Capt. Smith and I have been getting up a Society. It is called the Leesburg Freedmen's Educational Society; it is for the general improvement of their race and condition, and is governed by a Constitution and By-Laws. We have now forty-one members. Every one pays twenty-five cents when he or she is initiated, and twenty five cents each month. One object in getting up this Society is to teach them how to elect officers and how to vote. The Society is presided over by a President; we also have a Vice-President, a Treasurer, a Board of Managers and I act as Secretary. We meet on the first Second-day in every month. The money which is paid goes to defray the expenses in curred in school and meeting, to furnish wood, lights, or seats, desks, etc. I expect to close my night school shortly; then I shall meet the people one evening in the week, to read to them; therefore I hope if any of you meet with anything you think would be good for me to read to them that you will send it to me. I received several numbers of the "Standard," but they have stopped coming. The article, "Chicago," in the March number of the Atlantic Monthly, I like very much, and I intend to read it to them,-not all at once; I want them to give some portion of the evening to conversation. I think it will be good for them to meet thus socially. What dost thou or the members of the Association think of it? Criticise it and give me your opinion. I want to do great things for these people, and I hope may be directed in the right way. Thy friend, I Leesburg, Va. C. THOMAS. For Friends' Intelligencer. "Where the carcass is, there will the eagles be It teaches that however high our profession may be, even though comparable to the towin another respect, the mind will be likely to ering wing of the eagle,-yet, like the eagle center where the attraction is strongest. Hence it is that some who profess the Christian religion, nevertheless, appear as eager after earthly riches as though "gain was godli. as testided by one truly enlightened in the ness, ,"rather than "godliness the greater gain," Christian faith. But those who have been regenerated and brought into that heavenly state in which is realized that holy communion and fellowship of spirit which truly is with the Father and the Son, with the holy angels, and one with another, in the overflowings of Divine lovein which they find it to be as their meat and their drink to do the will of their Heavenly Father-such can no more feel satisfied with mere earthly toys, and those things which perperish with the using, than the most fastidious appetite can be satisfied to feed upon the carcass so eagerly devoured by the eagle. As, on the one hand, it is impossible for those who trust in earthly riches [while in such a state] to enter into the "kingdom of heaven," so, on the other hand, it is equally impossible for those who have progressed in spiritual things, until they are really in that blessed state denominated the " kingdom of Heaven," to feel that grasping desire for earthly riches so apparent in the world, or even desire to hold fast to their earthly treasure beyond their real wants, when there are so many, as good by nature as themselves, who suffer for the want of a little help. Once think of the millions in the Southwho have not only suffered the want of food and raiment necessary for the comfort of the body, but who also suffer for the want of mental culture-then if you who hold the surplus wealth can see nothing to do, be assured that it is only. because the "god of this world" has blinded your eyes. It is said, and no doubt truly, that the Pope of Rome has ordered that the Freedmen of the South must be cared for by the Catholic Church, and means taken to educate and bring them under the influence of their religion. I cannot doubt the truth of this statement; for since it was published, I have attended the Catholic Church held in the meeting-house *We are informed that the number of Friends at Battle Creek had become so reduced that the meeting-house was sold to the members of the Catholic Church.-Eps. built by the Society of Friends in this place, where I heard the document read, as recently put forth by their council of bishops at Baltimore, in which the "Freedmen of the South" were specially named as an important field of labor for the Catholic Church, and that "religion should not be regarded as of less importance than arithmetic." Now, while I rejoice that those who have so long been in cruel bondage are likely to be cared for, yet it is but natural that we should ask, "Is the Papal religion better than ours?" If it is, then we had all better join that church. But if ours is best, then certainly it is better for the Freedmen to be educated under our influence. To me, this appears like a practical question. The Society of Friends have their teachers in the field already; and