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Opposition of Ignorance to the use of Printing.

In the Typographical Antiquities' of Ames and Herbert, it is stated, that the first book printed on paper manufactured in England, came out in 1495 or 1496, from the press of Winkin de Worde. Shakspeare-whose chronology is not to be trustedmakes Jack Cade, in the reign of Henry VI., (who was deposed in 1461,) thus accuse Lord Sands :-"Whereas, Lefore, our forefathers had ro other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill." The insurrection of Jack Cade was ostensibly for the redress of grievances amongst the people. Shakspeare fixes the complaint of Cade against printing and paper-making some ten or twenty years earlier than the introduction of printing amongst us ;-but he could not have better pointed out the ignorance of popular violence, and all violence is the result of ignorance. The best instruments for producing good government, and equal laws for all men, have been the paper-mill and printing-press ;-and exactly in proportion as the knowledge which they embody has been diffused, have we advanced, not only in our social arrangements, but in every other manifestation of a prosperous and well-ordered community. Whatever remains to be accomplished will go hand-in-hand with the continued diffusion of know!odge.

The Opossum.

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The characteristics of the species may be thus represented. The toes are five to each foot, armed with very feeble claws, and the great toes of the hind feet are altogether without them, and are opposable to the other toes, the hind feet thus forming real hands, to which the name of PEDIMANES has been given. The opossums move their feet very singularly in walking, which is to them an operation of labor and difficulty. The tail is flexible, and very strong; and the animal is reported to suspend himself by it in order to watch for passing prey. It does not appear that the opossums have any other voice than a blowing like that of cats when menacing. The females have under the belly a pouch, in which it is believed that the young opossums, born prematurely, complete their development.The particular organ, which has the power of opening and closing, contains the teats, which seem to vary in number, twelve having been found in one female, while another only had ten. The opening is a longitudinal cleft, which conducts backward to a bag of very small dimensions, the abode of the young ones, and which extends with age and the number of young it is required to accommodate. The period of gestation is about twenty-six days, and the young sojourn about fifty in the pouch. Azara has seen the young about five inches long, with their eyes closed, anl the hair just beginning to appear, adhering to the teat, their hold on which they retain with remarkable tenacity. The animal is eleven inches in length, from the occiput to the root of the tail; the tail is abo it the same extent; the head is six inches; and the height, at the fore part of the back, is from seven to eight inches. The body is of a greyish-yellow color, resulting from the hairs being dirty-white in most of their length, and black or brown at the extremities; but some entirely black hairs are here and there interspersed with the white. The feet, the ears, and the extremity of the snout, are naked.

The organs of sense and motion in the opossum do not offer many indications of activity and strength. His little eyes are nearly without eyelids, though the nictitating VOL. I. NO. 3.

(6)

SEPTEMBER. 1818.

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Portrait Painting Among the Red Indians.

GEORGE CATLIN, a native of the United States, and a man of singular energy and perseverance, devoted a period of eight years to travel among the wild Indian tribes of North America, and has furnished a most lively and graphic picture of Indian manners, with the aid of the pen and pencil. He is himself a native of the Vale of Wyoming, where he was born shortly after "the Indian massacre." The following account of some of his efforts at Indian portraiture cannot fail to interest.

"Soon after arriving at the Mandan village," says he, "I finished the portraits of the two principal chiefs. No one else was admitted into my lodge during the operation; and when finished, it was exceedingly amusing to see them recognising each other's likeness. After looking attentively on the portraits and myself, they walked up to me, and taking me by the hand, with a firm grasp, pronounced the words 'Te-ho-pe-nee wash-ee!' and walked off.

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Reader, at that moment I received a new and great name. That moment conferred on me an honor, which you as yet do not understand. I took the degree of Master of Arts-of mysteries of magic, and hocus pocus! I was recognised in that short sentence as a 'great medicine white man.'

"After I had finished the portraits of the two chiefs, they returned to their wigwams, deliberately seated themselves by their respective firesides, and silently smoked a pipe or two, (according to a universal custom,) and then gradually began to tell what had taken place. Crowds of gaping listeners soon thronged their lodges; and a throng of women and girls were about my house, and through every crack and crevice I could see their glistening eyes, piercing my hut in a hundred places, from a natural curiosity to see what was going on within. An hour or more passed in this way, and the soft and silken throng continued to increase until some hundreds of them were piled about my wigwam like a swarm of bees hanging on the front and side of their hive.

"During this time, not a man made his appearance,-after a while, they could be seen, folded in their robes, gradually sidling up towards the lodge, with a silly look upon their faces, which confessed at once that curiosity was leading them reluctantly where their pride forbade them to go. The rush soon, however, became general, and the chiefs and medicine men took sole possession of my room.

"The eager curiosity and astonishment with which they gazed on me, plainly showed that they looked on me as some strange unaccountable being. They pronounced me the greatest medicine man in the world for they said I had made living beings. They said they could see their chiefs alive, in two places,-those that I had made were a little alive,—they could see their eyes move,-could see them smile and laugh, and they could certainly speak if they should try, and must therefore have some life in them.

"I soon had no want of subjects, though a great many became alarmed again, for fear, as some said, that they would die prematurely if painted, and as others said, that if they were painted, the picture would live after they are dead, ane they could not sleep quiet in their graves.

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