same time be a literary institution for the 4. Habits of economy, method and res The Cadets have formed a Bible Society auxiliary to the Virginia Bible Society, and promote this cause by annual subscriptions. An annual examination of the Cadets takes the Old Guard," whose business it was place on the 4th of July of each year in the simply to take care of the public arms. It presence of the Board of Visitors, when all was not until November 11, 1839, that the acts and proceedings of the Institute for Virginia Military Institute went into opera- twelve months are investigated, and a report tion, by virtue of various legislative acts thereof made to the Governor-by him sent the hired soldiers were discharged, and to the legislature, by whose order it is printthirty-two young men, natives of the State, ed, and the people are thus informed of the stood in their place. From time to time, whole subject. The expenses of a State various sums of money were appropriated Cadet for 3 years are $250, of a pay Cadet for the erection of buildings, pay of officers, for one year $270, and this is a liberal estiand the expenses of pay cadets; and in sub-mate. We saw the corps at supper in their sequent years, it has received the constant mess room, and were invited to participate, and liberal patronage of our legislature. So, but declined. I never saw a Cadet at West the debating club of Lexington gave the first impulse to this growing and flourishing seat of learning. Point, in private circles, whom I did not believe to be a gentleman, and from the slight opportunity affored us, it was very apThe organization, government, and policy parent that the Cadets of this institute were of this Institute are confided to the superin- imitating the example of the West Pointers tendent, aided by the professors. A Cadet in their noble, dignified bearing, and their can contract no debt unless by his written attention to strangers. As we drove by order; all their funds are in his hands-their Washington College, the students were enaccounts of expenditure are kept by him, gaged in swinging; a much less manly and at all times, however, open to inspection. appropriate exercise than the evening parThus are the Cadets preserved from those ade we had just witnessed. I regretted to temptations to which college students are learn that there were but sixty students in exposed; from the fact, that they cannot use a college bearing the name of the father of their money at pleasure. our country, and which in his last will and testament he had recommended to the care and favor of the legislature. There are four cardinal, paramount principles which this Institute seeks to establish. 1. The health of the Cadets. This might It was originally called Liberty Hall, and be anticipated from the regular military was founded in 1776. The Rev. William drills and parades. These do not infringe Graham, a Presbyterian clergyman, was its upon the course of study. first rector. He was a man of distinguished 2. Their morals. The law is very vigi- learning and eloquence, and possessed both lant in this particular, appealing to the honor physical and moral courage of the highest and virtue of the Cadet-extreme punish- order. He was descended from that noble ment is never inflicted, until moral influen- band of Puritans, of whom "the world was ces prove unavailing. not worthy"-who imbibed an holy and un3. A practical education. The course is dying hatred of tyranny in their native land; Mathematics, Natural Science, English, Lat- crossed the salt sea in pursuit of liberty, and in, and French Languages; weekly exer- the privilege of unfettered worship of God; cises in composition and declamation: and and in the recesses of the wilderness erected lectures by a professor-military and infan- their simple and unadorned churches, where try tactics-civil and military engineering they held communion with the Lord of Hosts. and drawing-daily exercises (Sabbath ex- And when the Revolution began they were cepted) in the practice of the duties of a nearly all whigs. They were the first to desoldier. clare before high Heaven at Charlotte, Meck lenburg county, North Carolina, as early as county to attend a Presbytery, when the disMay, '75, that they were and would be free astrous tidings arrived that the British Coloand independent. It was neither at Lexing- nel and his troops were about to follow the ton, nor Concord, that the first blood was Legislature to their place of retreat. The spilled, but on the banks of the Allemance cool courage and indomitable zeal of the the enemy first felt "the might that slum- preacher aroused the people to a sense of bers in a freeman's arm." The Presbyte- duty: he volunteered to lead them into acrians believed that the independence of tion; and on the next day he and his brave America was decreed by divine Providence; followers, posted at the Rock Fish Gap, but that all the means for accomplishing that where Tarleton must have crossed the Blue end were to be raised by themselves-that