meetings, in order that no time might be lost, | for it? Do the animals which belong to you he used to make his female hearers knit cause no injury or inconvenience to others? stockings for their poorer neighbors, not for Guard against this, for it would be as fire in themselves; it was a work of charity, he said, tow, and a source of mutual vexation. Do and needed not to either distract their atten- not keep a dog unless there be an absolute tion or to diminish their devotion. When he necessity for keeping one. Do you punctually had for some time read and expounded the contribute your share toward repairing the Bible to them, he would often say, "Well, roads? Have you, in order to advance the children, are you not tired? Have you had general good, planted upon the common at enough?" If they said "enough for one least twice as many trees as there are heads time," he would leave off; but the more fre- in your family? Have you planted them quent reply was, "No, dear papa, go on; we properly, or only as idle people do, to save should like to hear a little more!" His dis- themselves trouble? Are you frugal in the courses for the Sabbath were carefully pre- use of wood, and do you make your fires in as pared. In them he preserved a colloquial economical a manner as possible? Have you plainness, scrupulously avoiding the use of proper drains in your yard for carrying off the words or phrases which were not level to the refuse water? Are you, as well as your sons, apprehension of his hearers. He drew largely acquainted with some little handicraft, to upon natural history, with which his people employ your spare moments, instead of letting were well acquainted, for illustration; and he them pass away in idleness?" These quesfrequently introduced biographical anecdotes tions clearly manifest that every thing calcuof persons who were eminent for piety or lated to promote the welfare of his people was benevolence. His favorite themes were the interesting to him. The result of his solicitous love of God as our Father, the freeness of the care was seen in the neat dwellings, the indusgospel, the willingness of the Lord Jesus to trious character, the sincere, unaffected piety, receive all who came to him in sincerity, the and the courteous manners of the peasants of depravity of man, and the consequent neces- the Ban de la Roche. sity of grace and of the work of the Holy Spirit, and the sure efficacy of prayer. Among the people he also circulated a series of questions to which he required written replies-whether they attended church regularly upon the Sabbath and week days, or ever The close of his earthly career was, like passed a Sabbath without employing them- that of a summer day, calm and peaceful. selves in some charitable work, or themselves His sun set in glory. His was not a death, or their children wandered in the woods but a departure. The light of his presence during the hours of divine service. "Do you," faded gently away from this world, only to he asked, "send your children regularly to burst in glorious refulgence and undying school? Do you watch over them as God splendor upon another! His was a green old requires that you should do? Is your con- age. The snows of time, although they rested duct toward them, as well as your wife's, such upon his head, sent no chill into the warm as will ensure their affection, respect, and affections of his heart. In the latter part of obedience? Are you careful to provide your- his life, the increasing infirmities of age preselves with clean and suitable clothes for going vented him from occupying himself, as he was to church in? Do those who are so provided wont, in the discharge of his pastoral duty. employ a regular part of their income in pro- God, however, provided him an assistant likecuring such clothes for their destitute neigh-minded with himself, in his devoted son-in-law, bors or in relieving their other necessities? M. Graff. The old man did what he could. Do you give your creditors reason to be satis- If he could not visit nor preach to his flock, fied with your honesty and punctuality? When the magistrate wishes to assemble the community, do you always assist him as far as lies in power? and if it be impossible for you to attend, are you careful to inform him of your absence, and to assign a proper reason

Numerous anecdotes, illustrative of Oberlin's pastoral fidelity and vigilance, crowd upon us, but we must forego the pleasure of recording them here, and hasten to the conclusion of this sketch.

he could pray for them: so in the morning he used to take his church register of baptisms in his hand, and to pray, at stated times during the day, for every one whose name was written there, as well as for the community at large. At all periods of his residence in the

Ban, Oberlin had a high sense of the value and pall. At the conclusion of this ceremony, importance of intercessory prayer; and so ten or twelve young females, who had been fearful was he lest he should omit in his sup-standing round the bier, began to sing a plications any that he wished to especially hymn, and at two o'clock the procession began remember, that he was accustomed to write to move, the coffin being borne by the mayors, their names with chalk upon the black door elders, and official magistrates of the Ban and of his chamber. As his failing strength pre- of the neighboring communes. vented him from crossing the threshold, his active mind engaged with an almost youthful vigor in the labors of the study. Several carefully composed essays, written at this time, were found after his decease. His last work was a refutation of the "De Senectute;" in which he gives a more cheering and consolatory picture of old age than the Roman orator has done.

