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Article COLLECTANEA. Page 1 of 4 →
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Collectanea.
COLLECTANEA .
DEPENDENCE OP MAN UPON HIS CREATOR . —For the continuance of life a thousand provisions are made . If the vital actions of a man ' s frame were directed by his will , they are necessarily so minute and complicated , that they would immediately fall into confusion . He cannot draw a breath without the exercise of sensibilities as well ordered as those of the eye or ear . A tracery of nervous chords unites many organs of sympathyof whichif one filament were brokenpainand spasm
, , , , , ancl suffocation would ensue . The action of his heart , and the circulation of his blood , ancl all the vital functions , are governed through means and b y laws which are not dependent on his will , ancl to which the powers of his mind are altogether inadequate . For , had they been under the influence of his will , a doubt , a moment ' s pause of irresolution , a forgetfulness of a single action at its appointed time , would have terminated his existence . Now when man sees that his vital operations could
not be directed by reason , that they are constant , ancl far too important to be exposed to all changes incident to his mind , and that they are given up to the direction of other sources of motion than the will , he acquires a full sense of his dependence . If man be fretful and wayward , and subject to inordinate passion , we perceive the benevolent design in withdrawing the vital motions from the influence of such capricious sources of action , so that they may neither be disturbed like his moral
actions nor lost in the moment of despair . AVhen man thus perceives that in respect to all these vital operations he is more helpless than the infant , and that his boasted reason can neither give them order nor protection , is not his insensibility to the Giver of those secret endowments worse than ingratitude ? In a rational creature , ignorance of his condition becomes a species of ingratitude ; it dulls his sense of benefits , and hardens him into a temper of mind with which it is impossible to reason , and from which no improvement can be expected . —Sir Charles Bell .
SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF AA oaiAN . —Unless our women be brought up in modesty , and with industrious and religious habits , it is in vain that we educate the men . It is they who keep the character of men at its proper elevation . — De Fellenherg . THE CEDARS OF LERANON . —One of the first travellers who has given any particulars of Mount Lebanon is Belan , who travelled in Syria about 1550 . About sixteen miles from Tripolia city in Syriahe says" at
, , , a considerable height up the mountain , the traveller arrives at the monastery of the Virgin Mary , which is situated in a valley . Thence , proceeding four miles further up the mountain , he will arrive at the cedars , the Maronites or the monks acting as guides . The cedars stand in a valley , and not on the top of the mountain ; and they are supposed to amount to twenty-eight in number , though it is difficult to count them , they being distant from each other a few paces . These the Archbishop
of Damascus has endeavoured to prove to be the same that Solomon planted with his own hands in the quincunx manner in which they now stand . No other tree grows in the valley in which they are situated ; and it is generally so covered with snow , as to be only accessible in summer . "—{ De Art ) ., & c , p . 4 . ) About tin ' s period paying a visit to tho cedars of Mount Lebanon seems to have been considered as a kind of pilgrimage ; and , as every visitor took away some of the wood of the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Collectanea.
COLLECTANEA .
DEPENDENCE OP MAN UPON HIS CREATOR . —For the continuance of life a thousand provisions are made . If the vital actions of a man ' s frame were directed by his will , they are necessarily so minute and complicated , that they would immediately fall into confusion . He cannot draw a breath without the exercise of sensibilities as well ordered as those of the eye or ear . A tracery of nervous chords unites many organs of sympathyof whichif one filament were brokenpainand spasm
, , , , , ancl suffocation would ensue . The action of his heart , and the circulation of his blood , ancl all the vital functions , are governed through means and b y laws which are not dependent on his will , ancl to which the powers of his mind are altogether inadequate . For , had they been under the influence of his will , a doubt , a moment ' s pause of irresolution , a forgetfulness of a single action at its appointed time , would have terminated his existence . Now when man sees that his vital operations could
not be directed by reason , that they are constant , ancl far too important to be exposed to all changes incident to his mind , and that they are given up to the direction of other sources of motion than the will , he acquires a full sense of his dependence . If man be fretful and wayward , and subject to inordinate passion , we perceive the benevolent design in withdrawing the vital motions from the influence of such capricious sources of action , so that they may neither be disturbed like his moral
actions nor lost in the moment of despair . AVhen man thus perceives that in respect to all these vital operations he is more helpless than the infant , and that his boasted reason can neither give them order nor protection , is not his insensibility to the Giver of those secret endowments worse than ingratitude ? In a rational creature , ignorance of his condition becomes a species of ingratitude ; it dulls his sense of benefits , and hardens him into a temper of mind with which it is impossible to reason , and from which no improvement can be expected . —Sir Charles Bell .
SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF AA oaiAN . —Unless our women be brought up in modesty , and with industrious and religious habits , it is in vain that we educate the men . It is they who keep the character of men at its proper elevation . — De Fellenherg . THE CEDARS OF LERANON . —One of the first travellers who has given any particulars of Mount Lebanon is Belan , who travelled in Syria about 1550 . About sixteen miles from Tripolia city in Syriahe says" at
, , , a considerable height up the mountain , the traveller arrives at the monastery of the Virgin Mary , which is situated in a valley . Thence , proceeding four miles further up the mountain , he will arrive at the cedars , the Maronites or the monks acting as guides . The cedars stand in a valley , and not on the top of the mountain ; and they are supposed to amount to twenty-eight in number , though it is difficult to count them , they being distant from each other a few paces . These the Archbishop
of Damascus has endeavoured to prove to be the same that Solomon planted with his own hands in the quincunx manner in which they now stand . No other tree grows in the valley in which they are situated ; and it is generally so covered with snow , as to be only accessible in summer . "—{ De Art ) ., & c , p . 4 . ) About tin ' s period paying a visit to tho cedars of Mount Lebanon seems to have been considered as a kind of pilgrimage ; and , as every visitor took away some of the wood of the