Ridge, resolved to repel the foe or die in the Washington alone was reared to be their chief attempt. The enemy, however, retreated to and to conduct the war-that every battle their camp, or they would probably have fought during the struggle was necessary, shared the fate they met at the Cowpens in and all the stirring events of seven long the preceding January. years were coupled with the purpose of I cannot help thinking that if this veneraheaven; and that the treason of Arnold, as ble man had been the President of Washinga link in the chain, was just as essential as the surrender of Cornwallis, when our flag floated aloft "o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." They thought with Patrick Henry when he thundered in the House of Burgesses, "We must fight-I repeat it, we must fight." They believed that holy writ no where forbids offensive or defensive war, waged in behalf of our wives and children, our firesides and property-our lives and liberties, and that the law of our Saviour as to the forgiveness of injuries and no resistance of evil, applied to individuals only, and not to nations. They inferred also We passed the night at Lexington and next by the strongest implication, the lawfulness morning started for the Bridge, where we of public war from the remarkable fact, that arrived at 11 o'clock. The country is hilly; if one of the enemy is singled out and killed lofty blue mountains, whose heads are lost in on the battle field by a rifle ball, the survivor the distance; no well improved farms in the feels no compunctions whatever; but if the vicinity; houses far apart; no churches that same person had been slain by him in a duel could be seen :-a residence here was not to on that very day, he would have felt for the be coveted. Already 2,000 visiters had preresidue of his days the torments "of the ceded us during the season, and if some of worm that never dies," and his sleep be dis- the capitalists of the north would erect a turbed by the dread sentence of the first magnificent hotel the investment would be a murderer, "the voice of thy brother's blood profitable one. The landlord led us through cries to me from the ground." A practical a small gate; the narrow pathway to the illustration of their principles occurred in the Bridge winding around a mountain of limeperson of Mr. Graham in June, 1781. Col. stone rock, of which the Bridge is entirely Tarleton at the head of his legion had, (but composed. As we descended this rugged for the interposition of Providence,) captured path, I felt, before we saw the Bridge, a pethe whole Virginia Legislature, then setting culiar and almost indescribable sensation. It at Charlottesville, and along with them Gov- seemned to me that I was approaching "the ernor Jefferson at Monticello. They hardly dark valley of the shadow of death." had time to adjourn to Staunton; all was few moments the Bridge in all its awful granconfusion, terror and dismay. Not so with deur and terrific majesty burst on my astonMr. Graham. He was travelling to Augusta ished view. ton College in 1836, he would have perhaps prevailed on the trustees to acquiesce in the terms of March 22 of that year, whereby the College and the Institute were to be united together as one. The Cadets would have then enjoyed the advantages of a more complete classical education, and the Institute would have rivalled any College or University in this country. I hope that this union will yet take place. The lofty oak spreads its branches, and the genial rays of the sun cannot nourish the vegetation below,-it droops and languishes. In a The first exclamation of a Christian would nation on earth, with all the mechanical force be "Great and marvellous are thy works which might be brought to their aid, could Lord God Almighty, heaven and earth are never have formed and put up this tremenfull of thy glory." And if there be on this dous structure. world so forlorn and wretched a creature as In an article of considerable ability puban atheist, he should visit this "awful place" lished in Europe many years since by a travin order to be cured of his delusion. The eller who visited the spot, it is said, “This height of the bridge is 215 feet 6 inches; its famous bridge is on the head of a limethickness 55 feet; 55 feet higher than the stone hill, which has the appearance of havfalls of Niagara: the stupendous arch form- ing been rent asunder by some terrible coning the bridge is of solid limestone rock, and vulsion of nature and that a fissure was thus covered to the depth of from 4 to 6 feet with made." I differ from him entirely. The alluvial and clayey earth, and based on huge chasm between the two sides extends from rocks of the same geological character, the the bottom up to the arch which forms the summits of which are 90 feet, and their bridge, over which the road runs on the surbases 50 feet asunder, whose rugged sides face above. The length and breadth of this form the awful chasm spanned by the Bridge. chasm I have already stated. It