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PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
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COMMANDER MAURY'S ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH.
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Physical geography makes the whole world kin. Of all the departments in the domains of physical science it is the most Christianizing. Astronomy is sublime and grand; but astronomy overpowers with its infinities, overwhelms with its immensities. Physical geography charms with its wonders, and delights with the benignity of its economy. Astronomy ignores the existence of man; physical geography confesses that existence, and is based on the Biblical doctrine that the earth was made for man. Upon no other theory can it be studied; upon no other theory can its phenomena be reconciled. The astronomer computes an ephemeris for his comets; predicts their return; tells the masses of the planets, and measures by figures the distance of stars. But whether stars, planets, or comets be peopled or not, is in his arguments, theories and calculations, of no consequence whatever. He regards the light and heat of the sun as emanations,--forces to guide the planets in their orbits, and light comets in their flight--nothing more. But the physical geographer, when he warms himself by the coal fire in winter, or studies by the light of the gas burner at night, recognizes in the light and heat which he then enjoys, the identical light and heat which came from the sun ages ago, and which with provident care and hands benignant have been bottled away in the shape of a mineral and stored in the bowels of the earth for man's use, thence to be taken at his convenience, and liberated at will for his manifold purposes.
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Here in the schools which are soon to be opened, within the walls of the noble institution which we are preparing to establish in this wood, and the corner-stone of which has just been laid, the masters of this newly-ordained science will teach our sons to regard some of the commonest things as the most important agents in the physical economy of our planet. They are also mighty ministers of the Creator. Take this water (holding up a glass full) and ask the student of physical geography to explain a portion only of its multitudinous offices in helping to make this earth fit for man's habitation. He may recognize in it a drop of the very same which watered the garden of Eden when Adam was there. Escaping thence through the veins of the earth into the rivers, it reached the sea; passing along its channels of circulation it was conveyed far away by its currents to those springs in the ocean which feed the winds with vapors for rains among these mountains. Taking up the heat in those Southern climes, where otherwise it would become excessive, it bottles it away in its own little vesicles. These are invisible, but rendering that heat latent and innocuous, they pass like sightless couriers of the air through their appointed channels, and arrive here in the upper sky. This mountain draws the heat from them; they are formed into clouds, and condensed into rains, which coming to the earth make it "soft with showers," causing the trees of the field to clap their hands, the valleys to shout, and the mountains to sing. Thus the earth is made to yield her increase, and the heart of man is glad.
Nor does the office of this cup of water, in the physical economy, end here; it has brought heat from the sea in the Southern hemisphere to be set free here for the regulation of our climates; it has ministered to the green plants, and given meat and drink to man and beast. It has now to cater among the rocks for the insects of the sea. Eating away your mountains, it fills up the valleys, and then loaded with lime and salts of various minerals, it goes singing and dancing, and leaping back to the sea, owning man by the way as a task master; turning mills, driving machinery, transporting merchandise for him, and finally reaching the ocean, it there joins the currents to be conveyed to its appointed place, which it never fails to reach in due time with food in due quan-
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tities for the inhabitants of the deep, and with materials of the right kind to be elaborated in the workshops of the sea into pearls, corals, and islands, all for man's use.
Thus the right-minded student of this science is brought to recognize in the dewdrop the materials of which He who "walketh upon the wings of the wind" maketh His chariot. He also discovers in the raindrop a clue by which the Christian philosopher may be conducted into the very chambers from which the hills are watered.
I have been blamed by men of science, both in this country and in England, for quoting the Bible in confirmation of the doctrines of physical geography. The Bible, they say, was not written for scientific purposes, and is therefore of no authority in matters of science. I beg pardon; the Bible is authority for everything it touches. What would you think of the historian who should refuse to consult the historical records of the Bible, because the Bible was not written for the purposes of history? The Bible is true; and science is true. The agents concerned with the physical economy of our planets are ministers of His who made both it and the Bible. The records which He has chosen to make through the agency of these ministers of His upon the crust of the earth, are as true as the records which by the hands of His prophets and servants He has been pleased to make in the Book of Life. They are both true; and when your man of science with vain and hasty conceit announces the discovery of disagreement between them, rely upon it the fault is not with the Witness or His records, but with the "worm" who essays to interpret evidence which he does not understand.
