effect, varying only in degree. Herschel, Newton, Huygens, and other eminent philosophers, not only discovered that such must be the fact, but even went so far as to calculate the amount of protuberance at the equator and oblateness at the poles. Their calculations were based upon the known laws of mat to wind around the fore-finger, the circular velocity of the button will rapidly increase as the cord shortens, and this without any additional motion of the finger. In July the Earth, being in its aphelion, or greatest remove from the sun, feels less of the sun's influence; and that influence being exerted to counteract the impetus acquired while approachingter, acted upon by such forces as above-named. It him, causes a general retardation of the Earth's velocity. The Earth's orbit, which, in linear extent, is about 596,000,000 miles, is divided into twelve parts, called signs, or in the poetic language of the ancients, "houses of the sun." It was more generally called by them the zodiac-a name which it still, to some extent, retains. Their method of ascertaining the points of division is interesting. They employed two large vessels, one situated above the other, and furnished with a conducting pipe connecting it with the lower. The upper vessel was filled with water. Immediately upon the appearance of a certain star above the horizon, the conducting pipe was opened, and the water permitted to escape from the upper to the lower vessel. This was continued until the same star again appeared above the horizon, when the pipe was closed. The water of the under vessel was then accurately measured, and poured back into the upper one, and two smaller vessels prepared, each capable of containing one-twelfth of the whole. When the star again appeared, the conducting pipe was opened, and the water permitted to escape into the smaller was evident, that if the difference which they alledged existed between the equatorial and polar diameters really did exist, that it must affect the length of a degree on the Earth's surface at different parts. To ascertain the facts in the case, different nations have, at different times, caused accurate measurement to be made of the length of a degree within their confines. And, although it may savor rather too much of the school-room, or the astronomer's study, for parlor reading, I must beg leave to introduce the following table of results of these various measurements, as compiled by Professor Airy, of the Royal Observatory, London. The countries, latitudes, and length of a degree in feet, are here given: Here, it will be seen, as we recede from the equator, the length of a degree sensibly decreases. This could not be the case unless the Earth was flattened, to some extent, toward the polar regions. By calculations based upon the above, the equatorial diameter was found to be 7,925,648 miles, while the polar was only 7,899,170, making a difference between the two of 26,478 miles. I have stated these things thus minutely, because they are beyond the reach of many, not being found in our ordinary text-books on astronomy, save in the form of results. It may here be proper to state, that the results above ob{tained coincide very nearly with what Herschel and others previously determined by simple calculation based upon the known laws of revolving bodies. Another and most beautiful method of confirming their calculations, was called forth by the following incident: A Frenchman by the name of Richer, traveling in the vicinity of the equator, found his clock no longer kept accurate time, but was contin The size and form of the Earth has been ascertained by actual measurement. Its form is nearly globular, being somewhat flattened at the poles. The curious reader may ask how this has been ascertained. There are two principal methods which will be here explained. The Earth revolves on its axis once in twenty-four hours. Its circumference being about 25,000 miles, the equatorial parts must move at the rate of little more than a thousand miles per hour. By this rapid motion a force is generated, called the centrifugal, or centre-flying force, which,ually losing. In order to remedy this, while on the to a certain extent, opposes the force of gravity, or that power which causes all bodies to tend to the centre of the Earth. If the Earth were in a perfectly fluid state, the influence of this centrifugal power would be to cause a protuberant band or ring of matter in the equatorial regions, which must be supplied from the polar. This would cause a flattening of those parts, and consequently bring them by so much nearer to the centre of the Earth. Now, although the Earth is not fluid, yet the same force operating upon a solid, would produce a similar island of Cayenne, he was obliged to shorten his pendulum. Some years afterward two French gentlemen, Messrs. Deshays and Varin, were sent out by their government to make astronomical observations near the equator. Among other important results of their appointment, was the discovery that the pendulum at Cayenne made 148 vibrations less in a day than it did at Paris, and that, as a consequence, their clock lost two minutes and twentyeight seconds in the twenty-four hours. They were obliged to shorten their pendulum about one-fourth MIND AND SCIENCE. 