38 



THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



contract when we approach to touch them. Not 

 only are the different species of plants and 

 flowers distinguished from each other, by their 

 different forms, but even the different individuals 

 of the same species. In a bed of tulips or car 

 nations, for example, there is scarcely a flower 

 in which some difference may not be observed 

 in its structure, size, or assemblage of colours ; 

 nor can any two flowers be found in which the 

 shape and shades are exactly similar. Of al! the 

 oundred thousand millions of plants, trees, herbs, 

 and flowers, with which our globe is variegated, 

 there are not, perhaps, two individuals precisely 

 alike, in every point of view in which they may 

 be contemplated; yea, there is not, perhaps, a 

 single leaf in the forest, when minutely examin 

 ed, that will not be found to differ, in certain 

 aspects, from its fellows. Such is the wonderful 

 and infinite diversity with which the Creator has 

 adorned the vegetable kingdom. 



His wisdom is also evidently displayed in this 

 vast profusion of vegetable nature in adapting 

 each plant to the soil and situation in which it 

 is destined to flourish in furnishing it with those 

 vessels by which it absorbs ihe air and moisture 

 on which it feeds and in adapting it to the na 

 ture and necessities of animated beings. As the 

 earth teems with animated existence, and as the 

 different tribes of animals depend chiefly on the 

 productions of the vegetable kingdom for their 

 subsistence, so there is an abundance and a va 

 riety of plants adapted to the peculiar constitutions 

 of every individual species. This circumstance 

 demonstrates, that there is a precontrived rela 

 tion and fitness between the internal constitution 

 of the animal, and the nature of the plants which 

 afford it nourishment; and shows us, that the ani 

 mal and vegetable kingdoms are the workmanship 

 of one and the same Almighty Being, and that, 

 in his arrangements with regard to the one, he had 

 in view the necessities of the other. 



When we direct our attention to the tribes of 

 animated nature, we behold a scene no less va 

 riegated and astonishing. Above fifty thousand 

 species of animals have been detected and de 

 scribed by naturalists, besides several thousands 

 of species which the naked eye cannot discern, 

 and which people the invisible regions of the 

 waters and the air. And, as the greater part of 

 the globe has never yet been thoroughly explor 

 ed, several hundreds, if not thousands, of species 

 unknown to the scientific world may exist in the 

 depths of the ocean, and in the unexplored regions 

 of the land. AH these species differ from one 

 another in colour, size, and shape ; in the inter 

 nal structure of their bodies, in the number of 

 their sensitive organs, limbs, feet, joints, claws, 

 wings, and fins ; in their dispositions, faculties, 

 movements, and modes of subsistence. They 

 are of all sizes, from the mite and the gnat, up to 

 the elephant and the whale, and from the mite 



downwards to those invisible animalrulse, a hun 

 dred thousand of whicn would not equal a grain 

 of sand. Some fly through the atmosphere, somo 

 glide through the waters, others traverse the solid 

 land. Some walk on two, some on four, somo 

 on twenty, and some on a hundred feet. Some 

 have eyes furnished with two, some with eight, 

 some with a hundred, and some with eight 

 thousand distinct transparent globes, fur the pur 

 pose of vision.* 



Our astonishment at the variety which appears 

 in the animal kingdom is still farther increased 

 when we consider not only the diversities which 

 are apparent in their external aspect, but also in 

 their internal structure and organization. When 

 we reflect on the thousands of movements, adjust 

 ments, adaptations, and compensations, which 

 are requisite in order to the construction of an 

 animal system, for enabling it to perform its in 

 tended functions ; when we consider, that every 

 species of animals has a system of organization 

 peculiar to itself, consisting of bones, joints, blood 

 vessels, and muscular motions, differing in a 

 variety of respects from those of any other spe 

 cies, and exactly adapted to its various necessi 

 ties and modes of existence ; and when we con 

 sider, still farther, the incomprehensibly delicate 

 contrivances, and exquisite borings, polishings, 

 claspings, and adaptations, which enter into the 

 organization of an animated being ten thousand 



The eyes of beetles, silk-worms, flies, and se 

 veral other kinds of insects, are among the most 

 curious and wonderful productions of the God of 

 Nature. On the head of a fly are two large pro 

 tuberances, one on each side ; these constitute its 

 organs of vision. The whole surface of these pro 

 tuberances is covered with a multitude of small 

 hemispheres placed with the utmost regularity, in 

 rows, crossing each other in a kind of lattice 

 work. These little hemispheres have each of them a 

 minute transparent convex lens in the middle, each 

 of which has a distinct branch of the optic nerve 

 ministering toil; so that the different lenses may 

 be considered as so many distinct eyes. Mr. Leeu- 

 wenhoek counted 6236 in the two eyes of a silk 

 worm, when in its J2y slate ; 3180 in each eye of the 

 beetle ; and sooo in the two eyes of a common fly. 

 Mr. Hook reckoned 14,000 in the eyes of a drone 

 fly ; and, in one of the eyes of a drago-n fly there 

 have been reckoned 13,500 of these lenses, and, con 

 sequently, in both eyes, 27, 000, every one of which 

 is capable of forming a distinct image of any object, 

 in the samp manner as a common convex glass ; so 

 that the&amp;gt;&quot; ^re 27,000 images formed on the retina 

 of this little animal. Mr. Leeuwenhoek having 

 prepared the eye of a fly for the purpose, placed 

 it a little farther from his microscope than when 

 he would examine an object, so as to leave a proper 

 local distance between it and the lens of his micro 

 scope ; and then looked through both, in the manner 

 of a telescope, at the steeple of the church, which 

 was 299 feet high, and 750 feet distant, and could 

 plainly see through every little lens, the whole 

 steeple inverted, though not larger than the point 

 of a fine needle : and then directing it to a neigh 

 bouring house, saw through many of these little 

 hemispheres, not only the fron* of the house, but also 

 the doors and windows, and could discern distinctly 

 whether the windows were open or shut. Such an 

 exquisite piece of Divine mechanism transcends aU 

 human comprehension. 



