IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 ^^ m >- iw IIIII2 2 ^ '- IIIIM 1.8 14 111.6 p^^. 6^" e to love the same ; and the whole human family should it not be at one — at one with itself, at one with the universe, at one with God ? The time shall come — may it come soon — when no such ques- tion shall be asked or needed in the happy family and united kingdom of Paradise Restored. But without further preface I would commence my subject; and let us start from the beginning of all things. What was in the beginning ? I will tell you wliat \vixs not. You were not, I was not, this earth was not, matter was not — the matter that is in yon glorious host of stars nor was the spirit, that is in the multitudes of man and angel. There are those who can remember when we be- gan to be ; and there are wise men who can send their tlioughts back into the past eternity, and approacli and dis- cern, though still from afar, the childhood of matter. All had a beginning, and they could not have had a beginning without a cause. This is the leaching of experience, the dictum of reason, and the intuitive belief of the soul, that whatever be- gan to be was caused. From one cause we may ascend to another higher than our last, but we must at length arrive at a highest — a first, an uncreated, self-existent, eternal, everlast- ing cause : nor can that be any form of matter. For matter 3^9Jl?) ■ onnnot tliiiik: but all creatitin, the niilvcrsc, slifnv.-sdc^iprn ; niul bclbrc the tliinj,' dusigiK'tl there; nuist be the iiilclligeiit ciui^.j to (l(«i;4ii ; before tlie designed universe there must have been, there was, the intelligent designing God. Tiitelligent will is the only cause oi' all eill-ets. God was in the beginning, and (iod alone. Out of nothing he created all thinjfs. Out of nolhing did I say ? Nay, 1 mistake. God spake the words, and heaven came out of his words ; his will was that heaven should be, and heaven was. That will, those words of (htd were prolific ])arents. Their children let us fondly tancy were first of all — beings that could conipreheml him — a shinim^ thi'oug of cherub, cherubim ; seraph, seraphim ; ang(>l, arch- angel ; a coimtles3 com[»any of holy creatures rejoicing in the intelligent and voluntary being derived from the fiat of Divi- nity. lUit He, the Creator, spake again — again — again — and the fruit of his words, the children of his will, are not this lately made woidd and its creatures alone, but all th(> myriads of suns and Avorlds and universes that glitter over the infini- tude of space, and perhaps have divided into epochs, which we may }'et in the coming eternity count, the innumerable ages that have gone down into the unfathomable past. What a con- trast have wo here between the sameness, the insipidity of ut- ter vacuity, the absence of all forms and conditions of matter, and the sight which made the sons of God clap their hands and shout together and sing for joy, Avhen, behold I God had created space, and peopled every rood of the amplitude of heaven with a wilderness of worlds. , IJut though I might make this leap from the bosom of no- thingness into the arms of advanced and comparatively perfect- ed creation, since a thousand years are in the sight of God, and i)crhaps all pure .spirits, but as yesterday, a tale that is told, nevertheless my purpose will be better served by exhib- iting nature, as she actually appears toman, step by step slowly advancing to her present rounded development. On piercing the crust of this earth a short descent bring,s US to intense heat, and the further the descent the greater the heat, until after a very few miles, philosophers are agreed in believing, that Ave must come to a nucleus of agitation and chaos — an abyss of fii'c. This is the cause of those earthquakes, wliich " with one last clang of bells for their own ruin strew cities flat, as riddled ashes, silent, as the grave ;" the cause of those volcanoes too, which at inter- vals startle the world with deluges of fire. Now on the lad- der, so to s'peak, of Geology we can ascend througli the pa.st *t;> ,.^ ;C iiimiig to tin? timo when the crnst of this onrth was not even a few mile- in lhiokno.~s, hut tliin as the ice upon tlie suilheo of a pond after a few liours frost, or as the scum upon a hasin of warm water. A\'e h.-arn, in fact, that the surface crust, which we so fondly name terra firma, was formed l)y tlie gnuhial eoolinnj of a mass of liery fhiid matter: and when we consider the eifect of lieat, how it dis[)erscs tlie most s(»Hd matter into vapour : and further consider, tliat the highi'st lieat, we can pro- duce or are now cognizant of, is — can be nothing to the lieat which nature mny evolve, which Geology reveals to us as once existent : and wh(>n ever and anon we behold a portentous co- met whi/zing by ns on its mighty circuit round the skirts of sj)acc, and Ihid it to be a fiery mist, an nnfornuul mass of fiery vajiour: we arc led to conclude, that before the heat of our system had been gathenxl into or around the sun, or shut up in the bosom of the planets, or radiated off into and lost in the cool surrounding wastesof sj)ace ; when it was confined to, but diffused throughout and over the whole ; this earth, those jjla- nets, that sun, — this system was, comet-like, a mist of fire. The stretch is easy then to the other suns and systems, to the Avhole matter of the universe, and we have what is called the Nebular liypothesis. Tin; inhabitants of tliis Province knov/ what a mist is, and that the lieat of the Gulf Stream is tho cause of the superabinvhrncc of that article here. ]>ut let them fancy, not a lit lie mist coming in upon and hiding up the litthi city of Halifax, but the whoh; ocean dissi[)ating, the whole earth dissolving, the planets and the sun dispersing into mist: — what a sameness woidd be here ! No solid place of rest : no distinction of air, earth and water, of sun and planet: in- terminable fire : boundless, unmitigated-, fiaming mist ! No variety of heat and cold, but one unvaried, unvarying temper- atur(> ! And all at rest — no current, no motion, no chanore ! And suppose this to extend through space, and to be the con- dition of the matter of the Mide universe ! There would be unity here indeed — primitive unity, sameness — the unity of unvaried chaos. Hut God introduces motion into the inert mass, and. behold ! all things become new. There is a for- ward motion introduced, and besides, and to counteract it, there are centres appointed, and the principle of gravitation is impressed upon all matter. But let us confine ourselves to our own system. There is a tendency to accumulate upon the centre, and thus the sun is formed. Meanwhile the nebulous matter, which still on account of the great heat will far out- 6 1)oun(l tlic \hn\tA of our present sj'stom, contrnot.s by cooHnp;; for nnicli of its heat is beinrr pivtheml into tin; siiii, niul imieli radiated into sunouiidirig spare, and some l)eeoiiiin<^ latent. As (he mass shrink^, in cool! n;,', the laws of rotatory motion speed it in conseciuenec with ever inereasinrr veloeity roniul the sun, until, the increased eentrifugal foree beeoniin;» too powerful for the central attraction, a zone of vapour on the skirts of the system is detached from the rest. This zone of vapour breaks u[) and gathers into one mass. Such zones, separating from the sun at vari(»us dist.iuees, form i)hmets in the state of vapour. These, having by the laws of Miechanics eacli a rotatory motion, eliminate from their own atmosphere, as they cool