And while he feasts his ravish'd eye

On miracles of earth and sky,

With holier fervour bends before the throne

Of Him, who by a word alone,

Bade all these wonders be, and claims them for his own.

XII.

Where Science lights upon the earth,
The sterile scenes of waste and dearth
No longer look a grave:
She makes the forest disappear,
And ripening in the rolling year,

The yellow harvests wave:

Bids new-created rivers run

Along the lands where stream was none,
To fertilize the plain:

And cities rise, and myriads tread,
Where all was barren, lone, and dread,
And earth seem'd made in vain;
As if a new creation there

Had sprung, where darkness and despair
Once held their awful reign.

How various are the means by which her power
Makes man more truly blest!

Her mighty arm relieves his toiling hour,
And guards his nightly rest.

She wings his vacant hours with joy,
That else would linger, tire, and cloy;
And seems to shine another sun,
When that above his course has run.
She feeds the poet's rapturous flame,
And leads him to a nobler aim;
She gives new thoughts to cheer the soul,
Displays to hope a brighter goal;
The rugged path of fortune smooths;

With harmony his spirit sooths,

When music lulls each stormy feeling,

A seraph to his bosom stealing,

To bid his sorrows cease,

And passion sink to peace

Changing his pain to bliss, a heaven on earth revealing.

XIII.

Where'er she walks, bright Truth appears;

And Error flies from sight;

And drops the veil, that she had spread,
To keep man's vision dark and dead,

And shake his soul with fears:

From Truth's undying torch of light
She shrinks, like shadows of the night;
Like some dread spectre that appals,
When midnight's fearful shadow falls,
But melts before the morning beam,
The phantom of a coward dream.
Truth onward leads the march of mind,
Through its unbounded course,

Expands its powers, improves its force,
To aim new flights, and greater glories find.-
Ere Science came, the path of truth to clear,
She lay conceal'd from mortal eye;

Nor shone to chase one doubt, one fear

But man seem'd doom'd to live-to die,
Unblest-unguided, and untaught;
Philosophy itself was fraught

With wild and visionary schemes,
Built upon air, like maniac's dreams,
And soon, like them, to vanish into nought.
As the sun rends the veil of night,

By Science freed, truth sprang to light,
To call man's spirit forth, and point her proper flight.

XIV.

Upon Chaldea's plains of old,

By patriarchal shepherds trod,

Science alighted to unfold

The wonders of Creation's God.
There, amidst the starry sky,

She track'd the orbs that glow'd on high;
Sought each planet's course and place,
Amidst illimitable space :

In cloudless nights they glittered there,
Dazzling in the midnight air.
But now the telescope has shown
Wonders then unseen, unknown,—
Wonders that the soul inspire,
And fill her with celestial fire!
The distant planets swell to sight,
Worlds that roll above the night;
Their very moons in splendour shine,
Circling round their ruling star;
Ranged in harmony divine,

As they wheel their course afar.
Earth amidst them speeds her way,
Glowing in the solar ray:

Ev'n the sun itself but seems,
For men, a larger-brighter home;
Lit with his own unborrow'd beams;
Where night may never come;

Nor winter crystallize the streams :

View'd by the glass, the moon unveils
Her rugged scenes of hills and dales:
And, who can doubt,-where mountains rise,
And vallies yawn beneath the skies—
Where night and day alternate reign
O'er darkening sea, and shining plain,—
That such an orb was meant to bear,
The tread of living beings there?
The comet tracks its intersecting path,

Doom'd for some globe, perchance, a bolt of wrath,
Where meeting at some future time a world,
Both from the shock may reel, in fragments hurl'd.
But nobler yet, and greater far,

Remote, yet circling round the sun,
Flies swift as light each planetary star,
Its long enduring year to run.
But, far beyond where Sol e'er sends
His genial influence through the sky,
The starry galaxy extends,

Displaying to the astonished eye

Innumerable suns that shine;

Whose circling planets, at some distant day,

Reveal'd by Science to our sight,

May shine in regular and bright array ;

Brought by the magic tube, through the long realms of night.

Oh! wond'rous scene of matchless power!

Where countless worlds and systems roll;
Which, at the evening's thoughtful hour,

In silent adoration melts the soul,

Or fires it with a spark from realms above,

Where reigns the God of power, and never-dying love.

XV.

These, Science! are thy glorious works, and more,
And mightier yet, thy spirit shall reveal;

A brighter light on earth thou yet shalt pour,
Still higher raptures teach mankind to feel.