The region round about seemed to have sent forth all its inhabitants, so great was the concourse which assembled. The interment took place at Foudai, two miles distant from Oberlin's house, but the foremost of the funeral train had reached the churchyard before the last had left the parsonage! Th. children and youths of the different schools formed part of the melancholy procession, The sand was now low in the glass. The chanting at intervals sacred hymns, selected Last grain ran out on the morning of the 1st and adapted to the occasion. When they of June, 1826, when he was in the eighty-sixth approached Foudai, a new bell, which had year of his age. The illness which preceded been presented in commemoration of this day his departure continued for four days. On of sorrow, was heard to toll for the first time, the morning of the 1st of June, at six o'clock, and to mingle its melancholy sound with the his pain abated. His children were grouped bells of the valley. The burying-ground was around his bed, and at intervals he clasped surrounded by Roman Catholic women, all their hands and pressed them to his heart. dressed in deep mourning and kneeling in His limbs soon became cold and lifeless, and silent prayer. On arriving at the church, the he lost the use of his speech. His last act coffin was placed at the foot of the commuwas to take off his cap, and to join his hands nion-table, and as many persons entered as as in prayer, and to raise his eyes toward the little place would contain, the great multiheaven; his countenance as he did so beaming tude having to remain in the churchyard and with joy and love. He closed his eyes, never the adjoining lanes. Notwithstanding the to open them again until the day of the resurrection. About eleven o'clock, the toll of the passing-bell informed the inhabitants of the valley that he who had watched over them for nearly sixty years would watch no

more.

Four days afterwards he was buried. During the interval which elapsed between his decease and the simple and affecting ceremony which consigned his remains to the grave, heavy clouds rested on the surrounding mountains, and the rain poured down in incessant torrents. Nature seemed to sympathize with the feelings which swelled the hearts of his people, and which bowed their souls with the sincerest sorrow. Oberlin's remains were placed in a coffin with a glass lid, and laid in his study, where, despite of the inclemency of the weather, the inhabitants of the Ban and of the surrounding districts (of all ages, conditions, and religious denominations) congregated to take a farewell look at his beloved face.

Early in the morning of the day fixed for the interment, the clouds cleared away and the sun shone with its wonted brilliancy. As the procession left the house, the president of the consistory of Barr, the Rev. M. Jaeglé, placed Oberlin's clerical robes upon the coffin, the vice-president of the consistory placed his Bible upon it, and the mayor affixed the decoration of the Legion of Honor to the funeral

presence of so great a number of persons, the utmost order and solemnity prevailed. Several persons, who could find room nowhere else, sat down on the steps beside the coffin, as if anxious to cling to the ashes of one whom they loved so well. Many distinguished persons were present, and several Roman Catholic priests, dressed in their canonicals, sat among the members of the consistory, and evidently shared in the general grief. M. Jaeglé then mounted the pulpit and read the charge, which we have already given, which melted the vast auditory into tears; and then he delivered a discourse from the fourteenth verse of the seventh chapter of the book of Revelations, which had been selected by Oberlin himself as that from which his funeral sermon was to be preached. At the conclusion of the president's address, a hymn was sung and the coffin borne to the grave, which is on one side of the little church, beneath a weeping willow that shades the tomb of his son Henry. Here, amidst the tears of the assembled thousands, the earth was heaped upon the house of clay which once contained the spirit of Oberlin, the world's benefactor, while the humble and Christ-like pastor of the Ban de la Roche.

