PROOFS FROM THE LIGHT OF NATURE. 



23 



is own name. Cyneas, who was sent by 

 Pyrrhus to the Senate at Rome, on an expedi 

 tion, the very next day after his arrival, both 

 knew and also saluted by their names, all the 

 Senate, and the whole order of the gentlemen in 

 Rome. Mithridates, who governed twenty- 

 three nations, all of different languages, could 

 converse with every one of them in their own 

 language.* An ancient author mentions one 

 Oritus, a Corsican boy, to whom he dictated a 

 great number of words both sense and nonsense, 

 and finding he could rehearse a considerable 

 number without missing one, and in the same 

 order in which he dictated them, increased them 

 to the number of forty thousand, and found, to 

 his astonishment, that he could repeat them all 

 from beginning to end, or from the end back 

 wards to the beginning, in the order in which 

 they were dictated. 



In modern times, there have likewise been 

 many instances of extraordinary powers of re 

 tention. Dr. Wallis, in a paper in the Philoso 

 phical Transactions, informs us that he extracted 

 the cube root of the number three, even to thirty 

 places of decimals, by the help of his memory 

 alone. Maglia Bethi, an Italian, had read all 

 the books that were published in his life time, 

 and most of those which were published be 

 fore, and could not only give an account of 

 what was contained in each author, but could 

 likewise, from memory, quote the chapter, sec 

 tion, and page of any book he had read, and 

 repeat the author s own words, in reference to 

 any particular topic. A gentleman, in order to 

 try his memory, lent him a long manuscript he 

 was about to publish, and after it had been re 

 turned, called upon him soon afterwards, pre 

 tending he had lost it, and desired him to write 

 as much of it as he could remember; when, 

 to his surprise, he wrote it over accurately 

 word for word, the same as in the manuscript 

 he had lent him. M. Euler, a late celebrated 

 mathematician and philosopher, who died in 

 1783, having lost his sight by too intense ap 

 plication to study, afterwards composed his &quot;Ele 

 ments of Algebra,&quot; and a work &quot; On the ine 

 qualities of the planetary motions,&quot; that required 

 immense and complicated calculations, which he 

 performed by his memory alone, to the admira 

 tion and astonishment even of the philosophic 

 world. His memory seemed to retain every 

 idea that was conveyed to it, either from reading 

 or from meditation, and his powers of reasoning 

 and of discrimination were equally acute and 

 capacious. He was also an excellent classical 

 scholar, and could repeat the ^Eneid of Virgil 

 from the beginning to the end, and indicate the 

 first and last line of every page of the edition he 

 used.j I have conversed with an individual, 



Senec. Controvers. Lib- 1. Pliny s Nat. Hist. &c. 

 * Encyclopedia Britan. Art. Euler. 



who was born blind, and who could repeat the 

 whole of the Old and New Testaments from be 

 ginning to end ; and not only so, but could repeat 

 any particular chapter or verse that might be 

 proposed to him, the moment after it was speci 

 fied. 



Thus it appears that man is not only possessed 

 of an ardent desire after knowledge, but is en 

 dued with the most penetrating and capacious 

 powers of intellect, both for acquiring and for 

 treasuring it up in his mind powers which ap 

 pear susceptible of indefinite improvement in 

 this world ; and the legitimate inference that may 

 be drawn from this, is, that they will continue to 

 be exerted with uninterrupted activity, through 

 out an unceasing duration. And, is it possible 

 to suppose, in consistency with the moral attri 

 butes of the Deity, that the exercise of such 

 powers is intended to be confined within the nar 

 row limits of time, and to the contracted sphera 

 of the terraqueous globe ? 



-&quot;Say, can a soul possess d 



Of such extensive, deep, tremendous powers 

 Enlarging still, be but a finer breath 

 Of spirits dancing through their tubes a while, 

 And then for ever lost in vacant air?&quot; 



Such a conclusion never can be admitted while 

 we recognise the divinity as possessed of bound 

 less goodness and unerring wisdom. It is the 

 province of goodness to gratify those pure and 

 ardent desires which it has implanted in the soul ; 

 and it is the part of wisdom to proportionate 

 means to ends. But if the whole existence 

 of human beings had been intended to be con 

 fined to a mere point in duration, is it rational 

 to suppose, that Infinite Wisdom would have en 

 dowed the human soul with powers and capaci 

 ties so marvellous and sublime, and made so many 

 great preparations and arrangements for promot 

 ing its physical and moral perfection ? To acqui 

 esce in sucl, a. supposition, would be to degrade 

 the divine wisJomand intelligence below the level 

 of the wisdom of man, and to impute imperfec 

 tion and folly M Him who is &quot; the only wise 

 God.&quot; For, in the conduct of human beings, 

 we uniformly rega.-d it as an evidence of folly, 

 when they construct a complicated and an extra 

 vagant machine, which either accomplishes no 

 end, or no end worthy of the expense and labour 

 bestowed on its construction. And, therefore, 

 if we would not ascribe imbecility or want of 

 design to the aaorable Creator of the universe, 

 we must admit, that he has not formed the soul 

 of man for this terrestrial scene alone, but has 

 destined it to a state of progressive improve 

 ment, and of endless duration. 



This conclusion will appear still more evident, 

 if we consider the endless round of business and 

 care, and the numerous hardships to which the 

 bulk of mankind are subjected in the present 

 state, which prevent the full and vigorous exp 



