mmmmmmmimimiwwmmmmwMtim 
 
 uuiPRINTS OF LI Ft 
 
 HARVEY
 
 VCSB LIBRARY
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE: 
 
 Jfmtjj aifo B&ture 
 
 BY 
 
 PHILIP HARVEY, M.D. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 SAMUEL R. WELLS, PUBLISHER, 
 
 No. 3S9 BROADWAY. 
 
 1808.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1808, 
 BY SAMUEL R. WELLS, 
 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States, for tho 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 EDWJLKD O. JEXKINB, 
 
 PRINTER A\D STEREOTYPER, 
 Ko. 90 North William St.
 
 There is a manifest progress in the succession of beings upon the sur 
 face of the earth. This progress consists in an increasing similarity to 
 the living fauna, and among the vertebres especially, in their increasing 
 resemblance to man. " Principles of Zoology." 
 
 By AGASSIZ and GOULD. 
 
 General views lead us to consider each organism as a part of the entire 
 creation, and to recognize in the plant or the animal, not only an isolated 
 species, but a form linked in the chain of being to other forms, cither liv 
 ing or extinct. KCMBOLDT S Cosmos. 
 
 Ko one can tell but that as many of the former inhabitants of the globe 
 are now extinct tribes that existed before the human race was created so 
 this human race may be, like them, only known by its fossil remains ; and 
 other tribes be found on other continents, as far excelling ours in power 
 and wisdom, as we excel the mastodon and megatherium of the ancient 
 world. Remarks on Fossil Osteoloyy, etc. 
 
 By LORD BROUGHAM. 
 
 (5)
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 \V$t THE BODY. 
 
 INTRODUCTION THE ORIGIN PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT 
 AND EXD OF ANIMAL LIFE. 
 
 OF Nature s deepest mysteries profound, 
 And secrets that in ancient days she kept 
 Behind a veil, from mortal view concealed, 
 And even yet reluctantly allows 
 The searching eye of science to explore ; 
 Of life, its origin, its course and end, 
 And the position relative we hold 
 To other things of life, the world and God, 
 I fain would sing ; the rugged theme attune 
 In measured cadence to the Muses lyre, 
 Though uncongenial to the maids of song 
 Such topics metaphysical and deep, 
 And I unused to court their tuneful aid. 
 
 As from afar beheld, a mountain pile, 
 Sublime and vast, uproars its awful front,
 
 8 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 And with just sense of his own littleness 
 In time and space, the haughtiest man rebukes ; 
 So to the mind, with kindred feelings fraught, 
 My subject looms ; its base deep set among 
 The buried records of departed worlds, 
 The gloomy tombs of generations past, 
 And relics of remotest times that date 
 Immeasurably back, beyond the days 
 Of man and all his puny, mighty works ; 
 Its summit equally obscure, enwrapt 
 In clouds Cimmerian, whose uncertain forms 
 Almost assume the shapes that fancy bids, 
 And cheat the mind with endless fantasies, 
 As baseless as the fabric of a dream. 
 Although the foot of man has never trod 
 Nor ever can, the depths and heights extreme 
 Of this mysterious mount, remote and dim, 
 He can its caverns and its cliffs explore, 
 Albeit in gloom and shadowy mists involved ; 
 Ponder the wonders there within his view 
 And judge from what he sees what lies beyond. 
 
 No sophistry in flimsy dress arrayed, 
 Nor inspiration from Castalian fount, 
 Nor aught of fiction would I here invoke ;
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 9 
 
 Sacred the theme to reason and to truth. 
 
 Of soaring wing, and well inured to breathe 
 
 The ether of Parnassus, others may 
 
 Imagination s giddy heights ascend, 
 
 And pleasure find in their enchanting scenes ; 
 
 Such is not mine, the power nor the need. 
 
 Even were mine the gift in lofty flights, 
 
 On wings of fancy to indulge, mcthinks 
 
 Twould better suit the end in view to curb 
 
 Such airy course, and keep within the pale 
 
 Of the stern facts of earth, lost they unseen, 
 
 I wander lost amid the clouds of doubt. 
 
 No fiery Pegasus would I bestride, 
 
 To bear me out of sight of common sense ; 
 
 A homely muse best suits a homely aim. 
 
 Of things that all should know I here would speak, 
 
 So plain to all my phrase and style should be. 
 
 Whence do we come, and what our destiny ? 
 These questions have perplexed the thoughtful 
 
 mind 
 
 From earliest times until the present day ; 
 But still the multitude remain involved 
 In darkness palpable, and blindly walk, 
 
 The dupes of superstition and of those, 
 1*
 
 10 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Who, to subserve their selfish ends, pretend 
 To be the special oracles of God. 
 False prophets they, unworthy of belief ; 
 The Sovereign of the Universe reveals 
 Himself to man but in His works and laws. 
 Him would we know ? then let us study these. 
 If rightly viewed they will not fail to show 
 His splendor in that mild and tempered light 
 That human senses can alone endure, 
 And faculties imperfect comprehend. 
 More we should covet not nor vainly seek ; 
 Instructed by the myth of Semele, 
 The Theban damsel fair beloved of Jove ; 
 She, not content the god should wisely veil 
 His dazzling splendor from her feeble eyes, 
 Demanded to behold him as enrobed 
 In all the majesty and pomp of heaven, 
 His lightnings and his thunders round him wrap 
 ped. 
 
 The wish was granted ; but too late she learned 
 That mortal sense could not endure the glare ; 
 She looked and perished in the light divine. 
 
 Whence do we come, and what our destiny ? 
 What life, and what is death ? these let me seek.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 11 
 
 And Thou, of both the Author, by whose aid 
 Alone our faculties perceive and think, 
 Assist me now to comprehend Thy works ! 
 Thy holy pages Nature s open book 
 The only one that is in truth divine, 
 And that alone in which no errors arc, 
 G ive me to understand and read aright ! 
 Then shall the misty veil arise, which else 
 Obscures the soul and shadows it in night. 
 
 How vast and infinite arc Nature s works ! 
 The finite powers of man arc all too weak 
 To reckon up the many forms of life 
 Called to existence by her magic laws, 
 From the mixed chaos of the elements, 
 As tenants of her widely spread domains ; 
 As easy were it to sum up the stars. 
 Her products ever vary as the times 
 And circumstances change that foster them. 
 Light, heat, efficients primary of life, 
 Freer than air, fly swift from sphere to sphere, 
 Unclogged by weight that fetters grosser things, 
 And limits them to orbs of which they form 
 Component parts ; and as those agencies 
 More subtile vary, so the beings change,
 
 12 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 That by their aid are ushered into life. 
 
 The grosser elements that Tellus claims 
 
 Dominion over, and that constitute 
 
 The forms substantial of all earthly things, 
 
 In ever varying circuits too revolve 
 
 In complicated maze inscrutable ; 
 
 And while they run their never ceasing rounds, 
 
 As whirlpools in the shoreless stream of time, 
 
 The combinations that they pass into, 
 
 And shapes of life their atoms aid to build 
 
 Are countless as the atoms are themselves ; 
 
 And every organ in its part performed, 
 
 And every faculty by exercise, 
 
 Development anew and growth promote. 
 
 Thus all to novelty and change conspires : 
 
 And thus the universal mother kind 
 
 Her progeny, with hand obsequious, moulds, 
 
 To suit the stations they are meant to fill. 
 
 Amidst this ceaseless mutability, 
 
 The laws that govern all eternal are 
 
 As He who issues them, and who indeed, 
 
 Their Essence and their Cause, alone through them 
 
 By mortals can be rightly understood. 
 
 Concord and universal harmony, 
 
 Although not evident to finite sense,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 13 
 
 Result infallibly from His decrees ; 
 And in proportion as we comprehend 
 His laws sublime, can we with certainty 
 Foretell His works ere yet they see the light. 
 Would we be prophets ? let us read His laws ; 
 In these interpreted lies prophecy. 
 
 Far in the realms of space, above, around, 
 We see the empyrean thickly strewed 
 With shining stars, the suns of other worlds, 
 Perhaps like that which this our earth illumes, 
 They mostly are ; sources of light and heat 
 To secondary and attendant orbs, 
 Invisible to us and numberless 
 As grains of sand upon the ocean shore ; 
 And some, rayless themselves, would darkling tread 
 Their ceaseless rounds, but for the borrowed light 
 They from their parent primary obtain! 
 Our sister planets these, dependent on 
 That sun in whose prolific rays we bask. 
 So, in the microcosms of mankind, 
 Some nobly dare to use the right of thought, 
 And cast their light abroad ; while others take 
 Their light at second-hand, and venture not 
 Upon the task of thinking for themselves.
 
 14 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 How glorious to be suns among mankind 
 
 And spread illuminating rays around, 
 
 To animate the dull and soulless clods 
 
 That dare not, or have not the power to shine ! 
 
 To shed light far into the realms of time, 
 
 As stars do into space, where it shall "burn 
 
 For ages after its first source is dead ! 
 
 Who would content remain a satellite, 
 
 Another s radiance only to reflect, 
 
 And be his lowly servitor in thought, 
 
 Afraid to call his very soul his own, 
 
 "While the broad surface of the land wherein 
 
 We live, with all its fertile hills and vales, 
 
 Its forests wide, grand streams and waterfalls, 
 
 Its mountains vast, its boundless plains and all 
 
 The prodigality of nature s gifts 
 
 With which beyond compare it overruns, 
 
 Are doubly Sanctified to liberty ; 
 
 First by the hand of God, who makes all free, 
 
 Then by the blood and toil of godlike men, 
 
 Who weeded out the growth of tyranny 
 
 That tyrants and oppressors planted here, 
 
 And, in the days of revolution, pledged 
 
 Their honor, lives and fortunes, to hand down 
 
 The institutions that we now enjoy.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 15 
 
 A rich inheritance ; and all its heirs 
 
 Should show themselves deserving of the boon ; 
 
 Nor is it found they arc degenerate yet ; 
 
 For latter days have seen that Freedom s fire 
 
 Still brightly burns upon Columbia s soil, 
 
 And "Washington s is matched with Lincoln s name. 
 
 Here ever may the beacon-light shine forth, 
 
 A signal and example to the world. 
 
 Ye sons of Freedom every fetter break ! 
 
 The shackles that enthrall the mind cast off, 
 
 And show yourselves to be as free in thought 
 
 As, as in the times that tried the souls of men, 
 
 Your sires of fame immortal claimed to be 
 
 In deed ; nor claimed alone, but in their might 
 
 And majesty arose and made it good. 
 
 Ye have a revolution to achieve, 
 
 To give emancipation to the soul, 
 
 As they had to throw off a foreign yoke. 
 
 Be not content to live half thralls ; complete 
 
 The glorious work ; disown the phantom sway 
 
 Of Superstition, gloomy king of shades, 
 
 Whose every boasted influence benign 
 
 Is only a delusion and a snare ! 
 
 To science and to nature s lights opposed, 
 
 A stupid despot he, whose leaden yoke 
 
 Is more oppressive than a tyrant s chains.
 
 16 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Ye shining orbs remote, that burn like lamps 
 Around the everlasting throne of God ! 
 Are ye inhabited by living things 
 That swell the anthem of eternal praise, 
 Whose harmony peals through creation vast ? 
 Concern ye aught the destinies of man ? 
 Or can ye satisfy in any way 
 The hungry, aching void within the breast, 
 That craves the tidings of eternity 
 And other worlds and other states of life, 
 And which the things of time cannot appease ? 
 We listen, but across the boundless waste 
 No answer comes to greet the anxious ear. 
 The visions raised by Fancy s potent wand, 
 That throng the haunted chambers of the brain 
 With spirits of the stars, are baseless all. 
 Your home divinities, if such ye have, 
 Not to us distant sons of earth reveal 
 The penetralia of their bright abodes : 
 Apart in silent mystery ye shine. 
 
 To us they are as books illegible. 
 In vain with magic lens we try to read 
 The secret lore and wondrous histories 
 That we feel sure they hold locked up within.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 17 
 
 E en while we gaze at them with sight increased 
 
 A thousand-fold in force, to penetrate 
 
 The gloomy realms of darkness and of space, 
 
 And glean the scattered rays that there afar, 
 
 Lie buried in the fathomless abyss 
 
 Too deep for unassisted eye to reach, 
 
 They glimmer and draw back, and seem to wink, 
 
 As if to mock man s curiosity, 
 
 And bid him look, poor purblind mole of earth, 
 
 To his concerns at home, nor vex his soul 
 
 About what appertains to them alone. 
 
 Doubtless, those orbs remote are the abodes 
 
 Of life and being like this nether earth ; 
 
 But far beyond our range, our feeble powers 
 
 Can only speculate on what they arc. 
 
 The home and dwelling-place of man is here. 
 Let us behold him as he really is. 
 Considered as a living entity, 
 A mortal, finite and created being ; 
 And not as he would vainly wish to be, 
 A little god endowed with faculties 
 As boundless as the universe itself. 
 
 In seeking out the source and destiny
 
 18 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Of the material, earth-created part, 
 
 Unbiased reason calls attention first 
 
 To where we see its origin and end. 
 
 Creatures of earth, materially, are all ; 
 
 The elements organic, out of which 
 
 Our frames are formed, are gathered from its stores, 
 
 The common stock of its inhabitants. 
 
 These elements, forever on the wing, 
 
 We scarce, one moment s space, can call our own ; 
 
 We hold them but in trust for nature s use ; 
 
 And soon they must be yielded up again, 
 
 To build up other forms of life ; for thus 
 
 Nature eternally renews her works. 
 
 In life as well as death, we decompose, 
 
 And waste away ; but are in life restored 
 
 With equal pace by constant nutriment ; 
 
 Here is the difference twixt life and death. 
 
 The nice adjustment of supply and waste, 
 
 Neither oppressing nature by excess, 
 
 Nor pinching her with parsimonious stint, 
 
 Hygeia ever to our side invokes. 
 
 Thrice happy they who heed her temperate laws ; 
 
 Health and content are theirs and every joy ; 
 
 But they who heed them not shall feel, like him 
 
 Who expiated on the frozen height
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 19 
 
 Of Caucasus Ins crime by sufferings dire, 
 The fierce and hungry vulture of disease 
 Remorselessly upon their vitals prey, 
 Till death to them becomes the greatest boon. 
 
 As rivers that in devious paths pursue 
 Their onward course to the insatiate deep, 
 Ostensibly remain the same, but still 
 Are ever ebbing, ever rcsupplied, 
 So the corporeal forms of living things, 
 At once identical and different, 
 Pass ever-changing through the scenes of life 
 Birth, tender infancy, ripe age, decline. 
 Death is the sea that all at length ingulfs, 
 Though cannot in Lethean bonds retain 
 The fickle elements, but yields them back 
 To feed again the ever flowing streams. 
 Thus, by untiring nature, everything, 
 Inanimate or animate, is urged, 
 In ceaseless rounds, its varied parts to play ; 
 "While sleepless Providence o er all presides. 
 
 Through ages inconceivably remote, 
 Life s ever-varying forms have come and gone,
 
 20 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Ephemeral as insects of a day, 
 
 And left behind, to tell that they have been, 
 
 Their impress stamped upon the stony scrolls 
 
 That round about enwrap this ball of earth, 
 
 To us an endless book ; although among 
 
 The least of all the ponderous tomes that shine, 
 
 Incased in golden light and self-sustained 
 
 In God s great library, the dome of heaven. 
 
 In this one volume that alone unfolds 
 
 Its leaves of stone to man, thus are impressed, 
 
 In picture-writing, to be read by all, 
 
 Of every nation and of every age, 
 
 The strange mutations its inhabitants 
 
 From the first dawn of life have undergone. 
 
 Though much is doubtless blotted out by time, 
 
 The wear of elemental strife without, 
 
 And throes internal of Plutonic fires, 
 
 Through countless ages ceaselessly at work, 
 
 Much more we may presume than is preserved 
 
 Yet, still enough remains to tell the tale ; 
 
 A broken history, tis true, with gaps 
 
 That reason and analogy must fill. 
 
 Sibylline books are these, like those of old 
 
 The Roman prophetess to Tarquin gave ; 
 
 To those who can interpret them aright,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 21 
 
 They tell the past and future of the world. 
 
 Tis written on these pages that compose 
 
 Earth s solid crust, that at the first all life 
 
 Dwelt in the bosom of the ambient sea, 
 
 Warmed into being by the vital force 
 
 That brooded o er the surface of the deep. 
 
 Though few and simple were these early forms, 
 
 The pristine elements they yet contained 
 
 Of all the beings time has since brought forth ; 
 
 And perfect in themselves, they yet appear 
 
 As mere abortions of the things to come. 
 
 The great Originator thus, we sec, 
 
 His plans from the beginning had arranged 
 
 And formed the archetypes of all His works. 
 
 This sacred record furthermore reveals, 
 
 In shadowy outline, how Creative Power, 
 
 Of time regardless, dating not by years, 
 
 His days composed of time indefinite, 
 
 Employed His plastic forces ; leading on 
 
 By easy grades the growing forms of life 
 
 Through ages past the power of man to count 
 
 Each era marked by new development 
 
 In part or structure, in accordance with 
 
 Creation s harmony, until at length 
 
 The chord symphonious seems complete in man ;
 
 22 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Who thus appears the " diapason full"* 
 
 Of nature s psalm of life, chanted on earth 
 
 In swelling chorus through the ages past ; 
 
 Though doubtless still the strain may be prolonged 
 
 In loftier concords than have yet been known. 
 
 So it is said the walls of early Thebes 
 
 Uprose responsive to Amphion s lyre, 
 
 Whose notes harmonious had such wondrous power, 
 
 That e en the stones obedient to them moved. 
 
 Survey we now the upward path of life 
 As marked upon the Records of the earth. 
 Though rough the road and all unfitted for 
 Thy dainty silken shoon, fair Poesy ! 
 I fain would have thy company to cheer, 
 With winsome voice and smiles, the weary way. 
 Then come, the unaccustomed task begin ! 
 These records say, as they come down to us, 
 That first apprentice Nature had not learned, 
 The art of building up that complex frame 
 Of bones and joints we call a skeleton. 
 The products of her tyro handicraft 
 Were probably at first infusories ; 
 Then coral polypi and zoophytes, 
 Or animals analogous to plants. 
 * Dryden
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 23 
 
 Molluscous and crustacean forms of life, 
 
 A multifarious host, were then brought forth ; 
 
 These cased in plated mail articular, 
 
 Testaceous mostly those, of which the shells 
 
 So frequent yet remain, that they to rock 
 
 In strata broad converted, and upheaved 
 
 By the rebellious giants who, of old, 
 
 Invaded heaven as the poets feign 
 
 Now form vast limestone cliffs and mountains high, 
 
 "Whose bold escarpments frown o er sea and land, 
 
 And vest in grandeur wild the rugged scene. 
 
 These hasty firstlings of our mother Earth, 
 
 Mark what is called the " protozoic age " 
 
 Of her productions ; after this we see 
 
 A bony frame, internal, came in vogue, 
 
 And fishes then were her most favored tribes . 
 
 Their earliest forms, it seems, in skeleton 
 
 Were cartilaginous ; and eased without 
 
 In shelly plates, like the crustacean tribes, 
 
 To which tis probable they were allied ; 
 
 But soon the osseous frame more perfect grew, 
 
 To motion adding freedom, grace and strength. 
 
