" Wlmt is the character of the Being who has thus multiplied 

 existences, created life in multitudes beyond the mind of man to 

 conceive, to fill every point of the globe, to enjoy, and to be per- 

 petuated, that life may be for ever enjoyed? He was not com- 

 pelled. Did He intend good, when he gave to them all their several 

 capacities and powers; desires, and the means of gratifying them, 

 as various as their forms ? Is He who feeds these incalculable 

 myriads — as he has fed them from the beginning — a beneficent 

 Father? Is there one among ourselves who does this for twent}^ — 

 for ten? He is a mark for the praise and the love of men. We 

 are overwhelmed with awe in viewing the power of God in the 

 great orbs of the universe: but to Him an insect or a plant is a 

 work of equal effort; and can the number of these orbs exceed 

 those of the animals in the universe? They do not equal them by 

 myriads on myriads, if all are thus inhabited, as we must believe. 

 We see His wisdom and His government everywhere; but where is 

 it more fully displayed than in the feeding of these multitudes; in 

 the preservation of order, peace, and harmony; in ruling the de- 

 sires and the wills which He has given; in making this vast intricate 

 political system work as man cannot make his own do for a few 

 thousands? Can Omniscience be more extended and divided than 

 it is here, among these endless beings, of which there is not one 

 that He does not know; since to every one He imparted its life, its 

 body, and its mind? All this I see. I behold him in the living 

 world as I see Him nowhere else; for here it is that I see what I 

 cannot discover elsewhere — the speaking demonstration of His be- 

 neficence." — Mac Culloch, Attributes of God, iii. 86. 



