displayed, when persons take an enlarged view of the scenes of creation, and the revelations of the Creator, than can be expected in the case of those whose faculties are immersed in the mists of superstition and ignorance.

How delightful an enjoyment is it, after the bustle of business and the labours of the day are over,-when a married couple can sit down at each corner of the fire, and, with mutual relish and interest, read a volume of history or of popular philosophy, and talk of the moral government of God, the arrangements of his providence, and the wonders of the universe! Such interesting conversations and exercises beget a mutual esteem, enliven the affections, and produce a friendship lasting as our existence, and which no untoward incidents can ever effectually impair. A Christian pastor, in giving an account of the last illness of his beloved partner, in a late periodical work, when alluding to a book she had read along with him about two months before her decease, says, "I shall never forget the pleasure with which she studied the illustrations of the Divine perfections in that interesting book. Rising from the contemplation of the variety, beauty, immensity, and order of the creation, she exulted in the assurance of having the Creator for her father, anticipated with great joy the vision of him in the next world, and calculated with unhesitating confidence on the sufficiency of his boundless nature to engage her most intense interest, and to render her unspeakably happy for ever. It is well known that the late lamented Princess Charlotte and her consort Prince Leopold lived together in the greatest harmony and affection; and from what her biographers have stated respecting her education and pursuits, it appears that the mutual friendship of these illustrious individuals was heightened and cemented by the rational conversation in which they indulged, and the elevated studies to which they were devoted. Her course of education embraced the English, classical, French, German, and Italian languages; arithmetic, geography, astronomy, the first six books of Euclid, algebra, mechanics, and the principles of optics and perspective, along with history, the policy of governments, and particularly the principles of the Christian religion. She was a skilful musician, had a fine perception of the picturesque in nature, and was fond of drawing. She took great pleasure in strolling on the beach,

in marine excursions, in walking in the country, in rural scenery, in conversing freely with the rustic inhabitants, and in investigating every object that seemed worthy of her attention. She was an enthusiastic admirer of the grand and beautiful in nature, and the ocean was to her an object of peculiar interest. After her union with the prince, as their tastes were similar, they engaged in the same studies. Gardening, drawing, music, and rational conversation diversified their leisure hours. They took great pleasure in the culture of flowers-in the classification of them-and in the formation, with scientific skill, of a hortus siccus. But the library, which was furnished with the best books in our language, was their favourite place of resort; and their chief daily pleasure, mutual instruction. They were seldom apart either in their occupations or in their amusements; nor were they separated in their religious duties. They took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company;" and it is also stated, on good authority, that they had established the worship of God in their family, which was regularly attended by every branch of their household. No wonder, then, that they exhibited an auspicious and a delightful example of private and domestic virtue, of conjugal attachment, and of unobtrusive charity and benevolence. In the higher circles of society, as well as in the lower, it would be of immense importance to the interests of domestic happiness, that the taste of the Princess Charlotte was more closely imitated, and that the fashionable frivolity and dissipation which so generally prevail were exchanged for the pursuits of knowledge, and the delights of rational and improving conversation. Then those family feuds, contentions, and separations, and those prosecutions for matrimonial infidelity which are now so common, would be less frequently obtruded on public view; and examples of virtue, affection, and rational conduct would be set before the subordinate ranks of the community, which might be attended with the most beneficial and permanent results, not only to the present, but to future generations.

In short, the possession of a large store of intellectual wealth would fortify the soul in the prospect of every evil to which humanity is subjected, and would afford consolation and solace when fortune is diminished, and the greater portion of external comforts is withdrawn. Under the

frowns of adversity, those worldly losses and calamities which drive unthinking men to desperation and despair would be borne with a becoming magnanimity; the mind having within itself the chief resources of its happiness, and becoming almost independent of the world around it. For to the individual whose happiness chiefly depends on intellectual pleasures, retirement from general society and the bustle of the world is often the state of his highest enjoyment.

