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THE CHRISTIAN INDEX,
JESSE MERCER, Editor.
■OKaiasnsso
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DOCIRmM.
h'rom the Religious Herald.
Predet i nat ion.
Dear Brother Sands, —A friend of mine
said to me—“Some body is writing on
Predestination in the Herald, and this ex
pression is in the piece : “ Heaven with all
its awful horrors!” 1 looked, and am
sorrySb find it even so! It was w ritten,
“Heaven with all its ineffable delights,and
hell with all its awful horrors.” This tri
fling blunder led me to cast my eye over
the whole, and I find ‘■'■some dogmatical”
for sour — presence mid agency” for pre
science. I am not so much concerned
about such errata as the first ; but the
others, and such as those, being less ob
vious, I should rather such occur as seldom
as may be consistent with the attention of
your compositor and reader. I cannot
read the numbers: furnishing them is
enough for trie.
Let us attend to the inspired writers on
this subject. The name of God is I AM ;
he is “tho Father of Spirits, communica
ting to all, and receiving from none: with
out variableness or shadow of turning, the
same yesterday, to-day, and forever: a
God filling heaven and earth : whom the
heaven of heavens cannot contain: from
everlasting to everlasting he is God ; the
fountain of life, he only having immortali
ty: to whom belongeth power, and with
him nothing is impossible : a God of knowl
edge, by whom actions are weighed, whose
understanding is infinite: not a word in
“twr tOOgUfrlidt-ho- ktimwfUt it-altogui l 'ol:
he unierstandeth our thoughts afar off:—
hell is naked before him, and,destruction
without a covering; how much more then
the hearts ofithe children of men?” His
wisdom is manifold, for he is “ the only
wise God, to him belongeth power, with
him is strength and wisdom, the deceived
and the deceiver are his; he worketh all
things according to the counsel id his own
will. He ctoetli according to his will in
the armies of heaven, and among the in
habitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand, or say unto him what doest thou ?
God is love, good to all, rich in mercy,
gracious to whom he will be gracious,
shewing mercy to thousands, abundant in
goodness and truth, patient towards ail
men, ready to pardon, slow to anger, of
great kindness, waiting to be gracious.—
His name is holy,” his nature happy, “ his
works are truth, his ways judgement, with
out iniquity, just and right is he.” Ho can
not deceive, he cannot lie deceived ; “the
perfection of beauty, the first, the last, the
King of kings, higher than the highest,”
before all, above all, beyond all, pervading
all, upholding all; in- the most sublime of
all senses, all in all.
Dispute we the prescience, resist we the
will, doubt we the goodness, suspect we
the equity of God? Contcmprble atom,
speaking great words against the most
hi"h! “Get thee into the clefts of the
ricks, into the tops of the ragged rocks,
hide thee in the caves of the earth, for fear
of the Lord, and for the glory of his majes
ty;” or rather “stand up and bless the
Lord your God forever and ever, who is
exalted above all blessing and praise:
jkjhine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the
HLver, and the glory, and the victory, and
jme majesty* foil* all that is in the heaven
and in the earth is thine; thine is the king
dom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head
above all; both riches and honor come of
thee and thou reignest over all, and in i Line
Kand is power and might, and in thine hand
it is to make great, and to give strength
unto all; now therefore, O our God, we
thank thee and praise thy glorious name.”
“ What shall I say of the prescience of
God?” (says Tertull’ian,) “it has as many
proofs as there are prophets.” Do the
prophets pretend to deny the prescience of
God? What is all the Old Testament al
most but a comment on this subject? Did
the apostles deny prescience? Without it,
all their doctrines fall to the ground ; for
thev declare “none other things than those
which Moses gnd the prophets did say
should come.” Was prescience with them,
naked prescience, a bare uninfluential in
spection? They ascribe to his counsel a
hand determining bejore whatsoever should
be done. Did they hold this influence in
jurious to the freedom of the will ? Did
they extend it to a length destructive ofthe
nature of virtue and vice? They said
that God had foreknown, and his cnunsel
determined the crucifixion of Christ, yet
“ that he was by wicked hands crucified
and slain;” that “ the promise was to as
many as God should call; yet with many
AID BAPTIST MSCELLAM.
other words testified and exhorted the peo
ple, saying, save yourselves from this un
toward generation.”