if we carelessly yield the field through fear of being called on to give some of our surplus wealth, may we not fear the fulfilment of that prophetic vision of Joseph Hoag, in 1802, in which he says he saw [after the overthrow of slavery] "a monarchy establish a national religion, making all tribu-. tary to its support; taking property from the Society of Friends to a large amount, &c. Those who live to see such a time may then look back with shame and regret, if they now withhold the means to secure a better influence; especially if they should then see the Catholic power sustained by the votes, and perhaps by force of arms, in the hands of colored men in the South, as the result of the present Catholic efforts and our neglect. Then let us be engaged to discharge faithfully our own duty; for if we withhold more than is meet, we may find it tends to poverty, "both in temporal and spiritual things." A portion of the Society of Friends have done nobly; but why should any of us withhold the mite which ought to be cheerfully given in so good a cause? N. P. Battle Creek, Mich., 2d mo. 14th, 1867. . REST AND PEACE IN TRUTH. I do not ask, oh Lord, that thou shouldst shed, Give but a ray of peace, that I may tread, I do not ask my cross to understand,— Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand, And follow Thee. Joy is like restless day; but peace divine, Like quiet night: SELECTION. FROM THE WRITINGS OF ALICE B. HAVEN. Shut out the sunlight from the room, When last she smiled a blessing Who came with sweet caressing. When eyes of love beheld in her The sum of earthly treasure, Ah me, how dark that pleasant room Her hands are folded on her breast, Yet, in their silent clasping, There seems a prayer for those she leaves, Comfort and guidance asking. Accept the token while ye weep, And stricken hearts are throbbing; She goeth calmly unto rest, The grave of terror robbing. To her the dusky gate of death The Ancient Fame and Impending Perils of the Profession of Law were the subjects of an address delivered by Dr. Morgan Dix, Rector of "Trinity Church," N. Y., before the Graduating Class of the Law School of Columbia College. The following abstract is taken from the Ledger of this city. As some of our young friends are disposed to make Law their study, we would commend to their notice the counsel of Dr. Dix to the young Lawyer.-EDS. THE CONSCIENTIOUS LAWYER. A glance at the history of the legal profesLead me, O Lord,-till perfect day shall shine,sion will be certain to inspire for it respect. Al Through peace, to light. -A. A. Procter. We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression. The heart of a wise man should resemble a mirror, which reflects every object without being sullied by any. though, when Egypt was in her dotage, Diodorus Siculus tells us that the advocate's profession was proscribed, because it was thought he darkened counsel and hindered the execution of justice, yet in Phoenicia, Greece and Rome Ilaw schools were established, and the succession tenance" and "champerty" are not now in New York, as they were in Blackstone's time, offences against law. While these are dangers, it may well be doubted if there ever was an age in which the moral character of the bar as a whole stood higher, or so high; and if any one will look through such a work as Hoffman's Course of Legal Study, he will see what the studies and pursuits of a true lawyer always ought to lead him to become, and often do. of them at Berytus, Rome, Constantinople, Salamanca, Bologna and Paris, have handed down a succession of principles to our own day that show how essentially all advances in justice and civilization have been based upon a profound study of positive law. The future grows out of the past, and it is only by the diligent comprehension of all that has been done to protect right against wrong that future progress can be attained. In the literature of international law this is still more evident. There was no such The qualities which Dr. Dix counsels the thing really as a book upon international law young lawyer to cultivate are such as these: under the Greeks and Romans. It is the off-First, Unselfishness—the covetousness of spring of a more advanced study of law. Fran- wealth being that which, more than anything ciscus, at the University of Salamanca, held else, defiles the inner man of the heart. Second, that nations cannot make war on each other A high sense of Honor-since the counsellor without just cause or merely for the sake of should be such a man that if we place ourselves getting their territory, and that every nation in his hands we may trust him as long as sun has a right to its own religious worship, and and moon endures, and feel that so far as it rests that a conquered people cannot be made slaves, with him to secure them we are safe. Third, even though they be pagans. Here