Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; A mighty maze! but not without plan.

"Say first, of GoD above, or man below,
What can we reason, but from what we know?
Of man what see we but his station here,
From which to reason, or to which refer?

"Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find

Why formed so weak, so little, and so blind?
First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess,
Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less?
Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks were made
Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade?

"Of systems possible, if 'tis confess'd,
That wisdom infinite must form the best,
Where all must fall or not coherent be,
And all that rises, rise in due degree;
Then, in the scale of reasoning life, 'tis plain,
There must be somewhere, such a rank as man:
And all the question (wronged e'er so long)
Is only this, if GOD has placed him wrong?

Call imperfection what thou favorest such,
Say, here he gives too little, there too much,
Destroy all creatures for thy sport and gust,
Yet say, if man's unhappy, God's unjust.
If man alone engross not Heaven's high care,
Alone made perfect here, immortal there:
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Re-judge his justice, be the god of GOD.
In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies,
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies;
Pride still is aiming at the bless'd abodes,
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel:
And who but wishes to resist the laws
Of order, sins against the eternal cause.

87

"The exceptions few; some change since all began;

And what created perfect ?-Why then man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then nature deviates; and can man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of showers and sunshine, as of man's desires?
As much eternal spring and cloudless skies,
As men forever temperate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven's
design,

Why then a Borgia, or a Cataline?
Who knows, but he whose hand the lightning
forms,

Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms,
Pours fierce ambition into Cæsars mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge man-
kind?

From pride, from pride, our very reasoning springs;

Account for moral as for natural things:
Why charge we Heaven in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right, is to submit.

"Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean bet the wind,
That never passion discomposed the mind.
But all subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.
The general order since the world began,

fate,

All but the page prescribed their present state; From brutes what men, from men what spirits know,

Or who could suffer being here bolow?

"Oh blindness to the future! kindly given,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heaven;
Who sees with equal eye, as GOD of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,

"Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar,

Wait the great teacher, Death; and GoD adore. What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.

"Go wiser thou! and thy scale of sense, Weigh thy opinion against Providence ;

"What would this man? Now upward will he

soar.

And, little less than angel, would be more;
Now looking downwards, just as grieved appears
To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears.
Made for his use all creatures, if he call.
Say what their use, had he the powers of all'
Nature to these, without profusion, kind,
The proper organs, proper powers assign'd;
Each seeming want compensated; of course,
Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force;
All in exact proportion to the state:
Nothing to add, and nothing to abate.
Each beast, each insect, happy in its own:
Is Heaven unkind to man, and man alone?
Shall he alone whom rational we call,

Be pleased with nothing, if not bless'd with all?

Is not to act or think beyond mankind;
No powers of body or of soul to share,
But what his nature and his state can bear.
Why has not man a microscopic eye?
For this plain reason, man is not a fly.
Say, what the use, were finer optics given,
To inspect a mite, not comprehend a Heaven?
A touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,
To smart and agonize at every pore?
Or quick effluvia darting through the brain,
Die of a rose in aromatic pain?

Who finds not Providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies.

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and GOD the soul;
That changed through all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame;
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent;
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
As full as perfect in a hair or heart;
As full as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns;
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all.

"All nature is but art unknown to thee,

"Where there is no vision the people perish," and do the preceding views give a fair and happy vision of our subject? With a thousand apologies (since blessings are promised to the righteous, not only to the third and fourth, but also to the thousandth generation,) with so many apologies for our manner of conducting this discussion, we shall offer but a single extract more, before proceeding to some original commentaries of our own, in conclusion of this paper. Wę were upon the point of saying, "before proceeding to our own more valuable and interesting part of the performance;" but in an article like this such extensive humor and arrogance may be omitted, without giving any particular occasion for criticism to those who anxiously look for the coleur de rose.— Yet a merry heart doeth good as a medicine, and a contented spirit is a continual feast.I think the following lines tend to illustrate and adorn our subject:

"Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy those;
But Heaven's just balance equal will appear,
While those are placed in hope, and these in fear:
Not present good, ill, the joy or curse,
But future views of better or of worse.
Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies?
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.'

Perhaps some may esteem so much poetry inapposite to the nature of our philosophical discussion; but President Wayland gives whole pages of quotations from Shakspeare, in his Elements of Moral Science; the early writings in the American Journal of Insanity contain abundant practical quotations; and poetry is justly said to be the

do likewise.

"Mechanical Philosophy is a scientific teacher," saith one of the profound scholars of the age- and how else is it but such in the displays that are made by Mechanics, in arts of taste and usefulness, whose value commends itself to the most superficial ob

server.

The County, as such, has contributed her more than quota to the refinement and importance of the State There was an Inman, and others, who contributed to the cultivation of the Art of Painting, in a most enlightened sense, and it is earnestly hoped that Mr. Brown, whose beautiful painting of “Benjamin before Joseph, or Judah's Appeal," did him so much credit, will follow in the footsteps of the departed child of the Arts, and assume a position, as lofty and commanding as he did.

Next after the Embroidery of the Ladies, which first met our eye, by the direction of the Fair, we paused at a Maulmain Bible, by the late Dr. Judson, to pay our tribute to the scholastic merits of the illustrious christian, and we are happy to record here our deep sense of his worth and of his loss.

As we glanced at the varied articles, we were caught by the preparations of birds, and Daguerreotypes, and as we stood near the United States Senators, looking at the several members, an old Jerseyman got our hand, (for we love old Jersey,) and asked for our place that he might have a closer look at Judge Dayton, for, said he, I knew well his grandfather and father, and I love to honor and respect him. He was from

As the Papers of the City gave the particulars from day to-day, and also the reports of the committees, composed of gentlemen of great ability and taste, we forbear for ourselves, and refer to them for more particular and general information.

There were several Addresses, on occasion of the assemblage, but the Oration was by John F. Seymour, Esq., and equalled the expectations of his friends and the Society, in the just and proper view of his subject. The evenings were interspersed with music, and crowds of beauty, fashion, and judges, testified to the very happy way in which the exhibition "was got up."

"There was a greater display of niceness, than an extent of Mechanical skill in some of the articles," observed an acumen; but we observed that for ourselves, we had never seen a better display, never was at such a Fair, and never felt prouder of a place or occasion.

The Portraits and Paintings and FancyWork, loaned, or prepared for the Fair, and the Stitches, were all very honorable, and the "Needle" bears the palm for skill.Nothing transcended the Embroidery of the Crotchetts, indeed, the Needle in Harnesses and Saddlery was also most elegant, telling of great industry, taste, and skill.

But a few years since, and this West Utica, had no factories, nor were there so many happy faces seen in the industrious cantons of our vicinage, nor illuminations of industry, nor sound of Bells calling to the easy and regular performance of duty.Now vast establishments are reared, under the guidance of Capitalists and intelligence, and great business transactions are had, and still greater are destined by those whose interests lead to prosecution of enterprizes, beyond the ordinary ken.

Prosperity to these enterprizing manafac