His towering spirit, prouder yet shall rise,

Through tracks of knowledge now unsought, unknown;

Until with daring wing she sweep the skies,

And, freed from earthly bonds, there plants her throne.
Oh, may'st thou spread thy reign on earth,
Till every nation know thy worth;
Call the wild savage from his den,
Competing with the brightest men:
Shed greater blessings still around,
Till woe, or darkness, scarce are found;
From pole to pole reveal thy rays,
Till the whole earth reflect thy blaze-

Aud never from this Isle retreat,
But chief fix here* thy favorite seat;
Here fire the mind-expand the soul-
And urge her to her highest goal!
And never may thy rising light

Retreat before a second Gothic night,

But robe the world and man in rays divinely bright.

J. B.

ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

LANGUAGE may be defined-the mean of expressing our ideas by verbal signs, formed by various modulations of the voice, by the several organs of speech. "Language," says Blair, "is become a vehicle by which the most delicate and refined emotions of one mind can be transmitted, or, if we may so speak, transfused into another. Not only are names given to all objects around us, by which means an easy and speedy intercourse is carried on for providing the necessaries of life; but all the relations and differences among these objects are minutely marked, the invisible sentiments of the mind are described, the most abstract notions and conceptions are rendered intelligible, and all the ideas which science can discover, or imagination create, are known by their proper names. Nay, language has been carried so far, as to be made an instrument of the most refined luxury. Not resting in mere perspicuity, we require ornament also: not satisfied with having the conceptions of others made known to us, we make a further demand,-to have them so decked and adorned as to entertain our fancy; and this demand it is found very possible to gratify. In this state we now find language. In this state it has been found among many nations for some thousand years. The object is become familiar; and, like the expanse of the firmament, and other great objects, which we are accustomed to behold, we behold it without wonder,"-and, we may add, without the least curiosity concerning its nature, or gratitude to the Supreme Being for so glorious a gift; for it may, perhaps, be truly said, that the opinion that language is of human invention is less and less general.

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Speech, the great engine of language, is, doubtless, the most ennobling of the corporeal powers of man. Inferior animals have the senses even in greater perfection, and they

* In allusion to the Institution.

enjoy also considerable intellect. There is not a faculty of the soul denied to them. It is not enough to say that the highest order of brutes equals in mental capacity the lowest order of men. They seem only to want this extraordinary power to surpass us in many respects. It may be often said of them that they look unutterable things. Such considerations alone, if we were more consistent, might rouse to an examination of the subject; and might induce a laudable resolution, in every thoughtful mind, industriously to improve this distinguishing blessing, instead of using it as a trivial boon,-instead of using it because we cannot help it: or, overlooking this consideration, a noble emulation—a spirit of virtuous rivalry-might be expected to impel us to a skilful use of that of which we have such constant need,-of that which contributes so much to our improvement, happiness, and usefulness. Indeed, the study of language has the happiest effect on the mind itself; and of this, some have been so sensible, that it has been a question with them, whether the study of language, or of mathematics, has the more beneficial effect on the intellectual powers, and the greater influence on the character? The able writer, already quoted, has justly said, that, "those who are learning to arrange their sentences with accuracy and order, are learning, at the same time, to think with accuracy and order:" the imagination becomes somewhat chastened, the judgment is employed and improved, and the memory exercised and strengthened; and, it is worthy of remark, that those who have not made language their early study, are those who most loudly complain, in mature years, of the want of memory. Moreover habits of intellectual labour are formed, and the mind thus better capacitated for the discovery, reception, and retention, of knowledge.

That language contributes, in a very great degree, to the pleasures and uses of life, no one who has the least taste for science or literature, no one who has a soul capable of friendship, no one who has enjoyed the delights of conversation,—no one who has been captivated by the charms of eloquence, can deny. It is to language we are indebted for the first rudiments of knowledge, as they sweetly distilled from a mother's lips. It is to the same medium we are indebted for the teacher's important lessons, as he introduced us to the pleasant ways and peaceful paths of wisdom. It is to this exquisite means we are indebted for the mutual manifestation of that rapturous feeling which prompted us to select the partners of our lot, and for many of the subsequent and indescribable pleasures of domestic life. It is by this happy method the wants of the distressed are pleaded, and the rights of the injured maintained; the doubts of the enquirer are solved; and the balm of consolation administered to the afflicted bosom. It is