must have The Bridge is guarded by a parapet of rocks been filled with an almost inconceivable and by trees and shrubs firmly imbedded in amount of rock. Where is that rock which the soil, so that a person travelling over it, came out of this chasm, rent asunder as he if not apprized of the curiosity, would pass supposes "by some terrible convulsion of it unnoticed. My mind was for a time over- nature"? It is no where. If it came out whelmed in contemplating this amazing and in one entire mass, no power could have rewonderful work. At length I asked myself moved it: if in fragments, where have they who made it? The answer was none but gone and who carried them off? They are the great I AM. Man had no more to do not found either at the Bridge or in its viwith its formation than he had in creating cinity. The aborigines would hardly have the mountains and seas and rivers. When engaged in so useless and laborious a task. was it created? Six thousand years since, The whites could have have had no agency "when the morning stars sang together for joy." Has it undergone any material change since its formation? None that I could discover from inspection, for there were no signs of natural "wear and tear." Nations, kingdoms, empires, and republics, have gone to the dust since it was first spoken into existence, and here it still stands in primeval grandeur and solidity. The mighty deluge itself did not shake its foundation and left The only person who ever ascended the its lofty head crowned with unsullied ma- side of the cavern to the top of the Bridge, jesty. How long will it endure, judging was a Mr. Piper, of Wythe county, when a from its present appearance? Until the an- student of Washington College; a graphic gel of the apocalypse "shall lift his right account of which was given in the Knickerhand and swear that time shall be no longer." bocker some years ago. His track was pointed I looked up to the bottom of the arch and out to us, and it really appeared to my eye saw distinctly the representation of a large that no wild animal of the forest would be eagle of solid stone. No chisel, or ham- daring enough to attempt it I was told by mer, or any other instrument could have a lady who knew him well, that he always been employed in its formation. As all ad- refused to talk of this adventure. No doubt mit, on bare inspection, that the pyramids of it brings to mind painful recollections. He Egypt were erected by man, so it is equally gained no laurels by his rashness, and had clear to one who visits this Bridge, that all he been dashed to atoms, the world would the united and concentrated power of every scarcely have lamented his fate. in the removal of these rocks, or tradition would have informed us who those people were engaged in an expedition, which the crazy knight of La Mancha would not have dreamed of encountering if assisted by the whole population of Spain. I saw no fissure made by some convulsion, but was perfectly certain that it stands now as when first created with very trifling change. We saw inscribed on the sides of the rocks of nature my eyes ever beheld. We were the names of many visiters; among them anxious to have visited the Peaks of Otter the initials of Washington, perhaps 30 feet in Bedford county and Weyer's Cave in Aufrom the ground. So very steep was the gusta, but were obliged to return to our peacerock up which he ascended, that he must ful home. We passed down the Valley by have been very young at the time and pos- easy stages, and when we saw the smoke of sessing very extraordinary agility to remain our own chimney, I was thankful to a kind there long enough for the purpose. He cer- Providence for preserving us from all danger tainly could not have climbed to that posi- on the road. tion at the time I saw him, although in perfect health. It was a raw and blustering day, when he crossed the Potomac in a barge, and reviewed the militia drawn up in order to receive him, on the causeway in Georgetown, D. C. Being a small boy, I contrived. to walk close by his side, and at this moment his majestic and ruddy countenance, his gray hair floating on his shoulders, his gigantic and erect form, his martial footstep, his piercing eye, and the decision of character impressed on his noble features, are all before me. At another time I saw him mounted on his milk-white charger, reminding me of the war horse of Job, "whose neck was clothed with thunder," and there he sat as erect and graceful, as if about to lead his army into battle; yet at either period age must have rendered him incompetent to have inscribed. the initials of his name when we saw it. The American people are erecting a monument to his memory at the seat of government. This is right. But these two letters of his name will endure as long as the Bridge itself, and this simple inscription, with his own hand, surpasses in my view all the eulogies that can be written. No man will ever erase them: he would obtain an infamous immortality like him who burnt the temple at