NATURE OF THINGS. 453 



operation. It would, therefore, seem that all the disorder, 

 contention, and commotion of the universe, has its seat on 

 the frontiers of heaven and earth alone. As in civil society, 

 it often happens in the ordinary course of things, that the 

 borders of two adjacent kingdoms are wasted with a per 

 petual succession of inroads and affrays, while the interior 

 provinces of either kingdom enjoy continued and profound 

 tranquillity. 



And none who bestows a proper attention on the subject 

 will make an objection of religion. For it was only a hea 

 then flourish to ascribe to a material heaven the quality of 

 being impregnable to decay. The sacred scriptures ascribe 

 eternity and destructibility equally to heaven and earth, 

 though they assign to them a different glory and an unequal 

 reverence. For if it be recorded, that &quot; the sun and moon 

 bear faithful and eternal witness in heaven/ it is also said 

 that &quot; generations pass away, but the earth abideth for 

 ever.&quot; And that both are transitory is a doctrine contained 

 in the same oracle of God, namely, that &quot; heaven and earth 

 shall pass away, but the word of the Lord will not pass 



away.&quot; 



These things we have noted, not from any ambition of 

 novelty in opinion, but because, not in ignorant conjecture, 

 but instructed by examples, we foresee that these phantas- 

 tical divorces, and distinctions of objects and of regions, 

 beyond what truth admits, will prove a serious impediment 

 to true philosophy and the contemplation of nature. 



W. G. G. 



END OF THE FOURTEENTH VOLUME. 



(_ . \Yhittingliam, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane. 



