their memories with technical phrases and propositions which they do not understand, while the objects of substantial science are carefully concealed both from the eye of sense and from the eyes of their understandings. Instead of leading them by gentle steps, in the first stage of their progress, over the grand, and beautiful, and variegated scenery of Nature and Revelation, where almost every ob. 'ject is calculated to arrest their attention, and to excite admiration,—we confound them with an unintelligible jar gon of grammar rules, of metaphysical subtleties, and of dead languages, associated with stripes, confinement, and painful recollections, which frequently produce a disgust at every thing which has acquired the name of learning, before they are made acquainted with that in which true knowledge consists. Yet, notwithstanding the injudicious methods by which we attempt to train the youthful intellect, it is impossible to eradicate the desire of knowledge from the human mind. When substantial knowledge is presented to the mind, in a judicious and alluring manner, it will not only be relished, but prosecuted with ardour, by every one whose faculties are not altogether immersed in the mire of sensuality. Let a man, however ignorant and untutored, be made acquainted with some of the interesting details of Geography, with the wonders of the ocean, and the numerous rivers continually rolling into its abyss, with the lofty ranges of mountains which stretch along the continents, and project their summits beyond the clouds, with the volcanoes, the tornadoes, the water-spouts, and the sublime and beautiful landscapes which diversify the different climates of the earth; with the numerous tribes of animated beings which people its surface, and the manners and customs of its human inhabitants-he will feel an eager desire to know every thing else that appertains to this subject, and will prosecute his inquiries with avidity, in so far as his means and opportunities permit. Acquaint him with some of the most striking facts in ancient and modern history, and he will feel a desire to know every thing of importance that has occurred in the annals of the world since the commencement of time. Unfold to him some of the discoveries which have been made in relation to the constitution of the atmosphere, the electric, magnetic, and galvanic fluids,

and the chemical changes and operations that are constantly going on in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, and his curiosity will be strongly excited to penetrate still farther into the mysteries of nature. Direct his views to the concave of the firmament, and tell him of the vast magnitude of the sun, and the planetary globes, the amazing velocity with which they run their destined rounds, and of the immense number and distances of the starsand he will eagerly pant after more minute information respecting the great bodies of the universe, and feel delighted at hearing of new discoveries being made in the unexplored regions of creation.

I never knew an instance in which knowledge of this description was communicated in a rational, distinct, and alluring manner, where it was not received with a certain degree of pleasure, and with an ardent desire to make further investigations into the wonders of creating Wisdom and Power. Such appears to be the original constitution of the human mind, that it is necessarily gratified with every thing that gives scope to the exercise of its faculties, and which has a tendency to extend the range of their ac tion. It is true, indeed, that, in some men, the desire of knowledge appears to be blunted and almost annihilated, so that they appear to be little superior in their views to the lower orders of sensitive existence. But this happens only in those cases where the intellectual faculties are benumbed and stupified by indolence and sensuality. Such persons do all they can to counteract the original propensities of their nature; and yet even in the worst cases of this kind that can occur, the original desire is never altogether extirpated, so long as the senses are qualified to perform their functions. For the most brutish man is never found entirely divested of the principle of curiosity, when any striking or extraordinary object is presented to his view. On such an occasion, the original principles of his constitution will be roused into action, and he will feel a certain degree of wonder and delight in common with other rational minds.

And, as man has a natural desire after knowledge, and a delight in it—so, he is furnished with noble faculties and vast capacities of intellect for enabling him to acquire, and

to treasure it up. He is furnished with senses calculated to convey ideas of the forms, qualities, and relations of the various objects which surround him. His sense of vision, in particular, appears to take in a wider range of objects, than that of any other sensitive being. While some of the lower animals have their vision circumscribed within a circle of a few yards or inches in diameter, the eye of man can survey, at one glance, an extensive landscape, and pe. netrate even to the regions of distant worlds. To this sense we are indebted for our knowledge of the sublimest objects which can occupy the mind, and for the ideas we have acquired of the boundless range of creation. And, while it is fitted to trace the motions of mighty worlds, which roll at the distance of a thousand millions of miles, it is also so constructed, as to enable him, with the assistance of art, to survey the myriads of living beings which people a drop of water. All his other senses are likewise calculated to extend the range of his knowledge, to enable him to communicate his ideas to others, and to facilitate the mutual interchanges of thought and sentiment between rational minds of a similar construction with his own.

