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ANECDOTE OF THE CELEBRATED VOLNEY.

HE late Samuel Forrester Bancroft, Efq. accompanied late Mr. Ifaac Weld, jun. in his travels through North America, and the two Canadas, a very interesting narrative of which is published. As they were traverfing one of the extenfive lakes of the northern states in a veffel, on board of which was Volney, celebrated, or rather notorious for his atheistical principles, which he has fo often avowed; a very heavy form came on, infomuch that the veffel, which had ftruck repeatedly with great force, was expected to go down every inftant, the maft having gone by the board, the helm quite ungovernable, and confequently the whole fcene exhibiting confufion and horror. There were many females, as well as male paffengers on board, but no one exhibited fuch ftrong marks of fearful defpair as Volney, throwing himself on the deck, now imploring, now imprecating the captain, and reminding him that he had engaged to carry him safe to his destination, vainly threatening in cafe any thing fhould happen. At laft, however, as the probability of their being loft increafed, this great mirror of nature, human, or inhuman, began loading all the pockets of his coat, waistcoat, breeches, and every place he could think of, with dollars, to the amount of fome hundreds; and thus, as he thought, was preparing to fwim for his life, fhould the expected wreck take place. Mr. Bancroft remonftrated with him on the folly of fuch acts, faying, that he would fink like a piece of lead, with fo great a weight on him; and at length, as he became fo very noify and unsteady, as to impede the management of the fhip, Mr. Bancroft pufhed him down the hatchways. Volney foon came up again, having lightened himself of the dollars, and in the agony of his mind, threw himself upon the deck, exclaiming with uplifted hands and ftreaming eyes-"Oh! mon Dieu, mon Dieu-qu'est-ce que je ferai, qu'est-ce que je ferai ?" Oh! my God, my God-what thall I do? what thall I do?"-This fo fuprized Bancroft, that, notwithstanding the moment did not very well accord with flashes of humour, yet he could not refrain from addreffing him—“Eh bien! Mons. Volney, vous avez donc un Dieu a present." "Well, Mr. Volney, what-you have a God now."-To which Volney replied with the most trembling anxiety."-"Oh! oui oui!" O yes! O yes!-The fhip, however, got fafe, and Mr. Bancroft made every company

which he went into, echo with this anecdote of Volney's acknowledgment of God. Volney for a confiderable time was fo hurt at his weakness, as he calls it, that he was afhamed of fhewing himfelf in company at Philadelphia, &c. but afterwards, like a modern French philofopher, faid, that thefe words escaped him in the inftant of alarm, but had no meaning, and he again utterly renounced them.

PHYSICO-THEOLOGY.

AN ESSAY OCCASIONED BY THE LATE HIGH WIND.

"Stormy wind fulfilling his word."

IN

Pfalm cxlviii. 8.

N the Pfalm from which the motto is felected, the sweet finger of Ifrael calls upon the whole univerfe to affist him in the delightful work of praifing the Lord. Himself leads the mufic, and invites the celeftial worlds to join him. Then his invitation defcends to the terreftrial creation. The inanimate works of God muft not be excufed from bearing a part in the general chorus. They may be mute themfelves, but they praife their Maker, by affording man an occafion of celebrating the perfections of God difplayed in their formation. Thus man becomes "the world's high "prieft." The inanimate and brute creation, bring, as it were, their facrifices to his feet, and it is his honourable office to prefent them: for rational creatures of every order and fituation are called upon to fwell the notes of praife. Mufic is compofed of a variety of notes, harmoniously united; and the mufic of God's creation may be faid to poffefs the fame properties. The "ftormy wind" may be called one of the notes, deep and awful in itself, but equally neceffary as the reft, and equally fubfervient to his pleasure, the "ftormy wind fulfilling his word."

The late tremendous ftorm, feems, in a peculiar manner, to call our thoughts to that God who "rideth upon the "wings of the wind," and rules the tumultuous elements of the world by laws of infinite wifdom. The wind which blows, ard fpreads its awful alarms, may teach us ufeful lef fons of humble and fubmiffive obedience, fince wild and ungovernable as it may feem to be, it obeys the wife direction of God.

In winter, awful thou! with clouds and ftorms
Around thee thrown, tempeft o'er tempeft roll'd,
Majestic darknefs! on the whirlwind's wing
Riding fublime, thou bid'st the world adore,
And humbleft Nature with thy northern blast.

THOMSON.

The wind is a part of the natural world; or rather, it is one of the elements in a particular flate-the air put in motion or the atmosphere brifkly moved, from a variety of natural caufes. The air and wind are too fubtle for the obfervation of our fight, and this may be a great mercy; for could we fee them, we might be still more alarmed at their wild fury than we now are, while we only "hear the found thereof," or feel their effects. The "ftormy wind" is the air put into greater tumult, the wind raised to ftill greater uproar. Some forms are almoft regular at certain places, and particular times of the year, where and when the experienced mariner expects to be expofed to all their ftrength; but in our own kingdom, the ftate of the weather and the blowing winds is more variable than in most other places, as foreigners have obferved. Stormy winds have been accounted for by fome philofphers, from the particular pofition and influence of the fun, which rarifies the air in fome parts of the world, when the denfer air rushes in, as it rushes through chinks into a warm room. Some have fuppofed that ftorms may often arife from the state of the bowels of the earth, from burning mountains and defolating earthquakes: but, perhaps, there may be as much philofophy as divinity in what our Lord faid to Nicodemus, "the wind bloweth "where it lifteth, and thou heareft the found thereof, but "canft not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth." The wifeft philofophers feem willing to acknowledge their inability to account for the origin of winds. "Doft thou "know the balancing of the clouds, the wondrous works of "Him which is perfect in knowledge? how thy garments "are warm, when he quieteth the earth by the fouth wind? "and now men fee not the bright light which is in the "clouds; but the wind paffeth and cleanfeth them. Touch"ing the Almighty, we cannot find him out; he is excellent "in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice." Thus do the "Philofophical Tranfactions" of the book of Job lead us to admire and to adore the wisdom of the great Creator in his manifold works; where the learned confefs their ignorance, the humble worshipper liftens to the roaring of the ftormy wind, and hears the voice of God in his providence. Here we may enlarge with more certainty, and

