed from the fact that in the year 1262, the University of Bologna alone contained 10,000 students. As early as 1340, 20,000 were in the University at Oxford. In the same century, on a question agitated in the University at Paris, 10,000 graduates gave in their suffrages. The advantages these institutions presented to the juvenile inquirer, it is admitted, were more specious than solid; for, in the age we are describing, the grand luminaries of modern science were below the horizon.

If Europe deserves the tribute of praise for having disseminated literary establishments over all her nations, a meed not less conspicuous is due to the venerable forefathers by whom our country was colonized. The winds and billows that pressed them to the shores of the Atlantic, transported the purest morals, the most rational and enlightened ideas of devotion, and the steadiest habits of industrious life. Scarcely had they begun to till the earth for their subsistence, before their views were directed to the culture of the mind. The trees of the forest furnished their academical groves, where their youth were educated in whatever could contribute to use, and ornament, and liberty, and honour, and virtue. Without entering into the history of the earlier schools, every lover of learning in the United States must recollect, with grateful pleasure, that the morning sun shed its rays on Harvard College in Massachusetts nearly two hundred years ago. The talents and exertions of a missionary from England, the Rev. James Blair, obtained a charter for the College of William and

Mary, in Virginia, in the year 1693. More than a hundred and twenty years have elapsed since the college was founded in Connecticut, whose name has embalmed the memory of Governor Yale. Nassau Hall in New-Jersey, from which have come forth so large a number of physicians, advocates, and divines, was thrown open about the year 1738: and the institution which has grown into "the University of Pennsylvania," was originated in 1750. The University in Rhode-Island, deriving its present name from the munificence of Nicholas Brown, Esq., appears to have been projected in the Philadelphia Association, in the year 1762. Nurtured by the pious care of the Rev. Dr. Manning, supported in a good degree, in its youth, by the collections of the Rev. Morgan Edwards and the Rev. Dr. Hezekiah Smith, and encouraged by "the adventurous and resolute Browns," it has attained to a wellnerved maturity, and is "stretching forth the curtains of its habitation."

The swell of a tide elevates every thing subject to its influence. Proportionate to the progression of population; to the spread of commerce over the ocean; to the advancement of home manufactures; to the improvement and extension of agriculture has been the diffusion of learning. Recumbent no longer, she rises the stability, the glory of the Republic. In the eastern world, villages and towns are rarely increasing. The gazetteer of one generation scarcely requires a new edition for the succeeding. On the contrary, in these United States, new hamlets and cities are reflected from a thousaud streams, and new edifices ascending for the resort of the Muses. From thirty to forty colleges are already flourishing among us, under the direction of men whose qualifications possess the esteem and veneration of a discerning community. Schools are multiplying for the purpose of imparting to the future heroes of the Union the knowledge of military tactics, and of exploring and enlarging the regions of medicine and law.

In the midst of other improvements, the pious and enlightened mind must have observed, with conscious pleasure, the strong efforts that are employed by Christians of well nigh every denomination, for communicating instruction to approved young men who promise usefulness in the ministry; especially when it is recollected, that ignorance, among what were called the clergy, was a sleeping and pestilential morass, whence arose the low exhalations with which Europe, for ages, was darkened. It is the part of candour to acknowledge that, to the colleges attached to the cathedrals, we are indebted for the preservation of the works of ancient authors, which, in other situations the rudeness of the Vandal and the Goth might have destroyed: but at the same time it must be confessed, that what was taught of grammar and of magic, of mathematical figures and of divinity, contributed nothing to the expansion of intellect, to the developement of the rights

of society, or to the spiritual and elevated worship of the living and true God. During the period which Prideaux denominates "the reign of the schoolmen," theological questions were decided by the writings of a heathen philosopher, translated into Latin from a version made by the Saracens, the followers of Mahomet.

The Jewish nation was never distinguished for the refinements of science. It presents to the world, notwithstanding, examples of religious and moral instruction, which must ensure respect.Without admitting, as some of the Hebrews assert, that there were schools anterior to the deluge, of which Adam, and Enoch were the successive superintendents, it is certain that, at Naioth in Ramah, schools of the prophets existed. Sons, or as the word may import, students of the prophets, were found at Bethel and in the plain of Jericho, under the care of Elijah and Elisha. These or similar seminaries, probably continued until the Babylonian captivity. Synagogues, which, after this catastrophe, began to grow in number, in some degree superseded the use of schools, but did not destroy them. A short time before the birth of Christ, Jewish literature had gained a considerable ascendency by the instructions of Hillel and Shammai, who, according to Jerome, were each at the head of a celebrated establishment. Even after the overthrow of Jerusalem, the Jews had their academies in the various countries into which they were dispersed. Calmet hesitates not at stating, that "on the ruins of these schools were formed those of Egypt and Europe." It is an interesting fact that several of their most eminent teachers, Maimonides, Aben-Ezra, Jarchi, Rabbi Nathan, and Kimchi, flourished a very short time before the founding of European colleges.

