grand scheme as the C. L. S. C. This is my first year, and although I am afraid I shall prove a very dull scholar, yet I mean to do my best, and I know the good people of the C. L. S. C. will not order me to be hanged if that be a fail. ure, but will bear with me and allow me to try it over next year. My greatest trouble is to remember what I read. I have secured a blank book, and every little item of general information which I especially desire to remember I write in that book, without any reference to whether it belongs to art, literature, or history, and I intend to review this often, so that its contents will, in course of time, become familiar to me, and I may in future arrange its contents with respect to subjects and divisions. I have two children whom I mean to start in October next in the children's course, and require each of them to keep a similar book, and, if I live, they shall never be at the loss for general information that I am. [Copy of a private letter to Dr. Vincent.] "VERY DEAR FRIEND:-Allow me to bring to your notice this inclosed card of the Children's Scripture Union, originating in England, and now finding its way into many lands and homes. Could not this, or something like this, be profitably grafted on your Chautauqua course of study? I feel at liberty to mention this because sister and I are both graduates of the Chautauqua Sunday-school course of study -she, Mary Leitch, in 1878, and I in 1877-as are also my dear friends, Mittie Bebout, and her husband, Mr. Richards, who are now in Africa under the A. B. C. F. M., opening up the new mission in Umzilla's kingdom. Thus you see your Chautauqua children, once housed in the "Ark," are scattered abroad as Noah's were of old. Brother, sister, and I have been for the past two years in Ceylon, as missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M., and in our field, and directly under our care, are eighteen Sunday-schools, with an average attendance of 778 Tamil scholars. "If you would step with me into our Native Church Sunday-school some morning, and see the two hundred and forty or so of bright faces, the graded classes, the International Sunday-school Lesson Leaves in Tamil, maps, blackboard, adjoining rooms for primary and adult classes, the American organ, and the rousing singing of Moody and Sankey hymns in Tamil, you would forget yourself for a moment, and fancy you were in America, perhaps in a sideshow at Chautauqua. "The memory of those two summers at Chautauqua is among the happiest and most helpful of my life, for which I shall ever feel grateful. "I have seen stray copies of the ASSEMBLY HERALD and THE CHAUTAUQUAN for 1881, and our educated people, Tamil Christians, have been very much interested in them; and asked me if I would not ask the editor to donate, or give at reduced rates, a copy for the coming year to the Y. M. C. A. Library and Reading Room, Manefy, Jaffna, Ceylon. There are in the Manefy field over four hundred men and women educated in English, besides as many more boys, young and old, studying it in the village schools. "With prayers for yourself, and the progress of your work, I am yours very truly, MARGARET W. LEITCH." C. L. S. C. ROUND-TABLE.* DR. VINCENT: I have received this communication: "The few at the C. L. S. C. Round-Table who murmur at the cost of the required books do not express the feeling of the class in general. It has troubled many of us lest you should think the complaint universal among us. We of the *The sixth Round-Table Conference of the C. L. S. C. for 1881, held class of 1882 do feel like pledging ourselves to make our final examination, if possible, all that you desire. By request of a number of the class." Good! I do not think anybody is disposed really to murmur at the cost of the books. I think there are a great many people who are pretty well put to it to get all the money they want for all the different things they would like to have in this world, and things that seem very important. And there are some people who get plenty of money. It comes easy. Some are born into it-they inherit a fortune. Then there are some people desperately poor, and some of them very nice people—people with the odds against them. They had, for example, five thousand dollars once, and it was put into railroad stock at the advice of a very trustworthy business friend, and the railroad went to "flinders," to use a quotation from Shakspere, or somebody, and that five thousand dollars was all they had. They don't tell everybody the five thousand dollars is gone, but they have a vague hope that the five thousand, sometime, or some portion of it, may come back. There are people who get a very small salary. "One-half of this world do not know how the other half live," is an old saying. There are people whose income is so small that it requires the greatest amount of planning to do the fair thing for poor old father and mother, for the more needy neighbor, and for the sick boy to whom an orange is such a luxury. The church needs its share, and the Sunday-school needs a quarter now and then, and when one looks at the way the money comes in, and the ways for it to go out, there are a great many heart-aches in this world. Nobody ever annoys me by murmuring at the expense of the C. L. S. C. books. I