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ISPAHAN.

Street, Mosque, and Bazar in Ispahan.

On the southern boundary of Persia we find the remains of Ispahan, that immense city, to which Chardin gives thirty-three miles in circumference, and which, when he visited it, contained from 6 to 700,000 inhabitants. This superb capital, which the Persians considered as one half of the world, has now left a mere shadow of its former grandeur. The large spaces which served as pleasure grounds to the avenues, are now converted into common gardens. We may travel for three hours on country roads, which were formerly streets leading to the centre of the city. Stiil, however, according to the account of M. Olivier, the bazars constructed by Sha-Abbas, which were covered in with vaults, and lighted by numerous domes, are of prodigious extent, and proclaim the former magnificence of the city. Sir R. K. Porter says he travelled under its massy arches considerably more than a mile, to where they terminate at the northern angle of the Royal Square, and that, after crossing the square, the bazar is continued at the opposite angle.

This vast square, called the Maidan Shah, one of the most extensive in the world, was formerly one of the chief ornaments of Ispahan; enriched with shops, where every commodity of luxury and splendid manufacture was exposed. Here also the troops were exercised, and the nobility exhibited their Asiatic tournaments before their king. In the centre of each side of this immense area, stands some edifice, remarkable for grandeur or for character. In the northwest is the great gate of entrance to the bazar, on which, in former times, stood the celebrated clock of Ispahan. The southeastern side shows the Meshed-Shah, a superb mosque, built by Shah-Abbas, and dedicated to Mehedi, one of the twelve Imâns. On the northeast is the mosque of Looft Ullah; and on the southwest the Ali Kapi, or gate of Ali, forms a majestic parallel to the bazar porch on the opposite side. The length of the square is about 2000 feet, and its breadth 700. Each face presents a double range of arches, the one over the other; the longest range consisting of eighty-six, and the shortest of thirty. At a few paces from these arcades there is a constant supply of water, running through a canal of black marble, and opening into a variety of basins of the same substance, which are constantly full,

and rendered more cool and refreshing by a close shade of elegant trees. The Sefi, or Ali Kapi gate, is described as one of the most perfect pieces of brick work to be found in the Persian empire. Over the great entrance it rises into several stories, and the flights of steps which lead to them are formed of the most beautiful variegated porcelain. The roof of the large chamber over the gate is sumptuously gilt and carved, and supported by eighteen lofty octagonal pillars, once richly emblazoned in gold, but now faded. It is open on all sides but one. On the side nearest the balustrade facing the square, a round platform marks the spot on which Shah-Abbas used to sit, and from whence he reviewed his chivalry, galloping and skirmishing beneath, or witnessed the combats of wild animals. The freshness of all the buildings is particularly striking to a European, or the inhabitant of any comparatively humid country, in which the atmosphere cherishes a vegetation of mosses, lichens, and other cryptogamous plants, which we particularly associate in our minds with the spectacle of decay. Above this there is a numerous range of small rooms, some of them evidently appropriated to purposes of carousal. From the roof of the building an extensive view of the city is obtained. In former times this was undoubtedly splendid, but at present, with the exception of the palaces in the gardens, the whole mass below is one mouldering succession of ruinous houses, mosques, and shapeless structures, which had formerly been the mansions of the nobility, broken by groups or lines of various tall trees, which once made part of the gardens of the houses now in ruins. Ispahan, though two-thirds of it are in ruins, contains more. than 200,000 inhabitants.

At present, Ispahan is in some degree recovering from its state of abject decay. Mohammed Hussein, whose talents have raised him to the place of Ameen-a-Doolah, or second minister of the king, being a native of Ispahan, has erected in it a splendid new.palace, and enlarged and beautified many of the former edifices. Having, in the faithful discharge of his public duty, encouraged agriculture, and recolonized many deserted villages in the country, he has used similar means to populate the habitable streets of this city, by promoting the old manufactures, and striving to attract commerce back to its ancient channels

ROCKS OF LAKE SUPERIOR.

DY GOVERNOR CASS.

