Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-07-31

THE Fist IDEA OF EVERYTHING.

tAA fitNNt hii bNt btN NhbO lbONN o"e ~
squares. Long before the decade was inaugural
Cd in France, in imitation of an extinct people,
ten had been made by the typical number OF dig
itS in mammalia, as seven was the type vi the Ger
yical vertebr@, whether long and hexile as in the
giraffe, short az in the elephant, firm ~ in the
whale. or erect as in the man. Two, the patriarch
Of numerical generation. is the prevailing number
in the lowest division Of plants, the acrogenous or
howerless; thus, two, four, eight, sixteen. thirty
two. sixty.four, &c, are the number Of teeth in
the mouth of the eapulses in MOSES and it the
author Of the vestiges of the Natural History Of
Creation be right, and Oxen more than q mere
dreamer, the lower contains the germs of the
higher and from the multiples Of the simplest
form Of addition, spring both the highest forms Of
vegetable life and the widest scientific combina
tions. Three, or its multiples. is the typical num-
her of the next class Of plants, the mOnocotyledo'
nous-of plants which have parallel-veired leaves;
and also of the joints of typical digits. Was any
such scientific secret lying hidden beneath the
roots Of the old Brahminical lotus bearing the
triune GOd-Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer
us belongs EN- alphabetically TO the supreme and archie
typll HandH Four is the crystalline number-the
alphabet Of the whole geometry of crystallogra-
ply :, for crystals, like stars are under strict geo.
metric laws. Five. with its multiples, is the pre-
vaiing number in the highest class OF plants, the
dicotyledonous or exogonous, of plants with retic-
ulated veins or branches; typical also of the i'm
gers and toes of vertebrate animals, and of fire.
quent occurrence among star fishes. There are
niso five senses, five gateways by which all the
professions of knowledge may enter. One, two,
three, five, eight, thirteen, twenty one. thirty four;
any two Immediately preceding numbers giving
the succeeding one regulate the arrangement OF
the leai appendages Of plants generally, and, in
particular, Of the leaves and scales on the cones
of frs and pines. The same arrangement holds
good 10 some economic processes, and is even a
subtler form Of calculation than that which ruin
ed the unfortunate vizier. who staked a single
Grain af nnrn nm tho frat rttn p nj tho che at "a rd
TO be doubled on itself on every square on the ia
bic, and found himself a beggar at the end. Six
is the proportional number Of carbon in chemistry:
and three multiplied by two is a common number
in the floral organs of monocotyledonous plants.
Seven is found 10 only one order, heptandria; but,
as we have seen, it passes from the vegetable to
the geological world. and is the number of verte'
bre in the neck of mammalia, as well as the typ.
ical number Of rings in the head, thorax, and abb
domen of crustaccea. Eight is the dehnate num-
Der for oxygen, the most universal element in MAJ
ture, and very common in the organ Of sea jeilies.
Nine is rare as a typical number in animate ma
ture; but it has peculiar properties in its own
sphere, standing like the very Delphi of The ar
ithmetical table selfccntured, indestructible, in
effaceable, always re'appearing, whole ami entire
under every combination-like the life germ Of the
rabbis, that wonderful imperishahle bone, from
which will be reformed the whole body on the day
of resurrection, and which no violence can break,
kill, or annihilate. Ten or FIVE multiplied by two,
is found in star-fshes, and is the number of digits
on the fore and hind imbs Of animals,
So far, then, as this rapid and gu 2erfcial sum-
mary goes we have found that our calculating ma
chimes, our sums in ad lition, and our progressive
numbers were all in full force in nature, long be-
fore the Egyptian priests taught the Greek sage,
or theSaheans studied the portents OF the heavens.
Before, too, careful housewives framed that
matchless axiom of the household. Everything in
its right time, nature had put the same order into
her times, as We have seen she did into her num-
bers. The magnetic variations are periodic; the
seasons are in orders: and plants have their times
Hyacinths forced to premature bloom one year
Will neither flower nor propagate the next, and the
mis-timed watcher suffers as much from the inver
sion Of natural periods as from either anxiety OF
fatigue. Long, long before Nj. Chevreul publish
ed his Theory Of Co'ors. or the Sydenham palac
gardeners planted their complementary beds, ma
ture had repudiated all daubing Of her canvas an
inc0nguity Of coloring. and had arranged her pa
lette and her color. box according to what scientil
ic men have only just now found out to be tru
chromatic law. Never are red and blue found
the anne organ, or in actual contact on the sam
plant; and always may you find bits OF compl
mentary color put in somewhere. If you only loo
for them closely enough. Thus. il the flower |
yellow, will there surely be a purple poiD. on I'll
stalk or the leaf, or on some part of the corolla
if it be purple, then you have a golden poir
painted in instead always, in short, is the con
Elementary color obtained. though never go mil
ntely touched, on the humblest little bract or sci
al. This is a statement very easy of verifcatlol
for, from the rel points on the buds of the blu
Myosotis with its golden eyes, to the broad div
sion into purple and gold of the dignihed heart
ease; from the dark purple tips on the seedvesse
Of the yellow gorse, aud the Redeemed lilac OF II
primrose.stalk, to the violet-colored heart and u
low standings on the tender leaves Of the crimst
fuchsia, learned men say that never can you hr
a plant which does not contain in some fashi'
tho thraa nrimnl colors. aifhar sim nla. or cOmbl
ed into their secondaries.
Before Euclid existed. before Phidias and Pra
tales wrought the glories Of the Parthenon, |
fore mathenaticiaEs calculated and reasoned,
Observation-Disclosures formed a distlt
branch Of workers ia brass OF steel before lit
goes were instituted, aud men spoilt their har
writing by scrawling their examination papers
Nature, our great school mistress. calmly settl
the first and latest laws of geometry To /
star'elusters she gave geometric forms some {
made spiral, other round others again she h
tened out into u disc like shape. and others she !
angular. To her minerals she gave %mathemati'
forms and precise angles. and her crystals {
typical Of geometry. Men have named from J
cones, the comic sections which have been
hard for many a poor brain to master. And Z
only comic sections, but she also scattered a ser
of beautiful rhombOidal figures, with dehnatc q
giles, on the surface of her lime or FIR cones. liz
agOnal cells, the one from which men have fou
to contain maximum strength with maximu
space, were inaugurated in the honeycomb in t
beginning Of time, while the cycloid curve. t
2 ~swiftest line of decent discovered by Leibni
and Newton, and LliOpital-all set calculate
by John Berrouille's letter to the learned men
Europe. challenging them to solve that problem
had been solved. discovered and ~practiced cen
ries before: whenever, indeed, an eagle swoop
down upon his prey (: for he swooped in the tt
icycloid curve, or swift line Of descent.
Before the first clumsy sail was hoisted b.
savage hand, the little Portuguese man'of-war,
frailest and most graceful nautilus boat, had SKI
med over the seas, with all it's ieatbery sails sci
the pleasant breeze and before the great Brit
Admiralty marked its anchors with the Broad
row, muscles and pima had been accustomed
a anchor themselves by hukes. to the full as eff
80 tive as the iron ones 10 the government dockyar
: The duck used oars before we did; and rudd
were known by every fish with a tail, count
Stages before human pilots handled tillers
> floats on the fsherman's nets were preigured
the bladders on the seaweed the %glowworm
the FREELY held up their lighthouses before pha
or beacon tower guided the wanderer among me
"a a., lon. bacrra pbiIIina hrOugIt Orar the 4