On Mystery. 217 



their money and enterprise gave out at the same time, and they 

 too stopped with a view of resuming their labor, but before they 

 could do so, their lease expired. 



I have been thus particular in describing Barringer's gold 

 mine, because it is the first place in this region, at which the 

 metal was found in a vein, and this discovery has at once thrown 

 so much light on the subject as fully to develope the character 

 and nature of the gold mines of North Carolina. 



The line E and F represents a section of the vein, running 

 nearly north and south. Torrents of water passing down the 

 hollow, where the branch now runs, gradually wore away the 

 earth, and broke up part of the vein, scattering it with its gold 

 in the direction of B, and by the force of the current, carrying 

 some of the gold down long creek towards C. 



The gold found in the branch and the creek is at once recogniz- 

 ed to be like that taken out of the vein at EF with the exception 

 that it plainly shows the effect of having been worn by attrition. 



No attempt has yet been made, to pursue the vein in the direc- 

 tion of E, though reason and analogy would teach us, that it may 

 be as rich in that direction as in the contrary one. In fact no se- 

 rious attempt has been made, to pursue any part of the vein ; 

 but this cannot loner continue to be the case. 



Art. II. — On Mystery ; by Mark Hopkins, A. M.* 



We may well suppose that the first feeling of Adam was 

 a feeling of mystery. With the conviction, elementary in 

 every mind, that there can be no effect without a cause ; 

 with the consciousness of his own inexplicable being; crea- 

 tion in its original brightness, bursting at once upon his view, 

 and indicating itself through all his senses ; he must have felt 

 that mystery enveloped himself and all that he beheld. Ac- 

 cordingly, 



" As new waked from soundest sleep," said he, 

 " Soft on the flowery hank I found me laid, 

 Straight toward heaven my wandering eyes I turned, 

 And gazed awhile the ample sky. 



Thou Sun, said I, fair light, 

 And thou enlightened earth, so fresh and gay, 

 And ye that live and move, fair creatures, tell, 

 Tell if ye saw, how came I thus, how here." 



That was a sublime moment — such an one as none of his 

 descendants, under the deadening influence of the familiarity 



* Late a Tutor of Williams College. — Ed. 



Vol. XIII.— No. 2. 3 



