es with terrific splendor. "Above the storms career" I could watch its progress with composure. The rain fell so stream-like that it seemed strange the cloud did not empty itself. Then it approached the mountain and rolled its black heaps towards the summit. Those above lowered until they seemed to approach. Then they flung their fiery bolts athwart the heavens and around the mountain. Sometimes it seemed bathed in a sea of liquid light. The large drops that fell heavily on the earth announced their approach, and I regretted that I was compelled to seek shelter from the rain. The grandeur and sublimity of the scene had made me insensible to danger. The clouds swept their torrents around and over us for several hours in a furious storm. While it was raging travelers continued to arrive. Ladies on horseback in a most hapless plight, almost breathless from the drenching violent storm. Guides and footmen had the appearance of half-drowned men, waving their brimless hats and inverted umbrellas as the trophies of their severe struggles. While others denounced mountain climbing in general, and that of the Righi in particular; and declared that they never would be caught in another thunder-storm on the Alps. Our hotel was full of all manner of confusion. Those of us who had arrived early found our beds stript of half their comfort to cover floors and tables for the repose of the later and less fortunate. The following morning all hoped to see the sun rise from the summit, but the clouds had not disappeared. Thus our fate was, that of most other travelers, not to see the splendid sunrise from the Righi. But we saw a thunder-storm, which perhaps was still grander. There are few mornings that its top is not enveloped in a cloud. The Righi is not so much celebrated for its height (5,600 feet) as for its unrivalled view, which it owes to its isolated position, in one of the most beautiful regions of Switzerland. The top is covered with a thick coat of grass, formerly large pastures. In some places winding terraces and paths have been constructed to make them accessible for larger cattle, of which it contains four thousand head. I descended from the Righi, on the opposite side, in a little over an hour. There is generally more of a breeze in descending than ascending these mountains. There is not much difficulty in getting off if a person will only lift his limbs, the downward pressure will make the step for him. It requires a little effort to keep the right side up, but even in the event of a tumble the motion will not be much impeded. In descending the great St. Bernard I passed over a field of snow in a few minutes, which the day before required an hour of the most determinate exertion. Every step I made carried me two or three. I found that the best plan in descending the Alps, to use a horseman's phrase, is "to draw the rubbers then crack the whip."

The rocks on and around the Righi are composed of rounded gravel, like fragments cemented together by hard clayish soil. Long heavy rains sometimes penetrate the cement so that large pieces slide off down the mountain. On the Rossberg, a short distance south of the Righi, a . large slide of this kind occurred in 1806. Its long track is still distinctly seen. For two years there had been much rain along here. On the afternoon of the 5th of September, the villagers in the valley saw rocks tearing away above them. Suddenly the alarm bell rang. Men, women and children fled to their sanctuary to pray. The severed mountain thun

dered down three thousand feet into the valley, crushed the church and the praying assembly, buried three villages, killed five hundred persons, and rolled some of its broken masses to the foot of the Righi. Part of it slid into lake Lowerz, near by, and threw up a continuous wall of water, 70 feet high.

The scenery of Switzerland must be seen to get a clear idea of it. We may know that mountains are so many feet high, but have not the faintest conception how they look in their majestic reality. As often as I looked at Mont Blanc and the Jungfrau-and I viewed them for several days-I always felt as though it had been the first time. So strange and entirely unlike any thing I had ever dreamt or thought of before, such palpable monuments of Almighty Power, that I scarcely could credit the possibility of their reality.

"And as o'er

The level plain I travel'd silently,

Nearing them more and more day after day,
My wandering thoughts my only company,
And they before me still. Oft as I looked,

A strange delight, mingled with fear, came o'er;
A wonder as at things I had not heard of!
Oft as I looked, I felt as though it were

For the first time."

A person can seldom get to the highest peak of a mountain. Generally you may climb up to the highest accessible point, and still mountains are around you, still high up "hills peep o'er hills, and Alps o'er Alps arise." Here I traveled without a companion. Like in prayer, so in communing with the Creator through his works, there are seasons when we prefer to be above with Him. So the Alps seem like a a closet sanctuary, where it seems so easy and pleasant to walk with God when we are alone. What a world for reflection and meditation! Feelings of unrest and longings after the spirit-land, after that purity of heart with which we shall see God, these crowd upon the soul amid such scenes and produce an impression not easily described.

"Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt
In solitude, where we are least alone."

There one experiences an elevation of spirit in which he would gladly remain. Bold rugged mountains robed in everlasting snow, while around their base is spread a cheerful vegetation and fruitful valleys, the primitive undisturbed simplicity of these children of the Alps, their faded weatherbeaten cottages, the large fields on their pastoral mountains, while here and there you see a musing herdsman seated on a rock with a hundred bells tinkling around him all the day long, high along the steep woodland the grave hunter roams after his game. Ah, it is sweet to ponder over such a scene, to look at the world from such a point of view. Thus, often

"Where Alpine solitudes ascend

I sat me down a pensive hour to spend."

I thought of the wide, wide world rushing after gain, governed by earthly desires, bowing at the shrine of Mammon, whose enjoyments seldom rise above the sensual and the perishing, and then of the spirits

of the just made perfect, and those who have ascended by faith above earths infected air, and then methought I too sit in high places watching over a flock, and as I roamed along the borders of unmelting snow, I plucked Alp-laurels and Alp-violets to form a boquet of affection for them, forgetful of the immense distance between us. And yet in the end perhaps I was not far wrong. Christians do mingle together though separated by distance.

"I believe in the communion of Saints."

AUGSBURG, August 11, 1856.

DUST.

Dust we were, and dust will be;
Dust upon us, dust about us;
Dust on everything we see;

Dust without us, dust without us;
Saith the preacher, "Dust to dust!"
Let them mingle, for they must.