It is far from being the sentiment of the General Convention of the Baptist Denomination, or of any of the individuals who have been concerned in the erection of the building in which we are this day assembled, that a liberal education is an essential qualification in a Christian minister. A vast number of excellent men are to be found in the churches, and will be succeeded by hundreds more, who, without the advantages of literature, familiar with the doctrine and power of the gospel, and called, as we believe, of God, to their office, have been instrumental in the conversion and sanctification of the hearts of multitudes. May the Supreme Head of the church still more abundantly crown their pious and laborious endeavours. But these very men are, for the most part, among the first to regret that the treasures of knowledge bave, to them, never been unfolded, and many of them are among the most liberal encouragers of theological schools. Attainments, such as the apostles of Christ were permitted to realize, who for three years passed their pupilage under the instructions of their heavenly Master, and who were afterwards endowed with the astonishing gift of tongues, it were vain to anticipate; but surely the improvement society has made, during the past thirty years,

intimates the propriety of a corresponding one in the minister of the sanctuary. Surely, without relying on a translation, how much soever approved, it is desirable that a public teacher be able to read the pages of inspiration in the languages in which they were written. Unacquainted with the construction of his mother tongue, with the history of nations, with the economy of the earth and heavens, and with the science of composition, he must deplore the privation he suffers, when called to defend the truths which are dearer than life, in the presence of adversaries who have arrayed themselves in all the armour which learning can furnish. Of the sober use made by the apostle Paul of his familiarity with Grecian poets, we have a beautiful specimen in his speech before the Areopagus at Athens. In the present age, when missionaries are passing into almost every region of the earth, it is evident that, to enable them with the greater facility to acquire new languages, and to translate the scriptures from the original text, a sound and extensive education is not only desirable but necessary. It is admirably ordained in Providence that the powers of reasoning during the stages of childhood and youth are feeble, while the memory is in full vigour, and industriously engaged in collecting materials for the future service of the understanding. This arrangement in nature inculcates the propriety of commencing a course of study, and particularly the study of languages, where so much is to be recollected, as early as practicable. Pious youth, called by the churches to officiate in the ministry of the gospel, should beware lest the golden period for mental improvement forever escape them. The observations I am offering are predicated on the fact, that our college embraces a Theological as well as a Classical department.

It is unnecessary to insist on the sacred importance of education in general. Many of the ablest authors of ancient and modern times have exhibited its value. What inheritance, equally precious and permanent, can a parent bequeath? Where is the man that does not aspire at the consolation of reflecting, in life's decline, that he has trained up his children, in the way that they should go? One consideration must not be forgotten. Children are the hope of the coming age. A few years will introduce upon the stage of public action another generation of men, who when we are sleeping with our fathers, will offer to the world examples, and, spread through it principles, that shall prove useful or detrimental, corresponding with the direction that education shall have communicated. Other physicians will enter the chambers of the afflicted; other divines will be heard from our pulpits; and other civilians display their talents in courts of judicature. Yonder magnificent CAPITOL will concentrate the wisdom of other senators, and resound with the periods of other representatives. Let the parent, the patriot, the Christian, seriously ponder on this idea, and he will no more ne

glect his duty than he can cease to love his children, his country, and his God. The formation of the manners of youth is the moral fulcrum by which we may raise the world."

After mentioning the benefits which governments may derive from patronizing education, by which they "throw bulwarks around, that shall remain firm and unimpaired, when brass and marble shall have fallen and decayed," the Doctor observes that "the Columbian College is open chiefly to classical and theological students; but should the blessings of Heaven descend on the projects and crown the exertions of its friends and supporters, additional edifices will soon be erected, where lectures will be delivered on the institutes of Law and on Medical Science.". Christian Watchman.

ANECDOTE OF A PAWNEE CHIEF.

THE following anecdote of a Pawnee half-Chief, (a son of Old Knife,) now on a visit to this city, highly creditable to his courage, his generosity, and his humanity, is copied, with leave, from Rev. Dr. Morse's Report, just presented to Congress by the President. The facts in this anecdote were taken by Dr. M. (by permission) from a very interesting Journal of Capt Bell, of his expedition with Major Long to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in 1820, and are sanctioned by Major O'Fallon, Indian Agent near the scene of the transaction here related, and who commands the Indian Delegation now here.

This Chief, of fine size, figure, and countenance, is now about 25 years old. At the age of 21, his heroic deeds had acquired for him in his nation the rank of "the bravest of the braves."* The savage practice of torturing and burning to death their prisoners existed in this nation.† An unfortunate female taken in war of the Padnea nation, was destined to this horrid death. The fatal hour had arrived; the trembling victim, far from her home and her friends, was fastened to the stake; the whole tribe was assembled on the surrounding plain, to witness the awful scene. Just when the funeral pile was to be kindled, and the whole multitude of spectators were on the tiptoe of expectation, this young warrior, having unnoticed prepared two fleet horses, with the necessary provisions, sprang from his seat, rushed through the crowd, liberated the victim, seized her in his arms, placed her on one of the horses, mounted the other himself, and made the utmost speed toward the nation and friends of the captive. The multitude, dumb and nerveless with amazement at the daring deed, made no effort

*The braves are warriors who have distinguished themselves in battle, and stand highest in the estimation of the tribe.

This custom does not exist in the surrounding tribes.