ASSOCIATION. highest are always the best, but, because if disgusted there, we can at any time descend; but if we begin with the lowest, to ascend is impossible. In the grand theatre of human life, a box ticket takes us through the house.-COLTON. ASSOCIATION.-The Benefits of If men would permit their minds, like their children, to associate freely togetherif they could agree to meet one another with smiles and frankness, instead of suspicion and defiance-the common stock of wisdom and happiness would be centupled.— LANDOR. ASSOCIATION.-The Habit of The mathematician, the mechanician, the statesman, the poet, the artist, the man of business, each acquires his proper habit of association, and each is prompt and successful in his line just in proportion to the rationality and the closeness of the connections that have been formed in his mind.-I. TAYLOR. ASSOCIATION.-The Law of So subtle and so persuasive is this law of association, that it is influential, even when we are hardly conscious of its existence. The chance word from the lips of a friend, falling upon some nascent desire like a spark upon tinder; the vision of some grave or wise one, held up to the glance of fancy so often, that it has become the ideal model of the heart's aspiring; the music of some old word greeting the ear with a strange melody, have fixed the tone of a spirit and have fashioned the direction of a life. The world is just one unbroken chain of these actions and re-actions. bound by them; we are compassed by them; and we can no more escape from them than we can fling ourselves beyond the influence of the law of gravitation, or refuse to be trammelled by the all-embracing air.PUNSHON. ASSURANCE-Doubly Sure. We are I'll make assurance doubly sure, ASTROLOGY-the Parent of Astronomy. Astrology was much in vogue during the middle ages, and became the parent of modern astronomy, as alchemy did of chemistry.-DR. Webster, ASTROLOGY.-The Science of We speak of it as an extinct science; yet let but an eclipse of the sun happen, or a comet visit the evening sky, and in a moment we all believe in astrology. In vain ASTRONOMY. do you tell the gazers on such spectacles that a solar eclipse is only the moon acting for the time as a candle-extinguisher to the sun, and give them bits of smoked glass to look through, and draw diagrams on the blackboard to explain it all. They listen composedly, and seem convinced, but in their secret hearts they are saying-" What though you can see it through a glass darkly, and draw it on a blackboard, does that show that it has no moral significance? You can draw a gallows or a guillotine, or write the Ten Commandments on a blackboard, but does that deprive them of meaning?" And so with the comet. No man will believe that the splendid stranger is hurrying through the sky solely on a momentous errand of his own. No! he is plainly signalling, with that flashing sword of his, something of importance to men,something at all events that, if we could make it out, would be found of huge concern to us.-PROF. G. WILSON. ASTRONOMER.-The Pursuits of the ASTRONOMERS.-The Happiness of Sublime their thoughts and from pollution clear, Bacchus and Venus held no revels there; From vain ambition free; no love of war Possess'd their minds, nor wranglings at the bar; No glaring grandeur captivates their eyes, For such see greater glory in the skies: Thus these to heaven attain.-OVID. ASTRONOMY.-The Antiquity of Astronomy is the most ancient of all the sciences, and has been the introducer of vast knowledge.-LUTHER. ASTRONOMY.-The Elevating Influence of It is not for us to say whether Inspiration revealed to the Psalmist the wonders of the modern astronomy. But even though the mind be a perfect stranger to the science of these enlightened times, the heavens present a great and an elevating spectacle an immense concave reposing upon the circular boundary of the world, and the innumerable lights which are suspended from on high, moving with solemn regu ASYLUM. larity along its surface. It seems to have been at night that the piety of the Psalmist was awakened by this contemplation, when the moon and the stars were visible, and not when the sun had risen in his strength, and thrown a splendour around him, which bore down and eclipsed all the lesser glories of the firmament. And there is much in the scenery of a nocturnal sky to lift the soul to pious contemplation. That moon, and these stars, what are they? They are detached from the world, and they lift us above it. We feel withdrawn from the earth, and rise in lofty abstraction from this little theatre of human passions and human anxieties. The mind abandons itself to reverie, and is transferred in the ecstasy of its thoughts to distant and unexplored regions. It sees nature in the simplicity of her great elements, and it sees the God of nature invested with the high attributes of wisdom and majesty.