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The Indian is not all of savage mould; the highly significant names he left upon our lakes and rivers is sufficient index to his perceptions of the beautiful. Who, speaking a language that expresses every shade of thought, could have conceived a more fit appellation for the placid waters of a lake than Winnipiseogee, which means a smile of the Great Spirit? By the light of his own unassisted reason, the Indian has come to know and feel that there is a God, whom he ignorantly but reverently worships; he marks his fierce wrath in the whirlwind, and hears his anger in the thunder's roar; he sees his displeasure in the waning of the moon, and feels his love in the warmer light of the sun.

Institution for the Blind, 1849.

MY NOBLE FRIEND MARION: -- It is Saturday, teacher's holiday, and Sibyl is, as usual, with her mother. Mr. Stevens, from the Theological Seminary, called this afternoon to favor us with some reading sent us by Dr. Turner, and the last two hours Miss Cynthia and I have listened in raptures to the beautiful poem "Oberon," a translation from the German of Wieland; and when we came to where Huon and Rizia had crossed the fearful mountain, and landed safe in the hermit's vale, I engaged my friend's hand wherewith to write you.

Marion, I have no claims upon either your sympathy or regard. If there is any loveliness in my nature, I am sure my actions never revealed it to you, for dependence has always made me act the part I would not act. In my seeing days, I was proud and resolute, like yourself; no barriers were too high for me to surmount, no difficulties too hard to remove. Once convinced where the path of duty lay, thither my spirit perseveringly trod; but now darkness has made my soul a cellar plant, and its most enduring energies are marked with weakness.

I often pause and wonder for what Providence is preparing me; what order of spirit must I be, that this course of discipline is needful? Whither would my footsteps have led me, if darkness had not set them to wandering? The way I once pursued to happiness is hedged up; but God has mercifully opened another, and though it is a mountain way, and often rough and barren, yet some little fountains of joy do well up along my path, and always too, where I least expect them.

I have recently set my hand to a little work, and, dear Marion, am I presuming too much upon your disinterestedness, when I ask you to aid me? The influence of the good is always desirable, but especially so in an undertaking where success is in the least doubtful. You number in your list many friends, and hoping you will be pleased to gather among them a few subscribers for the volume I am about to publish, I send you the accompanying prospectus. If in your heart it meet with a cordial reception, some names must grace its pages. I am to remain here until my book is published. Many of the good and great are aiding me, and they say I am bound to succeed.

My regards to Mrs. L---, and my love to Lizzie, who first walked with me to church after I could not see, and Mary, who led me first among the flowers, and I called her Teary, because she wept with me. And Carrie, who sold her pretty veil to buy for me some shoes; I shall never forget my baker friend, who sent me the gold, nor Franky dear, who returned her watch to the jeweller's, to place some money in my purse.

I love to remember those good souls, Mrs. Sparks and Miss Crane, who watched by me so many long and painful nights. Though I never see them more, and get tidings from them only at long intervals; still, like the Pyramids of Egypt, I know they are there, and unchanged.

There are less true friends in the world for want of a proper knowledge of what constitutes real friendship, than for any defect in purpose. A true friend, is one who would defend you, when he would allow himself to be wronged; is incensed at an outrage upon your character or rights, when if it were himself, he would hardly heed it; and while he regrets your errors frankly admonishes you, and then bears with your weaknesses as if they were his own. Some persons make friends with you to-day, but to-morrow with the slightest pretext withdraw their favor. Perchance you have uttered a sentiment, or taken a liberty that does not accord precisely with their views; or some others have expressed opinions derogatory to your worth, and behold they are gone. And yet there is little room to censure them, for love is not always perennial; and when the sun has ceased to shine warmly upon it, nothing is more natural than that it should die, as the leaves wither and fall when the storms of winter pelt upon the trees.

But, dear Marion, when I look into my own heart, and see how imperfectly I have ever filled the offices of a true friend to any one, I feel whatever I may say upon the subject is but a tirade against myself. Indeed nothing short of an elevated nature, and a redeemed heart, can make us perfectly disinterested in any relation.

Modern philosophy and religion teach that the world is rapidly growing better; if so, the time will come when it may be said of all who profess to be friends, like Saul and Jonathan, "In their lives they were lovely and pleasant, and in their death they were not divided."