When I, a pioneer in one department of this beautiful science, discover the truths of revelation and the truths of science reflecting light upon the oth-
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When I, a pioneer in one department of this beautiful science, discover the truths of revelation and the truths of science reflecting light one upon the other and each sustaining the other, how can I as a truth-loving, knowledge-seeking man, fail to point out the beauty, and to rejoice in its discovery? Reticence on such an occasion would be sin, and were I to supress the emotion with {entire line covered?} soul, the waves of the sea would lift up their voice, and the very stones of the earth cry out against me.
As a student of physical geography, I regard earth, sea, air and water, as parts of a machine, pieces of mechanism not made with hands, but to which, nevertheless, certain offices have been assigned in the terrestrial economy. It is good and profitable to seek to find out these offices, and point them out to our fellows! and when, after patient research I am led to the discovery of any one of them, I feel with the astronomer of old, as though I had "thought one of God's thoughts," and tremble. Thus as we progress with our science we are permitted now and then to point out here and there in the physical machinery of the earth a design of the Great Architect when He planned it all.
Take the little nautilli. Where do the fragile creatures go? What directing hand guides them from sea to sea? What breeze fills the violet sails of their frail little craft, and by whose skill is it enabled to brave the sea and defy the fury of the gale? What mysterious compass directs the flotilla of these delicate and graceful argonauts? Coming down from the Indian Ocean, and arriving off the stormy Cape they separate, the one part steering for the Pacific, the other standing for the Atlantic Ocean. Soon the ephemeral life that animates these tiny navigators will be extinct; but the same power which cared for them in life, now guides them in death, for though dead, their task in the physical economy of our planet is not yet finished, nor have they ceased to afford instruction in philosophy. The frail shell is now to be drawn to distant seas by the lower currents. Like the leaf carried through the air by the wind, the lifeless remains descend from depth to depth by an insensible fall even to the appointed burial-place on the bottom of the deep; there to be collected into heaps and gathered into beds which at some day are to appear above the surface a storehouse rich with fertilizing ingredients for man's use. Some day science will sound the depth to which this dead shell has fallen, and the little creature will perhaps afford solution for a problem a long time unsolved; for it may be the means of revealing the existence of the submarine currents that have carried it off, and of enabling the physical geographer to trace out the secret paths of the sea.
Had I time, I might show how mountains, deserts, winds and water, when
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treated by this beautiful science, all join in one universal harmony, for each one has its part to preform in the great concert of nature.
The Church, ere physical geography had yet attained to the dignity of a science in our schools, and even before man had endowed it with a name, saw and appreciated its dignity, the virtue of its chief agents. What have we heard chanted here in this grove by a thousand voices this morning? A song of praise, such as these hills have not heard since the morning stars sang together; the Benedictite of our Mother Church, invoking the very agents whose workings and offices it is the business of the physical geographer to study and point out! In her services she teaches her children in their song of praise to call upon certain physical agents, principals, in this newly established department of human knowledge; upon the waters above the firmament; upon showers and dew; wind, fire, and heat; Winter and Summer; frost and cold; ice and snow; night and day; light and darkness; lightning and clouds; mountains and hills; green things, trees and plants; whales and all things that move in the waters; fowls of the air, with beasts and cattle; to bless, praise, and magnify the Lord.
To reveal to man the offices of these agents in making the earth his fit dwelling-place, is the objects of physical geography. Said I not well that of all the sciences, physical georgraphy is the most Christianizing in its influences?
Gospel Messenger.
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UTICA, N. Y.
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FRIDAY MORNING, Dec. 7, 1860.
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DIOCESAN MISSIONS.
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DECEMBER COLLECTION.
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The December Collection for the Missions of this Diocese will occur on Sunday, December 9th. At least fifteen hundred dollars will be needed to meet the demands upon the Treasury to pay the Missionaries and Beneficiaries of the Diocese. Both the season and the times exhort us to be liberal in our gifts to this class of our working clergy, numbering about fifty laborers on the field. I earnestly bespeak an urgent voice in their behalf from the clergy, and a liberal hand from the laity at this collection. WILLIAM H. DELANCEY, Bishop. Geneva, Dec. 1, 1860.
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POLITICAL PREACHING.
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During the last political campaign, as upon former occasions, the clergy of the Episcopal Church have scrupulously kept politics out of their pulpits. Most of them have probably formed their own opinions, gone to the polls and voted, and then quietly returned to their homes. At a time when the whole country has presented a scene of unusual and extraordinary excitement, our pulpits have resounded with the one theme of "Jesus Christ and him crucified." We think our clergy have acted wisely.
The government, under which we live, is committed to the upholding of no one system of religion, while it tolerates and protects all. Here the Christian religion is tolerated and protected, but not a whit