And here we halt, as arrived at the
point of thinking beyond which it is folly
and profanity to proceed; to stop short of
this is to rest beneath what reason can at
tain, and to proceed is to insult reason by
forcing her to dictate like a Delphic proph
etess, distorted, dishevelled, and raving
wild, on a suhjecl.beyond her comprehen
sion. ihe piesciemX, tiic iove, the uni
versal equity of God, and the freedom of
man, are alike clearly revealed in the Scrip
ture; to deny either, is to stop short of re
vealed truths by unbelief; to three Scrip
ture; to explain one to the injury of ano
ther, is to atlront revelation by an enthusi
asm bordering on blasphemy. “ Two
truths,” says Farmer, “may be certain,
and worthy of all acceptation, though we
can neither see their connection, ijpr dis
cover any way how to make them agree?”
thus Scripture remarked Christ is David's
son — how is he then his Lord ? The
Messiah was prophesied of as the most
mean and the most august, grand enougli
to he called the everlasting Father ; mean
enough to be called n worm and no man.
Abraham was obliged to submit to the sa
crifice of Isaac, and yet was persuaded he
should be the father of many nations ;
and he accounted for the harmony of both
by the power of God operating a resurrec
tion, of which lie had never seen an in
stance nor heard an account. The proph
et Jeremiah fold Zedekiah king of Judah,
that lie should be taken by Nebuchadnez
zar, and, headds, “ thine eyes shall behold
the eyes of the king of Babylon, yet rhou
shalt not die by the sword, but thou shalt
die in peace, and with the burning's of thy
fathers, the former kings, which were be
fore thee, so that they burn odours for thee,
anil they will lament thee, saying, Ah
Lord! for I have pronounced the word
saith the Lord.” What says Ezekiel? “1
will tiring Zedekiah to Babylon, yet shall
he not see it, though he shall die there.—
What but the events could‘explain predic
tions seemingly so contradictory? Who
can conciliate the supreme, ineffable good
ness of God, with the-permission of sin; or
comprehend how Providence influences
evil, without producing or approving it?
Thus stands the counsel of God and the li
berty of man; God from eternity deter
mining all, yet man never losing that pow
er over his actions which is absolutely ne
cessary to his being an accountable crea
ture, the subject of praise or blame, reward
or punishment. In such cases we are first
to examine whether the two propositions in
question, are both clearly revealed. Se
condly, we should give all diligence to
make them agree. If both are true, and
yet we cannot harmonize them, what must
we do? Must we be’ stupid, and shut our
eyes, (this can never be said ofthe readers
ofthe Herald, they are all most happily
familiar with the Old and New Testa
ments,) or lax, and abandon our principles?
No! never, never! Mo will hold on to
baptism and strict communion, though wo
should lie obliged to commit some minor
matters to the safe custody of the Metho
dists. Christian reader! we will never
recommend a blind faith on the one hand,
or the renunciation of a well attested reli
gion on the other, rather let me say, I am
convinced by many examples, that two
truths may be certain, though they may
seem opposite: of this kind, doubtless, are
the truths in question. My duty is not in
all respects to comprehend and conciliate
revealed truths, but to believe them, and
regulate my conduct thereby*.