have suffered because we could not bring the prices of the C. L. S. C. books down. We tried to bring them to the lowest figure, until you yourselves know how we make it difficult to get the books because the book stores will not handle them. We have profound respect for those people, who, in spite of this struggle against fate, still keep the upper regions of life clear with the light of truth, and still try to live for the best things of this life, even though they have to fight for it. God's blessing on those people who have a hard time! And may God give a little more sympathy and self-denial and generosity to those to whom money comes more easily! "Is it necessary to read all the notes in the required books, and long headings of chapters, titles to pictures, dates on tops of pages, etc.? Some of the books would be delightful if I could do as I pleased in that matter. In Hints for Home Reading' for example, do we need to read the 'Suggestions for Household Libraries,' except for reference? The list of books, I mean." No, you need not read that list. If you go to a hotel it is not necessary you should read the whole bill of fare. There are a good many things in what are called notes. Take, for example, the notes under a page of THE CHAUTAUQUAN that contained the Origin of Nations, that elaborate thing from Rawlinson. Part are in Greek, and part in French. Of course we all know Greek and French, but then it is not necessary for us to read all of those things. Dr. John McClintock, perhaps the most scholarly minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, president of Drew Theological Seminary, and originator of McClintock and Strong's Biblical Cyclopedia, used to read a book and get all that was in it worth anything with marvelous quickness. You would be astounded if you could have watched him pick up a book, and turn over the pages, and then tell you about all there was in it. There are people who have a way of reading a book rapidly. I do not know now it comes, but the page responds to the mind that reads, and you bring it right in, and you can not tell exactly how you do it, as a person will in the Hall of Philosophy, Chautauqua, August 17th, at 5 o'clock p. play on the piano and chat at the same time. Now, there m., Rev. Dr. J. H. Vincent presiding. are some books that you can almost read in that way. You do a great service to others. Last winter we had in our church a large number of young people who were frittering away their time in amusements, hurtful to say the least. can glance at a page and see pretty much all that there is in that page. I would not call it "reading" for most people, but there are some pages of books that may be read almost as rapidly as that. It is sometimes a great waste to ponder | We spoke to the pastor about the C. L. S. C., and he gave over particular lines or pages in order to read a book. Now, don't abuse that counsel. Some one says that what you read so rapidly you can not retain in the memory. Mark the margin when you come to the idea that is on the page. If you have the thought you are just as likely to remember it by that way of reading as by the other. You know the old law we have about the memory-don't be too anxious about the memory. Forget that you have a memory, and read on, and you will be more likely to remember than if you are forever remembering how you forget. "Speaking of the cost of books, our fee at the local circle pays for one or more sets of the books, to be used by those who are not able to buy them. This may be of benefit to some one." A very good idea where you do have a local fee, and where you do not you might have a local collection and purchase two or three sets of books. We have had some consultation about a preparatory course, and Miss Washburn, who I think has left, and who is very much interested in the California circle, agreed to the suggestion which I made, as follows: That instead of selecting a set of books for the preparatory course, we select twenty books, any five of which will be accepted as one year of the required course of reading; that a committee in California select ten, that we select ten, and that we publish that list of twenty books, and any person reading five of the books will be recognized as having completed one year of the preparatory course. In that way we shall get four years of reading out of these preparatory students. I think our C. L. S. C. course is a little too advanced for the class of people about whom Miss Washburn spoke, and about whom a lady from California wrote her, and if we can adopt this plan it will suit our side of the Rocky Mountains as well as theirs. If Dr. Sample, of Ohio, is present, I would be very glad to have a brief statement from him of his manner of conducting a local circle. DR. SAMPLE: I gave a little statement here last night of how we conduct our local circle; and will you allow me to say a word as to the value that circle has been to me and my friends? When I left school I left it with some high purposes and resolves that I would not do as most men do, lay my studies aside. I engaged in professional life, and for years it was a struggle for success. Success came, but I found there came with it a shrunken mind, and I might say almost a shrunken heart, and it