15 
It will not, 1 feel assured, have escaped the reflective 
amongst this audience, that of such pursuits as those on which 
we are about to engage ourselves the chief end should be, 
not merely to extend our acquaintance with matters or things, 
their qualities or accidents ; or to waste time, however sedu¬ 
lously employed, if our efforts merely entitle us to the barren 
praise of skilful compilers of dry and isolated facts, or unwea¬ 
ried classifiers of characteristic peculiarities or attributes, 
ingenious nomenclators, or editors who look on the volume 
of nature as a dictionary ; but that our faith is to learn their 
relative value in subordination to the comprehensive scheme 
of Creation ; and by exalting the understanding waft it above 
the cheerless sophistry which chains the soul to an empty 
materialism, and warm the affections towards the Great 
Author of being. When we acknowledge that to be the 
needle which guides our speculations we will be perpetually 
reminded of that infinite wisdom which governs and regulates 
the orb in which we dwell—but one amidst the countless 
myriads of worlds which divine intelligence holds within their 
spheres—and looking ‘‘ from nature up to nature’s God,” 
muse with admiration and humility upon the system to which 
we owe so many blessings, and the succession of those indis¬ 
soluble links which connect us wth immortality. 
We may then, in sincere approbation of the sentiments 
attributed to our first parents in the simplicity of their uncor¬ 
rupted state, join in their enthusiastic exclamation ;— 
“ These are thy glorious works, Parent of Good, 
Almighty! thine this univereal frame, 
Thus wondrous fair : thyself how wondrous then, 
Unspeakable ! who sit’st above these heav’ns, 
To us invisible, or dimly seen 
In these thy lowest works : yet these declare 
Tliy goodness beyond thought and power divine.” 
Lucas Brothers, Printers, 72, Collins Street. East, Melhounie. 
