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Collectanea.
COLLECTANEA .
THE SABBATH . —The keeping of one day in the seven hol y , as a relaxation ancl refreshment , as well as of the public worship , is of admirable service to a state , considered merely as a civil institution . It humanises , by the help of society and conversation , the manners of the lower classes : which would otherwise degenerate into a sordid ferocity ancl savage selfishness of spirit : it enables the industrious workman to
pursue his occupation , in the ensuing week , with health and cheerfulness ; it imprints on the minds of the people that sense of their duty to Gocl , so necessary to make them good citizens , —but yet which would be defaced by an unremitting continuance of labour , without any stated time for calling them to the ivorship of their MAKER . —Btackstone .
_ THEORY . —There was a time when men entertained so determined a dislike to the word theory , that they could scarcely tolerate the term . If any such remain , I would beg them to reflect that hypothesis and theory are the natural and inevitable result of thinking ; so that , if tliey refuse to allow of any theory , they must prohibit all thought . The greatest philosophers were , through the whole of their inquiries and demonstrations , theorists . Theorizing means nothing more than thinking correctly
in a concatenated manner , and in conformity to rules . Was it not thinking in this manner , on the cause of an apple falling from a tree , that led Sir Isaac Newton to ascertain the laws of attraction ? Was it not thinking thus that led him to perceive that the operation of the same causes might perpetuate the regular motions of the planetary system ? What induces one person to prohibit another from theorizing ? Is it not because he has himself attempted it in vain , and therefore deems the attempt unavailing ?—Abernethy .
1 HE RUINS OF PALMYRA—Here , over an immense area , we wander through long porticoes leading to ruined temples and unknown buildings . Now we see a circular colonnade sweeping round with its ruined gateway at either end ; now we come to the prostrate walls or ruined chambers of a temple or a palace ; anon we explore the recesses of a bath , or the ruins of an aqueduct ; then we mount the solitary staircases , and wanderthrough the silent chambers of the tombsornamented with
^ , busts , inscriptions , and niches for coffins , strewed with mouldering bones ; ancl from the summits of funereal towers , five stories in height , we look down upon this mysterious assemblage of past magnificence , ancl beyond them upon the vast level surface of the desert , silent and solitary , stretching away like the vast ocean , till it is lost in distance . — Addison ' s Damascus and Palmyra .
TUTS CREATION . —Let the philosopher please himself with contemplating the beauty , the order , the infinite extent , and the variety of the universe : let him search for proof ' s of the Divine wisdom and power in the most minute insect or atom that floats in the water or on the sunbeam , and carry his reflections to infinity of worlds , teeming with life , and all upheld by the same Almighty power : we quarrel not with his avocation . It is , in many respectsa delihtful one—it isin
, g , many instances , a useful one ; and the mind may often thus be led from nature to nature ' s Gocl . But such reflections come infinitely short of those which fill thc mind when we follow the inspired penman to the birth of creation ; and , with him , behold every fiat of the Almighty illustrating more ancl more , as the works arose , the purposes of grace and mercy
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Collectanea.
COLLECTANEA .
THE SABBATH . —The keeping of one day in the seven hol y , as a relaxation ancl refreshment , as well as of the public worship , is of admirable service to a state , considered merely as a civil institution . It humanises , by the help of society and conversation , the manners of the lower classes : which would otherwise degenerate into a sordid ferocity ancl savage selfishness of spirit : it enables the industrious workman to
pursue his occupation , in the ensuing week , with health and cheerfulness ; it imprints on the minds of the people that sense of their duty to Gocl , so necessary to make them good citizens , —but yet which would be defaced by an unremitting continuance of labour , without any stated time for calling them to the ivorship of their MAKER . —Btackstone .
_ THEORY . —There was a time when men entertained so determined a dislike to the word theory , that they could scarcely tolerate the term . If any such remain , I would beg them to reflect that hypothesis and theory are the natural and inevitable result of thinking ; so that , if tliey refuse to allow of any theory , they must prohibit all thought . The greatest philosophers were , through the whole of their inquiries and demonstrations , theorists . Theorizing means nothing more than thinking correctly
in a concatenated manner , and in conformity to rules . Was it not thinking in this manner , on the cause of an apple falling from a tree , that led Sir Isaac Newton to ascertain the laws of attraction ? Was it not thinking thus that led him to perceive that the operation of the same causes might perpetuate the regular motions of the planetary system ? What induces one person to prohibit another from theorizing ? Is it not because he has himself attempted it in vain , and therefore deems the attempt unavailing ?—Abernethy .
1 HE RUINS OF PALMYRA—Here , over an immense area , we wander through long porticoes leading to ruined temples and unknown buildings . Now we see a circular colonnade sweeping round with its ruined gateway at either end ; now we come to the prostrate walls or ruined chambers of a temple or a palace ; anon we explore the recesses of a bath , or the ruins of an aqueduct ; then we mount the solitary staircases , and wanderthrough the silent chambers of the tombsornamented with
^ , busts , inscriptions , and niches for coffins , strewed with mouldering bones ; ancl from the summits of funereal towers , five stories in height , we look down upon this mysterious assemblage of past magnificence , ancl beyond them upon the vast level surface of the desert , silent and solitary , stretching away like the vast ocean , till it is lost in distance . — Addison ' s Damascus and Palmyra .
TUTS CREATION . —Let the philosopher please himself with contemplating the beauty , the order , the infinite extent , and the variety of the universe : let him search for proof ' s of the Divine wisdom and power in the most minute insect or atom that floats in the water or on the sunbeam , and carry his reflections to infinity of worlds , teeming with life , and all upheld by the same Almighty power : we quarrel not with his avocation . It is , in many respectsa delihtful one—it isin
, g , many instances , a useful one ; and the mind may often thus be led from nature to nature ' s Gocl . But such reflections come infinitely short of those which fill thc mind when we follow the inspired penman to the birth of creation ; and , with him , behold every fiat of the Almighty illustrating more ancl more , as the works arose , the purposes of grace and mercy