-DR. CHalmers. ASYLUM.-A Description of an A place where detected lunatics are sent by those who have had the adroitness to conceal their own infirmity.-MRS. BAL FOUR. ASYLUM. Various Uses of the Name Anciently the name was given to temples, altars, statues of the gods, etc. In later times each Christian Church was spoken of as a place of refuge and protection where criminals and debtors found shelter, and from which they could not be taken without sacrilege.-DR. Webster. ATHEISM. The Apostles of The three great apostles of practical atheism, that make converts without persecuting, and retain them without preaching, are Wealth, Health, and Power.-COLTON. ATHEISM-a Desperate Shift. Atheism is to be regarded as the desperate shift of an ill-regulated mind, determined to rid itself of responsibility at the expence of all reason and argument.— VANDERKISTE. ATHEISM.-Modern The atheism of this age is chiefly founded upon the absurd fallacy that the idea of law in nature excludes the idea of God in nature. As well might they say the code of Napoleon in France excludes the idea of Napoleon from France. To me, no intuition is clearer than this-that intelligent control everywhere manifests the presence of a ruling mind. To me, physical law, in its permanence, expresses the immutable persistence ATHEIST. of His will; in its wise adjustments, the infinite science of His intellect; in its kindly adaptations, the benevolence of His heart.-COLEY. ATHEISM.-The Proof against The real proof is the practical one; that is-let a man live on the hypothesis of its falsehood, the practical result will be bad; that is a man's besetting and constitutional faults will not be checked, and some of his noblest feelings will be unexercised; so that if he be right in his opinions, truth and goodness are at variance with one another, and falsehood is more favourable to our moral perfection than truth! which seems the most monstrous conclusion which the human mind can possibly arrive at.--Dr. ARNOLD. ATHEIST.-The Blasphemy of the Is there no God? The stars in myriads spread, If he look up, the blasphemy deny; While his own features, in the mirror read, Reflect the image of Divinity. Is there no God? The stream that silver flows, The air he breathes, the ground he treads, the trees, The flowers, the grass, the sands, each wind that blows, All speak of God; throughout one voice agrees, And, eloquent, His dread existence shows : Blind to thyself, ah! see Him, fool, in these!-COTTA. ATHEIST.-The Conversion of an The famous astronomer Athanasius Kircher, having an acquaintance who denied the existence of a Supreme Being, took the following method to convince him of his error upon his own principles. Expecting him upon a visit he procured a very handsome globe of the starry heavens, which being placed in a corner of the room in which it could not escape his friend's observation, the latter seized the first occasion to ask from whence it came, and to whom it belonged. "Not to me," said Kircher, "nor was it ever made by any person, but came here by mere chance.' "That," replied his sceptical friend, “is absolutely impossible: you surely jest. Kircher, however, seriously persisting in his assertion, took occasion to reason with his friend upon his own atheistical principles. "You will not," said he, "believe that this small body originated in mere chance; and yet you would contend that those heavenly bodies, of which it is only a faint and diminutive resemblance, came into existence without order and design!" Pur ATHEIST. suing this chain of reasoning, his friend was at first confounded, in the next place convinced, and ultimately joined in a cordial acknowledgment of the absurdity of denying the existence of a God.---BUCK. ATHEIST.