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upon the sides of the mountains; and the settlement was completely overrun with dogs of every nation, kindred, and degree. Hens and chickens were also abundant, and seemed to be taken good care of by the women. The men appeared to be the laziest people upon the face of the earth.—Dana's Two Years before the Mast.

TABLE-MOUNTAIN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

THE excursion over the Table-Mountain, which is three thousand five hundred and eighty-two feet above the level of the ocean, was an undertaking of such labour as to require the greater part of a day to perform it. It was advisable also, on many considerations, to make up a party for the purpose. Accordingly, having engaged the Mate of the "Jefferson," and my own Mate, to accompany me, we set out together on a fine, clear morning, provided with refreshments, but without a guide; not doubting, with the information given us, of being able to find our way. We met with no embarrassment in reaching the chasm, on one side of which were the craggy and irregular steps, by which only we could work our way to the top. The task was arduous, and required two hours of great exertion for its accomplishment. The day continued to be very clear; and the view amply repaid the toil of the ascent. It was limited on the north by high, irregular, and distant mountains; on the south and east by the ocean, and an horizon greatly extended; on the west was the bay, with its shipping, diminished to the size of such toys as children play with; and immediately beneath us was the town, its gardens and streets distinctly seen, though its inhabitants could not be distinguished with the unaided eye.

A large part of the day was passed in rambling about the top of the mountain, and enjoying the extensive and beautiful views from it; and the time had arrived to think of descending. Desirous of returning by a different route, I attempted to find a new one in a chasm, which, from the imperfect view I could take of it, resembled the path we had ascended. But, the better to satisfy myself, with great difficulty and imminent danger of falling, I climbed down a

precipice of about twelve feet, and found myself upon a bridge formed by the falling away of the rock within the chasm, and extending across about twenty feet. Its width varied from two to four feet; and it seemed, where narrowest, as if any additional weight would cause it to give way. On either side, and beneath this bridge, was an abyss, of which I could scarcely see the bottom; it being fifteen hundred, or, perhaps, two thousand feet deep. I now saw plainly that I must return by the way I came; as, at the other end of the bridge, the height was the same, and the rocks jutted over. I made known to my companions my perilous situation, and that a slip in climbing must be attended with certain destruction. In order, therefore, to help me up again, Mr. Barnes lay on the ground, and held his jacket over the precipice, while the Mate of the "Jefferson" held Barnes, to prevent his being pulled over. With this management, and the scanty support I could find for my feet, I succeeded in gaining the summit, and in escaping from a situation so perilous that, even at this day, I do not recur to it without shuddering. After this I attempted no more to find a new way, but descended as we had come up; and, before sunset, arrived at my lodgings very much fatigued.-Cleveland's Voyages and Commercial Enterprises.

ON THE DISTRIBUTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF SUBJECTS NECESSARY FOR THE SUCCESSFUL PURSUIT OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.

No. I.

A FIRST view of nature, even as it is visible, and more especially, a first mental view of nature, as we rapidly call before us such objects and facts as are most easily recollected, will have even a bewildering influence. Such will appear to be their number, their variety, their differences, that the whole will come before us as one vast complication, so vast that a lifetime would scarcely be sufficient for the most industrious student to reduce it to order; and when that was done, the subjects themselves would still be unstudied.

Many have been almost deterred from entering upon

studies, to which they have, nevertheless, felt their minds drawn, because they despair of being able to prosecute them to anything like a successful conclusion; while others, for want of plan, sometimes take up one subject, then another and a very different one, and so on, with nothing like order. They obtain a partial, superficial knowledge, perhaps, of many things; a solid, useful acquaintance with nothing. Especially, they have no acquaintance with the principles of the subjects of which they may happen to know something; none with the relations which those principles mutually sustain, and by the knowledge of which, the bewildering variety might be reduced to system; and thus, far more easily studied, and eventually, far more extensively and deeply understood.

