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seems to depend. But it may be reasonably questioned, how far this idea is just.

For although it should be allowed that the invention of printing was accidental, with respect to the individual who made it, it may, with truth, be considered as the natural result of the state of the world when a number of great and contiguous nations are all engaged in the study of literature, in the pursuit of science, and in the practice of the arts; insomuch, that I do not think it extravagant to affirm that, if this invention had not been made by the particular person to whom it is ascribed, the same art, or some analogous art answering a similar purpose, would have infallibly been invented by some other person, and at no very distant period.

The art of printing, therefore, is entitled to be considered as a step in the natural history of man, no less than the art of writing; and they who are sceptical about the future progress of the race, merely in consequence of its past history, reason as unphilosophically as the member of a savage tribe, who, deriving his own acquaintance with former times from oral tradition only, should affect to call in question the efficacy of written records, in accelerating the progress of knowledge and of civilization.

What will be the particular effects of this invention (which has been hitherto' much checked in its operation by the restraints on the liberty of the press in the greater part of Europe) it is beyond the reach of human sagacity to conjecture; but, in general, we may venture to predict with confidence, that, in every country, it will gradually operate to widen the circle of science and civilization; to distribute more equally, among all the members of the community, the advantages of political union; and to enlarge the basis of equitable governments, by increasing the number of those who understand their value, and are interested to defend them.

The science of legislation, too, with all the other branches of knowledge which are connected with human improvement, may be expected to advance with rapidity; and, in proportion as the opinions and institutions of men approach to truth and to justice, they will be secured against those revolutions to which human affairs have always been hitherto subject.-STEWART'S 'Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind.'

1. Hitherto meant originally, in this that there are restraints on the press "in passage, up to the end of the last century. the greater part of Europe," that greatly But now, that we have got past the mid-retard the progress of civilization. dle of the nineteenth, it is equally true

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WE are confirmed in the conclusion that the popular diffusion of knowledge is favourable to the growth of science, by the reflection that, vast as is the domain of learning, and extraordinary as is the progress which has been made in almost every branch, it may be assumed as certain,-I will not say that we are in its infancy, but, as truth is as various as nature, and as boundless as creation, that the discoveries already made, wonderful as they are, bear but a small proportion to those that will hereafter be effected.

In the yet unexplored wonders, and yet unascertained laws of the heavens; in the affinities of the natural properties of bodies; in magnetism, galvanism, and electricity; in light and heat; in the combination and application of the mechanical powers; the use of steam; the analysis of mineral products; of liquid and aëriform fluids; in the application of the arts and sciences to improvements in husbandry, to manufactures, to navigation, to letters and to education; in the great department of philosophy of the mind and the realm of morals; and, in short, to everything that belongs to the improvement of man,-there is yet a field of investigation broad enough to satisfy the most eager thirst of knowledge, and diversified enough to suit every variety of taste, order of intellect, or degree of qualification.

For the peaceful victories of the mind, that unknown and unconquered world for which Alexander wept, is for ever near at hand, hidden, indeed, as yet, behind the veil with which nature shrouds her undiscovered mysteries, but stretching all along the confines of the domain of knowledge, sometimes nearest when least suspected. The foot has not yet pressed, nor the eye beheld it; but the mind, in its deepest musings, in its widest excursions, will sometimes catch a glimpse of the hidden realm, a gleam of light from the Hesperian Island, a fresh and fragrant breeze from off the undiscovered land, "Sabæan odours from the spicy shore," which happier voyagers, in after-times, will approach, explore, and inhabit.

Who has not felt, when, with his very soul concentrated in his eyes, while the world around him is wrapped in sleep, he gazes into

the holy depths of the midnight heavens, or wanders, in contemplation, among the worlds and systems that sweep through the immensity of space,—who has not felt, as if their mystery must yet more fully yield to the ardent, unwearied, imploring research of patient science?

Who does not, in those choice and blessed moments, in which the world and its interests are forgotten, and the spirit retires into the inmost sanctuary of its own meditations, and there, unconscious of everything but itself and the infinite Perfection, of which it is the earthly type, and kindling the flame of thought on the altar of prayer,-who does not feel, in moments like these, as if it must, at last, be given to man, to fathom the great secret of his own being, to solve the mighty problem

"Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate!"

