104 OSCILLATIONS OK VIBRATIONS 



tree organized with reference to the c;arth and atmosphere ! 

 The fibres on the roots and the leaves on the branches — 

 how different in form and color ! Yet both are absorbents 

 beautifully adapted to the media in which they develope. 

 In like manner is the organization of man adapted to the 

 material creation spread around. His eye is beautifully 

 adapted to receive the light, his ear is formed for the re- 

 ception of sound; his body, in fact, is an apparatus most 

 exquisitely contrived to render him sensible to the nature 

 of external things. Hence, l^ature is the great teacher. 

 In childhood we are the most passive and impressible. 

 We spend life in a state of constant and curious excite- 

 ment. We are perpetually stimulated by the presence of 

 new objects, and every hour brings with it stores of facts 

 and natural appearances, the rich materials of our future 

 knowledge. Ifature is pouring in instruction at every 

 avenue of sense. As we advance in years, we become 

 familiar with common objects, and our attention is natu- 

 rally drawn away from the discovery of what is new to 

 the study and examination of that which is old. The vast 

 variety of phenomena which have made an impression on 

 us are brought under review, and the feverish astonish- 

 ment of childhood gives place to the calm of manly con- 

 templation. Then commence those first attempts at gene- 

 ralization which mark the dawn of science in the mind, 

 and from the lessons of the past we now draw the mate- 

 rials of our future wisdom. 



Every wind and rain-drop has helped to mould the cha- 

 racter of this tree. And it is a great truth, which well 

 deserves to be regarded, that not only the peculiarities of 

 their organization, but the circumstances by which they 

 are surrounded, form those endlessly diversified varieties 

 of human character which we meet with in our passage 

 through life. Like the different trees of a forest, the in- 

 dividuality of men is the result of the controlling influence 

 of peculiar laws of organization and the circumstances in 

 which they are placed. 