Reader, do you wish to die as he died? If so, live as he lived; and your memory, like his, will be green and fragrant throughout all ages.

LIFE AND ORGANIZATION.
From The Edinburgh Review.

1. General Outline of the Organization of
the Animal Kingdom, and Manual of
Comparative Anatomy. By Thomas
Rymer Jones, F.R.S. (Second Edition.)
London: 1855.

ety; and, above all, endowed with that wonderful power of reproduction which maintains the continuity of the species, while individual forms are successively passing away. No step so vast as this, no mutation so wonderful, 2. On Parthenogenesis, or the Successive in any part of creation. The mystery is not Production of Procreating Individuals solved-scarcely lessened to our conceptionfrom a Single Ovum, introduced to the by those researches which, descending in the Hunterian Lectures on Generation and scale of existence, seem to obliterate all cerDevelopment for the Year 1849. Deliv-tain distinction between animal and vegetable ered at the Royal College of Surgeons of life, and to bring the latter to the England, by Richard Owen, F.R.S. etc. London: 1849. 3. The Rambles of a Naturalist on the Coasts of France, Spain, and Sicily. By A. de Quartrefages. Translated (with the Author's sanction and co-operation) by E. C. Otté. 2 vols. 1857. 4. Sea-Side Studies at Ilfracombe, Tenby, the Scilly Isles, and Jersey. By George

H. Lewes. 1858.

5. The Master-Builder's Plan, or the Principles of Organic Architecture, as indicated in the Typical Forms of Animals. By George Ogilvie, M.D. London:

1858.

IN a recent number of this Review we took occasion from some remarkable works then before us, to comment on those present conditions of physical science which more especially mark its progress onwards, and the larger scope and higher spirit now given to its pursuit. Our view, however, was then confined almost wholly to the inorganic part of creation, and to those sciences which treat of matter unendowed with life, and of the great natural forces or powers-gravitation, light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and chemical force-which we recognize by and through their various action on the material world.

We have now before us another series of works (to which very many more might be added) recording the present state of our knowledge of matter organized into life; of that vast domain of animal and vegetable existence which lies around us, presenting a thousand problems to our reason, and almost appalling contemplation by its extent and multiplicity. This short and seemingly simple word-Life, does, in truth, in itself include the greatest of all the problems submitted to human thought. All distinctions and diversities are trifling in comparison with this one line, which separates inanimate matter from the living organisms created out of it; possessing properties and powers of endless vari*Living Age, No. 749.

THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE.

233

very

lowest grade to which the term living can fitly be applied. It is still the distinction between that which can reproduce itself and that which cannot; and in this single condition lies the clearest expression of all vitality, whatsoever its form or degree. No definition of life can be complete without it. Alone it suffices to mark that line of division which even the finest microscope fails to reach ; and it applies no less to that more wonderful and complex animal machinery by which higher forms of existence are maintained and perpetuated.

Into this domain of organic life, modern science has penetrated with no less zeal and success than have signalized its course in the other branches of physics. This parity of progress has been kept up, notwithstanding certain distinctions which may seem to favor the pursuit of the latter. Such are, the surpassing grandeur of the physical discoveries of our

day; the mathematical certainty of many of the laws thence derived; and the important practical uses to which these discoveries have been applied, enlarging the dominion of man over nature, through elements which were formerly known but as objects ofj admiration or terror. No period has been so prolific of these achievements as that in which we are now living.

