CHANGES THAT TAKE PLACE 



faculty, we know not ; but they evidently derive 

 pleasure from the operation ; and thus this feeling of 

 enjoyment, even if the sole motive, becomes to them 

 an essential source of comfort and of health. 



It may be noted probably by some, how fre- 

 quently I recur to the causes and objects of the 

 faculties, manners, and tendencies of animate and 

 inanimate things. This recurrence springs from 

 no cavil at the wisdom, no suspicion of the fitness, 

 of the appointment, nor, I trust, from any excite- 

 ment to presumptuous pryings into paths which are 

 in the great deep, and not to be searched out ; but 

 are humbly indulged, from the pleasure which the 

 contemplation of perfect wisdom, even in a state of 

 ignorance, affords ; and if by any consideration we 

 can advance one point nearer to the comprehension 

 of what is hidden, we infinitely increase our satis- 

 faction and delight. 



Surrounded as we are by wonders of every kind, 

 and existing only by a miraculous concurrence of 

 events, admiration seems the natural avocation of 

 our being ; nor is it easy to pronounce, amidst such 

 a creation, what is most wonderful. But few things 

 appear more incomprehensible than the constant 

 production and re-absorption of matter, impressed 

 upon us even by these very dorrs. An animal falls 

 to the ground and dies ; myriads of creatures are 

 now summoned by a call, by an impulse of which we 

 have no perception, to remove it, and prepare it for 

 a new combination; chemical agencies, fermentation, 

 and solution, immediately commence their actions to 



