Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

The Clove is a native of most of the Molucca islands, where it has been produced, from the earliest records, so abundantly, that in exchange for their spicy produce, the inhabitants were enabled, before the intrusion of the Europeans into their country, to procure for themselves the productions which they required of almost every other […]

The town of Khan-e-Keen consists of two portions, occupying the respective banks of the river Silwund, which are connected together by a bridge across the stream. The river here flows nearly from south to north through the town; about half a mile to the southward of the bridge the bend of the river is seen, […]

Few men have been more remarkable than General Putnam for the acts of successful rashness to which a bold and intrepid spirit frequently prompted him. When he was pursued by General Tryon at the head of fifteen hundred men, his only method of escape was precipitating his horse down the steep declivity of the rock […]

For several years past sheet steel has been used in large quantities, instead of copperplates, by the engravers. By this fortunate application of so durable, and, it may be added, so economical a material, not only has a new field been discovered admirably suited to yield in perfection the richest and finest graphic productions, which […]

The above engraving is a portrait of one of the most beautiful of the cat tribe in the Zoological Gardens in London. This creature appears perfectly mild and playful; sleeping, for the most part, in the day ; but sometimes rising when interrupted by a stranger, and occasionally knocking about a little ball in its […]

Few individuals have presented so striking an instance of patience and eccentricity as Bisset, the extraordinary teacher of animals. Ile was a native of Perth, in Scotland, and an industrious shoemaker, until the notion of teaching animals attracted his attention in the year 1759. Reading au account of a remarkable horse shown at St. Ger-main’s, […]

Tea was first imported into Europe by the Dutch East-India Company, in the early part of the seventeenth century; but it was not until the year 1666 that a small quantity was brought over from Holland to England by the Lords Arlington and Ossory: and yet, from a period earlier than any to which the […]

Most of our readers will recollect the celebrated Indian Jugglers, who a few years ago visited this country, and performed some very extraordinary feats at public exhibitions. One of them had acquired the astonishing and dangerous power of passing a naked metal blade into his stomach, or, as he himself termed it, of ” swallowing […]

THOUGH the Teak Tree is a tree of quite at different family from the oak, and a native of India, it is used in ship-building like the oak, and has some resemblance to it in its timber. It is a tree of uncommon size, with leaves twenty inches long, and sixteen broad, and bears a […]

THE Cork Oak is not so large a tree as the common oak. There are several varieties: a broad leaved and a narrow leaved, which are evergreens; besides other varieties which shed their leaves. The broad leaved evergreen is, however, the most common, and it is the one from which the cork of commerce is […]