Western Sun & General Advertiser, Volume 18, Number 39, Vincennes, Knox County, 3 November 1827 — Page 4

V

Poetical.

ASPIRATIONS OF Till: SOUL. " ' ' The high-born soul Disdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wing Beneath its native quarry. Tired of earth And the diurnal scene, she springs aloft, Through fields of air pursues the flying storm ; Hides on the volley'd lightning through the heavens ; Or, yok'd with whirlwinds and the northern blast, Sweep the long track of day. Then high she soars The blue profound, & hovYing o'er the sun, Beholds him pouring the redundant stream Of light; beholds his unrelenting sway rvJVtid the reluctant planets to absolve

WiJt fated rounds of time. Thence far effused

sre vans her swiftness up the long career Of devious comets ; thro' its burning signs, Exulting circles the perennial wheel Of nature, and looks back on all the stars, Whose blended light, as with a milky zone. Invests the orient. Now inazed she views The empyreal waste, where happy spirits hold Beyond this concave heaven, their calm a bode ; And fields of radiance, whose unfading light

Has travel'd the profound six thousand years,

Nor yet arrived sn sight ot mortal beings. Even on the barriers of the world untired She meditates the eternal depth below ;

Till half recoiling, down the headlong steep

She plunges ; soon o erwhelmed and swai lowed up

In that immense of being. There her hopes Rest at the fated goal. Tar from the birth Of mortal man, the sovereign Maker said, That not in humble or m bruit delight, Not in the fading echoes ct renown, Tower's purple robes, nor pleasure's fiowcry lap, The soul should find enjoyment ; but from these Turning disdainful to an equal good. Through all the ascent of things enlarge her view, Till every bound at length should disappear, And infinite perfection close the scene.

THE OCEAN".

The ocean sur rounds the earth on all sides, and penetrates into the interior parts of ditferent conn tries, sometimes by large openings, and frequently by small straits. Could the eve take in this em mense sheet of waters at one view, it would appear the most august object under the whole heavens.

It occupies a spare on the surface

of the globe at least three times

elude, that the present bed of the

ocean formed the inhabited part

of the ancient world, previous to the general deluge, and that we are now occupying the bed of the former ocean ; and, if so its greatest depth will not exceed four or five miles ; for there is no mountain that rises higher above the lev el of the sea But the sea has never been actuallv sounded to a greater depth than a mile and 66 feet Along the coast its depth has always been found proportionate to the height of the shore;

where the coast is huih and moun

r;iinnn; thf spn. that. v:mhr; it i.?f

deep, but where the coast is low. the water is shallow To calculate the quantity of r& titer it contains, we must therefore suppose a medium depth. It we reckon its average depth at two miles, it will contain 206 millions of cubical miles of water. We shall have a more specific idea of this enormous mass of water, if we consider that it is sufficient to cover the

whole globe, to the height of more than eight thousand feet ; and if this water were reduced to one

spherical mass it would fvyi globe of more than 309 mile's,

diameter.

With regard to its bottom As the. sea cover? so pre:il n nnrtiun

- I - ; of the globe, we should, no doubt.

by exploring its interior, discover a va'st number of interesting ob

; lects o ar as tne bed ot the

petuosity into the Gulf of Mexico, thence they proceed along the coast of North America, till they come to the south side of Newfoundland, when they turn offand run down through the Western isles. This motion is most probably owing to the diurnal revolution of the earth on its axis, which

of the greatest of all empires Thousands and tens of thousands owed their daily bread to their connexion with that religion. Millions on millions had identified it with all their conceptions of life, of enjoyment, and of that obscure hope in which the heathen saw a life to come. The noble

is in a direction contrary to the j families owed a large portion of motion of the sea. The third their rank and inlluence to it

motion ot the sea is the tide, which

The emperor himself was the

is a regular swell of the ocean j high priest Old tradition invievery 12 hours. This motion is ' gorated into living belief, made it now ascertained to be owing to I the pledge of safety to the empire :

the attractive inlluence of the ! a sacred protector, without which

moon, and also partly to that of ; the gloiies of Roman dominion the sun. There is always a flux I u ere destined to inevitable ruin.

Vet against this colossal and haughty erection ; the consummate work of subtelty and strength, htood forth a solitary Being, and at his word the whole pile, the great fortress that towered up

and moon act in the f.aifie diree- ' to heavm, came wall and iate to

lion, which happens at the time of the ground. And by what means

and reflux at the same time in two parts of the globe, and thee are opposite to each other ; so. that when our Antipodes have high water, we have the same. When the attractive powers of the sun

new ,md full moon, we have tot

had this been done ? Bv nothing

highest or .s-nrwg fjdes : but when ; that can find a parallel in the histo- - 1 r a m

their attraction is ;pp-scd to each , ry ol human impulse. Signal

other, u Inch happens at the (pun

ters, we have the lowest or ncaj ii Us J Such is the ocean, a most stu pendous scene of Omnipotence

winch forms the most magnificent j feature of the globe we inhabit.

; ii

i ocean '.as ncen exwiorei

d. it

1:

fund !. hear a great resemblance to the surface of the dry land : being like i . full f plains caverns some of winch are ah; nut and ai-

!

rn.st nerp-rndieulai

rise with a gentle acclivity.

as id

sometimes tower above the water i

and lorm islands. The mnte:ials too, which compose the bo! too-, of the sea ate the same which iVrm the basis of the drv land. St ""so

greater than that which is occuni- resembles the land in another re

ed by the land ; comprehending an extent of MS millions of square miles Though the ocean strict I v speaking, is but one immense bodv ofwatets, extending in diih r nt directions, vet different names

have been appropriated to cWiYer

marUable particular : many ficsb springs, and even v a s rise out of it ; an instance of which occurs near Gov, on the western coast of Il udosion. and in the -Vi .liierrauean sea. not far from Marseilles.

