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Title: The Youth's Instructor (Issue 3 of 6)
Date of first publication: 1824
Author: anonymous
Date first posted: June 29, 2014
Date last updated: June 29, 2014
Faded Page eBook #20140623

This eBook was produced by: Marcia Brooks, Fred Salzer
& the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net




  THE
  YOUTH’S INSTRUCTOR.

  No. 3.]        MARCH, 1824.        [Vol. 1.




TO THE EDITOR OF THE YOUTH’S INSTRUCTOR.

On the Origin of Knowledge.


There is little actual knowledge in the earth, but what owes its origin
one way or other to revelation. Clemens Alexandrinus, Justin Martyr,
Augustine, and most of the christian fathers, believed the heathens
derived their proper sentiments from the oracles of God; and Celsus, the
heathen philosopher, acknowledges the similarity of Plato to Moses and
the Prophets. Nothing is more plain than that the nations which have had
no access to revelation, are almost similar to brutes in ignorance and
barbarity. Let the south of Africa, the east of Tartary, and various
parts of (this hemisphere) America, bear witness. It is easy to trace
their access to revelation wherever any sensible philosophy, especially
respecting morals and worship, was found, and may the obscure writer
of this, expect that no apology is necessary for him to make to the
Youth’s Instructor for quoting some plain reasons for this. “Might not
a deal of traditional knowledge be derived from Noah? Who knows how
little real wisdom the Egyptians might have, except what they owed to
Joseph, Moses, Solomon or other Hebrews, they were conversant with,
and highly regarded? What hindered the Chaldeans, to learn not a little
from Abraham, their countryman; or from Jewish captives carried thither
by the Assyrians or Nebuchadnezzar; or from their countrymen the most
ancient Samaritans? What do we know, but any thing sensible in the
ancient Persian religion, is owing to Zoroaster, who had access to
learn it from the Jews, if he was not (as there is reason to think) a
renegade one himself? It is certain, that neither the ancient Chinese
philosophy of Confucius, nor their modern had half the sensibleness that
some pretend; but though it had, how easy to derive it from revelation?
If Noah went thither and settled their constitutions, they must have
been originally good. Probably thousands of Jews removed eastward when
Oguz-kan the Tartar made his irruption into Western Asia; and about the
same time founded a kingdom on the north-west of China; and from their
apprehensions of the incarnation of God, and other things, we cannot but
think, that some such thing happened.

There is no evidence of any sensible learning in the East-Indies till
after the time in which it is said Nebuchadnezzar transported thither
a colony of Jews: Nay, nor till after they had access to converse
with Jews in the Empire of Darius, the husband of Esther; and of whom
Mordecai, a Jew, was for a while chief minister of state; and till after
almost all the east sounded with the wisdom of Daniel the Jew.

To turn our eyes towards Europe, where was the learning of Greece,
before Cadmus, a fugitive from the land of Israel, carried _letters_
(alphabetical characters) thither? How probable that Orpheus, the
reformer of their religion, for his father was a Phenician, and his
mother Calliope, a Jewish minstrel, was carried northward by the
conquering Shishak, king of Egypt? What know I, but the Colchians on
the east of the Euxine Sea, with whom the Greeks had the earliest
intercourse, and who used circumcision, and had a language not a little
similar to the Hebrew, were a colony of Jews and Egyptians left there
by Shishak, as he hasted home to check his rebellious brother? Who has
not heard of the early intercourse between Egypt and Greece? Who knows
not that the Phenicians, who in a manner lived among the Hebrews, or at
their side, by their expensive sea-trade and numerous Colonies, might
propagate hints borrowed from revelation, far and wide, even to the
Celtæ of Britain? Who may not observe in the Etruscan _lucumonies_ of
Italy, not a little resemblance to the early order of the Hebrew tribes?
Were not Pherecydes the Syrian, and Thales the Milesian, the most
ancient Philosophers of the Greeks? and were they not born, especially
the first, at no great distance from Israel? Did not Pythagoras, Solon,
Plato and other renowned philosophers, travel into Egypt and Chaldea to
collect wisdom? and could they do so, without visiting the Jewish valley
of vision, which lay in their way from the one to the other? did not the
Romans derive their learning from the Greeks? and had they not plenty
of access to revelation or the oracles of God in the Grecian language?
Since it is so extremely plain that almost every thing sensible in the
Pagan learning derives its original from revelation, how superlatively
base and unmanly must it be for our modern infidels, to boast of their
own or the Heathen science, in opposition to the Gospel of Christ?

