Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub
[graphic]

10

possible with

HYMN TO SCIENCE.

science; wiplan, the genius, of each state, hitherto brinterest and its power relate, desidera Its fortunes and its rise.

a lab Through private life pursue thy course
Trace ev'ry action to its source,
And means and motives weigh;
Put tempers, passions, in the scale,
Mark what degrees in each prevail,
And fix the doubtful sway.

C'

The last, best effort of thy skill,
To form the life, and rule the will,
Propitious Pow'r! impart;

Teach me to cool my passions' fires,
Make me the judge of my desires,
The master of my heart.

Raise me above the vulgar breath,
Pursuit of fortune, dread of death
And all in life that's mean:
Still true to reason be my plan,
And let my actions speak the man,
Through ev'ry varying scene.

Hail, queen of manners! test of truth!
Hail, charm of age, and light of youth!
Sweet refuge of distress!

E'en business you can make polite,
Can give retirement its delight,

Prosperity its grace.

Of pow'r, wealth, freedom, thou the cause,
Foundress of order, cities, laws,

Of arts inventress thou!

Without thee, what were human kind!

How vast their wants, their thoughts how blind!
Their joys how mean, how few!

Sun of the soul! thy beams unveil !
Let others spread the daring sail
On fortune's faithless sea:
While undeluded, happier I
From the vain tumult timely fly,

And sit in peace with thee.

[ocr errors]

MATHEMATICAL STUDIES.

LESSON 7.

Usefulness of Mathematical Studies.

Ax'ioms, maxims, self-evident propositions.

Anal'ogy, resemblance--see Hedge's or Jamieson's Logic. Physics, natural philosophy, or the doctrine of natural bodies, their various appearances, affections, motions, operations, &c. Or all the sciences which serve to call forth the spirit of enterprise and inquiry, there is none more eminently useful than mathematics. By an early attachment to these elegant and sublime studies we acquire a habit of reasoning, and an elevation of thought, which fixes the mind, and prepares it for every other pursuit. From a few simple axioms, and evident principles, we proceed gradually to the most general propositions, and remote analogies: deducing one truth from another in a chain of argument well connected and logically pursued; which brings us at last, in the most satisfactory manner, to the conclusion, and serves as a general direction in all our inquiries after truth.

Mathematical learning is likewise equally estimable for its practical utility. Almost all the works of art and devices of man, have a dependence upon its principles, and are indebted to it for their origin and perfection. The cultivation of these admirable sciences is therefore a thing of the utmost importance, and ought to be considered as a principal part of every well regulated plan of education. They are the guide of our youth, the perfection of our reason, and the foundation of every great and noble undertaking.

Mathematics are very properly recommended as the best remedy to cure an unsteady and volatile disposition. They teach us to reason in a clear and methodical manner. They give a manly vigour to our understanding, and free us from doubt and uncertainty on the one hand, and credulity and rash presumption on the other. These studies are calculated to teach exactness and perspicuity in definition, conpexion and conclusiveness in argument, carefulness in obervation, patience in meditation; and from no exercises can he scholar go better prepared and disciplined to the pursuit of the higher branches of knowledge. The benefit to be lerived from them is thus stated by Mr. Locke: "I have mentioned mathematics as a way to settle in the mind a

[blocks in formation]

habit of reasoning closely, and in train; not that I think it necessary that all men should be deep mathematicians; but that having got the way of reasoning, to which that study necessarily brings the mind, they might be able to transfer it to other parts of knowledge, as they shall have occasion." Mathematics, according to their proper definition, constitute the science of quantity, either as subject to measure or number. They are pure and mixed. The former consider quantity abstractedly, without any regard to matter or particular bodies; the latter treat of quantity as subsisting in bodies, and consequently they are intermixed with the consideration of physics, or experimental philosophy.

KETT'S Elements of General Knowledge.

QUESTIONS.-1. What habit does an early attention to mathematical studies produce? 2. What is said of their practical utility? 3. What are they calculated to teach? 4. How is the benefit to be derived from them stated by Mr. Locke? 5. Give a definition of mathematics. 6. How do pure mathematics consider quantity? 7. Mixed?

NOTE. Pure mathematics are arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and fluxions: mixed consist chiefly of mechanics, pneumatics, hydrostatics, optics, and astronomy.

