she will never more return, passing away out of an she may stay no longer, into a Presence where, we know that all is well-for all of us-and there

CHIMES OF THE SEA.

BORN in the earliest dawn of Time,

I shall be till Time is o'er;

I sing my songs in every clime,
And compass every shore:

From North to South, from East to West,
My giant waves are hurl'd;

Was there ever a monarch like me, possess'd
Of more than half a world?

I'm grave, I'm gay, I shout or sing,
As it suits my varying mind,

But, whatever my state, I wonder bring
To the hearts of human kind :

And when first I show to stranger eyes,
The majesty girding me,

How thril's his heart as he wildly cries
"The sea! The sea! The sea!"

The broad Atlantic's my hall of pride
A myriad serfs I own,

And at every ebb of my mighty tide,
They gather about my throne;
They come, the near and the far away,
From cave, and cliff, and tower,
From golden fields and gardens gay,
And many a lady's bower.

In the fair Pacific I love to smile,
And lull my waves to rest,
While many a glittering coral isle
Gleams bright on my heaving breast:
But far away in the Northern seas,
I am chill'd to the very soul,

For the icy winds my heart's blood freeze
As I circle the silent Pole.

I bask beneath Italian skies,-
I muse by classic Greece,

And scarce can an angry feeling rise
'Mid scenes so full of peace;

And even I, over Glory's grave,
A tear can almost shed,

As I flow, with bright and placid wave
By the "city of the dead."

I wander among the Hebrides,
Down Staffa's solemn aisles,

And dear to my soul is the passing breeze
From Iona's sacred piles;

For it whispers of ages dark and drear,
Of a well-nigh pagan night,

When outcast Truth found a refuge here,
And shone as a beacon bright.

Around Columbia's rocks I roar,
And wealthy Hindostan ;

And many a bleak and barren shore,
Untrod by the foot of man:
But Albion's isle I guard with awe,
For I honor her bulwarks white,
And woe to the foe who defies her law,
When she rules for truth and right!

Wherever my endless waters foam,
Her red cross flag's unfurl'd,

As proudly she bears to her island home
The wealth of a teeming world:

And scatters abroad, with bounteous hand,

The blessings her God hath given,

"The freedom of thought of her own free land,

And the faith which lights to Heaven."

Spain, Venice, and Carthage, where are they?
And where are the wreaths they won?
They are silent all, in Fame's decay,-
Their course of glory 's run;

But a mightier monarch now wears my crown,

For it graces Britannia's head,

May her garments of state be Truth and Renown,

Till her mission be nobly sped!

THE LAW OF CAUSATION.

-DARNELL.

THE phenomena of nature exist in two distinct relations to one another; that of simultaneity, and that of succession. Every phenomenon is related, in an uniform manner, to some phenomena that coexist with it, and to some that have preceded or will follow it.

Of the uniformities which exist among synchronous phenomena, the most important, on every account, are the laws of number; and next to them those of space, or in other words, of extension and figure. The laws of number are common to synchronous and successive phenomena. That two and two make four, is equally true whether the second two follow the first two or accompany them. It is as true of days and years

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THE LAW OF CAUSATION.

as of feet and inches. The laws of extension and figure, (in other words, the theorems of geometry, from its lowest to its highest branches,) are, on the contrary, laws of simultaneous phenomena only. The various parts of space, and of the objects which are said to fill space, coexist; and the unvarying laws which are the subject of the science of geometry, are an expression of the mode of their coexistence.

This is a class of laws, or in other words, of uniformities, for the comprehension and proof of which it is not necessary to suppose any lapse of time, any variety of facts or events succeeding one another. If all the objects in the universe were unchangeably fixed, and had remained in that condition from eternity, the propositions of geometry would still be true of those objects. All things which possess extension, or in other words, which fill space, are subject to geometrical laws. Possessing extension, they possess figure; possessing figure, they must possess some figure in particular, and have all the properties which geometry assigns to that figure. If one body be a sphere and the other a cylinder, of equal height and diameter, the one will be exactly two-thirds of the other, let the nature and quality of the material be what it will. Again, each body and each point of a body, must occupy some place or position among other bodies; and the position of two bodies relatively to each other, of whatever nature the bodies be, may be unerringly inferred from the position of each of them relatively to any third body.

