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of man has ventured to penetrate, so far from finding the various strata disposed according to specific gravity, we discover more the appearance of chance than the effect of order. How far centrifugal force or volcanic eruptions may have been instrumental in producing the various phenomena in the mineral world, I must leave to men of greater ability, and of more speculative minds, to investigate. It is evident that in the mineral, as well as the vegetable and the animal world, nature, to a certain extent, has a reproductive power; yet it would be hardly admissible to ascribe to matter any inherent, independent power, by which it reorganises and preserves itself against any convulsions or changes which it may undergo. Various have been the conjectures about the formation of minerals and other fossils; and, notwithstanding the great improvements in chemistry, whereby substances are analysed into their component parts, the manner of their formation is still a desideratum: and I believe it would puzzle all the united efforts of philosophy and chemistry to combine those particles, and restore them to their original substance. An author somewhere observes, that "Nature is slow and secret in her operations; it is difficult to detect her in the fact."--Dr. Hutton has attempted to prove that, all minerals are the effect of fusion produced by internal heat. So prejudiced was he in favor of this hypothesis, that he supposed internal heat, whence proceeded volcanic eruptions, to have been the principal agent in the formation of the earth out of chaos, as well as the grand reorganizing power after the Deluge. Some modern travellers assert, that they have discovered many appearances of volcanic eruptions in the northern parts of Europe. The whinstone of this country, the trap of Germany, and many others, are declared to be real lava.

Sir William Hamilton, in making his observations upon the different strata of lava, which had been emitted from Mount Vesuvius, fancied that he could, in some degree, determine the age of the earth. For observing between each stratum of lava, a considerable stratum of vegetable earth, and supposing that such a quantity of vegetable earth could not in such a situation be formed in less than 1000 years, he thence concludes that the earth must be much older than is represented in the Mosaic account. There is an observation of Recupero, which by no means supports this hypothesis. He mentions a stratum of lava at Mount Etna, which had remained for several centuries without acquiring any vegetable earth, or even exhibiting any tendency towards it. He likewise remarks that a report prevailed, that the eruption had taken place at least 1000 years before his time.

But, indeed, Sir William evidently contradicts himself in his researches at Herculaneum. He there notices six different strata of lava, and between each a considerable stratum of vegetable earth. Now, as that city was destroyed by an eruption at the beginning of the Christian æra, (anno 79,) the vegetable earth must have been formed in less than 1000 years. However, the conclusion to be drawn from these observations, is, that they afford no means to ascertain the antiquity of the earth. Indeed, all attempts to derive the formation of the earth from natural causes, will be found as defective as they are presumptive. The mind finds no rational solution to the great enquiry, but by having recourse to a self-existent, effective first cause,-to an intelligent being,to the Deity himself. From every information which we can derive from history, it has confessedly been the prevailing opinion among all nations, that the earth originated from a chaos. The Hindoo account of Brama is evidently typical of an expression in the Mosaic account, "The Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters.” The τους χαιον χαος of the Greeks, conveys the same idea of the earth being in a rude indigested mass, before order commenced, and the design of the Deity was fulfilled by the introduction of the animal and vegetable creation. It would perhaps have been as well if the philosophers of Greece and former ages had here put a stop to their enquiries, instead of indulging in conjectures about the origin of chaos, and the inexplicable nature of a first cause. How much more natural and significant than all such logical doubts, arrogant assumptions, delusive definitions, and metaphysical subtleties, is the simple answer of the poor illiterate Arab, to the question how he knew that there is a God: "In the same manner," said he, "that I am able to tell by the print impressed on the sand, whether it was a man or a beast that had passed that way."

The idea of atoms floating in infinite space, and by chance or necessity producing the earth, is too absurd to deserve a moment's serious consideration; the power attributed to the atoms, and the numerous intelligent beings which were afterwards introduced as conducing to the completion of the great work of Creation, show that these heathen philosophers found matter of itself insufficient to form such a beautiful variety as is every where exhibited throughout nature, and, therefore, were obliged to have recourse to mind or intelligence, and consider the world not the effect of chance or necessity, but of design. Their minds were unable to comprehend the existence of one self-existent, eternal cause-the Deity, and from him alone derive all matter and motion, all the order, variety, and beauty, in the universe. It has been

asserted, that the eternity of the Deity must be admitted from the unchangeableness of His nature, and the impartial exercise of His attributes. Then, to say that the material world, which is ever changing, being a succession of cause and effect, is eternal also, is an evident contradiction. Instead of supposing only one, or even two first causes, it is allowing an almost infinite number; for every vegetable, from the tallest tree to the smallest plant, every animal, from the elephant to the minutest animalcula,-must then be a first cause in its kind, eternally existing, and reproducing itself in endless

succession.

DISCUSSION:

HAVE MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS BEEN PRODUCTIVE OF MORE BENEFIT OR INJURY TO MANKIND?

