102 OSCILLATIONS OE VIBRATIONS 



parting rays on our landscapes. How beautiful the light re- 

 flected from the clouds in his neighborhood I Another beat of 

 the great pendulum of the universe ! Whence that thought ? 

 It arises from my appreciation of the advance of Nature. The 

 landscapes are now enveloped in the earth's shadow. It is 

 night. Why did that sunset give me so much pleasure ? Be- 

 cause the sun was made to minister to my gratification. I am 

 then of more importance than that sun. Yet it shone myriads 

 of ages before I came to regard its splendors, and it will soon 

 shine on my lowly grave. That will contain my body, but 

 NOT ME. Others shall look on thy setting beauties, thou glo- 

 rious sun, and read these lines when I am gone, and oh! may 

 they inspire in them my own unfaltering faith in Providence 

 and immortality ! 



There is nothing so little understood as human nature. We 

 understand far more about matter and its laws, than about the 

 human mind, to which all matter was made to minister. It is 

 indeed to be lamented that, whilst all other arts and sciences 

 are cultivated, the science of ourselves has been so much 

 neglected. Human nature has been beaten, despised, oppressed, 

 and ground down to the dust for ages, because man has not 

 been understood. Therefore, any system of philosophy calcu- 

 lated to diffuse sentiments of peace, charity, and mutual for- 

 bearance amongst mankind ought to be welcomed by them. 

 Such systems have been propounded by the celebrated savan 

 Locke, in his "Essay on the Human Understanding," and by 

 Bacon, in his " Novum Organum." The former by his admira- 

 ble investigations into the nature of the human mind, clearly 

 showed the origin and extent of human knowledge ; the latter 

 taught men to make experience and observation the character 

 of their philosophy to proceed from the known to the un- 

 known, to interrogate Nature by experiment. The author can- 

 didly acknowledges that the sentiments advocated by these 

 illustrious men have had great influence on his thinkings. 



As the tree is connected with the material world and re- 

 ceives impressions from without which mould its character, so 

 with the organism of man. He is bound by inseparable ties 

 to the material creation. Locke has shown us the nature of 



