i74 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



fured of it ? Do they wifli that he fhould appeat 

 ùnder a human form, and affume the figure of an 

 old man, as he is painted in our churches ? They 

 would fay, This is a man. Were He to invcft 

 himfelf with fome unknown and celeftial form, 

 could we in a human body fupport the fight? The 

 complete and unveiled difplay of even a fingle one 

 of his works on the Earth, would be fufficient 

 to confound our feeble organs. For example, if 

 the Earth wheels around it's axis, as is fuppofed, 

 there is not a human being in exifhence, who, 

 from a fixed point in the Heavens, could view 

 the rapidity of it's motion without horror ; for he 

 would behold rivers, oceans, kingdoms whirling 

 about under his feet, with a velocity almoft thrice 

 as great as that of a cannon-ball. But even the 

 fwiftnefs of this diurnal rotation is a mere nothing: 

 for the rapidity with which the Globe defcribes 

 it's annual circle, and hurls us round the Sun, is 

 feventy-five times greater than that of a bullet fhot 

 from the cannon. Were it but poITible for the eye 

 to view through the ikin, the mechanifm of our 

 own body, the fight would overwhelm us. Durft 

 we make a fingle movement, if we faw our blood 

 circulating, the nerves pulling, the lungs blowing, 

 the humors filtrating, and all the incomprehen- 

 fible afi^emblage of fibres, tubes, pumps, currents, 

 pivots, which fufl:ain an exiftence, at once ïo frail 

 and (o prefumptuous .'' 



Would 



