The Arkansas advocate., 1831-03-23
From Goodrich's Token for 1851. THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE.

sbcfC 10 HoliihS iioIe cxLraOrdlnafy. than 10 observe with what obtusc. duIl. and common place impressions, most men pass through this wonderful life. which Heaven has ordained for us. Life. which, to such mind. means every thing momehtous, mysterious, prophetic, monitory, trying to the reflections, and touching to the heart, to the many is but q round of cares and tolls, of familiar pursuits and formal actieas. Their fa- thers have lived, their children will live after them; the way is plain; the boan- daries are definite; the business is obvi- ous;; and this 10 them is life. They look upon this world as vast domicil, or an extensive pleasure ground; the objects are familiar, the implements are worn; the very skies are old; the earth is n pathway for those that come and go. on earthly errands; the world IS a working field, warehouse, a market-place- and this is life.
 But life indeed-the intellectual life, strugglingwith its earthly load, coming It knows not whither, with an eternity to be experienced before if, with all it's strange and mystic remembranccs. now exploring its past years, as if they were periods before the flood, and then gath erlng them within space as brief and unsrbstantiaf as if they were tic dream Eof day--wth all its dark and tsbripht visions of mortal fear and hope; life. such life, is full of mysteries. In the simplest actions, indeed, as we'll as in the loftiest contcmplations, in tlle most ordinary feelings. as well as in the mos. abstruse speculations, mysteries meet us every where, mingle with all our sem- ployments, terminate ali our views. l Nay, the bare connection of mind with matter, is itself mystery. The ex- tfemes of the creation are here brought togetl.er, it's most opposite and ncongru- ous elements are blended. not only in harmony, but in the most intimate sym pathy. Celestial life and light minele, nay, and sympathise, with dark, dull, and senseiess matter. The boundless thought hath bodily organs. That which Iin moment glances through the im- measurable hosts of heaven, hath it's a. bode within t.se narrowsboundso of nerves. and limbs, and senses. The clay be- neatis our feet is built up into the pal aces of the soul. The sordid dust we tread upon, forms, in the mystic frame of our humanity, the dwelling place of nigh reasoning thoughts, fashions the chambers of imagery, ard moulds the heart, that beats with every lofty and generous affection. Yes, tine feeling that soars to heaven, the virtue thatis to win the heavenly crown, flows in the life-blood, that in itself Is as senseIess as the soil from which it derives its nour- ishment. Who shall explain to us this mysterious nnion---tell us where scnsa- tion ends, and thought begins, or where organization passes into life?
 *
 Turn to what pursuit of science, or point of observation we will, and it is still the same. In every department of thought we sooner or later come to re- gien, into which our inquiries cannot penetrate. Every where cur thoughts run out into fhe vast, the infinite, the in-
 
 comprehensible;tf time stretches 10 eterni- ty, place to immensity, calculation to z numbers without number,' being to h. finite Greatness. Every path of our reflections brings us at length to the shrine of the unknown and unfathoma- ble, where we must sit down and receive with dcyout and child-lke meekness, if we receive at all, the voice of the ora cie within.
 Even the purest demonstrations in 5 philosophy and the mathematics often result in mysteries and paradoxes. Mat ter that is infinite, is infinitely divisibIe. 4 drop of water may be balanced a. gainst the universe. That, gentle req der, if thou hast ever chanccd to hear of it, is the hydrostatic paradox. But there are pneumatic paradoxcs too, and me- tallic wonders, wrought in the dark and silent mine, and geologic marvels, every where disclosed in the capacious bosom ofthe earth, iii which flood and fire seem , so mysteriously to have struggled to- gether. Nor is there plant 30 humble, nor ,ysso,, by the wall, nor flower, TOT l weed in the garden, that springeth from the bosom of that earth, but it is m or ganized and living mystery. The sc crets Of the abyss are not more inscruta- ble, than tue work that is wrought in ifs