*

THE gentleman who opened the question in favor of monastic institutions, commenced his remarks by adverting to the lamentable state of literature, after the extinction of the Western Empire. It was observed that, indeed, before the invasion of the barbarians, Roman literature had degenerated. It had attained its height about the age of Augustus; and that the next generation, in attempting to improve on perfection, grasped at too much, and altogether failed of accomplishing its object. Cicero's eloquence did not satisfy the Emperor Trajan; Cato the Elder was, with him, a greater orator; Ennius surpassed Virgil; and even the names of Homer and Plato excited his disgust†: and we can easily understand that the taste of a despot was not likely to be disputed by the sycophantic poets who surrounded him, and that public taste did not long survive that of the emperor. The genius of Rome was not indeed dead; Tacitus wrote long after the Augustan age, and Juvenal vindicates these later times from the charge of want of energy; yet, it must be allowed, that no writer after Augustus can compare with those of his time, and that public taste was far less pure than it had been.

The inroads of the barbarians changed the " process of decay" for active destruction; and learning, already tottering,

*Elius Spartian, in Adrian.

+ Speaking of oratory, Cicero says-" Yet in this very art, in which we have advanced from the most imperfect beginnings to the highest excellence, we may, as in all human things, soon expect to see symptoms of decrepitude, and the process of decay."- CICERO. TUSCULAM.

was hurled by these fierce invaders into the depths of destruction. Silken couches and baths, magnificent houses and sumptuous feasts, which the Romans indulged in, found favor with the conquerors; they quickly comprehended their use, and appropriated them for their pleasure; but enjoyments of the mind met a far different fate, and books of the most invaluable merit were not esteemed, but for the use of the parchment on which they were written. Neither were the Romans now much inclined to their old pursuits, "Living in the midst of their triumphant invaders, condemned to listen to their rude speech, and to form their organs to its sounds, few had leisure and fewer inclination to cultivate studies, which those barbarians had no taste to admire; but which they were rather led to despise, as they had not taught those by whom they were cultivated to defend their altars and their homes."*

This state of things, which continued, with but very little interruption, for several centuries, must, in the course of time, have destroyed all vestiges of learning: the Latin and Greek languages would have been erased from the memory of man; and if, in modern times, by some rare chance, a volume of antient learning should survive, its meaning would remain unknown, as an Egyptian hieroglyphic, and serve no purpose, but to furnish one more proof to proud science, that, if she has acquired much, yet still more glorious things lie hidden from her view.

It was not, however, the fate of learning to be buried in the ruins of Rome: it found refuge in the walls of monasteries, which were then first formed. The works of the most approved authors were securely kept, and diligently studied, by many of the monks; they were the only learned men of the middle ages, monastic institutions the only receptacles for learning, and on this account alone, it was assumed, that such institutions must be considered as highly beneficial to Europe.

In illustration of this argument, it was mentioned, that, by the hostility shewn by the barbarians to books of every description, they had become so scarce, and the price of them had risen to so great a height, that, as we are informed by the venerable Bede, Aldfrid, king of Northumberland, gave to Benedict Biscop, (a learned priest, who had travelled to Rome to collect MSS.,) a large landed estate, for one book only! And this being the case, how can we sufficiently testify our admiration at the library of Egbert, archbishop of York, who,

* Berington's Literary History of the Middle Ages.

in such times, had, amongst other authors, copies of Aristotle, Pliny, Cicero, Virgil, Statius, and Lucan! Not only were books preserved, but also the languages in which they were written. Latin was used on all occasions; and there were few monasteries of importance without some of its inhabitants being able to read Greek, Schools, too, were established where the elements of knowledge were taught; every abbey appointed one or more of its members to instruct such as chose to learn rhetoric, theology, physic, and civil and canon law. In the time of Henry the Second, we are told by Stephanides, (the chaplain, and afterwards the biographer, of Thomas à Becket,) that there were then schools in London, in which, he says, the scholars daily torquent enthymema; a highly classical expression, by the way, and proving clearly that Juvenal * was familiar to him.

It was observed that females also received excellent educations in the nunneries then established, in which they learned needle-work, confectionery, surgery, physic, (apothecaries at that time being very rare,) writing, drawing, &c.+ And with regard to the state of learning generally, several examples were brought forward; Abelard, Heloise, and St. Bernard, were quoted as examples of stupendous learning, the result of intense thought, and of unremitting studies. The instances of learning amongst our own countrymen were still more creditable to the monastic institutions: Friar Bacon was named as not only the most wonderful man of his age, but as a genius, with whom few of his successors can compare; for, whether we consider his learning, or his moral application of that learning to the government of his mind, he is alike to be admired: after travelling and perfecting himself in the languages, ancient and modern, this great man settled at Oxford, where he disbursed on experimental philosophy an enormous sum equal to 30,000l. modern money. The discoveries he made were proportionate to their cost. His knowledge of the exact length of the solar year, his expertness in the practical knowledge of optics, his solid precepts in medicine, his acquaintance with the mechanical powers; and, above all, his infinite humanity in concealing, by a species of anagram, that pestilential secret, the composition of gunpowder, which he had discovered, ought to raise him to a height in our opinions, far superior to that of most modern philosophers, who have erected monuments to their own abilities.

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