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CURIOUS DISCOVERY.

A person was digging after saltpetre, in the summer of 1811, on the waters of Duck river, Smith county, state of Tennessee; he discovered a large stone set against the mouth of a cave; curiosity led him to overturn the stone. On entering the cave, which appeared natural, in a lime-stone rock, something resembling a vault, or ancient sepulchre, he discovered deposited in the cave, the bodies of two human persons, a male and a female, each in a curious wrought basket, made of splits of cane. The bodies were in a sitting posture. Around each body was wrapped a kind of large shroud or plaid, seemingly wrought with the fingers, made of lint of something resembling wild nettles or Indian hemp. Both bodies and shrouds were entire. The bodies were consolidated. A number of doctors, and the curious from several states, visited the cave. The body of the male was dissected into hundreds of pieces, every person being desirous of having a small piece of both body and shroud. In dissecting the flesh as consolidated, it cut resembling soal leather. The man appeared old and grayheaded. The female appeared a child about seven years old; she was transported entire with her shroud, to Peal's museum, Philadelphia. The baskets still remain in the cave with their bottoms consolidated fast to the rock. Some of the oldest Cherokee Indians were sent for, but could give no account of ever hearing of the cave or the persons interred. Conjectured by most that have heard of, or seen the bodies, that they must have been Indians, and the attraction of the limestone, or perhaps mixed with mineral substances, preserved their bodies in that consolidated state, perhaps for some hundred years. The gentleman that relates the narrative is a man of veracity, nephew to judge Drennan of this county. He procured a piece of the shroud and left it with the judge, which piece we have seen. Western Cabinet.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BEAR.

The form of the bear is rude and unshapely. His unwieldy body is covered with a coarse and shaggy hide; his legs are thick and muscular; and the long flat soles of his paws, though they enable him to tread with peculiar firmness, render his pace, at the same time, very aukward and heavy. Yet though thus unseemly in his appearance, his senses are extremely acute, and his form combines many advantages which few other animals enjoy. Though his eye is small, and his ear short, in proportion to his size, he possesses in great perfection the senses of hearing and seeing. In no animal is the sense of smelling so exquisite; for the internal surface of his nose is not only very extensive, but of the texture best calculated to receive impressions from odoriferous bodies. His fect, armed with sharp claws, and capable of grasping, somewhat in the manner of a hand, enable him to climb with great facility the most lofty trees: With his fore paws he can strike a dreadful blow: he can rear himself at pleasure on his hinder paws, and seizing his adversary in his embrace, can easily squecze the strongest man to death. The bear delights in solitude, and chooses his den in the precipices of lonely mountains, or in the deep recesses of some gloomy forest. Here he passes the greater part of the winter,

without ever stirring abroad. He is not deprived of sensation, like the dormouse or marmot; nor has he, like the ant or the bee, laid up any hoard of provisions for the season. But being excessively fat when he retires in autumn, he seems to subsist chiefly on his own exuberance; the under part of his paws, too, is composed of glands, which are at that time full of a white milky juice, and during his retirement he is said to derive considerable nourishment from sucking them. When he first crawls abroad again in spring, he is extremely lean and feeble, and his feet are so tender that he moves with difficulty. These animals copulate in autumn; the period of gestation is about four months; and only one or two are produced at a birth. It was long believed that the cub, when first brought forth, was a mere unformed lump, until it was licked into shape by the dam; but the truth is, that the foetus of the bear is as completely formed before parturition as that of any other animal. The young bear is very slow of growth, and follows the dam for at least a year; during all which time she displays uncommon tenderness for her offspring, and will encounter any danger in its defence.

