The preceding is a correct view of the edifice, which is constructed of brick. Length seventy-five feet, breadth including the portico and rear piazza, seventy-eight feet. It is four stories high, including the basement, and contains forty rooms. It is justly considered as an ornament to the village of Brooklyn. The heights on which it is situated affords a most delightful and commanding view of the city and harbor of New-York.

THE CULTIVATION OF THE MIND.

Contemplating the good effects of a regular education, both on individuals and society, it is perfectly natural to suppose, that it is the greatest source of entertainment and happiness to the one, and of stability and independence to the other. But, speaking of individual good, its admirable effects on the mind may be readily perceived. The man of cultivated understanding, what does he enjoy? Why, his mind is not circumscribed by his native city, or village, or mountain; but it takes excursions through the universe, reviews times long since past, and, I had almost said, anticipates those to come. By the help of history and observation, man familiarizes to his mind the manners and customs of all nations, ancient and modern, contemplates the rise and fall of empires, admires the stupendous and inscrutable plan of a superintending Providence, and traces, the human character, as it is regulated by different circumstances, climes, or governments. If we possess minds well cultivated, we have an inexhaustible fund of entertainment within ourselves. We may form a proper idea of the surface of our earth, and the situation of its different countries with respect to each other, and lose ourselves in the contemplation of the various revolutions that have occurred, and scenes that have been witnessed on it since the world began. Thus, we cannot peruse the records of ancient nations, nor those of our own times, nor even look around us, without learning useful lessons for the regulation of our conduct, or the melioration of our hearts. Are we in prosperity ? -we have sufficient examples to make us moderate. Are we in adversity?—we have sufficient to make us

resigned and dignified. In short, whatever be our lots, a little reflection will show us that others have been as

we are.

By clear and expanded views of men and manners, we insensibly gain a knowledge of the human passions, and of the moral government of the world; our minds, become filled with a universal philanthropy for our species, and we are affected at the woes of others. But again-admitting a superintending Providence, (and the more we see, and learn, and know, the more we are convinced of this important fact,) we cannot but feel grateful for his gracious designs in our redemption and preservation, knowing our own degeneracy, and the degeneracy of our species, and perceiving that the annals of all countries are blended with the most intolerant principles, and the blackest crimes. But these reflections are not to be despised, if they open our eyes to the depravity of our natures, and, through those who have long since quitted this stage of existence, exhibit the mirror of our own conduct. They are produced by learning and meditation; and those qualities which give more accurate and comprehensive views of the deformity of our natures, can certainly arm us against the follies of others who have gone before us, and make us firmer in our purposes of living well. These are a few, and but a few, of the benefits resulting from a cultivated mind.

If we take another view of the subject, we shall find the effects of a good education equally favourable to the establishment of genuine happiness among mankind. Education produces a noble independence of mind, superior to the casualties and accidents of life, making men above being moved to take revenge for injuries received, and unwilling to live useless members of society. To independence it adds pleasure, and to pleasure respectability. It must be gratifying for a man to retire within himself, to collect, and arrange his thoughts, and to express them in a forcible and elegant manner. This truly is a qualification of which every man may be justly proud-a qualification which will gain a man respectability and honor, and be a source of daily gratification and delight. This world is apt

to countenance wealth, and to be very officious and fawning to the man possessed of it, even though he should be scarcely able to write his name, or to read a chapter in his Bible. But the paltry meed of its praise is often insincere, and generally misapplied: in such cases, it is a man's possessions, not his person or endowments, that are besieged with false flatterers. And it is also worthy of remark, that its praise is commonly as precarious as it is worthless. "Riches make themselves wings, and fly away;" and what must be the predicament of that man who has placed his whole reliance upon them, when they leave him, and he has nothing internal to which he can have recourse? The truth of the old proverb is demonstrated in him, 'Learning is better than house or land:" for internal or intellectual wealth will remain with a man in all his fortunes; the honours which it creates, and the pleasures which it bestows, will be more creditable and lasting than the most affluent fortune can confer.

A SKETCH FROM THE BERMUDAS.
SOMERS ISLANDS.-BY REV. J. MARSDEN.

