CCCCxlii LIFE OF BACOX. 



This stopping at second causes, the property of animals 

 and of ignorance, always diminishes as knowledge ad 

 vances, (a) Great intellect cannot be severed from piety. 

 It was reserved for the wisest of men to raise a temple to 

 the living God. 



The philosopher who discovered the immediate cause of 

 lightning was not inflated by his beautiful discovery : he 

 was conscious of the power &quot; which dwelleth in thick 

 darkness, and sendeth out lightnings like arrows.&quot; (b) 



The philosopher who discovered the immediate cause of 

 the rainbow did not rest in the proximate cause, but raised 



possible, that any one of good understanding should reject the idea, when 

 once it is suggested to him. A purpose, an intention, a design, is evident 

 in every thing; and when our comprehension is so far enlarged as to con 

 template the first rise of this visible system, we must adopt, with the 

 strongest conviction, the idea of some intelligent cause or author.&quot; 



So, too, Browne in his beautiful work on Cause and Effect, says, 

 &quot;Wherever we turn our eyes, to the earth, to the heavens, to the myriads 

 of beings that live and move around us, or to those more than myriads of 

 worlds, which seem themselves almost like animate inhabitants of the 

 infinity through which they range ; above us, beneath us, on every side, we 

 discover with a certainty that admits not of doubt, intelligence and design, 

 that must have preceded the existence of every thing which exists. The 

 power of the Omnipotent is indeed so transcendent in itself, that the loftiest 

 imagery and language which we can borrow from a few passing events in 

 the boundlessness of nature, must be feeble to express its force and 

 universality.&quot; 



() See note (a), preceding page. Men will, therefore, always exist who 

 may conceive themselves to be the most important beings in the universe ; 

 the fern is a forest to the insect below it. 



(6) Dr. Franklin, speaking of conductors, says, &quot; A rod was fixed to the 

 top of my chimney, and extended about nine feet above it. From the foot 

 of this rod, a wire the thickness of a goose-quill came through a covered 

 glass tube in the roof, and down through the well of the staircase; the 

 lower end connected with the iron spear of a lamp. On the staircase 

 opposite to my chamber door the wire was divided; the ends separated 

 about six inches, a little bell on each end, and between the little brass bells 

 a ball suspended by a silk thread, to play between and strike the bells 

 when clouds passed with electricity in them.&quot; 