Thus I have endeavoured briefly to illustrate the enjoyments which a general diffusion of knowledge would produce-from a consideration of the limited conceptions of the untutored mind, contrasted with the ample and diversified range of view presented to the enlightened understanding from the delightful tendency of scientific pursuits, in enabling us to trace, from a single principle, an immense variety of effects, and surprising and unexpected resem. blances, where we least expected to find them,-from the grand and sublime objects it presents before us-from the variety of novel and interesting scenes which the different departments of physical science unfold-from the exercise of tracing the steps by which scientific discoveries have been made-and from the influence of such studies on the affections and on social and domestic enjoyment.

For want of the knowledge to which I have alluded, it happens that few persons who have been engaged in commercial or agricultural pursuits feel much enjoyment, when, in the decline of life, they retire from the active labours in which they had been previously engaged. Retirement and respite from the cares of business afford them little gratification, and they feel a vacuity within which nothing around them or within the range of their conceptions can fill up. Being destitute of a taste for intellectual pursuits, and devoid of that substratum of thought which is the ground-work of mental activity and of rational contemplation, they enjoy nothing of that mental liberty and expansion of soul which the retreats of solitude afford to the contemplative mind; and, when not engaged in festive associations, are apt to sink into a species of listlessness and ennui. They stalk about from one place to another without any definite object in view-look at every thing around with a kind of

unconscious gaze-are glad to indulge in trifling talk and gossip with every one they meet-and, feeling how little enjoyment they derive from their own reflections, not unfrequently slide into habits of sensuality and intemperance.

From what we have stated on this topic, it evidently appears that the pursuits of science are fitted to yield a positive gratification to every rational mind. It presents to view processes, combinations, metamorphoses, motions, and objects of various descriptions calculated to arrest the attention and to astonish the mind, far more than all the romances and tales of wonder that were ever invented by the human imagination. When the pleasures arising from such studies are rendered accessible to all, human happiness will be nearly on a level, and the different ranks of mankind will enjoy it nearly in an equal degree. As true enjoyment depends chiefly on the state of the mind, and the train of thought that passes through it, it follows, that when a man prosecutes a rational train of thought, and finds a pleasure in the contemplation of intellectual objects, his happiness is less dependent on mere sensitive enjoyments, and a smaller portion of external comforts will be productive of enjoyment than in the case of those whose chief pleasure consists in sensual gratifications. When intellectual pursuits, therefore, shall occupy the chief attention of mankind, we may indulge the hope, that those restless and insatiable desires which avarice and ambition never cease to create will seldom torment the soul, and that a noble generosity of mind in relation to riches will distinguish persons of every rank, and be the means of producing enjoyment wherever its influence extends.

SECTION V.

On the Practical Influence of Scientific Knowledge, and its tendency to promote the external comforts of general society.

In the preceding section I have considered the beneficial tendency of knowledge and the pleasure it affords, chiefly in reference to the understanding and the affections. In the present section I shall consider it more particularly, in regard to its practical effects on the active employments and the external comforts of the middling and lower orders of the community. Every art, being founded on scientific principles, and directed in its operations by the experimental deductions of philosophy, it follows, that a knowledge of the principles of science must be conducive to a skilful practice of the arts, and must have a tendency to direct the genius of the artist to carry them to their highest pitch of improvement. In illustrating this topic, I shall endeavour to show that an acquaintance with science would render mechanics, manufacturers, and labourers more expert and skilful in their different departments-would pave the way for future discoveries and improvements-and that the knowledge and spirit which produced such improvements would promote the external comforts of mankind.

I. A knowledge of the principles of science would render manufacturers, mechanics, and common labourers of all descriptions more skilful in their respective professions and employments.

In the arts of dying and calico printing, every process is conducted on the principles of chymistry. Not a colour can be imparted but in consequence of the affinity which subsists between the cloth and the die,-or the die and the mordant employed as a bond of union between them; and the colours will be liable to vary, unless the artist take into account the changes which take place in them by the absorption of oxygen ;-a knowledge of which and of the different

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