and contract, rings and satellites, in the same manner as they themselves were originally eliminated from the atmosphere of the sun. And thus the system is evolved : and what variety does its consolidated form present ! AVho from looking at it Avould ever fimcy that it had once been mere dilfused va- I>our? We have the central {)aront sun, and the offspring sister planets ; lieat, and cold ; light, and darkness ; this tine frosty air, and yon beautiful blue sky and glorious fir- mament. We have the various magnitudes, densities, veloci- ties, and motions of the sun and his various planets ; of the ])lanets and their various satellites. We have their all vari- ous revolutions, and periods of revolution ; temperatures, and atmospheres ; colors, forms, and constitutions. But the time would fail me to indicate all the variety of this beautifully di- versified system. My special delight is its Unity. And is it not a glorious unity ? Do not the i)lanets de[)end upon the sun : do not the satellites depend upon the planets : and do not all depend the one upon the other ? I could prove to you that they do ; and had I more time, perhaps show you, that they Avere each the complement of the other, and necessary to the whole.^ Take one away, or alter it much in any respect, and you will cause a wave of destruction to sweep over the limits of the system. Behold the sun, how finely- it governs, and lights, and Avarms them all, because it is just there — in the centre! Behold the planets themselves, so placed, and at such distances from each other and the sun, that they cannot harm one another ; and though they do cause, by their respec- tive and mutual attraction, a ceaseless variation in their courses, yet that variation, continuing not forever in the same direction till it reach destruction, but at the proper time returning again to whence it started, and all things being again restored ! Ya- i pooling ; il much rlety in unity is tho liiw of nature. Anir)ii Nvirl, ano- ther train, and cni.-lud into a formless jt-lly, or scaiicicl in qniverin^' laocnitcl tVajmicnts alonj? the ground! Unt you can tru,«t (iod! You (Vcl no fear liut that his infinite wis- dom, power, and h)ve, will order thi^ little world arij.Hit, hut that his will or his nn^-els, hut that he hiiusell'wil' jrui^le each planet on its own patii, ar.d •rovcrn to hnrmony yon continen- tal Sun, and these Society J>lcs. Or y,„i step on hoard n c-teanier, and no .sooner do you fee! in motion, and no sooner does the incessant vihration .^how that the steam is fairly up, than you he^rin to fear, some lazy look-out or nefrli»» n. vnri.'f y is 'initcd in tlic lio'i.ni of that mountain ! Ui,w many ntonis(.f liuw many clcnicnts, in liow many varied crvstalliiu f«»rnis ! Anil did ilu- ori^jinal atoms lo^t in'othcn of tfifir own kind, and did the h'v^lwr crystal-! occupy the position or exer- cise the inlltienco in natiu'c', which does that nionntain ? Did they ri-c IVoiw earth, and, snii|tortinL; heaven, talteinMch- in bhjo, sniiny (.r starry .-kie.s? Did tli.'v ;:alher the cldiaN from the expan.-es of air, and cap tlicir peaks tiierein ; roll the li- vers down into the replenished sea, ntrl irri^jfate the rejoicing Avorld; rolx' th-'ir sid(;s in forests, and cloth(^ themselves in the j.n'ii;doms in this lower world? And is "ot the mountain, " hile thus more wonch-rfnl in its variety, nl-o thnw a more no- Die unUy thaii the insignilicant atom, or beautiful hut little crystal? Again, let us take t!ie cell and seed of the plant, and behold tlieni gathered and growing iiUo the tree. Was the seed, buried in the earth, like tlut tree in which all the fowls of th(> air build tli(;ir nests, and under which the beasts of the tbre.-t love to T-epose, w hose grateful shade is sought by man himself? Did it shoot a stetn to the sky, and spread out blanches icciunbent on air, and cover itself with leaves which might ferd on suid»eams all day long? Dition, and the simplest of all combinations. As the temperature decreased, as earth further cooled, combinations of increased diversitv higli^ unities became possible, and the metals were produ- ced"; for in^hem two, three, and four atoms of one element unite Vr'ith one or more of another. As the cooling process 11 \n^ it will the lieij^hts eturu spoil lid its aery 5 oceiMi its md makes lMI'iJKLL. .ini — ridiciilon-?, r a broken xliibit man 1 to behold othed with he young- m Iiomoge- univert^al from iiiac- ematically s a whole g you saw iinticipates L>at no elc- rliest ages the earth Lich othei', t first only : with one dies were , and the decreased, iversity — re produ- 3 element g process went on, higher diversities, higher unities appeared, and four, five, six, eight, nine, ten atoms of three or more distinct kinds of element were bound idto a unity, But when we pass np from the earths, the alkalies, the metals, and the salts, from inorganic matter to organic, we find that the organic obeys the same law as the inorganic, that as the heterogeneity, the com- plexity, the variety in unity increases, so the stability decea- ses; that, in fact, the earth must liavc cooled much furtlier, and evolved many other conditions, to allow the elements to combine into the organic matter of a tree, and cooled further, and evolved still more and higher conditions, to unite into the albumen, fibrine, and body of an animal : — and these latter are the most diversified and highest unities of matter which wr, know. I revel in the contemplation of this most sure and clear exhibition of the law of nature's progress from the simj)le to the complex, from lower to higher unity, froni the uncombined chaotic universal atom up step by step to that wonderful, mys- terious, inexj)licable combination, that form so feai-fully and gloriously made, that body which is the tabernacle of the spi- rit of man, and may become the tem[de of the living God ! Dui, my friends, the story of progressive variety and of [)ro- gressive unity, which the earth from her depository of seci'ets, from the de])ths of her bosom, has j)Oured into the delighted ear, and laid bare to the ravished eye, of that patient explorer and beautiful science, Geology, is more full anil wonderful than any I have yet told, and moi% fairy like than the faif'iest tale of the Seven Champions of Cliristendom, or the most exti'ava- gant, yet pleasing story of^ll the Mythologies. Many here know.it already, but it caimot be top often told : and besides, as my purpose in treating of it diHiers from that of the Geologist, my treatment shall partake of the novelty of my purpose. Experimental Geology places bej'ond a doubt the belief, that this earth was originally fiuiigher uni- ed variety ;her unity, ean — com- into oeean^ :her condi- , however anoiis, and light Avith ashed, but : confesses :, that we land and ng world. and such de a great 3, of sea- • have we on with a nature jjo 1)0 sure, ; for the land shall d animals e scale of :ibited the Ihtn seas, were not like our osseous fishes : they had no inter- nal skeleton, but were covered with, framed externally in plates of gristle, cases of cartelage. Like the bird in the egg, they were fi-hes as it were in the egg — fishes in embryo ; but there- by the better fitted for their very warm seas, and each the bet- ter armed against the powerful forces and cannibal carnivo- rous appetites of each. ]>iit let us turn our attention now to the islands. They had risen ami enlarged. Land which lay below the ocean, and on which some sediment had been dejjo.sited, having been elevated all