seemed to me with the business that was upon me, there was no time and no opportunity to engage in any work which would develop my mind and heart. I can well understand what Mr. Gough said the other day, that when he was a young man he felt mad when he saw the opportunities others had. I said to my wife sometimes, "it is not worth while to live if we are to live to accumulate a little money and die with shrunken souls." It was at this time the C. L. S. C. came to me as a messenger of light, almost. I hailed it as the very means by which I could escape from the bondage into which I had fallen. We have now worked and read two years, and I wish I could tell you how much good it has done myself and my wife. It has made a common ground on which we have gone along together. It has made us feel that from year to year we were accumulating a little more knowledge. Then, my friends, it has done me a vast deal of good in making me more efficient in the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for that I prize it. More than that, the reading of history has furnished me with illustrations and more assistance than I can tell you. Then it has enabled me to out from the pulpit a call for a meeting. At the meeting I stated the basis and plans of the circle, and to our surprise we had some forty-eight or fifty members join. During the last year we have had some glorious meetings-meetings which told on that community. The president was a young lawyer of Dayton. He took hold of the presidency with feelings of great hesitation, but he has since told me with tears in his eyes that no amount of money would induce him to forego the advantages this Circle has been to him. The reading of that book, "The Tongue of Fire," has awakened some members to a new life, and some to a life of more consecration than before. Last night as I stood by that camp fire I said in my heart, God helping me, I will go home, and I will not rest until I have done all in my power to cause this Circle to girdle the earth in a flame of living light. There is one thing that has pained me since I have been here, and that is this cry to our president and counselors to lower the standard. In the first place, if this circle is to amount to anything it must be of such a nature as to command the respect of men who are educated in the community. I shall never forget how, when I submitted this plan to a friend of mine, he said, "Young man, there is no foolishness to that; I tell you if you accomplish that course you will amount to something." It made me feel this thing was worth working for. Another fact: if it is so easy we can accomplish it without any effort we shall cease to respect it ourselves. You know how that is; anything that costs you no effort you will not appreciate. Money that comes easy, goes easy. There is no royal road to learning. During the war, at the battle of Cold Harbor, a regiment was ordered to charge a redoubt. At the word "forward" they sprang to the work. The iron shot and the fiery flame belched from the cannon, and the lines wavered. The color sergeant was far up the side of the redoubt, and the colonel said to him, "Sergeant, bring back your colors to the regiment;" but the sergeant turned around, and with flushed face and flashing eyes said, "Colonel, bring up your regiment to the colors!" So, my friends, I say to you all to-day, let us not pain the hearts of our good president, and of our board of counselors, who are spending their time and strength, not for the love of money, but for the love of doing good-let us not pain their hearts by continually crying, "Bring down the standard to us," but let us say, "God helping us, we will bring ourselves up to the standard!" [APplause.] DR. VINCENT: You are a Methodist, are you not? DR. VINCENT: I must say that there is a good deal of life about some of these Baptists. I would like to make an exhortation, but I will deny myself that privilege. Now, I want to ask you a question or two, and I want you either to send me a written answer as you have opportunity to investigate, or to give an answer at the next meeting of our Round-Table, on Friday. I have no map to consult for myself, but every one of the spaces between these columns has a meaning to me, and I want it to have a little more definite meaning. Out here in front of this platform a short distance is the centre of this building, which is the centre of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. A straight line drawn from the centre of this building, going out the centre space between those two columns, and going out, and out, and out one thousand miles, five thousand miles, and going on, and on, and on until it comes back through that central space to the centre, would pass through what principal cities of this world? Or a line starting right out from the center through this central space between the two columns, and sweeping all the way around until it comes back here to the center would pass through what principal cities? That is a question I want answered on next Friday. And I shall give the name to that space of the principal city that is reached within twelve thousand miles, and this space to the principal city within the other twelve thousand miles, and that space to the one that shall be reached within