The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-08 00:00:00

IMPORTANCE OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

We find, then, that there exists rules for our guidance
in judging of the amount of exercise requisite fte. health
—rules by no means difficult to follow. Still, they are
general, not individual. Each must be more or less hie
own guide as to what is good for him. He must listen
to the kind hints, obey the kind whisperings, of nature,
who is ever watching to point out man's wanderings and
lead back to health and happiness. And thus we see that
judgment, and discretion, and wakefulness of perception,
and a certain knowledge of ourselves, are absolutely
essential that we may keep the laws of health. And here
behold the bitter bane of ignorance. Ignoranceis no more
capable of obeying Nature's laws, than vice of following
in virtue's ways. God has given instinct to the brutes,
but reason to man. They are guided in the laws of life by
instinct—man must be led to obelietin by reason. If
it were possible to find a brute existing in a manner con-
trary to the promptings of instinct, we might compare
the wretched animal to the man who is not guided by
reason in his mode of living. How clearly does this die•
monstrate that heft), e a nation can be healthful and
happy, ignorance must be rooted out. How can a people
enjoy health who do not obey the laws of health. t. and
how can they obey laws of which they know positively
nothing—of which they have sever se much as hearcl!
Let him, then, who is anxious for the advancement of his
race, show himself anxious for the diffusion of knowledge.
When a knowledge of life's laws shall be spread among
the people, when truths now known to few shall be
known to many, when philanthropy shall abridge the
hours of labour, and the poor havedt
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then will nations begin to feel how great, how strangely
great, the error of supposing that God's wonderful, beau-
tiful, perfect world is ordained as'a world of woe.' When
we cast our eyes around our country—when we look
from the families of the affluent, feeble and unhappy
from too much ease, down to the miserable huts and
hovels of our wretched, o'er-worked poor, and behold,
in every nook and corner of the land, fearful violations of
the laws ordained to govern man—when we consider that
we are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of our fel-
low-creatures who are positively compelled, whatever be
their wills, to break the laws of God to earn their daily
bread—and then when we reflect upon the delicacy of
texture, the minuteness of arrangement, the miraculous
sensibility of the organs of the beings which these laws
are designed to protect and perfect—when we ponder on
these things, should we feel surprise at the sickness and
sorrow that pervades mankind, or ought we not rather
to marvel—to marvel with awe and gratitude—at the
immeasurable power and love of Nature, who is ever
working to uproot the misery springing from man's igno-
rance.—Sepley's Lectures Oil, Bodily Exercise.

THE ZOOLOGICAL &COTT OF LONDON.—At a
monthly general meeting held yesterday at the society's
house in Hanover-square, the Right Hon. Sir G. Clerk,
Bart, vice-president in the chair, Messrs. H. Milbank.,
ere
W. Swann, E. J. Lowe, and W. Fel, jun., w
kinelected fellows of the society ; and E. Milan, J.A.J.
Turner, A. W. T. Amherst, and W. F. Low, were pro-
posed as candidates for the fellowship ; and Dr. Pache-
ran of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle of Pens, as a
thatco r corresponding eas
nap oonndgi to_th;gker
two bower birds had been presented yi
ontghmereilbeerresotlintgheasdodoiiteiotyn; The repoejartasgrzl
pards had been born. ThellB2sp bad nearly reached
fellow of the society, and the I:ittersbootfocevisilottoarsanttdo !tea
gardens ber
yeara now members elected into
340,000, and the ntin
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oeooietydhauring dbeetahea.