INTRODUCTION. 61 



contribute their part to the depuration of the oceanic wa- 

 ters, and to the maintenance of the equilibrium amongst 

 their inhabitants, however minute, which is necessary to their 

 general welfare." 



From the contemplation, then, even of these minute crea- 

 tures of God, salutary instruction may be derived. '^All 

 His works praise Him," and it is our duty to help to pro- 

 claim His praise. '^ The praise of God^s wisdom and 

 power," says an old writer, " lies asleep and dead in every 

 creature antil man actuate and enliven it. I cannot, there- 

 fore, conceive it altogether unworthy of the greatest mortals 

 to contemplate the miracles of nature, and that as they are 

 more visible in the smallest and almost contemptible crea- 

 tures ; for there, most lively, do they express the infinite 

 power and wisdom of the great Creator, and erect and draw 

 the minds of the most intelligent to the first and prime cause 

 of all things, teaching them as the power so the presence of 

 the Deity in the smallest insects." From God's care of the 

 tiniest of his creatures, may we not learn to put implicit 

 trust in His kind and ever-watchful Providence if we com- 

 mit ourselves to Him in well-doing, in dependence on the 

 merits of his Son ? If he clothe with such beauty the sub- 

 merged rocks and caverns of the sea, and feed with unceas- 



