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result of a length of time, numerous trials, and numerous disappointments. According to this test then, which our own efforts confess to be the highest, I proceed to examine the wisdom of the Creator.

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We are sufficiently acquainted with the mechanism of the natural world, to form some notion of the universality of the laws which accomplish the most immense purposes. respect to the system at large of which our globe constitutes a comparatively inconsiderable part, one principle of gravitation preserves the planets in their orbits, and determines the descent of the most trifling body to the ground. In proportion as researches into the planetary system have penetrated deeper, which have now ended in the complete development of the Newtonian theory; in that proportion has the provision been more and more clearly unfolded, that by an obedience originally prescribed to this single and universal law, not only the motions of the different bodies composing the system are regulated, but their

aberrations and eccentricities are adjusted and corrected, and the permanence of the system itself is maintained, equally free from variation, and from the necessity of interference to prevent variation.

Still farther, not only does one and the same body give support and stability to the system, but furnishes it with the essential requisites of light and heat.

In descending from the contemplation of the whole system to the examination of the globe to which we ourselves belong, we are attended by the same comprehensive wisdom. The air of our atmosphere, which is necessary to the existence of the animal and vegetable world, is composed of two elastic fluids, united in a definite and exact proportion; a proportion so precisely suited to those for whose respiration it was intended, that any difference in the quantity of either ingredient would prove, according to its degree, injurious or destructive. The same air which supplies life and

health to the human race, is equally and alone salubrious to every other animal. It might be expected that the portion of this air which animals return in the alternate motion of the lungs, having performed its service, would prove of no farther utility: but it has been otherwise contrived. This part of the atmosphere, though insalubrious to man, affords the most grateful nourishment to the plants by which he is surrounded; according to which provision. nothing is lost, and the constant purity of the air we breathe is preserved.

The same air which in its compound state supports the life of the animal creation, administers also to the comfort and necessities of man in the shape of fire.* Combustion is the decomposition of the atmosphere, a process which, under certain circumstances of temperature, most of the products of the earth have

* Though the phlogistic theory still retains some advocates, and the one here alluded to is not without its difficulties, I conceive that its general reception warrants the use I make of it, in a view so rapid and cursory as the present.

in a greater or less degree the power of affecting; and which is regularly accompanied by the disengagement of the light and heat for which we have such frequent 'occasion, when the assistance of the solar rays is either wanting, or inapplicable. The same elastic fluids which perform these important purposes, in another state of composition become the chief constituents of water also. And the result is, that the principal wants of the animal and vegetable world are supplied by three elastic fluids, the peculiar union of which furnishes us with water, fire and vital air. Neither do these fluids require the interposition of the Creator to supply their constant expenditure. The original mandate of eternal Wisdom provided, as far as we can learn from physical researches, for a world of which we cannot foresee the termination. The

simple gasses, disengaged by various natural processes, from the combustibles, vegetables, and different substances which absorb them, are so contrived as to form a natural re-union, and preserve a constant equilibrium.

The same principle of economy and of universality in the means employed to produce the most important results, might be exemplified throughout the whole constitution of our globe. It is no light provison, for instance, that the fertility of the earth is incapable of the decay which the perpetual production of plants might be expected to cause an effect which is guarded against by the single law, that the destruction of one race of vegetables affords aliment to a fresh succession. By a contrivance equally prospective, the same principle of rarefaction and condensation which purifies the atmosphere, and regulates the temperature of the seasons, raises water in the form of vapour to the clouds, and returns it to the earth as rain, thus diffusing a fertility universally, which would otherwise have been confined to the banks of rivers: and it results from these united operations, that the moisture once given at the creation preserves its own equilibrium, without increase, or diminution, or reproduction. It is a part of the same contrivance to furnish the means of communication, and sometimes even of regular communica

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