one-half way around. I want to know the principal cities through which these lines will pass, and the largest cities, and the one which is entitled to the place of honor in this connection. And if you will do that same thing with your local circle at home, or from your own house with your children, if you have children, you will be surprised at how much research it will take, and how much of geography you will learn before you are through. | outside the Bible this time. A VOICE: The discovery of America. A VOICE: The invention of printing. DR. VINCENT: I have the whole range of history through six thousand years, and I want outside of the American Continent, and outside the Bible, what you regard as the greatest event in the history of the world. A VOICE: Alexander and his career. A VOICE: The founding of the Roman Empire. A VOICE: The reformation of the sixteenth century. A VOICE: The discovery of electricity. DR. VINCENT: I do not refer to inventions. Suppose I want ten great events in history, what events would you settle upon? Do not take more than one of them from the Bible; we recognize all of them as being important. Take one from the Bible, and give me ten great events of history for next Friday afternoon. Also, please do not forget that I want to know these geographical lines for Friday after noon. I hold in my hand a little manual, not published in this country, but such a little manual as local circles might profitably use if they wanted to supplement, say for Geology, the chapters on Geology in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. These little manuals of elementary science are published in England, I think by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. They constitute a series of primers of sci Every home has some pictures in it. There are engravings, or chromos, or paintings, or photographs, that hang on the wall. There are many kinds of pictures. There are different kinds of engravings, on wood, stone, metal, line, stipple, mezzotint, etc. There are pictures of various kinds in books. No house but has its uncatalogued list of pic tures to which little hands and eyes have access at will. The minister, who sets the members of his lyceum reading union, or the leader of a local circle who sets his members on an artistic exploration to discover and classify the pictures in their own homes, is already doing a good work. | One little fellow begins with the parlor, draws his diagram of the four walls, and locates every picture, telling its subject, the class to which it belongs, the manner of its execution. Thus he goes over the walls of the whole house, and then begins to search like an Egyptologist or an Assyriolo-ence, published in the interest of Christian thought, and gist into the pictures buried in the volumes on the table or on the shelves. Criticisms upon pictures as to their truthfulness to nature or otherwise, the stories which they commemorate, the lessons which they teach-what a world of possibilities do we find in the plainest home simply among the pictures which it contains, and in how many worthy things a minister educates the children of his church when he turns them out to observe, classify, criticise, and report. Instead of going into dry, dull, weary recitations in the local circle, how many original investigations and reports of this kind may be made that bear on the subject of the lesson, making the outline of the lesson, and contributing a great deal of instruction to the class. There are fifty things that ingenuity can suggest in the way of making local circles cheery, and bright, and restful, to alternate with the severer exercises of discipline. Now, I want to ask all a question or two. I want some one to give me what he regards as the most important event in the history of the world down to the present time. A VOICE: The Creation. DR. VINCENT: The Creation being assumed, what is the most important event? A VOICE: The birth of Christ. A VOICE: The crucifixion of Christ. A VOICE: The resurrection of Christ. DR. VINCENT: You take those four events and you will be surprised to know how much of theology is involved in the answer people give to that question. People ask, which do you regard as the most important? I can tell you of a school of theology that will fix at once on the crucifixion; I can point to a school of theology that will fix at once on the resurrection; and I will give you a school of theology that will fix at once on the birth, so interwoven are the facts which impress us with the theories we hold with the systems of theology and philosophy that grow out of history. Now, taking these four principal events, give me another important event in the history of the world, and let us go | they are of course trustworthy as standards of science. There I have asked Professor Corning to say a few words to you about stereoscopic views and stereoscopes in connection with art. I am sorry to limit the Professor as to time, but I know you would like to get his hints. PROF. CORNING: I want to say a word first about the use of "Index Rerums," books of reference for the conservation of knowledge I spoke of the alphabetical arrangement of books the other day for the preservation of facts having reference to the great monuments and masterpieces of