Eastern times., 1856-02-21

Lyceum Lectures.


The eye is royal endowment of the sens
es. We stand on square foot of soil, yet we
make the whole creation our own. All knowl-
edge comes through the senses, ye. sight takes
only the surface. Senses convey Impressions
1t is the mind that draws food from the senses
1t is mind that gires insight. Education is
process. There are laws deeper than the facts
caught by hasty glances of the senses. We
in reality do non begin to know anything until
we see the things that are invisible. The
sage and boor ride like two gnats, on the side
of wild rhinocerous. Yet one computes the
size of its Alpine warts, estimates its whole
age, from its pulpy substance to the hardening
of its rind.
Cuvier studied the science of comparative
anatomy, by which anatomists of the present
day, are enabled 10 determine by examining
fraction of bone, the whole structure of the
animal TO which it belonged, and the age in
which it lived
Everything is told in anything, if the eye
that looks through the senses be quick, and
competent. In science one fact leads to an
other, and that to law, and that law devel-
opes the central forces of nature.
One of the vices of the American mind is
its mechanical conception of nature. The in
sight OF beauty is more to be priced than sci
ientifc truths. Science is the prose of crea-
ton, beauty is its poetry hidden in the visible
We are richer to-day, in poetic material,
through the development of science, than any
former age of the world. The Aphrodite of
the ancients, was represented as springing
from the bosom of The ocean. The Aphrodite
of nature, that wears the rainbow fos her scarf,
and whose tunic is brilliant with the represen-
tative botany of the globe, is born from the
msts of the ocean.
In history, the man OF insight views the diff
ferent races of men like geological strata he
sees the impalpable energies that vein and os-
sify the facts, that lie scattered over its sur
face.
Statesmen require insight. The true states
man shapes his course by what he sees, and
his appreciation of the lessons of the past.
This stethescope detects the morbid consump-
iion of dying empire, whose real history is
unwritten.
The human frame is the greatest structure
in nature. Our feet are in the dust, yet we
rise through all climates and zones, our base
in darkness, yet our summit pierces the Sc
cret chambers Of the skies, the STARTLED dome
of the St. Peters of space.
The style of this lecture was grand yet sim
pie. In the loflest flights of his soaring
fancy, its eagle-wings were never hidden from
our view, by the clouds of transcendentalsm
He has shown that an intellectual production
may exhibit the sublime and beautiful in theil
highest development, and yet be ineligible
Obscurity of expression is not an unerring in
dcaton of depth of thought.
; The ninth lecture was read by RALPH WAL
f DO EMERsoN, of Concord, Mass.
. All our science lacks human side, moth
ing leallyinterests US but man. A right anC
r perfect man, would be felt to the centre Of tht
t Copernican system. The origin of scence il
: the extension of man on all sides, into nature
S Science in England or America, is jealous o
$ theory it does not make its votaries loveable
Y The boy does not wish to be like his proes
n sor. The botanist dries his herbs, but the,
: have their revenge; in time his heart becomes
e as withered as they.
+, Men are like Geneva watches, with crysta
0 faces, that repeat what is passing Within
n Every man carries in his eye the exact meas
ure of his rank in The universal scale of exs
,ence. Men are discoverabe by their physi
ognomy. In fact, we are scrawled all owe
: with hieroglyphcs, Ineligible TO the prac
tised eve.
; The lecturer now proceeded to speak of tn
first division of his subject, which was, beaut
: of face and form. Beauty is simple, it has n
h superhuous parts. Any real increase of fit
q ness to IFS ends is an increase of beauty. Ev
ery necessary and organic action is beautiful
: The effect of beauty is to disparage the val
y ue of what is valued, in the presence of fine
$ value. Our master in beauty are the Greeks
a people who possessed the finest climate
o Joined to fine national temperament.
d Beauty reaches its highest development il
5 woman. There is that in beauty which can
NOT be caressed, but which needs the utmos
: wealth of our nature 10 meet it. Persona
: beauty was an object of passionate adoratio
e in past ages. But beauty does not inspir
, love. Great qualities inspire love. Thos
! who have ruled human destinies like planets
n were not handsome men. There are faces S
II fluid with thought and emotion that we ca
hardly tell what their features are. Geniu
; has power to render the plainest face and tn
most ungainly form beautiful, and cause &c
contributes to be regarded as graces. Man
: ners are as rare ard powerful as beauty
y Manners have been defined, as contriyanc
J, of wise men TO keep fools at distance Man
a ners impress as they express real power. Th
g man within makes the man without. Eacl
'f man takes the measure of mother, each rule
e by his own personality. The lesson of natur
d is 10 be, and not to seem. Each man is a sell
+ registering machine, each act writes line o.
: his face What n man is necessarily urged 1