was the Conscientiousness; no man may lie to save himself beginning of the whole modern system of inter- from the punishment due to his crimes, nor try national law. to put his sin at another door. Such limitations also constrain his counsel. But beyond them he is to spare no pains in the defence. If guilty, he is to be legally proved so. Nor may his counsel abandon him by throwing up his brief, or avowing his belief in his guilt until it has been so proved. There is a close affinity in the aim and means of the lawyer and the minister. They both unfold that law which is the thought and Will of God. The minister deals with the Divine law, as well natural as positive, with principles recognized by reason alone, and with the precepts derived from revelation. The advocate deals with the positive laws of inepdendent States, but at last all laws end in one Will, one Spirit, one Intelligence, one Being. "Could any profession have made for itself such a history," asks Dr. Dix, " unless its priuciples and aims were sound and true, and its relations to manhood necessary and beneficent?" Surely not. What, then, was the idea, and what is still the idea, which forms the root of all this growth? It is that of the defence of the oppressed, the advocacy of the weak, and the conviction and exposure of the guilty. Liberty consists in being freed from the wrong which the lawless might inflict, and in being kept secure in the enjoyment of life, of limb and of possessions. These are the ends which law is to secure, and the place of the advocate is at the side of his fellow-man when that man is oppressed with wrong, assailed by the unjust or threatened with loss of goods or fame or life. The prosecutor must confront the transgressor and stop his destructive career. Originally their labors were held beyond price; what they did was not for hire. Gratitude often impelled the client to pay, but such recompense was called an "honorarium," and not a thing of legal charge or obligation; and in 1583 the whole Paris bar rose in protest against an ordinance by which they were required to make out bills and sign receipts for fees. They said their services were not to be estimated by a money value. One of the dangers of the profession now is, that many men seek the law simply as a means of growing rich by getting practice any and every way. In the midst of the money greed and selfishness morals decline, the sense of honor sinks. Anciently, from the time of Constantine, the practice of taking cases on shares was prohibited. Another danger is because counsel use language to each other, unrebuked in courts, not fit for gentlemen. The judiciary is, to some extent, demoralized by party politics. "Main Counsels such as these by the Rector of Trinity will do extensive good to large classes. THE ABUSE OF NAMES. The following is from the "Evening Bulletin. The "absurd fashion "is creeping in, or rather galloping in, amongst Friends, and possibly an outside rebuke may do no harm: Nicknames will be used just so long as mankind exists, and just so long as those to whom they are applied have marked peculiarities of character or person, who elicit terms of endearment, or who have names that may be shortened with convenience. Andrew will be called "Andy" as long as there are any Andrews to be nicknamed; Jeremiah will be shortened into "Jerry," and William into "Bill" so long as there is a Jeremiah or a William in existence. But it does not follow that these names should become proper handles to honest surnames, and that boys should be christened by the nicknames of their fathers. A fashion that is about as absurd as this would be, has come into use of late in certain circles, and the rising generation will blush for the folly of their progenitors when they grow older and wiser. It is not practised so much in the naming of boys, but in respect to girls it has run to the extreme of sentimental silliness. Thus girls, instead of being baptized with such sensible, old-fashioned names as Matilda, Charlotte, Margaret or Sarah, are christened "Tillie" "Lottie," "Maggie" and "Saidie." Ellen dwindles into Ellie;" Susan shrinks into "Susie;" Caroline is made ridiculous by being cut down to "Linie;" Emma becomes insipid in "Emmie;" and, most wretched of all, the beautiful name of Mary is frittered away in "Mamie." This nicknaming would be all very well if in its use it was confined to the family circle; but such names are given permanently to children, and the future wives and mothers of the land figure in every advertised list of letters, and in every school examination, as "Lidies," "Susies," and "Saidies." Think of the wife and mother of the Father of his Country christened by the names of "Mamie" and "Marthie," and of the mother baptizing the future hero and statesman as "Georgie"! The first Napoleon would have remained a bachelor forever, had