.144 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
concerns cf life. Choose your wife as you would your farm, on which 
you design to spend your days,—not for the gaudy exterior of the budd¬ 
ings, hut fertile intrinsic good qualities of the soil—fertile good it is likely 
to produce you;—not for beauty and wealth so much,—though ihese are 
considerations not to he disregarded—-as for the abiding good qualities of 
the mind, and the ability and disposition to perform with fidelity the du¬ 
ties of domestic life. If these qualities were in higher demand by young 
men, they would be more cultivated by young women. Look for a part¬ 
ner who will take care of the house, while you take care of the farm, 
and who will bring to the common stock at least her share of industry, 
prudence and good nature. Seek qualities in a wife which will wear well 
at home, and with which you can be content to bed and board, in good 
fortune and in bad. And having gained your wishes, by honorable means, 
take care to fulfil your part of the bargain—and to justify the reasonable 
expectations which you have raised. Use the same assiduity to preserve, 
that you employed to win, the affections of your partner. It is dishorn ra- 
ble in a young man to raise expectations, before marriage, which lie can¬ 
not fulfil after marrage; and possessing the power to fulfil them, he is 
doubly in fault if he does not exert it habitually in the performance of his 
plighted faith. You are to look for happiness at home; and if you do not 
realize it there, you will seek if in vain elsewhere. Hence the temporary 
surrender of an opinion, or the relinquishment of a cherished habit, are 
trivial sacrifices when putin conpetition with a life of domestic enjoy¬ 
ment. Matrimonial jars are like fire—the more they are fed the fiercer 
they burn. Take care that they are never lighted upon your domestic 
altar. Bad passions and propensities may be overcome or eradicated when 
in the bud, but indulged, thoy acquired the firmness of the knarled oak, 
and corrode the best feelings that ennoble human nature. On this point 
you are particularly called upon, as the head, to teach, by example, those 
whom Providence may consign to your care. 
Beware of the intoxicating influence of prosperity. “ Oh, my son,” is 
the exclamation of Sheikh Al Mohdi, “it is not the power of satisfying 
our desires, hut the courage to suppress them, that insures felicity. The 
heart of man is insatiable; the accomplishment of one wish leads to the 
formation of a thousand; these are the pregnant sources of evil, like the 
small kernel that in an almost imperceptible space contains an immense 
tree, which will soon raise its head to the clouds, and destroy all the vege¬ 
tation under its shade, and whose branches w ill one day or other break 
the heads of tne children of him by whom it was planted. Moderation in 
om desires, and contentment with what we possess, constitute the only 
imperishable wealth.” 
INTERESTING FACTS IN CHEMISTRY. 
These aeriform substances (ga-es and v.ipors) are called elastic, be¬ 
cause they are all capable of being reduced into a smaller compass by pres¬ 
sure, and of expanding again to their usual volume whenever the pressure 
is removed. Thus atmospheric air may be so compressed, that 128 vo 
luines may he forced into a space usually occupied by one vo'uine, and 
the greater the compression the more will its elasticity he increased. It 
is on this principle that the air gun is constructed.— Parke. 
Fluidity is owing to the matter of beat being interposed between the 
particles of the fluid; which heat would dissipate ali fluids into the air, 
were it not the pressure of the atmosphere, and the mutual attraction 
which subsists between those parlicles. Were it not for this atmospheric 
pressure, water would not be known in any other states than those of ice 
and vapor; for, as soon as ice ha I acquired caloric enough to give it flui¬ 
dity, it would evaporate, and he dispersed into the regions of space. This 
may ne proved hv direct experiment, as will be shown in the following 
chapter. The constitution of the world in this respect exhibits a beauti¬ 
ful instance of the harmony of nature, and of the exquisite contrivance 
of its divine author. 
On the other hand, could we totally abstract the matter of heat from 
any fluid, no doubt but that fluid would by that means he changed to a 
solid; the lightest vapois being nothing more than solids combined with heat. 
Not only fluids, hut all those substances which are soft and ductile, owe 
those properties to the chemical combination of caloric. Metals owe their 
malleability and ductility to the same cause; for in very intense artificial 
colds, the most ductile metals, such as gold, silver and lead, lose their 
malleability and become brittie, as Van Mons has shown.— Annals de 
Chimie. 
Take, for instance, mercury. This metal is a fluid body in our climate, 
hut by cooling it to 30 degrees below the zero of Fahrenheit’s thermome¬ 
ter, it becomes solid; and if it be heated to 6'80 degrees, it will be vola 
tilized and converted into vapor. 
The elasticity of air and steam a'ises from the caloric ’being chemically 
combined with the solid substances of which they are composed. I say 
solid , because we have abundant evidence that oxygen and nitrogen ['he 
principal elements of the atmosphere] are both capable of taking a solid 
form, and actually do, in many instances, exist in a state ol solidity. Ni¬ 
trogen is a component part of all animal substances, and exists in a s lid 
state in all the ammonical salts. Oxygen takes the same state when it 
combines with metals and other combustibles; and in the composition of 
the nitrous salts, they both take the same state of solidity. These facts 
surely evince that atmospheric air owes it fluidity to caloric_ Parke. 