-A Praying There was a celebrated poet who was an atheist, or at least professed to be so. According to him there was no God. So he held when sailing over the unruffled surface of the Ægean sea. But the scene changed; and, with the scene, his creed. The heavens began to scowl upon him; and the deep uttered an angry voice, and, as if in astonishment at this God-denying man, "lifted up his hands on high." The storm increased, till the ship became unmanageable. She drifted before the tempest. The terrible cry-" Breakers a-head!" was soon heard; and how they trembled to see death seated on the horrid reef, waiting for his prey! A few moments more, and the crash comes. They are whelmed in the devouring sea? No! They are saved by a singular providence. Like apprehended evils, which, in a Christian's experience, prove to be blessings, the wave, which flung them forward on the horrid reef, came on in such mountain volume as to bear and float them over into the safety of deep and ample sea-room. But ere that happened, a companion of the atheist, who, seated on the prow, had been taking his last regretful look of heaven and earth, sea and sky, turned his eyes down upon the deck, and there, among papists who told their beads and cried to the Virgin, he saw the atheist prostrated with fear. The tempest had blown away his fine-spun speculations like so many cobwebs ; and he was on his knees, imploring God for mercy. In that hour-in that terrible extremityNature rose in her might, asserted her supremacy, vindicated the claims of religion, smote down infidelity by a stroke, and bent the stubborn knees of atheism in lowliest prayer.-DR. GUTHRIE. ATHENS. Beside the atheist's bed; by his who oft, With wit profane, and poignant blasphemy, And specious show of argument, hath scoffed Each awful truth, and ridiculed his God. GIBSON. ATHEISTS.-A Check to On board ship, in the midst of a party of atheistical officers, Napoleon suddenly stopped before them, and said, in tones of great dignity-"Gentlemen, your arguments are very fine; but who made all those worlds beaming so gloriously above us? Can you tell me that?"-BOURRIENNE. ATHEISTS.-The Punishment of They wander loose about; they nothing see, Themselves except, and creatures like themselves, Short-lived, short-sighted, impotent to save: The bones of all their pride.-LAMB. ATHENS.-The Glory of Westward, much nearer by south-west, behold! Where on the Ægean shore a city stands, See there the olive grove of Academe, There flowery hill Hymettus, with the sound Of bees' industrious murmur oft invites The school of ancient sages; his who bred ATHENS. In chorus or iambic, teachers best Of moral prudence, with delight received In brief sententious precepts, while they treat Of fate, and chance, and change in human life, High actions, and high passions best describing: Thence to the famous orators repair, To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne: Of Socrates; see there his tenement, Mellifluous streams, that water'd all the schools Of Academics old and new, with those Surnamed Peripatetics and the sect Epicurean, and the Stoic severe.-MILTON. ATHENS.-The Ruin of Many evils combined to effect the ruin of Athens, but chiefly war, the plague, and pleasure. War led the van; and close on its fiery heels followed the deadly pestilence; and lastly, the people gave themselves up to festivals and idle pleasures; and Athens tottered to her fall, despite the eloquence of her greatest orator, and the daring of her greatest warrior.-DR. DAVIES. ATMOSPHERE.-A Description of the The atmosphere is something more than a shoreless ocean, at the bottom of which man creeps along. It is an envelope or covering for the distribution of light and heat over the surface of the earth; it is a sewer into which, with every breath we draw, we cast vast quantities of dead animal matter; it is a laboratory for purification, in which that matter is re-compounded, and wrought again into wholesome and healthful shapes; it is a machine for pumping up all the rivers from the sea, and for conveying the water from the ocean, to their sources in the mountains; it is an inexhaustible magazine, marvellously stored. Upon the proper working of this machine depends the well-being of every plant and animal that inhabits the earth.-LIEUT. MAURY. ATMOSPHERE.-Indebtedness to the It is to this that we are indebted for all the pleasures of the human voice, the ATONEMENT. harmonies of music, and the cheerful tones of birds. Were there no atmosphere, there would be no sounds, but all nature would be as mute as the silent grave. It is, furthermore, the medium whereby we enjoy the perfume of flowers and sweet essences, and the source of almost inconceivable beauty in its effects on light. Were there no atmosphere, we might indeed behold the sun when we turned our face towards it, but its light would be fierce and dazzling; it would no longer be diffused as it now is, but like a burning furnace in the sky, surrounded by the blackness of impenetrable night. There would be no dawn; but the sun would burst upon us in a moment with sudden brightness, and preserve one unvaried aspect till it as suddenly disappeared in the evening. The stars would appear by day as well as by night, but they would be like stars in a black sky. We should have no colours. It is the air which gives us all the beautiful tints of the sky, the brilliant rainbow, and that pleasant subdued azure grey which the atmosphere usually presents. In such wonderful arrangements, and such diversity of functions, we cannot fail to perceive the marks of divine intelligence, benevolence, and skill. -DR. BREWER. ATONEMENT.