The bear is in many respects so serviceable to man, that he has at all times been a favorite object of chase, and many ingenious methods have been devised for catching or destroying him. The most simple and common method is to attack him with deadly weapons, such as spears, clubs, or fire-arms. In many parts of Siberia the hunters erect a scaffold of several heavy balks piled on each other, under which is placed a trap, which the bear no sooner touches, than he brings down the whole scaffold upon himself, and is crushed beneath its weight. Sometimes pits are dug, in which are fixed smooth, solid, and sharp-pointed posts, rising about a foot from the bottom. The mouth of the pit is carefully covered over with sods, and across the bear's track is placed an elastic bugbear, connected with a thin rope. As soon as he touches the rope, the bugbear starts loose, and the terrified animal, flying with precipitation, falls violently into the pit, and is pierced by the pointed stake. Should he escape this snare, Caltrops, and other annoying instruments, await him at a small distance. Amongst them is a similar frightful log; and the persecuted beast, in striving to get free, only fixes himself faster to the spot, where the hunter lies in ambush ready to take his aim. Nor is it only upon the ground that the bear is exposed to danger from the cruel invention of man. In some parts of America it is common to set fire to the trees on which they take refuge, and they are easily dispatched as they descend. The Koriaks attach a noose to the summit of a crooked tree, hanging something along with it of which the bear is fond. Lured by this bait, he eagerly climbs the tree: in attempting to seize the bait, his neck is introduced into the noose, and the tree, springing violently back into its former direction, keeps the animal suspended in the air. The plan adopted by the mountaineers of Siberia to make the bear kill himself, is yet more singular and ingenious. They fasten a very heavy block to a rope, terminating at the other end with a loop. This block they lay near a steep precipice, in the wonted path of the bear. Finding his neck in the noose, and unable to proceed for the clog, he takes it up in a rage, and, to disencumber himself, throws it down the precipice; he is naturally pulled after it, and is generally killed by the fall.

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THE HEAVENLY DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

(In continuation from page 151.)

VL....ON THE NATURE OF CHARITY OR NEIGHBORLY LOVE. 51. Before we speak of the nature of Love and Charity, it will be proper to explain whom we are to understand by our Neighbor, who is declared to be the object of our love and charity; for unless we know who is our Neighbor, we may exercise our Charity indiscriminately, and in the same manner, both towards good and bad men, whereby our Charity will become uncharitableness; for bad men, by their acts of Charity, do their Neighbor mischief, in the same degree that good men, by their Charity, do him service.

52. It is a common opinion which now prevails, that every individual man is alike our Neighbor, and that we are to exercise our Charity without distinction, towards every one who standeth in need of it; but it surely concerneth christian prudence to examine well into the nature and quality of the objects whereon it exerciseth its Charity, and to regulate the exercise thereof according to such an examination. The spiritual and interior christian maketh proper distinctions in his Charity according to the dictates of wisdom; but the exterior and natural christian, for want of attending to the dictates of wisdom, maketh no such distinction.

53. The different degrees of relationship comprehended under the word Neighbor, and which every christian ought to be acquainted with, are regulated according to the different degrees of goodness which distinguish them; and inasmuch as all goodness is derived from the Lord, therefore the Lord, as the fountain of all goodness, is our Neighbor in the highest and most eminent degree. Hence it follows that the degree, in which every person is related to us as our Neighbor, dependeth upon the degree of goodness which he receiveth from the Lord; and because no two persons stand equally connected with us in the relationship of Neighbor. For all the inhabitants of heaven, and all good men upon earth, differ in their kinds and degrees of goodness; no two are precisely alike; and the variety in each is necessary for VOL. II. No. 5.

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the distinct and separate subsistence of each. But all these varieties, with all the distinct relationships of Neighbor, which are regulated according to the reception of the Lord, that is, of goodness from him, can never be discerned, except under a very general idea, by either man or angel. The Lord, however, requireth no more from any man, than to live according to his knowledge which he hath attained.

54. Inasmuch as the kinds and degrees of goodness in every particu lar person are different, therefore the kind and degree of goodness in each must alone determine in what sort, and in what degree he is our Neighbor. This appears from the parable of our Lord concerning the traveller who fell among thieves; the priest and the Levite passed by on the other side; but the good Samaritan, when he had bound up his wounds, and poured in oil and wine, set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him: Here the Samaritan is declared to be Neighbor to him who fell among thieves, by reason of the kind offices of charity which he exercised towards him. By this parable then we learn, that goodness determines the degrees of Neighborhood. The oil and wine, which the good Samaritan poured into the wound of the poor traveller, represent, in a spiritual sense, all kinds of goodness, and its attendant, truth.

