Southern standard., 1852-12-04
COLU NJ B u S.:
wednesday Morning, Dee. L, 1852.
The Mysteries Of Life.
By oRvILLE DEWEY.

ed Win any influences OF reIIglouS contemplation
or poetic sensibity, there is nothing more extra
ordinary than to observe with what obtuse, dull,
and common place impressions most men pass
through this wonderful life, which Heaven has or
dained for us Life, which, to such mind means
every thing momentouS, mysterious, prophetic
montory trying to the reflections, and touching
to the heart, to the many is but round of cares
and tolls, of familiar pursuits and formal actions
The fathers have lived; their children will live
after them; the way is plain; the boundaries are
definite; the business is obvious; and this to them
is life. They look upon this world as a vast dom
icile as an extensive pleasure ground; the objects
are familiar; the implements are worn; the very
skies old; the earth is pathway for those
that come and CO. on earthly errands; the world
is working field, a warehouse a market place
and this is life
But life indeed-the intellectual life, struggling
with its earthly load, coming it knows not whence
going it knows not whittier, with an eternity un-
imaginable behind it, with an eternity to be ex
perienced before it, with all its strange and mystic
remembrances, exploring its past years AS if
they periods before the Hood, and then gath
ering them within space as brief and unsub
stanlial as if they were the dream Of day-wth
all its dark and It's bright visions of mortal fear
and hope; life, such a life is full of mysteries.-l
In the simplest actions, indeed as well as in the
ofticst contemplations in the most ordinary feel
ngS, well rs in the most abstruse speculations,
mysteries meet us every where, mngle with all
our cmployments terminate all our views.
The bare act of walking has enough in it to fill
US With astonishment. If we were brought into
existence in the full maturity of our faculties if
experience had not made us dull, as well as CON
fdent, We should feel strange and thrilling doubt,
when we took one step whether another would fol-
low. We should pause at every step, with awe
at the wonders of that familiar action For who
Knows any thing of the mysterious connection and
process By which the invisible will governs the
visible frame? Who has seen the swift and silent
messengers which the mind sends out to the sub
jet members of the body Philosophers have
reasoned upon this, and have talked OF nerves,
and have talked of delicate fluids, transmitting
the mandates of the will but they have known
nothing. No eye of man, penetrating glance
OF his understanding, has searched out those hid
den channels those secret agencies OF The soul IN
its mortal tenement. Man, indeed, can construct
machinery, curious, complicated and delicate,
though far less so than that of the human frame,
and with the aid of certain other contrivances and
powers he can cause it to be moved; but to cause
it to move Hse!f to mpart to it an intelligent pow
or, to direct its motions whthersoever 1t WILL this
is The mysterious work of God.
Nay, the bare connection of mind with matter,
is itself mystery. The extremes of the creation
are here brought together, its most opposite and
incongruous elements are blended, not only II
perfect harmony but in the most intimate sympa
thy. Celestial life and light mingle, nay, anc
sympathise, with dark, dull and senseless matter
The boundless thought hath bodily organs. Tha
which in moment glances through the immeasu
rable hosts Of heaven, hath its abode within thu
narrow bounds of nerves and limbs and senses
The clay beneath our feet built up into the pal
ace of the soul. The sordd dust we tread upon
FORMS in the mystic frame of our humanity, tn
dwelling-place of high reasoning thoughts, fash
ions the chambers of imagery, and moulds tn
heart that beats with every lofty and generous at
fecton. Yes, the feelings that soar to heaven
the virtue that is to win the heavenly crown, flow
in the life blood that in itself is as senseess as th
soil from which it derives its nouriShment VIII
shall explain to US. this mysterious unlon-tell u
where sensation ends, and thought begins, c
where organization passes into life There hav
been philosophers who have reasoned about this
materalists and immaterialists; and under the
direction, the powers of matter and spirit hav
been marshalled in the contest, for ascendancy
this human microcosm; but the war has been fruit
less; the argument futile; philosophers have SCI
tied nothing, proved nothing, for they knew notf
ing.
Turn to what pursuit of science, or point of OF
servation we will, it is still the same In ever
department and study we sooner or later come
region into which our inquiries cannot penetrat
Every where our thoughts run out into the vas
indefinite, the incomprehensible; time stretches
eternity, place to mmensity, calculation to ''nun
bers without number" being to Infinite Grea
ness. Every path of our reflections brings US
length to the shrine of the unknown and the u
fat6omable, where we must sit down, and recei
with devout and childlike meekness, if we recei
at all. the voice of the oracle within.
Even the purest demonstrations in philosopl
and the mathematics, often result in mysteries al
paradoxes Matter that is finite, is infinitely {
visible. A drop of water may be balanced agar
the universe. That, gentle reader, if thou hs
ever chanced to hear of it, is the hydrostatc paT
dox. But there are pneumatic paradoxes too, a.
metallic wonders wrought in the dark and slle
mine, and geologic marVels, every where disclos
in the capacious bosom of the earth, in which fo
and FIRE seem so mysteriously to have struggl
together. Nor is there plant so humble. no hy
sop by the WALL nor flower nor weed in the gard
that springeth from the bosom Of the EARTH but
is an organised and living mystery. The seer
OF the abyss are not more inscrutable, than t
work that is wrought in its hidden germ. 7
goings on Of the heavens are not more inccmp
hensible than its growth as it waves in the bree
lts life, that which constitutes its life, who can
as What II Is? The functions that contribute
ID growth. howurinR and fruit the Ijrocouges