Mrs. Marcet

“ Since their calamitous expulsion, the Jews have wandered over the face of the globe for one thousand seven hundred years, without national possessions, government, or laws. Their riches have exposed them to plunder, and their poverty to contempt. Driven from place to place, they have been persecuted even in Christian countries with unrelenting cruelty; they seem to have lost their rank in the creation, and have been made to feel the ‘trembling heart,’ ‘the sorrow of mind,’ and the uncertainty of their lives, of which their great prophet so emphatically warned them. ”

“ In truth this light-house must be a melancholy abode; the wind always howling above, and the sea continually roaring below, and sometimes even throwing its spray over the windows. It was, however, very nice and clean, and as comfortable as such a place can be: my uncle took us up into what is called the lantern, and explained the use of the concave metallic reflectors which are placed behind the lamps for the purpose of increasing the brilliancy of their light by reflection. ”

“ I can see the little swallows sitting all day with their heads out of the nest near my window, gaping for their parent, who comes frequently to them with food, and clings to the edge while they gobble it up; and I understand, that after they begin to fly they are fed by their parents on the wing. ”

“ But that is a silly feeling, for we all go together, and surely we may make ourselves happy any where, even in Ireland. A year ago I was just leaving my dear mamma, and the happy home to which I had been so long accustomed, to place myself among strangers;—and now I am going among still greater strangers—among the Irish. But my uncle says they are a warm-hearted, hospitable people, and that the country is so full of objects of interest, that I shall not have to regret the employments of Fernhurst, nor even my favourite gardening experiments. ”

“ In reply, my uncle told me, that “there certainly were some points of resemblance between the Persian Magi and the Druids of Britain. They were each forbidden to worship the deity within covered buildings; and all acts of devotion were confined to open temples or consecrated forests. Like the Persians, they beheld the Creator in the works of nature; and gigantic trees and massive rocks, were the symbols of Almighty power which they most admired.{229}
“The Druids and the Baal worshippers of Asia formed sacred heaps of stones on the tops of the hills. ”

“ A being of that transcendent dignity who could say, ‘All power is given to me in heaven and in earth,’ would scarcely have been sent for the mere purpose of communicating a clearer knowledge to mankind of their duty, or of setting before them an example of practical holiness. These, no doubt, were among the objects for which the Son of God became man; but they were only collateral objects. In order to appreciate the importance of his mission, we must compare it with the modes adopted on former occasions. When the corruption of mankind drew down the dreadful chastisement of the deluge ”

“ They offered human victims in sacrifice, and practised many extraordinary rites; the caverns and gloomy groves of oak in which they dwelt, and the dread which hung over their mysterious worship, gave them a terrific influence over the minds of the people. ”

“ This is the love which should be the principle of all our motives, and the guide of all our actions. This is the love which expands our hearts, not only into grateful adoration towards the Author of our being, but into benevolence towards our fellow-creatures. ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; I am the Lord.’ This emphatic conclusion shews that we are bound to do so for the Lord’s sake; and throughout the Mosaical law you will find that the love of God was made the basis of the love of our neighbour, as well as of all our other{22} duties. ”

“ My uncle observed, that in Cornwall, where customs have been less changed than in most parts of England, the May-day ceremonies are kept up with great care. He learned from a friend, who lived in a remote town in that county, that all the houses were thrown open; lively music was everywhere heard, and the young maidens, decked with wreaths and festoons of flowers, danced along the streets, or formed dancing parties in every house they chose to select. ”

“ My uncle and aunt not only stop wherever there is any thing to see, but they tell me what to observe, because they know that, through ignorance, I might overlook the things which deserve the most attention. ”

“ Every climate, and every soil, has some peculiarity which influences its plants; and every plant seems to be subservient to some great and important object. From the brilliant profusion of vegetation in some countries, down to the stunted lichen, which just colours the rocks in others, every change points out the beneficence of the Creator ”

