KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL, 



103 



could comprehend. Luckily the horses 

 were wiser than their master, and after a 

 mile or two they chose to walk : and walk 

 they did every other step of the way, while 

 the rain continued to pour in torrents. I 

 don't think I ever experienced a more posi- 

 tive pleasure in my life, than when I bade 

 the whole party good night. I make no rash 

 vows ; but if ever I go on a party of pleasure 

 again — I hold my next of kin perfectly justi- 

 fiable in taking out a statute of lunacy 

 against me ! Everybody may not have been 

 equally unfortunate with myself; and yet I 

 put it to every one's experience to say, 

 whether a day deliberately begun with the 

 firm intent of being happy has not proved, 

 nine times out of ten, the most disagreeable 

 of their lives ? 



The bare suspicion of a deliberate design 

 to raise emotion of any kind, raises our 

 spleen; and we take a surly pleasure in 

 proving to ourselves and others, that we will 

 neither be amused nor softened against our 

 will. 



NOTHING SEEN BUT LIGHT. 



WHAT IS EEASON % 



It is evident that all the various assemblages of 

 colors which we see in the objects around us are 

 not in the bodies themselves, but the light which 

 falls upon them. There is "no color inherent in 

 the grass, the trees, the fruits, and the flowers, nor 

 even in the most splendid variegated dress that 

 adorns a lady. All such objects are as destitute 

 of color in themselves as bodies which are placed 

 in the centre of the earth, or as the chaotic 

 materials out of which our globe was formed 

 before light was created. For where there is no 

 light, there is no color. Every object is black, 

 or without color in the dark, and it only appears 

 colored as soon as the light renders it visible. 

 This is further evident from the following expe- 

 riment. If we place a colored body in one of the 

 colors of the spectrum which is formed by the 

 prism, it appears of the colors of the rays in 

 which it is placed. Take for example a red 

 rose, and expose it first to the red rays, and it 

 will appear of a more brilliant ruddy hue. Hold 

 it in the blue rays, and it appears no longer red, 

 but of a dingy blue color, and in like manner its 

 color will be different when placed in all the 

 other differently-colored rays. This is the 

 reason why the colors of objects are essentially 

 altered by the nature of the light in which they 

 are seen. The colors of ribbons and various 

 pieces of silk and woollen stuff are not the same 

 when viewed by candle- light as in the day-time. 

 In the light of a candle or a lamp, blue often 

 appears green, and yellow objects assume a 

 whitish aspect. The reason is, that the light of 

 a candle is not so pure a light as that of the sun, 

 but has a yellowish tinge ; and, therefore, when 

 refracted by the prism, the yellowish rays are 

 found to predominate, and the superabundance 

 of yellow rays gives to blue objects a greenish 

 hue. — Dick's Practical Astronomer. 



The nature, the characteristic of reason is 

 intelligence. Reason not only has the power to 

 know, but actually knows. It is for us the 

 principle of intelligence. All that wc know in 

 all, we know by virtue of Reason. It is by its 

 light that 1 perceive my own existence, that I 

 am conscious of what passes within me, that I 

 take cognisance of my thoughts, my sensations, 

 passions, emotions, affections. On its authority 

 I affirm that I exist, that you exist, that the ex- 

 ternal world exists. All the light I have comes 

 from it, and its authority always suffices me. 

 This is not all. You and I both believe our 

 reason to be authoritative. You try to make me 

 believe that reason determines so and so, and you 

 feel that if you succeed in making me see the 

 point as you do, I must admit it. You would 

 think me a madman if I denied the relations of 

 numbers, or refused to admit plain, legitimate 

 logical deductions from acknowledged premises. 

 All mankind do the same. What each believes 

 to be reasonable, he believes all ought to allow. 

 Nobody ever asks for any higher authority than 

 reason. What we call demonstration, is but 

 stripping a subject of its envelopes, and showing 

 it to the reason as it is. If, when seen in its 

 nakedness, the reason approves it, we say it is 

 demonstrated to be true. If the reason dis- 

 approves of it, we say it is demonstrated to be 

 false. 



Triumph of Season over Scepticism. 



The astronomer Kirchner, having a friend who 

 denied the existence of a Supreme Being, took 

 the following method to convince him of his 

 error: — Expecting him on a visit, he procured 

 a very handsome globe of the starry heavens, 

 which being placed in a situation where it could 

 not fail to attract his friend's observation, the 

 latter seized the first occasion to ask whence it 

 came, and to whom it belonged ? " It does not 

 belong to me," said Kirchner, " nor was it ever 

 made by any person; but it came here by mere 

 chance." " That," replied his sceptical friend, 

 "is absolutely impossible; you surely jest." 

 Kirchner however, seriously persisting in his 

 assertion, took occasion to reason with his friend 

 upon his own atheistical principles. " You will 

 not," said he, " believe that this small body ori- 

 ginated in mere chance; and yet you would con- 

 tend that those heavenly bodies, of which it is 

 only a faint and diminutive resemblance, came 

 into existence without order or design?" His 

 friend was at first confounded; afterwards, when 

 Kirchner pursued his reasoning, convinced, and 

 ultimately joined in a cordial acknowledgment 

 of the absurdity of denving the existence of a 

 God. 



Happiness in Degree. — Happiness consists 

 in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness. 

 A peasant has not a capacity for having equal 

 happiness with a philosopher. They may be 

 equally satisfied, but not equally happy, A small 

 drinking-glass and a large one may be equally 

 full, but the larger one holds more than the 

 smaller. 