Let us have a sensible system of natural religion from the Caffres,
Hottentots, or Soldanians, in the South of Africa; or from the
Kamschatkans, in the east corner of Tartary, or Patagonians, in the
southern extremity of (this Continent) America; or from the Islanders,
in the most southern or northern parts of the Ocean, whom we allow to
owe very little of their knowledge to revelation; and then we shall
esteem the religion and light of nations more than at present we can;
though after all, the case of ancient Greece and Rome, and of modern
Europe, would effectually prove, that philosophy is incapable to reform
the world.

The Apostle decries not true, but vain philosophy, i. e., the vain
fancies which the Heathens blended with truth.--Col. II. 8.

Scripture-mysteries transcend true philosophy, but never oppose it.
Nay, philosophy, when used as an handmaid, is of great use to promote
the knowledge of the Scriptures. To turn the subject to philosophy more
particularly, seeing it is of use in the study of the Holy Scriptures:
it may be said that it is the knowledge of things founded on reason
and experience. At present, philosophy might be divided into logic, or
the science of perception, judgment, reasoning and method: ontology,
or the knowledge of the general properties and relations of being;
natural philosophy, or the knowledge of material substances, earth,
sea, air, fire, celestial luminaries, &c. to which mathematics, optics,
hydrostatics, medicine, astronomy, &c. may be reduced; pneumatics,[1] or
the knowledge of spirits; moral philosophy, which directs men to act
to a right end, and in a right manner, as rational beings subject to
God. Solomon indeed was the greatest philosopher that ever existed: but
his works of that kind are long ago lost. The most ancient philosophers
of the Greeks, called their science, _Sophia_, Wisdom. Pythagoras was
more modest, and would have his only called _philosophia_, desire of
wisdom. The Greek philosophers partly through ignorance, and partly
through vanity, soon divided into a vast number of sects, of which the
Epicureans, Stoics and Academics, were the most noted, and to which
the Jewish sects of Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes, were somewhat
similar. Till within these 200 years past, that men have more attended
to experience and common sense, most of the philosophy that was for
many ages in vogue, was but unmeaning jargon and nonsense. Then it was
imagined, almost every thing was understood: now repeated discoveries
manifest the wonderful and unsearchable nature of the works of God; and
how much more of himself!

  [1] Our Correspondent must be aware that the term _Pneumatics_ is
      applied exclusively now to that branch of Mechanics, which treats
      of the laws that regulate the condensation, rarefaction and
      gravitation of air; and that the technical name for the
      _knowledge of Spirits_ is _Pneumatology_.

  EDITOR.

That the works of Creation and Providence, really manifest the being
and part of the perfections of God, and of our duty to him, or to one
another, or that the human mind, abstractly considered, is capable of
apprehending these matters, cannot justly be denied. But it is no less
evident, that through me prevalence of men’s lusts over their reason,
there is little actual knowledge in the earth, but what owes its origin
one way or other to revelation as aforesaid.

  *M. G.




TO THE EDITOR OF THE YOUTH’S INSTRUCTOR,


SIR--

The copy of the following Anecdote was found among the manuscripts of
the Rev. WILLIAM LAW, of King’s Clife, and which I am persuaded you
will not think unworthy of a place in your monthly publication--the
authenticity of which you may rely upon. I am, dear sir, your
affectionate servant,

  *SOLON.


_RESOLUTIONS FOR MY FUTURE CONDUCT._

BY WILLIAM LAW.

1st. To pass my time as little as possible among such as cannot benefit
me, or I them.

2d. To think nothing great or desirable because the world thinks it so;
but to form all my judgments of things from the infallible “_Word of
God_,” and direct my views accordingly.

3d. To avoid all concerns with the world or the ways of it, but where
religion or charity obliges me to it.

4th. To remember frequently and impress it deeply on my mind, that
no condition of this life is for enjoyment, but for trial; and that
every power, ability, and advantage we have, are so many talents to be
accounted for to the great Judge of the world.

5th. That the greatness of human nature consists in nothing else but in
imitating the divine nature; that all the greatness in this world, which
is not in good actions, is nothing to the purpose.

6th. To read and think often of the “_Life of Christ_,” and propose it
as a pattern to myself.

7th. To remember often and seriously how much of my time is inevitably
thrown away, from which I can expect nothing but a charge of guilt, and
how little there may be to come on which my eternal happiness depends.

8th. To call to mind the presence of God, whenever I find myself under
any temptations to sin, and to have immediate recourse to “_Prayer_.”

