thod they pursued at this critical season of every young man's life, to improve his mind and qualify him for public action."

Perhaps there is not a more interesting object to the Deity himself than to see a kind and benevolent parent watching over the person and happiness of a vigorous and virtuous offspring; while, on the other hand, there is not a more execrable being, than a cruel and tyrannical father, one who has neither the feeling of a brute nor the reason of a man. When thinking upon this subject, I often imagine the former stands in the same relation to his family as the Deity to the universe; the guardian and dispenser of felicity to the whole; the latter as a fury of the infernal regions, tormenting not the guilty, but the innocent and defenceless. What object can be more interesting than a venerable grandsire, to whose aspect age has added much that is respectful, surrounded by a numerous progeny, that are to be as so many of his representatives in the busy scenes of life, when he has sunk into the shades. Each one is desirous to have his smile and his blessing; each hearkens to his counsel as to an oracle, experience having stamped wisdom on his sentences, whilst his tried benevolence gives to them an irresistible charm. But what a contrast, and how often may it be seen, when cruelty and crime are transmitted from the parent to the offspring; when age has unstrung the nerves, and weakness stolen imperceptibly through the frame, that the hoary head and the infirmities of years have become the contempt and ridicule of those who ought to have sung and acted with the Northamptonshire Poet;

Essay II.

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. (Continued from col. 43.)

Tu vero crede omnino, certumque teneto, (Namque hoc principium est, fundamentumque salutis) Eternam esse animi naturam, et prorsus ab omni Parcarum imperio exemptam, nil fata timere.

-Let those deplore their doom, Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn: But lofty souls, who look beyond the tomb, Can smile at Fate, and wonder how they mourn." "Shall we be left forgotten in the dust, When fate relenting lets the flower revive? Shall Nature's voice, to man alone unjust, Bid him, though doom'd to perish, hope to live? Is it for this fair Virtue oft must strive With disappointment, penury, and pain? No: Heaven's immortal spring shall yet arrive, And man's majestic beauty bloom again, Bright through th' eternal year of Love's triumphant reign.'

THE very nature of temporal vicissitudes carries with it a powerful argument in favour of a future state of existence, and of the agency of a superior Being.

The different parts of inanimate nature, from the highest to the lowest, continue in the order of eminence; the strong taking precedence of the feeble, and the greater of the less. But they observe not this order with respect to man, neither does it exist in the vicissitudes of the human race. And if the course of inanimate nature be interrupted by a superior power, (as that of man,) and things be removed from their proper places, this order is deranged. From the establishment of these points, it is intended to prove, by analogy, that the present life is not the final state of man, and that there is One to whom all things are subject.

The several parts of inanimate nature pass away in the order of eminence. Lesser lights fade before the

shine the brightest. The waters of the ocean remain, but the little rivulets are dried up. Mountains are seen afar The earth continues in its course, and off, but the intervening hills are lost. "seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night," have not ceased; but kingdoms of the earth have passed away, and all the testimonials of their having once existed, are,-the ruins of their noblest cities-the fragments of architectural grandeur-the crumbling records of their mighty ones. The tree of the forest continues through many

winters. but the tender plant perishes in a single night.

We instinctively admit a variety in the grandeur and duration of inanimate nature, when we look with as; tonishment on the mountains that have stood for ages-with gratitude on the sun, as the source of light-with fearful awe on the ocean, as the mighty reservoir of the waters. We gaze more attentively on a "fenced city" than on an obscure village. The vast extent of the former, the magnificence of its buildings, and the probable duration of its existence, give it in our estimation a remarkable pre-eminence. “Who that from Alpine heights his labouring

black with shade,

And continents of sand, will turn his gaze
To mark the windings of a scanty rill,
That murmurs at his feet?"

If the course of inanimate nature be interrupted by a superior power, as that of man, or things be removed from their natural situation by human art, the order of eminence is no longer observed. Many of the admired vegetable productions of other lands, when transplanted into our own, become sickly, and die sooner than the most ignoble weed that is nourished in its native soil. The axe is laid to the root of the oak, but the woodman suffers the sapling to remain in its place.