Ephesus. But now we return again by our former path to the top of the Bridge. In vain did I several times attempt to look down the frightful abyss. The blood rushed to my brain and my nerves failed. We saw the famous cedar stump on the side of the precipice, on which only one human being ever stood alone, and, strange to say, she was a young lady. I do not believe that "the iron duke" himself in his proudest day would have stood in her position. But now the declining sun reminded us that it was time for us to depart for Lexington, and we bade adieu to the greatest work Whatever fortune gives in haste collect, II. The prisoned spirit is set free at last, III. The nightingale displays her craft at night, B. L. G. ordinary atmospheric pressure, will give you "Why does a Mill run better by Night than seventy revolutions of a mill-stone in a minute, while a column of eleven feet, with a a diminished atmospheric pressure to which by Day?" Mr. Editor,-The article in the Decem- this rise is due, will only give you the same ber number of the Messenger under the number. above title has, I see, brought forth two re- This fact has been overlooked by "L," plies from different sources. Although the and while he attributes the rise in water at chief effort of your correspondent from night to a rarefied air, he neglects to see Washington College, is employed in correct- that this will counterbalance the rise of ing the blunder of your other correspon- water and hence the motive power remains dent "R. D. W," from Alabama, so that an the same." In answer I refer to any schoolanswer on my part would scarcely be necessary; yet I will take them each in turn, and in replying to their objections will endeavor to maintain my own position. boy, who has read the first book in Natural Philosophy; and he will say, that in a vacuum so heavy a thing as a guinea and so light a thing as a feather, fall directly to the botIn the January Messenger "R. D. W." tom of the vessel, in the same time and with makes himself very merry with my article. the same rapidity. Your correspondent has Allow me to correct a misapprehension. My discovered an entirely new law in Natural speculation was offered as a nut for philoso- Science, when he thus asserts that the presphers to crack. He has, therefore, answered sure of a rarefied atmosphere upon a body without having been called. For if he has or a column of water retards its fall. Does placed himself in the catalogue of men he not know that the air presses upwards bearing this title, then do I appeal to the just as powerfully as it does downwards, and communication in the January number as that rarifying the atmosphere both above and proof positive that he has mistaken his vo- below an object does not alter its relative cation. It is always necessary for the pro- position? Such a discovery as his will be per understanding of any subject, first, that remembered when those of Newton and it should be carefully studied as presented; Leibnitz are forgotten-but not until then. second, that one should read about it in other I overlooked no fact, although I did not menauthors; then let him think closely upon it, tion, that, if the air is rare by night, it would and lastly, write. "R. D. W." has reversed be easier to move the machinery of a mill. this method; he has begun at the wrong end, Just as a bell in a vacuum will move a lonhaving apparently written without think- ger time, by the application of the same ing, and certainly without comprehending. amount of power, than it does in His article may be defined as an attempt at atmosphere. Nor have I any where assertwit, and an effort at argument; he stands ed, as he seems to think, that sound is not somewhere between the two without pos- better conveyed through a dense medium; sessing either. Let us see how he will bear although I must confess, after reading his the burden of criticism. He makes two article, that the same law does not apply to points-two grains of imperfect wheat in the intellects. I am fully convinced that ideas Gratiano bushel of chaff and the first is, are not clearly transmitted through dense that atmospheric pressure aids the fall of brains. water, (or I suppose of any thing else,) and that, consequently, a rarified atmosphere, by making less pressure upon, will diminish the rapidity and power with which any thing falls. I quote his own words: He ridicules the inference drawn from the fact observed, that there is in the summer morning a wet circle around ponds of water, which stand at the same level from day to day. He attributes this to capillary attraction alone. Had he quoted me correctly he would have seen that this explanation will "This (that is, "Thus we find that the downward pressure of a column of any fluid and the earth, depends upon the atmospheric pressure as well not account for the fact. as upon the height of the column. Thus it the wet circle) is better seen on the surface is that a column of water ten feet high under of the rocks that may happen to stand up |