9th. To think _humbly of myself_ and with great _charity of others_,
allowing much for the ignorance and sad disadvantages they labour under.

10th. To forbear condemning or speaking evil of any one.

11th. To pray privately three times a day, besides my morning and
evening prayers.

12th. To receive all pains of body or mind, as tokens of God’s love, and
be thankful for them, knowing, that whom God loveth he chasteneth, to
draw them nearer to himself.

13th. Not to build my hopes of _Salvation_ on my own works or
self-righteousness, but on the “_merits of Christ_” and the shedding of
his precious “_blood_.”

  “’Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours;
  And ask them what report they bore to Heaven;
  And how they might have borne more welcome news.”

  _Night Thoughts._




TO THE EDITOR OF THE YOUTH’S INSTRUCTOR.


  “When I behold a genius bright, and base,
  Of tow’ring talents, and terrestrial aims;
  Methinks I see, as thrown from her high sphere,
  The glorious fragment of a soul immortal,
  With rubbish mixt, and glitt’ring in the dust.
  Struck at the splendid, melancholy sight,
  At once _compassion_ soft, and _envy_, rise--
  But wherefore envy? Talents angel-bright,
  If wanting worth, are shining instruments
  In false ambition’s hand, to finish faults
  Illustrious, and give infamy renown.”

MR. EDITOR--Should the following Eulogium, extracted from the works of
J. J. ROUSSEAU, (the well known enemy to christianity) be deemed worthy
of a place in your useful Miscellany, your insertion of it will oblige

  *ENWORB.

       *       *       *       *       *

I confess to you, the majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me, the
holiness of the gospel speaks to my heart. This divine book, the only
one necessary to a christian, and the most useful to those even who
are not so, needs only be meditated upon, to fill the soul with love
to its author, and a willingness to accomplish his precepts. Never was
the language of virtue so sweet; never did the most profound wisdom
express itself with such energy and simplicity! We cannot leave off
reading it, without finding ourselves better than before. See how little
are the books of the Philosophers with all their pomp, when compared
to the Evangelists! Is it possible that a book, at once so sublime and
simple, should be the work of man? Is it possible that HE, whose history
it contains, should himself be but man? Is there in HIM the tone of an
enthusiast, or an ambitious sectary? What mildness, what purity in his
manners; what affecting grace in his instructions? what elevation in his
maxims; what profound wisdom in his discourses; what presence of mind,
what ingenuity in his answers; what empire over the passions; where
is the man, where is the sage, who knows how to act, suffer, and die,
without weakness or ostentation? when _Plato_ described his imaginary
just man, covered with all the _opprobrium of crimes_ and worthy of all
the honours of virtue, he described JESUS CHRIST feature by feature: the
resemblance is so striking, that all the fathers have perceived it was
impossible to mistake it--what prejudices, what blindness, must they
have, who dare to draw a comparison between the son of _Sophroniscus_
and the son of Mary; what distance is there between the one and the
other; as _Socrates_ died without pain and without disgrace, he found
no difficulty in supporting his character to the end; and, if his easy
death had not shed a lustre on his life, we might have doubted whether
_Socrates_ with all his genius was any thing but a sophist. They I say
he invented morality. Others before him had practised it: he only said
what they had done, he only read lessons on their examples. _Aristides_
had been just, before _Socrates_ explained the nature of justness;
_Leonidas_ had died for his country, before _Socrates_ made it the
duty of men to love their country; _Sparta_ had been temperate, before
_Socrates_ praised temperance; Greece had abounded in virtuous men,
before he defined virtue. But where could JESUS have taken among his
countrymen that elevated and pure morality, of which he alone furnished
both the precepts and the examples? The most lofty wisdom was heard from
the bosom of the most furious fanaticism; and the simplicity of the most
heroic virtues honoured the vilest of all people.

The death of _Socrates_, serenely philosophising with his friends, is
the most gentle that one can desire; that of JESUS expiring in torments,
injured, derided, reviled by a whole people, is the most horrible that
one can fear. When _Socrates_ takes the _poisoned cup_, he blesses him
who presents it, and who at the same time _weeps_: JESUS in the midst of
a horrid punishment prays for his executioners.--Yes: if the life and
death of JESUS CHRIST are those of a God: shall we say that the history
of the gospel is invented at pleasure? My friends, it is not thus that
men invent; and the actions of _Socrates_, concerning which no one
doubts, are less attested than those of JESUS CHRIST. After all, this
is shifting the difficulty instead of solving it; for it would be more
inconceivable that a number of men should forge this book in concert,
than that one should furnish the subject of it. Jewish authors would
never have deuced such a manner and such morality, and the gospel has
characters of truth so great, so Linking, so perfectly inimitable, that
its inventor would be still more astonishing than its hero.