 The next advance was to the reptile class : 
 
 The forms that first on land inhaled the air 
 
 By means of lungs. Of these, some sought their food
 
 24 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Amid the world of waters, some sought theirs 
 Upon the marshy surface of the shores, 
 Yet moist and newly risen from the sea, 
 And some again on leathern wings in air. 
 Enormous lizard-fishes, swiftly urged 
 By giant oars, their finny prey pursued 
 In farthest depths of ocean s blue domain ; 
 Fierce, hungry monsters of capacious maw 
 And hideous aspect, tyrants of the deep ; 
 The predecessors of true reptiles these. 
 Then saurian tribes for land or water made 
 Two natures linked amphibiously in one 
 "Wherein, in form and attribute, the fish, 
 The quadruped and bird were strangely joined, 
 In rivers and primeval swamps appeared 
 And took possession of the double realm, 
 O er which their stronger members reigned su 
 preme, 
 
 Until the sceptre of reptilian sway 
 Passed to terrestrial tribes of higher grade. 
 Among these rulers of the ancient world 
 Were forms enormous of the lizard kind, 
 Megalosaurus and iguanodon, 
 The mightiest reptiles Earth has e er beheld, 
 Of shape and stature so uncouth and vast,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 25 
 
 The very ground, yet miry and infirm, 
 
 Seemed filled with dread, and shook when over it 
 
 The bulk enormous and portentous trod : 
 
 Nor even were the upper realms exempt 
 
 From these strange monsters of the saurian type ; 
 
 For flying dragons clad in shining scales 
 
 Spread terror through the regions of the air. 
 
 These vestiges prodigious indicate 
 
 The period that is called the u saurian age." 
 
 Then birds appeared, first rudimentary 
 
 And wingless, probably. Of some, the strides 
 
 And footprints yet are marked upon the sands 
 
 That constituted, ages since, the shores 
 
 Whereon they trod, wading the shallow verge 
 
 On long and stilt-like legs. The sands now turned 
 
 To stone eternal, are thus made to bear 
 
 A lasting record of this early age. 
 
 Some of the strides would lead us to infer 
 
 The birds that made them of a size so vast, 
 
 That man were as a pigmy by their side. 
 
 If pigmy nations, as of old was sung 
 
 By Homer, had such cranes as those to fight, 
 
 No wonder that they waged a doubtful war. 
 
 Sequent to these, in time, came forms that brought 
 
 Their offspring forth alive, and suckled them.
 
 26 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Of these low grades marsupial first appeared, 
 That form an intermediate link between 
 Egg-bearing animals and those that bring 
 Their offspring to the world the most mature ; 
 Then higher kinds in turn progressively. 
 Still brutal force retained ascendancy ; 
 And ere its dynasty was overturned 
 The " elphantine age " was ushered in 
 A truly giant age its animals, 
 Not all of them, indeed, but many kinds, 
 Exceeding far in size the kindred tribes 
 That now are found upon the face of earth. 
 As yet man had not entered on the scene. 
 The mastodon and mammoth then held sway, 
 And sloths as huge, the mighty megathere 
 And megalonyx, whose resistless strength 
 Overthrew for food the largest forest trees : 
 And mid the wilderness of lake and marsh, 
 The dinotherium spread its fearful bulk ; 
 And swinish tapirs of proportions vast, 
 Wallowed and rooted in congenial mud. 
 Such were the monarchs of the ages past, 
 The earth-born giants of prehuman times, 
 "Whose forceful reign extended o er the world 
 When might alone conferred the right to rule ;
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 27 
 
 The growth of times that favored bulk and strength, 
 
 As earth grew old, its higher types of life 
 
 Slowly approached the human shape, until 
 
 Of all created things the last and best, 
 
 Responsive to God s laws of progress wise, 
 
 Came man ; the image of his Maker he, 
 
 And petty standard of the Measureless. 
 
 "With him began the reign of mind on earth, 
 
 And intellect to dominate o er force. 
 
 Sparse and disjointed as these records are, 
 
 Each but referring to a single age, 
 
 While those of millions doubtless are unread, 
 
 They, notwithstanding, show the spirit of life 
 
 That makes its home upon this ball of earth, 
 
 To be a soaring and ambitious one, 
 
 Disposed to take an ever upward course. 
 
 When we reflect how few the known remains, 
 
 Compared to what arc lost or out of reach, 
 
 May we not deem that, were the records whole 
 
 And open to the eye of scrutiny, 
 
 It would beyond all doubt be manifest 
 
 That higher kinds of life to kinds below 
 
 Are linked by imperceptible degrees : 
 
 While all arc bound by changeless laws divine, 
 
 And made to run alone as they provide ?
 
 28 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 This lengthened scale of life of many kinds, 
 Ascending step by step, each occupied 
 By messengers that carry out the will 
 Of the Eternal Mind, may be compared 
 To that high ladder Jacob in his dream, 
 As he on stony couch at Bethel slept, 
 Beheld extending upward to the skies 
 On which the angel-ministers of God 
 Ascended and descended to and fro. 
 From Him the immortal sentient spark descends ; 
 To Him, its mission done, again returns. 
 He over all presides, and from His throne 
 Above, looks down with a parental eye ; 
 Nor limited to this one world His love ; 
 Unbounded, it pervades the universe. 
 
 In this progressive, step by step ascent, 
 From lower up to higher grades of life, 
 That seems to mark the history of the world, 
 The progress of each organ to describe, 
 How slowly it expands, and how assumes 
 New parts and powers to fill its higher ends, 
 Were tedious, and would much extend my task 
 Beyond the limits brief I am to keep ; 
 But still this could be done were it allowed.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 29 
 
 Let one suffice the heart. At first alone, 
 
 One cell the vital fluid serves to pump 
 
 To every part ; but when life has advanced 
 
 To the fish stage, two cells the heart contains. 
 
 Reptilian hearts have three mammalian, four. 
 
 The key this mystery to unlock was shown 
 
 Two centuries and more ago, when he, 
 
 The wise and good physician, first explained 
 
 The mazy circulation of the blood 
 
 To him of hapless fate on Albion s throne, 
 
 The second of the ill-starred Stuart line. 
 
 This key throws open wide the door to light. 
 
 In nature s simplest forms of life the blood, 
 
 Unurged and stagnant, needs no forceful pump ; 
 
 Each part imbibing from the general store 
 
 That bathes the whole, its liquid pabulum. 
 
 Xor lungs, nor gills to aerate the blood 
 
 As yet invite it in a two-fold course ; 
 
 These come in time, and then some force it needs 
 
 To drive it round arid make it permeate 
 
 The lungs or gills, that from the element, 
 
 Or air or water, as the case may be, 
 
 In which they live, extract the vital air. 
 
 In some molluscous and crustacean forms 
 
 One cell for this sufiiccs ; higher grades
 
 30 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Of these have two, when next in rank they rise 
 To fish with vertebrae and double hearts. 
 The three-fold reptile heart compels the blood 
 Partly to flow in double rounds, the one 
 The lungs to flood and there be purified, 
 The other to build up the changeful frame. 
 The four-fold heart impels the vital tide 
 Wholly and perfectly in double rounds 
 Before its arduous duties can be done. 
 The end of this increased complexity, 
 Wherefore the blood demands a two-fold course 
 With greater quantity of vital air, 
 To suit the higher purposes of life, 
 Is easily explained and understood. 
 Life is activity, and this brings wear 
 And tear of organs ; even thought entails 
 Destruction on its implement the brain. 
 The more activity the greater wear ; 
 And this demands coincident supply ; 
 Involving increased means to make the blood 
 By which the organs are repaired and built, 
 To urge it round, and by the air respired, 
 To give it purity and vital heat. 
 Low forms of life, sluggish, gelatinous, 
 Float passively upon the tepid wave :
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 31 
 
 Testaceous forms keep house ; what nature gives 
 For food they take, nor discontented waste 
 Their little stock of life in vain desire ; 
 Reptilian life, possessed of wider powers, 
 Yet draws its happiness from passive joys, 
 As warmth, repletion, indolence, and sleep. 
 Eager and active more, mammalian life 
 Takes half its time to satisfy its wants 
 And half to rest and renovation gives ; 
 While man, of nervous frame and thoughtful mind, 
 Gives full two-thirds of his to thought or toil, 
 And thus by exercising all his powers, 
 Promotes their increase and his happiness. 
 
 The story of the progress of the world, 
 As told in all its varied forms of life, 
 Is wonderfully told again, in brief, 
 In embryonic growths ; these nascent germs 
 Being found, before the perfect type is reached, 
 To thread, in turn, each lower phase of life. 
 Let us, for instance, note the various steps 
 The human bud goes through, ere it becomes 
 An independent plant and broken off 
 From the parental stem. In primal guise 
 A simple monad it is found to be,
 
 32 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Unfathered, save by life s prolific laws ; 
 This next a pulpy mass with rudiments 
 Of nervous growth, assumes molluscous form ; 
 The organs then assume the fish-like type : 
 Reptilian next the budding frame becomes ; 
 Progressing slowly to the mammal type, 
 And growing gradually to that of man. 
 Not in external shape is this displayed 
 So much as in the organs visceral ; 
 During the germination of the frame, 
 The fountain head of that organic life 
 That rears the fabric and repairs the waste, 
 The heart, its archetypal states repeats. 
 A single throbbing cell it first appears, 
 Next, two-fold, takes the form of fishes hearts, 
 Then three-fold grows, as in the reptile class, 
 And, finally, as in the mammal heart, 
 It reaches its four-chambered, highest stage. 
 The brain, the organ of the nobler life 
 That to the sense the universe reveals ; 
 The harp of intellect of many strings, 
 From which such wondrous music is evoked, 
 When rightly tuned by the Creator s hand, 
 In equal pace advances with the rest. 
 As here is the distinctive mark of man,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 33 
 
 The cause in chief of all his excellence, 
 
 For more development we well may look 
 
 Than can in lower genera be found ; 
 
 Xor arc we disappointed in the search. 
 
 At first we note the simple form and parts 
 
 That in the brains of fishes may be seen ; 
 
 It next resembles the reptilian brain ; 
 
 And passing through the bird and mammal 
 
 grades, 
 
 Becomes the complicated brain of man. 
 Gestation lingered seems to be a cause 
 Productive of advanced development ; 
 The more its stages, more prolonged its term, 
 The higher is the ultimate result 
 In physical or moral attributes. 
 So was it at the first, so is it now, 
 And probably so ever will remain, 
 Fixed by God s wise decrees, world without end. 
 In all how wonderful the harmony ! 
 How clear the evidences of design ! 
 
 Enough of this ; no treatise would I write 
 On animals, their classes and their kinds ; 
 1 merely wish to illustrate the fact 
 That animation tends to travel in
 
 34 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 An upward and expansive path, that leads 
 By slow development to higher powers. 
 
 The wide-spread realms of water, earth and air 
 Appear to be replete with germs of life, 
 Which meeting with conditions suitable, 
 As light, warmth, food and vital stimulus, 
 Expand into organic forms, in kind 
 Depending much upon the agencies 
 By which their growth and being are sustained. 
 Where life can be maintained, there life shall 
 
 be ; 
 
 A wise and bounteous law of nature this. 
 Thus come all simple, primal forms of life, 
 The first progenitors of every race ; 
 The links combined, a lengthened chain is formed, 
 Extending from the dim and misty past, 
 Into the darkness of the time to come. 
 What other forms may there be brought to light, 
 He, the Omniscient, only can foreknow. 
 Something, perhaps, as much above mankind, 
 As man is to the meanest thing that crawls, 
 May claim dominion o er the world ; in short, 
 To what may be no limits can be set ; 
 We see the future dimly in the past.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 35 
 
 Earth s changes have been frequent, though hut 
 
 slow ; 
 
 And with them, and with equal pace, have changed 
 Its forms of life : this all will now admit ; 
 The only doubt is how these changes came. 
 A general faith prevails, that constant laws 
 O er all the realms of Nature now preside : 
 That force miraculous need not be used 
 To give an impulse new to her designs, 
 Then sink upon her lap to sleep again. 
 Tis said the age of miracles has passed, 
 Creation reached its culminating point, 
 A ncl that hereafter things of earth will stay 
 As now they are, until the end of time : 
 Although in former times twas otherwise 
 They say; and necessary was it then, 
 To start creation now and then afresh; 
 As old machinery when too much worn 
 By time and use, must be replaced by new ; 
 But some, and I agree with them, believe 
 Such patch-work never needful to the works 
 Of Him who is eternal in Himself 
 And equally eternal in His laws ; 
 Who makes no oversights, but from the first 
 Sees and provides for all that is come.
 
 36 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Whatever He does is absolutely good. 
 
 His perfect plans no unforseen event 
 
 Can in the least derange or interrupt. 
 
 Onward they run in one unbroken chain 
 
 Of cause and consequence, world without end. 
 
 When first He sent the potent fiat forth, 
 
 The Logos that had dwelt within His breast 
 
 From all eternity ; the forceful Cause, 
 
 In other words, that bade creation take, 
 
 Out of its mingled elements, all shapes, 
 
 Replete with beauty and utility, 
 
 That grace the world, and His designs fulfill, 
 
 And into senseless chaos poured the soul 
 
 Of harmony and happiness divine, 
 
 Willed into force the latent laws of life, 
 
 Awoke its germs and gave them form and sense, 
 
 And bade them fruitful be and multiply, 
 
 The laws of progress then He fixed for aye. 
 
 The thread of all events to come He wrapt, 
 
 As twere upon a reel ; and it remained 
 
 Alone for time, the spinner, to unwind 
 
 With busy fingers the protracted skein, 
 
 For Fate and Circumstance, mysterious pair, 
 
 One born of heaven, one of earth brought forth, 
 
 In wefts of ever varying hue to weave.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 3V 
 
 The laws of Nature know of no repeal. 
 Or changeless these, and fixed as God Himself, 
 Of whom they arc the signs and evidence, 
 Or else they vary like the laws of men 
 A supposition not to be maintained : 
 And these eternal laws, in things of life, 
 Accomodating change must bring about, 
 To fit them to the changes of the world 
 And the conditions under which they live, 
 Or else a new creation must be made, 
 Without dependence on preceding ones, 
 When circumstances change to that degree 
 That they become unfitted to sustain 
 The former orders of organic life. 
 This last alternative was i: orthodox," 
 Before men learned to see in Nature s laws 
 The best and only proofs of Nature s God ; 
 When Science learned to walk in leading-strings. 
 She now can go without these childish aids; 
 And " orthodoxy," like most other things, . 
 Is tried by weight and taken at its worth. 
 
 It has been gravely asked, " Who ever saw 
 Development proceed to the extent 
 Of changing low to higher grades of life ?"
 
 38 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 The answer is, it is a work of time, 
 
 The tardy growth of untold centuries : 
 
 Dependent it may seem, perhaps, on things 
 
 Of accident, blind chance, or destiny; 
 
 Yet doubtless brought about, as all things are, 
 
 By laws and causes fixed and definite, 
 
 And all conducive to those goodly ends 
 
 Intended from the very origin. 
 
 Thus every living thing is harmonized 
 
 To the conditions under which tis placed. 
 
 However wrought, all beneficial change 
 
 In part or function, is increased by use, 
 
 Maintained by the advantage that accrues 
 
 To its possessors in the strife of life, 
 
 And handed down to their posterity ; 
 
 The races thus from age to age improve 
 
 The arduous steep of life they thus ascend. 
 
 Of those who only credit what they see, 
 
 These questions in return, may well be asked : 
 
 If all the motions of the universe, 
 
 And all its forms of life depend on laws, 
 
 Unchangeable and fixed, as I believe 
 
 They do, have ever done and ever will, 
 
 What law or process natural could make 
 
 Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 39 
 
 " Limbed and full-grown, out of the earth uprise 
 " As from his lair the wild beast where he wons 
 " In forest wide, in thicket, brake, or den ? " 
 Who ever saw " the grass-clods calve ? " or saw 
 " The tawny lion pawing to get free 
 " His hinder parts, then spring, as broke from 
 
 bonds, 
 
 " And rampant shake his brindled mane ? " or saw 
 " The libbard and the tiger, as the mole, 
 " Rising, the crumbled earth above them throw 
 " In hillocks ? the swift stag from underground 
 " With branching head,""" rise instantaneous, 
 Fresh from the plastic hand of God ? Such tales 
 May suit poetic fancy, but will scarce 
 Pass current, now-a-days, for sober fact, 
 Or science true ; for that whereon men found 
 The pile of science, observation wide, 
 Stands all upon the other side arrayed. 
 Xo natural laws were ever known to man 
 That wonders such as these could work ; and if 
 Such were in those prehuman times, when earth 
 And all that it inherited, went through 
 Those metamorphoses, whose traces stand 
 Recorded on the monuments of stone 
 * Paradise Lost, Book VII.
 
 40 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 That form its circmn vesting pavement thick, 
 
 If such were then, they must have widely changed ; 
 
 A supposition difficult of proof. 
 
 By process gradual changes oft we see, 
 
 May be within the little day of man, 
 
 In living things induced ; then how much more, 
 
 With each inconstant element at work, 
 
 Through ages inconceivably prolonged ? 
 
 When all the Protean faculties of life 
 
 Have scope of countless centuries to clothe 
 
 Its teeming products in what shapes they list, 
 
 How can we wonder at the multitude 
 
 Of characters brought forth from time to time ? 
 
 Who can put limits to the work divine ? 
 
 The operation of its laws who bound ? 
 
 As things of life have changed, so has the world : 
 Though tardily, still onward in its course, 
 Like the short index on the dial s face, 
 That creeps insensibly from point to point ; 
 But slower far, its seconds centuries. 
 At first unfitted was it to sustain 
 Organic life. Joyless and void it rolled 
 Its yearly rounds for ages numberless. 
 When first with embryo forms it pregnant grew,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFK. 41 
 
 The ocean tides swept on from pole to pole 
 
 And cast to west, unchecked by bank or shore. 
 
 Mcphitic was the atmosphere and gross ; 
 
 Unfit for warm and active lungs to breathe, 
 
 It had infused, if animals with such, 
 
 That poison to inhale, existed then, 
 
 A poison deadly to the purple tide, 
 
 Instead of taking poison from the blood, 
 
 Carbon, a needful source of vital heat, 
 
 When duly oxydized by means of air 
 
 Drawn through the myriad channels of the lungs 
 
 For thus the blood is warmed and purified 
 
 But left therein unoxydizcd, the blood, 
 
 Except for sluggish life, becomes unfit 
 
 And every faculty in Lethe steeps. 
 
 At length, amid the boundless watery waste 
 
 Islands appeared, and purifying plants 
 
 Upsprang and fed upon the tainted gale, 
 
 Till disinfected and made fit to breathe ; 
 
 For such the happy faculty of plants. 
 
 "What poisons us, gives health and growth to them. 
 
 Profuse and rank was vegetation then, 
 
 Its growth . coerced by ultra-tropic heat 
 
 And fatness floating in the air around. 
 
 Forms that are stunted now to ferns and reeds,
 
 42 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 And mosses small, then grew to stately trees, 
 
 That now would rival the majestic palms 
 
 Of Ceylon, or of Araby the blest. 
 
 This growth abundant of those early times 
 
 When man was not, nor breathing animal 
 
 Above the lowest of amphibial kinds, 
 
 To reap its benefits, now, turned to coal, 
 
 For purposes of light and heat subserves, 
 
 And on the Hercules of modern times, 
 
 With breath of steam, confers his giant strength ; 
 
 A needful servant of man s intellect, 
 
 When it transcends his powers physical. 
 
 This illustrates the heedful Providence 
 
 Who rules the world and sees things from afar ; 
 
 To Whom a thousand years are as a day. 
 
 Thus preparation made, amphibious things 
 
 Came from the oozy margins of the deep, 
 
 And held supremacy o er both domains 
 
 Of land and water, equal each their home. 
 
