ADVANTAGE OF A BOOK-OBERHASLI.

and productive. About fourteen thousand | This is the pass of Oberhasli represented head of cattle are supported in the mead-in the cut. M. Simond mentions a curiows and Alpine pastures. The exports consist of cattle, cheese, and skins of the chamois and other animals, which are exchanged for corn, wine, salt, manufactured goods, and colonial produce.

Oberhasli forms a bailliage, under the jurisdiction of an officer chosen from among the inhabitants and appointed by the authorities of Berne; the population amounts to about six thousand, and the valley is subdivided into three parishes. The chief town of the valley is Meyringen, which contains six hundred inhabitants.

ous fact connected with the Grimsel, in one of the caverns of which a prodigious quantity of the largest crystals ever known was discovered in 1720. He states that some of these crystals weighed from four hundred pounds to eight hundred pounds. The value of the whole was estimated at thirty thousand florins (about twelve thousand dollars). The largest of these crystals, measuring three and a half feet by two and a quarter feet, is in the Cabinet of Natural History in the Garden of Plants at Paris.

One account of the valley of Oberhasli, which we have consulted, states that the population has doubled in the last hundred years, but this increase does not appear to have been attended with any change in the modes of existence, or extension of previous resources; and the consequence has been, that a portion of the population has

The inhabitants of Oberhasli are considered to be good specimens of a fine peasantry. They are remarkable for their superior language and manners, their open countenances, their strength, activity, and manly proportions, which are calculated to impress travellers in their favor, though it may be observed that in these respects they have been made the subject of some-been driven elsewhere to seek a livelihood, what exaggerated statements. The personal appearance of the women is good, and their natural attractions are increased by a simple and elegant costume. Instances of great longevity are frequent, and may be attributed to the sobriety of habits generally prevalent, as well as to the purity of the air. Gymnastic exercises take place twice in the summer, to which those who reside in the neighboring valleys are invited. According to an old tradition, the inhabitants are the descendants of a colony of Swedes, who established themselves in the valley about the fifth century. The probability of this fact is strongly corroborated by the familiar use of several terms evidently of Swedish origin. The castle of Hasli, which stands on an eminence near Meyringen, is said to have formerly been the residence of one of the first Swedish inhabitants. Before the French rev-improvement than mountainous pastures. olution, many privileges were enjoyed by the population, for which they were indebted to their voluntary union with the Bernese, in 1334.

The eastern extremity of the valley is divided in two, and in each branch there is a stream, which flows into the Aar. One of these subdivisions of the larger valley affords the only practicable route from the Oberland to Italy by the Grimsel.

and the armies and workshops of Europe have thus been recruited. The cause of the constant emigration from Switzerland may be explained in the following manner: It is the nature of pasturage to produce food for a much greater number of people than it can employ. In countries strictly pastoral, therefore, many persons will be idle, or at most be very inadequately occupied. When a father has more than one son, those who are not wanted on the farm are powerfully tempted to enroll themselves as soldiers, or to emigrate in some other way, as the only chance of enabling them to marry. The following additional remarks serve still further to elucidate the social condition of the population in those parts of Switzerland which are exclusively pastoral or agricultural : There are no grounds less susceptible of

They must necessarily be left chiefly to nature; and when they have been adequately stocked with cattle, little more can be done. The great difficulty in Switzerland, as in Norway, is to procure a sufficient quantity of fodder for the winter support of the cattle which have been fed on the mountains in the summer. For this purpose grass is collected with the greatest care. In places inaccessible to cattle,

the peasant sometimes makes, hay with
crampons on his feet; in some places grass
not three inches high is cut three times a
year; and in the valleys the fields are seen
shaven as close as a bowling-green, and
all the inequalities are clipped as with a
pair of scissors. In Switzerland the art
of mowing seems to be carried to its high-
est pitch of perfection. As, however, the
improvement of the lands in the valleys
must depend principally upon the manure
arising from the stock, it is evident that
the quantity of hay, and the number of cat-dependent upon it alone.
tle will be mutually limited by each other;
and as the population will of course be
limited by the produce of the stock, it
does not seem possible to increase it be-
yond a certain point, and that at no great
distance.

sarily frequently impelled to emigrate, if
not to other countries, at least to other dis-
tricts, and if not to settle there, at least to
seek for employment at particular seasons.
In the north of Derbyshire, England, for
instance, where the crops are late in ripen-
ing, great numbers participate in the labors
of the harvest in the adjoining counties,
where it takes place earlier; and by this
means they are enabled to avoid that ine-
quality of condition to which the nature of
the soil at home would condemn them if

The extension of manufactures in Switzerland during the war encouraged an increase of the population, and manufactured goods being exchanged for corn, the arable lands were, to a great extent, laid down in grass. On the return of peace, each country endeavored, by prohibitions, to sustain the prosperity of its own manufactures. The result, though unfavorable to all, has not been so to each in an equal degree. The landlords, no longer having so free a market for their produce, have suffered in some cases; in others, manufacturers have been confined to the homemarket, and the means of employment being diminished, the land has been burdened with the support of a part of the manufacturing population. This state of things has been severely felt in Switzerland, which stands in need of importations of corn, while the prohibitory system restrains the exportation of manufactures in exchange, and thus injures both the agricultural and manufacturing interests. Many of the Swiss peasantry have emigrated with their families to the United States. They usually embark at Havre; but if they proceeded down the Rhine to Rotterdam by the steamboats, the expense and fatigue of so long an inland journey would be much diminished, though, at the same time, the chance of obtaining an early passage across the Atlantic would not be so great as at Havre.

