gard to the ant for wisdom. sider the lilies of the field."

The Saviour tells us "to con

Oh, yes, father! I feel that there is a meaning in things. The thunder means something. So does the wintry wind; and so does the warm spring. Is it not so, father?

Ah, said he,

It is so, my son, said the Professor. Every thing in nature has a meaning. The things themselves tell our souls what they mean. A desert rose met the eye of Mungo Park, as he was travelling in Africa. He was about to despair. His heart was sick and heavy within him. He approached the flower. Its leaves were wet with the dews of the night, and its glow fresh and lovely. God is here, and nourishes the desert rose! Will he not also take care of me? Hope rose up in his heart, and he went on his way. That rose, my son, told him of God's love to his creatures. You see, then, Wilmer, that there is a communion between objects and the observing soul. This is the fourth form of language. I will illustrate it by the legend of the FOUR VISIONS.

THE FIRST VISION.

A child played itself to sleep, and lay under a blooming locust. The green leaves and white flowers waved over it in its dream, and dropt down sweetness upon its lost thoughts. They ceased to wave, and passed away into darkness. An angel stood by its side, and spoke softly in its ear. Behold that youth by the white wood desk, said the angel. What is he doing? asked the child, in its dream. He is writing, said the angel. Those marks that he is making are letters. See! he joins them together and makes words. He joins words together and makes sentences. The pen moves rapidly, and the paper is covered

with letter-language. What has he written? asked the child. Sad words, answered the angel-"The deluge was the destruction of all the world by water, but eight persons."

THE SECOND VISION.

Look again, said the angel to the child. The scene changed in an instant; and lo, he saw a youth engraving something on a rock that overhung a large river! What is that? asked the child. The angel answered: It is an Egyptian youth, of the priestly order. He is making symbols on the rock. You see that he has carved on the rock a boat, with eight persons in it, and above it, a dove' bearing an olive-branch. What does it mean? asked the child. The angel answered: He is telling, in symbol language, that the deluge destroyed all mankind, but eight persons. The flood at length subsided, and peace returned to the earth.

THE THIRD VISION.

The second scene vanished like the first. The angel spoke again to the child in its dream, and said, Behold! The child looked, and saw a painter. He was painting, on a large canvas, a picture that made the blood start in the veins of the dreaming child, and retire from his pale lips.

The wind roared in the riven trees; the clouds poured down cascades of water; the great sea raged and dashed its waves over the tops of the mountains, and the lightning blazed down the heavens like a burning scroll. Ruin threatened the whole earth. Trees, houses, and monuments of art were swept along like a wreck. Only one thing seemed to be safe. A large vessel, without masts or sails, floated over the wild and stormy sea of waters. What does

the picture mean? asked the child with emotion. The angel answered: The picture is an account of the deluge. The painter relates that event in picture language.

THE FOURTH VISION.

As the child gazed in wonder and fear upon the picture, the scene vanished like a dark cloud from his view. Think no more of the picture, said the angel to the child, and go to sleep. The child dreamed again. He dreamed, and lo! the ark of Noah appeared to him, standing like a house at the base of a hill. He entered it by a door, which opened to a cliff on the face of the hill. As soon as he had entered it, some one, he thought, closed the door. He stood by a little window, and looked out. He saw the windows of heaven opened, and the fountain of the great deep broken up: trees were torn up from their roots by the sweeping flood. He heard the rocks groaning as they reeled down from the craggy cliffs; animals howling fiercely. He saw people lifting up their prayerful hands above the wrathful waves. Dread seized the child, and with deep feeling he asked the angel, who now stooped over him, what all that meant? The angel answered, This is the Deluge itself. This is the thing which the word, and the picture, and the symbol represented. Oh! what does it mean? asked the child again. It means, said the angel, that God was wroth against sin. The child's fears were quieted; and, looking in the face of the angel, he whispered the name of God.

Father, father! cried Wilmer, what beautiful visions! what wonderful stories! I understand it now. Things have a meaning: they make the fourth form of language.

Yes, my son, said Professor Cadmus: things form the

first language. The world is a book, in which God has written much about himself, and wishes man to read it. Things form the first language. Pictures, symbols, and words are only their translation into the language of man. To things, the word, symbol, and picture ought always to lead you; and when you reach things, remember, they have a meaning.

INSTRUCTION XII.

THE FIRST LETTER LANGUAGE.

THE EARTH AS THE ABODE OF MAN.

To

Wilmer, said Professor Cadmus, I wish you to understand the English language, your mother-tongue. assist you in this, I will spend some time this evening in talking with you about the first language which was spoken on the earth.

It is only about six thousand years since the earth became the abode of the human family. It was then fitted up for man's use. There are good reasons for believing that it had been in existence a long time before that period, and that tribes of animals had lived and died upon it. But there is no proof that there was one man or woman before Adam and Eve. They were the first of the human family. How many wonderful things, said Wilmer, are to be known!

THE HEBREW LANGUAGE.

The Bible, said Professor Cadmus, gives us the earliest record we have of any language. It is found in the second chapter of Genesis. There is good reason for believing that God taught Adam and Eve to speak, and make their

thoughts audible to one another. This is the history of it. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field.

And this, father, is the record of the first language that was spoken on earth! It is a simple record.

There are, said Professor Cadmus, a great many passages in the Bible, and many legends about the early history of man, that lead us to believe that Jehovah bestowed on him a soul, and in that soul placed reason, conscience, and the gift of speech. Man would not have been created in the image of God, if he had been left without reason and language.

The first school on earth, continued Professor Cadmus, was in the garden of Eden. Education began in Paradise. God was the teacher, and Adam and Eve the scholars. Language was their first lesson. They began by learning words; and this they did by seeing the things for which the words stood.

This is very wonderful, father! said Wilmer.

Professor Cadmus continued. There was but one language at that time on earth. It continued to be the only language for some sixteen hundred years.

Father, said the boy, what kind of a language was it? Is it now spoken by any nation?

It can scarcely be said to be spoken by any people at present, said Professor Cadmus. It was spoken for above three thousand four hundred years. It is held sacred by