4. Dr. Hunter, in his account of the dissection of a whale, states that the aorta measured a foot in diameter, and that ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at a stroke, with an immense velocity, through a tube of a foot in diameter. 5. It has been well observed, that we cannot be sufficiently grateful that all our vital motions are involuntary, and that we have nothing to do in connection with them. We should have enough business on hand had we to keep our heart beating, and our stomachs at work. 6. Did these things depend, not to say upon our effort, but even upon our bidding, upon our care and attention, they would leave us leisure for nothing else. We must constantly have been upon the watch, and constantly in fear. Night and day our thoughts must have been devoted to this one object, for the cessation of the action, even for a few seconds, would be fatal. 7. The wisdom of the Creator, says a distinguished "anatomist, is in nothing seen more gloriously than in the heart. And how well does it perform its office! An anatomist who understood its structure might say beforehand that it would play; but from the complexity of its mechanism, and the delicacy of many of its parts, he must be apprehensive that it would always be liable to derangement, and that it would soon work itself out. 8. Yet does this wonderful machine go on, night and day, for eighty years together, at the rate of a hundred thousand strokes every twenty-four hours, having at every stroke a great resistance to overcome, and it continues this action for this length of time without disorder, and without weariness. 9. That it should continue this action for this length of time without disorder is wonderful; that it should be capable of contin ing it without weariness, is still more astonishing. Never, for a single moment, night or day, does it intermit its labor, neither through our waking nor our sleeping hours. 10. On it goes, without intermission; yet it never feels fatigued; it never seems exhausted. It was necessary that it should be made capable of working constantly, without the °cessation of a moment-without the least degree of weariness. It is so made; and how great is the power of the Creator in so constructing it! 1. CORALS abound chiefly in the tropical regions. These animals vary from the size of a pin's head to somewhat more than the bulk of a pea; and it is by the persevering efforts of these creatures so insignificant, working in myriads, and working through ages, that the enormous structures called coral reefs, are erected. 2. The great coral reef of New Holland alone is a thousand miles in length, and its altitude cannot range to less than between one and two thousand feet. And this is the work of insects whose dimensions are less than those of a house fly. 3. But what is even this. The whole of the Pacific Ocean is crowded with islands of the same architecture, the produce of the same insignificant architects. An animal barely possessing life, tied down to its narrow cell, ephemeral in existence, is daily, hourly, creating the habitations of men, of animals, of plants. It is founding a new continent; it is constructing a new world. These are among the wonders of His mighty hand; such are among the means He uses to forward His ends of benevolence. 4. If we have said that the coral insect is creating a new continent, we have not said more than the truth. "Navigators now know that the Great Southern Ocean is not only crowded with these islands, but that it is crowded with submarine rocks of the same nature, rapidly growing up to the surface, where, at length, overtopping the ocean, they are destined to form new habitations for man to extend his dominion. They grow and unite into circles and ridges, and ultimately they become extensive tracts. 5. This process is equally visible in the Red Sea. That sea is daily becoming less and less navigable, in consequence of the growth of its coral rocks; and the day is to come, when perhaps one plain will unite the opposite shores of Egypt and Arabia. 6. But let us here also admire the wonderful provision which is made deep in the earth, for completing the work which those animals have commenced. It is the volcano and the earthquake that are to complete the structure, to elevate the mountain and form the valley, and to introduce beneath the equator the range of climate which belongs to the tem perate regions, and to lay the great hydraulic engine by which the clouds are collected to fertilize the earth, and which causes springs to burst forth and rivers to flow. And this is the work of one short hour. 7. If the coral insect was not made in vain, neither was it for destruction that God ordained the volcano and the earthquake. Thus also by means so opposed, so contrasted, is one single end attained. And that end is the welfare, the happiness of man. UNIVERSAL REVIEW. LESSON CXI. THE DEAD MOTHER. Father. Touch not thy mother, boy. Thou canst not wake her. Child. Why, Father? she still wakens at this hour. Child. And what is dead? If she be dead, why then 'tis only sleeping, Father. Her heart is cold. Her limbs are bloodless, would that mine were so ! Child. If she would waken, she would soon be warm. Why is she wrapt in this thin sheet? If I, This winter morning, were not covered better, Father. No-not like her. The fire might warm you, or thick clothes- Child. If I could wake her, And kiss me. She would smile on me, as she always does, Father. Come, my child. Child. Once, when I sat upon her lap, I felt Father. Child! Child! you drive me mad.-Come hence, Child. Nay, Father, be not angry! let me stay here Till my mother wakens. Father. I have told you, Your mother cannot wake-not in this world But in another she will wake for us. When we have slept like her, then we shall see her. Child. Would it were night, then! Father. No, unhappy child! Full many a night shall pass, ere thou canst sleep None will regard thee; thou wilt soon forget And women still more wicked. Child. Father! Father! Why do you look so terribly upon me, Father. Hurt thee, darling? no! |