“ Offerings were frequently made to court their favour; and at every fresh eruption of lava hogs were thrown alive into those fiery gulfs, to appease the anger of Peli, the principal deity. To put an end to these superstitions, Kapiolani, the wife of a chief of high rank who had recently embraced Christianity, determined to descend into the great crater, and, by thus braving the volcanic deities in their very home, she hoped to convince the people that they existed only in their imagination. ”

“ Miss P., however, did not forget the circumstance that led to our visit, and she shewed us in several different palms, that the scales of the foot-stalks completely sheath the stem; and that after the decay of the leaf they form an entire ring, which has a very different appearance from the separate marks or cicatrices left by the fronds of the fern.
She had never seen so fine a collection of palms in this country; and she told us many circumstances of their history and habits. She made us observe, that in the leaves the fibres run parallel to the edges. ”

“ There are different kinds of prophecies in the books of Moses, some of which were fulfilled soon after the prediction, such as the conquest of the land of Canaan; and others the accomplishment of which was not to follow till after a long interval of time, such as those that relate to the coming of the Messiah, and the dispersion of the Jewish nation; but in all there is the same clearness and consistency, the same tone of inspiration and authority, and the same internal proofs of their truth. The Jews have always looked on him as by far the greatest of all their prophets. ”

“ If by any accident the nest should be destroyed, it is rebuilt in a short time by the active help of many individuals who unite to assist their distressed companion. For several mornings they persisted in rebuilding a nest at the passage-room window, which had been purposely torn down each day; but, at last, after a hard struggle they gave it up.
I understand that the cliff swallows of America—who place their nests close up to the jutting ledge of a rock, or to the eave of a house—most ingeniously arch the top, and make the entrance project out and turn downwards. ”

“ You imagined that the rose must be wild in all parts of the world because it is everywhere cultivated:—you will therefore learn with surprise, that it is generally believed that all the roses yet known have been found between the 19th and 70th degrees of North latitude; none, therefore, belong to South America, though the profusion of China roses, cultivated in Brazil, might very naturally have given you the idea of their being natives. ”

“ It seemed very curious to see a homely wild plant like the teasel, fresh from the field, used along with so much complex machinery: many imitations of it have been tried, but nothing answers so well as the beautiful little hooks contrived by nature. In the west of England, therefore, wherever the soil is dry and gravelly, teasels are cultivated on a large scale for the cloth manufactories. ”

“ Cold and scarcity may drive some animals to hibernate, like your little dormouse, Bertha, but I am satisfied that the whole tribe of swallows fly off, like other birds of passage, to distant countries.”
“To what countries?” I asked him.
“It is probable,” he replied, “that there is some general temperature that suits them best, or that is most productive of those insects on which they prey; and as the seasons change, that temperature can only be obtained by approaching the equator, or perhaps by passing into a corresponding latitude of the southern hemisphere. ”

“ It is remarkable, that no palm of the old world is found in America, except the cocoa-nut and the oil-palm of the coast of Guinea; and that there is but one species common to Asia and Africa. The palms of New Holland, also, are peculiar to that country; and I believe that she said, those of the Mauritius only occur in those islands. The cocoa, the date, and the sago palms, are the most widely distributed; but the true home of the palms is the torrid zone; for, of 110 well known species, only twelve are found outside the tropics. ”

“ You have, no doubt, read an account of some of the destructive eruptions of mount Vesuvius, by which you know the city of Herculaneum was overflown with a torrent of melted lava, and Pompeii was buried, and remained concealed for many centuries under the ashes that were ejected from the crater.
“Large tracts of country seem to have been produced by volcanoes, and after the lapse of ages the decomposed lava has become a fertile soil. But even within the reach of history new volcanic mountains have been elevated, and new islands have sprung out of the ocean. ”

“ I remember little more of what I saw or heard yesterday, except that my uncle remarked as we passed a sheep-walk in our drive home, what an astonishing number of people combine their labours to produce any one manufacture, and how necessary the different trades are to each other. ”