HISTORY OF ACRE, FORMERLY PTOLEMAIS.

(_From the Encyclopædia Metropolitana._)


The history of this town may be traced to a distant period; and in
modern times it has acquired celebrity by being the theatre of some
considerable transactions. Josephus considers it as belonging to the
tribe of Asher, and relates, that after being held by Demetrius, the
son of Seleucus, it came by treachery into the possession of Antiochus
Epiphanes; after which it was captured by the Hebrew Alexander, ceded
to Ptolemy; from whom it passed to Cleopatra. It was also conquered by
the Persians, and subsequently becoming a Roman colony, then under the
dominion of the Moors, it sustained many sieges both by the Christians
and Saracens, in the period of the crusades: the former expelled the
latter from it in 1104, but in 1187 it was taken by Saladin, king of
Egypt. Soon afterwards, being invested by the combined forces of all
the Christians in Palestine, after a vigorous defence of more than
two years, it yielded to the arms of Philip Augustus of France, and
Richard I. of England, on the 12th of July 1191. The conquest, however,
was dearly acquired by the loss of 100,000 Christians, besides great
numbers who perished by shipwreck and disease. It was now occupied
for nearly a century, in some sense, by all the European and Asiatic
powers; for there were no less than nineteen of them exercising an
independent authority here, among which we find--the kings of Jerusalem
and Naples; the Princes of Antioch, Jaffa, Tripoli, Galilee, Tarentum,
and Armenia; the pope’s legate; the duke of Athens; the commanders
of the English, Genoese, Florentine, and Pisan armies; the Teutonic
and Lazarene knights, and the Knights Templars--specified; and during
this period it was a place of great resort and large extent. In 1291,
it was again besieged, and taken by the Saracens, and sixty thousand
Christians consigned to death or slavery, in retaliation for at least
equal barbarities exercised on the infidels by the besieged. On this
occasion, the nuns gave an almost unparalleled specimen of fortitude, by
mangling themselves in a dreadful manner in the face, for the purpose of
exciting the aversion of the victors, of whom they had otherwise just
reason to apprehend a violation of their chastity: the Saracens, in
revenue, slew them all. From this period, Acre remained in a state of
magnificent decay, and almost total desertion; till in the seventeenth
century, Faccardin, prince of the Druses, attempted its restoration:
but notwithstanding his choking up the harbour to defend himself from
the Turks, they regained it, and the pasha of Saide appointed an annual
governor; till at length Daher, an Arabian Sheik, who obtained the
name of Saint John of Acre carried it by assault in 1749 and having
appeased the Porte, assumed the government of the city. Here he not
only maintained his independence, but by his judicious regulations,
raised it from meanness to dignity; but in 1775, at the time he was
attached by a Turkish fleet, aided by the Moors, he was betrayed and
assassinated at the age of nearly ninety years. His successor was Ahmed
Pasha, a Bosnian, who was sirnamed Djezzar, or butcher. The baron De
Totts Memoirs first brought the name of this wretched prince into
Europe, as having in his time (1785,) entombed alive, a number of Greeks
whose heads were then to be seen. “His mere name,” observes Dr. Clarke,
“carried terror with it over all the Holy Land; the most lawless tribes
of Arabs expressing their awe and obeisance whensoever it was uttered.
His appellation, Dejezzar, as explained by himself, signified butcher;
but of this name, notwithstanding its avowed allusion to slaughters
committed by him, he was evidently vain. He was his own minister,
chancellor, treasurer, and secretary; often his own cook and gardener;
and not unfrequently both judge and executioner in the same instant. Yet
there were persons who had acted, and still occasionally officiated,
in these several capacities, standing by the door of his apartment;
some without a nose, others without an arm, with one ear only, or one
eye, ‘marked men,’ as he termed them, persons ‘bearing signs’ of their
having been instructed to serve their master with fidelity.” During
the misrule of this arbitrary monster, Buonaparte landed in Egypt, and
proposed an alliance, which was refused: upon which, after victoriously
traversing Syria, with an army of more than twelve thousand men, the
French conqueror began the siege of Acre, on the 18th of March,
1799. The pasha, who had already evacuated Caffa, conceiving that
the fortifications were in too miserable a state to avail him, was
preparing to retreat, when Sir Sydney Smith anchored with his squadron
in the roads of Caffa, and reinspirited the inhabitants, by making
every preparation for a vigorous defence. Buonaparte having invested
the place, and being enabled to carry his trenches close to the ditch,
a breach was effected in ten days, when he endeavoured to carry it by
assault, but was repulsed with a heavy loss. Within two days, another
assault was made, and with a similar result. Eight different attempts
were made of the same kind, by which multitudes of the French perished
on the occasion, and in the sorties by which they were followed. On the
fifty-second day, two last and desperate efforts were made; the Turkish
fire, even when aided by the opportune approach of the British seamen,
was for some time ineffectual, owing to the numbers of the enemy, which
perpetually renewed the ranks of the slain. At length, however, the
French were repulsed; but as a breach had been made practicable for
fifty men abreast, the French entered in the evening; a dreadful carnage
ensued, Djezzar was every where animating his troops, and the foe was
utterly vanquished. After these disastrous struggles, during which
Buonaparte lost his battering pieces and stores, and was ultimately
compelled to throw his heavy cannon into the sea; on the 20th of May,
at the expiration of sixty-one days, he raised the siege, and boldly
announced in Egypt, in a public manifesto, that Acre was reduced to a
heap of ruins, and posterity would ask where the city had stood. After
this period, the fortifications were considerably enlarged. At the time
of Dr. Clarke’s visit they were proceeding with great rapidity, to whom
Djezzar made this sage and characteristic remark, upon the entrance of
the engineer into his presence: “Some persons have a head for these
matters” (putting his finger to his forehead,) “and some have not. Let
us see whether or not Buonaparte will make a breach there again. A
breach is a breach, and a wall is a wall!” Djezzar pasha adorned Acre,
however, with several magnificent public works, in which he is said to
have been his own engineer and artist. He built the principal bazaar,
the mosque, and the very elegant public fountain. After the death of
Djezzar, Ishmael pasha usurped the government; but he was displaced and
slain by one of Djezzar’s slaves named Sulliman, a man generally of a
mild and pacific character, on whom the Porte conferred the pachalic.
Acre is about 27 miles south of Tyre, and 70 north of Jerusalem. N. lat,
32°, 40´ E. lon. 39°, 25´.