There are hut two possible ways of be
ing satisfied on this article. One islocom
prehend fully and perfectly the combina
tions and arrangements of God’s decrees,
and by comparing them with the powers of
tho human mind to perceive they do not
clash: this way is inaccessible to us in this
state. The other is, to examine the ora
cles of God, anil sit down by their deci
sions. This we have done, and have re
marked the necessity of submitting our in
telligence to the decision of an inlallible
bein'*. Let us pause for the present; let
us give God his glory, man his liberty,
scripture its dignity, and let us look around
us and see whether we are irj the inextri
cable wilds of mystic theology, or in the
realms of common sense. It is to be fear
ed that some reader may be growing impa
tient, and ready to exclaim —“ Come, come
go ahead!” But the morel try to pene
irate this profound mystery, the more I am
bewildered —the reason is plain: 1 infer
consequences from a subject unknown;
and here my feeble reason is lost. It is
not, therefore, strange that we go on slow
ly, but rather that we move at all is the
wonder, especially while the phrophet is
saying, “the Egyptians shall help in vain,
and to no purpose: therefore have I cried
concerning this, their strength is to sit
still.” 1 will not then puzzle myself about
Explaining the decrees; 1 believe they
surpass my conception in. my present con
fined state, and the more I consult my na
ture, the plainer do I perceive the proprie
ty of such a pause, and the absolute neces
sity of quitting speculation and applying to
WASHINGTON, (Ga.) TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 93, 1884.
praotice. Isl examine my body, I perceive
other qodies around exciting such and such
sensations, some pleasant some painful.—
Someone has fixed unutterable laws of
nature, all which are as independent on mo
as the motion ofthe planets. It* is not in
my power to determine the sensations
which fire shall produce on my body.-; nor
have I suy authority over the croaking of
the toad, or the melody ofthe nightingale:
the fragrant hotiey-suckle, the tkrung
acented tnnkuv. Hiu Uimtf Nranirmr 1* ttJC~
delicious peach, the blushing rose, the
glowing sunflower; all these defy my
power, all reign in absolute monarchy, in
dependent on every creature; m vain I
pretend to produce their effects on me.—
But all confined and imprisoned as I am,
by surrounding Deity, is my liberty gone ?
No, surely: this is my power—l consider
my own experience, 1 avail myself of other
people’s, and 1 soon learn that fire at such
a distance excites a pleasant,and uta near
er approach a painful sensation ; my place
1 perceive is to pause at a right station. It
is true, when 1 look at a meadow in Spring,
1 cannot choose whether 1 will see it green,
or blue, or yellow : t very spire ofthe her
bage is already painted ; an unalterable
law determines the ellects which shall be
produced on me; hut all environed with na
ture’s laws as I am, 1 cannot tell which
colors, which forms, which scents, will
always produce pleasant, and which pain
ful sensations in me, and 1 stock my gar
den accordingly. This creative predesti
nation is no way inconsistent with God’s
glory or my happiness; lie has determin
ed and lam pleased. Thus every object
of thought, every creature, every event,
circumstance, the songs of the aspiring
lark, the moans of an expiring toad, the
hymns of an urchangel, and the blasphe
mies of evil spirits, the love of a benefac
tor,the treachery ofa betrayer,the sympathy
ofa protector, and the cruelty ofa murder
er, alike conduct my intelligence to the
Great Supreme, in whose inexpressible
glories lam sublimely lost. Soothed and
shocked, stilled and startled, elated and en
gulphed, the certain effects of objects iu
view, effects that open and none can. .shut,
shut and none can open, calmly direct the
mind to the Great First Cause. His acts
of benevolence excite my love, his inflexi
ble justice alarms my fear; I revere his
grandeur, dread his anger, melt under his
compassion, inflame at his love ; and, by a
happy experience, find every operation of
my mind capable of full play on the inex
haustibk* glories of my God. The laws of
Providence, like the laws of Nature, are
fixed, determined, certain. Mighty is the
union of temperance and health, industry
and plenty, intemperance and disease, in
dolence and scarcity; and though some
times in these as in till things else, God
counteracts, and shews his power, yet not
the extraordinary appearances, but the fix
ed, known, ordinary laws of Providence
are our rules. If we will cultivate our
lands, vve have no power to make them
barren; cultivation and fruitfulness go to
gether—we open the mouth of the earth,
and she drinketh water of the rain from
heaven. If we do but half cultivate, wc
shall have but half the quantity of fruits;
and if we abandon them to nature, their
productions will be comparatively useless,
if not hurtful; yet the law of Providence
abounds with goodness; some slow growths
shall spring up, God himself will be the
husbandman, providing for another
ation : he will rain upon the wilderness
wherein is no man, and will plant in the
desert, the cedcr, the myrtle, the fir tree,
the pine, and the box together. By tem
perance, industry,chastity, prudence, equi
ty, fortitude, we find little states have be
come mighty empires; but whoever saw a
people rise to empire, by luxury or indo
lence, effeminancy or barbarity? On the
contrary, all the advantages gained by the
former virtues, when abused to vicious pur
poses, dissolve the community they once
united, and invigorated, and, as if every
thing was impregnated with a moral sense,
every* thing undertakes the tuition of man
kind. From the simple hoeing round a
cabbage, to the solemn faith of treaties,
effects flow from causes, causes from laws,
or what is the same, from the nature of
things. O glorious and inviolable decree!
