Joy is not in your path, for it loveth not that bleak broad road, But its flowers are hung upon the hedges that line a narrower way; And there the faint travellers of earth may wander and gather for them selves, Toothe their wounded hearts with balm from the amaranths of heaven. NOTES. (FIRST SERIES.) "A hine enfranchised fellows hail thy white victorious saus.” Page 12. See the story of Theseus, as detailed in Dryden's translation of Plutarch Late I. (*) “Who hath companioned a vision from the horn or ivory gate?” Virg. Æn. VI. 894–897. Page 14. Sunt geminæ somni portæ ; quarum altera fertur Sed falsa ad cœlum mittunt insomnia Manes." (3) "The sea-wort floating on the waves," &c. Page 16. The common sea-weeds on the shores of Europe, the algae and fuci, after having, for ages, been considered as synonymous with every thing vile and worthless, have, in modern times, been found to be abundant in iodine, the only known cure for scrofula, and kelp, so useful in many manufactures. Horace Łas signalized his ignorance of this fact in Od. III. 17, 10, “ algà inutili," &c. ; and, in II. Sat. 5, 8, ironically saying, that, virtus, nisi cum re, vilior algå est." Virgil also has put into the mouth of Thyrsis, in Ecl. VII. 42, — Projecta vilior alga." 66 (*) "Hath the crocus yielded up its bulb," &c. Page 16. The autumnal crocus, or colchicum, which consists of little more han a deep bulbous root, and a delicate lilac flower, produces a substance which is called veratrin, and has been used with signal success in the cure of gout and similar diseases. A few lines lower down, with reference to the elm, I wonid remark, that no use has yet been discovered in the principle called “ ulmine” "The boon of far Peru" is the potato. (5) "When acorns give out fragrant drink," &c. Page 17. At a meeting of the Medico-Botanical Society, (in 1837,) the President introduced to the notice of the members a new beverage which very much resembled coffee, and was made from acorns peeled, chopped, and roasted. Bread made from sawdust is certainly not very palatable, but no one can doubt that it is far more sweet and wholesoine than "no bread;" in a famine, this iscovery, which has passed almost sub silentio, would prove to be of the highest nportance. The darnel, it may be observed, in passing, is highly poisonous, nd a proper opposite to the lotus. () "He, who seeming old in youth," &c. Page 22. Compare Isa. lii. 14, "His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men," with the idea implied in the observation John viii. 57, “ Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Our Lord was then thirty-three, or, according to some chronologists, even younger. (7) “A sentence hath formed a character, and a character subdued a kingdom." Page 25. A better instance of this could scarcely be found than in the late Lord Exmouth, who first directed his thoughts to the sea from a casual remark made by a groom. See his Life. () "That small cavern," &c. Page 26. The pineal gland, a small oval about the size of a pea, situated nearly in the centre of the brain, and generally found to contain, even in children, some particles of gravel. Galen, and after him Des Cartes, imagined it the seat of the soul. () "The Greek hath surnamed, ORDER." Page 31. Koopos. The Latins also, who rarely can show a beautiful idea which they have not borrowed from Greece, have made a similar application of the term "mundas" to the fabric of the world. (10) "To this our day the Rechabite wanteth not a man,” &c. Page 37. I have heard it related of Wolfe, the missionary, that when in Arabia, he fell in with a small wandering tribe, who refused to drink wine, not on Mohamedan principles, but because it had in olden time been" forbidden by Jonadab, he son of Rechab, their father." Compare Jeremiah xxxv. 19, " Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever" It will be found in Mr. Wolfe's Journal. Page 37. (") "Of Rest." A very obvious objection to the views of Rest here given has probably ocsurred to more than one religious reader of the English Bible; "there remaineth a rest for the people of God;" doubtless intending the heavenly inheritance. If the Greek Testament is referred to (Heb. iv. 9), the word translated "rest" will be found to be oaßßariopós; a sabbatism, or perpetual Sabbath a rest indeed from evil, but very far from being a rest from good: an eterna act of ecstatic intellectual worship, or temporary acts in infinite series. It i true that another word, karáravots, implying complete cessation, occurs in th context; but this is used of the earthly image, Joshua's rest in Canaan; th material rest of earth becomes in the skies a spiritual Sabbath; although I am ready to admit that the apostle goes on to argue from the word of the type. In passing, let us observe, by way of showing the uncertainty of trusting to any isolated expression of the present scriptural version, that there are no less than six several words of various meaning which in our New Testament are all andifferently rendered rest: as in Matt. xii. 53, dváπavis; in John xi. 13, Kipnis; in Heb. iii. 11, karánavots; in Acts xi. 31, eipńvn; in 2 Thess. i. 7, avcois; and in Heb. iv. 9, saßßariopos. The xvipnois is, I apprehend, what is generally meant by rest; so wishes Byron's Giaour to "sleep without the dream of what he was;" so he who in life" loathed the languor of repose," avows that he 66 would not, if he might, be blest, and sought no Paradise but Rest." Such, at least, is not the Christian's Sabbath, which indeed fully agrees, as might be expected, with metaphysical inquiries: a good spirit cannot rest from activity in good, nor an evil one from activity in evil. Rest, in its common slothful acceptation, is not possible, or is, at any rate very improbable, in the case o spiritual creatures. (13) "Calm night that breedeth thoughts." Page 37. Eippón. A other delicate example of the Greek elegance in mind and language. (18) "Proteus," &c. Page 43. Compare Virgil, Geor. IV. 406, 412. "Tum variæ eludent species atque ora ferarum. (1) "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 Crœsus. (1) “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 oved,'. 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 fuga, 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 whooe single crop of fruits feasts a whole country. (19) "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. ('') "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 Blight argument here urged should seem weak and unsatisfactory to a reflective tind: 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 cor.ary, inasmuch as to an assertion of its falsity," ready answer cometh,”—wait until we know more. |