Upon the southern coast of Lake Superior about fifty miles from the falls of St. Mary, are the iminense precipitous cliffs, called by the voyagers, Le Pottrail and the Pictured Rocks. This name has been given them in consequence of the differeat appearance which they present to the traveller, as he passes their base in his canoe. It requires little aid from the imagination to discern in them the castellated tower and Ifty dome, spires and pinnacles, and every sublime, grotesque or fantastic shape which the genius of architecture ever invented. These cliffs are an unbroken mass of rocks, rising to an elevation of 300 feet above the level of the lake, and stretching along the coast for fifteen miles. The voyagers never pass this coast except in the most profound calm; and the Indians, before they make the attempi, offer their accustomed oblations, to propitiate the favor of their Monitas. The eye instinctively searches along this eternal rampart for a single place of security; but the search is vain. With an impassable barrier of rocks on one side, and an interminable expanse of water on the other, a sudden storm upon the lake would as inevitably insure destruction of the passenger in his frail canoe, as if he were on the brink of the cataract of Niagara. The rock itself is a sandstone, which is disentegrated by the continual action of the water with comparative facility. There are no broken masses upon which the eye can rest and find relief. The lake is so deep, that these masses as they are torn from the precipice, are concealed beneath its water until they are reduced to sand.-The action of the waves has undermined every projecting point; and there the immense precipice rests upon arches, and the foundation is intersected with caverns in every direction.

When we passed this immense fabric of nature, the wind was still and the lake was calm. But even the slightest motion of the waves, which in the most profound calm, agitates these internal seas, swept through the deep caverns with the noise of distant thunder, and died away upon the ear, as it rolled forward in the dark recesses inaccessible to human observation. No sound more melancholy or more awful ever vibrated on human nerves. It has left an impression which neither time nor distance can ever efface. Resting in a frail bark canoe upon the limpid waters of the lake; we seemed almost suspended in air, so pellucid is the element upon which we floated. In gazing upon the towering battleinents which impended over us, and from which the smallest fragment would have destroyed us, we felt, and felt intensely, our own insignificance. No situation can be imagined, more appalling to the courage, or more humbling to the pride of

man.

We appeared like a speck upon the face of creation. Our whole party, Indians and voyagers, and soldiers, officers and servants, contemplated in mute astonishment the awful display of creative power, at whose base we hung; and no sound broke upon the ear to interrupt the ceaseless roaring of the waters. No splendid cathedral, no temple built with human hands, no pomp of worship could ever impress the spectator with such humility, and so strong a conviction of the immense distance between him and the Almighty Archi

tect.

CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD

For the discovery of this wonderful function of nature, we are indebted to Dr. Harvey, who lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth; the knowledge of which has conferred incalculable advantages upon mankind. The velocity with which the blood must flow when the heart beats violently is inconceivable; for, in the ordinary course of nature, the heart contracts 4000 times in one hour, each time ejecting one ounce of blood. To be more particular in our description, it is necessary to state, that there is provided in the central part of the body a hollow muscle, invested with spiral tubes, running in both directions. By the contraction of these fibres, the sides of the muscular cavities are necessarily squeezed together, so as to force out from them any fluid which they may at that time contain: by the relaxation of the same fibres, the cavities are in their turn dilated; and, of course, prepared to admit every fluid which may be poured into them." Into these cavities are inserted the great trunks, both of the arteries which carry out the blood, and of the veins which bring it back. This is a general account of the apparatus; and the simplest idea of its action is, that by each contraction a portion of blood is forced as by a syringe into the arteries; and at each dilation an equal portion is received from the veins. This produces, at each pulse, a motion and change in the mass of blood to the amount of what the cavity contains, which in a full grown human heart is about an ounce, or two tablespoonfuls. Each cavity at least will contain one ounce of blood. The heart contracts 4000 times in one hour; from which it follows, that there passes through the heart every

hour 4000 ounces, or 350 pounds of blood. Now the whole mass of blood is about twenty five pounds; so that a quantity of blood, equal to the whole blood within the body, passes through the heart fourteen times in one hour, which is about one ounce every four minutes.

