WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF GOD. 



benevolence of our Almighty Parent, the pious 

 mind may adopt the beautiful language of the 

 poet, though in a sense somewhat different from 

 what he intended : 



For me kind Nature wakes her genial power, 

 Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower 5 

 Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew 

 The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew ; 

 For me the mine a thousand treasures brings; 

 For me health gushes from a thousand springs ; 

 Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me, rise j 

 My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.&quot; Pope, 



Viewing the various scenes and harmonies 

 of nature, in relation to man, and to the gratifi 

 cation of his different senses, we may also say, 

 in the language of Akenside, in his ooem &quot;On 

 the Pleasures of Imagination,&quot; that 



Not a breeze 



Flies o er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes 

 The setting sun s effulgence ; not a strain 

 From all the tenants of the warbling shade 

 Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake 

 Fresh pleasure and delight. 

 The rolling waves, the sun s unw earled course, 

 The elements and seasons, all declare 

 For what the Eternal Maker has ordain d 

 The powers of man -. we feel within ourselves 

 His energy divine : He tells the heart 

 He meant, He made us to behold and love 

 What He beholds and loves, the general orb 

 Of life and being: to be great like Him, 

 Beneficent and active.&quot; 



Let us now consider, for a few moments, the 

 wisdom which is displayed in the harmonious 

 adjustment of the organs of sense to the scenes 

 of external nature. All the scenes of beauty, 

 grandeur, and benignity, which surround us, in 

 the earth and heavens, would remain as one 

 mighty blank, unproductive of enjoyment, unless 

 our bodies were &quot; fearfully and wonderfully&quot; 

 framed, and endowed wilh organs fitted for ena- 

 61ing us to hold a correspondence with the ma 

 terial world. Ten thousands of vessels, tubes, 

 bones, muscles, ligaments, membranes, motions, 

 contrivances, and adaptations, beyond the reach 

 of the human understanding fully to investigate 

 or to comprehend, must be arranged, and act in 

 harmonious concert, before any one sense be 

 longing to man can perceive and enjoy its objects. 

 Before the eye can behold a landscape, and be 

 charmed with its beauties, it was requisite that 

 three humours should be formed, of different 

 sizes, different densities, and different refractive 

 powers three coats, or delicate membranes, 

 with some parts opaque, and some transparent, 

 some black, and some white, some of them formed 

 of radial, and some with circular fibres, com 

 posed of threads finer than those of the spider s 

 web. The crystalline humour required to be 

 composed of two thousand very thin spherical 

 lamina, or scales, lying one upon another, every 

 one of these scales made up of one single fibre, 

 or finest thread, wound in a most stupendous 

 manner, this way, and that way, so as to run se 

 veral courses, and to meet in as many centres. 

 This curious and delicate piece of organization 



required to be compressed into the size of a ball 

 of only half an inch in diameter, and a socket 

 composed of a number of small bones, to be hol 

 lowed out and exactly fitted for its reception. A 

 bed of loose fat for this ball to rest upon, a lid 

 or curtain to secure it from danger, a variety of 

 muscles to enable it to move upwards and down 

 wards, to the right and to the left, and a nume 

 rous assemblage of minute veins, arteries, nerves, 

 lymphatics, glands, and other delicate pieces of 

 animal machinery, of which we have no distinct 

 conception, were still requisite to complete this 

 admirable organ. Even in this state it would be 

 of no use for the purpose of vision, unless it 

 were connected with the brain by the optic nerve, 

 through the medium of which the impressions of 

 visible objects are conveyed to the soul. Still, 

 in addition to all these contrivances, a wonderful 

 machinery requires to be in action, and an ad 

 mirable effect produced, before a landscape can 

 be contemplated. Ten thousand millions of rays, 

 compounded of a thousand different shades of 

 colour, must fly off in every direction from the 

 objects which compose the surrounding scene, 

 and be compressed into the space of one-eighth 

 of an inch, in order to enter the eye, and must 

 paint every object in its true colour, form, and 

 proportion, on a space not exceeding half an inch 

 in diameter. Were any one of the parts which 

 compose this complicated machine either want 

 ing or deranged ; were it changed into a different 

 form, or placed in a different position ; were even 

 a single muscle to lose its capacity of acting, we 

 might be for ever deprived of all the enchanting 

 prospects of the earth and heavens, and enveloped 

 in the darkness of eternal night. Such is the 

 skill and intelligence requisite for accomplishing, 

 even in a single organ, the purpsoes of divine 

 benevolence. 



Again, before we could enjoy the harmony of 

 sounds, the charms of music, and the pleasures 

 of conversation, an instrument, no less wonderful 

 than the eye required to be constructed. In the 

 ear, which is the organ of hearing, it was requi 

 site, that there should be an outward porch for 

 collecting the vibrations of the air, constructed, 

 not of fleshy substances, which might fall down 

 upon the orifice, or absorb the sounds, nor of 

 solid bones, which would occasion pain and in 

 convenience when we repose ourselves but com 

 posed of a cartilaginous substance, covered with 

 a smooth membrane, -endowed with elasticity, 

 and bent into a variety of circular folds, or hol 

 lows, for the reflection of sound. It was farther 

 requisite, that there should be a tube, or passage, 

 composed partly of cartilage, and partly of bone, 

 lined with a skin or membrane, and moistened 

 with a glutinous matter, to form a communication 

 with the internal machinery of this organ, where 

 the principal wonders of hearing are performed. 

 This machinery consists, first, of lhetympanum t 



