change from the effects of some dreadful convulsion. The ground is every where covered with cinders, and intersected with black streaks, which seem to mark the course of a lava that flowed not many ages back, from the mountains to the shore."

From these facts, it is fairly inferred, that there exists, among the Polynesian Islands, a submarine power, fully adequate to the raising the coral beds to their present elevation, and to the production of mountains on them of their present magnitude, and what solid objection can be raised to the supposition that it has actually been applied to these purposes?

That Islands have been thrown up from the bottom of the ocean, by the force of subterranean fire, we have the testimony of history, and of men of the present generation. Pliny asserts, that in his age, three islands in the Ægean Sea,-Therasia, Automah, and Thia-were forced into day ab solo oceani, where no land before existed. By a submarine eruption, in 1767, a new island made its appearance in the Greek Archipelago. It rose, with slow progress, but within a year from the period of its oceanic birth, it attained a circumference of five miles and an altitude of forty feet. Within the present age, the island of Sabrina, escaping from the grasp of Neptune, raised her head above the briny deep, in the neighborhood of the Azores, and after holding her station for some time, slipped, her cable, and again put to sea, on a "returnless voyage." This island was composed entirely of volcanic pumice, which was not sufficiently solid to resist the impetus of the waves.

A multitude of other facts might be collected, which speak the same language, and which affirm, that numerous islands in different parts of the Ocean, and particularly, the coral islands of the Pacific, have been generated by a race of insignificant animals, and brought into their present situation and forms, by volcanic energy.

Never give counsel when it is not asked of you; especially to those who are incapable of appreciating it.

SKETCHES OF AMERICAN CHARACTER.
FRANKLIN.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the greatest benefactors of America, was born in Boston, January 17, 1706. His father, an English non-conformist, who had emigrated to America to enjoy religious freedom, was a tallow chandler and soap-boiler. Benjamin, the fif teenth of seventeen children, was put to a common grammar school at the age of eight years; and, from the talents he displayed in learning, his father conceived the notion of educating him for the ministry. But as he was unable to meet the expense, he took him home, and employed him in cutting wicks, filling moulds, and running errands. The boy was disgusted with this occupation, and was soon after placed with his brother, a printer, to serve an apprenticeship to that trade. His early passion for reading was now in some measure gratified, and he devoted his nights to perusing such books as his limited resources enabled him to obtain. Defoe's Essay on Projects, and Doctor Mather's on

doing Good, were among his earliest studies. The style of the Spectator, with which he early became acquainted, delighted him. He gives an account of his exertions to-imitate it, in his memoirs of himself. As he had failed entirely in arithmetic while at school, he now borrowed a little treatise, which he mastered without any assistance, and studied navigation. At the age of sixteen, he read Locke on the Understanding, the Port-Royal Logic, and Xenophon's Memorabilia. Happening to meet with a work which recommended vegetable diet, he determined to abstain from flesh; and we now find the philosophic printer and newspaper-carrier purchasing books with the little sums he was enabled to save by the frugality of his diet. From Shaftesbury and Collins he imbibed those skeptical notions which he is known to have held during a part of his life. His brother published a newspaper, which was the second that had as yet appeared in America. Franklin, having secretly written some pieces for it, had the satisfaction to find them well received; but, on its coming to the knowledge of his brother, he was severely lectured for his presumption, and treated with great harshness. One of the political articles in the journal having offended the general court of the colony, the publisher was imprisoned, and forbidden to continue it. To elude this prohibition, young Franklin was made the nominal editor, and his indentures were ostensibly cancelled. After the release of his brother he took advantage of this act to assert his freedom, and thus escape from the ill treatment which he suffered. His father's displeasure, his brother's enmity and the odium to which his skeptical notions subjected him, left him no alternative but a retreat to some other city. He therefore secretly embarked on board a sinall vessel bound to New-York, without means or recommendations; and, not finding employment there, he set out for Philadelphia, where he arrived on foot, with his pockets stuffed with shirts and stockings, a roll of bread under his arm and one dollar in his purse. "Who would have dreamed (says Brissot de Warville) that this poor wanderer would become one of the legislators of America, the ornament

of the new world, the pride of modern philosophy?" Here he obtained employment as a compositor, and, having attracted the notice of sir William Keith, the governor of Pennsylvania, was induced by his promises to go to England, for the purpose of purchasing types, to establish himself in business. On arriving in London (1725,) he found that the letters which had been delivered him, had no reference to him or his affairs; and he was once more in a strange place, without credit or acquaintance, and with little means. But he soon succeeded in getting business, and, although at one time guilty of some excesses, he afterwards became a model of industry and temperance, and even reformed his brother printers by his example and exhortation. While in London, he continued to devote his leisure hours to study, and wrote a small pamphlet himself, on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. After a residence of 18 months in London, he returned to Philadelphia, in his twenty-first year, in the capacity of clerk to a dry-goods shop; but he soon returned to his trade, and in a short time formed an establishment in connexion with a person who supplied the necessary capital. They printed a newspaper, which was managed with much ability and acquired Franklin much reputation. It is impossible for us to trace all the steps of his progress to distinction. His industry, frugality, activity, intelligence; his plans for improving the condition of the province, for introducing better systems of education; his municipal services, made him an object of attention to the whole community. His advice was asked by the governor and council on all important occasions, and he was elected a member of the provincial assembly. He had begun to print his Poor Richard's Almanac in 1732; and the aphorisms which he prefixed to that for 1757 are well known. At the age of twenty-seven, he undertook to learn French, Italian and Spanish, and, after having made some progress in those languages he applied himself to the Latin. He was the founder of the university of Pennsylvania, and of the American philosophical society, and one of the chief promoters of the Pennsylvania hospital. In 1741, he began to print the General Magazine and Historical

Chronicle. In 1742, he invented the Franklin stove, for which he refused a patent, on the ground, that such inventions ought to be made at once subservient to the common good of mankind. We might' continue this chronological notice of his services, it would show the remarkable versatility of his mind, but our space forbids us. Being in Boston in 1746, he saw, for the first time, some experiments in electricity, which, though imperfectly performed, were the origin of the most brilliant discoveries which had been made in natural philosophy. We cannot avoid being struck with the immediate practical application he made of his new discovery, in the invention of the lightning-rod. Franklin had ever shown himself a zealous advocate for the rights of the colonies, and, it having been determined to hold a general congress at Albany, to arrange a common plan of defence, he was named a deputy. On his route, he projected a scheme of union, embracing the regulation of all the great political interests of the colonies and the mother country. The Albany plan, as it was called, after it was adopted by the congress, proposed a general government for the provinces, to be administered. by a president appointed by the crown, and a grand council, chosen by the provincial assemblies; the council was to lay taxes for all the common exigencies. The plan, though unanimously sanctioned by the congress, was rejected by the board of trade, as savoring too much of the democratic, and by the assemblies, as having too much of prerogative in it. In 1751, he was appointed deputy postmaster-general, and, in this capacity, advanced large sums of his own money to General Braddock, the result of whose expedition he foresaw, and in regard to which he made some fruitless suggestions to that general. After the defeat of Braddock, he introduced a bill for establishing a volunteer militia; and having received a commission as a commander, he raised a corps of 560 men, and went through a laborious campaign.

(To be continued.)

Folly is a bad quality, but never to endure it in others, is the greatest of follies.