I remember to have heard it, then and there, said, that the Blessed Land was once fertile as the bottoms of the Mississippi, and groaning with its stores of grain and fruits; but that the judgment has since fallen upon it, and that it is now more remarkable for its barrenness than any qualities to boast of." "It is true; but Egypt--nay much of Africa furnishes still more striking proofs of this exhaustion of nature." "Tell me," interrupted the old man, "is it a certain truth that buildings are still standing in that land of Pharaoh, which may be likened, in their stature, to the hills of the 'arth ?" "It is as true as that nature never refuses to bestow her incisores on the animals, mammalia; genus, homo--" "It is very marvellous! and it proves how great He must be, when His miserable creatur's can accomplish such wonders! Many men must have been needed to finish such an edifice; ay, and men gifted with strength and skill too! Does the land abound with such a race to this hour ?" "Far from it.

Most of the country is a desert, and but for a mighty river all would be so." "Yes; rivers are rare gifts to such as till the ground, as any one may see who journeys far atween the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi.

But how do you account for these changes on the face of the 'arth itself, and for this downfall of nations, you men of the schools ?" "It is to be ascribed to moral cau--" "You're right--it is their morals; their wickedness and their pride, and chiefly their waste that has done it all! Now listen to what the experience of an old man teaches him.

I have lived long, as these grey hairs and wrinkled hands will show, even though my tongue should fail in the wisdom of my years.

And I have seen much of the folly of man; for his natur' is the same, be he born in the wilderness, or be he born in the towns.