art. I recommended dividing the book for the letters A, B, C, etc., and somebody put to me the puzzling question as to how many pages to devote to A, to B, etc. I would recommend the practice which I have followed myself, and which has grown out of my experience. I would take a blank book and begin at the beginning, and as fast as I got information about a work of art I would write it down. Then I would have the pages at the end corresponding in number with the letters of the alphabet, A, B, C, etc., and I would index my book. I keep such a book as that. My first plan was to get a book lettered all the way through, but I found the same embarrassment suggested to me, and now I keep a book for the monuments of art, and whatever I want to preserve I put right down, and I have it indexed at the end. The reflex influence of such a method of study upon the mind is marvelous. You have got an objective set of pigeon holes in your books, but these can re-act on you and make a subjective set of pigeon holes. You want to train your mind so that when you read anything it will at once find its place, and so that little influence will bring it up. "A" will have its pigeon hole, not only externally in the book, but internally in the mind. It is the same mission that the crutch has to the cripple, not to be used altogether, and with servile adherence, but to educate the man so that finally he can throw his crutch aside. Now, I find after years I am not so dependent upon it, yet I keep my book, because memory can not be depended and relied upon to conserve such a large number of facts as one will get. I owe all the success I have in life, I owe all the ability I have of making a lecture, and gathering together information to give the people, to that method of study. If I had not devised it years ago I know my life would have been, in a sense, a comparative failure. I recommend all of you to commence reading in that way. You will save an immense amount of time, and train your memory. Now, in regard to the stereopticon. There is a difference between a stereoscope and a stereopticon. I wish that every local circle had a stereopticon. You can not get one exactly like mine; it is very expensive. Every pastor ought to have such an instrument to use with a calcium light to illustrate Bible scenes. What a world of good he can do with it if he will adopt it and use it! Every lecture costs a good deal of money, however, and an ordinary magic lantern or sciopticon which can be managed with good oil, is quite sufficient for the purposes of a local circle, for a Sunday-school, or for a public school. The amount of good that you can do in your family, or your local circle, with even a little instrument of that kind, which can be had for perhaps fifteen or twenty dollars, is astonishing. In reading you sometimes get hold of rare books. In my lecture on "Christ in Art" I got several illustrations from books I can not afford to buy at all. But I go to the Astor Library, or some other library, and get the loan of a book, and get it in the hands of my photographer, and so put it on glass. No one can afford to possess all these things unless he has a private fortune. Now, it is very easy to multiply them by going to a photographer, somebody who understands making glass slides, and have him put them on glass. I have glass pictures I would not sell for fifty dollars, because I can not reproduce them. Look around among rare books, or books that are not rare, and you will find pictures representing art that can not be possessed by everybody. Put them into your stereopticon, and put them on the wall of the room of your local circle, or Sunday-school, or your school room. For your scholars who are reading Greek history put on the wall the picture of a Doric temple, or an Ionic temple, and the bright picture will burn itself into the memory of the children; they will never forget it. I passed along my screen last night nearly fifty pictures. I had to do it in a great hurry, but the brightness of that picture I am persuaded burned itself into the memory of my audience so that if they ever see that picture again they will recognize it and remember it. And the usefulness of these little illustrations in impressing facts upon the mind is marvelous. A local circle in possession of one hundred slides, with a petroleum lantern, will be rich, and will be so rich that they will want to grow richer every year. Probably the last autograph written by Mr. Longfellow was that penned by him in the album of two boys who called on him on Saturday, March 18. True to his former habit, the venerable poet received the lads kindly, showed them through his house, talked with them for some time, and wrote his autograph in their album. An hour later his fatal illness had set in. The children instinctively loved the good poet, and he never allowed to pass unimproved the opportunity to make them happy. MEMORIAL DAYS. ADDISON'S DAY. MAY 1. Addison Born, May 1, 1672. Read "The Vision of Mirza," "Omnipresence and Omniscience of the Deity." THE VISION OF MIRZA. (ADDISON.) On the fifth day of the moon, which, according to the custom of my forefathers, I always keep holy, after having washed myself, and offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdad, in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here