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when he, suspecting no harm, came out, if from the bed, three of the strongest among them, seized him, placed him on a pole, and the whole party, with shouters and howlers, the tinkling of cowbells, and the blowing of horns and pumpkin-vines, carried him a full half mile, and threw him into a muddy pond. The poor man tried the law with his persecutors, but in vain; nothing could ever be proved.

The progress of manufactures in Peterboro' has been creditable to the enterprise of the place. The capital vested in them now is rated at $300,000. Yet, we are told, the grandmother of Gov. Miller paid for 400 acres of land in fine linen, made entirely (except getting out the flax) by her own hands. With the exception of the hats and the wedding-gown, which was usually of satin, and handed down as a sort of heir-loom to children, and grandchildren, even (three generations not unfrequently being married in the same dress), all the articles of clothing were manufactured at home. There the wool was carded, woven, spun and colored, and made up into garments. The hides were indeed sent away to be tanned; but the same hides were brought home as leather, and the shoemaker came always to the house, with his bench, lasts and awls. To use foreign goods was considered great extravagance. After the first store was opened in 1771, one hundred dollars was the price usually paid for a calico gown. Almost every article of food and clothing was then prepared at home. The first clothier's shop, for taking in wool to card and cloth to dress, was built in 1780, and this was the only factory in town till 1793, when, on the spot now occupied by the Phoenix factory, a wooden building, two hundred feet long and two stories high, was erected by Samuel Smith, and was the wonder of the whole country. Mr. Smith had in this building, a paper mill, an oil-mill, a saw-mill, a clothier's shop, a triphammer shop, a wool-carding machine, and a dwelling house. In this connection, we quote a paragraph from the letter of Isaac Parker, Esq., of Boston, to the Celebration committee:

"With the manufactures in Peterboro' I can claim an early connec tion, as well as one of more recent date. More than forty years ago I was an operative, and used to set card teeth by hand for one of her citizens, for which I was paid four pence a pair, not in cash, but 'store

pay. By close application in my leisure hours, I could set one and a half or two pairs a week. I was an owner in the Peterboro' factory, and was present at the commencement of its operations, in 1810; and that, I believe, was the second cotton factory in the State. Since then I have been interested in most of the factories established there, and have done business to a considerable extent for them all."

Another Boston merchant, Samuel Appleton, gives the following reminiscences, on the same occasion. He says:

"Fifty-nine years ago last April, a man with a drove of cattle passed my father's house in New Ipswich, on his way to a pasture for his cattle, in the town of Hancock. Being in want of assistance to drive his cattle, and seeing a flaxen-haired boy at the door, he bargained with my father that I should assist him on the way, as far as the mills in Peterboro', distance ten miles; for this service, to be performed by me, my father received ninepence lawful money. We arrived at the mills,—a rickety saw and gristmill, standing on the site where the Peterboro' factory now stands,-about four o'clock. The man of cattle offered me half as much as he had paid my father, and a night's lodging, if I would go on with him through the woods, three miles, to Taylor's tavern. I readily consented, and pocketed the cash."

At the period here referred to there was only one house (Dr. Young's) between the mills and the tavern, all the rest of the way being a dreary wilderness. A post-office was established in 1780. The mail was then carried on horseback, in a small wagon, and, finally, stages were introduced in 1826.-It is worth noting, that eight negro slaves were owned in Peterboro' at different times.

We have intimated that this town has produced its share of able men. Its population is about 2,300, and it has given a college education to some thirty of its sons. One of these, Gov. Smith, we have named. Professor Muzzy, of Cincinnati, is another; and Gen. Miller, of the United States army is a third. One of the invited guests observes, that within his short memory, the town has sent forth four or five respectable clergymen, fifteen or sixteen lawyers, four members of Congress, and four or five respectable physicians. Very well this, for a mountain village, it must be confessed. And this is a true, a life-like picture of a New-England town, from the beginning down. There are scores of such all over the Northern States.

ARTICLE V.

AUGUSTINE.

1. S. Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi De Civitate Dei, Libri XXII. 2 vols, 12mo. pp. 430, 439. Leipsic. Tauchnitz, 1825.

2. S. Aurelii Augustini Confessiones, Ad Fidem Codicum Lipsiensium et editionum Antiquiorum Recognitas edidit C. H. BRUDER, Editio Stereotypa. 16mo. pp. 288. Leipsic. Tauchnitz, 1837.

3. S. Aurelii Augustini De Doctrina Christiana Libri Quatuor et Enchiridion ad Laurentium. Ex Benedictinorum Recensione Recognitos edidit C. H. BRUDER. Editio Stereotypa. 16mo. pp. 252. Leipsic. Tauchnitz, 1838.