Adventure with a Bear. The Kennebec Journal relates a story of a land speculator, who while hunting for a timber lot, climbed up on the stump of a tree, which having been cut in a very deep snow, was about nine feet high. His object was to attain a position where he could see all the pine trees near by, and to look for a navigable stream to float his logs. The stump was hollow, but our land buyer was so intent upon the fortune he expected to make, that he became careless of his footing, like the milk-maid in the fable, and in the midst of his golden visions he stepped backward and fell plump into the hollow tree. In vain he tried to ascend. There he was pent up, with not a living soul in ten miles of him. His horrid fate seemed inevitable. He thought no more of bonded lands, but abandoned himself to despair, and a lingering death by starvation. The wind sighed mournfully among the trees, whose branches waved over the inaccessible mouth of his wooden cavern. No other sound was heard, from man or beast or bird-when suddenly he was aroused by a scratching outside. The next moment the hole above him was darkened by some dense body descending towards him. It proved to be an enormous black bear. As soon as the shaggy posteriors of the animal came within reach of our hero, he grasped the long hair firmly with both hands. Bruin, not knowing what sort of a bedfellow he had to deal with, scratched with all his might for the top of the stump, and drew the land buyer up with him.

VARIETIES.

A St. Louis paper states that many of our enterprising young men have already left, and others are preparing to take their departure, for Santa Fe. The upper country will also send out an unusual number of traders. They are to rendezvous at the Round Prairie, near the Missouri line, whence they will be escorted as far as the boundary line, between the United States and New Spain, by a detachment of the United States army.

It should be a matter of national pride to us, as the first projectors of Temperance Societies, to see them increasing at home and abroad, and bearing health and happiness in each increase. At the late meeting of the British and Foreign Temperance Society, in London, it was stated that the number of British people who had up to that period associated to abandon ardent spirits as a beverage was 150,000.

Intelligence from Colombia has been received to the 17th March, at which time the republic was in the enjoyment of peace and prosperity. Gen. Santander had been elected President, D. Joachin Mosquera, Vice President and Gen. H. Lopez entered on the 1st of March upon his duties as Secretary of State, of War and of Marine.

A personal assault upon the President was committed on the 6th of May, by Beverly Randolph, late a Lieutenant in the U. S. Navy. General Jackson, with several members of his cabinet, was in the steamboat Cygnet, which had stopped a few minutes at Alexandria on the way to Fredericksburg. The President was sitting in the cabin and reading a newspaper, when Randolph made the unjustifiable assault.

THE PEOPLE'S MAGAZINE. Price one dollar a year, in advance. Six cents single, 50 cents a dozen. Each number being stereotyped, the back numbers can be supplied in any quantities. All orders post paid, promptly attended to.

The postage on this Magazine is three quarters of a cent for 100 miles, and one cent and a quarter only, the greatest distance.

Published every other Saturday, by LILLY, WAIT, & CO. 121 Washington Street, BOSTON COLMAN, HOLDEN, & CỔ, Portland. WILLIAM, & JOSEPH NEAL, Baltimore. ADAM WALDIE, Philadelphia. MAHLON DAY, New York.

MARSHALI. & BROWN, Providence.

Sold by all the principal booksellers in the U. States.

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THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE. On the 14th of March, 1792, the Commissioners of the City of Washington offered a premium, by advertisement in the public papers, for a plan for the President's house, and another for a design for the Capitol, to be presented on the 15th July.

The plan for the President's house, presented by Capt. James Hoban, was approved, and on the 13th October a procession was formed for laying the corner-stone of that building.

The President's house was wholly constructed after the designs and under the direction of Capt. James Hoban, and the interior was rebuilt by him, after it had been destroyed by the enemy in 1814. It is situated at the westerly part of the city, at the intersection of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Vermont avenues, which radiate from this point as a centre.