These romantic emeralds on the Western Ocean, so far as climate is concerned, have a most Eden-like appearance. All is miniature beauty; far, very far, from the wild and natural grandeur of America. The violet is not more unlike to the sturdy oak, nor the pink to the tall pine, nor a grain of sparkling sand to one of the huge Andes, than the Bermudas are to that gigantic continent, in its majestic and boundless forests.

Many of the houses in the Bermudas have a little garden, the avenues to which are fringed with jessamine and roses. The pride of China is often planted near the front, and, with its green and umbrageous branches, forms both an ornament and a cooling shade. The buildings, which have no taste or symmetry, are perfectly white, and, when seen at a distance, rising in the midst of green, have an agreeable and pleasing appearance. Within the enclosure round the mansion are fig-trees, bananas, pomegranates, and, in some cases, orange, shaddock, and limes: but human art has done

little; it is the beauty of the climate, that chiefly makes December as pleasant as May.

Beneath skies for ever blue, the fig-tree puts forth its lovely blossoms, and the orange and the pomegranate spread their swelling fruit. The balmy air is scented by groves of cedar, and in the fields and woods the aloe plant attains the full measure of its growth. The tamarind tree, and mulberry, expand their dark foliage over the sunny scene; and the tall and slender palmeto shoots up in the valley, with its broad diverging leaf. But what is far nobler than all the tiny beauties of nature on these lovely islets, the fair light of truth hath shined with a serene ray; many a negro's cottage has been made glad with the tale of the Cross, and the sweet little landscapes have been rendered still more lovely by the beauties of holiness.

At what time the gospel was first introduced into these green dots on the ocean, I cannot say. Mr. Whitfield visited them in 1744, to recover his health, and at that period preached with his flaming eloquence the doctrines of salvation by faith; and that some blessed fruit budded from the seed then sown, the following little incident will testify.

The writer of this narrative was one day riding through the cedar groves, on the road that leads from Hamilton to St. George, with Mr. W., a merchant belonging to the former place, when his friend invited him to visit a lowly and mean cottage in the bosom of the grove, to pray and converse with one of the oldest female inhabitants of the islands, a widow, and a Christian of the New Testament school. They entered the habitation, where all things within bore the impress of extreme poverty; an old woman, nearly seventy, was waiting upon her mother, a remnant of mortality, who was laid upon the only poor bed the cottage contained. The mother was between ninety and one hundred years of age, and stone blind; I approached her bed, and taking hold of her withered hand, addressed her, and inquired what were her hopes of that solemn futurity, on the brink of which she seemed to totter.

Though dark and bed-ridden, the sound of such a theme seemned quite familiar. "Christ," said the old VOL. II.

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woman, "is my only hope; I trust, through his dear merits, to depart in peace, and I am not afraid to die. He hath died for me, and I can trust my soul into his blessed hands."

"When," I asked, "did you find the knowledge of this Saviour, of whom you speak with such confidence?" Sixty odd years ago," said the aged believer, "did that venerable servant of God, Mr. Whitfield, visit these islands; and, as he often stood in the open air, I, among others, went to hear him. He preachad on that text, 'Wilt thou go with this man? and she said, I will go,' Gen. xxiv. 58. All were silent, till a negro called out, 'Will none answer massa? My desires were drawn with a cord of love; his earnest address, enforced by many tears, melted my poor stony heart, and from that time I became a follower of the Lamb. Sixty years have rolled over my head since that period, but he hath been my comfort by day, and my song in the night season. I have long been a widow, but his promises have been my support, and I know he will not forsake me in my old age, and now my strength faileth." Af ter kneeling by the bed-side of the old saint, and leaving a blessing with the daughter, we resumed our ride.

In musing upon the subject of this visit, Here, thought I to myself, is one of God's hidden one's; the seal of a faithful ministry. In the great day of final audit, how many will be found who have received the word in the love of the truth, but of whose conversion to God, the faithful labourer of the cross will never know in time. They shall, however, meet again, and shine as stars in the crown of those holy men, by whom they were gathered into the Christian fold.

Here was a jewel unknown to the church, "the world forgetting, by the world forgot." "While pampered luxury is straining the low thought to form unreal wants," this precious old saint, having nothing, yet possessed all things. Thus, "many a flower is born to blush unseen:" yes, but not "to waste its sweetness on the desert air." In the sight of Jehovah, the gems of the east were not so precious as this aged widow's tears. Neither the roses of Damascus, nor the gardens