That man ranks highest in the scale of earthly beings, that he possesses qualities indicative of superiority over things animate and inanimate in this world, is admitted as an axiom; yet it may be proved altogether, though in the present instance it suffices to assure ourselves that he is superior to the latter. If inanimate things preserve amongst themselves the order of eminence, and man be able to subvert that order, it follows that man is superior to them.

ges the courses of rivers; and, as he may be of virtuous or of vicious inclination, he establishes the sovereignty of virtue through “countless realms," or leads into depravity by his own example a vast portion of the human race. These are his works, and they remain when the remembrance of him would have ceased, but for the association which exists between them. One palace serves for a line of princes, and their statues remain in its halls long after them.

If the several parts of inanimate nature, so long as they remain in their appointed place, observe the order of eminence towards each other—the inferior yielding to the superior; and if man, confessedly superior to inanimate nature, have an inferior duration; it is inferred that the present life is not the final state of man. But this inference will follow of itself. How can we reconcile to reason the idea of things wrought by human invention having an existence beyond that of the human soul? Shall forms of inert matter remain a memento of annihilated mind?

The vicissitudes incident to man do not occur in the order of eminence. Every age and situation of life is equally liable to them. Neither youth, riches, strength, nor virtue can claim exemption from distressing vicissitude and death. Affliction in many instances is seen to lie heaviest on the good. Death frequently passes by the door of the poor man, and raises the cry of mourning in the house of the rich. He spares the helpless, and smites him who "rejoiceth in his strength." He snatches away those who were the ornaments of society, and leaves the reprobate a continued curse of the community to which he belongs. "Were this world all," it is reasonable to suppose that things would have a different order. He, whose wealth could procure him all the comforts of life, would most probably retain his existence after the poor and indigent, to whom they were denied, had sunk into the grave. The man of strength would live, and see many days, when the lamp of the feeble had ceased to burn.

It may appear to some an unnecessary task for any one thus to argue, from analogy, the immortality of the soul, and the existence of Deity; since, all nature cries aloud in all her works, "that there's a power above," and we may safely conclude, that

"'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us, 'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man."

Yet if, in the course of our lucubrations, we are enabled to shew by a series of reasoning, that nature in all her varieties points to the sublime truths of revelation, in doing so we may possibly add conviction to our own minds, and place a stumblingblock in the way of Infidelity. Dec. 5th, 1825.

ZELIM.

ANALYSIS OF GEOLOGY.

DOCTOR URE, in his Dictionary of Chemistry, defines geology to be "a description of the structure of the earth." This subject is interesting to man, because the earth is his habitation; and the body of man being composed of matter genial to the earth, and supported by matter vegetated from it, is confined thereto by the gravity of that matter; and although he wanders freely upon the surface of this sphere, no contrivance has hitherto been perfected, to enable him to visit even the nearest planet which he observes floating in ether around him, viz. the moon: much less those superior orbs which meander throughout that system of which the earth is a part.

Geology naturally divides itself into two parts, viz. the minute and the massive: and as the massive, in geology, are aggregations of the minute, it may not be amiss to treat of the minute in the first instance.

The matter of the earth was created by the infinite GOD; and by him arranged into the sphere we behold.We have a beautiful and dignified account of this great work from the inspired pen of that eminent legislator and divine, Moses; the greatest prophet antiquity knew-a servant, faithful in the house of Jehovah, whose inspired ordinances continued in force until the eternal Son of God, in the fulness of time, superseded these or

known to man under the endearing title of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The simple substances which compose the crust of the earth, are few in number; some of these are gases, which, while in the atmosphere, float in a state of fluidity; yet when incorporated with other substances, become solids, which in firmness and durability yield to none. The compound substances, however, are numerous; so much so, indeed, that a rich and almost endless variety of forms, hues, and kinds, present themselves to man, courting his inspection, in the crust of the earth. The manner in which these compound substances are formed, and the powers by which they are aggregated and continued in union, exhibit to the mind of contemplation the wisdom and power of the great Creator, exercised in creation, and in exercise throughout all the ages of the world.