watching and warning thy sons. Thou
hast not spolcen in secret, in a dark place
of the earth ; thou hast not said to the seed
of Jacob seek ye me in vain! —Dost thou
destroy our liberty ? The Lord hears the
heavens, and they hear the earth, and
the earth hears the corn, and the wine,
and the oil, and they hear the lisping
of the child Jezrccl. Perhaps I may
have harboured the wish that 1 had been
born a prince, and have reigned a king.—
But why should I have preferred this to
another station? Because through inat
tention 1 have associated ideas which in
deed have no relation at all. I have ima
gined greatness as the prejudices of some
estimate it, to be in union with happiness;
whereas God who seelh not as man seeth,
who knows that—not greatness and hap
piness, but goodness and happiness are as
sociates, has providentially cast me in a
retired station. My dominion extends ov-
eiflhree acres, and I am happier than a
prince, no neighboring monarch disputes,
my title, nor harrasses my frontiers. My
frugal and industrious subjects form regu
lar Swell into colonies, are
quietly governed by their own laws, yet
neither -jejpH against God’s nor mine;
they, hadjfv in superior protection, the
crown rich yv!i their productions
“ Wlrdiitniog ill.
in their waxen cells,
” r ■*■*•-!%!i'7m7public ertres.”
Thompson's Autumn.
Do princes taste what I taste when sea
ted on a stump, my domestics bask in my
presence? When my gentle cow, my
willing horse, my faithful dog, my flut
tering prating poultry surround my throq
watch my emotions, and by a thmjsarnP
acts of unsuspected loyalty, telfinejAt I
am in league with the stones of the. ;
and the beasts of the field are at peace
with me. —Without Raphael’s or Angel’s
visitation, supremely delighted with grand
displays ofa great master.
“Infinite numbers, delicacies, smells,
“With hues on hues, expression cannot paint,
“The breath us nature & her endless bloom.”
Thompson's Spring.
Not Handel, with all his concords, ■'Pita,
furnish such a symphony as
musicians, heavenly pensioners, twitref
on the house-top, thrill in the hushes, echo
in the grove —melody, harmony all the
day long. We go out with joy, f we arc
led forth with peace; the mountains and
the hills break forth into singing, and
all the trees of the field clap their hands.
O! how infinitely preferable to the world,
its pomp, its pleasure, is the unpolluted
joy of that still, small voice, that walkcth
in the garden in the cool of the day; that
wraps the face in a mantle, expands the
soul in attention, and whispers “there is
none like tho God ofJeshjurun, who lideth
upon the heaven in thy help, and iu
his excellency on the sky. The eternal
God is thy refuge, and underneath thee
are everlasting arms. Israel shall dwell
in safety alone, tho fountain of Jacob shall
be upon a land of corn and wine; nlso his
heavens shall drop down dew. Happy
Tm-ttnrorrt&*ranr,’ wU n-Wre iirni itiet;,
O the Lord!”