55. It is plain from what hath been said, that in a general and universal signification, GOODNESS itself is our Neighbor, inasmuch as every individual man is our Neighbor only according to that kind and degree of goodness which he possesses from the Lord. And inasmuch as goodness is our Neighbor, therefore Love is so too; for all goodness is the offspring of Love; of course it follows that every individual man is our Neighbor, according to the kind and degree of Love which he hath for and from the Lord.

56. That Love constitutes the relationship of Neighbor, and that this relationship is determined by the quality and degree of every person's Love, is very evident from the case of those who are under the influence of self-love: Whosoever treateth them with the greatest Love and respect, is accounted their pearest Neighbor; he is their favorite, their friend, and the particular object of their kindness; more. over, by reason of the evil affections which prevent their judgment, such a person is held in the nearest relationship, of brother and of Neighbor, whilst other persons are rated in the scale of this relationship only according to the degree of that Love and favor which they bear towards them. Forasmuch then as Love constitutes and determines the relationships of Neighbor, therefore lovers of themselves derive these relationships, in all their several degrees, from themselves, as the first source. But on the contrary, such persons as are not influenced by self-love to value themselves above other people, which is the case with all those who belong to the kingdom of the Lord, these will derive the various relationships of Neighbor from the Lord, whom they ought to love above all other things; and they will account every one to be connected with them in this relationship, according to the kind and degree of Love which they have for and from the Lord. Hence it is plain from what source a true christian will derive the relationships of Neighbor, and that he will place every person

* See St. Luke, chap. x ver. 29. to 37.

in the scale of this relationship, in proportion to the degrees of goodness which such a person receiveth from the Lord.

57. The truth of this distinction is taught us in the gospel, where the king says unto the righteous" I was an hungred and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me; for inasmuch as ye have done it. unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Under the six distinctions of the righteous, here mentioned, are comprehended, in a spiritual sense, all the different relationships of Neighbor. Hence likewise it is evident, that whensoever goodness is loved, the Lord is loved; because all goodness cometh from the Lord, is his habitation and his essence.

58. But the relationship of Neighbor is not confined to men as individuals only, but it extendeth also to men as considered in a collective state, in which sense all societies of greater and lesser orders, our country, the church and kingdom of the Lor, and above all, the Lord himself, may be considered as our Neighbors, to whom we are bound to do service, and to show kindness from the purest principles of Love and Charity. The relationships of Neighbor therefore may be considered as an ascending scale, wherein a society, consisting of many persons, is in a higher degree than a single individual person; a man's country, as consisting of many societies, is in a still higher degree; above that is the church of the Lord; still higher is his kingdom; and in the highest degree of all is the Lord himself. These degrees of ascent may be compared to the steps of a ladder, at the top whereof the Lord standeth.

59. Every society, as consisting of a number of individuals, is in a nearer relationship of Neighbor to us than a single individual; we are bound therefore to exercise our Charity towards a society of men by the same laws, and under the same regulations, as towards a single man; that is, according to the kind and degree of goodness which prevaileth therein: and of consequence in a different manner towards a society of good people, and a society of evil people. Love towards a society consisteth in providing for the good thereof out of a pure love for goodness.

60. A man's country is still nearer united to him in the relationship of Neighbor than a single society, inasmuch as it includeth in it many societies, and is like a parent from whom he receiveth birth, nourishment, support, and security from injuries. We are obliged in love to provide for the good of our country according to its necessities, which regard particularly the food and raiment, the civil and spiritual life of its inhabitants. Whosoever loveth his country, and provideth for its good from a pure love of goodness, he in another life loveth the kingdom of the Lord; for there the kingdom of the Lord is to him as his Country: And whosoever loveth the kingdom of the Lord, he also loveth the Lord himself, because the Lord is all, and in all, in his kingdom.

61. The church of the Lord is a nearer Neighbor than our country, because in providing for the good of the church, we provide for the good of souls, and the eternal life of that society of persons who constitute our country. Whosoever, therefore, from a pure principle of

St. Matth. chap. xxv. ver. 34 to 41.

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