refreshing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and, passing from one thought to another, surely, said I, man is but a shadow, and life a dream. While I was thus musing, I cast my eyes toward the summit of a rock which was not far from me, where I discovered one in the habit of a shepherd, but who was in reality a being of superior nature. I drew near with profound reverence, and fell down at his feet. The genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and affability, that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with which I approached him. He lifted me from the ground, and, taking me by the hand, "Mirza," said he, "I have heard thee in thy soliloquies; follow me." He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock; and, placing me on the top of it, "Cast thy eyes eastward," said he, "and tell me what thou seest." "I see," said I, "a huge valley, and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it." "The valley that thou seest," said he, "is the vale of misery; and the tide of water that thou seest is part of the great tide of eternity." "What is the reason," said I, "that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the other?" "What thou seest," said he, "is that portion of eternity which is called time, measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its consummation. Examine now," said he, "this sea that is bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it." "I see a bridge," said I, "standing in the midst of the tide." "The bridge thou seest," said he, "is human life; consider it attentively." Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it consisted of three-score and ten entire arches, with sev| eral broken arches, which, added to those that were entire, made up the number about a hundred. As I was counting the arches, the genius told me that this bridge consisted at first of a thousand; but that a great flood swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now beheld it. "But tell me further," said he, "what thou discoverest on it." "I see multitudes of people passing over it,” said I, "and a black cloud hanging on each end of it." As I looked more attentively, I saw several of the passengers dropping through the bridge into the great tide that flowed underneath it; and, upon further examination, perceived there were innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, which the passengers no sooner trod upon than they fell through them into the tide, and immediately disappeared. These hidden pitfalls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner broke through the cloud than many fell into them. They grew thinner toward the middle, but multiplied and lay closer together toward the end of the arches that were entire. There were, indeed, some persons, but their number was very small, that continued a kind of hobbling march on the broken arches, but fell through one after another, being quite tired and spent with so long a walk. relishes and perfections of those who are settled in them: every island is a paradise accommodated to its respective inhabitants. Are not these, O Mirza, habitations worth contending for? Does life appear miserable, that gives thee feared, that will convey thee to so happy an existence? Think not man was made in vain, who has such an eternity reserved for him." I gazed with inexpressible pleasure on these happy islands. At length, said I, "Show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie hidden under those dark clouds, which cover the ocean on the other side of the rock of adamant." The genius made no answer. I turned about to address myself to him a second time, but I found that he had left me. I then turned again to the vision which I had been so long contemplating; but instead of the rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the long hollow valley of Bagdad, with oxen, sheep, and camels grazing upon the sides of it. I passed some time in the contemplation of this wonderful structure, and the great variety of objects which it pre-opportunities of earning such a reward? Is death to be sented. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy, to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at everything that stood by them, to save themselves. Some were looking up toward the heavens in a thoughtful posture, and, in the midst of a speculation, stumbled and fell out of sight. Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of bubbles, that glittered in their eyes, and danced before them; but often, when they thought themselves within the reach of them, their footing failed, and down they sunk. In this confusion of objects, I observed some with scimiters in their hands, and others with urinals, who ran to and fro upon the bridge, thrusting several persons on trap doors which did not seem to lie in their way, and which they might have escaped had they not been thus forced upon them. The genius seeing me indulge myself in this melancholy prospect, told me that I had dwelt long enough upon it. "Take thine eyes off the bridge,” said he, "and tell me if thou seest anything thou dost not comprehend." Upon looking up, "What mean," said I, "those great flights of birds that are perpetually