round the shores of many, their circumferences had been greatly extended. Vegetation had api)eared upon them ; that low sort which only colors the rocks it encrusts ; but this was preparing a soil. The washing of the rains too had been wear- ing the rocks, and also forming soils. There were lakes in the interior, slow flowing rivers toiling through the midst, swamps all over these islands. At length God spake, and they were covered with forests: and I may be permitted in this land of forests to say — Forests rose fluttering o'er the isles below, And 'twas an island jubilee, when, lo ! nranrlly, divinely, God's Almighty hand Fixed their unfurled standards in the land ! But the forests then were not like the forests now : they were suited to the land on which they grew, and the air which th(>y breathed. The land, as I have said, was island and half wa- ter, interminable swamp. The air was mist, and overchargetl — laden with deadly carbonic acid, which steamed up from Uie swam[)y soil. Heaven was but a reservoir of concentrated choke damp. No sunshine gladdened the landscape, but its dim moui-nful twilight might have been the home of melan- choly. A dense, unbroken, unrending covering of dai'k cloud cano[)ied the world, and dropped upon the earth ceaseless rain - a gloomy watery pall, such as some of us may have seen stret(.'hed across an Italian gorge, or Highland ravine. Tliere- fore the trees were of a soft succulent nature ; mighty reeds they were, gigantic ferns and calamites : and though firs grew abundantly, yet even these appeared oftentimes hybrid. ^par- taking of the soft fern character. But these were just the trees for the time, and this was their golden era. Thev suck- ed up the moistiu-e of the land, drank in the moisture and car- bon of the air, which is their breath of life ; and dried and finjicd the one, and cleared and purified the other, llowlonf* I 14 lliis condition of things continued, who shall say ? The periods of Geology are not to be measured by hundreds of years hut by myriads of them. While these years are passing over the Avorld let us occupy the time by observing again, how greater variety and higher unity attended her progress. Each successive Geological period not only introduced higher existence into our globe, but deposited upon the surface its own peculiar strata— the wreck, the dust of its existences, and thus in each succeeding age improved with finer loam the surface of the earth. These trees grew up, and died, and were buried where they grew ; and their children rose out of their graves, and there were they also buried ; and ffeneration after generation, arising out of, descended again into the same se- pulchre. Thus did the then swami)y i-^lands become moist mounds of vegetable decay. The overflowing rivers, too, mingled the waste of the rocks and lands with that vegetable matter : or bore both in their sluggish currents to the sea, and formed vast deltas — extending the empire of the land; or strewed the deposit wide over the bed of ocean. Thus was the whole surface of the globe, by the deposit over it of the rotting leaves of endless forest, prepared to produce out of a richer soil a more useful, and even more universal vegetation, such, foi- example, as the grasses of the present day. But some of these moimds of vegetable matter, too, were afterwards, in some convulsion of nature, engulfed in the greedy maw of the world, and, disgorged again, have now a beautiful resur. rection in our Pictou coal. And as these trees, arising from their graves, give us light and heat now, so w^ere they then in- stnnnental in bringing about, what tliey ushered in, the illumi- nation of the world. I have already indicated how the w^orld continued alw >ys cooling. The vapours of ocean, condensed by the continued cooling into clouds, would from the same cause drop more and more of their aqueous burden upon the world, and they themselves gradually thin. Ocean too would evai)orate less and less, as the heat decreased. Thus would the atmosphere be ever clearing. But the trees were no idle spectators of this beautiful progress. They drunk up not only the superabundant waters of the earth, but also the super- abundant vapours of the air: and, behold! the dense cloud ca- nopy of the world was rent, and through the rifts what sio-ht appeared, which made the trees so glad ? The sun, the glori- ous sun, who rose, not stooped, to conquer, and with the army of his beams swept in irrecoverable rout from the bosom of lieaven and the face of earth the hosts of cloudland ! What I air i The periods of year>, hut sing over the how greater r introduced n the surface s existences, tier loam tlie ed, and were ! out of their eration after he same sc- ecome moist river.-', too, at vegetable the sea, and le land ; or Thus was er it of the ice out of a I vegetation, . But some terwai'ds, in ;dy maw of utiful resur' rising from liey then in- I, the illumi- w the w^orld , condensed 1 the same n upon the n too would riuis would ere no idle up not only the super- *e cloud ca- what sight 1, the glori- li the army 3 bosom of id ! y/hat 15 new variety now delights us, and what beautiful unity ! The father now beholds and smiles upon his child, and the child, beholding him and smiling back again, suns itself in his smiles. And when at length Sol sinks to rest, and the glorious blue firmament all dropped with golden stars is expanded over and hung like a curtain around the earth, and you are called to look buck u[)on it, do you not feel as if you were ga-'^ing on quite a new and other world? Progress and variety are developed everywhere — in the water, on the land, and in the air ; and the result is beautifut unity. But by the aid of those trees the air has made still further progress. You all know that the air which we now breathe is composed i)inncipally of two gases — carbonic acid and oxygen. Now plants iniiale the carbonic acid and exhale oxygen, while animals inhale oxygen and exhale carbonic acid. Were the air all carbonic acid animals would not live ; were the air all oxygen plants would die ; air being however '-^either of these alone, but a combination of the two, both animals and vegeta- bles exist. Nay, further, as each exhales what the other in- hales, and inhales what the other exhales, each is as it were the breath of life to the other ; each preserves the other in ex- istence. But in the early ages of the trees, which we are now considering, the air was almost entirely carbonic acid ; and that animal would have been a strange one, that could have breathed it long and lived. The trees however found it a royal feast, a prodigal largesse of dainty. But, though always inhalers of carbon, they were not always exhalers of oxygen. We know that this power is conferred upon them only by the light of day and the influence of the sun, and that at night, in darkness, thej exhale not oxygen, but some of the carbonic acid which during day or light they have inhaled. There- fore, until the covering of cloud had been broken away from the earth and the sunshine had fiillen upon the woodlands, un- til the pure beams of Sol had vivified the forests, though by devouring some of the carbonic acid and digesting it into wood they might have diminished the quantity in the atmosphere, yet plants could never have become, what they now are, the coun- terparts and counterpoise of animals ; there could never have arisen between them and animals that reciprocity treaty on wholes, and make the rl.'