 As land and plants and purer atmosphere 
 
 Extended o er the world by slow degrees, 
 
 These highest tenants of the former age, 
 
 Obedient to the potent will of Him, 
 
 Who is Lord paramount and reigns o er all, 
 
 Their titles yielded up to higher tribes ;
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 43 
 
 And those again to others higher still : 
 And thus the primal rank ascends to man, 
 The last and noblest of creation s works, 
 Who, under God, is now creation s lord. 
 At liis approach the earth became serene 
 And glad, and less by pangs internal vexed. 
 The air grew healthful, temperate and pure, 
 Balmy and redolent of incense sweet, 
 Exhaled from Flora s censers numberless, 
 By .joyful Zephyrs wafted to and fro ; 
 And tuneful with the choral songs of birds. 
 In gladness Nature donned her best array, 
 And smiled her long-expected lord to greet, 
 As, when the bridegroom cometh, doth the bride. 
 
 How oft asserted is the boastful claim, 
 That, chief and last of Nature s progeny, 
 For man alone the world has been prepared. 
 For him alone, tis said, the Great First Cause 
 Of all that has been and that is to be, 
 From elemental and chaotic fire 
 First bade this orb terrene assume its form ; 
 The fervent mass incased in stony ribs 
 Reduplicate ten thousand thousand-fold, 
 And over all a living carpet spread ;
 
 44 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 The waters poured within their proper beds, 
 Spread out the airy firmament around, 
 And mingled there the eager breath of life ; 
 For him the mountains, islands, continents, 
 Above the liquid plain unnumbered rise ; 
 For him the changeful seasons come and go, 
 And countless bounties scatter in their path. 
 In short, for man alone, tis said, were made 
 The heavens, the earth, and all that they contain. 
 How vain and arrogant the boastful thought ! 
 Ere yet man was, fair Nature smiled around 
 And with a lavish hand her favors strewed, 
 Of every race the joy and sustenance. 
 As countless races have preceded his, 
 So, numberless shall its successors be. 
 For them, for all, the world has been prepared. 
 
 The changes and the fluctuations all 
 That mark the mutability of earth, 
 And make its scenes but pageants of the hour, 
 And life as transitory as a dream, 
 Flow in accordance to decrees and laws 
 Unshunnable and fixed as those of fate : 
 Though unperceived those laws may be, or seen 
 Shapeless and vague as through a glass obscure.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 45 
 
 The mission true of man is to inspect 
 The works of God, and study out His laws ; 
 In this alone docs our redemption lie, 
 And Knowledge is the true Evangelus. 
 
 Amid the turmoil of the elements 
 That constitute and build organic life, 
 Xot always uniform can progress be ; 
 For circumstances, adverse more or less, 
 Or more or less propitious, such as must 
 Be looked for in these scenes of endless change, 
 The chain of progress may disturb, and make, 
 As these or those prevail, the things of life 
 Advance, degenerate, or pass. away. 
 All creatures, even man himself, who owns 
 A nature the most pliable of all, 
 And earth s vicissitudes of widest range, 
 Is capable of moulding to his use, 
 Must languish when the unpropitious Fates 
 Diffuse their blighting influence around : 
 But such is the exception, not the rule : 
 Excelsior is the motto of the world. 
 
 Eternity of structure is denied 
 To every fabric, or of God or man.
 
 40 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Stars have been known to fade and pass from sight 
 
 High into mountain peaks the thickest earth 
 
 By throes internal heaves its ponderous crust : 
 
 Fierce flames volcanic issue from within, 
 
 And earthquakes dire not only topple down 
 
 Mountains and cities, but convulse the globe 
 
 From centre to extreme circumference. 
 
 Through all this universal wreck and change, 
 
 The wisdom and benevolence of God 
 
 Conspicuous stand and unimpeachable. 
 
 None but a fool would dare His acts impugn. 
 
 If, measured by the judgment weak of man, 
 
 Some fault or imperfection should appear 
 
 In aught He does, twere wiser far in us 
 
 To lay the blame on our own want of sense 
 
 To comprehend His plans, than impiously 
 
 Attribute fallibility to Him. 
 
 What though old things decay and pass away ? 
 
 His love and wisdom are displayed in this, 
 
 Thereafter something better still succeeds. 
 
 His revolutions never retrograde : 
 
 Ever more near the bounds of perfectness 
 
 His works approach, but never reach the goal : 
 
 For thus Omnipotence Himself decrees, 
 
 And thus are shown His endless power and love.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 47 
 
 With this contented must we rest. In time 
 
 It may so elevate the sons of man, 
 
 And their terrestrial home so far enhance, 
 
 That it shall be to them as Paradise, 
 
 And they as dwellers fit for such abode. 
 
 The ever-living God counts not like man, 
 
 By numbers formed by units, nor by time ; 
 
 But by eternity and aggregates. 
 
 lie will vouchsafe to grant, when He deems fit, 
 
 Fullfilment to the yearnings of the heart 
 
 For something better than the present state, 
 
 That He has planted in the human breast 
 
 As spur incentive to urge on advance, 
 
 And sitrus and tokens of the things to come. 
 
 (_- O 
 
 Submissive to His fiat we must bow. 
 
 Let us be thankful now for what is given, 
 
 And wait with reverence upon IBs will 
 
 For what the future has in store for us. 
 
 Nor selfishly and sinfully repine 
 
 Because the wise gradations of His works, 
 
 From age to age advancing slowly on, 
 
 Bring to the world progressive happiness 
 
 Instead of lavishing the w T hole at once 
 
 On creatures that e en that would scarce content. 
 
 Each with the race should feel identified,
 
 48 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Posterity regarding as himself. 
 
 Man is not made for perfect happiness. 
 
 Progressive in his nature, tis his bliss 
 
 Perfection to approach but step by step, 
 
 Each stage improving on the one before. 
 
 All of his feelings are comparative : 
 
 Without the evil could he know the good ? 
 
 All hopes of happiness without alloy 
 
 In men, or angels, or in anything 
 
 Of station lower than Omnipotence, 
 
 Must be but fallacies ; for when they see 
 
 A state more perfect than their own, that state 
 
 They will aspire to, as did Lucifer, 
 
 And then farewell to peace and happiness. 
 
 Whence comes the vital spark, that subtile flame 
 That quickens everything endowed with life ? 
 A thing without or weight, or bulk, or parts, 
 Yet joined to these, it animates the mass, 
 Giving it perfect form, and growth and life. 
 Can aught ethereal and sublime as this 
 Be part of the gross substances of earth ? 
 This Nature hides behind a seven-fold veil ; 
 But still a twilight dim steals through, and we 
 Can faintly see in what this power consists.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 49 
 
 In every chemical and vital change, 
 In growth of plants and animals, in storms 
 And cloud?, we sec its potent agency. 
 Across the stormy sky it swiftly darts, 
 Its awful voice in thunder calls aloud, 
 When the black vap rous progeny begot 
 By Eurus and the Nereids of the Gulf 
 Whose tropic urn, embossed with palmy isles, 
 Pours its warm current to the icy north 
 Drive sullenly along the sky, and wring 
 Their dripping garments over all the land. 
 It is the fire Prometheus stole from heaven 5 
 The sceptre of the life-bestowing Jove, 
 And wand electrical with which he works 
 His strange and endless metamorphoses, 
 As told in mythic lore of Greece and Rome, 
 That Nature s plans revealed in apologue. 
 Excited in the brain, this subtile power 
 As swift as lightning traverses the nerves 
 And every silken fibre of the frame 
 Makes sensitive and docile to the will ; 
 And gently through the teeming earth diffused, 
 The force prolific makes it swarm with life ; 
 But when in anger hurled by Jove, this spark 
 Of life becomes the instrument of death.
 
 50 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 So bright Apollo s genial radiance flows 
 
 From lieaven to earth, conferring light and warmth ; 
 
 But too intense, the lucid rays divine 
 
 As deadly as Chimera s breath become. 
 
 In life we are in death : the vital flame 
 Is fed by the decay of every part ; 
 By life again is every part restored, 
 And life and death in mutual duties join. 
 In death no more is restoration made : 
 The interchange of earthly elements 
 Then ends, and all are rendered back to earth : 
 Thus is the final debt of nature paid. 
 But not eternal is the sleep of death ; 
 7 Tis but a slumber on the lap of earth, 
 The common mother of all living things, 
 And then the atoms wake to life again, 
 In other parts and other forms to act. 
 Thus Life is but an actor on the stage, 
 And Death but his attendant who takes off 
 His borrowed robes whene er he quits the scene, 
 Again to enter in another dress. 
 "Why should we tremble at the needful part 
 Death really plays in the affairs of life ? 
 Within his proper sphere as useful he,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 51 
 
 As arc the elements fire, water, air, 
 
 By which all creatures are, arid are sustained. 
 
 E en these in conflagration, flood, and storm, 
 
 The limits of utility may pass, 
 
 And like unruly steeds, a loose career 
 
 Of riot run and mad destructiveness. 
 
 What though no form attractive Death assumes 
 
 To charm the superficial gaze of youth 
 
 Unthinking, prone to gayety and joy ? 
 
 For his dominion Heaven means not these ; 
 
 If they become his prey, the blame is theirs. 
 
 For this and the innumerable ills 
 
 It pleases Providence to test us with, 
 
 The tree of knowledge offers to mankind 
 
 The antidotes, which rightly understood 
 
 And used, might almost place us with the gods, 
 
 Above the evils of mortality, 
 
 And take all venom from the shafts of Death. 
 
 Alone the king of terrors he becomes, 
 
 "When armed as an avenger he appears, 
 
 And grimly stalks beyond his proper bounds 
 
 To vindicate the laws of God and man : 
 
 He else is naught but Nature s chamberlain. 
 
 Stern and unwelcome though he be to those 
 
 Unready for his call : yet, ah ! how sweet
 
 52 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 To spent mortality that longs for rest, 
 
 And those who are aweary of the world 
 
 From suffering and devastating woes 
 
 That joy discard, and hope that lingers last ! 
 
 Like sleep, a comforter for every ill 
 
 He then becomes, and Nature s crowning boon. 
 
 This, as I read it, is the simple tale 
 That nature tells concerning life and death. 
 No fearful mystery involves the fate 
 Of this brief habitation of the soul, 
 When the immortal tenant wings its flight. 
 Although the soul, dissatisfied and cramped 
 "While bound within the pris on of the flesh, 
 May look to things beyond this narrow sphere, 
 And, with instinctive prescience of its fate, 
 Yearn after immortality, and wish 
 To share it in the frail companionship 
 With which it shares its joys and sorrows here, 
 The stubborn facts by which we are hemmed in 
 Enforce upon the mind the sober truth 
 That we, substantially, are things of earth. 
 Twould little boot, methinks, that the effete 
 And damaged shell vacated by the soul 
 When fit no more for its abode on earth,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 53 
 
 Should, at the sound of the last trump, arise, 
 And mounting from the tomb on airy wings, 
 Be to its tenant spirit joined again, 
 For weal or woe, for joy or misery, 
 In bonds thereafter indissolvable. 
 In such a worn-out tenement to dwell 
 Eternally, could scarce advantage us, 
 Nor could its torture lead to any good : 
 And tis, methinks, a consolation great, 
 That nature gives no grounds for such belief ; 
 But contradicts it in the plainest terms, 
 By showing that our earthly elements, 
 Forth from the warm embrace of life, 
 As well as from the torpid arms of death, 
 Are ever flowing back to earth again ; 
 Returning to first principles, to be, 
 In time, built up in other living forms. 
 No particle belongs to one alone : 
 Each is but parcel of a common stock. 
 If ours to-day, to-morrow something else 
 The refluent atom for the moment holds, 
 And thus it runs the gauntlet of all life ; 
 Till countless millions may, if any can 
 From having had it once, contest the right 
 To its reversion as the heirs at law.
 
 54 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Amid such claims conflicting to decide, 
 Well might grim Rhadamanthus, in despair 
 Of doing justice, yield his office up 
 As arbiter of disembodied shades. 
 
 Though change is Nature s universal law, 
 The elements are indestructible, 
 And neither have beginning, nor an end. 
 Eternities can no commencement have ; 
 Things that begin must also end : but here 
 Upon the subject of eternity 
 I pause, nor care to venture farther on : 
 The shallow line of human intellect 
 Was never meant to sound its ocean depths.
 
 There is, they say, .and I believe there is, 
 A spark within us of immortal fire 
 That when the body dies escapes to heaven, 
 Its native seat, and mingles with the gods. 
 
 ARMSTRONG. 
 
 The instincts of brutes and insects can be the effects of nothing else 
 than the wisdom and skill of a powerful, ever living agent, who being in 
 all places, is more able by his own will to move the bodies within his 
 boundless uniform sensorium, and thereby form and reform the parts 
 of the universe, than we are, by our own will, to move the parts of our 
 bodies. 
 
 SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 
 
 Fools because of their transgressions, and because of their iniquities 
 arc afflicted. 
 
 PSALM csvii. 17, 
 
 Tis thus that heaven its empire doth maintain ; 
 It may afflict, but man must not complain. 
 
 OTWAY.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 55 
 
 THE SOUL. 
 
 KXORDIUM SOUL IXSTIXCT REASON FAITH THE LAWS 
 OF NATURE. 
 
 FROJI matter and organic life I pass 
 To that superior, more ethereal life, 
 That manifests itself in sense and thought. 
 A darker region here I venture on, 
 Less palpable the road, and more beset 
 On every side with ignis fatuus lights, 
 That serve alone to lead the mind astray ; 
 More needful therefore to proceed with care, 
 And follow only Nature s steadfast light, 
 Lest wide I wander in a mazy round, 
 Intricate, lost to every useful end ; 
 Or sunk in error s miry paths, become 
 At once the scorn and pity of mankind. 
 
 Now, in the palmy nineteenth century, 
 That boasts, and justly, too, of progress great 
 In all the varied arts and sciences : 
 When Knowledge more expands her wings, and 
 
 takes 
 A wider flight than in old, by-gone times
 
 56 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Was even dreamed of ; and when every day 
 
 Almost, unfolds some revelation new 
 
 Concerning Nature s deepest mysteries ; 
 
 When man, made bold by science, dares to grasp 
 
 The arms of the immortal gods, and makes 
 
 The bolts of Jove, Apollo s radiant darts, 
 
 His tools and playthings ; makes the lucid ray 
 
 A willing pencil that can counterfeit 
 
 The charms of Nature s face so faithfully, 
 
 That she herself might own the work with pride : 
 
 And mounts his thoughts upon the thunderbolt 
 
 To take an instant flight around the world, 
 
 Leaving the sun a laggard on the road, 
 
 And leaping over every obstacle, 
 
 Though Ocean s self, by angry tempests chafed, 
 
 Should interpose his wide-spread, watery reign, 
 
 And thunder forth a wrathful interdict. 
 
 Now, in this palmy nineteenth century, 
 
 When science takes such high and daring flights, 
 
 A point there is on which some craven hearts 
 
 Are terribly alarmed lest they should know 
 
 Too much ; they therefore trembling cry " Forbear I" 
 
 If any hand attempt to raise the veil 
 
 That screens their tender sense from too-much light. 
 
 That subject is the soul ; concerning which,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 57 
 
 The less the mind, involved in night and dreams, 
 
 Can comprehend, the more dogmatical 
 
 Men get. and prone to clamor and abuse. 
 
 Thank God, that other means, more violent, 
 
 Assent reluctant to extort, arc not 
 
 As much in vogue as in those " good old times," 
 
 When hapless unbelievers were condemned 
 
 As sacrifices and burnt-offerings, 
 
 And the black smoke of human holocausts 
 
 Hung like a frown upon the face of heaven, 
 
 And seemed to blot out pity from the skies ; 
 
 Tainting the ambient air with nauseous steams 
 
 And suffocating stench of burning flesh, 
 
 Incense appropriate to the fiends alone, 
 
 Yet thought to be acceptable to God, 
 
 As sweet and savory odors are to men ; 
 
 And this was deemed a righteous " act of faith !" 
 
 How much have men, God, mistaken Thee ! 
 
 What profanations do they perpetrate 
 
 "When Superstition, in the holy garb 
 
 Of Piety, usurps the place of Faith ! 
 
 But true, the world grows wiser every day ; 
 
 And better, too, no doubt ; twere hard to do 
 
 The one without the other, inasmuch 
 
 As Vice is only found at Folly s heels.
 
 58 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Yet for improvement ample room remains. 
 Knowledge to some extent is still in bonds ; 
 The hounds of persecution, though bereft 
 Of fang to tear, still growl and bark at all 
 Who dare, against the fashion, to invest 
 Their souls in other than its threadbare faith. 
 
 In darkness only bigotry can live, 
 And daylight dawns upon a waking world. 
 In its due time the sun shall rise to drive 
 The shades and spectres of the night away, 
 And Persecution and Intolerance 
 Shall go to dwell with kindred fiends in gloom ; 
 And in their stead the goddess Liberty, 
 Who from its fetters disenthralls the soul, 
 Shall make her home with men, beloved of all ; 
 And all her heaven-born train, serene Content, 
 Fair Truth of candid countenance, sweet Peace, 
 Mirth-giving Plenty, and though last, not least, 
 Pure Faith with love-illumined eye shall come 
 With her, and make a paradise on earth. 
 The Now doth ever wrestle with the Past : 
 And Destiny, with Progress by her side, 
 Hastens to crown with wreaths the younger brow. 
 The history of the world, in this respect,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 59 
 
 Is acted o er again in every age. 
 
 The youthful spirit of the present time 
 
 Is e er engaged in conflict with the Past. 
 
 The latter, timid, shuns the open plain, 
 
 And seeks the shelter of his battlements, 
 
 To ply his thunders from behind the walls. 
 
 Though some, perhaps, may tremble at the sound, 
 
 They daily learn to tremble less and less : 
 
 For current sound, like current coin, they learn 
 
 To take alone for what tis really worth. 
 
 The march of progress and the march of time 
 
 Arc in the issue of affairs as one ; 
 
 And all things by their own inherent laws 
 
 Incline, in every change, to harmony. 
 
 The course of Nature is an onward one ; 
 
 Nor will she long allow discordant strains 
 
 To mar the tuneful concert of her works. 
 
 Oppression, treachery, abuse of power, 
 
 All deeds of wrong in time shall be repaid, 
 
 And justice in the end be meted out. 
 
 The wounded heart here finds a soothing balm, 
 
 And venomed arrogance its antidote. 
 
 Let him who sets himself against this law, 
 
 Who deals unjustly by his fellow-man, 
 
 Sows in his heart the seeds of cruelty,
 
 60 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Or stains his soul in any -way with wrong, 
 Beware ! for surely as he lives the doom 
 Of righteous retribution shall o ertake 
 His guilty steps, wherever he may flee, 
 And vindicate the providence of God. 
 
 Thus much to deprecate intolerance ; 
 And now proceed we with the theme proposed. 
 
 The soul, the sentient essence, source of thought, 
 That in the time-piece of the flesh encased, 
 Swings to and fro the passions pendulum 
 From joy to grief, from grief to joy again, 
 And the dull form of earth makes sensitive ; 
 That like a sentinel upon the walls, 
 Keeps watch and ward against assaults of foes : 
 What is it, whence, why is it thus enshrined, 
 And whither does it wing when it takes flight? 
 A problem this that has evoked the skill 
 And cunning sophistry of every age ; 
 But on it still the world is all adrift, 
 And no abiding anchorage is found. 
 Since it has led to no result but this, 
 7 Tis time that we should sophistry discard, 
 And, following the lead of no false lights, 
 Pursue the plainest path that nature points.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 61 
 
 It is supposed, and I believe it true, 
 Wherever intellect or sense exists, 
 A subtile principle is planted there, 
 As much more exile and refined, perhaps, 
 Than the electrical or vital spark, 
 As that is than the gross material clay. 
 A deity, as twere, enshrined within ; 
 The petty god-head of the microcosm. 
 This sentient principle we call the soul. 
 By some 7 tis thought to be I think so, too 
 An emanation of the Infinite, 
 Who makes His dwelling throughout boundless 
 
 space. 
 
