changes of the dress of either sex would have any influence in preserving the youthful imagination pure and uncontaminated. They would also hear with patience, perhaps read with attention, what might be said on the tendency of stimulating food and drink, and a thousand other things, to hasten those changes of the human constitution which it were better, far better, to retard than accelerate. They would not be wholly inaccessible to arguments whose object was to enforce upon them the necessity of free communication with both sexes on their duties and dangers, the moment curiosity begins to awaken, and situation and circumstances carry them beyond their own ken, and expose them to the corrupting influence of a corrupt world. "How shall I best introduce this subject to my son?" said a judicious parent, one day, as we were conversing together. "He is now eight years old; I find it necessary to keep him at the grammar school, and he will soon begin to be exposed to danger." We were struck with his inquiry, and rejoiced to find one father whose eyes were open to make provision for these wants of his household; and whose heart, warmed with the love of God, stirred him up to try to shield from danger his rising charge, and to impart to them morally, as well as intellectually and physically, their portion of "meat in due season."

Very few parents seem to believe that any thing can hasten the epoch of puberty, but climate. Now, while we do not wholly deny the influence of climate, in this respect, we believe facts will justify a belief that other causes have far more influence, and climate far less, in proportion, than is usually admitted. If this were not so, how comes it to pass that physical maturity is latest, in temperate regions, where the character is not only modified by climate, but by government, religion, &c. and earliest, as you recede from the light of Christianity, and approach the haunts of the savage, whether it be near the equator or the poles?

The teacher, no less than the parent, has much to do, in the work of moral reform; or rather in that work of forming character which, one might hope, would render reform unnecessary. His is scarcely a less arduous or less responsible duty than that of the parent for whom he is substituted. Perhaps it may devolve on him, more than even on the parent, to settle several important questions so long unsettled; whether the sexes should be instructed separately, or in the

same apartments; whether or not their recreations should be conducted together; and if not, at what age, and under what circumstances a separation should take place. On the decision of these questions, let it be what it may, will depend much of the success of the teacher in contributing his share to the work of reformation. For our own part, with many distinguished teachers, we have long since been convinced that the usual practice of separating schools into two great classes, and carrying on the work of education and instruction separately, is productive of very great mischief, and will, sooner or later, be abandoned. We believe that much is yet to be learned, in regard both to teachers and pupils by having an eye on those model schools, instituted by the great Teacher, in which there are usually pupils of both sexes; and always a teacher of each sex; and where the pupils are trained in the same apartments from infancy to adult years. All other schools, of higher or lower grade, are but substitutes for these "divine schools," if we may so call them, and may hence derive many important hints both in regard to their organization, and their methods of imparting instruction.

The minister of the gospel has much to do, also, in the great work which we are advocating. But how he is to perform his task most acceptably, we do not feel qualified to say. Only we are sure of one thing, that God cannot have delegated to him so much power and influence, and then given him a license to omit wholly one in ten of his principal commands. At the same time we believe, to some extent, in the doctrine of "expediency ;" and that while a minister is bound to declare the "whole counsel of God," he is not obliged to declare it all in a single sermon, or on a single day. Neither St. Paul nor the Saviour did this; and they are not very unsafe models. St. Paul said, "all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient," and spoke and acted on the principle of becoming all things to all men, in order to save them;-and the Saviour, not very long before the close of his mission, expressly said to his constant scholars, the apostles; "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." After all, as we have said of writing on this subject, so we say of preaching; much will depend on the style and manner. One man will say things which another with the best intentions cannot. Besides, a minister has many opportunities of doing good in aiding this work of reform, without saying much from the

pulpit, and especially on the Sabbath. But as we have already observed, the duty of a minister is one on which we feel very incompetent to decide.

The duty of physicians is much more plain. Besides parents and teachers, there is no class of men that can effect more. We know not how it is, but we believe it to be a fact and if so, it deserves much consideration-that a few words, or efforts, from a favorite physician, will do and accomplish more for the cause of education, morals, or piety, than the same amount of reasoning and effort from any other individual in the community. We have seen what, as a body, they can do in a benevolent cause, during the progress of the temperance reformation. But the cause of moral reform is one in which their aid is equally needed (for the cause itself is equally important, to say the least); and in which it would be far more effectual. If vice, in all its odious and revolting forms, solitary and social, is to be eradicated by human effort, attended by the blessing of God, it is, in no small degree, through the influence of enlightened, and philanthropic, and energetic members of the medical profession. Nor is it to be doubted that they will be found ready to co-operate in any judicious measures which have been or may hereafter be proposed.

ARTICLE X.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

1. Journal of an Expedition into the Indian Country, to the source of the Mississippi, made under the authority of the War Department, in 1832.

THIS Journal was transmitted by the Secretary of War, on the 11th of April last, to the House of Representatives, pursuant to their resolution of March 28th, and is printed among the docu

ments of Congress. It is the work of Lieut. Allen, of the U. S. army.