hovering about the bridge, and settling upon it from time to time? I see vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and, among many other feathered creatures, several little winged boys that perch in great numbers upon the middle arches." "These," said the genius, "are envy, avarice, superstition, despair, love, with the like cares and passions that infest human life." I here fetched a deep sigh. "Alas," said I, "man was made in vain! how is he given away to misery and mortality! tortured in life, and swallowed up in death!" The genius being moved with compassion toward me, bid me OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE OF THE DEITY. DISON.) (AD I was yesterday about sunset walking in the open fields, until the night insensibly fell upon me. I at first amused myself with all the richness and variety of colors, which appeared in the western parts of heaven: in proportion as they faded away and went out, several stars and planets appeared one after another, until the whole firmament was in a glow. The blueness of the ether was exceedingly heightened and enlivened by the season of the year, and by the rays of all those luminaries that passed through it. The galaxy appeared in its most beautiful white. To complete the scene, the full moon rose at length in that clouded majesty which Milton takes notice of, and opened to the eye a new picture of nature, which was more finely shaded and disposed among softer lights than that which the sun had before discovered to us. quit so uncomfortable w prospect. "Look no more," said he, to "on man in the first stage of his existence, in his setting out for eternity; but cast thine eyes on that thick mist into which the tide bears the several generations of mortals that fall into it." I directed my sight as I was ordered, and (whether or not the good genius strengthened it with any supernatural force, or dissipated part of the mist that was before too thick for the eye to penetrate) I saw the valley opening at the farther end, and spreading forth into an immense ocean, that had a huge rock of adamant running through the midst of it, and dividing it into two equal parts. The clouds still rested on one half of it, insomuch that I could discover nothing in it; but the other appeared to me a vast ocean, planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little shining seas that ran among them. I could see persons dressed in glorious habits, with garlands upon their heads, passing among the trees, lying down by the sides of fountains, or resting on beds of flowers. Gladness grew in me at the discovery of so delightful a scene. I wished for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away to those happy seats; but the genius told me there was no passage to them, except through the gates of death that I saw opening every moment upon the bridge. "The islands," said he, “that lie so fresh and green before thee, and with which the whole face of the ocean appears spotted as far as thou canst see, are more in number than the sands on the seashore. There are myriads of islands behind those which thou here discoverest, reaching farther than thine eye, or even thine imagination, can extend itself. These are the mansions of good men after death, who, according to the degrees and kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are distributed among these several islands, which abound with pleasure of different kinds and degrees, suitable to the As I was surveying the moon walking in her brightness, and taking her progress among the constellations, a thought rose in me which I believe very often perplexes and disturbs men of serious and contemplative natures. David himself fell into it in that reflection, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" In the same manner when I considered that infinite host of stars, or, to speak more philosophically, of suns which were then shining upon me, with those innumerable sets of planets or worlds which were moving round their respective suns; when I still enlarged the idea, and supposed another heaven of suns and worlds rising still above this which we discovered, and these still enlightened by a superior firmament of luminaries, which are planted at so great a distance that they may appear to the inhabitants of the former as the stars do to us; in short, while I pursued this thought, I could not but reflect on that little insignificant figure which I myself bore amid the immensity of God's works. If we consider God in his omnipresence, his being passes through, actuates, and supports the whole frame of nature. His creation, and every part of it, is full of him. There is nothing he has made that is either so distant, so little, or so inconsiderable, which he does not essentially inhabit. His substance is within the substance of every being, whether material or immaterial, and as intimately present to it as that being is to itself. It would be an imperfection in him were he able to remove out of one place into another, or to withdraw himself from any thing he has created, or from any part of that space which is diffused and spread abroad to infinity. In short, to speak of him in the language of the old philosopher, he is a being whose center is everywhere, and his circumference nowhere. |