THE ELEMENTS.


It is for our comfort to find (observes the acute and judicious Paley)
that a knowledge of the constitution of the elements is not necessary
to us. For instance, as Addison has well remarked, “We know _water_
sufficiently when we know how to boil, how to freeze, how to evaporate,
how to make it fresh, how to make it run or spout out in what quantity
and direction we please, without knowing what water is.” The observation
of this excellent writer has more propriety in it now than it had at
the time it was made: for the constitution and the constituent parts of
water seem in some measure to have been lately discovered; yet it does
not appear, I think, that we can make any better or greater use of water
since the discovery than we did before.

We can never think of the elements, without reflecting upon the number
of distinct uses which are consolidated in the same substance. The
_air_ supplies the lungs, supports fire, conveys sound, reflects light,
diffuses smells, gives rain, wafts ships, bears up birds. _Water_,
besides maintaining its own inhabitants, is the universal nourisher of
plants, and through them of terrestrial animals: it is the basis of
their juices and fluids, dilutes their food, quenches their thirst,
floats their burdens. _Fire_ warms, dissolves, enlightens; it is the
great promoter of vegetation and life, if not necessary to the support
of both.

We might enlarge, to almost any length we pleased, upon each of these
uses; but it appears to me almost sufficient to state them. The few
remarks which I judge it necessary to add, areas follow.

I. AIR is essentially different from earth. There appears to be no
necessity for an atmosphere’s investing our globe; yet it does invest
it, and we see how many, how various, and how important are the purposes
which it answers to every order of animated, not to say organized
beings, which are placed upon the terrestrial surface. I think that
every one of these uses will be understood upon the first mention of
them, except it be that of _reflecting_ light, which may be explained
thus:--If I had the power of seeing only by means of rays coming
directly from the sun, whenever I turned my back upon this luminary,
I should find myself in darkness. If I had the power of seeing by
reflected light, yet by means only of light reflected from solid masses,
these masses would shine indeed and glisten, but it would be in the
dark. The hemisphere, the sky, the world, could only be _illuminated_
as it is illuminated, by the light of the sun being from all sides and
in every direction reflected to the eye, by particles as numerous, as
thickly scattered, and as widely diffused, as are those of the air.