Proviuential Predestination, unal
terable as the fixed stars, displays the Al
mighty God, deprives me ol no real good,
but fills my heart with food and gladness ;
nor do vve scruple to affirm, that Provi
dence distributes happiness much more
equally than many people, intombed in
prejudices, imagine. So wisely did tho
Stoics judge, that they have left this re
markable character of their Summe sapi
ens: “That he can never be disappointed,
because whoever he secs necessary for
him, he makes it his choice.” Religion,
like creation and providence, lias unalter
able laws, |and though these laws, as
well as the? laws of creation and provi
dence, may lie obscured by our prejudices,
or may be, in many cases, beyond our
capacities, yet. they never can ho inconsis
tent with the/glorious perfections of Deity-
I>et us proceed to consider the third
branch of Election, or
the choice cif men to eternal happiness.
Whether; God, by an eternal appoint
ment, has ordained some men to be holy
here, and happy hereafter, is the proper
question ?
We shall bo ready for it in proper time,
if you think what has been said has been
read beyond the printing office. If it he
proper to proceed, we shall not only ask,
whether God foresaw the holiness and
happiness jaf some men, but also whether
he predetermined, it should come to pass?
Scripture answersin the affirmative! This
is our position, Mr. Herald. May God
save you! readers from Arminianism.
E ITER A R A.
I.:;Tk i;n I KtU! GERMANY.
The letter which follows is another of the se
ries written by Prof. Sears to the Editor of
the Aciv-York Baptist Register. The read
er will find it highly descriptive.
A Sea Voyage.
We sailed from New York on the 13th
of July, after sailing the whole day leis
urely surveying the scenery of New York
Bay, we came about sunset to tho narrow
passage which leads to the ocean. Here
I confess I felt some emotion in- sighing
farewell to my native land, and in commit
ting myself to anew and untried clement.
Tho next morning I awoke, I found my
self encompassed with dark waters, and
upon a rolling sea. In order to avoid the
islands of ice ‘from the Gulf of St. Law
rence which in the months of May and June
destroyed so many English vessels, our
course was directed due east until we had
passed the banks of Newfoundland. We
were soon in the Gulf Stream, where the
water was of a deeper hue, the air warm’
and misty, and the Gulf weed floating all
around us.
A thunder Storm on the Ocean.
On the evening of the 18th, l witnessed
the grandeur of a thunderstorm at sea. —
The mists had been gathering during the
day, and gentle showers had frequently
sprinkled our deck. But now every thing
wore a gloomy and even terrific aspect.
The clouds had condensed into blackness ;
the sea was awfully dark, save here and
there the white appearance of a breaking
surge; and a faint circle of light marked
the boundaries ofthe heavensand theocean.
The wind gradually rose until it seemed
to le the ruling power. The waves were
dashing, the ship plunging, and a tempest
was upon üb. -Tt-was between the hours
of eight and nine in thewnirtg.’ On'PacTf
side of the ship the foaming waves rolled
back glittering with phosphoric light and
presenting the appearance of a magnificent
case of jewelry. We had for a long time
been hearing the distant thunder, and see
ding the lightning gleam like the faint flash
es ofa summer’s evening. But now “heav
en’s loudest artillery” began to play around
us. Instantly the ocean was covered with
a mantle of liquid fire, and then we heard
again the powerful voice of God upon the
waters. Now the blackness of darkness
held a momentary sway, and again the
waters were overspread with a brightness
which the eye could not endure. Never
before did I so deeply and sensibly feel
the emotions of sublimity.
’ A Water Spout.
Early the next morning we passed very
near a large water-spout described by the
mate tlien;on watch as a foaming eddy nbotrt
100 feet in diameter, and as being lostat the
height of a few feet in the mist of the over
hanging cloud. Afterwards I frequently
had the pleasure of seeing this phenome
non. When at a considerable distance
from it we could see only its upper part
and the spray upon the surface of the wa
ter ; farther still, only the part near the
cloud. We saw o#e form and break. At
first a black elould sent down from its
lower edge a small projection, which was
gradually lowered till at last it resembled
an inverted trunk of an immense forest tree.