On the other side, however, we find numerous incentives to a like zeal in the study of The simple the living existences around us. presence of the attribute of life, as we have denoted it, tells for much with every reflecting mind. But this part of natural science gains also by the comparative facility with which it may be successfully pursued. Few can compass all that is required for experimental research, especially under those refinements of method which have now become essential to success. Many are competent to a science mainly of observation, amidst objects present to the senses, often associated with the charm of natural scenery, and consonant to the nat

It would be impossible within the limits of by the vastness of the subject, we cannot go this article to analyze the several works pre-into any thing like a complete review of the fixed to it, or even to denote the especial objects and merits of each. It will be seen that several of them relate more especially to those lower forms of animal life which lie close to the boundary-if certain boundary there be between the animal and vegetable *We cannot here forbear to express our pleasure in seeing advertised a new edition (the ninth, we believe) of Mrs. Somerville's volume "On the

attest the scope and spirit now given to its | self on firm ground, because his argument has pursuit. In doing this, we shall be guided, matter for its foundation. His matter itself not solely by the works before us, but by our own estimate of the relative interest and value of the topics to which they relate.

is known only by and through that mind which he assumes to create out of it.*

On this point, and for these reasons, we do It will be obvious, even to those who have not dwell further; but we proceed to that given only casual thought to these questions, part of the subject, more accessible to human that many of them tend to take a metaphysi- reason, which engages at this time the earnest cal turn; while not a few are of a nature attention of naturalists, in every branch of wholly to transcend the present faculties of their science; viz., the manner and extent of man. The attainments actually made by influence of the great physical forces, ever in these faculties, in their more exalted use, fur- action around us, in producing and maintainnish reasons for not drawing hasty and arbi- ing those other powers and properties which trary lines in limitation of further progress. we call Vital; and which, in their aggregate, But there are certain barriers which the high-represent all we define as Life upon the globe. est genius is the first to recognize and submit In the article already alluded to, we spoke of to; seductive though the speculations are which here begin to usurp upon the reason. As great boldness and mental power may be shown in well defining the boundary of research, as in adventuring wantonly over and beyond it.

the doctrine of the "Correlation of Physical Forces," first propounded and illustrated by Mr. Grove; and pursued in sequel to him by other writers, whose works were then before us. It is clear that these great powers, Heat, Light, Electricity, and Chemical force or affinity, whatever their nature or mode of development, stand to each other in their action on matter, in the relation of mutual convertibility;-that their forces, however altered in respect of action, are never really lost or lessened ;—that they are the efficient energy, not solely in the greater and more obvious phenomena of the material world, but equally so in the most minute molecular actions to which matter is subject. We can modify, by

What we have already said on the abstract principle of Life, as appended to material organization, will show that this, the great and elementary point with which we are here concerned, comes under the class of questions just spoken of. Notwithstanding all that has been done-and it is vast in amount and variety towards our knowledge of living beings, and of those organizations upon which vital functions depend, and by which they are maintained and reproduced, the question un-human powers and machinery, the aspects of ceasingly recurs, and can in no way be put aside,-What is the principle, or property if any-superadded to the known properties of matter, giving it those new conditions which create and constitute vitality? It is this inquiry which, in one form or other, has exercised every age and school of philosophy; and been argued the more intently, or even passionately, from the question having been often made to embrace intelligence and the other mental functions, as well as mere vitality. Under this latter aspect, it will be recognized as that old problem of Materialism, upon which so much controversy has been wasted; a controversy equally fruitless, we believe, in all time to come, since no conception can reach the abstract nature either of matter or mind; nor any argument show that things perceived by the senses have more of independent reality than the principle perceiving, and the intelligence and volition acting upon them. The materialist fancies him

force and its actions upon matter. We can never either create or annihilate it. These conclusions, at the utmost but vaguely and partially surmised before, have now acquired certainty enough to give them place among the great general laws of nature; and experimental science is every day bringing fresh facts to their proof and illustration. Whether the term of "Correlation of Forces," provisionally applied by Mr. Grove to describe our preseat knowledge, may not hereafter merge in the single form and conception of Force, as contra-distinguished from the matter on which it acts, is a point open to future determination. Mutual convertibility is closely akin to unity, if not an actual expression of it. Much that is of the deepest interest to

* In Germany, as might well be presumed, this controversy is ever awake, and the doctrine of Materialism finds numerous advocates. In the largely circulated, it assumes its hardest and grossrecent werk of Büchner (Kraft und Stoff), already est form.