“ The channel has been cut, and it brings the water on a level along the upper edge of my bank, from whence it trickles down the slope along each row of strawberry plants. When they have had enough, I put a slate edgeways across the channel, which acts as a little sluice, and turns the water aside into the pond. This method of watering has so far answered very well, for I think my strawberries look more healthy than any of the others; they are now in full flower, and I am in high hopes of having the first and best fruit to present to my uncle for his kindness. ”

“ What the former dispensations announced as to come, this concluding dispensation has exhibited in actual accomplishment. The long-expected Redeemer has been manifested; he has made the promised atonement for the sins of mankind; he has{177} shewn himself as the mediator of the new covenant, and the doubts of ages have vanished before the light of the Gospel.”
I ventured to interrupt my uncle, to ask why it is called the new covenant, as if it was of a different nature from the two former ones. ”

“ The patriarchal dispensation was evidently intended to be universal in its offers, as well as in its conditions; for Adam would of course communicate to the numerous generations of his children, with whom he was contemporary, the knowledge, which he had himself derived from direct revelation, of God’s gracious will and intentions. But this universality was of short duration. Animal sacrifice appears to have been appointed as a type of that mighty sacrifice or atonement by which mankind were to be enabled in the fulness of time to triumph over their spiritual enemy ”

“ Under the Patriarchal dispensation all men were taught to look forward to the promised Deliverer; under Christianity all men are taught to rejoice in the actual appearance of that promised Deliverer, who has done and suffered everything that was predicted of him.
“Christianity has not yet become universal; but the purpose of the Almighty is still powerfully though silently working. In the appointed time, ‘the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,’ and the Messiah will be universally acknowledged by Gentiles, Jews, and all nations. ”

“ My uncle had before told me that the term mammoth came from Russia; it is said to be of Tartar origin, derived from mama, which signifies the earth; for the Siberians believe that elephants of that description still live under ground. He says that their tusks are found in such abundance in Eastern Siberia and in the Arctic marshes, that almost the whole of the ivory-turner’s work in Russia is made from Siberian fossil ivory, and that it is not at all inferior in quality to the living ivory of Africa and Asia. ”

“ In South America the Indians point out these large fossil bones as the remains of gigantic monsters, which would have destroyed the whole human race if they had not been themselves destroyed by the interference of the Great Spirit. Nor is it likely, continued my uncle, that any of the other animals, which we know to be extinct now, should have existed since the deluge: no great catastrophe since that time has happened, which could have been equal to the sweeping away of a whole species ”

“ This morning he told us, that the debris of the hills which accumulate in alluvial districts usually continue in the loose form of gravel or sand, or mud, or clay, in which they were deposited. “Their visible transformation,” he said, “into stone is of rare occurrence; in some circumstances, however, especially on the sea coast, we may perceive the consolidation of the sand and gravel into thin strata. If a stream, impregnated with oxide of iron, should empty itself on the beach, it acts as a cement, and the process goes on rapidly. ”

“ In the eastern parts of the temperate zone, including China and Japan, rice predominates over all other grains. Between the tropics, maize prevails in America, rice in Asia, and both in nearly equal quantities in Africa; probably because Asia is the native country of rice, and America of maize. The native country of wheat has not yet been ascertained, but there are few places into which it has not been introduced. Several other grains and plants that supply food, are cultivated in the torrid zone, but we cannot touch on them now, as they are not grasses. ”

“ The meadows of Lombardy, in the vicinity of the Po, are the most fertile in the world: being constantly watered,{90} they produce three or four crops of hay in the season; but as they are occupied by a great number of individuals, there are few who can support a dairy, because the making cheeses requires a large quantity of milk, the produce of at least fifty cows. To effect this the Lombards have formed societies in order to make their cheese in common; and twice a-day the milk is sent to the principal house, where the dairy-man keeps an account of each person’s share. ”

“ It would be childish to expect that we should now find in any part of the globe remains of such animals as the flying pegasus, or as the sphynx of Thebes; but we must not reject as altogether fabulous those which appear in the hieroglyphics of Egypt and Persepolis. The rude sculpture of those ages has perhaps been the common source of many mistakes; for the most simple and natural method of drawing any animal is by its profile ”