In clear weather it hus frequently the ap
pearance of those large, pencils of light
which we so often see piercing through a
c(oud.
The Nautilus, fyc.
Our minds were sometimes egrecably
diverted with the innumerable animated be
ings that sport on “this groat wide sea”—tho
nautilus, or Portuguese man of war, adroit
ly trimming his sail to every breeze, and
the dolphin, which for beauty may be call
ed the pride of the ocean, The latter fre
quently carne along the side of our ship,
showing their elegant slender form, and
their ocean robe of beautiful green. An
on's entrance into Corinth on the back of
a dolphin, according to the grave account
ofthe father of history, could not, I think,
have been very disagreeable. We prepar
ed same hooks with a bait, which these
beautiful creatures foolishly took to be “in
usum delphini,” and the consequence was
that they were somewhat suddenly torn
from their element and put into the frying
pan.
Every change of the aspect of things at
sea, presents some new object of interest.
When all .is calm and still, we seem to be
in (airy regions Now the moon stands
like an angel of mercy and looks softly and
divinely upon the face ofthe waters; now
all “the starry host” of heaven paint their
beautious images on the sea ; again the ro
sy hues of the morning blush with unwon
ted charm upon the silvery wave beneath
them.
The Setting Sun at. Sea.
But a sunset at sea, when the sky is cloud
less, is a scene which yields to none in point
of touching beauty. A firey orb descends
to the horizon with increasing magnitude
and splendor, dips his lower limb in Ihe
blue wave, gazes upon the wide expanse
upon which beseems to stand, and upon
the still wider one above him, and then cov
ering the whole scene with his own radi
ant glory, lavs him down to rest in his
ocean bed. If the sweet bard of Israel had
been contemplating the sea between the
Azores and the European const at the time
we were there, instead ofthe Mediteranean,
he could not have used language more ap
propriate and descriptive than the words,
“there go the ships ; there is that leviathan
whom thou hast made to plav therein.”
These “monsters of the deep,” of which we
saw an unusual number, sometimes show
ed their huge backs near our vessel, and
sometimes several were seen at a distance,
tit rowing up immense columns of water.
The first we saw was white. Here wc had
contrary winds for about three weeks and
consequently navigated this part of the
ocean quite as much as we wished. Du
ring this period we often heard the stento
rian cry trumpeted in our ears, “Where are
you from? Where are you bound to?
What is your latitude? What is your lon
gitude? How many days are you out ?”
The practice of speaking vessels, is not
only a matter of naval courtesy, but of
public utility, inasmuch as it contributes
not a little to the stock of ship news. We
frequently crossed the wake of the great
lines of emigration fronrLiverpool to Que
bec, from Bremen to Baltimore, and from
Hamburg to New York, and how greedily
would these freights of starvelings gaze at
a vessel that chanced to fall in their way !
Yol. a. No. 38.
English Channel.
On the 16th of Aug. every thing betoken
ed our near approach to the English Chan
nel. The sea was no longer of a deep
glossy blue, but appeared more green and
brown ; the waves rose high under light
winds, thereby indicating that we had reach
ed soundings; an abundance of sea-grass
was floating around us; multitudes of
ships from sea were converging to this
point, some hoisting their colors to speak
irere near, in o;’3Br Ktr ton .pa i tr
reckonings, others throwing the lead to as
certain their position by the depth of the
water and by the quality of the earth bro’t
up. On the evening of the 17th, about 10
o’clock, the lights were seen shining from
Ushant; and the next morning we were
floating on the smooth waters of’ the chan
nel. Nothing can exceed the tranquil
beauty of that Sabbath morning. We
seemed to be sailing in the mouth ofa broad
river, whose banks the eve could not reach.
