177 



I 

 Now while this is all A'ery good poetry, it is not only questionable 



theology, but decidedly bad philosophy. It is, indeed difficult for a 

 finite mind to entertain very clear conceptions of the modes of the Divine 

 existence. Nevertheless, if we gain any tolerable idea of an Infinite 

 Being, we cannot (to speak after the manner of our ordinary concep- 

 tions) do less than regard him as existing at all times at once, and there- 

 fore as having no occasion to " bid his angels" go and mend his work 

 to adapt it to unexpected contingencies. But this is not the place to 

 discuss a question upon which theological Doctors disagree. 



A little reflection will satisfy us, that, were the earth placed in a 

 " centric" position, it would just about spoil it. Were it not for the 

 inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of the ecliptic, it is very ques- 

 tionable whether "spring with verdant flowers" had ever smiled on 

 earth at all — certainly not beyond thirty-fi\;e or forty degrees from the 

 equator ; and if it had, man, in his best estate would have found it difii- 

 cult to subsist upon mere flowers. To determine the climate of a given 

 latitude, under the original arrangement supposed, we have only to 

 ascertain the mean temperature between that of the 20th of March and 

 the 20th of September in the same latitude, under the present arrange- 

 ment; which in this latitude would give us a climate perpetually subject 

 to frost. In fact, under such an arrangement, utter desolation must 

 have reigned over at least two-thirds of the present habitable globe. 



The poet goes on to suppose that 



" These changes in the heavens, though slovr, produced 

 Like change on sea and land ; sidereal blast. 

 Vapor and mist, and exhalation hot, 

 Corrupt and pestilent," 



and brought into play the winds which sweep over sea and land, to the 

 great annoyance of mankind. This supposition is much more philoso- 

 phical than the other, and may for the most part be true. It is quite 

 possible that, vvere it not for the inclination of the earth's axis and the 

 change of season thus brought in, universal stagnation would pervade 

 both air and water ; but would that be an improvement on the present 

 state of things? Would the "exhalations hot," of the tropics, be less 

 corrupt and pestiferous than now ? Indeed, were not those exhalations 

 hurled about and dispersed by those very means which the great poet so 

 much deprecates, would the tropics be habitable for any nature more 

 refined than that of a crocodile ? In fact, sound philosophy compels us 



