(14) "We wait, like the sage of Salamis, to see what the end will be." Page 45. In allusion to the well-known anecdote of Solon at the court of Croesus. (15) "Crowded with a rainbow of emerald, the green memorial of earth.” Page 58. See Rev. iv. 3, "There was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald:" it may be a fanciful but it is a pleasing idea, that this emerald rainbow was, as it were, a reflection of the earth, which "God so loved,'. and whose universal robe is green. (16) "Like the Parthian." Page 64. Compare Horace, Od. I. 19, 12, "Versis animosum equis Parthum," and Virg. Geo. III. 21, " Parthus fidens fugâ, versisque sagittis,', with Psalm lxxviii. 9," The children of Ephraim carrying bows, who turned themselves back in the day of battle." (17) "The giant king of palms." Page 65. The magnificent Talipat palm, the column of which frequently exceeds one hundred feet in height, whose leaves are each thirty feet in breadth, and whose single crop of fruits feasts a whole country. (18) "It is only the band of the redeemed who can tell thee the fullness of that name." Page 68. Strictly speaking, only a fallen being is capable of religion, a bringing or binding back of the affections to their proper object. An angel or other pure intelligence, can have no sympathies with the fallen, as such, and therefore can know nothing of re-ligion, as such; his worship is allegiance or liegeance. (19) "Of a Trinity." Page 68. The candid reader who dissents from the doctrine of the Trinity, will have the goodness to remember, that the question itself stands on far other and higher grounds than those of mere analogy: this observation is made in case the slight argument here urged should seem weak and unsatisfactory to a reflective mind it is nothing more than an addition pro lucro. It does not at all affect the argument that the three elements of all things should be now unknown, or unsuspected. The idea thrown out may one day be found to be correct; and in fact it will be very difficult to prove the contrary, inasmuch as to an assertion of its falsity," ready answer cometh,"-wait until we know more. (20) "The noonday light is a compound, the triune shadow of Jehovah." Page 70. The rainbow, which is light analyzed, is but three colours, blue, yellow, and red, with their intermediate shades. I think no one of these can be mixed or made of others, and in their union they produce colourless light. (21) "Upon whose lips the mystic bee," &c. Page 78. The classical reader will not need to be reminded of the omen that happened to the infant Pindar. (22) "Let another Omar burn the full library of knowledge." Page 79. The Alexandrian library, compiled by Ptolemy Euergetes, contained 700,000 manuscripts, all of which were burnt by the fanatical calif Omar. (23) "The strange skin garments cast upon the shore suggest another hemisphere." Page 86. An anecdote I have somewhere heard of Columbus, who, having sailed as far as Flores, one of the Western Islands, was induced to proceed further from hearing that savage robes and weapons had been cast up by the sea, after the prevalence of westerly gales. It will probably be met with in Washington Irving's Life of Columbus. (24) "The lichen dying, diggeth its own grave." Page 86. One of the great uses of these pioneers of vegetation is to corrode and fret the smooth surface of the rocks, by an acid which they generate during decomposition. (25) “Ridicule—the test of truth. Page 89. One of the weakest points in the Shaftesbury philosophy, which would weigh principles against puns. (26) "And being but men, as men, ye own to all the sympathies of manhood." Page 100. The noble and masculine sentiment of Terence, which of old electrified the whole theatre "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienem puto." (27) "Ganesa." Page 113. The elephant-headed god of prudence who is invoked on every occasion by the Hindoos. Kali, called also Durga, is a destroying power. Kamala signifies " lotus-like," a type of beauty, and one of the names of Lakshmi. Vishnu is the great Preserver in the Brahmin triad: his incarnations are called avatars. (28) "God will not love thee less, because men love thee more." Page 116. It may be scarcely necessary to remark, that the gist of the argument in Matt. v. 11, " Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you," lies in the "falsely, for my sake." This verse has all the characteristics of an epigram,-paradox, brevity, and final satisfaction. |