Year: 1877

There is, we humbly think, some
thing impressively appalling in the re.


Election that everything in creation hal


been immutably fixed by strict entail


save and except the march, progressive


or retrograde, of human reason.


The velocity of lightning, the sound


of thunder. the power Of the wind,


which still goeth where it listeth, do


not increase.


The heat Of the sun, the blueness Of


the sky, the freshness of mountain air,


the solemn grandeur of the trackless


ocean, remain unaltered


The nest of the bird improves no


more than its plumage-the habitatIon


Of the beaver no more than its fur-the


industry of the bee no more than its
honey; and, lovely as is the melody of
the English lark, yet the unchanged ac-
cents of its morning hymn daily pro-
claim to US from the armament Of hea-
ven, that, in the cOnjugatiOn of the
works of nature, there are no distinc-
tions of lenses for that what is, what
was, and what will be are the same.


But it is not SO with human reason
Man alone has the power to amass and
bequeath to his posterity whatever
knowledge he acquires, and thus our
condition on earth may be improved ad
inJinitum by the labor, intelligence,
and discoveries of those who have pre-
ceded us.


Human reason being. therefore,
-huctuating series, while brute instinct
is fixed quality, there is something
encouraging in rejecting that the high
degree of instinct with which animals are
gifted, coupled with our promised do
minion over every beast Of the field,
foretells the superior eminence which
human intelligence is capable of attain
ing.


For instance, the powerful eyesight
of the eagle might have almost led a
philosopher to prophesy the invention
of the telescope, by which we have sur
passed it; the astonishing instinct of
those birds of America, which from the
luxury Of southern latitude annually |
return to wilderness nearly thousand |
miles distant, to build their nests on the
very trees upon whose branches they
we're reared, might have led him to
foretell the discovery of the compass,
which enables men, not only in one d.
rection, but in all directions, to probe
their way to the remotest regions of the
earth


The strength and the ferocity of the
lion, the tiger, and the rhinoceros might
have foretold the invention of firearms,
which have empowered US, with fearless
to seek rather than avoid,
every beast of the field.


The immense size of the whale, so
fortified by the boisterous element in
which it lives, might have led a man to
the simple apparatus by
which it is now captured.


The speed of the horse-the strength
If the ox-the acute sense eff smell in
he dog-the patient endurance of the
ship of the desert" the camel-the
tupendoOs power of the elephant-and
he swiftness of the carrier pigeons
wing, have already, by the exertion of
be human mind. one after another,
'een made subservicnt to the interest of
nan, for whose dominion they were
reated and, though we cannot deny
hat in certain instances human reason
las not yet surpassed brute instinct,
et we Should remember that in science
s well as in. religion, it has benefcially
'een declared to US, Seek, and ye
ball find ; knock, and it shall be open
d unto you"