A cyclopædia of nature teachings : being a selection of facts, observations, suggestions, illustrations, examples, and illustrative hints taken from all departments of inanimate nature / with an introduction by Hugh Macmillan.

Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A cyclopædia of nature teachings : being a selection of facts, observations, suggestions, illustrations, examples, and illustrative hints taken from all departments of inanimate nature / with an introduction by Hugh Macmillan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that it can behold, perhaps, seems wide and disjointed; yet to ns these wide, disjointed things are solid. I do not know how yon may take my fancies; bnt, at any rate, I trust yon feel, with me, that there is immortal consolation in the aspect of these heavens, which we are allowed to look upon, pro- bably the greatest physical privilege permitted to man ; and that from this vast contemplation we may derive some comfort for every sorrow, some alleviation for every regret, and some benign hope to throw a ray of cheerfnlness into the gloomiest depths of despond- ency.—Helps. The Changes of the Sky. The darkness and the light are both alike unto God (Psalm cxxxix. 12). Wliat is the lesson conveyed by the great alternate changes of the sky ? Now it is sweetlj^ Inmi- nons, and now a solemn darkness. Strictly speaking, as we all know, there is no change in the sky at all. It is alwa,ys an infinite Dark- ness, and always lit np by myriads of stupendous suns. But we should not know this if the earth did not turn on her axis, and successively face the smi, and agam turn away from him. To the turning of our planet from the sun we owe our know- ledge of the universe. In the symbolism of its darkness and light, we have our sublimest reve- lation of God. Light which is called God, and is God, issues for ever from the Infinite Bosom of His Darkness. Darkness and Light are both alike to him; for He is as much one as the other. The Son of God, the only-begotten Light, reveals the ‘ Father of Lights,' as suns reveal the ether. God pre- sents Himself in the Light, but also conceals Himself: as we both present ourselves and hide our- selves in our garments. ‘ Thou coverest Thyself with Light as with a garment.’ As the infinite ether is hidden by the daylight, even so is God hidden by the Light of the angelic heavens, which re- veals Him. Therefore, all those who dwell in the Eternal Light worship the Unseen God, and live ‘as seeing the invisible.’ They know that Light is but His efflu- ence. They worship the Light, as God, and again, with silent in- effable adoration, they worship what is behind the Light.—John Pu Isford. The Various Constituents of the Atmosphere. There shovld be a proper representa- tion of all classes in the body politic. In order that the air should be wholesome it is necessary that it should not be of one kind, but the compound of several substances, and the more various the composi- tion to all appearances the more salubrious. But it is chiefly by the predominance of some peculiar vapour that the air becomes unfit for human support, and a thousand accidents are found to increase these bodies of vapour. Heat may raise them in too great quantities, and cold may stagnate them. Minerals may give off their effluvia in such proportion as to keep all other kind of air away; vegetables may render the air unwholesome by their supply; and animal putre- faction seems to furnish a quantity of vapour at least as noxious as any of the former. All these united generally make up the mass of respiration, and are, when mixed together, harmless ; but any one of them for a long time singly pre- dominant becomes at length fatal. In like manner it is maintained that society is most safe and healthy when, on the one hand, no one class is unduly powerful, and when, on the other hand, no class is un- fairly lessened in influence, and that because the objectionable qualities of each are balanced by the compensating ingredients of all, it is desirable to preserve to 1—2
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