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MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES.

Voluntary means willing, or acting by choice. Involuntary means not done willingly, or not by choice. A man speaks voluntarily; he coughs involuntarily.

Experience. What we have tried, seen, and known, is our experience.

Prejudice is an opinion formed without experience, or correct information.

An instrument is a tool, or means conducive to some end. A knife is an instrument, so is a writing containing a contract or order.

Organ is an instrument fitted by the hand of God for the use of his creatures. The ears are the organ of hearing; our mouths are the organ which conveys food to our bodies; the lungs are the organ of respiration; and the root of a plant is the organ which conveys nourishment to its stalk and leaves.

Organization is the manner, in which organs are placed, and fitted to one another. A fly has six legs; a fish has none. These two creatures have a different organization.

If you notice the parts of a stone, you will see they are alike; for it has no organs, no eyes, mouth, or root; it is not an organized being.

Element implies the first or constituent principle of any thing. A letter is the element of a word. Flour, water, salt and yest are the elements of bread.

The top of a house is called the roof.

The lowest part of a house is called the basement.

The lowest part of a thing, or that part on which the upper parts rest, is the base or basis.

A little roof over the door of a house, and supported by pillars, is called a portico.

Architecture is the art of building houses, churches, &c. Cupola is a little building raised on the roof of another building.

The commodities, sent away in ships, are called exports. The things which are brought back, are imports.

Pure means without mixture. To say clear brandy, when it is not mixed, is not correct; for it is pure brandy. Water alone in a glass, is pure water; brandy alone, is pure brandy; but mix them, and then neither is pure.

When children learn their letters, and how to put them together, and spell words, that is orthography.

When a person learns what language is, and how words should be placed in sentences, that is grammar.

When we learn respecting lines, circles, angles, surfaces and solids, that is geometry.

If we are learning what has been done in times past, that is called the study of history.

When a person is learning the reason of things, he is attending to philosophy.

To learn of what the earth is composed, is to attend to geology.

The study of plants and flowers, is called botany..

ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.

"The primitive stock, from which our race is derived, must have commenced their being either in an infantile state, or else in that of manhood. Infants or adults they must have. been. If the former, they could not have reached maturity :--they must have perished for lack of nurture. They must, therefore, have been adults. And, on the hypothesis, that the first pair came into existence in a state of adolescence or puberty, then, when they first saw the light, and the creation around them, they must have had some information concerning their origin;-of the source from whence they derived their principle of vitality, and their control of the animal tribes. Should we pass over the biblical narrative of the primitive formation of man, still the primeval pair must have possessed a consciousness of their origin :-they must also have remembered, when they first saw the sun, and inhaled the air, and the first time they ate.

"The mere philosopher, however, is not aware of the conattendant upon the extinction of the lights of revesequences lation. To these he is indebted for many an idea which he otherwise would never have conceived. Destitute of knowledge by the medium of revelation, in what manner would the first pair of human beings have known how or what to eat? Upon what principles would they have set about the process? They might have felt the pain of hunger, without knowing either the cause or the cure. And, if they could have learned to eat from observation, or from experiment, they might not have known what to eat. But, the sacred scriptures, without speculating upon the causes of things,

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state facts which lead us to think correctly, if we form ideas according to the narrations of these divine oracles. Hence, we find the revelation was immediate and direct upon this point.

"Let us bear in mind this proposition:-the first man inust have remembered the first time he saw the sun, ate, drank, and slept. This he could narrate, and would be most apt to relate to his own offspring; for no information is more gratefully tendered, nor more ardently received, than that which respects the beginning of things. The inference is, that nothing is more reasonable, than that the origin of things would be the first and most important of all traditions; and so we do not find any ancient nation, whose history has come down to us, that has not some account of its original; and most of them have some narration of the origin of all things. Now, it is scarcely conceivable, that the first pair, remembering and being conscious of the first time they saw the sun, should be left ignorant of the Author of their existence, and of other important facts and principles.

"That man was, in his first estate, designed to converse familiarly with his Creator, the scriptures teach us; and, not until he became a transgressor, was this familiarity interrupted. Experience and observation show us, that he is inferiour to the animal creation as to instinctive powers; and this truth goes far to convince us, that he is not constituted to be governed by instinctive principles, or he would have exhibited them, in at least as much perfection as the animals of the earth.

