ministry proposed to him, that the Americans should pay for all the expense of their attempts to force them to submit to the Stamp and other oppressive Acts, provided that those offensive laws should be repealed, told them the story of the madman, who ran into a street, and with a red hot poker in his hand, and asked a passenger to allow him the privilege of running it into his body one foot. This was refused. He asked to be allowed to run it in six inches - then one inch and when he obtained no permission of this sort, he asked, with the utmost sincerity, if the man would not have the goodness to pay him for heating the poker.

This story finds a parallel in our hospitable entertainments.

Our host offering to his friends his great variety of richest food, of most exquisite cookery, practically says to his guests: " Allow me, my friends, to give you a little indigestion." Probably they indulge him, but perhaps they have the courage and good sense to refuse. Not to be foiled, he offers the wine: "Permit me, my friends, to disturb your nervous system, and suspend the clearness of your brain." Still they may not yield. Holding out his cigars, he says, "Allow me, my friends, to disturb your respiration and befoul your breath a little." If their courage hold out, so does his, and with all the self-satisfaction and sincerity of the madman in the story, he says, "Then, gentlemen, you will have the goodness to stultify yourselves so far as to give me the credit

of being very generous, and doing all this solely for your comfort and happiness."

DEPRECIATION OF LIFE.

The consequences of all these violations of the law of life, are seen in the diseases, the debility and the premature death that come upon almost all mankind.

Threescore and ten are the years appointed for man; but few and feeble are they, who thus fulfil their days on earth; and it needs no prophet to tell us that, until we learn to live according to God's appointments, we must fall short of this measure.

The average duration of life differs very widely in different places, and still more widely among different classes of society. But in all it is short of nature's intention.

The average age of all, who died in Massachusetts during three years, ending May, 1844, was 33.74 years. And from calculations made from the records of various periods, the average duration of life was, in England and Wales

33.74 years.

In the most favored of these towns and countries

there was an average loss of three-sevenths of life, and the most unfavored more than five-sevenths.

In analyzing the people into different classes, according to their social condition, it is found that the burden of death lies much heavier upon the poor and the ignorant, than upon the prosperous and the intelligent. The Report of the Poor Laws' Commissioners upon the sanitary condition of the laboring classes of England presents some astonishing facts in illustration of this position. The average duration of life of the families, including fathers, mothers and children, of the comfortable and poor was, in

The same was shown in other parts of England. I found similar facts in Dorchester, Mass. I analyzed the bills of mortality for twenty-seven years, and found the average age of farmers, who owned their farms, including parents and their families, 45 years.

was

Of the poor,

27 66

In Concord, Massachusetts, the age of the comfortable was

44 years.

24

66

Of the poor Wherever I have been able to obtain the facts, I have found a similar difference of value of life among the prosperous and among the indigent. I doubt not the same would be shown in Hartford, and throughout this and all the other states. Here we have the irresistible fact, that from the wealthy and intelligent, from two-sevenths to one-half their life is taken away, and among the poor from one-half to four-fifths is lost.

Nor is this all, that we fall short of our destiny on earth. Even this short period, averaging throughout the world much less than thirty-five years, is diminished at every stage, reduced at every turn, and taxed throughout with innumerable burdens. The whole catalogue of diseases, whose name is legion, is born by our race.

Deduct the months during which we are prostrated by disease, and under the control of others- deduct the seasons, when, though we are not diseased, yet are invalids, with constitutions broken and powers wasted, dragging on a wearisome existence in premature old age- deduct the periods when our energies are somewhat paralyzed, and our strength so far reduced below its just standard, that we cannot enter upon the full tide of active business, which men in health freely venture upon, and therefore enjoy less and accomplish less than other men— deduct the periods when we are slightly ailing, whether from cold, from headache, or other trifling cause, when our frames are sluggish and our resolutions dormant, when we cannot do in the day and the hour, its own appointed work-deduct the times when we are heavy, stupid and inactive, when our energies are absorbed in digesting improper or excessive food lastly, deduct the moments when we are irritable in temper, timid of purpose, or gloomy in spirit, when our moral powers are weakened and disturbed, and our mental faculties confused or oppressed-add to all these deductions the thirty or forty years that we lose by premature death, and then deduct the whole

from a complete human life, threescore and ten years, from two thousand, five hundred and fifty-five days of health, unimpaired by any sickness, and unalloyed by any pain; and it is wofully manifest how small a portion of our natural destiny we obtain out of the means and facilities which a generous Providence has placed in and about us.

Seeing, that our short comings of life are so great and so manifest, it is worth a serious inquiry to learn the cause, and a resolute endeavor to remove it.

It cannot be questioned, that this depreciation and shortening of life are mainly chargeable to the general ignorance of the conditions of our existence on earth, and to a consequent failure to fulfil them. The knowledge of the Laws of Physical Life has not been and is not now considered requisite for the conduct of our lives. Nor are the young instructed in these, in order to prepare them to meet and avert the ills that flesh is heir to. Physiology has not been included among the necessary studies of our schools, nor have men in older life thought it worth their while to attend to it.

Other matters have been examined and learned. Natural Philosophy is taught in our schools. It is known more or less to all; almost every man acknowledges and acts upon its general principles.

The laws of gravitation are so universally understood, that no man is so simple as to dig his ditch for water to run up hill. All are so familiar with the laws of mechanics as to make a ready and correct use of the inclined plane, the screw, and the wheel and axle.