When I think in what slight elements the great discoveries that have changed the condition of the world have oftentimes originated; on the entire revolution, in political and social affairs, which has resulted from the use of the magnetic needle; on the world of wonders, teeming with the most important scientific discoveries, which has been opened by the telescope; on the allcontrolling influence of so simple an invention as that of moveable metallic types; on the effects of the invention of gunpowder, the result, perhaps, of some idle experiment in alchymy; on the consequences of the application of the vapour of boiling water to the manufacturing arts, to navigation, and transportation by land; on the results of a single sublime conception, in the mind of Newton, on which he erected, as on a foundation, the glorious temple of the system of the heavens ;-in fine, when I consider how, from the great master principle of the philosophy of Bacon, the induction of truth, from the observation of fact, has flowed, as from a living fountain, the fresh and still swelling stream of modern science, I am almost oppressed with the idea of the bable connection of the truths already known, with great principles which remain undiscovered; of the proximity in which we may unconsciously stand, to the most astonishing, though yet unrevealed mysteries of the material and intellectual world.

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If, after thus considering the seemingly obvious sources from which the most important discoveries and improvements have sprung, we inquire into the extent of the field in which further discoveries are to be made, which is no other and no less than the entire natural and spiritual creation of God, a grand and lovely system, even as we imperfectly apprehend it, but, no doubt, most grand, lovely, and harmonious, beyond all that we now conceive or imagine; when we reflect that the most insulated, seemingly

disconnected, and even contradictory parts of the system are, no doubt, bound together as portions of one stupendous whole; and that those which are at present the least explicable, and which most completely defy the penetration hitherto bestowed upon them, are as intelligible, in reality, as that which seems most plain and clear; that, as every atom in the universe attracts every other atom, and is attracted by it, so every truth stands in harmonious connection with every other truth; we are brought directly to the conclusion that every portion of knowledge now possessed, every observed fact, every demonstrated principle, is a clue which we hold by one end in the hand, and which is capable of guiding the faithful inquirer further and further into the inmost recesses of the labyrinth of nature.

Ages on ages may elapse before it conduct the patient intellect to the wonders of science to which it will eventually lead him; and perhaps with the next step he takes, he will reach the goal; and principles, destined to effect the condition of millions, beam in characters of light upon his understanding. What was, at once, more unexpected and more obvious, than Newton's discovery of the nature of light? Every living being, since the creation of the world, had gazed on the rainbow; to none had the beautiful mystery revealed itself. And even the great philosopher himself, while dissecting the solar beam, and, as it were untwisting the golden and silver threads that compose the ray of light, laid open but half its wonders. And who shall say that to us, to whom, as we think, modern science has disclosed the residue, truths more wonderful than those now known, will not yet be revealed ?-EVERETT's' Education and Knowledge.'

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I HAVE often been surprised when talking with little boys, to find them so ignorant of many things which they ought to have known as well as their own names. The other day I was questioning one, at least eight years old, who knew neither the number of the days, weeks, nor months there are in the year! He could not tell me whether the sun rose in the east or the west; and was equally ignorant whether his jacket was made of hemp, flax, or wool. There are things certainly more important for him to know than these, but he should make himself better acquainted with things of this nature.

Every boy ought to know that he has five senses, seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and tasting-that the year has four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter-that the earth turns round, and travels round the sun-that the world is composed of land and water, and divided into four parts, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America-that there are four cardinal' points, east, west, north, and south—that gold, silver, and other metals, and coal are dug out of the earth; diamonds are found on the land, and pearls found in the sea.

That boy must be ignorant indeed who does not know that bread is made of the flour of wheat; butter from cream, and cheese from milk-that when flour is mingled with yeast it makes leavened or light bread; and that when no yeast is used the bread is heavy or unleavened. The passover cakes of the Jews, the biscuits eaten by sailors, and the barley bread of Scotland, are all unleavened. A boy ought, at an early age, to be acquainted with such things as are in common use; but I frequently found it necessary to explain to young people that sugar is made from the juice of the sugar-cane which grows in the Indies-that tea is the dried leaves of a shrub which grows in China about the size of a currant bush-that coffee is the berry of a bush growing in Arabia and the West Indies; and that chocolate is manufactured from the seeds of the cacao, a plant of South America.

Many boys know very well that ale and beer are made with malt and hops, cider from apples, and perry from pears; who do not know that wine is the juice of the grape, that brandy is distilled from wine, and rum from the juice of the sugar-cane; but that the liquors sold as spirits, and especially what is called gin, are usually made with malt mixed with turpentine, and sometimes with other vile and dangerous ingredients. And they have been equally ignorant that oranges, citrons, and lemons, grow in Spain and the western islands; and spices in the East Indies and other parts-that pepper and cloves are fruits of shrubs-nutmegs the kernels of a fruit something like a peach-cinnamon the bark of a tree, and ginger and rhubarb the roots of plants.

A great deal of this kind of knowledge may be obtained in a little time by young people if they keep their eyes and their ears open, and now and then ask a question of those who are wiser than themselves. I know a father who is very anxious that his children should obtain useful knowledge, and I heard him explain to them the other day that salt is the settlement of salt water dried, or sometimes it is dug from the earth in lumps-glue, the sinews, feet, and skins of animals boiled down-cork, the

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