345 much of the wisdom of the Infinite Mind do all these nice adjustings of antagonistic powers display. Well may the proud, ambitious spirit of man be humbled into the very dust, as he beholds these wondrous exhibitions of wisdom and power. If the discovery of them afford so much real enjoyment in this life, what must be the intellectual happiness of that mind which is permitted to spend an eternity in discoveries of the greatness, wisdom, and goodness of the almighty Architect, as displayed in every de of ETERNITY will suffice to reveal the whole. Who, then, would not be a Christian! MIND AND SCIENCE. BY PROFESSOR E. W. MERRILL. of an inch to remedy this difficulty. A word of explanation may here be necessary. The oscillations of the pendulum are performed under the influence of gravitation. With a given length of pendulum, the nearer the centre of the Earth the more rapid the oscillations, and vice versa. But at any given place, the time of a vibration depends upon the length of the pendulum. If, for instance, there be three pendulums whose length are as one, four, and nine respectively, the oscillations of the second will require twice the time of the first, and the third three times.partment of the physical universe! Nothing short When, therefore, these gentlemen found it necessary to shorten their pendulum, the irresistible conclusion was, that they were further removed from the centre of gravity at Cayenne than at Paris, or, in other words, that the Earth was thicker in one part than in another. A new series of experiments were instituted in order to ascertain the amount of variation. In the "Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society," are found the results of observations in seventy-nine different latitudes. These most strikingly coincide, in the general truth elicited, with the results of the measurement of degrees given above, and most conclusively prove that the Earth is an oblate spheroid, protuberant at the equator, and flattened at the poles. There is one other very singular fact connected with this part of the subject which I cannot omit, as it shows how often truth isning glory to have well nigh departed. Though the discovered, as it were, by accident. By the table of measurements given above, the polar diameter of the Earth is to the equatorial nearly as 299 to 300. The fact to which I allude is thus stated by Gummere: "A homogeneous fluid of the same mean density with the Earth, and revolving on its axis in the same time that the Earth does, would be in equilibrium, if it had the figure of an oblate spheroid, of which the axis was to the equatorial diameter as 229 to 230. If the fluid mass, supposed to revolve on its axis, be not homogeneous, but be composed of strata that increase in density toward the centre, the solid of equilibrium will still be an elliptic spheroid, but of less oblateness than if it were homogeneous. Hence, as the ellipticity of the Earth is less than 1-230, being about 1-300, it is evident, that if the Earth is a spheroid of equilibrium, it is denser toward the interior." Here was a new field for observation and experiment. The conclusion reached from investigation instituted is, that the mean density of mountains on the surface, is, to the mean density of the Earth, as 5 is to 9. Here, then, we are, as if by accident, introduced to the fact that the density of the Earth increases toward the centre-a fact which a variety of subsequent experiments and observations fully corroborate. It was my intention to have alluded to some of the astronomical phenomena connected with the seasons. But the length already of this article forbids a further encroachment upon the reader's patience. I will, therefore, conclude by simply remarking how VOL. VI.-44 FROM the days the blind old man of Chios' rocky isle tuned the lyre of war, and embodied in his immortal verse the history, philosophy, and literature of his time, the march of the human mind, in science and knowledge, has been onward. It has developed new and untried resources for the display of its energies and capabilities. True, there was a period when its splendor seemed to grow dim, and its wa murky clouds of a thousand years settled down upon the intellectual grandeur of the human mind, there was power enough left to clear its horizon, and succeed the darkness that had enveloped it with a greater degree of light and glory. Since that period, its progress, though unsteady-occasionally flashing forth like the blaze of a comet-has been rapidly advan{cing. The heavens and the earth have contributed to its wealth; the sea has not kept back its stores to increase the funds and enrich the treasures of the human mind. And such is its nature that it has no resting-place. Its powers are ever expanding, developing new beauties and excellences, and increasing in splendor, like the rising sun, whose dawning rays but faintly illume the outlines of the globe, advancing in its course till it pours its meridian beams, not only upon every hill top, but into every valley; or, it is like that same mighty luminary in its downward course, receding from its noonday glory, till its golden effulgence is gradually swallowed up in the shades of night. The development of intellect is a matter of individual as well as national interest. The laws and the means by which the powers of the human mind are revealed and brought to bear in their influence upon society, is a subject of interest to every lover of science and literature. As he is the only being endowed with both soul and a material body, man may be considered the central point where unite the world of mind and the world of matter; and hence it is that his education order, from the spire of grass that we tread beneath