INFERENCES FROM DESIGN. 113 



(60.) Such are the evident conclusions which re- 

 sult from a conviction of design in the creation. 

 And this conviction will be equally attained, whether 

 we take an enlarged view of the subject, or descend 

 to minutiae : whether, with the scholar or the phi- 

 losopher, we discuss the question by the rules of logic ; 

 or whether, with the ordinary observer, we adopt 

 the more simple process of contemplating those in- 

 numerable and beautiful objects of the creation 

 which lie before us. If every thing in nature which 

 we examine and reason upon, evinces this principle 

 of design, it follows that design is universal (57.). 

 And as experience teaches us, that, although we can 

 trace the principle, we know but a limited portion 

 of its extent, it may be fairly inferred that even of 

 that portion which man may discover, we know as 

 yet but an insignificant part — and that, too, is seen 

 " as in a glass, darkly." How little, for instance, do 

 we know of the manners and instincts of the common 

 animals around us ! and how little have we yet learned 

 of the purposes for which they were created ! Now, 

 as the Author of this principle of design is Himself 

 the type of perfection, that perfection must extend 

 to all His attributes. Hence arises the supposition, 

 that every created thing has a twofold use ; one in 

 relation to the economy of nature, and another to 

 the exemplification of moral and religious truths 

 The first is palpable to the most illiterate observer : 

 every one, for instance, can see, that without insects, 

 there would be no occasion for spiders ; and that 

 without swallows, we should suffer from a plague of 

 flies. But the moral use of the book of nature 

 is not so apparent. We can, indeed, perceive 

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