HYMN TO SCIENCE. Give me to learn each secret cause; Then to great nature's scenes apply, Next to thy nobler search resign'd And all their changes view. Her secret stores bid Mem'ry tell, While, prompt her sallies to control, Say from what simple springs began Then range through being's wide extent, There, Science, veil thy daring eye, To faith content thy beams to lend, Her hopes t' assure, her steps befriend, Then downward take thy flight again, And social Nature's ties The plan, the genius, of each state, Through private life pursue thy course The last, best effort of thy skill, Raise me above the vulgar breath, Hail, queen of manners! test of truth! E'en business you can make polite, Of pow'r, wealth, freedom, thou the cause, Of arts inventress thou! Without thee, what were human kind ! Sun of the soul! thy beams unveil ! And sit in peace with thee. MATHEMATICAL STUDIES. 18 LESSON 7. Usefulness of Mathematical Studies. Axioms, maxims, self-evident propositions. Anal'ogy, resemblance--see Hedge's or Jamieson's Logic. Physics, natural philosophy, or the doctrine of natural bodies, their various appearances, affections, motions, operations, &c. Or all the sciences which serve to call forth the spirit of enterprise and inquiry, there is none more eminently useful than mathematics. By an early attachment to these elegant and sublime studies we acquire a habit of reasoning, and an elevation of thought, which fixes the mind, and prepares it for every other pursuit. From a few simple axioms, and evident principles, we proceed gradually to the most general propositions, and remote analogies: deducing one truth from another in a chain of argument well connected and logically pursued; which brings us at last, in the most satisfactory manner, to the conclusion, and serves as a general direction in all our inquiries after truth. Mathematical learning is likewise equally estimable for its practical utility. Almost all the works of art and devices of man, have a dependence upon its principles, and are indebted to it for their origin and perfection. The cultivation of these admirable sciences is therefore a thing of the utmost importance, and ought to be considered as a principal part of every well regulated plan of education. They are the guide of our youth, the perfection of our reason, and the foundation of every great and noble undertaking. Mathematics are very properly recommended as the best remedy to cure an unsteady and volatile disposition. They teach us to reason in a clear and methodical manner. They give a manly vigour to our understanding, and free us from doubt and uncertainty on the one hand, and credulity and rash presumption on the other. These studies are calculated to teach exactness and perspicuity in definition, connexion and conclusiveness in argument, carefulness in observation, patience in meditation; and from no exercises can the scholar go better prepared and disciplined to the pursuit of the higher branches of knowledge. The benefit to be derived from them is thus stated by Mr. Locke: "I have mentioned mathematics as a way to settle in the mind a habit of reasoning closely, and in train; not that I think it necessary that all men should be deep mathematicians; but that having got the way of reasoning, to which that study necessarily brings the mind, they might be able to transfer it to other parts of knowledge, as they shall have occasion." Mathematics, according to their proper definition, constitute the science of quantity, either as subject to measure or number. They are pure and mixed. The former consider quantity abstractedly, without any regard to matter or particular bodies; the latter treat of quantity as subsisting in bodies, and consequently they are intermixed with the consideration of physics, or experimental philosophy. *** KETT'S Elements of General Knowledge. QUESTIONS.-1. What habit does an early attention to mathematical studies produce? 2. What is said of their practical utility? 3. What are they calculated to teach? 4. How is the benefit to be derived from them stated by Mr. Locke? 5. Give a definition of mathematics. 6. How do pure mathematics consider quantity? 7. Mixed? NOTE. Pure mathematics are arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and fluxions: mixed consist chiefly of mechanics, pneumatics, hydrostatics, optics, and astronomy, LESSON 8. Imagination. We do not merely perceive objects, and conceive or remember them simply as they were, but we have the power of combining them in various new assemblages,-of forming at our will, with a sort of delegated omnipotence, not a single universe merely, but a new and varied universe, with every succession of our thought. The materials of which we form them are, indeed, materials that exist in every mind; but they exist in every mind only as the stones exist shapelessly in the quarry, that require little more than mechanic labour to convert them into common dwellings, but that rise into palaces and temples only at the command of architectural genius. This power of combining our conceptions or remembrances in new assemblages is termed imagination. The most sublime exertions of imagination are made by the poet. But we must not conceive, merely because they are sublime, that they comprehend the whole office of imagination, or even its most important uses. It is of far more importance to mankind, as it operates in the common offices of life, in the familiar feelings of every hour. What are all those pictures of the future, which are ever before our eyes, in the successive hopes, and fears, and designs of life, but imaginations, in which circumstances are combined that never perhaps, in the same forms and proportions, have existed in reality, and which, very probably, are never to exist but in those very hopes and fears which we have formed? The writer of romance gives secret motions and passions to the characters which he invents, and adds incident to incident in the long series of complicated action which he developes. What he does, we, too, are doing every hour;contriving events that never are to happen,-imagining motives and passions, and thinking our little romances, of which ourselves, perhaps, are the primary heroes, but in the plot of which there is a sufficient complication of adventures of those whom we love, and those whom we dislike. Our romances of real life, though founded upon facts, are, in their principal circumstances, fictions still; and, though the fancy which they display may not be as brilliant, it is still the same in kind with that which forms and fills the history of imaginary heroes and heroines. It is well known, from experience, that the activity and consequent improvement of imagination, depend not a little upon the character of the objects with which it is first occupied. The great, the sublime, the beautiful, the new, and the uncommon, in external nature, are not only striking and agreeable in themselves, but, by association, these qualities powerfully awaken the sensibilities of the heart, and kindle the fires of youthful imagination. If the student permit objects which are mean, low, or sensual, to usurp possession of his mind; if the books which he reads, and the studies that he pursues, are contaminated with gross ideas, he has no right to expect that this omnipotent faculty shall ever draw from the polluted treasures of his memory, any thing noble, useful, or praiseworthy; or that his name shall ever be enrolled among those who have delighted, instructed, and honoured their native land and the world at large. By an excessive indulgence in the pleasures of imagina |