Year: 1859

Examiner.





The Pleasures Of knowledge.
"How charming is divine philosophy!


Not harsh and grabbed, as dull fools sup


pose,


But musical ns is Apollo's lutte,


And a perpetual feast Of nectared sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns."


So sung Milton two centuries ago.
and long before that date Plato had
announced that 1.-THE world is God s
epistle to mankind" II is the grand
book in which all may read. and
whose pages are so full of varied inter-
est and genial knowledge that the be-
ing who. having the power, neglccts
to study it. surely may be written
down an ass, for he deprives himself
Of an enjoyment such as no other pur-
suit can give.


We are sometimes inclined to be
vexed with our race when we find
them all toiling after every vain fancy,
some bent upon one ambition, some
another, and but minority digging
in the deep mine Of nature for the
grandest of all possessions-Truth.
Grant that its gold is not yellow,
nor its silver white, for its treasures
have not the color of material wealth,
but they are as glorious and beauteous
as the sparkle of the diamond and as
enduring as the hills. Science clothes
not her votaries in purple and fine lin
en-, but dresses them in lovely flowers
or in iridescent shells, and gives as
her reward contented mind and a
pure soul. The poetry of science
sometimes flashes in the grafton of a
professor or in the pages of a book,
but her truest epic is written upon all
materiality, which proclaims that in
all things there is a law which. when
known and applied. shall make man
happier, better and more truly human.


BY the investigation of the laws
which govern the objects that are all
around us, the motions of the planets
the relations of life and health. the
destiny of man, and tie glory of the
Deity, are better understood; and the
lighting of cottage, the building of
palace. or the cooking of dinner
are better performed. We can never
be in any position in which knowl-
edge is not of value to us. and we can
never prophecy the moment at which
we may most require it. Indeed many
of us only know that there is more to
be known than occurs to us in the dali
ly round of business life, by the dis
covery that something we do not know
is calculated to make us richer or give
us more ease. But" exclaims many
a petulant person, "how shall | study
without an instructor, or how invest
igate without apparatus?" Foolish
notionsl the best workman always
uses the simplest tools. Have you eyes
ears, nose and hands? Then you are
provided with apparatus, and memory
is the tablet on which to write down
your impressions. Each one of US is
better furnished than q college labora-
tory or professors lecture room,
and all that we have to do is to learn
the use of our apparatus; and there il
no place in the universe where man
can not find some object to interest,
some study to pursue. Goldsmith
found time to observe nature and re-
cord his thoughts, and in glowing
language he tells us that 1.-The blush
ing beauties of the rose. the modes,
blue Of the violet, are not in the flow
ers themselves, bu. in the light which
adorns them. Odor. softness, and
beauty of figures are their own, but il
is light alone that dresses them up in
their robes, which shame the mon.
arch's glory" AS . concluding in.
centive to our readers to study fol
themselves. as we'll as to read books
and scientific periodicals. we will give
. quotation from q lecture by Prince
Albert of England. Man." observe.
this eminent savanf. is approaching
more complete fulfllment of that
great and sacred mission which lie ha: