Conclusion.
Thus we have conducted our reader through some of the principal curiosities of Nature and Art, Science and Literature. We trust he has found both amusement and instruction. Our object has been, throughout the work, to assist the reader in looking through Nature up to Nature’s God. All second causes derive their origin, permanency, and efficacy from Him alone.
Since, then, the Lord God is himself the source and perfection of all beauty and excellency, the author of our existence, and the bountiful giver of all good gifts; we undoubtedly ought to love him with our whole hearts, and to serve him with all our powers; we ought to reverence his majesty and authority, and endeavour above all things to obtain his favour; we ought to devote ourselves entirely to his service, and make all our actions tend to the advancement of his glory. And as his mercy and goodness are unbounded, so should be our gratitude and praise.
Jehovah reigns: let ev’ry nation hear,
And at his footstool bow with holy fear;
Let heav’n’s high arches echo with his name.
And the wide-peopled earth his praise proclaim;
Then send it down to hell’s deep gloom resounding,
Thro’ all her caves in dreadful murmurs sounding.
He rules with wide and absolute command
O’er the broad ocean and the stedfast land:
Jehovah reigns, unbounded and alone,
And all creation hangs beneath his throne:
He reigns alone; let no inferior nature
Usurp or share the throne of the Creator.
He saw the struggling beams of infant light
Shoot thro’ the massy gloom of ancient night;
His spirit hush’d the elemental strife,
And brooded o’er the kindling seeds of life:
Seasons and months began the long procession,
And measur’d o’er the year in bright succession.
The joyful sun sprung up th’ ethereal way,
Strong as a giant, as a bridegroom gay;
And the pale moon diffus’d her shadowy light,
Superior o’er the dusky brow of night;
Ten thousand glittering lamps the skies adorning,
Num’rous as dew-drops from the womb of morning.
Earth’s blooming face with rising flow’rs he dress’d,
And spread a verdant mantle o’er her breast;
Then from the hollow of his hand he pours
The circling waters round her winding shores,
The new-born world in their cool arms embracing,
And with soft murmurs still her banks caressing.
At length she rose complete in finish’d pride,
All fair and spotless like a virgin bride:
Fresh with untarnish’d lustre as she stood,
Her Maker bless’d his work, and call’d it good;
The morning stars with joyful acclamation,
Exulting sung, and hail’d the new creation.
Yet this fair world, the creature of a day,
Tho’ built by God’s right hand, must pass away;
And long oblivion creep o’er mortal things,
The fate of empires, and the pride of kings:
Eternal night shall veil their proudest story,
And drop the curtain o’er all human glory.
The sun himself, with weary clouds opprest,
Shall in his silent dark pavilion rest;
His golden urn shall broke and useless lie,
Amidst the common ruins of the sky!
The stars rush headlong in the wild commotion,
And bathe their glittering foreheads in the ocean.
But fix’d, O God! for ever stands thy throne,
Jehovah reigns, a universe alone;
Th’ eternal fire that feeds each vital flame,
Collected or diffus’d, is still the same.
He dwells within his own unfathom’d essence,
And fills all space with his unbounded presence.
But oh! our highest notes the theme debase,
And silence is our least injurious praise:
Cease, cease your songs, the daring flight control,
Revere him in the stillness of the soul;
With silent duty meekly bend before him,
And deep within your inmost hearts—adore him.
Mrs. Barbauld.
APPENDIX
TO THE
BOOK OF CURIOSITIES;
CONTAINING
CURIOUS EXPERIMENTS,
AND
AMUSING RECREATIONS,
WHICH MAY BE PERFORMED WITH EASE,
AND AT A SMALL EXPENSE.
A Person having an even Number of Counters in one Hand, and an odd Number in the other, to tell in which Hand each of them is.
Desire the person to multiply the number in his right hand by three, and the number in his left by two.
Bid him add the two products together, and tell you whether the sum be odd or even.