his first wife been named "Josie," and he would not have troubled an Archduchess of Austria to take the place of the discarded Empress, had she been named "Minnie Louie," instead of plain and sensible Maria Louisa. This sickly sentimentalism is about as foolish as the poetic lucubrations of bereaved fathers and mothers, who inform an unappreciative world that "dearest Johnny" has left them, or that the skill of physicians was unavailing to save "Billy" from the fatal consequences of the sore afflictions which he had borne so long. But misnaming a child sticks to him or her forever; and while the obituary nonsense which accompanies the record of death is soon forgotten, a sensible woman, with a foolish nickname, has an ever-present reminder of the silliness of her parents, and a source of continual annoyance to herself. INTERESTING DISCOVERY. An interesting discovery of stalagmitic bone breccia has lately been made by Professor Osborn, of Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvanis, in a cave opposite Riegelsville, Pennsylvania. The cave is near Lillie's Safe Foundry, and it is for the Furnace at the latter place that the workmen have been, for a long time, quarrying limestone from the entrance. For more than fifty years the cave has been the resort of visitors, and somewhat of a history of the place can therefore be traced. Professor Osborn's attention was directed to the place by the rumor that the workmen had. Upon examination, only two shells were obtained amid a mass of thousands of a fossilized grain, supposed by Dr. Joseph Leidy, of Philadelphia, to be frog spawn, though closely resembling cherry stones. In this mass were found bones of several distinct animals, in a most singular state of preservation-forming a perfect mosaic, not in the limestone, but in the stalagmitic rock, although at first appearance incorporated in the limestone. On application of a crowbar, a large mass was detached, showing the stalagmitic formation. Among the bones, beautifully preserved in the hard rock, Dr. Leidy has recognized those of the deer, (Cervus Virginianus,) the bat, and other birds, together with numerous fragments not determined. Mr. I. N. Carpenter, of Easton, who has known the region for many years, recollects that just fiftytwo years ago his father killed the only deer known to visit those parts, although they are frequent in Pokono mountains, forty or fifty miles westward. The inclemency of the weather has prevented further examination, but among other bones are those of animals much stronger than the deer, together with some so closely resembling parts of a human skeleton that they have been so pronounced by professional authority here. The former specimens have been removed to the College Cabinet, bus the determination of the latter must await a more favorable season, as the face of the rock 18 entirely exposed to the weather. The breccia, so far recovered, was about twenty feet below the surface. It is possible that, although the remains appear at so great a depth in the cave, they were deposited there from the surface of the ground, entering a crevasse which was distinctly traced some thirty or forty feet along the face of the rock to the surface, and explaining why these remains were never noticed until the workmen opened upon them in the rock. This crevasse might easily have formed a trap or pit, especially in enowy days, into which animals might have fallen and remained. This is the more likely from the appearance of fossilized vegetable remains mingled with the bones.Easton Evening Express. In addition to the above, Professor Osborn in a note to us remarks: "If these bones were at the bottom of a fissure, which all seem to think proven, may not the mingled human and ancient fossils, supposed to militate against the scriptural age of man, have met under the same circumstances? fossil deposited first, then the human bones become commingled afterward, and not deposited at the same time."-Eds. Pres. ANNIHILATION. It is ascertained, and is capable of the clear uncovered some shells in the solid limestone. I est proofs, that the simple elements of which all 1 thereto, as reported in the Newark Advertiser, cannot fail to interest all parties, and especially those who would protect the birds, as the fruitgrowers' co-workers, notwithstanding they eat some fruit, for, it should be remembered that they feed more or less on insects and their larvæ for many months of the year, while it is comparatively a short space of time that they peck at fruits of the different species and various varieties. Would it not be better to employ persons for a few days to keep them away from fruit plots, than to engage in their indiscriminate destruction? So it seems to many who have considered this matter in the light of ru ral and horticultural economy. Of the Baltimore Oriole, that beautiful