1870.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 87 



knowledge of wisdom and design, and adaptation and harmony 

 everywhere displayed. 



" To see in part 

 That all, as in some piece of art, 

 Is toil co-operant to aa end," 



— and that end the elevation and felicity of man. Yes, the 

 benevolence, the wisdom and the omnipotence of Him, who 

 formed all and maintains all, are made more and more manifest to 

 us as we advance step after step in the study of natural science. 

 We hear the voice of God on the mighty waters, when He thun- 

 dereth and when He flasheth the flames of fire that shiver the 

 mighty cedars. We raise our eyes and we see his infinite and 

 unapproachable wisdom displayed in the delicate adjustments and 

 felicitous arrangements of the varied forces that astronomy reveals. 

 We see it in the mechanical, chemical and physical properties of 

 the atmosphere, in the efi"ects of light and heat, in developing and 

 fostering all the varied beautiful animal and vegetable life ; in the 

 production of cooling winds and fructifying showers. We read 

 this testimony in the towering rocks and giant trees as in the 

 grains of sand and petals of the flowers ; in the nerves and veins 

 and arteries which permeate this wondrous frame of ours, as in 

 the vessels that convey the sap from the root to the leaf in the 

 vegetable world, in short in all the countless adaptations and modi- 

 fications everywhere visible, everywhere needed. And when we 

 pass from the known to the unknown ; from the revealed to the 

 unrevealed ; from the study of the stupendous and inimitable 

 organisms, it is given us to understand, to the contemplation of 

 the mysterious powers and qualities and forces in nature which 

 seem almost for ever destined to baflSe man's puny efi*orts to 

 resolve them, we cannot fail to carry away a sentiment of the 

 most profound humility, a deep seated conviction of the utter 

 weakness and insignificance of our powers. Yes, from the study 

 of nature, from this. house in which it is specially cultivated, we 

 should and we must carry into the active occupations of our lives, 

 in our daily intercourse with our fellow beings, an earnest desire 

 to emulate, as far as we may, the attributes of the Creator, as 

 revealed to us by nature ; to select the most comprehensive of 

 these attributes, — benevolence, as the main spring of all our 

 thoughts and actions ; so that we may look upon all men, no 

 matter what their origin, color or creed, as equally the objects of 

 the one Creator's care and the one Creator's love and so that we 