Another general quality of the atmosphere is the power of evaporating
fluids. The adjustment of this quality to our use is seen in its action
upon the sea. In the sea, water and salt are mixed together most
intimately; yet the atmosphere raises the water, and leaves the salt.
Pure and fresh as drops of rain descend, they are collected from brine.
If evaporation be solution, (which seems to be probable,) then the air
dissolves the water and not the salt. Upon whatever it be founded, the
distinction is critical; so much so, that when we attempt to imitate the
process by art, we must regulate our distillation with great care and
nicety, or, together with the water, we get the bitterness, or at least
the distastefulness, of the marine substance: and, after all, it is
owing to this original elective power in the air, that we can effect the
separation which we wish, by any act or means whatever.

By evaporation, water is carried up into the air: by the converse of
evaporation, it falls down upon the earth. And how does it fail? Not by
the clouds being all at once reconverted into water and descending like
a sheet; not in rushing down in columns from a spout; but in moderate
drops as from a colander. Our watering-pots are made to imitate showers
of rain. Yet _a priori_, I should have thought either of the two former
methods more likely to have taken place than the last.

By respiration, flame, putrefaction, air is rendered unfit for the
support of animal life. By the constant operation of these corrupting
principles, the whole atmosphere, if there were no restoring causes,
would come at length to be deprived of its necessary degree of purity.
Some of these causes seem to have been discovered, and their efficacy
ascertained by experiment. And so far as the discovery has proceeded,
it opens to us a beautiful and wonderful economy. _Vegetation_ proves
to be one of them. A sprig of mint corked up with a small portion of
foul air, placed in the light, renders it again capable of supporting
life or flame. Here, therefore, is a constant circulation of benefits
maintained between the two great provinces of organized nature. The
plant purifies what the animal has poisoned: in return, the contaminated
air is more than ordinarily nutritious to the plant. _Agitation with
water_ turns out to be another of these restoratives. The foulest air
shaken in a bottle with water for a sufficient length of time, recovers
a great degree of its purity. Here then again, allowing for the scale
upon which nature works, we see the salutary effects of _storms_ and
_tempests_. The yesty waves, which confound the heaven and the sea, are
doing the very thing which was done in the bottle. Nothing can bear
greater importance to the living creation than the salubrity of their
atmosphere. It ought to reconcile us therefore to these agitations of
the elements, of which we sometimes deplore the consequences, to know,
that they tend powerfully to restore to the air that purity which so
many causes are constantly impairing.

II. In WATER, what ought not a little to be admired are those negative
qualities which constitute its purity. Had it been vinous, or
oleaginous, or acid; had the sea been filled or the rivers flowed with
wine or milk; fish, constituted as they are, must have died; plants
constituted as they are, must have withered; the lives of animals which
feed upon plants must have perished. Its very _insipidity_, which is one
of those negative qualities, render, it the best of all menstrua. Having
no taste of its own, it becomes the sincere vehicle of every other. Had
there been a taste in water, be it what it might, it would have infected
every thing we ate or drank with an unfortunate repetition of the same
flavour.

Another thing in this element, not less to be admired, is the constant
_round_ which it travels; and by which, without suffering either
adulteration or waste, it is continually offering itself to the wants
of the habitable globe. From the sea are exhaled those vapours which
form the clouds; these clouds descend in showers, which, penetrating
into the crevices of the hills, supply springs; which springs flow in
little streams into the valleys, and there uniting, become rivers; which
rivers, in return, feed the ocean. So there is an incessant circulation
of the same fluid; and not one drop, probably, more or less now, than
there was at the creation. A particle of water takes its departure from
the surface of the sea in order to fulfil certain important offices to
the earth, and having executed the service which was assigned to it,
returns to the bosom which it left.

Some have thought that we have too much water upon the globe, the sea
occupying above three quarters of its whole surface. But the expanse of
the ocean, immense as it is, may be no more than sufficient to fertilize
the earth.

III. Of FIRE, we have said that it dissolves. The only idea, probably,
which this term raised in the reader’s mind was that of fire melting
metals, resins, and some other substances; fluxing ores, ranning glass,
and assisting us in many of our operations, chemical or culinary. Now
these are uses only of an occasional kind, and give us a very imperfect
notion of what fire does for us. The grand importance of this dissolving
power, the great office indeed of fire in the economy of nature, is
keeping things in a state of solution, that is to say, in a state of
fluidity. Were it not for the presence of heat, or of a certain degree
of it, all fluids would be frozen. The ocean itself would be a quarry of
ice; universal nature stiff and dead.

