452 



SUPERIOR PL ANET8 SUPERNATURALISM. 



numerous othei kinds of fish. The great lakes, 

 from the comparative shallowncss of their beds, and 

 the circumstance that their waters possess less 

 specific gravity than those of the ocean, and it 

 may be from other causes, when swept by the 

 winds, raise waves more rough and dangerous than 

 those of the sea, though not quite so mountainous, 

 It has been often asserted that they have diurnal and 

 septennial fluxes and refluxes. This, however, is not 

 an established fact ; and we are certain that, even if 

 they exist, they are irregular and inconsiderable. 

 The waters of lake Superior are partly derived from 

 the marshes and shallow lakes, covered with wild 

 rice, which supply the upper waters of the Mississip- 

 pi. These are slimy and unpalatable until they find 

 their level, and undergo the action of the lake, 

 where they become transparent, and lose their 

 swampy taste. The lower strata of the waters of 

 the hike never gain the temperature of summer. 

 A bottle sunk to the depth of a hundred feet, and 

 there filled, in midsummer, feels, when brought to 

 the surface, as if filled with ice- water. The shores 

 of this lake, especially on the north and south, are 

 rocky and nearly barren. In some places, the coast 

 is very rough, and highly elevated. The lake is of 

 difficult navigation ; but there seem to be no insur- 

 mountable obstacles to its becoming a pathway for 

 all vessels of strength and good size. It contains 

 many islands. Isle Royal, the largest, is said to be 

 one hundred miles long, and forty broad. It re- 

 ceives more than thirty rivers, and discharges its 

 waters into lake Huron by the river or strait of St 

 Mary. The pictured rocks, so called from their 

 appearance, are on the south side of the lake, 

 towards the east end. They are an extraordinary 

 natural curiosity. They form a perpendicular wall 

 300 feet high, extending about twelve miles. They 

 present a great variety of forms, having numerous 

 projections aud indentations, and vast caverns, in 

 which the entering waves make a jarring and tre- 

 mendous sound. Among the objects here which 

 attract particular attention, are the cascade La Por- 

 taille and the Doric arch. The cascade consists of 

 a considerable stream, precipitated from the height 

 of about seventy feet by a single leap into the lake. 

 It leaps to such a distance, that a boat may pass 

 dry between it and the rocks. The Doric rock, or 

 arch, has the appearance of a work of art, consisting 

 of an isolated mass of sandstone, with four pillars 

 supporting an entablature or stratum of stone, 

 covered with soil, and a handsome growth of pine 

 and spruce trees, some of which are fifty or sixty 

 feet high. The only outlet to this lake is St 

 Mary's strait. This extends to lake Huron : others 

 connect the other lakes ; and the combined waters 

 of all find their way to the ocean by the St Law- 

 rence. It is not, however, to be imagined, that 

 the St Lawrence discharges an amount of water 

 that is at all comparable with what the lakes re- 

 ceive. They spread over so great a surface, that 

 the evaporation from them must be immense. 

 They are scarcely affected by the spring floods of 

 the hundreds of rivers which they receive ; and 

 their outlets have no such floods. Like the ocean 

 itself, these mighty inland seas seem to receive 

 without increase, and to impart without diminu- 

 tion. 



SUPERIOR PLANETS. See Planets. 



SUPERNATURALISM, a word chiefly used in 

 German theology, is contradistinguished to ration- 

 alism. It is difficult to give any satisfactory view 

 of these conflicting religious opinions, within our 



limits; but the subject is too interesting to be 

 wholly passed over. In its widest extent, super- 

 naturulism is the doctrine, that religion and the 

 knowledge of God require a revelation from God. 

 So far tin-re is no difference of sentiment. All 

 admit that God cannot be conceived of, except on 

 the supposition that he has manifested himself ; but 

 the next step gives rise to disagreement. What is 

 this manifestation or revelation, from which \\r 

 derive fhe knowledge of God? Some conrcm- 

 such knowledge to be conveyed only by a direct 

 external communication from God ; to which it is 

 objected that freedom of faith and knowledge 

 would be thereby destroyed, and, at the same time, 

 all examination of true religion, and distinction of 

 it from superstition and fanaticism, would < 

 To this supernaturalism, which considers religion 

 as something supernatural, excluding the free 

 activity of the intellectual nature of man, is op- 

 posed the other extreme, that religion is founded 

 on human reason alone, and can dispense with a 

 revelation from God. But, generally speaking, the 

 words supernaturalism and rationalism are used 

 particularly in reference to the Christian religion. 

 Rationalism maintains that the Christian religion 

 must be judged of, like other phenomena, by the 

 only means which we have to judge with, viz. 

 reason. It often goes farther, and asserts, that 

 Jesus was only a man of an elevated character, 

 who purified religion from corruption, and incul- 

 cated nobler views respecting God, and the destiny 

 of man, than those which had prevailed among the 

 Jews and heathens before him, and preached and 

 practised a purer morality, which, through God's 

 favour, became widely diffused. All notions which 

 cannot be reconciled with these, they say, ought 

 to be considered as additions to the simplicity of 

 Christianity, and to be set aside, or rejected. Su- 

 pernaturalism considers the Christian religion as an 

 extraordinary phenomenon, out of the circle of 

 natural events, and as communicating truths above 

 the comprehension of human reason. Jesus is that 

 person of the Godhead who brought this super- 

 natural truth to men, and, by his blood, saved the 

 human species from the lost state to which it had 

 been reduced by the fall of Adam, rose again, 

 and now rules the world with God the Father. 

 Human reason must therefore receive, uncondi- 

 tionally, the mysterious truth, divinely communi- 

 cated in the Holy Scripture ; and this is the only 

 way to learn the truth and obtain salvation. These 

 views are variously modified; and, as is the case 

 with all important questions, many believe that 

 both run into extremes ; that in the one, too much 

 is claimed for human reason, whilst in the other, 

 feeling has an undue ascendency; that superna- 

 turalism has depth without clearness, and rational- 

 ism, such as we have represented it, clearness 

 without depth. This intermediate party, who by 

 some have been termed rationalists, whilst the 

 extreme party are called hyperrationalists, say that 

 supernaturalism removes religious truth beyond the 

 sphere of the human understanding, and even 

 beyond the possibility of recognition. If, say they, 

 divine truth is something which comes entirely 

 from without, and is unconnected with other truth, 

 where is our capacity to recognize it ? The reve- 

 lation of the omnipresent Ruler of the world, which 

 pervades all ages, is, they further say, annihilated, 

 if Christianity has no connexion with that revela- 

 tion, or manifestation, and if it is essentially dif- 

 ferent from what existed before, or without it. On 