. g d 'tas of the Ganges terrible. No longer did the fierce or u.ighty monarchs of the brute creation rule the world. Their dominion waned into a limited domi- nion ; they were confined at length to the torrid zone, and be- came emphatically tro[»ical animals. liut this wasting away of these mighty mammals, this re- striction of their limits, and, as I might also show, wane of their physical development, like the decline of former races, vegeta- ble or animal, which had once been universal, was a mute, but elocpient, unmistakeable prophecy of a higher race about to suc- ceed, about to assume the sovereignty of the globe, and to seize the reins of empire wdii( "i had dropped from these lordly brutes and were now hanging idly and unhandled down the sides of ihe world. And otlier signs foretold the great event. About this time, that is just before the creation of man, appeared on the land that mild animal whose absence man Avouhl feel in so many and various ways— the sheep. Now too first appeared in the sea the cod family of fishes, the haddock and others, the value of which the inhabitants of this Province peculiarly know. Now the cereal grasses began to grow ; the corn, the wheat, the rice, the maize, to nod along the plains, lo fill the cornu- copia of earth with an overload of abundance, and give the world the air and aspect of a golden age. Now appeared amongst the trees those most precious ones — the apple, the pear, the plum, and all that family of fruit-bearing beau' s. And whilst choiring birds now filled the air with richer strains, flowers too began to be more than ever abundant ; to roam o'er field and fell o'er hill and dale, accompanied by song, and the forests, already bathed in music, to drown in blossom ; rove over the world in undulating seas of perfumed efflorescence to the moYin?^ meltinir rise and fall of sweet bird minstrelsy. 2S M i 1 t 1' ' TlclioM liow boniity and luxury, sv.-< uril a-i nltundnnoo nnd va- riety, pri'codo the lulveiit of nmn, an.l, lookin;; baek upon the iinpnl|»al)lc and wizard region of non-(»xistenee, when; he still lingers, and whence than'ots and birds of paradise, the sharks, the boa constrictors, the croco- diles, the lioiis, elephants and giraffes of the tropic suns, as well as the great bears and reindeew of the arctic snows. But, my friends, if the world was a zcjologicai garden, was it not a botanical garden too? Then, as now, at the ctpiator behold balm, frankincense, and niyrth ; coffee, and tea ; cloves^ lujtmegs, pepper, mace, and cinnamon ; sugar cane, cassava yams, and nwizc ; plantains, breadfruits,, and palms ; sandal^ ebony, teak, and banyan. Further north lade yourself with corn ; then, binding your brows with myrtle, gladden your heart with the grai)e, and suck the juices of pomegranate, orange, apricot and peach beneath the shade of the cork, the cypress, chesnut, or walnut trees — " recubuns sub togmine fagi" — a quotation all know. Cross the Alps and yon shall still have wheat, barley, and oats ; strawberries, apples, and pears ; nor shall the forests be unworthy of your riveted gaze — those oaks» those beeches, and those elms. Further north you shall still find further variety — all kinds of fir — Scotch, spruce, 1,'V. iir. and, though those alders may be insignificant, you shall no- where look upon lovelier trees than that red berried mountain ash, and thof graceful lady of the woods — the vigorous, though delicately f ;shioned, slender birch. Aye, within the very Arc- tic regions wi'd ii vers shall show the beauty and vitality of nature : the?,' ,i. y Km, no glaring cactuses, nor splendid mag- nolia blossci..;-, 'Ai^. there shall be gems of efflorescence beneath the snow, and, when all else fails, the reindeer shall still tread 28 a kinaiv vogCulion-tho .oft, green o.U'p.H of the n.nulcM.r o7.. tl.iH Lautitul variety, which we, so .uueh .uul so ,u•o- , Iv a mire. Kaeh /one has its own i. ace on the globe ; fi , own variety of ani.nal anm[)ires of the Morhl rise and fall, it has still remained some- where in a diminished and less developed form to witness to the truth of the story of the strata, v.hich tells, it was, and to graduate and swell the ever expanding, ever developing sum of being ! Some races may jicihaps have utterly perished : but these arc tlie exception, and the rule is for others of tlie same kind to succeed — not indeed to the same sway, for the world may be under a new and higher dynasty, but to succeed at least to life ; and to testily, that God, having once created, loves to preserve ! Thus was the world prepared for man a iniity of all the ages — their vari(/ty in unity. But it went beyond them in that it had them all in one ; and in this besides, in that it had a temperate zone, no i)erfect specimen of which existed before. A temperate zone with its peculiar conditions and develop- ments, the one so thoroughly fitted for man ! So fitted to re- strain and abase his animal propensiti(!s. to give full play to and exalt his intellectual and moral powers ! But existence and climate are and were varied, net info po- lar temperate and tropic alone, but also into every possible diilering dcgi-ee of each — differing degrees produced by the in- finite variety of form and mass assumed by land and water. Mountain, plateau, hill, plain, continent, peninsula, and ishmd ; lake, river, estuary, inland sea, gulf, little and great ocean : these by all their vai-ieties of combination intiuitelv varied, and vary the several climates of the three great zones, and with them the existences peculiar to each: so that the varieties of animal and vegetable life are and were indefinitely multiplied. In the heart of the tropics thus might and may be found a comparatively temperate climate ; in the bosom of the temper- ate zone a comparatively tropical one ; nay, in the very arctic regions places with winters mild and moist as those of kindly, congenial, merry hearted Old England. Aye, a mountain based in the tropics did then, as now, rise into the arctic re- )io gionsofthe upper strata of air, and I •' '♦•'^cending sides exhihit the .,1 in a frraduatod scale al onir J^»t Mils sl.ou-s the importance of th and waters of the globe, and lead plienomena of all the zone.^ te conformation of tl me to dwell a little upo !ie lands we least expect such, we and where the variety is infinite; ^hnU ftnd law, order and unity. winl:'-::^:};^^^':^; -;i' f *;- -rid and yonr attention gl'^l.e into uvo Imi.'/hm '^ 7. ' ^'^''"•'^'■'^''^^^l^ ''ivision of the queous-the one o c ni ^ 7 ^'/e/ci-restrial, the other a- most islandle's o? an' e'Tu'S '^ ^^' ^"''' '''' ^^''^''" ''>' ^^^- nents themselves ■ ;Telv vn \ / iv"' °" ''^^'^^^^i^ the conti- to^vards the nonh a^ZrV' '''''""'' ^'''''^ ^'^^T all expand AnK.-ica; thus AfHct 1,'.ill "orthernan.la HMn^ ;? ""''^''■'^ "^ ^^ ^"'^l -vo, a an ar<.hipela'o /^m V^^ ''7 ^^" ^^thmus or and western sho e o^ h ; finf f ""' '" '^f ''^'"S- the eastern remark the exac teor ' -'V '/°" '"'" ^^ astonished to tl.e one correal .Z^nT'- "^•^"'■'^' ^''^ "nlentations of that inC \ u r^^ the other; in fact be; br^Ha ;t' her thef '' n7'' ""'^^ '^"^^ the n;w^<^^ t- inu.