In the laws of number, then, and in those of space, we recognise, in the most unqualified manner, the rigorous universality of which we are in quest. Those laws have been in all ages the type of certainty, the standard of comparison for all inferior degrees of evidence. Their invariability is so perfect, that we are unable even to conceive any exception to them; and philosophers have been led, although (as I have endeavored to show) erroneously, to consider their evidence as lying not in experience, but in the original constitution of the human intellect. If, therefore, from the laws of space and number, we were able to deduce uniformities of any other description, this would be conclusive evidence to us that those other uniformities possessed the same degree of rigorous certainty. But this we cannot do. From laws of space and number alone, nothing can be deduced but laws of space and number.

Of all truths relating to phenomena, the most valuable to us are those which relate to the order of their succession. On a knowledge of these is founded every reasonable anticipation of future facts, and whatever power we possess of influencing those facts to our advantage. Even the laws of geometry are chiefly of practical importance to us as being a portion of the premisses from which the order of the succession of phenomena may be inferred.

Inasmuch as the motion of bodies, the action of forces, and the propagation of influences of all sorts, take place in certain lines and over definite spaces, the properties of those lines and spaces are an important part of the laws to which those phenomena are themselves subject. Moreover, motions, forces or other influences, at times, are numerable quantities; and the properties of number are applicable to them as to all other things. But although the laws of number and space are important elements in the ascertainment of uniformities of succession, they can do nothing towards it when taken by themselves. They can only be made instrumental to that purpose whem we combine with them additional premisses, expressive of uniformities of succession already known. By taking, for instance, as premisses these propositions, that bodies acted upon by an instantaneous force move with uniform velocity in straight lines; that bodies acted upon by a continuous force move with accelerated velocity in straight lines; and that bodies acted upon by two forces in different directions move in the diagonal of a parallelogram, whose sides represent the direction and quantity of those forces; we may by combining these truths with propositions relating to the properties of straight lines and of parallelograms, (as that a triangle is half of a parallelogram of the same base and altitude,) deduce another important uniformity of succession, viz., that a body moving round a centre of force describes areas proportional to the times. But unless there had been laws of succession in our premisses, there could have been no truths of succession in our conclusions. A similar remark might be extended to every other class of phenomena really peculiar; and, had it been attended to, would have prevented many chimerical attempts at demonstrations of the indemonstrable, and explanations of what cannot be explained.

It is not, therefore, enough for us that the laws of space

378

LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE.

which are only laws of simultaneous phenomena, and the laws of number, which though true of successive phenomena do not relate to their succession, possess that rigorous certainty and universality of which we are in search. We must endeavor to find some law of succession which has those same attributes, and is therefore fit to be made the foundation of processes for discovering, and of a test for verifying, all other uniformities of succession. This fundamental law must resemble the truths of geometry in their most remarkable peculiarity, that of never being, in any instance whatever, defeated or suspended by any change of circumstances.

:

• Now among all those uniformities in the succession of phenomena, which common observation is sufficient to bring to light, there are very few which have any, even apparent, pretension to this rigorous indefeasibility and of those few, one only has been found capable of completely sustaining it. In that one, however, we recognise a law which is universal also in another sense; it is coextensive with the entire field of successive phenomena, all instances whatever of succession being. examples of it. This law is the Law of Causation. It is an universal truth that every fact which has a beginning has a

cause.

This generalization may appear to some minds not to amount to much, since after all it asserts only this: "it is a law, that every event depends upon some law.” We must not, however, conclude that the generality of the principle is merely verbal; it will be found upon inspection to be no vague or unmeaning assertion, but a most important and really fundamental truth. -MILL.

LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE.

(A.D. 1782.)

TOLL for the Brave!

The brave that are no more!
All sunk beneath the wave

Fast by their native shore!

Eight hundred of the brave
Whose courage well was tried
Had made the vessel heel
And laid her on her side.