General indications which relate to the laws of organic life / by Daniel Pring.

  • Pring, Daniel, 1789-1859.
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: General indications which relate to the laws of organic life / by Daniel Pring. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    shapes, pursuing various changes, none occurring but existence still compels; all enduring in their ])resent, or in other forms, be- cause existence has no power to be not/tins:. 4 51. The stars are yet upheld; event bulks we must acknowledge them, apparently above us; and tliey fall not, though propped only by light etherial columns. Who shall say why they keep their spheres? who shall say what they aie; whether constant, or at periods produced by agents which we do not know, in worlds teeming with things and processes of which we here find no examples? They govern not themselves, but are obedient to their own constituents; there, too, existences are causes, and all we contemplate in them is yet compelled, effected by existence. § .'S2. The sun is present, and impart* to us both light and heat; it is formed by its own causes; these, or its grosser forms, by others, an endless chain. In turn it sends to us some causes, which it Hell can spare: to us it sheds existence, which mingles with our substances and creates new forms. § 53. The sea possesses by a natural right, the deep dominions over which it rolls. This vast property it claims by force of causes which with it abide; it seeks the lowest parts, and terrifies its con- fines all around by bold incursions on the soil which man calls his; it foams and dashes against great rocks, a bulwark formed to check its aggrandizing spirit, and make its waters still recoil upon itself. Fruitless ambition! thy powers have but their scope; and further, earth is too mighty for thee, as it, in thy dominions, and all its fine productions, are but a weakness, serving for thy pastime. 5)54. Myriads of waves roar and froth, or, gliding smoothly, glitter in the sun upon thy melting bosom. Not one of these that moves, but moves as 'tis impelled; it, passive, an effect; in turn impelling, then a cause; all more minutely propertied; each par- ticle which we suppose, but cannot see, of the same quality with the whole: fluid and salt; one while upbearing, then yielding; at one time pleasant and salutary for those of a different element, at another, threatening, overwhelming, and destructive; now, trans- porting rich freights in safety to the shores, dispensing wealth and luxury, then swallowing without remorse, this merchandize (the sovereign curse of nations), and bringing ruin, as indeed is just, on those who rest their hopes and fortunes on such trash. Thou, too great sea! endless in thy relations. * § 55. Thy movements observe a method even in their roughness: one while thy waves overstep their present limits, the pebbles on the strand are seen no more, thy presence hides them, and they chafe and fret, obscurely warring with each other, where no witness is to tell the fate and history which must belong to each. They, by their causes, are, where we observe them, still passive; thev are removed, or broken, or rest, or remain a whole; or are collected, some fused, some ground on roads and then manure the fields; or else are washed along, now backwards, then onwards again.
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