The sea s miehnvs assume;. .;

Tiie materials

ent portions o! its smtace. That L!l( coiotn. i ne materia! wnu)

jmhuuumi u ua.eib mhcii ions - "i-- 1 lst.cam, are indebted to this inex

netween tne western coast ol A- 11 110 L 1,11,111,11 ,,utlJ m o.nereni

nierica and the eastern shores v' places ; and its ajpearanee is also Asia, is called 'the Pacific ocean; afiVried by the winds and sun. and that portion wliich separates while tlu; clouds that pass over it Eurone and Africa from America communi 'aie ail the varied and

the Atlantic ocean. Other porti

ons are tctmd the Soilicvn, bout hem and Indian oceans "When i;s waters penetrate into the land, they form what are termed gulfs, and Mediterranean seas. Ent without following it through all its windings and divisions I shall simply state a fesv general facts. With regard to the depth of this body of water, no certain conclusions have yet been formed. He yond a certain depth, it h3 hitherto been found unfathomable We know, in general, that the

depth of the sea increases gradual

flreiinn colors. When the sun

shines it is ir ecu : when he gleams through a fog. it is yellow ; ftta the poles it is black ; while iv torrid zone, its color is often brown ; a. d, on certain occasions, it assumes a i ominous appearance, as if sparkling with fire. The ocean has three kinds of motion Tne first is that undula tion which is produced by the wind, and which is entirely confin

ed to its surface. It is now ascer

When we stand on the sea shore and cast our r es over the exnansc of its waters, till the sky and waves seem to mingle ; all that the eve can take at one survey, is but an inconsiderable speck, less than the 1 01) 1000th part of the whole of this vast abyss. It every drop ot water car. he divided into 20 millions of distinct parts, as some philosophers hate demonstrated, what a;i immense assemblage of watery particles must be contained in the unfathomable caverns of the ocean! Here the powers of calculation are completely at defiance : and an image ol infinity, unmeusiiy. and endless duration, r- presented to the mind This mighty expanse of waters is the giand reservoir of nature, a?:d the source of evaporation, which en riches the earth with fertility and verdure. Kvery cloud which floats in the atmosphere, and every

fountain and rivulet and ilowin"

tained, that this motion carC destroyed, and its surface rendctfd smooth bv throwing oil uoon ris waves The second motion is

ly as we leave the shote ; but we j that continual tendency which the

have reason to believe that this

increase of depth continues only to a certain distance The numer-

vius islands scattered every where through the ocean, demonstrate that the bottom of the water, so far from uniformly sinking, sometimes rises into lofty mountains. It is highly probable that the depth of 1 he sea is somewhat in proportion to the elevation ol the land ; for there is some reason to con

whole water in the sea has to

wards the west, which is greater near the equator than towards the poles. It begins on the west side of America, where it is moderate ; but as the waters advance west ward, their motion is accelerated ; and after having travel sed the globe, they return, and strike with gieat violence on the eastern shore of Ametica Ifeing stopped by that continent, they rush with im-

hau .table source for those watery treasures which they distribute through every region of the land. In fine, whether we consider the ocean as 1 eating its tiemendous billows in the midst ofthe tempest, or as stretched out into a smooth expanse whether we consider its immeasurable extent, its mighty movements, or the innumerable beings w hich glide through its rolling waves we cannot but be struck with astonishment at the pandeur of the Omnipotent Eeing who holds its waters ki in the hollow of his hand," and who has said to its foaming surges, 44 IJith: e rto shalt thou come, and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." Dick's Christian Philosopher. m m m Origin ofChrhtianitn 1S0

conformity of circumstances can

account for the origin of Christianity. A Being known to the world

only as a Jewish peasant, delivered a system of doctrine, which

overthrew not merely some feeble philosophy, or some harsh and unpopular superstitions, but both

the theory and establishment of

the state of religion, guarded and fought for by the armed strength

of the most powerful government

Austenty, enthusiasm, wealth.

military genius, the promise of splendid success, visionary doctrines the displays of a sensual paradise, have made proselytes in barbarous ages, or among the

loose creeds of contending heresy.

15 ut the .rounder ol Christianity cast away all those weapons of our lower nature, lie shrank from no declaration of the most unpalatable truth. lie told the Jew that bis spiritual pride was a deadly crime, lie declared that the cherished impurity of the Gentile was a deadly crime, lie plucked up the temporal ambition

ol his followers by the roots, and

told them that if they were to be

great, it must be through the

grave. In the full view of unpopularity, desertion, and death, he pronounced to the Jews the extinction of their national existence, to the deciplcs. their lives of persecution. At the time of his death, his name had scarcely passed beyond his despised piovince ; and when at length reached Home, it was known only contemptuously in connexion with that of a crowd of unfortunate men condemned to the rack and flame. Yet within the life of man, his religion was constituted the worship of emperor and people, his doctrines were acknowledged as inspiration, arid the civilized world bowed down before him as the God whom the heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain Those wonders are familiar to the christians, but they are still wonders, the mightiest phenomena on which the spirit of man can gaze, the stars of our mortal twilight are worthy of our loftiest admiration, till the gates of the grave shall be unbarred, and the vision of glory shall spread before us without a cloud.

A faithful friend is he who will give me one loaf when he has but two. Flocks perish .relations die . friends are not immortal you will die yourself but I know one thing alone that is out of the reach of fate, and that is the judgment which is passed upon the dead. There is a tree in Mexicana, which is so tender that a man cannot touch any of its branches but it withers presently. If we wish to break ofT from evil habits, we shall never do it 'till uctry."