MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 37 



our names to posterity are liable at any time to be overthrown by an earth- 

 quake, and would be obliterated, as if they had never been, by any of those 

 processes of metamorphic action which geology tells us form a part of the 

 cycle of changes which the globe is destined to undergo, the more lost in 

 wonder we may be at the vast fecundity of Xature, which within so narrow 

 a sphere can crowd together phenomena so various and so imposing, the 

 more sensible shall we become of the small proportion which our highest 

 powers and their happiest results bear, not only to the cause of all causation, 

 but even to other created beings, higher in the scale than ourselves, which we 

 may conceive to exist. 



It is believed that every one of the molecules which make up the mass of 

 a compound body is an aggregate of a number of atoms, which, by their 

 arrangement and mutual relation, impart to the whole its peculiar properties ; 

 and, according to another speculation which has been already alluded to, 

 these atoms are not absolutely motionless, but are ever shifting their position 

 within certain limits, so as to induce corresponding changes in the properties 

 of the mass. Indeed, it has been imagined, that the production of different 

 compounds from the same elements, united hi the same proportions, may be 

 one of the consequences resulting from the different arrangement of particles 

 thereby induced. If this hypothesis have any foundation in fact, what an 

 example does it set before us of great effects brought about by movements 

 which, to our senses, are too minute to be appreciable ; and what an illustration 

 does it afford us of the limited powers inherent hi the human race, which are 

 nevertheless capable of bringing about effects so varied, and to us so important ; 

 although, as compared with the universe, so insignificant ! We also are atoms, 

 chained down to the little globe in which our lot is cast ; allowed a small field 

 of action, and confined within definite limits, both as to space and as to time. 

 We, too, can only bring about such changes hi nature, as are the resultants 

 of those few laws which it lies within the compass of our power to investigate 

 and to take advantage of. We, too, can only run through a certain round of 

 operations, as limited hi their extent, in comparison with those which He 

 within the bounds of our conception, as the movements of the atoms, which 

 serve to make up a compound molecule of any of the substances around us, 

 are to the revolutions of the heavenly luminaries. 



And as, according to Prof. Owen, the conceivable modifications of the ver- 

 tebral archetype are very far from being exhausted by any of the forms which 

 now inhabit the earth, or that are known to have existed here at any former 

 period ; so likewise the properties of matter with which we are permitted to 

 become cognizant, may form but a small portion of those of which it is sus- 

 ceptible, or with which the Creator may have endowed it, in other portions of 

 the universe. We are told, that in a future and a higher state of existence, 

 the chief occupation of the blessed is that of praising and worshipping the 

 Almighty. But is not the contemplation of the works of the Creator, and the 

 study of the ordinances of the Great Lawgiver of the universe, in itself an act 

 of praise and adoration ? and, if so, may not one at least of the sources of 

 happiness which we are promised hi a future state of existence one of the 

 rewards for a single-minded and reverential pursuit after truth in our present 



