Sooth. Madam, not yet; I go to take my stand, Por Thou hast some suit to Cæsar, hast thou not? To be so good to Cæsar as to hear me, I shall beseech him to befriend himself. chance. Por. Why, know'st thou any harm 's intended towards him? Sooth. None that I know will be, much that I fear may Good-morrow to you. Here the street is narrow: The throng that follows Cæsar at the heels, Of senators, of prætors, common suitors, Will crowd a feeble man almost to death: I'll get me to a place more void, and there Speak to great Cæsar as he comes along. EI Por. I must go in. - Ah me! how weak a thing The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise! That Cæsar will not grant. 0! I grow faint. Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord: Say, I am merry; come to me again, And bring me word what he doth say to thee. [Exit. [Exeunt. SHAKSPEARE LXXXIV. THE INFINITUDE OF CREATION. In 1. Ir we extend our views from the solar system to the starry heavens, we have to penetrate, in our imagination, a space which the swiftest ball that was ever projected, though in perpetual motion, would not traverse in ten hundred thousand years. those trackless regions of immensity we behold an assemblage of resplendent globes, similar to the sun in size and in glory, and doubtless accompanied with a retinue of worlds, revolving, like our own, around their attractive influence. 2. The immense distance at which the nearest stars are known to be placed proves that they are bodies of a prodigious size, not inferior to our own sun; and that they shine, not by reflected rays, but by their own native light. But bodies encircled with such refulgent splendor would be of little use in the economy of Jehovah's empire, unless surrounding worlds were cheered by their benign influence. Every star is therefore concluded to be a sun, no less spacious than ours, surrounded by a host of planetary globes, which revolve around it as a centre, and derive from it light, and heat, and comfort. 3. Nearly a thousand of these luminaries may be seen in a clear winter night by the naked eye; so that a mass of matter equal to a thousand solar systems, or to thirteen hundred and twenty millions of globes of the size of the earth, may be perceived, by every common observer, in the canopy of heaven. But all the celestial orbs which are perceived by the unassisted sight do not form the eighty-thousandth part of those which may be descried by the help of optical instruments. 4. Dr. Herschel has informed us that, when exploring the most crowded parts of the milky-way, with his best glasses, he has had fields of view which contained no less than five hundred and eighty-eight stars, and these, too, continued for many minutes; so that "in one quarter of an hour's time there passed no less than one hundred and sixteen thousand stars through the field of view of his telescope." 5. It has been computed that nearly one hundred millions of stars might be perceived by the most perfect instruments, were all the regions of the sky thoroughly explored. And yet all this vast assemblage of suns and worlds, when compared with what lies beyond the utmost boundaries of human vision, in the immeasurable spaces of creation, may be no more than the smallest particle of vapor to the immense ocean. 6. Here, then, with reverence, let us pause and wonder! Over all this vast assemblage of material existence God presides. Amidst the diversified objects and intelligences it contains, he is eternally and essentially present. At his Almighty fiat it emerged from nothing into existence; and by his unerring wisdom all its complicated movements are perpetually directed. Surely that man is little to be envied who is not impressed, by such contemplations, with a venerable and overwhelming sense of Creative Power. DICK. LXXXV. THE INVENTION OF PRINTING. JOHN GUTENBERG RUPERT, AN USURER. Rupert. FRIEND John, what's wanted now? Ah! I can guess ; A family ring-solid, and set with diamonds! you Rup. Ah! John, that great invention, much I fear, Should'st thou succeed, the copyists who now Will persecute thee-make it out (who knows?) John. Let them murmur! Think, Master Rupert, of the good locked up In this invention. Look upon this book: It is the book of books, the Bible. Know'st thou A copy such as this? John. As long as that. Now, by this plan of mine, Might be struck off, and by a single man, Rup. John, thy wits are wandering. Thou 'rt but a dreamer. John. I can make it plain To any mechanician, what I say Is but the sober truth. Ay, Master Rupert, The day will come when this same book, which now So multiplied and cheap, that every peasant Tell thy good wife to put thee straight to bed, Kindled by me, shall grow to be a light An epoch from the day when here, in Mentz, Rup. "T is for posterity thou 'rt laboring, then! Posterity will put upon thy back No coat to shield thee from the winter's cold. Though thou wert starving. Why shouldst thou, then, Labor for such an ingrate as this same Vain, unrequiting herd-posterity? John. The noble giver finds his solace in The act of giving- in the consciousness, See Exercises under the twenty-ninth elementary sound, page 41 He has conferred upon his fellow-men Did he confer his boon: and so he quails not, Rup. John, thou 'rt a riddle. Where, then, is thy reward for all thy pains? John. My friend, the little good that we can do, In our short so'journ here, will not alone Shed comfort on this transitory life But be (such is my faith) a joy hereafter ! A little boy was once told he could catch a bird by dropping salt on its ail. The following lines were written on seeing him try the experiment. 1. GENTLY, gently, yet, young stranger, Light of heart and light of heel! 2. Caution! now you 're nearer creeping, Golden sights that bird is seeing Nest of green, or mossy bough; 3. How your eyes begin to twinkle! |