301 



To the Editor of the Analyst, 



Sir, — In the prospectus of your periodical, I find an invitation 

 to supply your miscellany with such local or statistical infor- 

 mation as may instruct or amuse your readers. Hitherto your 

 invitation has been overlooked, yet so important do I consider 

 the information you solicit, that I must beg a page or two whilst 

 I endeavour to second your views in considering a subject in- 

 ferior to none in that interest which can engage attention, and 

 employ the faculties of the inquirer through the varied walks of 

 intelligence. 



The human mind never stagnates, but" is always busily em- 

 ployed in matters of research, it dreads vacuity, and is ever ac- 

 tive in pursuit, and, if not engaged in the higher flights of fancy, 

 or the more sober walk of conviction, it seeks a gratification in 

 the unhallowed and reckless influence of a distempered ima- 

 gination. 



Knowledge is necessary to man, and whether it be that which 

 tends to moral instruction and useful attainment, or whether it be 

 that which leads to immoral consequences, and vitiates and de- 

 grades the natural energies, is a matter highly important to every 

 relation in life. 



Knowledge is the medium through which man can be raised 

 in the scale of created beings, and its essence and character 

 justify his progression, for should it not tend to the purposes of 

 social life, and be profitless in its moral influences, it may be 

 gazed at for its splendor, but rejected for its inutility. 



Knowledge, says Lord Bacon, is power, and, he might have 

 added, virtue also ; for, through its instrumentality, the affections 

 of the heart and mind are engaged, and lead through a pro- 

 gressive expansion to the consummation of all instruction, re- 

 ligious influences, and moral order. I need not trace its pro- 

 gress, for its steps are perceptible from the lowest grade of ig- 

 norance and sensuality to those of wisdom and benevolence, and 

 we find our illustration in those nations and people who hare 

 preserved the sameness of nature through successive generations, 

 exemplifying the admitted axiom, that vice and ignorance pre- 

 serve a close and intimate alliance, and in those who, through the 

 advancement of knowledge, have displayed the fruits of wisdom 

 in the principles of virtue and moral truth. 



If these prefatory remarks shall meet with approval, the line 

 of duty is plainly laid before us, through the exercise of those 

 powers with which God has endowed us, to instruct, enlighten, 

 and improve, to the best of our ability in the sphere of life in 

 which we move. — Relative are our duties, and relative their 

 exercise, and although iQVf can attain the higher walks of knovy-r 



