CONCLUSION. 301 



which the dormant organization does not much resem- 

 ble that which encloses it, and still less suits with the sit- 

 uation in which the enclosing body is placed, but suits 

 with a different situation to which it is destined. In 

 the larva of the libellula, which lives constantly, and has 

 still long to live, under water, are descried the wings of a 

 fly, which two years afterwards is to mount into the air. 

 Is there nothing in this analogy ? It serves at least to show, 

 that, even in the observable course of nature, organizations 

 are formed one beneath another : and amongst a thousand 

 other instances, it shows completely, that the Deity can 

 mould and fashion the parts of material nature, so as to 

 fulfil any purpose whatever which he is pleased to appoint. 



They wlio refer the operations of mind to a substance 

 totally and essentially different from matter, as, most cer- 

 tainly, these operations, though affected by material causes, 

 hold very little affinity to any properties of matter with 

 which we are acquainted, adopt, perhaps, a juster reasoning 

 and a better philosophy : and by these the considerations 

 above suggested are not wanted, at least in the same de- 

 gree. But to such as find, which some persons do find, an 

 insuperable difficulty in shaking off an adherence to those 

 analogies, which the corporeal world is continually suggest- 

 ing to their thoughts ; to such, I say, every consideration 

 will be a relief, which manifests the extent of that intelli- 

 gent power which is acting in nature, the fruitfulness of its 

 resources, the variety, and aptness, and success of its 

 means ; most especially every consideration, which tends 

 to show, that in the translation of a conscious existence, 

 there is not even in their own way of regarding it, any 

 thing greatly beyond, or totally unlike, what takes place in 

 such parts (probably small parts) of the order of nature, as 

 are accessible to our observation. 



Again : if there be those who think, that the contracted- 

 ness and debility of the human faculties in our present state, 

 seem ill to accord with the high destinies which the expec- 

 tations of religion point out to us, I would only ask them, 

 whether any one, who saw a child two hours after its birth, 

 could suppose that it would ever come to understand ^wa:- 

 ions ;* or who then shall say, what farther amplification of 

 intellectual powers, what accession of knowledge, what ad- 

 vance and improvement, the rational faculty, be its consti- 



* See Search's Light of Nature, passim. 