bird and charming songster, Dr. Trimble said, "they are becoming numerous, and when they first arrive they feed on leaf-curling caterpillars, so injurious to fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs; also upon the canker worm, that de substances is composed, cannot, by any conceivable means, be destroyed. They may indeed be so changed as to present not the least resemblance to their previous forms; they may be so mingled with other bodies that their identity cannot be traced; they may be dissipated into the invisible vapor, and be apparently annihilated; but we learn from the science of chemistry that, in every shape, the same elements remain inextinguishable and unaltered. The phenomena of solutions afford some of the most obvi ous illustrations of complete change prodnced in bodies without causing their annihilation. If a piece of silver be immersed in diluted nitre, in a short time the silver will be entirely dissolved. Its hardness, its lustre, its tenacity, its specific gravity, all the characteristics which distinguish it as a metal, are gone. Its very form has vanished, and the hard, splendid, ponderous, opaque metal, which, a few minutes before, was immersed in the mixture, is apparently annibilated. The liquid, however, remains as lim-structive pest, and later in the season upon the pid as before; it presents no difference in appearance to indicate a change. What, then, has become of the solid piece of silver which was placed in the liquid? Must we conclude that it is annihilated? Put some pieces of copper into the solution, and the silver will reappear, and fall to the bottom of the glass in small, brilliant metallic crystals.-Though solution is one of the simplest processes of nature, the limited faculties of man will not permit him to comprehend the mode in which it operates. There is not one phenomenon of nature that the mind of man can fully comprehend, and after pursuing the inquiry as far as the mental capaeity will admit, he is obliged to confess that there is an operating power beyond the reach of his comprehension.-The Moravian. RURAL MISCELLANY. drop-worm. He stated that by the aid of the microscope he had been able to prove positively that the orioles feed upon that terrible enemy of the fruit-grower-the curculio, that a small portion of a head, supposed to be that of a curculio, was found amongst the comminuted contents of the crop of one of these birds, and the microscope enabled him to count the 147 lenses in one of the eyes-the exact number known to make the eye of this particular species of curculio. The Downy Woodpecker is one of the most valuable of all the birds of our country. It knows where to find, and is busy in searching out, the apple-worm-the second in importance of the insect-enemies, which, with the curculio are the chief cause of the ruin of the fruit business, especially in our State. The Little Chick-a-dee also feeds upon the apple-worm, but finds it accidentally, and not by boring for it, as does the downy woodpecker. What Dr. Trimble says of Birds. Those of our gardeners, and especially the fruit-growers, who lately listened to the reading of Prof. Rus- The Cedar Bird, sometimes called the Cherry sell's report on birds at a meeting of the Massa- Bird, (Canker Bird) said the Doctor, is a gross chusetts Horticultural Society, cannot fail of feeder, consumes immense numbers of canker being interested in the following extracts from worms, and of injurious insects. This bird and an address which Dr. Trimble, of Newark, New the yellow bird, or finch, resemble each other Jersey, lately delivered on the value of insec- in one respect, both remaining in flocks till tivorous and frugivorous birds, both to gardeners midsummer, and are thus on hand in great and farmers. It is more important that this sub-numbers when their services are most required; ject should now be considered, as it is rumored that an effort will be made to persuade the present legislators to modify or repeal the law for the protection of birds. While some are anxious to have this done, others are equally desirous that the law should remain and be strictly enforced. Dr. Trimble having made the subject of birds and insects as they relate to the garden and orchard a matter of special study and observation, the following extracts from his address in relation while most other birds are at home attending to their domestic duties. The cedar birds are found in New York and Philadelphia in large flocks in June, after the worms, and if they could be properly protected by closing the parks, so that they should not be frightened away by the people, they would do much towards ridding those cities of these pests. The yellow birds, in immense flocks, are found in wheat fields where the midge is so destructive. They are in pursuit of the larvae of these flies in the heads of the wheat, |