IV. Of LIGHT (whether we regard it as of the same substance with fire,
or as a different substance) it is altogether superfluous to expatiate
upon the fuse. No man disputes it. The observations, therefore, which
I shall offer, respect that little which we seem to know of its
constitution.

Light travels from the sun at the rate of twelve millions of miles in
a minute. Urged by such a velocity, with what force must its particles
drive against (I will not say the eye, the tenderest of animal
substances, but) every substance, animate or inanimate, which stands
in its way! It might seem to be a force sufficient to shatter to atoms
the hardest bodies. How then is this effect, the consequence of such
prodigious velocity, guarded against? By a proportionable _minuteness_
of the particles of which light is composed. It is impossible for the
human mind to imagine to itself any thing so small as a particle of
light. But this extreme exility though difficult to conceive, it is
easy to prove. A drop of tallow, expended in the wick of a farthing
candle, shall send forth rays sufficient to fill a hemisphere of a
mile diameter, and to fill it so full of these rays that an aperture
not larger than the pupil of an eye, wherever it is placed within
the hemisphere shall be seen to receive some of them. What floods
of light are continually poured from the sun, we cannot estimate:
but the immensity of the sphere which Is filled with particles, even
if it reached no further than the orbit of the earth, we can in some
sort compute; and we have reason to believe that throughout this whole
region, the particles of light lie, in latitude at least, near to one
another. The spissitude of the sun’s rays at the earth is such, that
the number which falls upon a burning-glass of an inch diameter is
sufficient, when concentrated, to set wood on fire.

The tenuity and velocity of particles of light, as ascertained by
separate observations, may be said to be proportioned to each other;
both surpassing our utmost stretch of comprehension; but proportioned.
And it is this proportion alone which converts a tremendous element into
a welcome visitor.

It has been observed to me by a learned friend, as having often struck
his mind, that if light had been made by a common artist it would have
been of one uniform _colour_; whereas, by its present composition we
have that variety of colour which is of such infinite use to us for the
distinguishing of objects which adds so much to the beauty of the earth,
and augments the stock of our innocent pleasures.

With which maybe joined another reflection, viz. That considering light
as compounded of rays of seven different colours, (of which there can be
no doubt, because it can be resolved into these rays by simply passing
it through a prism,) the constituent parts must be well mixed and
blended together, to produce a fluid so clear and colourless as a beam
of light is when received from the sun.




NATURAL HISTORY.


“Dear papa! you have made me anxious to know something of animals, or
animated nature, as you termed it; will you tell me where I can read of
birds, beasts, and fishes? for I should like to be acquainted with them
all.”

To rouse dormant curiosity, and then to gratify it, was one part of the
father’s plan of education. He eagerly embraced the opportunity which he
wished to find.

“You must know, my love,” said he, “that animals in their general
definition, possess sensation, and spontaneous locomotion, exclusive
of a vegetative and a generative power, which they have in common with
vegetables. This distinction may be sufficient for use. You will wonder,
indeed, that I should think it necessary to explain what an animal is;
but an acquaintance with nature will convince you, that it is not always
an easy matter to tell where animal life begins, and vegetable ends.

“The sensitive plant, _mimosa pudica_ seems to have as much perception
as the polypus; except that the latter has a loco-motive power. But
vegetables are always confined to one spot; they can neither shun
danger, nor seek for nourishment, after the animal plan. Hence an
obvious and infallible distinction is established.

“Human industry, from the earliest ages, has been employed in
diminishing the number of noxious or useless creatures, and in
reclaiming for use such as are beneficial; and though it is probable
that few species of animal life are entirely extinct, yet where man has
long been undisputed sovereign, he has either exterminated his annoyers,
or driven them to haunts less frequented.

“Still, however, an immense variety of existences is diffused over the
most cultivated spots: the earth, the water, and the air, teem with
life. And in contemplating this exuberance of nature, indolence might
naturally be tempted to pronounce that absolutely indeterminable, which
cannot be particularized without so much application. But the active
and inquisitive mind, instead of reposing in hopeless ignorance, or in
a very limited degree of knowledge, has contrived means of numbering,
grouping and classing all the various animals that people creation.

“Among those systematic naturalists whose indefatigable exertions have
contributed to our knowledge, or to the facility of acquiring it, none
have gained such deserved reputation as ARISTOTLE, RAY, KLEIN, LINNÆUS,
and PENNANT. Why cannot we particularize BUFFON too, the philosophic
painter of nature? He indeed rejected the trammels of system, as useless
incumbrances, while he indulged in hypotheses as more congenial to his
exuberant fancy; but his works on natural history will delight and
improve, while the charms of language are capable of afflicting the
mind, and while diligent investigation deserves praise. His theories
will amuse, while the solidity of his remarks instructs.