It stands near the centre of a plat of ground of twenty acres, at an elevation of 44 feet above the usual high water of the river Potomac. The entrance front faces north, upon an open square, and the garden front to the south; opens to an extensive and finely varied view of the Capitol and most improved part of the city, of the river and Potomac bridge, and of the opposite Virginia and Maryland shores. The building is 170 feet front and 86 deep, is built of white free stone, with Ionic pilasters, comprehending two lofty stories of rooms, crowned with a stone balustrade. The north front is ornamented with a lofty portico, of four Ionic columns in front, and projecting with three columns.. The outer intercolumniation is for carriages to drive into, and place company under shelter; the middle space is the entrance for those visiters who come on foot; the steps from both lead to a broad plat

The garden

form in front of the door of entrance. front is varied by having a rusticated basement story under the Ionic ordonnance, and by a semicircular projecting colonnade of six columns, with two flights of steps leading from the ground, to the level of the principal story.

In the interior, the north entrance opens immediately into a spacious hall of 40 by 50 feet, furnished simply, with plain stuccoed walls. Advancing through a screen of Ionic columns, apparently of white marble, but only of a well executed imitation, in composition: the door in the centre opens into the oval room, or saloon, of 40 by 30 feet-the walls covered with plain crimson flock paper, with deep gilded borders. The marble chimney piece and tables, the crimson silk drapery of the window curtains and chairs, with the carpet of French manufacture, wove in one piece, with the arms of the United States in the centre, two large mirrors and a splendid cut glass chandelier, give the appearance of a rich and consistent style of decoration and finish. On each side of this room, and communicating therewith by large doors, is a square room of 30 by 22 feet. These three rooms form the suit of apartments in which com pany is usually received on parade occasions. the west of these is the company dining room, 40 by 30, and on the North West corner is the family dining room. All these rooms are finished handsomely, but less richly than the oval room; the walls are covered with green, yellow, white and blue papers, sprinkled with gold stars and with gilt borders. The stairs, for family use, are in a cross entry at this end, with store rooms, china closets, &c., between the two dining rooms. On the east end of the house is the large banquetting room, extend

To

ing the whole depth of the building, with windows to the north and south, and a large glass door to the east, leading to the terrace roof of the offices. This room is 80 by 40 feet wide, and 22 high; it is finished with handsome stucco cornice, It has lately been fitted up in a very neat manner. The paper

is of fine lemon color, with a rich cloth border. There are four mantels of black marble with Italian black and gold fronts, and handsome grates; each mantel is surmounted with a mirror, the plates of which measure 100 by 58 inches, framed in a very beautiful style, and a pair of rich ten-light lamps, bronzed and gilt, with a row of drops around the fountain; and a pair of French cepina vases, richly gilt and painted, with glass shades and flowers. There are three handsome chandeliers of 18 lights each, of cut glass of remarkable brilliancy, in gilt mountings, with a number of gilt bracket lights of five candles each.

The carpet, which contains

nearly 500 yards, is of fine Brussels, of fawn, blue and yellow, with red border. Under each chandelier is placed a round table of rich workmanship of Italian black and gold slabs-and each pier is filled with a table corresponding with the round tables, with splendid lamps on each of them. The curtains are of light blue moreen with yellow draperies, with a gilded eagle, holding up the drapery of each. On the cornices of the curtains in a line of stairs, and over the semi-circle of the door, besides large gilded and ornamented rays, are 24 gilded stars, emblematic of the States. The sofas and chairs are covered with blue damask satin. All the furniture corresponds in color and style. The principal stairs on the left of the entrance hall, are spacious and covered with Brussels carpeting. On ascending these, the visiter to the President is led into a spacious anti-room, to wait for introduction in regular succession with others, and may have considerable time to look from the south windows upon the beautiful prospect before him; when in course to be introduced, he ascends a few steps and finds himself in the East corner chamber, the President's Cabi iet Room, where every thing an nounces the august simplicity of our government. The room is about 40 feet wide, and finished like those below. The centre is occupied by a large table, completely covered with books, papers, parchments, &c., and seems like a general repository of every thing that may be wanted for reference; while the President is seated at a smaller table near the fire place, covered with the papers which are the subject of his immediate attention; and which, by their number, admonish the visiter to occupy no more of his time, for objects of business or civility, than necessity requires. The other chambers are appropriated to family purposes. Some under persons, every administration, have objected to the style of the President's mansion, as bordering on unnecessary state and parade— but we are of a different opinion. It is the house provided by the people for the residence of the chief magistrate of their choice, and he is the tenant at certain seasons for four, or at most eight years: it hardly equals the seats of many of the nobility and wealthy commoners of England, and bears no comparison with the residences of the petty princes of Germany or the grand dukes of Italy: it exhibits no rich marbles, fine statues, nor costly paintings. It is what the mansion of the head of this Republic should be, large enough for public and family purposes, and should be finished and maintained in a style to gratify every wish