 The universe is His embodiment, 
 And lie the Mind that animates the whole ; 
 The Spirit of Intelligence who rules 
 With undivided and eternal sway. 
 By His control we live, and breathe, and act ; 
 In Him originates our every thought ; 
 In brief, the Universal Soul is He, 
 And boundless Source Original of light, 
 Of which the souls of men arc merely sparks, 
 That briefly shine as glow-worms ; then the light, 
 But borrowed for a while, is rendered back, 
 E en as our dust returns to whence it came.
 
 62 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 In tins consists our immortality, 
 
 And that of everything that feels and thinks. 
 
 The sentient principle knows no decay, 
 
 Nor is it subject to material laws. 
 
 Changeless in essence is it as its Source. 
 
 Something of immortality all have 
 
 That with perceptive powers are endowed. 
 
 If mind must be immortal, as is said 
 
 By almost every creed, and I believe, 
 
 All mind must share this quality divine. 
 
 A ray immortal tis, wherever placed, 
 
 In kind the same, though different in degree, 
 
 And nowhere showing more diversity 
 
 Than in the opposites of human kind, 
 
 The highest and the lowest intellects. 
 
 To some the light of reason is denied ; 
 
 No seeming import in their form and mark, 
 
 They stand as blots upon the page of life ; 
 
 In some the animal preponderates, 
 
 And these by instincts low are hurried on ; 
 
 And some, more godlike in their faculties, 
 
 Weigh well the consequences of their acts, 
 
 And pick their way by reason s higher aid. 
 
 Though bound thereto for purposes of life, 
 
 Mind, or in instinct or in reason shown,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 63 
 
 Is not the offspring merely of the brain, 
 Begot by action of the senses five, 
 As sonic philosophers would have us think. 
 It independent often shows itself 
 Of observation and experiment, 
 In innate and unbidden impulses 
 That rise in men and animals, and prompt 
 To necessary acts and thoughts of life. 
 Man feels the want and yields to it or not, 
 As he deems fit. Beyond the act itself 
 He sees the sequel that to which it leads : 
 Not so the lower kinds ; they feel the want, 
 They know not why ; a craving of the heart 
 And not the head, that will not be appeased 
 Until the action prompted is performed, 
 And then they fret not for the consequence. 
 They, happy, know alone the present need. 
 Their acts instinctive are as well performed 
 As the most studied workmanship of man. 
 Witness those cells hexagonal wherein 
 The prudent bees store up their winter fare. 
 Not Archimedes, nor the learned tribe, 
 With all the aid of instruments and art, 
 Could aught improve upon the insect plan.
 
 64 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 An emissary from the throne of God, 
 Sent on the errand of His fostering love, 
 Instinct is untaught nature s faithful guide. 
 Her mission from on high conferred, she scorns 
 All human interference, and disdains 
 In artificial ways of life to walk. 
 She hates instruction and the rules severe 
 That constitute her sister Reason s aids. 
 Useless to her the trammels of the schools ; 
 No study needs she ; perfect from the first, 
 Unconscious of the end to be produced, 
 Without a thought or error does she work : 
 This shows her origin to be divine. 
 She is the angel of the lower tribes 
 That cannot see the light of God, and have 
 But her to guide them in the proper path. 
 In them the unknown light in darkness shines, 
 And they in darkness comprehend it not.* 
 In man the light shines brighter, and by it 
 He sees through nature up to nature s God. 
 He walks less blindly, more controlled by laws, 
 Which reason illustrates and time unfolds ; 
 Hence the advancement of his social state. 
 While the great progress of the human mind 
 * Gospel of St. John, Ch. i., v. 5.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 65 
 
 Is evident to all who read or think, 
 Communities of beavers and of bees, 
 And other creatures that by social ties 
 Are bound more rigidly than man himself, 
 No token of improvement have evinced : 
 Their skill and habits still remain the same, 
 The lips of knowledge arc to them sealed up, 
 The past and future nothing but a blank, 
 And countless ages pass in silence on. 
 
 Reason and instinct are the lucid gleams 
 By which the All-Pervading Intellect 
 Vouchsafes to manifest Himself on earth : 
 Faint indications of a Radiant Source 
 That the gross sense of man cannot behold ; 
 Like those that herald Phoebus in the east 
 When first Aurora lifts the veil of Night. 
 They are the spirit-messengers of heaven, 
 Announcing God the ruler and the guide 
 Of all the vast varieties of life. 
 Reason and instinct both, to some extent, 
 In all the higher genera are found ; 
 In animals the latter most is seen, 
 Tiie former most adorns the brow of man ; 
 While instinct only on the narrow walk
 
 66 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Of lower kinds bestows a feeble ray. 
 
 Archangel and chief messenger benign, 
 
 Fraught with the high behests of Heaven to man, 
 
 Reason sublime its brightest halo spreads 
 
 Around his head and marks him lord of all. 
 
 As different lamps these faculties divine ; 
 
 One bright, one faint. One casting wide its beams 
 
 Throughout the starry regions of all space, 
 
 And down into the lowest depths of earth ; 
 
 Or far into the misty realms of time, 
 
 The regions of the past and future dim ; 
 
 And shedding light, reflected or direct, 
 
 On things of fancy and on things of fact, 
 
 Up even to the great First Cause of all. 
 
 The other limited to narrow scope, 
 
 And shedding light alone on sensual things 
 
 Demanded by the present exigence. 
 
 Among the races of this teeming world, 
 
 The mark of excellence and badge of rank 
 
 Is that, the brighter of these guiding lights 
 
 That serve to lead them in their various ways. 
 
 However fettered and in darkness bred, 
 
 As reason often is, for fear the light 
 
 Should tempt it off in unsafe paths to stray, 
 
 Some token of its native Source it gives ;
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 67 
 
 The lucid ray it eager thirsts to driuk, 
 And bows at the imputed shrine of truth. 
 
 A General Origin of light and laws, 
 A Guardian Intellect, who rules supreme, 
 With one accord the heavens and earth proclaim. 
 Of one Diffused Intelligence we see 
 In every place abundant proofs that shine 
 To reason s eyes with noon-day brilliancy, 
 And they who see them not must be stone blind. 
 
 Man, having reason for his guide, must learn 
 By knowledge gathered from the tree of life, 
 Prolific of both good and evil fruits. 
 Eeason is given him to judge of these, 
 And prompt him in the choice he has to make ; 
 Or by experiment and study teach 
 To turn the evil to a good account. 
 Thus evil serves to discipline the mind 
 And give it exercise, inducing strength, 
 An enemy to which is idleness. 
 Both physical and mental force begin 
 At zero in all animated things : 
 Thence slowly are developed step by step. 
 The boundless universe itself, and all
 
 68 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 The wonderful profusion of its works, 
 From suns and worlds to animals and plants, 
 Seem made inductively, each separate part 
 Advancing still with consentaneous grades. 
 We here the primal pattern of that rule 
 And method in the search of truth may find, 
 Explained by him who has been styled, at once, 
 " The greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind." 
 Who science freed from the pedantic bonds 
 And narrow limits of scholastic rule ; 
 And taught, instead of speculation vague, 
 To study facts, and thus securely pass 
 By slow gradations on to certainty. 
 The dawn of mind is like the dawn of day : 
 When first the timid morn peeps o er the hills 
 And faintly streaks with gray the eastern sky, 
 Each object dimly to the eye appears, 
 And busy Fancy peoples all the scene 
 With the thin offspring of her airy brain 
 But when the sun appears these shapes dissolve, 
 As unsubstantial visions of a dream ; 
 The charms of nature then by every eye 
 And every heart are witnessed and confessed, 
 And all consent to worship at her shrine. 
 So, when bewitching Beauty draws aside
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 69 
 
 The envious veil that hides her charms from view, 
 
 Each eye is ravished and each heart enthralled, 
 
 And all attest the magic of her power. 
 
 Beneath the light of reason thus mankind 
 
 Behold the veil from Nature s face upraised, 
 
 And woo her through the arts and sciences. 
 
 She is a coy and jealous mistress though, 
 
 And will not to a fickle lover yield 
 
 Her priceless favors. To be fairly won, 
 
 She must, indeed, be wooed devotedly : 
 
 And her attendants in her graces grow, 
 
 As do her works, by slow and gradual steps. 
 
 How many tedious years Urania watched 
 
 The constellations in their annual course, 
 
 The bear prowl nightly round the Arctic pole, 
 
 The vagrant planets in their mystic rounds, 
 
 A wondrous maze perplexed, before she learnt 
 
 The deep intricacies of all their paths, 
 
 And how the giant Gravitation held 
 
 And swung them round and round in magic chain. 
 
 Apollo s arts, song, music, medicine, 
 
 Are, like the human race itself, the growth 
 
 Of centuries unnumbered and unknown. 
 
 Built up by the united care and toil 
 
 Of many generations past and gone,
 
 70 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Each is the labor of a life to learn 
 
 Imperfect even then our knowledge is 
 
 And thus of all of nature s mysteries. 
 
 Strength, knowledge, all things grow but by degrees. 
 
 Crotona s hardy athlete, it is said, 
 
 Taught his broad shoulders to support the load 
 
 And grow in power as their burden grew, 
 
 Till able to bear up the full-grown ox : 
 
 And England s sage, the light of modern times, 
 
 "When knowledge more than strength commands 
 
 respect, 
 
 Learned how to weigh the sun and moon and stars, 
 And how each ponderous globe retains its orb, 
 By meditating on an apple s fall. 
 
 Though clad in homespun suit and unadorned, 
 Rich gifts innumerable labor brings. 
 When rightly known, both fair and bountiful 
 She proves, and fills the genial cup of life 
 With wholesome draughts fresh from the fountain- 
 head 
 
 Of health and strength alike for mind and frame. 
 The panacea cure for every ail 
 And best of tonics hers ; it nerves the heart 
 To triumph o er Adversity s dread frowns,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 71 
 
 To Folly s eyes in Gorgon terrors clad. 
 Stern teacher of philosophy ! thy rod 
 Severe is not alone for torture given, 
 But more to turn to truth the erring mind, 
 And train aright the budding germs of thought. 
 Offspring of Want, prolific Labor hail ! 
 Stern though thy parentage and rough thy looks, 
 Thy rule yet wholesome and thy deeds benign. 
 Prosperity and progress at thy beck 
 Obedient wait ; Learning at thy command, 
 Science and skill, build up their monuments. 
 For thce glad Amalthea fills her horn, 
 Capacious, with the season s kindly fruits, 
 And earth its tribute sends from farthest shores ; 
 By thee the fettered soul is freed from chains 
 And learns to walk in manly dignity, 
 Alike absolved from dread and arrogance 
 In brief, the medium thou by which the hand 
 Of Nature yields her choicest gifts to man. 
 Thee let us worship with befitting rites ; 
 Thee diligently learn to serve and lore ! 
 Think not tis hard to toil, for what is life ? 
 To doze away the time and live upon 
 Another s labor ? this is not to live 
 Tis but to linger out a living death :
 
 72 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Twere better to lie sleeping in tlie grave. 
 
 The laborer is far less wronged than he 
 
 Who, of his choice, takes life upon such terms. " 
 
 The likeness of his Maker then is gone ; 
 
 For God knows neither leisure nor repose, 
 
 But in activity alone exists : 
 
 And men are nobler as they more approach 
 
 To Him in steady, useful industry. 
 
 He favors those alone who earn His smiles 
 
 By walking in the way that He commands. 
 
 Idling and trifling, in His penal code, 
 
 Stand but a grade below the greatest crimes : 
 
 He kills himself who sacrifices time. 
 
 So strong the need of something still to do, 
 
 That Satan finds his opportunity, 
 
 Tis aptly said, in times of idleness, 
 
 To scatter in the soul those deadly seeds 
 
 That choke and canker every wholesome growth. 
 
 The worthiest efforts man can make are those 
 That serve to give expansion to the mind, 
 And teach it how to soar aloft, above 
 The abject cares of earth, and wing its flight 
 To noblest heights of true philosophy : 
 For Knowledge freedom gives and fortitude
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 73 
 
 To the immortal, better part of man ; 
 And bids him not to tremble in the dark 
 At ghosts, or other visionary fears, 
 The weaklings of a childish fantasy ; 
 Nor bow in superstitious reverence 
 To doctrines opposite to nature s laws ; 
 Nor dote on dreams and rambling prophecies 
 That stuff the hidden future with the dark 
 And sickly fancies of a moody brain, 
 That serve alone to taint the cup of life 
 With bitterness, and banish every joy ; 
 But teaches him such bugbears to despise, 
 And walk serene in reason s steady light, 
 The last and noblest gift of Heaven to earth : 
 And like the sun its bright and cheerful rays 
 Disperse to airy nothingness the fogs 
 Of darkness, ignorance and prejudice 
 That settle in the hollows of the mind, 
 And there are garnered up as solid truths, 
 Or sanctified as articles of faith. 
 Nature and faith should ever be conjoined. 
 Religion from all guile and artifice 
 Should be absolved, and as a science taught ; 
 One introductory to all the rest, 
 To which it should lend aid and pave the way, 
 1
 
 74 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 And be, in fact, their central source of light, 
 
 As is the sun to its attendant orbs. 
 
 It, then, instead of chaining down the mind, 
 
 And proving nothing but a stumbling block, 
 
 Would aid essentially to lift it up ; 
 
 And in return for Faith s consoling balm, 
 
 Science would clothe her in a lucid garb ; 
 
 And each, as Eros and the longing soul, 
 
 Find joy and solace in their harmony. 
 
 As Science, Faith must meliorate and grow 
 
 By slow degrees ; in fact, she never can 
 
 Her utter boundary or goal attain. 
 
 As long as mind expands and knowledge spreads, 
 
 Brighter and brighter shine her heaven-born beams. 
 
 Tis, therefore, vain to think to bind the soul 
 
 In everlasting fetters ; or enchain 
 
 Enlightened times in gross and clumsy bonds, 
 
 Forged in an age of darkness, when men sought 
 
 The truths of nature and for things to come, 
 
 In visions, witchcraft, sorcery and dreams : 
 
 And fancy painted every natural ill, 
 
 As work officious of an adverse fiend 
 
 That scowled malignantly in Heaven s face, 
 
 And thwarted its beneficent designs.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 75 
 
 As those remains of ancient times, entombed 
 Within that wide extended charnel-house 
 The rock-encrusted surface of the earth, 
 Proclaim the progress of organic life, 
 So the forsaken offshoots of the "brain 
 That once were bowed to as authentic creeds, 
 But now like mummies lie embalmed and stored 
 Within the crypts of ancient history, 
 Tell the expansion of the human mind. 
 Its dawning age engendered products crude, 
 Unsolid fancies and vague, futile fears ; 
 The firstlings of an unsubstantial world, 
 Its feeble offspring rudimentary. 
 Then clumsy shapes came crawling forth, uncouth 
 As reptiles of the ancient saurian age ; 
 The worship barbarous of cruel gods, 
 Moloch, appeased with sacrificial gore, 
 And children given to the flames, and soothed 
 With senseless clamor and unmeaning rites ; 
 And Dagon, monster of the sea, half man, 
 Half fish. These were creations of the mind 
 In its amphibious, half-way stage of growth ; 
 The forms of darkness and obscurity 
 That superstition loves to idolize. 
 An epoch tertiary was ushered in,
 
 76 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 "When first the powers of nature were beheld 
 And worshiped under mythic semblances, 
 As Jove, Apollo, Bacchus and the host 
 Of gods and goddesses both good and bad, 
 Immortalized by many a classic pen, 
 In days when fancy more than fact prevailed 
 To lead the footsteps of the wandering mind. 
 A timid friendship then began to form 
 Between the kindred pair, Science and Faith. 
 When both, in all essential circumstance, 
 Agree with facts and sound philosophy, 
 The age of ripened intellect appears. 
 As types of all the former forms of life 
 In the domains of nature yet are found, 
 So still among mankind at large are seen 
 Some types of all the former forms of faith. 
 The stragglers these that linger in the rear : 
 Meanwhile the army on the march proceeds. 
 
 The faith, however crude and imbecile^ 
 Implanted in the tender infant breast, 
 Takes root and twines around the growing heart 
 With all the energy of primal love. 
 As to her first-born cleaves the mother fond, 
 Or wife or maiden to her early choice,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 77 
 
 So cling we to first faith, and part with it, 
 
 In after life, when Reason with strong hand 
 
 Pulls at these tendrils twining round the heart, 
 
 Alone to force that cannot be denied. 
 
 This is experienced in a thousand ways, 
 
 As every one who reads himself must know ; 
 
 And as it is in individuals seen, 
 
 So is it in the many-headed world ; 
 
 The superstitions of its infancy 
 
 Yield slowly to the growing force of truth. 
 
 Before it subjugate the hydra mass 
 
 Obtuse, conceited, fickle, obstinate, 
 
 Unnumbered generations darkling sweep, . 
 
 Along the rushing stream of time away, 
 
 Into the ocean of eternity. 
 
 But constant dropping wears upon a stone j 
 
 So truth at length shall wear on prejudice, 
 
 And superstition haunt the mind no more. 
 
 Supreme in all shall Heaven s laws appear ; 
 
 And union absolute of cause and plan 
 
 Be seen throughout, and in the sum of all 
 
 A perfect concord and harmonious scheme, 
 
 Each part subservient to the grand design. 
 
 Faith is akin to Science, nnd like her 
 
 Should lean on Nature for support and aid ;
 
 78 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 She wanders else amid the scenes of life, 
 The easy dupe of folly and of fraud. 
 
 In Nature all is love and harmony. 
 Securely is she seated on her throne, 
 Beneath the asgis of Omnipotence. 
 No hostile powers need she fear ; of such 
 The tales are merely figments of the brain. 
 Although her brow not always seems serene, 
 Her frowns are yet as loving as her smiles, 
 And meant but to enforce her wholesome laws. 
 "With chastening hand maternal first she warns 
 Her erring children to retrace their steps ; 
 But if, of stubborn heart, they will not heed, 
 She stern becomes and punishment, severe 
 Perhaps, though just, inflicts : for all her acts 
 Are in the scales of Justice nicely weighed ; 
 And every penalty is meted out 
 In perfect adaptation to the wrong. 
 A dispensation wise and good is this. 
 Disorder to restrain ere spread too far. 
 The scourge removed from Nature s hand benign, 
 The terrors of her penal laws annulled, 
 Order would be dethroned, Confusion reign, 
 \nd all the world to ruin madly rush.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 79 
 
 Full widely, even now, from her commands 
 Has man seceded ; him exonerate 
 From all effects of such decadency, 
 And his depravity would know no bounds. 
 
 Though Pity, maiden of the dewy eye, 
 May look with grief upon the countless woes 
 Produced by nature s violated laws, 
 And deem them necessary ills of life 
 And all the world but as a vale of tears, 
 By Keason s truer eyes these things are seen 
 But as exceptions to the general rule 
 And mere conducements to the greatest good. 
 The sum of all things is the throne of bliss 
 On which reclines the Universal Soul, 
 The focus of all sense and happiness. 
 
 As poisons sometimes serve as condiments, 
 So is it with the evil in the world : 
 To make the good seem good it must exist. 
 Without it all would vapid be, and flat 
 As to the palate tastes unseasoned food. 
 In due proportion tis a spice in life, 
 Though in excess it taints with bitterness. 
 Antagonistic elements exist,
 
 80 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Of course, in every place and circumstance : 
 
 But in subjection and control are held 
 
 By power Omniscient, that evolves from all 
 
 Progressive happiness and harmony. 
 
 Hence day and night alternate, light and shade, 
 
 The summer s bounties and the winter s frosts, 
 
 And all the charms that change and contrast bring. 
 
 The ills of life that stand as finger-posts 
 
 To point the way upon the road, serve well 
 
 Their purposes parental, and are made 
 
 To swell the aggregate of general good. 
 
 Society advances mid the clash 
 
 Of jarring interests and mutual strife. 
 