- The Divinity of the ATONEMENT.-The Doctrine of the The doctrine of the atonement supposes that the sins of men were so laid on Christ, that His sufferings were inconceivably intense and overwhelming.-S. E. DWIGHT. ATONEMENT.-The Extent of the It is not like a banquet, accommodated to the tastes and wants of so many and no more. Like a master-piece of music, its virtues are independent of numbers. -DR. THOMAS. ATONEMENT.-The Felt Need of the A certain man, on the Malabar coast, had inquired of various devotees and priests, how he might make atonement for his sins; and he was directed to drive iron spikes, sufficiently blunted, through his sandals; and on these spikes he was directed to place his naked feet, and to walk about four hundred and eighty miles. If through loss of blood, or weakness of body, he was obliged to halt, he might wait for We most readily forgive that attack which affords us an opportunity of reaping a splendid triumph.-COLTON. ATTEMPT.-The First God will accept your first attempt, not as a perfect work, but as a beginning. The beginning is the promise of the end. The seed always whispers "oak," though it is going into the ground, acorn. I am sure that the first little blades of wheat are just as pleasant to the farmer's eyes, as the whole field waving with grain.-H. W. BEECHER. ATTEMPTS.-Great In great attempts, 'tis glorious e'en to fall.-LONGINUS. ATTENTION-Enforced. They say the tongues of dying men ATTENTION.-The Power of ATTRACTION. connexion with the faculty of abstraction, forms the essential difference between man and the brute, as well intellectually as morally. The degree in which it is possessed distinguishes also one human mind from another. -I. TAYLOR. ATTORNEY.-The Face of an His face is as intricate as the most winding cause, and his skin becomes at last as dry as his parchment.-BP. EARLE. ATTORNEY.-The Learning of an We can call him no great author, yet he writes very much. He has some smatch of a scholar, and yet uses Latin very hardly; and, lest it should accuse him, cuts it off in the midst, and will not let it speak out. He talks statutes as fiercely as if he had mooted seven years in the inns of court, when all his skill is stuck in his girdle, or in his office window.-BP. EARLE. ATTRACTION.-Different kinds of If there be any one phenomenon more than another which has puzzled philosophers to explain, it is that which is called "attraction." Any attempt to explain it by words involves the necessity of stating that several kinds of powers of attraction are recognized. First may be noticed the attraction of the earth towards all bodies above its surface. That which causes matter to "tumble" or "fall down" is called gravitation, or the earth's attraction. Secondly, there is what is termed cohesive attraction, which regulates the form of bodies, whether they be solid, as a rock, or granular, like sand. Another sort of attraction is named affinity, or chemical attraction, which produces all sorts of compounds; such as water, salt, sugar, etc., which are made up of substances of a totally opposite nature, held together by affinity. Were it not for this peculiar attraction of one substance to another, the whole world would be resolved into its elements; nothing would exist but a few metals, three or four gases, some sulphur, and charcoal; but by the force of affinity these different things unite, and produce all the beauties of nature. Thirdly, there is a magnetic attraction, or magnetism-an effect observed in only a very few substances, such as iron, nickel, and cobalt. Lastly, we have capillary attraction. By this force the sap rises in trees: a drop of water at the root finds its way to the summit of the loftiest poplar.—PIESSE. ATTRACTION.-A Mistake Concerning Everyone is conscious of possessing a power, more or less perfect, of detaining some one thought, or class of thoughts, in the mind, and of considering, or viewing, a particular subject successively in all its parts and relations. This power is called atten- We talk of attraction in the universe, but tion. It is the proper and distinguishing there is no such thing as we are accustomed excellence of the human mind; and, in to consider it. The natural and moral |