^ o/^^;; i^ :;^^^ J ^^^:--;i o.hor eh verly as amm.H.niont, TiJ. „ ' '^■'"'; ■' ""g'l' "ulic.Ke other "rand 2G low r.nd suik, wliilc the warmor, liglitor ones rise, a vise and fall which continues until tlie temperature of tlie whole mass is restored to an equilil)rium. lUit how different with land. There is no rise and fall in the particles of earth : tlie surface absorhs rapidly and long retains the heat or cold : and m tlie tropics the old woi'ld would havi- been a scorched desert, m the arctic region a froz'?n wilderness, lint regar«l that old world again and tell me, do you observe nothing in its internal arrangement affecting its well-being? Those i)lains, and pla- teaus,°whieh arc plains elevated on the ops of hills ! those lulls and mountains ! are they thrown abroad undesignedly from the hand of God, as sea sand fi'om the hand of a child ? Are they scattered here and there for the puri>oses of variety alone, and with no end in use or unity ? Ciazo long and curiously, and be astonished, oh man, as the '.Ian of the Creator comes up before yo.ir mind, and apparent confusion ranges itselt into magnificent order ! As you ascend from (>arth to hea-en you find the^ an- wax rarer and rarer, colder and colder ; and thus all high lands are colder than low lands, and the heights of lofty mountains arc- tic regions. Now look at the old world. All along th(! coasts of the^'frozen ocean and great part of the Atlantic the land is extended in plains ; proceeding inwards and southwards it rises into plateaus ; until out of the centre, and much nearer the P:i- cific and Indian oceans than the frozen sea or the Atlantic, it leaps into mountains whose summits are the loftiest in the globe and overlook one hemisphere. Then it descends with a comparative plunge into the Indian and Paciiic oceans. Now consider the effect of a different arrangement.^ Had the long and gentle slope been from the Pacific and Indian oceans, ancf the pTunge been into the frozen sea and the Atlantic ; had tliose loftiest mountains in the world bordered the arctic re- irions, instead of, as now, approaching the tropics, the whole north of Europe would have been a frozen zone, the greater part of the old world would have been subject to endless, un- mitigated winter— a waste of snow and ice, without j.lant, and uniiiiiabited by animal. But, instead, the plains— those lands which least lower t'-mi)erature— occuj^y the cold northern dis- trict, rise gradually into plateaus, and at length, towards the Pacific and Indian oceans, leap into unequalled mountains, transporting into the bosom of an almost tropical country the grateful colds of a northern climate, doing just what ought to be done, tempering excessive heat, and bringing a bracing air within easy range of an enervating latitude. Now look to the ■ 27 through 1 ;r'°"' '' 'T '''^'' '''''^' ^« ^«"^''' «"^^ ^•''^"^'^^ ent he. in either zone; and that portion which is .sulf-troDic-il has Its ehi^te wonderAilly anieliol-ated by monntidnt Z :^ ed upon a plan. They traverse in one unbroken chain tl^ ^1 ole length of the continent, from north to south. As in t e r, id one' '^.":/^'^^^f '^ ^'f- '? l""g' gentle slope, and a short, hi /''«f'«^'t-^fHn-ai.Kl slope is towards the Pacific o tl e"r?-ll"f ^'"''' ^o---^^^tl'e Atlantic. This arrangeinen of t e reliefs serves wise ends, and shall be understoocr when n. r' ;!'';'' ^<^y^^opea the intimate connection of the con" tinents with the ocean and the air, the winds and the water^! Than air or water, what more gentle thin" Hath God created, or dotli poet sirKT 9 ° Am- ! why we see it, touch it, know h. not ; Most witlessly we breathe it, ah ! and doat. As on the visits of a spirit ;:iven To trance us into eestacies'of heaven, On those invisible, gentle stirs of air— Sickness they fan-soothe-dissipate, and care: Health upon fluttering pinions-pleasure bear. V\ ater, more visible, more telt, is still boft as affection, gentle as the spill Ot tenderest love from some large loving heart, I hat would Its strength and jov to all impart: We drink it, lave in it, are glad and stro.U ; ii^arth also drinking, laving, is a song. Indeed, my friends, such is the language of ^11^11. Earth drinks and sings and all her life and lovelii^ss would fade away and perish out of her, but for the gentle, genial, lifc-givino-, beautifv- ing waters. Ah, the desert alone caulcll what irwould il;" ll^e for a drop of water ! You hear the river rolling by into "the sounding sea! You see it flowing majestically on to be lost a aby mal ocean ! How comes the river still to flow ? why is the world jet undrained; Does the stream, in defiance of fiat be- neficent law o gravity, which, preventing stagnation, gives it ot.on down the s opes of earth to the parent ride,retun. upon Its course and roll backward up the heights? Impo..ible ' Air alone by the aid of heat can explain our difricultv. We luive recourse to the winds, and these volatile beings, lielpin- us to a solution of the enigma, reveal the unity and earnesi 28 Why mounts the fire upwjinls in a pyramid of flame? Why is the ventih\tioa of a church by the ceihng ? Because lieatcd air rises ; expands, rarifies, li^ditens, and rises. Open the doors or windows of the churcli,and cold air rushes in and cools and tempers the atmosidiere of the building, while by the ventilation in the ceiling the light, rising, warm air escapes. The world is ventilated in a similar manner. The poles are the regions of cold air, the equator of warm. The air there- fore constantly rises from the regions of the equator, and there is a constant rush from the poles to occupy the vacancy. The heated air, which rises, after giiining a certain elevation sets out for the poles to fill again the vaciuicy caused by the rush thence to the equator. Thus there is a constant circuit of un-^ der currents of cold air from the poles to the equator, and of upper currents of warm air from the equator back to the poles: the warmth of the tropics being thus tempered by the cold of the poles, and the cold of the northern regions again tempered by the warmth of the tropics. Thus God has set all things, the one against the other. There rre currents of ocean caused by the same influences of temperature, and corresponding to these currents of air. People, however, so much under the dominion of the Gulf StreaiJi, and so near the polar current, ought to imderstand ocean currents sufiiciently. In fiict, my friends, a diflerence of temperature between two regions of air results always in a circuit of winds between them ; and between two regions of water in a circuit of currents between them, until an equilibrium is restored. For nature labours, in both the cases of air and water, incessantly to produce and maintam an equilibrium, and hn-. so constituted them, that they cannot rest slio:' of this beneficent result. Thus, not only have we the grand permanent winds and currents, the tradewinds, and, so to speak, trade currents of ocean and air, originated by the grand permanent variety of zones ; but, as we have in each zone again local conditions over its whole extent infinitely and continually diversifying its temperature, so have we an infinite sub-variety of winds and currents— contrasts of tem- perature, in fact, therefore winds and currents being uni- versal. Ocean and air contain so many secret causes and sources of death to life animal and vegetable, that I cannot number them ; but a universal one would certainly be the stagnation of either. The circulation of the blood is not more necessary to the health of the body, than is the ten- tency to an equilibrium of temperature, and, in this varied condition of the globe^ the consequent incessant motion ex- I 20 lilblted by water and air to the nreservition nf »! n 7 • in "^l^St or,l::rpi™' "S"- "-•"S -„„d ,I,e globe " ^^ painted ship upon a painted ocean." ^^: ^zi:fv\^' ^^ ^"^ '^^-"^ ^° ^^- -St sudden, terrible tem':,;;^^"'""^''^"^'^^ tbe tornadoes, tl>e late the city or the Xm ?o tL 