Dust we raise upon the road;
Dust we breathe in dancing-hall;
Dust infests our home abode;
Dust, a pall, is over all;

'Tis the housewife's daily dread-
Dust, the emblem of the dead!

When the sky above is fair,

And the sun upon us streams,
Floats the dust throughout the air,
Gleaming in its fallen beams;
Every mote is like a man,
Dancing gaily while he can.

Ere the tempest gathers strong,
Blows at times the warning gust;
O'er the plain it sweeps along,
Tempest's thrall, a cloud of dust.
Every mote is like a man
Flying from oppression's van.

Now the swollen clouds grow dark,
Comes the long-expected flood,
Falling deluge-like and stark;

Dust is beaten down to mud:
So are times when men must grovel,
In the palace as the hovel.

Thus we are but motes of dust

On the ground and in the air,
Blown by pleasure, fear and lust,
Beaten down to low despair;
Born of dust, to come to dust
Let us mingle, for we must!

HUMBUG is the order of the day. There are hundreds who have grown rich from its fruits. These varied schemes of imposition have of late been so diligently sought out, and so frequently exposed, that it takes considerable skill now to get up one that will prove effectual in deceiving the public. The best, very lately found out, by which to allay all suspicion, is to give the thing a pious coloring, to make it sit in the shadow of the Church, and have it in some way religiously endorsed.

The reader will remember that some time ago the Guardian presented an account of a "musical" humbug of the pious kind, called a "Musical Convention." We propose now to furnish the reader with an account of one of the same class, in the medical department. Who has not seen for some time, in the public papers, and even in several religious papers, the following very benevolent advertisement:

NERVOUS SUFFERERS. A retired Clergyman, restored

Thealth in a few days, after many years of great nerveus ymar, g, is ordo to

to make known the means of cure. Will send (free) the prescription used. Direct, Rev. JOHN M. DAGNALL, 59 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, New York.

Now what impression will this advertisement make on an unsuspecting mind, especially if it is read in a religious newspaper? Certainly a favorable one. The reader will think this is a kind, benevolent minister, who truly desires to make known to others a cure which has blest him. He is a "clergyman," and "is anxious to make known the cure ;" and to do it "free." What else could actuate him but the best of motives? True, the reader may for a moment wonder how a clergyman can afford to advertize so extensively free, especially in such papers as the New York Tribune, where the price is a dollar a line. But then he reads againit is "a retired clergyman"-some wealthy, benevolent man, who has a heart to feel for the suffering, and can "weep with them that weep." These considerations will quiet all suspicious fears. Is not the advertisement a most benevolent and pious one?

We suspected a Humbug in this advertisement the moment we saw it-one of the pious kind. We immediately made up our mind to ferret it out. Fearing the Reverend brother might have heard of the Guardian as somewhat of a terror to Humbugs, we thought it would not be best for us to write to him ourselves. We accordingly handed a postage stamp to a friend, who kindly consented to write and "direct to Rev. John M. Dagnall," and thus get the receipt, that we might have a chance to view this humbug a little more closely. But before the letter went off our friend handed us a paper, in which there was already a complete

exposure of the whole business, and in which the Humbug is fairly caught. We give this expose to our readers; it is by Professor J. King, and taken from the College Journal. The case turns out very much as we expected.

"Having frequent inquiries," says this gentleman, "relative to certain remedies which are announced as specifics by their originators, and the formulæ for which are transmitted by mail to various persons, I am fortunately enabled to respond to such inquiries, and give publicity to the formulæ.

"The first is a 'Prescription for general Nervous Debility,' which may be had from a certain Rev. J. M. Dagnall, who it seems has labored under almost every form of nervous derangement, and has permanently cured himself by his prescription, which he now very generously offers it to others. The prescription is as follows:

"R. Alchohol. Ext Ignatia Amara, grs. xxx.

Acacia Pulv. grs. x.

Mix.

Divide into forty pills, one of which is to be

taken in the morning, and one in the evening.'

"As our readers may meet with individuals who have been induced to make use of these pills, a few words of comment may not be amiss. The Bean of St. Ignatius is the product of a tree indigenous to the Philippine Islands; it has an extremely bitter taste, no odor, a horny consistence, and contains a large proportion of strychnia, which is, indeed, its active medicinal principle; while nux vomica seeds yield only 0.4 per cent. of strychnia, the bean of St. Ignatius gives 1.2 per cent., and consequently, an extract of the latter article must contain three times as much of this alkoloid as that prepared from the nux vomica, provided equal parts of each article yield an equal amount of extract.

"Although in proper hands and under proper management, strychnia may prove a very valuable medicinal agent in several forms of disease, yet its incautious and indiscriminate use is likely to be followed by fatal results. Hardly any two persons experience the same influence from it; thus, while some are but slightly affected by doses of one-tenth, or onetwelfth of a grain, others suffer seriously from doses as minute as onefifteenth or one-sixteenth of a grain. From its exceedingly dangerous character, and the multiform susceptibilities of the human system to its action, physicians employ it with great circumspection; and all authors agree in advising it to be administered with great caution, carefully watching the patient while exposed to its influence; and many physicians regard it as so dangerous an article as never to prescribe it in their practice.

"The dose of the extract of nux vomica, as given by authors, is from half a grain to two grains, to be repeated three times a day; but if the extract be properly prepared from a good article of nux vomica seeds, there are very few persons with whom the exhibition of even half a grain three times a day, would be advisable. In the above prescription, each pill contains three-fourths of a grain of the extract of St. Ignatius' bean, which, according to the preceding calculation, is equal to two and one, fourth grains of the extract of nux vomica, or more by one-fourth of a grain than the maximum dose of the latter extract, as recommended by medical writers. From this statement may be learned the absolute