GENERAL DIFFUSION OP ANIMAL LIFE. 181 



displayed in the provision he has made for the hap- 

 piness of all creatures, according to their capacities, 

 and the rank they hold in creation ; rising from the 

 insect, too minute for our inspection, to man. For 

 our perception does not reach to the higher orders of 

 created beings, whose felicity, doubtless, exceeds our 

 comprehension as much as their nature is superior to 

 ours. The gift of life, with its appropriate enjoy- 

 ments, is infinitely diffused. The benevolent Crea- 

 tor has bestowed it upon the innumerable creatures 

 that inhabit our globe, which, though it contains 

 countless millions, is but a minute speck in the uni- 

 verse ; since astronomy teaches us that system upon 

 system rolls in boundless space, at distances that no 

 imagination can comprehend. Nor can the discoveries 

 of man extend to that point where there is a cessation 

 of new worlds. Every improvement in our glasses 

 discovers stars that have escaped the former observa- 

 tions of the most acute astronomers. Since all parts of 

 our globe swarm with animal life — the earth, the water, 

 the air, each abounding in its own peculiar inhabitants, 

 can we hesitate to believe, that the other worlds, that 

 are dispersed in the regions of unlimited space, are 

 likewise peopled with innumerable multitudes of living 

 creatures, all partaking of the bounty of the Universal 

 Father, rejoicing in their being, and, by their existence, 

 displaying his goodness ? My heart swells with gra- 