 Twas never meant by Him who first devised 
 
 The social state, to level all mankind 
 
 Upon the rules of fancied equity, 
 
 And keep them there in spite of e en themselves. 
 
 Such perfect level may alone be seen 
 
 In realms Utopian, fanciful and false. 
 
 Reduced to fact, its fruits would soon appear 
 
 In sloth and wide-spread imbecility. 
 
 It is ordained that every kind of life 
 
 Shall be matured in strife and rivalship, 
 
 Wherein the stronger shall prevail, and leave 
 
 Its kind as the preferred inheritors.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 81 
 
 This law both plants and animals obey. 
 Each striving thus to overtop the rest, 
 The race itself improves from age to age, 
 And thus the rugged hill of life is climbed. 
 Full difficult to all the upward road, 
 Tasking the scope of every faculty ; 
 But easy the decline, where indolence 
 With languid, half-closed eyes, prefers to stay. 
 
 Scholars of Nature, we must keep her rules ; 
 And epidemics and diseases all, 
 And every evil that her laws inflict, 
 Are her avenging monitors, that whip 
 Laggards and truants to their tasks again, 
 Whene er they wantonly or idly roam ; 
 And if they neither will nor can reform, 
 In terror to the rest, they are expelled ; 
 The final doom a warning dread to all 
 At which the awe-struck soul recoils aghast ; 
 For though to those indocile or perverse 
 The teacher s rules may seem austere and hard, 
 Still many blandishments around she strews 
 That bind us to her with the closest ties. 
 To sever them and quit her bright domains, 
 To be consigned to dark forcretfulness
 
 82 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Within the dark and solitary grave, 
 The banished spirit gone we know not where, 
 Ne er to return and greet its comrades more, 
 The thought repugnant, o er the shuddering sense, 
 Creeps like the chilly vapors of a tomb, 
 With ghastly terrors fraught : unearthly shapes 
 That mock the understanding and the sight, 
 And thrill the fearful soul with vague alarms. 
 Foremost among the phantom train appears 
 The insatiate King, a spectre gaunt and grim, 
 Before whose upraised dart the spirit quails, 
 The roses wither on the stalk of life, 
 Courage himself instinctively grows pale, 
 And turns evasive from the threatened stroke. 
 Nor less appalling are the shadowy forms 
 Believed to follow in the distant rear ; 
 Legions of mocking fiends, tormenting flames 
 That bear and endless means of pain : Remorse, 
 The worm that never dies, the last of all. 
 Such fearful things alone within the brain 
 Of morbid Fancy dwell ; to these she gives 
 " A local habitation and a name " 
 In visionary realms beyond the grave. 
 The truly wise such terrors hardly need ; 
 For, keeping all the teacher s wholesome laws,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 83 
 
 And walking only in the proper paths, 
 
 They learn to find a heaven here below, 
 
 And see no cause to fear a future hell. 
 
 These laws arc various that we have to keep, 
 
 As social, physical and moral laws. 
 
 The latter two invaded, swiftly comes 
 
 A retribution on the guilty head ; 
 
 But social laws are slow in their recoil ; 
 
 For like the giant oak, societies 
 
 And nations are of ages long the growth, 
 
 And being slow of growth, arc slow of change. 
 
 I speak not here of civil social laws, 
 
 Or those dependent on the will of man, 
 
 That may be good or bad, foolish or wise, 
 
 Or ever changing as their makers arc ; 
 
 But those of Nature, endless as herself. 
 
 They may be outraged for a while, perhaps, 
 
 Aye, e en for ages may some brooding ill 
 
 Engender in the bowels of a State, 
 
 And grow to be a part of it, until 
 
 It shakes the commonwealth to pluck it out, 
 
 Almost to its surcease, or kills outright. 
 
 The times are pregnant often with the wrongs 
 
 Of centuries ; and when the bearing-time 
 
 Comes round, prodigious births are ushered forth :
 
 84 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Discord, intestine feuds and civil war 
 Then show their hateful and portentous fronts, 
 Crime stalks abroad fearless of punishment, 
 And men appear to be transformed to fiends. 
 Such times were seen in Rome before her fall ; 
 And France beheld them in her days of blood ; 
 And soon or late to all the day must come, 
 The day of reckoning for deeds of guilt 
 Done in the noon and flush of health, perhaps, 
 And when they fondly thought themselves secure, 
 And never to be called to an account. 
 Do we not see a hand upon the wall, 
 A hand of warning if not one of doom, 
 Appear in the late troubles we have passed ? 
 Blind must we be indeed to see it not : 
 For plain it is as that which filled with fear 
 The Babylonian king and all his court, 
 And told alas ! it told to them too late 
 That Heaven s vengeance will not ever sleep. 
 To us the hand more timely warning brings, 
 If we but heed the lesson that it sets, 
 And turn repentant from the wickedness 
 That brought these troubles down upon the laud ; 
 The fruits of selfishness, that leads mankind 
 To trample down the rights of other men,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 85 
 
 And grasp at things, that should be free to all, 
 
 To limit them to their peculiar use. 
 
 This soul-contracting vice of selfishness 
 
 Its culmination finds in slavery, 
 
 That men degrades to chattels and to brutes ; 
 
 Making their lives and happiness to hang 
 
 Upon the sufferance of the wretch who buys 
 
 Their souls and bodies with his filthy dross ; 
 
 And who by law is vested with the power, 
 
 As oft he is by nature with the will, 
 
 To grind their very bones to make his bread. 
 
 The current score of this, our national crime, 
 
 In heaven s record has run on so long, 
 
 That in atonement all are made to groan ; 
 
 And every drop of blood the lash has drawn, 
 
 Is paid with interest from the nation s veins ; 
 
 And all the guilt-stained wealth that has been wrung 
 
 From the poor victims of its tyranny, 
 
 By centuries of unrequited toil, 
 
 Is wasted in war s desolating path. 
 
 Though all these woes have followed in its train, 
 
 This heart-encrusting sin if we repent, 
 
 And learn to deal impartially by all, 
 
 Doing injustice, no, not to the least, 
 
 Rather uplifting the oppressed and poor,
 
 8G FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Then time shall make us whole again and sound, 
 And bring us forth from purgatorial flames, 
 Renewed and purified from every stain, 
 A phoenix newly risen from the pyre. 
 
 To all contaminate in mind or frame, 
 Fallen from right, degenerate, perverse, 
 The world is full of poisons, scourges, snares. 
 To them the bounties of the universe 
 Are dealt by the avenging Nemesis, 
 Who on the heads of guilty mortals pours 
 The dreadful vengeance of the angry gods, 
 And turns their gifts to dust and bitterness. 
 On such the air breathes pestilence and death ; 
 The sun pours down envenomed darts by day, 
 The pallid moon and stars rain blights by night. 
 Their senses palled, the innocent delights 
 And kindly sweets of nature charm no more. 
 All that should be a blessing proves a curse ; 
 And while they pine beneath the weary doom, 
 They little dream that tis their own misdeeds 
 They suffer from, but fondly view themselves 
 As sacrifices of the Fates unjust, 
 Or victims of a cruel destiny, 
 And claim of all the sympathetic tear.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 87 
 
 The boon is granted, or it should be so ; 
 
 For tis an act of charity to drop 
 
 The tear of pity for another s woe ; 
 
 And he whose selfish heart is cased within 
 
 A bosom of impenetrable flint, 
 
 Who has no sighs for sorrows not his own, 
 
 Is scarcely half a man at best, and lost 
 
 To the prime crown and honors of his kind. 
 
 When first men followed instinct s simple ways, 
 And Saturn held his mild, primeval reign, 
 The Golden Age, we re told, prevailed on earth 
 The blissful childhood of the human race. 
 All unsophisticated lived mankind ; 
 Content and health were theirs, they asked no more. 
 The bounteous soil, untasked, its harvests gave ; 
 Sufficient nature s voluntary gifts, 
 Of fruits and herbs their food, their drink the spring ; 
 Perpetual summer reigned, and Peace and Love 
 Linked all creation in fraternal bonds. 
 This happy state, by him who led the Jews 
 From Egypt s bondage to the promised land 
 Of Canaan, for its milk and honey famed, 
 Was Eden called, the garden of the Lord. 
 As yet a longing after unknown things
 
 88 FOOTPRINTS OF LTFE. 
 
 Had not unbarred the gates of mortal woe. 
 Pandora, with uneasy, prying eye, 
 The fatal casket had not then explored, 
 Nor eaten the forbidden fruit had Eve, 
 In violation of the laws of God 
 And nature, and thus introduced the seeds 
 Of death, disease, and woe into the world. 
 For thus of first neglect of nature s laws 
 They spoke in olden time, and russet Fact 
 Was tricked by Fancy in her rainbow gauds. 
 
 Ere Knowledge grew, or the inventive Arts 
 Enabled naked man to circumvent 
 His better frunished fellow-denizens 
 Of nature s broad domain, and triumph o er 
 The wide vicissitudes of heat and cold, 
 Of season and of clime, he must have lived 
 In some such state as that above described, 
 Now long since numbered with the things that were. 
 No longer now his faculties are cramped 
 By instinct s narrow bounds, but reason leads 
 The wandering footsteps of the mind in paths 
 That ever widen as they go, and tempt, 
 With frequent scenes of beauty and delight, 
 The traveller fresh regions to explore.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LTFE. 89 
 
 At first with doubtful steps and slow he treads ; 
 
 But as the prospect opens, faster wends. 
 
 On every side some new enchantment breaks 
 
 On his astonished gaze, and soon he finds, 
 
 Among the fruitful regions he explores, 
 
 Gardens as bright as those of Paradise. 
 
 But only those this happiness can know 
 
 Who rightly use the faculty divine ; 
 
 For who their lives resign to sensual joys, 
 
 Or sloth, can ne er retrieve their fallen state. 
 
 Who fain would nobly climb must active be, 
 
 And should themselves in the Gymnasia train 
 
 Of exercise and study, as of old 
 
 Was taught in Academia s classic groves, 
 
 Where Nature and the Muses, hand in hand, 
 
 Were wont to walk when Greece was in her prime ; 
 
 And where, with honeyed lips, the Attic bee* 
 
 More sweetness gathered from philosophy 
 
 Than e er was hived on Hybla s flowery mount. 
 
 Perhaps the point on which mankind depart 
 The most from nature s wholesome laws, is food ; 
 For appetite is often made the slave 
 Of pleasure merely, heedless of the aim 
 
 * Plato.
 
 HO FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 The true intent for which it was ordained. 
 What countless evils on this error wait ! 
 What grim and spectral shapes of woe attend ! 
 Disease in all its countless, hideous forms, 
 The organs and the senses paralyzed 
 And profitless, old age before its time, 
 A worn-out body and a worn-out mind, 
 Are but a portion of the ghastly train 
 That follow acts of sensual excess, 
 And give to all example terrible. 
 " We should not live to eat, but eat to live," 
 And in indulgences of every kind 
 Yield to the claims of appetite no more 
 Than may to beneficial ends conduce. 
 
 Reason and old tradition both agree 
 That at the first men lived on fruits alone 
 For food, and drank of the health-giving spring. 
 No taint of gore their nourishment defiled, 
 No liquid fire consumed and crazed the brain, 
 Nor turned to gall the sweet assuasive chyle, 
 Nor the calm current of the refluent blood 
 Provoked to undue haste and heat, nor strung 
 The nerves to deeds of tyranny and hate. 
 Mild and congenial was their aliment,
 
 FOOTPRINTS 0V LIFE. 9] 
 
 And mild and peaceful every thought and act. 
 The sunny gardens of the balmy zone 
 Wherein they dwelt demanded small supply 
 Of nutriment that serves to warm the blood, 
 Compared to what they covet who oppose 
 The rude assaults of those unfriendly skies 
 "Where Boreas reigns and faintly shines the sun ; 
 For every clime demands its proper food. 
 The cooling regimen of fruits and herbs, 
 That ample is for all the wants of life 
 Of Ethiopia s sons, or those who breathe 
 The hot and steamy atmosphere that still 
 With constant course pursues the orb of day 
 Around its equinoctial path, would scarce 
 Supply the elements of vital heat 
 That needful are to those who breathe the air 
 Of Greenland cliill, or frozen Labrador. 
 Indulgent nature has enriched each clime 
 With aliment there suited best to man. 
 Of pliant system and inventive mind, 
 He, lord of all, and nature s favorite child, 
 Has all the world for his inheritance. 
 For him the torrid sun whose ardent rays 
 The sanguine stream would raise to fever heat, 
 If nourished from those sources that supply
 
 92 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 The elements of warmth to frigid veins 
 
 The wine-cup and the fatlings of the flocks 
 
 And cause the lamp of life to burn too fast, 
 
 Gives cooling fruits instead, the heat to soothe. 
 
 Its beams oblique, that shed a tempered warmth, 
 
 To Ceres and Pomona both conduce, 
 
 And best promote the herdsman s peaceful charge ; 
 
 These furnish man with food adapted best 
 
 To regions lying in the temperate zones. 
 
 When near the polar regions we approach, 
 
 Where earth but scanty vegetation yields, 
 
 And solar rays are absent half the year, 
 
 We find the ocean full of unctuous food 
 
 That heat abundant to his system gives. 
 
 Wise were it always to observe these hints, 
 
 And not alone their teaching to confine 
 
 To what refers to climate, but extend 
 
 The doctrine further, and to season too 
 
 Apply what thus the voice of nature prompts. 
 
 When summer with its genial warmth prevails, 
 
 Diffusing balm and joy through every nerve, 
 
 And all the heavenly powers, propitious, smile, 
 
 Nor ask the sanguinary sacrifice, 
 
 Then would the festal board be aptly spread 
 
 With food of grain prepared and fruits and milk,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 93 
 
 Addition of more generous fare being made 
 
 When skies grow bleak or languishes the sun ; 
 
 But when with icy breath stern Winter comes, 
 
 Enchanter dread, who would to stone transmute 
 
 All life and motion that he breathes upon, 
 
 Then let the sacrificial altar smoke 
 
 With incense grateful of the savory fare 
 
 Diana, or more bounteous Pales gives 
 
 The products of the pasture or the chase 
 
 And countcrcharm the freezing blasts without 
 
 By giving fuel to the fires within. 
 
 Thus may we learn to temper either ills ; 
 
 Or those that spring from undue heat, or those 
 
 Pernicious equally that cold inflicts ; 
 
 Thus mitigate the seasons fierce extremes, 
 
 And triumph o er the rigor of each clime. 
 
 Man is not doomed to necessary woe. 
 
 From every ill attendant on his race 
 
 Some means evasive he will surely find, 
 
 If Nature he but studies and obeys. 
 
 No rules sophistical should he adopt 
 
 To innovate on her more genial sway. 
 
 His steadfast eye should ever turn to her 
 
 As to its lord the constant heliotrope. 
 
 When doubts as to his proper path perplex
 
 04 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 The wildered traveler o er life s bleak moor, 
 
 And night involves him in its deepest gloom, 
 
 A loadstar then she proves his course to guide, 
 
 A cynosure of never-failing truth. 
 
 The thought that Nature shared in that decline 
 
 When man, departing from her simple ways 
 
 And following those of luxury and art, 
 
 Became a prey to sickness and to care, 
 
 Can find in weak or biased minds alone 
 
 A home ; and such it leads to follow lights 
 
 That take them round about in chase forlorn, 
 
 Like fires phosphoric that tis said misguide 
 
 Benighted wanderers in the dreary marsh. 
 
 When God s right hand shall fail, then Nature may, 
 
 But not before, for she and it are one. 
 
 She tis that shows His wisdom and His power, 
 
 And she alone His grand designs unfolds. 
 
 How easily supplied are all the claims 
 
 That Nature urges in the frame of man ! 
 
 As unpolluted from her hands they come, 
 
 How sweet and healthful are the copious stores 
 
 In air, stream, forest, and in field, from which 
 
 To every need they may be gratified ! 
 
 But ah ! what fatal poisons they prepare, 
 
 Noxious at once to body and to soul.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 95 
 
 With what accumulated ills oppress 
 
 Their languid frames who crowd the city s haunts 
 
 Where Dissipation, Vice and Folly oft 
 
 Their orgies hold ! What evils do they sow, 
 
 Which in the future they shall surely reap, 
 
 Who heap the board with luxury profuse, 
 
 And in the madding riot of a day 
 
 Consume, perhaps, the labor of a year ! 
 
 Who ransack every corner of the earth 
 
 To minister to appetites depraved, 
 
 And goad the senses to the utmost verge, 
 
 Where pleasure, sickened, almost turns to pain ! 
 
 Profane ! tis right that yc should feel the sting, 
 
 Who, reckless, Nature s safer ways forsake, 
 
 And seek the paths where toads and adders 
 
 lurk ! 
 
 Ye pallid worshipers at Fashion s shrine, 
 Whom Indigestion and Enmd pursue 
 Around, like Furies armed with scorpion whips, 
 Repent in time, turn ere it be too late ! 
 Your superflux to those in need resign, 
 And taste the luxury refined and true, 
 That only they, thrice happy, can enjoy, 
 Who live within the simple, genial bounds 
 Of Nature, and with wise economy
 
 96 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE.. 
 
 Her temperate, frugal wants supply, no more ; 
 Her rites administer with hearts sincere. 
 
 Hail, heavenly guide, divine inspircr, hail, 
 Nature, kind guardian of the general fold, 
 And mediator between God and man ! 
 Oh, ever by my side remain, and teach 
 My feet to tread the labyrinthine paths 
 Of life, and all its dangers how to shun 1 
 Whom leadest thou, he, happiest of men, 
 Shall pass serenely down the vale of time. 
 When Fate portentous rides upon the gale, 
 And Pestilence, swift borne upon the wings 
 Of the infectious South, or blighting East, 
 Strews thickly death and dread around the land ; 
 Or skies adverse to Ceres golden reign 
 Peril the budding promise of the year ; 
 Or when the poisonous Hydra of the fens 
 And stagnant pools mysteriously steals forth 
 To wrap the shuddering victim in its folds : 
 Pregnant with doom, whatever bane impends, 
 Thou teachest to avert the threatened ill. 
 With thee auspicious, there is naught to fear : 
 Not fickle Fortune can our peace invade, 
 Nor Envy lean, nor self-consuming Care.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 97 
 
 Nor all the powers of hell itself, can harm. 
 
 Bnt from thy frowns, ah ! whither can we fly ? 
 
 Dark, desolate, and void is all around. 
 
 The weary Hours then droop their heads and sigh ; 
 
 Nor Loves nor Graces with their wonted smiles, 
 
 Nor Pleasure with her frolic train, can charm.
 
 Then sh.ill the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall 
 return to God who gave it. J&clesiasles xii. 7. 
 
 Principio ccclum. nc terras, camposque liquentes, 
 Lucentumque globmn luntc, titaniaquc astra, 
 Spiritus iritus alit, totamque infuna per artus, 
 Mens agitat niolem, etmagno so corpore miscit: 
 Inde homiiium, peeudumque genus, vitsequc volantnra, 
 Et qua: marmorcio fert monstra sub ajquore pontuu. 
 
 Virgil. sE/>.. Lib. vi. 
 
 The circling sky, the earth and liquid main, 
 The silver moon, and stars, a shining train, 
 Through all these limbs diffused, one guardian soul 
 The body moves and mingles, with the whole : 
 Thence spring mankind, and beasts, and things of air, 
 And monsters that the glassy waters bear. 
 
 Hail Source of Being ! Universal Soul 
 Of heaven and earth ! Essential Presence, hail ! 
 To Thee I bend the knee ; to Thee my thoughts 
 Continual climb ; who with a master hand 
 Uast the great whole into perfection touched. 
 
 THOMSON,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. ioi 
 
 gavt <Thwt. THE DEITY. 
 