our feet to the gigantic banian of India. The mineral kingdom, too, it has arranged in beautiful regularity, from the gem that sparkles in the socket of the lady's ring to those rock-ribbed piles whose cloud-capped summits are lost to the naked eye. is two-fold-that of an intellectual and that of a to the use of man. It has penetrated into every sephysical being, united in the same mysterious organ- cret nook of the great laboratory of Nature, culling ization. But inasmuch as the mind lives when the her treasures, and disposing them at its will-reignbody ceases to exist, ay, infinite in its duration, iting triumphantly as Nature's lawful sovereign misfollows, as a matter of course, that the development {tress. It has disposed every vegetable in regular of its powers, or, in a word, its education is of vastly more importance than that of the body. We might stop to inquire, what is the human mind? but we are baffled in the investigation. It fails to explain itself; philosophy is unable to fathom its mysteries, and we can give only the vague and unsatisfactory answer, that it is a thinking, reasoning, immaterial, and immortal principle. Though comparatively impotent and ignorant as we are for the investigation of mind, we know enough of its nature and duration to convince us that its cultivation and improvement-the disclosing its innate energies-are paramount to every other pursuit that can engage the attention of man: doubly so, if its discipline, commenced here, is to progress through the ceaseless ages of eternity. The whole animal creation, from the animalcule that constitutes one of the thousand inhabitants of a drop of water to the huge mammoth that once roamed over the desert, has bowed to the mild sceptre of Science, and acknowledged her conqueror. Superstition and ignorance, magnified by mystery, like the sun in the fogs of the morning, once viewed the volcano either as a vast expiatory altar sending up its spiral incense to imperial Jove, or an immensely blazing furnace, at which the outcast, limp derbolts by which mankind were taught their accountability to a red-hot agency. Modern science has explained those sublime phenomena of nature, and shown that they are the safety-valves of this mundane sphere, through which are discharged those internal vapors that might otherwise find vent in regions more fearfully exposed. Indeed, science ranges through all nature, and having traced through nature up to nature's God, there stands its votary by the eternal throne, and sends out his enraptured gaze over a conquered universe. He glows as he contemplates; and while his soul grows big with emotion, from his trembling lips bursts forth the hallowed exclamation, "Thou, O God, hast created all; thy wisdom planned, and thy goodness As words are the signs of ideas, we may considering Vulcan was doomed to manufacture those thunthem the elements or instruments in the hands of the man of letters by which, in their immensely varied forms, he presents us the grand conceptions of an investigating mind. These words, as they stand arrayed in the dictionary of the most profound genius, are as dull and lifeless as the cold marble in the room of the sculptor; but as he takes them from his lexicon, and transfers them to his paper, arranged into sentences, what importance does he attach to their meaning! They then speak an intelligible language, breathing an inspiration into the soul of others. They indeed represent “thoughts that breathe," and become "words that burn." At one time they reveal the sublime laws of nature, the profound mysteries of philosophy, unravel the intricacies of science, or portray the poet's fairest imagery. In skill-perfected!" ful hands they take us to the centre of the earth, and explain the laws of attraction, and then away to the interior of the sun, and mark out our course around that mighty luminary. Again, they cause Romulus Silvius, of classic story, was wise enough to order his soldiers to strike their spears upon their shields, to produce an imitation of the thunder of Olympius; but of the phenomena of the real thun the smoldering ruins of antiquity to rise up in { der and lightning of the heavens he knew as little mournful grandeur before us. Now the elements are at war, the ocean heaves and swells, its mountain waves dash in terrific majesty upon its rockbound coast. Again, they paint the beautiful hues of the lily, the fine tints of the rainbow, and the gilding of the landscape by the golden rays of the setting sun. They speak in every tone, "from the thunderings of the warlike muse to the melting accents of the lyre." When we speak of the human mind in regard to its development and progress, it should not be abstractly considered, but as the grand rallying point of science, without which it would be as impotent as an Alexander or Cæsar to make conquests without armies. Science, then, with the mind for its commander, has rendered the very elements subservient as a Choctaw of a printing press. What floods of light and glory has modern science thrown upon that grand artillery of the skies! Why does the rude savage spend his life in wandering over the desert with his bow and tomahawk? He stands on the mountain's brow and glances his eagle eye over his wide-spread hunting grounds-views the beauty and loveliness of nature beneath and around him— listens to the babbling rivulet, or the cataract's roar: the sweet notes of the feathered choir fall upon his ear, while the gentle zephyr regales him with the perfumes