'l'' 'f ^'''^ ^""^ ^^'^o- tureare required to sl.tPH T "l"''"' ^^^^'^-^ "^' ^^^ ^^'o^v the >vl,le wo, a w.f I m.r ' ^"^^"'''^^^ ^^' stagnation, comparatively a Jone of^lm, ,^'1 '7' f ''"'^''"''^^ ^'''"^ '^"^ I have conducted you the -Tr" • " ''':i' '"'^'' '^ ^^''■'^''^ jHdeou. tempests C; tn^.t ^^^^ 1^ '^;Vr"7'^'■°"^^' health her ocean and her .,i,- n "ect^sarj, to restore to -onderful wisdom a dbe.Scenceon^r-f''^'^:'' ^''^"' ^^ all, so that when the worU^b'^re e\ ^but":: ;ni:'^^:'> e.t and greatest abundance and variety of h ir? ! • f '"'" nK.n, the noblest, most endur n^yl^ teVdf'^^'f "'•''''^'^^ M'as about to be introdupprl nnr ? ^ . ^enderest of animals, ■.cad of creation," reTst:,! "^^I^^ZT" '"" should become varied -ind hi thl^ "«vciope a, temperature nnd convulsions, ea'y a^^'e^blu "'"'T ''"^^''^^ rents should preserve tl^onpn " ' * ''^" '"''"^'^ «"d ^ur- form health ^^ ' '"'''"" '"^ '^"' ^" c°^^stant and uni- i;,a;;,n.o„u,,eUep,uof.,.e^r;.r.,;t^,ir P.;e»su,.e, expands also a^ ,1 ^e,, ;„ oX"vo".h'' "'"'''"'' Thus the heated air of fhp t. • \ '^*^' ^^''^porates. carries the risi ^f \,porati Xl T ""'' '''''''y^ ^^'* on its upward fl!.ht and £ [ '^' ^'''''" ''''^' ^' ^^^ft poles. Butonecubiclot fn""'''^^ "" ^^^' ^'^^"'^^ ^« the quantity of water y[°° 1'"^^: ^^^ contain only a certain » liu. Jieiciore un< poleward tradewind 80 of the skies onoounters coldor currents, or enters colder re- v-ions of air, and lo^es its expansion, it becomes clou.ly, hea- vy and sinks ; and furtlicr cooled sinks lower still and drops rai'n nnon the uorld ; and continues sinkin-, till at last it nli-hts on the coasts of P.ritain, producing in tho, in my opinion, no equal in the world. With similar gentle and ge- nial hifluences does a return tradewind descend upon the western coasts of Russian North America, making almo.= summer of even winter in an arctic d:strict._ In fact, all nlon- the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere do the tradewinds, returning from the equator through the upper re<-ions of air, descend. Moist and warm south-west winds, th?Y on their descent encounter the dry, cold northeasters, T,revailin- there and flowing from the poles to the equator. Their vapours are thus condensed, and drop in rain. Hence al.o arise transition winds, neither north-east nor south-west, but these in encounter and combination, ihis winter na^ weekly afforded us perfect specimens of these contests. Il-ive we not weekly seen the north wind, veering round point by point, softened, deadened, killed by the south, ^^^hich, beginning to prevail over the cold, was nevertheless itself cooled and robbed of its condensing vapours, dropping fir.t ^Jacnab Island snow, and then, when altogether victo- rious, torrents of rain. The temperate zone may be styled u. batth-n-ound of tlie winds. Here the hot and cold, mol^t a Hi dry, meet and conten' : and the blood shed in their cen- tos s ful s to the earth in copious rains The blood of her virin.^ nations, spilt on the field of Waterloo, yielded to Europe for fifty long years the peacefal harvests of com- merce art, science, and literature : and the blood of the vam humid, soutli-west wind shed by the dry north-east, iVri-ni'tino this temperate zone, makes it one grand store- house of°vcgetable and animal life. In these temperate regions also, subjected to neither ex- treme of heat or cold, local conditions have full play and re- sul in many local winds all having their beneficent purpose in shed of rain : but I do no more than indicate their exist- """Tlowever, though the temperate regions are peculiarly re- gions of rai^, constant rain, the tropics also I'-e their rains which for distinction are styled periodical. When the sun l;i:^les the zenith, his great heat kills the dry north-east V ( r 31 d"'.:'.:'-;;:^ !i:"::;,t;. ;"'ii' '"r-™? ■•■■ "- '^p'- ->" skie, ,l,e,-o serene aT'lncl' ° t7 T"'' f™^^"'" "'« IM season and the mo'sl are i ir,' '", '"""' ""' '•" ""' only current then meva 1 1 "'"' "' ""^ "'"f '■> 'he most eohi heighlo"^- J: he "?•';?, '^I'S •>">■: ""o Ihe npper- drop a. „„cc°baek To t ;'';^' f ^:;rr"'r''^'™"'''-">""'' <'>ese raiay seasons ,l,e epics ,eiri"e.,,t'"'; """"« vapour natii. The s„n l,„, ceaseless shower ajij tl.i -"'-'^l ocean currents into cold re^ on^T. f.^'W^ ^^ "'"•'« flowing through the eoli^v'tCnlon'^'our coV^"^' ' •'•^^•'"^'' ceaseless vapour, which homo i i ° , , ^^^^' o'"'g'na(es us in continual bene Ice^U mLt t' V^. ^'"^^^' ^^'^^'^ migl.tj circui(s of (hese o can cm-ri T^ '^ ^^"'^^ "J^°" "'^ perambulate the rounVof ev "; ^^ ^^nelf""' '"" ^^'^"^ might she .V ;hem striking on oL con^nl!,? °/'V-°"'*- ^ thence to , nher. I mitl.f foH^ ^.on inent, and diverging curbs the ccean c rrenTs°d Je 1 thl ',"f *^"''"' ^''^ '^^'^ that lh,y do flow thither' w ere f '''"''"'■ '^ ^^'' ' ''^"J I can o4 touch upon th^:;' . ^LT "^rll^^t'- ,^' skimm no- over i l- l-« t F"' "" "lena. L,ike the swa ow into (he ^u a'c^ o tt l^T^'' 'V^'^^'y ^^'^'^ --^ there duceyouto h:^!^^^,;^^^^^:',^'^''''^ 1-pingtoin- where (here is delight "^ ^ °'''"° ^'°"' ^^''^^ every. litit I pass on to^'indicate, how the Hnd Jf ^^if • *. condenser of the moisture of the a y '.'^''^^^ '^ '"^ great case of dew. When the ..in f , ^" ^^^ *^'^ '" tJ'e the vapours of Ih .y .^ ".^ /^^ tf/''^' ^"'^ ^'fPi^Hy ; and grateful dews. TI.e < Ja d cond.n V" ^'' '^^^ ^'"^''^'^^ '"« tains. They H^e viU . n r '' however are (he moun- gions of upp'e a r ( le i\;^^^^^^^^ '''''' '"^° '''' --^'-'e- edgesare^vLt mino^nit^(a r^/^ :^;;;^^^ -//^^ «''-P wmds o( the bwer world I-idon «,.%! ^ ^'^^ '^"ist 'hem up their shies to he r ollumS';: 'T"''' r""-"''- thecunent»of u,r, whose constant courses are- high above 32 the woria. They condense the vapours of these winds ; roll tliem down in beneficent torrents to the thirsty phuns, which a^ruin deliver them to the ocean to be a^aMi evapora- ted and borne by the winds to these cohl heights ; again con- densed and rolled down ; and being arranged in one nnin-_ terrupted circle of uniform beneficent change. Examples ot this system of irrigation are innumurabb : let us take one ot the grandest. I puri.oscly select the Atlantic tradewmds, that How to the equator, and will fol'ow them into the land. In the form of north-east and south-east winJs from the nortli and south of the equator, they blow equatorward softly ami steadily across the Atlantic, bearing the vapours of that ocean alon- with them. They course over South America, which extends on either side of the equator, and would bh.w across it, but are arrested by the chain of the Andes Lorced to ascend that mountain range, they enter the cold region ot snowy heights ; are cooled and robbed ot their vapours which, condensing into clouds, at length melt into ra.ns, and descend in roaring, rejoicing, welcome torrents to the broad thirsty plateaus and plains, chiefly plains, extending from the Andes to the Atlantic ocean. This district o country is thus the best watered in the world, receiving the distilled waters of all the Atlantic. Here is the Amazon, that king of rivers, swollen by tributaries almost as kingly, whose shores ar.j coasts rather than shores, bordering a sea rather than a river. But cross the Andes with that tradewind, which has thus been robbed of its moisture bc'fore passing to he Pacihc side, and what do you find t Nothing but a long, narrow, barren, desert line of coast. Have you not in tin. striking contrast sulRcient proof ot the condensing powers and beneficent purpose of mountains? But here, in passing, behold the reason of the pecu- liar arrangement, before indicated, of this American moun- tain chain! Had it been placed on the Atlantic sea- board instead of the Pacitic, had the long gentle slope b.en to the west and the short, rapid one to the east, then the tradewinds, robbed of their moisture by the snowy heights, would have Hooded the short slope on the Atlantic seaboard, and passing dry as dust over to the long s ope, have blown over it without'dropping, without being able to drop a par- ticle of rain; and, whithng away even from under i ts ve y lips any stray vapours presented to them by the tantalizing Pacific; have left it an unmitigated, monstrous, unparalleled, inexpressible desert. Now there is comparatively little de- 23 sert ; for the Anaes are close on the Pacific ocean and onW a narrow strip of coast lies unwatered and desS- wicb "^ IvoX ! 