And on humanity much happiness; A Deity ador'd is joy advanc'd, A Deity belov'd is joy matur'd. Each branch of piety delight inspires: Faith builds a bridge from this world to the next "Nought that is right think little; well aware The doctrine of uses, as the springs of happiness, is forcibly expressed in the following passages. "If time past, And time possest, both pain us, what can please? Time used. The man who consecrates his hours By vigorous effort and an honest aim, At once he draws the sting of life and death: "Art thou dejected? Is thy mind o'ercast? Teach ignorance to see; or grief to smile! Correct thy friend; befriend thy greatest foe; Or with warm heart and confidence divine, Spring up, and lay strong hold on him who made thee." A striking view of the true origin of infidelity, and its cure. What ardently we wish, we soon believe: When fear'd the future, 'tis no longer wish'd, Instead of racking fancy to refute, A beautiful description of pious exercises. Prayer ardent opens heaven, lets down a stream Of man in audience with the Deity. Who worships the great God, that instant joins The constant care of divine Providence over the minutest affairs asserted. "For human weal heaven husbands all events, Dull sleep instructs, nor sport vain dreams in vain." A consideration well adapted to sink human pride. "Much learning shows how little mortals know, The folly of estimating men by their external distinctions exposed. It nought avails thee, where, but what, thou art; Are quite cutaneous, foreign to the man." The vanity of mere earthly joys pointed out. "Beware what earth calls happiness! beware, Is substance: the reverse is folly's creed. The proper test to distinguish between true and false joys. Or talk with threat'ning death, and not turn pale? Heaven our reward-for heaven enjoy'd below." SELECTER. No. VIII.-VOL. I. 40 THE DUTY OF PARENTS. To the Editors of the Intellectual Repository. Gentlemen, HAVING been deeply impressed by the reading of the enclosed extract, and feeling a conviction that a larger degree of wisdom concerning the very important subject it relates to could not well be compressed into a smaller compass; I make no apology for laying it before you, accompanied by my most ardent wishes, that such of your readers as are parents may practically manifest their approbation of its contents. To add any comment of my own might draw from the extract a portion of that attention which I most earnestly desire should be undividedly fixed upon its contents; I shall therefore only subscribe myself a real lover of children, and, consequently, a sincere friend to a firm and consistent system of discipline. Номо. Extract from the Epistle of the Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers,) dated in July, 1825. "WE tenderly, affectionately, yet earnestly, entreat such as are parents, or have the care of children, that they be very early and firm in endeavouring to habituate them to a due subjection of their will; that, having maturely weighed the injunctions which they find necessary to impose, they suffer them not to be disregarded and disobeyed. The habit of obedience, which may thus be induced, will render the relation of parent and child additionally endearing; and, as it will prepare the infant mind for a more ready reception of the necessary restraints of the CROSS, it may be considered, in part, as preparing the way of the LORD; whilst those who neglect to bend the tender minds of their children to parental authority, and connive at their early tendencies to hurtful gratifications, are, more or less, making way for the ENEMY and the DESTROYER." THOUGHTS ON SENSATION. THE cause of our sensation of objects has been at all times sought for, and numerous theories have been invented to account for this phænomenon; but man being naturally inclined to think and reason from the appearances of things, has generally imagined, with Epicurus, that something proceeding from the object, and entering the sentient organ, and lastly the sensory, produces there the sensation. Now any one who has attended merely to the pleasure arising from the gratification of the senses, without reflecting on the cause, would readily admit this appearance to be genuine truth. Who, for example, has not felt the various effects of music, which, by a peculiar concord of sounds, raises in the mind an ardour for fame or a feeling of glory? yet change this harmony to a slow solemn movement, and the ardent desires sink, the lofty thoughts droop, and, if long continued, the mental energy completely fails. Thus it may be said, that "It keeps the passions with the notes in play, And the soul trembles with the trembling lay." Again, who has not felt various effects resulting from the changing aspect of the day; the exhilarating feeling which the morning inspires, the placid calmness which evening or a moonlight scene breathes over the mind, and the sober sadness with which the darkness of night envelopes us? Hence it appears as if something from without flowed even into the mind, and produced its effect in a direct manner. Now, with respect to the eye, we know that light enters it, and depicts the images of the things we behold on the nervous expansion within the eye called the retina: but philosophical experiment guides us no farther. As the light cannot penetrate more interiorly, it has been supposed, that the impulse of the light is carried to the brain by a sort of vibrating action continued from the eye to the brain: but the soft texture of the nerves completely sets aside this hypothesis. Moreover Dr. Darwin, in a paper on ocular spectra, has proved that it is not impulse that produces sensation, but an action on the nerves*; as he observes, "after having looked long at the meridian sun, till the disk faded into a pale blue, I frequently observed a bright blue spectrum of *Sec Darwin's Zoonomia, vol. 2, p. 328. the sun on other objects all the next and the succeeding day. When I closed and covered my eyes, this appeared of a dull yellow." It is evident that this was not owing to mere impulse, otherwise it would have ceased when the cause was removed; but to a change of action in the nerve. It is also well known, that "the immediate sphere of activity of the five external senses are very limited feeling perceives only dryness, moisture, and temperature; taste perceives savour; smell, odour; the ears, sound; and the eyes, light. Agreeably with the above is the following passage: "The ear cannot know, much less perceive, the discourse which it draws in; but it is the interior hearing which knows and perceives; the outward ear only discerns particular sounds or expressions. The case is similar with respect to seeing." (A. C. 1953.) From the experiments of M. Flourens, the fact seems to be proved, that the lobes of the cerebrum are the only receptacle in which the sensations of sight and hearing can be perfected and become perceptible to the animal. But he does not appear to have proved this with equal certainty as to the other senses, on account of the greater difficulty of the experiment. These experiments seem also to prove, that these lobes are also the receptacle in which the sensations assume a distinct form; for when the cerebral lobe of an animal is removed on the one side, it no longer sees with the eye of the opposite side, although the iris of that eye preserves its mobility; when both lobes are removed it becomes blind and deaf: the animal thus mutilated neither itself originates any act of volition, nor performs any spontaneous movement, but when stricken or wounded exhibits all the appearance of an animal exercising its usual functions; if the animal be a frog, it leaps on being touched, if a bird, it flies on being thrown up into the fair, and so on.t E. S. has clearly shewn in his writings, that all influx flows from what is interior, to what is exterior: and that there is an influx from the soul into the body, common observation teaches. The eye not only displays the intellectual capacity, but often, also, the different affections or passions that agitate the breast: do we not see it beam with benevolence, sparkle with joy, or flash with anger? The various changes also in the other features of the face, have their origin in corresponding changes in the * See Spurzheim's Physiognomical System, p. 116. 2nd edit. + See Cuvier's Report on the Researches of M. Flourens on the Nervous System. Philosophical Magazine, vol. 61. p. 114. |