scintillate from burning wood; much wisdom may be learnt if the mind is disposed to search it out; much pleasure may be derived, if the mind is disposed to be pleased; much annoyance, if the temper is censorious; and much injury, if common judgment and prudence are not exerted.

QUOTATIONS. All study is to be valued, not so much as an exercise of the intellect, as a discipline of humanity. -Lord Bacon.

All arts and sciences owe their worth to the love of the beautiful rather than the useful.- Wieland.

Works of taste introduce us into a new and model world, and improve and enlarge the mind like travelling. -Dr. Jones.

The use of the fine arts is to apply and recommend the dictates of reason to the imagination, in order to excite the affections and will.-Lord Bacon.

Plato would have all boys taught music as well as mathematics.

Rhetoric and poetry, by plainly painting virtue and goodness, render them, as it were, conspicuous; for as they cannot be seen by the corporeal eye, the next degree is to have them set before us as lovely as possible by the ornament of words, and the strength of the imagination. -Lord Bacon.

These polished arts have humanised mankind d;
Softened the rude, and calmed the boisterous mind.

Addison.

Horace maintains that more practical philosophy is to be learnt from Homer, than from Crantor and Chrysippus.

THEME LIV. The Study of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy is attended with incalculable advantages.

INTRODUCTION.

1ST REASON.-Chemistry and Natural Philosophy afford a most valuable auxiliary to revelation :

(1.) By representing in "visible glories," the "eternal power and Godhead ;" and making "known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom."

(2.) By increasing man's admiration for the infinite skill, omnipotent power, unceasing benevolence, and unfailing wisdom of the Almighty, so wonderfully displayed in all the operations of his hands.

(3.) By creating a feeling of profound humility and modesty. What an insignificant being does man appear amidst "the great and marvellous works" of God! "What a poor pitiable speck of perishing earth !" The language of the Psalmist must force itself on every mind that contemplates the wonders of the heavens above, and of the earth beneath, "Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou shouldst visit him?"

(4.) By converting admiration and humility into reverence and veneration. So "great and marvellous are thy workss, Lord God Almighty; so just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints,-who would not fear thee and glorify thy name?"

(5.) By showing the wonderful condescension of God to man, especially in regard to the redemption of the fallen world. When the student of Nature looks upon "the heavens and the heavens of heavens," and remembers that God "sitteth on the circle of the earth, and all the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers;" or when he dives into the bowels of the earth, "which is his footstool," will he not ask with Solomon, Will this God “in very deed dwell with man upon earth?" and he will allow with St. Paul, that "the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, passeth all understanding."

(6.) By inspiring a full assurance of hope and confidence, though the "elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and all the works that are therein be dissolved," yet "shall these dry bones live," in newness of life, "by the energy of that mighty power, whereby God is able to subdue all things to himself."

2ND REASON. The study of Natural Philosophy rids man of much error and prejudice, and implants in their stead more just and philosophical ideas of nature and her divine Creator.

3RD REASON.-It gives man almost unlimited power. (1.) The astronomer, by his calculations, is forewarned and forearmed against the "skyey influences."

(2.) The geologist can see into the strata of the globe, direct the search after metallic ores and beds of coal, subdue the earth to the purposes of agriculture, bring water from a depth of many hundreds of feet for the supply of busy cities; and while "he holds the earth in his hand," may be said indeed "to subdue it."

(3.) The botanist by his knowledge of herbs has power over life and death, sickness and health.

(4.) The chemist can guide the lightning, and bid it "thus far and no further;" can command steam to obey his will, can use the sun as an instrument of his pleasure, and do all things but create and utterly destroy.

(5.) The knowledge of mechanics gives man a strength superior to a giant; that of hydrostatics and hydraulics gives him the mastery over water; that of optics over light; and that of pneumatics over the "circumambient air."

4TH REASON. It invests creation with an ever-varying and never-ending churm, gives a tongue to every star, and stone, and minutest insect, and makes life an intellectual treat,

5TH REASON. It enlarges the mind, fills it with vast and magnificent ideas, and raises it above the meanness and baseness of selfishness and folly.

6TH REASON. It affords infinite delight.

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SIMILES. The unscientific may be compared to a man looking at the heavens at night with his naked eye; the natural philosopher to the same man looking at it through a powerful telescope.

The unscientific "see and see not." But the man of science beholds the works of Nature through a microscope; a new world unfolds before him; what he once considered a barren wilderness is found to be peopled with living millions; and what he once contemplated without interest, is invested with a charm beyond all the fancies of poetry and fiction.

The world to the unscientific is like an automaton to one unacquainted with its secret springs and mechanical action: But to him who knows its secret, it becomes obedient to a touch, and does all his pleasure.

As a railway-train, without its engine, so is the earth to those who know nothing of natural philosophy and chemistry Science is the engine that puts the train in motion, and makes it subserve the use of man.

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As a flute in the hand of one who knows nothing of its stops, so is the earth to one who knows nothing of its mysteries. The musician can make the dry reed "discourse most excellent music," and the philosopher can find books "in the running brooks, and sermons in stones." If you "give that which is holy unto dogs, or cast your pearls before swine, they will trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you :" So the "fool" can look upon creation, "and say there is no God;" nay, he can even abuse the power and goodness of the Most High, because he knows no more about it than a dog or a swine about the value of a gem.

A full-rigged man-of-war presents to the unskilful eye an inexplicable confusion of tackling; but to the practised sailor every rope has its commission, every line its name; none is without significance, and none is useless or superfluous.

QUOTATIONS.-Great and marvellous are thy works,

Lord God Almighty; . . . who shall not fear thee, and glorify thy name ?-Rev. xvi. 3, 4.

I will meditate (says David) on all thy works, and talk of thy doings.-Ps. lxvii. 12.

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.--Job, xlii. 5, 6.

Hearken unto me, O Israel: I am the first, I also am the last: Mine hand hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens.-Isa. xlviii. 13. Jer. v. 7–13.

These are thy glorious works, Parent of good!
Almighty! Thine this universal frame

Thus wondrous fair. Thyself how wondrous then!
Unspeakable! who sitt'st above these heavens
To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.

Milton.

The man who would discard from religion the science of Nature, forgets that He who is the Author of human redemption, is also the Creator and Governor of the material universe.-Dr. Dick.

We look through Nature up to Nature's God.-Pope. Without an investigation of the laws and economy of Nature, we could not appreciate many of the excellent characters, the interesting aspects, and the sublime references of revealed religion; we should lose the full evidence of those arguments, by which the existence of God, and his attributes of wisdom and omnipotence are most powerfully demonstrated; we should remain destitute of those sublime conceptions of the perfections and agencies of Jehovah, which the grandeur and immensity of his works are calculated to inspire; nor should we ever perceive in its full force the evidence of those proofs on which the divine authority of revelation is founded.— Dr. Dick.