The waterry plain smiled like a lake; the
horizi n which boun led our vision, was dis
tinctly marked, and the air sweet and re
freshing. A thin veil of white net-work
cloud was drawn over the deep blue sky ;
and around us the canvass of every clime
was catching the gentle breeze. The
noise of business was hushed ; the sailors
were taking their repose, and nothing was
to be heard but the rippling of the waves.
Upon this lovely scene the sun looked be
nignantly down, asthough'he were a deity
pleased with his works. How firmly did
this harmonize with the moral features of
the Christian Sabbath ! It seemed as if
nature had not yet forgotten that this was
the morning when her Lord arose. As
the Northern const of France is lined with
roofs of rocks all the way from Ushant to
Guernsey and Jersey Islands, navigators,
when passing through the channel, com
monly sail directly under the English
coast. The various points of land be
tween the island of Scicily and the Straits
of Dover, though of some scare! y the names
are known to the general reader, are very
familiar to the sailor. As every one may
not be favored with geographical instruc
tions from the lips of a seaman, 1 will here
hi.-i rt somb oT the notes which I took down.
As we color the channel from the Atlan
tic, wc first pass Land's End, from which
it is 20 geographical miles to Lizard’s
Point; 65 farther to Slant Point; 50 to
Portland Bill; 17 to St. Alban’s Head ;18
to the Needles; 17 to Duiraose, (the Isle
of Wight lying principally between the
two last, is 20 geographical miles) ; 20 to
the Owens ; 37 to Beachy Head ; 28 to
Dungc Ness ; and 18 to Dover, making in
all 310 miles, though the direct course is
but 270. The western part of the channel
is much the deepest. The soundings ex
tend into the Atlantic about 170 miles
west of Scicily. At first the average depth
of the water is about 90 fathoms ; at the
rnouth of the channel from 50 to 60 ; be
tween Lizard’s Point and Stant Point, from
(IQ to 50 l tiP.i uuaaxx .SiuxxAi Point n.ni iia'JTC,
generally from 30 to 40 ; between Havre
and the Straits of Dover, from 20 to 30.
So also in all the North Sea, especially to
wards the coasts, the water is very shal
low. In sailing through the channel one
would not easily suppose with the ancients
that Scicily was the centre ( umbilicus ) of
the earth. On the contrary ho would be
lieve that he was not far from that spot. —
He would see this na#ow strait crowded
with the shipping of Europe, and his bo
som would swell with emotion as bethought
of the physical and intellectual power that
encompassed him. Iu Portsmouth, Dover
and the Downs, in Havre, Cherburg and
Brest, he would recognize indications of
the strength of two great nations, “dives
opum sludiisque as[trriina belli ;” the one
the teacher of the world in moral silence,
the other in natural ; his mind would re
vert to London, to Paris, the two lobes of
the heart by which the world is animated,
whose political throbbings send a pulsation
into every artery of the social system.—
Before him is all the north of continental
Europe, whose ordinary path to the ocean
is through tins cVmnuct. I envy not the
man whose soul could slumber asiie j.—ised
through this high-way ol nations. Most
of the southern coast of England consists
of limestone cliffs, from which beautiful
fields of a terrace form frequently extend
back into the country. These have the
most picturesque appearance on the Isle of
Wight nnd of Dover.
Dover and its Cliffs.
The cliffs of Dover extend several miles
in both directions from the town, nnd rise
in perfect regularity 500 or 600 feet al
most perpendicularly from the water, thus
forming a border to the smooth table land
which extends quite to the water’s edge.—
The town itself stands back on a small bay.
Here the limestone wall (for so we may
call the cliffs) recedes, making a regular
curvature from the cast and from the west ;
and in this recess the cliffs gradually di
mmish in height, till they sink into a beau
tiful vale, the site of the town. On the
eastern height stands the formidable cas
tle of Dover. We had but little opportuni
ty to see the French coast. The first point
of land that we saw on it was eape Grisnoz,