for convenience and pleasure. The state of the grounds will not meet this description; they have an unfinished and neglected appearance; we hope they will not long remain so rude and uncultivated. Historical Sketches of the District of Columbia.

JOURNAL OF A TOUR FROM THE PACIFIC TO THE ATLAN TIC OCEAN, THROUGH THE INTERIOR OF MEXICO, IN 1827, BY WM. R. BOWERS OF PROVIDENCE.

(Continued from the last number )

March 7th. After passing a very uncomfortable night, on account of the vermin with which this house was infested, and paying an extravagant price for our miserable fare, we started at daylight on our journey. I had the good fortune to recover one of my mules, which had strayed before daylight, with a load of baggage on its back. We found him in the possession of two soldiers about four miles from the road, and in quite an opposite direction from our course. I would advise any person travelling in this country not to trust his baggage too much to his servants.

We fell in company with a Spanish priest and his niece, who proved agreeable. The former made a great many unsuccessful attempts to "jockey" a horse with us. Our road this day has been rather dusty but good for horses, and through a tract of country but very little cultivated. At noon we stopped to breakfast at a house twenty-one miles from the city of Guadalaxara, and here we found a company of soldiers stationed. At this house a few months since an English gentleman was robbed of several thousand dollars, while his servant's throat was cut from ear to ear. The house was attacked in the night by a band of thirty robbers, who succeeded but too well in their enterprise. I noticed the marks of fifteen shot-holes still visible near the window. Most of the remainder of the road lay over an uncultivated plain. At 5. P. M. we arrived at the beautiful city of Guadalaxara, and accepted the kind invitation of an English merchant to lodge at his house. This place is about 270 miles distant from San Blas.

Guadalaxara, or Guadalaxahara, is a beautifu. city containing ten or twelve handsome churches, two or three convents and colleges, several good academies, (one on the Lancasterian System,) two very fine hospitals, a large mint, a palace, theatre, and other public buildings. The number of inhabitants may be estimated at from 65 to 70,000. The city is situated in the centre of a very extensive plain, and is regularly laid out in squares. streets are well paved, the houses generally very neat and there are very large tracts of land laid out for pleasure grounds and walks, which with fine streams of water, beautiful trees, very tastefully arranged, combined with the good atmosphere of the place, (it being 7500 feet above the sea,) make a ride or walk very pleasant.

The

In these pleasure grounds, the inhabitants generally assemble in large parties to pass off an hour or two in the afternoon, and to show off their dress and equipage. The ladies are, for the most part, rather ordinary in their appearance, but improve with a stranger on acquaintance. I saw a few, however, who could be called handsome. There appears to be considerable animation in the city, and the inhabitants are generally a happy race of people. This place is supported by trade, being the grand mart of all this section of Mexico. There are no manufactories of consequence in the vicinity, except some for making coarse crockery-ware.

(To be continued.)

THE BAMBOO.

