Loss of Effect. 41 



ings, and everything which is possessed in rich 

 abundance by those whom we esteem fortunate ; 

 and if these beings could receive tidings of the 

 power and might of the gods, and could then 

 emerge from their hidden dwellings, through the 

 open fissures of the earth, to the places which we 

 inhabit if they could suddenly behold the earth, 

 and the sea, and the vault of heaven could recog- 

 nise the expanse of the cloudy firmament, and the 

 might of the winds of heaven, and admire the sun in 

 ity, and radiant effulgence; and 

 lastly, when ni-ht had veiled the earth in darkness, 



i-ould behold the starry b , the changing 



moon, and the stars rising and setting in the unvary- 

 ing course ordained from eternity, they would surely 

 exclaim, ' There are g. .els, and such great things must 

 be the work of their hands.' ' 



These wonderful works have been ever before us, 

 so that it is hard for us to realize that there was a 

 time when they were not and harder still to feel 

 the full force of the proof which their mechanism 

 ought to be to us. And the humbler objects of 

 natural history, not calculated to excite emotions 



iiuleur and sublimity, which we daily tread 

 beneath our feet, according to the common laws of 

 mind pass unnoticed, or when noticed, fail to con- 

 vince us as they ought. There may be a wonderful 

 arrangement of parts, all fitted to produce a certain 

 result ; but then we cannot see the hand of God 

 tinting the flower and arranging each part for its 

 appropriate work. The plant springs from the 