LESSON 8.

Imagination.

We do not merely perceive objects, and conceive or remember them simply as they were, but we have the power of combining them in various new assemblages,-of forming at our will, with a sort of delegated omnipotence, not a single universe merely, but a new and varied universe, with every succession of our thought. The materials of which we form them are, indeed, materials that exist in every mind; but they exist in every mind only as the stones exist shapelessly in the quarry, that require little more than mechanic labour to convert them into common dwellings, but that rise into palaces and temples only at the command of architectural genius. This power of combining our conceptions or remembrances in new assemblages is termed imagination.

The most sublime exertions of imagination are made by

IMAGINATION.

the poet. But we must not conceive, merely because they are sublime, that they comprehend the whole office of ima gination, or even its most important uses. It is of far more importance to mankind, as it operates in the common offices of life, in the familiar feelings of every hour. What are all those pictures of the future, which are ever before our eyes, in the successive hopes, and fears, and designs of life, but imaginations, in which circumstances are combined that never perhaps, in the same forms and proportions, have existed in reality, and which, very probably, are never to exist but in those very hopes and fears which we have formed? The writer of romance gives secret motions and passions to the characters which he invents, and adds incident to incident in the long series of complicated action which he developes. What he does, we, too, are doing every hour;contriving events that never are to happen,-imagining motives and passions, and thinking our little romances, of which ourselves, perhaps, are the primary heroes, but in the plot of which there is a sufficient complication of adventures of those whom we love, and those whom we dislike. Our ro mances of real life, though founded upon facts, are, in their principal circumstances, fictions still; and, though the fancy which they display may not be as brilliant, it is still the same in kind with that which forms and fills the history of imagi nary heroes and heroines.

It is well known, from experience, that the activity and consequent improvement of imagination, depend not a little upon the character of the objects with which it is first occupied. The great, the sublime, the beautiful, the new, and the uncommon, in external nature, are not only striking and agreeable in themselves, but, by association, these qualities powerfully awaken the sensibilities of the heart, and kindle the fires of youthful imagination. If the student permit objects which are mean, low, or sensual, to usurp possession of his mind; if the books which he reads, and the studies that he pursues, are contaminated with gross ideas, he has no right to expect that this omnipotent faculty shall ever draw from the polluted treasures of his memory, any thing noble, useful, or praiseworthy; or that his name shall ever be enrolled among those who have delighted, instructed, and honoured their native land and the world at large.

[ocr errors]

By an excessive indulgence in the pleasures of imagina

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

tion, the taste may acquire a fastidious refinement unsuitable to the present situation of human nature; and those intellectual and moral habits, which ought to be formed by actual experience of the world, may be gradually so accommodated to the dreams of poetry and romance, as to disqualify us for the scenes in which we are destined to act. But a well-regulated imagination is the great spring of human activity, and the principal source of human improvement. As it delights in presenting to the mind scenes and characters more perfect than those with which we are acquainted, it prevents us from ever being completely satisfied with our present condition, or with our past attainments, and engages us continually in the pursuit of some untried enjoyment, or of some ideal excellence. Destroy this faculty, and the condition of man will become as stationary as that of the brutes.

QUESTIONS.-1. What is imagination? 2. By whom are its most sublime exertions made? 3. Illustrate its operation in the common offices of life. 4. On what do the activity and improvement of imagination greatly depend? 5. What may be the consequence of an excessive indulgence in the pleasures of imagination? 6. Why is a well-regulated imagination the great spring of human activity, and source of human improvement?

LESSON 9.

Beauty and Sublimity.

Emotions, vivid feelings arising immediately from the consideration of objects, perceived, remembered, or imagined.

Cartoon', a painting or drawing upon several sheets of large paper pasted on canvass. The most celebrated are the cartoons of Raphael. See Lesson on Painting.

OUR emotions of beauty are various; and, as they gradually rise, from object to object, a sort of regular progression may be traced from the faintest beauty to the vastest sublimity. These extremes may be considered as united, by a class of intermediate feelings, for which grandeur might, perhaps, be a suitable term, that have more of beauty, or more of sublimity, according to their place in the scale of emotion. Let us imagine that we see before us a stream gently gliding through fields, rich with all the luxuriance of summer, overshadowed at times by the foliage that hangs

« ПредишнаНапред »