Whenever a body changes ils state, it either combines with caloric, or 
separates from caloric.— Dr. Black. 
It is an axiom in hydrostatics, that every substance which swims on 
water, displaces so much of the wateras is exactly equal to its own weight; 
whereas, when a substance sinks in water, it displaces water equal to its 
bulk. Take a piece of hard wood, balance it accurately in a pair of scales 
with water, and then place it gently on the surface of water in a vessel 
which will flow over the top of the vessel. If the wood be now taken 
out with care, it will he found that the water in the scale will exactly fill 
the vacancy left by the wood.— lb. 
The specific gravity of bodies is denoted in chemical writings by com¬ 
paring it with the specific gravity of pure water, in decimal figures, wa¬ 
ter being always considered as 1.000 Thus the specific gravity of the 
strongest sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) is 1.850, or nearly nine-tenths 
heavier than water. Iron is 7.650, or more than 7\ times heavier than 
water; that is, a cubic inch of iron, if put into a scale, would require 7k 
inches of water to balance it; silver is 10.470; gold 19.300; and platinum 
23.000, or 23 times heavier than water. 
All substances thatupon water are specifically lighter than if, as 
oils, alcohol, &c. There are various instruments which, when dropped 
into liquids, indicate, upon a graduated scale, their specific gravity, tie it 
heavier or lighter than water, as the aereometer, hygrometer, &c. Thus 
the juice of the apple or grape is heavier than water, in proportion to the 
quantity of sugar which it contains; and alter fermentation, it becomes 
specifically lighter than water, in the same ratio, the sugar, which was 
heavier, being converted into alcohol, which is lighter than water. The 
tendency of wine or cider to run into the acetous or vinegar fermetation, 
is in proportion to its lightness before, and heaviness after fermentation— 
the lighter the must the heavier the liquor, and the less sugar in the first, 
and less alcohol in the latter. The specific gravity of apple juice varies 
from 1.000 to 1.091. Some we lately tried, from mixed fruit, indicate 
1.063 by Baumi’s aereometer— Con. 
A pint measure of atmosphereic air weighs nearly nine grains; whereas 
a pint measure of hydrogen gas weighs little more than half a grain. The 
same measure of pure water weighs upwards of one pound avordupois. 
It may he remarked, that the Creator has endowed atmospheric air with 
the property of preserving its own equilibrium at all times, and in all 
places. Its elasticity is such, that, however it may be consumed by re¬ 
spiration or combustion, its place is immediately supplied with a new por¬ 
tion, and though by a mistaken policy the doors and windows of our habi¬ 
tations may he constructed so as to exclude if as much as possible, it will 
have admission; it forces its way thiough every crevice, and performs the 
important office assigned it, in defiance of all exertions.— Parke. 
Philosophical Facts. —The change of properties which takes place when 
chemical attraction acts, is not confined to metals, hut is a general re¬ 
sult in every case wnere different bodies are brought into this state of com¬ 
bination <>r chemical union. Frequently we find that the properties of 
each body are totally changed; and that substances, from being energetic 
and violent in their nature, become inert and harmless, and vice versa. 
For instance, that useful and agreeable substance, culinary salt, which is 
not oniy hamiless, hut wholesome, and absolutely necessary to the well- 
being of man, is composed of two formidable ingredients, either of which 
taken into the stomach proves fatal to life: one of these is a metal, and 
the other an air; the former is called sodium, the latter chlorine. When 
presented to each other, the violence of their nature is manifested by 
their immediately bursting out into flame, and instantly they are both de- 
i.rived of their virulence. Can any thing be more striking than the change 
of properties in this case; and who could have supposed that culinary salt 
is composed of a metal united to an air? The medicine called Glauber’s 
salt is another instance; it is composed of two caustic poisons of different 
kinds; one called oil of vitrfol, and the other barilla or soda. There are 
also two substances known to chemists, which are disgustingly bitter li¬ 
quids: one is called nitrate of silver, and the other hyposmphate of soda; 
when mixed they form a compound of considerable sweetness. But the 
atmosphere which we breathe is the most extraordinary of all instances: 
it must he surprising to those who are unacquainted with the fact, that at¬ 
mospheric air, indispensable as it is to life, is composed of the same in¬ 
gredients as that most violent and destructive liquid called aqua fortis, or 
nitric acid. This powerful acid being made to act upon sugar, the sweet¬ 
est of all things, produces a substance intensely hitter to the taste. Char¬ 
coal is, of all know n substances, the most difficult to convert into vapour; 
so much so, indeed, that the conversion has never yet been dccidely ef¬ 
fected: it is also a very solid substance; and diamond, which is nothing 
hut cryslalized charcoal, is one of the hardest bodies in nature. Sulphur, 
in the solid state is also a hard substance, and to hold it in vapour re¬ 
quires a high temperature. But when these two substances, carbon and 
sulphur, are made to combine chemically, so as to form the substance 
called h sulphuret of carbon, their properties are strikingly changed. In¬ 
stead of the compound being hard, it is a thin liquid, and is not known to 
freeze or solidify at any degree of cold that can be produced. Instead of 
