1V PREFACE. 



several illustrative engravings. In its present form, the Author trusts, thax 

 independently of the moral reflections it contains, it will be found lo comprise 

 popular descriptions of a greater number of scientific facts than is to be found in 

 any other volume of the same size. 



Various topics, originally intended to be illustrated, have been unavoidably 

 omitted. Some of these are stated in the last paragraph of Chapter IV. the 

 illustration of which, in combination with other kindred topics, would fill a 

 volume of nearly the same size as the present. This subject (for which the 

 author has abundance of materials) will be prosecuted in another volume, under 

 the title of THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION; and will comprise, among many 

 other objects of discussion, illustrations of the moral relation of intelligent beings 

 to their Creator, and to one another the physical and rational grounds of those 

 moral laws ,which the Deity has promulgated the views which science affords 

 of the incessant energies of Creating Power, and of the grand and multifarious 

 objects over which Divine Providence presides the relation of science to a 

 future state, and of the aids which the discoveries of science afford, for enabling 

 us to form a conception of the perpetual improvement of the celestial inhabitants 

 in knowledge and felicity. These subjects will be illustrated by a variety of 

 interesting details of facts, in relation to the system of nature, the history of 

 nations, and the moral state of Christian and general society 