'i "' every tjung he does ! What^a unity thi^ Thug you see how ocean, earth and air are not indenpn.i* ^nt, but parts of one whole : how the air bearHipol i^s wC ' vhich are the w nds, the rising vapours of ocean into 1 e Zd ' raf r„oTnt"!n'rnr/''r"' '" ^'°" '"'^'^y Pl'^teatwhi i; ct as mountains placed in positions convenient for that nur- pose how opposing winds, too, rob them of their vapors and strew these over the world in beneficen i^ in . ^ Ami now also you see why in the latter vast dry land a"e of the world her zones became numerous; how her winds mutinied and varied into hot and cold, moist and dry, that their encom^^^^^ trlr'"^ r '^'^^'' '^''^ '''' embosome^'vapo lis a S wa e he wide continents over which they flew : also whv tho^« lands themselves were elevated into stupendo b mou^nt^b ' ^^r^v^^rS':^^^^^^^ '"'^'^ hills armorn Sest of thin^ the plains They were elevated, at least the lottiest ot them, only in the latest stage of the earth's nm gress, when the earth became a dry fand world adaped to" the highest orders and most beautiful and abundant variety of animal and vegetable existence. While the earUx wa^ herself warm, ocean and earth's numerous mighty lake we e constantly exhaling vapours, which bathed the ^d y nd ^ mist, nor rose to any elevation, being condensed a[ once by the colder space around the earth, as they now are perfod^ ^^l^!^7T ^^^Z^^'^^" ^^^ earth^vaxed to'mpart ductL nf 'f ^ '"f ^''^'"' ^^'^ ""^'^^ ^ge"i in the pro- duction of vapo'ir; when continents and mighty drylands ""n'L'^lle off T^"r"^T' 1^'^^ '''' fewfap'oursSh ocean did give off should not be lost— necessary, that into those Mty regions of pure air into which the va^i^ous natu- rally rose, condensers-vapour catchers, also should Sse mountains should leap from earth to heav'en, and puveyoi'' of the plains, stand ever on the beneficent look out^ to catd down into he irrigating plains, to slake the thirst of the drooping plant and bathe in grateful moisture the parcld ongue of the eager animal-to make the desert agafnbos- No; tnTlT ' ^'^ 'f ^ '''^ ^g^'" *^^ broadlavine ihf^. 7' °, ''^^ "?°" *^^ ^«^^^- You have just seen how tii« world IS a beautiful onmhinnfi^r, ^p fi,. r„..l _.. r , 34 ments of fire or heat, air, earth, and water ; how this mutnal action and reaction is worked into the unity of the wor U. Need I i.idicate, further than I have done, how the phint de- pends upon tiiem all, and, in its present various development, on this present combination of them : and how the animal de- pends upon them also, and besides on the p ant and on its own species, summing in its higher being the ^^^^'^^^^'J. the world, and is itself also, in its present <1«7\-P"^«"' ""f^ variety, the creature of the present variety and development °^ But Ume i.resses. I have now conducted you through the changes and advances of our globe and its existences. 1 have shown you how it started a unity, and, while e'^ch ad- vance was an increase in variety and progress m develop- ment, each advance was also a more remarkable, more pre- eminent unity ; until such a stage of variety was attained as defies the grasp and research of the intellect, while its unity thou-h not easily discerned, becomes, when discerned, its inost°remarkable, most attractive feature. , .- „ „f And now, my friends, I commenced with the evolution ot the system, with the planets forming round the sun, and vvc have arrived at the time when the sun had become not only visible from the earth, but most active and potent on its sur- face ; and I should like to show you the adaptation ot the one to the other. * .•. i • i r ♦Uec.« But, my friends, I cannot stand upon the brink of these attractive, illimitable, astronomical spaces, to which 1 have again conducted you, without diving in : I cannot quit tae ^^orld without showing you, how her beautiful sisters arehei ministering servants. . t„„„|. There arc those who will tell you, that our sister plane » are worlds like our own, inhabited by like existences. While I see no reason for such a belief, I see very many reasons for believing the contrary. AVith the talented author of he Plurality ot" Worlds, whose theory I sketch. I believe that this woild is the only inhabited, inhabitable planet m he system. I cannot state at this stage ef the evening the sci- entific grounds on which this belief is based but I may men- tion one general physical law which suggests it. We have seen, my friends, the hot air and moisture of the equator dri- ven from the neighbourhooe of the ^^^^o the poles : we see every day, when a wet towel is suspended before a fiie, the vapour driven off to the cold spaces beyond: and thus I be- lieve that the water and aqueous vapour of the original un- 35 formed nebular matter wa3 driven from the .un to the outer part, o, ho solar system, and there bound up into planets. All that we know ot .I„ni,er, Satnrn, Uranu. and Neptune encourages, ,f not quite demonstrates, the b.dief, that they are liquid masses of some sort surrounded by vapour. Kveii Mars, ,„ the neighbourhood of the earth,' hai in part an nqueous atmosphere. JJut when nassing the earth we ao- proaeh (he sun, what fin.l we ? In that moon so near us not a vest.ge of water What then tnust we conceive the e n- d.t.on ot Venus and Mercury ? IJurned up by intense heat. tlH-y are ghstenn.g, ghstering, scorched nnlsses, without a,; atmosph.-re gaseous or aqueous, broiling, not to say, boilin^ worlds. I he earth alone is placed at the border wdlere he conditions ot Ide meet in harmonious union : air and water or vegetables to drink and breathe, and all to nourish ani- mals ; with solid matter for both animal and vegetable to stand and grow upon, and in which to lin.l the necessary so- .Is for he.r solid framework ; and, besides, a due supply of light and heat, and due energy of that all necessary, a) m-e- VM.l.ng law and force of gravity. '' I he earth's orbit is the emperate zone of the solar system. Here alone is play of hot and cold, moist and .Iry, possible." Here alone the due nu«an bctw.xt the heice extremes. Here alone does life find a tempered, temperate foundation on which to stand—'twould be burned up in V.nus, 'twould be drowneu in Neptune' lleiv alone IS the existence of matter in a solid, a fluid, and a gaseous form possible! And living and growing upon land, and nourish.d by water and air, hrre alone havcM.Iants and animals arisen and progressed into the endless variety which replenishes and embdlishes the unity of this beautiful world. Ihns, then,.arth is the true cypher expounding the ;ddle o this system. The waste and otherwise injurious hi-." and heat have b^en gathered into the inner plan, ts- the wiiste and otherwise