"The several steps of this argument, are as follows. The first human being was formed an adult. When first he opened his eyes, his intellectual and moral faculties, and his senses, were both in meridian strength. He could not but be sensible of the existence of his Maker. As to the first time he saw the sun, ate, drank, slept, and awoke, he must have often reflected upon these first acts of his existence. He would delight to tell them; and his offspring would be most curious to hear their relation. Traditionary information upon these subjects, is as natural as walking, talking, eating, or any of the most ordinary acts of a human being.

"I would now make the inquiry, aside from the information communicated to us: How could we answer the interrogatory; From whence, or in what manner, did man spring into being ?-Experience does not enable us to resolve

this question;-reason is entirely inadequate ;-and, it does not suffice us to know, that man exists; and, that he is so constituted as to be able to produce the effects of which we see him capable.--What has man been-whence did he come-what will he eventually become-what his final destiny? What was his origin?-Is he a privileged being in nature?

"Shall we admit, that it cannot really interest man to discover his specifick origin, since it is impossible for him to render a rational account, as this is a question beyond the utmost reach of human intellect? As well might any one reply, The stream of human vitality is not worth tracing to its source; or, in pursuit of self knowledge you must not begin at the original of your being. But, I would appeal to the whole world, and ask every man, woman, or child, if the principle of curiosity be so intensely active upon any other point of human inquiry, or human investigation, as it is in tracing up this stream of vitality to its fountain, in order to ascertain the peculiarity of the origin of our species ? It is a point which elicits some of the earliest developement of infantile curiosity, or love of knowledge. Who made me? Whence came I? are interrogatories amongst the first questions, put by the infant catechist to his senior. And, if we should obliterate the Mosaick account of the beginning of the human race as unworthy of a place in the sacred volume, what a sad blank would remain, respecting this first and intensely interesting chapter of man's history.

THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.

"The sacred writings inform us most emphatically, that the first colloquies ever held upon this earth, were between the great Creator and our first parents, who were the first ancestors of our race, the repositories and propagators of speech. In the book of Genesis we are taught, that the first human pair talked with God. Hence, the inference from the fact, that the Lord first taught man to speak, is, that the art of speaking is a gift divine-not native and inherent in the family of man originally as a mere human invention.

"Moses' relation concerning the subject of words as expressive of ideas, is, that God called the animals in Paradise around Adam, who, by his skill in speech, named them. We

are also told in the same account, that, in giving names to each, Adam's nomenclature was correct. And, although in tracing the phenomenon of language up to the root, we cannot, on philosophick principles, account for its origin; yet, revelation has decided this point, and given us all necessary information. Whether the original root of language was Hebrew; or some other eastern idiom of speech, is rather a matter of philosophical curiosity than of importance to the present argument, as there can be no question, that the origin of all languages must be traced to the same fountain.

"In the Adamick nomenclature of animals respect was had to their qualities or nature; therefore the idea of the distinguishing trait, or characteristick peculiarity of each species, must necessarily have existed, before the animal itself could have been designated by any specifick name. And, if the Hebrew was not the first language ever spoken, it has, nevertheless, internal evidence of having been predicated upon these primitive, elementary principles, as its zoological nomenclature is always analogous to the characteristick quality of the animal. Thus, the original Hebrew names of many of the beasts and birds of that region, are apparently formed in imitation of their natural cries or notes; in which sound the lowing of the one, the bleating of another, and the braying of a third, seem to be imitated. The original name of the raven was doubtless taken from its hoarse croaking; that of the sparrow from its chirping; that of the partridge from the note she uses in calling her young; and that of the turtle dove from its lonely murmur, when she coos. Many other instances of the kind might be produced; but these are sufficient to show from analogy the great probability, that some of the first names, given to the several tribes of animals, were derived from their respective notes.

"In the primitive formation of language respect was not only had to the analogies and accordance of articulate and inarticulate sounds, or to the vocal peculiarities of animals; but cognizance was taken also of other characteristicks. Hence, the camel was called gimel, because supposed to be of a vindictive temper. A sheep was called rachel, on the account of its meekness. The ram was named agil, because of his agility. In like manner a goat received the name, sair, from his being singularly hairy. And now from these premises the conclusion naturally follows, that speech originally is as legitimately the subject of divine communication as re