1 course. by its proper cause. Nature sometimes means the established course of things corporeal; as, nature makes the night succeed the day. This may be termed established order, or settled Nature sometimes means the aggregate of the powers belonging to a body, especially a living ono; as when physicians say that nature is strong, or, nature left to herself will do the cure. For this may be used, constitution, temperament, or structure of the body. Nature is put likewise for the system of the corporeal works of God; as, there is no phoenix or chimera in nature. For nature, thus applied, we may use, the world, or the universe. Nature is sometimes, indeed, taken for a kind of semi-deity. In this sense it is better not to use it at all. Boyle. NATURE-free from Melancholy. Midnight-when asleep so still and silentseems inspired with the joyous spirit of the owls in their revelry-and answers to their mirth and merriment through all her clouds. The moping owl, indeed!-the boding owl, forsooth the melancholy owl, you blockhead! why, they are the most cheerful, joy-portending, and exulting of God's creatures. Their flow of animal spirits is incessant-crowing cocks are a joke to them-blue devils are to them unknown-not one hypochondriac in a thousand barns-and the Man-in-the-Moon acknowledges that he never heard one of them utter a complaint. Professor Wilson. NATURE-Obedience to. The more a man follows Nature, and is obedient to her laws, the longer he will live; the farther he deviates from these, the shorter will be his existence. Hufeland. NATURE-Philosophy of. The meaning of a transparency can be seen only by looking at the light, or in the direction of the light which is shining through it; not by looking upon it from without, in an external or reflected light. Cheever. NATURE-Power of. There was a boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs Across the watery vale, and shout again NATURE-Religion of. Wordsworth. There is religion in everything around usa calm and holy religion in the unbreathing things of nature, which man would do well to imitate. It is a meek and blessed influence, stealing in, as it were, unawares upon the heart; it comes quietly, and without excitement; it has no terror, no gloom in its approaches; it does not rouse up the passions; it is untrammelled by the creeds, and unshadowed by the superstitions of man; it is fresh from the hands of its Author, glowing from the immediate presence of the Great Spirit, which pervades and quickens it; it is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star; it is on the sailing cloud and in the invisible wind; it is among the hills and valleys of the earth, where the shrubless The true philosophy of nature is a religious philosophy-that is, a philosophy binding us to God. Nature rightly studied must disclose the Creator, but the sights which we see are according to the spirit that we bring to the investigation. Standing within a cathedral, I and looking through its stained and figured windows towards the light, we behold the forms and colours by the light. Standing outside, and gazing at the same windows, we see nothing but a blurred and indistinct enamelling. Thus the soul, standing within the great cathe-mountain-top pierces the thin atmosphere of dral of God's material world, and looking through it upward to the light, beholds the meaning of its forms and colours; but standing without, and studying nature in detail, not with reference to the light pouring through it from God, but for itself alone, there is nothing better seen than the mere material enamelling. eternal winter, or where the mighty forest fluctuates, before the strong wind, with its dark waves of green foliage; it is spread out, like a legible language, upon the broad face of the unsleeping ocean; it is the poetry of nature; it is this which uplifts the spirit within us, until it is strong enough to overlook the NATURE. shadows of our place of probation; which breaks, link after link, the chain that binds us to materiality; and which opens to our imagination a world of spiritual beauty and holiness. Ruskin. NATURE-Spirit of. And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy NATURE-Exquisite Subtlety of. Light passes from the sun to the earth, a space of ninety-five millions of miles, in eight minutes, and the beams of the smallest taper are visible at sea, in a dark night, for at least three miles so that the particles of light instantaneously fill a spherical space of six miles in diameter, or 1,130,976 cubical miles. Instances of the exquisite subtlety of nature are infinite. That so small a drop of ink in a pon should be drawn out into so many letters or lines, as we find it; that silver, gilt upon its external surface, should be drawn to such a vast length of gilded wire; that so very small a worm as that found in the skin should have a spirit, and a peculiar structure and organisation of different parts; that a little saffron should tinge a whole hogshead of water; that a little civet or musk should fill a large chamber with its odour; that such a great cloud of smoke should be raised from a little incense; that the exact differences of sounds should be every way conveyed through the air, and even through the holes and pores of wood and water, (though much weakened, indeed, in the passage), and be reflected with great distinctness and velocity; that light and colour should so