injurious water and coM have been ca- tiu-red into the outer ones : a temperate zone has been clear- ed lor tni. earth-a world into who.e composition the life bearing conditions of this system have been combined ; and launehed rom the hand of her Creator, she has run the '•ound of le.r appointed orbit, an easy, agreeable, rejoieina course, mnnstered to by h-M- rather, tiie sun, and her " isters° tlH- plane s, to all intelligent existence an object not, of dumb woiuler, but of high, rational, delighted admiration, tindin- voice and rising to God in adoring [.raise ' ° And now, my tViends, I oMgi,t tl introduce man upon this i 3G ^v„vl.l: '« An.l God creato.l man : in his own >mn-c croatrxl l.c him." I ou^ht to exhibit man assuming tho reins ot -o- ver mont, which hml dropped from the lordly tnbes ot brute , an becoming the universal animal, roam.ng the world from pole pole, and binding into a unity the vanety of ereat.on K I have purposely left this whole portion ot ^^-Y ,^^^^\\^f br a fut,.re I'ectu're, L,un, that .ome one may be ound to resume, what I have been unnble to complete. If^^^^^^ ' J cannot 'stop without linking this world, whoso ""' y I 1 ue endeavoured to manifest, without linking this sy.tem on to "^^;i::[ those myriads of star, which gh.;i(y tlie infinite of sp.ace, and say, has this world no connection with them Are^d '; fixed and is ,his system fixed ? Is each eonhned U, the little portion of immensity, which each variously and evnilly fills? Fixed ! there is no such thing as hxity in l.o un vevse. There is a talk of fixed stars, but, believe me i is only t.lk. The sun himself is in motion, no round Z: own xis alone or centre, but onward-onward through .pace ! lie is proved to be travelling with all his family o p'lanets at the rate of 428,000 miles a day to^vards a point . be heavens ne.ar the constellation of Hercules. 11 is i, ni. o bit along which he moves and bears his planets with him ! lie i; himself but a star of a system larger than his o^vn, e- volving round a "mightier centre-the centre of a tnmu>t rather than of a system, the centre of he ^^ >l^y ^J j f -^i. ("^ onr sun is one of the stars composing the system oj ' ^ ^ ;y ^Vay. and is situated in on', of the poorer, ^^^'^';;''^l' of that system, which is a grand succession ot cluster, o lit- oi lu.i .^si- , ° J J consists entirely ot tie universes ot 20,000 staiseacn, .mu ^. „„ ,i„. i,,u,u. orbs scattered, heaped, like glittering snowdrift on the back- round tie general heavens. What a magnil^^cent view o 7bS creations of God's Almighty power does tins present ! \ve nre olon-^er dealing with planets revolving round suns ; bu wth suns bearing along each its family ot planets, and ■ vo V n-^ in myriads round some mighty centre, some unima- :. nab world, to which in comparison these suns are p an Uese planets satellites. Hut we stop not '^re : tuc Inows no rest. The .Alilky Way is not the only univeK>e m \uZZ^o^ space. At^nnieasurable ^^^tances a^ over tbe skv obiects like Heecy clouds are observed, vNh di ^^cIe om-e un ^ to be nebukis matter or the unformed vapou f^'?.;, In t are now by our improved telescopes resolved i:;,::^; -V^'U^lke tha MUky Wa^, composed of unnuu..ered tl tr s! si I til si S' lis i re- 37 suns in nIino«it Innumorrtblo cluster.^. About 1,000 of tlicac universes Imve been discovered ficattercd over the heavens. They too obey the biws, which thid little system of our'i obeys, and which are obeyed by the Milky Way— this uni- verse of ours ! And what are these universes, but, in tlieir turn, stars or suns, revolvin^r ng;ii„, even like this siniph) earth and her humble sisters, even like the sun and his oil'- 8prin — 'J'ho eloquence of siU-i^.co. IL'r.vca dcifircs No uiiiistrelsy above her dumb hushed choirs! The harmony and beauty, t!ie order and majesty of tIio>e quiet wheeling and rc>i)lcnik'nl woilds! Are these then tin! highest praise desired of heaven? Nay, for heav.-n la-; higher praise than even such. The instinct of the noble dog, that approaches me at home, and, opening and shutting his inouth, asks for a l)it of something lo eat, is liigiurr [)raise, than the orderly movement and maguiticent disp.lay of tiie i- ^ 39 niost majestic world that glitters in the coronal of n\rrht Ihe midge, I crush, is nobler than the mountai^ridle over rietj still hnds its climax and its range in unity ' How pi,.), on all depends, and all on each ! Ead, being ^deado^M^i =: S? H- -r-'= ^'^t^^t^ 'riL7g1i;J„';^X;;:/;^^^^^^ true of earth, is true of them ! I „ill be bound ther" s no ZnlZtT !"""'»'"? thins in all the u„rverse ! Iw llbo rZ. „f h •" ? "'"«"<'«'. "-cared for life tbrou^hou lie e3 GodTo^cli "" '' ^"""^ """"S''""' "^°"'i»" ' would beSolS, '""' '"■ »''««"'"'^« could, no ereature tTntended, unattached, or out ot place— A vagabonding blot on natur-i's face: TJ^aT"' "i«,".i"i°g wanderer from love divine, is .till the ne'e' 'lin'dfv t'Jd"' "°. °' ''i!!"""' ^^'' »" "iMd M^ ences, kmdly and wise, travelling over snace retir-nl^Hn,, ot the orb of creation, gather each waif of existence vagrant insigmficant atom though it be, into the bosom weave U into the sphere and purpose of the universe ! Would that om- ears might open to the oratorio of nature-the naturaT vm phonies, that ascend from all the wide and ever active Ini verse, whose very activity makes and is musiela diapason ^nd filk?/' ""^''^'f^'^' t° ^nd surrounds the throne of God and fills the ear and gratulates the Spirit of Divinity and we to neant but for an instant, like the Peri of Moore, who " One morning at the gate Of Eden stood disconsolate, or?-i°"^'!?S listened to the springs Ot life within like music flowintr. \ And caught the h'ght upon her wings Through the half opened porlal glowing, And wept to think her recreant race Should e'er have lost that lovely place :" \fe would not be content to listen from without, but long to leap into the midst of it, to become a part of it ; and would ever afterwards hate and fly discord, as the saint hates sin and flies perdition. But is it so indeed ? would oar souls be really so ravished ? Alas, I forget the full depth of our terrible fall ! Yes, we re- quire even a higher exhibition of harmony, than is this, to lure us out of discord ; or, rather, we require to see this harmony embodied in the man Christ Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. But let the world open its eyes to the love of God in Christ, and, then, farewell discord ! welcome peace and joy ! Man shall then love man ! America shall be no more America ; nor Africa Africa; nor Europe Europe; nor Asia Asia; — they shall all be one ! Then shall humanity fully compre- hend, what our Saviour .leant when he said — " Love is the fulfilling of the law." Yes, for it binds man to man, unites the creature to the creatOriT, and restores to its pristine mu- sic the disturbed harmony of the universe — restores to his adoring position amidst the worshipping bands of creation man, who now unites with devils to be " The curse and menace of the universe ! — " Man, who, if he continue still impenitent, shall yet add his wail and groan to the wail aud groan of the lost angels in that hell, which the rejected love and necessary justice of Jehovah shall then, as ever, harmonize with the music of ex- istence, making it now the deep thundering bass, and now the shrill, piercing treble of the choir of being ceaselessly, untiringly, exultingly singing that all inclusive, all inspiring oratorio, known on earth as the wisdom, power, holiness, jus- tice, goodness, and truth of God I