of the forest; but, alas! poor unlettered man, there he stands with stoical indifference-no emotions of the sublime fire his soul and elevate his thoughts-he admires not, and is not led to adore. Why such insensibility to the beauty, grandeur, and RANDOM THOUGHTS. goodness of omnipotent Wisdom? Pope has answered in a single line: "His soul proud science never taught to stray." Though science is unfolding its sublime realities, pouring its radiant glory upon the human mind, and opening its rainbow beauties to our mental vision, it should not supersede moral and religious truth. Knowledge should be the shrine of morality and religion, hallowed and sanctified by their divine influence. They prepare the mind for the reception of natural truth. Let, then, the heart be cultivated, and the mind increase in goodness, as it gains in knowledge and influence. Lest I weary the reader, some reflections upon literature and mental cultivation shall be reserved for another number. RANDOM THOUGHTS. 347 the hand, and led me from the place where I was sitting, to a group of my young companions, who had just been made free, and were rejoicing in their first love. Among them I knelt-their arms pressed my neck. A goodly number of the Church, who had tarried to rejoice with the newly-converted, (for the congregation had been dismissed,) gathered around me. One old, sanctified servant of God, who lived upon the very confines of heaven, knelt at my back. The minister kneeled upon the altar bench before me, placed his hands upon my head, saying, "Let us all once more PRAY." Around me, then, were gathered God's people, male and female. The minister began. My heart was callous; but as that man led with a prayer, which, it is said, its like, for power, pathos, and mighty faith, never was heard in that church, it softened. I called aloud in that atmosphere of faith, for pardon upon a lost wretch. That call was seconded by more than a score of faithful souls. I began to feel. I saw no one-heard no one but myself, save now and then my name by the minister. Hope whispered "now," the Church said "now," the Spirit said "now," Jesus said "now," To me this world has been a world of sorrow and much disappointment. From my earliest recollections I have felt the keen pangs of disappointed hopes; and none but those who have endured almost continual sorrow, with only here and there a glori-Faith cried "now;" and borne up by outward and ous respite, can tell the blighting power it has upon the young and ardent soul. Scarcely a score of summers and winters, with their usual breathings, have passed over me, yet I feel old and sad, and it is only when the power of religion sweeps over my heart, and leaves its immortal impress there, that my sadness entirely departs, and holy joys spring up within me. O, dark as our world is, and terrible as its trials may be, there is, in the religion of Jesus, "a balm for every wound, and a cordial for every fear." Never shall I forget the hour in which my Savior calmed the troubled waves of my soul's Galilee. For many a long, weary month had the Spirit of God striven with a rebellious heart-a heart that sought not the mild control of a Savior's love-ere it yielded. So wicked had I become, that a fearful dread of the soul-ruining wrath of almighty God, and the impression that the Spirit was making its last struggles with my heart, were almost the sole cause that brought me to the altar of prayer. The memory of the week during which, night after night, I was at the "mourners' bench," still rests upon my mind with a horrible distinctness. Verily, the "pains of hell" had gotten hold upon me. No rest visited me by day, and at night terrible dreams tortured my poor heart. After the severest struggle, and untold agony, I gave up all as lost, and dark despair began to shroud my poor soul in its deepest gloom. I saw, as I supposed, my sun of hope set for ever; but just as I was lanching upon the ocean of remorse, and had felt its first awful billow roll over me, hope's ever burning star threw a pale, trembling light athwart the troubled deep, and I sank not. A minister of God (whose name my heart shall ever cherish) took me by inward faith, I made the mighty effort through grace. Unbelief gave way-heaven opened-light, peace, joy, glory, all burst into my soul. I sprung up-I leaped-I rejoiced aloud-I smiled as I never smiled before I was happy. Glory! glory! glory! I was a new creature in Christ Jesus. I felt no sorrowno disappointment. us. O, how sweet is religion! how holy are its joys! how heavenly its contemplation! Those who seek its consolations are never disappointed. It is the grand panacea of all moral evil, and blunts the edge of those physical ones that necessarily come upon It tells us that no burden shall prove too great for our strength, no trial too severe for our faith, and no hour so dark but that the clear sunlight of heaven shall beam upon our pathway. To me it has proven an exhaustless fount, from which my thirsty soul has ofttimes felt streams of glory come. It has never disappointed me-it never will. All else may forsake us, friends may fail us, foes may unite against us, our health may decay and leave us upon the tomb's crumbling verge; but, if faithful, the religion of Jesus shall grow sweeter; and the nearer we approach the stream of Jordan the mightier shall be its power; and as the cold waters bathe our naked feet, it tells us visions of eternal glory shall flash upon our eyes, and the roaring of death's dark