ing and condensing the excellence of them all, and hoarding in his mind their combined and various knowledge. Nor is it any wonder that so great a genius, whose length and breadth and depth and height are measureless every way by common intellects, should be so used per force. Like Newton in the school-class of mathematics, when as a boy he skimmed over the pages of Euclid, and took the whole in at a glance, Johnson was not to be stopped in the midst of his intuitive perceptions by the slow process of ordinary teachers: long before his author he had arrived at just conclusions, and often where from his own elaborating mind he could of the same materials have worked out richer substance, no one can wonder that he eschewed at once the tardy pace, and unsatisfying viaticum of the common class of books; and so by racing when his author would have walked, and digging where another would have sped, he gained, commendably discursive, the wealth of universal knowledge. To wade through the dull slough of a tedious work may be a proper system of instruction to punish idleness and to promote industry: but let not high genius, such as a Johnson's, be trammelled so unworthily, nor judged so harshly. Through desultory toil, he arrived at the deep things of truth, and might have written many books, of which he was accused that he had never read them: the Rambler had collected abundance of wisdom, and the Idler was high-priest in the temple of knowledge. GALVAN I. THOU marvel, life, the indescribable! Whether in spirit, seeming then concrete, Or matters' subtlest web, thy might doth dwell, Climbest the fir, and grovellest with the worm, Reignest in man, and ridest on the storm Peopling far worlds,-how many who can tell?The simple universal breath of God: We, darkling children, may not compass more One cause, though Legion in effect and name, And with Galvani gratefully adore. It is a curious question, and open to much speculation and experiment, whether electricity, galvanism, magnetism, motion, light, and heat may not all be summed up in one syllable, Life. The connection of the three former with each other is now established beyond a doubt, by practical philosophers who have improved upon the original idea of Ritter, certainly the first discoverer of that interesting fact; he having by means of the galvanic pile charged a louis d'or with both positive and negative electricity, and by the same means magnetised a golden balanced needle. Perhaps, not long hence, the three influences will be found to be identical, or merely modifications of each other. It would not be difficult to show that motion, light, and heat are similarly connected both with each other, and with the one unseen fluid, although to speculate on such a point without experimenting is dangerous. Probably when all the six properties, or energies, are better known, the great secret, what is Life, will be near its revelation. But on these hidden things, it is becoming to throw out no more than a loose and humble hint. There is a great deal to be done some day by the Christian philosopher in critical exposition of the accuracy of casual allusions to scientific truth scattered in the scriptures, chiefly in Job and the Psalms. "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing;" "he sendeth forth lightnings with rain, bringing the wind out of his treasures;" "the water above the firmament," "the foundations of the great deep broken up," and many such passages, will, if closely examined be seen to contain more than meets the eye. It will be found that the Author of the inspired volume, though only incidentally touching upon other than moral truth, still is philosophically accurate in science, wherever it is alluded to. True, things are spoken of as they appear to ordinary men; as for example, even a Newton, or a Bacon, would not scruple to use the terms, sunrise and sunset, although well aware that the apparent motion is really that of the world round its axis: but still, beyond the surface, the diligent and keen enquirer will find much unsuspected knowledge. As a slight obiter instance, take Joshua commanding the sun to stand still let the reflecting astronomer consider the hidden wisdom of the addition, " and thou, moon:" not that Joshua was aware of it, but that he was over-ruled to be accurate here; and that, probably because it is philosophically inaccurate to speak of the sun standing still; the fact being that the earth rested on its axis: but when we consider what a contradictory moral influence it would have had on the contending armies, if Joshua had bidden : the earth stand still, and behold, at such seeming presumption, the sun stands still, we shall perceive at once why the successor of Moses was commanded to say, "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon," and to add," and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon." But these hints of philosophy in scripture are deep things, and it is not he that runs who can read them : neither is the present writing so foreign to the subject as may seem, for galvanism, or whatever be its name, being a law of nature, may be perceived in more than one passage of the thirty-eighth chapter of Job, and elsewhere. But it is time to say a word on our specific thesis. Lewis Galvani, of Bologna, was a distinguished physician of the last century, and will be known to the latest posterity by having associated his name with the secret of science he discovered. His private character was one of the most amiable and unexceptionable the history of our kind has produced from earliest youth to the grave of a sexagenarian, true and undefiled religion, (albeit he was a Romanist,) was his rule of life and his support in death: he married the object of his constant affections, and bewailed her loss with unchanging sorrow he lived useful, and toiled not vainly for a lasting fame in those evil days for Europe, which succeeded the first French Revolution, he was strong in his abhorrence of republicanism, and, indeed, despite of years and honours, was in temporal things made a martyr by the bad men then |