“That illustrious father of science, Linnæus, whose eye pervaded animal
and vegetable nature to their most secret recesses, with a studied
brevity of expression, and an unrivalled precision, comprehends the
greatest variety in the narrowest limits; and hence gives the clearest
views, with the least burden to the memory. According to this great
naturalist, the internal structure furnishes the first grand distinction
of animals. Thus he finds, that quadrupeds and birds have two ventricles
to the heart, and hot red blood--the quadrupeds being viviparous, and
the birds oviparous. Amphibia and fishes have the heart with only one
ventricle, and cold, red blood--the amphibia being furnished with lungs,
and the fishes with gills. While, on the other hand, insects and worms
have only one ventricle in the heart, and cold white serum instead of
blood--the insects being provided with feelers, and the worms with
holders.”

Animated nature in general, is thus divided into six
classes--quadrupeds, birds, amphibia, fishes, insects, and worms. These,
at first view, appear pretty distinct from each other; yet when we
come to a minute investigation, Nature is varied by such imperceptible
gradations, that no precise line can be drawn between any two classes of
her productions, nor any definitions framed that will embrace them all.

“In such a wide field as animated nature comprehends, it is impossible,
within the limits I prescribe to myself, to do justice to the whole,
or even to particular parts. I shall endeavour, however, at intervals,
to give you some idea of the six great classes of which I have just
told you it is composed. The authors I have enumerated in this pleasing
branch of science, will fill up the outline which I mean to draw, not to
satisfy, but to encourage you in deeper researches.

“When it appears you comprehend the distinctions I have laid down, and
can give me a proper account of them, I will with pleasure introduce you
to a general acquaintance with quadrupeds, and so on, in order. To make
your ground sure as you proceed, is the only effectual method of reaping
improvement from all studies; more particularly where the objects are so
multifarious as in natural history.”




TO THE EDITOR OF THE YOUTH’S INSTRUCTOR,


SIR--

If the following Answers to the Arithmetical Puzzles and Questions are
correct, you will oblige me by inserting them.

  Your’s, &c.
      *ARITHMETICUS.


_ANSWERS TO THE PUZZLES._

1. MILLIO.

2. 99.9-9.

3.       {SIX}      {IX}      {S}
    From { IX} take { X} then {I} will remain.
         { XL}      { L}      {X}


_ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS._

1. 1/3 of 2d=2/3 of 1d=2-9 of 3d.

2. As 7:5-2::11:55-14 of 1; which=55-126 of 9.

3. Suppose the expense and the profit to be the same, and each=2;
then double the expenses=4, and half the profits=1, and therefore the
difference is 3, and the rate of the former to the latter is as 4 to 1.

       *       *       *       *       *

I now propose the following Puzzle and Question for the consideration of
your readers, and would be glad to see them answered in your next number.

_Puzzle._--In an Arabian manuscript was found this remarkable decision
of a dispute. Two Arabians sat down to dinner; one had five loaves and
the other three. A stranger passing by, desired permission to eat with
them; to which they agreed. The stranger dined, laid down 8 pieces of
money and departed. The proprietor of the 5 loaves took up 5 pieces, and
left three for the other, who objected, and insisted for one half. The
cause came before Ali, the Magistrate, who gave the following judgment:
“Let the owner of the 5 loaves have 7 pieces of money; and the owner of
the 3 loaves 1.” Quere, the justice of this sentence?

_Question._--An Indian Gardener being desirous of presenting a basket of
oranges to his Navab, had seven gates to pass before he could reach the
audience chamber; at the first of which he was obliged to give half the
number he had to the porter; at the second half what remained; and so
on; when at length coming into the presence of the Prince, he found he
had only one orange left. How many had he at first?




TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES


Small capitals are shown herein as all capitals.

This text has been preserved as in the original, including archaic and
inconsistent spelling, punctuation and grammar, except as shown below.

Obvious printer’s errors have been silently corrected.

The footnote has been renumbered and then moved to directly below the
paragraph to which it belongs.

There were two characters not printed at “consolidated in the sa[me]
substance.” and are shown here within the brackets.

Fractions which are shown as a single character in the original work
have been changed herein to the form n/d (e.g. 2/3).


[The end of _The Youth's Instructor (Issue 3 of 6)_ by anonymous]