CONCLUSIOXARY REFLECTIONS. 291 



degree the body of the picture, its colouring may be im- 

 proved: we may likewise with reference to any department 

 of science, by conjoining with it another but analogous in- 

 vestigation, add to such research the lovely and beauteous 

 shadings of variety and contrast." 



It is by thus connecting and coupling different depart- 

 ments of science, as anatomy and zoology for example, 

 and thus uniting branches of natural philosophy which are 

 too frequently considered separately, and as if they had no 

 connection with each other, that we are enabled to view as 

 it were by a single gigantic effort of mental vision the 

 whole of the animal kingdom, as one beauteous and har- 

 monious picture ; it is thus we are enabled to see all 

 natural objects, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, 

 mutually dependent on each other ; it is thus we view 

 nature as a whole and not as a part, each portion of which 

 must have been created with an evident design ; and, if we 

 admit the existence of this, we must likewise admit that of 

 the designer, who from the overwhelming magnitude of the 

 work of creation must be Omnipotent, who from the 

 harmony and mutual dependence of the whole must be 

 Omniscient, and from the carefulness with which every 

 thing occurs throughout the universe must be Omnipresent, 

 and from the union of these this wondrous designer can be 

 none other than God, the Lord of Hosts. On this subject 

 the poet may not unaptly be quoted, who thus observes : — 



" Still may I note how all the agreeing parts 

 Of this consummate system join to frame 

 One fair, one finished, one harmonious whole ; 

 Trace the close links which form the perfect chain 

 In beautiful connection ; mark the scale 

 Whose nice gradations with progression true, 

 For ever rising, end in Deity." 



But, to go still further, when we reflect on the wondrous 

 and beauteous harmony, the awful sublimity, the majestic 

 grandeur which is displayed in every part of the creation, 

 how much must onr ideas of the power of that Being, of the 



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