IN calling the attention of the clerical reader to these practical writings of Augustine, we believe we are consulting the best interests of American Christians. It cannot be denied, that a considerable portion of the reading contained in the majority of ministerial libraries in this country, furnishes but poor aliment for a vigorous intellect. The authors most consulted are, in very many cases, ordinary men; their thoughts are ordinary thoughts. The older writers are comparatively but little known to the new race of educated ministers; later modes of "getting up" books, so that they may be read with ease, comfort and rapidity, are as seductive to the mind, as the improved style of binding is attractive to the eye. Our recent theological literature is not altogether without promise; though as yet we have more blossoms than ripe fruit. The mental excitement, that already exists among our theological writers, must be of a different description,-must act more powerfully upon all the original elements of our spiritual nature;-investigations must be made upon a broader scale, and scholarship must be of a more veteran character, before the American mind can summon all its native energy, and produce works in theology that shall be destined

to a wide-spread and lasting fame. Exceptions there undoubtedly are to this general remark; but they are certainly not very numerous. We have no disposition to laud the past and undervalue the present, nor to admire foreign, and despise native literature. Admitting, as we freely do, that there is as much talent and worth in the world now as there ever was, and that America has no special reason to blush before any nation of the Old World for her intellectual, moral and social condition, taken as a whole, we still believe our statement true; and we think there are causes in operation, obvious to him who is not blind indeed, which render such a result almost necessary.

Intellect with us has not only a practical, but a commercial character. The experiment, of doing a large business on a small capital, has been as faithfully tried in literature as it has in trade, and with nearly as splendid results. The prevalent passion is not for the acquisition of vast stores of knowledge, but for using what we have in every possible variety of form, and turning it, where we can, into ready cash. Perhaps this order of things has become necessary. Certainly the expenditure of twenty or thirty years' time in preparing a work for the press would, in the view of most men, be as great an extravagance as to lavish millions in erecting a huge cathedral. "Why all this waste?" would be the immediate interrogation of all our shrewd calculators. We might almost as reasonably expect to see our modern carpenters putting into their frames the heavy timber of the good old times of our ancestors, as to expect that our scholars will spend their time and strength and money in accumulating treasures of knowledge, while it is believed, that a very moderate share will answer every useful purpose.

There is a prevailing prejudice against "intellectual hoarding," as our utilitarians call it. The practical frenzy of the times will not allow a scholar to acquire a particle of knowledge or wisdom, the utility of which is not obvious at the first glance. If a young man, of high aspirations, protract the period of his study, or resort to any extraordinary means for the acquisition of a commanding intellectual power, though no class of men are so much needed at the present time as men of such a stamp, friendly cautions will come in upon him like a flood, and the curse

VOL. V. NO. XVII.

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of Meroz will be more than hinted at. Thus a hard and protracted struggle for intellectual greatness is branded as a sin, and a voluntary mediocrity is regarded as the best proof of a holy resignation, and of genuine love to God and man. We are religiously schooled down to tameness and imbecility; and then it is not strange, if we listen with incredulity to what great and good men have accomplished before us, or are terror-struck at the devastations of skeptics who have wielded their superior power against us. We do not hesitate, therefore, to urge the younger portion of the Christian ministry, at the present time, to make themselves familiar with the best productions of those great minds which have, from time to time, been the lights of the church. Among that number, Augustine will always hold a conspicuous place.

We know that objections will be started against the study of this ancient Christian writer. "He lived," it will be said, "in an age when literature was on the decline, and the Latin language was corrupt; the church, of which he was the representative, had already lost its primitive purity; the influence of his writings is to be seen in the theology of the Middle Ages; and last and worst of all, he is the father of that unamiable system of predestination which is to be abhorred rather than studied.”

But similar objections can be made to Plato, and Aristotle, and all the mighty spirits of past ages. To a mind that cannot transport itself back to a distant period, nor separate the accidental peculiarities of age and country from those essential attributes of greatness and power which are independent of time and place, many passages in the works of this giant of theology will appear puerile and absurd. And so it will be in the reading of Homer and of every other ancient author. But the man who is offended with allusions to a state of science, popular belief and modes of life that belong to the infancy of our race, and who can relish no productions but those which breathe the spirit of our own national literature, has not yet begun to be a true scholar, nor to feel the liberalizing influences of a comprehensive study of humanity. His exclusive taste and feelings prove the narrowness of his range of thought. He cannot consent to have his mind informed, improved or pleased, except according to the exact type of his own Chinese notions of perfection.

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