The inhabitants of the mountainous regions, in every part of Europe, are neces

STAR-WORSHIP.

E do not at all wonder at the idolatry of the ancient heathen. The rude and simple people, whose dwellings were nightly reared upon the breezy hillside, the dewy plain, or in the sequestéred shade of some palmy vale, with minds untaught, and ignorant of that knowledge which was ushered in with the soft swelling anthems of seraphic harmonyis it a wonder that they burned incense unto the queen of heaven, and worshipped the shining hosts that nightly gemmed the mysterious and everlasting blue?

Who that has gazed in the still hour of midnight upon the burnished scenery of the mighty concave above us, and thrilled with the glorious influences of the hour, can wonder at the reverent devotion of those who were unable to look beyond the bright page of creation, to the great Architect who veils his glory with such transcendent splendors?

From childhood our spirit leaped upward as if it would sunder its prison-bars, whenever we gazed on the magnificent banners that float with all their gorgeous blazonry over the dim and shrouded earth. When the sunset faded from the sky, and the last mellow tints were merged in the gathering darkness, with what ecstasy have we watched for the angel sentinels to come forth from their mystic hiding

STAR-WORSHIP.

places, and fill their diamond lamps with splendors that night had no power to shade! If the soul were joyous in the glad sunlight, and sent forth its answering song to the hymns that made vocal each shadowy dell and echoing thicket-how it soared on the solemn wing of silent thought up to the temple of the Eternal Presence, when night spread out her starry banners, on whose magnificent folds gleamed the insignia of Omnipotence!

29

spreads before us the shadowy panorama of the past? Do we not hear soft voices that were silent long ago, swelling on the murmuring gale, that whispers so sweetly along the waving thicket, or blends its music with the chiming waves, where the starbeams sleep so gloriously on its silver mirror?

The day is glorious: the hills, forests, and plains-the towering mountains that arrest the thunder-storm in its course, and the deep rolling ocean that lifts itself in boisterous mirth when the hurricane walks in fury over its seething billows-all these proclaim the greatness and majesty of Him who sits upon the circle of eternity: yet

soul acknowledges the great I AM. But when night unfurls her solemn banner over the earth's careworn millions, and the stars come forth with their shining cressets, filled with splendor from the eternal fount, the spirit mounts on triumphant wing to the high and holy realms of thought. Who shall tell us those beaming orbs, whose smiling rays traverse the unknown fields of space, are not the glorious abode of departed spirits-the resting-place of weary

Last night the illness of a child called us from sleep, and as we gazed for a moment upon the starlit heavens, it seemed as if a glimpse of the almost-forgotten glory that used to entrance our young spirit, ere it had wrestled with the dark phan-awe is mingled with reverence, while the toms of care and sorrow, had returned to woo us again to the adoration of bygone days. Waking from the oblivious dews of slumber, and gazing alone upon the glorious heraldry of Omnific power and wisdom, it seemed as if new mysteries and glories had dawned at once upon our spellbound vision. All was still and quiet, brooded by the solemn wing of midnight; not a breeze stirred the sleeping foliage; the very brooks murmured softly on their way, as if soothed by the mystic influen-ones, that panted on life's arid desert ?— ces of the hour: yet our soul leaped upward on the strong pinion of adoration, as if it had suddenly entered the vestibule of everlasting glory. There were the glorious and far-off stars-the same, that, like the bright eyes of seraphim, smiled on the young spirit's dawning horizon, still shining on, in their radiant and undimmed beauty, and to our enraptured ear weaving the voiceless harmonies of the eternal

years.

Far along the northern sky an undefined yet perceptible radiance told that the merry dancers had illumined their festal halls; and the soft shimmering light, that contrasted so faintly with the starlit blue of the southern hemisphere, might well be emitted from the transparent brilliancy of their spirit-robes. For where is the strong philosophy that shall tell us the Indian's theory is not correct, and that the souls of the departed do not hover over the loved place of their abode, or spread their happy pinions along the star-paved galaxy? What are the mysterious influences that thrill our spirits in the dim night-hour, when fancy

And as the eye traverses from one to another along the arching sky, what yearnings stir the spirit to rise and trace the wisdom and glory of the Creator, in scanning the glittering cohorts that move obedient to his will through the boundless fields of ether! And if the earthly vision were unveiled, might we not see the spiritmessengers winging their shining ways from orb to orb through the azure plains? Well may we muse beneath the starry concave, and breathe our orisons to Him who hath fixed the spheres in their orbits, and traced with wisdom's unerring finger the pathway of worlds unnumbered.

The garish day may claim the soul's best energies, and toil and anxiety weigh down the spirit, but when night reveals the glories of the vast expanse above us, the soul will struggle to rise from the toils of earth, and contemplate the illimitable majesty of Him who called the mighty concourse of worlds from the caverns of darkness, and sent them forth on their shining, linked in their mystic circles, whose golden rings are fastened to the eternal throne!