 RETROSPECT T1IE LOVE OF GOD HIS WORSHIP PRAYER. 
 FORMS OF FAITH UNIVERSAL PRATER CONCLUSION. 
 
 As, when the vital spark has taken flight, 
 And dust is rendered back again to dust, 
 The soul immortal, bright efflux divine, 
 The Fountain whence it emanates rejoins, 
 O er deatli triumphant, even so my song, 
 Now having traveled o er the things of life, 
 Would soar above them and commune with God, 
 Him. make the lofty subject of the verse. 
 
 heavenly Guide and Prompter of mankind, 
 That whisperest to the soul of things unseen, 
 Come, point the way, for here, alas ! I tread 
 On questionable ground, mid many doubts, 
 Where controversy endless stuns the sense, 
 And scarcely two, of all the men I meet, 
 Direct my anxious, wandering steps alike. 
 Amid such conflict, faith, bewildered, strays ; 
 I therefore turn to Thee, Guide divine, 
 Thee rather seek as in Thy works revealed !
 
 102 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 The heavens, the earth, and things of life reviewed, 
 Inevitably leads the mind to God. 
 The heavens proclaim infinity of space, 
 Earth tells of the immensity of time ; 
 In life we see intelligence displayed, 
 In all the symbols of His attributes 
 Who is Eternal, Boundless, Wise and Good. 
 "Who was, and is, and e er shall be the same. 
 
 But ere I pass to this exalted theme, 
 Here let me pause and, with reverted eye, 
 Briefly survey the path already passed : 
 Infer from facts, there seen, their ruling laws, 
 And view on these, as on a lucid screen, 
 The awful shade of Him who sits behind, 
 Enthroned in sempiternal majesty. 
 
 The threefold and mysterious thread of life, 
 That complicated tie and Gordiau knot 
 Whose hidden ends can never be revealed 
 To the gross sense of the material eye, 
 And only dimly to the eye of faith ; 
 That may be severed by the ruthless sword, 
 Alas ! too easily ; and severed once, 
 No alchemy can ere unite again ;
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 103 
 
 The tie that binds the body s cumbrous clay 
 
 To the ethereal essence from above, 
 
 With venturous hand I ve sought to explicate ; 
 
 Though hard the task, and many heretofore 
 
 Have failed therein, or satisfied but few. 
 
 This triple bond of life thus do I trace : 
 
 First matter organized the earth-born part 
 
 Eternal in its elements, although 
 
 In compound subject to unceasing change ; 
 
 For out of nothing, nothing can be made. 
 
 Then animation, or the function wrought 
 
 By vital structure in activity, 
 
 Excited by a class of agencies 
 
 That occupy a sort of middle ground, 
 
 Between the heavens above and earth beneath 
 
 Material tilings and essence spiritual 
 
 As heat and light and electricity. 
 
 Highest and last comes mind, the type of God ; 
 
 To which alone man owes his excellence 
 
 And station high among the things of earth. 
 
 The trinity of nature here we see 
 
 And incarnation of Divinity. 
 
 "When death untwines this vital bond triune, 
 
 The finer elements expand their wings, 
 
 And rise to mingle with their parent source,
 
 104 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 The grosser ones relapse to earth, to theirs ; 
 
 All seek the origin from which they sprang. 
 
 Thus is the mystery of life and death 
 
 Solved and elucidated by the light 
 
 Of Nature in her works made manifest : 
 
 The best foundation for the faith of man, 
 
 The only one deserving of his heed. 
 
 His cherished frame we see is part of earth ; 
 
 And though in attributes the chief of all 
 
 Its creatures, yet in substance but the same ; 
 
 And soon, his form decayed and pride laid low, 
 
 His dust shall be returned to dust, again 
 
 To enter into other living forms ; 
 
 Thus are we tied to everything that lives ; 
 
 Thus wedded to the future and the past. 
 
 But Pride, that sometimes prompts men to disown 
 
 The sacred ties of kindred and of race, 
 
 Here vauntingly steps in, and interdicts 
 
 The bans of this belief. She cannot bear 
 
 The thought of being clad in cast-off clothes, 
 
 Or sharing with the common herd in aught ; 
 
 But rather hugs the flattering hope that she 
 
 Is more important in the scale of life 
 
 Than anything besides to Him above, 
 
 Who is the common parent to the whole ;
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 105 
 
 And man, complacent, listens to her voice. 
 Poor dying mass of dust and vanity ! 
 Art tliou essential to the universe ? 
 Or needful more to Him who reigns supreme 
 Than is the humblest creature of His hand ? 
 True, tis thy happiness to hold a place 
 Among the very foremost ranks of life, 
 For which all gratitude and praise are due 
 But art thou therefore all and all to God ? 
 Or does He need thy service or thy praise ? 
 Thou and thy race extinct, He from the stones 
 Could raise up issue to obey His will, 
 Without an effort, or the heed of time. 
 Eternal and Almighty, not for Him 
 Exists or labor or the lapse of time 
 To Him past, present and to come are now. 
 Know well thyself, proud offspring of the dust, 
 Thy true condition see ; repent, and ask 
 For mercy and forgiveness of thy sins, 
 And try to mend ; for by humility 
 Must all be justified and not by pride : 
 We cannot mend unless we see our faults. 
 
 While all around we see the things of life, 
 The offspring of God s wide-extended love, 
 
 5*
 
 106 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 And man of all the family the chief, 
 
 Beneficently should we act to all, 
 
 As we beneficence expect of Him 
 
 Who with parental care all life sustains ; 
 
 And seeking first the welfare of our kind, 
 
 Some thought in kindness give to things beneath. 
 
 Here lies the true supremacy of man 
 
 Not harshly, as a tyrant, to preside, 
 
 But hold the reins of sovereignty in love. 
 
 All dangerous or noxious forms of life, 
 
 Things that contribute to supply his wants 
 
 Of food and clothing and what needful else, 
 
 He well may take, holding this rule in view, 
 
 No pang unnecessary to inflict. 
 
 Thus only we co-operate with God, 
 
 Thus imitate in some degree His love. 
 
 The universe and all that it contains 
 In everlasting love divine are wrapped ; 
 By this they are sustained and every part 
 Is filled with its ecstatic influence. 
 The stars in rapture sparkle, and the earth, 
 In sunshine revels in a sea of bliss. 
 Atom to kindred atom clings in love. 
 In love the ocean heaves its throbbing breast
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 107 
 
 And toys in wanton dalliance with the gale. 
 When gladdened by the genial showers of spring, 
 The teeming soil a tribute pays to love, 
 And hangs a grateful wreath on every bough. 
 The trees, though mute, proclaim its gentle sway, 
 As they with clasping roots embrace the ground, 
 Aloft extend their grateful arms in praise. 
 Kiss with their leafy lips the balmy dews, 
 And bathe enamored in the cheerful day. 
 All life is full of love : on every side 
 Wafted upon the breeze its sounds are borne ; 
 And habitants of all of nature s realms 
 Unite to swell the choral minstrelsy. 
 When sultry Sirius rules the glowing sky, 
 And welcome shades assuage the fervid noon, 
 Instinct with various life, on filmy wing 
 Upborne, the buzzing air is jubilant 
 With strains of this the universal hymn. 
 Forth form the confines of the reedy pool, 
 Where things amphibious congregate and find 
 The joys congenial to their two-fold state, 
 The notes in harmony discordant rise. 
 Such were the doubtful strains that bade awake 
 The sleeping echoes of the rocks and woods, 
 When first with palpitating breast the air
 
 108 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Bore to and fro the freight of vocal sound : 
 In such rude strains at first love found a voice ; 
 More musical its notes from yonder grove, 
 Where lonely Philomel her story tells 
 Of love betrayed and of man s perfidy, 
 And pours her sorrows in a flood of song, 
 So sweetly sad it touches every heart ; 
 While silent Nature, listening, lies entranced. 
 The loving arms of God surround the world 
 And shelter it from harm, as mother fond 
 Clings to her babe and folds it to her breast. 
 In brevity and truth, we sum up all 
 In this one sentence " God Himself is Love." 
 His love it is that sparkles in the stars, 
 Warms and illumines in the solar ray, 
 Binds kindred atoms in a magic chain, 
 Makes all- the universe replete with bliss, 
 And every heart inspires with ecstacy. 
 He is the Sentient Principle of all, 
 Of every bliss the Great Recipient He. 
 With soul of more capacity for love 
 Than all the various creatures of His hand, 
 Most godlike in this faculty supreme, 
 Shall man the gift abandon, and forget 
 His Maker and the end for which he s made ?
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 109 
 
 Be ever hateful such a base decline ! 
 Oh, cultivate the heart and let it grow 
 Till like the heart of God the utter bounds 
 Of its intelligence it whelms in love ! 
 Then shall we fill the measure of our souls 
 "With happiness divine ; and be as like 
 To Him as mortals to immortal can. 
 How can we come before His throne in prayer 
 For love and mercy, when we both deny 
 To those meek things subjected to our will ? 
 First deeds of mercy let us learn to do, 
 Then mercy we with reason may expect. 
 
 God s universal laws are love diffused, 
 Whose bonds ethereal in congenial bliss 
 Hold all united things ; though not for aye 
 The union lasts, naught earthly can ; for soon 
 Some new affection of divorcive power 
 Asserts its changeful sway and gives again 
 The sportive atoms to embraces fresh. 
 Newness and vigor ever thus prevail 
 Through all His works ; and thus His power and love 
 Unlimited and ceaseless prove to be. 
 
 In looking on the Mighty Architect
 
 110 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Of all the wonders that we see around, 
 
 As the Immortal, Universal Soul 
 
 And Wide Intelligence that all pervades, 
 
 And overrules with wise and perfect laws 
 
 That bear the impress of eternal love, 
 
 And know no change nor shadow of a change, 
 
 How vast, how infinitely grand He seems ! 
 
 The Cause of causes, Parent of all life, 
 
 Himself the Essence of His mighty works, 
 
 And Source Exhaustless whence eternally 
 
 Profuse they flow in ever-spreading streams 
 
 And forms of beauty ever fresh and new. 
 
 Alone Almighty and Eternal He ; 
 
 Worthy He only of all reverence 
 
 And adoration high of praise and prayer. 
 
 What adoration, service, intercourse, 
 We rightly owe, or hold with, this Eterne 
 And Omnipotent Essence, now invites 
 My venturous thoughts. Aid me, O Power Sublime ! 
 O vast Omniscience ! to see through the veil 
 That hides Thy light divine from mortal eyes. 
 One ray vouchsafe to lend, my steps to guide, 
 Unskilled to tread the labyrinthine maze : 
 That I the sacred theme may not profane :
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. m 
 
 May not with superstitious fears debase, 
 
 X or lightly with irreverence approach ! 
 
 And first a word upon the head of prayer. 
 
 If laws immutable o crrule the world, 
 
 It may be asked what man, what prayer can do. 
 
 This, though inefficacious held to be 
 
 By some ; by some again of might to stay 
 
 The sun and moon upon their daily march, 
 
 And move the rocks and mountains from, their beds, 
 
 How much, on either hand, misunderstood ! 
 
 Hath yet its mission true to fill ; and here, 
 
 As in most other things, truth lies 
 
 Between the two extremes, oft called the " golden 
 
 mean." 
 
 Though held within the grasp of general laws, 
 The world is not so closely bound in fate, 
 That nothing is there left for man to do, 
 Xothing to pray for, nothing to desire. 
 Although lie has not full control o er all 
 His actions and his feelings, yet he can 
 To some extent confine them both within 
 The bounds of moderation and of right. 
 For this is reason ; destiny the rest 
 With fixed, inevitable law directs, 
 And limits all to wise and perfect ends.
 
 112 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Truly tis said " there is a Providence 
 
 " That shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we may." 
 
 Prayer is instinctive to the human heart ; 
 Proceeding from a yearning of the soul 
 For what we feel, ourselves, we cannot reach ; 
 And placing in a higher power our trust, 
 We make propitiation for its aid. 
 The dumb creation that have not the gifts 
 Of reason and of speech, nor power of prayer, 
 God s guidance have instinctively, unknown. 
 The duckling from its oval prison-house 
 Just burst, and strange to all the outer world, 
 Heedless of warnings uttered by the hen, 
 Its foster-parent, who beholds with dread 
 Its seeming mad career, without a thought 
 Or doubt, commits its tender downy form 
 To the inviting bosom of the pond : 
 While standing by in passive unconcern, 
 Its comrade chicklings dare not brave the flood. 
 God s spirit comes to these unasked, unfelt, 
 And leads them in the path they ought to tread. 
 Man s angel is a higher one and comes 
 At his solicitation to his side. 
 The things that his best interests subserve
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 1] 
 
 And which arc sought for in sincerity, 
 
 With earnest wishes and attendant deeds, 
 
 In God s good time he surely shall obtain : 
 
 Ere the accomplishment of his designs 
 
 The will and action must prepare the way : 
 
 Prayer is an indication of the will, 
 
 And when sincere must lead us to attempt 
 
 Attainment of the object we desire, 
 
 And God helps those who try to help themselves. 
 
 When we in earnestness desire and pray 
 
 For His assistance to perform the part 
 
 That He appoints us in our lot in life, 
 
 We place ourselves in unity with Him 
 
 And happily fulfill what He ordains. 
 
 Tis not to be supposed that mortal prayers, 
 
 Mingled, confused and contradictory, 
 
 Sent up to heaven by the varied swarms 
 
 That hive and wrestle on this nether earth, 
 
 All goaded on by narrow selfishness, 
 
 Can move the Father of the universe, 
 
 Or alter in the least His wise decrees, 
 
 That more regard the welfare of the whole, 
 
 Than the vain wishes of one peevish child. 
 
 He needs no promptings from the voice of man 
 
 And not on Him can prayer exert its power :
 
 114 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Yet proper prayers have beneficial ends ; 
 But tis upon the human heart they act, 
 And tune it into harmony with God. 
 ; Tis not in attitude, nor tone of voice. 
 Nor customary phrase, that prayer consists ; 
 Within the breast alone its well-springs dwell, 
 And overflow in every thought and deed. 
 Amid the cares and troubles of the world, 
 When doubts and difficulties gather round, 
 Despair would oft-times whelm the fainting soul, 
 But for the soothing aid of prayer and faith, 
 Whose hopeful influence sustains the mind 
 Till victory at length rewards our toils. 
 We should repudiate all unworthy thoughts 
 As diligently as unworthy prayers ; 
 Both equally offend the Source of Grace. 
 
 Attracted as the needle to the pole, 
 The soul of man turns to its Origin 
 And yearns to be in intercourse with God. 
 This sentiment is inborn to the heart 
 And must be gratified ; hence, in some shape, 
 Which the heart harmonizes to itself, 
 Religion is a fixed necessity 
 And want of nature not to be denied.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. H5 
 
 But faint this feeling in the giddy heart 
 In early age, "when life is strong, and all 
 The blandishments of earth assert their sway ; 
 But as we grow in years, and nearer draws 
 The time when earthly ties must be dissolved, 
 The soul more earnestly aspires to heaven, 
 To which it seems to feel tis hastening on. 
 So the worn mariner, when homeward bound, 
 After long tossing on the stormy main, 
 Feels, as he nears the land, his soul possessed 
 With welcome thoughts of rest from all his toils. 
 So strong the innate longing of mankind 
 For faith of some kind to repose upon, 
 That it usurps the place of evidence, 
 And, for the most part, captive leads the mind. 
 Few creeds can stand investigation close ; 
 But all, to some extent at least, are right, 
 And haply all, to some extent, arc wrong. 
 This dim uncertainty of every creed, 
 And universal fallibility, 
 Plead forcibly for charity to all. 
 Thus by instinctive impulse we aspire 
 To reach the mystery of the Unknown ; 
 On this, as its foundation, faith is built. 
 The varied superstructures are upraised,
 
 116 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Partly by inference from things around, 
 
 For Reason whispers they must have a Cause, 
 
 The voice of Kature, there must be a God, 
 
 And partly by credulity and trust, 
 
 When weakness leans on others for support, 
 
 Too oft to be misled by Sophistry ; 
 
 And not alone to inferences drawn 
 
 From things around us are we left for proof 
 
 Of the existence of the Deity ; 
 
 A voice within conspires to tell the fact. 
 
 The conqueror on the car of Victory, 
 
 Resistless, over prostrate nations borne ; 
 
 He who in quiet occupies the seat 
 
 Of power his ancestors have handed down ; 
 
 He who procures his daily bread by toil, 
 
 Uncertain how to-morrow he may live ; 
 
 Rulers and ruled, rich, poor, all feel alike 
 
 Save when the grosser nature overshades 
 
 The spirit-light and casts it in eclipse 
 
 The hand of Providence in their career, 
 
 Aiding, supporting, guiding them through life. 
 
 Yarious men s minds, so various are their creeds 
 
 And in the measure of the intellect 
 
 Their faith assumes a high or lower grade. 
 
 We can no more encrraft a creed sublime
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. H7 
 
 Upon a groveling and degraded stock, 
 
 Than we can carry water in a sieve, 
 
 Or raise a goodly plant on barren soil, 
 
 Or do aught else opposed to nature s laws. 
 
 A mind debased corrupts the purest faith, 
 
 As unclean vessels spoil the purest wines. 
 
 What folly then to quarrel about creeds, 
 
 Or think to make all men believe alike. 
 
 To reap a goodly harvest of the mind, 
 
 A lesson we should take of husbandmen, 
 
 And till the soil before we sow the seed. 
 
 Some, whose uncultured minds can scarcely soar 
 
 To the sublime conception of a God 
 
 Who rules by laws immutable and makes, 
 
 All things subservient to His wise designs, 
 
 Behold a deity in every tree 
 
 And stream, and star, and them attempt to serve 
 
 By mummeries ridiculous and gross. 
 
 Poor things ! according to their narrow store 
 
 They give : and He who knows their poverty 
 
 Accepts the offered mite, nor looks for more. 
 
 For knowledge eager are they as the young 
 
 And callow nestlings are for nutriment ; 
 
 As trustful too ; without a doubt they gape 
 
 And swallow what they chance to get, unscanned,
 
 118 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE, 
 
 However crude and indigestible. 
 
 Their cry for bread is answered with a stone ; 
 
 And they, so limited their faculties, 
 
 Have hardly skill to tell the difference. 
 
 No ample page of knowledge ripe unfolds 
 
 Its rich, accumulated stores to them. 
 
 Forlorn they wander in the shades of night, 
 
 And grope their devious path as best they can, 
 
 By any avenue that they can find, 
 
 No matter how obscure and wrong it be. 
 
 Others, with thoughts indefinite and vague, 
 
 A shadow faint of the Eternal see 
 
 In uncouth idols whimsically made, 
 
 Expressive of His fancied attributes : 
 
 And worship them in reverence and awe, 
 
 With sacrifices and fantastic rites, 
 
 Burnt offerings, or those of food and wear, 
 
 Or votive gifts of tinsel ornaments : 
 
 For what they chiefly set their hearts upon, 
 
 They deem of the most value to their gods : 
 
 And some, more ostentatious in their views 
 
 And given to parade, seek to obtain 
 
 God s favor by observances and forms 
 
 Imposing made by pomp and pageantry ; 
 
 And some again their adoration keep
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. H9 
 
 Within their hearts, or utter it alone 
 To Him whose favor they desiro to gain. 
 However different their views of God, 
 All act upon one universal law 
 And try to follow out its high behests, 
 As nearly as their weakness will permit. 
 