We propose to seek the benefit of such readers of the "Youth's Instructer" as may be engaged, or may wish to engage, in philosophical studies, by assuming, if they will allow us, the character of LECTURER, and endeavouring to give them, in the course of the present volume, twelve papers,-lectures they may call them, if they like,—to aid in giving them at least a general notion of the subjects they have to study, and the relations which those subjects bear to each other, and to some common principle or origin, if such can be found. Of course, we are not going even to try to give a system of philosophy, in the exact investigation of each particular branch of study. For this, we should want volumes where we now have only pages. Our object is more simple. We wish to show what really are the objects of philosophical and scientific research, and what relations these sustain to each other. We wish to enable our readers to avail themselves, in all their studies, of the great and wonderful law of association.

This is what we mean by philosophical study. According to the etymology of the term, as philanthropy is the "love of man," so philosophy is the "love of wisdom." The ancient, who had studied much, and learned how little he knew, and how much there was to be known, refused to be called sophist,"wise man," as the word first meant,—and would only be called “lover of wisdom." Now, however, the word is used to express

the entire system of knowledge, in its principles and relations. He who studies any branch of this, if he studies it as a branch, and with reference to the whole, studies philosophically, though he only studies a branch. He who studies any subject, or any number of subjects, considering them merely as insulated, may study them very industriously, may come to know them very thoroughly, but neither is his study nor his knowledge philosophical.

There is one subject to which we will refer in the remaining part of this paper, because, in one sense, it stands alone. It is not only a class by itself, but no other class stands on the same level. It is not only alone, but supreme. We refer to the knowledge of God. This, considered as a subject of study, is called, sometimes theology, sometimes divinity. We class it by itself; reminding the student that all things are related to the Creator. If He created all things, and if in wisdom He created them all, then all that we see in the creature, all that our researches discover, was, so to speak, in the mind of God before the creature was called into being. Thus might every study be theological. And to a considerable extent it ought to be so. Astronomers for centuries on centuries have been studying the heavenly bodies, and leaving behind them accounts of their researches, and the results of them. And so have they gone on, till now many persons have a wonderful knowledge, both as to extent and minuteness, of the system of the universe. By mathematical calculations, of a most remarkable character, they have discovered the exact curvatures of the planetary orbits, the effects of gravitation and attraction in producing and rectifying disturbances in those orbits, so that the balance, though as it were ever changing, should always maintain the same average. He who knows such things as these we admire for what his mind contains. Yet, even of this one branch, how imperfect, and how limited, is his knowledge. The great, adorable Creator knows the whole; not as we do, by learning it; it was first in Him, and according to his own riches of knowledge and wisdom He made them all. All things, therefore, may, and by the pious mind all things will, be so considered, as to bring God, Creator and Preserver, before it.

Knowledge may thus be sanctified and made subservient to the promotion of personal godliness.

But "no man hath seen God at any time." We are to study theology in that revelation of himself which it has pleased him to give to us. We are to study the Bible. And let this be done in a right spirit and manner, and we shall find it to be at once the most delightful, and the most profitable, of all subjects. Occasionally the writers of Heathenism expressed truths, perhaps more true and important than they supposed; as when Virgil, in his Third Eclogue, makes one of his speakers say,

Ab Jove principium, Musæ ; Jovis omnia plena.

(Muses, begin with Jove; all things are full of Jove.) O, how much richer the verse of the Christian poet:

"In Thee we move; all things of Thee

Are full, Thou Source of life and all."

Let theology be studied, for its own sake, studied in the Scriptures; and let all things else be studied in the light, and with the guidance, thus afforded. But, whatever is studied, let personal godliness never be neglected.

WESLEYAN CHRONOLOGICAL NOTICES.

1666.-SAMUEL WESLEY, grandson of the Rev. Bartholomew Wesley, and father of the Founder of the Methodists, born at Whitchurch, Dorsetshire: married, 1690 (circ.), Susannah, youngest daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley: preferred to the Rectory of Epworth, Lincolnshire, about the year 1693: died in peaceful triumph, April 25th, 1735.

1703. June 17th.—John Wesley, founder of the Methodists, born at Epworth.

1708. December 18th.-Charles Wesley, the beloved associate of his brother John in the revival of primitive Christianity in these kingdoms, born: one, whose incomparable hymns present a metrical compendium of doctrinal and practical divinity, which, equally with the writings of his

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