this is the more neceffary to be known. However, fome of the operations of Nature may be accounted for according to their stated laws, we are not to thrust the all-wife Architect from the government of the world which he made. "The courfe of Nature is the art of God:" he "bringeth the "wind out of his treasuries," as if they were taken from fecret ftore-houfes of the Almighty, and then laid up till their service was required. Among the Greeks and Romans we meet with a Jupiter wielding the thunder and the lightning, and an Eolus ruling over the winds; but the Bible teacheth us to restore the celeftial artillery to its rightful owner. "He thundereth marvelloufly, and directeth the "lightning; he holdeth the wind in his fift," raifeth the ftorm, or fays, "peace, be ftill," and fuddenly there is a great calm.

For various purposes of mercy or of judgment the winds are commiffioned to blow, and the ftorm to rage. The prof perous breeze fills the expanded fails of navigation, whereby intercourfe is maintained between diftant fhores, and ufeful commodities mutually interchanged for general advantage, By the aids of navigation, the devoted miflionary carries the Gospel to ignorant climes, and to the ifles afar off upon the fea but what were the skill of the mariner, and the mariner's compafs itfelf, if there were no winds to waft the ship to the defired haven? The wind gives motion to many an *ufeful machine of human ingenuity, where rivers do not flow. Winds fan the air in fultry regions, and fweep the chambers of the atmosphere, which, without fuch falutary motion, would every where become a ftagnant, putrid mafs, unfit for refpiration, and impregnated with diforders and death. "The wind paffeth and cleanfeth the clouds," and by the wind the feeds of the vegetable tribes are fcattered abroad, whereby the bounteous Giver of every mercy "spreads a common feaft for all that lives." But the fame element fulfils the word of God, for awful purposes of judgment, when he is pleafed to chattife or deftroy his offending creatures. The ftorm rages, and gradually commences an hurricane, to alarm the floutefl heart of man. The whirling tempeft raves; it fastens its fury on the thatched cottage, and flakes the lordly roof. The trees of the foreft bend before its fury; many an aged oak fheds its fcattered branches; while others, not fo firmly rooted, are torn up, to leave their teftimony to the tremendous power of the ftormy wind. How uncertain is human happinefs! While Job's fons and daughters were enjoying themselves, behold there came a great wind from the wildernefs, and fmote the four corners of the

houfe, and it fell upon them, and buried them in the ruins. The wretched travellers of an eastern caravan are fuffocated in a cloud of whirling duft; deftructive infects and peftilential vapours travel on the wings of the wind, when the Lord of health and life gives them the commiffion. "The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a defolate wilderness; yea, and nothing fhall efcape them." Nor lefs at sea does the furious florm difplay its rage. We have the picture drawn by an inimitable hand in the facred volume; "They that go down to the fea in fhips, that do bufinefs in great "waters, these fee the works of the Lord, and his wonders "in the deep; for he commandeth, and raifeth the formy "wind which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount "up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths; their "foul is melted because of trouble; they reel to and fro, and "ftagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end." How many dart on diftant coafts, or are thrown on fome unfeen rock, where the ill-fated veffel is dafhed to pieces, and the unhappy mariners, after struggling awhile with winds and waves, are plunged into a watery grave, to be feen no

more !

Ere long, however, the awful hurricane fubfides, and by degrees a gentle calm fucceeds. The ftorm has blown over our heads, and we have been mercifully preferved. Let us now liften to the voice of that facred inftruction which the wind may teach us. When our Lord was inftructing Nicodemus on the fubject of regeneration, he bids him hear the blowing wind for an illuftration of the doctrine: "The wind "bloweth where it lifteth, and thou hearest the found there"of, but canft not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it "goeth; fo is every one that is born of the Spirit." The divine influence of Mercy is fovereign, powerful, purifying and invifible. The wind bloweth where it listeth, independent of the will of man; and thus the Lord fhoweth mercy en whom he will have mercy. The wind is a powerful agent in nature; and the objects of mercy are made willing in the day of God's sovereign power. The wind purifies the air, and regenerating influence purifies the finner's heart. But will any afk, as Nicodemus did, "How can these things be?" becaufe this bleffed work of mercy in the new birth is fecret and invisible. We may afk in return, whether they have ever feen the wind, or can they account for its origin and power?"Thou heareft the found thereof, but canft not tell "whence it cometh." As well may the infidel, or Pharifee, difpute against Nature and our fenfes, as difpute against the

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