 Though growing wiser, still mankind at large 
 Are hardly yet prepared to understand 
 A purely rational system of belief. 
 The love of idols, signs and miracles, 
 Yet nestles deeply in the public heart : 
 And men who think themselves too wise by far 
 To worship graven images, will yet 
 With fear and trembling to the dust bow down 
 Before their idol volumes that contain 
 The dreams and brain-sickness of other days, 
 And cry with awe-struck voice and downcast look, 
 " Lo ! here is God ; let reason s voice be mute, 
 " And let no prying, sacrilegious eye 
 " Presume His awful mysteries to scan ! " 
 In view of such a state of facts what right 
 Have these self-righteous Pharisees to say, 
 " Before the living God alone we bow. 
 " While the vile heathen worships wood and stone ! "
 
 120 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Do they not see the motes in other eyes, 
 Though blind to beams existing in their own ? 
 Although not yet, the time shall come when men 
 Shall worship God in spirit and in truth, 
 Whose temple is the heart, not made with hands 
 For He who is a spirit should be served 
 In spirit and in truth, and not in forms. 
 This is the universal creed that must, 
 Wherever reason rules the mind, prevail 
 And with the meek-eyed Virtues ministering, 
 Tis all that God requires, or man should ask. 
 It first was taught in ancient times by one 
 Too good for the dark age in which he lived ; 
 And therefore was he scorned and crucified. 
 Alas, that men should persecute their friends, 
 And treat those spitefully who would lay down 
 Their lives to mend and elevate the race ! 
 But ever thus it is ; who would subserve 
 The best and greatest interests of mankind, 
 Must be content to sacrifice themselves. 
 While Demogogue and Dives, who attain 
 Their selfish ends by fraud and artifice, 
 Are by the many praised and glorified, 
 Benevolus, who would reform the age 
 And raise up the down-trodden and oppressed,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 121 
 
 Is persecuted, hated, and despised ; 
 
 Although, perchance, when he is dead and gone, 
 
 Men see their error, and, to make amends, 
 
 From persecutors turn to worshippers ; 
 
 And he who yesterday was criminal, 
 
 To day becomes transmuted to a god. 
 
 This is exemplified in modern times 
 
 As plainly as it was in those remote : 
 
 Mankind is ever given to extremes. 
 
 A little while ago the time is fresh 
 
 Within the memory of most of us 
 
 Philanthropists who dared to raise a voice 
 
 In favor of a persecuted race 
 
 Condemned to pine in chains and slavery, 
 
 Were hooted as they walked the streets, and some 
 
 Were even murdered for no other cause 
 
 Than that they hated tyranny and wrong : 
 
 But see the change these last few years have 
 
 wrought 1 
 
 Those whom the many held in such distaste 
 Are now the chosen rulers of the land, 
 And bondage is itself rebuked and bound. 
 The bowed-down millions who were forced to drain 
 The bitter cup of hopeless servitude, 
 Now disenthralled, stand up erect as men, 
 6
 
 122 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 And hope, the choicest boon of heaven, is theirs. 
 In ceaseless whirls and eddies thus rolls on 
 The seething tide of the affairs of man, 
 And out of evil God produces good. 
 
 When dawning science first a doubtful light 
 Shed upon Reason s but half-open eyes, 
 The seeming mixture of both good and ill, 
 Found on the surface of affairs of earth, 
 Made men suppose the wisest of their day 
 That powers adverse held conflicting rule. 
 These the chief magian, Zoroaster, named 
 One of them Oromasdes, or the good, 
 The other Ariman, the evil one. 
 This faith the minds of more than half mankind 
 Still rules ; although in other terms disguised 
 Its votaries think that they, in this respect, 
 Are wiser than their prototypes of yore, 
 So easily are men beguiled by names. 
 These principles of good and evil now 
 By names of God and Devil we denote. 
 Beelzebub, Abaddon, Ariman, 
 Apollyon, Belial, Satan, Lucifer, 
 Or what besides we name the devil by 
 What matters it ? all signify the same. 
 Many now see beyond such shallow creeds
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. J23 
 
 And view these fabled monsters with contempt : 
 They therefore are arraigned as infidels 
 By those, more numerous, of easy faith. 
 The contest widens, and it must result 
 As contests ever do when mind with mind 
 Conflicts, as steel with steel ; or soon or late 
 The sparks of truth are sure to be struck out : 
 And Superstition, like the baleful wolf 
 That prowls in darkness round a sleeping fold, 
 Scared by the light, back to its kindred gloom 
 "Will slink away and vex the soul no more. 
 Truth must come out triumphant and proclaim 
 God rules the world with undivided sway, 
 Omnipotent, resistless and alone ; 
 And neither man nor fiend can in rebellion stand 
 Against His might, nor overturn His laws. 
 
 Heaven and hell are emblems of this world 
 Reflections of the heart s antitheses. 
 The former represents joy, love and peace, 
 The latter typifies pain, discord, hate : 
 And angels we of light or devils black 
 May be to one another in the flesh. 
 When hearts congenial to each other cleave, 
 And both in every throb responsive beat,
 
 124 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Each mutual joy is multiplied tenfold : 
 While sympathy with sweet assuasive balm, 
 Soothes every sorrow to a calm serene : 
 Scarce heaven itself can picture greater bliss : 
 But if in discord harsh, or mutual hate 
 They come together, ah ! what woes are theirs : 
 No further need we seek to find a hell. 
 
 Gold crowns and harps, white robes and jewels 
 
 rare, 
 
 Streets paved with gold and houses built of gems, 
 Music and song, wine, women, luxury, 
 And sensual pleasures ceaseless such as these, 
 Are the devices heaven is decked withal 
 To lure the base cupidity of man, 
 And build on it and ignorance his faith : 
 And on the other hand eternal pain, 
 With lakes of burning brimstone, hideous fiends, 
 And so forth, are creations of the mind 
 To furnish fittingly the dread abode . 
 Of anguish tribulation and despair, 
 Invented to control the ignorant 
 And frighten back again those half-way souls 
 Who cannot close the avenue of doubt, 
 Yet fear to exercise the right of thought.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 125 
 
 Are such things suited to a spirit realm? 
 
 Or are they creeds to snarl and fight about 
 
 In this enlightened century and land 
 
 Boasting the rule of intellect alone ? 
 
 Look on the scene and blush, O age refined ! 
 
 Look back too over scenes of blood and tears, 
 
 Of fiery persecution and of hate, 
 
 Of kingdoms desolate and cities burned, 
 
 Of slaughter sparing neither age nor sex, 
 
 And of the world-wide multitude of wrongs 
 
 Committed by the hand of tyranny, 
 
 To force belief in these absurdities 
 
 And satisfy the bigotry of man ! 
 
 Behold the furious zealot in his rage 
 
 Death and destruction deal profusely round, 
 
 In hopes to merit heaven when he dies, 
 
 By making earth the ante-room of hell, 
 
 Replete with hatred, discord, pain and dread ! 
 
 Look back and blush at what mankind has done ; 
 
 Blush arid determine to offend no more. 
 
 No more let Faith, whose raiment should be pure 
 
 And white as robes of virgin innocence, 
 
 Be made blood-red by violence and strife ! 
 
 Hence gory monster and usurping fiend, 
 
 Black Bigotry, of hell and darkness born,
 
 126 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Back to your home obscure ; day dawns and light ; 
 Is fatal to such specters of the night ! 
 
 But, it is said, these visionary charms 
 With which the kingdom of the blest is decked, 
 Incentives are to virtue and to faith : 
 And that the pictured terrors of that place 
 Where unrepentant sinners are consigned, 
 In punishment for errors and for doubts, 
 Are necessary checks to keep the world 
 From rushing headlong into vice and crime, 
 And that they have a wholesome influence. 
 This hackneyed argument of " good intent " 
 Has ever been the sanctuary of wrong 
 And ready refuge of its advocates. 
 Ah, yet how long shall error rule the world ! 
 How long before mankind shall be convinced 
 That lasting good from falsehood cannot spring ! 
 All artifices to disguise the truth, 
 Though they may dim the vision for awhile, 
 Transparent grow by age and profitless. 
 No matter whence they come, from tripod, shrine, 
 Or holy altar, all at length must fade 
 And bring their vaunted origins to shame. 
 The scales are falling off from countless eyes,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 127 
 
 And pious frauds no more, nor mystic creeds, 
 As toys that serve to still a fretful child, 
 Can pacify their yearning after light. 
 What men seek after is reality ; 
 They scorn to be contemptuously beguiled, 
 However much it may advantage them ; 
 And when they have detected artifice 
 In any form of faith, or sophistry, 
 However excellent some parts may be, 
 They turn displeased away and all suspect 
 As fabricated only to deceive. 
 
 " A tree is judged of by its fruit alone. 
 " Men are not wont to gather grapes from thorns ; 
 " Neither from thistles do they look for figs ; 
 " A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit," 
 Tried by this holy text, are all the fruits 
 This tree of supernatural horrors bears 
 As excellent as they are vouched to be ? 
 Hark to the clank of chains, the maniac shrieks, 
 That come from yon receptacle of woe, 
 Where wildered wretches pine, at once bereft 
 Of reason s stamp divine and liberty ; 
 And fallen human nature may be seen 
 Sunk down beneath the level of the brute !
 
 128 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Or him behold, by wrathful Furies driven, 
 
 Avengers of the violated ritos 
 
 And desecrated shrines of jealous gods, 
 
 Arm his own hand against his hated life, 
 
 To him e en worse than that he dreads to come, 
 
 Thronged through it be with torments and with 
 
 fiends, 
 
 And cut at once the thread of life and doubt, 
 In haste insane to meet the fate he dreads ; 
 Then seek how such events are brought about ! 
 Such poisons can a goodly tree bring forth ? 
 Or rather are they not the growth alone 
 Of some infectious upas of the mind 
 That taints the moral atmosphere with death ? 
 Whate er this tree may be, or good or bad, 
 Twill profit us at least to learn the facts. 
 Experience, let thy lips the tale relate, 
 From favor and ill-will alike exempt ! 
 The baleful origin, thou tellest us, 
 Of such dire woes may oftentimes be found 
 In those vain terrors of a world to come, 
 With which some over-zealous shepherds strive 
 To fright their simple, easy-minded flocks 
 Into the paths they think they ought to tread. 
 The mark o ershot, Reason vacates her throne
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 129 
 
 And flics from horrors that she cannot bear. 
 
 Such, gentle Perdita, thy piteous fate ! 
 
 Of disposition keenly sensitive 
 
 And much to serious meditation prone, 
 
 When taught to view the gaieties of youth 
 
 And innocent amusements of the ago 
 
 As hateful to the Giver of all joy, 
 
 And warned to tremble at " the wrath to come/ 
 
 At first thy unsuspicious heart was grieved, 
 
 And pined for want of more congenial food 
 
 Than sadness now and thoughts of future woe ; 
 
 Then, weary of the load, gave back to God 
 
 Its guileless spirit that instead of peace, 
 
 Found naught but tribulation and despair. 
 
 The end perceived, to which it sometimes leads, 
 
 This " wholesome influence " they may vaunt who 
 
 like ; 
 
 For me, I glory in the liberty 
 In which, thanks be to God, my soul is free. 
 
 " In likeness of his Maker man is made " 
 Of some allowance this may well admit 
 And man the great example imitates 
 When he becomes the maker of his gods ; 
 The image of himself he then adores. 
 6*
 
 130 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 In Fancy s glass he views his inmost soul 
 Reflected dimly and he knows it not : 
 But, as it is congenial to his tastes, 
 Concludes that it must surely be divine 
 And bows to the reflection of himself. 
 So it is said, while bending o er a stream, 
 Narcissus saw his form depicted there ; 
 And taking it to be a thing of life, 
 Became enamored of the pleasing shade. 
 Tis soothing to men s vanity to clothe 
 The Godhead in their darling weaknesses : 
 Hence come their different ideas of Him. 
 "With some He is revengeful and morose, 
 With others sweet, benevolent and kind, 
 As they themselves this way or that incline. 
 In early times, ere the ferocity 
 That on man s lapse from pristine innocence 
 And nature s simple ways soon supervened, 
 By laws and precepts ethical was tamed, 
 Rapine on high unfurled his crimson flag 
 "Where now the teachings of the cross prevail ; 
 A god of battles was the Lord Supreme, 
 And paradise itself a place where men 
 Drank wine from skulls of slaughtered enemies : 
 But times are changed and with them men aro 
 changed :
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 131 
 
 And paradise is now supposed to be 
 A place of peace and everlasting love. 
 This tells the progress of the human mind. 
 
 Albeit tinctured by the looking-glass 
 In which men think they see God s form portrayed, 
 All faith is prompted in the first by Him ; 
 An inspiration that is given to all. 
 Compassionate, the Comforter He sends 
 To whisper peace to every troubled soul, 
 Of whatsoever creed or race it be. 
 The Universal Parent He ; alike 
 For all He cares, on all His love descends, 
 Like dews of heaven upon the thirsty earth, 
 Diffusing life and health and joy around. 
 Shall man, by narrow bigotry inspired, 
 Or led by ignorance, or lust of power, 
 Presume to launch His thunders and condemn 
 To tortures in this world and cruel deaths, 
 And in the world to coine to endless woe, 
 Whom He endures nor visits with rebuke ? 
 Peace, peace, for shame, pretended ministers 
 Of His unfathomable, boundless love ! 
 Why should ye thus pervert His truth benign ? 
 Ye know Him not, neither His laws ye know ;
 
 132 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 For pardon of your error this your plea. 
 
 Consult His acts if Him ye would unfold ; 
 
 In these alone He stands revealed ; nor look 
 
 To see His light divine effulgent beam 
 
 Forth in the legends of barbaric times 
 
 And nations steeped in ignorance and vice . 
 
 His presence only can His power display : 
 
 He comes, and lo ! the earth is filled with light. 
 
 He speaks, tis universal harmony ! 
 
 Let all attentive listen, see and learn, 
 
 And let each harsh discordant voice be still. 
 
 Parent of all and Universal Soul, 
 To thee alone I bow the suppliant knee, 
 In reverence profound and heartfelt love I 
 Save Nature only, no high priest hast Thou. 
 To all of mental vision unobscured, 
 Sufficient she to teach thy simple faith. 
 All mortals boastful, who pretend to bind 
 By Thy decrees and fulminate Thy word, 
 Are dupes perhaps, or haply something worse. 
 Tis well that to the weak or wicked hands 
 Of man Thou dost not delegate Thy power : 
 "Well has he shown the use he d put it to. 
 Had he the right conferred to bless and ban,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE 133 
 
 And bid the elements obey his will, 
 
 The genial sun no more on all would shine, 
 
 Nor fertilizing dews and showers descend 
 
 Impartially the earth to renovate. 
 
 Nature would hide her face beneath a cowl, 
 
 And never smile, or smile alone on slaves 
 
 Who bent the supple knee to tyranny. 
 
 Her favors would be partially bestowed, 
 
 Her punishments be scattered broadcast round. 
 
 The lightning s scathing flash, the earthquake s shock, 
 
 Tornado s breath, and blight of pestilence, 
 
 In petty bickerings and strife of creeds 
 
 Would daily do their devastating work, 
 
 Till earth one wide Sahara would be made, 
 
 And mankind dwindled to a horde of serfs. 
 
 In mercy to the world Thou dost retain 
 
 The reins of government within Thy hands 
 
 Omnipotent, above all mortal aid. 
 
 No hierarchy pompous dost Thou need, 
 
 No sacrifices but a contrite heart, 
 
 No senseless ceremonies lengthened out, 
 
 Xo arbitrary rites, nor feasts, nor fasts. 
 
 All these thou art above ; and they but serve 
 
 To dim Thy light and lead astray the mind. 
 
 No mortal hands can raise an edifice
 
 134 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Of size and splendor suitable to be 
 
 Thy throne and dwelling place ; yet such thou hast. 
 
 Its roof, its walls, its floor and lengthened aisles 
 
 Are star-gemmed space indefinite and vast : 
 
 And the immeasurable azure vault 
 
 We see above the clouds is but a part 
 
 Minute of its extent beyond our view. 
 
 Such is Thy temple, where eternally 
 
 Thy creatures sing Thy praises and Thy love. 
 
 The brightness of Thy glory fills the whole ; 
 
 And all the burning spheres that gyrate there 
 
 In mighty circles, mingled yet distinct, 
 
 And ne er in conflict nor disorder thrown 
 
 The wondrous clock-work of Thy hand that marks 
 
 The days and seasons of eternity 
 
 With one consent in perfect concord join 
 
 To swell the harmony that all pervades. 
 
 They and the voices of all life combine 
 
 To chant the anthem of the universe, 
 
 Hosanna in the highest, to Thy praise. 
 
 Be it mine to join this universal choir, 
 
 And pay to Thee the homage of the heart, 
 
 In unison with nature and Thy laws, 
 
 Heedless of creeds that stand opposed to these.
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 135 
 
 S \vcet and refreshing to the weary soul 
 It is to place our confidence in Thee : 
 Our load of sorrow at Thy feet to lay, 
 And ask Thy light divine our steps to guide. 
 Thee let me now, with reverence and love, 
 Approach in meditation, praise and prayer. 
 
 THE PRAYER. 
 
 Withdraw awhile my soul from worldly cares, 
 And bow before the throne of the Most High ! 
 The great prerogative of man enjoy 
 Of holding with thy Maker intercourse, 
 Of meditating on His power and love, 
 And lifting up the heart in praise and prayer : 
 And Thou, Power Divine, assist my thoughts 
 To rise above the meaner things of earth 
 And come before Thy presence worthily ! 
 Give me to know Thy laws and attributes, 
 And the allegiance that man holds to Thee ; 
 That I my love acceptably may show, 
 Not only in my words but in my deeds ! 
 
 Omnipotent and Omnipresent Thou, 
 Of grandeur past conception, Infinite,
 
 136 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Unchangeable, Eternal and Alone : 
 Of all things the Beginning and the End : 
 The Fount and Essence of intelligence, 
 The Lord and Ruler of the universe, 
 And Judge both just and merciful of all ! 
 
 Though chief of all Thy creatures, yet is man 
 
 Most prone to physical and moral ills : 
 
 Partly the price of his pre-eminence, 
 
 But more the penalty for having left 
 
 The paths of nature and simplicity, 
 
 Where health and innocence are ever found, 
 
 For devious ways of luxury and art, 
 
 That lead to care, crime, suffering and death. 
 
 From infancy to age our wandering feet 
 
 Stray blindly in the labyrinth of life, 
 
 Amid temptations and infirmities : 
 
 But yet not undirected do we roam ; 
 
 For Thou presidest over all, supreme, 
 
 Though unperceived, save in Thy changeless laws, 
 
 Whose kindly chastisements are meted out 
 
 To each in just proportion to his sins 1 
 
 Thou wilt recall us when we wander off, 
 
 And prove a refuge when we turn to Thee ! 
 
 Oh, may we not refuse to hear Thy voice,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 137 
 
 Nor call destruction down upon our heads 
 By heedlessly transgressing Thy commands : 
 But rather learn to read and profit by 
 The useful lesson set in every ill ! 
 
 When I behold with retrospective eye, 
 Lit by the beacons of experience past, 
 The dream-like waste of time all strewed around 
 With snares and pitfalls that I ve journeyed o er, 
 Wayward and darkling, yet preserved through all, 
 Designs of enemies, mistakes of friends, 
 And more than all, saved even from myself 
 By Thy almighty and supporting arm, 
 My heart with gratitude and praise o erflows, 
 For Thy abundant watchfulness and love ! 
 Father Supreme, receive my heartfelt thanks 
 For Thy sustaining care ! Protect me still, 
 For still I need Thy providential aid ! 
 Sinful and weak, before Thee I approach 
 With wants and imperfections numberless. 
 Be Thou my strength, Lord, and comforter ! 
 Into my heart Thy Holy Spirit pour, 
 The Source of wisdom and of every bliss ! 
 Then shall I falter not, nor go astray, 
 Nor at Thy dispensations just repine,
 
 138 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Though they incomprehensible may be 
 
 To minds inclouded with the mists of earth ! 
 
