The Two Ends of the Giant's Bridge [pp. 324-328]

THE LADIES' REPOSITOR.
his trade in the midst of his apostolic honors
and dignitaries, though standing before kings,
and admitted to private conference with the
rulers of the world. Jesus made his putative
father's craft honorable, as his disciples did their
calling. John Bunyan has forever dignified the
most despised employment of a tinker, and
Carey raised to honor his daily service, and
raised to dishonor Sydney Smith's meaner na ture, when the latter dared to brand the whole
grand missionary enterprise as but the foolish
zeal of a "consecrated cobbler."
So God honors all true work and workers.
Mr. Rich is a small, compact, finely formed gen tleman, of cultivated manners, curly gray locks,
a very bright eye, rapid, nervous motions. He
is hearty, open-natured, free-spoken, hard to
endure that bane and blessing that attends on
wealth, the innumerable pressure of every sort
of petitioner. Here, if ever, he casts away his
patience. The applicants crowd upon and honor
him at every place and moment. When busy
with his clerks or captains their voice is heard
with, "I hope I do n't intrude," when they
know nothing is more intrusive. From his
dinner-table he is summoned by their ring.
Every hour of rest or work he is thus beset.
It is the curse that waits on liberality. We are
not sure that Girard was not the wiser man in
shutting his door and ear at every claimant
while he worked out his own plans of benevolence in his own way. Certainly every solicitor
ought to assume that the possessor, if liberal
and if intelligent, can judge how far their wishes
agree with his. Drew could give away his
fortune in a week if he simply complied with
the full demands of his petitioners. All we
should ask of the man of wealth is, that he
actually bestows of his goods for the cause of
God and man as God himself shall direct.
That Mr. Rich has thus served his generation,
and will yet move the future generations, there
is no room to doubt. Already his benefactions
to Wilbraham, Middletown, and Boston, exceed
a quarter of a million, while many a Chtirch in
all the land, and many a private individual, has
been refreshed with the stream of his liberality.
Mr. Rich may properly use as his motto the
saying of ancient Pistol:
"The world's mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open."
The oysters his boy knife opened were types
of the rough and hard world that confronted
him, rich within, rude without. With his knife
he mastered the former, with his sharp sense
he subdued the latter. He has only shown that
sagacity, energy, and daring are the elements
of success in any vocation; that the way to the
mountain-top is open from every part of the
base; that the men who cry out against for tune as fickle, or guilty of favoritism, are not
students of fact. Foresight is not every one's
gift. The genius to be rich is as marked as
that of oratory or poetry. Many have talents
for every art, few genius in any. In this latter
list he may justly be classed.
His reputation will stimulate many an aspiring
and victorious merchant to like industry, in tegrity, and generosity. Late may he return to
the heavens; long may he continue to plant his
gains in godly enterprises, and to enjoy the
sacred, grateful fruit of his beneficent labors;
and when he shall pass on, may his history,
written in the monuments of his benevolence,
written also in the tables of millions of hearts in
all generations, keep him in remembrance, as
fully expressing in his life, and the works that
shall follow him, the apostolic description of the
true Christian, diligent in business, fervent in
spirit, serving the Lord!
THE TWO ENDS OF THE GIANT'S
BRIDGE.
HE Giant's Causeway and Fingal's Cave
have long been regarded as the greatest
natural curiosities of the British Islands. Their
chief attraction, and that which has attached to
them a multitude of very pleasant legends, is
the fact that they resemble the work of man
rather than the work of God. The peculiarity
of these great wonders of nature is that they are
composed of black, rocky, prismatic columns,
generally pentagonal or hexagonal, from a few
inches to eight feet in diameter, which are so
regular in their structure as to resemble iron
pillars made by the skill of man. This mechanical appearance, to a people unacquainted
with geology, was a sufficient warrant for attributing these massive columns to human workmanship. The Causeway and Cave have long
been a puzzle to geologists. Research and invention have been strained to the utmost, both
to locate the rock geologically, and to account
for the columnar structure. Theories have been
abundant, ranging as usual from the possible to
the absurd. Among others it was gravely set
forth by one devotee of the rocky science that
these basaltic pillars are petrified bamboos of
some long-gone geologic period. Another theory, called the Neptunian, attributes it to the
Deluge, and sets forth that after the waters had
subsided,
"Like sable paste each mass basaltic lay,...
Till smote by Summer's sun and Winter's wind,"
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