His understanding is capable of taking in a vast variety of sentiments and ideas in relation to the immense multiplicity of objects which are perceived by his external senses. Hence the various sciences he has cultivated, the sublime discoveries he has made, and the noble inventions he has brought to light. By the powers of his understanding, he has surveyed the terraqueous globe, in all its varieties of land and water, continents, islands and oceans; determined its magnitude, its weight, its figure and motions; explored its interior recesses, descended into the bottom of its seas, arranged and classified the infinite variety of vegetables, minerals, and animals which it contains, analysed the invisible atmosphere with which it is surrounded, and determined the elementary principles of which it is composed, discovered the nature of thunder, and arrested the rapid lightnings in their course, ascertained the laws by which the planets are directed in their courses, weighed the masses of distant worlds, determined their size and distances, and explored regions of the uni. verse invisible to the unassisted eye, whose distance ex

ceeds all human calculation and comprehension. The sublime sciences of Geometry, Trigonometry, Conic Sections, Fluxions, Algebra, and other branches of Mathema. tics, evince the acuteness and perspicacity of his intellect; and their application to the purposes of Navigation and Geography, and to the determination of the laws of the celestial motions, the periods of their revolutions, their eclipses, and the distances at which they are placed from our sublunary mansion, demonstrate the vigour and comprehension of those reasoning faculties with which he is endowed.

By means of the instruments and contrivances which his inventive faculty has enabled him to form and construct, he can transport ponderous masses across the ocean, determine the exact position in which he is at any time placed upon its surface, direct his course along pathless deserts and through the billows of the mighty deep ;-transform a portion of steam into a mechanical power, for impelling waggons along roads, and large vessels with great velocity against wind and tide; and can even transport himself through the yielding air beyond the region of the clouds. He can explore the invisible worlds which are contained in a putrid lake, and bring to view their nume. rous and diversified inhabitants; and the next moment he can penetrate to regions of the universe immeasurably distant, and contemplate the mountains and the vales, the rocks and the plains which diversify the scenery of distant surrounding worlds. He can extract an invisible substance from a piece of coal, by which he can produce, almost in a moment, the most splendid illumination throughout every part of a large and populous city, he can detach the ele. ment of fire from the invisible air, and cause the hardest stones, and the heaviest metals to melt like wax under its powerful agency; and he can direct the lightnings of hea ven to accomplish his purposes, in splitting immense stones into a multitude of fragments. He can cause a splendid city, adorned with lofty columns, palaces, and temples, to arise, in a spot where nothing was formerly beheld but a vast desert or a putrid marsh; and can make "the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad, and the desert to bud and blossom as the rose. He can communicate his

thoughts and sentiments in a few hours, to ten hundred thousands of his fellow-men; in a few weeks, to the whole civilised world; and, after his decease, he can diffuse important instructions among mankind, throughout succeeding generations.-In short, he can look back, and trace the most memorable events which have happened in the world since time began; he can survey the present aspect of the moral world among all nations ;-he can penetrate beyond the limits of all that is visible in the immense canopy of heaven, and range amidst the infinity of unknown systems and worlds dispersed throughout the boundless regions of Creation, and he can overleap the bounds of time, and expatiate amidst future scenes of beauty and sublimity, which eye hath not seen," throughout the countless ages of eternity.

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What an immense multitude of ideas, in relation to such subjects, must the mind of such a person as LORD BACON have contained! whose mental eye surveyed the whole circle of human science, and who pointed out the path by which every branch of knowledge may be carried towards perfection! How sublime and diversified must have been the range of thought pursued by the immortal NEWTON! whose capacious intellect seemed to grasp the vast system of universal Nature, who weighed the ponderous masses of the planetary globes, and unfolded the laws by which their diversified phenomena are produced, and their motions directed!

"He, while on this dim spot, where mortals toil,
Clouded in dust,-from Motion's simple laws
Could trace the secret hand of Providence,
Wide-working through this universal frame.
-All intellectual eye, our solar round

First gazing through, he, by the blended power
Of Gravitation and Projection, saw

The whole in silent harmony revolve.

-Then breaking hence, he took his ardent flight

Through the blue infinite, and every star

Which the clear concave of a winter's night

Pours on the eye, or astronomic tube,

at his approach

Blazed into suns, the living centre each

Of an harmonious system."