But soon shall other pictur'd scenes, • When Zion's sun shall sevenfold shine And on her mountains beauteous stand "Salvation by the Lord's right hand!” THE POWER OF GOD. THOU art, O God, the life and light Are but reflections caught from Thee! When day with farewell beam delays Through golden vistas into heaven, When night, with wings of starry gloom, When youthful Spring around us breathes, PROVIDENCE:-THE EYE. THE examination of the eye ought alone to be a cure for atheism. There is to be seen, in everything belonging to it and about it, an extraordinary degree of care, an anxiety for its preservation, due, if we may so speak, to its value and its tenderness. It is lodged in a strong, deep, bony socket, composed by the junction of seven different bones, hollowed out at their edges. Within this socket it is embedded in fat, of all animal substances the best adapted both to its repose and motion. It is sheltered by the eyebrows; an arch of hair, which, like a thatched penthouse, prevents the sweat and moisture of the forehead from running down into it. But it is still better protected by its lid. The eyelid defends the eye, it wipes it, it closes it in sleep. Are there, in any work of art whatever, purposes more evident than those which this organ fulfils? or an apparatus for executing those purposes more appropriate? If it be overlooked by the observer of nature, it can only be because it is obvious and familiar. This is a tendency to be guarded against. We pass by the plainest instances, whilst we are exploring those which are rare and curious; by which conduct of the understanding we sometimes neglect the strongest observations. In order to keep the eye moist and clean (which 138 PROVIDENCE-THE EYE. qualities are necessary to its brightness and its use), a wash is constantly supplied by a secretion for the purpose; and the superfluous brine is conveyed to the nose through a perforation in the bone as large as a goose-quill. When once the fluid has entered the nose, it spreads itself upon the inside of the nostril, and is evaporated by the current of warm air, which, in the course of respiration, is continually passing over it. Can any pipe or outlet, for carrying off the waste liquor from a dye-house or a distillery, be more mechanical than this is? It is observable that this provision is not found in fishes, the element in which they live supplying a constant lotion to the eye. I challenge any man to produce, in the joints and pivots of the most complicated machine that was ever contrived, a construction more artificial than that which is seen in the vertebræ of the human neck.Two things were to be done. The head was to have the power of bending forward and backward, as in the act of nodding, stooping, &c.; and, at the same time, of turning itself round upon the body to a certain extent. For these two purposes two distinct contrivances are employed: First, the head rests immediately upon the uppermost of the vertebræ, and is united to it by a hinge-joint; upon which joint the head plays freely forward and backward, as far as is necessary this was the first thing required. But then the rotatory motion is unprovided for: Therefore, secondly, to make the head capable of this, FROVIDENCE-THE EYE. 139 a farther mechanism is introduced, not between the head and the uppermost bone of the neck, where the hinge is, but between that bone and the next bone underneath it. It is a mechanism resembling a tenon and mortise. This second, or uppermost bone but one, has what anatomists call a process, viz. a projection somewhat similar in size and shape to a tooth; which tooth, entering a corresponding hole or socket in the bone above it, forms a pivot or axle, upon which that upper bone, together with the head which it supports, turns freely in a circle, and as far in the circle as the attached muscles permit the head to turn. Thus are both motions perfect without interfering with each other. When we nod the head, we use the hingejoint, which lies between the head and the first bone of the neck. When we turn the head round, we use the tenon and mortise, which runs between the first bone of the neck and the second. We see the same contrivance, and the same principle, employed in the frame or mounting of a telescope. It is occasionally requisite that the object-end of the instrument be moved up and down as well as horizontally. For the vertical motion there is a hinge, upon which the telescope plays; for the horizontal motion an axis, upon which the telescope and the hinge turn round together. And this is exactly the mechanism which is applied to the motion of the head: nor will any one here doubt of the existence of counsel and design, except it be by that debility of mind which can trust to its own reasonings in nothing.-Paley. Principal Works.-A Sense of Honour, Hymns, Journey through India, Poems, and Sermons. MISSIONARY HYMN. FROM Greenland's icy mountains, Their land from error's chain. What though the spicy breezes, The lamp of life deny ? Has learn'd Messiah's name! Waft, waft, ye winds, his story; It spreads from pole to pole; |