childhood, as it were, of our being, where our powers and faculties are beginning to expand,-where our opening knowledge is necessarily imperfect, and our enjoyments limited. But this "mortal shall put on immortality," and "when that which is perfect shall come, that which is in part shall be done away." "When I was a child," says an apostle, following out this illustration, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am known."*

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There is something exceedingly sublime and glorious in this view of the eternal world. There the film which obscures our vision shall fall from our eyes: Everything shall appear in its true light and due proportions. We shall obtain a nearer and clearer view of all that is noble, and excellent, and interesting in the universe,-of Him especially who is the Author of all, and of Him who is the Redeemer of our souls.

Let us consider this subject a little more particularly. Reason is the faculty which distinguishes man from the lower animals; but, in many respects, even in him, it is extremely limited and defective. By cultivation, indeed, it expands, and becomes more vigorous; but that very expansion only enables it to see more clearly the immeasurable distance at which it is placed from perfection; that very vigour, repressed as it is, only leads to the discovery, that any attempt to attain perfection in our present state, is utterly hopeless.

The greatest philosopher the world ever saw,—he whose rational powers penetrated further into the mysteries of nature, and whose gifted eye traced the hand of God more extensively in his works than any human being had ever done before,-expressed on his death-bed an opinion of the emptiness of his own attainments, which may well be extended to all that are human,

* 1 Cor. xiii. 11, 12.

in these remarkable words, "It appears to me as if I had all my life long been amusing myself like a child, in gathering a few useless pebbles and shells on the shore, while a boundless ocean lay unexplored before me. On that ocean I am now about to embark: Amidst the discoveries of that untried voyage, how utterly inadequate must my present knowledge appear.”

Indeed, even if our mental powers were much stronger and more efficient than they actually are, we are not placed in circumstances capable of calling them into full exercise, or of affording them complete gratification. We cannot leave the shore, and have only pebbles and shells to gather. While we remain here there are many things of the greatest importance which it is impossible for the acutest genius to unravel, or the highest human faculties to understand. I do not now speak of the natural objects with which we are surrounded, and yet mystery is inscribed on them all; but I particularly allude to the nature of God, and the operations of his Providence. It were delightful and ennobling to feed our souls with a knowledge of the divine perfections, but it is too vast for our feeble grasp," it is high we cannot attain unto it." The very conception of an infinite, and eternal, and self-existent Being, overpowers our faculties, and shows the mind its own littleness. It were a glorious privilege to trace God in his works, and to behold his moral attributes, filling the world with perfection and happiness. But in such an employment we are, at every step, discouraged by marks of apparent disorder: Our ears are appalled with sounds of sorrow and suffering,—our eyes are horrified by scenes of guilt and madness, of desolation and death. Even revealed religion gives us but a partial relief from these horrors: While it affords us the assurance that all will be well, it leaves us still in a land of darkness, and directs us to another world for light, and knowledge, and intellectual enjoyment.

It is in a future state alone that our reason shall be sufficiently enlarged to comprehend, and sufficiently in

structed to enjoy, the attributes of God, and the operations of his providence. In the world of spirits, our views shall be more accurate, our intellect more vigorous, our knowledge more extensive. The necessities of this mortal life shall no longer distract, nor its fleeting pleasures allure. No more pain, nor languor, nor bodily decay shall intervene to interrupt the contemplation of divine things. The soul, emerging from its corporeal prison, shall no longer see and feel through the medium of the senses. It shall perceive more clearly, and know more certainly. Rejoicing in its new being, it shall dive into the mysteries of nature, and remove the obscurities which perplexed, the difficulties which harassed, and the terrors which beset its earthly career. Then shall we experience the unspeakable pleasure arising from the consciousness of enlarging faculties, and from a full perception of Divine wisdom and glory. In one word, we shall know even as we are known."

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Turning from the rational to the moral faculties of man, we shall find equal cause to anticipate with delight the prospect of an eternal world. It has been the complaint of devout men, in every age, that the heart is prone to wickedness,—that temptations betray it,—that passions subdue it,-that evil communications corrupt it, -that unrestrained indulgence weakens, and blinds, and brutalizes it: Yet there is nothing more certain than that the pleasures of a good conscience form the highest of all enjoyments, and although these pleasures are not fully developed amidst the corruptions of the world, yet we are assured that they shall form the chief happiness of the celestial state.

Some good qualities of the heart, indeed, are only exercised in a state of imperfection and suffering. The personal virtues of fortitude, patience, and resignation, for example, are of this nature, as well as the social affections of sympathy and compassion. But there are other excellencies which belong, not exclusively indeed, but peculiarly, to a better world. Purity and holiness,

goodness and truth, while they are debased by imperfection among the children of earth, adorn with untarnished loveliness the inhabitant of heaven. The exercise of these graces in a future state must be unspeakably delightful. If, even in this world, where they are alloyed with so much imperfection and guilt, they attract universal admiration, and afford the noblest gratification of which the heart is susceptible, what must be their fruit in heaven, where they are without sin and remorse, where they raise man to the dignity of angels, and cause him to resemble Him who is the personification of all human perfection,—nay, to partake of the attributes, and receive an emanation from the happiness, of the Eternal himself!

EIGHTH WEEK-MONDAY.

CLOTHING. THE COTTON MANUFACTURE-ITS BRITISH HISTORY CONTINUED-INTRODUCTION OF STEAM POWER.

THE application of the powers of steam to the purposes of manufacture was a very peculiar and important step in the progress of the art; and it is remarkable, that the patent which secured to the ingenious improver of the steam-engine the profits of his ingenuity, was taken out in the very same year as that which appropriated to Arkwright the advantages of his invention in the spinning machine. So simultaneous was the impulse which called forth talents, that, though exerted in very different departments, were destined to combine their powers in perfecting a system which was so rapidly to advance the prosperity of this highly favoured island.

Amazing as was the progress which had taken place in the cotton manufacture prior to 1790, it would soon have found a check upon its further extension, if a

power more efficient than water had not been discovered to move its machinery. The building of mills in Lancashire must have ceased, when all the available fall of the streams had been appropriated. The manufacture might indeed have spread to other counties, as it has done to some extent; but it could not have flourished in any district, where coal, as well as water, was not to be found; and the diffusion of the mills over a wide space would have been unfavourable to the division of labour, the perfection of machine-making, and the cheapness of conveyance. The improvement of the steamengine, happily supplied the desired power; which, though not an invention of that age, was then first made of great and extensive utility, by the genius of James Watt.

The first thought of employing the expansive force of steam as a mechanical power, is believed to have been entertained by Solomon de Caus, engineer to Louis XIII., who proposed the raising of water by steam, as a philosophical principle, in a book written in 1615. In 1630, Charles I. granted a patent to David Ramsaye, a groom of the Privy Chamber, for nine articles of invention, two of which seem to indicate the origin of the steam-engine, viz. “To raise water from low pits by fire," and "To raise water from low places, and mines, and coalpits, by a new way never yet in use.' These facts deprive the Marquis of Worcester of the honour, generally ascribed to him, of having first applied steam as a mechanical power. In the "Century of Inventions,” published by that eccentric nobleman in 1663, there is the most distinct statement of the power of steam, which he had proved by its bursting a cannon, and had applied to the producing of fountains ejected forty feet high. The first person who constructed a machine, in which steam was successfully turned to purposes of usefulness, was Captain Savery, who obtained a patent on 25th July, 1698, for his invention. This engine, though very * Rymer's Fœdera, vol. xix. p. 139.