“In the Highlands of South America, there is a distribution similar to that arising from difference of latitude. Maize is not found beyond the height of six thousand feet, from thence to nine thousand feet the European grains abound, advancing upwards in this order; wheat, then rye, and then barley. The larger esculent seeds of the grasses were named, by Linnæus, Cerealia, from Ceres: he included rice, wheat, rye, barley, oats, millet, and maize.”
This morning we were talking over all we had learned yesterday from Miss P. about the grasses, when my uncle invited us to his study, and showed us some dried specimens of feather-grass which grows in Europe, and is larger and more curious than the pretty little species that you have in Brazil. The feather is six inches long, with a kind of a spiral form at the lower end, which twists or untwists according to the degree of dampness in the atmosphere. We held a piece of it over the urn at tea, by which it was instantly put in motion, so that it would make a very nice hygrometer. I wish I was acquainted with Harry and Lucy, and I would send them the bit my uncle gave me. Miss P. says that, as the seed ripens, the flower closes over it into a sharp point, and that as the stalk is slightly barbed, it works its way into the ground by the effect of damp acting on the twisted part.
21st, Sunday.—I asked my uncle this morning to explain what he meant by the Levitical dispensation, and by the New dispensation, to which he has so frequently alluded.
“I will with pleasure, Bertha,” said he. “It gives me great satisfaction to perceive that you reflect on what you are told. Never allow yourself to be contented with half knowledge.
“You know that, in consequence of the fall of man, a system of divine grace for his redemption was promised by the Almighty; and that it commenced with the mysterious promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent. But as things in the natural world are only permitted to reach perfection gradually, rising from infancy to maturity, so it is, likewise, in the moral world: and this gracious scheme of mercy, instead of being at once displayed in its full extent, was gradually unfolded at different periods, until the promised seed was at length manifested in Jesus Christ. These successive communications have been called dispensations, because the knowledge of God and of his merciful intentions were dispensed or revealed by them. There have been three of these dispensations, the patriarchal, the Levitical, and the Christian; but they belong to the one system of Providence, and are all linked together, the redemption of the human race being the beginning and the end of the whole. The proper modes of worship were at the same time distinctly ordained; and, however different the institutions which were severally dispensed may appear to us, we may feel assured that each of them was peculiarly adapted to the moral state of the world when it was promulgated.
“During the term of the patriarchal dispensation, which comes first in order, it pleased God to make known such a portion of his will, and to dispense throughout the world such a degree of knowledge of his purposes, as would have been abundantly sufficient to have conducted mankind to heaven, if they had not wilfully resisted the benevolent offers that were made to them, and turned aside from the easy path of duty that was prescribed. The patriarchal dispensation was evidently intended to be universal in its offers, as well as in its conditions; for Adam would of course communicate to the numerous generations of his children, with whom he was contemporary, the knowledge, which he had himself derived from direct revelation, of God’s gracious will and intentions. But this universality was of short duration. Animal sacrifice appears to have been appointed as a type of that mighty sacrifice or atonement by which mankind were to be enabled in the fulness of time to triumph over their spiritual enemy; and the conduct of Cain in rejecting it produced an immediate distinction between the servants of God and those who were seduced to follow the principles of his apostasy. The terms on which that general atonement had been offered were neglected; the reconciliation of fallen man by means of the promised seed was slighted, and the lamentable corruption which spread amongst the early inhabitants of the world led to the awful judgment of the Deluge.
“Thus ended the first period of the patriarchal church. It was renewed in the descendants of Noah, and for a long period retained its original character of universality, till other apostasies took place. These, however, were of a very different nature from that of Cain. The occasional appearances of a superior race of beings, ministering under a human form between God and his creatures upon earth, probably led to what has been called Hero-worship. Surprising as this perversion may appear among people whose immediate ancestors had the singular advantage of direct communication with the Supreme Being, it seems to have taken deep root in the human mind; for, in the most enlightened nations of antiquity, we find a continual disposition to look back on departed heroes and conquerors, not only with a sort of pious veneration, but even to consider and address them as tutelar deities. Always prone to be led away from the plain and simple truth, human weakness found another early source of corruption in the worship of the heavenly bodies: their splendour, and their obvious influence on all the pursuits of mankind, produced a superstitious reverence, which by an easy transition degenerated into adoration; and it has been remarked, that in the early records of almost every country we find that the sun and moon were regarded as deities; and that fire was the constant emblem under which they were worshipped.
“The prevalence of these idolatries after the deluge may be inferred from various passages in the Scriptures; and particularly from the direct prohibitions contained in the laws that were given to Moses. But amidst all the depravities and abuses that had thus disfigured the patriarchal religion, the belief in the necessity of expiatory sacrifice was constantly maintained; and though the horrid corruption of that tenet gave rise to the sacrifice of human victims, there is no doubt that they dimly shadowed out a general belief in a future divine victim. Thus you perceive that, revolting as all these impious corruptions were, yet they had for their original foundation the very principle of the system of atonement and redemption; that ‘without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.’
“The consideration of the other two dispensations we must defer, my dear Bertha, to another opportunity.”
22nd.—Mary and I went this evening in search of the moth of the little pear-leaf caterpillars: we shook a gooseberry-bush, and numbers of them came forth. They fly in the day-time, never going far at a time, and cautiously conceal themselves in the nearest bush.