Mr. Schoolcraft, whose travels in the west, in former years, cannot be wholly unknown to our readers, made a tour into the Indian country in 1832, under the authority of the war department. His principal object was to vaccinate the Chippewa Indians. An officer of the army and ten privates, including a corporal, were detailed, by order of Gen. Macomb, from the company stationed at fort Brady, to make a part of the expedition; and their chief service seems to have been that of an escort to Mr. Schoolcraft and his party. Lieut. Allen was the officer thus detailed, and he was directed "to keep a journal of the expedition; to describe the country through which it might pass; to delineate, topographically, the route and several points of importance; to ascertain the manners and character of the various Indian tribes, their numbers, strength in warriors, condition, mode of living, of obtaining subsistence, whether at peace with their neighbors or not, their places of resort for foreign supplies, how supplied, and by whom; to note the nature of the soil, the geology, mineralogy, and natural history; remark upon the game and fishes, as to quantity, quality, and facilities for procuring them." He was informed, also, that he would be considered "as on topographical duty" during his absence from his post and while engaged in this expedition.

These duties are truly arduous, as well as various; and when we come to learn the distance the lieutenant travelled in less than three months, and the manner of his travelling, we shall be rather inclined to applaud his industry and efficiency, than to censure the meagreness of his journal, as it stands contrasted with the fulness of his instructions. "We were absent eighty days," he says, "and travelled in that time two thousand eight hundred miles." Deducting the Sundays, on which he rested, his average progress was more than forty miles per day.

"The party organized for this expedition consisted of Mr. Schoolcraft, who had the principal conduct of it; Doctor Houghton, the surgeon to vaccinate the Indians; Mr. George Johnston, interpreter; Mr. Boutwell, a missionary of the American Board of Missions; twenty engagées, or Canadian voyageurs, in the employment of Mr. Schoolcraft; and the military part" already noticed; "making an aggregate of thirty-five souls." The military part was transported and subsisted" under Lieut. A.'s directions; the other part was "under the direction and subsistence of Mr. Schoolcraft." The expedition embarked from Saut de Ste. Marie, on the 7th of June, 1832. The route was, in boats, up the southern coast of Lake Superior, to Ford du Lac, its southwestern extremity; thence, in canoes, westerly, following crooked streams, and over intermediate portages, to Sandy lake; thence into the Mississippi, and up its course, to Cass (for

merly called Red Cedar) lake, and to Travers lake (which is its northernmost source) on the southern edge of the highlands that divide the waters of the Mississippi from those of Red river. From this last lake, the route was southerly into Lac la Bicke (Elk lake) on the eastern edge of the same highlands. This lake is placed on the map, which accompanies the journal, in latitude 47 10, longitude 95 54; and is confidently pronounced to be "the true source and fountain of the longest and largest branch of the Mississippi;" being 165 miles above (a little south of west of) Cass lake, and 1029 miles above (northwesterly of) the falls of St. Anthony. Lieut. A. takes much pleasure, as he well may, in having removed the doubts that have heretofore existed respecting the source of the king of rivers. This river, he says, "we found, at its very egress from the lake [la Bicke] a respectable stream, its channel being twenty feet broad and two feet deep, and current two miles per hour." Its course is northerly and northeasterly, till it empties into Travers lake. Down this stream, "the expedition" returned into this lake, and through Cass into Leech lake, which last was left to the south, on the upward route.

The country about the source of the Mississippi "is so very remote and dreary, that the Indians seldom visit it." Over the whole distance of one of the portages, passed by the party in approaching Lac la Bicke, "not a bird or animal, scarce even a fly, was to be seen; and it would seem," says the journal, “that no kind of animal life was adapted to so gloomy a region. The soil was almost pure sand, and the pine was stinted and mostly of the scrub species, which, hung as it was with lichens, and no other growth, not even a bush or shrub mixed with it, presented a picture of landscape more dismal and gloomy than any other part of this miserably poor country that we had seen."

From Leech lake, the party took a southerly direction to the head of Crow Wing river, which they descended, in a southeasterly and easterly course, into the Mississippi. Thence, passing by the falls of St. Anthony and fort Snelling, they reached St. Croix river, (which enters the Mississippi on the north,) and ascending that river, northerly and northeasterly, almost to its source, they proceeded a few miles over land to the Bois Bralè, and down that stream to its entrance into the southwestern part of Lake Superior. The distance thus passed, from the junction of St. Croix with the Mississippi, to the great lake "is 295 miles, and is very direct, but very bad for canoe navigation. In accomplishing it," says Lieut. A., "my men have been, some of them, badly injured, and all so much exhausted and overworn, that they could not have continued much further in the same way."

Lieut. A. and his soldiers returned to Lake Superior (four days after Mr. Schoolcraft's party) on the 9th of August, and reached fort Brady on the 25th. His letter, transmitting his