formed, it will be compensated by the more than usual rapidity of the current, when it has cleared away the obstructions.

We hope the two examples we have adduced may have been sufficient to illustrate that constitution of things, by which an evil is made to remedy itself; and to show how the operation of this principle serves to regulate the vast machinery of a nation; and to give a constancy and a steadiness to all its movements. And we would now ask to what should the discovery of this lead us?

We might have concluded a priori that that God whose goodness is over all his works, while he regulated all the changes of nature, and maintained an unvarying constancy in all her operations, would not leave to chance, or to the guidance of mere human wisdom, the regulation of those principles on which depends the temporal happiness of his rational creatures. And when in the workings of these principles we discover that same constancy which distinguishes the operations of nature, and the same means employed to preserve that constancy; and when we perceive farther, that all this may go on independent of our knowledge, and most certainly does go on independent of our direction;-should it not go very much to strengthen the conclusion. Let us acknowledge, then, that there is here the working of a mightier agency than man; and let us ascribe that constant hardihood with which a nation survivės all the changes that pass over her, to the

care and the wisdom of that same mighty Being, "who causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; who maketh lightnings for the rain; and who bringeth the wind out of his treasuries."

The concluding paragraph is a beautiful instance of the prevailing disposition of the writer's mind, and of the happy ease with which he could connect every speculation and exercise with his leading and darling subject. His mind traced the hand of the benevolent Creator in all his operations, whether of nature or of providence. He beheld and adored his wisdom, both in the uncontrolable and efficient laws of the universe, and in the frame and constitution of society. What affected his own mind, he was desirous should affect the minds of others; and "out of the fulness of his heart, his mouth spake." Yet there is no thrusting of the subject forward. It is not only presented in all its importance, but with the grace and modesty which could not fail to command respect and attention.

Not satisfied with his labours in the several classes which he attended, he took an active part in a Literary Society consisting of the young men attending the University; and at one of its meetings held on the 11th of December, he read an essay, or delivered a speech on the following subject:

That Knowledge gives its Possessor more Power than Wealth does.

It has been said by Lord Bacon, that "knowledge is power," and the same thing has been asserted of wealth by Mr. Hobbes. And with both these statements we perfectly agree. The very nature of our present debate presupposes the truth of both. The question this evening is, Whether does wealth or knowledge give its possessor more power? Now we do think that there is a great deal of vagueness in the terms of the question; and we do anticipate from this, a good deal of misapprehension, and a good deal of wrangling about words and definitions, when, after all, the disputants may be at one in sentiment. There are various views that may be taken of the question; and we shall first consider it in its strict and literal interpretation; and in this view, we think, there can be little or no debate at all. The very fiercest of our opponents, we should think, will allow that wealth, altogether apart from knowledge, can accomplish nothing at all; for a certain degree of knowledge is necessary to the right application of wealth. An idiot might lavish the most boundless fortune, and after all be farther from his point than he was before. On the other hand, we frankly confess, that knowledge, altogether apart from wealth, can accomplish but little, since a certain portion of wealth is necessary to carry our plans into execution. The fact is, that, to accomplish any thing of importance, they must go hand in

hand; knowledge must devise the plan, and wealth, in general, must furnish the means to carry that plan into execution. To knowledge and wealth may we justly apply the language of Sallust when speaking of the mind and the body: "Utrumque per se indigens, alterum alterius, auxilio eget."

But even in this view of the subject there are some things which knowledge can do altogether independent of wealth, though we know of none that wealth can do altogether independent of knowledge. Thus, with a mere knowledge of the power of the lever, (a machine so simple that it may be had for nothing), I can raise a very great weight; a thing to accomplish which, wealth might have been lavished in vain.

But there is another view of the subject, and we think the most correct of all, in which wealth itself may be said to be the result of knowledge, and, consequently, all the power which is attributed to wealth may be referred to knowledge as its ultimate cause. And that this is a correct view, a very slight attention to the subject will convince us. Let us look to that country which is sunk lowest in the depths of ignorance, and we shall invariably find that that country too is sunk lowest in the depths of poverty and wretchedness; and that, on the other hand, that country which stands highest in the scale of knowledge, stands highest also in the scale of wealth. And if we just consider how much commerce is indebted to the invention of the compass and the discoveries of

astronomy, and how much manufactures owe to the invention of machinery, and how much their productive powers are thus increased, we shall come to the conclusion, that almost, if not altogether, all our wealth is the result of our knowledge. Most justly then, viewing, the subject in this light, might we turn the weapons of our opponents against themselves, and make their every argument for their side of the question, to tell most powerfully against them on our own.

But this, though the most just and philosophical view of the question, is evidently not the view that was intended to be taken of it: for it is a view that resolves the question itself into an absurdity. -A view which, if the framers of the question had taken, they would never have framed it at all. And though we could thus take the advantage of our adversaries, by disarming them, and then by those very arms, compelling them to surrender, we are not reduced to such a shift; we can meet them upon more honourable terms.

We shall therefore attempt to show that, even in the more loose and ordinary interpretation of the question, knowledge gives its possessor more power than wealth does. And as the word power is very general and undefined, we shall take two modifications of it; viz. mechanical power, and political power. By the mechanical power of knowledge we mean, that power which it gives us over inanimate nature; and by its political power, that power which it gives us over our fellow-men; -and from both these acceptations of the term we