 Life at the best is but a mingled scene, 
 Where joy and grief by turns divide the hour, 
 And then the curtain falls and all is still. 
 Mysterious shroud ! what eye can penetrate 
 Its gloomy folds and see what lies beyond ? 
 But Thine alone, Eternal God ! Enough 
 For us to know we live and die in Thee. 
 With proofs around, so ample, of Thy love, 
 Why should we fear to sleep within Thy arms ? 
 Xow and forever may we trust in Thee, 
 Whose eyes are never sealed in sleep, but keep 
 Eternal vigils over all thy works ! 
 
 Father ! I now in lowliness of heart 
 Implore Thy grace that I may well perform 
 Whatever part in life Thou mayest ordain ! 
 Thy perfect wisdom knoweth what to grant, 
 Better than we, short sighted, what to ask ; 
 To Thy disposal I submit myself, 
 Convinced that Thou dost all things for the best ; 
 The parent Thou, I but a feeble child : 
 Oh, grant me strength that I may keep Thy laws,
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 139 
 
 Or when I in my -weakness go astray, 
 With kindly warnings call me back again, 
 Before I wholly lose the way ordained 
 By Thee to be the path of happiness ! 
 Uphold me by Thy hand and to the last 
 Securely guide me through life s stormy sea, 
 And Thine the glory, Thine the praise shall be ! 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 My artless lay is sung. Unskilled to touch 
 The Muse s well tuned lyre, and critic ears 
 Fastidious please with polished melody, 
 I yet have rashly dared, untaught, to try 
 "With Nature s shell symphonious to amuse 
 And cheer my solitude, and wake, perhaps, 
 Responsive chords in hearts that yet can feel 
 The genial influence of its simple notes. 
 Should any deem that I with step profane 
 Have trespassed on forbidden, sacred ground, 
 Where no unconsecratcd foot should roam, 
 I say tis man s prerogative to tread 
 The paths of nature, wheresoe cr they lead 
 Though they should scale the topmost height of 
 heaven,
 
 140 FOOTPRINTS OF LIFE. 
 
 Up to the sanctum of the Infinite. 
 
 Or should they deem that I would loose the bonds 
 
 That bind mankind to God, they mch mistake 
 
 My purport ; for I would by reason s aid 
 
 Cement and fix them indissolvably : 
 
 And to those whom no other creed may suit, 
 
 I offer what may haply better fit 
 
 The tone and mood peculiar of their minds. 
 
 Tis not religion that I would oppose : 
 
 But bigotry, intolerance, and wrong. 
 
 Fain would I see thee burst all slavish bonds, 
 
 Forsake thy narrow, much-trod, mill-horse rounds, 
 
 hood-winked Piety ! and freely walk 
 
 "With Truth and Mature in the ways of Faith. 
 
 What though within one little span of life 
 
 The world at large can hardly be reformed ; 
 
 The needful change at least we can assist. 
 
 My quota of the work would I perform : 
 
 A seed upon the teeming soil of time 
 
 "Would cast, and haply after many days 
 
 It may bring forth increase a thousand fold.
 
 Sent prepaid by first post at prices annexed. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 SAMUEL R, WELLS, No, 389 BROADWAY, 
 
 The following List embraces most of our Books, save private Medical Works con- 
 t lined in our "SPECIAL LIST," and those on PHONOGRAPHY, which are given in 
 separate Catalogues. For full Titles see Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue, which 
 may be had gratuitously on application, personally or by letter, inclosing stamp. 
 
 WOEKS ON PHEBH0L00Y. 
 
 I Annual of Phrenology and Physi 
 ognomy for 1808. By S. It. Wells.. 25c. 
 
 Annuals for 1865-6-7 and 1868, 
 
 in one volume, of over 20i) pages, with 
 200 illustrative engravings.. GOc. 
 
 American Phrenological Journal. 
 
 A handsomely illustrated monthly. 
 Edited by j*. It. Wells, a year $3 00 
 
 Combe s Lectures on Phrenology. 
 A complete course. In muslin. ..$1 75 
 
 Combe s Moral Philosophy ; or, the 
 duties of Man. New Ed., revised and 
 enlarged. By Geo. Combe $1 75 
 
 Chart for Recording- various De 
 velopments. A Synopsis Designed for 
 Phrenologists. . . " 10c. 
 
 Constitution of Man. By Geo. Combe. 
 Authorized Ed. Illustrations $1 75 
 
 Complete Works of Dr. Gall on 
 
 Phrenology. 6 vols (very scarce) net $15 
 
 Defence of Phrenology; Arguments 
 and Testimony. By Boardman . . . $1 50 
 
 Domestic Life, Thoughts on, its 
 Concord and Discord. By N. Sizer, 25c. 
 
 Education Complete. Embracing Phy 
 siology. Animal and Mental, Self-Cul 
 ture, and Memory ; one vol $4 00 
 
 Education, founded on the Nature 
 of Man. By Dr. Spurzheim $1 50 
 
 Illustrated Chart of Physiognomy, 
 in map form for framing 25c. 
 
 Matrimony ; or, Phrenology and Physi- 
 ologv applied to the Selection of Con 
 jugal Companions for Life 50c. 
 
 Memory and Intellectual Improve 
 ment; applied to S. lf-Educatkm..fl 50 
 
 Mental Science, Lectures on, accord 
 ing to the Philosophy of Phrenology. 
 By Rev. G. S. Weaver. Muelin...$l 50 
 
 New Physiognomy; or, Signs of 
 
 Character As manifested through Tem 
 perament and External Forms, and 
 especially in the Human Face Divine, 
 with more than 1,000 illustrations. By 
 S. R. Wells, Editor Phrenological Jour 
 nal. In one large volume, handsomely 
 
 hound. In muslin $ 5 00 
 
 Heavy calf, with marbled edges.. 8 00 
 Turkey morocco, full guilt 10 GO 
 
 The Treatise of MB. WELLS, which IB ad 
 mirably printed, and profusely illustrated, 
 is probably the most complete Hand-book 
 upon the subject. JV. Y. Tribune, 
 
 Phrenology Proved, Illustrated and 
 Applied. Thirty-seventh edition. A 
 standard work on the Science $1 75 
 
 Phrenology and the Scriptures. 
 Their Harmony. By Rev. John Pier- 
 pont 25c. 
 
 Phrenological Guide. Designed for 
 the use of Students 25c 
 
 Phrenological Bust, Designed especi 
 ally for Learners, showing the exact 
 location of the Organs of the Brain 
 fully developed. Price, including box 
 for packing (not mailable,) $1 75 
 
 Phrenological Specimens for Socie 
 ties and Private Cabinets, 40 cents, net, 
 (not mailable) $30 00 
 
 Self-Culture and Perfection of Char 
 acter. Muslin $1 50 
 
 Self-Instructor in Phrenology and 
 
 Physiology. Illustrated with one hund 
 red engravings. Paper 50c. 
 
 The same in mnslin 7{ic.
 
 Philosophy of Sacred History, con 
 sidered in relation to Human Aliment 
 and the Wines of Scripture. By Syl 
 vester Graham 3 50 
 
 Physiology, Animal and Mental, 
 applied to Health of Body and Power 
 of Mind. Illustrated. Muslin 1 50 
 
 The Story of a Stomach : an Egotism. 
 By a Keformed Dyspeptic 75c. 
 
 Sober and Temperate Life, with Notes 
 and Illustrations by Louis Cornaro, 50c. 
 
 Tea and Coffee, their Physical, Intellec 
 tual, and Moral effects. Alcott 25c. 
 
 The Science of Human Life. BT Syl 
 vester Graham, M.D. With a Biogra 
 phical Sketch of me Author, 8 50 
 
 Teeth, their Structure, Diseases and Man 
 agement, with Engravings 25c. 
 
 Special List. We hare, in addition to 
 the above. Private Medical Works and 
 Treatises on subjects which, though not 
 adapted to general circulation, are In 
 valuable to those who need them. This 
 Special List will be pent on prc-pnid 
 application, or receipt of stamp. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 .ZEsop s Fables. People s Pictorial Edi 
 tion, beautifully illustrated 1 00 
 
 Aims and Aids for G-irls and Young: 
 Women. By Rev. G. S. Weaver. ..1 25 
 
 Chemistry, applied to Physiology, Agri 
 culture and Commerce. By Liebig, 50c. 
 
 Footprints of Life; or, Faith and Na 
 ture reconciled. A Poem in three parts. 
 By Philip Harvey. M.D. Part 1st The 
 Body. Part 2d The Soul. Part 3d 
 The Deity. Something new 1 25 
 
 Fruit Culture for the Million; or. 
 Hand-Book for the Cultivation and 
 Management of Fruit Trees. Illustrat- 
 rated with Ninety Engravings. By 
 Thomas Gregg. Muslin 100 
 
 Gospel Among the Animals ; or, 
 Christ with the Cattle. By Rev. Samuel 
 Osgood. D.D 25c. 
 
 Human Rights, and their Political 
 Guaranties. By Judge Hurlbut, . . .1 50 
 
 Home for All. The Gravel Wall, a 
 New, Cheap, and Superior Mode of 
 Building. With Engravings 1 50 
 
 Hopes and Helps for the Young 
 of both Sexes. By Rev. G. S. Weaver. 
 An excellent work. Muslin 1 50 
 
 Life in the West; or, Stories of the 
 Mississippi Valley. By N. C. Meeker, 
 of the New York" Tribune 2 00 
 
 Notes on Beauty, Vigor and Devel 
 opment. Illustrated 12c. 
 
 Oratory, Sacred and Secular : or. 
 
 The Extemporaneous Speaker. With 
 Sketches of the most Eminent Speakers 
 of all Ages. By William Pittenger, 
 Author of " Daring and Suffering. In 
 troduction by Hon. John A. Bingham, 
 and Appendix, containing a "Chair 
 man s Guide" for Conducting Public 
 Meetings according to the best Par 
 liamentary Models. Tinted paper.. 1 50 
 
 Movement-Cure. Embracing the His 
 tory and Philosophy of this System of 
 Medical Treatment. Illustrated. By 
 G. H. Taylor, M.D 1 75 
 
 Pope s Essay on Man. With Phreno 
 logical Notes by S. R. Wells. Beauti 
 fully illustated. Gilt, bev. boards.. 1 00 
 
 Prevention and Cure of Consump 
 tion by the Swedish-Movement Cure. 
 With Directions for its Home Applica 
 tion. By David Wark, M.D 30c. 
 
 Saving- and Wasting; or. Domestic 
 Economy. 111. By Solon Robinson 1 50 
 
 Temperance in Congress. Speeches 
 delivered in the House of Representa 
 tives on the occasion of the First Meet 
 ing of the Congressional Temperance 
 Society. 1 small 12m volume 25c. 
 
 The Christian Household. Embrac 
 ing the Christian Home Husband. 
 Wife, Father, Mother, Child, Brother 
 and Sister. By Rev. G. S. Weaver 1 00 
 
 The Education of the Heart; or, 
 The Necessity of Proper Moral Culture 
 for Human Happiness. An Address re 
 cently delivered at the Commencement 
 Exercises of the Aurora (111.) Seminary. 
 By Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of 
 the House of Representives lOc. 
 
 The Good Man s Legacy. A Sermon 
 by Rev. Samuel Osgood, D.D 25c. 
 
 The Right Word in the Right Place. 
 A Pocket Dictionary of Synonyms, 
 Technical Terms, Abreviations, "For 
 eign Phrases, etc. 75c. 
 
 Ways of Life. The Right Way and the 
 Wrong Way. By Rev. G. S. Weaver. 
 A capital Work. Muslin 1 00 
 
 Weaver s Works for the Young. 
 Comprising " Hopes and Helps," "Aims 
 and Aids, F and " Ways of Life," . . .3 00 
 
 Agents, Booksellers, and others, would do well to engage in the sale of these Works, 
 in every State, County, Town, and Village throughout the country. They are not kept 
 by Booksellers generally. The market is not supplied, and thousands miyht be sold 
 where they have never yet been Introduced. For Wholesale Terms, and " Special List," 
 please address, SAMUEL R. WELLS, 389 Broadway, New York, U. S. A.
 
 HTBROPATHYj OB, WATER CURE. 
 
 i Children, their Hydropathic Management 
 in Health and Disease. Dr. Sue\v..l 75 
 
 Consumption, its Causes, Prevention, 
 and Cure. By Dr. Shew. Mus!in..l 50 
 
 Cook Book. Hydropathic. With Nw 
 Recipes. Illustrated. By Dr. Trail, 1 50 
 
 Diseases of the Throat and L,ting-s, 
 including Diphtheria. By Dr. Trail, 2oc. 
 
 Domestic Practice of Hydropathy, 
 
 with 15 illustrations of important sub- 
 jects. By E. Johnson, M.I) 2 00 
 
 Family Physician, Hydropathic. 
 By Dr. Shew, a large and valuable 
 work for Home or Domestic Practice. 
 Profusely illustrated 4 00 
 
 Hydropathy for the People. _ With 
 observations on Drills, Diet, Air, and 
 Exercises. Notes by Dr. Trail 1 50 
 
 Midwifery and the Diseases of Wo 
 men. A practical work. Shew ...1 75 
 
 ! Philosophy of Water-Cure. By J. 
 Balbirnie, M.D. For beginners 50c. 
 
 Practice of Water -Cure. By Drs. 
 Wilson and Gully 50c. 
 
 Water-Cure Manual. A Popular work 
 on Hydropathy. Muslin 1 50 
 
 Hydropathic Encyclopedia : illust 
 rated. A Complete System of Hydro 
 pathy and Hygiene, embracing Anato 
 my, illustrated; Physiology of the Hu 
 man Body ; Hygienic Agencies, and tho 
 Preservation of Health ; Dietetics and 
 Cookery : Theory and Practice of Treat 
 ment ; Special Pathology and Hydro- 
 Therapeutics, including the Nature, 
 Causes, Symptoms, and Tre.atmen . of 
 all known Diseases ; Application to 
 Surgical Diseases and to Hydropathy, 
 to Midwifery and the Nursery. With 
 Three Hundred Engravings, and nearly 
 One Thousand Pages, including a Glos 
 sary, Table of Contents, and Index, 
 complete. By R. T. Trail, M.D ... .4 50 
 Of all the numerous publications which 
 have attained such a wide popularity, as 
 issued by this House, perhaps none are 
 more adapted to general utility than this 
 rich, comprehensive, and well-arranged 
 Encyclopedia. JV. Y. Tribune. 
 
 Water-Cure in Chronic Diseases ; 
 an exposition of the Causes, Progress. 
 and Termination of Various Chronic 
 Diseases. By Dr. J. M. Gully. An im 
 portant work 2 00 
 
 Water and Vegetable Diet in Scro 
 fula. Cancer, Asthma, etc. By Dr. 
 Lamb. Notes by Dr. Shew 1 50 
 
 WORKS OH PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 Alcoholic Controversy. A Review of 
 
 the Westminster lienew on the Physio- 
 
 i logical Errors of Teetotalism 50c. 
 
 Anatomical and Physiolog-ical 
 
 Plates. These Plates were arranged 
 expressly for Lecturers on Health, 
 Physiology, etc. By K. T. Trail, M.D., 
 of the New York Hydropathic College. 
 They are six in number, representing the 
 normal position and life-size of all the 
 internal viscera, magnified illustrations 
 of the organs of the "special senses, and 
 a view of the principal nerves, arteries, 
 vein*, muscles, etc. For popular in 
 struction, for families, schools, and pro 
 fessional reference, they will be found 
 far superior to anything of the kind 
 heretofore published, us they are more 
 complete and perfect in artistic design 
 and linish. Price for the set, fully col 
 ored, backed and mounted on rollers. 
 By express (not mailablc) 20 00 
 
 Combe s Physiology, applied (o the 
 Improvement of Mental and Physical 
 Education. Notes. Illustrated. ..1 75 
 
 Digestion. Philosophy of. The Prin 
 ciples of Dietetica. By Dr. Combe, 50c. 
 
 Family Gymnasium. With numerous 
 illustrations ; containing the most im 
 portant method of applying Gymnastic. 
 C alisthenic, Kinesipathic, and Vocal 
 exercises to the development of the 
 bodily organs, the invigoration of their 
 functions, the preservation of health, 
 and cure of diseases and deformities. 
 By R. T. Trail, M.D 1 75 
 
 Family Dentist, A Popular Treatise on 
 the Teeth. ByD. C. Warner, M.D. , 1 50 
 
 Food and Diet, containing an Analysis 
 of every kind of Food and Drink. By 
 Dr. J. Pereira. Edited by Dr. Lee, 1 75 
 
 Fruits and Farinaeea the Proper 
 Food of Man. With Notes and en- 
 ETraved illustrations. By R. T. Trail. 
 M.D. Muslin 175 
 
 Hereditary Descent, Its Laws and 
 Facts applipd to Improvement, 1 50 
 
 Infancy; or, the Physiological and Moral 
 Management of Children. Illustrated. 
 By Dr. Combe. Muslin 150 
 
 Natural Laws of Man. By Dr. Spurz 
 heim. A capital work 75c
 
 LIFE ILLUSTRATED 
 
 DEVOTED TO 
 
 Ethnology, Physiology, Phrenology, 
 Psychology, Sociology, Education, Art, 
 Literature, with measures to Reform, 
 Elevate and Improve Mankind Physi 
 cally, Mentally and Spiritually. 
 
 5. IFL. ^7VH!T_iJljS, Editor. 
 
 The Study and Improve 
 ment of Man in all tus. Relations is our object. 
 
 The Natnral II Istory of IUan 
 
 including the Manners. Custom* Religions 
 and Modes of Life in djtlrrcm Families, 
 Tribes and Nations will be eiven. 
 
 Physiology, the Laws of Life 
 and Health, including Dietetics, Eierrixe, 
 Sleep, Study, Bodily Growth, etc., will be 
 presented on strictly Hygienic principles. 
 
 Phrenology. The Brain and its 
 Functions, the Temperaments, Local; 
 the Organs, Choice ol Pursuits, etc.. gr 
 
 Physiognomy; or, "The Human 
 
 Face Divine," with " Signs of Character, and 
 How to Read Them" ncienlifically. 
 
 The Human Soul Pychol> 
 
 py. Its Nature, Office nml Condition in l.ifx 
 and Dea.h; Man Spiritual State in tlie )lre 
 and in the Hereafter Very interacting 
 
 Biography. In connection with, 
 Portraits and Practical Delineations of Char 
 acter of our most distinguished men. 
 
 marriage forms a part of the life of 
 
 every well organized human being. The ele 
 ment* of love are inborn. The objects oi 
 ML. rv age stated. All young people require 
 instruction at d direction in the selection of 
 suitable life-companions. Phrenology throw* 
 light on the subject. Let us consult it. 
 
 The Choice of Pursuit*. 
 
 How to select a pursuit to which a person is 
 best adapted ; Law, Medicine Divinity, In 
 vention ; Mechanics; Agriculture; Manu 
 facturing ; Commerce, etc. " Let u put the 
 right man in tin right place." 
 Miscellaneous. Churches, 
 
 Schools, Prisons, Asylums, Hosmtals, Refor 
 matories, etc., described with Modes of Wor- 
 jslup. Education, Training, anil Treatment, 
 jgiven in the new vol. of THE PHRKNO OOICA.L 
 JOURNAL AND LIFE ILLUSTRATED 
 
 Term*. A New Volume, the 4^th, commences with the July H umber. 
 Published monthly, in quarto forms, at $3 year in advance. Sample numbers sent 
 I>y first post, 80 oeuU. Clu!>8 of Ten or more, $2.00 each per copy. Subscribe now. 
 
 PLEASE ADDRESS 
 
 SAMUEL R. WELLS 
 
 1TO. 389 BS,O-A.r>-W^L 
 
 NEW YORK, TJ. S. A.
 
 UCSB LIBRARY 
 ISO 

 
 A 000 604 274 1