Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1846-04-15

poet OF our own language WIFE tnat equally imPor-
tant addition
"-Presume not God to scan
The proper study of mankind is man.
The study of man, as he is chiefly known to each
individual of the race, in himself, and he may be
seen infinitely diversified in his kind, is the appropri
ate study of life And in this theme life time is not
unworthiIy employed. For though of the heavens
above of the earth beneath of the universe around,
we can never 'Look through
'Thc bearing and the ties
The strong connexions, nice dependencies;
Still we may "cxpatiate DER this scene of man,
This mighty maze, though not without plan,
This wild where weed and flowers promscuous shoot
Or garden, tempting with forbidden fruit,
Eye natures walks, shoot folly as it flies
And catch the manners living as they rise.
The study of MAN, embracing his relations to the
world he lives n and to that to which he is destined
whether we disposed to pursue it in the present
aspect of the race, in better more perfect view,
which imaginations may easily PICTURE. is moth
ing else than the study of the "Formation Of Char
acter." What man is, he has become, if we except
ak that will allow to except the faint germ
of all his moral faculties which may accompany him
into the world. The infant never has the fendsh
malignity of Richard, the divine benevoence of
Howard.
The germ, the moral '.ris Gnim, the spark of life
is there but the surface of the Summer Lake is not
quiet than the sleep of the passions in infancys
breast. The storm may and will ruffie the one and
awake its waves 80 fury, and the rude storms of life
will awake the sleep of the ether but what direction
they shall take, depends, think, if the Deity has
rightly ordered his work, on the influence which is
brought to bear upon thom.
To the observer of man in his actual condition, he
appears to be net only such he has in process of
time become, but he appears to have mould
ed his character far by the influence of crculn
stances around him, than by the exercise of that
derful presiding faculty, reason, which than any
thing else distinguishes him in the animated creation
The conformation of his anatomy, the tnts of his
skim and the variations of his features are not so n
merous as the phases of his mind nor so attributable
to the climate of his nativity, these to the cir
cumstances of his life.
The pagan, pagan born, pagan dies The Ma.
hometan also, and the Jew, and in almost the same
extent the Catholic and the Protestant, bring their
creeds from the cradle and descend with them to the
grave.
The language in which his father speaks is his Ian
glla ge: 1t was formed and fashioned by the genius
and spirit of ancestral ages, and is now the NIGH
ty power which stamps its impress On his mind
Clothed in this dress, the very ideas which his fore
fathers to unuumbered generations have cherished,
take possession of his soul, and the life of to-day is
but repetition of that gone before. In far. the
greater part of the world the Goddess fashion,
has no sway and Man is what he years ago
even in his habitations and habiliments. In short,
among the unenlightened, and untutored portions of
the race, the faculty of imitation, mingled with much
of veneration, determines Mans character Imitation
but little above the instinct of brutes becomes the
dominant power of that soul whose capacities for
observations and for research in the universe around
it, is only bounded by the mperfections of the mate
rial instruments with which it assists its flight. For
could the Telescope pierce TO the arhest bounds of
space, and the earth in its annual motion, bring the
whole concave armament to view nothing but the
shortness of life, would prevent the human soul, with
its present capacities only, from grasping in go
rious sublime comprehenson the entire universe of
matter.
Said the scriptural poet "what is man that thou
art mindful of him. but this was the pious, humble
ejaculation of one whose eyes were turned from him
self, to the works of the Deity above him. No won
der that with the glory of thatDeity pouring upon his
vision from thousand worlds, and his praises chan
ted by myrads of rolling spheres, he should feel his
own comparative ttleness, and should thus address
the author of this sublime harmony. But, reverse
the view, consider man as the workmanship of the
same author, and so far as he is endowed with ra-
tonal soul, his very image, capable o. comprehen-
ding thus the works of God and who, in view of what
he is and OF what he may be will not say 'Man know
thyself," GALL knowledge that is, all proper knowl-
edge centres there" s~- I'D -
To "know Man," to know of what improvement