Year: 1860

flourished and died and whose eye
but his, has seen the myriads of revo-
lutions during which the immense fos-
sils bearing beds were deposited I? we
cannot comprehend these things.


Our noisy years seem moments in
the being of the eternal silence, the
granite pebble which we turn over so
needless and careless, is older by mill
lions Of years than the oldest of our
race and when was it created? Ques-
tions like these we can no more fathom
than we can tell the form and number
of the inhabitants of the evening star


But though philosophers have never
yet demonstrated, what was the prim-
tive state of things in the material
world from which the progressive state
took its departure, they can still go
very far back, determine many of the
remote circumstances of the past
sequence of events, ascend to point
from which our position at last seems
to near the origin and exclude many
suppositions respecting the origin itself
and this boundary of human knowl-
edge.


Ptolemy the Egyptian King, and
philosopher instituted system where
in the earth was said to be the centre
of the system (and it is one that the
mind would adopt upon casual thought)
and that the Snn, Moon, Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and all
the celestial revolved around it, and
beyond the whole was supposed to be
the grand Premium Mobile, sphere
to the surface of which the stars were
all attached and revolving around the
heavens in twenty four hours. But
they could not comprehend the irregu-
larities and new motions that every
where presented themselves, and the
brain grew dizzy, but amidst all this
confusion bright luminary arose and
with a master hand dashed aside the
crystal spheres of the successors of
Ptolemy, substituting instead the sim
plicity of truth.


This man was Nicolas Coperincus,
and at this time the Egyptian school
was in their glory but their hour of
triumph was short. Error which had
sat like cloud upon the noun
tain top overshadowing all below,
was ready to vanish before the bright
beams of the sun of truth. 1t required
indeed bold mind to disregard all the
religious dogmas of the times and
methodist system which moved the
earth from its foundation, stopped the
revolution of the armament, made the
sun stand still, and subverted all the
ancient order of the universe. Such a
mind Coperincus possessed, but his
modesty prevented him from publish
ing his views, until at so late a period
that he only lived long enough to see
a printed copy of that work that was
to gain him immortal honors. About
this time he was occupied with weigh
tier cares, about to test the realities OF
1


that unknown world whose mysteries
sages have endeavored in vain to un-
derstand. Gallileo, the perfecter of
the telescope, had his life so embittered
by the prosecutions of the Lomish
church, for the doctrines he so nobly
advocated were supposed to contradict
the Bible, that a: the age of 10, he was
a most humiliating spectacle. A hoary
headed man, with trembling voice ab
juring what he knew to be the truth
detesting as heresies, those doctrines
and immutable truths which the Almigh
ty had permitted him to establish and
with his hand on the gospel, ,ayowed his
belief that the earth was the centre O
the system, and all through fear, O
death. Would that the strong spirit
that sustained the early martyrs to re
ligion had sustained the martyr of sci
ence, but the feebleness of aye was up
on him and tormented and worn on
J by long persecution he sank, and nevel
said or wrote more on the subject Re
, ligion and philosophy can never conflict
for they are based on the truth ant


therefore immntable. We are so &C
customed to behold the fair orb o


night as she illumines quiet and sleep
ing earth, and so wont to gaze on tn,
ever twinkling and bright stars, tina
we have long since ceased to think o
our earth as minute orb, smaller b,
far than many of those upon which W,
turn such careless eyes now. W.
rarely, if ever. imagine that its presen
surface was once the bed of vas
|, ocean that It's crust has been caused t,


heave and swell like sheet upon TIL
E waves, uplifted by internal fires, unit


the drained surface has cracked ope
and the flames and motion rock foun,
egress. Careless from thousand cans
: es, We deem ourselves like the conceile,