suddenly pass through such a bulk of solid matter, as glass; or of a fluid, as water; yet so as at the same time to convey a great and exquisite variety of images, even though the light suffers refraction and reflection; that the loadstone should operate through all kinds of bodies, even the most compact and solid; and what is still more wonderful, that in all these cases the action of one thing does not greatly hinder the action of another, in a neutral or indifferent medium, such as the air is. Thus cold, heat, and magnetical virtues, all pass through the air at once, without obstructing one another, as if each of them When I look into my garden, there I see first a small spire look out of the earth, which in some months' time, grows into a stalk; then, after many days' expectation, branches forth into some leaves; at last appears the hope of a flower, which, ripened with many suns and showers, arises to its perfection, and at last puts forth its seed for a succeeding multiplication. If I look into my orchard, I see the wellitself after many years is bodied to a solid grafted scions yield at first a tender bud; stock, and under patience of many hard winters, spreads forth large arms; at last being grown to a meet age of vegetation: it begins to grace the spring with some fair blossoms, which falling off kindly, give way to a weak embryo of fruit; every day now adds something to the growth, till it attains in autumn its full maturity. The Great God of Heaven who can do all things in an instant, hath thought good to produce all the effects of natural agency, not without a due succession of time. Bishop Hall. NATURE-a Teacher of Truth. Nature never deceives us; the rocks, the mountains, the streams, always speak the same language; a shower of snow may hide the verdant woods in spring, a thunder-storm may render the blue limpid streams foul and turbulent; but these effects are rare and transient in a few hours, or at most in a few days, all the sources of beauty are renovated. And nature affords no continued trains of misfortunes and miseries, such as depend upon the constitution of humanity; no hopes for ever blighted in the bud, no beings, full of life, beauty, and promise, taken from us in the prime of youth. Her fruits are all balmy and sweet; she affords none of those blighted ones, so common in the life of man, and so like the fabled apples of the Dead Sea, fresh and beautiful to the sight, but when tasted, full of bitterness and ashes. Sir Humphry Davy. NATURE-Universality of. Unerring Nature still divinely bright, In some fair body thus th' informing soul And gladness come? Her skies are overcast, A flush the more to her full loveliness- Go down into your grave-no cloud will fling NATURE-Variety in. We see a beautiful and infinite variety everywhere presented to us in the works of nature, and man seeks for primary causes of this exuberant effect, but if he forget that First Great Cause on which all others depend, he is quickly surrounded by doubts and difficulties, and finds his reasoning degenerate into conjecture. We sometimes look on the effect, and discover the agent by which it was produced-the human mind is then too frequently satisfied. True philosophy would pursue the subject still further: and thus we should not stop short of that admiration of Divine Power, and humiliation of our own wisdom, which is becoming our present state of dependence-a dependence notwithstanding, under which all may so freely enjoy the boundless riches and beauty everywhere preMaund. sented to their contemplation. NATURE-Voices of. The happy birds that hymn their rapture in the ear of God. The summer wind that bringeth music over land and sea, Have each a voice that singeth this sweet song of songs to me. The world is full of beauty, like other worlds above. And if we do our duty it might be full of love. Massey. NATURE AND ART. Formerly, it was the fashion to preach the natural; now it is the ideal. People too often forget that these things are profoundly compatible; that, in a beautiful work of imagination, the natural should be ideal, and the ideal natural. A. W. Von Schlegel. The Gothic church plainly originated in a rude adaptation of the forest-trees, with all their boughs, to a festal or solemn arcade, as the bands about the cleft pillars still indicate the green withes that tied them. No one can walk in a road cut through pine-woods without of the grove, especially in winter, when the being struck with the architectural appearance of the Saxons. bareness of all other trees shows the low arch In the woods, on a winter afternoon, one will see as readily the origin of the stained-glass window, with which the | Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colours of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest; nor can any lover of nature enter the old piles of Oxford and the English cathedrals, without feeling that the forest overpowered the mind of the builder, and that his chisel, his saw, and plane, still reproduced its forms, its spikes of flowers, its locust, its pine, its oak, its fir, its spruce. The Gothic cathedral is a blossoming in stone, subdued by the insatiable demand of harmony in man. The mountain of granite blooms into an eternal flower, with the lightness and delicate finish as well as the aërial proportions and perspective of vegetable beauty. Emerson. NATURE AND REVELATION The works of nature, and the works of revelation, display religion to mankind in cha The leaf-tongues of the forest, the flower-lips racters so large and visible, that those who of the sod, are not quite blind may in them see and read NECESSARY-wrong Application of the NEGOCIATION-Caution in. Term. It is better to sound a person with whom one deals afar off, than to fall upon the point at first. Bacon The word "necessary" is miserably applied. It disordereth families, and overturneth government, by being so abused. Remember that children and fools want everything NEGOCIATION-Use of the right Men because they want judgment to distinguish ; and therefore there is no stronger evidence of a crazy understanding than the making too large a catalogue of things necessary. NECESSARY-Things. Lord Hallifax. Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight Beyond the bliss of dreams. Millon. in. In negociating use such persons as are fit for the matter, as bold men for expostulation, fair-spoken men for persuasion, crafty men for enquiry and observation, and forward and absurd men for business that doth not well Also use such as have been lucky and prevailed before, for that breeds confidence. Ibid. bear out itself. NERVES-Sympathy of the. When the nerves, from long habit, have been accustomed to transmit their messages from distinct parts, and are suddenly cut off from them, they still retain along their trunks the sympathetic or sensational actions. Thus, a man who has had a leg amputated will feel distinctly along the course of the trunk of the nerve sensations from toes which no longer exist. The mind also is influenced by this; and frequently this peculiar direct nervous action can only be allayed by that which is Degative and reflex. A curious instance occurred 1 within my own experience. An old sailor suf- NEWS-Sensations caused by. fered much from this; he retained his diseased I saw a sweating weaver in his shirt, foot too long, but at last consented to amputa- Run puffing, with his shuttle in his hand, tion. I knew him only with a wooden leg. To ask a neighbour butcher of the news, When he had his nervous pains, he always Who, with his knife in's mouth, abruptly tells called for hot water, into which he put his Orsino's death, yes, and his daughter's too. wooden stump. If told of his folly in sup- Then comes a tailor, with his hair tuck'd back posing that such a proceeding could do any Behind his ears, on tiptoes, in his slippers, good, he would become enraged, and his And cries in haste, "The Duke of Grandia's paroxysm of pain would increase, but if gratimurder'd !" fied he took things easy, and the process actually appeared to do him good, though all must know there could be no real benefit. Still, here is the effect of mind over matter. Ridge. NERVOUSNESS-Influence of. So delicate is the fine tracery of the nervous structure, that the damage of a single fibre or a set of fibres destroys the unity of the whole. It is like a grand orchestra, in which one in strument alone out of time or tune disturbs the harmony of the rest, and the finest musical composition in the world is entirely spoiled by its discord. And this serious evil is apparent, not only in old age, but even in the young, in whom the disastrous consequences of injury to the brain, &c., are far more important both to themselves and to the world. NEWS-II. Dr. Forbes Winslow. NEWS-Sensations caused by. And when they talk of him they shake their And whisper one another in the ear; And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer's wrist; Then spits upon his iron, casts up his eyes, NEWSMONGER-Character of a. Lee. A newsmonger is a retailer of rumour, that takes up upon trust, and sells as cheap as he buys. He deals in a commodity that will not keep; for if it be not fresh, it lies upon his hands, and will yield nothing. True or false, it is all one to him; for novelty being the grace of both, a truth grows stale as soon as a lie and as a slight suit will last as well as a better while the fashion holds, a lie serves as well as truth till new ones come up. He is little concerned whether it be good or bad, for that does not make it more or less news; and best, because it is said to come soonest; for if there be any difference, he loves the bad he would willingly bear his share in any public calamity to have the pleasure of hearing and telling it. He tells news, as men do money, with his fingers; for he assures them it comes from very good hands. The whole business of his life is like that of a spaniel, to fetch and carry news; and when he does it well, he is clapped on the back, and fed for it; for he does not take to it altogether like a gentleman, for his pleasure; but when he lights on a considerable parcel of news, he knows where to put it off for a dinner, and quarter himself upon it, until he has eaten it out; and by this means he drives a trade, by retrieving the first news to truck it for the first meat in season; and, like the old Roman luxury, ransacks all seas and lands to please his palate. Butler. NEWSPAPERS- First Establishment of. Newspapers were first invented by a French physician, who, finding his visits welcome whenever he brought any news or gossip, applied to Cardinal Richelieu for a patent to publish the Paris Gazette, in 1622. Chambers. NEWSPAPERS-Importance of. They are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time. To show virtue her own feature, |