The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1874-09-03

stsrtic from their iethargy the dull and
stupid, 20 stimulate in the human heart 8
thirst for the beauty Of Gods working
this Il one Of the first duties, As IL Is one
OF the most intense delights Of the teach
er. This ssnsitlFeness 20 beauty Is
doubtless given by nature 10 different
persons in very different degrees, but to
none has il been entirely denied, and In
childhood aud youth especially, 1t is sus-
ccpuble Of great cultivation.
Heaven lee about Us ID our infancy
tbs yuulh who daily farther from the east
Must travel stil is natures priest
And ~ the vision splendid
il pn Bis way attended.
At length the man pcrceives i die away,
Aud fade into the light Of common day"
But must this be so? II, As Words
worth says,
As trading clouds Of glory DO we come
Prom God Who is our home"
and II, as our Christian faith assures us,
we are travelling on to God who is our
home, then why may not "the light of
common day now to most Of us so dim
and faint be made to glow more and
more with celestial radiance, till il shall
/ be lost in the uuclouded brightness of
the perfect day? Surely Il is for no lack
Of beauty iu common things il only our
eyes were opened that we could see it,
/ If in youth we could only learn to kRotc
as well as to feel something of the won
/ drous lOvcliness of the world around us,
then when the senses grow dull and tn
/ bounding pulse Of youth is subdued to
/ the slower, steadier beat of age, the ideas
of beauty having become a part of the
intellectual nature, would still continue
to give pure and lasting pleasure. "A
thing of beauty is ajoy forever" and
things of beauty are very common, What
child has ever been taught TO think of
! flies except as nuisance in dog. days, or
of moth millers saye as a horror to thegood
/ housewife, to be annihilated at once
without mercy? But show him sometime
through microscope, or tell him, II you
haye no glass, how the eye of the fly is
curiously made Of hundred different
lenses, all arranged SO as to bring the
light to n single pointer how the dust
on miller's wing is composed OF minnie
feathers as beautifully arranged and col
ored as on the wing of a southern bird
then although the war of extefmination
must go on, yet the ohild's pure astonish-
ment at the discovery will give place to a
new thought Of the power of God, aud a
new respect for the little creatures He
has made.
Let us look Mt the studies commonly
taught in our schools, aud see if we can
find beauty in them. Take Arithmetic,
the commonest Of them all, quite plebeian
apparently, scorned in fact by the class
les aud the modern languages as of hum
bier birth than they. "Beauty in Arith-
moliev says the incredulous school-bey,
looking up from his slate; 81 can not see
IT," Perhaps not; but look out of yonder
window, and notice the arrangement of
each delicate, quivering Leaf upon its
stem, listen to the song Of that bird as he
is pouring out upon the vocal air bis full
hearted melody, see the rain drops spark
ling in the sun, yes, behold there the
glorious rainbow in the sky, and know
that each and all of these depend for their
exquisite perfection upon the beautiful
science of numbers. Or consider the
starry heavens, where worh upon world
system upon system, moving with incon-
ceivable velocity, with no jostling, no
confusion, no disturbance, preserves ever
an intrinsic and eternal harmony, because
kept each in its appointed place by the
Divine will, declaring Itself through the
majestic law of numbers.
Then let no schoo-boy so degrade this
noble science, this daughter OF the mind
of God, as TO suppose that her chief Office
is to make Of him clever accountant
ana enable him 10 compute interest at
| Z 81 per cent. Who that has ever stud
led Physiology does not remember with
what thrill Of delight he first learned OF
the construction OF the human heart, with
its valves, its connecting veins aud ar.
tcries? Other facts may be forgotten
afterwards; he may not be able to tell
the metatarsal boues from the mctacar.
pal; pharynx, larynX aud trachea may
be jumbled in helpless confusion in bis
ideas, but his delight in that perfect
mechanism, his love OF beauty satisfied
will remain to him an inalienable pos.
session forever, Botany is science
which iiom it, connection with flowers
may naturally be supposed TO possess
beauty; bnt its hard, unpronounceablt
names make ii rather repulsive until one
discovers the law Of the propagation Of
species Ia the higher orders OF plants and
then, as by fash Of light, the unity ot
the divine plan in the animal aud vege
table world is revealed to him, aud the
/ whole created universe has forever after
a new significance for him. So witt
Physics aud tbe other natural sciences. -
lu the words Of recent writer, 9Th,
best scientific research aud progress do
not tend downward towards a grossel
materalism, but away from Il towards
the highest spiritual philosophy lh,
light Of science tending upward meet,
that of revelation streaming downward
aud they blend together Matter. th,
more we anaIYze il, loses its grossnesl
j aud becomes transparent, showing the
J motions uncovered of Him who works in
; u- and around u aud nature is only th'
. velI with which Me cover onr ewes. tha