has included more than one chaotic convulsion.

It

has once, at least, already undergone a fusion by fire, as well as an universal submersion by water.*

It

* What, asks Tayler Lewis, in his Phi Beta Kappa Discourse on Naturalism, what is this marred and still chaotic earth on which man dwells, that after so many geological convulsions she should be supposed to have reached a harbor where she is secure from all danger of any future wreck; or to have arrived at a state in which there is to be, henceforth, an everlasting onward movement unto all physical excellence? In other words, what is there in her present anno eternitatis, the present epoch of her palæontological chronology, to shield her from the apprehension of any future Plutonic fires, or outbursting floods, or continents upheaved, or oceans settling down, such as have begun and ended many a cycle in the long past periods of her interminable history?

Lecturers on astronomy sometimes attempt to prove the stability of our world and of the universe. That may be if God wills it. A belief grounded on the divine word or promise would be in the highest degree rational; but science never has shown it, and never can show it. Neither does it require any great amount of science to detect the fallacy of the pretended demonstration. It all proceeds from applying to a part of the phenomena of the universe (a very small part, too, even when we take into the account the utmost the telescope has ever reached) what can only be sound and conclusive when it embraces all actual and all possible phenomena, and then, too, only by bringing in something above nature as a regulative force. The animalcule in the snow-flake (supposing him capable of scientific reasoning) might as rationally infer the perpetuity of his own crystallized habitation. He has all the arguments that can be drawn from the most perfect beauty and regularity of structure; all that can be drawn from the laws of equilibrium; all that can be drawn from what might seem the most exquisite harmony of means and end. Its form, too, and its organization may have remained unchanged for long centuries in some polar latitude; and yet how brief a transition to another climate may reduce it, together with the iceberg universe, of which it forms a part, to a state of utter dissolution. From any objection arising out of the minuteness of the comparison, we appeal to one of the most rigid formulas of the pure reason. The largest differences between parts become small, beyond all commensurable ratio, when both are viewed in reference to an immeasurable whole. The snow

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259

may, then, naturally speaking, without any other evidence than this collateral line of proof furnished by the present existence and activity of volcanoes, it may include in its future history another period of fusion by fire, when, by the gradually advancing vehemence of its vast central furnace, the pent-up energy of internal combustion shall exceed its ancient bounds, and get vent as never before. Then how easily, in the space of a week or a day, might it destroy all the structures of the earth's surface, and leave nothing undissolved that is of the nature to be molten by intensity of heat.

Such, then, it is a remark of Isaac Taylor, in the Physical Theory of Another Life, being the probable fate of this planet, and perhaps of others of the system, "it is what we are to be looking for; and our position is like that of the occupiers of the vine-valleys on the trembling flanks of Ætna or Vesuvius, whom we may imagine to have been informed, or to know on some rational grounds, that by the slow but incessant enlargement of the fiery abyss beneath them, the entire crust and frame-work of the mountain must, within some calculable period, fall in, and the vast circuit of its base be converted into a sea of flame and sulphur. On just such conditions do the human family tread, from age to age, the soil of their native planet."

With what reasonableness and force, then, does Peter argue, Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy

flake has a greater ratio to the earth, that is, is a greater part of the earth than the earth is of the universe.-A Discourse on Naturalism. By Tayler Lewis, LL.D., Schenectady.

conversation and godliness; looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, when fire shall have purged the old. That final purge will come (none know how soon), when all things are ripe for the dread consummation, though it be at such a day and hour as we think not. Then, as we are instructed in one of Milton's early dramas,

Even that which mischief meant most harm
Shall in the happy trial prove most glory:
But evil on itself shall back recoil,
And mix no more with goodness: then, at last,
Gather'd like scum, and settled to itself,
It shall be, in eternal restless change,
Self-fed and self-consumed; if this fail,
The pillar'd firmament is rottenness,
And earth's base built on stubble.

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261

CHAPTER XIII.

A DIAMOND IN THE

ROUGH HOW IT WAS QUARRIED;

WITH NOTES ON ITS LOCALITY AND ASSOCIATES.

No man e'er found a happy life by chance,

Or yawn'd it into being with a wish;
Or, with the snout of groveling appetite,

E'er smell'd it out, and grubb'd it from the dirt.

YOUNG.

He is the happy man, whose life e'en now
Shows somewhat of that happier life to come;
Who, by Love divine and perfect Wisdom,
Appointed to a state obscure but useful,
With it is pleased, and, were he free to choose,
Would make his lot his choice.

COWPER.

In the great scheme of Providence there is a niche, prominent or secluded, for every man to fill; there is a circle of usefulness and enjoyment for every one to revolve in, without infringing on any other, if he can but find it. Happy is he who early in active life gets into it; who traces the round of labor, where Providence has cast his lot, with cheerfulness and alacrity, his time divided by a wise method, and duties running orderly into duties, but no more clashing with each other, or crowded out of place, than the hours are jostled or trodden upon by one another in their everlasting rounds.

I have found several such niches and spheres of

motion exactly filled at these islands, whose occupants, if free to choose, as free they have been under God for their guide, would make their lot their choice. They are, consequently, useful and happy, and the whole world of mankind feels their benign influence, although to a casual view it might seem not to extend at all beyond the narrow circle they steadily move round in. When Shakspeare makes Portia say

to Nerissa, in the Merchant of Venice,

How far that little candle throws his beams!

So shines a good deed in a naughty world,

he happily utters a truth, of which I have several times been certified by exemplification, in the course of my travels through this far land. There are candles shining here, whose rays, because we would like to see them beaming to the ends of the earth, we do therefore gather up as we go, and endeavor to reflect them from the pages of this book.

Even the district of Kau, though distant and unknown to the great world, has its own lamps, both native and missionary, by which I have discerned some things in mental philosophy and theology clearer than I had seen them before, and have found practical confirmation of other truths by instances of no little value.

Thus there is a fine saying of Augustine, which I have often pondered, and which every man who has truly learned the Gnóthi Seauton of the ancients has found the truth of, namely, that a man must first descend into the hell of his own heart before he can ascend to the heaven of God. That is, plainly, a man