The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-10-21 00:00:00

and pastime

tions, and do with him as they please. It is certain that
there is no man safe that is idle : be is not only exposed
to every evil thought, but to the worst actions, and ha
had better be in the midst of a battle, surrounded with
his enemies, than to be so extravagantly at leisure, and
unemployed."— Chilcot.

PHILOSOPHY OF DRINKING.---I have given sereral
examples of literary resemblance, let me add one of a
very different character, one belonging to the fine arts of
the table. Sir Alexander Burnes's Peshawur friend, Naid
Mahomed. Shureef, whom be met at Cabool, stoke with
rapture of some wine, of which two glasses sent a man to
sleep. Burnes told him that the English notion of good
wine consisted in being able to drink a large quantity of
it without any unpleasant or soporific.. effects. " A had
plan," replied Mahomed ; " for a man most then drink
till be is as large as a butt : no, no, ours is the best plan."
You would acarceiy expect to find a similar sentiment in
Johnson; yet he of Bolt-court and he of Peshawur coin-
cided completely. " Brandy is the best," said Johnson,
" because it operates sooner." And in refutation of
Burke's panegyric of claret, he exclaimed, " You 'll be
drowned by it before it has any effect upon you." The
doctor's arrangement of three distinguished liquors is
well known : claret for boys, port for men, brandy for
heroes. But P!ato's theory is the most curious. Until
eighteen, he interdicted the use of wine altogether; after
that age up to thirty, a moderate allowance is given; and
after forty, he appears to have deemed it wise to remove
all restrictions, and to let wine be drunk at discretion.
The prettiest employment of wine is that observed in the
celebration of Hebrew weddings : the drinking of it is
accompanied with benedictions, and when the glass or
vessel is emptied, it is dashed upon the ground and bro-
ken, as an emblem of the fragility of exisrence. With
regard to the Roman customs of wine-drinking we have
little certain information. We are not better informed as
to Grecian habits. But in ccnnexion with Johnson one
circumstance may be noticed, which places the Athenian
and the London philosopher in strong contrast; it was
the boast of Socrates that he had never entered a tavern.
—Fru ser's Magazine.
TILE COMMON ORIGIN OF MANKIND.—It is indispu-
tably the doctrine of the Bible, that the happy pair who
dwelt in Eden were the sale progenitors of the human
race. The sacredness of the source from Vet] the doc-
trine is derived, begets in many a strong reluctance to in-
quire how far it is capable of being maintained on scienti-
fic grounds. Since the question has been decided by the
authority of Heaven, is it not impious to subject it to

...any
process of philosophical investigation ? But an attempt
to ascertain whether what is taught in the Bible can be
supported by independent evidence does not necessarily
presuppose suspicion of its truth. Every enlightened
Christian must believe that, between nature accurately
observed and revelation accurately interpreted, there is,
there can be no contradiction ; so that the more diligently

the students of both prosecute their researches, the more
they will discover latent points of hat mony and coinci-
dence between the two volumes which the Creator has pre-
pared for the instruction of mankind. The Bible presents
to our min, s a momentous array of facts and doctrines;
some of wh ch transcend our reason, and must be received
in the simplicity of faith ; while others relate to matters of
consciousness, or observation, or history, and may he con-
firmed or corroborated by proofs which are collected from
every department of human knowledge. Instead of frown-
ing on the votaries of science as their natural enemies, the
disciples of Christianity should rather welcome them as
fellow-labourers in the same great cause, and express gra-
titude for the important contributions which they have
made, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to the
evidence and the illustration of the Book of Books. Let
the astronomer direct his glass to the starry heavens—let
the geolog st travel from land to land to swell his collec-
tion of fossils—let the phrenologist descant on the func-
tions of the brain—and we shall always be glad to receive
their reports, provided only they report nothing which they
have not seen. We regard them as commentators on the
sacred volume, al.hough of a different class, as well as
Matthew Henry, and Thomas Scott, and Adam Clarke.—
Hoog's Weekly Instructor. _ _

NEW ORLEANS AND LIVERPOOL.—Viewed from the
river below, New Orleans does not appear materially in-
ferior to Liverpool. The appearance. however, is nearer
than the reality by far ; since the absence of basins and
docks causes all the vessels in port to lie out alongside,
and thus causes the commercial marine to be displayed
to the fullest advantage. Neither is the city so large by
three-fourths, or possessed of -uch excellent buildings, if
we except the old French cathedral, which is a handsome
pile, directly facing the river. In one feature, however,
it is far superior to Liverpool, and that a very important
one : I mean in the absence of that visible wretchedness,
poverty and degradation, to be everywhere seen mingled
with the wealth and splendour of its great commercial
prototype. Indeed, with respect to the condition of the
labouring classes, or those classes whom we see most
generally crowding the streets and roads,—comparing one
with. the other, an American from the South, on setting
h.s foot to England, could scarcely help but feel that he
bad walked into the great doorway of the workhouse of
the world. Nor could readily be named two local places
where the contrast in this respect is more curiously visible
than in Liverpool and in New Orleans. If, as the pious
prudes cf the northern States assert—though not very po-
litely—that New Orleans is " the Hell of the South," it
starvation, rags, and want, to its
certainly is not a hell of
inhabitants. Neither is it one of that kind of selfishness
(or perhaps necessity) which extorts the greatest possible
amount of labour for the least possible amount of pay.
its charities, both public and private—each equally uncs-
teaations—are extensive and unceasing; since the un-
broken demand created by :he continual influx of British
Paupers, chiefly Irish, who rush, totally unprepared, into
the extreme, of a southern climate, will not allow a very
expanded benevolence to rest one moment from its cares.
Some idea may be formed of the numbers of these peeple
who finally from the fact that
attain a footing as citizens,
they have already half Ilibernicised that city, arid now
posses', as a body, the power of controlling local elections
against either the native Americans, or that fine and
beautiful race, the Creole descendants of the old French
settlers of Louisiana.--Simmonds'a 0/lonia/ Magazine.