surges shall be drowned by the loud bursts of heavenly music that shall float to our ravished ear; and as, with a glad shout, we gain the other shore, it speaks of a God-built temple, that stands upon the bank of the river of life, in which our happy spirit shall for ever dwell in the "presence of God." It comes alike to the poor and the rich. It knows no earthly distinctions, but to the believing penitent the work of man? Is it possible that the sacred personage, whose history it contains, should be himself a mere man? Do we find that he assumed the tone of an enthusiast or ambitious sectary? What sweetness, what purity in his manners! What an affect it brings the joys of heaven. To the king in his palace, and the beggar in his hovel, it opens the gates of paradise. To the inhabitants of the frozen north, and the son of the burning south, it comes with equal joy. In whatever portion of our stricken world a degenerate child of Adam pines in sin, thereing gracefulness in his delivery! What sublimity is found the Spirit of God ready to do its happy work. That one who enjoys this religion possesses a priceless blessing. This world has no equal joy; for pure religion affords comfort and consolation, even to the sorrowing and distressed in their deepest anguish. "Earth hath no sorrows it cannot cure;" and the language of every heart should be, "Give me Jesus, and you may have all this world;" "Yonder's my house and portion fair, J. CANDOR OF INFIDELITY. As a general rule, infidel writers display much unfairness and bitterness of spirit in their attacks on the Christian system. What they consider its defects, are held up with the severest ridicule; and even the good they allow it possesses, is represented as being borrowed from Pagan philosophy. Nothing can be more strongly evincive of the depravity of their hearts, than this inveterate hatred to that which, in itself, is so pure, so elevating, and so divine. "They love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil." Occasionally, however, a superior spirit is seen soaring above the low regions of hate and moral gloom, and exhibiting its glorious and attractive candor. Rosseau, the celebrated French infidel, has uttered a eulogy on the excellency of the sacred Scriptures and the moral grandeur of the Savior, that has never been surpassed, for truth of sentiment, force of expression, and beauty of style, by any other writer, Christian or moral. In introducing it to the reader, we would simply ask, what must be the intrinsic worth of the Christian system, when some of its very enemies are overpowered with admiration at its essential principles? in his maxims! What profound wisdom in his discourses! What presence of mind in his replies! How great the command over his passions! Where is the man-where the philosopher, who could so live and so die, without weakness and without ostentation? When Plato described his imaginary good man, with all the shame of guilt, yet meriting the highest rewards of virtue, he described exactly the character of Jesus Christ: the resemblance was so striking that all the Christian fathers perceived it. "What prepossession, what blindness must it be, to compare the son of Sophronic us [Socrates] to the Son of Mary! What an infinite disproportion is there between them! Socrates dying without pain or ignominy, easily supported his character to the last: and if his death, however easy, had not crowned his life, it might have been doubted whether Socrates, with all his wisdom, was any thing more than a vain sophist. He invented, it is said, the theory of morals. Others, however, had before put them in practice: he had only to say, therefore, what they had done, and to reduce their examples to precept. But where could Jesus learn among his competitors that pure and sublime morality, of which he only has given us both precept and example! The death of Socrates, peaceably philosophizing with his friends, appears the most agreeable that could be wished for; that of Jesus, expiring in the midst of agonizing pains, abused, insulted, and accused by a whole nation, is the most horrible that could be feared. Socrates, in receiving the cup of poison, blessed the weeping executioner who administered it; but Jesus, in the midst of excrutiating tortures, prayed for his merciless tormentors. Yes! if the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus were those of a God. Shall we suppose the evangelic history a mere fiction! Indeed, my friend, it bears not the marks of fiction; on the contrary, the history of Socrates, which nobody presumes to doubt, is not so well attested as that of Jesus Christ. Such a supposition, in fact, only shifts the difficulty, without obviating it; it is more inconceivable, that a number of persons should agree to write such a history, than that one only should furnish the subject of it. The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and strangers to the morality contained in the Gospel, the marks of whose truth are so striking and inimitable, that the inventor would be a more aston "I will confess to you that the majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the Gospel has its influence on my heart. Peruseishing man than the hero." the works of our philosophers, with all their pomp of diction: how mean, how contemptible are they, compared with the Scriptures! Is it possible that a book, at once so simple and sublime, should be merely LOVELINESS is always the most interesting when perfectly natural and unassumed. |