with dirges due, in sad array, igh the churchway path we saw him borne. d read (for thou canst read) the lay, the stone beneath yon aged thorn." 1 from Heaven-'twas all he wished-a friend seek his merits to disclose, his frailties from their dread abode, , alike, in trembling hope, repose,) m of his Father and his God. LESSON CLXVIII. Jogue:-Gesler and Tell.-KNOWLES. HY speak'st thou not? wonder. der? ouldst seem a man. at should I seem? monster! Beware Think on thy chains. ough they were doubled, and did weigh me down, arth, methinks I could rise up othing but the honest pride lling thee, usurper, to the teeth, art a monster! Think upon my chains! me the link of them, which, could it speak, d give its evidence against my word. k on my chains! Think on my chains! came they on me? 'S. Beware my vengeance. ll. Can it more than kill? nnot take away the grace of life, ir report, that's rife on good men's tongues, it can pluck his brightness from the sun, with polluted finger, tarnish it. es. But it can make thee writhe ell. It may. es. And groan. ell. It may; and I may cry, n, though it should make me groan again. Whence comest thou? s. ell. Because they look for thee. The hurricane es unawares upon them; from its bed torrent breaks, and finds them in its track. es. What do they then? ell. Thank Heaven it is not thou! ■hast perverted nature in them. The earth of Astronomical Science.-N. A. REVIEW. y is certainly the boldest and most comprehenr speculations. It is the science of the material sidered as a whole. Though employed upon rently withdrawn from the sphere of human oursuit, it teaches us, nevertheless, that these objects materially affect, nay, constitute our physic The wide-spreading firmament, while it lifts itse mortal things, exhibits to us that luminary, which and life, and glory of our world; and, when this our view, it is lighted up with a thousand lesser fire cease to burn, that never fail to take their accust and never rest from their slow, solemn, and nois Among the objects more immediately about us situde and change. It is the destiny of terrestr perpetuate themselves by succession. Plants the earth, flourish awhile, and decay, and their p by others. Animals, also, have their periods of decline. Even man is not exempt from the His exquisite frame, with all its fine organs, is s to its original elements, to be moulded again i humbler forms. Nations are, like individuals, pi with a more protracted existence. The firm ea theatre of all this change, partakes, in a degree, mon lot of its inhabitants; and the sea onc waves, where now rolls a tide of wealth and pop Situated, as we are, in this fleeting, fluctuati consoling to be able to dwell upon an enduri contemplate laws that are immutable, an order t been interrupted; to fix, not the thoughts only, upon objects that, after the lapse of so many fall of so many states, cities, human institution ments of art, continue to occupy the same pl with the same regularity, and to shine with th fresh, undiminished lustre. As the heavens are the most striking specta sents itself to our contemplation, so there is philosophical inquiry, which has more engaged of mankind. The history of astronomy carri the earliest times, and introduces us to the customs, the religion and poetry, the sciences tastes, talents and peculiar genius, of the di of the earth. The ancient Atlantides and 1 Egyptian priests, the magi of Persia, the shep dea, the Bramins of India, the mandarins Fhoenician navigators, the philosophers of G L wandering Arabs, have contributed to the general mass of knowledge and speculation upon this subject; have added more or less to this vast structure, the common monument of the industry, invention, and intellectual resources of mankind. They, whose imaginations have wandered up to the sphere of the stars, like those who have visited unfrequented regions on the earth, have left there, as in a sort of album, some memorial of themselves, and of the times in which they lived. The constellations are a faithful picture of the ruder stages of civilization. They ascend to times of which no other record exists, and are destined to remain when all others are lost. Fragments of history, curious dates and documents relating to chronology, geography and languages, are here The adventures of preserved in imperishable characters. the gods and the inventions of men, the exploits of heroes and the fancies of poets, are here perpetually celebrated before all nations. The seven stars and Orion present themHere are selves to us, as they appeared to Amos and Homer. consecrated the lyre of Orpheus and the ship of the Argonauts, and, in the same firmament, the mariner's compass and the telescope of Herschel. We remark, farther, that astronomy is the most improved of all the branches of human knowledge, and that which does the greatest credit to the human understanding. We have in this obtained the object of our researches. We have solved the great problem proposed to us in the celestial motions; and our solution is as simple and as grand as the spectacle itself, and is in every respect worthy of so exalted a subject. It is not the astronomer only, who is thus satisfied; but the proof is of a nature to carry conviction to the most illiterate and skeptical. Our knowledge, extending to the principles and laws which the Author of nature has chosen it resemto impress upon his work, comprehends the future; bles that which has been regarded as the exclusive attribute of supreme intelligence. We are thus enabled, not only to explain those unusual appearances in the heavens, which were formerly the occasion of such unworthy fears, but to forewarn men of their occurrence; and, by predicting the time, place and circumstances of the phenomenon, to disarm it of its terror. |