40 



THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



confining our attention to one department of na 

 ture , for example, the ANIMAL, KINGDOM. The 

 number of the different species of animals, taking 

 into account those which are hitherto undisco 

 vered, and those which are invisible to the naked 

 eye, cannot be estimated at less than 300,000. 

 In a human body there are reckoned about 446 

 muscles, in each of which according to anatomists, 

 there are at least 10 several intentions, or due 

 qualifications to be observed its proper figure, 

 its just magnitude, the right disposition of its 

 several ends, upper and lower, the position of the 

 whole, the insertion of its proper nerves, veins, 

 arteries, &c. so that in the muscular system alone 

 there are 4,460 several ends or aims to be attend 

 ed to. The bones are reckoned to be in number 

 about 245, and the distinct scopes or intentions 

 of each of these are above 40 ; in all, about 9,800 ; 

 so that the system of bones and muscles alone, 

 without taking any other parts into consideration, 

 amounts to about 14,000 different intentions or 

 adaptations. If now, we suppose, that all. the 

 species of animals above stated are differently 

 constructed, and, taken one with another, contain 

 at an average a system of bones and muscles as 

 numerous as in the human body the number of 

 species must be multiplied by the number of dif 

 ferent aims or adaptations, and the product will 

 amount to 4,200,000,000. If we were next to at 

 tend to the many thousands of blood vessels in an 

 animal body, and the numerous ligaments, mem 

 branes, humours, and fluids of various descriptions 

 the skin, with its millions of pores, and every 

 other part of an organical system, with the aims 

 and intentions of each, we should have another sum 

 of many hundreds of millions to be multiplied by 

 the former product, in order to express the diver 

 sified ideas which enter into the construction of 

 the animal world. And, if we still farther con 

 sider, that of the hundreds of millions of indi 

 viduals belonging to each species, no two indi 

 viduals exactly resemble each other that all the 

 myriads of vegetables with which the earth is 

 covered, are distinguished from each other, by 

 some one characteristic or another, and that every 

 grain of sand contained in the mountains, and in 

 the bed of the ocean, as shown by the microscope, 

 discovers a different form and configuration from 

 another we are here presented with an image 

 of the infinity of the conceptions of Him in whose 

 incomprehensible mind they all existed, during 

 countless ages, before the universe was formed. 



To overlook this amazing scene of Divine In 

 telligence, or to consider it as beneath our notice 

 as some have done if it be not the characteristic 

 of impiety, is, at least, the mark of a weak and 

 undiscriminating mind. The man who disre 

 gards the visible displays of Infinite Wisdom, 

 or who neglects to investigate them, when op 

 portunity offers, acts as if he considered himself 

 already possessed of a sufficient portion of in 

 telligence, and stooH in no need of sensible 



assistances to direct his conceptions of the Cre 

 ator. Pride, and false conceptions of the nature 

 and design of true religion, frequently lie at the 

 foundation of all that indifference and neglect 

 with which the visible works of God are treated, 

 by those who make pretensions to a high de 

 gree of spiritual atlainments. The truly pious 

 man will trace, with wonder and delight, the foot 

 steps of his Father and his God, wherever 

 they appear in the variegated scene of creation 

 around him, and will be filled with sorrow, and 

 contrition of heart, that, amidst his excursions and 

 solitary walks, he has so often disregarded &quot; the 

 works of the Lord, and the operation of his hands. * 

 In fine, the variety which appears on the face 

 of nature, not only enlarges our conceptions of In 

 finite Wisdom, but is also the foundation of all 

 our discriminations and judgments as rational 

 beings, and is of the most essential utility in the 

 affairs of human society. Such is the variety 

 of which the features of the human countenance 

 are susceptible, that it is probable that no two in 

 dividuals, of all the millions of the race of Adam 

 that have existed since the beginning of time, 

 would be found to resemble each other. We 

 know no two human beings presently existing, 

 however similar to each other, but may be dis 

 tinguished either by their stature, their forms, 

 or the features of their faces ; and on the ground 

 of this dissimilarity, the various wheels of the 

 machine of society move onward, without clash 

 ing or confusion. Had it been otherwise had 

 the faces of men and their organs of speech been 

 cast exactly in the same mould, as would have 

 been the case, had the world been framed accord 

 ing to the Epicurean system, by blind chance 

 directing a concourse of atoms, it might have 

 been as difficult to distinguish one human coun 

 tenance from another, as to distinguish the eggs 

 laid by the same hen, or the drops of water which 

 trickle from the same orifice ; and consequently, 

 society would have been thrown into a state of 

 universal anarchy and confusion. Friends would 

 not have been distinguished from enemies, villains 

 from the good and honest, fathers from sons, the 

 culprit from the innocent person, nor the branches 

 of the same family from one another. And what a 

 scene of perpetual confusion and disturbance 

 would thus have been created! Frauds, thefts, 

 robberies, murders, assassinations, forgeries, and 

 injustice of all kinds, might have been daily com 

 mitted without the least possibility of detection. 

 Nay, were even the variety of tones in the hu 

 man voice, peculiar to each person, to cease, and 

 the handwriting of all men to become perfectly 

 uniform, a multitude of distressing deceptions and 

 perplexities would be produced in the domestic, 

 civil, and commercial transactions of mankind. 

 But the All-wise and Beneficent Creator has pre 

 vented all such evils and inconveniences, by the 

 character of variety which he has impressed on 

 the human species ; and on all his works. By the 