In the animal kingdom we behold a created energy, which we call animal life, and in the exercise of this energy we view animals, possessing the most perfect locomotion, eating, drinking, sleeping, increasing in volume, and renewing their strength by digesting corporeal aliment, from day to day. In the vegetable world, we perceive a similar energy, which we call vegetable life, and in the exercise of this energy we see a seed germ forth from the earth, exhibit luxuriant foliage, grow up into a plant, and,increasing in volume, arrive at and continue in maturity by secreting aliment from the earth, in which its roots are fixed, and from the gases and vapours of the atmosphere into which its stem is projected. Each of these manifestly live; but it would, perhaps, be too much to say, "life ends here:" because, in our geological researches, we behold two created energies which correspond with those already noted, both in the activity of their operations and the determinate character of their results.

The first of these we denominate chemical affinity, and the latter chemical polarity.

Chemical affinity is that which disposes atoms of matter to unite, and to remain united, so firmly, that it requires considerable force or ingenuity to separate them; these atoms, thus united, are called molecules. Chemical polarity is that which disposes these molecules to assume a particu

lar form, on their aggregating into a mineral. The quality of a mineral depends upon the nature of those molecules, and the force by which they remain united, and its form upon the free or circumscribed action of chemical polarity upon its parts during its formation.

Chemical affinity may be observed upon a large scale. Some minerals are fluid at one temperature, and others at another. Quicksilver is fluid at the temperature of the atmosphere, while gold is solid; but gold becomes fluid when pressed by heat: this is also the case with other minerals. But whether a mineral is fluid or solid, its molecules remain the same. Water is fluid when the atmosphere is temperate; but it becomes solid when the cold is intense. Salts are solid while dry, but they become fluid on being treated with moisture. Those alterations in the solidity of these substances do not, however, disunite the molecules; for although the molecules glide over each other freely when fluid, and are attached firmly when solid, the affinity which first united their parts, retains them in the state in which they were originally formed. Therefore, water may be rarefied into vapour, or crystallized into snow or ice, but condensed vapour, and melted snow and ice, are water. Chemical polarity is most observable upon a small scale. It is in that elegant variety of substances which we term crystals, where this energy is eminently conspicuous. Minerals, on slowly passing from a state of heat to cold, or from wet to dry, are disposed to crystallize. When the molecules of these are in a situation to move freely, their crystals are perfect; when the molecules are obstructed in their movements, the crystals are imperfect; and when they are confined, crystallization does not take place. It is in the peculiar forms of crystals that we note the power of chemical polarity. Every mineral crystallizes into a particular form, and the forms of any number of crystals, produced by precisely similar minerals, are similar, if perfect.

We ask, what is chemical affinity? what is chemical polarity? The best answer, perhaps, is, to ask, what is animal life? what is vegetable life? For, so subtle are these, that we can only conjecture what they are. Yet,

86.-VOL. VIII.

are these created energies so rife with life, that they not only animated, vegetated, affined, and crystallized, as primeval agents, but they have propagated their several relations from age to age, and, running parallel with the years of creation, continue in force and form to the present hour. We perceive that an elephant produces an elephant, and a mouse a mouse; also that an acorn vegetates into an oak, and a haw into a thorn; certain molecules united by chemical affinity from atoms of hydrogen and oxygen, form water; and muriate of soda, acted upon by chemical polarity, resolves itself into crystals of a cubic form, and so on of all the rest; and by comparing the accounts transmitted to us from all antiquity during a period of nearly six thousand years, with our own observations, we perceive these energies continue in full vigour, because their results are similar in all ages. When we contemplate that consummate wisdom which devised, and that omnipotent arm which created and launched forth into space and time, these amazing energies, with force sufficient to endure the incidents of ages, and unimpaired to produce and reproduce at this day as at their primal hour,-what awe pervades, what admiration arises, what devotion to Him, who, while he wields the spheres in their immensity, serenely regulates, by appropriate agents, even every minute operation therein, and possesses himself in peace ecstatic!

The secretions by which animals and vegetables subsist, are from within-aliment, introduced by the mouth, is conveyed into the stomach of an animal, there digested, and by appropriate vessels circulated throughout the whole frame; renewing and invigorating in its passage every part; somewhat similar to this are the juices secreted which the roots of a vegetable introduce therein, as well as the gases absorbed by the leaves, &c. These replenish the plant internally; but crystals receive repletion by secretions from without. If you mark a crystal during its formation, the mark will be covered by its subsequent growth; but if you mark the bark of a tree, or wound the skin of an animal, the mark or scar will remain uncovered.

If we cannot behold chemical affinity

L