The bamboo is a native of the hottest regions of Asia. It is likewise to be found in America, but not in that abundance, with which it flourishes in the old world. It is never brought into this country in sufficient supply for any useful purposes, being rather an object of curiosity than of utility. But in the countries of its production it is one of the most universally useful plants. "There are about fifty varieties," says Mr. Loudon, in his Botanical Dictionary, "of the Arundo bambos, each of the most rapid growth, rising from fifty to eighty feet the first year, and the second perfecting its timber in hardness and elasticity. It grows in stools which are cut every two years. The quantity of timber furnished by an acre of bamboos is immense. Its uses are almost without end. In building it forms almost entire houses for the lower orders, and enters both into the construction and furniture of those of the higher class. Bridges, boats, masts, rigging, agricultural and other implements and machinery; carts, baskets, ropes, nets, sail-cloth, cups, pitchers, troughs, pipes for conveying water, pumps, fences for gardens and fields, &c. are made of it. Macerated in water it forms paper; the leaves are generally put round the tea sent to Europe: the thick inspissated juice is a favorite medicine.

It is said to be indestructible by fire, to resist acids, and, by fusion with alkali, to form a transparent permanent glass."

PHILOSOPHY AND CONSISTENCY. Among all the excellent things which Mrs. Barbauld has written, she never penned any thing better than her essay on the inconsistency of human expectations; it is full of sound philosophy. Every thing, says she, is marked at a settled price. Our time, our labor, our ingenuity, is so much ready money, which we are to lay out to the best advantage. Examine, compare, choose, reject; but stand to your own judgment, and do not, like children, when you have purchased one thing, re

pine that you do not possess another, which you would not purchase. Would you be rich? Do you think that the single point worth sacrificing every thing else to? You may, then, be rich. Thousands have become so from the lowest beginnings by toil, and diligence, and attention to the minutest articles of expense and profit. But you must give up the pleasures of leisure, of an unembarrassed mind, and of a free unsuspicious temper. You must learn to do hard if not unjust things; and as for the embarrassment of a delicate and ingenuous spirit, it is necessary for you to get rid of it as fast as possible. You must not stop to enlarge your mind, polish your taste, or refine your sentiments; but must keep on in one unbeaten track, without turning aside to the right or to the left. "But," you say, "I cannot submit to drudgery like this; I feel a spirit above it." "Tis well; be above it, then; only do not repine because you are not rich:

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Is knowledge the pearl of price in your estima tion? That too may be purchased by steady application, and long solitary hours of study and reflection. "But," says the man of letters, "what a hardship is it that many an illiterate fellow, who cannot construe the motto on his coach, shall raise a fortune, and make a figure, while I possess not the common necessaries of life!" Was it for fortune, then, that you grew pale over the midnight lamp, and gave the sprightly years to study and reflection? You, then, have mistaken your path, and ill employed your industry. "What reward have I, then, for all my labor?" What reward! a large comprehensive soul, purged from vulgar fears and prejudices, able to interpret the works of man and God -a perpetual spring of fresh ideas, and the conscious dignity of superior intelligence. Good Heavens! what other reward can you ask? "But is it not a reproach upon the economy of Providence that such a one, who is a mean, dirty fellow, should have amassed wealth enough to buy half a nation?" Not the least. He made himself a mean, dirty fellow for that very end. He has paid his health, his conscience, and his liberty for it. Do you envy him his bargain? Will you hang your head in his presence because he outshines you in equipage and show? Lift up your brow with a noble confidence, and say to yourself, "I have not these things, it is true; but it is because I have not desired them nor sought them; it is because I possess something better. I have chosen my lot; I am content and satisfied." The most characteristic mark of a great mind is to choose some one object, which it considers important, and pursue that object through life. If we expect the purchase, we must pay the price.

THE EVENING CLOUD A cloud lay cradled near the setting sun,

A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow; Long had I watched the glory moving on

O'er the soft radiance of the lake below. Tranquil its spirit seemed, and floated slow: E'en in its very motion there was rest; While every breath of eve that chanced to blow Wafted the traveller to the beauteous west. Emblem, methought, of the departed soul, To whose white robe the gleam of bliss is given; And, by the breath of mercy, made to roll Right onward to the golden gates of heaven, Where to the eye of faith it peaceful lies,

And tells to man his glorious destinies.

WILSON

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